Tavares, FL Mar. 11, 2018
I uploaded a video to YouTube of the Tavares, FL City Council meeting held on March 7, 2018 which is HERE: https://youtu.be/AWMAe7TYQC0.
The agenda location is on the 2nd slide. Length is 1 hr, 17 min.
The short link to THIS blog page is: https://tinyurl.com/TavaresFLMarch7
I have decided to write some comments about the actions seen in this meeting video which are below.
Tab 7 - Annexation and Rezoning related to Shirley Shores Road / Hidden River Lakes proposed 222 acre development. THIS WAS POSTPONED DUE TO IMPROPER NOTIFICATION OF THE PUBLIC BY THE DEVELOPER'S REPRESENTATIVES.
See overview starting at 3:55 on the video then more later. Probably at least 60 neighbors were there for this issue and for the 3rd or 4th time, the procedures were botched, so the issue was postponed to a future meeting. Apparently the developer representatives must follow certain steps and the city staff does not ensure they are followed, then the opposition attorney raises the issue and ONCE AGAIN, the issue is postponed. I am flabbergasted the City staff has no sanctions or fines to apply when zoning/land use change requesters don't follow the rules. So everyone will have to return in 2-4 weeks. The developer representative was an attorney from Clermont, and the Mayor and City Council avoided asking the details why this happened again.
Tab 8 - Large Scale Future Land Use Amendment for the same Shirley Shores issue above and there is a discussion later in the video and a vote taken and approved 4 to 1 because this request was not affected by the lack of proper procedures. The discussion, however, did explain the difference between tab 7 & 8, which was good. Basically, this action approved an outline map and a setting of the new density for the development which goes to the State of Florida for approval, but tab 7 is where the specific layout of the lots is described.
Tab 9 - The issue of how to replace a fallen fence behind the Joann Fabric Shopping Center on highway 441 returned. This first came up at the Feb. 21, 2018 meeting ( see that March 21 discussion HERE )where owner and attorney Robert Tamburro explained why he wanted to use cheaper hedges, rather than a wood fence or solid wall to meet the requirements for replacing a fallen wood fence behind the center to somewhat separate it from nearby homes. At that meeting, staff said it may take one year for the hedge plants to fill out the "fence" area, but neighbors contested that it would act as a barrier.
His hedge idea was opposed by many nearby home owners who described how drug addicts (it is on the prior meeting video) were cutting through the open fence and making drug deals.
This time, staff returned with more facts, BUT several City Council, possibly reacting to the neighbor complaints, had actually READ the regulations and asked staff how hedges could be approved when the regulation clearly said an opaque wall is required. This seems to be a continuing pattern where City staff doesn't always completely enforce the written rules (see Shirley Shores). Some City Council members were not happy with the "open" hedge proposal and requested further action. I am not sure what will happen next. It was interesting to see that even though at the February 21 meeting, neighbors complained about seeing drug deals, there was no action at that meeting or this one to ask the police chief how to reduce the perceived drug dealing problem behind Robert Tamburro's shopping center.
Public input
It was heard from several people, including TJ Fish, and myself.
Another interesting speaker was the Planning & Zoning Board Chair, Gary Santoro, speaking about the need for maintenance and repair of lousy COUNTY roads that run through City areas like the proposed Shirley Shores development. I told him later that poor County road maintenance was caused by the County Commission waiving most of the road impact fees on new construction in North Lake County, thus when new roads or infrastructure was needed, they must siphon funds from other sources like the general fund, thus the County is perpetually short of funds to maintain existing roads. (There are other reasons also). The local papers never cover this side of issues like this, so if you are aggravated about County road conditions, watch his public input near the end of the video.
Another reason for poor road maintenance is that when cities annex properties on one or both side of poorly maintained County roads like Shirley Shores (leads to Deer Island), they refuse to take responsibility for the existing roads although they collect water, sewer and property taxes for the annexed areas. Thus they take property tax away from the County, but refuse to take responsibility for the roads when the land is annexed in. Thus the County has 100 or more miles of such roads surrounded by city annexed properties that are run down.
Raise hell with your elected COUNTY AND CITY elected officials if you have to drive over the poorly maintained, narrow roads. I go to all their meetings also. They keep kicking this road maintenance and new infrastructure funding can down the road to shift available funds to new buildings for the Elections Supt., and "life style" projects like Sean Parks's Wellness Way, parks, trails, etc. Not long ago, they renewed the County/City & Schools Penny tax, and stealthily removed a requirement for the County to spend half of their 1/3 portion on roads, thus they can spend it on new fire houses, etc, but no spending on roads.
Final Comment about Tavares:
Tavares is a great city with likeable staff and officials, but the Council seems to avoid tough issues and it reminds me of the original Jaws movie where the Town leaders fought to have any negative news about shark attacks being distributed to the public.
There seems to be a pattern where Tavares had detailed rules on walls, land use, development approvals, road quality, etc. where the County Attorney or staff don't ensure compliance. Then when someone like the Shirley Shores sophisticated retired residents hire an attorney who READS the regulations and points out all the unfulfilled rules, they get caught, but still don't want to follow the written rules.
The same for the Council members reading the rules about walls and rightly questioning why staff accepted a hedge rather than what the regulation required. Will the City Council require rule enforcement (like the County does), or continue a laizzes-faire ( "a policy or attitude of letting things take their own course, without interfering") approach? Will the City Council and staff implement quality control procedures and sanctions over developers who constantly fail to follow EXISTING rules and are not sanctioned for delays they cause? If they won't follow EXISTING rules, then revise the rules to eliminate the unwanted terms.
Video by Lake County, FL fiscal watchdog blogger Vance Jochim at FiscalRangers.com . Leave comments and LIKE this channel if you want more coverage like this. Contact him at [email protected] .
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