Juno Beach council advances code‑change priorities and reopens debate on decorum and quasi‑judicial procedures

Director of Planning & Zoning Frank Devla presented a ranked list of potential land‑development code updates and two consultant proposals for work on prioritized items. Council members debated which items should be handled by staff and which should be contracted out, with topics the council repeatedly flagged as high priority including techniques for slow growth, landscape requirements, limiting density for commercial/residential projects, floor‑area ratio and single‑family site‑plan review. Staff said the town budgeted $75,000 for the first phase and will follow purchasing policy to solicit quotes; council asked staff to refine scope and return with updated proposals and price estimates.

Later in the meeting, legal counsel led a broad discussion of rules of decorum for public commenters and a separate code of conduct for council members. Counsel cautioned that recent court rulings require narrowly tailored, viewpoint‑neutral limitations on public speech and consistent enforcement; council members split on whether to retain broad prohibitions on "abusive" or "impertinent" speech, whether council members may meet privately with applicants, and whether an enforcement mechanism (written warnings or a formal complaint process) should be adopted. The body asked counsel and staff to redraft both the decorum language and the quasi‑judicial procedures to clarify thresholds, require public workshops for larger projects and return with legally defensible wording.