The community gathered in City Hall Monday evening for the first City Commission meeting of 2021.
It was a relatively light agenda compared to some of the massive public hearings that filled the last few meetings of 2020. However, some small but impactful changes were made regarding alterations to the budget and city ordinances.
One of the updates that came from Monday’s commission meeting was a modification to the consulting work order for the Dog Park Pedestrian Bridge project. Toward the end of 2018, the City of Plant City retained the engineering firm Kimley-Horn under a continuing contract to develop construction plans for improvements to the dog park, which is located near Pennsylvania Avenue and East Calhoun Street.
After the design was done, the city solicited bids. A contract was approved by commissioners and construction is currently underway. However, the lighting originally picked out for the project is now discontinued, so the city had to get it redesigned. The city also requested a review and approval of the bridge structure submittal.
The modification presented to commissioners covers the $5,915 for the additional work. It also grants a time extension for 630 calendar days for the overall project schedule, which has bumped the project completion date back to April 14, 2021.
Commissioners also did some cleanup regarding items surrounding food trucks.
The state legislature adopted Chapter 2020-160 Florida Statutes, “which (a) preempts to the State of Florida the regulation of ‘licenses, registrations, permits, and fees’ regarding food trucks (defined in the statute and rules now as ‘mobile food dispensing vehicles’); and (b) prohibits local governments from prohibiting mobile food dispensing vehicles from operating within the entirety of the jurisdictional limits. However, Section 509.102, Florida Statutes expressly provides that the Section does not prevent a local government from otherwise regulating the operation of mobile food dispensing vehicles.”
Due to the change at the state level, City Attorney Ken Buchman recommended commissioners approve four updates to the city’s ordinance.
1. The ordinance uses term “mobile food dispensing vehicle” and the definition used in Section 509.102, Florida Statutes, rather than “food trucks.”
2. The ordinance explains the impact of the statute and the purpose of the ordinance.
3. Currently, our Code addresses food truck sales as something that would be permitted separately as a special event.
4. The ordinance creates a new Section 102-1431 to address mobile food dispensing vehicles. Subsections (a)-(e) are similar to the language in the existing Section 102-1430(5)d. Subsections (f)-(g) are new.
Commissioners also set a transmittal public hearing for a map amendment of a parcel of land located south and west of South Wiggins Road near the new regional distribution facility for Home Depot Incorporated. The public hearing will be held on Jan. 25 at 7:30 p.m. in City Hall.
They also set a public hearing for a voluntary annexation petition for 16 parcels that total 305.7 acres. The parcels include land on North Wilder Road, North Wiggins Road, South Wiggins Road and Swindell Road.The public hearing for the proposed annexations will be at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 22.