Conditional Use Request (Regular) – Bear Creek Group Home/Elevated Youth Services – Conditional Use for a Residential Treatment and Care Facility in an
What the county recorded
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The source document
The county’s agenda for Planning Commission, Jan 22, 2026
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
What was said
Machine transcription of 2h 15m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 73% of 610 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
The last item that we have on the agenda today is P13. It's PDE 26CU09, a conditional use request in the name of Bear Creek Group Home slash Elevated Youth Services to allow for the conditional use for residential treatment and care facility in an R4 high-density residential district on approximately 0.16 acres, located in the Westmarket Pasco County, east of Nature Trail Road, approximately 990 feet south of the intersection of State Road
52 and Nature Trail. And this one is coming with the request to recommend approval to the Board of County Commissioners of the conditional use request with conditions as set forth under the recommended conditions section below. And for this item, I would also like to note that in finding a FAC 19, it was originally stated that the subject site is on the west side. And this was updated to reflect east side. An electronic hat excuse me, an electronic copy of this revision was also provided to the clerk's office.
Okay, very good. Thank you. Is the applicant present?
Okay. You're the applicant?
Normally you need to hear from staff first.
Yeah. All right. Staff?
Brian Junker with Planning Development and Economic Growth.
Thank
you.
Today before you we have a conditional use uh for Berkeley Group Home. doing business as elevated use services. The proposal is a conditional use Current zoning is an R4 high density residential district. Future land use is REST, residential six. The purpose of the project is to increase the number of beds of the existing residential care treatment facility from six beds to ten beds in
accordance with the Florida Statute Chapter 419.001 and pursuant to the Land Development Code Section 517. The subject site is located west of Nature Trail Road, 990 feet south of the intersection of State Road 52 and Nature Trail. I would like to mention that after staff completed the review It was mentioned that on finding of Fax No. eleven, there was no code code enforcement
violation record for the Wesley Chapel location. After further review with the Code Compliance Department, it was found that four code enforcement complaints had been reported by the citizens for the Wesley Chapel location, and one code enforcement violation reported for the I Y S elevated use services located in Nature Trail in State Route 52. All violations reported for both location were closed out. as no code
violation observed by the officer at time of inspection.
This is a general location of the subject site, which is located on the embassy district of the West Market area.
Here is the context map.
And here we have an aerial view of the subject property.
The current feature land use uh for the property, which is um R4.
We got current zoning for the property.
On the project overview, the subject site consists of an existing two thousand two hundred eighty six square feet of single family dwelling on approximately point sixteen acres. This was the source is Pasco County Property Appraiser, The applicant is currently using the dwelling as a six-bed community residential home, pursuant to Florida Statute Chapter 119.001. The conditional use request is to increase the number of beds from six
to ten in accordance with the section LDC section 517.3. Access to the property is from Nature Trail Road, a county maintained residential road with approximately fifty feet of right of way. On March 3, 2022, the Planning Commission approved similar facility for elevated use services located at 26318 Lawrence Avenue, Wesley Chapel, Florida.
And here the project comes to you with a recommendation for approval with condition from the Planning Development and Economic Growth Department.
Okay,
thank you.
Any questions? I
have
a question. Yes, sir.
Brian, um I'm looking at the proof of publication and the sign for this item looks a little different than our normal signs. Do you have an idea why? Looks I mean and specifically some of the text is cut off. Do you know why that is?
On the the sign was actually when it was actually printed, was printed by the applicant and it was found that the correct date and place of the hearing was on the sign.
Sure. How do we normally generate I mean, 'cause I looked at all the other signs that are on the In our packet, yeah. Do we normally produce the signs? Or like how how how do how do these how do we normally generate signs?
No, we actually don't generate the sign ourselves. Uh the instructions and the template are provided to the applicant and the applicant is responsible for printing and putting what the sign in their property out of the right of way.
So This particular applicant just printed it differently than the other applicants did?
Okay. I'm just trying to figure out why this one is the only one that where the text is sort of cut off on the sign. Is it just because they printed it wrong?
Yes, I think it was um printing
error.
And in staff's opinion, is the description on the sign sufficient to Put the public on notice on as to what the application is?
At the moment when the picture was sent, the correct location, to be the correct time, and dates were on the sign. And at the moment, the applicant provided and staff received what the applicant provided to us.
Did it have an explanation on the sign of what what it was supposed to be changed to?
I mean it does say it's for conditional use for a group home. I I I I the problem is I can't tell what text was cut off because it's cut off. So I don't know what was it appears that it's it was identifying the location of the parcel Which would sort of be irrelevant for
For the sign.
For the sign because it's it's on the parcel. If that's all that got cut off, then I don't I'm not I'm less concerned, but I I Is your understanding, the staff's understanding, that's all that got cut off?
Correct. Yes. Uh Amy toll Planning Development Economic Growth. That's what it does appear as if it's just the general location from the title that they utilized. Uh the applicant c is here also if we need confirmation from them as well.
Were weren't new standards approved for the sign that even specified like size of the sign and wasn't there an issue with Some signs weren't legible, and so we went to the standardized sign process?
Yeah, absolutely. So uh at the end of last year we implemented an updated sign process with the new template and everything that was approved by the Board of County Commissioners. Um so the template in this scenario is is used. It's just not printed on that size. Our development review manual has not been updated. I was just made aware that the development review manual hasn't been updated since 2022. So that change that happened at the end of last year has not been reflected. So we are actually proactively working on making sure that that's
now updated.
So our regulation that requires the sign to meet to meet a certain format is not implemented yet?
Correct.
Okay.
Who's the applicant?
The applicant is Nicole Gladin. She is present
today.
The name of the entity is Bear Creek Group Home and is under 26 318 Lawrence Avenue LLC doing business as elevated use services.
Okay. That's not exactly what it says on the sign, but
Okay.
Okay.
Are there any other questions? Yes. Yes, sir. Go ahead. Finding of fact number 14. Says they want to build a duplex on the lot.
I will have to check that. I don't recall for the top of my head. If I get opportunity I will check the notes on the memo agenda.
Uh oh, hold on. Let me just get back to it here.
Says finding of fact number fourteen, the following excerpt is from the applicant's project narrative attachment to I respectfully request that the Pasco County Zoning Department reviews this proposal and approves the construction of a duplex on the above-mentioned property.
Yes, now I recall that one. I will need to defer to the applicant since that was part of the narrative that she provided. And We basically quoted the applicant on that information that was provided.
So are we asking for a conditional use for a group home or are we trying to build a duplex?
No neither.
I'm just trying to figure out
the
impact would be relevant if this application is not to construct a duplex. Which would be a special exception probably anyway, but
Uh I can speak to that. Uh Amy Toll, Planning and Development. I would I'm looking at it right now. Um in my opinion, I would recommend we scratch so we can make the change. Number 14, uh the Number fifteen looks like the applicant's excerpt. We can make the adjustment to make sure that it's addressed uh or updated accordingly. This should be a con is a conditional use request for a residential treatment care facility, not a duplex.
Which is consistent with the narrative that's in our agenda package.
Correct. Correct.
So you're comfortable with that.
Well, regardless of what the applicant put in the statement, you're not granting approval f even if you gr gave this approval, you would not be approving a duplex.
That'd have to be a separate
approval. Approval. Understood.
Okay.
Just confusing.
It is.
I agree with you, it's confusing, but there's no circumstance where this approval could be considered an approval of a duplex. Okay, understood.
Okay. Any other questions? If not, uh does the applicant have anything they'd like to say? The applicant.
Yeah, but can I ask staff one more time? Yeah, go ahead. How many bedrooms are in this home?
I will need to defer that to the applicant. If I'm not mistaken, I understand, but please don't quote me on this, it's three bedrooms. They might have a little bit more, but I will need the applicant to answer that question. Okay.
All
right. Fair enough.
All right, thank you very much. Thank you. We'll just listen to the last the applicant, please.
Hello. Nicole Gladding, [address removed], Fort Ritchie. I don't have a presentation. Um I figured I could answer questions that come up. We have no intention of building a duplex. I'm not sure where that narrative came from. There is no need or intention to do so. It's a five bedroom home.
Okay. Very good. Does anybody have questions? And then you can respond if the public has questions. Sure. Okay.
Sure. So there's quite the list of police calls to this facility in our packet. And I see that the applicant's response is that you don't want to provide any information about the police calls. Can you tell us why that is?
No, that's not the case. Um my response was that we can speak about the different police calls that you might have in question. Police are coming on to campus regularly because there's welfare child checks. If there is any type of CPI involvement that is happening because of foster care, they always are um a com a accompanied by a police officer. We do routine police involvement for positive enforcement, not for just the negatives. So
those involvements are listed as well anytime we ask them to come on site. There has not been any runaways or Um Or negative reason for police involvement at this property. There has been child protective investigators that have come on site that are accompanied by an officer. There has been welfare child checks that have come on site based on like parents who are wanting their child checked on outside of us or Department of Children and Families. But the police calls that have come out
has not been for fighting, any type of arrest. Arrest, the officers are here and they can also speak to that. But there's been no runaways, no baker acts, no arrests from this property.
Okay.
Mm-hmm. And I'm talking about the Bear Creek group group home, right? Yes ma'am. Yes, sorry.
Okay. Well and you run the one in Wesley Chapel too?
I run them all.
Okay. And it looks like there's quite the laundry list of calls out there at that facility too.
There was. Those have drastically reduced.
I see.
None of these these are all welfare checks?
No. No, there has been
welfare check on the list.
No, there are no well there are welfare checks that um have been Called in from Department of Children and Families. It could be from just a regular parent who wants their child checked on, Guardian Ad Litems, any type of government agency who comes on campus has to bring an officer, most likely. And every time an officer comes out, they come with two units. So there's always more than one patrol officer on site. Um the responses in Wesley Chapel are
conditions out there per our um Not a special exemption, but our alternative relief that we had approved. Um, that required that any time we lost line of sight with a child we had to notify law enforcement. So that is uh a condition that has been imposed on us, though we do uphold a big human trafficking presence and we will call law enforcement and help to recover those children and get them back into a safe house um every time. But the
police involvement out there has drastically reduced.
Would you say that most of the residents there are human trafficking related or is it more
So the children that we serve th there are some human trafficking victims there. Um The whole mission of our program, we do not serve child sex offenders, we do not serve registered sex offenders, we serve children who are sexually reactive. So all of our kids have experienced sexual abuse in the past, whether it's been done to them or it has been witnessed by them, whether they've been trafficked by their parents for drugs, you name it. That is the type of child that we serve. And we bring them into our
group home. It's a clinical program. It lasts 12 to 18 months and they work through clinical phases to stop the cycle of sexual abuse. We don't want them to end up being sex offenders. We don't want them to be trafficked, become like part of the stigma of being a sex offender. So we work with them. We have been working with the coalition, the human trafficking coalition. We work with Pasco County Human Services Administrator to work on our mobile response team that we have internally because we
want to limit the use of the resources of police officers and be able to utilize our own mobile response team so that we're not Baker acting all the time. The kids that have been human trafficked, 75%, I'm sure you're all aware, of the three big stings that have happened. Over November and December of just this past year, and there was 247 people arrested right here in the Greater Tampa Bay area for human trafficking. 75% of those kids that were recovered are dependent children or
runaway children. 75% of kids are dependent, which means they're in foster care. And so if there aren't people that are going out and searching for them and looking for them and and advocating for them, they are going to get lost in the system because they don't have parents and other people who are fighting for them to bring them home. 50% of the children, more than 50% of the children that were found in Operation Home for the Holidays in November. More than 50% of them are right from our backyard, right here in the Greater Tampa area.
The rest of them were from all over Florida. So we are diligent in making sure that these kids who do not understand healthy sexual backgrounds, understand healthy sexuality, understand what is right and wrong, healthy relationships or relationships with parents or the people that are supposed to keep them safe, they don't understand. What's right because the people who are supposed to keep them safe have completely abused them and turned them out. It's terrible. And we have opened six group homes and I can tell you we are full.
We are being begged to open more because there are so many kids who are at risk of human trafficking. There are so many kids who are being sexually abused by these parents. Coming from Child placement investigators that have nowhere to put them and they're begging us and we've only been in operation for five this is our fifth year and we can't get homes open fast enough to save these kids. That is what we do. We do not serve sex offenders. We do I know that is a lot of what people think. We do not serve adjudicated um
I'm sorry, I'm getting at him. I get very passionate about it, so I'm sorry. But we do not serve kids who are felons. We're not allowed to per our conditions. We are we're not allowed to serve registered sex offenders. They're all minors. They have to be moved out by the day before their eighteenth birthday. Every home has a specific age group that they So that they're all kind of in the same cognitive development level. Um This home in Bear Creek, the oldest child that would ever be there is thirteen. Um
I mean I could talk about our program all the time because I'm passionate about it, but
I was gonna say I can definitely attest to the need for these places. Now, whether or not it should be in this neighborhood or or whatever is a different issue, but I can attest that there's definitely a sure huge need out there.
But what neighborhood would you recommend though? Uh
you
know, respectfully.
I'm not saying yes or no. I'm saying it should or shouldn't.
On this w uh through rotary we've we've We uh the Wesley Chapel Rotary Club built uh bridging uh work with bridging hope, bridging freedom rather. Bridging home out there. So there's tremendous need for it. I understand that. Yes. Well are you able to speak to any of the calls?
Yeah, could you could you adopt it?
One, two, three, four, five on this list. I don't know what this means because there's no information about the call other than what it just says nature. It says sex offense delayed. What does that mean? Right.
So a child that moves in could potentially have charges from prior to or there could be an open case on them from if they had sexually assault been sexually assaulted or had tried to sexually act out on another child or a sibling or their mother or fought back or you name it, a child could come to us that might have a pending like misdemeanor or something. Police involvement is requested from whichever county these children are from, and the police will come out and do the
investigation. We have not had any child-on-child sex reports from this home. We have had one child who was arrested from this home. That is one of the call-outs, I'm sure. It was not anything that happened on our facility or in our presence, it was an old charge where. We had a pickup order and he was picked up from Miami Dade and taken off campus, but he was picked up by a local officer and removed. We've had two, I I know one child specifically, so
two of these calls. His father is not happy that his child was removed from him. He has had two welfare child checks called in. Um one of them was is probably the most recent call on that list. Um that was just recently. You know, they just Just don't trust their child's been removed, um, they don't feel like they've done anything wrong, the child's in foster care now, and he wants the officers to come out and take a look at him.
Do you do some of the welfare checks from CPI, is that count as a call for service as well?
Yes. Yes, CPI anytime that they come out they have to bring an officer as well. And those would be listed as call for service.
Planning commission m Planning Commission members, we do have a representative from the Sheriff's Office here as well. I don't know if he wanted to ask uh questions or not, but
Yeah, if he's willing to
he uh he he offered to attend to answer questions if you wanted to ask him. Okay.
Okay.
All right, very good.
Mm-hmm.
And can we ask?
Chase, did you wanna come on up?
It might be helpful if we put the list up on the on the screen. That's in our agenda package.
Good afternoon. Chase Daniels, Pasco Sheriff's Office, 8661 Citizens Drive. Uh so I I'm here um to answer any questions you guys have. I I know that I had received some data requests uh for two addresses that I provided to the uh to the staff, um but happy to answer any any questions or any uh any concerns or provide any information I can.
Maybe when the list gets up on the screen, maybe you can if you have any knowledge of these, you can add some color to the What we're seeing.
Yeah, I just don't know. I don't understand what it means. It says like sex offense delayed. What does that mean?
Yes, sir. So uh looking at the uh so I'm pulling up our our calls now. So looking at the um January sixth one. Uh just as just an example. I do have to be careful with you know what what information we provide because it it may not all be public record. Um but looking at the the report here um Yeah, so that appears to be uh an individual um alleging that one of the uh
individuals who resided in the home had committed a uh sexual offense, not while they were in the home, but before they they came to that home. Uh looks like the offense occurred in Tampa. Um but that was um an individual who uh later then was was put in the home. So it was some follow-up investigation on on that case. And I can tell you you have so Nature Trail looking at the data between so I was requested by calls for service between December 1st, 2024, and December 1st, 2025. We've received 14 calls for
service at that location. They vary from suspicious person, illegal parking, welfare check. Our last call for service at that location that I can find while I was just in there doing some quick research. Was a uh December 9th, 2025. So that fell outside of the date I was requested to provide to. But our last call for service there was December 9th, 2025. Uh, and as the applicant stated, that was a father requesting a welfare check on his son. Um, the Lawrence Avenue address, 26318 Lawrence Ave,
uh, 30 calls for service. Uh the date range was a little bit different on that one. Um, at 8124 to 8125. The most typical call for service there, we received five reports of Baker or five requests for Baker Axe, three reports of missing people, and three suicide attempts. Looks like our last call for service at that location, again, that I could find just on my phone doing some quick research was uh January 12th, 2026, which involved a battery of a staff member.
What does it mean when it says delayed on on these where it says not from a next previous, yeah, it's from a previous infraction that they are in the right-of-way.
Yes, sir. So so what that means is so we we uh bifurcate our calls between active and and delayed. So if they are active, so that is where you see um you're like illegal parking does not have delays. That means that we received a report that illegal parking was occurring in that moment at that time. Uh delayed, uh so it could be, hey, a a couple hours ago or a day ago, um you know someone someone called in to to report that there were you Yeah, juveniles that that were fighting, but it just means it is is not active in that moment.
Were there any arrests made from the facility?
Uh w which facility, sir.
The well, either th well it's this one. This is the subject of the application, Nature Trail.
Uh yes sir, I can look that up for you. Uh so that would be eleven seven five five nature trail.
Sorry, I'm just uh Waiting for the information.
Uh so yes sir, so I'm showing um one arrest from April 27th, 2025. uh and it was involving um a lun lascivious battery. Uh but I'm not uh I'm pulling up now to see if that happened at the location or if that was um Called in. Uh yeah, so it looks like that was called in as a uh sex events delayed and it happened um outside of the jurisdiction.
So it's basically a warrant for a previous one. Infraction that
happened. Not not necessarily a a warrant, but uh so it got reported to the abuse hotline and then uh and then it gets referred to us for for a latent investigation.
Can I ask a question? Yeah, I know I yeah. So Chase, um these are obviously not the only two group homes in Pasco County, correct? I mean there are other I assume there's other group homes that you all Yeah
so so I I'm not I'm not sure about about group homes, but there are other homes of of this of this type uh that that exists in the case.
typical of what you would see at a at a for this type of facility?
Yes sir. So if we're talking about uh you know for instance the the wrap house or the the bridging freedom safe locations um yeah the th these are these are pretty typical calls for service to these to these locations. In the type of locations.
Frequency of the call is typical?
Yes sir.
All right. And then I have one more question. Is there a way to determine and I realize you can't disclose the the source of the complaints probably, but is there a way to determine which of these calls originated from a neighbor as opposed to the Home itself.
No, sir.
No, I'm not asking for the name of the individual. I'm asking is there where to determine how many of the calls came from? They came from the name of the colour.
Uh so that would be a a question for uh Pasco County Joint Communications. We just know where where we get dispatched to, but but we're not aware of of necessary where it is coming. Okay. Mm-hmm.
Okay, any other questions? No. I have not. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.
Okay.
So I think there are how many people are here to speak on this issue? Okay. And we're gonna take a five minute recess. Thank you.
Okay,
I'd like to call the meeting back to order, please.
That's exciting.
Okay. We continue. If there's nothing more from the applicant, um is there anyone here to ask questions from the public? Uh do we have a list?
The first individual we have signed up to speak, Mr. Chair, is a Robert Castro, and after that was James Gonert.
Okay. Thank you. Robert, we'll just give you your name and address please. Um
documents I'd like to present to you guys. Like
a m do we have to receive the receive and file. Second. Second. Motion the receive and file.
Could I a favor staff to put up a map for the neighborhood so we can see where these folks live. Thank you.
That was quick. It's like you knew what we were gonna ask.
Okay, go ahead. Go ahead. Good afternoon. My name is Robert Castro.
I live at [address removed]. And you've been sworn? Yes, I've been sworn. First on my agenda is who in the neighborhood it within twenty five hundred feet of this facility was required to offer a seat on the board or governing board? Nobody that I've been in contact with has been honored this position. Second, there is an ongoing violation Under condition number six. With their conditions upon approval. which requires all vehicles to park in the driveway, not on the grass or
in the street. This is a very narrow road. This is blocking EMS and emergency vehicles for those that are in need.
Third on my list, there are violations of conditions on Lawrence that are repeatedly ignored. As mister Yonker said, uh quote enforcement came out and said no violations. Code enforcement is unaware of the ki conditions upon approval. So with no involvement of the conditions upon approval, how's he supposed to enforce them? Who is in charge of enforcing these rules? And Me as a community member happened to pave the road after Pasco County said that they are not responsible for repaving this
road. I bought four tons of asphalt, spent twelve hours shoveling hot asphalt into big, huge potholes that were over six feet big. This was ignored by the Fire Chief, Pasco County Commissioners, and multiple other departments of public safety. I have also then reached out to multiple parties and neighbors about these issues. I've even asked the group home employees not to park on the road. When asked, they tell me to F off and speed away. So with that being said I
would like to know who enforces these rules of conditions upon approval, or is this just a mockery of this department here?
And then following that subject We also have on EYS's homepage They Uh have six at-risk therapeutic homes for sexualized behavior. What is sexualized behavior, I ask? So you turn into the pages. There's a page right here that states exactly what sexualized behavior is. Okay, problematic sexualized behavior is more than kids playing doctor or showing curiosity about private parts. So there's a whole bunch that's in there and in
that document. But that's what they label they want to care for in this home. Not handicap or disabled. Not any of these things that they say that they're showing on your planning It is problematic sexual behavior is on their home website. And that is what they push for. This is not about the kids. This is a cash grab. They switch from a non-profit to a profit organization. This is not for the kids like she tried to say. And then she wants to say that this is not problematic sexual behavior kids. These are problematic sexual behavior kits as shown.
And they're also being studied by colleges. We have multiple USF websites or one of the college websites that I also have listed. That will also show you that these kids are being studied by other departments and more funding is being given to this. This is not about the kids. This is about money. They don't care about the safety.
Can I get
it? Not at all today. Thank you guys. Excuse
me, I'm not sure. Can I get you to back up just a minute? You Mentioned One of the conditions of approval that you said they were in violation of, but you didn't say what the condition was. What does the condition require and what's the violation?
So everybody should have a copy of this conditions upon approval because it was signed by all of you guys here. So under condition number two, it shows failure to um It shows about the facility giving a governing board within 2,500 feet. That's on page five. Yeah.
So you're talking about
the conditions for Lawrence Avenue?
Correct.
So if this is to be approved, the conditions if if it's to be approved.
The thing is that no one's regulating these conditions upon approval, sir. There is no enforcement of these conditions. The Sheriff's Department has received multiple calls, and so is code enforcement, and everyone wants to point the finger saying it's not their department. Tyler. Of code enforcement stated to me he didn't even have a copy of this. He doesn't even know what this is. But he's the one who's in charge of our area, supposed to be enforcing it? And over the last five years we've been made a mockery of Then the residents just have to s suck it up and deal with this? Just
to be clear, you're talking about a condition of approval
for the Lawrence Abb facility.
Yes, sir. That's where I live. Okay. And they're saying that they've had no issues with us, but we've had constant issues with them. It has been nonstop repeated offenses, and they've been ignored by both the State by the County Sheriff and also by Code Compliance. I have open pictures of code compliance in the background while vehicles are parked on the roadway. And because Tyler didn't know what the conditions upon approval were, he couldn't set a violation. This is more than just one occurrence
that has happened.
I but you need to slow down, Mr. Mari is correct, you need to slow down a little bit. Okay. So what What happened when you made Tyler aware when you showed him the con you have a copy of the conditions.
Correct. I asked Tyler to come out to my home.
I tried to show him it. I tried to tell him to come back out to my home so I could give him a copy of them and he requested I emailed them to him yesterday. And I told him that I cannot figure out how to upload this via email to where it's accepted by Pasco County because Pasco County blocks out pictures when sent to their emails through a certain way.
So when did these conversations with Tyler occur?
Yesterday.
Okay, so this all occurred recently. We so
this was when I was told to contact Code Compliance because Pasco Sheriff Commissioners and everybody else said that they could not do anything about this. This was not their department. And then when asking even customer service in Pasco County, they gave me the runaround to go to child services, zoning, and everybody else but code compliance. It has taken five years to get the answer of going to code compliance to actually make this happen now.
Code compliance is the right department. To enforce conditions of approval. Let's start there. Okay. So When did you file a complaint with code compliance?
Code compliance was just filed this month because that is when Denise Hernandez and everybody else started saying code compliance is who you need to file your complaints with.
Okay.
All prior to that Commissioner Weightman and everybody else in the Commissioner's office was well aware of these scenarios and everything else that has been going on on Lawrence Avenue. So who did you speak with in code compliance? Code compliance. Like I said, I spoke to Tyler. Um I can pull up his last name if I'm allowed to reach for my phone. Sure.
Yes.
Is this the only copy of the case?
Navarro is his last name. So please go back to the clerk. As I said, multiple conversations with Tyler resulted in him being frustrated because he has no idea what these conditions upon approval are for Lawrence Avenue. He cannot pull them either. When did you speak to Tyler? Tyler I started speaking with about five days ago.
Okay.
And from first report on, it's been Nothing but him not understanding what's going on here. He has no idea what is going on with these conditions. And as I said, he asked me for a copy because
the trailer's defense, if these conversations occurred five days ago, I'm not sure that's adequate time for him to have investigated.
Like I said, it it's sometime within the time frame of the last week. Me and him have had these conversations. I can check exactly what dates and tell you if you'd like. But it's within the last week time.
Well we have somebody from code compliance here and we can have them testify. But I'm Is it Tyler
Navarro?
I d I don't know who do we have? No David.
My point is though is that y your statement that that code compliance isn't doing anything
Tyler Navarro was unaware of what to do and had
no information.
No, he closed all the tickets.
Okay, well I guess we'll hear from code compliance to see if that's true. I don't know.
So
Okay.
Any other questions?
Are there other Conditions of approval that you feel are not being adhered to?
There are multiple conditions upon approval I feel like there is infractions of. Can you tell me what those are? So condition number six, as I said, no vehicle shall be parked on the grass. Condition number four. Um residents need to be notified within thirty day or within thirty minutes to the Pasco County Sheriff. These are Kids have ran away multiple times and they have not notified Pasco County Sheriff. We have 'em on record. So
How I'm not saying you're not telling the truth by asking this question and just trying to understand the facts. How do you know they've run away from the facility?
Because they've ran away to my home and tried to come in through my front door, sir.
Can you tell us a little more about that?
On Fourth of July, I had an African American male try to break down my front door. begging the police sheriff to take him away, and as the lawyer said for the group home, he was just confused. The kid knew exactly where he was, and he wanted to go back to his grandfather's.
He begged Sheriff's Department to take him away. to the county jail.
And did you call the Sheriff's Department?
The Sheriff's Department was driving by as I opened the front door with their lights on, and this was about four o'clock in the morning.
And what happened?
The kid was then brought back to the group home and I never saw him again.
And so how do you know they didn't call the sheriff within thirty minutes?
So there's other reports where we have them on ring camera, these kids going through our backyards, breaking into our homes. and other incidences. So there's multiple reports. It's not just one secluded incident.
Yeah. Well, I guess my question is how do you know that they're not contacting the sheriff when they're Because
I pulled the police report, sir.
Okay.
Just like how he had him posted right here on the TV. He only he didn't show Lawrence Avenue because Lawrence Avenue's police reports twice as long.
And and so you're saying yourself obviously along with some of your neighbors have had some of these issues with attempted break-ins and things like that?
We've had multiple. Okay. Not attempted. They did break in.
Okay. And so just to clarify, I guess those calls for service would be at that particular edge.
There is numerous calls, tremendous amounts of traffic, and it is like I said, I'm the one who paved the road. I'm the one who came out of pocket and had to shovel four tons of asphalt into all these potholes that these drivers use the road arrogantly, searching for these kids within that 30 minutes, trying to find them, and they're using our road as a raceway. I have to deal with this.
Yeah, I guess that would be kind of my point of clarification because maybe showing the calls for service at the address of the group home is not telling the whole story if there's been calls for service and the radius around that in the neighborhood. So I don't know if that's something that that Chase can speak to or not uh regarding other calls for service there in the neighborhood, but that'd be something interesting to look at.
But also as I said For the code enforcement agent for our area, Tyler, to not know what these Conditions upon approval are And he was the one who was supposed to be enforcing them the last five years? That brings a big concern to me and my community.
Because if there's no enforcement, These are completely useless. I understand.
Yeah, my experience I've seen that um code enforcement is often more reactive than proactive, so sometimes it takes a call to code enforcement to let them know of an issue going on for them to invest in
the right-of-way, I have a photo with code enforcement in the background and the violation right in front of them. And he says he didn't see any violation.
Okay.
But yet clearly in the conditions upon approval.
I gotcha. Not a problem. Okay. Anything else?
Yeah, I
don't take our questions as disbelief of your testimony, we just need to make sure that all the facts get laid out here before we make a decision.
No, absolutely sir.
And thank you for coming out.
Thank you, sir. Anything else I can
Yeah. Thank you very much. I was just checking on
The next individual that we have signed up is a James Gronert and after that is Tara Castro.
Good afternoon. If we could get your name and address,
please. Uh name's Skylar James Groner. I live at [address removed].
Okay.
Uh good afternoon. My name is James Gronert. I live on Lawrence Avenue, 100 yards from Elevated Youth Services Lawrence House facility. I'm here as a father of a 14-year-old daughter and a toddler son and as a homeowner concerned about what's happening in my neighborhood. I'm asking you to deny the conditional use permit for Bear Creek House. First, there's a fundamental misrepresentation happening here. The Bear Creek CUP application states that EYS serves male youth who are identified as, quote, at risk. Lawrence House CUP says minor, quote, minors with handicaps and disabilities.
EYS's own website and their Florida State University field placement listing explicitly state they operate group homes for, quote, male youth who struggle with problem sexualized behavior.
Or generic at-risk- at-risk youth, that's a specific clinical population. This board and the community deserve to know what's actually being proposed. Second, Lawrence House has generated 30 documented sheriff responses in the last year, not minor incidents, include bait cracks, batteries, suicide threats, attempts, missing persons, probable cause-call. I've had youth from the facility knocking on my door at 1030 at night. I've seen residents unsupervised in the woods near my home. My neighbors have reported kids in their yards and vehicles broken into. Here's what concerns me most. Lawrence House CUP
permit prohibits residents, quote, adjudicated delinquent based on charges of violent crime. But it does it says nothing about sexual offenses. EYS specifically treat treats youth with problem sexualized behaviors. The absence of any restriction on sexual sexual offenses is alarming, and who's checking? What's the enforcement mechanism? Bear Creek C U P uses weaker language. It only restricts youth co currently, quote, under custody of DJ J for sexual violent offenses. Not those under DCF custody or
no longer under DJJ supervision. And again, how is this enforced? I have a 14-year-old daughter and a toddler living 100 yards from one of these facilities. I no longer let my daughter ride her bicycle on the street because and I want to go on the record and state directly to the members of this board I am concerned about the danger of child sexual assault stemming from these facilities. I have observed that when Lawrence House operates at or near ten residence, as approved by this board, The problems intensify. Runaways, police calls increase. EYS
has recently kept Lawrence House numbers lower, likely due to law enforcement attention. Once the Bear Creek CUP is approved, I believe both facilities will fill the capacity and my neighborhood will face the same pattern all over again. I understand that struggling youth need treatment and placement. I'm not opposing help for vulnerable children. You have an opportunity today to require transparency, enforceable safeguards, and protection for residential neighborhoods. The pattern displayed at Lawrence House raises serious questions about whether this model can operate safely at 10
bed capacity. I'm asking you to deny this permit, and I will be pursuing revocation of the existing permit on my street.
Can I ask? Yes sir. Question. You cited some other source of data as to who the the clients of the facility are.
You said that they claim they you say that the applicant claims that the clients of the facility are
So the uh
from another source of data you said you can demonstrate that that's not what
Yeah, so I have uh this is the College of Social Work from Florida State University. Um So
how do they
know what's in
there? Who's in there?
They the Elevated Youth Services has placed a advertisement for social work students to come work at the house. Specifically states that uh Elevated Youth Services has six at r or six licensed at-risk group homes for male youth who struggle with problem sexualized behavior. Uh ages seven to eighteen.
So that's from their own employment ad.
Yeah, that's from the employment ad and it's directly on their website. It says directly on the website. that they provide services of use with problem sexualized behavior. Um not at-risk youth, not no general at-risk youth, or would
um be willing to submit that
Could I have a motion to receive I'll I'll make a motion to move, receive and file his information.
Aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed, like, sign. Thank you.
Very good. Any other questions? Thank you very much. We appreciate your coming. Thanks. And who's next?
The next individual I have signed up to speak is a Terra Castro and after that is Terry Tideball.
It's only one easement.
Sorry guys, that's scared the shor.
It won't bite. Well
it just like popped in my face. I'm not that tall.
Not bite,
just remember.
Hi, my name is Tara Castro. I am a homeowner on Lawrence Avenue. I live at [address removed]. Sorry. I please don't use my minutes because it's very important. You can't.
Send her a bill.
So I sa I'm sorry. I live at [address removed]. I know I'm not to require to disclose my address, but I think it's very important that you guys can see the vision of how close I am to this group home on Lawrence Avenue. Yeah, it is important. What I'm coming here to you today is I wanna bring to your attention a few different things that have happened in the community, and it's happened for quite some time. And I'm very concerned. I used to have my brother that lived in the community. After you guys approved the home. We
caught kids in the backyard and he sold his home. I no longer have my brother here anymore in Florida. It's very sad. You know, losing family that was so close and we tried so hard to stay together. So anyways, as I go back, I don't want to spit off my speech, but I want to get back to the main thing for you guys. Right here, I would like to submit this information to the as evidence of you guys. I only have one copy, so I don't know if there's any way we can make copies because I wasn't prepared for you guys. thinking I had to make all these copies, so I apologize. But
if I need to read it, I will first and then you guys can have it. So what is problem sexual behavior? Problem sexual behavior is more than kids playing doctors or showing curious about private parts. PSB includes sexual behaviors that are beyond typical sexual development. A clear indication of our problem is when behaviors are aggressive, intrusive, and coercive and this is harms to youth and others. Again, that was a very key statement. Harm to youth and others. Okay? Now I'm gonna touch on some things, you guys. Lawrence Lawrence Avenue property,
the group home, is in complete violation of several violations of the condition upon approval that have not been enforced by you guys, or not you guys specifically, by the county, I should say. And I'm sorry, I'm a little nervous. First, I want to remind you that Lawrence Avenue is a private road. This was brought up before you guys when you guys approved it in 2022. the citizens r maintain that road. Again. We just have to maintain it and it's been approved as a residential street, not as an access for an institutional treatment, which constant traffic,
staff turnover, and c student clinicians. Again, going to the USF website, that's the student clinicians, first year, second year, and advanced students. I want to bring to your attention how this repres how this facility and what I have witnessed personally. In my brother's backyard in 2022, I was in his backyard. Two kids showed up in his backyard to fish. No adults or anything like that. We I didn't know at the time. There was a third individual as well. These were minors. They were from that home. My brother
went down and spoke to them. They were told the the worker told my brother, sorry, I was busy making supper. is why they weren't supervised. In 2023, a child from that home tried to break into my home at 4 15 in the morning. I got a call as I was on my way home from work to asking me to check the ring camera. I checked the ring camera and informed my daughter to arm herself and be prepared to fully eliminate the threat if
it comes in the door. Yeah. That was four fifteen in the morning. When I got to the property, that little boy was down the street in front of the horse property. Again, over the years, the staff walk by my property. Or the kids walk by my property, excuse me, there is no adult that I have witnessed. The adults follow in a vehicle. five football links behind. They don't hear the the you know, instigating going back and forth.
I have a potbelly pig, a 200-pound potbelly pig. These kids have walked by my property, have instigated trying to call my livestock out of the backyard, have tried to feed my pig. You know, oh we'll give it a balloon. Well you know if you've ever had livestock, worst thing you can do is feed anything like that to a a livestock. Again, I told them this needs to stop. Please stop. There's a security issue. There's a safety issue. These kids are repeatedly gone all the time. I'm gonna go real quick to the one on 2025, just
because I think it's important that you guys see the history. On July 4th, 2025, this is just a short time. I'm only giving you a short period of time. The real true picture of what happened. July 4th, 2025. There was a fight on Lawrence Avenue. The Sheriff's Office had to respond. On August 5th, 2025, we had two individuals, and I'm not gonna label their names, it's in the report that I have here from the Sheriff's Office on August 4th. Two individuals, and I'm gonna use the initial D
and B or T, I believe it was on that one. Yeah. They ran away. I had full law enforcement activity down my street on Lawrence Avenue, including canines. They came to my house at 9 PM that night, asked me if I felt safe. I do not feel safe in my own home nor on my road anymore because I don't know what's coming through my door. I'm home a lot. I'm home alone, and I shouldn't have to feel this way. On August Twelfth. My neighbor informed me at ten PM at night, heads up, we have a kid loose in the neighborhood, I
said, informed me. I told her What do you mean? My ring's been going off. My cameras are going off like crazy. And again, it was a car riding up and down, flying up and down Lawrence Avenue. They were looking for a kid that went the kid that went to my neighbor's house, rang his doorbell, and he just testified they wanted to use Snapchat. They didn't even know they knew the kid was gone, but that was a report they didn't have to report to the sheriff because they found the kid in 30 minutes. So my question to you all is, and this is not to in a defensive
way, but in the condition of approval, and this is for condition four, I believe it is, it says in the condition they are to have 24-7. Supervision. And I'm gonna tell you that 24-7 supervision, as I'm describing right now, this isn't the first time, this isn't the second time. The ones that are leaving that they find in 30 minutes, they don't have to report that to the sheriff. So again, your
report log that you saw. is inaccurate. There is no checks and balance to see when these kids are leaving, you know, how many times they've developed, where they have gone. what they're doing in the neighborhood. Now let me get back to my statement of what else happened that same year and this is just recently and I I again I know I'm under oath so I'm telling the truth. So August let's get back to August twelfth. Again, that was the day that he went to the
one second. I just want to make sure you're aware we do have a time limitation of three minutes. So
would you grant me some more, please? I'm trying. One more minute.
One more minute,
please. Go ahead. Okay, thank you, sir. So on ten five, there's a sheriff's report that there's kids ran away again. The same one of the same minors again ran away. Mm. This is after 30 minutes of them being on the run. Remember that. So guess what? On 1012, or I'm sorry, on 10 5, a kid runs down a Facebook post and these kids are running down quail hollow. There's just no lights. There's no streetlights. There's no sidewalks. They're running in the middle of the night. They're gonna get killed. on ten four
or I'm sorry, ten twelve or um I'm sorry. On 105, you had them run away again. On 1014, you had another neighbor that notified me that the boys were at her house on Blue Stripe, and she was in the reports of calling the police. So there should be a police report on that date, August or October 14th. On 1022, 2025, the same boy ran away again. So again, we've got how many runaways? And these were just documented police reports,
but my point is is that they don't document and the police don't show up for the ones they find, like the one they showed up in my door. So again, I want to thank you for giving me that extra time. Sure. So I appreciate it.
I want to know what your on is on your mind. I just want to make sure everybody has a chance to speak.
I understand. And I just want you to I what I would urge you guys is number one, vote no on Bear Creek because there's a lot of stuff going on that we as neighbors are dealing with. And number two, I would ask the planning commissioners to revoke. the condition of approval for Lawrence Avenue and no more condition of approval for that home. Thank you guys. You have a great day. Thank
you.
If you guys want this, I can turn this in. I don't know.
Yeah, we can you if you would like to move to receive a file. Have a motion second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye.
Gianna, do you have uh somebody on WebEx?
Um we do. We still have a few more individuals here to speak if you'd like to hear from the in person
Yeah, let's just hear from the WebEx first.
Are they online? They're not signed up online.
Are they not? You're not ready?
Okay. Now we go to the next person. Who's the next person?
Uh Amy Toll, we do have uh Commissioner Weightman online that would like to speak. Um so it's up to you if you would like to have him do it now.
Go ahead. Yeah.
Commissioner Weightman, can you hear us?
Yes. A week. Are we elevated?
You're elevated and we're ready to listen.
Thank you. Thank you board. First Planning Commission. Thank you guys. Thank all of you for volunteering and and hearing items before we do. And um I know it's a little out of out of the ordinary to speak before the board. Again, Seth Weightman, County Commissioner, representative of District Two. Um we do have our office does have concerns. Wesley Chapel. with this area, Lawrence Ave in general, we're trying to find solutions to the road and to the subject psych this the subject
that uh that we're talking about today. Um there are numerous challenges. I do not think that this location uh is appropriate for this type of use. There's there's no question That Um programs like this are needed for our youth and to help help kids. uh in in tough situations, but this this location is certainly in my opinion uh not appropriate. Um I I hope the board considers to not uh expand uh the permit
and and that we we We not we not allow additional additional folks here. Um I appreciate all the residents. who have traveled uh west across the county to to share their concerns with the Planning Commission and I thank them for sharing all their concerns with our office um since we took office in twenty twenty two. So I just wanted to to call in and and and say that I I stand with all the all the folks of Lawrence Ave and uh
I respectfully oppose uh this item. So thank you, Mr. Chair.
Uh thank you, Commissioner Weightman. We appreciate your time and your consideration. We'll certainly take that under consideration as well. So thank you again. And if there's nothing else from your part then we'll move on to the next Uh person from the public that would like to speak.
Mr. Terry Tidwell is next on the list and after that we have Angeli Rodriguez.
Hi, my name's Terry Tug. Well I've Had a home in Quail Hollow since 1989. I live at uh corner Coralvine, Green Willow Run, [address removed].
My
property's completely fenced in. Uh Two gates right next to the house, the only way on the property.
December 4th, 2024. I was sitting down in Key West. My wife was getting her nails done. I got a call from Pasco County Sheriff's Department. I said, well, this can't be good.
Two children from a group home. Children from a group home had just broke into my house, kicked in the bottom light of my uh French door going outside. Once they went inside, they uh broke in my bedroom door where it was locked cause I keep guns in there. Now I keep 'em in a safe. Um
Trash place. Opened every cabinet in the house, every closet in the house, took a knife to my leather briefcase, went in there. stole a bunch of uh old money I had, uh took two guns. One of the guns they shot in the house Now these children which of course are younger than thirteen. Well, one of 'em was sixteen and was uh on probation for Burglary.
And I heard a lady up here saying, Well, ain't no felons at my house. No, we don't do that. Well, He's in jail now and at his trial, unfortunately for him, he was seventeen by then, so Now he's really looking at some time. Till he's 21 he's gonna be in the joint. But all I'm saying is I got cameras. I didn't even have 'em armed. I didn't know this group home was even in the neighborhood. And I live What, about half a mile from it? I never had
a problem at this house in all the years I've owned it. But like I said, it's completely fenced in. Never had any never felt a threat there at all. Now I keep my twelve gates next to the front door. And if somebody comes at my my house in the morning, busting on the door at four, Double Ock Bug Shot's gonna answer it. Mm-hmm. And I'll bet you they won't come back. So this right here is all the times I've been to the courthouse over Dade City.
And they didn't show. Finally got to go there and one of 'em had a trial, and boy that trial turned out good. But I have neighbors that are widows. My neighbor across the street, her Husband Larry, really good friend of mine, Purple Heart recipient, Vietnam veteran like me. Died in November. She's scared. She's scared. I got a friend down the street. Her name's Alex, Alexandra. Just found out she's stage four. She lives by herself. She's
scared. Because of this. So these 13 year olds that's uh 17 or 16 year old that's breaking into people's houses and escaping from there.
It's just not right. There's too many old people and retired people in this neighborhood that don't have guns. And don't have alarm s systems.
We don't need this.
We appreciate you being here and telling us about it.
Thank you very much.
The
next individual I have signed up is a Miss Angeli Rodriguez and after that a Kemwell Fortez.
Okay, is that the last two?
No Mr. Chairman we have about five more individuals signed up.
Good afternoon, commissioners. I am Angie Rodriguez. I live on [address removed]. I currently stay with my mother and my sister, which I do have nieces and nephews that live with us on the residence. I have had personal experiences with these said children. I feel like the Castros covered everything that is going on. I feel like Mr. Tidale did cover everything that is going on. It is a big concern for the community. And I just would like to say I really do hope
that you guys vote no on Bear Creek and revoke the act on Lawrence Avenue because it's unacceptable. We're scared. My nieces range anywhere from one to thirteen years old. Mm-hmm. They cannot go outside. They don't, we do not feel safe for them to go outside. I have nieces and nephews, and we feel fear for all of them. and I hope that you guys listen and take all of this into consideration and vote no. Thank you.
Thank you for coming.
Thank you.
Okay, who was next?
Next we have a Mr. Kemwell Fortes and after that we have a Miss Christy Zimmel.
Hi, good afternoon. My name is Kemuel Fortez. I live in the residence of uh [address removed]. Oh shit. Excuse my language.
That's okay.
My voice kinda went off. I do I mean, it was pretty much covered up. Mr. Castro and Mrs. Castro kinda said everything most likely I already had read down. And honestly I hope I hope I vote for no on Bear Creek and revoke on Lawrence Avenue. Okay.
Thank you very much.
The next individuals are Miss Christy Zimmel and after that we have Miss Dana Myers.
Good afternoon, gentlemen. Christy Zemmer, [address removed]. You want to know what the violations of their existing conditional use permit is. Number one, residents are not handicapped and disabled as defined by the Fair Housing Act or AB ADA. They are sexually Offend sexually uh whatever they had provided you with the information that's also being advertised with FSU to get their counselors. Um, no advisory board has been established, no resident member
is on that board. They do not have any meetings. Number four, they failed to contact to they failed to contact law enforcement on a timely basis or every basis. They do not contact law enforcement every time a kid takes off like they should. Number six, constantly parking in the grass and in the road. There's too many vehicles there for that property to maintain the flow of traffic that they have created. Number seven, not complying with the rules and the regulations that you have set forth.
Number nine, continuing to violate all the special conditions that you have set forth. Number ten, conditions are enforceable, but when the county code enforcement Don't even know what those conditions are to enforce. We have a major breakdown in communication that needs to be corrected. This is not a a place my neighborhood in Lake Page Estates has the perfect group home. It is for handicapped and it is for disabled. We love those people in that home and those people in that home love the
neighbors. That is an example of what a good group home is for a community in a residential area. This particular project and this company is not. It sounds like your typical NGO like they're having to deal with right now in Minnesota. It's not pretty. It's all about the money and how much money they get per kid. If you think that having ten kids with this kind of degree level of problems in a house in a residential neighborhood is an okay situation, live next door to one
and see what you're putting up with. These people don't deserve that. They've already reviolated many of the conditions on the permit that you've already approved. I would ask that you revoke those conditional per permits that you've already approved and do not issue another one for the new project. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Next we have a Miss Dana Mayers and that is the last individual I have signed up to speak in person.
All right, thank you.
Hi, I'm Dana Myers, [address removed]. Okay. The things that I came to say today Have already been said. So no reason to get into that. But I did want to correct something. You guys started talking about the sign. That was supposed to be in the front yard? Mm. Okay. I live. Can you put that?
Okay, I live on the corner of [address removed]. I look at this house every single day.
Yeah.
That sign was there for one day and for the photo. That sign was taken down. and thrown in the tra or not in the trash, in some bushes. I pulled it out and I made a I took a picture of that sign. And it was in the bushes.
Can I can I just ask you to just take a deep breath for a minute? Before you continue, so 'cause I know you're upset and
I'm upset because I'm hearing what these people say.
I understand and you have every right to be. I just want you to
We shouldn't even be
here. I just want you to feel comfortable about speaking. Okay.
The type of home.
That she's asking you to continue. Needs Needs we need to have one. I understand her passion. Mm-hmm. But it needs to be in the right venue. It needs to be it is commercial. She's making money. It does not need to be in their backyard. It doesn't need to be in mine either.
Do not. approved ten children. I watch What's Happening With Six.
You guys aren't looking. I'm in my
backyard looking every day.
That's them. It's ugly.
Okay. You wouldn't want to live there. You wouldn't want to see it.
I hope you understand.
They're garbage. is out on the road. Every day. Every Friday, Saturday, Sunday, they won't pick up the damn trash.
They leave it out there for days. I can go and I collect all the trash out of the front yard 'cause Potato chip bags, candy wrappers, their workers don't care. about that. They don't care the wind blows and it blows all over the neighborhood. So I'm the one. My husband's the one. We're picking it up.
They don't care. Their workers don't live there. They don't care about us. They don't care about that property. They I have never seen less than six cars. In the sh in that yard. There's not room for six cars. There's only six kids. So if there are only six kids living in that house, you tell me why are there six cars in the parking lot or in their parking lot. in the
street. We don't park in the street in our neighborhood. Bear Creek is a bunch of pride people with pride and ownership. Theirs is in the yard, in the street. I'm handicapped. I walk my dogs. I can't get through their street because they're parked, blocking the sidewalk, I ask him to move. Yeah, I agree. I get the F you. You're not. They don't care about us. They don't live there. We're not their neighbors.
They don't try to interact with us at all. I hope you get my point.
Please don't do that to us. I wouldn't do that to you.
Thank you very much.
Okay, was there one more?
That was the last individual that I had signed up to speak, Mr. Chairman Mariano.
Okay. I think we have one somebody that has their hand up. Like to come forward?
I don't think you've been sworn.
We have not.
Okay, so let's do that.
do.
Your name and address
Jen, Shady Hills Mission Chapel, one five nine two five Green Glen Lane, um, Shady Hills, Florida. And I will say і it This is a difficult situation, I understand. I am uh uh what I would consider to be a local mission field pastor. I am in the field. Um I work with many community partners. Um as a matter of fact, as someone who provides shelter during the cold weather season. Most recently, very
recently, and we have had unfortunately kids who have aged out of foster care, who have nowhere to go, end up at the church. And we are looking for resources to be able to get them safely housed. However, after listening to all the testimony today, I think most importantly it it would be Honestly irresponsible to recommend because it sounds like
they need to like maybe circle the wagons around the issues that they have currently been experiencing because You know, to be a good neighbor means that you look out for your neighbors. It should not be an adverse situation. And not to say that that's never gonna happen, but to respect you know your neighbors and without meeting with your neighbors and and to say hey we want to expand to give
them the opportunity for constructive criticism or feedback. But you know, also I think that, you know, most importantly, and I will tell you I'm here advocating because I have church members who live in Bear Creek. And I can assure you those church members, they would be here that but they're working. And so I said that I would come and and um and just impress uh upon each of you that they are not in
an agreement. They have kids that you know are bel under the age of 17 living in their home and it is a difficult environment and landscape that we all are living in. But you know it it right here says, you know, with regards to this particular thing, when I go to um it's either the comp plan or the land use code, but I apologize. I um no negative
impact on neighborhood quality or property values. And unfortunately I think based on what everyone has heard um with facts that have been provided from Pasco County Sheriff that at this point it doesn't sound like this would be a wise decision. for this board but also honestly for their organization. I I clearly understand that there is a need for the work that they are doing, but You know, I think that's a good idea. We
have to do it effectively and in a way that is safe as well. So I mean, I wouldn't want somebody pulling a gun on my child, but clearly that's something that may happen if they expand. Thank you.
All right, thank you very much. I have a question, Mr. Chairman Ms. Carolac. Ms. Carolac?
I so you're out there I know you do a lot of work in the community. What are your thoughts on the balance of where a home like this might be might be prop you know, located or you have thoughts on that?
Not that my rural community members would would be happy m my saying this, but you know, when I came before I I had put together very quickly a project for to come before the opioid task force for opioid abatement funding. And the one location that I had identified was near the the juvenile facility that's off 52,
you know, so where you have people that are you know, I mean they're aware of what's there. It's it's not, you know this almost this location is kind of a rue because you don't know what's there and you may think it's just somebody that s doesn't care about their house but you know, there could be danger behind what what is what is going on. So I always I you know, based on what I know to be
true and what has been successful you know, where you can create a community within that property, it it helps to provide not only security for the kids that are there, the individuals that are there, it also helps to provide security for the neighbors. And it that would be based on what I've seen To be successful. And, you know, I
ha I'm an open book. I had a child, uh my my youngest son. became a problem for my husband and I at the age of like eleven. I was not equipped, um, you know. regardless of what anybody thinks about me, I was a pretty good kid and um And so I wasn't prepared to deal with this and so that's why I mean I really came with an open mind, maybe there's something that I'm missing. Um so I would have to say that You know, this
is very important work. But that being said, I think it's work that needs to be done.
With While you look for Ways not only to protect your staff, the folks living there, but also to to protect the community from the work that you know is is needed to be done.
Thank you. You're welcome.
Okay. So Chris, does that mean you got a room in one of your schools?
Ha ha ha. Oh. We do have fencing around our school. Not for another couple of years. There is fencing.
Okay, so um would the applicant like to come up and ask answer any of these questions or concerns?
Sure. And I did take notes on some of the complaints. So I I will start with um at the property we have installed the big semicircular driveway at Lor
the Lawrence Avenue home and the Bear Creek home are totally different homes. I want to start with that. However We did install the giant semicircular driveway as required when we had the alternative relief conditions imposed. We have constant case management, DCF, CPI, you name it, that are coming out. If they park on the street, they leave quickly. I don't know. how often they are parking on the grass. I do know that we have plenty of parking on the
driveway. The home supervisors are responsible for making sure that they're not parking on the grass. If that is the case, I welcome any of the members of the neighborhood if they're finding that the road is impassable to contact me. I'm available to them, a quick text message, and I will have the issue alleviated immediately. And we do, these are employees, so we would do consequence like disprogressive disciplinary consequence if they're not upholding our standards. I don't know that that is happening until
we get somewhere like this. And I'm grateful that the members of the Lawrence Ave neighborhood are here because I think that they're also abil able to learn a little bit more about our program too. Because there is a lot of mistruths in what there was, you know. reporting. Just like the first person, we also on September 12th invested money into repaving portions of the road, all in front of our house and our neighbors. I have the true blue paving came out. Multiple
thousand dollars. They filled all of our potholes. I have photos of it and in front of both of our neighbors' homes. It was the first round. It's a costly expense. We did our first round and we plan to do a new portion every year because it is uh the neighborhood's responsibility to maintain the street. It's not taken care of by the city or the the county. So we've already started on that. I can't go any faster, but that first section was completed September 12th. Um We have never been a
non profit organization. where we've never been. We do have a foundation and our foundation has not even opened yet, but it is in Sunbiz and we do intend to work towards victim services. So people who have been victims of sexual abuse, whether it's people that we are in relationship with or not as far as in our group homes, we do intend to do victim services with licensed clinicians so that they're also getting the healing too, because they are the victim of some sort of sexual
abuse. So that is why that foundation was created, but we have not nothing has taken off with it yet. We hope to though. Um and I don't know what is being talked about as it pertains to like the colleges studying our kids. Um we were reached out to by some of the the larger Florida colleges about social work um graduates and working towards their clinical a licensure and they have to get so many hours under a supervised clinician, but they're they're
registered interns and we can employ them because we have licensed clinical social workers that work amongst our homes and they're able to supervise them as they're going for their licensure. So that's the only involvement we have with the colleges. I'm not sure about the studying. That's not anything I know of. We are not a DJJ program. We do not serve children who were like we're not governed by DJJ in any way. We are licensed by the Department of Children and Families. Um
I know that there was a comment about the census because it's low, there's been no problems lately. The license allows ten. We have had nine kids in that home.
Mm-hmm.
There's nine kids in that home. Um, and the license allows for ten. The problem that we don't have ten is because sometimes children are required to have single rooms based on their Case plans. We can't control that. So there's nine kids, there's been nine kids, that hasn't changed. And you have seen the calls drastically decrease, and there hasn't been a change in the census. Um There is a lot of questions surrounding our at-risk license. At-risk is just a Department of Children
and Families type of license. And with each license, requires different requirements. At-risk requires a higher level of supervision. It requires just additional guidance and oversight by the department. And there's additional requirements that are put in place by the the um Local CBCs, the child caring agents, like the where the the case management teams, where they have to oversee further scrutiny. I can tell you the DCF requirement
is that there's six staff or six youth to one staff. Can I finish because
I'll give you as much time as possible.
Okay. I'll I'll be quick. I've only got a couple more. No, I'm no. Um DCF requires you have one staff per six children. We have one staff for every four children. DCF requires that you have one awake overnight staff per 12 kids in a home. We have two and that's only for nine kids. Always there's two. It's a requirement. Um DCF does not require
that we call the police when a child runs away. A lot of homes allow unsupervised community involvement for killed children. We don't. We don't. We don't serve child sexual offenders. We do not serve sex offenders. That's a m common that's a big misconception from Lawrence Avenue. And the last I I just I want to just tell you. Our involvement
I'll just make a comment though that although DCF may allow it, the conditions of approval, at least for Lawrenceville or Lawrence Road
Within 30 minutes. Yeah. Yeah. And we've had a ton of police involvement because of that. And we we it's not within 30 minutes of a child running away. It's within us losing line of sight and sound. We are a line of sight and sound. We chase after the kids. We go out, we're searching for them, we're looking for them. We're diligent about it. We have staff that get hurt. We have workmen's comp claims because of injury, because they are out searching for these kids. So yes, I hear what you're saying, but We go. We
don't just let them run away and not follow them. Now if they jump out of their bedroom window at two o'clock in the morning and we find them during their bed chick check, which is every 15 minutes, they might have had a few minutes leeway on us and then we're calling non-emergency immediately. I will say we have six homes. The only home that we have neighborhood disgruntlement is with Wesley Chapel. We were talking about having Lawrence um neighborhood connections. We have a home in Brooksville. and the gentleman
next door, his wife passed away. We have Our kids walk his dog. They raise his flag and lower his flag every morning in a military the way the military does it because he's a retired veteran, but he's grieving, but he still wants that done. We keep his yard. We've helped him repair his fence. We bring him meals. Christmas time he came and celebrated with us. He buys presents for the kids. We give him gifts. Our property in Lutz, which is Hillsboro County, same situation. We have excellent relationships
with those neighbors. Our Seminole Group home the same way. And I know that there's one person here from the actual community of the of Bear Creek, but I have all of the screenshots from the Facebook group from Bear Creek talking about how they are so happy these kids are happy, how they are smiling, how they are are are like so grateful for them to be out in the neighborhood and be safe and how they're kind and they say hello. We don't have that opportunity in Wesley Chapel. Because we
we don't have the opportunity. We're turned away from, we're shied away from, they're scared of us, and it's a misconception that we would love to break. We would love them to know us. I understand these police records and these uh arguments that they're saying. As soon as those have happened, that child could have been with us, or it could have been at the next door neighbor's house as a regular community youth. We discharge them immediately. We do not serve kids with violent criminal histories. We don't. And that is why
you see the police going down. Because as soon as there's something that happens, we discharge those kids. We do not serve them.
I I I don't really have a lot more that I can say other than I think that there is a big misconception of what is happening at the Wesley Chapel group home. We've had this argument since the very first day when our other owner was in here with me. Um when we were doing the The exemption. And the relationship has never gotten better. Except for with our next door neighbor, Sergio. He's fantastic. He works with us. He buys our kids gifts. He wants to he takes them out on boat charters.
He's a fantastic man. And
He's not going to be able to do it. He has not sold yet.
Excuse me, just a minute. Listen, I want to tell everybody it's in the audience. I made sure that nobody interrupted you in your speaking. If you're gonna be here, you're gonna be courteous. Both ways, coming and going. That's the way it works here. If you can't be that way then you're gonna have to leave.
So let's continue.
I'm not going to I'm not gonna speak I'm almost done. I'm not gonna speak on his reasons for selling, but we are very much in the loop um because he has communicated it with us with his wife and everything that's going on with his family. We he has asked us for different things to do for his property as his direct neighbor. Um our maintenance man for no benefit to us is out working with him to make sure his property is level in one area because he's older and he wants to have it done before the selling of the home. The only
good neighborhood relationship we have is right next door, and he is selling for personal reasons not related to elevated.
Okay. Can I ask a question?
Yes, please.
Okay. So um
One of the stated allegations is that you're violating the condition dealing with the Creation of the advisory body and having a member of the neighborhood within twenty five hundred feet on the advisory body. You didn't I didn't hear any response to that.
Oh, I sorry, I do have a note there. Sergio, Captain Sergio Etanis is on our advisory board. We have a meeting every year. He lives directly next door. And with him leaving
once a year.
We have, well, we only have to have minutes once a year. We can meet every six months if we choose to. However, we talk to Captain Sergio all the time. I mean not in a uh public setting or in a meeting, but he speaks with our attorney. They were just texting this morning because we have a contractor coming out to help him level his ground. So we're in constant communication.
But he's now left?
No, he hasn't left as yet.
He's leaving.
He's he's just listed his house for sale.
Okay. So he's but he still resides there now?
Yes.
And then it says any member of the county's Community Services Department or Commission on Human Trafficking, who's that person?
I don't know her name. I'm not on the the advisory board, I'm on the board of directors, so I would need to look into it. But it's um the same person that we've had since the get-go. We do all of our meetings with her. They do all of their meetings with her. But I could ask John Linton, he's our attorney. And he would be able to tell me.
You do have a member of is it which is it? Is it somebody from the community services department?
No, human human trafficking coalition. And we are trying to have Christine Garrison join our advisory board as well, who is human um services administrator from Pasco County Sheriffs, because we would like her insight on the development of our program.
Okay, and then the other statement that was made is that the children in your facility do not have disabilities. Could you y I didn't hear any response to that?
Mental health and trauma are disabilities classified under the ADA. All of our children. have diagnoses of mental health disorders, every single one of them.
It's no different than cancer, like multiple things that are qualified as ADA disabilities.
So I I guess let's get to the I to me w the part of this that is probably the most troubling which is the allegation about the children leaving the facility. Um because I remember when this got approved
The
There was a lot of discussion about this would it be twenty four seven supervision Clearly the representation was that it would be rare that children would be leaving the facility unsupervised and Um Yes, we there was a provision that you'd call the sheriff if that happened, but it it seemed like that would be the exception rather than the rule.
W why are the children leaving the facility? I mean, unsupervised I mean I guess that How is that being allowed? I mean, w why is that occurring?
We don't have any elopements that are occurring outside of like when they go to bed and they're jumping out their windows. They're not eloping in the middle of the day. They're eloping at night thinking they can get away, get back to their families, get back to who whoever it is that they're trying to gain access to. They're not running away just in broad daylight and running down the street and we're not following them.
So what measures have you taken to reduce that overnight elopement that has been occurring?
We have bedroom alarms in every door. We have window alarms on every window. We have audio-only baby monitors approved through Department of Children and Families so that we can hear if a child were to be getting out of bed in between bedrooms. checks. We have documented every fifteen minutes or more on record of the staff going in and putting eyes on their kids. If we have a child who is at risk, meaning like a c more critical or acute in their behavior at that time, the therapist puts them on a higher risk level and then
there's a one to one staff assigned to them. But if a child I know the situation that she was referring to where they were at their door at 4 15 in the morning. that earlier that day the child went to court he found out that his parents were being TPR'd, which is a termination of parental rights. um so that there was no hope for that child to ever return home to his mom and dad. And that night he was saying that he was sad, grieving, wanting to go to bed, and he ran out
of ran away in the middle of the night. During that time we were out searching for him. We called the law enforcement officers, which they were responding to our call, which is why they were driving by, because officers aren't really just driving by in that area. Um but there are so many things that happen that cause these children just
It's heartbreaking the things that they go through.
Well, I understand, but you d you also have to have a facility that operates in a manner to try to reduce that as much as possible. How many of these measures have been uh Uh implemented recently. So Yeah.
We've had these in place probably. I mean, we did just get the door alarms a approved because that is a restriction. So we have to have everything approved. The door alarms were only approved probably within the last quarter.
So the window alarms had previously been approved.
Yes, but the problem is is that the children are able to like turn them, they they can dismount, disarm them. So as we have kids who are disarming alarms, then we're mounting them outside.
Okay.
They're savvy. They're they're street smart kids.
I guess what I'm getting at is is some of these issues like for instance Mr. Tidwell's break in occurred after you've after after you've implemented some of these measures. So I'm just trying to figure out how Some of these elopements have occurred despite the measures that you
the elopement that he's referring to that actually happened the night before and the children were hiding and then they went to his house, which was all blocked off still from the hurricanes and broken at nine AM. Um both of those kids have been were removed.
We are not allowed. So I have been working with DCF because I'm trying to get the fire doors in. We are not allowed to have fire doors. Fire doors, if you're familiar, are a delayed egress. So that if a child's trying to elope, it won't allow them to and it sounds an alarm through the house for 10 seconds and then it opens. Um they will not allow that because of the It's too restrictive. You have to be a a psychiatric in p inpatient facility to be able to have that type of restriction.
Understand. So you mentioned that you don't have this issue in your other facility. Do you have this many elopements in your other facilities? Or do you have the same kind of patients?
All the kids are the same. This age group is particularly difficult at this this home. I'm just trying to
figure out why do you have so many elopements at this facility versus your other facilities?
But if you look month over month, sir, you would see that there was a period where there was these elopements and that child was removed and now the elopements and the problems have drastically decreased. We've only had, I believe, two calls of service in the month of December.
So the issues that most of the neighborhoods speaking about is related mostly to one child?
I can tell you there was two children and neither of them are there anymore. Yes. Mm-hmm.
You said you had five bedrooms?
At the Bear Creek Group Home, yes.
Is a house built with five bedrooms?
Yes.
In nineteen eighty nine?
I don't know.
I don't know when a square foot house in nineteen eighty nine was built with five bedrooms?
Well we didn't we didn't build any walls. We didn't build any walls. So whatever was there was when we bought it. We've only been operating at the Bear Creek Group Home. Um we just had our relicensure in August, so just over a year.
Did when when did you buy the home?
Probably March of the previous year. The licensing process takes some time.
Did someone do a permit check to see if those bedrooms were legally permitted?
I mean it was all done through the county. I had to do all of our zoning and everything through the county.
Well, I'm asking I'm not asking about the zoning. I'm asking, did someone do a building permit check to see if the improvements to that house We're legally permitted.
I don't
should have been discussed at closing.
Yeah, it would have we didn't have any outstanding liens or any documents outstanding when we purchased it. Nothing has been built or changed since we've owned a home. The fire sprinkler system was already all installed. Everything was already there when we purchased the
fire sprinkler system was installed. What was the house before your occupancy?
It was a group home.
I see.
And from the reports that I'm reading from the Facebook post, it was not very well taken care of and there was a lot of problems there. And I think that is why the neighborhood is posting about how they are grateful for the kids being there and how happy they are and that they're kind and All good reports about the staff as well.
None of them showed up to testify today.
Yeah.
But I mean I have the screenshots of the posts.
I
understand. So the other thing you didn't respond to was the discussion about the trash and that was at the Bear Creek facility. There was somebody that complained about your trash.
Yeah, I don't know about the trash. We have not received any complaints. Um we have trash pickup with two cans twice a week. I don't know of any complaints there. I don't know of any outstanding circumstances where trash has been all over, except for today. And if that's the case, then that's the first I'm hearing of the trash issue.
Well look, I mean I think there's a lot of problems here that uh that have been brought to the surface and I certainly for one don't think um this demonstrates the ability to expand a a program that has been having this many problems. So I don't think you've earned the right to expand to ten m to ten people. That's my personal opinion and that's how I'm gonna vote. So I would like to hear a motion. I think we've heard everybody speak.
Ask Mr. Daniels to come back up for a second. Yeah, I was gonna do the same.
Mr. Daniels.
So in our agenda memorandum there's a list of calls for service from Sheriff's Department to the Wesley Chapel facility into this facility. But what's not in our agenda is calls to adjacent properties like Mr Tidwell, Do you have any information on how many like surrounding properties have called with complaints related to this facility?
And and especially in regards to them the time frame around that. So if there was a particular spike in it, for instance, after this approval was granted.
Yes, sir. So uh so while we're here, uh so uh I took two actions. So I tried to look up as many addresses as I could find my myself. Um so I can tell you that uh 26414 Lawrence Ave, uh we did receive a call for service on eight fourteen twenty-five um regarding a report that two nights earlier a uh fifteen to eighteen year old male had showed up at the door, uh rang the doorbell asking if he had Snapchat. Um and then fled fled from the residence. Uh that was reported to us, like I said, two nights delayed. Um I also asked our team to draw a
box kind of around the neighborhood, specifically in the Lawrence Ave area. Uh and they found three additional calls for service. Uh 717-2025, which was a domestic uh disturbance juvenile delayed, uh, Quail Hollow Boulevard and Green Willow Run, uh juveniles uh from location one uh were located by PSO at that intersection. Uh 101623 was a Baker at uh juvenile was a resident of location one and went to um the home to get help not
aggressively in that homeowner at uh at that location on [address removed] called up. And then on eight six twenty-three, uh Baker at at that same address is ten sixteen twenty twenty three. Juvenile was a resident of location one, which is uh the Lawrence Avenue address, and advised that the um advised that he wanted to kill himself and had run to to that residence. Um I can also tell you so uh The request that I had received was for calls for service for 8124 through 8125. I also did run a year-to-date
report. So 112-2026, we had the battery of a staff member, which I had spoken about earlier. 1229-25 uh Baker Act, 1213-25, CPI, DCF CPI requested a deputy's assistance. 115-25 was a Baker Act. Um 1025-25, there was a juvenile disturbance that led to a Baker Act. 912-2025, there was a suicide attempt. And then I can't tell you as as the applicant noted, there was a
um an increase. So 105, 1013, 1017, 1019, 1022, and 1026. We had reports of runaways that were all related to the same two individuals.
Okay.
Yeah, and and I didn't catch uh I I apologize, I didn't catch any additional addresses. Um, but if there are any other addresses you'd like me look, I'm happy to do that as well.
That's perfect. I think we got a picture. Did did we have anyone from Code Enforcement? Yeah, I wanted to ask Code Enforcement a question too.
Who do we have from County Code Enforcement here?
Did all the one
on the left possible?
Can somebody with a mic looking sound like
a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a You are not on mute, you're elevated.
Can you hear us?
Can you hear me now? Yep.
Go ahead. Good afternoon, Planning Commission. This is uh Dave Ramica with Pasco County Co-Compliance. I'm the field training officer for the east side of the county.
Okay. So um Dave, you heard some of the testimony today about the um alleged violations of the conditions at um on Lawrence Avenue. Have you all investigated any of those violations? And if so What is the status of that investigation?
So um I looked up case history for that location. I was the first one to go out there. And um we had a couple of them were for what you what they've been saying about parking in the grass or the right-of-way. And um another one was a duplicate call and one was for trash and junk. The um is when the officers went out there and it was me or Tyler who they were talking about
before, there was no active violation when we went out there. I went out there for reported of someone parked in the grass right away. We take pictures. We do we do all that. We close it out. I heard the statement about that they have a picture of Tyler in the background and then in the background of that uh the violations. What they what they didn't say was is that he was next door taking care of another violation
and was going to the uh group home next. And before he got over to the group home, they did move the cars. And so that makes it, you know, we have to see the violation and we have to document the violation. And that case was also closed out as no violation because there wasn't one when we got there. But Our history, from what I can find. Nothing prior to August of last year. And there's only
been three calls since there. Tyler went out the other day for trash and junk. he picked up a couple napkins and a straw and threw it away for him and that's all he found. Now there is, you know, a little bit of a delay for us to getting out there because of other calls and that, but the delays were no longer than a week.
Okay, so The only complaints you've received are related to parking and trash. Have you not received any complaints related to Um unsupervised children
In the neighborhood?
No, not not that I can find the in the uh system prior to uh me going out there. There's nothing inside of the uh Acella that says that.
There was also a statement made that you were unaware of the conditions of approval related to the Lawrence Avenue facility. Is that True.
No, we have it documented. Tyler is uh new new to that zone. And um he was going out there to that group home. But even from what I read, really a lot of their conditional uses are the land development code itself. So The complaints that we have gotten are the basic land development code violations that we deal with every day.
Well, that's not really accurate. Um there are very specific conditions. I'm asking whether you have a copy of
Yes,
sir, I do. The the approval the the
Yes.
The one that was approved on In two two thousand twenty two and it's got conditions about it's gotta be minors and it's they it can't be more than certain number it's got certain types of residents and it's they have to be supervised twenty four seven, th those kinds of conditions. Those are not land development code, typical land development code conditions.
No, I no, my statement was is that we, the ones that we've gone out there that have been called in, have been typical land development code violations.
Okay.
We have not received anything outside of that. Yes, we do have a copy of the document that you're referring to and The problem with accessing it was the way it was labeled inside of one of the cases, and that has been corrected.
Okay, but if you received a complaint related to these conditions, you would investigate it and and take action if necessary?
Yes.
But you haven't received a complaint to date, other than parking and trash.
Exactly. Yeah, yes, sir. That's correct. Thank you.
All right, any other questions, concerns? Hear a motion.
I move to recommend denial of the request and looking at the conditional use attachment. That would be based on item number one and I would specifically cite Flu one point one zero point one D Under compatibility review. I would also cite Number two. That the conditional use will adversely affect
or contribute to the deterioration of the quality of life of property values in the immediate neighborhood.
Three, the proposed conditional use is not consistent with the character of the surrounding area, including existing land use patterns. Four As testimony has been given here today, the proposed conditional use will create Excessive parking congestion or otherwise affect public safety will adversely affect the health, safety or welfare of the surrounding community or area.
I I'll I'll second it and I would add six to that list as well. 'Cause it's gonna give the same reasons for denial on this. And as much as it pains me to do it for this facility, 'cause I benefited like Pastor Jen for, you know, my older son fr going through Guru, I just don't think this is the the right location for for um increasing the density of uh occupants at this house.
So we're in discussion now, correct? No. Yeah,
so
we have a first
motion and a second. Any further discussions?
So yeah, I I just for the record I I have to echo what what um Chris said. You know, there is a tremendous need for these types of homes. You know, I've been very heavily involved in fundraising and charitable work to try to build these types of places.
uh help um people in human trafficking. Human trafficking is a terrible thing and it's a tremendous problem in Florida and tremendous problem in the United States. The United States is number one consumer of human trafficking, so I'll put that out there. There's a tremendous need for it. Um and I've also seen where these group homes can be Um Okay. and run w and a if it if they're run well they can be suitable in some of these neighborhoods. That being said, um given the history
and and I appreciate everyone from the west the east side of the county driving out to the west side to talk about what was going on over there uh on Lawrence. Um I I just can't see how that they have demonstrated it being able to be run appropriately. Uh at least not enough uh for this moment. Now maybe in the future after we get a better track record showing um them being good neighbors and and we can reevaluate it and they can potentially apply
for this uh again. But as of now I just don't see enough evidence to justify um, expanding their existing operation. You know, they'll they'll still be able to continue it under the Florida statutes for up to six, but until we can see a better documented um How they're run this organize this uh this business and how this uh how they run this group home. I I don't I'm not very good with Moving forward with this. No, that's just my comment.
to comment?
We're never going to
Excuse me, we can't speak from the audience. I gave you lots of time, extra time, and I tried to be fair with everybody. Now it's our time.
Well, to be clear, you're allowed to comment when this goes to the board. This is a recommending body on this item. You can make whatever comments you want to make to the Board of County Commissioners.
No, I mean I I echo what was already said. I mean obviously there's a need. Uh this isn't the right place and and I I I personally have concerns with the the existing facility at Lawrence and and I asked myself why why would I want to approve another site like that moving in? I mean I I I I'd like to talk about I mean later after this motion. I mean I I don't know w I guess we already talked about revocation of and and I guess there's not really a code compliance issue and then that's maybe another issue
so I'll stop talking but That's my position on the right-of-way. Well, I think you need
to take action on this item.
Yeah, take action on this item first.
I'm I'm with you, Jamie. This just is not the appropriate location. And although the statutes may allow them to operate in a residential neighborhood, I will be sure to contact all of my state legislatures to work legislators to work my butt off to have that law changed.
Yeah. Again, there's a tremendous need for it, but they gotta be in the appropriate location, you know. And as Pastor Jen said, you know, um a rural location probably fits better where you can't where you don't have a house ten feet away. um for people to elope to. It's a lot harder to elope when you're on a hundred acres. So
Uh Chris you've already spoken.
Yes okay. Well and I don't think I vote on this one, so
All right. And I can say that I speak uh from a wealth of experience. I Have three of my own biological children, but I've also adopted four children of need. And I know how difficult those kids can be. And I know how hard it is to to
j to guide them, teach them, and uh bring them into into a position where they're productive members of society. In the meantime, You know, these residents Live in terror. And I think they have every right to feel that way. And I can't in good conscience. uh vote to expand the facility. and I d agree with my colleagues here, sev several of my colleagues
here, that really these residential locations really aren't the right spot for for this type these types of facilities. You need to be in some kind of a a professional location or a semi private lo location or a even a commercial location. Um Well
you know at the end of the day, Mr. Gray,
uh
this is a for profit operation. Right. Since when do we allow for-profit operations in people's residential neighborhoods? We don't. We wouldn't let a doctor's office move in there. The residential neighborhood. We wouldn't let a lawyer move in a residential neighborhood. So,
you know, I think we're all compassionate people. But we all speak from experience and I can tell you that I certainly worked for Y I certainly speak from experience. So uh she worked at the rap house. I can't in in in good conscience vote to approve it. Um So we have a motion. We have a second. Is there any further discussion? If not, all th and figure uh in favor of declining the application,
signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed, like, sign. Okay. Request is declined.
Okay, thank you. So we're rec making a recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners that we don't think it's appropriate. And so you might want to attend the next Board of County Commissioners meeting. So they're the final decision making body.
Well for Power.
No, we don't want to see that. But uh,
I will remind all of you and the petitioner especially since you're going to come back for another hearing. Taunting the residents and acting uncivil in this forum is not gonna help your case. I'm telling you that this is a Place where you need to remain civil.
You have to show that you're a good neighbor.
Oui.
Very good.
I would suggest that you all just peacefully leave the room, or the officer will probably escort you out.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Oh
I get it. Okay. Thank you.
All right. Okay, everybody turn. Everybody