St. Cloud City Council Meeting Recap for 3/11/21

Meeting begins with Pledge of Allegiance and Roll Call.

All Council Members are present.

First up is a Water Presentation from Utilities Director Marjorie Craig.

She begins by talking about the two water main breaks that occurred this past week.

She says they sent out reverse 911 calls and hand delivered notices to the residents affected. She said there were about 1,900.

She said that when the tests came back clear, they hand delivered notices for that as well.

For the break in Pine Lake Estates, it was an older pipe from the ’70s and is not the same standard used today.

She addressed the fact she has not given an update in several weeks and said that’s because they are only getting 1-2 water color complaints a week, and that is a regular occurrence in most water systems for various reasons.

She said as far as wastewater, they are doing surveys of manholes and manhole covers.

Next up was the Citizen’s Forum, in which no Citizens wished to address the Council.

For the Consent Agenda, the only item pulled for discussion was item D, which is the clean up of the old closed power plant on Missouri Ave. This was requested by Council Member Matheny.
She wants to make sure the building is documented before it comes down.

Council Member Askew also wanted to request that the engine from the building be saved for the citizens as a “historical marker.”

All 5 Council Members vote for approval.

The rest of the Consent Agenda, which included the cost share for a traffic signal at Sergeant Graham and Neptune, the easement for the new McDonald’s, a vegetative waste agreement, and a research agreement with the University of Florida were all approved by Council 5-0.

For Public Hearings, first up was the final hearing for an amendment to the Police and Firefighter’s retirement system.

This was already approved the first time around so it was no surprise it was approved again 5-0 by the Council.

Next up was the designation and zoning for what is being called “Larson at Narcoossee”.

The developer was asking for designation of “commercial” and a parking exception, basically asking to reduce the number of parking spaces from 4.5 to 3.5.

Council Member Matheny said she thought designating the land as “commercial” was misleading because it’s 424 residential units and only 24,000 square feet of commercial. She said she could not support this.

Council Members Cooper and Askew also voiced concerns over the designation and the parking reduction.

One citizen approached the Council to speak, not against the item, but about trouble residents in Turtle Creek are having leaving their development.

The applicant asked for a continuance after Council Member Matheny made a motion to deny, which was seconded by Council Member Cooper.

Motion to continue was denied 3-2, with Council Members Askew, Matheny, and Cooper voting “No”. At this point, the applicant withdrew their application.

Next up was an amendment to zoning in Anthem Park. The developer wants to change the zoning from Planned Unit Development to Medium Density Residential.  192 Townhomes, and the developer is also asking for the same parking reduction as the applicant for “Larson at Narcoossee”.

Broc Althafer from Osceola Engineering was there as the applicant to explain why they were asking for a parking reduction.

3 Citizens of Anthem Park came to speak against this, with one bringing the signatures of over 90 residents.

After the residents, Mohammed Abdallah from Traffic and Mobility Consultants, LLC addressed the Council to represent the applicant and address the parking concerns.

Next, Jason Miller, St. Cloud Fire Chief addressed the Council. He stated he could not in good faith support this parking reduction. He said the area is “tight” and the area is already congested.

After this, the applicant asked the Council for a continuance to address the issues presented.

All 5 Council Members voted in favor of the continuance.

Next up was designation and zoning for 16.36 acres at Nolte Road and Old Canoe Creek Road. It is for an Osceola County Road and Bridge facility.

Council Member Matheny raised some concerns about the designation from “public” to “professional”, nonetheless it passes Council vote 5-0.

Next up, a resolution amending Resolution No. 2020-215R, which adopted the fiscal year 2020/2021 budget for the City of St. Cloud.

The City Manager has certified there are prior year fund balances and or current revenues available in the budget for additional projects and programs in various funds not included in the original 2020/2021 budget.

City Finance Director Wendy Collazo came to explain and inform the Council how the funds would be appropriated.

The Council approved 5-0.

During the Council Action portion of the meeting, 2 water and wastewater agreements, both outside the City limits, were approved by Council 5-0.

Also approved 5-0 was an application for a recreation trails grant for a trail from Lakefront Park to Chisholm Park.

Auditor Selection Committee nominations were approved 5-0.

And a pay adjustment of 3% for City employees, including the City Manager was approved 5-0.

The next Council Meeting is Thursday, March 25 at 6:30pm at the St. Cloud Community Center.