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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-24-2011 Minutes MINUTES OF THE CITY OF OCOEE DISTRICTING COMMISSION MEETING HELD AUGUST 24, 2011 CALL TO ORDER Chairman Dabbs called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. in the Commission Chambers. He then led in prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. The roll was called and a quorum declared present. PRESENT Chairman Dabbs, Vice Chair Laney, Members Adams, and Chinelly were present. Also present were City Attorney Rosenthal, Staff GIS Analyst O'Halloran, City Clerk Eikenberry and Deputy City Clerk Sibbitt. ABSENT Member Butler was absent excused. GUEST Brenda Ingle, Mapping Assistant at Supervisor of Elections Office. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FOR AUGUST 3, 2011 Member Adams, seconded by Vice Chair Laney, moved to approve the regular minutes of August 3, 2011. Motion carried unanimously. UPDATES SINCE THE LAST MEETING GIS Analyst O'Halloran said that one of the items they asked for at the last meeting was to look at the results of the districting that they did after the 2007 re- districting. Using the exhibits, he briefly explained the changes that were made. Member Chinelly inquired if the population figures for the 2007 action were from the 2000 census since that is what is listed as the source. GIS Analyst O'Halloran said the information was built in 2007 by taking the 2000 census data and adding in building permits. Mr. O'Halloran said it is similar to what they are doing this time. Member Chinelly inquired if the population included the known occupied buildings in the city. Mr. 0' Halloran clarified that it was based on certificate of occupancy and not building permits. City Attorney Rosenthal said the 2007 Re- Districting Board used an educated estimate since the census is the only true count and at the time it was not a re- districting based on the census count. Member Adams said in retrospect to what Mr. Rosenthal just shared, how close was the educated estimate to the actual population. GIS Analyst O'Halloran said they were fairly close to the 2007 BEBR numbers. City Clerk Eikenberry explained that a handout was provided to show annual population figures from the University of Florida, Bureau of Economics and Business Research (BEBR) from 2007 -2011, as requested by the board. For 2007 it shows the population at 33,533 and the City Planner's corrected estimate at 33,837; the population used for the Districting Commission later that year was figured at 34,285 by Mr. O'Halloran. Member Chinelly thanked the staff for providing the information; he said it was very useful to determine the rate of growth which has slowed considerably with City of Ocoee Districting Commission Meeting August 24, 2011 only 1300 additional people since 2007. City Attorney Rosenthal stated the Ocoee Charter is different from most municipalities in that regard; we have a Districting Commission that meets midway between the ten -year Censuses and it allows the Commission to redistrict earlier or at any time they feel it is necessary. Most cities and governmental bodies redistrict once every ten years with the release of the Census figures. GIS Analyst O'Halloran continued with his presentation stating that the largest percentage deviation today is 3.98 and the lowest is -2.88. For the two new plans, Board Plan 5 has the largest deviation at 3.58 and lowest at -3.37. Board Plan 6 the largest deviation is 0.35 and lowest is -0.40. Mr. O'Halloran further showed a bar graph for visual purposes. He said if he understands correctly Board Plan 5 is for the purpose of accounting for future population growth and Board Plan 6 is straight population. The Chairman opened the floor for discussion and said that his opinion is that Board Plan 6 is the most evenly balanced by deviation but how important is it to the rest of the board. Member Adams referenced Board Plan 5 and inquired if that was the subdivision in which Chairman Dabbs resided. He asked if he has an opinion about how the residents in Prima Vista feel about switching commissioners. Chairman Dabbs answered that it really does not matter to him personally, but to answer his question, he has not polled the subdivision. The chairman said he is hoping that notices would go to the residents in that subdivision so they can show up at the Public Hearing on August 30 Member Adams said listening to the attorney they do not need to take into consideration the five year projection but he feels they would be almost remiss if they did not look at future growth. Mr. Adams further added that when you look at Board Plan 5 the numbers almost look glaring in terms of deviation percentage but overtime he feels it may even out. He further inquired about District 4 and if it was a candidate for potential growth. The board briefly reviewed and spoke about the planned residential projects list which had been previously provided to them by Mr. O'Halloran. FINALIZING OF BOARD PLAN(S) After reviewing the planned residential projects list, the board members gathered in front of the dais to view the larger maps of preferred plans 5 and 6 to discuss the boundary changes. There was discussion among the group as to how to expand the population in District 2 since it is essentially built out. City Attorney Rosenthal advised that if they wanted to put growth into District 2, there is a piece of land on Maine Street that is R -1AAA. There has been talk amongst the Planning Department regarding a possible high rise but it may not be developed within the five years. The property is currently vacant and would not affect the current deviation numbers presented. Member Chinelly inquired as to what the duration would be for the proposed development for that land. City Attorney Rosenthal said if a developer walked in today to build a high rise, it would probably take a couple of years. Discussion ensued regarding whether or not the old Colony Plaza location and Health Central will have residential growth. After discussion, the chairman inquired what the pleasure of the board was. Vice Chair Laney, seconded by Member Adams, moved to include the parcel north of Maine Street and east of Chicago Avenue right -of -way, to both Board Plans, thus creating a Revised Board Plan 5 and 6 (see attachment). Motion carried unanimously. 2 City of Ocoee Districting Commission Meeting August 24, 2011 Chairman Dabbs inquired if they have a motion as to what plan they want to submit as a preferred plan. Vice Chair Laney, seconded by Member Adams, moved to present Revised Board Plan 5 as their preferred plan. Member Chinelly said the only reservation he has on Board Plan 5 is that if they look back at the 2007 redistricting action, they would be flip flopping a block of the city (that includes Lakewood Manor). Mr. Chinelly said he was the one that proposed they move that block, but after revisiting it the change they just adopted to add to both board plans, would give District 2 the growth it needs. He would be more inclined to support Revised Board Plan 6. Vice Chair Laney said that in looking at Board Plan 5, the area being returned to District 3 does not have much population in it and there was no population there during the move in 2007. She does not feel there will be anyone in that area objecting to being moved. A brief discussion ensued regarding how many residents would be affected by the change to District 3 moving the boundary line up to Fullers Cross Road and down the 429. City Clerk Eikenberry said the other thing they may want to consider with the moving that boundary line north is the compactness of District 3 which would really stretch that district out north to south. Chairman Dabbs said he also agrees and was going to comment on that same issue. He further said since there is not a lot of population in that area he would have no problem with moving that boundary line back to District 1 to shorten the long District 3. GIS Analyst O'Halloran said there is population in that block. Mr. 0' Halloran further added that it shows 114 people who would most likely come from the Lakewood Manor subdivision. There was discussion that in 2007, when they had the last redistricting, those houses were not there and possibly not even there for the last Commission election; this was a Homes in Partnership development that was fairly new. Member Chinelly said his question has been clarified in that he did not want to take the same residents and move them back and forth between districts. It has been shown that within the last redistricting, Lakewood Manor did not exist, so residents will not be affected twice. Chairman Dabbs asked the Clerk to restate the motion on the floor: "Motion to approve revised Board Plan 5 as the preferred Plan of the Districting Commission." After the discussion, motion carried 5 -0. Vice Chair Laney — Briefing on County Commission Redistricting Meeting. Vice Chair Laney gave a summary of how the meeting was handled at the County level. She said that one of the things she did like about the county's public hearing was the idea of having the comments about the specific maps, as well as, at the end of the meeting they also allowed public input before adjourning. Further discussion ensued regarding the county's redistricting meeting. She stated much of the discussion was the splitting up of West Orange cities and the possibility of splitting Ocoee into more than one Commission District. DISCUSSION ON PUBLIC HEARING SCHEDULED FOR AUGUST 30, 2011 Chairman Dabbs inquired if there was an order of business for public hearings that they should adhere too. Vice Chair Laney inquired if at this point she could give a report on what happened at the county's redistricting hearing. Ms. Laney commented that the County's 3 City of Ocoee Districting Commission Meeting August 24, 2011 Redistricting Board had thirteen members who provided 9 different proposals. She further added that they also had public proposals which Ocoee has not received any at this time. The county structured their meeting with old business than allowed for comments. Comments were no more than 3 minutes long after each presentation, as well as, at the end of the meeting. She briefly explained the interest the county's redistricting board had in splitting Ocoee. Vice Chair Laney said that for this board's agenda they should have the following: I. CALL TO ORDER Invocation, Pledge, and Roll Call and Determination of a Quorum II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF AUGUST 24, 2011 III. OLD BUSINESS 1. GIS Analyst 0' Halloran to present data related to the maps and how they chose Revised Board Plans 5 and 6. IV. NEW BUSINESS 1. Public Hearing — Public Comments for Revised Board Plans 5 & 6 2. Motion by board on preferred plan V. Adjourn Chairman Dabbs inquired as to how widely publicized do they expect this meeting to be and if there was notice prepared for the West Orange Times. City Clerk Eikenberry said it is in the water bills, on the city's website, and they will be targeting individual homes in affected subdivisions with door hangers. The West Orange Times also did a write up on the board in addition to the ad that was placed announcing the public hearing. The City Clerk announced, in regard to the earlier question, it appears the last county redistricting will be in September because there are none scheduled for October. She announced the upcoming county and school board redistricting board dates for those interested in attending. There was further discussion about the County Districting meetings and the apparent intent of some of the Commissioners. GIS Analyst 0' Halloran inquired if they should present Board Plans 1 -4 or even mention them. Vice Chair Laney said she believes it should just be Revised Board Plans 5 and 6 that they present since they voted to eliminate the others. Chairman Dabbs said Mr. O'Halloran should make mention that they have looked at four plans but they were very similar, hence the reason for elimination. The Chairman did not believe there should be any display of the other plans. The Board consented. Vice Chair Laney suggested along with the two revised board plans they should also display the census map with no changes and current deviations. DISCUSSION REGARDING DISTRICTING COMMISSION REPORT THAT IS DUE TO THE CITY COMMISSION City Attorney Rosenthal suggested a packet with just the minutes and recommendation should be sufficient and would meet the requirement of the Charter. Minutes should be detailed with what the discussions were and the board's final motion will be the recommendation. Assistant City Manager Shadrix, who was in City Hall, was invited to briefly comment about the county's redistricting meeting which he also attended. He briefly advised the board of the 4 City of Ocoee Districting Commission Meeting August 24, 2011 concerns he expressed at that meeting. He said waited until the end of the meeting to express the concerns of the City Commission in keeping the city whole with neighboring West Orange cities such as Winter Garden, Windermere, etc. Those concerns echoed very clearly with what many other West Orange cities represented there. He said there was a representative, Doug Head, from Hunter's Creek who took several shots at Ocoee and stated that Ocoee had urban sprawl. He added there are a lot of political agendas being played out and he tried to stay clear of that. He said that none of the maps shown at the meeting were in conflict with the Commission's concerns so he did not address individual maps. Mr. Shadrix agreed with Ms. Laney that we need to maintain vigilance on this because there is a major effort underway to take Ocoee out of District 1. Vice Chair Laney, seconded by Member Chinelly, moved to adopt the report format recommended by the City Attorney. Motion carried unanimously. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 7:58 p.m. AA Or Allorey Melanie Sibbitt, Deputy City Clerk _ - er Dabbs, Chairman 5