Fort Walton Beach Ordinance — 1762 rezone 13.39 ac Methodist Avenue — reading text

have to understand, from my side it's frustrating and I'm sure it's frustrating from City staff side too because they' re having to deal with this issue and this issue from a different department or their department or whatever. You know, that's just one of those things but I wish we could have started on it earlier. Of course originally I don' t think we really saw the PUD coming along. I mean it was zoned R- 2 but we wanted to work with the City to make it more street friendly, when you start dealing with things like that then you get into other issues. It' s been a collaborative effort; I mean everybody has, I think, worked together, in my opinion, worked together very well. Haven' t really had any, I haven' t had any adversarial relationship with anybody. Glenda Glover - the reason I ask this is because time and time again I've had people, developers say that they enjoy working with out City staff. And there was a comment made in the public at a meeting I was at that you all had just been pushed around. And when it comes to the school situation that DCA wouldn' t approve the PUD until that school facility element was in place, and then the PUD was new. So I just wanted to ask you if, it' s been a long time but that you were treated fairly. Lloyd Strickland - the school facility element was just one of those things that just popped up and it was a matter of somebody, I guess it was Toni, taking the time to figure out what did we need to do to make sure we did it right, that it didn' t bounce back at us. Because that was a concern, do we need to get another approval from the State or just send them something or have the City Council vote? And I understand that takes time. But, you know what, if it happens again, not that particular thing, but if it happens again somebody will have an easier time. Somebody' s got to go through it, me and the City. I mean, they had to go through it, and they had to listen to me, which isn' t always easy. Glenda Glover - thank you, I appreciate that. 3 of 14 MUNICIPAL PLANNING BOARD MEETING 10- 2- 08 Janet Wilson - Mr.White Darrell White - just one quick question, do the numbers still work on this project, In today' s environment? Lloyd Strickland - yes and no and here' s why. The numbers still work except for my company and the Housing Authority in order to make them work are having to take a, what we call, a deferred developer fee. Meaning we can' t get all our fee upfront, it may take us ten years to get all our fee as long as the project works. And it may be the cash flow of the property that actually pays our fee, I'm saying ten year, actually here' s what happens. If we don' t get our fee paid in ten years we have to actually make a contribution to the partnership and the partnership pays our fee to us, okay? The partnership that owns this whole complex, us and the Housing Authority. Well you know what that does, I make a loan to the partnership, they give me the money back and at that point it' s taxable income to me for money I just gave them. So there' s a disincentive to have that deferred fee in there. Darryl White - is there a number here where the project won' t work? Lloyd Strickland - it' s getting real close and I will tell you this. I met with the, I met with the County just a little while ago and you know it had come up, I think in a City Council meeting, about ad valorem taxes and that we would continue to pay PILOT, which is the same thing the Housing Authority pays now Payment In Lieu of Taxes. The County is not sure that that's possible because what that involves is, the tax base for ad valorem taxes actually is zero, of the property as it is now, it' s non- taxable, it' s exempt. The agreement with the Housing Authority is they pay payment in lieu of tax. We were under the understanding from the discussions with the County August a year ago that we would continue on with that same payment in lieu of taxes. And that actually came up in Council meeting couple of months ago and Gail Sansbury is her name, the Executive Director of the Housing Authority made that statement. The County is not really sure about that right now. They don' t know if we' re going to be able to just pay payment in lieu of taxes. And I'll tell you, if we end up having to pay full ad valorem taxes, no it will not work, it will not work. Darryl White - my next question is, if it doesn' t work what happens to the stuff where we deeded property for this proj ect? Lloyd Strickland - you' ll have to ask your attorney but I think it goes, I think it reverts back to the City. Darryl White - I mean is there some mechanism that happens if this project doesn' t work? Lloyd Strickland - the issue there is, okay the property reverts back to the City then what do you do because there' s Housing Authority facilities on that project. It' s never been maintained by the City, do you start maintaining Housing Authority property? Then we get back into HUD has already approved the disposition, even though the Housing Authority isn' t disposing of it, they' re doing a long- term ground lease. HUD says if you do a lease of longer than a year they consider you disposing of the property even though the Housing Authority still owns it. They' ve already been approved, the tenants are moving out, they' re not getting subsidy on it any more. Then we run into how do they get it back into HUD. Then you run into the issue of now HUDs going to say well wait a minute, we' ve got buildings that were paid for with Federal dollars that are not on our property, they' re going to be on City property, they' re going to be on public park property and that' s a no no. So it could be a big mess that' s all I'm saying. 4 of 14 MUNICIPAL PLANNING BOARD MEETING 10- 2- 08 Darryl White - my next question is, if it does not work and you guys decide not to do this, is it going to cost the City money to straighten all this out. Lloyd Strickland - it shouldn' t, I mean it will be minimal if it is. You know who it's going to cost money, me. Because I've got about $ 400, 000 already out- of-pocket on this project that if it doesn' go t through I won' t ever get back. The Housing Authority can' t pay me because they have is Federal funds, they can' t give it to me. And I literally have $ 400, 000 out. So I'm, put it this way, I've got enough in it to make it work. Janet Wilson - Mr. Steams Al Steams - it' s obvious you' re very serious about getting this to completion as soon as possible and I think it ought to be obvious we want to assist you to get there. The pictures, the renderings and the development, we know what it looks like today and we can envision how nice it' s going to look in the future. This is just a positive, positive thing for the City of Fort Walton Beach and I would like to see it go forward and I would like to see you successful and I don' t see any problem with you making a profit on this way down the road, hope in not ten years time. But this is going to be a win-win for the City of Fort Walton Beach, it's great improvement and I'm enthusiastic for you. Lloyd Strickland - thank you and I will tell you this, not before you vote, okay, if you really would like to go see this project in action go to Valley, Alabama. It' s Exit, I think it' s Exit 70 off of 1- 85 going up through Alabama up toward Atlanta, take a right go a half mile turn right and this project is sitting right there. And it' s not an affordable project sitting right there. It' s a market project, it' s the exact same project except for it doesn' t have metal roofs. Ours is going to look better. Janet Wilson - okay thank you, any questions, anybody else have a question for applicant. Darryl White - I have one more Janet Wilson - Mr. White you have another question Darryl White - is there anything that we can do to help you expedite this? Lloyd Strickland - vote to approve this tonight then we can move onto the City Council because we' ve got two hearings, two readings before the City Council, isn' t that right? Two readings before the City Council. Yeah there' s things if we run into, if we need a half million dollar grant from the City, you know push that for me too, or waiver of impact fees, building permits, that' s been thrown around too. But you know that type thing is what' s going to make the project viable in the end. Janet Wilson - okay thank you, any other questions for the applicant? Sir have you reviewed all of the memoranda that from the City Attorney - I do have one. came Development Review Committee? Lloyd Strickland - you mean like several months ago? City Attorney - yes 5 of 14 MUNICIPAL PLANNING BOARD MEETING 10- 2- 08 Lloyd Strickland - yeah, well we had a meeting, I don' t know when, three or four months ago, that we went over, that each Department went over their entire thing, yes ma' am. City Attorney - and you were present at that meeting? Lloyd Strickland - yes ma' am. City Attorney - okay thank you. Janet Wilson - thank you, okay, do you want to do staff presentation or do you want to do DRC first? City Attorney - staff Janet Wilson - okay staff presentation Samantha Abell- Senior Planner, we are very pleased to be here tonight. Your Board has been looking at this project and waiting for it to come before you and this is the end of a rather long road. The Community Division originally received this application January 10, 2008. It had been, at first, gone to the Beal Parkway Neighborhood as Board member Scott mentioned, it went to the CRA. The scope of thisproject,to take you back just a little bit, it truly is a master planned community, it necessitates quite a few things, as Mr. Strickland alluded to. We have vacation of roadways, we have vacation of utilities, we have ownership issues. When we looked at all of these things we realized it wasn' t just a straight forward development order. We weren' t going to be able to do just a vacation. The intent of a Planned Unit Development is to make a more efficient economic use of land and to lower the cost for the developer. It was at that time that we decided to do a Planned Unit Development and we do think that it has been at a cost saving to the developer. Unfortunately it has taken a while, there have been things that have been a little bit out of our control, such as the school facilities element. We regret that. I'll go into my report now but I will say that you have the staff report before you and it does go into detail as to the positive impact that this is going to have on the Beal Parkway Neighborhood. We' re very pleased to be presenting this to you tonight. The rezoning application fee of $465. 00 was paid on April 8, 2008 and the plat fee of 710. 00 was paid on July 15th. Soundside is an affordable housing development as defined by Florida Statutes 420. 004. Based on the analysis of the site data, existing and future land use maps, impacts or the availability of infrastructure, consistency with the Comprehensive Plan and the appropriateness of the the request relevant to the criteria established by Section 1247. 07 of the Land Development Code,