public comment on agenda items and county business
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The source document
The county’s agenda for Board of County Commissioners, Sep 5, 2023
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The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Sep 5, 2023
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What was said
Machine transcription of 30m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 71% of 133 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
Here. Now is the time for public comment. Citizens are given an opportunity to comment on any current or future agenda item coming before the board and on other business under the board's purview. Today's public comment will be handled as follows. First, we will take public comment from those who are here in person. Then we will take public comment from those who are pre-registered for a WebEx link and currently on queue. We request that when you address the Board, comments are not directed personally against a Commissioner or team member, but rather directed at the issues. This provides mutual respect
between the board members and the public. After stating your name and address for the clerk, a three-minute timer will be activated. After two minutes, a single beep will indicate you have one minute left. When your time is up, two beeps will sound and you should close your comments. WebEx participants will be disconnected automatically when their time is up. Mr. Clerk, do we have anyone signed up for public comment?
We do, Mr. Chairman. Uh first one is Stephen Thomas.
If you would uh please sir if you give the name uh your name and address for the record. Stephen Jonas, [address removed]
[address removed]
[address removed]
[address removed]. Uh Commissioner, she might remember I was here two weeks ago in order to get a two-week continuance on order to demolish. I'm here again just to get a little bit more time. As you can understand, there's been a hurricane that's coming to the county, caused some flooding. I've submitted all the documentation to the county attorney's office, I've submitted everything to the building department. I'm just waiting on the response. The two weeks ends essentially today. So if I can just get another two weeks for them to make their decision. The only difference has changed is we've had some flooding in the area. I have two duplexes
and Port Ritchie that have flooded. I now have four families that are homeless. This property's in a flood zone next. Didn't flood. I could put a p a family in this home if the county would just let me rehab it. That's all I have. If I can get some easement.
Okay. Does the board want to comment this or to take it on the committee reports?
We'll discuss it in committee reports. I had met with staff on it too. Thank you. Okay.
Next up, uh Liz Molinari.
Hello, good morning. Um my name is Liz Molinari. I live at [address removed] down in Hudson on the water there in the trailers. Um I purchased this property back in 2018. Back in February of 2018, I made the contract for the home. I lived in Venice, Florida at the time. So that weekend on the 24th, we drove up to check on our property. I have a picture. This was on the front door of the property that I was buying. There's a stop work order from Pasco County. Okay.
I called up the sell at the realtor. I called up the county. I asked what was the the stop work order from They said there had been a building attached behind that building that needed to come down. Everything else was fine. I n I purchased the property. Thirty days later I realized that I live next door to a marina who abuses county land. I asked him to not park his boats on the county land 'cause he was blocking traffic and Running over all water mains and whatnot. He told me he lived here thirty years and he's can do whatever he wants. Um
he still is parking his boats on county land changing oil under no parking signs. Um but in the meantime he sent code enforcement to my home every week for the next seven weeks. At one point I asked the code enforcement agent if his house was up to code. He then threatened me for 45 minutes sitting in his car. Making me stand out for me, he for me he was calling law enforcement on me because I had his friend, the law enforcement agent. I'm talking it was the sixth time code enforcement was at my house in the sixth Find come to find out that everything they want me to remove is nothing
that I've built and has been there for more than ten, fifteen years. Come to find out the building they want me to remove now that I've just demolished the week of the hurricane. is this exact building that their tag is on. They know that this is not a good building. They know by looking at the house. I have pictures of every other home on my block with this same type of building why I would not have thought it was an illegal building when the county told me everything was fine. I came to the Board meeting, uh the the Board of Constructions meeting in twenty uh eighteen in September. I was not on the deed to my house.
The construction board told me I could not speak for my husband, even though I had a certified letter from my husband stating that I could speak for him because he had just gotten a new job. They wouldn't let me speak. They told me we were found guilty. Thirty days later, my son was in a traumatic accident on a basketball court at St. Leo University. He's got a traumatic brain injury. We've spent the last four years rehabilitating him. We spent the first year out of the house. I came back to sell the house. Now the building department has had me tear everything down. We're fine, we're tearing it down. I'm trying to get into my other home. I've
lost tens of thousands of dollars in the last three weeks trying to close on another property, getting this up to code. I have one piece left that I can't take down because I'm waiting for a custom order because my house is exposed and the building department will not let me comply today so that I can get you guys to recess the fines so that I can close on my other property by the end of the week because I turned out good friends. No I have only eight. eighteen minutes up. Fifteen seconds left and it's been a very track.
What was
the address again?
[address removed]. [address removed]
[address removed]
[address removed].
Mine. Okay.
And the marina and I have pictures there are rotten boats in the marina sitting there. And the building department told me the other day that they are reactive, not proactive, because I said, Do you see that the buildings along my whole block? And they told me that I needed to turn them in, that they could do nothing. So I'm supposed to turn on myself my fellow neighbors because the building department didn't want to do their job the very first time they were there back in twenty eighteen. When I would have either purchased this property without that building or would have at least been aware when they were there. And that's all I have to say.
Thank you. And if you would be Rob Rob Marin, Rob I'm never Rob Marin, our head assistant county administrator comes come forward to talk to you about permitting.
Okay. Thank you. And
then uh
they also made me get after the fact permits back in April when they could have just told me to go see Chris Main and Touvain Connolly because there was a two hundred thousand dollar lien against my home right now because of the fines.
And
instead they made me spend five thousand dollars on a building engineer, uh a survey, um permits when they they could have just said, Ms. Molinari, you need to go see this department and figure it out from there. But they took my four thousand this summer and are still finding me every day.
Thank you. Thank you.
Linda Farmer.
Come on.
Move to receive and file.
Second. All in favor say aye. Can you bring them up to the clerk?
Good morning, Commissioners. Linda Farmer, [address removed]. I don't know if I'm supposed to be sworn in or not. Yeah. Okay. Um I was um contacted through social media. Um been in front of you guys before. I'm from the Shady Hills Civic Association. From the people over in Hudson on a property that's colony Road project LLC Um first I wanna say I'm not here to beat you guys up. I believe this is one hundred percent the builder and the um construction crew
that is on this piece of property, that is destroying this piece of property. There's homeowners in the area that are scared to come in here and talk to you guys because they've been threatened by the people that are working on this piece of property. Everyone behind us properties, their yards are flooded. They have hit an aquifer. The aquifer's been running for over four weeks now. I've been told that there was an old arch Argentinan well that was illegally put into this piece of property. thirty, forty years ago that's attached to an aquifer system. The top
part is the plan where that green circle is, where the park's supposed to be. They dug a giant hole out and buried everything into the middle of the piece of property, cars, debris, everything. I'm gonna show you some pictures of the trees that they burnt down and cut up and buried underneath of the property. We have to three size football fields, if not bigger. and uh probably about twenty to forty feet deep in certain areas where water's flowing out of the bottom of the ground. this
beautiful green water. This is not runoff water. This is a piece of property that a aquifer has been hit and everybody around there they've got two pumps on the property. You can change that picture at this point now and go to the next one if you want to. When I first got to this piece of property there was no barrier around this property at all. None. There was no barrier in the very top picture when I came by the very first time, the second picture, there was no barrier around this property at all. After I called code they came out and put a barrier around the entire piece of property. However, it needs a eight foot fence around it now.
There's children that play out in the These are kids that aren't sitting inside the houses. They're not playing PlayStation. They're out riding their bikes. They like to climb hills. I'd like one of those pictures, the one number four, number five with the ravine that shows the huge ravine. the ravines that these kids can walk up on. And and and get down in the water that's being pushed around, it's just being diverted. There's water trucks showing up, they're loading up water, they're hauling it away.
What was the address of this again?
It is the Colony Road project on Colony between Hudson Bow Road and Highway Fifty Two. Um I went before and after the hurricane. Before the hurricane these people's yards were flooded and after the hurricane their yards were even flooded. You have fleet free flowing water in a forty foot depth ravine that's around neighborhoods with children playing, driving With little four wheelers.
This property needs to be shut down. I'm asking you to go red tag this piece of property. There is no paperwork. on this site. None. Hasn't been since day one. Code enforcement was thrown off the property by these people who probably half of them are illegal. They're living in a trailer next door. They work twenty-four hours a day under dark, hiding everything that they can possibly hide. Someone's gonna get hurt, not to mention we need to stop the water from flowing out of the aquifer. Um but somebody's gonna get hurt.
We have started with two little holes. You can see the beautiful green water. Now they've got another pump that they've put on the piece of property that's pumping it into now a third Third. giant hole that they've dug. I just need someone to care. Y'all are better than this. Pasco's better than this. I don't know what kind of rules and regulations are set down for the The the builders who hire these people that come out, I don't think we should leave it up to the people that dug the hole to fix the hole. I think
EPA? Army Corps engineers, when something like look this is what I'm talking can you put that one back up? This is what this property underneath of the ground is full of. They chopped the trees up and buried it four feet, five feet, six feet underground, so when it starts decaying The land's gonna start moving around and people's houses are gonna start falling apart. I am begging you right now, I have a kid. No no dog in this fight other than I am a water preserver. You know that. I love my water in Florida. I love
my well water in Florida. Um This something that needs to be brought to your attention. Unfortunately your code guy keeps getting thrown off the property by whoever these people are. So maybe we need to send a sheriff over there. And Get everybody off the property and put a fence up and then get somebody over there to fix the problem. Am I out of time?
Uh you are but that's okay. Okay. Linda, what we'll do is and and we talked last week about this.
Yes, we
did. And I sent
code out to go do it. I know you were busy because it was a storm and everything, and I appreciate your time. I did get two people from the community that are gonna show up here today. There are gonna be a couple people on WebEx that are afraid. The the these people told them to keep their mouth shut. Stay out of their way and leave 'em alone. And that's not fair for the people that are being s their houses are being flooded because of the ne negligence of the of these contractors. I just I need some help from you guys. We need to do something about it today.
So Rob Marron again, I need you to come up and and Alex from the Sheriff's Office, if you if you get involved with this as well, listen to what was said, and maybe there's even something as well as going out there to help code to protect them, but even find out what what threats were actually made.
And and and I'm gonna ask Mr. Mariano that at this point I think even if the county has to go out and put a fence around this property to protect these kids from climbing up these berms and and and God forbid. Somebody h getting hurt and charge it to the guy. I mean this guy needs to be shut down. Whoever this guy is who's hired these contractors that are absolutely they took a beautiful piece of property and destroyed it. All right,
so I've got Alex from the Sheriff's Office over here, he's gonna listen in. Uh and Rob if you would go to the side room and just got through. Thank you. It's at the intersection of colony and fifty two.
Is that the Dunker Donuts site? That's the only thing I see in project pipeline uncalled on that road.
Gotta check it out.
I think I thought it was like townhomes we've been put out there or something. All right. Anyone else in your public?
Next signed in Kristen Quintral.
Uh Christine Control [address removed].
Um so I live in Watergrass and they have this Vita Way depreised uh plan and that's great. It's supposed to be like thousands of homes, apartments, retail, which is all exciting. The problem is right now the only way in is gonna be Down Over Pass and down Watergrass Parkway. So over the next one, two, three years they're building this, we're talking tens of thousands of construction cr uh trucks just coming in. And as you know, we've just passed in Watergrass the no three truck ordinance
because they were demolishing all of our roads. Old Road Road is like covered in potholes and all that stuff. And I feel like now For the next two years, they're gonna go and destroy Watergrass Parkway. So what our whole community is just begging and pleading is that we fast track extending Watergrass Parkway to hit River Glen and then also build out wells from Curley to Hancart so that the only way in isn't just down Watergrass Parkway, which right now is about 500 feet and it dead ends into a cow field. And the only people that go down that road is
the people that live. So If if you could just and if you can't extend wells right now, you can fast track that, if you could just make a construction truck route, like off of curly, off of hand cart, anything, because I'm telling you the next two years it's just gonna be thousands and thousands of trucks coming in our community, dropping nails and debris and whatever, buckling Watergrass Parkway, doing the exact same thing that happened to Oakbridge Road to Watergrass Parkway. So I know it's already in the plan. To build out wells and to extend water grass to Riverland, we're asking
that you maybe do this first so that at least there's like four ways in, and that the only way to build this massive undertaking isn't that. I'm also asking, because I know that there's a school in these plans, that for once we please don't just bottleneck it to one lane. Right now, the plans are that it's one lane of traffic going into. I don't know if you're familiar with uh Pinecrest, but basically State Road 54 becomes Pinecrest parking lot at three o'clock. And so this is the same thing that's gonna happen on Watergrass Parkway. It's
just gonna bottleneck. So we're asking me why it as well. And then finally, um, I know that Watergrass is part of the VOPH like master roadway plan, all this stuff. We're very much a part of it. Everything that's being built around that is part of VOPH, they all have These multi-use golf cart paths, and for whatever reason, when they built ours, they only built them 10 feet. And I know recently you guys passed it to 12 feet. So you're building the business town center, the park, all these things, and nobody will be able to get on a golf cart to actually get to any of
it through Watergrass because we have 10-foot sidewalks, and I guess we can't ride on anymore. So we're asking that because I know south of Watergrass. Park rate, they're already doing the twelve foot that you just extend our multi-use paths to twelve feet so that we can actually uh get to and from everything in the V O P H, the superpark, the business center, everything's gonna be built that we actually can get to it right now because our community is just citing everyone left and right for writing golf carts. So Anyways, uh just the roads like everyone
else. I love you guys are building everything, but if you could just put in roads, more roads, widen roads, that would be great.
Okay.
Commissioner
Weightman this also um We're been busy with engineers with trying to work out plans to do this. Uh far as your HOA has to handle 'cause Watergrass was never built for golf carbs to to answer that. And it has to be a twelve foot path and HOA has to take care of that, not the county. That's a HOA problem. And then the roadway and all we've had I don't know if is Nick here Yeah. Uh maybe you come talk to
this lady about what's gonna be done in the near future to help alleviate some of this road issues that we're having in Watergrass, which we've been getting a lot of emails for just this same thing. So I know they're working at it, I know they're putting a red light out at Tankar. But that's only a temporary fix. They did that already. It's a temporary fix. Well it's the fire
department fire department
too,
because they've been stuck though.
The long range plan for overpass coming through there. It
was
always planned to go through there. That's not nothing new. It it was always planned to come through when it came through though we probably should have had that road that goes on and hits Fairview Heights Road and goes on to Cossack in three oh one. If we could have had those worked out at the same time, that traffic would be going straight through.
Yeah.
It took them eleven minutes to get to uh get to the car crash because it was during school hours and overpass was completely backed up. They had to hop the median, it's just and that's someone's life on the other end as well. So
We under So what don't I get Nick if you would come on up and talk with it for others, get make sure we get all the details right. Thank you.
Excuse me. Uh Amanda Avela.
Hi, my name is Amanda Avila. I live at [address removed].
I'm sorry, just a little bit louder, ma'am
Amanda Avila, [address removed]. I'm here today to discuss negligence regarding the construction site at Fairwinds and Colony Road. Um I don't know who has kind of dropped the ball. Um as Linda said, we have about thirty foot canals just open to the public right now. They finally put up fencing Sunday. About a foot and a half tall. plastic fencing. Only in some parts though. So if a child goes over there There's no telling because they've been hiding everything since day one. Everything looks like a flat
piece of land. There's berms. So if a child goes over that, that's it. Everybody's yards are flooded. We've already been forgotten back there for decades. And yet again, we're being flooded out again. We don't have access to emergency services. This isn't going to make it any better. We don't have access to ev law enforcement can't do anything. The sheriff's department won't come out. They're chasing us. Off this land every time we try and take pictures or show. Um I feel for the future homeowners of those sites, every single one of them is
a guaranteed sinkhole. Every single one of them. It is about six foot of debris, mulch, trash, covered by sand. Yet we have problems with insurance in this state and you're selling people homes like that that are just going to fall on the ground. Um at the end of the day, I mean all of us basically have no choice but to be flooded and forgotten about like we have for decades back there and it's getting a little old. Um we would just like that whole area fenced off to some degree for safety at least
and those people held accountable for what they've done back there. Um They've had zero protections, they've had zero permits, there's canals built back there now, there's no safety, there's I mean at the end of the day, the elderly, the disabled, the lower class, the lower the lower middle class, they can't make these meetings. Most of the time they can't even afford the gas to get out here or to any of these meetings from that area. But that's what everybody depends on, is us not being able to speak up. So I would like the county to prove us all wrong
and actually fight for some of us back there and and change things and hold these construction companies accountable for the the destruction that they're doing.
And if you would um if you want to talk to Rob Mameron a little bit more, they just had a meeting is is if anyone else is here with the same item. We we started looking at it last week. Obviously the hurricane slows down a little bit, but we will look at it as far as any permits not being pulled. We'll definitely be on to that. Sheriff's Office Alex, thank you for going to meet with him as well. They'll get together to make sure we look at this thing real hard.
No, and I appreciate you guys listening to us and taking the time to hear us out today. It's it's been a while. So thank you.
Thank you.
Uh Pamela Avela?
Okay,
same subject.
Well no.
I am Pamela Avila, [address removed]. I'm also speaking of the Colony Road Project. n I'm gonna start with they cut down Every tree. Even the protected trees. They had trees that were roped off or taped off, cut them down. Ripped them out. There is flowing water from the aquifer. My sister's house is directly behind what they're building right there. Her husband is the one that was threatened
by the worker. Um they were flooding my sister's yard. The water was so high it was going into her pool, which is elevated. Um and My brother-in-law went out there and is talking to the guy my sister and I were standing right there and he's saying you guys cannot be keep pumping this water into this little tiny pond. You've flooded my yard. And he says, buddy, your shed's on my property. I'd drop this if I were you. You need to drop this now. You're gonna be sorry. And well we didn't drop it.
Because I'm loud. And I love my Florida. I love my property. I've lived here for 28 years, Pasco County worker, Pasco County 4 H leader. and this is breaking my heart that they've tapped into this aquifer and no one is stopping them. My well is already having problems. In the past month I've had to change out my filters, so has my neighbor Jeff and Lorraine across the street. Four times. I haven't had to change my filters in seven years. Four times in a month. We've had to change them out. The
rotten egg smells getting worse and worse and worse and like I said I've got a filter system and that is all in the last month. And so something is correlated with this. My well's only 75 foot deep, I know because I had it dug four years ago, five years ago. And so I know how deep it is. So people with deeper wells might not already have be having issues, but I am. And I'm two streets over from this, so I can't imagine how people are closer are having problems. I know they've hit Lime Rock because they're digging it up. And
I used to work for a sinkhole company. That's sinkholes. So they've gotta do something. Somebody has to get out there. And I appreciate you hearing me and I appreciate you taking action on this.
Okay. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, that concludes those who have signed up in person. Is
there anyone on WebEx?
Yes.
Um Lee Staples.
No.
Lee Staples is not showing up online. Angela Sus um
Kara Lindemann.
No? Kendra Lang made. Kendra?
Can you hear me okay?
Yes, we can.
Yes, ma'am,
ma'am. All
right-name address
for the record, please.
Yeah, Mendra Lingmade, [address removed]. So I have sent an email to all of you and I've had a few responses back. But again, I am speaking in terms of watergrass. So this Vitas Way that was approved for the use of Overpass Old Bridge to Watergrass is going to be a problem for us. So my husband and I, we do bike our children to school. They go to improv there right off of Curly. And on a
daily basis, it's taking your life into your hands um coming out of this neighborhood. So we live off of Anglesem. There's no stop sign, there's no stoplight. Um, and they use people use that stoplight at Curly and Overpass as their starting lane for their racetrack. Um they take off from there and they race to the merge so that they can get ahead of somebody else. Um there's been multiple accidents there, um, to which my husband and I have walked past many a time. Um we need to get serious
about looking at all this development. Um We love that we're adding things and accessibility and things like that, but where are the kids gonna go to school until those schools are built? How are you gonna prevent walkers and bikers from getting struck by cars uh due to all these racetrack driving skills? How's the fire department gonna get to a fire when there's nowhere for people to pull off? Um What are we gonna do when we have accidents constantly? And now you hit a kid who's biking home from school Because there's nothing
to stop people from racing down over Pas Row. I understand that there's going to be a stoplight put in at Watergrass in Overpass, and I'm asking for that to be done sooner rather than later. We've got school traffic for multiple schools. You've got again our fire trucks. And we've almost been hit in the crosswalk before, even at Curly, that does have a light. Um so how can we do this so that it's thoughtful? And
it's not just to generate more tax revenue from new houses being built. We need wells to be extended and we need construction traffic going through there. Um even construction traffic coming through these days uh comes through again, Mach 90 and there's nobody stopping them. There's nobody taking them, um, you know, holding them accountable. This morning the Pasco County Sheriff was nice enough. They were out here and they were pulling over cars. Um, but again, they can't be out there every
day. So how do we slow down the traffic on Overpass so people start thinking about the people that live in this community? Thank you.
Thank you. Is there anyone else on WebEx?
Yes, we have uh Paola Stewart.
Paolo Stewart?
We're seeing you but it appears there there we go. Oh there we There we go.
If you would pay all your name name and address for the record, please.
Yes, my name is Paola Stewart. My address is [address removed]. I'm also Uh interested in discussing with you guys the project in Sierra Winsome Colony. Um, quite concerning, although very excited about development um and improving our account me. Also quite worried about this developers coming into this nature coast. And disregarding nature entirely. Uh there was Mm. No thoughts. No
safe proper steps taken to relocate uh the animals that lived in that area. We have had business into our yard for uh coyotes and deer and a lot of uh animals that don't know where to go. Um the way every single tree was removed is heartbreaking um for us and any future generation and now the concern of the apple fare being hit. and trying to conceal it and not doing anything long term to properly. Um
re establish the closure of that aquifer and protect our wells and our water reports before uh centers to come. So I'm I'm hoping that we can get you guys inspired especially with the initial prayer from this uh group uh that that was a gift given to by God and we are squandering it away and then money which is quite concerning. So I hope that you guys are able to fit in for us. in close that project and every
other contractor that has no intention of respecting with this nature closed stuff. This post is about taking care of our resources. understanding what natural resources and importance that they have in our family, in our future, in our present in our future. And uh my son is quite concern about uh the welfare of the animals that were not relocated. And he's nine years old. So there's something there for all of us to learn and I hope you guys can help us get this shut down
and it's every single contractor that's not Very nice. to move away from here. We are not interested in this type of development, at least I'm not. Um I'm interested in development, understanding and respecting the reasons. Three.
Thank you. And uh Rob, I hope we're going to take a look at doing the cease to disorder and uh find out what's going on. You get the tree experts out there, find out how many trees were taken down, and uh let them pay the appropriate tree mitigation uh fund as well. Thank you. Uh
Madison Bellow?
N not showing up online. Uh is there any others online?
Mr. Chairman