The full transcript is here.
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| Overflow Crowd at Church of Hope Neighborhood Workshop |
Italicized titles are themes. Page numbers are to the full transcript. Colored text is comment, not part of transcript.
MEC is "historic"
15
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| Bo Medred, left, agent for Gabbert |
How Many Trucks a Day?
30
BO MEDRED: Jim, just talk about how many trucks of patrons might come in on a given day and then how many of your trucks might leave on a given day.
JIM GABBERT: Okay. The facility is designed to accept stuff anywhere from pickup trucks to dump trucks, and we consolidate that material and haul it out in our company trucks. The outgoing trucks might be anywhere from 6 to 10 a day, and the inbound trucks could -- inbound customer loads could be 25 to 80 loads a day of inbound.
FEMALE AUDIENCE: You said 100 at the last meeting.
FEMALE AUDIENCE: Yeah, 75 to 100 at the last meeting.
FEMALE AUDIENCE: Yep. You're changing your story. Nice try.
At the Waste Transfer hearing, Gabbert testified to the Board of County Commissioners that the average number of trucks per day would be 67.
MEC dates to early 80’s - The area has radically changed.
32
MALE AUDIENCE: Okay. I just moved out to the area. I just moved out to the area about 6 or 7 months ago. I live in Laurel Lakes, which is Palmer and Iona, and I don't come here with any tremendous angst, but here's just a question I have.
This zoning designation, the major employment center, that was -- that evolved in 1983. Now, I wasn't here in 1983, but I imagine the inordinate amount of residential growth that has taken place out here wasn't even in the planning when they thought about that kind of zoning.
And so there's a concern for me that after they've turned, you know, waste areas into parks and such, all of a sudden, you know, maybe Pandora's box is opened up here because you pointed out, Jim, that there is the surplus lands across the street.
My question would be for the county. Would this then, the decision to rezone for you, would this create a precedent going forward in some of these other surplus lands, whereas, you know, exceptions can be done and, you know, these kinds of surprises pop on what is really becoming a very hot area from a residential standpoint. (Applause.)
BO MEDRED: Okay. The area east of The Celery Fields on the south side of Palmer Boulevard, Palmer Glen, Pine Tree, those developments --
MALE AUDIENCE: Meadow Walk.
BO MEDRED: Meadow Walk. I actually rezoned all 3 of those for clients back in the -- it would have been the '90s and 2000s, and at that point it was designated for residential.
And prior to that being designated for residential, this area has -- was designated for major employment center and zoned as ILW zoning at that point*. The county recognized that and continued to place an MEC or an industrial designation on this property.
And so it's the historical use, when the county put it out to bid, they put it out as -- for sale a industrial lands. And so I understand that it's further out there, but the industrial area has historically been there. It has been -- you know, The Celery Fields were working an agricultural operations prior to them being purchased by the county, too.
This zoning designation, the major employment center, that was -- that evolved in 1983. Now, I wasn't here in 1983, but I imagine the inordinate amount of residential growth that has taken place out here wasn't even in the planning when they thought about that kind of zoning.
And so there's a concern for me that after they've turned, you know, waste areas into parks and such, all of a sudden, you know, maybe Pandora's box is opened up here because you pointed out, Jim, that there is the surplus lands across the street.
My question would be for the county. Would this then, the decision to rezone for you, would this create a precedent going forward in some of these other surplus lands, whereas, you know, exceptions can be done and, you know, these kinds of surprises pop on what is really becoming a very hot area from a residential standpoint. (Applause.)
BO MEDRED: Okay. The area east of The Celery Fields on the south side of Palmer Boulevard, Palmer Glen, Pine Tree, those developments --
MALE AUDIENCE: Meadow Walk.
BO MEDRED: Meadow Walk. I actually rezoned all 3 of those for clients back in the -- it would have been the '90s and 2000s, and at that point it was designated for residential.
And prior to that being designated for residential, this area has -- was designated for major employment center and zoned as ILW zoning at that point*. The county recognized that and continued to place an MEC or an industrial designation on this property.
And so it's the historical use, when the county put it out to bid, they put it out as -- for sale a industrial lands. And so I understand that it's further out there, but the industrial area has historically been there. It has been -- you know, The Celery Fields were working an agricultural operations prior to them being purchased by the county, too.
*Medred clearly misspoke. The “future” land use (actually from the wayback machine of 1981) is Major Employment Center (MEC), which does not entail industry -- it can be offices, hi-tech manufacturing, even residential. And it is NOT zoned ILW. The current zoning is OUR - open use rural, which includes a variety of uses, not simply agricultural.
Not Recycling but Waste Processing
50-52
FEMALE AUDIENCE: Hi. Okay. So I want to just clarify terms and ask a question or two. So the term we've been using "recycling center" but that sort of paints a picture of, you know, people coming in with their bottles and things like that, and that's not what this is.
JIM GABBERT: Correct.
FEMALE AUDIENCE: This is really more. It's a construction waste transfer center; yes?
JIM GABBERT: Yes.
FEMALE AUDIENCE: So perhaps we should maybe address it as such as opposed to addressing it as something that might give us a little more of an environmentally friendly kind of situation. Wait. It leads to my question. It leads to my question. (Applause.)
Toxic materials, negative impact on property values
51
FEMALE AUDIENCE: Sorry. I listened to you all, and I'm just asking you all to listen to me. So it leads to my question, which is, about concentration as well of materials. For example, when you talk about something like lawn waste, tree limbs and so forth. Come on, we know this. It's Florida. It's all treated. It's got weed killers. It's got Monsanto, Round-up ready. It's got a lot of stuff that can be considered toxic material in high concentration. When you liken it to, for example, the concrete to a sidewalk, that's one intact thing. When you start crushing and releasing dust and releasing certain amounts of particulate, it's going to go into the water, it's going to go into the retention pond, and it's not always good. (Applause.)
One very last thing, I'm going to wrap it all up, okay? My big finish here is tax base, okay? So what happens when some of us decide we don't want to live among the perhaps scavenger birds we will attract, the amount of dust or noise, trucks, what have you, traffic, what have you. And then people start selling. It doesn't attract people to buy to an area that is an area that we know is really being swathed. I mean, it's moving out, right? Residential. It's not going to be all downtown any more. It's coming east. So those are my concerns. There we go. (Applause.)
Political Connections
53
DAVID JOHNSON: I have a question for you related to your appointment by Governor Rick Scott to the Sarasota County Charter Review Board.. . . Your current term runs through 2018. Can you tell us what impact your political connection will have on your ability to get this rezoning application approved? (Applause.)
JIM GABBERT: I'm happy to respond to that. I was appointed to an opened seat on the Charter Review Board. A year later I ran for re-election, and I was elected by the voters of Sarasota County. So I don't know what -- I'm an elected person. I served as a volunteer on the Charter Review Board for no fee, strictly as a volunteer, to try to protect our charter for the county. I'm a fourth generation Sarasotan. My wife is a fifth generation. We've raised all our children here. We were raised here.
