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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Council 081804CITY OF PALM BEACH GARDENS CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING August 18, 2004 The August 18, 2004 Special Meeting of the City Council of the City of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, was called to order at 4:37 P.M. in the Council Chambers of the Municipal Complex, located at 10500 North Military Trail, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and opened with the pledge of allegiance. ROLL CALL: The City Clerk called the roll and the following elected officials were found to be in attendance: Mayor Jablin, Vice Mayor Russo, and Councilmember Delgado. Councilmember Levy arrived at 4:39 p.m. ITEMS FOR COUNCIL ACTION /DISCUSSION: Scripps - Mayor Jablin announced that at the previous day's County Commission meeting there had been several misstatements regarding Scripps, and this meeting had been called to set the record straight. Natalie Wong, Senior Project Coordinator, Assistant to the City Manager, provided a presentation dealing with statements made at the County Commission meeting that misrepresented the facts. A former master plan known as the Fagan Plan had been stated to be better because it did not include biotech on the Vavrus property, so there would be no competition between the County and the City; and that it was less dense in residential. Ms. Wong presented the Fagan Plan, which included both sites, and on Mecca there was a large amount of biotech use and there were no specific intensities, however, the plan showed uses including residential and commercial, town center, school, civic and community. This plan had been developed as a concept plan and no traffic analysis was done, no economic analysis, no housing methodology, no allocation of residential units, no detailed environmental analysis, no input from the City or master developer, and no joint planning effort between the City and the County. The City had later gotten involved with the County, and joint planning meetings took place. One of the first joint planning activities had been to allocate intensities for both the County and City. A memo had been written by the City dated February 23, 2004, specifying initial proposed intensities of 6.4 million square feet of research and development. In March, the City revised those numbers, reducing proposed research and development to 2 million square feet, which was further reduced to allocate 1.8 million square feet of research and development to accommodate the County's wishes to minimize competition for biotech uses. Initial proposed residential of 3,000 units was increased to 7,500, the current amount. This increase had been a direct result of working with the reviewing agencies and the County and FDOT on an accepted traffic methodology to capture the highest amount of trips to maximize the sustainable community concept. Ms. Wong reported there had been negative tones associated with the proposed density on the Vavrus parcel. Several Commissioners had alluded to housing being too dense. Ms. Wong stated that housing is important and even with the 7,500 units plus the 2,000 units on the Mecca piece, it was not enough to meet the demand because of the high number of employees that would be generated by the research and development square footage, and there would be a deficit of over 13,000 units. Ms. Wong reviewed a chart illustrating this housing deficit in both the City DRI and County DRI, and a newspaper article from the Palm Beach Post which indicated the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council's staff report had contained criticism of the inadequate housing but had overlooked the County's plan to develop housing on the Vavrus property. The County had recommended that the sentence in the report reading "the plan is short on housing" be changed to state "the plan appears short CITY OF PALM BEACH GARDENS REGULAR MEETING, 8/18/04 2 on housing but is being designed with a residential heavy project on the Vavrus parcel, easing the problem. Lower the requirements for affordable housing from 2250 units to 400." Ms. Wong indicated this was being provided to show the County had endorsed the provision of including housing on the City's plan. Ms. Wong noted she would not read every comment verbatim, but explained that there were specific mitigation conditions developed with County and City staff to provide mitigation conditions for the CRALLS the City requested in June. The mitigation conditions presented dealt with affordable housing, although the total mitigation conditions dealt with a number of things. The reason for showing the affordable housing conditions was to illustrate that there was no way the County would have moved forward with these mitigation conditions unless they had recognized the specific number of units, 7,500, that the City was proposing. Mitigation conditions were described. Ms. Wong then addressed the question of why research and development had decreased — through joint planning the City had decreased it because of the County's concern for competition; and in addition, as part of the mitigations for the CRALLS, the City and the County agreed to include a specific provision that Vavrus North shall maintain the same mixture of uses as set forth in the DRI, May, 2004. Additionally, for the first ten years after the Vavrus North DO, the building permits for the R &D square footage of Vavrus North shall not exceed 50% of the permitted Mecca R &D square footage. This addressed the County's concern regarding competition. The next statement by the Board of County Commissioners was the City did not want to modify the plan to address the County's need and had been uncooperative in the planning process. Ms. Wong reinforced that there had been continuing joint planning efforts with the County and affected agencies, and provided meeting dates, who had attended, and what had been discussed, documenting over 25 meetings of joint planning efforts. Ms. Wong reported there had been a philosophical tone present in many of the County Commissioners' comments, describing the Mecca versus Vavrus projects as competitive. The City's response was the two combined created an overall village. The City had researched economic clusters, studied current growth management principles and economic development principles, and collected research on existing parks. The City also talked to Scripps and asked what they wanted, which was a village encompassing all these elements. The conclusion was that 500 acres referred to yesterday by the County Commission was not enough; biotech users do not like high -rise buildings. The grant agreement between Scripps and the County stated the County shall use its best effort to enter into an agreement with the City of Palm Beach Gardens relating to the development of the Vavrus site. Another comment by Commissioners was that Vavrus would cost the taxpayers of this County $100 million or more if the Mecca property was developed by itself. Ms. Wong responded if another developer was coming on board being paid for by non - taxpayers, there would be a significant shared cost of infrastructure, and this was an unfounded statement, Mecca alone would require taxpayer money for infrastructure. Ms. Wong summarized that the current plan was a result of research and analysis including housing, economic, traffic, and site conditions, environmental assessments, etc., and represented joint planning efforts between City staff and County staff. The City had been cooperating and was working on the project to create a world -class economic engine. The City had lowered R &D and increased residential intensities at the County's request. County staff had represented that the current intensities in the City's plan should remain, and both DRI's combined would provide the village, and the cost would decrease because the infrastructure cost would be shared by both projects. Councilmember Levy asked if information on other parks had been provided to the County CITY OF PALM BEACH GARDENS REGULAR MEETING, 8/18/04 3 and if they had provided any information to the City, to which Ms. Wong responded County staff had been cooperating with the City and sharing information with the City. Vice Mayor Russo expressed disappointment with the comments made at the County Commissioners meeting, and stated the City never selected the location for Scripps but said they would do whatever they could to make it work to have Scripps in Palm Beach County. This was done and then yesterday he had heard the plan failed because of the City's lack of cooperation. Vice Mayor Russo expressed frustration and concern that if the Brigger tract was selected they wanted the whole thing there but that was entirely within the City and it was not fair to residents to give control of some of their land to someone else. The Vice Mayor indicated he was willing to cooperate but the first thing needed was for the City to request a joint meeting between the City Council and the County Commission for them to get back on the same page. Scripps was far too important for the City to sit back and let emotion get involved. Councilmember Delgado expressed her frustration also, and strongly urged the report presented tonight be shared with Dr. Lerner and Doug Bingham, legal counsel for Scripps, so that they could be fully informed, and made a motion to set up a joint meeting with the County Commission. Mayor Jablin indicated a motion was not necessary and there was consensus of the Council; and reported for the record that Councilmember Levy had arrived at 4:39 p.m. and was a part of this discussion. Mayor Jablin advised all of the information would be sent to Scripps and the County, including the following prepared statement: The City of Palm Beach Gardens has continued to cooperate with Palm Beach County and the Scripps Research Institute to provide a home in this County for the Scripps Research Institute. In response to some of the County Commissioners' disparaging comments about the City of Palm Beach Gardens, this City is not the reason the County Commission is reconsidering their position regarding site selection for the Scripps Research Institute. City staff has responded to Palm Beach County and the Department of Transportation's request to increase the number of residential units from 3,000 to 7,500 on the Vavrus site. The residential increase was to help the County reduce the number of trips anticipated by the Mecca development to comply with their traffic performance standards ordinance. The biotech square footage for the site was reduced from 6.4 to 1.8 million square feet dedicated to research and development in order to compliment the development of the Mecca site at the County's request. The Mecca and Vavrus site plans were developed through a jointplanning effort with the County's consultants and City staff. The fact that certain County Commissioners are not informed, are ill - informed, or politically motivated to find someone else to blame for their own lack of due diligence is indeed unfortunate. The City of Palm Beach Gardens has fully cooperated with the County in regards to the Scripps Research Institute project over the last ten months. Although the County has requested complete control over the development and permitting of any alternative site selected for the Scripps project, the City of Palm Beach Gardens has a fiduciary responsibility to its residents to act in their best interests. The City has consistently worked with the County on all levels of the Scripps development project to maximize the potential of the Mecca site. We have invested both time and money in the development of the Mecca and Vavrus sites. However, should Scripps Research Institute decide to develop the alternative location on the Brigger tract, the City of Palm Beach Gardens stands ready to cooperate and work with the County in the development of their chosen site, while protecting our citizens' tax dollars and their quality of life today and in the future. Until Scripps Research Institute makes theirfinal decision, the CITY OF PALM BEACH GARDENS REGULAR MEETING, 8/18/04 4 City of Palm Beach Gardens cannot comment on the favorability of either of the alternative sites. Vice Mayor Russo requested addition of a statement that the City offered to meet with the County Commission in an effort to resolve some of these issues and move forward. There was consensus from the Council. Mayor Jablin announced after adjournment of the meeting, questions would be taken from the press. ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business to disc e meeting was adjourned at 5:03 p.m. r APPROVAL: MA OR JABLIN COUNCILMEMBER DELGADO CO CILMEMBER LEVY ATTEST: PATRICIA SNIDER CITY CLERK