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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Council 080102 WorkshopCITY OF PALM BEACH GARDENS CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP MEETING August 1, 2002 The August 1, 2002 Workshop Meeting of the City Council of the City of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, was called to order at 5:30 P.M. in the Council Chambers of the Municipal Complex located at 10500 North Military Trail, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. ROLL CALL: The City Clerk called the roll and the following elected officials were found to be in attendance: Mayor Jablin, Vice Mayor Sabatello, Councilmember Clark, Councilmember Russo, and Councilmember Delgado. ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION: Christ Fellowship PUD Amendment, North and South Campus — Neighborhood coalition members introduced themselves. Attorney Alan Ciklin, representing Christ Fellowship, explained that the church was required to add supplemental parking as a condition of approval, and an additional 500+ spaces were proposed to be added right away. A conceptual plan was presented showing additional proposed future buildings with the required setbacks and additional ingress /egress. Staff advised the 20 acres would have to be rezoned to add the supplemental parking. Mr. Ciklin indicated only the 10 -acre parcel would need to be rezoned to add supplemental parking, which the church understood was needed in order to get approval for 2,400 seats. Discussion ensued. Mr. Ciklin clarified that the church was seeking 1,750 movable seats to accommodate those people who now had to stand. Neighborhood coalition members objected to intensity of use in a residential neighborhood. Mayor Jablin indicated the concern was that future plans were too intense. Councilmember Russo indicated even if the property were rezoned the church could not obtain a building permit to add the parking because it was over the minimum size that could be developed without going through the PUD process, and staff clarified that the minimum size was one acre. Mr. Ciklin explained that the moveable seats would be single chairs. Growth Management Director Charles Wu indicated the applicant would need to provide enforcement. Staff reported the Fire code allowed a maximum of 2,284 but under City code 2,640 persons were allowed to be sitting and standing. Councilmember Russo noted the code needed to be changed because the City Council had believed they approved 1,750. Staff explained that traffic concurrency was based on the size of the building and had been met; but parking had not been met for 2,640 people. Mayor Jablin stated if 1,750 seats were approved he would like to know that only 1,750 people could attend. Siro DeGasperis commented at the time of the original approval he had stated that whatever number was agreed to, the church would be back to ask for more; that the City Council had approved 1,750 seats but the church built a building for 2,500; for 5 years they had constantly violated the conditions of approval; and suggested they had planned all this from the beginning. Mr. DeGasperis suggested that the church should build another sanctuary somewhere else to accommodate their growth. Mr. Ciklin responded that was unfair, and the church believed they met all the requirements or if they did not they needed to hear that. Mr. Ciklin noted that the building had been approved and constructed for 2,500 seats and that 2,500 seats had CITY OF PALM BEACH GARDENS WORKSHOP MEETING, 8/1/02 2 been requested, but the Council had limited the number to 1,750. Mayor Jablin indicated that at the time he had believed the sanctuary would be built to hold 1,750 and the rest of the square footage would be used for offices, etc., which was not what had happened. Mayor Jablin advised that if more than 1,750 showed up for a service, then the church needed to add another service. Mr. Ciklin noted that would magnify the alleged inconvenience to the surrounding neighborhoods. Vice Mayor Sabatello asked for clarification of the seating approval, to which Mr. Wu responded that the approval was for 1,750 seats and did not mention capacity of the structure. The Vice Mayor noted there was no enforcement in case the number went over 1,750; and suggested it would make sense to come up with a cap of attendance capacity in the building area. Mr. Wu indicated that was possible and that staff had figured that to be 2,284 moveable seats for the Fire code. Vice Mayor Sabatello indicated it did not matter if the seats were moveable or not, but the total capacity should be defined. Discussion ensued. The City Attorney advised if moveable seats were granted the church could come in later and ask for permanent seats up to 2,542. It was clarified that a moveable seat took more room than a permanent seat. Councilmember Delgado noted the original approval language only said 1,750 seats and did not mention maximum people, which needed to be specific in the future. Mr. Ciklin advised that if the City Council granted approval for their request, the church would agree to limit the number of people to be the same as the number of seats. Discussion ensued by the neighborhood representatives. A major concern was that the City Attorney had advised that if the City Council changed the existing approval in any way either by granting the church's request, a portion of the church's request, or denying the church's request, that would open the door to the City being subject to the Religious Land Use and Incarcerated Persons Act of 2000 (RLUPA). Vice Mayor Sabatello indicated he wanted to define the gray area by placing a cap on capacity but if that could not be done it seemed to him the direction was that the land owner would go to the courts and let the courts define the gray area. Mayor Jablin noted that the church saw 1,750 as a base and he saw it as a limit. Mr. Ciklin commented the church had no intention of suing the City if a number could be agreed upon. The City Attorney advised he did not think if the City Council complied with the applicant's request that they would be accused of violating RLUPA; and that the position advanced by the church was if the City did not modify the conditions then they were applying the 1997 conditions again, two years after enactment of RLUPA, and thus were in violation of RLUPA. Attorney Watterson continued that if some vehicle could be found that would allow agreement to be reached, the applicant had indicated they would not sue, and supposing that could be done so that this could be ended once and for all and the City would not question in the future what they did in 2002, maybe that could be accommodated. Mr. Watterson commented that he and Attorney Rubin were looking into any way they could assure the citizens that any agreement entered into at this time would be a done deal forevermore, and they had not yet figured that out. Mr. Watterson advised it would be tricky and the City must be careful not to reach agreement with the church but still leave the door open to be sued by a member of the church under RLUPA, and the attorneys could work with Mr. Ciklin if so directed by the City Council and come back with a report, but it would come down to the enforceability of the agreement that would be reached on this application. Mayor Jablin noted that another route that could be taken was to ask a judge for declarative action on RLUPA to determine if it was applicable in this particular case. Attorney Watterson advised he believed RLUPA to be unconstitutional and that it would eventually be stricken down. Mayor Jablin noted there were many gray CITY OF PALM BEACH GARDENS REGULAR MEETING, 8/1/02 3 areas and he felt the City should obtain definitive information on RLUPA to know how to handle future requests. Attorney Watterson clarified that in the request for declarative judgment the courts could either decide the law was completely inapplicable because it was unconstitutional, or could presume constitutionality and decide that denial of the request was not a reapplication of the 1997 conditions. The only thing that could complicate the issue and make it more costly and time consuming would be if another party decided to complicate the case and broaden the decision. Mr. Watterson commented he hoped Mr. Ciklin's past comment of `you sue us and we'll sue you' would not enter into the declaratory judgment request, for which he estimated a $10,000 cost, and did not expect that the church would be interested in spending a lot just to wear down the City. Councilmember Russo asked if the applicant was entitled to due process, stating that he did not want to be sued on the land use if the City went for declaratory judgment. Attorney Watterson responded that the land owner was entitled to a final hearing on their land use request and based on his experience in a previous case, if the applicant brought a lawsuit because they felt their request was being delayed, the City would win. Councilmember Russo noted that the neighborhood coalition was intent on no additional development and the church was intent on additional development, so there was no use to hold another session, that nothing had been accomplished tonight, and the public hearing would proceed on September 5. Attorney Ciklin offered something to think about before September 5, which was that the church was willing to live with the life safety code of 2,284, which was the law anyway; was willing to enter into anything enforceable to enforce that number; that they considered the shuttle bus issue a non - issue; that Pastor Mullins agreed to reduce the number of extra events to six; that the church wanted the ability to simulcast off -site to the south campus, keeping in mind there was a limit of seats and life safety codes at that campus, too. Attorney Ciklin commented that in this interim possibly a way might be found to fashion an agreement, but if not, the church would just go on from there, and the church was here to try to work things out and not to foster a lawsuit, but that was not to say they would not protect their rights. Attorney Waterson asked for clarification that the applicant was willing to agree to 2,284 total or maximum capacity if a way could be found to make that stick; to which Attorney Ciklin responded that was correct; agreed to no people standing at all; and commented the easy way to enforce that was to have 2,284 seats and when those were full that was the limit. Attorney Ciklin indicated he was available to work with the City Attorney over the next month and to utilize all the resources of his law firm. CITY OF PALM BEACH GARDENS WORKSHOP MEETING, 8/1/02 4 ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at approximately 6:15 p.m. APPROVAL: ATTEST: �=�= PATRICI-A= SNIDER a' CITY CKEll ` __