A special MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

december 14, 2021

The Lake County Board of County Commissioners met in special session on Tuesday, December 14, 2021 at 10:00 a.m., at the W.T. Bland Public Library, Mount Dora, Florida. Commissioners present at the meeting were: Sean Parks, Chairman; Kirby Smith, Vice Chairman; Douglas B. Shields; and Leslie Campione. Others present were: Jennifer Barker, Interim County Manager (by Zoom); Melanie Marsh, County Attorney; Niki Booth, Executive Office Manager, County Manager’s Office; Kristy Mullane, Chief Financial Officer; and Stephanie Cash, Deputy Clerk.

welcome and pledge

Commr. Parks thanked everyone for attending the District 4 meeting, noting that there was an impressive turnout. He then led the Pledge of Allegiance. He remarked that the Board of County Commissioners (BCC) had taken great pride and had really enjoyed holding meetings within each district over the last six months. He then asked for Commissioner Campione to make some opening remarks.

Commr. Campione thanked everyone for coming to the meeting and pointed out that as the district commissioner for this area she talked with the residents regarding their concerns and tried to tackle certain issues; however, she said that the other commissioners may not be aware of the various issues they had been discussing so this was a great opportunity to have a dialogue with the entire commission, except for Commissioner Blake who could not attend. She related that she wanted to see where the meeting went and that they all may learn things that they had never heard before. She then mentioned that she had one constituent who wanted to speak; however, he needed to leave at 10:30 a.m. and asked if he could speak before that time. She indicated that staff would have a presentation about conservation designed subdivisions since there was so much development happening in Lake County and that they were trying to take the lead throughout the entire county to get everyone thinking about doing things differently. She noted that most of the growth was happening in the cities because they had the utilities and the opportunities to offer to property owners and developers; however, there was so much beautiful, rural, and agricultural land in eastern and northeastern Lake County and they wanted to try to preserve that character while still recognizing property rights.

Commr. Parks then asked for the other commissioners to introduce themselves.

Commr. Shields said that he represented District 1 and that he was there to listen to everyone as he thought the other meetings had been very helpful.

Commr. Smith said that he represented District 3 and that he was anxious to hear what everyone had to say as it was always nice to get input from the citizens. He thanked everyone for being at the meeting, adding that he was happy to see such a great turnout and that it was always nice for everyone to see the commissioners in a more relaxed atmosphere.

lake county basics

Commr. Parks explained that during the previous district meetings the residents would ask questions about the responsibilities of county government, city government, and the constitutional officers; therefore, they put together informational boards explaining the basics of county government which were displayed in the back of the room. He pointed out that they wanted everyone to be educated and know how local officials served them.

Commr. Campione asked if Mr. Collin York, a concerned citizen, could speak now before the presentation, and Commission Parks agreed that was a good idea.

Mr. York said that he had lived in Lake County for over 40 years and currently lived on Lake Yale. He pointed out that Lake Yale was about 4,000 acres and was about 70 percent infected with hydrilla. He noted that it was hard to tell by looking at the lake; however, many boats struggled to make it across the lake due to the overgrowth. He indicated that it used to be a major fishing lake, but was not anymore. He related that according to a brochure he had from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), they were planning on servicing other lakes, but not Lake Yale and opined that it should be taken care of like the other lakes as it used to be a source of tourism for the county. He thanked the Board for what they had done in the past for the lake and said that he wanted to see that continue.

Commr. Campione mentioned that she and Commissioner Smith went on an airboat with the FWC a few weeks ago to tour Lake Yale and Lake Harris, adding that they were very cognizant of the Sunshine Law and sat away from each other. She pointed out that Lake Harris was about 90 percent covered with hydrilla. She noted that the FWC would be spraying Lake Yale in January 2022 at a cost of $2 million of the FWC budget, which represented 20 percent of their invasive species budget for the entire state. She stated that they were taking it very seriously as they indicated they had never seen it so bad; furthermore, she said that hydrilla grew at an exponential rate of 15 feet per day. She explained that the FWC was short about $500,000 to do the entire lake; however, they planned to divide the lake into five parts and spray parts one, three, and five with the hope that parts two and four would get overspray and that would be sufficient. She related that they would also use sterile carp at one fish per two acres and would monitor that. She mentioned that a bad storm was the only way to really eradicate it at this point as it would pull up the root system. She also noted that hydrilla was a good water quality attribute to have in a lake; however, too much of it was a bad thing as it could affect the entire lake and make it unnavigable.

Commr. Smith commented that although Lake Yale was in District 4, it was still in Lake County and he was a proponent of natural resources and wanted to make sure all of their lakes were clean, healthy, and good for ecotourism. He noted that he visited the Emeralda Island Marsh the previous day with the County’s state representative and found that although Lake Yale connected with Lake Griffin, there was no flow due to the canals being clogged up with a weed bank. He said that they were trying to come up with ways to clean the canals for better water flow, adding that it would not happen overnight but that the conversations had started. He indicated that they were concerned about Lake Yale as it was part of the entire chain system and was known for being a big bass fishing lake. He mentioned that Lake Yale had not been addressed last year due to weather because the timing was never right, specifying that it needed to be in the winter with low wind and no forecasted storms.

Commr. Campione said that another factor that came into play was the fact that there was an overabundance of ducks in that lake and they wanted to facilitate the duck hunters to help with that and get the population under control. She mentioned that there were a lot of different interests at play for the exponential growth; however, one of the biggest was the fact that there were not any storms. She also pointed out that after the spraying had been done, they needed to keep everyone informed because as the weeds started dying, they would move towards the shoreline and become somewhat of a nuisance. She remarked that they wanted to keep Lake Yale on their radar and continue to work with their partners, the state agencies, and the Lake County Water Authority (LCWA) on water quality projects.

Commr. Smith commented that maybe the neighbors could help clean up the hydrilla that came to the shoreline.

Commr. Parks expressed that Lake Yale was a code red issue and that although they were taking a short term approach now, they also needed to take a long term approach and continue discussions about the effects of septic tanks and transitioning to systems that would help save the lakes otherwise the same issues would keep happening. He said that hydrilla and algae both affected the water quality within all of the lakes. He noted that this would be a team approach and then thanked Commissioners Campione and Smith for going out into the field.

Commr. Campione mentioned that they had received a grant and had set aside federal money they received from the last budget cycle to work on water quality projects; additionally, she said that they were hoping to offer a new system to the residents of Lake County that was considered to be a central sewer system based upon the amount of nutrients it removed, but that it would not require a central sewer plant. She mentioned that they still needed to decide how much they would contribute to homeowners who wanted to make that transition. She elaborated that it would require a monthly sewer bill from a sewer utility, which she said would not be a huge amount, and that utility would be responsible for the system. She also noted that the drain field would not need to be replaced and that the sewer utility would pump it periodically. She indicated that it was a new technology and had the potential to help the county especially in areas where the cities could not extend their sewer systems. She related that this would allow the individuals to decide whether or not they wanted it and that by doing so they would be helping to reduce the amount of nutrients going into the water table, the aquifer, and water bodies.

Commr. Shields commented that he did not realize how terrible traditional septic systems were for the lakes until he became a commissioner, adding that it would be interesting to see how they could move things forward.

Commr. Parks said that they knew more now than they did before about septic tanks and that he hoped this next generation would make that transition. He noted that they were trying to find a way to not impose a huge cost on people and that they wanted to continue to report to those they represented how they were spending the money and which areas the projects would take place in. He pointed out that they were using the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars to fund some of this and explained that the County received about $72 million and had decided to allocate about $7 or $8 million towards the sewer conversions. He noted that they were going to partner with some cities to identify which areas to use this new technology in. He then explained that they were called distributed wastewater treatment systems (DWTS) and that they were like a mini sewer plant located where the current septic tank was and was monitored by the State. He then mentioned that staff made a presentation to the Board at the July 13, 2021 meeting if anyone was interested in watching that meeting.

conservation subdivision concept presentation

Mr. Tim McClendon, Planning and Zoning Director, stated that he was a third generation planner and a certified planner through the American Planning Association. He pointed out that he would demonstrate the rural conservation subdivision (RCS) concept that staff was promoting and pointed out that the Board was very open to the consideration of an ordinance regarding this. He first gave a background on how this discussion started, noting that the county had been experiencing massive growth in recent years as the current population was approximately 365,000 and was projected to increase to 450,000 by 2030. He indicated that infrastructure was struggling to keep up with the pace of growth and was starting to push out into rural areas resulting in incompatible densities and lifestyles, as well as increased traffic which were major points of consideration at public hearings which caused staff to look for solutions to help offset and mitigate those incompatibilities and inconsistencies. He then discussed the RCS strategies and pointed out that Mr. Randall Arendt, who wrote the book Rural by Design, had made a presentation to the Board discussing his theory on rural planning and highly encouraged everyone to view that presentation. He showed pictures of a traditional subdivision as compared to an RCS and noted that an RCS clustered the development and had about 50 to 70 percent of open space; furthermore, he said that the two designs had exhibited the same amount of density and same number of lots. He indicated that research from the North Carolina State University showed that RCS led to higher home values, reduced infrastructure costs, benefitted wildlife, reduced the amount of impervious surface, and provided access to open space areas which would allow for passive recreation opportunities and connection to nature. He then showed pictures of some examples of subdivisions that had implemented this strategy, noting that there was a 50 acre site in Indian Walk, Pennsylvania that left 40 acres as open space and developed the other 10 acres with 10 dwelling units. He indicated that the next example was from Mr. Arendt and it featured lots that abutted primary roadways so that when driving down a main corridor the front of a house would be seen instead of the back of a house; additionally, he said that this concept would provide green space between the road and the lots. He mentioned that the next examples were designs that had been proposed to the Board previously and pointed out that Avington Park was a 210 acre parcel with a proposal of 400 dwelling units, which he opined was too much density for this site. He noted that they tried to utilize a similar concept by having 50 percent open space, connected trails throughout the entire development, connected green spaces, and wildlife corridors and paths. He stated that Parks at Wolf Branch was a conservation subdivision that had been developed and that the picture on the left was the original concept that Mr. Arendt drew up in 2003. He explained that it was a 116 acre site and only allowed one dwelling unit per every five acres due to it being in the Rural Transition Future Land Use (FLU) designation; however, they ended up allowing one dwelling unit per one acre provided they had 50 percent open space. He indicated that the subdivision was designed around the existing trees on the site, noting that in the middle was a large oak tree canopy. He also mentioned that the lot sizes were anywhere between 12,000 to 30,000 square feet and only the front of the houses could be seen when driving on Wolf Branch Road. He then indicated that staff was still working on a proposed draft ordinance for a RCS, specifying that they wanted to apply this to the Rural FLU series, the Wekiva River Protection Area, the rural protection areas, the Ferndale Community, and the Green Swamp Area of Critical State Concern, and wanted to include the following criteria: limiting the clustered areas to no more than 15 lots, having a minimum of 50 percent open space, having minimum perimeter buffers landscaped with Florida native species, having onsite wastewater treatment systems such as the DWTS, having low impact development (LID) stormwater requirements, having fencing prohibitions such as chain-link and barbed wire, having connected green spaces and protection of wildlife corridors, and having management plans for open spaces and the wildlife corridors. He then mentioned that Mr. Arendt was currently reviewing the ordinance and providing notes to them.

Commr. Campione stated that they were trying to be proactive with future developments to guide the developers into this direction so that they were not clear cutting all the trees and covering an entire piece of property with homes like what was seen all over Central Florida. She related that they wanted to do things differently by grouping the homes together and put the conservation land into a conservation easement so that it stayed in conservation for perpetuity. She clarified that this would not affect anyone that was already on a large parcel and that this was only for the parcels where developers were trying to buy them so they could build subdivisions.

Mr. McClendon mentioned that the densities had been long established for the Rural FLU, the Wekiva River Protection Area, and the Green Swamp and that only one dwelling unit per every five acres was allowed with some areas allowing only one dwelling unit per every 40 acres. He elaborated that state statute and the Comprehensive Plan had very strict rules about density and impervious surface; therefore, passive subdivisions like what was seen in an urban core of a city would not be allowed.

Commr. Smith asked if they could put the presentation on the County’s website as he thought it would be helpful for these meetings.

Commr. Parks said that was a good point and that they should make an effort to get the presentations up. He then invited everyone to attend their February 7, 2022 meeting with all of the cities where they wanted to let them know that the BCC wanted to move forward with this concept to help with growth and to raise the bar for subdivisions. He noted that they wanted to look at a strategy for the natural environment while still respecting property rights as there were proactive policies they could put in place to acquire lands, promote the transfer of development rights, and protect the areas that had documented wildlife passage. He mentioned that they would also be discussing renewing the joint planning agreements (JPA). He then applauded the commission for their efforts on this since about five years ago this would not have been well received; additionally, he said he was thankful to be a part of this as one of the big issues was growth. He relayed his understanding that some people liked the way things were; however, he said that they needed to have these discussions.

Commr. Campione commented that one thing they had previously discussed was mapping the county for blueways and greenways and trying to create connections throughout the county. She indicated that would happen farther down the road; however, they needed to plan now and get the cities on board with them.

Ms. Katherine de Jongh, a resident of the Sorrento area, asked if it was still possible for residents to give feedback on the draft RCS ordinance.

Mr. McClendon confirmed this, adding that they could post the draft ordinance on the County’s website and ask for comments, questions, or concerns.

Ms. de Jongh asked if the BCC would approve the ordinance before it went into effect, and Mr. McClendon confirmed this.

Ms. de Jongh mentioned that a lot of these subdivisions required lawn maintenance, and asked if the draft ordinance would address having a certain percentage of Florida vegetation or possibly minimizing the use of St. Augustine grass as that typically required additional pesticides and chemicals to maintain it.

Mr. McClendon answered that the draft ordinance required the perimeter buffers to include native species and for the open spaces to be maintained in its natural state.

Ms. de Jongh suggested allowing old growth trees to be kept on the land.

Mr. McClendon said that was included in the draft ordinance and that they would see where that discussion led to with the BCC; additionally, he said that the whole concept was for minimal site disturbance.

Ms. de Jongh indicated that the Wekiva River Protection Area was included; however, she wanted to know if the Wekiva Study Area was also included, and Mr. McClendon confirmed this.

Commr. Campione opined that was probably the most important place that needed protection as the Wekiva River Protection Area already had a lot of protection with low densities. She related that the in-between areas, such as east of the City of Eustis and out to the Sorrento area needed protection because she believed that if nothing was done, it would cause consequences, and the County would be out of the equation.

Ms. de Jongh mentioned that the Lake County School Board recently had a concurrency meeting and showed a report about their new buildings and that it seemed as though they were mostly in the City of Clermont area. She opined that the School Board needed to start acquiring land and making plans for building additional middle and high schools as a lot of the schools could not sustain the additional children coming to this area.

Commr. Shields commented that the School Board had a rolling five year plan where they required all developers to submit their intentions so they could determine the future needs; furthermore, he said that he thought the School Board was doing a good job of looking at what was happening in the future.

Ms. de Jongh noted that there was a development going in on Round Lake Road and several others in the area and that the superintendent just put out a notice explaining the areas where schools would be built. She opined that this needed to be a proactive approach as they would be seeing exponential growth and that she did not think this was being planned for as it should.

Commr. Shields suggested asking the School Board for their concurrency report and five year rolling plan.

Ms. de Jongh stated that the conservation subdivision concept was a great idea; however, she thought they should consider having fewer houses with larger lots and still provide the green space as opposed to having houses directly next to each other. She related that having a large amount of open space and zero lot lines was not very desirable for most people.

Commr. Parks commented that it was a complex issue, noting that certain areas of the county should stay at one unit per five acres or more as that was desirable; however, some areas could be annexed in and have one unit per acre and that was where clustering would be beneficial. He opined that the market would dictate that.

Ms. de Jongh mentioned that there was a misconception that there was a housing shortage; however, she opined that there was not a shortage as there were private equity firms that were buying up houses, holding onto them, and not releasing them for sale. She added that she just wanted to make sure that the growth was planned, measured, and responsible.

Commr. Parks agreed with her comments.

A concerned citizen expressed her concerns about how future commissions might handle this concept and whether they would allow higher densities and development in the green space.

Commr. Campione relayed her understanding of those concerns and pointed out that with this type of design as long as the conservation easement stayed in conservation for perpetuity then the parcel could not be changed and rezoned, which should give some type of protection. She also spoke to the concern about the houses being too clustered or with zero lot lines and stated that she was personally not in favor of that extreme; however, she thought it was better to have less of a footprint on the entire parcel. She noted that some people wanted acreage and did not want to live close to their neighbors whereas others wanted to live in the country but did not mind living close to their neighbors, adding that the key was to have a variety.

Mr. McClendon stated that with the clustered example there would be a distributed wastewater system, which would be less of an environmental impact and was what professional planners preferred.

Commr. Parks commented that he understood that type of development was not for everyone; however, there were a lot of benefits to it and studies have shown that they had higher values.

Commr. Smith mentioned that they were in the beginning stages of this and could adjust things as they received more information and that he thought this was a good way to keep Lake County feeling like a small rural hometown.

Commr. Shields addressed the concern about future commissions and noted that he attended a regional planning conference in Seminole County recently and they had been discussing passing an ordinance stating that if someone wanted to change their land use that they would need a super majority vote from the board, which was four out of the five commissioners instead of three out of five.

Commr. Campione then indicated that she wanted to make everyone aware of the road reporter app that could be downloaded from the County’s website for residents to report any issues with roads in real time and that if the road was not in the County’s jurisdiction then they would report that problem to the appropriate agency. She also mentioned that the most recent census came out showing a higher population and that it caused them to redistrict their county commission districts and shift the boundaries around even though they represented the entire county. She pointed out that the new map was on the County’s website. She explained that they were required to have an equal population in each of the districts and that they ended up with about 76,000 to 77,000 in each district. She noted that District 4 now went from the City of Mount Dora north to the Astor community and District 5 moved over to the Town of Lady Lake and the City of Fruitland Park.

Commr. Parks pointed out that 10 years ago District 2, which was the South Lake area, was the biggest district and now it was the smallest land wise.

Ms. Melanie Marsh, County Attorney, remarked that the final adoption of the redistricting was on December 21, 2021.

Commr. Campione also mentioned that there was a link on the County’s website titled “Development Near Me” where the public could see what was being developed and could track any kind of rezoning.

Mr. McClendon clarified that the link was located on the Planning and Zoning page of the County’s website and that it was a mapping program using a geographic information system (GIS). He explained that one could enter in an address and the map would show any projects that had been submitted, such as a rezoning, a conditional use permit (CUP), a mining application, or a site plan application and all of the case information would be available to view.

Commr. Campione then discussed a few issues the residents in District 4 had been having, noting that the unincorporated areas had been having a problem with their trash pickup. She explained that the hauler was bought by another company and that they were struggling to keep up. She indicated that they could report a complaint and oftentimes the hauler would get there within a day or two to pick up the trash. She related that the BCC wanted to know of any complaints so they could keep track of them since they had a liquidated damages clause with the haulers and could fine them. She also noted that they had a major litter problem and that it seemed to be a combination of littering and wind blowing trash from the trash cans when being picked up. She asked for everyone to make a complaint if they saw this happening. She pointed out that there were groups such as Keep Lake Beautiful and Adopt a Road that did clean-up projects and that if anyone was interested in pursuing either of those to let the BCC know and they could get them connected. She then asked for the County Attorney to give an update on the illegal mining activity that had been happening in northeast Lake County.

Ms. Marsh explained that Walkabout Ranch, which was the blueberry farm, was finished hauling and had satisfied their requirements with St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD); therefore, the litigation had been dismissed at that time. She noted that White Water Farms, which was across from Cross Tie Ranch, still had litigation with the County and still had some cross claims; however, it had stalled and was not moving forward. She added that SJRWMD also had litigation against them and that had stalled as well. She indicated that no action had happened since October 2021 and that they were not currently hauling. She mentioned that the Fish Farm on County Road (CR) 44 was close to being done as they had a settlement agreement with them and that there were some sloping issues that needed taken care of. She noted that she believed they had stopped hauling and were working on finalizing the settlement agreement to get it closed out.

Commr. Campione expressed that these were situations where people either took it upon themselves to have these operations under the guise of something they thought was permitted as an agricultural activity such as blueberry farming and fish farming or they thought they could do this type of operation now and ask for forgiveness later. She opined that this had been difficult to get a handle on because the County could not just force them to stop. She also noted that with White Water Farms the judge would not hear the case due to COVID-19 and then once the case was heard, the judge did not grant the injunction and White Water Farms was able to keep mining.

Commr. Shields commented that they were technically regulated by the state and not the county.

Commr. Campione said that it depended on what they said they were going to do and whether they got a permit. She elaborated that the Fish Farm got a permit initially; however, once the County was able to point out to the state that they were not doing what they received a permit for, the state got involved and stopped them. She noted that Walkabout Ranch received a permit for grading and that they were following that; however, she did not think they would ever see blueberries growing out there.

Mr. Gary Pardue, President of the Black Bear Reserve Homeowners Association (HOA), mentioned that he had heard that the gentleman that owned the 105 acres behind Black Bear Reserve had been petitioning for a sand mining operation on that land. He expressed that he, along with his neighbors, were concerned about that as he thought the land was part of the original Planned Unit Development (PUD) and was to be controlled by their restricted covenants. He said that he was unclear why a sand mine would even be considered.

Commr. Campione said that there was not a pending application for that and that she was not sure if they could talk about it.

Ms. Marsh confirmed that there was not a pending application and that they could talk about it. She then asked for Mr. McClendon to explain about the mining threshold.

Mr. McClendon explained that an application could be moved forward for 200 percent of the stormwater requirements for the development; however, one had not been submitted.

Commr. Campione clarified that the SJRWMD had rules about how much retention would be needed and that they required 200 percent for stormwater. She said that was certainly not a mining operation and that what had been discussed with her was that they wanted to make the land flat. She also mentioned that if they wanted to do anything more than what they were allowed to do they would have to apply for a mining site plan, it would go through a permitting process, and the BCC would have to make a decision on it. She remarked that she was completely against anything like that in that area and that if they tried to do something illegally the County would seek an injunction.

Ms. Marsh spoke about the restricted covenants, noting that those were an individual’s private rights that could be enforced against a developer and that it was not something the County would handle. She mentioned that if the developer started hauling dirt then that would need to be reported to the Office of Code Enforcement and then the County would step in. She reiterated that as of right now there were no permissions to move dirt nor was there a site plan approval or a plat application to develop it as residential.

Mr. McClendon clarified that sand mines in the Wekiva Study Area were prohibited according to the Comp Plan.

citizen question and comment period

Mr. Paul Runick, a resident in the Lake Norris Conservation Area, asked for the Board to continue to support the residents in fighting a lawsuit that was currently in place regarding a haul permit. He opined that a haul permit was not needed to haul the sand out for the Blackwater Creek mitigation as he believed the sand could be moved on the site without ever taking it out of the conservation area. He also noted that he had aerial maps from 1941 showing what could be done with the sand rather than hauling it out; additionally, he opined that the SJRWMD was trying to restore that property to the 1941 aerial maps.

Commr. Parks commented that because they were in litigation they could not discuss that.

A concerned citizen asked who was suing the County, and Ms. Marsh answered that it was the Blackwater Creek Mitigation Bank.

Mr. Wes Porak, a City of Eustis resident, expressed his excitement for how conservation minded this commission was and then discussed the conservation issue with Lake Joanna. He pointed out that the Lake Watch program run by the University of Florida monitored several hundred lakes and rivers around the state and looked at water quality trends with Lake Joanna being one of them. He noted that over the last 15 years they had seen the water clarity decline from about 12 feet down to about five feet due to the amount of nutrients going into the lake and the increase in algae blooms. He then commended County staff for being professional, transparent, and helpful over the past three years with regard to Lake Joanna’s issues, and related that staff had indicated that in order to correct some of the problems a retention pond was needed. He mentioned that a nutrient study had been completed to figure out what was affecting the lake and it was found that of the external sources 60 to 70 percent of select nutrients and sedimentation was coming from the City of Mount Dora subdivisions and opined that a retention pond would help to solve that problem. He opined that putting money towards improving the smaller lakes such as Lake Joanna was more beneficial than putting money towards the Harris Chain of Lakes. He then thanked Commissioner Campione for her help with this issue.

Commr. Campione thanked all of the commissioners for their support in working with the LCWA to get money for the baffle boxes and the County Attorney and Public Works Director for working with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) in getting a retention area.

Mr. Jeff Earhart, with the Public Works Department, explained that the construction of the first baffle box should start that current week and should be completed by the end of January 2022, and that they were still working on securing final easements from property owners and funding from LCWA for the construction of the second baffle box.

Commr. Campione stated that they would keep pushing for the retention area next to where the baffle box would be installed on CR 44. She also noted that she wanted this to be a pilot situation so they could replicate their solutions for other lakes that were starting to show degradation.

Ms. Lee Conger, a City of Eustis resident, applauded the commissioners for the work they were doing and for their continued efforts to partner with the City of Eustis. She expressed her concerns about annexation and what mechanisms could be put into place to protect rural transition areas if the City was unwilling to continue with their JPA, and wondered if there could be a rural protection overlay if there was no JPA.

Commr. Parks mentioned that they had been making progress with the joint meetings with the City of Eustis about the Thrill Hill overlay area and noted that they could have an overlay where the County and the City would adopt it and the conservation criteria would apply to either one of them regardless of whether it was annexed in or not; additionally, he said that they would have to hold themselves to that as it would be in both of their codes. He related that they could do that without a JPA; however, he was hoping that at the February 7, 2022 meeting with the cities that they would all agree to look at the JPAs and address these kinds of issues. He opined that it was important to follow what happened in the cities as well since councilmembers come and go and had different priorities. He then explained that Chapter 171 of the Florida Statutes limited the county commission from opposing an annexation if it met the criteria and was next to a city.

Commr. Campione said that one of the things they could do was to work with the cities to create JPAs and a set of rules that everyone felt comfortable with. She noted that the constituents of the elected officials that lived in the city limits also had a role to play by stepping up and being vocal to their city commissions about their vision for their city and how they wanted the rural transitional areas to be developed.

Commr. Smith remarked that the concerned citizens should get their friends that lived in the City of Eustis to stand with them.

Ms. Conger asked if there was language that would be specific about what procedures would be included if the City of Eustis wanted to come forward with a waiver.

Commr. Parks answered that they would make that clear.

Mr. Hugh Kent, President of King Grove Organic Farm in the City of Eustis, stated that he had been involved with the County with land conservation over the years and that he currently owned a 200 acre parcel the lied directly between the city limits of Eustis and the large parcels seeking annexation; furthermore, he pointed out that he had been approached many times about annexing to make those parcels contiguous. He remarked that although he appreciated the position the commission had taken on this, he thought they should move quickly as he believed that this could be their last chance to do a good job of planning that area and retaining some open space once it was built out. He indicated that Mr. Arendt had volunteered to be involved in this and he hoped the BCC would make this a priority.

Commr. Parks mentioned that he believed they had made some progress at the meeting the previous day with the Eustis City Commission regarding Thrill Hill and an overlay agreement. He proposed that they have another face to face meeting with the Eustis City Commission since there were some key issues that still needed to be addressed, such as the open space requirement.

Commr. Campione said that they should do that since they had details they could actually work on.

Commr. Parks commented that they should do that as soon as possible, noting that Mr. Arendt had a model for them to follow. He added that doing so would help save time for staff.

Mr. Vance Jochim, a writer of a governmental blog, stated that he had attended the School Board concurrency meeting the previous day where they displayed a concurrency chart showing all of the proposed developments in Lake County and expressed his concerns about traffic. He indicated that many times the developers were not providing traffic analysis reports and he was unsure why the cities ignored the traffic analysis even when it was provided. He opined that the County should not sit back and allow the cities to waive things and allow construction to start before permits were finalized just because they did not want a lawsuit. He remarked that he did not understand why the city councils could vote to approve developments when they were not aware of all of the impacts.

Ms. Christina Susewitt, a City of Eustis resident, thanked the Board for their diligence during the ARPA funding. She pointed out that she brought a prioritization matrix from 2016 which ranked what was needed in Lake County and noted that most of the items were provided by hospital district providers. She indicated that four of the providers were within a qualified census tract within District 5; however, there were only two providers within District 4 and those had not been getting as much clinical care funding. She suggested that if funding became available from Lake Technical Center they should distribute $1 million to each district and figure out what the critical needs were for those districts as it related to COVID-19 response.

Ms. Louise Allen, who lived on Lake Yale, expressed her appreciation for what the Board was doing for Lake Yale and volunteered to help in any way she could to promote any work that needed to be done with the HOAs of the different communities that lived on the lake. She mentioned that the hydrilla overgrowth had drastically increased within the last two years.

Commr. Parks pointed out that he had created a partnership model in South Lake where the HOA leadership for the neighborhoods that were impacted by the widening of the turnpike would meet and they would keep a line of communication with staff.

Ms. Allen mentioned that she had called all of the communities that lived on Lake Yale that morning letting them know about the meeting and if there was any information they wanted her to relay to the Board regarding this issue.

Commr. Campione said that they should connect and have another meeting just for that purpose, adding that they could get FWC to attend the meeting as well.

Ms. Cindy Newton, who lived on Lake Swatara, thanked the Board for everything they had been doing for District 4, and then expressed her concerns regarding traffic, the need for a local food source, and for protecting the rural protection areas so that Lake County would continue to have food, water, and shelter. She also expressed concerns about recharge regulations with SJRWMD, noting that the same recharge was required after development as before; however, she opined that the increase in consumption for the houses was not taken into consideration and that it was always going into the negative. She mentioned that the clear cutting of trees was also concerning since they were typically burned after being cut down and carbon was being released back into the atmosphere. She indicated that District 4 was unique in that there were many high recharge areas, a lot of wetlands, and unique farmland soil and that with the continual developing of properties there was not much farmland left.

A concerned citizen from the City of Clermont expressed her concerns for the overdevelopment of Lake County and how it seemed as though it was not being done in balance or with integrity. She opined that the traffic conditions were horrible, the developments were going in too close together, and the necessities to accommodate the influx of people were not being addressed, such as the overcrowding of schools and supermarkets.

Commr. Parks commented that at the December 21, 2021 meeting the Board was going to discuss a list of priority road projects since they allocated funds from the general fund for the first time in over 50 years to start resurfacing roads. He noted that many of the roads were actually county roads and that they relied on the coordination with the cities.

A concerned citizen from the Sorrento area indicated that she believed there was a shortage of deputies with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and was concerned about the noise and traffic problems, as well as the additional wildlife activity on State Road (SR) 46. She also expressed concerns about being annexed and stressed how fearful she was that it would happen. She then asked when the Round Lake Road truck route would be completed.

Commr. Campione clarified that it was the Round Lake Road extension and was considered a collector road and not a truck route, and would extend from Round Lake Road up to CR 44. She then mentioned that in regards to the annexation concern, the City of Eustis wanted to do an Interlocal Service Boundary Agreement (ISBA) to allow non-contiguous annexations and that the Board was not supportive of doing that. She related that the only place where that might come up in the future was in the innovation district in the City of Mount Dora which had been planned for years as an employment center at the terminus of SR 429 and SR 46 in which water and sewer was already available. She assured her that the Board was not in favor of annexing parcels that were non-contiguous.

Ms. Lavon Silvernell, a resident of the Town of Astatula, asked if wetlands would be included in the percentage of open space with the new road development plan

Mr. McClendon answered that wetlands and water bodies were not included.

Ms. Silvernell then suggested that they try to designate land as open space now before it was built on. She also mentioned that she thought it would be beneficial to put conservation easements on some of the large rural properties that were still around and to consider reducing the amount of turf grass being used for new builds as she believed the fertilizer needed for it was negatively impacting the water quality which in turn affected the lake quality.

Commr. Parks mentioned that the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation had mapped the entire state and intended to incorporate those maps into the decision making process with the counties. He also noted that there was not enough money to acquire the lands that they wanted to protect in Lake County; therefore, they had to consider things like transfer of development rights which meant putting more density within a city and that city had to be a willing partner to do that. He added that the benefit was that they were able to preserve some of the farm lands and areas that the County was not able to purchase.

Commr. Campione remarked that they needed to be realistic about this as they could not afford all the needs they had as a community. She related that getting information out to the community and making them aware of things they could do on their own property was a big part in helping solve the water quality issue. She noted that although they still had more to do, she thought they had made a lot of headway on that.

Ms. Deborah Shelley, representing Friends of the Wekiva River, stated that they really liked Mr. Arendt’s conservation design to help tackle the growth in Lake County, noting that if the Cities did not agree to the conservation design principles, then it was not effective. She then expressed concerns about recharge, density, annexations, wildlife corridors, and water quality. She stated that she had attended the meeting with the Eustis City Commission the previous day and was glad that the Board was working with them. She also expressed concern about ISBAs and how some of the existing ones were affecting the rural protection areas; additionally, she said that the City of Leesburg annexations were eight miles from the City, some of the City of Groveland annexations were more than 10 miles from the City, and that they were about to lose a significant portion of the Yalaha/Lake Apopka rural protection area. She opined that they needed to consider that part four of Chapter 171 stated that annexations under an ISBA must be urban in character and that rural protection areas were rural in nature.

Commr. Parks stated that he appreciated everyone for attending the meeting that day and thanked the City of Mount Dora for hosting them.

Commr. Campione mentioned that the County made an offer to CSX about buying the railroad right of way from the Sorrento area to the City of Mount Dora and from the City of Mount Dora to the City of Tavares, which could be used as a multi-use trail on the old railroad right of way; furthermore, she said that they were waiting until spring 2022 to hear back from CSX with an answer. She noted that there had been questions regarding installing a light at the intersection of CR 437 and CR 44A and indicated that Public Works would have to do a study to see whether they met the threshold for a light. She agreed that it was a very unsafe intersection and that she would continue to put pressure to move that forward. She then thanked everyone for coming to the meeting and for participating in local government. She also encouraged everyone to continue to email them to follow up on current issues as that was how they got things done.

ADJOURNMENT

There being no further business to be brought to the attention of the Board, the meeting was adjourned at 12:02 p.m.

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SEAN PARKS, chairman

ATTEST:

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GARY J COONEY, CLERK