Have the committee divide up Destin—each monitor a chunk of the city for development and see if it’s following the local tree ordinances and environmental code.

Dewey: “It makes me nervous to take a committee who’s sole purpose is to recommend to council and to put them in the code enforcement business.”

Kisela: “Putting them out on the street creates some potential conflicts.”

Bagby: “They wouldn’t do anything, they wouldn’t issue anything, they would call code enforcement … nothing more than any ordinary citizen would do except they’d look at areas of the city on a regular basis.” And it’s not different from the Public Works/Public Safety Committee calling Public Works when their section of the city has a pot-hole or a busted streetlight.

Seevers: “I’m very distressed seeing some of those slides.” She said some of the piles of fill dirt were an invitation to flooding by the way they changed the slope; she encouraged city staff to contact the county, which owns the airport, about it.

Dewey: The Public Works committee just points out what the city needs to do–this would set the Environmental Committee off to charging people who could face sanctions and fines. “We could get ourselves into deep problems, having our committee members out … to sanction it with an action of the council is a really bad precedent.”

Kisela: You’re asking them to observe activities on private property: “it’s one thing when it’s neighbor to neighbor … if they’re overzealous, there could be some real messes.”

5-2, with Bagby and Wood voting yes, for the quasi-code-enforcement assignment.

Because each committee comes up with its own format. He’d like to see it simple and uniform: Show what you did last year, show what you want to do for next year, zap, done, thank you and good night.

He proposes instead of a discussion of air quality at Destin Airport, the committee’s plan refer to general Destin air quality. Motion passes unanimously.

Then moves that the council add another responsibility: “Monitor and oversee the comprehensive water quality sampling system.”

Barker: “Who would they report those findings too?’

Bagby: “We need staff or a committee that gets into the weeds on this.”

Sandy Trammell: Is this going to overlap the Harbor Board’s stake in water quality? Because there’s a lot of water that’s not harbor water.

David Bazylak (code enforcement): No, the Harbor Board doesn’t really look at non-harbor water. “The testing we’re doing now is prety extensive, it’s $1700-1800 … it’s a matter of how far council wants to go.” Also some testing by Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance and Destin Water Users–they all try to pool it.

Barr: The committee can sum up where the water is being tested (or not) and report back to council.

Bagby: “I’d like them all tested. I’d like to see little kids out there swimming every day.”

Sam Seevers: CBA tests in East Pass and off Clement Taylor Park. She thinks we could pay them to do the rest, if need be.

Unanimous to add water-quality to the committee’s portfolio.

I just realized I haven’t taken any notes on the meeting except for my liveblogging. That’s a first.

Currently, Ms. Barr, who lives near Destin Airport, is showing slides of how things around her property have suffered from construction on the airport (Destin Jet, I think, but I’mm not sure). She says it’s too late for her and her husband but making the city aware of the problems might help.

Now it’s a video, capturing the noise of a bulldozer working a few yards away.

Barr: “It stops before you see it sending dust every which way.” And this can happen at any sort of construction site, it’s not just the airport.

Plus, there have been helicopters using the site, just a few yards from her house, and the developer hasn’t even received a c.o. yet, (certificate of occupancy) since the choppers are using the site, not a building. There’s a video conveying the noise, and they’re LOUD.

Generally, she says, she wants contractors to think about ways to buffer neighboring homes from noise, blown dust, etc., without making construction impossible.

The committee’s Jan Barr presents some of their accomplishments in 2007, and plans for the current year. Among other things, they’re working on a landscaping and tree plan for the Destin Cemetery with the help of the mayor’s wife, Callie Barker (a landscape architect).

This is the one that would allow people to walk along the harbor with open beer bottles or a plastic glass of wine.

Jim Wood: Capt. Gaddis, would this be a problem (Gaddis is the top guy at the sheriff’s substation)

Gaddis: “Only problem is see is to get to the deputies where it’s okay, where it’s not okay.”

Kisela: “As we go forward, we’re going to have some challenges” and setting up clear boundaries will be one of them.

Unanimous.

Which is now the History and Fishing Museum and the HQ for Destin Seniors, by the way.

Sam Seevers: Moves to approve. “I have heard some rumblings around town that by changing the use of this particular property, we were immediately going to kick the museum out, sell the property and allow someone to develop it … I will never consent to throwing the museum out of that property unless they have a nice new place to go … on the harbor.”

Dewey: “If you would serve for the next 75 years, I’d have confidence … Who knows who’ll take your place or my place?”

Jim Bagby says he’ll vote for this one because it’s surrounded by “north harbor mixed use,” so it’s not as jarring a change.

The vote: 5-2, Wood and Destin voting no.

Mucci: Institutional height limit is three stories or 35 feet.
Dewey: “I think that would be pretty limiting on institutional use, wouldn’t it?”
4-3, Dewey, Bagby, Wood voting no.
And I must correct myself, that was only the Zerbe parking lot. Next up is the library.

•Unanimous to pass a land-use change of one Calhoun Ave site from recreation to Bay Estates.
•Unanimous to rezone an annexed Commons Drive site that will hold (IIRC) a luxury motor-home resort and an apartment complex.
•Unanimous to rezone the annexed site of the Destin Area Chamber of Commerce.
•Unanimous to rezone the Shore at Crystal Beach Park for recreation.

On turning the Zerbe Street parking lot and the old Destin Library to mixed use, not so unanimous: Dewey objects, as he has in previous meetings, to the possibility of turning these properties over to a developer at some point: “It’s not the original intent … this stinks.”

Seevers: “It’s not the original intent—but things change.”

Jim Wood: Why do we need north-harbor mixed use zoning? Can’t the current institutional zoning do the trick?

Shirley: It won’t cover a private parking garage or a parking garage with residential or retail aspects.

Jim Wood: Doesn’t answer his question, but he’ll accept it.

Dewey: “This is simply laying the framework for a sweetheart deal. I’ve already been told it’s going to be developed and we’re going to close Zerbe,” based on conversations he’s had with developers.

Jim Bagby: Institutional is limited to four, mixed use would allow seven.

Kelly Windes: It was to make it more appealing to a developer which means them putting money into parking instead of us. But it’s our call–any partnership would have to have city council support, so would any residential development.

Dewey: “What is the height limitation in institutional (and) does this council have the authority to change that height limitation?” Scott Shirley: Yes, you could amend the rules in the growth plan by following the normal amendment process.

For those who don’t know the Evaluation and Appraisal Report takes a look at how well Destin’s growth plan works, where it fails and what can be done to improve it. Now that it’s approved, it will go to Florida’s Department of Community Affairs for review.

Dewey Destin raises a question about a “green reef enhancement program” referred to in the EAR. Land Use attorney Scott Shirley says he doesn’t know what it is, exactly.

Dewey: “it’s a minor thing but it would be nice to know what we’re endorsing.” Jerry Mucci says he’s not sure either. Dewey: “Well, we might as well leave it in, we’re all in favor of green reefs.”

Hmm. Is that environmentally friendly artificial reefs? Or something else?

Mucci: Possibly if we phrased it as “enhancing artifical reefs?”

Craig Barker: Doesn’t think it’s the same thing.

And then they vote unanimously to pass the ear, so I guess the city is committed to green reefs, whatever they turn out to be.