[Music] or just normal conversation [Music] sometimes people just say can you hold my hand [Music] and [Music] and you're helping them get through a bad day [Music] [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you foreign [Music] good afternoon and welcome to the February 6 2023 meeting of the Orlando city council we're going to open today's meeting with the invocation and Pledge of Allegiance LED today by commissioner Jim Gray thank you mayor and for those so inclined would you please join me in prayer Heavenly Father we come to you today asking for guidance wisdom courage and kindness as we address the Affairs of this community help us engage in meaningful discussions that lead to decisions that Advance this city is residents and your will in your name we pray amen amen and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty through justice for all oops okay let's officially call the meeting to order Madam clerk would you call the role and determine the Quorum please commissioner gray here commissioner Ortiz here commissioner Stewart here commissioner Shan here commissioner Hill here commissioner Burns president mayor Dyer here mayor you have a quorum with all members present thank you a gender View and city council meeting minutes from January 23rd 2023. motion by commissioner Stewart second by commissioner Sheehan all in favor indicates so by saying aye those opposed and so the motion he carries okay we do have one presentation so each February our community like the rest of the country celebrates Black History Month recognizing the contributions that black Americans have made to our Nation to our state and of course to our city and I want to thank City staff on our Black History Month planning commence committee who have helped to coordinate a variety of events a couple which have already occurred with the opening of the art gallery on the Terrace level of the Terrace gallery and then we had the lighting of the luminaries on Friday so we're off to a good start but I would like Marshawn to come up and give us an overview of our Black History Month over activities were shot thank you mayor and Commissioners thank you all for celebrating and valuing black history month and the city beautiful good afternoon everyone celebrating and learning about Black History Month a nearly century-old celebration of 400 years of African-American culture matters now more than ever around the nation we are witnessing the attempts to erase African-American history from textbooks and remove it from our schools Even in our great state of Florida in many schools and communities black history only encompasses the freedom of enslaved Africans the civil rights movement and the elections of Vice President Kamala Harris and President Barack Obama while definitely historic these events are but a fraction of black history in America after Black History Month Art Exhibit commissioner Hill referenced negro history week and I'd like to expand on that the celebration of black history can be traced back to 1926 when Carter G Woodson a black American Scholar founded negro history week he wanted to expose school children to African-American history but he also wanted to encourage social equity for African Americans by showing people how much of the country's growth stem from black contributions and not only through slavery but also through countless creative academic professional athletic political and cultural contributions what's an aim to increase black representation because representation matters this commitment of month remains necessary because much of African American history has been left out of our history of American history and is falsely being labeled as critical race Theory the significant contributions of African Americans and building America are facts racism and oppression in America are facts African-American history is fact African-American history is American history American history is a part of world history therefore black history is world history good bad and indifferent all history matters so this month we celebrate black history with that in mind the city of Orlando's staff members who have volunteered their time to be a part of our Black History Month committee have organized a series of events for residents this month highlighting this year's National theme of black resistance the events are also designed to educate entertain and empower so for the fun stuff we uh it includes a celebration um our signature event it's at um the Camping World Stadium West Lounge this Wednesday 6 p.m it will feature Orlando poet Sean Laureate a keynote address from Jasmine Burnie of equal ground and will be hosted by Spectrum news 13's Curtis McLeod it is free to the public we have food live entertainment but you must register online um you could do that or at orlando.gov forward slash BHM we also have Thursday February the 23rd 9 15 and 10 30 a.m there's a what's up downtown Paramore historic bus trolley um tour it will go through Paramore it will show you um the creators of various things and achievements in the Paramore community and then Saturday the city of Orlando office of human relations will host a fair housing Fair it will be at the Primrose center from noon to 4 pm um you must also register online for that as well as the trolley again at orlando.gov forward slash BHM for those events and I would like to thank the members of the steering committee for their passion and dedication to creating a meaningful observance of this month for our community mayor Dyer can you please read our Black History Month Proclamation and then the members of the steering committee will join you and all Commissioners for a photo thank you all for coming be very happy to foreign Proclamation city of Orlando whereas black history is an integral part of American History black Americans have played an undeniable role in building strengthening and shaping the United States and whereas the Black History Month is an annual celebration that recognizes Central oral of black Americans in our nation's history and whereas Black History Month dates back to 1915 half century after the 13th amendment abolished slavery in the United States in the efforts of historian author and journalist Carter G Woodson and whereas black Americans have remained devoted to the proposition that we are all created equal even when their own rights have been denied and whereas this year's National Black History Month theme is black resistance which recognizes how black Americans have fought oppression and inspired others to participate in civil rights and Equity movements and whereas celebrating Black History Month the city of Orlando recognized the historic contributions of black Americans while also acknowledging the struggle for equality continues and whereas as a community we recommit to continue the work to ensure all residents are treated equally or equally protected and have Equitable access to opportunities that help them Thrive including our Collective efforts to make Orlando an inclusive welcoming City for all now therefore we buddy die our mayor of the city of Orlando and the Orlando city council hereby do Proclaim February 2023 as Black History Month in the city of Orlando foreign [Applause] closer thank you thank you we want to honor you kids too come on y'all [Laughter] I'm sorry the youth thank you [Laughter] thank you and as they're leaving that was the students from Meridian Christian Academy in Carter Tabernacle Church thanks for being here foreign okay so that brings us to the mayor's update and I want to start on a somewhat serious time many in our Community myself included were saddened and really Furious to learn about the killing of Tyree Nichols and Memphis and there's been certainly a national uproar about that and there are no words I can say to use the pain anger and Trauma that many are experiencing here in Orlando Tyree should be alive today and I think we all agree that the officer is responsible for his death ought to be held accountable and his murder is another call for police reform and here in Orlando we remain proactively focused on taking action to ensure that fair and Equitable treatment of every person that OPD encounters occurs and I'm grateful every day for the courage and the commitment of our OPD officers and I thank them for the efforts that they play in great policing here in Orlando in 2020 we invited The Bowman Group in to review our policies and practices and they recommended a number of reforms and actions that we could take and we have implemented many of those recommendations and we continue to work on doing that through our office of constitutional policing which was created in response to that review and we're also growing our community response teams so that in a lot of cases trained behavioral health professionals can respond to 9-1-1 calls instead of officers so we will continue our work toward transparency and raising our Professional Standards on a brighter note I want to take a moment to recognize one of our community leaders and city employees Shannon Fitzgerald is Shannon here today she is not so I will welcome her anyway our congratulatory her anyways she is the director of our world-class Manila Museum of Art but she was recognized as one of five orange appeals women of the year at the Dr Phillips Center last week so congratulations on all the great work that she is doing and I have one item on the agenda that I want to mention and that's um D1 where we are once again partnering with Career Source to provide paid summer internships for our City's Youth and that program was so um successful last year we employed 660 youth with over 200 of them being offered continuous employment at the end of their internships so this year we're going to be focused on the areas of hospitality green area energy and Technology with that we'll move on to the consent agenda consent agenda the number of items that are act upon through a single vote of council we give each of our commissioners the opportunity to comment on the consent agenda we rotate the order that we do that and first up today is commissioner Jim Gray thank you very much I'll be brief just one announcement for the neighborhood most of the activities are on our website but coming up on March 3rd Saturday excuse me Saturday March 4th we're having our fall festival out at Vista Lakes it it was a fall festival but uh hurricane Ian got in the way so it's now become a Spring Festival but it's Saturday the 4th from 11 to 2 30 at Amherst Park in Vista Lakes everyone's welcome to attend we have everything for the kids uh opdofd will be there showing their their Wares a petting zoo DJs schools performing hamburgers hot dogs and it's all free so it's something to kind of energize the community we've done it last year and great success so look forward to that again this Saturday March 4th before I get to agenda there was one other item kind of a sad note I would like to recognize the passing of Mr Harvey Massey Harvey was certainly involved in our community and everything from Florida Citrus Sports to Orlando economic partnership a great philanthropist we lost him but would like to recognize uh Harvey for his contributions to the city on the agenda I'd like to talk about item c14 which is a three-year funding agreement for Orlando economic partnership we have some Representatives here from the partnership and I'd just like to say thank you for all you do for another Orlando But Central Florida in attracting companies and higher paying jobs and wages so thank you for what you do and I totally support this contribution help your efforts so we appreciate you very much and with that mayor I think that's all I've got to offer thank you commissioner gray commission Ortiz thank you may I also want to express my condolences to the family of all Mr Harvey Massey he was a good friend of the community um also we lost the um Deborah alstadt so my condolences to the family if they were ousted the roster was the president of the Englewood Association neighborhood association for years and we lost her to cancer I'm going to keep my comments today the only thing I want to remind people is that we're about to start the um in about a month uh legislative session up in Tallahassee and gearing up also for Washington people please pay attention to what this legislators are doing up there because they tend to pass legislations that affect us locally and if we don't call them and tell them to stop or to do something else they will continue doing it and by the time we find out it's a little too late so let's please please make sure that we know what's going on and if you need some help with that also you're welcome to call us or call me at my at my office and I'll be more than happy to help you with that and that's all I have now thank you thank you commissioner commissioner Stewart thank you mayor let me share a couple of things and I appreciate commissioner gray and commission Ortiz giving me their time so we'll take the next 45 minutes talk a little bit about I won't do that to y'all I do want to share a couple of things uh um mayor thank you for your comments about Tyree Nichols it is uh um I think our city uh began to look at those issues at the right time and we have been aggressive about that and we've had the good staff to accomplish that task and I appreciate the leadership of of Chief Smith um but uh but you're exactly right that's it is wrong on every aspect especially in terms of people who've taken some type of public trust and so thank you for your comments I appreciate that um a coupling on what share we had an opportunity to be in the dragon um Dragon parade for Lunar New Year yesterday it was great now uh mayor and commissioner um she and were there we had a great time and loved doing that that's a really neat way to do that it's a good partnership between District 3 and District Four to right on um I want to say thank you to Lake Silver Elementary they're putting together a super kids celebration coming up next week excited about that and also want to say thank you to a new business kind of a neat new business called Green B uh over in Baldwin Park some upcoming events real quick I'll just sharing with you uh the cpnas meeting tonight um uh Orlando Science Center is doing uh the Earth matters uh starts uh 20 started the 22nd of January it's not going through April uh good opportunity to learn about impact of climate change and what why it's important um you've seen on all of our Facebook posts about the need for lifeguards uh if you know kids that need lifeguards uh lifeguard certification we'll be glad to help help them with that I know that there is a I think because New York City had a lot of publicity for wanting to hire lifeguards and said you haven't got a you haven't got to learn how to swim or you haven't got to swim to be a lifeguard so the good news is that we do a lifeguard certification class first before we hire them so please come out um this Friday night uh the the uh we're having our senior Valentine dinner uh over at Rosemont uh neighborhood center it's uh for all of our senior programs we're hosted in Rosemont I'm really excited about it uh so um it's gonna be a lot of fun time for that uh Ivanova Village has got to clean up and of course the wetlands Festival is coming up uh really neat the wetlands Festival is one of those things it's really kind of fun we haven't had a done a very good job I guess because it's AR hasn't been back to to um to where it needs to be since before coven this is the first time we have a chance to do that and we'll get a chance to show off some new um some some new amenities out there mayor the new walkway the new facility out there so please a good chance to come out and do that on the agenda today let me mention a couple of things uh yes I'm fully in support of the Orlando economic partnership funding and uh I think it's a good investment in our community thank you very much for what you do um also I want to mention the item i1 from public works thank you Corey for for your leadership with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection uh we're doing a septic tank conversion up in one portion of Rosemont um I hope to about 100 homes hope to convert them off septic tanks over to sewer which is not only better for them better for the city it's better for everybody all involved and so looking forward to working with public works and get that information out and have that happen so that's on the agenda today I'm honored to support that so thank you very much that's all I have mayor thank you commissioner commissioner Sheehan thank you mayor Dyer and Mr Massey was a tremendous loss to this community and what what a lot of people don't realize is he was one of the first Business Leaders that says build them right build them all build them now with the Performing Arts so you know at a time when it was controversial to do so to support arts for our community Mr Massey was a business leader that actually came forward and and spoke very firmly and proudly about how that how important that was and that is a tremendous loss to our community um we are celebrating Black History Month it's important now more than ever to educate our community on the injustices black Americans face every single day and if you are a white person who doesn't understand what the big deal is I suggest that you go to PBS watch Dr Henry Louis Gates series on reconstruction it is eye-opening it really talks about the injustices that have happened to Black Americans and I would encourage anyone who doesn't understand to please watch Dr Henry Lewis Gates reconstruction it's an amazing series I know commissioner Hill showed it some of her kids you know and I think it's so important for us to understand history and if you're afraid of it you need to more than ever you need to also understand on the agenda today as well item A1 the mayor's neighborhood matching grant for Orlando International Film Festival again doing great things to support the Arts and I do have a statement that I'm going to read Because I'm a little angry and it's better sometimes for me to read stuff when I'm really really mad so if you know judge me for just a minute but this is regarding the Plaza Live um one of the great pleasures of living in Orlando is the diversity in quality entertainment that we enjoy at numerous performance venues imagine my horror when our governor threatened one of my favorite performance venues the plaza live with losing their liquor license over hosting a drag theme show that they have been performing in Orlando for over eight years I was present at the show there were no minors six years of age in the venue the miners were actually accompanying the protesters who were screaming obscenities at the ticketed patrons so much for concern over corrupting the morals of children there were some teenagers accompanied by their parents who came to the show I thought parents would be respected to make these decisions on behalf of their children the show was not lewd nor was it lascivious it was a campy show with some risque content that anyone can see on any television show any night of the week if you don't like drag shows don't attend one that used to be a freedom afforded Floridians that we used to be able to make decisions for ourselves but now we are attacked by people who consider it a violation of their freedom to wear a mask to stop the spread of disease but they have no problem protesting a woman's right to choose control over her own body or another religion's right to their own expression of faith or how to learn about Injustice in an African-American studies course or to simply enjoy a form of gender bending entertainment that brings people Joy we deserve our right to be free as well but we have to hear about the sacred honor of the Second Amendment while our children are slaughtered by gun violence but we cannot enjoy our First Amendment right to be entertained to be entertained or educated or to worship anti-jewish slogans are being projected on our downtown buildings teachers are afraid of losing their jobs for teaching about slavery or helping lgbtq kids to find affirming literature and now I can't even get a couple of laughs while watching a campy reindeer dance on stage yes I am a woke woman I stand for wisdom opportunity kindness and empathy I'm a product of a public education system that afforded me the opportunity to read great books some of which may be uncomfortable enough to learn and care about others whose skin color May differ than mine I'm a woman who never takes for granted the fact that my mother's generation could not get credit without a male cosigner I have seen how my Jewish co-workers were passed over for promotions I have seen Injustice and I know that we as an Orlando Community must stand against it in all its forms I will fight for my right to be entertained as I choose to learn to learn as I choose to worship or not to choose to choose to worship or not to choose it is really an important part of the freedom that we used to Value as Floridians I am really proud to live in an Orlando community that upholds these values of inclusion and diversity yes I am woke I am proud and we are going to fight to protect our freedoms buy a ticket and support Plaza life thank you mayor thank you commissioner Wilson Hill wow that was so powerful commissioner need to be set thank you well good afternoon everyone I know you're you're still in the days too afterwards after that eloquent speech well good afternoon everyone thank you um well my update for the um last few weeks since we've been out of council you know as mayor commissioner and many of on the council before me stated that you know it's very proud to be uh part of this city of Orlando fabric when we talk about equity and inclusion and just advocating on the behalf of the downtrodden or just those that have been rendered voiceless so uh today uh as mayor stated with the funding that's going to be given to our Recreation Department for over 700 youth with jobs you know I remember probably in 2014 um at that time she was sergeant lieutenant excuse me Sergeant Deborah Clayton and she was talking about wanting to put more kids to work during the summer and just to see how this is transformed into 700 jobs that summer in 2014 where it was a Stop the Violence crime prevention youth mechanism and we had more kids than jobs probably had almost 700 kids at that time show up and could only employ close to 150 of them and that was with some of our City Recreation jobs but to see how the community has came together and really created this space uh to give soft skills and opportunities and access to our youth is just quite commendable so thank you resource and all the other um uh business owners in the hospitality fields and and economic development fields and Tech Industries and sustainability Industries to create this access for these children and give them a path to a great future and help with some of the things their parents many of their parents possibly can't provide is to be commended I went out with the Salvation Army and Captain Chapman and his his team and some other community leaders where they provided uh something that's called shelter suits shelter suits is a sleeping bag with a hood over it and it's insulated and thermally insulated where uh against all weather inclement uh times here in the city or wherever they were shipped in from Africa a very uh philanthropic uh donor uh paid for these bags and they went out and gave them to them along with some young ladies that provided uh Hood blankets where they put on the blankets and so these are some of the I think things that we want to see in the future of course we'll be talking about some rapid rehousing that's on the agenda today on how we're going to possibly not even possibly where we have to uh really uh circumvent many of the tents that we see popping up throughout the city but primarily that has encompassed the Paramore community so I've asked Mary which I'm in support of these initiatives because doing nothing isn't the answer but I think there's need to be a little bit more dialogue mayor on some of the strategic planning that's wrapped around it so I would like to hear more about that so I've asked Council to pull that from the consent agenda and we'll be addressing the F1 onto our new business so thank you Eric for for joining us to ask a few of the questions you guys have been meeting for a year and a half um and also um I'll be supporting F2 which is the agreement between the city of Orlando with junk Ministries for emergency Solutions and Outreach there in the John Young Colonial Drive corinder where we also have a major um in my congratulations on the five thousand dollars from OPD uh with with uh dignity but um as I was saying with that John Young colonial Drive Corner that's another major Corner that uh has now been saturated with folks sleeping on benches going into the neighborhoods and we have to give them some type of wrap around services but um create this safe ecosystem there in District Five from Paramore to Harrison estate through Rock Lake because right now families and children are afraid to go outside businesses are being negatively impacted um by uh the surgeons of these these tents um crime is being taken place and I know uh Chief is working him and his team are really working diligently on coming up with the solution around that just had stabbing murder Mayhem in these tent cities for me this is a major issue because it does sit in a community where the city and mayor Doris leadership we are investing millions in that Community when it comes to affordable housing when it comes to creating that ecosystem of cradle to Career when it comes to health and wellness and especially Small Business Development and this particular issue has really imploded imploded in the last year and a half or two and now it's impacting the very citizens that we ask to come there and to be good stewards and stakeholders so you know I'm and we continue to put funding in place but the needle is going backwards and so we do really need true commitment to where these dollars are going and to say Paramore in essence because right now the homeowners and the business owners feel like they're under siege and we do have great partners and I know this is uh daunton a daunting um live Nationwide not just in the city of Orlando but right now I'm concerned about Paramore District Five and how these vulnerable citizens that already live there that have so many different challenges and obstacles has another one so hopefully uh this new surge we can get there uh just think we need to tweak it a little bit uh but I appreciate everyone that uh has contributed that is doing the best they can but the citizens and residents right now sent our best isn't enough so so that's why I've asked to put it on the agenda just to get to tighten up a few things that's all I have made okay and commissioner Burns all right thank you mayor uh good afternoon everyone um first I'd like to um just thank Marshawn Green in the office of Multicultural Affairs for the excellent job uh in coordinating the Black History Month Art Exhibit uh open reception uh I got a chance to meet some very talented artists and experience their pieces so I encourage everyone to stop by uh and check those out I think you will will be impressed also I we will continue our satellite office hours uh next office hours will be at the Smithson of February 22nd also on Saturday January 28th I attended the Beyond four Foundation keep it play her a sports camp in clinic a free skills development session for girls ages 8 to 18 uh over at the Grand Avenue Neighborhood Center also um I will be hosting uh our district 6 Town Hall uh the state of District Six uh will be happening on February the 15th at the Grand Avenue Neighborhood Center at six o'clock um also I just want to say thank you to Chief Smith uh and the great policing that happens within uh OPD uh a couple of weeks ago my residence was burglar burglarized and the officers responded and when I was talking to one officer officer Holly I was giving him kind of recanting what happened and he looked at me he said and he told me exactly where he thought the perpetrator lived because my community had experienced some several break-ins they were very concerned scared individuals walking up to the front doors my home was burglarized about 7 30 in the evening I'm usually home at that time uh and if I would have come home about 15 minutes early I would have walked in on it but I just want to say thank you for the great policing because only a few days later uh the perpetrator was caught and I understand it's being prosecuted so I just want to say thank you Chief and especially to uh officer Holly DeAndre Holly who I guess had his ear to the ground I again I told him what happened and he knew exactly where the perpetrator uh lived so again thank you for for all the hard work on the agenda today I too would like to express my support for the Orlando economic partnership three-year funding um also um D1 the Summer Youth Employment Program as commissioner Hill mentioned I think this is a great program give our youth the opportunity to uh to make some money and keep them engaged in in activities that will continue to move their lives forward also uh also with the F1 the ES SG funding to jump Ministries because again all those resources dedicated to committed organizations to address homelessness in our community is very much needed in honor of black history month I would like to speak briefly about Dr J Mark Cox Dr J Mark Cox worked as one of the first African-American surgeons in Orlando he graduated from the College of medical evangelists and Loma Linda California Florida hospital and The Seventh-Day Adventist Church recruited him to become medical director of the Dr P Phillips Hospital for coloreds which opened in 1959 and is currently Guardian Care Nursing Home facility he was a director of Washington Shore Savings and Loans Associates and president of the Red Cross he was active in the Mental Health Organization so just wanted to give a little-known black history fact about Dr J Mark Cox but also I encourage anyone if you see this book it's Black America series Orlando Florida written by our own Jared Dean Thompson this book was actually given to me for a Christmas gift but I saw him in CVS and I was very uh excited and surprised so if you see this pick it up as some great uh history again history uh Orlando history but black history rural history right here uh in our community so thank you mayor okay commissioner did you have a motion yes I moved the approval of the agenda motion by commissioner Burns second by commissioner she and all in favor indicate so by saying aye aye those opposed and so the motion carries and I'm gonna take about a 30 second break and those who had items on the consent agenda that don't want to remain for the rest of the meeting might want to make their way out at this point foreign [Music] without objection we will recess the city council meeting and we will convene the CRA meeting first item is CRA Advisory board meeting minutes from December 14 2022 motion by commissioner Sheehan second by commissioner Hill on favor indicate so by saying aye aye those opposed motion carries number two is CRA meeting minutes from January 9th of this year motion by commissioner Sheen second by commissioner Hill all in favor indicates so by saying aye aye those opposed motion carries all right number three David thank you mayor good afternoon good afternoon council members item three before the CRA is in agreement with OUC as many of you will recall over the years the CRA has been actively enhancing our Lighting in downtown but we are looking at increasing that over this upcoming year and starting with that we're asking for approval to start with approximately four hundred and eight thousand dollars worth of lighting improvements this round will focus on the area around Lake Lucerne on Rosland Avenue as well as Magnolia but I'm happy to answer any questions motion body commissioner Hill second by commissioner she and commissioner Sheehan yes marriage want to thank David in the CRA because you know after the construction that's happened um fdot kind of came out and left a lot of those areas did not beautify them you know left them dark a lot of the residents were having issues and problems there because there was some crime and some concerns so I just want to thank the CRA and Walter Hawkins and everybody who's worked to try to make this area more to beautify it to keep it safe to keep you from camping there the whole shebag because unfortunately fdot is not always the best partner when they leave and they left us a mess and I just want to really thank you for all your your work it's it's noted and it's appreciated thank you thank you commissioner further discussion hearing none all in favor of the motion indicates so by saying aye aye as opposed to the motion carries four five and six have been deleted and will be heard another day is there any more business to come before the board David that is all mayor all right then we will stand adjourned and we will reconvene the city council meeting and that brings us to new business item number one is the meeting minutes and approval of actions of mpb for item number four Vista Lake cell tower cup 2022-10022 November 15 2022. this agenda item is approval of meeting minutes and the actions of the mpb from the meeting of November 15 2022 related solely to mpv's approval of a conditional use permit referenced as Vista Lake cell tower at 8734 Lee Vista Boulevard cup 2022-10022 the case was not appealed by any party to the mpb action and therefore the council's consideration today is not a new hearing however since it is a quasi-judicial matter the city council's consideration of mpb's recommendation must be based on the testimony and evidence that was made and considered by the MPP all public comment must relate to the matters that are part of of the record before the mpb and no new evidence will be allowed let's begin with some background on the case from our planning manager Elizabeth dang Elizabeth good afternoon mayor and City commissioners just get the presentation pulled up here my name is Elizabeth dang I'm the city planning division manager here to present to you today a project called APC Vista Lakes cell tower foreign so just some ground rules for today because this is a little bit unusual to hear a consent agenda item typically the municipal planning board recommendations for a conditional use permit are approved as a consent agenda item for final action by the city council unless appealed by an affected party nobody appealed this item but in order to ensure that all parties are heard this item was moved for new business for discussion because the public hearing for this quasi-judicial application was held by the mpb the council's decision must be based on the evidence and testimony presented at that mpb hearing so staff's presentation today will focus on the items discussion discussed at mpb and public commenters should also limit their comments to topics discussed at the mpb hearing so this project is located at 8734 Lee Vista Boulevard which is on the south side of the road between Vista Park Boulevard and Barrington Cove Point and it's in the Vista Lakes neighborhood the requested action is a conditional use permit to allow a 95 foot tall monopole communication Tower which will be disguised as a broadleaf Pine Tree on the back side of an existing retail Plaza within the Vista Lakes PD this is a follow-up request to a previous proposal on a nearby site to to provide a 130 foot tall cell tower that was going to be disguised as a bell tower adjacent to a church at 8849 Passaic Parkway the mpb recommended denial of that application and following an appeal the city council upheld that denial so this project is located as you can see here on Lee Vista Boulevard with the Neighborhood Activity Center land use designation and PD zoning in the Vista Lakes PD this site plan here shows the existing retail Plaza on a survey and the areas in purple show a lease of the roof site as well as a place for the tower in the rear of the lot so again in comparison the 2019 proposal showed the bell tower on the church site this new proposal is not as tall it's 95 feet and it is shown as a monopole broad leaf for disguising the tower so the applicant did do some public engagement at the vista Lakes clubhouse in August of 2022 as well as some less formal meetings that City staff did not attend at the public hearing was held on November 15th of last year at the municipal planning board over 200 emails were received largely in opposition most of the concerns related to adjacency to a daycare use potential impacts on property values and compatibility concerns as a reminder this topic does come up from time to time but local governments do not regulate land use decisions based on any environmental effects of radio frequency those environmental effects are regulated by the federal government so staff here finds that the proposal is consistent with the purpose and intent of the city code as well as policies of the growth management plan the proposed communication Tower will be along a major thoroughfare and is far away from existing single family residential as possible and is compliant with the code so staff recommends approval subject to the conditions in the staff report on November 15th the planning board also recommended approval and added one additional condition which is that the applicant waves the right to extend the height of the cell tower and that's something in the city code that normally a cell Town Tower owner can ask to extend the height by a little bit to add another carrier in this case they've waived that right and I'm available for any questions and commissioner Gray oh yes Matt I just have a question about process um because it states that this decision by the mpb was not appealed but now it's coming to the full Council for review and I see it says to ensure that all parties are heard so I just want to understand the reason that is coming to the city council when it was not appealed and if uh we said in the presidential or anything that's doesn't go because I'm assuming that the appeals process gives the Appellate the opportunity for things to be heard by the city council so I just have a question about processing how are we here when it was not appealed um I think to Mr Gray at some prior meeting asked do you have it heard in business I thought was this is the second time around the first one was appealed and I think the homeowners felt like we're going to bring it back anyway I would have asked to move it to this new business much like commissioner Hill did so I think that was the reason the homeowners did not appeal okay so okay I just want to know process in place the commissioner Ray asked for it to be nobody anticipated that that was going to occur so we didn't hear it on that particular day so that the applicant and anybody else that cared but no it would be at this meeting all right thank you commissioner gray yeah I just have a question for Elizabeth Elizabeth I remember in our community meeting um one of the objections that the neighbors had um and and I believe the applicant agreed and I'll wait to hear from Council was in the event the tower if approved and the tower is abandoned they would agree to pay to have it removed but I did not see that in the mpb minutes nor in this did did I overlook that um that's correct um there's not a separate provision for that there is a requirement already in the city code and it can be somewhat difficult to enforce to know from looking at the outside when a tower is in use or not in use but I think the applicant could address that question if there's anything more astringent the council could ask for but we do have a standard provision of code that requires that if we know for sure it's entirely abandoned how do we determine that that is a good question and I think if that's the issue is that there's always going to be some use for that Tower if if you ask the owner okay I would assume even if they didn't have any hookups on a particular day they would anticipate something in the future right okay we do have uh one constituent in opposition and then we'll hear from the attorney representing cell tower so Mr Daley is he on Zoom yes mayor he is yes okay then let's have him up here Mr daily you out there yes good afternoon Mr Mayor thank you for allowing me to speak today on behalf of this Lakes communities Association as you are aware of normal I could be in person but a work of conflict prohibited me from being there today um and I would like to thank our commissioner gray for working with us on uh hosting the upcoming Festival that he mentioned we're excited to do that and uh I want to Echo commissioner Burns Applause for chief Smith in OPD they've been great in responding to issues for our community we oppose this particular action of putting the telpower 300 yards away and 30 foot shorter from the last proposal as commissioner gray pointed out we didn't see any benefit of going through a quasi-judicial hearing again because it's the same issues and the same decision point that you had about a year ago where you rightfully disapproved the power based on the fact that was not compatible with our community that has not changed with the new design as you saw from the report from Elizabeth that there are over 200 email sent to the mpb 90 over 95 of those opposed this project in addition 40 excuse me 50 Community leaders have sent emails to Mr Mayor yourself and also the City commissioners um highlighting their uh disapproval of of this particular recommending this approval of this project and those 50 Community leaders are not just from district one they represent every uh constituency in each of the Commissioners districts um you know from our view there have been more than a half a dozen major property owners in Vista lakes that have denied requests to build cell towers on their property because they know the impact is going to have on community including the preschool that's immediately adjacent to that property by about 50 feet where 100 plus little kids and um staff actually spend eight to twelve hours a day next that will be spending for eight to twelve hours a day next to that cell count um the commissioner gray also pointed out the one other item that came up in our community meetings Beyond waiving the right of increasing the height was the commitment to have an escrow account or an insurance policy to pay for any future removal of that Tower if it were abandoned I will say that there are at least one Tower in the city of Orlando that we know is abandoned and is still standing after several years of being abandoned and we don't want that to happen in our community that the cell tower is built one of the things that was presented at the mpb was a letter from the chairman of the Commercial Property Owners Association so that's uh fellow business owners like the applicants or the owner of the property who is allowing the applicant to build the cell tower who also oppose this particular project so it's not just the Community Association there's the Commercial Property Owners Association the CDD has a disapproved request by this cell power to build on their property obviously we have as a community the association Publix has denied it as far as Reno the owner of the 1500 acre lot immediately adjacent to us has denied a request the developer does not want it built on that property either there are two apartment complexes um to the west of our community that are being developed that we supported who also don't want it on their property so this isn't just about this Lake's Community Association everybody that is familiar with this project including those in each of the districts that are Community leaders recognize that this is not a good spot for this cell power the last thing I'll offer is that during our community meetings with the staff included is discuss that the um cell Powers would be an infrastructure issue and from what I understand any infrastructure projects require some type of strategy for the city there is not a strategy for communications within the city of Orlando that has been shared with us despite our multiple requests lastly as a Federal Executive throughout my career I have drafted I've reviewed and I've submitted for approval and signature by the president multiple regulations and laws that have been placed into effect and I'll tell you I don't share the sentiment of the APC Council that and your Council actually created arguments that indicated you the city council have the authority to disapprove this based on compatibility issues not being compatible with the community so you'll hear otherwise I'm sure from the legal counsel from ABC that's fine but from my experience as a Federal Executive working through these processes and helping craft regulations such as this their interpretation is a clear overreach of the authority the federal government in this so again we oppose um the building of this Tower at this site in uh we do support the conditions that would be placed on it if it were built but our recommendation from our community as well as other community leaders throughout Orlando is not to build this tower on this site thank you Mr Mayor thank you city council for sure thank you thank you so one of the things that I think the city's noted for is that when you do business with a city you can get a consistent outcome that we play bar rules in this particular application is consistent in every way with a purpose and intent of our code AS Liz has pointed out and the policies of our GMP but I think Council can further explain that so matinee Jan thank you Mr Mayor I'm Matt Tanaya John um as a point of order I would request particularly if questions come up that I'd be given an additional amount of time equal to the amount of time that Mr Daly went over as you heard from your expert staff this application which is an effort to settle ongoing litigation comes before you in full compliance with every aspect of your code residential separation setbacks Tower design lighting it will be completely dark at night the tree type camouflage was selected and this is relatively new in your city for a long time as an effort to Leverage The contextual clue cues of the um of the Cypress heads and other trees that are in the area since there is extensive Urban canopy particularly canopy between the Tower and the residential portions of the Pud I think it's also important to keep in mind that this is in the commercial portion of the Pud If This Record were to have been opened up I would be ready to present measured signal data on T-Mobile's Connections in the area showing poor connections and if this were to continue to another stage Beyond this dice I would be prepared to present that as well I also um have Mr Gallagher here with APC if you were willing if you were wishing to hear from that again the record is not open at this time but he would confirm under sworn testimony that Verizon has also applied to co-locate on this Tower and has already submitted their Loadout and commissioned engineered drawings so that way they can understand how that will be installed on this facility um let's see as far as abandonment your code has a pretty strong abandonment procedure um most codes do have an abandonment provision it's just most jurisdictions do not let there they do not it's not a focus of their code enforcement and there are ways to tell if a tower is abandoned mostly the antennas are missing up top or the cables are cut below what I did offer was an irrevocable license to the city so that way the city can enter at any time once it's adjudicated abandoned and remove the tower through code enforcement process your code does bring that liability back to the landowner and to the tower company see um I also so I have Jason Pauley with T-Mobile if you have questions for T-Mobile's need I have David talby who testified before the mpb if you have any questions about property value I have Michael Gallagher with APC if you have questions about Verizon's I think it's probably a pretty good spot just to see if anybody has any questions yes sir Mr Gray you have anything okay anybody have a motion approval promotion by commission second by commissioner Burns to accept the staff recommendation of approval of cup 2022-1-022 [Music] subject to the conditions in the staff report discussion commissioner Gray thank you mayor I appreciate the time I want to share with with my peers some of the reasons I oppose it and I think all my neighbors oppose it too and it really boils down to two things for me one is compatibility and the other is quite frankly lack of demand let's talk about that first you would think if T-Mobile who's been looking to do this for four years you would think during that span of time at least one person would have called me emailed me done something to say I have bad reception in Vista Lakes I've not received one you would think if there was a lot of support for this we would see some of these people here saying look I have bad cell service I need this that is just peculiar to me where is the demand this is the first time I've heard of Verizon and a t jumping on good but I I just think here's what I think has happened this speaks to the compatibility Vista Lakes has been in built 20 plus years ago plus or minus at T hasn't come to us before Verizon hasn't come to us before four years ago plus or minus a t or excuse me T-Mobile showed up it just feels to me like they missed the boat when Vista Park was developing for whatever reason they didn't try to secure their connectivity don't know why that's their decision and now they're coming back some 15 years later after the developments Bill and saying look we we need to put up a cell tower right in the middle of a developed Community I don't think that's fair to our neighbors uh and and quite frankly the other part is the neighbors have said loud and clear we're not opposed to you doing if you want 5G doing the normal The receptors on the uh the light poles like we've done in other parts of Lake Nona I think the reason there is that's more expensive and for whatever reason this applicant doesn't want to spend the money we've done that in a lot of other parts of Lake Nona no cell towers but we've done them on light poles in the smaller cells but it takes more money so to me that lack of demand haven't heard from anybody that has interrupted cell service and B the fact that you're waiting until the neighborhood is developed before you want to come in and build a cell tower remember the first time around they needed 130 feet no negotiation they couldn't move well surprise surprise now they can handle 95 feet again I just feel like they've missed the boat they're trying to make up for it shouldn't be the problem of the Vista Lakes neighbors that's something that T-Mobile missed the boat and that's their fault not the neighbor so that's why I'm opposed to it it's not the environmental because I don't think any of us really know one way or the other whether it's good or bad it's compatibility and lack of demand so thank you for sharing I'm going to vote against it thank you give me a short teeth just have a simple question how many people do you all serve in that area or the different companies serve around later you got those stats Vista Lakes has a population of seven thousand um I can pull up a map to see connection I have a connection concentration map that I could enter into the record if you were to open it but do you have that number here okay my apologies I don't have the the average hourly connection handy right now what any other companies none of the companies I have obtained such data from Verizon again uh they were they're in the second carrier position so they normally don't provide that data during zoning it was really hard for us to to attach the need for that if we don't have this dance so one stat that you do have is the 911 call statistics for the for Orange County Florida and over 80 percent of all 9-1-1 calls come from wireless connections that's because we've basically cut the cord on wire lines so but they come through the ones that do so I do have map search that it can show uh denial of connection and uh poor connection again I would have to open the record to present that to you today but I am prepared to do that the counselor with all due respect if somebody could not get through on a 9-1-1 call one of us here would have heard that and I have not heard not one so I hear what you're saying but I I don't see any data behind it or any proof that people don't have good cell service well not commissioner gray it's it's interesting that you talk about this retrofit situation which is what we are facing the entire wireless network up to later years has been a retrofit situation that's why there's Federal protections on things like effective prohibition um if you went through the mpb packet you would see that the tower companies have built a circle of towers around Vista Lakes for around the perimeter trying to reach in they just can't get to the middle one of the things that federal law recognizes and the FCC recognizes and has opined upon is that our usage has changed over time back when cell phones first came out my father used it as an alternative to pay phones now we connect inside our homes and inside our vehicles we use them for the internet of things and the little devices that run our economy so it's fundamentally changed and I don't think it should be a surprise to anyone that occasionally you have to add additional infrastructure to the area and then also on Lake Nona there are four your staff can confirm that there are existing cell towers in the area that were built as part of that system to provide the overarching architecture support so it's not a small cell system standing by itself right and again I'll leave it at this because I don't want to dominate this meeting but despite all the things you say again I'm having trouble getting over the fact that not a single person has called me to say their 9-1-1 call or their T-Mobile service or their Verizon service or their ATT did not work not one so I don't understand the demand I feel like you guys are putting something in there for your own benefit but it's not in need nor is it accretive to the neighborhood so thank you Mr Gray I actually don't think they put it in just with a heck of it I said I don't think they would put it in just for the heck of it probably not but clear ly they're putting it in and they're going to leave space to their to the other groups it's a it's a revenue producer they wouldn't build it if they didn't recover revenue on the other side I agree with answer I think they pretty much jumped through every hoop that we have created and they've complied with all of our rules and all of our plans so I'm supportive of doing this so all in favor indicate so by saying aye aye those opposed no no okay five two it carries thank you thank you for your time okay we will take up the second item as item F1 and that really relates to some ESG Rush funds that we have and as commissioner Hill pointed out and as anyone that drives on Central or Paramore can clearly it's C we have a number of people experiencing homelessness who are living in tents along those corridors and it's a fairly substantial number at least in my opinion and we have taken some measures one of which was the Chiefs team went out and cleared 100 of those tents out on Saturday morning and he told me that by what time Chief Saturday night about eight o'clock Saturday night the vast majority of them were back so it speaks to us needing to do something different than we've been doing in that regard and we were fortunate to get these ESG Rush funds and fortunate also that the Christian service center is willing to work with us along with a number of other partners to provide some short-term rental assistance and wrap around service and do the really hard work of connecting with people that will take the assistance in those tents and I want to compliment commissioner Hill she pulled together a homeless Services Network task force on the unsheltered about a year ago so commissioner Hill thank you for your leadership on this issue and we're probably going to do this as expeditiously as we can but it's fairly complicated having involving other PD and code enforcement and hope team and the other providers that might have the that available but the idea would be to have Outreach coordinators that are in touch with and we already know we know who for the most part the people in tents are already and there are children there and that would be our first priority but to make contact and then the vast majority of the ESG funding would go towards the rental assistance to do rapid re-housing and to pay for that rapid re-housing so I'm extremely supportive of getting this started and I think we need to take some other steps as well that will be coming but commissioner Hill you asked to have this pulled off so what are your thoughts absolutely as I stated earlier in Council I am very supportive of this team their efforts as you stated I convened them about a year or so a better ago and they have met weekly every Wednesday rather it was Zoom or in person along with code enforcement other Community Partners OPD um my my and I I think where I'm at with this mayor is that I understand the complication of putting a team together but also understand that if we only go out four times a month I'm I'm a little two times in April it's not going to help us at all this doesn't this isn't suffice for for me a search in my mindset is hidden it hard every day just like if OPD was doing a surge on crime they'll go out every day until they get drug dealers off the streets this is what I think rapid rehousing not a trickle-down effect because we want CS it was stated just by yourself we moved them and I was working with OPD I was working with Corey matter of fact was working with him to go out there and do that this weekend and coordinate that and I understand the complexity but also understand that I was able with a ragtag crew I'm not calling our team rag tag but I miss missed words with pkz case managers myself mayor and um Joe Caesar was able to House of family able to place them in school register them and register the child up in child care with our casement in 24 hours I'm just saying that we need to be a little bit more aggressive then this timeline that has been presented to us um in the month of March and we're going to have what that's March Madness I would hate for people to come to the city of Orlando and Paramore when they're from around the nation and that's what they see it's just a Despair and hopelessness around that Stadium around that Arena uh commissioner I don't disagree with you on that and I think that we're all willing to get around the table and see how much more I don't know if aggressive is the right word but if we can't be a little bit quicker on the number of people that we are able to re-house so um I'm just looking at what I was given there so is there you might can disagree with me and Larson figures but the figures don't lie they're right here sir and this is what I'm disagreeing with is this timetable I want to know more about uh what's like 30 60 90 day plan a strategic plan what's the benchmarks that's only right to understand these things and I haven't been giving those answers and that's all I'm looking for it's the only thing that's only fair and I I I've even sat with the providers they know I'm in support of them but I am also in support of the small business owners in Paramore and the families that reside there that say enough is enough this is not just their problem it's in their neighborhood they're afraid to go outside they can't go out for walks uh with their dogs to ride their bikes at night like the rest of us have the Leisure to do the business owners are are are can't open their doors they have to lock their doors during the day because they're afraid that somebody might run in and people mentally are knocking on their doors and now patrons are afraid to come to Paramore to serve them so we're running people out of business so this is the urgency of now I just can't continue to say well this is a complicated matter was complicated for the people that live there it's complicated for the businesses that's there yes I'm asking for a more aggressive plan I am in support of this plan these are the people I ask but this is not enough give me a surge give me true placement and this is just 20 people out of a whole year if it's going to take you 20 it all 365 days to place 20 people that's a problem thank you commissioner what I intend is that we will use the next last two weeks of February to plan and then act aggressively the entire month of March that's that's what I asked mayor okay George Ortiz I'm going to agitate here we have a great ambassador program downtown don't we isn't that what we say we have a great ambassador of prayer why don't we put him to work I mean really work exactly what she's asking for that's it Mr Burns yeah man I I I guess I was going to say something similar but not necessarily that I do believe that we have individuals who are in contact with some of these people who need to be housed uh some of the feedback that I've gotten as you all know uh the Hope team works out of the health care center for the homeless and what I've heard is the issues that they're running into is they know the individuals but just don't have anywhere anywhere to take them and I think this funding will be will provide the rental assistance that's needed for them to go into the hotel so I think that if we can um utilize the current uh resources that are already in contact and get them deployed to move this forward because I understand there'll be a couple of more Outreach folks uh part of this grant which may take some time to hire so I wouldn't want us to wait to hire to start moving this program I think we should you know mobilize some of the current resources that we have to to start getting these people off the streets and into some type of um I think right commissioner burns the having the money to actually house them is very helpful in this process commissioner Hill yes mayor and that's the other thing we have to identify the folks who have the beds you know 20 uh not a heavy lift not a heavy lift so if we can get that 20 and still spread it out for a whole year and I mean that's almost what pleasing too much thank you everybody saw your message commissioner thank you sir I just want the community to know that we are diligent and that that's what I really need they need to see us out there not every now and then in the replication of services as I said there's already providers that are in the network doing that so I know it was told to me well do you want me to pull them away from what they're already absolutely for right now because we got dead bodies on sidewalks and I'm not going to keep going on with that mayor but you can see where I'm coming from Mr Stewart uh thank you mayor I um I I like making a decision a little bit on data so um Lisa if I can help maybe between you and Martha do we have um demographics of the people that are on the street do we have their names what what's happened in terms of the I don't know that we have every one of them but we have probably the majority I would normally almost have almost every one of them are pretty close unless it's a new something new okay Eric yes so we went out we've been studying since commissioner Hill helped get the task force together I'm not sure how long it's been a little over a year now I think we studied six communities four that had best practice where they did the encampment procedures well and then an additional two that really did it badly and so we learned from both as part of that process we put together a six-step plan and one of those steps was working with the Hope team and some of the other Outreach teams to go out and do lack of a better term practice runs and Survey data specifically in the area around the Coalition for the homeless but not limited to that between Westmoreland and on Division Avenue and Washington Street and Church Street and so we gathered data for we did over 120 surveys it looks like we identified about 68 Unique Individuals that at the time and this was roughly four or five months ago that our Unique Individuals around the Terry Avenue area and one of the things that we learned from the process was that um one of our expectations we look at this population of people as being highly service resistant that they're not likely to take advantage of shelter housing if it were made available to them but the higher level response was when we asked most people if you there was space for you in a shelter tonight would you take it they said yes and the challenges is just not a lot of space in the shelters but in those instances we actually walked people directly to the shelter and worked with the Coalition on those evenings and it might have just been two or three people each evening that we were able to do it but that's part of this Outreach surge as well so there's we're now layered multiple different components working with code enforcement OPD and the service providers and so we can try to place people in shelter that night if it's possible and then also get more information from people that we can place in a different type of shelter in this case it would be hotel that we have funding for in this case enough to put 20 people into hotels for up to 12 months I don't expect that most of the people that we work with are going to be in those hotels for 12 months so our ideal is that we would serve more people than just those 20 but based on the um the criteria for the grant we kept it conservative but our hope is that we we house quite a bit more than that just the since January 1 the Christian service center has moved 26 people from living on the street into housing so far this year our goal overall even outside of this particular project is 130 but yes we do know most of the people that are out on the streets but those numbers are growing they're growing pretty fast and they're going for a couple different reasons here in the city of Orlando which I can get into if you'd like but we're the same people that were there four months ago some of them are the same some of them are not and so there are new people coming every day from different parts of the community and it's not just limited to the Paramore area Paramore takes the brunt of it by far but we have pockets of encampments throughout all of Central Florida and so the hope is that what we learn from this particular project can be applied every year or throughout the Continuum of cares through County Zone but our concentration right now is on paramour because it's by far the highest concentration of adults experiencing homelessness on the street anywhere in Central Florida yeah in a pretty old neighborhood sometimes they are you're right in that most of the time outside of the paramour area they're not going to be on a residential empty lots that's one of the things we see unique Paramore but we do see them on residential empty lots in other parts of the community like Pine Hills Apopka area there's some communities in Sanford and Kissimmee that we see the same thing too and so we're it's it's not the only area but that's the really dangerous thing about Paramore is that the cabinets change so frequently it's hard to keep track of how many there are and so we're talking about dozens of encampments just in the Paramore Heritage and Holden Heights area where an encampment could be three tenths or it could be 20 tenths of people's you know sleeping and sometimes even more and there's there's it but it's by far the highest concentration anywhere in the three County area machine yeah thank you mayor and um and and I I had to say it's it's not just Paramore I mean um a lot of the areas of commissioner Ortiz and I share along Colonial Drive um I call them the new homeless they're people who are still basically pushing most of their belongings in their shopping cart and they're sleeping at shopping centers so this is you know throughout the city there's something that I wanted to ask is that during covid um and it might have been because the hotels were empty we were able to get some hotels where we could you know House people that were on the street that had coveted is there any way we can work with the hope you know renting some hotel rooms or something like that to get the people off the street as opposed to doing the you know um tents which are awful and and that's what the money is for that's what the money is for yeah so this money is specifically it's called Rush funding which stands for Rapid unsheltered Survivor housing and it's sort of an alternative to FEMA funding so it's really a direct result of the Hurricanes this last fall and Orlando is one of the few cities to receive that because of the high performance that they have had with other grants in a similar fashion and so this FEMA money is typically only reserved for people who are already in housing but other people who are unsheltered were also affected so because the task force had already been convened and we've been studying how best to you know end the encampments we found this opportunity of funding do they call the HUD brush program to say hey we've got this program in place let's see if we can enact it it's the first real investment that we've been able to have I think in real sustain it's not the only investment the first real substantial money it won't be the last it can't be the last I mean if it's the last time we do this we're in a lot of trouble but it will be the first of many different programs as we can find different resources from anywhere whether it be State funding Municipal County Federal funding or private funding we're going to find it and have to apply it you know not just in Paramore we'll have to apply it everywhere we possibly can and it's just not limited to the 20 you can still you can you can still expand that if necessary and and something that I have to keep saying and I will continue to say is you know the affordable housing you know the Sadowski fund has been rated by the state government for many many years and now we at local government are being forced to deal with this at an emergency basis but that was billions of dollars that should have been going to build affordable housing over the course of many years and we have got to say hold the legislature accountable for taking that money that should have been spent on affordable housing we're having to I I agree that we're responding in an emergency fashion but how many billions is it now there's up to 4 billion now that has been taken from the Sadowski fund that would have gone a long way to perform to provide long-term affordable housing and we're we have a crisis and we have an emergency now but we have to keep talking about where that disparity came from thank you mayor you know commissioner what's funny about that it's not funny but the legislature's attitude now is the affordable housing crisis is local government's fault right because of our zoning not that they sucked all the money out of our affordable right exactly programs so frustrating commission Ortiz um we have the Coalition for the homeless we have a Salvation Army what else we have there are three shelters in Orange County the Coalition the Salvation Army and the Orlando Union Rescue Mission the Salvation Army and the rescue mission have two sites the Salvation Army has a Women and Children's Program and a men's program on the same property the rescue mission has two separate campuses a couple miles apart so we have the homeless Services Network I guess over the whole region right yes sir how many other places do we have around the region where we can host uh homeless people there are there are only four shelters in the three County area the other is the Samford Rescue Mission and the Goldsboro neighborhood in Sanford it's a very small shelter that has undergone some struggles as of late but that's it there's none in Osceola County at all you said something peculiar a few minutes ago where you said that we have the largest population in Paramore I used to work Paramore you don't used to be like that but there's a saying it says build it and it will come and of course if we have those places built right around that area they're going to come and assemble around that area so have we talked to any of the other municipalities around the region to so they can build their own places so they can help us out we can spread their wealth here because it seems like everything comes to a city of Orlando we're the only ones dealing with this situation not a lot of volunteers commission yeah I understand and that's I I do understand that but I believe we'll have the issues and they have to stop sending their homeless to us I mean it's not that we don't want to help them but we need to share the work here so I fully agree I'll I'll addressify advocating one thing in the Washington the area of Washington DC and District of Columbia as is that they no longer build uh one program or one shelter at a time I think they have six districts in the same way that we do in the District of Columbia I believe it is they build six small ones in each district gets one at the same time and they're sort of 25 sound like y'all know something yeah so so maybe maybe we need to take this with Tallahassee and maybe from there then Force Regents to have their own fair share of shelters to to help with the homeless I I don't disagree with that um and the the point about affordable housing is extremely well made this uh I brought this book I would highly encourage I know I'm not allowed to give gifts to City commissioners otherwise I would have brought you all one but this is Dr Craig Coburn's study from the University of Washington basically proving scientifically that homelessness is a housing problem and that he looked City to city across the United States and tried to determine what variables were different in Chicago and Philadelphia versus Boston and Seattle and only one variable holds true and that's the available affordable housing housing stock in any community that is going to be the closest trend line to seeing what kind of homeless problem you're going to have so the reason that the communities like Los Angeles or San Francisco or Seattle or Boston have a higher rate of homelessness has nothing to do with weather or or service provision or medical issues it is entirely about their are available affordable housing stock over the last 20 years and since Orlando has ranked seventh from the bottom at the bottom and third from the bottom in the last couple of years in terms of affordable housing we're about to see a real explosion here if we don't get a handle on it we see that challenge because as I've said in the past we are victims of our own success we've done so well in so many other uh areas that everybody's moving to a suitable level coming to the region thinking that this is the mecca you know so and of course with that comes those problems here but it's also a homegrown problem in every city where it's been studied 90 or more of the people who are struggling with homelessness were housed in that City before they became homeless so people aren't coming here to be homeless occasionally that happens but in every city where it's been studied and I've read dozens of these reports the it's a homegrown problem but we do have people that send their homeless to us if that happens it's usually within the three County area and it is it is happening in the three County area but for them and it does happen in the urban core of most communities it's not unique to Orlando that we would have more unsheltered adults in the Urban in downtown core that's pretty common for most communities because people are not com they're going to get harassed and more uncomfortable frankly in in Lake Nona than they are going to be in paramour however I will tell you that Lake Nona does have people who are struggling with homelessness I'm the chairman of the board for the East Orlando Chamber of Commerce they're not over they're not the same levels absolutely not on their sidewalks they're not over in boxy Park they're you know just please don't do that comparison no because it's an insult on what's going on in Paramore to compare Lake Nona and the homeless over there as the homeless in Paramore and yes they do flock the pair of more and I understand now what my predecessor commissioner lineman was talking about we're making an overlay and making uh stopping all the service providers because there's no beds right now in the shelters and we know that let's stop fooling us in our side we have them in the woods because that's fine but they're not in public View and they're not right is exacerbated in Paramore we all recognize that commissioner but there is homeless in other areas as well well let's bring them outside and let's put some of those tents on on Edgewater Drive well right now we're focus on Paramore because yeah that's what yeah but commissioner yeah that's enough no it's not enough you can't chastise me yeah sure don't play that game got chastise me please don't play that game you should there should be no more Service uh uh uh Provisions in Paramore let's spread the wealth as you stated they're doing in Washington DC and put it in other districts I totally agree because right now in my district and in Paramore children can't walk down the side walk without seeing a dead body without seeing rapists pulling them inside the tents possibly without drug dealing going on and prostitution and I'm the one getting the phone calls not you guys I'm the one getting harassed at the gas stations at church and being embarrassing what's going on in Paramore and it does seem like some unbiased racism to a degree because you got a strong African-American while we're talking a black about black history since commissioner Stewart want to go there and you're going to force me to go there that this is happening and in a rich African-American neighborhood and this city has done a a hell of a job we're creating I think we lead Central Florida with creating affordable housing with creating service providers especially lead the state commission yeah so so they need some other folks we need some other help and other people to do it so I don't think that's a problem when it came to seeing lack of affordable housing let's bring this in for landing we're focused today bring it foreign [Music] rapidly yes ma'am and that these 10 that's at least somewhat dissipate and that we might have to work with OPD I'm sorry I got to say it that maybe there might need to be some type of enforcement for those that continue to come back because it's against the law in the city of Orlando for encampments on city sidewalks and so now we might have to enforce that law in order to dissipate these tents and I think the best part about this project is that we're collaborating okay back to commercial Ortiz sorry thank you mayor um I was going to suggest some of this too has historically if you if you study criminology you studied in sociology this kind of things happen close to where you have their services the city services so that's why it's so close to downtown so that's why one of the reasons why it's in your area man uh Paramore commissioner we all have we all have a homeless the only thing is some of those choose to live in the woods and and it's a different kind of Dynamics but what I was trying to convey here is the fact that we have to form a committee maybe mayor I don't know if this is something that you want to lead or something that I'm on with other Mayors and other participants from other cities to see if we can we can work with this comprehensively among all of us because it seems like the whole the whole issues coming down to the city of Orlando and I think they need help and we all need help and I think you know sending their homeless to us is not the it's not the answer we should all be involved in a rehabilitating uh this human beings and and creating a better society as a home so that's it those are my last words okay you've had a lot of good discussion all in favor of the motion indicate do we have a motion we don't have a motion I move approval of motion by commission Burns second by commissioner Hill all in favor of the motion indicates so by saying aye aye those opposed motion carries okay let's move on to ordinances okay Madam clerk you are a ordinances hearings hearings ordinances first reading number one ordinance number 2023-1 in ordinance of the city council the city of Orlando Florida relating to signs amending chapter 61 part two of The Land Development code entitled streets and rights away amending chapter 64 of the Land Development code entitled science amending chapter 65 part two of The Land Development code entitled zoning applications and procedures amending chapter 66 of the Land Development code entitled definitions providing legislative findings and for codification correction of scriveners there and several severability and an effective date summer motion by commissioner Sheehan second by commissioner Burns do we have any requests to speak Madam clerk we do have one request from James Carpentier Mr Carpenter hello mayor Dyer and Commissioners I just want to speak real briefly in support of the ordinance proposed ordinance which was just read and here on behalf of the southern states sign Association and international science Association and first I want to commend Elizabeth and her staff for doing a great job on really involving all the stakeholders and coming up with what I consider to be a really balanced ordinance that will be beneficial for the entire community and um so therefore I just request that you approve the the ordinance and thank you for your time and consideration and if you have any questions or issues with anything here to answer any questions thank you thank you for your testimony Madam clerk any additional testimony no other speakers mayor discussion hearing none all favor in the case of us saying aye aye I suppose motion carries all right hearings ordinances second read number one ordinance number 2022-62 an ordinance of the city council the city of Orlando Florida amending the city's growth management plan to change the future land use map designation for certain land generally located west of Kathy Street north of gardens Ridge Way and east of Interstate 4 comprised of 10.86 acres of land more or less from commercial Activity Center to Urban Activity Center amending the growth management plan future land use elements of area policy s .24.7 to allow Ur Dash AC within the policy boundary changing the property zoning designation from Community Activity Center to Urban Activity Center providing for Amendment of the city's official future land use and Zoning Maps providing for separability Corrections error permanent disclaimer and ineffective date second uh motion boxing machine second body commissioner Hill any testimony no speakers mayor discussion hearing not all in favor of motion initiate so by saying aye aye those opposed motion carries all right number two ordinance number 2023-5 an ordinance of the city council the city of Orlando Florida mending the Land Development regulations but the Thornton Place Townhomes plan development generally located south of East Washington Street north of East Central Boulevard East of Hill Avenue and west of North higher Avenue and to change the development use for Lot 8 which is comprised of approximately 0.1 Acres providing for Amendment of the city's official zoning Maps providing for separability correction scriveners error permit disclaimer and an effective date second motion by commissioner Sheehan second by commissioner Hill Madam clerk no speakers mayor discussion hearing none on fire Dimension indicates so by saying aye aye those opposed motion curies ordinances first read ordinance number 2023-5 an ordinance of the city council the city of Orlando Florida rezoning certain land generally located east of Narcoossee Road and North of McCoy Road and comprised of approximately 9.04 acres of land from plan development in part and plan development with the aircraft noise overlay District in part to plan development in part in plant development with the aircraft noise overlay District in part providing a framework plan especially in development regulations of the plan development District providing for separability Corrections Governors era Perma disclaimer and effective date move to approve second motion box Mr Gray second by commission Ortiz those speakers no speakers discussion hearing none I'll play the bill should indicate so by saying aye aye those opposed motion carries all right Ed could you get us ready for um uh General appearance [Music] [Music] foreign [Music]