Meeting Minutes for 3/4/2008:

Present – Jerry Murphy, David Ramos, Kim Porte, Anne Garris, Candy Zimmerman, Ellie Holmes, Ross Concklin, Pat Power, Mara Basic, and Allan Avery.

Absent – Ron Delp, Lisa Cowley, Rosemarie Bonnington, Polly Sullivan, Patrick Gallager,.

Guests – Vice-Mayor John Doran, Lt. Wayne Andrews, Linda Hamrell, Sandy Britton, Beverly Gallager, Wayne Misler, Dave Muzio and Gina McPherson, representatives of Island Estates Civic Association.

Clearwater Beach Librarian, Linda Hamrell, told us that work has begun on the new library; she has chosen the shelving and shelving braces. Work should be complete in late May, she suspects the library will close for a few weeks for the move and set up at the new location. She hopes to see us in our new facility sometime in June 2008. Volunteers will still be needed. She again voiced her appreciation for all the help from the many volunteers! Special thanks to Pat Power and Lorraine Freitag for all the time you put into organizing the volunteers.

Dave Muzio, President of Island Estate Civic Association (IECA), introduced himself and Gina McPherson, who will be attending our meetings as their representative. Island Estates, Sand Key Civic Association and CBA plan to join forces, share ideas and work together when appropriate. IECA meets on the second Monday of each month, at Dolphin Cove Condominiums in the recreation room. The three groups feel that the City will pay more attention to our combined appeal than the three separate entities alone.

IECA feels that there are too many deviations to the City Code and/or the Island Estates Code being allowed in their neighborhood. In response to this they plan to tighten up their Overlay Code to be more specific as to what will be allowed on Island Estates. They are hopeful that this will make it more difficult for deviation from the code to be allowed.

Pat Power addressed us in her “Friends of the Clearwater Beach Library” capacity. The “Friends” are a “Not For Profit Group”. They have now obtained their State authorization number and their IRS I.D. They are currently working on tax exempt status.

Pat has arranged two successful Games Night Events, with 30 attendees the first night and 20 on an inclement night for her second. The City states we must maintain at least 12 attendees to allow for staffing of the building. This is perfectly understandable and we see no problem keeping our numbers up. Game night is each 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month – see you there! All ages and skill levels welcome, the room is large enough for several activities to take place at one time.

Friday, March 14th is “The Friends”, “Sock Hop” at the Recreation Center, 7-10 p.m. We will have a D.J., Trivia Contest, Dance Contest and Costume Contest. “Bring your own bottle”, soft drinks and Root Beer Floats will be provided.

Minutes of the February 5, 2008 meeting were presented and accepted as written. The Treasurer’s Report was presented and accepted as well after discussion. David pointed out that membership has doubled since December of 2007 with our new total membership at 101 households!

Lt. Wayne Andrews finally located us in our new location at “Chapel By The Sea”. The late change in venue caused a few late arrivals! Follow-up to the question asked last month regarding the left turn sign above the roadway at Rockaway and Mandalay being removed. Lt Andrews asked Paul Bertels and was told that they were going to use the painted roadway markings and the red and green arrow on the overhead signal, but were eliminating the extra signage for aesthetics.

He asked if we had noticed the speed board installed on the causeway heading east. It was placed in response to recent traffic accidents. It is located next to the speed limit sign. He feels that they are effective as a reminder to speeders and is requesting another for westbound traffic as well.

Speeders Beware! Radar is up! Mandalay Avenue still has many speeders and Lt. Andrews said about 70% of the warnings or in some cases tickets are given to local residents. Ross Concklin asked Lt. Andrews to consider moving his men to Bruce Street near Kipling as the detour is routing traffic in that direction. He also commented that stop signs at that location are ignored throughout the day and night and coupled with the 40 plus miles per hour many drivers choose that intersection is an accident waiting to happen. He noted that a large amount of windshield glass was found in the roadway at Lantana and Kipling and that street is traveled less than Bruce.

Chestnut and Oak and Chestnut and Ft. Harrison will be manned by Police Officers during peak hours over Spring Break as these lights are not in sync and do not facilitate traffic flow. He reminded us that Paul Bertels is still considering eliminating some of the crosswalks in this area routing pedestrians to the one with the pedestrian signal button.

Pat Power asked Lt. Andrews how many times a home must be reported before a citation is written by an officer. He explained that a call could come in at 10 pm, a visit is made and then that officer may go off duty at 11 pm., another call could come in at 2 a.m. and that responding officer may not always be aware of the earlier call. The second call to the same address may or may not result in a citation depending on the officer’s knowledge of the previous call. He realizes that this is quite frustrating to residents. He stated that this information is all public record, and if he is given a specific address by email he can investigate the situation and the call record for the previous year. He feels that these situations are best addressed by him, leaving his officers to traffic accidents and crimes of a more serious nature. He asks for our cooperation in notifying him promptly by email. Please don’t wait two to three weeks to tell him about it at a CBA meeting. Call the report in at the time, but if you feel it was not handled properly please email him the specifics the next day. He will call on the address himself and if necessary ticket the occupant and if applicable the rental agent as well.

The city has purchased three new T-3 Mobility vehicles. They are “GREEN”, powered by 2 batteries, running for 8-12 hours. You will see officers riding them but you can also see them on the internet by visiting T3motion.com.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Beautification Committee – Pat Murphy and Susanne MacNamee are keeping Acacia Circle looking beautiful.

Coalition – Ron sent a written report on the Coalition meeting he attended recently

CNC report:

Sergeant Stewart talked about Neighborhood Watch

• the Sarge will participate in meeting but should be schedule well in advance.
• Some neighborhood watch programs are part of the neighborhood association ... a conflict will sometimes develop if all members of the watch are required to be members of the association. Jeff Kronschnabl and Dan Bates gave an update on Code enforcement .. pretty good .. I would suggest we consider inviting Jeff to one of our meetings ..
• The Code enforcement group was formed in 1993 based on recommendations from a citizens task force and Jeff was chosen to lead the group.
• The group is now looking for much faster turnaround between complaint and resolution. o. There are 8 code inspectors and each person carries a workload of about 100 cases.
• There are over 100 businesses in Clearwater that have gone out of businesses and the facilities are vacant .. the economy.
• There are over 900 houses in Clearwater that are vacant .. no furniture and no one living in the house ... and the situation invites unsavory characters to move in.
• Jeff and Dan would like each neighborhood association to report the addresses of all vacant houses .. to Becky so that a database can be put together ... it is important that vacant properties be maintained to minimize the opportunity of undesired residents.
• I told Dan Bates that we would be calling on him .. soon!

Living Green Expo ...

Coming to Harborview May 3-4. Expectations are for over 100 vendors and 5000 visitors .. the web site is Gateway Neighborhood ...

Major issues with drugs, day labor, soup kitchen, fights, slum lords .... the city and the neighborhood seems to be having some trouble in figuring out how to work together.

Government Affairs – Vice Mayor, John Doran provided the board with details of the proposed hotel density changes. This cleared up some of our misconceptions. The new density plan, if adopted as code by the City Council will be a move in the right direction.

Proposed alternative density for parcels in Tourist Districts-Clearwater Beach {proposed by planning department at Work Session March 3, 2008)

The Planning Department is recommending the establishment of a Hotel Density Reserve of 1,385 units that would be allocated by the City Council through a development agreement. The following criteria would be used in detennining whether or not to allocate units from the Reserve:

• A minimum lot size of 0.75 acres (32,670 square feet) is required;

• No more than 100 hotel rooms can be allocated from the Reserve to a particular project and in no case shall the project exceed a density of 175 units per acre;
• Accessory uses inconsistent ,mth amenities typical of a mid-priced hotel shall require compliance with the base Resort Facilities High FAR requirements;
• Maximum height restrictions of the various character districts shall apply to any hotel using the Reserve (Old Florida - 75 feet; Marina District - up to 100 feet depending on size of property; all other districts - 100 feet). Reserve projects that use transfer of development rights (TDR) may exceed those maximums only if the specific number of TDR units exceed the height limits and all other TDR criteria are met;
• A transportation analysis using the Metropolitan Planning Organization's (MPO) countywide approach for concurrency management shall be required;
• Access to hotel units must be provided through a lobby and internal corridors;
• A reservation system shall be required as an integral part of the hotel use and there shall be a lobby/front desk area that must be operated as a typical lobby/front desk area;
• No hotel unit allocated from the Reserve shall be allowed to convert to a residential use;
• A legally enforceable mandatory evacuation/closure covenant must be provide which requires the hotel to close as soon as practicable after a hurricane watch that includes Clearwater Beach is posted by the National Hurricane Center; and
• Hotel rooms obtained from the Reserve and not constructed shall be returned to the Reserve.
• Properties that acquired density from the Destination Resort Density Pool are not eligible for rooms from the Reserve;
• Properties that have had density transferred off to another property through an approved Transfer of Development Rights application by the Community Development Board after December 31, 2007 shall not be eligible for units from the Hotel Density Reserve.

OLD BUSINESS – David Ramos, Ray Massieu and Jerry Murphy have all been working on Triangle Park. They are very excited about the virtual software that Brian Murphree from the City is using to plan the plants and low lying shrubbery. The software allows them to see how thing will look now and in a few years time with maturity. It will help them plan the irrigation system as well. This park will certainly enhance the neighborhood.

The entrance improvements at Carlouel have finally begun. Construction is estimated to take approximately 6 weeks. You may recall that CBA committed $500 to the Carlouel Homeowners Association last year to help with their expenses. Jerry Murphy or David Ramos will contact Chris Hampsey, President of CHA, to deliver these funds.

Jerry reminded us that the “Fractional Ownership Proposal” had been squashed preventing the sale of “Time Shares” in the residential areas of Clearwater.

CAN – Ron Delp is out of town, Jerry told us that Ron will be working on CAN again this year. Code Compliance – Dave Ramos, Ron Delp and Ray Massieu are inventorying the neighborhood and the City Manager and Code Compliance will be contacted with their findings.

NEW BUSINESS - The Annual Bright House Field Baseball outing is being planned. We will be given the end suite, fully air conditioned with buffet dinner, beer and soft drinks included. Tickets will be $18 per person with no cost to CBA. Friday night seemed to be the most popular. Jerry will let us know which night in April we will be attending. Jerry invited our Island Estate guests to join us.

Assistance to Families of Deployed Local Units - Jerry Murphy will research this and update us next month.

As stated earlier, Island Estates, Sand Key and CBA plan to work together on many items. We met Dave Muzio and Gina McPherson from IECA tonight. Mike Dooley, has moved from his condo on Sand key and will be replaced as President.

The exchange of memberships with Clearwater Beach Chamber of Commerce and CBA was discussed again. Jerry proposed that we communicate and cooperate on a more informal basis this year. A motion to not sign the trade agreement with the Clearwater Beach Chamber of Commerce was made. During the discussion, Pat Power noted that the Recreation Center, Pool and Tennis Courts were used by both residents and tourists. It was also mentioned that the Chamber advertised and supported short term rentals in the residential district. It was noted that we have had a reciprocal agreement with them for many years. It was questioned if any fees were exchanged.

During these discussions it was noted that several board members were absent, although we had a quorum a motion was made to table this discussion for a later date. The motion was seconded and passed.

Chapel By The Sea has delivered its refrigerated truck to Tampa Bay Harvest. This was made possible by two memorial funds. The church and the families of Tom McCune and Anne Cawood directed funds given in their memory to this purchase. Both were devoted to this cause for many years and their names will appear on the truck. Dave Ramos reports that food donations have been reduced by at least 50% lately. It is hoped that this truck will allow them to resume collection of refrigerated goods. We were also told that Jay Keyes is working with legislators to allow collection of left over food from Cruise Ships. This would be tremendous news to Bay Area Food Pantries.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:00 p.m.

Respectfully,
Kim Porte