Fort Walton Beach Council minutes — 05-25-1982 Regular — reading text

REfERENCE PROPOSED BROOKS STREET PROJECT, continued. Mr. Smith said he would go ahead with the plan and would make every effort to accommodate the city but he felt for him to pay' that kind of money for maybe five or six weeks because of something happening in that room in as far as the City not having itself together was unfair when no one else along that street had been asked to do the same thing. Mr. Miller took one exception saying he didn' t know what had transpired but he could read from the Planning Board report that they held a special I meeting to accommodate the gentleman. He said Council sure would accommodate him but they could not break the law. Mr. Smith said he was not requesting anyone to break the law, he was asking for, or telling him what he could within his rights within the ordinance that he could comply without any variance. He said as the plan stood right then he could proceed and he believed that was his right. He indicated he was the one who asked to come and had not been asked to come and ask. He said he had assumed a fairly rapid approval process and made arrangements for his funds and a number of things and five weeks was a lot of money as far as he was concerned. He said he could have the project re- drawn by noon the following day and it would meet all code requirements. He said basically he had been trying to accommodate the City. ' The Mayor clarified who had told him how quickly this could be done. Mr. Smith agreerl it was not anyone from the City. Mrs. Thornber asked how the RDA felt about that because the Council was going on the previous recommendation. Mr. Seibold said he believed the gentleman was right, that it was his property to do wh~ t~ver was leg~ l- with his property. Mr. Seibold said what the City Council and other people had to consider was what. was going to happen at a later date when they had to align Brooks Street and buy; they knew things were going to happen. Mr. Grant said as far as the RDA planning now was concerned, the conceptual planning, he understood that the widening of Brooks Street was one of the considerations, but was it not in truth as viable a proposal' as the i.ssue to not even have any Brooks Street. Mr. Seibold said that was not coming up in anything they had' in place and that was what was under discussion now; it seemed that Brooks Street shou'ld provide access to the potential of the development down there was going to have to be addressed. The City Attorney asked if the Plannjng Board had checked the comprehensive plan and would assume that the thoroughfare element showed in the plan. He asked if anyone knew. The Attorney said making the assumption that was what it said then Council could not reverse the comprehensive plan. The Attorney said the Comprehensive Plan took priority over the zoning ordinance. Mr. Bishop said it was apparent that if there were a need to four- lane Brooks Street Mr. Smith, could they approve the plan with the stipulation that he build according to RDA. Mr. Grant said Mr. Smith was the first to have the audacity to decide to do something downtown and it was interesting to watch what was happening, to see all the blocks getting thrown at him and he felt it wou1d be real interesting to look back and see why all those bloc~ were being thrown at him. Mr. Grant felt personally Mr. Smith had no need to be in front of them at all. I The Mayor asked if he needed any decision from Council to go ahead? The City Attorney said the ordinance said that Planning and Zoning would give approval; they would make that recommendation to Council and Council would take that recommendation and make its approvals. He said Council made an approval as he understood it of the plan that was submitted to them and to the Planning Board. He said they could take the Planning plan and make amendments to it and approve it.He s.aid they could take the Planning plan and reject and send it back to Planning and tell them it had been amended and they wanted them to consider again if that were what they wanted to do. He said Planning could only consider it though if it were comparable with the Comprehensive Plan. 072 May 25, 1982 MR. SMITH - REFERENCE PROPOSED BROOKS STREET PROJECT, continued. The Attorney said he felt certain the Planning Board knew that and presumably they were aware of that when they approved it asH stood but he did not know that. He said he had sent them letters explaining the situation in being aware of the comprehensive plan and that they must be aware of the fact that what they approve must be consistent with the comprehensive plan. He indicated the Public Works Director had gone to the file to get a copy of the comprehensive plan. The Attorney said under Chapter 162 the comp- rehensive plan took precedence over the zoning ordinance. Mr. Franklin said if that be the case then Council could approved his plan based on the comprehensive plan and would not have to worry about variances. The Attorney did not agree entirely with that, saying the comprehensive plan was a vague document and the felt in the thoroughfare plan he felt they would see 4~ lane highways where they were to be constructed. Mr. Seibold said RDA had no dimensions to work with when Mr. Smith made his presentation to the RDA. He said the setback came up the previous day at the Planning Board. He said RDAwas dealing only with the concept. Mr. Baughman asked the Mayor if she would mind if they set this aside . for a few minutes until the Attorney could get that comprehensive plan and sHting down with Mr. Smith and the RDA Director to come up with something the Council could do legally for Mr. Smith. Mr. Baughman said he wanted to approve Mr. Smith' s concept based on standardized rules that night if they could. HUMANE SOCIETY ~ Mrs. Thornber Mrs. Thornber asked for a point of order, she moved that the order be set aside so the the discussion concerning dogs which really should have been under committee reports could be heard. Motion seconded by Mr. Miller and carried unanimously . Mr. Burnes. of the Humane Society was present and reported they had worked with the Postmaster and felt they had the problem under control. There were 4 letter carriers who had problems and Mr. Burnes said they were on top of the problem and would even if necessary follow the carriers with their vehicle to try and solve the problems. He mentioned also they now have the full time vehicle on patrol in Fort Walton Beach only. He $, aid they were complying with the conditions of the agreement with the City. The vehicle patrolled from', S Ull 5 six days . Grant asked now llcenses, a week. He felt complaints had dropped s,ignifjcantly.~ 1r.. were coming along. Mr. Burnes said they were up 100% over last year. Mrs. Thornber said when ~ Humane Society vehicle is parked in a yard that means that person is on duty and they answer calls ( emergency calls). Mr. Burnes said thes,e people had a beeper and were on emergency call. Mrs. Thornber said that also meant local restaurants because they have to eat also. The idea of soliciting dog and cat owner to buy licenses was discussed generally. It was noted the Humane Society had not been authorized specifically to solicit door.-to- door. Mr. Grant was fearful at budget time they would need again assistance from the City and felt they should be more aggressive about license sales. Mr. Grant felt they should be self- supporting. Mr. Burnes mentioned his ad in the newspaper and noted they had collected $ 1, 000. 00 in one week as a result of that ad. J VACANCY ON THE POLICE PENSION TRUST FUND BOARD BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT The Mayor noted that Mrs. Hazel Spain had declined an appointment to the Board of Adjustment and she had felt that if a name were proposed for an appointment they should be asked beforehand if they were named ,.. lOuld they serve, and she urged Council to follow that procedure. Mrs. Thornber moved thatMrs. Houston Jones be appointed to the Board of Adjustment, saying she had consented to serve if appointed. Motion seconded by Mr. Baughman. Mr. Miller asked about Bill Doolin whose name had been  5- 25- 82 073 BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT ANP, POl.ICE PENSION TRUST FUND BOARD VACANCIES.... mentioned at the last meeting. It was noted he was also willing to serve. Vote to the motion ~ as aye unanimously. Regarding the vacancy on the Police Pension Trust Fund Board Mr. Miller noted he had been involved in getting Mr. Mel Hagler a stock broker on the Firemen' s Pension Trust Board and how effective he was and urged that they try to recruit someone of thatc'alfber. He noted that Mr. Burgess who had I to give up his service on thePelice Boa,rd said Mr. Hagler had been very valuable and urged Council to ' findsameone oJ that cali:ber to fill that position. Mr. Miller encouraged Council to recruit a banker. The Mayor asked that Council please try and have some names available for the next meeting. WEEKEND BURIALS AND PAUPER BURIALS He remarked on the repart from the Parks and Recreation Director stating that the we kendfl:nerals Ci:ost the City $ 25. 00 to $ 30. 00 since the Sexton has to be there fGur to five hours. The Director had also recolTU11ended the possibility IDf charging a fee for funerals on Saturdays and Sundays and legal holidays to help defray the extra cost. Mr. Baughman said he understood the viewpoint and that 'they were 100ldn9 after the department and' the treasury of the City and he had no. quarrelwitfl that but it was a time in peoples I lives & he would hate to place a stumaling block over $ 25. 00 or $ 30. 00. He noted occasionally Council dim approve, pauper burial space. He noted some people live out of town and just can' t get away for for a r.elative' s funeral during the week. He felt. hesitation over the recommendation. Mrs. Thornber said it was not entirel,y- the extra money but the fact that the Sexton already worked five days a week. Mr.' Baughman felt some other city employee could be used to help out.. The Parks and Recreation Director said they had someone part time as of about a year age. ' Hei;, said in th.e past eight months there had been 32 funerals onSaturday' and 4 en Sunday and 1 on a holiday meaning in the 33 weekends they had 36 weekend funerals and there had only