Fort Walton Beach Council minutes — 03-28-1972 Regular — reading text

85 MEETING OF REGULAR MEETING OF CITY COUNCIL OF FORT WALTON BEACH, FLORIDA 1 INTRODUCTION kvegular meeting of the City Council of Fort Walton Beach, Florida, was held at the City Hall on March 28, 1972, at 7: 30 p. m., with the following members present: Mayor Maurice McLaughlin Councilmen: C. H. Rigdon, Jr. H. C. Van Buskirk Joe Guirlrly Art Schweizer Hurdis Brock Fred Hedrick Also present were: City Attorney and City Clerk- Finance Director, and City Manager BARR, PARKS AND NORTON REZONING After opening formalities Mayor noted the large crowd present who were interested in the rezoning request that had been tabled awaiting an engineering study. He asked the City Manager to read the report:" March 6, 1972. . . As requested, I have re- viewed the design and construction of a trunk storm sewer running through a portion of the NW 1/ 4 of theSE 1/ 4 of Sec. 10, T- 2- S, R- 24- W in Fort Walton Beach. This area is drained by a rec~ ntly constructed storm sewer of 36" system consisting and 48" pipe. The trunk Sewer runs along the bound- ary of the property owned by Barr, Parks, and Norton. It was designed to ~ eive the water from the subject property at some future date. The sewer is of ample size and proper loc.~ tion to receive the discharge from a p~ oper- ly designed collector system to drain the 1 Barr, Parks and Norton property. .~.Sincerely, Isl Oliver J. Semmes, Jr. PE" MOTION to APPROVE Mr. Van Buskirk then moved that the prop- erty be rezoned as requested adding a 125' buffer zone adjoining' both Virginia and Lake Drive. Motion . seconded by Mr. Brock. 86 Mr. Buskirk moved that the matter be Van taken the table for discussion. from Motion seconded by Mr. Rigdon and carried unanimously. Joseph Madden, 254 Ewing Court, spoke about drainage with reference to the saying area that water was standing on Sherry Circle. He questioned Mr. Semmes competency on the -; drairtage report. He said I the City would continue to need revenue as long as furnished services to non City res- .' idents specifically the station new Texaco on corner of Beal and the Mary Esther Cutoff. He also mentioned the traffic count. Bob Bedsworth, 129 Virginia Drive said his property adjoined the property on the south and listed 3 things against the rezoning: ecological environment concerning Cinco Bayou, traffic situation in so far as safety, degradation of neighborhood and community, and depreciation of property valUes. He said at none of the meetings had anyone spoken in favor of this rezoning with the exception of the property owners. Merle Peters, of Sotir and Memorial corner said drainage the issue but whether was not the Council, the duly elected representa- tives of this town would consider what the people desire and their wishes or would they consider wishes of a few people. He ob- jected to the overloading of Mary Esther Cutoff. He noted that it would be hard to con- vince him if Council took action against the people present, that there was some eco- nomic enticement somewhere. He questioned what would be allowed against the Beal Memorial cemetery. Mr. Rigdon said he had seen these people down at meetings 4 times and he agreed as far as drainage, it would cost the tax- payers, but the people who purchased the prop- erty purchased it in good faith and these people also purchased pr~perty out there and have investment and some fine homes. . l an He thought Council was wrong and recommend- ed saying, he had never gone against wish- es of the Community.  87 He said he had not seen the plans of what the people intended to develop; and that apartments would add 600 people in that area. He also noted that no park was set aside here for this piece of property and he felt this was wrong. Mr. C10dfelter, Briarwood Circle, spoke 1 regarding traffic on Beal St. mentioning noise, asking for survey, asking that Coun- cil vote against the motion, mentioned ecolo- gy with erty. regard He to the people who buy prop- noted the requestors knew the zoning of the property when they bought it and asked if perhaps they had some kind of assumption that rezoning was a natural thing. Mrs. Carn, 132 Virginia Dr. mentioned heavy traffic particularly in bad weather. PREVIOUS Mr. Van Buskirk moved the previous ques- QUESTION tion. Motion seconded by Mr. Schweizer. Mayor explained that this was a motion to cut off debate on the issue and call for a vote. VOTE TO Vote was aye unanimously. To s~ op debate. MOTION TO APPROVE Vote to the motion ~ o rezone the property was as follows: Aye": Van Buskirk', Guidry, Brock, Schweizer, Hedrick. Nay: Rigdon Motion carried to rezone the property. George austin, Jr. 214 Wright Parkway, men- tioned there were at least 100 people out- side the room who had not been able to hear the proceedings. Mayor announced that the Council was aware of this. I Mayor explained that the ordinance to rezone the property which would have to be passed on 3 readings would be read reading at the next regular on Council the first meeting. 88 Mr. Hedrick moved that we biggest rent the hall in town, but was not going to change his vote unless -they brought new evidence. He restated the motion to have first reading in auditorium. Motion seconded by Mr. Guidry. Mr. Rigdon said he understood the people' s I I wishes since he was in a minority and they I could j bring all the people they wanted I and fill the auditorium and all the state- ments made here, but unless they came with evidence they would really be wasting their time. Mr. Dismukes, 317 Watson, asked Mr. Brock to explain his motion. Mr. Brock noted he lived in the midst of all of these people and he restated the motion. Douglas Hunt, asked if the Council was for the people or a,g? i nst them. Mayor called Mr. Hunt out of order. Mr. Clodfelter, 315 Briarwood Circle, said their group was for community interest the and he believed Council was also for in- terests and he recognized the difficulty in trying to balance the two. He said. they had no way to approach the Council with regard