SRHA General Meeting Minutes February 23, 2022

Chris asked all participants in the Zoom call to sign in to the chat room and to advise if they are HOA members. The meeting was called to order at 7:30 PM by President Christina Brownlow. Carlos Martinez led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance. Chris welcomed everyone and asked all participants to mute when not speaking, given the large group. Chris welcomed the mayor, council members, and board members, as well as friends from neighboring communities who were in attendance, as well as the Davie Police officers.

Davie Police/Crime Report: Detective Hobales advised that there was a hiccup with the report, so he couldn’t provide all the statistics. In Southwest Ranches, there was 1 burglary to a residence. The subject was arrested by Davie’s undercover unit. There were also 2 car burglaries, both to unlocked vehicles, and 1 motor vehicle theft due to a key fob left in the vehicle. A total of 58 citations, and crime was down in January. Also, Officer Kristi is back on duty after her broken toe healed. Debbie Green shared that the Education Advisory Board is actively doing the “Flamingo Flocking” fundraiser again, so if you see pink flamingos in your yard or your neighbor’s, don’t call the police! It is a fun way to support the college fundraiser. She also advised Detective Hobales that one flamingo and a sign went missing from someone’s yard.

Town Council Member Comments: Mayor Steve Breitkreuz: We are continuing to work on the Farmer’s market and plan to have it running this spring; will confirm the date soon. We are glad to offer this to the residents! Regarding the current TSDOR project, we are receiving input from the residents about the swales and are looking at improvements to the grading, which typically requires more involvement from engineering, so the full engineering funding will be considered. We are also looking at potential options with the sod. We are using Bahia sod now due to the weather and lack of rain and are also considering using St. Augustine.

Vice Mayor Gary Jablonski gave an update on upcoming events. Waste Workshop on Garbage Bulk on February 26; Barn Dance for Education Advisory Board on March 12, 5K run for Education at the Barn on April 9; Egg Hunt on April 2 at 11 am at the Barn. Memorial for Aster Knight’s wife (they have been married for 62 years) on March 5 at 11 am. Chris tagged on that we will be having the SRHOA elections on March 30 and having our second Party at the Park on April 10.

Councilman Bob Hartmann discussed the Waste issue and that the recycling market has changed a lot recently. He asked for feedback from the residents on this very important matter. Broward County is looking to raise fees at the dump. Mayor Steve asked for residents to also copy him on any email input, as he wants to track what is important to us.

Marianne Allen asked if the Council is considering Agenda 30 from the United Nations “Sustainable Development” which many states have adopted. The mayor answered that he is not familiar with it, and she provided some of the highlights, which include that people will need to do their own recycling and composting, as well as a Clean Waters Act through which people will need to recycle wastewater for drinking water.

Councilmember David Kuczenski spoke about the TSDOR program and provided the roads that are being resurfaced. He asked to be contacted directly if there are any drainage issues on these roads. Additionally, he talked about an equestrian path at the C-11 canal in Southwest Ranches by Bonaventure Blvd in Weston.

Councilmember Jim Allbritton advised that the drainage project in Green Meadows is almost completed. Also, the Broward County League of Cities is working to help our town get as much access to government funding and Jim is representing us.

New Business: Jason Halberg, VP SHROA introduced Mr. Carlos Martinez and Jeff Katims, our Town Planner. Carlos is purchasing the lot on Griffin and Hancock which is owned by New Testament Church with the intention of developing it for residential homes. He has shared that he wishes to rezone the property from Community Facilities (CF) (which is a non-residential/non-commercial zoning category) to Rural Ranches (RR) to build approximately 16 homes. This zoning change would have to go in front of the town council and receive a 5-0 vote. Carlos Martinez is a town resident and HOA member, and he has purchased the land to develop homes. He has presented to the Council to build Rural Ranches on the property.

His plan is to build homes that are in keeping with our town culture, including to restrict the size of the homes and rooflines, minimize lighting, put an easement on East Palomino, build a horse trail around the full perimeter of the property and to landscape the property in keeping with our rural flavor.

We had various residents ask questions and provide input to Carlos on the proposed plan. In summary, the consensus of the community was in support of what was presented based on the 2 net acre lots.

Jason then introduced another agenda item which is a proposed change to the residential land zoning called Rural Ranches Plus (RR+). This new proposed category would be a new land zoning category in addition to Rural Ranches (RR) that would potentially redefine the term “net acre” from 2 acres as currently defined within “Rural Ranches” to 2.5 acres in efforts to protect our open space and keep us rural. He mentioned that it could be helpful for the town council to get feedback (via a motion) from our members regarding both the proposed development as described by Carlos as well as the new proposed RR+ zoning category.

Michele McBride made a motion in support of this project by Developer Carlos Martinez to rezone the property RR to include the deed restrictions discussed this evening, including the equestrian trails. Chris Brownlow seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously.

A second motion was attempted relating to the new RR+ proposed land use category but was withdrawn and taken off the table.

Next order of business: April 10 “Party at the Park” from 1-3 pm. David Kuczenski made a motion for budget of $1500. Katina Soy seconded. Motion carried.

Mr. David Kuczenski motioned to reorder T-shirts with budget of $1200 for the Scholarship Fund, seconded by DaNell D’Alfonso. Motion carried.

Other business: We are looking for help with Communications department.

Treasurer’s report: Balance of $28,777.02 as of January 31, 2022.

Meeting was adjourned at 9:40 PM.