the how we looking for Moon we're good the regular council meeting for Tuesday March 25th 2025 is called to order at 7 o'clock p.m. we're going to stand for a moment toide the meditation followed by the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States America to the
Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all very much mam CL my pleas I roll call please roll call Mayor Nickerson here vice mayor Martin president council person bbam is not here yet um council person life award
either council person winers here also present for the record Janice jakobe Village clerk chrisa Village manager and attorney Geller War Leake thank you very much appreciate that may have Mo to approve the agenda I would like to uh request to pull the speed bumps to the standard agenda and discuss um I'm
against that but if you can get uh do I have a motion to pull the speed bumps you can make you can make the mo motion to pull the speed bumps to the standard agenda um if you get a second then we'll we'll uh go to roll call if you don't get a second it dies for lack of a
second I'll ask for a second once I'll ask for a second twice wait a second we have uh Mr coming in the door right now now okay I'll wait for it how you doing counc IR Council pres
irban we're about to do consent agenda um uh council person wines wants to pull the speed bumps out of consent agenda um I was against it uh he made his own motion waiting for a second we're on the uh we're on a second call for a second he hasn't gotten one yet okay um you
wanted to wait till you got here then I will can I amend the motion um or is it too late for that well we have to go through this motion first but he he hasn't had he hasn't gotten a second yet gotcha um so I asked for the third for the third time I asked for a
second to pull the speed bumps from consent agenda well full disclosure I say that because there was one other item that I also wanted to just pull for discussion I intend to vote for it I just wanted to at least have a discussion about it all right well we can tackle that after we tackle the speed bump issue yep all right do are you going to give him a second or does
he does it fail for lack of a second I think it fails for lack of a second fails for lack of a second what's your item um council person herb you want to discuss I move to pull the speed reduction and speed cing device Phase 1 F3 as well as Mi day County Recycling contract renewal F2 just for the
purposes of um public messaging and discussion for the purposes of discussion only not for voting oh forgive me no I intend to vote for both these items I I'm not intending to negate any either of them I just want to make a statement about one and it sounds like Council person Winters would
like to make a statement about the other okay you guys can make State remember the first good in welfare is for any statements or anything on the agenda so that's where you guys can make statements or anything on the agenda motion so do I have my motion as it stands is to uh pull F2 and F3 um out of
consent agenda okay second that all right we have a motion we have a second I am against that um we'll do uh Madam clerk uh if I'm not mistaken when we have four council members we still need majority vote because it's a five council member um
Council yeah but Bas it's based on the number of council members that are here yes but but what I'm saying is is that I remember this from when I was first became a council person if it's a five council member councel for something to pass or fail you still or for something
the past you still need the majority of the count the amount of council seats on the council that was for Budget I I would have to defer that to the attorney okay so if you guys want to move it and wait for the attorney we can wait for the attorney yeah yeah we can wait for
the attorney all right so we'll move on to um the first good and Welfare we'll come back to the consent agenda we'll move on to the first good and Welfare if anybody has anything they want to say about any about anything on this particular agenda you can come up and say it when we get to each agenda item you'll have a chance to speak again all right no but Mr Mayor I do have a
statement I would like to read at the good and Welfare at the end of the meeting at the end of the meeting no problem we got that I got you my brother um anybody else for the first good in welfare okay seeing [Music] none moving on to um the resolution no
moving on to the uh resolution G1 moving on to resolution G1 Madam clerk if you can read that into the record for uh G1 resolution a resolution of the Village Council of elportal Florida approving
the devel an agreement by and between the village of elportal a Florida Municipal Corporation and the lunch at Little River LLC providing for findings providing for conditions providing for appeal providing for an effective date all right thank you very much I
appreciate that um right now uh Miss Hammond Miss Hammond if uh you could just uh come up very quickly to the microphone for the planning only staff report we know that nothing's been adjusted um is the staff report recommendation is it
still the same it it is the same yes and staff report staff report recommendation is what yes that approval okay it's the same yes all right you can sit down we'll call you back if we need you thank you very much all right now we're going to open this up to the uh Council then we'll go to the audience before we go to
the audience is there any comments or questions um for the development agreement from the council just curious to hear public comment no problem sounds good anybody else before we go to public comment okay so we're going to open it
up to public comment 7:06 pm. um as always you all have three minutes to come up and say anything that you want and uh the floor is yours come up say your full name your address and the floor is yours come to this Podium please anyone for the launch public
comment can you come to this this one right yeah come to this one right uh my name is Michael Parker 8565 Northeast forth a road um I saw there were some concerns one of my neighbors had raised uh that there was still durm
approval or durm had not recommended approving and then also were um exceeding our zoning uh two additional stories so I wanted to know um and I wasn't present in other meetings to find out but what we're what we're getting in return for um exceeding
the zoning because it it sets a precedent uh there's 15 more Acres uh that are undeveloped uh that are right be behind my house so I really want to uh know you know why we would exceed our our zoning height and what the city's
getting in in return for doing that that was my like concerns no problem I'll answer all the questions after after uh everybody votes I got you uh who's next public [Music] comment for the launch public comment this is the launch public
comment okay seeing none okay just go to say your name and address for the record hi there my name is Colin Brown uh 374 Northeast 85th Street me get this adjusted um I just wanted to start off
by saying uh I've spoken with some council members Anders Charlie Daren I just want to thank you all for your time Charlie I appreciate your your work at the mound and getting the irrigation going I think that's good vibe you know I appreciate that and I know you're out there looking
for that irrigation nozzle for a while and I just wanted to give you that shout out so Daren thank you for making time for me today I really appreciate it and Anders as well thank you um so I just want to take a step back as it relates to the launch and I
want to talk about development in elportal in 2019 2020 2021 it's a completely different environment this is a very sought-after area and I'm just worried that we're using an approach to this development in
a way that doesn't represent the interest that we are receiving from the Greater Miami area from developers and I ask that to be taken into consideration with this potential growth in alport and all this exciting
development that we have uh potentially underway um it demands proper process and whether it's the December 10th hearing where the site plan was approved or um the January 28th hearing um and some of the other meetings that we've
had thereafter I personally feel that um aspects of of and and questions that the residents have had haven't been fully answered and um I just want to say that I understand that you know this is a growing Community there's
a lot of growing interest and so I understand that things and the way that we may have done things three years ago may not apply to today uh and I asked everybody to consider like stuff like the uh sustainability task force this was a
task force that was put in place to provide feedback to help guide development um and and also to bring our community together so that we could we could have a clear vessel to um you know create dialogue with the city and
concerns we don't have that right now and I think a lot of what's happening is you know residents are having different conversations with different uh governing officials which is causing uh different conversations in our community and I I just I really want to just
encourage the council to just defer this again and to just pause and to say what does elportal need right now well I think we need a sustainability task force it's advertised on our website right this hasn't met in over a year
there are people here at every single meeting that show interest and preserving the wildlife on the Little River we don't meet as a task force because we don't have a quorum well how are we continuing to proceed month after month and not pulling this thing
together when you have so many citizens providing interest and and and and and and in the best of ways with the best intentions trying to influence this process um I think that with the development pressure that's that's occurring in elportal you know the idea
of a historic preservation board or a board of Architects I don't want to see elportal turn into Coconut Grove where entire blocks are duplexes or entire blocks are modern homes I I don't think that that is the El Portal that many people here are in
love with um so as as we talk about uh being a community and and trying to field some of these concerns you know I know that multiple parties uh sent over sight plan negotiations to attorney Geller to Mayor
Nickerson uh to other parties to try to figure out hey how can we influence this in a way that doesn't detract or or set back this this progress that's been made but how do we respectfully engage in this process so that we can influence
say preserving the native vegetation I personally haven't received any feedback from attorney Geller I have no idea where my concerns lie in my in my state of in in in the way that I see this is this would be a perfect thing for the for the task force to be negotiating
this would be a per whether I'm on the task force or not this would be a perfect opportunity for me to approach somebody on the task force and let them know what I'm concerned about I don't even have that opportunity I send emails that don't get returned and what that causes is just confusion and a lack of
clarity which causes more confusion in the process and I don't think that that's what people want um there's been talk of a petition process so as we engage in this potentially engage in a petition process for this which I'm
uncertain about my my thing is how could a petition process be constructed by the community within elportal to serve you the council and what would you like to see on that petition to inform you of your decision-making that's something
that you haven't had you haven't had a petition with 600 signatures on it that let you know how the community of bportal feels I think that these things are important and I I I mentioned all of this um to try to be constructive in the way that I'm approaching tonight and I
ask that you defer this and I ask that you use this as a moment to get the community together to create the uh the information dialogue and the exchange of information that is necessary for projects like the launch and certainly
necessary for projects like little farm thank you thank you anyone else a public comment for the launch hi my name is Kristen MCC I live at 721 Northeast 116th Street former resident of elportal co-founder of the Little
River Conservancy longtime supporter of the mayor and what we've been trying to do here in elportal and the one thing that I would say as part of this public comment and I'm sorry that it was not able to come to the last meeting I was not here in town is that once if we
commit to this process without um making sure that we do our due diligence and that we balance the the different interests along the river and I know that having lived in the village and worked on behalf of the village for many years now
there are a lot of uh different interests that we are trying to balance right and and the economic health of the village is one of those things the hisory of the river is one of those things the environment is one of those things sustainability is one of those things that if we don't take a moment
now to make sure that we are totally buttoned up on this um we won't be able to go back right we won't we can't replant the trees we can't clean up the river there there are certain pivot Points certain inflection points where
we are rapidly approaching an inability to kind of balance these things and so I would just ask for the council to take moment um and just to make sure that we are 100% buttoned up and meeting the needs of the village in in a way that balances What the residents want what
and what we want for the future of the village because we will not be able to go back if we if we don't do that properly now so I'm just asking for um for for the council to really take its time to do that so that's it thanks thank you very
much next public comment uh my name is Greg steer I live at 120 Northwest 86 Street I'm here because I haven't heard anything really from anybody uh here tonight about the launch I was kind of surprised to hear also
that uh the Wei work founder bought 16 Acres of elportal and um we didn't get any kind of notice at all um I've lived here for almost four years now uh the mayor has come to my house personally to drop off um newsletters or uh
announcements about Christmas parties but I've gotten zero information about the launch and I'm concerned just like I think a lot of people are about what it would do to elport to so thank you thank you Mr
St um anyone next for public comment hi everyone my name is Eric mono I live on 311 Northeast 86 Street and uh I'm uh this uh development has uh made us come together in so many ways we may have
come uh here late where we are talking and we are a lot of people we are like over 20 people talking about uh how much we care about aortal and uh we know that we live in a neighborhood that is very rare in America like we live in a nature
in a big Urban Miami is the third uh uh largest SK skyscraper in the US so it's a large city and we have uh the possibility to create a mod neighborhood for the us and that would be good for the people running the city it would be good for all of us
uh if we do this we adjust another any other neighborhood uh you know in Miami and we don't preserve nature this is a bird Sanu uh Sanctuary I don't know how is it possible to destroy or to to construct on a riverband that uh in a place that
is a a bird sanctuary and has so many wild animals living here uh but we are getting together we are organizing uh and uh we might be coming late here like I arrived and uh people were already you know talking about this
and I was like Wow but uh it just started come on uh but what I mean to say is that uh we do have a possibility of creating a model neighborhood and we shouldn't miss this opportunity uh if we do this we adjust any other neighborhood we can do so much more for nature for
the environment and for our community and uh those are the people leaving here so we care about this you know thank you thank you very much appreciate it uh who's next for a public comment the lot Public
comment hi good evening everyone um like other residents here I just want to talk about how important the Little River Corridor is to all of the residents here sorry just quickly name and address for the record yeah um Alexia Fernandez 374
Northeast 8 ft um The Little River Corridor is a really um really special part of Miami um and we see wildlife in the river every single day um I'm lucky um a resident lucky enough to live on
the river I see manatees Turtles Birds every single day I see birds flying through the river right into the lawn uh tree trees on the shoreline there's rookies there of the birds uh I think all of that would make it an environmentally sensitive area um I have
friends in the cista building that see man one time she sent me a video of up to 30 manatees in one single sighting within a matter of minutes and and all of these um manatees are an endangered species we've seen crocodiles they're
also a protected endangered species um and I also wanted to point out um I was reading through the development agreement thank you uh Village for making that available to the residents and um one of the points in the development agreement that is up to be
signed today it says that um the uh the development is in compliance with The Village's comprehensive plan um I took the time to read The Village comprehensive plan and I just wanted to say some points that I feel like the current development is lacking and I
feel like it could be improved um as part of the village comprehensive plan and the coastal management element it says that we will retain The Limited natural Waterfront stretch to the Little River Canal will improve existing Scenic
views and create public access to the Little River Canal Shoreline it says that we will Implement development code policies sensitive to Shoreline uses flood planes and sight plan it says that we'll protect the few remaining I added
in few it says protect remaining trees stands and vegetation and it also says encourage sustainable architecture and Green Building like the fellow residents said I think this is a huge opportunity to set an example um for not only Miami but
the US and even the world why not dream big um there's a lot of sustainable practices now in the stay and age for uh seaw walls and um making sure that the uh vegetation and the wildlife um is protected thank you thank you very much
I appreciate it uh who's next public comment the launch public comment for the launch say your name and address for the record please hello everybody uh I know most of you here my name is Scott cobri uh 8525
Northeast 4th Avenue Road um unfortunately I'm not as prepared for tonight as I would like to be um I uh have some personal stuff going on right now I uh notified the mayor about that
um but um I am going to do my best to communicate what I believe is going on here um so first of all as an example um this particular meeting was supposed
to have Florida's statutory notice requirements um to be on this agenda and be heard tonight um it was supposed to have been circulated in a newspaper 7 days in advance both this meeting the second
hearing as well as the first hearing that was not done the date place and time was supposed to be communicated at the previous meeting that was not done reached out to the clerk to find out
about that information she very thankfully sent me what information she had but I do not believe that she had that information which is why I did not get it which is why seemingly that it did not take take place um the verbal
aspect of being stated at last meeting definitely did not take place um Mr Geller here who appears to not be awake at the moment um is insulting and it's not well okay you're not listening to me and I would appreciate you weren't you
weren't at the two previous meetings for this contract that you signed off on or a representative from your firm signed off on okay look I'm not I'm not trying to adversarial I apologize I would appre I would appreci appreciate if you listen
to what I have to say sir I'm listening to I don't have to look at you to listen okay I'm saying something that that that needs I believe your comment which is that this meeting did not have proper
notice as an example of the meetings that have taken place this whole time from the beginning of the site plans review the mayor's stance has been that the site plans were approved a
long time ago I have stood by and told the mayor over and over again that people did not know about this they did not I am still the reason
I don't have a speech prepared tonight is because I am still trying to get word out to people about this in our village who know nothing about this from Sherwood Forest yes we have
gotten some support because it is in our backyard having said that the mayor has used has has said that this is just about cherwood forest and that this isn't that the people from El Hardin and the people from the other subsections
and elportal the other subsections of elportal do not care about this that they would like to see this voted on tonight but most of the people that we have contacted do not even know about this so they could not have an
opinion with the notice requirements that we've gotten I have not also received the 500 ft notice that was required for the S plan review courtesy notice that was supposed to come and
nobody else did in the neighborhood as far as I have understood asking all of my neighbors I am I have been coming to you from a place of trying to say hey I want to work together we want
to work together with the developers which we continue to believe that we do we want to work with you guys to get a development that works for everybody okay if more people in this
Village were able to comment on this and be involved we would be able to know what is best from our Village Council person bbam council person Martin I had emailed you a couple of things a few minutes ago for
reference during this meeting from our shet um I had previously mentioned them to council person Winters Council and and mayor Omar mayor Nickerson because I believe that it holds a lot of weight and I believe it should be taken
into consideration and those are the from our charet what was created when we spent a lot of money to create a plan for the future of this Village that should be carrying more
weight than it is and that those those those pages from the shet those screenshots from the shet show that this was not supposed to be an eight-story building on Little River on the Little River there were supposed to
be eight-story buildings on thecan Boulevard reducing in height to two to three story buildings as it gets closer to that area closer to the residential that is there with my property being within 250 ft of this property which has
been a clear violation that I have brought up time and time again that I've have requested measurements that I have not received from the developer or the developer's attorney or anybody all of my concerns have been
essentially dismissed argued by individually the developers attorney we have had no comment from our village attorney no comment we have had no comment on these
items the requested items the measurements from these the interpretations of whether or not Ben Fernandez's argument that the environmentally sensitive areas that that of our code does not
exist and that and that the little river which it is clear that the intent of that code was for that specific property not only inclusive of that specific property but ridden for the intent of
that specific property and that has essentially been dismissed as if it doesn't exist and called that this is not an environmentally sensitive area which I think every organization Little River Conservancy who has been it is the
little little river that flows through our village we are a bird Sanctuary the there are five four native specimen fig trees that are being removed from this property that durm our
County department that it says to confer with has recommended disapproval for that South Florida Water Management who is in charge of the Canal's Health has recommended disapproval for how are we going to approve this plan in
its current form and no again we are not saying as the residents the environmental organizations other stakeholders neighboring residents have came forth and asked for we are not asking for this to be a
park like it says in our charet we are not asking for that we are asking for compromise we are asking for some of the things the mayor told me that the last meeting was deferred because the executive director of the Everglades Law
Firm Elizabeth fat Carpenter called him after that time she has provided a list of recommendations similar to many to the other organizations involved and the
other residents with a lot of things as far as my understanding and I commend the mayor and I commend our Council people because I understand that their
intentions are good but they need to stand up for us more in this not for us for the US the other stakeholders the environment more the fact that Elizabeth F Carpenter
was the reason that that meeting got deferred and there has been no followup correspondence apparently that was taken to the developers along with the other requests and said no we are not willing to compromise at the Planning and Zoning
meeting on Thursday night that took place there were houses one-story houses that there were design preferences for that we decide that were deferred and that input was taken from the
village and they came back to the table willing to work with us and give some concessions and compromise this is not a house this is an eight-story building a concrete block
removing all of the banks of the river and natural vegetation that is existing directly up to the riverbank damaging and impacting wildlife and the and and and the habitat
of that wildlife and the health of the Little River and there are so much there is so much that we can do there's other things involved like the mayor's um and and and
other potential people's views that we are getting $733,000 for this that is for a public benefits program the public benefits program's main
intent is to provide green space for the village that is the primary intent of the V of this we did not get any green space the cista the original building was built and we got a million dollars for
that or some somewhere around there I'm not exactly sure of the figure a couple of years ago where has where is the Green Space we haven't seen any green space yes there is a secondary allotment for that funds which
can be used for the infrastructure of specifically new development it's not helping our current residents that is for new development and that is for green space that is what that money is supposed to be for it's
not to pave our current residents roads which very well we might need but there are this is this is way too much of a cost in order for that relatively small amount of money in
order for that to happen there from regards regarding the public benefits program I have been told that part of this is because we don't have impact fees
okay how can we even understand what the impact of this project is when the developers have not provided impervious surface uh what is under their wood decking which would make their
impervious surface as low as 4% when it is supposed to be 15% they've not provided a drain plan on their drawings where is the drainage going we have no idea how are
we supposed to evaluate the impact of this when we have these limited resources to do so again on the site plans there were other things [Music]
missing as well again I uh have taken up a lot of time I uh appreciate everybody's time here tonight um there's a quote from our from one of our village design
guidelines or the village design guidelines that says elportal is a bird sanctuary and a truee city and we protect our trees and our birds at all costs the core values of our village are
stated on our website they are supposed to be extremely important to us we have meetings where we talk specifically about the trees this should be incredibly important to us our riverfront property
that is in the shet should be preserving the bank of the shet like the environment mentally sensitive code of reads like our shet says giving quality of life benefits to us giving access from
residents that we can use that we can enjoy we are not receiving that out of this project there was something else I wanted to say here um take your time take your time I I I I truly believe that this
is a huge mistake for us to approve this tonight there is so much that this property has to offer it is owned by the developers and they have a right to do certain things just like I
have a right to do certain things with my house in this Village as we saw that last week those those need to fall within our code within our plan within our vision I believe that this
building can also do that and that we can all be winners and I truly believe that I truly believe that when we look towards the future and not toward a shortterm amount of money that is a
relatively small amount of money that I believe we are heavily under selling and undervaluing ourselves that we can urge the developers if they are willing to work with us to hear some of the things that we
are requesting some of them it doesn't need to be everything we are asking for some of the things specifically related to the environment to be to be heard and to be
considered and I believe that is it it is integral that we make sure that the village was aware of this able to comment and able to participate in this process and again going back to those
core values there was a comment made to me that well these guys are not environmental guys right we know Adam Newman for those who don't know this just bought this property of 15 acres in
little farm for 71 million 7.5 million we're going to be getting a lot of public benefits money from that as well okay um this this should integrate with that very well this should
integrate with mimo the character of mimo the character of elportal our core values and Little River and we should be able to have something that is way more
a long-term strategic plan than this short-term uh belief that we can't do better than this and I believe that that we truly truly can and that maybe the developers don't see it at this moment but we will be able to work together to
provide something that will be amazing for everybody amazing for this Village amazing for the future of elportal and the rest of this community thank you very much I do have
a lot more to say but I will give uh everybody uh some some space here thank you very much appreciate all of your time and uh your your consideration thank you thank you very much appreciate it anyone else put a lunch
AO my beloved brothers and sisters Thea tribe to the developers welcome to this secret lands of Thea I am happy that you're getting to bask in this amazing potent magical energy that
it is the sacred lands and from this uh amazing tribe that it is us can you just say your name address my name is Gracia Maria and I live in 376 Northeast 85th Street I am very very lucky to to live
right uh on the river most of my um closest neighbors are are here and I feel a lot of uh Pride H to be a part of of this community so last time ER I think it was about a month ago I showed
up and I before I showed up here I I sat in prayer and I I have a different approach to things and how I like to navigate life and convey the messages that I feel are important um and I wrote some something from the depths of my heart and today I was sitting with should I have a
different approach should I set something different but the truth is that this is what I wanted to share with you so for those of you that have already heard it uh you're lucky to hear it again um today I humbly stand before you not
just as a resident but as a guardian a steward and a keeper of something far greater than ourselves this land this little river these Majestic and magical trees and the sacred Wildlife that call this secet space our home El Portal the
portal and is it most certainly lives to its name I stand here on the hopes that we can all agreeing that our unique neighborhood is not just a collection of homes but a sanctuary a living breathing Testament to the harmony between nature and
Humanity how very immensely fortunate are we to live in a place where the song of bears fill the air Where the River Flows gently through our community and where the land holds the quiet wisdom of those who came before us this is not just any land it is the resting place of
the teesta people whose spirit is still linger in the soil and Within These very lands and if you allow yourself to sit in Stillness and listen closely you could still hear their Whispers through the soft breee and that not so calm winds
Native American people indigenous people understood the sacredness of the Earth the interconnectedness of all living things they knew they know that life is not about domination but about balance
co-creation collaboration weaving together and respect we too get to choose to honor that understanding as it will only bring us to a deeper understanding of the world around us and the world within
us as developers as you seek to change the landscape of this sacred land I ask you to please consider lean into the exploration that of the life that will be uh disrupted by this decision and how
this is going to impact us all the trees that stand tall have sheltered countless creatures for Generations the river that runs through our community sustains life and the wildlife that CS this place home has lived here long before any of us got here the heart of any thriving Community lies
in the unity and not in division we have the chance to come together as a neighborhood and as guardians of this land to preserve a legacy in the rush to develop we must remember that true progress is not measur in concrete and
still but in how we respect the living world around us I ask you kindly to consider taking this as an invitation into returning to the wisdom of the past you might be very surpris of what you find as you do so perhaps take
this also as an opportunity to Remember by experiencing what it is to live as a tribe in balance with nature and perfect harmony with our surroundings when the Earth was not something to be exploited but something to be cherished and protected our wild our Wildlife is not
just a collection of creatures they are a vital part of the ecosystem each one playing a role in the delicate balance that sustains life here if we remove their homes if we destroy their habitats we risk more than just the loss of trees and animals we risk losing the very
essence of what makes this place so special we risk losing the heartbeat of our community my prayer tonight my prayer every night is that we unite developers and residents as one and all who cherish this land to find a way
forward that respects both progress and preservation development and nature I pray and offer tobacco to the fire I pray and offer flowers and honey to the waters that we come together to seek solutions that honor the spirit and of this place that we can respect all
living beings without hierarchy and uphold the sacredness of this special land I pray that we choose to inspire other communities by example showing the world that progress does not have to come at the expense of the earth anymore but can coexist with it we have a
responsibility not only to ourself let's lead by example and be what's right with the world and not what isn't let's set an example by Leading for once by the heart thank you kindly for your
time thank you it [Applause] is anyone else public comment for the launch say your name and address for the record emana Molina 471 Northeast 83rd
Street Miami Florida El Portal is a bird sanctuary just walking in here I came across three Majestic peacocks that were allowing us our entrance and blessing our entrance here in the Sacred Space it's not often
that we get to see peacocks in wildlife in front of a city hall are we then upholding these values with the development keeping Al portal a bird sanctuary are we prioritizing the path where birds
migrate with the CL close proximity to Sherwood Forest are you open to consider that when you break ground you might find Sacred artifacts from the taquesta people as when mentioning my sister Gracia Maria and if this is the case are you
open to consider we may have a similar situation to that of Miami Circle 444 Bickle Avenue which has officially been designated a National Historic Landmark and if this is the case are you
open to consider that your duty and your service to this sacred land is to bring in archaeologists and experts to address the findings and as a resident at cista I love my building and I love the team
that works there and even though we started off on the wrong foot because as soon as I moved in in February I was displaced from my brand new apartment because the flooring in my bedroom was completely uneven and had to be rebuilt in a brand
new building on the first floor of the building and the team however though I do want to congratulate you cuz you chose a great team did their best to accommodate me and I'm here in peace and with an open heart and so grateful for the way that they accommodated me even
though it was an inconvenience and I had to live out of boxes for the first month in my apartment in a model model apartment so aside from all the issues that residents like myself have complained about at cista and as a resident in your building
I'm also addressing you directly with a wide open heart because I choose to believe that you will uphold the best and highest values of preserving and protecting the sacred land in the ways in which is asking you and asking us to
protect it and to tend to her and as I continue speaking I'm going to ask you if you're open to considering if you're truly complying and if you will continue to comply with
all the codes and even though I only moved here in February I very much feel at home and I very much feel like I am a guardian of elportal and of this land and also a guardian of the people that have been
stewards of this land way before I have been so in honor of my elders and those who have opened up the path for me to be here speaking to you today and addressing you with a wide open heart and open to Miracles I'll just leave you with
this are we making God's choice the only choice here today and moving forward and to you mayor as well are you making God's choice the only choice thank you thank you very much anyone else
for George Alvarez at 165 Northwest 88th Street seems like deja vu hello every everyone Council um I think a lot has been said about some of the environmental impacts and maybe historical or cultural obligation
that um we arguably may have uh to to the area um and with that context I can probably say I'm in the the opposite of the last woman who spoke who's only lived here for a couple months I've lived here for considerably
longer um one thing that I'm I'm noticing and and every time I I I come to meetings and I'm trying to make it to to General meetings more and more but I'm learning about the launch and and and you know the the development that it is and the
potential that it also is and uh I have some questions they don't necessarily need to be asked but um and some observations and I I'll start out with one observation every time I'm here there's more and more people who are here with either questions observations
or concerns about the development um I think that that is noteworthy um I also think it's of of of importance let me just say that
when either code is being followed or code is not if code is not being followed there needs to be a good reason that it is not being followed if the code is not being followed for a good reason wouldn't it stand to reason that
all of us would want to vet everything because if the project meets enough of the bullet points that we wanted to meet it will stand the test of time it will pass the test whether it's the black and white letter of the
law stuff that I'm hearing about and wondering about in terms of proximity to other you know buildings in terms of drainage to the river the those such questions should you know the cards speak for themselves
if you've ever lost at poker if those answers are not clear and the project moves forward then there are other questions behind that that I think the builders
and owners and future stewards of that land as longtime holders would want to also kind of have acceptably answered so that everybody can live there moving forward I think that projects like this do have a cost
but they do have a benefit I think that Builders such as the barington brothers obviously know what they're doing and obviously have deep concern for the spaces that they
build in they have an investment there if you think the train is loud you should hear the peacocks but I know that all of you guys do in in Sherwood um that that that said and I'm going to
try to wrap it up quickly um it seems to me that the council and the residents and the Builders would not want to leave strings uh untied as it were and if
those strings are questions that are easily answerable in code then that's easily answerable if those strings are questions that are tantamount to negotiation or to proving to a community and not just a community that lives very
close to the river some of us live on the west side that we would want to know those things what are the public benefits is there going to be public usage uh somebody uh uh brought up the idea of what the shet
had said in the past about that really seemed to show that the people who worked on that in the prior Council I think some people were here on that Council uh that seemed to be their their their
their not just their judgment but their value judgment that they want to see certain things such as park space such as Green Space such such as Civic space and other public benefits which come under a private kind of um umbrella
because that is to say while it would be great to have a park by the river that would be my choice you know that's just my opinion if that were not possible and the public benefit were uh were shown to be greater
than a park then you know what a privately owned restaurant that has outdoor tables and maybe keeps up space might be the answer it's a private solution to a public issue I think that's maybe what we should be trying to
go for and and if it takes a deferment and that's a big problem and that's a big problem because that invites more public input then that's a far bigger problem for El pel so I hope you guys will
consider um working together builders council community and trying to find a way forward that's somewhere in the middle
um because everything I've heard gives everything else I've heard some degree of context and it seems to me that we not in the middle when we could be thank you guys for your time I didn't even hear a buzzer thank you Mr oh yeah that's the
second one that's that's six minutes my brother six minutes appreciate it anyone else public comment can you come to this microphone please yeah I appreciate it Edward aashan 400 Northeast 87th uh
hello Council uh Village government and residents fellow residents so there's not really much that I can really jump on board here that hasn't been said already that I really agree with um and I I mean I agree with at all is what I
mean to say uh my big issue here is why are we ignoring the shet why are we not referencing the task force for resiliency why are we not getting emails on time why are we not getting agenda on
time so that we're aware of what's going on at large we're we we have a a critical mass right now of residents because everybody's been missing out on information and they've been getting it secondhand from other people and we're
all upset and up in arms about it because there's a there's a lot of misunderstanding but there's a lot of Truth here as well um I I don't understand why why is the shett up being referenced for it and I don't think that saying that this property where the
launch is is uh is was acquired after the shet so therefore it doesn't apply I mean it's still zone five why isn't the task force involved in this as well and more importantly because I want to keep this short um we're going to have further development
in zone five uh Adam Newman and his team are going to come in and and and beautify the area but are we going to have process with this development as well I really hope so I really hope that
you guys can hold yourselves accountable and I'm talking to you Village Council mayor Mr Mayor and uh the village manager and Clerk and attorney please we need to be made aware of what's going on and you guys need to follow the code
that you've set in place we do that when we when we come to you for exceptions for our houses as well and it's not fair to ch SC pick who you're going to be working with and against so we're all on the same side
let's work together thank you thank you very [Applause] much who's next for public comment for the launch hello I'm Thomas pum 205 Northeast 86 Street um I was just reviewing the uh
staff report from the December 10th um site plan review for uh the launch and a lot of the allegations that have come up regarding um things not being in compliance like the um four Feats four
stories instead of stories thing the pervious amount and a few of the other allegations none of that was ever covered off on the staff report so um as someone who's just oh sorry about that yeah no problem um
who's reviewing what was done before what the conversation is today I see in congruency and I would like to know um from whoever would be responsible with the village if that's uh the Planning and Zoning Group which which is cordino
group or whomever um if the village could please address um those allegations um regarding the variances that haven't been covered off um that are missing from the December 10th site review plan thank you very much I'm G to ask
everybody's question later on [Applause] anyone else come on up um Colin Brown 374 Northeast 85th Street I already spoke but I just want to say that there's a completely different energy in the room tonight and
um I think there's a lot of love here and I think that there's a lot of people here who are doing their best to convey their love for this neighborhood and to not come forward in a contentious Manner and to try to build a bridge with the developer to try to build a bridge with
the council and this means a lot to our community right now and um I just I just it's something that I that I see and I've heard and I I think it's something to celebrate so I just wanted to mention that thank you very much anyone else good and Welfare oh not good
and Ware public comment for the launch anyone else okay hearing oh I'll go ahead okay um so I I I want to that quote that I was
trying to reference before I wanted to read it um I don't know what's going is there peacocks or okay um anyway so see the beauty of this Village um and so this this quote that I was trying
to reference before it's from um one of our documents here it says elpor El is known as home to the first designated archaeological site in Miami Dade County the Sherwood Forest Indian Mound believed to be a burial ground for
teesta Indians alal is a Tre City it is considered a modern-day Garden of Eden with its copious canopy on every street because of this it has also attracted a constant flow of peacocks
and other birds elportal is known as as a bird sanctuary protecting its birds at all population at all costs um I have many many many pictures um that I have taken of the
trees that are set to be cut down um and they every single day have hundreds of Ibis Egret great blue heron green
herin um well maybe not hundreds of those birds every day but hundreds of Ibis and several of those other birds because they're more of an individually uh species um but there is an incredible amount of
wildlife that is there that utilizes this natural bank if you look at this is this is our Miami Miami's natural River the other major Miami natural River was Miami River which if you go there you
see exactly what that looks like now it's it's a Concrete Jungle um and this is a treasure that we have here this is not El Portal of 5 years ago
although we need to look into that history and remember who we are and what makes us great and what brought all of these people here that want to be here today it is our canopy it is our Birds it is our
Wildlife it is the treasure the rare uniquness of what we have to offer that exists nowhere else in the city of Miami nor even if you go up to Fort lauderale and even if you go up to boa Ron nothing
like this think about the long-term plan here think about how important this River Frontage is as we realized in the shet as we realized when we wrote this
code and for some reason this is being abandoned today for some reason these core values are identity all of this is being abandoned today and why because there's a few of our elected
officials and I'm not going to say names and I don't know who those people are frankly but there are some people that clearly think that money and a small amount of money that can hardly bring our village and is not even supposed to
be utilized for our current residents Beyond giving Green Space which is exactly what this is taking away of the main and most important Green Space that was defined in our charet and that's obvious because
anybody who redid a charet today if we did which we should have and it is I think very much due I think we would see the same thing where the village would want to do what would would would not
want to do this project in its current form and we would want it to fall within the guidelines of our code of our shet and what makes sense for this Village and for the future of our village of mimo of our neighboring
Village of mimo Little River Miami Shores and the other people that come here to enjoy this Rarity having said that I would like to uh whether or not I I I it seems that the format of this meeting is that we're
all speaking and then there's going to be comment I ass from the mayor from the council I hope and from some of the developer and from the developers um whenever that is whether that's now or after I would like to request that Mr
Mayor you Enlighten everybody on some of the things that you had mentioned to me about why the core values of our village are being abandoned here and what the
reasoning for that is and why our charet is completely being abandoned and why our code is being dismissed and told it doesn't exist um I would love to I would love everybody to hear that um and the the understanding that I have
and you know I I'm I I'm I'm talking I I don't mean to single Mr Mayor out I I think he's in a great guy um and I the only reason is he has the the he's been my point of contact with this so to speak um so what I have been
understood to told is that well even though those are our core values even though you know that this this charet um that this this is what the developers uh that they're not environmental people that they don't really care about these things and that
you know we we we should be okay with that and that the list that was provided by you know these organizations by Elizabeth F Carpenter Etc um was completely rejected in its in its totality and I don't
believe that was representing our village and and what we believe is what we want and I believe again if we did that shet today so I would like if the mayor could please respond on that um as well as uh
Mr Geller I would like to ask you a couple of questions if that's okay um first of all um at tonight's meeting I I I mentioned the notice that was not provided um can you
comment on why this meeting was you know allowed to proceed um even though the Florida stat statutory requirements were not fulfilled by notice of this meeting and and and this is just an example of what has happened
continuously I turn you go don't answer that I'll get to everything okay well I would like to be again I think as another resident came up and said um there there has I've been up here
from the site plan review since the beginning of the site plan review and every every single meeting and I have still not been provided answers to what what the villag interpretation of these discrepancies in our code
is all that we've heard is the developers attorney's arguments against why they don't exist that's it attorney Geller has not responded and any other Representatives
have not provided comment on that um so I I and I and I just want to also state that when I regarding the notice that that residents have gotten that has been far from
sufficient for my understanding and when these things are sent out I am also just asking the council honestly not in a way to um you know come down on anybody or anything like that but I'm honestly asking the council do you feel that the
notice that has been provided for this and the education and knowledge that has provided for this um has come in a time where you had enough time to really understand and hear everything that has
been being said and then make comments on it because one of the biggest arguments that has been made is that the site plans have already passed and now we're prop we're about to approve a second building that has a mixed news variant
our whole point for this downtown Town Center with Riverfront Ag and and and and access and activation is now being abandoned and what is what is uh you know what what is everybody else saying
what are the organizations saying have we had time to thoroughly consider this as I said one of the biggest points is that a so many people in this Village still do not know about this and the way that this should have happened was we should have been involved we should have
known about it as a comment was made Flyers get passed out about everything the bare minimum notice legal notice was not done beyond the Outreach that should have been done for a project like this and a lot of people did not know about it that is why the site plan
was approved and as far as a lot of people are concerned that was approved illegally as well so please please take this into consideration and I ask that we can
get all of the answers to this so we can all get on the same page and understand because I don't this does not feel right to so many people in this room and it should feel right we should be excited about this because we all are excited about
development in this Village and we all are excited about a amazing being a leader in Miami and not only Miami the world because of what we have to offer the framework that we have to work with that is extremely rare and a treasure
that we cannot give up thank you very very much appreciate thank you very much anyone else public [Applause] comment just to close that up um I don't think we mean to antagonize anybody uh and for developers I know this is a huge
setback but this is a major opportunity too you know you look at a city like Miami that is growing so fast and you can do so much more than uh basic concrete block you know we can do so much more you can do so much more uh who
are over here wanting to develop this area this is a Jew this is not any neighborhood this is a bird sanctuary this is a a place for wildlife we have a living forest and you can Thrive off of that too you know because this is great
for advertisement this will attract the you know like lots of people who care about environment and you can uh adapt your plan you know so that it meets uh what a planet needs what a what a city needs what aort toown needs and
uh really we are here to work with you not against you we don't mean to antagonize you and I hope that we can come together and uh create something that maybe this setback will be great for you too you know and we all win thank you
[Applause] Thomas pum 205 Northeast 86th Street um just a few other quick things so again I was looking at the December 10th site site review plan um and it literally
says on page 209 I don't know if this has been updated or not I assume not this is the most recent one I have it says the village staff has recommended approval of a site plan review of a 10 story multif family residential structure so again another discrepancy I
thought this was eight stories six stories with two bonus so again the staff report has a huge um discrepancy in it page seven of 7 of s 209 of 251 of that document so um you know as a
taxpaying resident here I want to make sure all of our ordinances and all everyone who we've hired a staff and whatnot are actually falling through uh with their job and with the accuracy of that so huge question mark uh related to that I would love that one answered um
It also says in here on that same page two of 209 of 251 um staff report says that the variance requested is not detrimental to any adjacent Properties or adver adversely affect the public welfare which I know that you've heard lots of
commentary to the contrary of that so I raise a question Mark around why that is featured in the staff report from December 10th um It also says as the last item on the staff report item 1f variance request is modified prior to
Village Council review um I would love to double click into that and understand what that means has that happened what is the new variance request um timing and process with that thank you thank you
[Applause] hello again Alexia Fernandez 374 Northeast 85th Street um in the light of all the questions we're asking I also have a question I can't help but notice an empty chair up here uh council member Anna Lightfoot Ward doesn't seem to be
in attendance and I just question if a decision can be made um with an absence here and um the process around that thank you thank you um attorney Geller can answer that but the answer is yes you
can have an absent council member still vote anyone else public comment yeah of course thank you Elita uh 12 Northeast 9th Street so I've been through several
of these meetings but uh one thing that I've personally uh noticed is that lots of citizens are raising you know like very valid concerns my main question is like who who is going to follow up on all of this
like um it does seem that we have constantly talked about the trees we're talking about the budget update on the website hasn't been updated trees are being cut continuously I mean it doesn't seem that anyone is
going to take it in consideration uh we have been talking about uh spreading the word the citizens are not uh receiving their email notification doesn't seem that there is a followup on that so what is the point that we are constantly coming here I
mean I I guess it's been twice a month at this point but doesn't seem to have a followup now I understand that it doesn't I mean have to be a particular person but what is the accountability here like are we just completely speaking we're
talking I mean I noticed that which was very fascinating on the last meeting apparently there was a a missing on on the plans that the the architect had introduced or developer were missing off trees then the architect went back added
some trees on the plants yay so beautiful now that development is going to happen but who's going to follow up did those trees actually get planted that is that is something that I noticed actually as soon as I left the podium there was an answer from you
mayor that you said well I'm emphasize all the time about the trees yes that's that's fantastic but the problem is that who's going to follow up with that particular project do we have someone that does that or are these meetings any do they have any
point because every sing single time I listen concerned citizens but I it doesn't seem to have any I mean I've never heard any solution quite frankly yes we're all concerned about the trees but they're being cutting down so okay
so then we're all concerned about like which another interesting um conversation that got came up on the last meeting was about the taxes that are being raised because of this project are being
introduced who's going to follow up on that like did anyone has any any answer I don't seem I don't see any um um how would you say any in informed conversation being discuss in
these meetings are we just simply like just raising coming here and raising concerns or that's not a solution provider that's not we're not I mean our taxes are still going to be erased in the in the next few years so how are we
finding Solutions because it's great I mean the this whatever these developments are happening everyone is building within the codes that we have but we are not protecting anything I mean nothing seems to so again so I I will be speaking here
but I mean what does it mean how long are we going to continue like this is any are we going to have any you know decent conversations are we going to have any solution providing type of conversations or are we just
simply going to raise issues and then again going back to what happened last last meeting is that everyone came and they discussed we need more trees we need you to change the plan and and then in the end you all approved it so I mean it's
like okay so what was the point of having 1 hour of complaint means and then nothing happens right okay so another complainer okay Greg steer again 120 Northwest 86
Street I just wanted to read a text message that I just received from Rachel straf Feld an attorney also the mayor of North Bay Village who says this is a bad deal for the village and the commission can do better for the residents they didn't even submit any drainage plans
with their site plan approval and they're not doing anything to improve the public realm 700,000 is nothing and finally she said this vote should be deferred since they didn't comply with statutory notice
requirements thank you thank you anyone else Edward orasan uh 400 Northeast 87th so actually I want to give the barington brothers a chance to to defend themselves here so it it sounds like you guys are actually going to plant some
some trees and and some stuff uh that's awesome do and I'm sure it might be too early or not I'm sure it might be too early to discuss but do you have any ideas for what you would actually plant there or anything like that like native
species grasses or anything I mean is there so the way that um this has to work uh we can't go back and like we like the public comment is not you can't ask like the Cent like during public I
apologize I'm going to put this out Ian you can say you can say whatever you can say here's my question and if they want to get up and answer they can um like I'll be addressing all the questions afterwards but there's no during the public comment there's no like debate I apologize thank you for making that correction Mr Mayor we're good we're good the question is out there so so you
know what it is now you got I got you no problem all right thank you good evening everyone I am marabel fruitstone I currently live in the cista so 471 Northeast 83rd Street and I did live for since 2001 in 157 Northwest
88th Street on the West Side um so one of the biggest decisions to live and decide to buy a house in Upper tall was the Charming um neighborhood the size of it um I love
that was a municipality that I could see all the you know we had the police that would just Patrol we had the beautiful bird sanctuary and there was a beautiful neighborhood about it and it is what everyone else is saying it's a treasure it
is I have friends from all over and when I post they're like wow where do you live and I'm like I live in eleral um I've participated since 2001 in cleaning the Little River when it wasn't even through the
Conservancy it was just residents getting together and deciding to clean it and it has continued I love elportal so much that I reinstated the elportal Women's Club and we continue to make
Community for the Village um but I'm also an educator and um I this is the first time that I actually I I'm going to agree with the communication because being on the and
it could be that my life is just really busy and I have missed some of the emails so that could be on my fault too but um as an educator my school and my students participate in the Fairchild tropical
gardens uh Challenge and they're specifically informed that and I was told this that Miami dat is the the hottest city in the United States there is no it's an urban
desert and through the challenge what children are asked is to there's a specific challenge called shade our trees and so we have been collecting all the children around that participate in this and it's been going on for 3 years
we collect evidence that the shade of a tree is better than obvious viously the sun which is what we need here so I mean I would love to to have where I live in the convent and I would love you know
what I love when I'm it was wild I was working out of the gym and I'll just Vis and then all of a sudden it's like plowed everything is like done and I'm like oh that must be the building that they're going to start to build and I was like oh that's the building they're
going to start to build because a lot of the what I used to enjoy about working out at the Doom is gone now it's just dirt and then I see what used to be the the trail but I also now that I have your ear a little bit and I have the
microphone um more than even with the green space there an opportunity to with the trees There's an opportunity to create that sense of community which I feel now living in an apartment building I don't know is get yeah we have the monthly um
social but it would be lovely to socialize outside you know enjoying the trees and things or or the beautiful River that's there and also think about like people coming to these things you know there's there's lack of parking you know so no one can come and enjoy these
things if we create it we also need to think about how people can come and enjoy it but so thank you for your time and I hope there can be a resolution I know we always encourage the children to to compromise and so I think we could lead by example and doing that and
trying to be the you know like the beautiful shady area of Miami whereas the rest of it is in is completely being developed all over and we are still going to be the hottest place it would be lovely to
have elportal not in that area so thank you for your time thank you very much anyone else public comment anyone else public comment I apologize for getting up here again um I really appreciate everybody's
time and ear um I know that um I I I might be being a little bit redundant here but um I first of all I just wanted to understand the reason I'm getting up here right now is I wanted to understand so the format just to be clear because I think it has
varied in other meetings the the format of this meeting is that we're going to speak and then uh everybody like the council will will comment and and and then we will we get a chance to speak again or respond to anything or or no um
it's not supposed to be like that so let me just explain this real quick so the format that I've always and Madam manager always says no good d goes on punished the format that I've always done was a format that never existed which was people can come up as much as possible you can talk as long as
possible you can come up as many times as possible it was never supposed to be like that now we can be here until midnight because let me tell you my man Scott goes for hours and if he doesn't get the answer he wants he keeps going
we can do that but I'm trying to have a little bit of structure I'm still breaking the rules for for you guys it's supposed to be 3 minutes one time per person Scott the first time you spoke it was 18 minutes the first time you've been up like two times since then all
right thank you I appreciate that very much so the way that it's supposed to be is I open it up the council are there yeah I open it up the council termites
I open it up the council I didn't go to the council for questions or comments if they don't have anything to say then I open it up for public comment once all the public comment is done we close the public comment we come back to the council for any last questions or comments and answering stuff that you
guys said and things like that that's how it's always been now well we can I say something I I don't think we've seen she needs to come to the podium and she wants to talk and and I also want to say
something I don't think we've seen whether or not the format works because we're still kind of stuck in the first portion so I think a lot of people in the room have lodged a lot of valid questions um we need to kind of give everybody an opportunity to have those questions heard we're kind of just like
in the first part of like a resounding chamber where we can possibly move on to the other part where we can kind of get some of those questions answered right so Alita again 12 Northeast it's not about creating a confrontation like the lady she's like can come to the
microphone and everything it's about like what is the point of asking all these questions he he has been here for 18 minutes so how come there's no answers so who is going to answer who is the informed one because like again we're coming here once a month who is the
informed one is it is it the the attorney is it the I mean who who do we ask like the mayor I mean how are we having these meetings like the mayor established at the beginning of the meeting that he would take all comments from the public once that is done the
mayor will then begin answering all of the questions that have been accumulated from public comment so we're about to begin listening to the mayor at first the rest of the council will chime in if there's questions to the manager that will happen attorney Etc but at the
beginning the mayor established that he would allow I mean second so we've been talking for about 2 hours and he's going to answer to all the question we said for the past two hours or we could have a conversation the format that we have we come here we talk we are uh you know
obviously we're we're being sort of like looking with the side eyes and everything because we're saying things that you as an elected official I can tell you excuse me as an elected official I can tell you that the discussion that's going to take place that results in a vote or not a vote or
a motion or not a motion is the that is the responsibility that lies on the shoulders of the elected people sitting on this day the four of us here tonight and we are about to begin the discussion between the four of us headed towards either a vote or yes I appreciate that
but that's the all the four of you are not just the decision maker of what's happened with our village we are to what we are saying this format is not working this is what they say when they say elections have consequences the four of us up here are in fact the ones who we can see that actually we can see that
because we tried on the last election to make a change but we can see that it has an affection because like I've been here for almost like 12 years in this Village I've never met you I've never met Miss Martin I've never met the mayor I've never met any of you so obviously we can
see that it has a huge consequences especially during this time that a lot of things are happening in our village it's not it's this is not particular to this project this is like when when there are this uh questions being answered are you're going to take uh
questions for two years for two hours and then you're going to answer like something right it doesn't seem that anyone has any expertise I mean I don't know like who is who is approving and then in the decision is like the last meeting happened exactly that you five of you made that decision for that
project to happen now again I'm not particularly going behind any particular project but please understand that this format is not working just ask coming here and talking and talking it's not working you know like either it's going to be uh someone will answer the
question that is would do we we have a zoning person here right that has the expertise we have an attorney that has the expertise we have a um a budget person that has the expertise so who is answering because I'm not going to chase
the mayor I mean like I understand like I'm not going to chase you by email or I'm not going to chase so that is my point like well we have always done it like that yes you have done it the last 10 years you have done it that way but the problem is that lots of things are
happening and only the five of you cannot make the decision we're done you can see it it's not about attacking any individual it's not about attacking any project this is about like how do we you know this format you just receiving our
complaint it's not working I'm sorry I interrupt your uh but it's just like uh just following what say your address say your name address for uh Eric 311 or city6 Street uh I wrote it down and I'm going to say it as I wrote
it usually we come here with arguments and feel like the city usually ignores points and facts and votes as they want as we are dismissed that's what I see all the time it makes no sense the city denies and makes a big deal of code such as door callers types of Shir shrubs and
small variances and I willing to turn a blind Blind Eye for something as impactful as this why it makes no sense I come here and I Lose My Faith in humanity all the time thank you very much go ahead M
um uh so thank you for for that everybody um so I was just I guess curious because similar to what the others stated um in in previous times where I got up here um I I see the
developers you know kind of rolling their eyes at me right now which has been the case every single time um that we've came up and made heartfelt and very very impactful speeches about what we felt was not done again the code
violations again the the charet and the um moving away from that um I want wanted to understand whether we would be able to comment uh afterwards after we hear what what the council has to say um
because um because I do feel that I have been dismissed um by not receiving not not by each of you individually not at all but by not
receiving answers to these questions from our attorney who is meant to interpret this for the village or at least add some color to it um and there's been relatively limited
commentary from that so um that was my main question that I wanted to get the answer to um so um I hope that uh as a closing um
like I I I know that you that that you are uh you know maybe maybe getting a little bit impatient with us and and that sort of thing um this is extremely extremely important to our Village um and there's a lot more
that I have to say and there's a lot more conversations that I wanted to have again this was not this this was not the right initial format for this was not to have no public Outreach nobody in our village know about this and then come
straight to site plan approvals that got done illegally no notice about this no proper notice yet we're having a meeting it it's it's Insanity the code is violated the shet is abandoned the core values of
our village are being abandoned why is this taking place and how can we proceed in this way with hearing environmental organizations your residents and and so many people that are saying we don't want this in this
Village how can we move forward with this um has there been a lot of comment about people who believe that this should be done I haven't heard a lot of it in its current form and I don't think a lot of people can contest that I didn't know about this I would like an
at least an opportunity to know and to talk to our elected officials and to comment in a way that is not maybe a workshop maybe something that should have been done before not the night we're voting on it okay um thank you again very much it's my final comment
hopefully appreciate all of your time and again I greatly appreciate your patience with us thank you so much for your patience I hope that you understand how important this is to the future of our
village and and and and what this means and what this decision tonight means thank you very much thank you very much anyone else public comment anyone else public comment public comment for the
launch all right going once public comment for the launch going twice public comment for the launch going three times all right all right okay um thanks
for everybody for being here tonight uh I appreciate all of you guys for being here um so let's do this um first of all uh I I'll start with uh with Mr Parker how you doing Mr Parker Mr Parker's been
waiting Mr Parker's been waiting patiently Mr Parker um you came up you had a flyer in your hand correct let me see that flyer hold it up for me no problem okay I see that one it's that
one right here right yeah okay all right so first thing I want to say um is and this is not towards you Mr Parker this is overall and then I'm GNA get to Mr Parker's questions in a second um just because
somebody writes something doesn't mean that they're correct so from this first flyer there's misinformation on this flyer that was spread
around which is why a lot of individuals are here uh Mr Parker you said what are we getting out of this we're getting a development agreement fund that's 7 $3 33,000 that $733,000 can be used for anything throughout the village as far
as infrastructure road work um Parks things like that um I have a new Tot Lot coming in brand new Tot Lot that's going to be coming in going to be developed we're going to have water stations water misters and all those type of things
some of that's being paid for by development agreement funds the nature trail is going to be done over Madam manager lot of Lush native plants in the nature trail brand new outdoor exercise equipment brand new nature trail development agreement funds we're going
to be we're going to be we're going to be doing Road repair that type of infrastructure we're using that not only grants and things like that but development agreement funds could be used for things like that
also um you talked about uh Mr Parker you were saying that the the your concern with the new uh property being sold the trailer park and you're right behind there you had concerned about that um and I think I spoke to you and the same thing still applies which is
that the density that they're seeking on there would have to be the the high density would have to be towards biscan for that trailer park um and so it'll be a descending density and that's the way that that that would have to be let me just tell you that um I've been working
closely with Mr Newman on the uh upcoming site plan for the trailer park and it's more trees and environmental aspects than you could ever imagine and he's sticking with that as far as the density
also um so that's Mr Parker was there anything that I missed on that I think that was kind of overall kind of covering yeah if it was not theed mentioned okay okay okay so I'll get to that right
now so yes so so let me skip down to Mr K cor Miss D mentioned durm and South Florida Water Management District correct all right so we'll address that and um we'll address at the same time Mr Parker all right so for durm and South Florida Water Management District
um attorney Fernandez did you get a letter from durm or South fla Water Management District about this did you get a email or did you get a a a letter um saying that these things were denied in the mail from the south florid mement District of durm did you get
anything sent to you did you did you come come come up did you get anything um did you get a letter in the mail or an email um from durm regarding uh this project anytime
recently no excuse me Mr Fernand just for record the mayor has addressed you directly so perectly fine that you're responding but still need to put your yeah say your name address for the record sure say your name address for the record Ben Fernandez 200 South bisc
Boulevard okay and the answer was no you can sit down you can you can sit down turny Fernandez thank you very much okay um uh AR barington can you come up please AR barington 8300 Northeast Fourth Place uh thank you very much did you receive a letter um from durm or South
Florida Water Management District No all right thank you you can sit down please uh Mr Kim barington come up please Ken barington 8300 Northeast 4th Place did you receive a letter from durm South Flor Water Management District I did not thank you sit down please okay
uh Madam manager did you receive a letter from durm email um snail mail in the mail from South Water Management District or durm no I have not received anything attorney Geller did did you receive a letter um email regular mail South Florida Water Management District
or durm I have not seen any such letter appreciate it uh clerk jacobe did you receive a letter email snail mail South Water Management District or Durham no okay um vice mayor Martin did you receive a letter in any way south Florida Water
Management District or durm no I have not okay um council person herbon did you receive a letter from I have not received a letter South Management District no council person Winters did you receive a letter from durm I have not received a letter from anyone Southward Management District nope I did
not receive a letter from durm or South Water Management District so so let me get this straight so this is the thing more than anything else I'm a logical person and maybe that might be to my detriment but when it comes to logic
versus emotion in politics logic is the thing in the black and white that we have to vote on so it's the first logical point so durm and South Florida wether
Management District have a letter against the launch that the individuals received that are against the launch but South Florida Water Management District and
durm who are reputable organizations did not send this letter to the developers the developers attorney our attorney The Village manager the mayor of the village the vice mayor of the village or any of the
council members logically that that doesn't make sense to me that durm has a letter and South Florida Water Management District has a letter but they didn't send it to any of
the individuals involved that makes that makes absolutely no sense to me makes absolutely no sense to me so when it
so so other people can get letters from wherever they got it from that's perfectly fine other other hold on hold on
for durm and there can be a letter for durm and South Florida Water Management District to you can hold up the letter all you want there can be a letter for durm and South Florida Water Management District to send out to to send out a
letter on something that is so important mind you this is this is very important right this is extremely important that's so important what does not make sense the C are telling you the it was
in the meeting agenda mayor s so how are you saying you didn't get you we do have a statement of theorum there's things that I disagree with but I've never interrupted anybody or yelled
out thank you the point my point is is that for something so important from an organization like durm or South Florida Water Management District that
letter which is right there there makes no sense to me that they would not send it to the individuals which the development is
about people I'm not asking a question I'm I'm asking I didn't ask one question no I didn't no I'm I'm that was a rhetorical because I'm making the point that it does not make sense to
me and we and individuals can disagree but just like if there is a case and there's a plaintiff and there's a defendant if something comes
up they will contact the plaintiff and the defendant and the Magistrate for durm to send a letter and not send it to the individuals who are building the actual
development that the letter would be about says to me that that concern of importance of [Music] SOS may not be as high of a concern
as people are making it out to be because if if I was concerned about something I would send it to all parties involved why are why are youing his
lawyer very [Music] are was voted by us not by them we are not saying no to anything we're saying let's work together we're not us money either
[Music] let's get we not let go this this time we won't let go I'm sorry you must follow the state of the Quorum if you look at it in your agenda it's at the beginning you cannot
speak off the I'm sorry excuse me it's understandable but the state of the Quorum it's in the agenda you can be escorted out ma'am you can be escorted out no just leave you're good
[Music] [Music] raise your hand if you've had an opportunity to speak tonight raise your hand if you've had an opportunity to speak tonight raise your hand if you have had an opportunity to speak tonight notice my hand is not up notice my hand
is not up there are three other Council persons up here waiting for their opportunity to speak and this disruption is preventing the other three Council persons beyond the mayor from having an opportunity to speak on this matter that is why we're
going to maintain order here this is not a discussion this is Devolution de evolution of communication is what's happening right now this is not a discussion any longer I've been waiting patiently for two and a half hours for my chance to
speak uh so Mr Parker um are you pretty you pretty good you have you're okay all right thank you very much Mr Parker I appreciate it um Mr steer um you had a a question about the Zone uh like I think your first question had to do with the
Z5 The Zone and I just wanted to let you know this property was going on it's going on the other side of the river um it's on 88th Street I mean 83rd Street um you can't access it from this side of eler tow you have to go to biscan and Mr Greg steer I'm responding
to your question um or responding to what you were saying up there you have to access it from from biscane go to 83rd Street and down um on 83rd Street and yeah that that was late that was later that was later but if you opened up you opened up um and you just
missing the project in s like just as a as a whole you were missing the project as a whole when you opened up so that's why I just wanted to point out that uh it is Z5 and I want to point out where Z5 was and where the actual project was going um as far as the letter which I also have here um as far as the letter
we've gone through that we just have a disagree agement between um myself and those out there um also want to point out uh and this I also put this on here because uh Mr steer you mentioned the project as a whole also just want to point out that um you know let's
remember what was there before the project was uh purchased and there were slum duplexes that were there for years and in the back of those duplexes they used to do automobile work
and there were tires being thrown in the river there was all type of stuff back there as a matter of as a matter of fact honestly guys we have to stop calling out from the audience that's it's hugely distracting
it's also disrespectful it doesn't allow for us to ease the temperature in the room and I sense that there's some need or or there's some elements that might want this to be more of a back and
forth combative or adversarial exchange but really what we are trying to do is give you the information if you give us an opportunity um and the calling out from the audience is a really quick way like uh councilman bbom says to devolve the conversation so the mayor seems to
have written down all of your points I know we have points as well we would appreciate you giving us the courtesy of not calling out um while we're speaking that would be helpful thank you very much Madam vice mayor um and so let's
not forget um that those were there uh previously and the barington brothers actually when they purchased that property um because those duplexes um were filled up and therefore the owner of that property was getting a
substantial amount of rent every month from the individuals in those um separate areas of the those duplexes and um because those duplexes were polluting when the barington brothers um purchased that property I remember myself s manager Al went to them and asked them
can you just knock those things down so they stop polluting and they you know just mentioned kind of like in Jess like well you know we're going to miss out on substantial amount of um rent money
before the new property's up but they went ahead and knocked it down right away anyway way so if they were all about money I don't think they would have done that that's kind of how I feel about um that process is there anything else uh Mr steer besides uh that you wanted me
to kind of touch on mention yeah so the letter from dur I went over in the beginning um was just on opposite sides of that but there I have no more information on on that yeah the reason why I even brought it up was because it was brought up that
someone had mentioned it that's the only reason why I brought it up yeah I understand thank you yeah um Mr cobri you were speaking about hearing notifications uh things not done in
compliance um you mentioned the word illegally a few times um what I would say about that is this I would say go to court yeah I would say go to court I think that um you know here in this in
this country we have a great system um a great legal system and you know we have a great judicial system and when you have individuals that feel like they've been done wrong and things have been done illegally I think that the recourse is to go to court I think that's that's something that our country provides um
and it's a it's a good recourse that can figure things out when you have uh individuals who feel who' been who feel like they've been done wrong and um agree an agreement can't be met um so I I just feel like you know you should really take that to court and uh and I
believe that the justice system you know can decide that and uh I think that's the way to go with that because I think that's something that by all means if something was done illegally um that's that's really the way that should go and that there wouldn't be an
opportunity to respond about that um and I haven't got that responses from the attorney um who a very important person I think in this process to provide responses about that I don't believe that experiment option
should go to I guess if this gets approved tonight that's my only option even though it's andth and shouldn't be happening and you should be standing up for us and you said at the end of the last meeting I don't to
anybody that was about us but you're to developers okay um so yeah so if there's anything any disagreements and somebody feels like anything's been done illegally um you know court is the way to go uh you mentioned attorney Geller
and um that attorney Geller wasn't at a particular meeting um everybody needs to understand that we we hired the firm um The Firm greenspoon mod attorney Geller just happens to be the pin the point attorney um for for eleral for most of
the meetings but we hired the firm the contracts with the firm it's not with attorney Keller it's with the firm greenspoon mod um as far as the uh you mentioned again you mentioned the the distance and how you felt that that was illegal um
that should also be addressed in court um there's uh different things that were said as far as um mayor uh tell us why you don't care
about the environment tell us why you don't adhere to the code tell us why um I would just say for those type of questions I think just in my opinion those are are questions that are kind of like strawman arguments and if anybody doesn't know what a strawman argument is
that it's kind of like when you load the question so it's like okay um mayor Omar you know you're you're going to vote for the launch well why do you hate the environment that would be like a straw
man argument instead of Mayor Omar you're voting against the launch or you're going to vote for the launch why is that in Reverse another another way a strongman argument will work basically like from my my side would be like this oh you're against the launch
why are you against Road improvements and why are you against our new Tot Lot see so that' be like a strawman argument where you kind of load the question to like side with your side so when Mr cobri so when you ask like well mayor why don't you tell us why you guys don't
care why don't you tell us why you're selling out why don't you tell us why you're that's like a straw man type of argument um and those I I don't respond to straw man arguments we don't have cross debate if you want answers you've spoken quite a
bit let the man speak but we're not going to go back and forth with cross debate all night you don't answer every time someone makes comments well you know to sleep and you know to shout huh who said it I said it because you
asleep every meaning it's disrespectful to us who hire you you're always asleep and now you're shouting I said that I'm sorry for the um the young women that was talking about artifacts um in might possibly in the ground when when they
were breaking I know there's a process um there's a process if that area is deemed uh like a architectural not architectural um uh not historical archaeological
architectural archaeological area then per the permits before they do anything that would have to be looked into all right so they can't do anything before that's looked into if that area is um confirmed as archaeological like area archaeological zone or dickite or
anything like that okay so they have to go through that process they can't do anything beside before they get that um if that area is like that uh Mr Alvarez um you spoke about uh more and more people coming to
the meeting um I think that's a good thing I also think though that um individuals are here thinking that we're voting on something we're not voting on and I'll get to that in a second um also uh Mr Alvarez you spoke about uh
public benefits and the public usage of the property and where is that and there is a commercial area right on the bottom floor that um will most likely be a
restaurant but legally we can't tell them that it has to be a restaurant but legally is in there as a commercial commercial area it's a commercial area in there um Mr cobri shaking his head
but Mr cobri Shake the problem is that we can't that's no problem there's no I would just I would just say this I mean it's right there um it's right there the commercial is right there it says it
right there but two things so first of all I was I would just say this um we have to kind of keep in mind that the same way that when I speak you guys don't believe anything that I say is
thank you ma' so the same way that when I say things you guys you know many are not believing what I say is the same way that just because for example because Mr cob I'm think I'm still on you and Mr Alvarez I'm on Mr Alvarez um just
because statements are or are said doesn't mean they're correct right I'm not saying about you Mr Alvarez but you were asking kind of like the question um so kind of keep that in mind also I would say also another thing is is
that I've been working on this from the very beginning right so I've been in all the meetings not only the public meetings but all the meetings so when we say things and attorney Fernandez says
things and when you know individual like Mr cobri says like no that's wrong going back to logic I don't understand why Mr cobri would think that he knows more about the property and development than we do when we're the
ones that have the interior intimate knowledge about the entire thing from the very beginning like it's just like that right there that would be kind of like if I would go to those officers over there even though I'm involved in with
officers intimately also but that would be like like if um a resident would go to those officers over there and say that's not how that's not the eler tole process of Public Safety and they're like we work it every
day no that's not the elti pr I know more than you so I just want to just kind of like just kind of keep that in mind that when we're saying things and we're saying you know this is not that
way we really believe that because we' we've done this and we've worked on this and we we've been involved in this from the very beginning so I understand that you know when it comes to a lot of times when it comes to like emotions that emotions sometimes
can make individuals feel like I don't care what's being said I just don't agree with it at all right so yeah thank you know I hear you thank you but I'm I'm referring to more I'm referring to more things that are detail
like Mr cober keeps bringing up it's illegal because the distance between the building and his property yeah so so my so my point is is that just because things are being said doesn't necessarily make them true which
is why I'm not even saying even though in my mind just like in your mind you feel like everything you're saying is 100% correct in my mind I feel like what I'm saying is correct and that's why I said when people can't agree you let the judicial
system take care of it you take it to court so so so that's just the way to handle those type of things just take it to court um another thing that I would say is the Mr
cobri uh also stated that with development agreement and the way it's intended to be used it says for the money contribution to the Village uh public benefits program which includes but it's not
limited to not limited to the AC acquisition of land for parks in open space reinvestment and Capital Improvements to existing Parks shout out to the Tot Lot an open space
reinvestment into Capital Improvements in open space including tree planting Landscaping with lawful purpose but not limited to policing also Water and Sewer improvements roadway and infrastructure
improvements so those are the things that this development agreement and that's kind of closing out uh Mr Alvarez about the public benefits like what are the benefits and the benefits um are far
and wide as far as what we can use these things for for the benefit of other areas of eleral um and even that area over there but there is nothing over there that we would need to improve so the benefits would be from other areas of eler toow for example the brand new
Tot Lot you guys are going to be getting um we're trying to get it we're trying to get it done Madam manager but the reason why we haven't Broken Ground yet is because and you know shout out to uh our our lovely residents there were a group of residents that were kept coming to me saying mayor um my daughter's
birthday is coming up my son's birthdays coming up can you please hold off until APR until after April 5th I believe is April 5th Saturday so April 5th there's going to be a few parties at the Tot Lot as a matter of fact um there's going to be April 5th I think April 6th on Sunday
also there's a group of I was like look you guys I gotta break ground we got to start this this brand new toight it's gonna be wonderful and so actually there's a bunch of residents that have kind of like come together to celebrate uh all their uh CH children's birthdays on like the same couple of days so I
have some group birthdays coming up and then we'll break ground on that um uh Mr pulum brought up the staff report uh we'll look we can look into that but let me just say just for um just for kind of procedural purposes
that the resolution is what's voted on right so the resolution that's read into the record that's what's voted on and that's the only thing that's legally binding so whenever a resolution is is completed and finished um that's what I have to
sign the attorney has a sign the clerk has a sign and that's what gets codified is the resolution so uh so we can look into that as far as the staff report but the resolution is what is the only that's legally binding only reason why I'm giving that answer is because I didn't have time to go back and look at the
staff report to give you a more detailed answer um right now uh and yeah but the resolution doesn't say that yeah yeah yeah yeah the resolution doesn't say that um as far
as everything with followup this her time to shine right here ma ma'am yes so the answer to your questions um for as far as things with the
email uh clerk jacobe I know she's here clerk jacobe uh well the first thing I would like to say and I said this last time during last meeting was you all make sure that um you you check your junk mail check your
uh check your junk mail check your clutter mail um check those things also just to make sure it's not in there but cler Jobe when she sent out the L this the
the invites for this meeting she sent them out and went we went through every email to make sure that the emails that were received through the Village website that no emails were got bounced back
so so just make sure that you know that and and nothing got bounced back like we sat there and made sure and so just make sure that you know nothing's in your in your junk or your clutter um or anything like that okay because it might be sitting in there
because other residents Who had who first contacted me and were like mayor like I signed up for the email um blast but I'm not getting the emails when they did go into some of those other folders on their email list they're like oh mayor I see it all right so just make
sure just just no no no no what I can no we no no not if it went to the junk but residents who who were looking for the emails once they they they called me you know people call me and say mayor like I didn't get the email and then when they look through their other folders in
their email their clutter their jum they found it they found it so just make sure because a lot of times since this is an email blast and it's blasted out to so many emails you know a lot of times your email might not feel like it's coming from one to one so they they look at it as kind of like a uh like maybe
promotional stuff or you know spam and things like that so make sure you check your spam folder your junk folder your clutter folder um it could be in there but if not you guys um contact me and we'll see and I can and myself and the
clerk will look on the email list and we can see if your email is right there the one that she sends out every time um this is a side note and I'm not I'm not done with you I'm getting to your other stuff in a second this is a side note but understand that the email blast you
guys is not required by law turn devel our yeah so so so so okay so officially when a meeting takes place it only has to be on a public
website officially now we we send email blast also now individuals and residents who get the email blast if they can't make it to the meeting a lot of a lot of them just call me and what do is I
have I understand but so what do you what do you suggest what do you think no no what do you suggest what do I suggest yes you should have you have done many mayor so for for every meeting you would
like us to print it out and come to your house have specifics how you are going to tack and how what is your we are not how you are making so I will say this I I will say this and I don't want to cut the mayor
off but I I do think that there's a difference between not getting the information and not getting the information that you want because I know and and I'm going to cut you off I'm G to I'm going to cut you off because I'm going to say something I'm going to
explain something to you we have spent an inordinate amount of time we have spent an inordinate amount of time sitting in this room but but you have to listen you have to listen to to get the
information and I and I'll share this information with everybody else that's willing to listen because I also don't think that it's fair for one voice to usurp the entire conversation when we are all here and I'm imagining that there are a tremendous number of other things we can be doing so I want to make
sure that you guys are able to get the information for me we have spent a lot of time in this room room talking about the launch we have talked about specifics we've had these same conversations I have seen your faces up
at that Podium and I've listened to every single bit of information that you have sent my way I have called you I have responded to emails I have listened with an open mind and not once have I ever judged your competence judged your
intentions I've never yelled I've never raised my Voice or had a derogatory thing to say about your Viewpoint this is not the same thing that I've received tonight this is not the same thing that we've all received tonight there is no iteration of the world where you could
believe that we have just perched ourselves on this day and have not taken copious means and spent a tremendous amount of time reviewing what will be the impact of this what are we giving up
to have this what could this be a uh Gateway for us to have as a community that charette that we're referring to is something that we use as guidance but it is guidance I understand that you think that the 20 something or 30 something
people in this room should be the determinative factor on how we make our decisions but that is not what I charge myself with I charge myself with representing the almost 2,000 people that live in the village of elportal and I know that you say that you've spoken
to the majority of them and no one is in favor of this I assure you that that has not been my experience it has not so I take everything that you say and when you question my competence even though I am tremendously qualified when you
questions my intentions although there is nothing in it for us we barely I think our salary at this point is $200 or something that I don't even cash I do this because I think it's important I do
this because I think I can do it I do it because I spend a tremendous amount of time thinking about how this will evolve I did not just show up tonight with nothing in my head just ready to make a random decision I've spoken to you Mr
cobri Mr Brown before I got here the today the one thing I said I had to do in the middle of the tremendous number of things that I have to do on this day which is a significant day for me I called you to figure out what your position was I give you the respect and
you tonight this has been a tremendously disrespectful display not because I expect you to to hear what I say or love what I say no matter what I say it I expect you to do it in a way that is respectful because that is what I've
given you we've never met in person but every single time that I've seen you on that day is I have looked at you I have listened to what you said I've taken it to heart I've written down notes we talk about your problems even when you're not talking about your problems every single
time you send me an email I am here chatting with this person or that person to try to get to the bottom of it my decision is made based on everyone that I've spoken to which is beyond this room my understanding of how I think this
community is changing my viewpoints on development and the inevitability of it I have a set of values and information that I've acquired over more than just uh the past couple of months that
informs my decision and I'm willing to share that with you but I do think that the way in which we do it is important and just yelling questions at us questioning our integrity questioning our competence it is tremendously
disrespectful I think unne necessary and completely counterproductive as it relates to us getting to a final decision which we will get to tonight is a final decision sometimes I think that these conversations are meant to styme the process and I do want to assure
everybody that there will be a decision and a culmination at least on my side I do believe that instead of letting this thing fester and turn into something that it doesn't have to I think everyone for every 's benefit there needs to be
some finality tonight however it works out there needs to be that I do did want to state that there there is no answer to it ma'am there is absolutely no answer to it there's no answer to it it's the
where on the the day is just if you just screaming out isn't going to make it so it's the conversation is on the day are again she had about minutes of conversation thinking that if we are
disrespectful we're attacking the exper I still haven't had a chance to speak and I keep watching residents leave it's extremely frustrating that we're not able to have discussion up here on the council I'm done I think listen uh the vice mayor is correct uh there is
absolutely going to be an opportunity for me to speak as well that is going to happen and that's where we're at right now in the meeting the deis is now discussing the item amongst itself thank you very much we cannot do
anything in a vacuum up here we need the residents that's true I understand what she's saying about you know it's not just us but the reality is that when it comes down to vote it will be just the four of us that is exactly how the vote is going to happen and we can not make a
vote without input from the public and if anybody is here to say tonight that there has not been an opportunity for public comment that would be crazy yes so it just leaveth at the D we should call the vote yeah and and the
counterproductive aspect many of you know that I am very much interested in finding a long-term beneficial good solution out of this and the vice mayor again is correct that where we're at right now is
counterproductive to accomplishing that let me just finish going through this you guys and then uh turn it back to the rest of the council um so individuals who uh get the emails for the meetings if they can't make a meeting as long as
they reach out to me every day I'm either here at Village Hall I do house meetings I'll go to your home yesterday I yesterday I did meetings until midnight because some people have different work schedules so
I had my last Zoom meeting was at midnight I'll do phone call meetings I'll do Zoom meetings I'll do house meetings you can meet me here at Village Hall I can fill you in on everything within like 15 20
minutes and any questions you have I can answer them about anything it happens all the time time so if you can't make a meeting for whatever reason just contact
me I I have me I average probably six to seven resident meetings per day including Saturday and Sunday so all right so if anybody can't make it to a meeting yes ma'am what do you want to
say I don't know do's let me just say this let me just say this every meeting is Big to somebody every agenda item is Big to someone so just because somebody has riled you all up for this particular
item doesn't mean that the meeting last month or last year or three years ago wasn't important to someone so what we can start doing is printing an agenda item Madam manager print print the agenda page and maybe I don't know maybe putting it over
there in the Marquee for the for the nature I don't know but but every meetings but if a meeting goes out every meeting is important for some a lot of you know what a lot of residents do when they get the um meeting get the agenda they just call me up mayor what is what is G5
about oh that's this so that's always there um as far as the the woman that left uh we're going to finish this off real quick she mentioned about um the last meeting the last meeting was a Planning and Zoning meeting and she was talking about the properties in the last meeting and she
said who's going to have the answer for that that that they said they were going to put more trees who's going to who's going to U make sure they do when these new properties go up they going to have to have an inspector come out before it's closed okay they have to have an
inspection and there's code also so those type of things were there and like I said that was a Planning and Zoning meeting that's different than a council meeting all right and she also said that um that this format is not working tonight's format is not
working this is the first time that we're doing this format so if it's not working how do we know that all for the very first time and even though it's the very first time which is I'm stick a little bit
closer to our rules I still let you guys speak as long as you wanted to I still let you guys come up multiple times so so let me get this right so it's not working that I'm breaking the rules for
you and that's not working no it's so so then I would just what Break The Rules more I I don't understand because every meeting before this since I've
been mayor I let you come up as many times as you want to and talk as long as you want to and so if that's not working then nothing's going to work go ahead just have a feeling
like people can come to the station talk you're still listen but this okay so this so this is the difference and I think vice mayor um Martin hit on this so if the if the if the argument is it's not working because people are coming to talk and we're not listening
if I wasn't listening I wouldn't be able to answer so I have to had listen to be able to give answers and just for clarity Mr Mayor the regular format of this meeting is that the clock is used us and that anybody who gets up to speak
has 3 minutes to get their concise clear thought out on the microphone and that the time is done when the buzzer goes off I will say that I have been personally frustrated uh in different committee meetings and general Council meetings at the grace uh that the mayor
offers in terms of essentially an unlimited amount of time for any person to speak on any subject and while I understand everyone's frustrations if if uh we're basically dealing with nervous energy here everyone's concerned that
the vote is not going to go the way they want and so I believe that's what we're experiencing now in terms of whatever it takes to not allow the vote to happen the problem with that is that the process of this is that nobody should have been allowed to speak more than three minutes and when I say not allowed
to speak more than three minutes I mean not one second more and I do not mind generally that the mayor allows the discussion to go on uh you know infinitely essentially um however uh you
know the most effective communication that I have witnessed I'm a wonk I listen to Live senate committee hearings and Congressional committee hearings on C-Span c-span's my favorite Channel I recommend C-SPAN to everybody it's way more interesting than reality TV but uh if you listen to what takes
place with much larger discussions than what we're discussing here uh those discussions are limited to 3 minutes and that expert better get their thought out uh and one thing that I am frustrated with at least at that level is that the entire governing body is not required
even uh to sit there and listen to anybody's comments they make their statements and they get up and leave so again uh regardless of whether or not you agree with the answers the mayor has
given it is very clear it should be very clear that uh that he has in fact broken the rules specifically regarding a lotted time to speak specifically so that the residents would have every
opportunity literally every opportunity to say literally every single thing that they have to say I have not yet spoken thank you council person bbon um we're going to get to you really soon my brother um so so that absolutely is true and just
to finish up um that thought if I wasn't listening I wouldn't have been able to answer all these questions I was able to retain that information and answer them because I was listening but I think what happens a lot of times and this is why when emotions involved in politics instead of
Simply logic is that if you don't agree with me you were not listening and just because we listen doesn't mean we have to agree and that's fine if we don't agree and if it's things that deal with like
legality and people saying things are illegal then that's what the court system is for it's just business there no hard feelings just go to court it's just business what do you say what does other side say can you agree yes no we don't
agree all right we'll just take it to the judicial system there's no emotion involved strictly business the last thing that um young lady said was she said that uh taxes are being raised no taxes are being
raised we've never raised taxes since I've been mayor so I don't know where that came from um from her uh before I turn it over last thing I would just say is I think that also through emot
that um Things become clouded if you look at the agenda we're voting on a development agreement that's what we're voting on we're voting on whether this building will be eight
floors or six floors essentially we're not voting on runoff native plants Wildlife we're voting on the development agreement is the building going to be six floors and0 or eight floors and
$733,000 that's essentially what we're voting on if this fails tonight but you could fail they can still build their building they don't have to do a setback they don't have to do a runoff they don't have to do sustainability they don't have to do anything the site plan
is done the building is going up is it going to be six floors and we get zero or is it going to be eight floors and we get 733,000 that's what we're voting on the development agreement if you disagree Mr Cobra
shaking his head if you disagree there's no reason to argue it here we're never going to agree on that we'll be wasting everyone's time handled it in court that's what we're voting on that's what the resolution says that's the agreement
that's the agenda item that's all we're voting on also they still have the option to do affordable housing if they wanted to when they first brought this property Madam manager and I we met with
with them I said to them and they even I don't know if AR maybe or something just kind of like in a joking way and we like you know mayor Omar what are we going to do with this and I'm like oh you know my my my rule no affordable housing right my saying is you know shout out to you
know no disrespect to Walmart but eler to is not going to look like a Walmart parking lot but through State Statute they can do affordable housing because the state government in Tallahassee says we'll give you benefits if you put up affordable housing because
there's a housing crises in Florida and they can up their density and they can do whatever they want to do when it comes to affordable housing but I guarantee you this they don't have to all those environmental points that you guys are
making they don't have to do none of that and can still put up the building and we get Z so that's essentially what we're voting on eight floors and $733,000 or lower than eight floors and $0 the building is going up
regardless that's the vote anyone else from the council yes but I don't mind going last okay uh council person winter you have yes sir all right so I want to thank
everyone for speaking tonight on the launched project development I I know this is deeply personal and emotional issue for many of you and I respect that um Civic engagement like this is vital to our process uh that said I want to
take a moment to acknowledge that what has unfolded here tonight while I thank everyone for their participation it's important to remember that we must remain respectful of one another whether we agree or not yelling out a turn um speaking over others or disrupting the
meeting undermines the very process we're all about here for this project um at one point the situation escalated and I don't know why but we had to have the police step in which I've not ever seen
here in lortel so I I'm a little bit concerned um thank you police for doing that so professionally um so that's not the upward towel we want to represent um and we can and must do better for ourselves
for our neighbors for our children um as a council we are committed to listening to every voice and I want to be clear while the voices raised here tonight matter I've also spoken with dozens if not over a hundred
other residents in the weeks and months leading up to this meeting many of them in support uh of this project are open to in the direction it's heading just because they are not here tonight does not mean their voices don't count in fact uh many chose not to attend because
they've already expressed their views directly and um they feel heard so I want to move forward with Civility and integrity knowing that disagreement does not make us enemies it makes us neighbors with different perspectives
and it is our responsibility to consider all perspectives those in the room those outside of it before making a decision that shape the future of alportel so lastly I want to thank um Colin for for
speaking with me multiple times is he here still oh about this we talked outside my house we' we've we I listen to you and I I really appreciate you I I appreciate what you're trying to do for our community and
you're you are part of the heart and soul here and you care about this community and I want to thank you for that um I Heard uh Mr cobri speak and Mr cobri I know you and I have talked
extensively for the last few months I mean we've probably spoken over a dozen hours at different points just you know trying to listen and uh feel if we could figure out what works and what doesn't doesn't work um I want to let you know that this is not something that I'm
doing at malice we're we're doing this because we want to listen to everyone in the community we want to do what's right for Elbert tal not just now but also in the future um everyone else who spoke uh Gracia Anna Emily um Tom um Miss
Fernandez uh Greg Marbel and anyone else I might have forgot thank you for coming up and speaking today uh it does make a difference to hear your voice and I would love to see your face here every month if possible as long as we do it all orderly everyone has their right to
speak and I believe they should speak because your voices need to be heard um so I want to assure everyone that we're going to do what we have done our research on we're going to vote according to the way we've already
figured out what's going to work with uportal and what are end results because we we know where this is leading if it goes one way tonight it goes one way if it goes the other it goes the other way this means that if we vote incorrectly it could actually lead to a more detrimental
effect in the end so please understand this is not anything out of malice this is basically us trying to do what's best for the community um and I know a lot of us talk a lot of us are in agreement 80 90% of the time but sometimes it just it
won't work out like that but it doesn't mean we still don't want to work with you and work with you to make things better around here I think every single person here um cares about this community and I want to thank you again for caring about the community and know
that we're always all of us here have have open communication if you guys ever need to talk with us about something especially before the meeting I mean we're we're willing to work with you thank you thank you very much uh uh vice mayor Martin or counc I defer to
councilman bom okay all right so uh I'll just get down to Brass tax here uh the issue on the durm statement uh that was addressed in a previous meeting uh they will not be able to get certificates of occupancy without having Derm approval and South Florida Water Management
approval the language that I think people are getting a little bit caught up on is uh right there and I think it's page 210 or 207 whichever was referenced uh and that has been addressed in a previous meeting the language is not saying that their application is denied
the language is saying that they will not get certificates of occupancy or final permit sign offs until and at such time that they receive uh approval from durm and South Florida Water Management so um uh I do want to clear that uh
sticky Wicked up first uh secondly is the proximity of 250 ft to Zone 3 residential and I believe the mayor is correct at this point that if anyone does have a sound uh argument in that
area uh you do need to contact an attorney and take it to court that is where we are at right now with the 250 ft within Zone 3 residential um I know I've spoken to several residents about that uh
previously uh so it seems to me I'll say this for the benefit of residents who have not heard me speak at previous meetings um I uh was very much opposed to the eight stories I would like to see this building maintained at four uh six at the most um I do not always get my
way um life works out that way sometimes so the issue really has not been the mass of the building or the building itself uh let's just cut to the chase here the issue is the embankment the issue is the shoreline the issue is the canal if this property was not adjacent
to the canal we would have already gone through approvals they would already be breaking ground essentially they'd already be applying for permits the issue from the beginning about all of this has been uh regarding the embankment I will also say for those of you who have not heard me speak at
previous meetings that I have been frustrated uh with the initial site plan process of this property I do think that there should have been a town hall I do think that there should have been um kind of voyous announcement to the community that this it would have
benefited the developers I think partly um I acknowledge that that the uh that the process that the village has taken to get to the site plan issue um could have been extremely I will say the word extremely much improved um in that it
now seems to be doing a disservice to the developers because of all of the uh I had Clarity down here uh twice uh so that was definitely a theme in the comments from the residents and I agree with that that the clarity has been
frustrating I imagine the developers are now feeling that that is a similar frustration for them as well uh so as it comes down to the embankment um I agree that $733,000 is not anywhere near
enough to compensate for the loss of Two rookeries and a natural embankment I have tried to look into what Rehabilitation costs would be so that if future say 30 40 years from now uh the property you know there's a desire in
the village to rehabilitate uh uh the natural embankment um I have not been able to nail down any solidified numbers um but what I will say is that I do agree that that natural
embankment should be preserved at all costs I agree with the premise that the chared is very clear about this that the desire of the village itself for its own future is to maintain and preserve as much of the natural Shoreline as would
be humanly possible to be perfectly honest I do not know if the structure itself will be okay maintaining the natural embankment meaning if the insertion of the mass of the property
would disrupt the structural Integrity of the bment would it increase erosion uh and things to this effect right do we have a little mini Landslide where where a good portion of that natural embankment that we tried so hard to to preserve that the developers in an ideal
world would have uh preserved as well um would be either damaged lost or otherwise uh you know uh uh harmed in any way uh whereas we know that the plans as they sit now with the seaw wall
uh we have seen the developers plans that say that uh the runoff from the property will be contained uh within the property they do have one successful development already within the village now having said that I go back to my
previous statement that I made just a moment ago and that is I truly do feel that the $733,000 is not anywhere near enough for the loss of that natural habitat the two rookeries specifically um uh
and it directly goes against our shet to build up that Shoreline that is something that I am aligned with in terms of the comments that we've heard tonight so where does that leave me um
uh I'm going to put a number out there and and it's not going to be well received I'm sure but I'm at $3.5 million for the loss of that Shoreline I'm at three and a half I would be willing to stay at the
733 if there was a way to maintain the shoreline and even though I do believe from previous discussions that the Rookery trees that are there would have to be removed if there could at least be old growth as opposed to saplings if there could be old growth reinstallation
of trees wherever it was deemed that you're going to be putting trees on the property now I'm saying this and I do not fully realize the consequences of what I am saying so having said that I probably am in deferment in favor of deferment tonight so that that
discussion could take place I do not know the answer to what the value the rehabilitation value is of that stretch of Shoreline I am very curious to know what it is I would not be shocked if my $3.5 million uh assessment is lowball I
would not be shocked at all if that was also a lowball now in terms of the size of the number that I'm proposing 3 and A5 million versus 7 33,000 uh the way I see it once that property is achieved full uh occupancy uh we're talking about
5833 per of a year's time for the developers they would lose 5 once the property achieves full occupancy that year of full occupancy that first year the developers would be paying 0 58.33% of their annual revenue that is a
significant piece of revenue for that one year uh that's what they would that's to picture it to understand what that means and the developers I'm more than happy to to be corrected in my math these are these are estimates that I'm
uh giving out now as I'm uh sitting through this meeting tonight and so um the points that I made one uh core values was brought up by almost everybody and that speaks to the shet where The Village's core values lies is
in the shet the language is articulated in the shet is very clear uh that uh we should be willing to lose Blood Sweat and Tears over Shoreline that's the that's the language that is in the shet as far as the onus that is on a body
such as ours to preserve that for future generations and the health of the canal uh next was the task force I do remember in the site plan discussion uh when Mr Brown had come and spoken to us I remember my heart sank honestly because
I realized that our resiliency uh and sustainability task force was not involved at all in uh in this process and that was disheartening specifically because this property is on the canal I actually wanted to give up my seat uh
last cycle so that I could join the resiliency and sustainability task force I cannot join the body as a member of this Council um and so it didn't go that way and I not sure how I feel about that
because I do believe that that people don't know about this but the resiliency and sustainability C task force that we had was in my opinion some of the absolute best future
forward looking expertise and Minds put together I swear to God in the world the people who brought levels of expertise and knowledge to that to that task force was immense immense just
absolutely immense and it is a it is a misstep by The Village to not do everything in its power to maintain that that task force and involve them in something as significant as development next uh cost versus
compensation I'm just right back to the Shoreline again my notes in begin and end ESS essentially with the shoreline that is what we're talking about tonight I have not heard anybody say uh that no building should be built that no development should take place I've already stated my position on the height
of the building um I spoke to the attorney almost I don't know 18 months ago and said whatever you can do to adjust the shape and silhouette of the crown of the building to allow as much sunlight as possible even square inches
at a time uh across the canal uh to to prevent losing Sunshine across a huge swath of the canal for a significant part of the morning is going to affect the ecosystem in the canal so now do they have an onus to do anything I say they do not is the mayor
correct that they could do a development that would that would really uh anger our community they could they have they have rights within property ownership to do that so I acknowledge and agree that the process to arrive at the site plan
was in my opinion rushed and not uh presented to the public in a way that would allow the developers to energetically uh let the public know what they're doing and and avoid miscommunication and and unclarity right
so as I sit here with my comments and understand what we're here voting on tonight I will just say that I I do see that uh 700 33,000 for the loss of that Shoreline is not enough I do not have a a a a true Rehabilitation number you
know Circa 2024 uh to go off of um but I do have some life experience I'm at three and a half million uh or the shoreline is preserved and we stay at the 733,000 so I will just say that um
to help everyone understand where my thinking lies and and where I'm at on you very much council person iron anyone else from the council no I I think I've done a pretty good job in our meetings of stating
where I stand on this I do think it's time for a motion would we be just moving to accept staff's recommendation on this absolutely we'll move to accept sta recommendation I'd like to move to accept staff's recommendation on this item and and move for resolution G1 yes
yeah I have a motion by vice mayor Martin do have a second for resolution G1 second read inter record for me resolution G1 resolution of the Village Council of alpal Florida
approving the development agreement by in between the village of el pel Florida Municipal Corporation and the launch at Little River LLC providing for findings providing for conditions providing for appeal providing for an effective date
item G1 thank you very much we had a motion by vice mayor M we had a second by council person Winters Madam clerk I please have a roll call please roll call council person Winters yes council person herbal no vice mayor Martin yes mayor Nickerson
yes motion passes 3 to one thank you very much all right so we're moving back to the consent agenda um uh attorney Geller when we have a person absent being that it's a five person counsel we
still need three votes to pass something correct generally speaking yes yeah yeah that's what that's the way I've always known threee votes certainly does pass it certainly does pass it um because the way I understand it is if you have a um
thank you very much vice mayor Martin I appreciate it all right if you have a um yeah yeah she she she was uh she let us know beforehand a couple days ago she was um excused she was just coming for part of the
meeting yeah yeah I'm sorry May asking something so because I know in the past that if um if something is like if if there's a person missing and we don't get the over
the three vote uh threshold that it won't be approved even if it's like a two two tie or something like that it doesn't go through because it's it's not approved as far as the majority of the council seats even if there's a council person missing sometimes if you have three
members something can pass two to one okay it depends on the nature of what it is that you're voting on okay and and and other factors there are things that you know can be voted by 2: one a quorum is present if you have three members and a majority of those vote
there are some things uh some contained in the charter some contained in law that require three votes in order for them to pass sometimes those are called out in the charter not always but um like budget stuff and stuff like that
needs like a a minority of that would be an example and and you know there are some others but there I don't want to say that nothing can ever pass if three votes are present that's a quorum I don't want to say nothing can ever pass by 2:1 but not
everything is subject but the fact that a 3:1 vote if another member was present could not alter the outcome anyway yeah I'll allow it you guys with two to two to one voting all right so we had a
motion where was the who who made the motion um it was council person bbon for the to to pull those out the the consent and the winter second it um can I have a roll call M cler yes yes no all right you guys go ahead the floor
is yours counc presid urbon so we we just voted I guess to move the consent agent move those items out of consent agenda but do we vote yet to approve the rest of the consent agenda yeah want to goad okay you want to approve now vote on the other items
that were not P motion to approve consent so moves uh second second second yeah did he second it he second uh have a roll call M CL roll call council person winchers yes council person erbal yes mayor Nickerson yes
motion passes three all right which one was the first one you moved out resol F2 the Miami County seconding contract go ahead Council um item F2 um a resolution of the Village Council the of aler Florida authorizing the execution of the
first amended intercal agreement with Miami day County relating to the county curbside recycling program providing for authorization and providing for an effective date item F2 okay may I go ahead all right so I just want the general public and
specifically this Council to be aware that the only items being recycled right now are glass and they have announced that they are considering or they're going to start taking uh pizza boxes again or cardboard because of the Amazon
Surge from going back to the pandemic the recycling Community is now seeing enough boxes hit the market that they see a value in recycling it I don't um paper recycling uh creates massive chemical pollution unbelievable amounts
of chemical pollution and as it stands right now the only items being recycled is glass the concept among the public that recycling occurs at all which most of it does not almost everything you put in that blue bin will end up in a dump and might be not here uh there are some
countries that are starting to import again that was the other thing because of influence from China so understand that China in 2018 stopped importing trash from the United States recyclables from the United States they were never recycling it in the first place um it
was simply contracts uh for uh cash flow uh and so that continues today so I just want to dispel the Public Myth that recycling is a thing that helps anybody it does not it encourages manufacturers to continue making things out of plastic
um I am in favor of replacing all petroleum products with hemp uh only a complete idiot we continue uh uh making Plastics at all it's uh Inc it's it's it's the RW to keep making Plastics is
the freaking RW so I understand that we're between a rock and a hard place and we're going to continue Recycling and we're going to agree to this I just just wanted on record that recycling is pointless and it's enabling manufacturers to keep making cheap crap that causes cancer and puts microplastics in the tissues of your
body which you all have right now by the way EPA did a study 15 years ago 30,000 samples across the United States 100% of those samples had both Plastics and solvents so congratulations on your plastic content mayor yes attorney go
yes um I want to direct to um councel person her bomb that if the council were to see fit to um name you as um a liazon to Miami day County to further
investigate this uh you could certainly engage on behalf of the board I would be more interested in garnering public uh uh knowledge on this I'm not interested in a shallow grave from going up against the mafia own
utility can I uh ask the council person in question is there any way we can uh counteract this Amazon effect you educate the public and help them understand what their products are made out of but that requires educating the public which there seems to be
almost no interest in at the time so educating the public uh is always going to be the solution there and mayor one more um go ahead Atty at the last school board meeting I sponsored an item uh for the school
board to work with the county on developing a curriculum for pre kindergarten kindergarden first grade about Recycling and uh to the extent that that
curriculum to actually educate our youngest students uh is not developed at this time I would certainly ask if you could that uh perhaps you can work with us to make sure that whatever is developed is
actually accurate and we're teaching these children the truth instead of Lies I would be interested in that thank you very much I will move to uh approve item F2 uh I have a motion for item F2 do I have a
second uh second second council person Winters mam cman have a roll call please roll call council person Winters yes council person bbal yes mayor Nickerson yes motion passes 3 all right item um F3 uh herb start that off also no it's
Winters I'm sorry oh Winters resolution councila providing inst speeds and signs foration auth so I pulled this out of the resolution because there's some issues
with the speed bumps and I actually had some support here tonight but they've already left but I'm just going to read what I have written down here so traffic caling is essential to Neighborhood planning especially in communities focus on safety and livability in the US speed bumps and humps form a vertical
deflection and they're among the most common tools to slow traffic these raised sections of payments are intended to force drivers to reduce speed however extensive peer reviewed research in field studies from multiple countries reveal that speed bumps do not reliably
slow all drivers and often cause unint intended harm including damage to Vehicles delays for emergency responders and uh disproportionate burdens on low-income residents a 2002 study by po Angus an accident analysis and
prevention volume 33 Issue 5 documented that many drivers slow for hump but IM eventually but immediately accelerate afterward creating stopandgo patterns that undermine traffic cing goals similarly the Federal Highway administration's National report traffic
huming stated I mean traffic caling state of the practice by uing and brown in 1999 founded found that aggressive drivers often reroute or compensate with faster speeds between devices the transportation research board Special
Report 282 from 2004 confirmed that each speed hump can delay emergency vehicles by 6 to 10 seconds each potentially life-threatening over multiple humps and from an equity standpoint Todd Litman and of the Victoria transport policy
Institute 2004 concluded that vertical deflection devices disproportionately impact low-income drivers especially those in older vehicles more vulnerable to wear and tear even when they're following the laws uh this paper critically ex
examines these uh findings then presents proven Alternatives texture Pavements roundabouts radar speed signs back by academic research and government analysis for a village like elel the Alternatives offer more Equitable and sustainable path forward so the speed
bumps do not consistently slow aggressive drivers speed bumps are designed to reduce speed but multiple studies show they don't work consistently especially with aggressive drivers while many drivers slow moderately to avoid damage The Most Dangerous Ones often accelerate
immediately after Crossing creating unpredictable damage uh driving patterns in a 2222 study uh published by accident analysis prevention volume 33 Issue 5 researchers po angas observed this behavior in um KAG kagari Italy drivers
slowed for humps and then rapidly sped up resulting in the accordion driving effect uh that undermined the coming effect then the the Florida Highway fhwa traffic cing state of the practice uh 1999 survey um confirmed uh similar
findings across US cities aggressive ders either compensated with higher speeds between humps or rerouted through adjacent neighborhood spreading the problem further in evidence from The Institute of Transportation engineers in 2005 showed that when bumps are spaced
more than 200 ft apart speed between them often returns to pre-com levels in a 2011 uh simulation study by Musa and alah haayin at the University of Qatar found that the most aggressive 15% of drivers adjusted acceleration patterns
to maintain High average speeds despite the speed bumps these findings reveal a central flaw the driver speed bumps aim to control are the least likely to be deterred instead it is safe law abiding drivers who slow down consistently while
Speeders adapt or avoid the bumps altogether that's the first point point number two is some Vehicles experience little to no impact from speed bumps speed bumps don't affect all vehicles equally in fact modern vehicles design modern vehicle design allow many drivers
to cross them with minimal impact particularly those with luxury suspensions or oversized tires they create a serious Equity issue those with high-end vehicles or trucks often ignore bumps and drivers can absorb the damage a 2004 Society of Automotive engineer sa
technical paper found that vehicles with active or adaptive suspension reduced their vertical force force of speed bumps by over 60% at legal speeds these systems common common in luxury Brands like Audi Mercedes and Tesla adjust in
real time for to soften the bumps the UK transport research laboratory in 2017 uh Department of Transport study uh concluded that advanced suspension systems neutralized much of the discomfort and failed to encourage speed reduction the drivers of these vehicles
rarely slowed slowed significantly even Vehicles without advanced technology can bypass the bumps the City of Austin 2008 study evaluation of speed cushion performance found that over one-third of trucks and SUVs with wide axles could straddle the speed Bumm cushions
completely maintaining speeds above the 25 mph speed zone the national resar councel 2006 Urban Freight uh brief added that trucks and large SUVs absorb less force and vibration to sedans for eliminating any deterrent effect the result wealthier
and better equipped drivers can ignore traffic coming devices while everyday drivers who follow the laws will absorb the full cost and wear and discomfort number three speed bumps call long-term damage to low abiding to law
abiding drivers Vehicles ironically the drivers most affected by speed bumps are the ones who follow the rules multiple engineering and transportation studies show that even when Crossing bumps at illegal speed Vehicles experience cumulative wear especially those that
are older and lower in clearance in a 2003 study published in the Journal of Brazilian Society of mechan mechanical sciences and Engineering volume 25 issue3 researchers at the federal University of Minos garas found that
vehicle Crossing trapezoidal humps at just 12 mph experienced 15 to 20% more suspension wear over time the mechanical strain was enough to shorten lifespan of shocks and struck significantly in UK the Automobile Association conducted 2015 member survey showing that 44% of
frequent hump crossers reported suspension issues with two years the aa's or Automobile Association of UK technical term linked the directly linked this directly to traffic caling structures caling calling them a hidden cost for law abiding drivers a 2010
field research from triaa and California office of traffic safety found increased repair rates such as tire alignments and warrant control arms and lowincome zip codes where humps were densely installed the Los Angeles Times summarized the fin
as a clear sign that the cost of safe driving was being shifted onto working-class residents Todd Litman of the Victoria transport policy Institute echoed this in a 2004 paper writing vertical traffic coming imposes hidden maintenance costs that fall hardest on those least able to
absorb them especially those drivers in older vehicles in short for number three here is that speed bums punish compliance forcing safe drivers to absorb costs financial and mechanical while the worst offenders often go
unaffected Point number four speed bumps disproportionately harm lower income drivers speed bumps are often presented as a neutral infrastructure but their real world effects are anything but real anything but equal research consistently
shows that lower income drivers suffer more damage more discomfort and higher long-term cost than wealthier ones Todd litman's 2004 report from the Victoria transfer policy Institute found that physical traffic coming methods impose greater cost on lower income households
due to increased wear on older vehicles reduced mobility and declining property values these areas often lack the potential leverage to request Alternatives like roundabouts or aesthetic improvements in the fhwa traffic cing
stateof the practice 1999 study the case study for Maryland the case study included studies from Maryland Florida and California and they showed that vertical deflection devices were more heavily implemented in workingclass communities while wealthier neighborhoods often negotiated less
invasive Alternatives a 2012 report by the center for neighborhood technology in Chicago the hidden cost of driving on low-income communities analyed data from three zip codes and found that residents in speed hump saturated neighborhoods spent up to $400 more per year in
vehicle maintenance primarily due to suspension and Tire Damage beyond the economic burden there's also a social one in 2009 Journal of urban Affairs case study from Houston documented how traffic Comming dices were used to physically divide lower income and
wealthier communities after direct Gates were deemed discriminatory the replacement for the direct Gates were speed humps and narrow lanes that achieve the exact same exclusion through the infrastructure the authors of the authors of the study Dr Susan Stallings
and Dr Mark goats called this a sub subtle continuation of exclusionary land use where the infrastructure is weaponized to separate People based on income and race this example makes it clear speed humps are not always about
safety they can be a proxy for social division in a diverse Community like elow where High middle and low-income families live just blocks apart this kind of policy has no place traffic commun should in unite not divide Point
number five speed bumps delay emergency response and harm the environment one of the most serious and unintended consequences speed bumps is at Emergency Services studies consistently show that each speed bump adds 6 to 10 seconds to
A firet TRU or ambulance response times with multiple speed bumps we're looking at a minute to minute and a half which is life and death when you're having a heart attack these delays can be life-threatening when multiple speed bumps are installed along a single route the transportation research board trb
under the national research councel reported a special report 282 in 2005 that vertical deflection devices constantly slowed emergency vehicles especially fire trucks which must reduce speed D drastically to avoid equipment damage in a real world analysis the
Seattle Fire Department of 2004 found that three humps on a floor block Corridor increase response time by an average of 32 seconds enough to impact outcomes in fires cardiac arrest and critical emergencies in Austin Texas the fire department halted installation of
speed bombs in 2005 after they documented delays in up to 1 and a half minutes across routes with multiple cing devices the city's report operational concerns with traffic cing devices emphasizing that the trade-off between marginal speed reduction and emergency
response was too risky Beyond delays speed bums contribute to an environmental harm in 2006 study commissioned by the transport Transport for London found that roads with frequent humps produce 82% more carbon monoxide in 100% more carbon dioxide
than smooth roads at the same post of speed the cause was the constant cycle of breaking and acceleration which increased engine load in fuel consumption similar results came from Swedish national road and transport Research Institute vti in 2004 which
documented spikes uh in pm10 and pm2.5 Emissions dangerous part particulates linked to asthma and heart disease on streets with frequent vertical deflection even noise pollution increased in a 2010 audit by city of
Portland found average noise levels Rose from four to 6 decip after speed humps were installed due to engines revving and suspension impacts especially from delivery trunks trucks and SUVs in short speed bumps do more than inconvenience drivers they disrupt emergency response
increase pollution and lower neighborhood quality of life even for those who drive responsi and my last Point here radar speed feedback signs a safe databack alternative so rad radar speed feedback signs those who drive the
village have seen one those electric electronic displays that show drivers how fast they're going are one of the most effective affordable and non-punitive Traffic cing Solutions available instead of damaging vehicles or slowing Emergency Services they alert drivers in real time and encourage a
voluntary compliance a 2004 study by Texas Transportation Institute funded by the Texas Department of Transportation evaluated radar signs in Houston San Antonio and College Station it found that average vehicle speeds dropped by 9 to 11% and even the most aggressive
drivers slowed down by up to 14% when signs were present the national highway traffic safety administration nhtsa included radar signs in his 2012 guide counter measures that work highlighting that 80% of drivers reduce their speed
when confronted with a real-time display this effect is especially strong on Long interrupted residential roads where drivers May unintentionally speed in Washington state in 2016 study by the Department of Transportation showed that radar signs reduce average speed by 3 to
7 mph over a 6-month period without any police presence compliance remains High and the residents reported feeling safer unlike speed bumps radar signs don't damage cars they don't delay emergency vehicles they don't discriminate based on what kind of car you drive they don't
punish safe drivers they simply remind people that they're going too fast and newer models can collect data and help cities understand traffic patterns which support smarter planning over time they're also cost effective according to 2022 data from radar sign solar power
radar signs with data logging features range from $2,500 to $5,000 many cities found them through school safety grants or local traffic Improvement programs as one city engineer in Boulder Colorado plane speed feedback signs turn the
steering wheel back over to the driver most people want to do the right thing they just need a reminder for eleral radar signs offer a modern fair and flexible option for option that can be moved to adjust and scale without
harming people before I go to my conclusion here I want to explain something very quickly I have in front of me a research paper here by David plumber and associate it's February 20th 2023 this
is the um the study that was done to find out how people were speeding in elportal and as I was looking through it and reading through all the numbers for people that are actually speeding remember most people drive 10%
of a speed Li because they usually can't get pulled over by actual police officer this is above that people were actually speeding out of 54,3 vehicles driving through elportal in a week 739 of them were speeding that's
1.35% that's pretty high 1% is still high but a lot of these are the same vehicles but it there's a problem with this 1.35% when I actually did the research and looked up 87th Street on the exact
same document of that 739 Speeders 627 were on 87th that means 85% of the Speeders are on one street 87th so the 112 violators of vehicles that are actually driving
through all the other streets in elportal 112 of them for a whole street is. 2% of all the cars in the street so we're coming to this conclusion here which is when it comes to slowing traffic in our
neighborhood we must ask are we truly solving the problem or repeating the same ineffective approach expecting different results as Albert Einstein said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results we have the results from
multiple communities multiple countries around the world have had experienced the exact same thing and we have the the studies to prove this speed bumps have been used for decades but aggressive drivers continue to race between them emergency vehicles are delayed and by
the way some of the uh residents that were here to support this and aren't here right now because they couldn't say this late were explain to me how when they had an emergency and were in a music emergency vehicle that went over speed bumps it was the most awful experience when you have to go over a bump and you're like having a problem
with your body at that moment speed bumps have been used for decades but aggressive drivers continue to go around them and Mery vehicles are deleted and residents especially those who follow the rules pay the price we must also consider fairness Benjamin Franklin once
said it is better that 100 guilty persons should Escape than one in inocent person should suffer yet speed bumps reverse that principle penalizing innocent drivers daily while Speeders adapt and avoid the consequences alow deserves traffic calming that works for
everyone rich or poor fast or slow emergency responders and residents likee the research is clear textured Pavements roundabouts radar feedback signs often offer smarter safer and more Equitable ways to protect our streets without
punishing the people we serve I for one would like to see cobblestone streets here I think that's a better way to slow people down as well but I would like to know if it's possible to open up to the public now uh council person bbom he has a
chance to speak first okay yeah so I've said uh over the past several many years on this Council that I am one of those aggressive drivers who has mastered the evasion of most speed bumps um however
um discussing this item on the council over the years um I recognize that drivers in the area are used to seeing speed bumps respond to speed bumps I recognize that we have a critical Need for Speed reduction even if it is just
the one or two chronic offenders on some of the streets that are used for cut throughs when traffic gets too thick for people to be using 87th they switch to 86th they come up 89th on my street the intersection on the my street is such that you can take the corner at 40 m an
hour if you want and you can be passing in front of my house only three houses up the block basically in the middle of the block and cars are already at you know can be at 40 45 miles hour already simply by the street design so uh it's been established that we have a need
here in uportal specifically for these speed bumps um I've talked at length with the manager about uh design and and things like this and to be perfectly honest I am an aggressive driver whose Behavior has changed because of speed bumps I take the short short cuts through Miami Shores I don't I don't go
all the way to the lights I uh my theory on on shortcuts is not to gain time or to go faster it's actually just to reduce stress I'm not following cars anymore I'm not staring at a bumper so I don't mind cruising through Miami Shores at 18 M an hour uh those speed bumps
that they have are wide ones you can take them at 20 M an hour it's no too not too big a deal if you put your left tire on first uh followed by your right tire just a few inches later just at a slight angle that even better and so um
so while I actually agree with much of the information that council person winners just presented um and I certainly am someone who is as a rule against speed bumps as not being effective our choices are limited we have a need and we've uh had extensive
design conversations so uh I am in favor of this particular uh resolution as opposed to saying I'm in favor of speed bumps as a general rule thank you very much council person bbon um before I open up to the um audience yeah I would just like to
say the speed bumps that um that we're getting are different from Miami Miami Shores Miami Shores has much lower speed bumps if you want to experience the type of speed bumps we're getting there's one already on 86 Street go drive over it it's uh 86 Street West of Northeast 2
Avenue go drive over it see how it feels um the audience come up and say your name and address for the record about speed bumps Alexia Fernandez 374 Northeast 8th Street I just want to say I'm in full support of every single thing you said Charlie thank you so much I'm so glad I
stayed I do not want speed bums for all of the reasons that you said and also because it's going to take away from the magic that it is elportal I think it cheapens the neighborhood um and I think that the other solutions that you mentioned are great thank you
anyone else public comment marabel fruitstone um I used to live at7 Northwest 88th Street where I was affected by the speeders of the school so I am in favor of that or traffic calming like a rotund
or something in that neighborhood because I've walked with my daughter when she was growing up and riding her little B icle and we've almost been run down by these drivers like Mr council president bbal um so I mean I don't think it should be
throughout the entire area but the traffic study would there are it's 87 street but also by the school those are I think the biggest ones that are traversed so I I I'm glad that this is happening it's come up several times
throughout my time in uportal and I I've always been in favor of it or some way of ensuring the safety of the children and people that walk their dogs I mean even if you don't have kids like it's just not safe thank you very much anyone else
speed bumps George Alvarez um 165 Northwest 88th Street um Marbel was my neighbor until I started experimenting in at atonal jazz forms loudly in
the middle of the night um everything that council person Winters said made a a heck of a lot of sense to to me um and I I was a little surprised to to to read just how expensive speed bumps
are frankly um I'd be a little dismayed however about its data collection and without sounding like the guy who writes on his wall in the middle of the night like uh beautiful mind or whatever I would be concerned about what advantage
might lie in those sort of capabilities uh versus what I think you know potentially could be like a a breach of Rights or Jeopardy um but council person bban made a lot of sense
as as well let me put this question out there um irrespective of what studies have been done I got and gosh I find it really difficult to think that 87 Street has so much speeding on it especially on
the east side because of the the surfaces in the um in the intersections and you know I like I'm I'm I'm like a pavlovian dog if I if I come back from there I'm assuming I've got eggs from Publix every time I I just slow down
into uh instinctively but um is is has there been further studies on the implications as well as the financing for uh the radar
signs um because if really what we're looking at is speed bumps in in a couple key places that are just the known cut throughs I don't think that's so bad so
I'd love to hear more about um the um data collection the costs and uh the environmental impact and I thank you guys for both uh bring bringing that information uh thank you thank you thank
you very much anybody else speed bumps Mike Parker 8565 Northeast forth I Road um sorry it's long night so I won't keep you guys but um my only thought point that uh probably hadn't been discussed is I know I'm a big offender on the cut through to Miami Shores over
to Publix and I feel bad for the guy who lives at the speed bump because everybody slows down and then guns it so I he you see him working on his Volkswagen Bug and I I I just feel bad like first he hears the tires hit then he's going to hear the car speed up it's
an effective speed bump but you can clear it at 40 m hour without having to slow down so so I would just um I I think I would lean more towards the signs where possible um or limit where the speed bumps are because whoever's house they're going to be in front of
they may not appreciate it thank you very much anybody else speed bmps all right hearing seeing none um all right Madam manager when we picked out the the areas for the speed bumps did we include any of Sher Forest yet no no these no we haven't included any
of sh Forest yet have we no we haven't not at all everywhere we're putting the speed bumps Madam manager all the residents in that area have been begging for Speed bumps for years absolutely thank you very much Madam man I appreciate that um do I have a motion to approve we have some more comments up
here go ahead go ahead you what I saw you oh no I was just going to say I've spoken to the manager over the years because she actually has one of those low wide speed bumps right in front of her house and so I've asked her about about this over the years and so um you know my the reason the reason I support
this or I will support this is is simply because we've had this discussion for many years here in the village we are at a point now where where we need to just we need this is an option that's going to to have a solution for us so is it an
idealized option it may not be but we have tried many many things we spent a ton of money on the on the studies and and um uh and so we' we've come a long way but there's still just uh it's hot spots so it's rush hour it's cut
throughs it's uh late night so that's really what we're talking about so the mitigation strategies we've employed have actually been incredibly effective uh not the least of which is the you know intense uh activity on Second Avenue with the police and uh radar guns
right so um so we've we've come a long way we still have hot spots and this is a solution so um just wanted to say that yeah anybody you guys feel free to go over um to the west of Northeast Second Avenue speak speak to anybody on 86 Street between noreast 2 Avenue and
North Miami Avenue and ask them how much they love that speed bump there and how often they're waiting for their second speed bump can I could pull up emails right now West Second Avenue West Third Avenue and 86 Street screaming at us speed and North Miami Avenue West North
Miami Avenue on 86 Street that long 86 Street they gun it every single day um somebody who's not getting speed bumps because it's a through street but they're very upset 91st Street because we share it with Miami Shores North Miami Avenue West 91st Street they drag
race matter a manager drag race every weekend they can't even have them because they're through Street 91st Street and we share with Miami Shores so go talk to them and they'll tell you about the speed bumps and how much they want them and like I said no speed bumps we haven't put any speed bumps um even
considered for Sher Forest have we all right thank you thank you very much I appreciate it um anybody else from the council yes uh so uh as council person Urban said earlier about recycling um education is key and educating our neighbors is key as well and I
understand that we've had a lot of requests for Speed bumps but from what I understand Mr Mayor do we have a speed bump already installed in 86 Street I said that okay just confirm that's all so we're basically putting another one on there because the first
one didn't do its job that's not true are you sure why would you mean the second one then if the first one did its job that's not true because the first one's there and it's on the straightaway 86 Street curves and therefore the individuals as they're going around the curve is blind and when they're going
around the curb they want a speed bump there to slow them down because kids and stuff are playing on the curb and a lot of animals have been killed so that's the only reason why they need the second one there but like I said you can council person Winters and anybody else go go speak to the individuals on 86th Street between noreast 2 Avenue and
North Miami Avenue and ask them about it so I would like to then uh amend the the motion today for that um passing the speed bumps because I would like to actually see results before we start installing them everywhere can we motion just to install those speed bumps on the
86 Street and see how it happens over the next month and then o over the next month if we see a deter a deterrent then we can vote next month to do the rest of them you you can make whatever motion you want technically an amendment council person because there's not a motion there's not a motion well you can
make a motion but it would need a set okay Mr Mayor yes uh counc presid question yeah development fees from development in the village are those able to be applied to absolutely can we use those for roundabouts which definitely deter roundout cost half a million dollars so
round cost more thanon mad Madam manager the roundabout the roundabout that we're putting on the West Side 800 where we at almost 800 thank you very much it's beautiful though all right so I'd like to motion
that we um where's that um I made a suggestion to 7x our ability to put in traffic Comming devices no F three to amend it that we only install
speed bumps on 86th Street give it one month and bring this back before the council in a month to see if speed was actually reduced and then if it was reduced we can bring it up again and vote for the rest of the sections of the
village I disagree with that motion but we'll see if counc pres herbon gives you a second second going once second going twice second going three times motions fails for lack of a second um do I have
another motion to approve uh resolution F3 I move to approve F3 as stated do I have a second moot I know I can motion going once motion G twice I'll second that motion m c please
have a roll call roll call council person winter no council person bbom yes mayor Nickerson yes motion passes two to one thank you very much moving on to agenda item H1 this is about the protection of historical sites shout out to Mr Lima I
see you back there this is about the um Native American burial mound and unfortunately we've had a lot of cars parking on the Native American burial Mount council person winter you want to speak on that also yes Mr Mayor so tonight we're bringing forth a topic of great importance to me the
preservation and protection of two of alport to's most significant historical and archaeological sites both located in sherard Forest Area uh the first is the Indian habitat Mound situated along 85th Street and the second is the Triangular Green Space uh just after the split were
86th Street Forks in 85th and 86th Street uh both of these areas are remnants of the presence ofest Indians and Indigenous people whose history predates our village and even our nation
these sites were rightfully designated as protected historical or archaeological landmarks due to their uh cultural significance however despite their protected status or perhaps because of the restrictions that accompany that status these areas have
become neglected uh because we are no longer allowed to plant grass or other vegetation on these sites due to preservation rules they have effectively turned into mud fields and dirt patches South Florida is not a natural grassland
it's a drain swamp environment without human intervention grass does not grow naturally in these uh compacted and shaded soils what once stood as a small hill or green Mound now resembles a detering dirt pile eroding slowly from
the lack of care in particularly the Indian Mound is suffering greatly due to Illegal parking this is there is only one no parking sign because the archaeological designation we are not allowed to place a second sign uh this
week alone I personally witnessed nine vehicles and even a tractor trailer park on the mound that kind of traffic crushes what remains of the soil structure and prevents any hope of natural regrowth additionally the sprinkler system on the mound has been
in able for years I inspected it myself and found that the control unit was water logged and the batteries had expired years ago um the good news is that it's a simple repair the infrastructure already exists um we were able to bypass it and get the sprinklers
to turn on and this means that everything works so we don't have to dig up anything we're not allowed to dig up we don't have to install something new except for replacing a little control unit that's inside of a box um so we can replace a unit without any trenching or disrupting the mount itself I propose
that we take the following immediate actions one I want to in instruct the village manager to repair the sprinkler control unit using the existing setup to restore watering the mound number two I want to request an exemption or reinterpretation of the restrictions
that prevent us from insulation of additional signage to prevent further vehicle are damaged this also could be another way to show signage so that people know not to park on the mound without having to disrupt the mount itself and this will be part of our discussing points three begin exploring
the creation of a protective curb or a low wrapping wall full of rocks or a natural barrier around the mount to clearly Define the protective boundary uh for engage with the State Historical preservation office or local
archaeologists to ensure actions remain in compliance while still allowing us to provide basic maintenance and protection this is our opportunity to show that preservation is not about designation but about stewardship these sites are part of alport's unique identity and deserve to be treated with care respect
and practice practical attention now the manager and I spoke this week because she originally did ask the lawnmowers to stop coming and then they came on their own and she gave them her mind and now they're not going to come anymore for at least Triple A three months three months
um so this is another thing that I'd like to hear from the the audience here because I feel that we need to let that grass grow a little longer than three months to come back so um I think we have to leave it to the council before we have people audience talk first is that right Mr Mayor uh yeah we open up to the
council first I'm good all right hearing none um open up to the audience come say your name add just for to record Colin Brown 374 Northeast 85th Street Charlie big thank you really appreciate it um I I personally felt
like the the mound has been neglected mayor I've tried to uh I've tried to talk to you over the years um I actually put together a presentation for the sustainability task force in 2023 to try to talk about some of these options that
you just mentioned and I was told that there was a report um whether that report exists is irrelevant but like what is the stat stat of the mound in elportal like what what are the
documents that uh you know I I was told that there was there's some sort of process that is specific to the mound as it relates to elportal I'm very aware that there's a an AR a county archaeologist that
there's a historic preservation component to the county but how do those two components work together that's something that I haven't received Clarity on um from the mayor uh missou we exchanged an email recently that I
have not gotten back to you on but I just want to make what I'm asking clear like where what what are the documents that state how the mound is handled if somebody say wants to donate
$10,000 and have a sign about the teesta and you know how they lived in the area you know part of the problem why people park on the mound is that they just don't know they're not there's no Mal intent and we're told as as
Citizens that we should go and convince these people to not park there and me personally a lot of those conversations go fine some of them don't go so great I've also there's been some conflict in the area when neighbors call the police on another neighbor and so for me
there's a a longer term strategy Charlie you mentioned the lower curb to keep people parking on it perhaps there's another idea I think other ideas would be great be curious to hear them there's also signage that the mound could use I don't think it needs a bunch of you know
the the don't poop dog signs I really hope we don't go that direction I think that there's a signage that we can that we can have that talks about the Testa that talks about how the mound dates back to 200 ad and I would have hoped that this was a discussion with the
cista with the $1.1 million that went towards the cista cista is a Testa word and it's not illegal for the barington brothers to use the word cista but would have been really nice if in like 2022 2023 there was just some feedback from
the mound residents who are there to safeguard the mound and to take care of the mound and to be like yeah maybe the barington brothers would want to give $55,000 or $10,000 on behalf of the mound and the
that's something that we as a village need to create the platform for and that's something that I have been unable to do and I'm just looking for direction on that so thank you thank you anybody else
for the M Edward aashan 400 uh Northeast 87th street so I I just just wanted to advocate for a uh a barrier or some sort of a a curb that could go around it and I think it could be done inexpensively
and effectively with oolite stone it's literally underneath everything over here um you bring an excavator through and it's just going to pull up chunks and bits of it um it's not expensive to obtain and use and I've seen it uh used
very effectively in elportal as a uh as a barrier to keep cars from driving over um over Lawns and um they hold up they with they withstand and you can't park on top of them so um but they're also
soft enough that they will break over time because they're Limestone old coral and um with rain and with pressure that sort of thing can happen but they they last and they look good and they blending with the neighborhood seamlessly so my two cents that's all
thank you thank you very much anybody anybody else from the audience hello thas pum 205 Northeast 86 Street um definitely 100% for preserving the Indian Mound all that stuff my bigger question is uh so close to our Police Department which is the majority
of our budget that we're paying for where's the enforcement why why are they not driving around they see a car parked there where's the ticket where's the towing this is a constant urgent issue whose I don't see the police chief here tonight they're usually not here at the
meetings I don't know if this is something that's going to be in the manager's report I would like to know about the policing in regards to this um but that's my my biggest concern that's something we're already paying for why are we exploring additional uh cost burdens when we already have a police
force what is it a couple hundred feet away from the Indian Mound with paid for new cars to drive around in our half a mile of a municipality just want to put that out there and would like the followup on the
policing situation please uh thank you Tom uh can I say this wait okay anyone else for um Colin Brown 374 Northeast 85th Street I just wanted to follow up on Eddie's comments about the material specs for the curb you know could be also a
keystone could be a keystone curb but definitely you know I reviewed plans that were uh presented uh by a landscape architect who had done some specifications for the mound and he had specked concrete Planters up on top of
the mound and I thought I thought that that was the way way way wrong direction to go any material should be indigenous any sort of work should be low profile this is about keeping the mound the mound and
also protecting it as much as we can so I'm happy to help out with those material specifications and use precedent and details from projects that I've worked on in the past in service to elport Allen the Testa thank you thank you anybody else in audience okay seeing none um
back to the council council person winter you want to say something thank you guys for coming up and speaking um two things I heard I just want to say so putting something around the around a barrier I told you this week a tractor trailer drove up on it there are we call them Turtles but
they're actually just concrete half circles on that side of the mound spaced every 5 10 feet asart he just drove right over them that they didn't exist uh and then he drove up the mountain so my my fear of putting put any kind of barrier there is it won't actually let
them know they're not supposed to park there so what Tom brought about the police uh every single time this last week that someone parked there the police were notified and we walked over to them and we said the police have been notified um because you're not supposed to park here say oh sorry we're going to we're going to leave right away and they
did leave um this being said we want to stop it preventative not after the fact it's we want to make sure we can stop them from learning like they want to we need them to know this is not a place to park and most people seem very respectful once we tell them what it is
and they drive off of it um but we can't just have the police coming out every single time instead of people actually learning hey there's a sign it says no parking here usually that works thank you very much um
Council we should exhaust all Blood Sweat and Tears to make sure we preserve that to the utmost ability all right so we have uh um action items of fixing the uh sprinkler
system we have oh Madam you wanted to say something correct I forgot yes I did um this was some years ago when we first received funds for the cista development um agreement uh the um
million dollars um became 800 ,000 or a little bit over 800,000 after some items were removed from those funds to assist us with um policing um I met at um at length with Miami day County um parks department
with Landscape Architects from Mii day County I met with the archaeologist and that's how we became good friends Jeff Ransom and I over this whole process of going to each Park and assessing it determining what can be
done what should be done we um work with our Engineers uh at Craig A Smith to um kind of lead the project um and U because they also have the landscape architect that was helpful um plans were made and items were uh selected um Mr
Ransom the archaeologist also gave a lot of insight uh as to what we could do we discussed um borders and barriers and what have you um it became it was more than the the mil the 800,000 that we um
received from cista so we um did not move forward on that because we couldn't afford it uh we also have the Triangle Park that also needs renovation um and is in a bad condition so we're just at a we then chose to put the funding towards
the Tot Lot and the nature trail we can afford to do those um changes and mind you those changes are not as big as reconfiguring the whole park we're just replacing the existing items within it and even that is taking up a lot of
those Parks funds so that's um that's where we're at understand we we did discuss o light stones and we did discuss all of those things um if we could afford that I of course I I agree we need to pursue it there were um
requirements that we would have to do to preserve the um mound to build it back up to build it up to a level that it should be and also how to retain it so um I'm more than happy to share uh the Landscaping plans there's no
archaeological study this was a plan that went out to RFP you know we sent uh we wanted to get a a cost from a a contractor uh to to do these Renovations for the parks and uh we only got one respondent to the RFP after two rounds
of of putting it out we're small so most people don't want to do these little jobs but um the one that we were able to get um we couldn't afford so we um redirected and put it on hold until we can find some other funding so I just wanted you to know that we're all in
agreement with those um you know with caring for our treasured um Parks those two parks but we're at a point now where we just can't afford to make those repairs and um me and Mr Winters did talk uh or Mr Winters and I talked last
week I did order the extra no parking sign to be placed within another Swale in that area so that because we discussed an East like it it should be something that's facing west or east or something that wasn't cover so we will try to erect another sign that has
already been ordered just like the replacement sign from Sherwood Forest I believe mistakenly one of the speed limit signs that was for 20 M hour was replaced when we did the whole village wide um speed limit sign replacement it
was increased to 25 and so sometimes Engineers don't get the story they don't get it like oh we've got to do a whole stud no just put the sign back so both signs have been ordered um already so we'll we'll be
getting those uh installed soon I I love that you're going to you order the parking no parking sign I just I don't know which Swale would allow people see it really needs to be at the mound but we're not allowed to go into the mound so where exactly would it I'm sorry mayor we've reached the 11
o'clock marking need to Motion in a second to continue the meeting we haven't been this the first time we've been here in my whole mayoral ship never been to 11 o' um per Charter once we get to 11 o' we have to do a vote to continue the meeting um to go past 11 o'clock legally do I have a motion to
continue the meeting so moved do I have a second Madam clerk uh May a roll call on that motion roll call council person Winters yes council person bbom yes mayor nerson yes motion passes thank you keep going uh col BR 374 Northeast 85th
Street I'll make this quick uh so Mr uh vill uh Miss Lou I um thank you for everything you just said I would just love to have some documentation over some of the things that you just said as to what has happened in the past and what led you to make the decisions that
you made um I think that there was at least on my end in terms of meeting with Jeff Ransom and trying to have a conversation about the mound I I was my whole motive was to try to understand how we could do some of the things that Charlie has brought up today which is uh
you know perhaps pre preventative measures for the mound but that meeting with Jeff Ransom that that was never discussed with with anybody prior to that meeting even though I had put together some documents to try to have that conversation my point is is that
you have been in a process and you have made decisions and I would I would be curious to to understand in an email what material you gathered from the archaeologist what decisions were made and what that means in terms of our
next steps because at the mound we are considered the caretakers the stewards of the mound and I think that we should all have that information and I think that if Jeff Ransom comes again we should be prepared to engage him in that capacity and people should understand
what he was talking about with you and with the mayor prior to him coming and talking to everybody at the mound so that's just I just want to let you know where I'm coming from in in my emails and uh I wanted to be clear about that thank you
and I'd like to respond to that um I personally walked with Jeff Ransom um to distribute this was some years ago maybe you weren't at home or you weren't there but we went door too we met with members of the community there at the space that's where that document was created this a double-sided that says what you
can and cannot do at the mound and we ask people to be stewards we talked about it at council meeting and back then LS Pella was the chair of Public Works he was also a part of of those um meetings um we had a Parks uh renovation meeting for the entire public Jeff
Ransom was here for that so there is not a document we I mean it's just a series of meetings and discussions and those kinds of things I can provide you the RFP that we put out regarding what uh what we were requesting didn't you just say that there was a a document that
says the dos and the don'ts at the M yes yes so just any of those things just so I that we can give right now that's right here in our um our lobby we give that out and I know that the May that's been a part of the mayor's like distribution package at times we'll give you that I might have missed something
and and you may yeah it just may or maybe it didn't stand out to you but we can give you that right now okay yep all the all the information that's been exchanged over the past past five years would be great okay okay okay thank
you anybody else from the um audience all right so um some of this some these things we don't really have to vote on if there's an agreement so about the sprinkler system Madam manager are we going are we looking to get that fixed and repair yeah I didn't know see again if you don't let us know we don't
know and I didn't know the sprinklers weren't working but I can certainly alert the Public Works coordinator to coordinate with the um you were never told about this before this meeting not about uh sprinkler is not working I've we've had them repaired before I would advise members of the
council before you bring to the council that could be that could be taken care of quite easily by simply telling the manager what's the next action item well I have yeah two other action items on this um the one is going to be a motion to um find out what it takes to get the
permits and um vote to get the permits to actually do the um I guess it was some kind of wall some kind of curb some kind of thing because the archaeologist said we need to get the permit but we're not entirely sure where that's supposed to go to so the permitting process to
see how that works specifically for an archaeological site yeah so we need to look into the perming process to see what our options are for the mound for that purpose right all right
and so I don't need to make any motion for that one um if manager L agrees that she'll look into the process to a permit that it's on the County website if you want to do construction just like you have that permit in your I mean anyone in Sherwood Forest in the archaeological
Zone must apply for a permit through Miami day County to do any construction so can we um start the process we don't again we'd have to identify funding to do Renovations and to do construction so we could
do the the archaeologist stated that if you just want to place a rock on the mound you need a permit that his word not mine I I don't recall that but if you could get him to send me something we can pursue it through uh finding a contractor or doing
rfps to to get prices so the last uh one for the motion would be um the the three Monon is not long enough to let the grass grow back on the mound I want to make a motion that we after the sprinkler systems fixed allow for six months and then come and revisit back at
the council to see if actually made a difference was that a motion or did I just say we'll decide we'll decide if we need a motion or not do I need a motion for that then we'll decide if we need a motion or not Madame manager um what do you think about the Springer system I mean what do you think about the the
letting the grass I don't have a problem asking them to not do that's fine with me is six months good I I don't live there so you guys see how it grows and what you know do you have a problem Adam manager no I don't have a problem months or you all have a problem wait oh you
have your hands up oh okay okay all right you don't have a problem with mayor you voted to extend but you when you do you have to say how long you're extended can't just we don't know how long the next day pardon we don't know how long we're extended no but you have to pick a time that you extend it can't
be open-ended and then if you have to extend again you can do that but part of the motion to extend has to be how long we can do that but for um over a decade um under the previous administration we never set a time when we extended well night after night that may
have been so but that's the proper way to every meeting we're done with the actions on that there's we can go on to the next agenda item and mayor my statement at the end of the meeting is only about going to be about no problem Les it'll be less than five minutes and there's no discussion council person BB you have all the time you need my
brother um next let's talk about uh Street signage as a whole and uh in particular we talk about speed signage but um we're talking about signage as a whole with signs that are possibly needed uh throughout the Village um but let's start off with with speed signage
um uh council person win thank you so much again I'll try to be quickly uh quick I'm I'm actually having to drive to Orlando at midnight tonight to get there at 4 o'clock in the morning so I'm I'm feeling it too guys uh so as uh Miss Al
manager Aloo mentioned earlier she ordered another sign there's um which is good news uh there's a problem with the speed limit signage on 85th and 86th Street uh the streets in short Forest the image I have some images here which I'm sorry I did not give to you but they
basically just show a 20 mph sign um on going in One Direction and a 25 mph sign going in the opposite direction on the exact same street so the image I have here which
you can all see later where you can walk out there and just see it they clearly show that there's a different traffic pattern east to west and west to east the discrepancy actually stems from the traffic study that I mentioned earlier today it led to us receiving a Village
Wide 25 mph limit increase notably the study did not include data from 85th or 86th Street in sherro Forest roads that have historical been maintained at a 20 mph uh limit uh that some of our residents have said for the last 40 to 60 years they always remember it being
20 M an hour whether it was it's legal now it might have been legal back then because laws do change um so plus Serbia changed this and their their speed limit reduction actually in created speed limmit
increase in Sherwood Forest so um when they attempted to do this speed limit lowering given this that these roads are only 1.5 cars wide this oversight has actually resulted in conflicting signals for drivers and has potentially compromised the road safety moreover
many residents have expressed a presence for even lower speed limits such as 15 and 10 mph to better reflect their roadway conditions which is why we talked a little bit earlier that many of the Sherwood Ford residents would like to have Cobblestone that would automatically slow everyone down because
it's very uncomfortable to drive no matter what kind of car you drive on um so what i' like to urge the council to address immediately is you know reassessing either the traffic study or fixing this uh speed limit right out and if we can't fix the speed limit from 25
down to 20 right away because of uh department of motor Transportation or something maybe we can get some Bob's barricades throw some signs on there and at least make it lowered until we get it figured out because right now we have a walking street with cars flying down it and when I say flying they're flying at
25 miles per hour which is the speed limit but it's perceived as extremely fast so uh should I make a motion to open it up the council has to speak first then we have to open up to the um to the uh is this not the direct issue that
I believe the manager ad just a minute ago where she's already ordered the sign and that it will be replaced and soon enough will have both of those at 20 mph is that the same street it will be 20 not 25 right correct okay we are again um you you and
I discussed this and actually this was brought to my attention through an email from Warner Dreer back in December I asked um our uh Public Works director and Public Works coordinator to um you know look into the sign fix it and so um
again going back to being engineers and and they wanted to do a whole study and find out why that area was 20 miles an hour when we just did an interlocal agreement for 25 you know for lowering so they've gone back and forth with the county it's taken a few months and I'm
saying just replace the sign but they've ordered the sign finally but um that's what's been the delay it would probably would have done been done if we had just eliminated all of the the intellect behind trying to figure out the history of why it was 20 um and just replaced it
but we have ordered the sign it will be replaced yet we do not have any inter local agreement we don't know where the 20 came from but we're not going to look look a gift hor Us in the mouth okay wonderful so Madam manager you were already told about this yes and you were
already but you were already working on it yes or you found out tonight for the first time no no no I I've already been working on that I I've ordered it the day we discussed it I would advise council members if things are already being worked on um it just
extends the meeting there's actually another sign I didn't speak about yet I was just waiting no problem to bring it to council just kind of keep that in mind um anybody from the audience about the uh signs as a as a whole speed signs or just signage as a whole uh my name is Warner Dreer 486
Northeast 887 street so yeah definitely thank you madam manager for taking a look at that and replacing from uh 25 to 20 mil hour um I think council person Winters you were copying that as well back in December um one small request I
did ask as well that's a it's in the email as well just perhaps looking into moving that sign maybe a little bit further closer to the Rotonda I know there was some feedback you were going to consult with the
engineer um this sign was just recently placed on the uh on that area about maybe two months ago so I would definitely deeply appreciate that as there's a lot of foot traffic in front
of the top lot and um I've had some shrubs already growing there for some time and some engineer I guess or somebody just suddenly from one day to the other that sign was placed so uh I thank you for looking into to that yes
and thank you for reminding me of the P that part so we will definitely try to get it closer to the r and I can make myself available in case the engineer has any questions I have some ideas as well maybe where I we can relocate that traffic sign yeah thank you thank you
very much council person Dre appreciate welcome anybody else up in the audience about signage seeing none all right so we have the first set council person wines what was what else what are the there was uh one other sign it's outside of Shard Forest if you're driving West I think
it's on 86th Street you hit a 30 mph sign and about 2 to 3 feet later well I mean 2 to 3 feet there's a 25 mph sign it's it's a little odd because there's no way you can actually do that so I'd like that looked at I'm not sure if we
have to make a motion for it or not um May I address that we can look at it it may be and I'll also know that on Northeast Second the those are County we weren't able to reduce that speed limit so if it's 30 it's 30 but let me look at it it's um east to west so it's on a
parallel Road East to West not north to south well let let let's look at it and then we can maybe have the traffic engineer come back and take a look when he's looking at this too okay okay all right thank you very much for that um any other uh item person win so yeah so
I'm I'm going to abstain from making a motion tonight but if if the um actual uh sign I guess isn't fixed next month next month I wanted to make a motion to get a temporary sign just because we need to slow down the traffic for the the people walking in that
residence uh so next month when we get ready for the council meeting um reach out to the clerk she'll send it to me and I set the agenda okay thank you so much no problem thank you very much any um one else about signage before we close that out from the
audience hear seeing none moving right on uh Madam manager just quickly touch on your report thank you mayor Nickerson um I have a very robust Village manager report for the month of March but I'm
not going to put this group through that tonight we've been through a lot I just want to remind everyone that bulk pickup is quarterly and it's scheduled for April 29th April 30th and May 1st and be on the watch that FPL will be click
doing their annual manual utility planned tree maintenance in the village and their um their contractor is Lewis Tree Service of course El Pell will be doing our annual clipping but that will
be um closer to June um that concludes oh if you would if you have any questions or concerns please do uh reference The Village manager's report on the Village website and uh you're free to reach out to me directly if you have any questions that concludes my
report thank you go ahead um manager Lou I just wanted to just remind you that um there's been multiple citizens around residents around the mound that have expressed interest in in trying to uh make it so the FPL guys
don't come in and hack back those pre-colonial Live Oaks as if um you know they're not pre-colonial live oaks I I guess is the only way I can say it so I know Scott's brought it up I feel very passionate about it and um it's something I'd be happy to volunteer my
time for uh for the betterment of the canopy please do you are a a customer of FPL just like the village I'm not in any special position more so than you are to tell them I'm going to tell them I ask you to do the same and and thank you for being a steward of that to to make sure
that happens we appreciate it perfect I'll send a follow-up email to you thank you all right you guys see my report there just a heads up Lewis tree service will be extremely uh dismissive of that request
um so uh they are they are unbelievably dismissive of residents concerns Lewis thank you very much council person bbon um you guys see my report there any questions everybody has my information attorney Geller no no report um good and
Welfare anybody can come and talk about anything anything at all yes I have a statement council president Urban as the evening's gone on I've considered delaying the statement to next month but the truth is um I really can't wait on this so this statement that I'm about to
make is directed uh specifically towards white Americans more specifically towards white males um here we go I sit before you a product of American culture I was born and raised in the midwest as a private schooled educated white male unlike most of my
peers private Catholic school I had experience living in a neighborhood that had a black population in the southern third other experiences I had that my peers did not included meeting kids from 14 different countries when I was 10 years old I spent 45 days immersed in a summer camp with kids from all over the
world these experiences did not fully uh prevent me from entertaining racist ideology and going along with cultural stereotypes and biases that spanned every non-white culture that exists including some white
cultures this is why I know that Elon Musk did a perfect Sig hail salute while standing in front of the Seal of the president of the United States this is why I know our institutions are racist and misogynistic this is why I know we are experiencing a coup right now and that
it's not just some jerk that I don't agree with I learned how to joke about murdering black men before I went to that summer camp at age 10 I would become Nazi curious with my friends in high school and that lasted for almost one full year before a leader in our group of friends led us out of these
interests and shortly after that I began a lifelong journey of learning about the history of my own family we were not Americans until the 20th century and the land I was living on meaning I learned about western expansion and the horrors of manifest destiny policy that
justified actions such as the Sand Creek Massacre the small pox blankets and the multiple Trails of Tears as well as the desec of a sacred site in South Dakota as well as the use of black soldiers as shields for white soldiers this nation is absolutely
founded on white supremacy and this Legacy cannot carry us into the future as a white man I have done the work to understand my co-workers and neighbors and to shed the pathetic and sad patterns of dismissive bigotry and misogyny anyone who wants to pretend
that the president of the United States is anything other than a con artist grifter rapist and fra rer is welcome to that delusion but it is important that residents of elportal understand that our current president and his advisers and his cabinet are all actively working
to dismantle our government to the alarm of our allies and the Glee of our enemies Trump derangement syndrome is not the mental illness of the left it is the willful ignorance of the right I am not a democratic voter I have never been a registered
Democrat I've been a registered Republican in Kansas and I've only ever been registered as a no party affiliation in Florida for 24 years I was raised in the culture of Rush Limba Bill o Ry and other right-leaning gurus of the 1980s my mother preached Catholic
conspiracy to me starting from my earliest ages and she would eventually join the world's largest Evangelical Church called the worldwide Church of God I grew up going to three and four-hour Bible studies and making trips to a mega church in Tulsa Oklahoma I say this to prevent any would
be or want to be brave souls who think they're going to lecture me on the tenants of Christianity the current administrative structure is the Kuku Clan's wet dream it poses direct and lethal threats to all US citizens under
the guise of cultural Purity they will allow nonwhites to participate only as long as they don't get up and get on board with acting white I'm not going to sit here and be quiet when I know people personally who have posted things in social media alluding to the execution
of transgendered persons as well as undocumented citizens we have already seen this Administration shoot first and ask questions later through the detainment of Native Americans American citizens and we have seen at least one young man who was a hairdresser be identified as
an innocent immigrant who had zero connection to criminal activity and wound up in a Central American prison that the US taxpayers are paying for where there are notorious atrocities being uh committed and taking place sit on your thumbs if you want but
I advise all residents of el portel to be aware that any of your neighbors supporting this Administration are the same neighbors most likely to turn your life to a bitter heap of Ash in Hell itself as a reformed white supremacist who has heard every possible rendition
of white whites are superior I now believe in the concept of white mediocrity whereby excluding as many groups of people as possible including all women is the method by which white males seek to prove they are superior exclusion of competition does not get
you Supremacy it's in fact quite the opposite that is true aside from the white supremacist coup which is taking place in Washington DC I further identify Governor Ronda santis as inept and ill equipped to deal with this crisis I encourage the Council of elportal to send a unified message to
the governor to demand that if he's going to sit quietly while the strength and influence of our great nation is turned over to our enemies then he needs to get on the ball and replace the federal agencies with which are being shuttered and he's going to need to Institute new taxes to pay for a Florida
only FDA Florida only USDA Florida only nuclear Regulatory Commission Florida only CDC Florida only NIH Florida only Department of Education Florida only OSHA Florida only EPA Florida only Noah
Florida only National Weather Service and others since our water is no longer safe our food is no longer longer safe our nuclear energy sector is no longer safe our health sector is no longer reliable and our early warning systems for tropical weather are no longer
reliable gaslighters who want to dismiss these concerns are simply fools stuck in an echo chamber I relish the counterargument that my point of view comes from a bubble as well I actually listen to more right-leaning media than left I only repeat information I get from primary sources and you're never
going to hear me referencing the talking points of industrial Gatekeepers who seek to eliminate oversight and regulation of their Industries Ronda santis has proven to be an absentee leader in light of the coup that is taking place and I'm not mencing words with one more fake Christian who
simply does not care to know the details of what's going on this affects us directly here in elportal through the threat of need of additional state taxes increased threat to life and property and storms poor health outcomes and the abandonment of Education finally for
those who think we need to abolish education and not white supremacy I can guarantee you this your children are far more endangered at the hands of Christian School operators than they ever will be from transgender persons ladies your children are actually far more likely to
be raped by their father than anyone else heads go outside of people come at me I'm up for this and my country will not be taken by a bunch of dimwits with juvenile senses of the world that thank you council person bbom
anybody else good in welfare um my name is Warner Dreer 486 Northeast 87 Street um just had a quick question here on the CIT um I actually read your manager's report so thanks very much for getting us that
$330,000 approximate for the last three years um so what happens now um if I recall it correctly I don't know if we had like a 5year sort of limit if we don't use that
money we lose it so I'm kind of concerned now uh what's the plan right now right based on that criteria they have right um as far as next plans with um making sure we can uh tackle use that
money and don't lose it right since we have uh some repairs so I'm just curious to see where where you guys are at and um yeah yeah either one of us can answer um we're going to use it for the purpose that it could be used we're going to do Road repair we're going to do some Road repair with it before we lose it so yeah
the first the first area that um manager L and myself are going to hit is show Forest Park because that street right there that's like deteriorating that's going to be the first place we hit um so we're going to use it for for Road repair um there's also a couple other places but but that's going to be the
first place that uh that we hit to aw to for street so we're going to use it forend and then just a reminder 80% can be used for transportation the remaining 20 is for Transit line items right Transit that was one item Transit they call it
Transit right I think right and we'll use that for maybe bus shelters but we're we just got the funds in and actually an item that was on the agenda tonight um addressed the the repairs for the road for resurfacing or or or Pooles
reps well not only resur when we because you know that by show Forest Park on the North side it's like it's deteriorated so we have to like create you know more road if you go look at that road over there awesome everything else res serve and I think council person Winters
before you came into office you have some new uh technology right that might reduce the cost of the repair so not sure how that turned out is technology that can make the road repairs significantly less but I'm not
sure how to get it implemented here in the Village okay if you have a recommendation let me know no I heard from you I thought I was with your idea putting the uh the little whatever whatever uh brochures or something
advertisement on the floor so they have some fixing it yeah it can easily be done yeah uh what is the current budget for repairing that road on 86 Street you just mentioned um we got a cost estim estimate from our Engineers we'd have to
put it out to bid to get an exact price um but the I think the cost estimate was about $200,000 okay that's just for repairs though right yeah can we uh get some estimates for the same section but in Cobblestone because I was actually looking at the
same exact price range when I was doing my research for that and that's something that can be pulled up when septic and Sewer change and put back down exactly where it is also it lasts for 100 years rather than 10 to 15 years like a regular asphalt road if that is the will of the council
I will um ask the uh Engineers to to do a cost estimate but we would have to do an RFP so we can ask for both okay so do we need do a motion in order to request to get an estimate for that or we just do
it okay thank you attorney Geller thank you thank you so um I'll continue communicating with you council person Winters and mayor Omar thank you always and mad manager for moving forward with
us CIT thank you very much uh and one more question I did see on the agenda I might have missed it on and thanks for the uh repairs on the Tot Lot when when does that start and I bring it here because since I was that I know I I missed it but just keep me informed
since I'm your next door neighbor so right uh just of any yeah thank you appreciate it it it sounds like sometime very soon April 7th and Beyond somewhere yeah we'll keep you updated is there like a time frame duration more or less
high level a month or it's going to be a a couple months or a few months you know when when you're when you're talking about um construction there's the time they give you and then there's the time that you kind of have to like play in because remember they have to demolish the whole thing before they build it
back up so so it's not just taking away the uh swings or whatever the slides it's just destroying everything oh wow they have to yeah because it's a new floor and everything we have a new floor yeah new floor and everything instead of that like kind of wood stuff that we have now
that scratches people up we're going to get Like That Bouncy like spongy thing um wood floor and not that bouny Spong spongy floor um and it's going to be uh it's going to be beautiful actually all right we'll keep you updated yeah thanks very much appreciate
it I have it right here also hold on one second the uh uh 88th Street 87 street is there anybody else for good in welfare or no no you guys are good you
come see me right C up with you yeah or I can text it to you yeah I have I have them look I have them all here these are like Street by Street by Street by Street all like and it says like what it's about and all that type of stuff or whatever how much it cost what another Point too um I was not I was not in town
last week for the PNC meeting I did S I did send an email uh to the council and to the man manager um maybe about three weeks ago in regards to the project right AC coer Street uh specifically on
the what is it lot 13 um yeah so I I looked at the plan right I think I brought up up to council person Winters Al also mayor Omar right about the concern about the existing tree and
where they want to place the driveway specifically on lot 13 and and thank you very much council person Anders for being considered on that specific lot right I I lost I saw that last PNC meeting um but I never got like a
response I saw the PMC meeting um I didn't think I I might have missed it right some body bring it up to uh is it poino I always mess up their name colino right so you know that that observation
regarding the current code damaging uh the driveway right damaging the existing tree so um before we move forward I know the sign's already been placed right it would be great maybe just maybe we can run it with uh Scarlet is her name I
understand um see what her opinion op is Maybe I'm Wrong maybe I'm seeing something but um I would appreciate it if you know that concern can be uh addressed with Colo so I I did walk the property with their architect and the
plans going through your email yeah and they showed me how the the the driveways be one foot away from the tree all the way to the power line and so their tree is not going to be damaged I also made sure that the roots aren't going to be damaged that was a big thing I told them I didn't want them to cut into the roots they said they're going to be laying on top of it they wouldn't go down deep
enough The Roots there's a line that goes from the um FPL that holds up the pole that's going to have to come down they're going to have to get FPL to find another way to stabilize a pole if they can't find if FPL can't find another way to stabilize a pole then they won't be able to run that U driveway there
anyways okay so will they find out that with the FPL then right now before getting all these they're not breaking that that code which is States they cannot remove a tree to build a driveway if it comes to that portion we're going to have to address it at that moment and I promise you we will address it okay so
somebody's going to be tracking this whole project uh when we get to that specific point of the project that's where I'm trying to engage with you guys I I don't want to be like there and be telling you hey guys this is this is happening I'm not going to be in that position either so
um I'm hoping somebody's going to be taking some proactive yeah right and that's what I want to understand right it'll be the building department and the manager yeah it's just very um disheartening for me you know that corner lot we have
about more than how many trees council person Winters we walked out property with the arborist you brought they're in healthy condition [Music] um you know we move here to the Village because of the canop right otherwise you
see the um the schedule because they're actually they're moving the trees other places on location not killing any trees except for one that is unhealthy it's about that big and it's not getting any sun it's about to die in the next few years but all the other trees that they were originally going to remove they decided they were going to move them to
another spot on the property yeah and I also heard there was a 40% success rate of those trees surviving and that's and and there was no questions I'll either asked by the council okay we build it okay we have
the existing tree we move them we build for how long in that property what what where does the tree stay do we transplant the tree somewhere do we leave it where do we do it the trees you know I'm I'm I'm Pro believe
me council person Winters and and the rest of the council I'm Pro for you know entrepreneurship I commend that but we also have our founding fathers more than a hundred years where I hear elportal was known for the tree the canopy so um
we so we established in that meeting that he essentially has the right to um remove the existing trees and replace them with new trees but he is opting to put out the extra expense of hiring a
tree a certified tree location company and so be the 40% remains as a as a statistic but they anticipate a much higher rate because the trees are not actually leaving a lot they'll stay in
the same soil the soil chemical composition yeah they're not they're not actually relocating the trees to another lot so they actually think they'll have a a much higher and they won't have to trim the canopy as much to move it they'll still have to trim the canopy but it won't be like trimming it to put
it on the back of a flatbed so um so that discussion was had and it was a Lish that the that the property owner actually does not have to make an attempt to preserve those trees it would be cheaper for him to just to just remove the trees and replace them with
new trees he's opting to try and make an effort to do everything he can to preserve them so that was the discussion that took place at the pnz meeting regardless of how any of us feel about it he also told us that he would go and give us better percentages because he
told me he just told me that out of the air so I said give me some formal document M ation cuz really if it is that high we're probably going to have to vote it down in the the next meeting so we're waiting for that information from him just and it would be interesting what would be the process
right you currently you you have a tree there would you will my question is they remove it now they build how long does it take to build a house I don't think that's how it works I think they remove it they replant it and they build after that they have to put a box around it
with wood to protect the tree after they replant it as well all right th those trees I've been living in the village for more than 15 years and I've never have any concerns or I've never seen unhealthy I'm not arborous either but
those trees are are healthy so I do understand we you know we have that entrepreneur Spirit but again this is elportal I moved to elportal because of the why known canopy if I want to move to elsewhere there
other cities where there's no trees or if I'm looking for a design house I would have been to Al D to Dural or to Miami Beach right I understand everybody has his you know his privilege to build on that but the cost effective is at
19,000 square footage I think I brought up the numbers to the mayor as well and from what I understood at the beginning there was only going to be approval of just one home from what I understood now based on the meeting there you guys approved not everybody but approved two
homes in addition to that so um you know I'm I'm glad it's going to increase our property value but again the original the original uh plans presented was for three new structures structures yeah eliminating the existing structure replac it but they're happy with the
condition of the existing structure which certainly makes us happy that they're going to preserve it and remodel it so yeah but but again it's like so we still have another meeting to make the final vote I almost voted with Mr council president bbom here on lot 13 I'm giving them a chance to see if they
can actually provide the statistics that make us feel it and find a way that we know these trees are going to survive no thank you for you know reaching out um yeah and and mayor thanks for bringing it up to the gentleman who said oh it's so expensive
to take care of the trees right and you called them out right and say well you moved here because of the trees right now don't be saying it's expensive right so um um it's all good the concerns you guys have but at the very end you you know only council person um Anders was
the only who voted no against this and it's not whether it's a right or no answer but but just consider right you know it's Al portal we have our trees we we don't want to change the landscape right things are we don't want to be another city known for just maybe
Windwood where there's no trees right but just to say something but again thanks for especially you council person Winters and and the mayor for listening and no absolutely I think I think when they come back to full council with their item um that's where we make our
final decision so what's up when it come back to full council with that item that's where we make our final decision yeah so yeah but you guys already voted for and then the gentleman is going to be upset hey guys you bring me to pnz you give me four votes and now you process so it's
like but there's still the question of the tree situation um I made it clear with him there I made it clear with him after that day also um with the with the situation with the tree and the apprehension
about us thinking that a a mature tree will take up in a different location so that's still something that's out there and that's still something that I express to him and that's still something I told him that makes me be on the fence so so you never know this
happened before where somebody's passed p andz and Fa the council yeah yeah and I even not knew about the project unless council person Winters came into my home got me involved in it and and you're you're you know what listen just give me your reason that's what I need I listen
I'm I'm I'm with you just I I need a valid legal reason he doesn't want anymore but I again it's yeah yeah thank you very thank you very much no thank you very much council person
Dre I appreciate that anyone else good in welfare nobody else good in welfare um do you have a motion to adjourn second mooved by council person BBB bbom second by council person uh all
in favor say I I I the uh council meeting for all poos say nay hearing none the regular council meeting for Tuesday March 25th 2025 is adjourned at 11:44 p.m.