1 CITY OF
2 LAND USE AND ZONING and PUBLIC HEALTH AND SAFETY
3 JOINT COMMITTEE MEETING
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6 Proceedings held on Tuesday, November 6,
7 2007, commencing at 5:10 p.m., City Hall, Council
8 Chambers, 1st Floor,
9 Diane M. Tropia, a Notary Public in and for the State
10 of
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12 LUZ MEMBERS PRESENT:
13 MICHAEL CORRIGAN, Chair.
CLAY YARBOROUGH, Vice Chair.
14 RICHARD CLARK, Committee Member.
MIA JONES, Committee Member.
15 E. DENISE LEE, Committee Member.
ART SHAD, Committee Member.
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PHS MEMBERS PRESENT:
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KEVIN HYDE, Chair.
19 MIA JONES, Vice Chair.
JOHNNY GAFFNEY, Committee Member.
20 RAY HOLT, Committee Member.
STEPHEN JOOST, Committee Member.
21 DON REDMAN, Committee Member.
CLAY YARBOROUGH, Committee Member.
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Diane M.
Tropia,
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1 ALSO PRESENT:
2 BILL BISHOP, City Council Member.
JOHN CROFTS, Deputy Director, Planning Dept.
3 SEAN KELLY, Planning and Development Dept.
KEN AVERY, Planning and Development Dept.
4 FOLKS HUXFORD, Planning and Development Dept.
5 JESSICA STEPHENS, Legislative Assistant.
MERRIANE LAHMEUR, Legislative Assistant.
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Diane M.
Tropia,
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1 I N D E X
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3 ITEM/FILE NO.
2007-984 RESO OF OPPOSITION TO EXTENSION OF ANY
4 RUNWAY AT CRAIR AIRFIELD; DIRECTING
DISTRIBUTION OF RESO TO
5 AVIATION AUTHORITY AND DIRECTOR OF PLANNING
AND DEVELOPMENT.
6 (COUNCILMEMBERS YARBOROUGH & BISHOP)
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Diane M.
Tropia,
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1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2 November 6, 2007 5:10 p.m.
3 - - -
4 THE CHAIRMAN: Good evening, ladies and
5 gentlemen.
6 Tonight we have a little something
7 different. We're actually going to begin
8 tonight's meeting with a joint Land Use and
9 Zoning and Public Health and Safety Committee
10 meeting to consider one bill. The bill number
11 is 2007-984. If you have an LUZ agenda, it's
12 item number 24 on your agenda.
13 Several people have already asked me if
14 there's a public hearing tonight, and there is
15 not a public hearing on this bill tonight. That
16 public hearing was heard on October 23rd before
17 the entire City Council, so your input was
18 received by all the council members.
19 The bill tonight will be debated by both
20 the Land Use and Zoning and the Public Health
21 and Safety Committee members.
22 I know we have members of the Airport
23 Authority board of directors that may be joining
24 us, and we welcome them.
25 We also have members of the public, and I'm
Diane M.
Tropia,
5
1 sure that my fellow council members -- and the
2 planning staff is here, as well as experts in
3 the audience, and if you want to ask one of them
4 a question during the debate of the bill, please
5 feel free to ask them up.
6 Having said that, I will let you know on
7 the Land Use and Zoning Committee, the following
8 members are present: I am chairman, Michael
9 Corrigan. My vice chair, Clay Yarborough, is
10 here. Councilmember Richard Clark is here.
11 Councilwoman Denise Lee is here. Councilmember
12 Art Shad is here.
13 Councilmember Jack Webb has been excused,
14 and I anticipate Councilwoman Mia Jones joining
15 us in a minute.
16 The chairman of the Public Health and
17 Safety Committee is Councilmember Kevin Hyde,
18 and I will now turn the floor to him for him to
19 introduce his committee.
20 MR. HYDE: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
21 Mr. Redman; Mr. Holt; myself, Kevin Hyde;
22 and Mr. Yarborough are here from our committee.
23 Ms. Jones and Dr. Gaffney were upstairs and I
24 think are on their way down as well, but we do
25 have a quorum now.
Diane M.
Tropia,
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1 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay. Thank you.
2 Now that we have the formalities out of the
3 way, we need to get in the proper posture to be
4 able to consider this bill, so I would entertain
5 a motion on 2007-984.
6 (Dr. Gaffney enters the proceedings.)
7 MR. YARBOROUGH: Move 2007-984.
8 THE CHAIRMAN: We have a motion.
9 Do I have a second on the bill?
10 MR. SHAD: Second.
11 THE CHAIRMAN: We have a motion and a
12 second from the Land Use and Zoning Committee.
13 Councilmember Hyde.
14 (Mr. Bishop enters the proceedings.)
15 MR. HYDE: I'll entertain a motion on -984
16 from the committee.
17 MR. YARBOROUGH: Move the bill.
18 MR. REDMAN: Second.
19 MR. HYDE: Motion and a second on -984.
20 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay. We are on the bill.
21 I have a queue for only Land Use and Zoning
22 committee members, so if will you raise your
23 hand, I will just do a handwritten queue as we
24 move forward. So if you would like to speak on
25 this bill, raise your hand.
Diane M.
Tropia,
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1 Councilmember Yarborough.
2 MR. YARBOROUGH: Thank you, Mr. Chairman
3 and Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the time to be
4 here to talk about this.
5 I guess to get started, I've got several
6 documents here and I did have some questions
7 to -- could we just ask who we have here from
8 the Aviation Authority that may be willing to
9 answer questions that we might have?
10 Mr. Stewart, are you able to answer -- not
11 just yet, but you -- or is Mr. Clark here
12 tonight?
13 MR. STEWART: Mr. Clark is not here.
14 MR. YARBOROUGH: Okay. So will you be able
15 to answer questions if we have --
16 MR. STEWART: (Nods head.)
17 MR. YARBOROUGH: Okay. I appreciate it.
18 Thank you.
19 Okay. First, I just wanted to read into
20 the record -- I mentioned this at our Rules
21 Committee meeting yesterday morning,
22 Mr. Chairman -- a letter that we -- a letter
23 that was sent to
24 Carlucci in May of 2001, and it was written by
25 Mr. Fiorentino, who was the --
Diane M.
Tropia,
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1 MR. BISHOP: Excuse me, Mr. Chairman, real
2 quick. I'm sorry to interrupt real quick.
3 You had asked for Mr. Clark to identify
4 Airport Authority members that are here. I
5 wanted to recognize that John Falconetti is in
6 the audience tonight.
7 THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Councilman
8 Bishop.
9 And let the record reflect that
10 Councilmember Bishop has joined us,
11 Councilman Gaffney has joined us. I think
12 that's it.
13 Okay. Go ahead, Councilman Yarborough.
14 Sorry.
15 MR. YARBOROUGH: That's all right.
16 Okay. I just wanted to read into the
17 record, just as we get started here, a letter
18 that Mr. Fiorentino had written as chairman of
19 the board, May 29th, 2001, and this was four
20 months after the Port Authority had done the
21 resolution which said that they would
22 discontinue all of their efforts to lengthen the
23 runway at Craig Airfield, which was unanimously
24 adopted by the Port Authority board at that
25 time.
Diane M.
Tropia,
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1 The letter says, "As board chairman, let me
2 reiterate that there are no plans, either now or
3 in the future, to extend the runway at Craig
4 Airport. In fact, at today's board meeting, we
5 voted unanimously to return $469,500 to the
6 Florida Department of Transportation for land
7 acquisition
at
8 have been used for future development of Craig
9 Airport and additional land acquisition to be
10 used as a buffer to protect the boundaries of
11 the airport should there have been a runway
12 expansion.
13 "As to the notion that a new board would
14 not be bound by the attached resolution, which I
15 might add was unanimously adopted by the board,
16 I believe that any review of the issue would
17 result in the same conclusion by a new board.
18 Personally, I hope both new boards will honor
19 the past actions of the previous board."
20 And I'll read the final paragraph before I
21 comment on this.
22 "Over the past year, the board has worked
23 hard to improve communications and credibility
24 with the City Council and the community. We are
25 sensitive to the concerns of the community.
Diane M.
Tropia,
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1 "In the case of
2 listened to the community, and that is the
3 reason we have abandoned efforts to expand the
4 runway. The board is dedicated to being good
5 fiduciaries of the public trust and we intend to
6 maintain that trust."
7 So basically what this letter does -- and,
8 again, it was drafted over the board chairman's
9 signature -- is establish that the board, even
10 though, knowing how the system works and even as
11 a City Council, when new members come in and new
12 councils continue on into the future, obviously
13 legislation can be changed that was enacted, you
14 know, prior to future councils coming.
15 But this basically establishes, colleagues,
16 that it was the intent then of the board at that
17 time that they would also put something in place
18 that would -- they said they would like it to be
19 in perpetuity, but that was factored into their
20 reasoning for opposing it at that time as well.
21 And we'll get into some of the reasons of that
22 in just a minute, but that was factored in, and
23 I just thought that would be important to
24 mention as we get into this debate.
25 (Ms. Jones enters the proceedings.)
Diane M.
Tropia,
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1 MR. YARBOROUGH: The other thing that's of
2 paramount importance here -- or that's fairly
3 important is the fact that it says at today's
4 meeting we voted unanimously to return nearly a
5 half a million dollars to FDOT for land
6 acquisition
at
7 could have been used for future development
8 should there have ever been a runway expansion.
9 So not only was the word given by the Port
10 Authority board at the time that they wouldn't
11 expand the runway, money was also sent back to
12 the Department of Transportation that then could
13 have been used to provide more buffer space or
14 more land acquisition, if they had needed that,
15 if they had decided to move forward.
16 Now, if that money was given back, a few
17 questions, I guess, would be -- just for us to
18 percolate on a little bit would be, how much
19 would that be in today's dollars? Are they
20 going to try to get more land now if they expand
21 the runway to use for that development to put
22 around the boundaries of the airport to protect
23 it? Where will that money come from? And just
24 issues like that.
25 And we don't have answers to those
Diane M.
Tropia,
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1 questions. In fact, we haven't even heard
2 anything about that.
3 So I just wanted to mention that first, and
4 then, Mr. Stewart, if you would come up to the
5 microphone, I've got several questions I would
6 like to ask you as we get into the issue a
7 little bit.
8 (Mr. Stewart approaches the podium.)
9 MR. YARBOROUGH: Thank you for being here
10 too, by the way.
11 MR. STEWART: Michael Stewart, 10218
13 32218.
14 MR. YARBOROUGH: Thank you.
15 THE CHAIRMAN: And, Councilman Yarborough,
16 before you start --
17 MR. YARBOROUGH: Yes, sir.
18 THE CHAIRMAN: -- let me, for the record,
19 indicate that Councilmember Joost has joined us,
20 and he's on the Public Health and Safety
21 Committee, and Councilwoman Mia Jones has joined
22 us, and she is on both Public Health and Safety
23 and LUZ.
24 Thank you.
25 MR. YARBOROUGH: Thank you.
Diane M.
Tropia,
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1 Mr. Stewart, thank you, again, for being
2 here. Appreciate it.
3 The master plan that Craig Field is
4 operating on right now, is there a 2006 or a
5 2007 plan or what plan are we operating on for
6 what takes place at Craig Field right now? If
7 you could answer that question.
8 MR. STEWART: I'm sorry. Would you repeat
9 the question, please.
10 MR. YARBOROUGH: Is there a master plan for
11
12 MR. STEWART: Correct. It was approved, I
13 think, in 2001.
14 MR. YARBOROUGH: In 2001.
15 Was it before or after the resolution and
16 action were done by the board to not extend the
17 runway at Craig Field?
18 MR. STEWART: I couldn't give you the
19 specific date of the approval of the master
20 plan.
21 MR. YARBOROUGH: Okay.
22 MR. STEWART: You probably have that there.
23 MR. YARBOROUGH: On the bottom, it says
24 October 2001.
25 MR. STEWART: Okay. Mr. Chairman -- or
Diane M. Tropia,
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1 through Clay Yarborough, I know there's been
2 some conversations with a board member, John
3 Falconetti, with Councilman Bill Bishop, and I
4 don't know if it would be appropriate at this
5 time for Councilman Bishop to talk about that or
6 if Mr. John Falconetti would come up.
7 MR. YARBOROUGH: Mr. Stewart, I believe I
8 was asking you some questions, if I could
9 continue with that, if that would --
10 MR. STEWART: Yes, that would be fine.
11 MR. YARBOROUGH: Thank you. Okay. Thank
12 you for answering that.
13 THE CHAIRMAN: Councilman Yarborough, just
14 to clarify.
15 MR. YARBOROUGH: Yes.
16 THE CHAIRMAN: If Mr. Stewart doesn't know
17 the answers or Mr. Falconetti, then --
18 MR. YARBOROUGH: Sure. That's fine. Just
19 so we can -- we can do that. That's fine.
20 Mr. Stewart, if the Aviation Authority were
21 to lengthen the runway at Craig Field, would the
22 Authority purchase any more land as part of
23 that? Would it need to acquire more land or
24 purchase more --
25 MR. STEWART: No property would be needed
Diane M.
Tropia,
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1 for the purchase -- I mean, for extension of
2 Runway 32, even inclusive of the runway
3 protection zones associated with that runway
4 extension.
5 MR. YARBOROUGH: Okay. What is the primary
6 reason for the Authority wanting to extend the
7 runway at Craig Field?
8 MR. STEWART: The primary reason is safety.
9 MR. YARBOROUGH: Has that always been the
10 reason that the Authority has wanted to increase
11 the runway at Craig Field?
12 MR. STEWART: Yes.
13 MR. YARBOROUGH: It's always just been
14 safety?
15 MR. STEWART: Not just safety, but it's --
16 safety has been the primary reason.
17 MR. YARBOROUGH: Well, I guess in years
18 past, what other issues have factored into
19 wanting to extend the runway if it's not just
20 safety?
21 MR. STEWART: In addition, to take care of
22 the growth in general aviation that is coming to
23 the airport. The airport has grown and the
24 infrastructure has to be improved to accept that
25 growth.
Diane M.
Tropia,
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1 MR. YARBOROUGH: If the runway were to be
2 extended, would it allow for larger craft to
3 come in at Craig?
4 MR. STEWART: Larger --
5 MR. YARBOROUGH: Larger airplanes.
6 MR. STEWART: Not any larger than can come
7 in right now.
8 MR. YARBOROUGH: So they would not be
9 larger than the current --
10 MR. STEWART: Well, the current craft are
11 rated for 60,000-pound dual wheel, and that's
12 the rating of the actual runway, and that rating
13 will not change. The design of the extension
14 will be six inches of asphalt, the same as the
15 existing runway is today.
16 MR. YARBOROUGH: Okay. I have a -- thank
17 you for that answer.
18 Again, going back to 2000 just for a
19 minute, members. There was a letter sent by a
20 lady, Ms. Plummer (phonetic), who lived in the
21 community over there near the airport, to
22 Mr. Gary Duncan, who, at the time, was the
23 aviation manager at Craig Field, and one of the
24 questions that she asked was noise related, but
25 in answering her question about noise -- I'll
Diane M.
Tropia,
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1 read you the paragraph. He did say that if the
2 runway was extended, then larger craft would be
3 able to come in.
4 It says, "Aircraft departing Runway 14
5 heading southeast will start their rollout at
6 the same point they do today, with or without an
7 extension, and will be near or at the same
8 elevation they are today when they cross the
9 airport boundary."
10 And here's the sentence here, it says,
11 "Factoring in larger aircraft, which will be
12 able to use Craig in the future with a longer
13 runway, the noise study indicates that the noise
14 will remain the same as it is today near the
15 southeastern point of the airport."
16 And, again, that was the general aviation
17 manager of the Authority at that time. So,
18 according to that letter, if the runway
19 extension were to happen, then larger airplanes
20 would be able to come in.
21 MR. STEWART: Well, I can't comment on the
22 letter not having it, but I know what is being
23 proposed as far as the runway extension includes
24 a displacement of a thousand feet at each end,
25 which will definitely impact the noise contours,
Diane M.
Tropia,
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1 and they would be different than the time frame
2 of what you were looking at.
3 MR. YARBOROUGH: Okay. Thank you,
4 Mr. Stewart.
5 Just for a few minutes, members, I'd like
6 to -- from the 2006 statistical package from the
7 City's Planning and Development Department --
8 you know, we've heard from the Authority that a
9 lot has changed over time b