City of Fort Pierce Minutes of a Regular Meeting

Regular Postponed Meeting February 22, 2011
Commissioner Becht said he will be interested to know how Mr.
Ward is going to solve this one.
Commissioner Perona said he appreciates what Mr. Ward is going
through. He read through the information and put himself in his
shoes, and he would rather be sitting up here tonight for once.
But morally, logic dictates that a triage process should prevail
over a first come, first served, especially with limited funds.
He would like to help those where this might be a life and death
situation, a health situation, or children involved. If they
are going to feel good about helping a small group, he would
rather help those that are absolutely in dire need. That is
just a moral response. Unfortunately he can't do that, he has
to go across all the pages. But that is what he would like to
ultimately see, if possible.
Mr. Ward said yes, he will do his best.
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The next item on the Agenda was Interim Director of Planning
discussion on proposed Arcade Ordinance.
Mr. David Carlin, Interim Director of Planning, said he has met
with each Commissioner to go over some of the parameters and
interest they have expressed with this particular subject, and
has molded some of those things into this document.
Commissioner Becht asked based on discussions he has had with
Mr. Carlin and with the public, are they required to have an
arcade ordinance for the City of Fort Pierce?
Mr. Carlin said he does not believe anything is required. The
issue that came about with this whole direction was the business
tax applications his office has received over the course of
time. He has actually received several more as of last
Wednesday. There really is no process to approve these uses.
The City Code does not expressly identify how these particular
uses are to be approved. That is the genesis of this whole
discussion.
Commissioner Becht asked if there is no process to approve them,
then they cannot be approved?
Mr. Carlin said he believes there is a history with these types
of applications that have come into the City. Yes, there are a
few of them that have been in operation, either annexed from the
County or some that were somehow approved many years ago. But
his office has not approved them because of the lack of a
process and actually having something specified in the code. So
really tonight it is a decision for the Commission to determine
whether or not these types of uses are in fact uses that they
would like to see or processes identified in the Land
Development Regulations. He thinks that is the basic framework
to operate on and decide if that is in fact what they want to
see with these. They have been getting these applications in;
but until they have a process in place, they technically can't
be approved. In any event, he will be glad to discuss some of
the components of this proposed ordinance. The proposed
ordinance, the backbone genetic makeup, went to the Planning
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City of Fort Pierce Minutes of a Regular Meeting held on February 22, 2011
Copyright © 2011 City of Fort Pierce Florida