Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat [Music] up here. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] happy. Hey [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] Happy. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Applause] [Music] N. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Good afternoon and welcome to the May 19th, 2025 meeting of the Orlando City Council. We're going to begin today's meeting with the invocation and the pledge of allegiance led today by Commissioner Jim Gray. Thank you, Mayor. Kind of feel like a Baptist minister here with a full house. So, if you're so inclined, please join me in prayer. Dear Lord, we come to you today asking for your guidance, wisdom, and kindness as we address the affairs of this community. Help us engage in meaningful discussions that lead to decisions that advance this city and its residents. We also ask for your intervention into current disputes throughout the world. We need calm minds, rational decisions, and healing hearts. In your name we pray. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Let's call the meeting to order. Madame clerk, would you call the role and make a determination of quorum, please? Commissioner Gray here. Commissioner Ortiz here. Commissioner Stewart here. Commissioner Sheen here. Interim Commissioner Rose. Commissioner Burns here. Mayor Dyer here. Mayor, you have a quorum with all members present. Thank you, Madam Clerk. First item of business is consideration of meeting minutes from the workshop agenda view city council meeting of April 21st, 2025. Motion by Commissioner Ortiz. I'll take you through a second. Commissioner Burns. All in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries. Okay, we will move right into awards presentations and recognitions. And I know I am probably a little biased, but I happen to believe that we have the best city staff of any city in all of America. And our team MA members provide incredible service uh to our residents. And one of the ways that we recognize our staff for that is nominations that are made each year for the Magnamera Employee of the Year awards. And today we're honoring our 2024 recipients. Um, and I'd like our human resources director, Anna Palenoa, to tell you about the award and then we will introduce the recipients. Mayor, it is my pleasure to come before you to announce the 2024 Magnamero Employee of the Year Award winners. The purpose of the city's employee recognition program is to motivate, recognize, and retain employees. The most prestigious award given by this program is the Magnamera Employee of the Year Award. Only the best of the best are nominated for this award and this year we received 14 nominations and only four could be selected. And now it's time to celebrate the winners for their exceptional service to the citizens of the city of Orlando. The Magnum employee of the year recipients are Candace Kado, digital project manager, Mikael Pion, planning manager, Victor Diaz, grants and contract accountant, and Renard Mitchell, traffic safety technician supervisor. Give all a big hand. The director for each of these outstanding employees will introduce and share their employees accomplishments. Mayor, I don't know if you want to join us. Sure. And the first presenter is Michelle Mcrimman, followed by Elizabeth Deng, then by Orin Henry and Tanya Wilder. Good afternoon, mayor, commissioners, guests. Um, thank you so much. I'm so happy to introduce Candace Cardillo who's right over here. Um she is our digital product manager within uh the information technology office of the office of business and financial services. This is a position responsible for improving city operations with the use of digital platforms. It's a unique position because it interacts with city departments but also with residents as well regarding their use of digital tools. And as I highlight Candace's history with the city, you'll see this is really a recognition of her work over her entire six-year tenure with the city. Candace told me she wanted to work at the city because she wanted to work at an organization where she could make an impact on the community. She said she looked at job postings every Saturday until she saw and applied for her first position with the city as board coordinator and then as the administration coordinator in the clerk's office. She started in 2019, but fast forward to 2020 when COVID hit and Candace was instrumental in moving over 50 public meetings to virtual platform platforms like Zoom and Teams. The clerk's office said this about Candace. Candace's reassuring presence and commitment to serving the public as well as her colleagues leaves a lasting impression in each of her endeavors. She consistently has proven to go above and beyond all expectations and takes on each challenge with most unwavering dedication. In 2023, Candace moved to IT as a digital product manager. She mentioned to me that the position was attractive to her because it allowed her to focus more on technology, which makes complete sense to move to IT since she was a psychology major at UCF. I do I say that jokingly but the position she's in um interestingly it looks at user behavior and user experience with technology which really aligns well with psychology in it. Candace has been involved in many projects and these are just a few of them that impacted residents and external users. She solved some security issues noted on the Manilo Museum website by building and moving its content to a more secure platform and also training the staff on the new system. She worked with Lou Gardens leadership on the complete redesign of the Lou Gardens website. This also included meeting with members of the public to understand how they would interact with the website um how they interacted with other websites and how they would use it as well. and she redesigned the whole look um and all of the different pages to really optimize the user's experience with that site. She helped to automate the process when users provide feedback on the city's.gov site. Um users are able to provide some recommendations. And so she automated the process where if you actually implement something that somebody recommended, it provides feedback to them and lets them know that hey, their recommendation was heard and um implemented. She also improved the DDB website by adding Spanish translation to the site and also updated the DTO live content. But finally, Candace had a critical role in developing the Pulse Memorial website as well as the Engage Orlando platform. This was a project Candace said that was really something she was really proud of and it was important to her to make sure there was opportunity for public input and that information was available to the public regarding the Pulse Memorial. Candace was also involved in several projects that helped city employees perform their jobs more efficiently. She developed a process to automate it automate the preparation of 18A permit agenda items which was previously done manually. Um, so there's significant staff save uh savings to that. And then she also developed a process at FPR for the starting and ending safety checklist that staff complete when they check out vehicles. Um, that was previously on paper and now streamlined. Someone actually reached out to me when they found out that Candace was a winner. So it was unsolicited feedback on the help she's provided, saying Candace's standard is to exceed expectations. She always responds immediately, takes ownership of every request for assistance, and follows through. Candace really is a superstar. Candace is joined today by her wife, Sage, and her sister, Samantha. And her parents may be watching online as well. Um, thank you, Candace, for your dedication, hard work, and solutions you bring to the city. And I'm so happy to recognize you as one of the 2024 McNamera employees of the year. And also want to wish Candace a happy birthday today [Applause] too. Come on guys. Come on but Tony. I would tell people [Applause] Well, good afternoon, mayor, commissioners, and guests. I'm going to invite Mael to come on up. She does not get to sit down for this one. [Applause] It's my pleasure to introduce Mika Petion, our 2024 Magnamera Award winner. She joined the city planning division in 2007, uh, providing design services in our community planning studio. She was promoted several times and is now the planning manager for our comprehensive planning studio. Now, she's been an exceptional employee for 17 years. So, what made 2024 so special for Mika? So, she saw a lot of her long-term goals be reached this year. Here at city hall, she has been hard at work updating the city's wetlands regulations and is in fact making a presentation to the planning board tomorrow. Uh, she has been working on this since 2022. She took it upon herself to become an expert in the topic, learning about state, local, county regulations, meeting regularly with our wetlands manager, and writing many, many, many drafts of the regulations based on all those comments that she received. Mael is also keeping an eye out for future planners. She coordinates our internship program and is often the very first person our candidates meet. She's creative in coming up with topics for them to work on and endlessly patient in teaching them things like how to measure the floor area ratio, our favorite. Mail recognizes that her job does not end when she walks out of city hall. She is a certified AICP planner, which means that she spends a good part of her career uh being part of a community of professionals who seek to promote good planning principles in many different types of settings. This year, she's serving on the executive board of the National Forum for Black Public Administrators. Through this organization, she helps develop leadership skills for professionals in her field with the goal of increasing diversity in local governments across Florida. For Black History Month in February of this of 2024, she and a colleague partnered with two local pastors to create a webinar for the Florida chapter of the American Planning Association. The webinar is called Beyond a Sunday, the role of the black church in planning communities. and they highlighted the important contribution that black churches have made in promoting affordable housing and community development. It's gotten over 800 views on YouTube, which is practically blockbuster status for a planning video. Mael can also add not one but two master's degrees to her 2024 accomplishments. So, while she's doing all this professionally, she's also studying for her final exams. She spent several years as a part-time grad student and this year she graduated with a dual degree from UCF with a master's in both public administration and nonprofit management. She's now both a UCF Knight and a Miami Hurricane, which is a formidable combination. And while you can't get a Mcamera award for being a parent, she's certainly a role model to her four children who are here today. So um so some people might ask how does she do so much and I think a big part of it is a support from her family including her husband and her mother who are also here today. She also knows the importance of taking a break and having a good time as I saw in her pictures from her trip to Morocco last fall. Mika is someone who lives life to the fullest and looks for opportunities to contribute to her community, but sometime somehow always has time for a joke with colleagues or to ask an intern to tag along to a meeting. During her career, Mika has made so many meaningful connections with our community. Whether she's meeting with a developer trying to get a million-dollar project approved or a homeowner trying to set up a sewer connection, she treats them all with care and kindness. She's such a great ambassador for planning as a profession and for our city beautiful. Thank you, Mael, for all the talent and energy you bring to the city planning division. I'm so proud of you. Congratulations. [Applause] [Applause] Thank you. Victor No bunny ears or anything. Okay, I'll be good. Okay, just this one time. Uh good afternoon, mayor and commissioners and um uh all of uh our guests here today. And uh uh mayor, I uh am not biased. I do agree with you that you have the best employees here in uh uh the country uh at the city and uh none better than the department of housing community development over there. had to get that in. Okay. Good afternoon. Uh the city of Orlando Housing Community Development Department administers local, state, and federal funds designated for uh housing and community development. Uh in his role as grants and count contracts accountant, Victor Deis is responsible for providing accurate financial accounting of grant funded programs and project activities, expenditures and budgets and ensuring compliance with federal, state andor private agencies award specifications and reporting requirements. In addition to his daily workload, Victor has volunteered to train and provide ongoing technical assistance to our subreients on policies and procedures in order to ensure they meet state and federal grant requirements and deadlines. It cannot be stressed enough how important it is for subreients to follow the complex rules and regulations of these grant programs. An error could result in a decrease in funding or repayment of funds. And we never have that. Just in case you didn't know, we've never never had that happen. Uh Victor is one of the reasons we are so successful in administering our programs because of his willingness to provide so much technical assistance to our partners and ongoing dedicated support to helping them build capacity. thus allowing us to take on bigger projects with more impact on the community. This sets Orlando apart from other municipalities and makes us one of the better performing entitlement cities in state. Victor doesn't just assist our HUD grant subreients. He volunteered to train the property management team for one of our newer affordable housing communities. Victor trained the entire management team on how to incomequalify tenants and manage a rentrestricted project. Training like this ensures its ongoing success. Victor has also been managing more than two million for the rapid unsheltered survivor housing grant known as Rush funding uh that the city of Orlando received under the emergency solutions grant uh program from HUD to address the needs of individuals and families experiencing homelessness or at risk of becoming homeless. At the time we were notified of the first allocation, our department was already working at full capacity administering and managing COVID and ARP funds in addition to our regular entitlement grants. Had Victor not volunteered to take on Rush ESG, we would have had to pay to contract out or hire additional staff to have the capacity to manage this essential grant addressing homelessness. Due to our success in expending the funds from that first allocation and having demonstrated the clear benefits of the program and continued need in our community for this type of assistance, the city received two additional allocations of Rush funds. The city has partnered with the Christian Service Center on this program, which has helped more than 200 families to date find homes through family reunification, movein assistance, temporary housing, and help with rent and bills. So, through teamwork and partnerships, the city of Orlando is working on solutions to end homelessness and continues to work to create and preserve affordable housing. An instrumental part of the team are employees like Victor who genuinely cares about the people in our city. The work that Victor does every day and the work he volunteers for above and beyond his normal responsibilities. This goes towards improving our community and the lives of our residents. We're grateful for his passion and dedication to helping others and we're so excited to see him recognized here today. [Applause] [Applause] I don't think those are my Hi, good afternoon Renard. Please join me as everyone else has. Renard Mitchell. Congratulations. Good afternoon, Mayor Dyer, commissioners, staff, and guests. We are so excited to be here today honoring one of the city's best. I'm Tanya Tanya Wilder, director of transportation for the city of Orlando. It is my sincere honor to represent the entire transportation team and recognize our very own Renard Mitchell. He is joined today by his beautiful family. And if you've ever had the pleasure of working with Renard, then you'll know exactly why we are here. With over with over 20 years at the city, most of you probably have Renard on speed dial. He is our own Clark Kent. mildmannered on the surface, a smile always on his face, but ready, always ready to leap into action when duty calls, no matter what the challenge. As our traffic saf safety supervisor, Bernard plays a critical role in keeping our streets safe. from emergency response to special event traffic operations, day-to-day maintenance needs, and if there's something that you need done but not sure who who to call, well, there always is Renard. There are moments we have all had them when you need to quickly make a call and need to know that you don't have to ask twice for action to be taken and the job to be done right. I'm talking about times of crisis or when you're in a pinch. For instance, a hurricane has come through our city beautiful and you have a four-way stop without lights and no one to to direct traffic and barricades that need to be put into place. Sound like a job for four people? Nope. Call Renard. Ever have a nationally televised Olympic trial sporting event with millions of eyes watching and need traffic to change direction? Call Renard. Have a full portaotti left behind in a residential area by a contractor for a year with people pointing fingers of who needs to handle it. Call Renard. during the city's Fourth of July fireworks celebration when tens of thousands of visitors are pouring into downtown and you need someone to safely move people in the right direction with calm leadership. Call Renard. His answer when you call Renard, I got you. Renard is on the heartstrings of things that allow our city to run smoothly every day. and he does it quietly, humbly and collaboratively. Renard is always in the right place at the right time. Superman, I wasn't lying. Cool under pressure and seemingly everywhere at once. Renard works seamlessly with others in and out of the city. His presence and quick decision-making make a complex situation look effortless. When a large storm has passed, but the impacts are still being felt all over our city, or a major intersection at one of our busiest tourism areas has lost power and traffic lights are down, or someone needs to bring a team and a plan together for an event, or when you just need a smile for the day, Renard jumps into action. No cape, just a safety vest. That's who Renard is. always there, always ready, always serving. Renard makes you feel like you're not adding to his already full plate. He makes you feel like when you get him on the phone to ask for assistance, there's no need to make any other calls. With Renard, consider the job done. That portaotty it went on the back of Renard's truck and was hauled away to be taken care of. In addition to that huge smile and deep understanding and commitment to safety on our roadways, what makes Renard truly special is how much people really enjoy working with him. If the pressure is high and there can be a slim margin of error, we call Renard. Cool as a cucumber, Renard works across departments and agencies to coordinate traffic control plans, signage, and pedestrians flow. On the ground, he is a steady presence, making real-time adjustments, answering many, many calls, and ensuring both safety and accessibility are never, ever compromised. The community knows Renard. Everyone knows Renard. In fact, our team affectionately refers to Renard as our mayor of transportation. Known for his positive approach to problem solving, his responsiveness to community needs, and his ability to build strong, trusting relationships with everyone he encounters, not unlike our own mayor of Orlando. Mayor is an Orlando native for over 50 years. He has deep rooted connection to the community that drives his dedication and pride. As evidenced in my commitment and illustrated in his action, his this award is a testament to Renard's exceptional contributions and his embodiment of the city's core values. We are lucky to have him on our team and beyond thrilled to celebrate his well-earned recognition with the McNamera Award. Renard, you are the standard of what public service should look like. Dependable, trustworthy, community-minded. That's Renard Mitchell, folks. Congratulations. [Applause] Thank Amen. Yay! [Applause] Keep on going. [Applause] I hope you got it. [Applause] the very welldeserving recipients of the McMary awards. Congratulations to all and you are not required to stay for the rest of the meeting. Let's go back to work. Okay, we have I'll give you a quick little mayor's update. Uh just want to call out a few items that are on the agenda. Items B1 and 14 and B 15 um relate to uh expenditures of tourist development tax that we've come to an agreement with Orange County. The first is related to the additional improvements to Camping World Stadium which includes construction of a multi-purpose event center. There's also an agreement on today's agenda with Florida Citrus Sports for donation of the land that the event center will be built on. And then lastly, related to the TDT, we're looking to approve interim financing of 60 million a year over the next three years for improvements at the KIA center until we are able to bond the 226 million that the TDT will be um funding. B9 is an award to Prime Construction Group which will allow the first phase of the Lake Natasala and Harelson Estates improvement pro project, something that has been long awaited. Um, we have a contract that advances the canopy. Something that seems like we've been talking about for 10 years. And the last item, well, I have two more items that I'd like to mention is contract to design the new Press Park in South East Orlando, a nice 14 acre park. And then um we have uh DTO restaurant and retail sales incentive agreements with Buffalo Boss Acropolis Greek Tavern and the Wig Factory. And that's all I have today. We'll move on to the consent agenda, which is a number items acted upon through a single vote of council. We give each of our commissioners the opportunity to speak on items on the consent agenda and update you on important happenings from their districts. we rotate the order that we do that. And first up today is Commissioner Thredd. Thank you, Mayor. And I wanted to uh mention probably eight to 10 events I attended. I'll try to be quick, but I want to give folks the the accolades they deserve for for these organizations. So, first of all, thanks or congratulations to our Magnamore McNamera Award winners. It's we're very proud of our employees. So, congrats to all of them and their support families. Uh on April 25th, I attended the afterchool allstars golf tournament. Just want to say shout out to those folks. They do a great job every year and uh a good time was had by all as we raised money to support the afterchool allstars. Uh then on the 27th of April happened to be another golf tournament I participated in which was a driving impact and that was a uh benefit of Lyft Orlando which also does a lot for our community. So congrats to them and glad to participate. On the 29th of April, I was at Lauria Park Elementary for a uh bike and pedestrian safety uh event that was sponsored by the Florida Department of Transportation along with our city transportation folks. Uh a great event to teach the kids bike and pedestrian safety. So, I was glad to be part of that. On May 1, uh attended the law enforcement memorial service at the county courthouse. Uh congrats to Chief Smith and our entire OPD team for uh they really showed well and represented us well. So Chief, thanks for for that. Um on the 7th attended the Golden Brick Awards. You know, we talked this morning at the workshop. We've got some challenges downtown that we're going to deal with, but we've also got a lot of really good things going on downtown and the Golden Brick Awards uh kind of represented that and a lot of the great things going on. So congrats to all the winners at the Golden Brick Awards. Uh on the 8th of May, I attended the visit Orlando lunchon and among other things, uh visit Orlando announced that um our 2024 uh visitation was 75.3 million visitors to Orlando, which almost gets us back to co precoid levels. So, congrats to that group and to all of us for uh continuing to embrace our visitors and getting them to come back to Orlando. So, uh, 75.3 million quite quite a few visitors to our to our city. On the 13th, um, I went with the folks from OEP, Orlando Economic Partnership, did an advocacy trip to Washington DC. Among other things, one of the things we were there for is advocating with our uh, congressional leaders uh, funding to help us get Sunrail to the airport. Just want to let you know everybody public and private together are working hard to get Sunrail to the airport. Also to get Sunrail out to the tourist and convention corridor and eventually Bright Line will participate in that and ultimately uh hopefully get us down to Tampa with the with the Bright Line train. So that's in progress. Be patient. Nobody wants it to happen quicker than than us here, but we will get that done. So congrats to to OEP for organizing that. And then this Saturday, this past Saturday, uh we entertained a lot of children. Uh Commissioner Stewart and I were there. We u we had the Lion King performance. Thanks to the folks at Dr. Phillips Center for organizing that, but we brought kids from throughout the city who may haven't been exposed to uh the fine arts and and and uh the Dr. Phillips Center down for a chance to have a lunch and a performance at the Lion King. So that was a great event. So thanks to the staff at Dr. Phillips. And then this Friday coming up um at six o'clock at the Greenwood Cemetery, we're going to kick off the Memorial Day weekend. Uh it's a free event. Everyone's invited. Uh but I just want to ask everybody to kind of reflect on the importance of this coming weekend with Memorial Day. Um a lot of noise in the world right now, but I think if you stop and reflect, we are very very lucky for those who have given their lives for our country so that we have choices and freedoms to make. So, uh, please, um, just think about what what the significance of Memorial Day is. I would encourage you to do that. Um, two things on the agenda. Uh, the mayor mentioned, one, 3B10, which is the design build for Pris Park. Um, thanks to all the staff for continuing to support, uh, the southeast part of town as we we build recreation. We've got a lot of new homes and new businesses and we need to have places for folks to recreate. So, this will be the uh third of five parks we're building in the southeast. So, excited to get that started and that should be delivered plus or minus another year from now. Uh and then finally 3B11. The mayor mentioned that, but that is the um the beginning of uh additional services in in by Florida Citrus Sports to uh eventually do a sports complex. But if you did not get a chance to read um the article in Orlando Sentinel yesterday celebrate uh describing the celebration of Florida Citrus Sports 80th anniversary and it puts in perspective all the things that organization has done for our community. And so I think I saw Steve Hogan running around. Stephen, he's got a jacket on so we ought to at least applaud for him. Steve, thanks for all your leadership with Florida Citrus Sports. Yeah. Um it's it's a great organization and yes it's about sports but it also the real core of that organization is to help that community. So Commissioner Rose didn't mean to steal your thunder but um there that's a great organization. I'm just proud to support that. That's all I've got. Mayor, thank you. Thank you. Thank you Commissioner Commissioner Ortiz. Thank you mayor. Uh once again, Steve, congratulations. Great partner and great events going on at Florida Cedar Sports. Uh, congratulations to the Magnimar Awards recipients also. Great job. Great people. Uh, Florida. From the 22nd to the 24th, I traveled to Tallahassee once again to engage with proposed legislations advocating for bills that have a direct impact on our communities. My focus was to support initiative that positively influence the lives of residents and enhance the well-being and prosperity of our neighborhoods. Uh on April 24th, our second neighborhood leaders meeting was held at the Anglewood Neighborhood Center. Among the many topics discussed, Mr. Kate Broad, the transportation planning uh division manager, led an insightful conversation about ongoing transportation initiatives and projects aimed at improving residents commutes by providing reliable transportation options in the siman corridor. Uh other key topics included homelessness sustainability recycling and various concerns raised by neighborhood leaders. On morning April 30th, I attended and presented at the Sunshine Ladies Gathering at Ventura Country Club where community members came together for their weekly meeting. The morning included updates, announcements, and discussions about our upcoming events. The meeting concluded with my presentation and an engaging Q&A session during which I had the opportunity to share and connect with our community. Uh on the evening of May 3rd, I had the pleasure to attending the Gateway District Jazz Festival. And for those of you that have not attended one of these festivals, you're missing out because it's a great festival. Great uh bands come over. Is an evening of pleasure, relaxation, and good gathering of the community. So um the um the event showcased incredible local talents and brought people together through the timeless rhythm and soul of jazz. For those of you that are jazz lovers, on the evening of May 8th, um I had the opportunity to attend the UCF C community English program graduation celebration hosted by UCF Global, which are doing a great job in our community, especially teaching English to those who are have uh uh English as a second language challenge. This event honor the hard work and dedication of graduates who completed free English courses offered to local residents striving to improve their language skills. We're incredibly proud of these graduates and all they have accomplished. A lot of people have come to this country, doctors, attorneys, and they don't speak the language and they have to take on jobs that are not necessarily representing what they have studied for and worked in the past. And one day, once they learn English, they get a chance, a second chance in their lives. So that's that's a great opportunity. I attended another on the same date, I attended another meaningful graduation ceremony, this time at the Anglewood Center for the Youth Employment Program. These events highlight opportunities for students to access education, vocational training, and job placement. The program includes a four-week four-week job readiness course covering uh workplace skills, financial literacy, and employment preparation. Graduates also receive continued one-on-one support from youth employment coordinators to help them succeed in their workforce. And last but not least, uh, on the morning of May 17, we had the Anglewood Center Glide and Slide event, a summer community celebration designed to bring people together in a welcoming and inclusive environment. The event invited participants of all ages to enjoy their favorite forms of wheel transportation, including bicycles, scooters, rollerblades, and skateboards within a safe and supportive space dedicated to community engagement and recreation. We are finalizing our government academy in English. Uh we have I believe one more session and after that we're going to have a graduation. The government academy now is um is part of the continued education of UCF. So when you graduate you get two credits from UCF. So those of you that are interested uh is once a year in English and once a year in Spanish. The Spanish course will start in August. That's all I have. Mayor, thank you. Commissioner Commissioner Stewart. Thank you, Mayor. And um let me say a couple things. I've got a I want to make a statement if you'll allow me the privilege to do that. I don't do that very often, but I would like to do that. First of all, congratulations to our Macimator winners, uh Candace and Mielle and Victor and Renard. We have we have the great greatest staff. I get a chance to brag on them all over the state with with our city um Florida League of Cities and we do have the best staff and they have recognized that as well. So, I appreciate that. Thank you very much, Mayor. Um, let me also uh continue kind of a little bit about the Florida uh citrus sports. So, Steve, I'm going to take a little bit of your thunder. Uh, we're celebrating our 80th year uh this year. Um the the Florida Fisher Sports started years ago as a Tangerine Bull and it started 1946 and one of those guys that helped start that was my father and I've been honored to to kind of connect with that. Had a celebration of the membership this past week uh weekend and uh we had the honor of uh of recognizing my brother George Stewart Jr. with the Arnold with the Howard Palmer award which is the highest volunteer award that's given by the at Florida sports and it's a it was a real um really sweet time and I appreciate Steve your leadership and recognizing my brother and the work that he's done as a past president and all the rest of the stuff that he's done on behalf of the uh partner sports. Um you left off the fact that I used to run the basketball tournament but that's okay. Uh, I'll get you back on that one. Uh, but but it has been an incredible uh impact on our community and it started off not as a football game, but started off as a game to do something else. And so we've continued that for the last 80 years. I'm so honored for that. On a side note, my brother claims that he's the only one who's ever attended every game. And uh he claims that my mother took him as an 11-month-old and we have continued that tradition. He's continued tradition for for 80 years. are for 79 years. Let me also say uh the last couple things have happened in the last couple weeks. I'll mention it to you. Thank you for mentioning the Golf Classic. Um Jim, I appreciate that. And Jim forgot to mention that he is his team won. Um which means he's not doing much commissioning. He's doing mostly playing golf. Um Ivanovich had Earth Day. We raised almost we picked up almost 1,000 pounds worth of uh trash over in the area. Uh appreciate all the work that went into that. So thank you all very much. I had the opportunity of being over at the Spiral Circle bookstore this past weekend to celebrate their 50th anniversary. Um really really Julie Wiler is just a really neat lady and took over for a really neat lady Beverly Ford. That's really kind of fun uh to be over there. Um, uh, Fringe kicked off, uh, and, uh, Patty will tell a little bit about that, but, uh, the same night it kicked off, uh, Advent Health announced a, uh, new multi- almost almost a billion dollar project that they're going to be doing, a new surgical wing, a 14story surgical wing over on their property. Um, that will be started probably within the course of about the next eight or nine months, and then, um, it will go up pretty quickly. So, we're excited about that addition to the health area in Advent. Um, tomorrow is the Ivanho um Village State of the Village uh over at the uh Harriet's Orlando Ballet Center. On the agenda, mayor, um obviously I'm in support of the Florida Sister Sports. I think it's a great move for us. Um in addition to that, um I'll be not voting on items 3C4. I mentioned it earlier. This is a zoning 2025 one 1000 0 and NPL 22510004 and 006 as I have a conflict of interest. So now if you allow me let me just take I'm going to take some time and so guys just I get to write my own eulogy every now and then. So I'm going to have you guys listen to it. For the past 20 years, it's been my honor of my professional life to serve in the amazing people of Orlando. From Bowwin Park to Rosemont and to most neighborhoods in between, I've had the fortune expressing of representing many of our historic and unique neighborhoods that make up District 3. Words cannot express how proud and grateful I am for the opportunity to work with everyone um especially our staff uh over this this past incredible journey. Since I took office in 2020, I'm sorry, in 2006, our hometown has seen many changes. We built Sun Rail. We'll use my glasses so I can read my stuff. Um, built a renovated three worldclass venues, invested in our parks, downtowns roads infrastructure services, and more. We have stood by and supported the amazing men and women of our fire and police departments, improved every aspect of our public safety apparatus, and made Orlando decidedly safer place to live, work, and raise a family. Together, we have steered our city to a new path and set it on a course that is the envy of many of our peers around the country and the world. In this role, I've had the privilege of working with some of the city's most dynamic and visionary leaders, living history amid the truly transformation transformative era. Under Mayor Dyer's leadership, and alongside 10 devoted city council members over the years, we have guided Orlando through one of the most successful growth periods. We have weathered the great recession, the tragedy of pulse, and the COVID crisis, showing our community's resilience unity and strength. Steady, collaborative, service focused, and visionary leadership is what makes our community thrive. I'm so proud to have played a role in this collective success alongside these colleagues who've all become my friends. In 2005, I decided to run for Orlando City Council because I saw so much hidden talent and potential in District 3, waiting to be unleashed. With the launch of our main street program, we got to see and experience this potential firsthand. Our family of communities is home to three of our family communities home to three of the original main streets and are constantly growing and thriving, earning national recognitions for our innovative approach to developing and evolving these unique business districts. In recent years, we've made major improvements to Dartmouth Park, the gym of a city of College Park, where both I and my children once played, and updated playground equipment that my grandchildren got to enjoy. When I first took office, Bowwin Park was still a vision and a lot of vacant dirt. It is now a thriving community with its own unique culture and full of amazing people and families. We expanded our outreach in the Rosemont Neighborhood Center by finally uh by adding the long- awaited state-of-the-art gymnasium, now filled each week with children and adults alike. We secured the Jwid Park from the US Navy and created one of the city's newest and coolest places. We repurposed the old Chamber of Commerce building on Lake Ivanho to build a state-of-the-art Holocaust Center that will soon be a beacon for generations. We found a new home for the Orlando Ballet on the shores of Lake Formosa. We created Grove Park and a brand new packing district and built a brand new Orlando tennis center there as well. We've worked with great partners like the Tap Room at Dubstread, Russell's on Lake Ivanho to produce new and updated leases for these historic city assets. There are so many other smaller projects like these that are just as important, but they all help us build a stronger sense of community in our city. As I think about the things we have accomplished together, I can't help but remember those who have inspired me along the way. First, there's my wife and family who have always been by my side through every season of life. Then there are my parents who taught me the importance of expressing my deep faith by serving others. My friends who have blessed me with so much support and advice. To my dedicated staff who joined me on this journey and the thousands of city professionals who have listened to, worked with, and simply just put up with me. I cannot thank you enough. You've inspired me to serve, educate, lead, follow, and create a positive and supportive environment that will guide us into the next decade and be and beyond. Looking ahead to my next chapter in life, I decided to step away from elected official and focus on serving our community in different ways. But don't worry, my involvement in Orlando won't end here. In the coming months, we'll be finishing up the renovated lakefront at Lake uh Lake Fairview Park, the new driving facility at historic Dubster Golf Course, and renovating both Albert and Dartmouth parks. This is just the beginning. Throughout my life, I've always been passionate about getting involved and I've encouraged my friends and neighbors to do the same. And it's in that same spirit I'm renewing that challenge to asking each of you to emra embrace the responsibility of citizenship that comes with active participation. It means being open to different perspectives even when they challenge your own. Seeking balance between opposing views and respecting the right of others to have different opinions will be among our greatest challenges. but also will make our community truly great. Together, we create a wonderful future for the city beautiful. At almost every meeting that you've heard me say, I'm grateful that you, our neighbors, have placed your trust in me. I appreciate it and I don't take it lightly. Again, I share these same thoughts with you. Thank you for allowing me to serve my city. Thank you, Mayor. That's all I have for this meeting. Thank you, Commissioner Stewart, and thank you for your service. And I know we'll have appropriate times to thank you more formally at a some retirement party of some sort, probably involving Irish Whiskey. Irish Whiskey. Commissioner Sheen. Uh, thank you, Mayor and Commissioner Stewart. That's a hard act to follow, but I'll try. Um, I too want to thank the Magnamar Awards. Absolutely great, great choices, wonderful people that I've gotten chance to work with and just great choices, y'all. They were they were they're absolutely great folks and it's great to recognize their work. Um, I want to congratulate my friend Jared Dylan on winning the uh the uh Downtowner of the Year. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend. I lost my little dog and I'm kind of having a hard time. and anybody who's a single person who has a dog, she was the best little dog and I had her for 12 years and I was just having a tough time. So, I wasn't able to to attend that. Um, but I just want to thank Jared for everything he's done and that was very very very welld deserved as well as all of the other winners of the um of of the awards at the Orlando Economic Partnership, the Golden Brick Awards. That's just a wonderful event that we have every year. Um, the Florida International Fringe Festival is going on through Memorial Day right now at Lock Haven Park. If you have not gone, you need to go. It's one of the best things that happens in the city. Buy a button for $10. You can buy you can you can see shows. You can see people from anywhere from Japan to from Canada. All acts from all over all over America. It's just a wonderful thing. There's something for everyone from standup comedy to to d to uh Shakespeare to drama to something that's just they even have a kids fringe. So there's something for everyone. So, I really I can't say enough nice things about the Orlando, you know, International Fringe Festival. Do make sure you go check it out because it's a it's just a great event over there at Lock Haven. Um, on the agenda today, um, I will be serving on the canvasing board, so don't ask me to endorse you. Uh, I will be remaining neutral on that. Um, we finally have the phase two of the Oregon Street Drainage Project from Fern Creek to Shine. That's on the agenda today. And we will be replacing the bricks. Yay. Thank you, Corey. Um item 3B18 15 lighty years the carpenter shop solar on West Morland. I love the fact to see that we're putting more and more solar energy on our um on our buildings. Solar energy is great. It works. I'm a total proponent of solar energy. I have solar panels on my house. I drive an electric car. I believe in renewable energy and I believe in climate change and I'm glad to see that we're continuing to do uh these kinds of projects. And uh also on item 3 C13, glad to see the Florida Division of Historical Resources grant uh to inform residents of the historic preservation rules. I think that's just an excellent program. That's all I had. Mayor, thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Commissioner Rose. Good afternoon, everyone. Um I share the sentiment. Congrats to the 2024 Dennis McMair employee of the year recipients. Um work many of the employees that received the award today. Um, I want to recognize that we are celebrating AAPI, the Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, as well as Haitian um, Heritage Month. Um, congrats to all of the Golden Brick Award winners. Um, this is a testament to the great things that are happening in and around downtown Orlando as well as Pyramore. Uh, Commissioner Gray, it's okay to recognize Steve. Uh, I shared the sentiments with you as well as everyone on this board. Um, and I congratulate Florida Citrus Sports on 80 years. But I want to say this, it's not just about the events um that Florida Citrus puts sports puts on. It's about the commitment to this community um the redevelopment for the entire Westlakes community. Um Steve is a phone call away if you need anything um from the community. And so I want to send a thank a special thank you to Steve. Um since I've been elected, you've been a pleasure to work with um going through some of the initiatives uh to enhance the community as well as to serve the community a little bit better. and I'm looking forward to a lot of the great um programs programming coming out of camping world and hopefully still getting the Jaguars here. Um it's been a very busy month in District 5 since our last meeting. Um we've celebrated teachers. As you know, the school year is ending this week. Um uh celebrating some of the student accomplishments, both grades and graduations. Um I was fortunate enough that I was able to get a couple of the Jones High School graduates computers and laptops to go off to college. um finished up Earth Month last month with several cleanups, Majestic Life, uh and then we did a cohesive Main Street. So, I've been very committed to our district 5 main street. So, there are three in district 5, city district, Paramore, and Westlake. So, if any of you are in the district 5 corridor and boundaries, including a little bit of uh Commissioner Sheen in district 4, I encourage the businesses to join um one of the main streets as they are looking to elevate the work uh in the the businesses in the downtown community. Um the cleanup was with the three main streets, so City District, Paramore, Westlakes, myself. We collaboratively did a partnership with Orlando City Soccer. Um that we gave out tickets to those that volunteered. uh Publix was a part of it, Gringo Locos, and I want to thank Turner for being a great partner. They came out as well. Um the past week, um the seniors are doing the senior checkout, so I was able to go to Evans High School. We registered students to vote. They are our future. Making sure that they know their rights and their active and civic engagement is important. Um I want to thank all of the volunteers and the organizations who come out every month to my monthly food distribution. It continues to be a success as an opportunity to serve the needs of the residents in the district. Uh thank you to the National Entrepreneur Center. Um Belinda and um some regions foundation uh funds were able to we were able to do a partnership where we did a free QuickBooks training. Uh for those that don't know, QuickBooks is really important if you're a small business making sure that your finances are in order. Coming up this Saturday, I will be hosting a free wills and proate training at the Jackson Center uh with in the partnership with Bats Lake View Funeral Home. Next Saturday is going to be a very busy day in the district. Um we will be having a free Next Saturday, May 31st, we'll be having a free veterans health fair at the Jackson Center from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. And then at 400 pm, bring your skates and meet me at Lake Lana for roller rodeo. for all activities, events taking place in and around District 5. Please follow us on District 5 uh on both Instagram and Facebook. And I would recommend joining to be a volunteer. Um now on to the agenda. Uh excited for 35 for the USD composting and food waste reduction cooperative agreement pilot program. I'm thankful for my cast and the sustainability team for exploring opportunities for energy efficiency and getting to zero waste by 2040. Um 3B9 as mayor mentioned with Harle Estates improvement has been a long awaited project um for the Harles Estates community. Um this includes various storm water sanitary gravity sewer sanitary force main assult reconstruction. Uh portions of this project will include curves and gutters, new sidewalks, um speed bumps to um control um some of the traffic, driveway reconstructing, and then retaining the walls. As part of my commitment to the 150 years celebration, we will be installing a mural along the wall in Harleen Estates. It's our opportunity for full wraparound services. We will also be working on re um redoing the neighborhood association so we can really engage with the residents and that community so that they have a voice here in the city hall. I'm happy to continue to approve the rankings and the different contractors and parts and pieces of getting the Kia Center and Camping World Stadium off the ground. This is an opportunity for us to continue to thrive in entertainment here in the downtown Orlando area. Um, as far there's a couple of CRA items that I'm glad to support the new businesses that are coming into downtown. This is our commitment to diversifying downtown to be a place for retail options. Both restaurants have locations in district 5 and I'm super grateful. I'm also super grateful to support the wig factory that's come retail store that is coming into the paramount community. And that's all I have. Mayor, thank you, Commissioner Commissioner Burns. All right. Thank you, Mayor. Um, also I'd like to say congratulations to the recipients of the Dennis McNair employee of the year. Uh, just like to say thank you for all that they do to make our city a great city. Uh, also congratulations to Steve and uh, Florida City Sports on 80year uh, anniversary. Then, Commissioner Stewart, um, I just like to say thank you for your service as a commissioner, but even before that, as a leader of a nonprofit organization serving people experiencing homelessness, and I've always looked to you, uh, as an example and some guidance and some things to do and some things not to do. Um, but I just like to say thank you for your service on this council, uh, but in our community as well. Uh, looking forward to, you know, your next chapter and hopefully, uh, that'll be an example for me as well. So, thank you, uh, Commissioner. Also, mayor, prior to the council meeting today, I had the pleasure of issuing a proclamation to honor Adelene, uh, Addie Mueller. Uh, and, uh, Addie is a current student at, uh, University of Florida. And she, uh, Addie is passionate community advocate who has been engaged in helping the less fortunate since she was 10 years old. Uh she has organized and recruited volunteers for my district 6 back to school giveaway. And since the founding of her nonprofit operation shared shoes in 2017, Addie has collected and donated over 25,000 pairs of shoes, new shoes to our our community for people in need. So she's now at University of Florida, but we just wanted to recognize and say thank you for all that she has uh done for our our community. Also this month, uh May 5th, I attended the Dr. Phillips High School 38th annual academic awards where I awarded three stellar students $1,000 scholarships. Also, uh May 7th attended the Jones High School's third annual Dr. Christy Hardy's senior award ceremony where I again awarded three uh stellar students uh $1,000 scholarships. Also, uh May 5th, um well, dur throughout May, we had the chance of uh celebrating Mother's Day at um in Carver Shores at Parky Park, as well as I sponsored a uh Mother's Day celebration at El Claudia Allen Senior Center where we had food, dancing, and and live entertainment. Also, happy Haitian Heritage Month. Over the weekend, I had celebrated Haitian Flag Day at Bona Patique and delivered a proclamation on behalf of the city of Orlando to the Haitian-American Chamber of Commerce. It was a great event. A lot of good food, a lot of sharing of of culture. Uh so again, um happy Haitian Heritage Month. Also May 19th, I sponsored 21 students from uh Carver Middle School to see the Lion King at Dpack. And I understand they had a great time. Uh just some upcoming events. Um on Wednesday, May 28th from 10:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. I will be holding my satellite office hours at the Elcla Allen uh senior center. Again, this is a time for uh individuals to come meet with their commissioner outside of um outside of city hall. It's a little easier to get to the Claudia Allen Center. So, please reach out to my office if you would like to make an appointment. Uh, also we've began planning and raising money for the fifth annual for the children's celebrity golf tournament. Uh, this year will be held at at Shingle Creek Golf Club August 22nd. And the proceeds again from this golf tournament goes to support uh our student scholarships. Uh, right now we've uh awarded four scholarships uh in addition to those ones I just mentioned and we'll be awarding another 10 over this summer. on the agenda. Um item 3A3. I also will have the pleasure of serving on the canvasing board along with uh Commissioner Sheihan. So I look forward uh to exercising those duties. Also items 3B11, 3B14, and 3B15. These are agreements and resolutions that will allow us to continue to move for forward with the improvements for Camping Royal Stadium uh and the Kia Center. And these again which are made possible through the tourist development tax. So uh excited to support that and see those move forward. Also items 3C14 the targeted redevelop uh revitalization site redevelopment pilot program. Uh this item renews the targeted revitalization program for Fashion Square and adds North International Drive uh to that pilot program. uh over the period of last three years I've been able to engage our North ID drive uh stakeholders uh listening to their ideas their concerns uh that they have and I believe that this pilot program has the potential to breathe new life into this vital tourism and commercial sector corridor and uh have a few members of uh my stakeholder kind of my my lead team out there. I'd like to say thank you to Lanne Brooks, executive director of the I drive business uh improvement district. Also with us today is Maria Tres Trescari, uh CEO of the International Drive uh Chamber of Commerce. And then uh also my friend Alejandro Pazini, CEO of the AM group. uh and just like to say thank you for engaging in this process, providing guidance and wisdom as we move forward to uh ensuring that North I drive looks as good as as South Drive. And my vision for the corridor is uh one eye drive, a cohesive north and south eye drive. At the heart of this first initiative being presented to the council today is an incentive package targeting the city's international drive focus area designed to attract high quality development uh and redevelopment while significantly increasing the taxable value of the area. These proposed changes signal a pivotal shift for the North International Drive corridor by aligning aligning economic development with community needs. I hope to help foster an environment that is not only economically vibrant but also capable of accommodating our large hospitality workforce. Again, with Epic Universe coming in a few days, we can expect to see an increase in both visitors and employees in this area. So, uh again, I'm excited about that. Also, I just like to thank uh the staff for economic development team for uh working uh with my staff on on this endeavor. uh and specifically Eric, Kim, Jennifer, and Sherry for all the work that you do uh to help us out. And with that, mayor, I move to approve the consent agenda. Motion by Commissioner Burns, second by Commissioner Sheen. All in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries. Okay, let's uh if there's no objection, recess the city council meeting, and we will convene the CRA meeting. I'll take items 4A and 4B. So 4A is the meeting minutes from the CRA March 24th. Motion by Commissioner Rose, second by Commissioner Sheen. All in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries. Okay. The consent agenda passed. So anybody that was here just for the consent agenda items, you are free to go. 4 B is advisory board meeting minutes for March 26th. Motion by Commissioner Sheen, second by Commissioner Rose. All in favor indicate so by saying I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries. All right. 4 C David. All right. Thank you, mayor, and and good afternoon, council members. Uh so C is our advisory committee rankings and authorization uh to contract for a construction manager at risk for the canopy project. So we did release an RFP for a construction manager to start helping us bring the canopy to fruition. The top ranked firm uh was the Whiting Turner Contracting Company. Uh what's before you today is only the the approval of the rankings, ranking them as first and then the subsequent uh companies below them. uh but also for them to start in constructibility review of design documents. We're currently at about 60%. Uh total uh implication financially is $105,000 uh that the CRA will cover. And I'm happy to address any questions. So move motion by Commissioner Stewart, second by Commissioner Sheen. Discussion hearing none. All in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I. I. Those opposed? Motion carries. All right. 4D. Thank you, mayor. So, this is a uh DTO restaurant program funding agreement for Buffalo Boss Orlando LLC. Uh happy to have them joining us at 333 North Orange Avenue. So, that's just south of our uh Orange County Courthouse. They sent a 5-year lease lease for the space. It's about 1,700 ft. They'll be open 7 days a week. Um, this entrepreneur has 14 years of experience and actually has several other locations, some on New York, Wisconsin, as well as Dubai. Uh, so hopefully we'll be able to have them join our downtown Orlando community. Uh, from the program, um, they qualify for a total of $89,257.20. Uh, 50,000 of that is towards the first year's renovate. And I'm happy to address any questions. Motion by Commissioner Rose, second by Commissioner Sheen. Discussion hearing none. All in favor, the motion indicates so by saying I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries. 40. So, E mayor, this is another uh DTO restaurant uh incentive agreement. This one with Turio LLC, uh doing business as Acropolis Greek Taivera, Orlando. So, they're coming out of Tampa. They've signed a 10-year lease for the space at 390 North Orange Avenue. Uh so that's the City National Bank building or it was formerly the Bank of America building. So this is kind of a caddy corner to the Orange County Courthouse. Um um they're bringing uh a number of different Greek and Mediterranean dishes to downtown. Uh they are eligible for a total of $99,300 uh from the CRA funding program and 50,000 of that again is towards renovatement. They're bringing five years of experience and they're coming out of Tampa. Motion by Commissioner Rose, second by Commissioner Sheen. discussion hearing. None. All in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries. And 4F. Thank you, mayor. So, our final item on the CRA, uh, this is a retail program, uh, funding agreement. This one is with the Wig factory uh, LLC. So, uh, they'll hopefully be joining us at 642 West Church Street. So, that's kind of across the street from Inco Stadium. They signed a three-year lease uh for the space and they are eligible for a total amount of funding of in 35,129 and 15 about just a little over 15,000 of that is for the first year's rental assistance. Motion by Commissioner Rose, second by Commissioner Sheen. Discussion hearing none. All in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries. David, any further business to come before the CRA? That is all mayor. Then we will stand as journed as to the CRA. We'll reconvene the city council meeting and we will move to ordinances on first reading number 13A. Madam clerk, ordinance number 2025-18, an ordinance to the city council of the city of Orlando, Florida, amending the city's adopted growth management plan to change the future land use map designation for approximately 0.13 acres of land generally located east of North Summerland Avenue, north of East Washington Street, west of Hill Avenue, and south of East Jefferson Street from office low intensity to neighborhood activity center on the city's official future land use maps providing for amendment of the city's official future land use maps providing for severability correction scrier's error and effective date motion by commissioner she second by commissioner Stewart my son represents turns out the land owner that is seeking this um land use change so I'm going to abstain from this and I have uh filed the appropriate paperwork discussion hear none all in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I those opposed motion carries Ries 13B. Ordinance number 2025-9, an ordinance of the city council of the city of Orlando, Florida, amending the city's adopted growth management plan to designate the property as urban village on the city's official future land use maps. Amending the boundary lines in the text of area policy S.35.7 to include the property providing for amendment of the city's official future land use maps providing for separability, correction of scrimmers error, and infectivity. Move to approve. Motion by Commissioner Grace, second by Commissioner Ortiz. Um, madame clerk, I forgot to ask you, do we have on any of these ordinances or are there any speakers requested? There's no speakers, mayor. Okay, no speakers. Uh, discussion hearing none. All in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I. Those opposed and so the motion carries. Okay. and 13C. Ordinance number 2025-20, an ordinance of the city of Orlando, Florida, amending the land development regulations of the Lake Nona plan development zoning district relating to certain land generally located north of the Orange Oyola County line south of Dowen Road east of Bogy Creek Road and west of Narusi Road and comprised of 9,053 acres of land more or less providing for amendment of the city's official zoning maps, providing for severability corruption scrimmage error, permit disclaimer, and an effective date. Move to approve. Second motion by Commissioner Ray, second by Commissioner Stewart. U no speakers discussion hearing none. All in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I. Those opposed motion carries. All right, madame clerk, we'll go to quasi judicial hearings. We have one item 16A. So this is off on recommended order uh QJ 2025- 01. This agenda item is a recommended order from the hearing officer in the case that I just referenced. The case involves an appeal from the MPB's decision to recommend approval of an application for a conditional use permit to allow a communication tower in the Starwood Planned Development. The petition in this case is David Growl. The respondents are Gina Growl, Sean Harrison, and the city of Orlando. Anth Anthemnet Inc. is the respondent. So, Elizabeth, can you enlighten us here? Elizabeth Dang, our planning director. Good afternoon, mayor and city council. Um, if I could please have the PowerPoint displayed. Um, I'm here to present the Starwood Communication Tower Quasi Judicial Appeal. Um, are we able to get the screen up? There we go. So, this project is located along a future extension of Dowen Road uh just north of Launchpoint Road and west of west west of Pergola Avenue. You can see here on the future land use map the designation is office low intensity. The subdivision you see on the right has not been built yet, but it has been platted. the subdivisions to the kind of southwest um have for the most part already been constructed. Here you can see the zoning map and it is all part of the Starwood PD. This is the Starwood PD land use plan. The entire area in yellow is designated for residential. You can see across the street in orange is a multif family designation. The light green hatch area is conservation. The blue area is a high school site. So this is an aerial photo. You can see Dowen Road is nearly complete. And this shows the location of the site as well as the future multif family parcel across the street and the future residential parcels to the east. So, back in January of 2024, the applicants came in with a request for a 150 foot tall monopine communication tower. Um, and they asked for a waiver from the separation uh between residential uses for those uh future residential sites. Um, but based on some discussion and community meetings, the applicant did reduce their request to a 105- foot tall tower, uh, which does meet all of the distance separation requirements and does not require any type of waiver per our code. So again, we received the application in January of last year for 150 foot high tower. That was revised in November of 2024. and then went to the planning board with a recommendation of approval in January of 2025. So this case was appealed by the petitioners and a quasi judicial hearing was held on March 28th and on April 17th um the hearing officer uh recommended upholding the MPB recommendation of approval. So these are the standards that we use for review of communication towers. Uh any residential zoning district of R3A or less, including within a PD, which this site does fall under, requires a 200 foot separation or 300% of the height of the tower, whichever is greater. and you measure from the cell tower location to the closest set back for a principal building structure in the adjacent zoning area. Uh so you can see here the original site plan those large red circles you you can see they did need a waiver from the distance separation requirement. Um, and so with the reducing the height of the tower, they now meet all the standards for 300% of the height, which as a 105 foot tall tower, the distance separation requirement is 315 ft and they provide 330 feet distance separation. So this is the look of the tower. You can see the height of 105 ft. It's proposed as a monopine with um several antenna arrays along the top as well as a fence with landscape screening at the bottom. So, the process for a quasi judicial appeal um is set out by the Florida Supreme Court as well as our city code chapter 2 um which allows for a denovo or new hearing before an independent hearing officer and that occurred on March 28th. So the hearing officer founds that um the land development code implements the policies of the growth management plan and there are certain sections of the code that contain criteria for conditional use. Um and when specific uses are an analyzed the standards and criteria of that section of the code is referred to. So in this case, we looked at the cell tower code, which addresses separation and site development standards, and Anthem Net's application meets those requirements. The code does not provide provisions addressing visual obstruction or buffering from neighboring uses. Those topics are only addressed in the waiver provisions of the code. In other words, if someone's asking for a waiver, they have a higher standard that they need to meet. But in this case, a waiver was not needed. The proposed tower is compatible with surrounding land uses, including visual compatibility. In addition, the hearing officer found that the application did not require any waiverss or variances to any applicable cup or other criteria in the code. So, the hearing officer adopted in to the project analysis and the staff report. um including all the recommended conditions. Um he found that the petitioner and respondents failed to carry their burden of showing evidence and proof with competent substantial evidence to justify the denial. Anthemet and the city have presented competent substantial evidence justifying approval with conditions for the cup. So once again um these are the legal findings related to a quasi judicial hearing um and the requirement for the burden of proof is with the person who appeals the decision. So to summarize, the hearing officer uh recommends that the petitioner's request to deny the application be denied and therefore Anthemet's application be approved subject to the conditions in the updated staff report and any comments or conditions recommended by the MPB. So today the request is either for council to adopt the recommended order, adopt the recommended order with changes, or direct staff to prepare a revised order. Uh staff's recommendation is to adopt the hearing officer's recommended order, which would deny the petitioner's petition in opposition and approve the MPB recommendation. And I'm available for other questions for Elizabeth. All right. Section. Oh, sorry, Commissioner Gray. Sorry, Elizabeth. Clarification. In the code, it says we've got the setback requirement and they to meet that. So, they didn't get an exception. They reduced it to 100 ft. 105. Yes. 105, excuse me. So, I guess that says by definition they cannot increase the size without encroaching again and having to come back. Is that correct? Because we do give them what 20 ft. So the the code allows for um if they want to put an an additional carrier onto the top of the pole um it does allow for an additional 20 ft um at some point in the future to accommodate collocation and that additional height um does not require additional analysis of distance separation between towers or between towers and off-site uses. So, um, the code does not require them to remat the standard. So, I guess my point would be if they decide to do that, they really have only reduced the original size from 150 down to 105, but they could add 20. So, they're really only reducing it from 150 to 125 if they choose to go that high. Fair. Or looking at it that way, 170 to 125. I guess that would be true, right? Right. But then we'd be having a different discussion. But okay, thank you. Yep. Further questions for Elizabeth. Do we have petitioners and respondents here? Do you know? Okay. Section 2.209. The Orlando City Code provides council not entertain. Uh yeah, we do have the petitioner. Okay. Let me just finish this. Comments from the public. However, we will allow staff in each of the parties up to 10 minutes for oral presentation argument. Um is the petitioner here? Um, and are there representatives from the respondent or the applicant? Okay, so you'll each have 10 minutes. Come on up, Mr. Crow. Is that right? You know, I think my cheat sheet here has it a little wrong. Are Mr. and Mrs. Grow and Mr. Harrison, all petitioners versus respondents. Elizabeth, help me out here. They're on different sides. So essentially there were a group of neighbors who worked together, but they're all on the petitioner side, right? Correct. Yes. Not respondents. Um that's where Melissa, do you do you mind? I'm going to ask our attorney to explain this part. Okay. Good afternoon, mayor and commissioners. Melissa Clark, city attorney's office. Mayor, in this case, David Growl was the petitioner. Um the his his wife, Miss Grow and Shawn Harrison, the way that they responded to the petition, they they responded to the petition instead of joining as petitioners. So from the beginning of the uh proceeding the hearing officer um designated them as respondents but they are not in favor of the application. So they're listed as respondents on the petition and that's because they responded to the petition. Okay. How how many of you are here of the three? Okay. I'll you guys between you can have 10 minutes. Split it up however you want and then the other side will have 10 minutes. Um are we able to put the presentation on? would you guys state your names and addresses for the record as well? Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. My name is David Growl. I live at 12059 in Orlando in Meridian Parks. And my name is Aan Harris. I live at 12067 Found Street in Orlando Meridian Parks. climbers clicking. Um um thank you, Mr. Mayor, and um council members. Uh I'm not here because I'm paid to be. I'm here because this conditional use permit will will irre irreversibly harm our community and natural resources. My neighbors and I submitted over 100 pages of white paper paper style evidence to the municipal planning board and the city staff report didn't address our concerns. It simply reiterated requirements and declared them satisfied. With that, I was given three minutes to speak and based on the municipal planning board's discussion, it's clear many board members never reviewed what was submitted. When asked whether an affidavit was submitted on alternatives, city staff told the municipal planning board they were. The record is clear. No such affidavit was submitted before the municipal planning board vote. I was told the hearing would be a new informal and independent of prior decisions. Yet, I was denied the right to submit relevant evidence due to formal evidence rules being applied despite code requirements to the contrary. The hearing officer also cited the municipal planning board decision in his rationale, a clear violation. Under 65285 cups must satisfy the purpose and intent of land the land development code align with the GMP and consider compatibility public facilities like drainage displacement of residential use and other matters matters. This proposal fails on all counts. The city's own telecommunication tower additional requirements checklist posted on the posted on the city website completed by the applicant submitted into the record as city exhibit C5 and authorized by 65288 requires lineation of search area visual and aesthetic impact statements antenna power levels RF plot affidavit of necessity and alternatives and an engineering review. What's in the record on these items is shown on this slide. Nothing. Additionally, the applicant entirely failed to identify need or demonstrate necessity. There's no drive test data, no drop call data, no emergency services data, and no RF study. Under the statute, you are empowered to consider zoning and land use, including environmental impacts under the GMP and LDC. Yet, no environmental assessment was submitted. The hearing officer concluded one presumably existed that violates Florida evidentiary principles. A presumption is not evidence, especially when it's contradicted by live testimony and photographic evidence. Further, a decade old EA from the Starward annexation is not part of the hearing record. I submitted seven less intrusive alternative sites. Exhibit P through P4 through P9. This included the Orange County Landfill, CFX toll plaza, a planned commercial site, the existing tower to the east, utility sites, and existing power poles to the south. The landfill has dry land. Designated access from the 528 is possible. The county expressed a willingness to consider a tower on the landfill. Power poles in the PD are like those throughout the city, county, and state that already support cell antennas, proving feasibility. Further, our city's website details small cell solutions being deployed. Yet, none of these were explored. City staff performed no independent review, and the record contains no documentation assessing less intrusive alternatives. Chapter 58, figure 2B of the LDC conditionally permits mono poles in R-3A, but monopines are not mentioned anywhere in the code. They are separate structure bulkier synthetic and environmentally different. Still, the city and hearing officer applied 58.844 as if they were a standard mono pole without a conditional use permit. Meanwhile, when I asked to be represented by an out ofstate attorney specializing in communication towers at the hearing, I was denied by the hearing officer because the code was silent. But when the code is silent on monopines, that silence is interpreted as permission. Even if they were conditionally permitted, this proposal still fails. Cups must show compatibility, not just a single code item minimum. But the hearing officer essentially said it meets the setback, so it's compatible. That's not the standard. If true, there would be no need for MPB review, no need for a hearing or a council meeting on the matter. And the minimum setback wasn't met. Under 58846 and 58844 we just discussed, the tower can be expanded to 125 ft without further review that triggers a consideration of a 375 ft back setback requirement under 58844. This tower is just 317 ft from planned homes and sits directly on undeveloped residential land in a PD. In QJ 20119006, which was APC vers Orlando, the city denied a tower just 52 feet from undeveloped residential land. This one has a zero foot setback from undeveloped residential land in a PD, making it even more severe than the denied case. Exhibits P13 and 14 show the tower will be 35% to 100% visible from key locations including 100% from homes 317 ft away and major thoroughares half that distance. The tower will be triple the height of the of any PD structure disrupting views of natural aesthetic amenities. The tower will become the defining visual feature in our community undermining its carefully planned character. Let's be honest, this isn't a stealth tower. With exposed antennas and a bloated silhouette, it looks like a toilet bowl brush bolted to concrete. We have all seen the eyesore these structures create in commercial districts in South Orlando off John Young Parkway and West Orlando off the 408. Environmentally, the risks are real and this tower violates GMP vision, which opposes development that harms sensitive lands and GMP environmental policies, including goal one and associated objectives and policies, which aim to protect natural resources and eliminate pollution. The tower fails to meet LDC 63101 with stated intact to protect natural areas, 63270 pollution abatement, and 63293 storm water runoff quality. It fails to meet 65284 setbacks meant to protect uplands and ensure clean drainage. The tower will sit 56 feet from wetland ranked during the annexation during the city's using the city's Qit scoring system as one of the top five out of the 39 in the PD. And now with photographic confirmation of a threat state threatened species, the Florida sandill crane, the wetland is likely the most ecologically valuable in the PD as shown. My family has seen and photographed these adult nles cranes for years. I also submitted physical evidence and images of plastic discharge from two existing monopine towers. Mr. Shawn will show you. I collected this pollution from freshly mowed grass. So pollute the pollution fell recent as a known outcome of sun, heat, and wind exposure. This macro and microplastic failure mode has no mitigation plan and there is no ability to remediate pollution that will enter the wetland and be consumed by wildlife. And it's not just in Orlando. The Martha's Vineyard Commission documented similar failures in ordered cleanup. I found video evidence of tower shedding in Georgia and California with microplastics confirmed. Without any proof that this tower will behave differently, the pollution risk is not a possibility. It is a certainty. Under consideration is also a safety issue. Whether it's microplastic branches or discharged parts falling from height, these pose a real risk to residents on trails and adjacent properties. I'm sorry, something. This parcel was marketed by the developer and approved in the city N2 master plan as open space, but the hearing officer claimed it wasn't without citing any rationale. If it's not a residential or HOA lot, not undeveloped residential land, and not residential open space, then what is it? The land cannot be treated as void, its classification matters because 58844, city policy, and PD planning rules all rely on it. The tower will also block future uses like a community pavilion or nature center, and discourage residents from enjoying adjacent space. Who wants to picnic under a hazard sign and beside a tower that's dropping pollution from overhead and poisoning wildlife? Our community was designated to showcase nature. GMP flu policy S40.8, which is for the Starwood 165, and other requirements. They require that natural features be treated as amenities and be protected. The tower violates that mandate and it violates everything this process is supposed to protect. If this cup is approved, it sends the message that incomplete applications are fine, zoning silence means approval, environmental law is subjective, and residential safety is negotiable, even in the fa face of threats of threatened species harm and structural failure. So I ask you plainly, if this tower were going next to your home or your park or your trail, would you call this compatible where surrounding uses are not impacted? The law doesn't require you to defer to the MPB or hearing officer. It requires that we all apply our growth management plan and land development code and our reasoned judgment. Please deny this conditional use permit for the wetlands, the community, and the integrity of our process. Thank you. Thank you. Do you have any questions? Questions. Okay, let's hear from the respondent. Good afternoon. Mary Solic, 121 South Orange Avenue, Sweet 1500 Orlando, Florida. I represent Anthemet, Inc., who was the applicant on this particular tower. I'm going to be brief. You've had a long afternoon. We would ask that you adopt the recommended order of the of hearing officer Reeves and approve our 105 foot monopine tower. Um, your conditional use approval is but one piece of the puzzle that is cell tower development. Miss Tracy Moore testified at the hearing. She is the project manager for Anthemet about the tremendous amount of due diligence work companies like Anthemet do before we ever even come to a local government and ask for zoning approval. Um, she uh by the time we get to you, we have done title work. We have secured FAA approval. We have done a NEPA assessment. We have secured FCC approval. We've done a survey. We've done engineered drawings. Sometimes we've even gotten our water management district permit or an exemption letter. But we've also read your code. We do that when we start. And we follow your code and we rely on you to apply your code as it's written. We meet all of the requirements for cell towers and a conditional use on this property under the terms of your code. Your professional planning staff made that determination when they evaluated our application. The municipal planning board determined that we met the code and officer Reeves determined that we met the code. You do not have a shred of evidence before you to suggest otherwise. The um things that Mr. GR just went through the hearing officer made findings of fact on all of those things. He determined that our application was complete and sufficient. He determined that the tower was compatible because it met all of the stepback requirements. He determined that it met all of the applicable code requirements. He determined based on testimony from the city staff that no alternative analysis is required under your code. Um, and there's no uh there w the hearing officer determined that there was no evidence presented by the petitioners to establish a nexus between the presence of the tower and the presence of sandill cranes in the the community. There was no link between the impact that tower would have. Um he also determined that the setback requirements to the wetlands were met. And um he also determined based on testimony from your city staff that the area where the tower was proposed to be located is not designated as park space or open space or future common area for the development for the neighborhood that's coming into the east. It will be developer retained property. Anthemet and its anchor tenant Verizon would very much like to be providing essential wireless coverage to Mr. Grow's neighborhood, Innovation High School, and all of the new future homeowners in the Starwood PD. And we would respectfully request that you approve this application today. Um, I'll stand for questions, but I will also add that under the category of no good deed goes unpunished, we proposed a monopine for this particular tower. That is an impact a visual impact mitigating design because it is a residential area. Uh, that seems to have caused a lot of consternation on the part of the neighborhood. We are more than happy to change the tower from a monopine to a monopole and that would eliminate the um the objections raised by Mr. Grow to the pine needles and the dropping of whatever it is. Again, we thought we were doing the respectful thing in this community by proposing a camouflage application, but it was not received that way. Do you have any questions for me? Okay, are there questions? Commissioner Sheen, um, with with the concern about the the stuff falling off the pole and everything like that, do we have to make an do we have to change Elizabeth? We have to change the recommended order from the monopole or whatever. Do you all have the discretion to go ahead and do that as part of the process? Yes, you could recommend approval of the hearing officer's decision subject to an additional condition that the tower be a monopole instead of a monopine. Thank you. Further question, Commissioner Gray. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, counselor, there was an objection that there were no alternative sites looked at, and I must admit, I did not see any. Did you guys look at alternative sites for a tower? We did our anchor tenant is and this was all testimony at the hearing. Our anchor tenant is Verizon and um it's a a fairly large the Starwood area is fairly large and there are um three property owners in that community. Three, there's just three that was in the search area that Verizon gave Anthemet. The high school, my clients contacted the high school. The high school said, "We're desperate for better coverage. We'd love to have the tower on the site. We don't have room." That left the two property owners that make up the Starwood be um PD, and that's Beacheline South Residential, which is our landlord, and um Carl'sbad. They're the only two other property owners in this community, and they own all of the um undeveloped properties of the Starwood PD. Carl'sbad said, "No, no. Beach Line was the only property owner that offered us a location." And they offered us that little tiny area. It's just a tiny little bit of upland area that is it's cradled with conservation area all the way around it, which helps screen and buffer that tower from off-site uses. So, yes, we did consider alternatives. We were limited in terms of land owners in that particular area. And how was that evidence? Was that just verbal testimony or is there some kind of written document where you actually explore? That was testimony of Miss Moore at the hearing in front of the hearing officer. Thank you. Can I You raised another issue about the height of the tower being increased and that the code allows us to do that. That that that's a that's a provision in your code and it's allowed as of right. You made a very good point, Mayor Dyer. It could be 150 going to 170. But the purpose of that provision is to accommodate collocation. And what that does is eliminate other towers. You want to get as many users on a tower as you can. We started at 150 and we lowered this to 105. We're going to build that tower capable of supporting four users. But with the top user at a rad center of 100, we don't know whether the other three wireless providers that service this marketplace will be able to use that tower below that 100 ft level. We don't know what their service needs are. So when you you have to be careful what you ask for on that particular issue. Totally understand. My only point in making that was my understanding, correct me if I'm wrong, you reduced the height such that you would not have any exceptions. Correct. Correct. You came down. So you would you could raise your hand and say there's no exceptions. But the reality is by our code granted you can increase it now such that it would be a violation had you come in and ask for 125 ft. Correct. Correct. Correct. But we only get that approval if we have another carrier that demonstrates that they need that height. Understood. But I carrier can go underneath. I suspect you're not prepared to say that you're not going to have another carrier. The reality all I'm trying to make is if you said no more carriers than 105 got it. But the reality is you may nothing nefarious but you may have another carrier come and at the end of the day the neighbors are going to say hey look now the height is 125 which would be an exception had we done that day one that's my only point to make correct we we part but we also lowered the height again so we wouldn't need an exception but we did that after we had a community meeting and and we got an earful so on that community Yeah, we we you know we went back to our our customer Verizon and said what and that's why it took so long to get from January to November when we resubmitted is we had to work on our customer to agree to 105. Got it. Thank you. Thank you. That's all I've got there. I would like to just give my two cents and then we'll go for it. I I assume because you're going to need a motion. I'm not sure I'm the guy to do it. Look, we've been through this before, right? We we've had three of these, four of these. I've yet to meet a neighbor that comes to me and says, "Gra, I'm so excited I get a cell tower in my backyard. And oh, by the way, I probably paid a premium for my lot in my house because I'm looking over a conservation area." So, nobody likes it. Um, and so they're they're tough. But I do also acknowledge um cell phones are uh you know, the future. We talked about that this morning with technology. So, um I I guess what I've asked um Elizabeth and our team to do going forward, perhaps we can avoid some of this, if we ask future land owners, developers to put in their PD the ability to do a cell tower. At least that's not going to prevent uh anybody can always object, right? won't prevent it, but at least we can look to say you had a right to know and you should have known had you looked at the PD that this land owner can do a cell tower. This was not the case. So this you could argue that every homeowner in Meridian Park could argue there was nothing in the PD. I had no knowledge that there would be a cell tower. Probably should have figured that would happen, but I didn't know. So hopefully going forward we can do that. I think Elizabeth and I have had kind of a meeting of the minds. We're going to try to do it. Don't think it's going to avoid everything. But given all of the things here, I just want to go on record. I can't support this one. I appreciate your cooperation and trying to find a solution, but I'm going to vote no on this one. Thank you, Mayor. Okay. Somebody got a motion? Um, Commissioner, I I'd like to make a motion to uphold the municipal planning board recommendation and and adopt the recommended order with the removal of the monopine to a monopole. Second. Okay. Motion by Commissioner Sheen, second by Commissioner Burns. I'll just say to the neighborhoods one thing, if you if you have a set of rules and they follow the rules, you got to follow the rules yourself, meaning us. So, we got to follow the rules. They touched all the bases. And Commissioner, can I? Yep. I agree. Can I make one more comment? Yeah, you can. If you let me just finish. I'm sorry. It's probably in your best interest to figure some of this stuff out going forward as you've just suggested because I guarantee you all the new cell towers are going to be out in your district. The rest of the city is pretty much covered up with cell coverage. I can I agree. And the funny thing is you told me the last one of these we had, you said you'd never had one of your neighbors complain they couldn't get signal going down um right Narusi. Well, the very next day, one of our employees that works down that way told me she could never get coverage down there. So, she was happy about getting I get it, but I can't I mean, there was somebody said earlier, the school's begging for coverage. So, we opened a brand new high school and we didn't have cell coverage. I don't know if I believe that one, but my I just want one clarification, counselor, just to make sure that you and your client are aware, we do have in the code if the cell tower is abandoned for up to Elizabeth, help me, 24, 48 months, it has to be taken down. Yes, I see a shake. Just wanted to clarify that. Absolutely. With all towers, right, we because we have one in Lake Nona that's been standing for 20 years. It's not in use, but there's no ability for us to get them to take it. Right. Well, Commissioner, I would suggest that the the the private sector would take care of that faster than the city would. Our lease, all of our lease agreements required with our land owners. We just lease that property, that we remove that tower if it's not in use. So, um we're going to have a land owner screaming at us if it's not in use. So, we're not party to the agreement you have with the land owner, right? No, you're not. You're not. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So, sorry, man. I'm I'm done. I promise. Okay. No problem. Um All right. Motion by Commissioner Sheen, second by Commissioner Burns. All in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I. I. Those opposed. I. Okay. 52. I think Ortiz, will you? No. No. Okay. 52 on the voice vote. Okay. That concludes the uh agenda business for us today. Ed could get us in position to do general appearance. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music]