An Ordinance By The Pasco County Board Of County Commissioners Establishing A Temporary Moratorium (180 Days) On The Establishment Or Opening Of Any New Or Used Car, Truck, Or Van Sales Business Within The Unincorporated Area Of Pasco County; Providing For Authority; Legislative Findings Of Fact; Moratorium Area; Temporary Moratorium Imposed; Duration Of Temporary Moratorium; And Severability.

1:47Item P sixty one. Could

1:49it

1:49be a public

1:49key?

1:50Item P sixty one was published in Tampe Times on January nineteenth, twenty twenty two.

1:55And I'll read the introduction. P sixty one is in ordinance by the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners. Establishing a temporary moratorium 180 days on on the establishment or opening of any new or used car, truck, or van sales business within the unincorporated area of Pasco County, providing for authority, legislative findings effect. Moratorium area. Temporary moratorium imposed duration of temporary moratori moratorium and severability. No action is required today's is the first Uh

2:27Public hearing.

2:29Yeah. So we will uh see if anyone has signed up to speak to this

2:33item. No one has signed up on the sign-up sheet, but I don't know if anyone is in person who did not get to sign up.

2:42Okay, and is and no one's uh online. So um and board members, just so you know, um we are working on a stakeholder meeting um as we work on the ordin on this ordinance and um we will include both Used car dealer representation and new car dealer representation. We've had quite a few um joint phone calls and uh everyone is on board with um moving forward. Commissioner Mariano? Request.

3:12I did. No. No. Do you want me to do it again?

3:14No, I want you to do it the first time.

3:16I did. Did any was there anyone here that wants to speak to this ordinance? I'm sure I said that.

3:21She was there, so I'm not sure.

3:22Didn't I? Okay.

3:25We're good now,

3:25but

3:26I'm sorry, I didn't hear it.

3:28I'm gonna look at the tape.

3:31Thank you, Madam Chairman. I I know how this all started was the used car dealerships up and down, especially on nineteen, that have just abused Our codes. And doing what they want out there that uh that look terrible. Uh and it's been an ongoing problem. Um And I think we should focus to fix that. However, this moratorium discussion right now, you've got One dealer in particular has got a fifty million dollar investment. Scheduled to open. To possibly

4:02shut him down or delay him.

4:04Yeah, it's not affecting him.

4:05Hang on. Let me just let me just carry on through whatever I want to say. Um if there's any possibility it slows that down. or the perception that others will have that it's not a good place to come to Pasco County because we're working on these things. Could be devastating just his image. Uh this uh resolution the way it's written, there's even a a clause in there where they First of all, they don't spell the word manner correctly. They spell it M O M A N O R instead of M A N N E R. Um but it talks about

4:35having too many inve too many vehicles in inventory causing a problem in the county. Completely a false statement because most dealers don't have any cars in the lot that are new anyway. So I don't think We should be looping in used and new together. with this ordinance because you're you're gonna affect a business that brings tremendous tax base. It's bringing jobs for investment. Uh the demographics for the people in the industry are making a lot of money right now, across the board both ways. I really I've heard from people

5:05in the business that own dealerships, et cetera, builting, going to build, thinking about building. And everyone I'm talking to is afraid of what we're doing here. Now I know you're gonna call for another meeting and and do a stakeholder meeting, but I'm I'm just saying the image that's out here is putting us I think in a in a dangerous position where I don't think we have a big problem. Just because the used car dealers are are behaving badly, we need to go after them strong. I mean we need to go put the mention to every one of those used car deals that's not following the

5:35code, et cetera, that you're gonna get fined. And unlike the construction board which will take away fines when people come into compliance. We need to go put deadlines to these things to go put the hammer down to enforce our rules, our codes on them not affecting the new car business.

5:50All right, I'm gonna let um Elizabeth Blair speak to the issues that you brought up because we've had We've brought everyone on board, so go ahead and Elizabeth.

5:58Elizabeth Lair, Pasco County Attorney's Office. Um well first off, there is an exception to the moratorium in here and I'll and I'll read it to you. It's in section four. It says the only exception to this moratorium are vehicle sales businesses. That have an approved site plan and are operating in accordance with the approved site plan and any county-approved amendments to that approved site plan. This was purposely crafted this way to allow anyone who's active in good. uh uh following our code to be able to go forward. This does not stop any good actor from operating their business, from

6:29opening the business, as long as they get an approved site plan, which is part of the process. So folks that are these large new car dealerships, they're going through the process correctly and they won't be stopped whatsoever by this ordinance. For those that Are not good actors and need to come into compliance, it allows them to come into compliance. It's not a prohibition on them submitting site plans or building permits or what whatever they are missing that's getting them caught up in code compliance. So it was crafted in a way where only the bad actors are being

6:59stopped from going down the street and opening up a business that they shouldn't be opening. And as for New and used inventory, there really cannot be a legal distinction that I can make because um a car is a car, the impact of the dealerships can be the same regardless of the status of the vehicle. And oftentimes new car dealerships also sell used cars and it's often questionable whether a car is truly new if it's been used by one of the employees or so forth. So it's kind of a hard line to make.

7:29Yeah and we have had multiple um phone calls with Mr. Fink um talked with the attorney representing Furman's. We talked to the architect and engineer who's designing most of these new dealerships. We've talked with really all all all the guys and Um there is no that is in the pipeline. About to open, about to submit, that will be affected by this. And

7:59we think it's such a a pretty simple Uh rewrite that we think This

8:06is a position to the existing regulations that we have. And the meeting that the commissioner was referring to is actually a meeting not to discuss the moratorium ordinance, but to actually work on the ordinance that we need to draft. And I consider it to be a very small fix. And in fact, the reason we're working with the stakeholders is because they have the industry knowledge as to what's the appropriate park or park product to be on they have obligations under their franchisees agreements and so forth where they only could have a certain amount of inventory anyhow. So we're going to take the

8:36rules the industry uses and put them in our code. That's what applies to everyone.

8:41Yeah and s and once we've been able to explain this, um which I I get is a little complicated, they're all on board because it's not fair to them. Um with their investments that they've made that the other ones get to do what they're doing. So um we you know, after discussions they're they are on board. So

9:03if I could mention I mean I've had the discussions in the last two days with them. And the people that are either kinda building or in the process of building, even the people just have established, don't like it. Um if we have the problem with the used cars and we do think this is an easy fix, why do I need to go do a moratorium? If I need to go fix this and it's gonna be that simple, I shouldn't be bringing the word moratorium out there. Let's just go go do the fix and bring it back. Why do I need to go put this moratorium in place?

9:30Because it protects us when we if you uh were you were around when we had the billboard moratorium? And what happened when we were Am I getting ourselves in trouble? Um when we wanted to stop something, instead we got flooded with billboard permits. So we just want to for the next few months, while we've announced that we're putting some rules in place. We just wanna stop that that from happening. I'm I listen, I a lot of these are in my district and

10:01we are not affecting anybody's new dealership and it will take a just a couple months. So

10:09And Madam Chair. This moratorium will only last the length of its as it takes to update the code ordinance. Correct. For m

10:19Yeah, the moratorium would would be repealed when you adopt the regulations that it's in

10:25And again we're not stopping anyone. Anybody, whether it's a used car dealer, or a new car dealer from going through uh the application process for new dealerships.

10:39And the and the approval and opening of those businesses. Yeah. So them if you're in conformance with the site plan and you're following the rules, you're not affected. Yeah. Anything

10:49else? And there's no action today. All right. Okay. Um P

10:56in case Terry didn't get to it though, um, because you stopped him.

11:02Oh sorry,

11:02too.

11:05No action is required at this time. It's the first of two public hearing. The second hearing will be held on March eighth, twenty twenty, at one thirty PM in Dade City.

11:14Okay. And um Does anyone want to speak to this ordinance? Well no, we We already did that? We already did that. Yeah, you're P sixty two.

11:26Yeah, you're on P sixty two. It's just the the next hearing was not announced. Okay.