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Home My WebLink About2017-05-01 - City Commission Special Workshop Meeting MinutesCITY OF TAMARAC CITY COMMISSION SPECIAL WORKSHOP MONDAY, MAY 1, 2017 CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Harry Dressler called the Special Workshop of the City Commission to order at 9:37 a.m. on Monday, May 1, 2017 in Conference Room 105, City Hall, 7525 NW 88th Avenue, Tamarac, FL 33321. ROLL CALL: Mayor Harry Dressler, Vice Mayor Debra Placko, Commissioner Marlon Bolton, Commissioner Michelle J. Gomez and Commissioner Julie Fishman were in attendance. Also in attendance were City Manager Michael C. Cernech, Assistant City Attorney Jacob Horowitz, Community Development Director Maxine Calloway and Assistant Community Director Frank Zickar. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Mayor Dressler led the Pledge of Allegiance. Community Development Director Calloway said the purpose of today's meeting is to finish up Module 2 and noted that Module 3 will be reviewed sometime in the future. Community Development Director Calloway said Module 3 is on the website for comments and Module 3 will be reviewed with the Commission in two segments. Community Development Director Calloway talked about Use Specific Standards contained in Section 10-3.3.1 relative to dispensing of controlled substances. Community Development Director Calloway said this section is new and will mitigate any impacts and will be further refined by the consultant. Community Development Director Calloway then talked about 10-3.3.2 regarding Residential Uses relative to Manufactured Homes and said the homes must match the character of the existing homes in the Community. Community Development Director Calloway went over Community Residential Homes and said these homes must have 6 or few residents. There was a discussion on the regulation of Community Residential Homes and occupancy issues. Assistant City Attorney Horowitz said he will look at how the statutes address monitoring group homes. Community Development Director Calloway talked about the licensing process at both the City and State levels. Vice Mayor Placko asked how many group homes were in Tamarac and Community Development Director Calloway said she would have Sr. Business Revenue Specialist Judy Yacobellis check and get back to the Commission with that information. There was a discussion regarding the maximum number of homes that would be allowed in a community. Assistant Community Development Director Zickar advised the Commission that there are currently 7 group homes in Tamarac. Mayor Dressier asked if the City has had any issues with these homes and City Manager Cernech said he did not believe we have to date and noted that Tamarac's housing stock is not conducive to group homes. Mayor Dressler talked about an area he had visited where the whole neighborhood consisted of group/drug rehab homes. Community Development Director Calloway clarified that a sober home is not what a community residential home is. Community residential homes function like Page 1 of 3 SPECIAL COMMISSION WORKSHOP MEETING May 1, 2017 family units and are not transient in nature. Vice Mayor Placko said the problem they had with such a home in Woodmont was that they had people coming and going in the middle of the night and they were not licensed. Vice Mayor Placko added that since the new operators have taken over it is no longer a problem. Commissioner Fishman said if we have an issue with a specific home that the City cannot regulate we can go to the State level for assistance and with that in mind we need to create a partnership with the State. Commissioner Gomez indicated that she wants Tamarac to have control and enforcement. Community Development Director Calloway said Caretaker Dwellings are primarily in commercial zoning areas and went over in detail what standards cover Caretaker Dwellings. Community Development Director Calloway went over the Public, Institutional and Civic uses relative to Assembly Hall: Religious Assembly and discussed the standards that are applicable to them. Community Development Director Calloway said there are currently 35 churches in Tamarac. Community Development Director Calloway said North Lauderdale has instituted regulations saying that there can be no more than 2 churches per strip mall and can take up no more than 20% of the plaza storefront. Tamarac has amended the Code of Ordinances to state that churches must be on free standing parcels of land. Community Development Director Calloway said there is legislation that is pending that would pre-empt Cities on school and church uses and Assistant City Attorney Horowitz said the bill does have some traction. Commissioner Bolton said he is not against moving churches out of plazas but he would like to know where in R-3 area you can put a church in Tamarac and believes that there is no area in Tamarac that would accommodate a church. Commissioner Bolton said churches in North Lauderdale are sharing their occupational licenses in order to be able to stay in the strip malls. Commissioner Bolton said he wants some mechanism in the code to address the number of churches in strip malls. Community Development Director Calloway said if it is the desire to limit the number of churches in strip plazas we can have the consultant draft something in that regard. There was a lengthy discussion about the impact to new religious assemblies and churches that are currently in strip malls. There was a discussion regarding parking and safety with churches in strip malls. Mayor Dressler recessed the meeting at 10:54 a.m. and reconvened the meeting at 11:06 with all present as before. Mayor Dressler said we will have to let people know in advance about churches and Community Development Director Calloway said we can insert an amortization period to give people an opportunity to expand prior to the changes going into effect. Commissioner Bolton talked about being the Pastor of a church in a strip mall and his inability to move his current church to a larger facility in North Lauderdale. Commissioner Bolton said we need to preserve a place for churches to start and we need to limit the number of churches in a plaza, but also need to give people a place to start. Assistant City Attorney Horowitz spoke about the Federal Religious Land Use and Institutional Uses Act. There was a discussion about what constitutes an assembly hall. Commissioner Gomez and Commissioner Bolton had a discussion relative to churches in strip malls. Page 2 of 3 SPECIAL COMMISSION WORKSHOP MEETING May 1, 2017 Commissioner Bolton asked Mayor Dressler to look at limiting churches to one or two to a plaza or putting in some type of notice to churches to give them time as this legislation will be detrimental to churches in strip malls. Mayor Dressler asked Commissioner Bolton to reiterate what the churches are doing in North Lauderdale. Assistant City Attorney Horowitz said a business license can be transferred from one business to another if the use is the same. It can be transferred at a lower cost as opposed to a new application for the license which is a benefit for transferring the license. Community Development Director Calloway said in order for us to move forward we need to know if we want to maintain what the consultant has before us or tweak it. Mayor Dressler said to ask the consultant if there is an intermediary step to take to make it easier for churches to transition out of a strip mall to another facility. Community Development Director Calloway said this can be amortized and upon adoption give a grace period for two or three years by putting it in the code. Community Development Director Calloway went over the language contained in the code and noted that churches that are already there can remain as long as they do not expand or abandon the location and Assistant City Attorney Horowitz added that we cannot single out one religious institution over another religious institution. Commissioner Bolton said we need to limit the amount of churches because it would give us a better opportunity to preserve our economy. There was a discussion about where a new church could locate in the City of Tamarac. Community Development Director Calloway said what is being proposed is to have "— religious assemblies removed from strip malls and put in free standing plots of land of at least 25,000 square feet. Community Development Director Calloway, City Manager Cernech and Assistant City Attorney Horowitz responded to questions from the Commission throughout the presentation. Community Development Director Calloway said at the next meeting we will discuss hospitals and schools as well as commercial uses and finish Module 2. Community Development Director Calloway said our objective is to give the consultants the Commission's comments and then start on Module 3. Mayor Dressler asked for a consensus to move forward. There was a 4-1 consensus to move forward with Commissioner Bolton dissenting. There being no further business to come before the City Commission for consideration, Mayor Dressler adjourned the meeting at 12:04 p.m. •``�\Cy TAf �''�. y Patricia Teufel, CM City Clerk , 9STABLISHED Q 1963 _ li f SEAL Page 3 of 3 SPECIAL COMMISSION MOP,'rt��I1VG May 1, 2017 �4a3,Ilk III