[Music] [Music] quite in the chambers please please take your seats the meeting is about to begin remember to speak into the microphone as this meeting is being recorded for public
record please stand by we are going on air in 5 4 3 2 1 good morning everybody and welcome to the Friday March 7th Zoning Board of adjustment meeting I hope everybody's doing well and uh enjoyed this beautiful
weather that we had in South Florida this morning it was nice waking up to 50 degre weather uh that's why we live in South Florida so all is good good um we've got two items on the agenda today um we we do have a full board um but we have one member that is coming late
we're not sure what time that is um I do want to though take an opportunity to wait to welcome a new member Sarah melli Sarah welcome so much to the zon W of adjustment we look forward to your participation um let's go ahead and formally take attendance I'll go ahead and turn it over to Mr Madden can you take attendance for the record please
absolutely uh Mr Goldberg here Mr Davis here Mr krennic y m melli here Mr nagler present Miss Silverman here and Mr Silvers is currently absent but we do expect him to come in later in the
meeting okay so we do have a quorum so if he comes in before um the vote you know we will include him in the vote because he did get the package and should have had an opportunity to review it um in reference to the first item that we that we'll be calling up um with that being said I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to the City attorney
Madam City attorney can you go ahead and give us any updates and swearing the public that's in the chambers please uh yes sir good morning everyone today's meeting of the board of adjustment has been scheduled in a hybrid format with a quum of the board physically present in the commission Chambers at the Miami Beach City Hall and applicant staff and
members of the public appearing either in person or virtually via the zoom platform webinar in order to participate in today's meeting those wishing to participate via the zoom platform webinar may dial 888 853 5257 which is a
free number and enter the webinar ID which is 828 6961 539 or log into to the Zoom app and enter the webinar ID which again is 828 6961 5309 now um any individual wishing to
speak on an item uh and there are on Zoom must click the right hand icon if they're using the Zoom app or dial star9 star9 if they're participating by phone and um before I SAR in all those who intend to testify today I'm going to read into the record the city's notice
regarding lobbyist registration so everyone's on notice if you are appearing on behalf of a business a corporation or another person you need to register as a lobbyist with a city clerk's office if you haven't registered yet you should register before you speak to the board you do not have to register as a
lobbyist in three limited circumstances one if you're speaking only on behalf of yourself and not any other party two if you're testifying as an expert witness in providing only scientific techn techical or other specialized information or testimony in this public hearing or three if you are appearing as
a representative of a neighborhood association without any compensation or reimbursement for your appearance to express support of or opposition to any item expert Witnesses and representatives of neighborhood associations shall prior to appearing disclose and writing to the city clerk
their name address and the principal on whose behalf they're communicating if you're an architect attorney or employee representing an applicant or an objector or you must register as a lobbyist now those rules apply whether you're appearing in favor of or against the item or whether you're encouraging
or arguing against this passage defeat modification or continuance now I'm going to swear everyone who is present physically in the chambers and um if we will have anyone testifying on Zoom they'll have to be Soren separately please stand and raise your
right hand do you swear or affirm that the test Tony you will be giving us proceeding is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth chair you may proceed okay thank thank you madam Cate attorney um do we have any discussion items Mr Madden we
do not okay in your package that was sent to you you had the uh minutes from our January 8th meeting as remind you we did not have a meeting in February hopefully you had an opportunity to review those minutes uh I'll ask if there's no changes or Corrections I'll ask for a motion to approve those minutes move to approve the minutes okay
move by Mr Davis second second okay second by Miss Silverman all in favor I I opposed thank you uh we do have a request for a continuance it's zba 24-1
61605 Lincoln Road Unit 800 RF Mr Madden the uh this is um an appeal of a planning director's determination and the um the appellants have requested that the item be continued to the May 2nd meeting uh no reason was provided but they they're
still working on on the appeal and and they have some internal issues that they're working out okay I believe we do need a motion we do need a motion so we would entertain a motion to approve the continuance as as described by Mr Madden motion motion motion by motion by Mr
Davis second all right Mr M your first motion congratulations second by miss marelli all in favor I opposed okay that passes okay moving on to our first of two
applications we have zba 24-17 4521 Pine Tree Drive Mr medad um all right I'll ask Al H to read the title Please this application is requesting a variance to increase the maximum relable height to reduce the souter interior site setback and to
reduce the sum of the site setbacks in order to allow the for the construction of a new two-story home okay so this uh this is a proposed uh new home it is in the rs2 zoning District it has a lot that's
5873 feet or 1.34 Acres um it has a lot width of 150 ft and it's a very long lot it has a depth of 388 ft um they are proposing a home that has a unit size of 36.3% so it's below the maximum unit size which is allowed which is
50% um the the plans were submitted the home is called viar it's a waterfront lot on uh on Pine Tree Drive um it it fronts the uh Indian Creek Waterway the um the proposed home is requesting three variances the first
variance is for um an additional two feet in height the city Charter allows for the board of adjustment to approve up to 3 feet in additional height so they're not requesting the maximum that could be approved by a variance uh the reason for the variance is they're proposing an interesting um
architectural style that has U um two two perpendicular build two perpendicular essentially structures um the first floor is perpendicular to the street the second floor is parallel to the street because of this they need two slabs um the the roof slab of the first
floor and then a floor slab of the second floor they're in almost independent slabs which creates um additional need for height so they're create they're requesting the variant so that they can have appropriate floor to ceiling Heights and allow this interesting architectural style it allows the second floor to be set back
significantly so it does not impact the street um the to the South there's a public park so there's no impact to the to the property to the South and to the north there's a new home under construction um which is which is being built at a higher elevation so they shouldn't have any issues if uh they
could propose to build a home that's higher they are not taking advantage of the full freeboard require uh Provisions that we have they're only using a freeboard of two feet they could go up to 5 feet without penalizing their maximum height so they are not they are not building the the highest home that they could build even with this height
variance um the second two variances are related they're related to an accessory structure that's being proposed and they are for the uh side interior setback and the some of the sidey yard setbacks they're only for this accessory structure the main home complies with all of the setbacks um the accessory
structure um if it were within the rear yard it would comply with the setbacks perfectly but the the the rear yard is only from 50 ft from the rear property line so so this accessory structure is going to encroach into what we call the main building area beyond the 50ft
setback so it's subject to the setback requirements for the main home it's a little little little tough to describe that if so if it were if it were within the water and the 50ft setback line it would be okay but because they're going beyond that a little bit they need a variance um in
order to build that structure where it's located um so the first variance is for the side interior setback it would be required to have 15 F feet um they're proposing that it follow the side interior setback that would be permitted for an accessory structure within the
rear yard at 7.5 feet um this is adjacent to a public park so it doesn't impact any neighbors um and so staff is is not opposed to this um if if the if the code did not have the limit that a rear yard had um would only goes up to
50 feet they would be able to build this structure without a problem um so that's that does present a practical difficulty to them the second one is for the sum of the sidey Yards it's for that same accessory structure uh because they're so close to that property line the sum of the sidey Yards um is not met so
they're requesting um a variance to be allowed to build at some of the sidey Yards at 32 ft as opposed to 37.5 ft that is required again this is only for the accessory structure which will have a guest house on the ground floor and uh and an open uh Terrace on the second
floor so with that staff recommends approval of the application subject to the conditions in the attached draft order um and I'll turn it over to the applicant um before we do that are there any disclosures okay no disclosures um Miss Bal are you going to be presenting yes sir okay 10 minutes good to start can we
set the clock for 10 minutes please it's all yours thank you so much and before we get started I just wanted to say to congratulations we're so happy to have you here Mr Melly uh hopefully today will be a fun one with just some beautiful single family homes uh so good morning Emily Balter BR cardal Fern Aran
and tapz Office of the 200 South biscane Boulevard I'm here today on behalf of the owner of 5421 Pine Tree Drive uh with me we have our architect of record Andres Hollman uh we also have on Zoom our landscape architect Carolina montiero from clad uh we have the owner
Representatives Camilo Pinon and Alan Ken and of course with me Michael Lin we could pull up our presentation perfect thank you the property is located east of Pine Tree Drive it abds Pine Tree Park um
Pine Tree Park and uh fronts the Collins Canal the applicant's goal with this project is to construct a beautiful modern single family home that's sensitive to Pine Tree Drive um as well as the the park provides beautiful views of the canal uh we're here today because
the literal interpretation of the Land Development regulations would work an unnecessary and undue hardship on the applicant additionally complying with the code strictly would lead to a a less U functional and less beautiful design starting with our site plan uh we
wanted to show you the judicious setbacks that are proposed um the parallel and perpendicular articulation that um Ro Helio mentioned as well as um the we're not maxing out lock cover
coverage or unit size with this house we are seeking three variances one relates to Heights the other to relate to the the location of the accessory structure in the in the North in the Southeast corner of the property uh
we're seeking two feet of additional height um and then reduced setbacks for the structure starting with the height we wanted to provide you with uh snippet of our Varian diagrams rather than going
through all of the elevations hopefully it makes it more clear so you can see how minimal um this height really is and how much of these concrete slabs take up that um that two feet of height that we're seeking um these are we believe minor
encroachments um we also wanted to point out how far set back this twostory portion of the property is this is the property line this this is where the the 30 foot uh first floor setback is and then here you can see where the twostory
portion actually begins um these are uh the sidey sections just to further highlight the configuration of the first floor and second floor and the minimal uh encroachment into the height that we're seeking uh we also wanted to note that there's no on the
main home there's no rooftop projections proposed so we're not seeking 2 feet plus an elevator bulkhead plus a parit for a railing there's there's no activity on the roof the Practical difficulties in this
case relate specifically to the fact that this is a a lot with multiple frontages that have to be considered when laying out the home as well as the irregular shape of the lot um the rear show you the rear setback um is not
a straight line it's not a a square lot uh Additionally the literal interpretation of the code that roio mentioned if you you're permitted 28 feet of height plus five freet of freeboard that would result in a home that's 33 feet in height as of right and
we wouldn't be seeking this request today we're proposing is a home that's 30 feet in height plus the two feet of freeboard and it results in a home that is 32 feet in height and that needs a variance so it's that Nuance in the code um that results us asking the variance but it is important to the design and
that's why we came before you today um and then also the Practical difficulty with the way that this is proposed to be constructed with the thicker concrete slabs um results in a functional practical difficulty for the design of the
home moving on to the accessory structure in the rear yard as I noted uh this is not a perfectly Square perpendicular lot um moving this accessory structure into the north setback would cram it it makes more
sense layout wise as you can see to pull it into the South there's also no South neighbor um so there's a minimal impact uh also we wanted to know the the structure is almost at the 7 and 1 half ft which would be permitted what's
encroaching is a staircase to go onto the roof Terrace of the accessory structure as I noted because we're seeking the height variants for the main home in order to enjoy views of the canal they're proposing the additional outdoor living space on on the one-story accessory structure uh this has a a
minimal impact um it's a very small area 700 Square ft um and it is pulled into the the main building area rather than in the rear yard so the rear yard does not have that roof Terrace it's a very minimal area within the main building
site and here uh a section of the accessory structure where you can see the staircase is what's encroaching we added the landscape plan to your presentation today in order to show how densely landscaped the the project will
be um and how thoughtfully landscaped the project will be will be and the pointing to the accessory structure in the Southside seac uh we're proposing a dense crabwood hedge this is smaller leaves
Clos together so that'll help minimize the impact of this and it's the full depth of the back um and then the other setbacks also have densely landscaped but I wanted to point out the the crab crabwood Hedge for you all the Practical difficulty relates
specifically to the accessory structures location and the fact that it is a one story with a rooftop um the code doesn't necessarily speak to accessory structures that are accessory structures that they have
regulations for accessory structures that are to stories and accessory structures that are one story not necessarily a one story with a rooftop which is what we're proposing um also if this entire accessory structure was crammed into the rear yard it would be permitted uh without that
rooftop uh just to note some additional justifications for our requests this is a substantially oversized lot uh most Lots in the rs2 meet the minimum requirement of 18,000 we believe that the additional lot area provides relief
uh so that there's not as much impact on the abing neighbors and Pine Tree Drive also we've exceeded the minimum required set box for the main home our proposed front setback for the for the second level is proposed at 98 ft when 40 feet
is required um and and same with the other setbacks we're exceeding side setbacks we're exceeding the rear setback uh we are also not maximizing the size of the home although this is an oversized lot and we could put a much larger house we below on lock coverage
Below on unit size considerably uh there's no rooftop access to the main home we're not we're seeking the two feet and that's really it uh there's no AB buding South neighbor and the location of the accessory structure keeps it open um and
preserves the water views we also did extensive neighbor Outreach we reached out to the neighbors that would be most impacted by this project and my colleague uh Robert passed out our letters of support for the neighbor to the north the neighbor and the neighbor across the
street and that concludes our presentation we respect we reserve time for autal if you have any questions our team is here in person and on Zoom great than thank you so much for that presentation um I'm GNA go ahead and open up the public comment Mr M do have anybody on
Zoom I see no hands raised on Zoom no one here in the in the chambers okay with that being said I'll go ahead and close the public public comment and I'll open up the questions from from my board through the chair any questions Mr nagnar is it possible to get a slide
back up of course the one about uh the free board 32 versus 33 inches or whatever it was 20 sorry if I did math out loud too fast it's you could build as of right I'll let you ask your question before I
oh are we is are we trading off are we trading off three feet of freeboard here in order to accommodate this slab so we we could build to the max freeboard but that would just result in a higher home so that would be and
I'll I'll let Andres do the the difference but we could do 30 plus 5 feet and that would be a 35 foot home and we would still be before you seeking a twoot bar but that the side will raise considerably too so it will look the hous is on stills so we feel that this
compromise will give us a very nice looking house that it doesn't exceed the maximum height that will be allowed is is there a minimum free board requirement one the the code requires one foot um however the building department is currently enforcing two
feet uh due to a new regulation I believe that's coming from FEMA and freeboard is to help mitigate flooding issues correct it's it's um an allowance above the the base flood elevation that's intended to um mitigate against wave action so if we ever had a storm
surge the base flood elevation is intended to address the storm surge the freeboard is intended to address any waves that happen on top of the of the uh storm surge and this property is on the water it is on the uh Indian Creek Waterway okay
um and then I was just wondering also about um the accessory structure are two of the three variances related to that structure correct and those are related to setbacks correct
and which are any of those setbacks from the water the variances no we comply with the rear setback they're both in regard to the to the side side side the south side and if you pushed it uh further north then do you run into
issues with the cell setback uh the the East setback the rare set back excuse me well it it is an angled rear right so it would be we would have to move it not only North but also West right okay so
so because of the angle you would have an issue if you moved it further north correct I would just add in my opinion I think there is a neighbor to the South I think it's the park right yes okay that's used by the public and that's a
neighbor in a way all right thank you okay thank you m nagling uh other questions I've got one can you put back up the slide uh that had the neighbors and the letters of support I think you had a red start next to the letters of
support yeah oh yellow okay so question the neighbor directly across just to the South uh across the street on the west side yeah you got a house yeah you got two houses there um why is there not a letter of support from them it would seem like they are the ones that really
will be impacted too because it' be directly across the street from them did you were they approached and or why do we not have letters of support from them yes our our owners met owners Representatives went to both of those houses um if they were able to meet with them they met with them and spoke with them if they were not home at the time
um they left them with letters they also received a mailed notice of this application I think it's not a matter of lack of support they received plenty of notice um okay yeah well I mean I'll point out too I mean there is if you obviously you got the big trees in between so the
direct impact is obviously to to the north and You' got the park on the South but I I we always wonder because typically when we have something like this they cover their bases and they get Le support from everybody in the surrounding area so there's no doubt so to me when you showed that slide that's why it kind of raised the flag to me that um you know sometimes you can get
them all sometimes you can't but um but they won't be impacted as much as the neighborhood to the north and that house is under construction I did go to the property yesterday you know so between the two house is um it's going to be nice and and it's a beautiful house um beautiful it's going to be great so um I
I don't see any issues supporting so any other questions board's quiet just can we split the vote because I have split votes on the variances can we do variance by variance um I'm not sure procedurally uh Mr Bon can we take them
one at a time you can you can make a motion to approve variance one two three Etc yeah I I did want to point out by the way in your package um when Mr Madden was discussing the variances he wasn't he didn't do them in order that's in your package just so you know so if
we're going to do that I have no problem with that but you know I'll go ahead and direct it and I'll take them one at a time um one two three from your packages um so accommodate you and do that Mr okay so last chance for
questions okay so with that being said uh are there any let's take variants let's the number one variance um in your package again I'm not going to read the whole variance it it it's there um this one is the um we call it the height variance the height variance thank you
Mr Madden uh any motions to we have a motion by Mr Davis on variance number one do I hear a second second okay second from Mr krennic all in favor I opposed opposed okay we got
one opposition um but it does that does does pass let's go on to number two I guess we can call this the first of the accessory structure encroachment variants do I have any motions to move that and approve
that I'll move it agler um moves it second okay second from Miss Silverman all in favor I opposed okay that passes unanimously let's go on to variant number three
again access structure encroachment any motions to approve variance number three move to approve variance number three okay move by Mr Davis second I'll second second by Mr nagler all in favor I
oppos motion passes thank you so much appreciate you coming in congratulations thank you one second my agenda just one second okay okay the the second and final new
application is going to be zba 24- 0171 8 to4 Star Island Drive Mr Madden all right I'll ask all under to read the title Please this application has been filed requesting variances to eliminate
the lot ation requirements to combine the four contigous slots to reduce the sum of the site setbacks to increase the allowable height increase the height of allowable height encroachments for mechanical equipment skylights and chimney increase the maximum permitted
widths of the driveways and to maintain the current maximum reliable yard elevations in order to allow for the construction of a new two-story home okay so this is um a an aggregation of Lots on Star Island they in the rs1
zoning District the aggregation of lots results in 280,000 Ft or 6.43 Acres uh and a lot width of 700 ft um the uh the applicant uh is proposing a new home that has two accessory structures um the
accessory structures are on the south side of the lot the applicant is proposing eight variances and I'll go through them um and and here I'll I'll I've given each variance because there are so many of names so that we can refer to them uh by a common name um so
variance number one is uh for the elimination of the lot aggregation requirements in order to combine four continuous Lots the code allows you to aggregate a maximum of three lots um um two of them you can develop on and one has to remain open or the equivalent of
one has to remain as open space per the code requirements the applicant is proposing um a variance of that section to allow them to aggregate four Lots um um the the uh this is consistent with the character of Star Island Star Island
is known for for large estate Lots um and there is an aggregation to the north of this site that is um an aggregation of even more Lots than this um so it is compatible with the context and this does this limit does present a practical difficulty for the applicant um given
that star island is known for for particularly large Lots uh the second variance is known as the sum of the sides variances um this is related to again accessory structures similar to the last variants the main home if in in
it of itself would comply with the sum of the sidey yard setbacks but if you if you add in the accessory structures which are on the south of the property um that causes them to not um comply with the Su of the side yard setbacks um the next variance is a height variance
the applicant is requesting an additional 3 ft in height for the main structure again the similar to the last application they only using a free board of two um and so they are requesting the additional height um in order to accommodate appropriate Florida ceiling
Heights and accommodate um the the significant mechanical and roof equipment and insulation that they're that they're required to provide given the scale of the home there are significant needs for for mechanical equipment on the rooftop um and other equipment on the rooftop um that that uh
does present a a hardship to the applicant that that height limit does present a hardship to the applicant they are still not taking advantage of the full three feet of free board so essentially um the height of the home is what you could build as of right um for a for a single family
home um the next uh next variance is height exception variance number one this is for mechanical equipment ranging from 7 to 8 feet above the point at which they emerge from the roof where the code permits you to have 5et again similar to what I just described they have significant mechanical equipment
that that needs more height than what you would have on a typical home um the next variance is uh height exception variance number two this is for skylights because of the mechanical equipment and the screening required for the mechanical equipment the skylights need to be a little bit higher so that they don't have views of the mechanical
equipment um so that's why they're requesting a variance to allow those skylights to to um to be up to S feet in height as opposed to the 5 feet which the code provides for uh variance the the sixth variance we call it height exception variance number three is for the chimney uh the code provides a a
limit of 5T for a height exception for a chimney they're requesting 8 feet that is so that the chimney can go above the level of the of the screening of the roof um um so staff is supportive of that variance um the next variance uh variance number seven we're going to
call it the driveway variant it's to allow for a driveway with a with a width of 25 ft where the code has a maximum allowance of 18 ft this is a practical difficulty given the scale of the home um it does the AR architectural style does Merit having larger driveways as
the main entrance the property overall has four driveways the two driveways on the edge uh on the North and the South edge of the property do comply with that 18 ft limit um the lot as a whole does not exceed the allowance for driveways it it complies with all the other
requirements that we have for driveways so this is just to allow them to be a little bit wider um through the front set back area the the last variance is the minimum yard elevation variance this is a a preemptive VAR um we were discussing the base flood elevation FEMA is
expected to actually lower the base flood elevation on several of the uh Islands in biscane Bay they're expected to raise it throughout most of the main part of Miami beach but on on the islands of of biscan bay for whatever reason FEMA is expecting to lower it I
guess they're in their modeling the storm surges are not impacting those islands as much as they had previously forecasted so if FEMA lowers the base flood elevation that would lower the maximum yard elevation that they would be allowed to build at um and that would
that would present a a hardship to them if they had to lower their their um their maximum elevation um based on based on that code requirement so this is a preemptive variance in the event that FEMA lowers the base flood elevation for this property that they
would be allowed to keep their yard at the same elevation that you can build at today so it's a it's it's it's a interesting variance it's an interesting issue that we're going to face on some of these Barrier Islands I'm not sure why FEMA is is is doing this I'm sure
their modeling has shown something that that that we're not aware of but um but that's that's what we expect with our with our draft Maps um so those are those are the variances staff is supportive of the variances um the applicant's going to be providing a a
very uh very good presentation that you'll see you'll see more detail as to what I'm talking about um and staff recommends that the variances be approved so subject to the conditions in the draft order okay thank thank you so much Mr Madden um are there any disclosures on the DI okay um normally we set a 10-minute
time limit with the number of variances um and the extent of this project I'm willing as chair to to stretch that out um if it works for you Mr amster Mr Lin 15 minutes to start and if you need more we'll we'll take from that will that will that be good yes sir okay so I'm going to go ahead and hand it over to
you gentlemen or Mr Lin thank you thank you Mr chairman board member staff Michael Lin sh South bisc Boulevard here representing the applicant which as you all may have heard is Ken Griffin I'm joined by case Carter from Ken Griffin's team we also have an amazing design team for your consideration today we have
Joseph Duran of Joseph Duran architecture our local architect who I worked with over 20 years Jennifer mccan gayoso from Studio MCG and Craig Greenberg of Craig Greenberg architecture our landscape architecture team is equally as fantastic we have WS
International Landscape Architects from Belgium and our own local landscape architect Chris Calli my partner Matt amster and colleague Rob Alvarez are assisting me today and we have another member of the team the model plus the virtual reality goggles that are for
your consideration and use throughout the presentation when you would like to have a VR look at this I think it's wonderful that King Griffin has chosen Miami Beach as his home is this forever home this is his family home and he's so excited to be here he's committed to
this Comm Community but he could not be here today but K Carter is here to offer a few brief remarks about Ken his past and where he wants to go in the future so with that I turn over to K and have him go through some slides and if you could please pull up the
presentation and also K arrived a little late we need to have him sworn in okay M say attorney all right do you swear or affirm that the testimony that you will be giving in this proceeding is the truth the whole
truth and nothing but the truth I do all right thank you you may proceed thank you and thank you for your time um I'm a former city counselor my wife has served on a Planning Commission so appreciate your service and your time I'm here on behalf of Ken Griffin today um he's a
native Floridian he was born in Daytona Beach he spent his formative years in boar Raton and uh attended public high school there he relocated to Miami in 2022 and he is very proud to be uh a
part of this community and uh and he's deeply committed to the community he's the founder and CEO of Citadel uh which is one of the more successful hedge funds in the world and also the founder and non-executive chairman of Citadel Securities a global market maker and one of the world's largest liquidity
providers he's also a passionate philanthropist um even uh to date he's given over $2 billion to causes including uh education uh driving opportunity for others um science and medicine and a deep commitment to the communities that he cares about
including specifically this region of South Florida uh we're currently building uh headquarters for Citadel and Citadel Securities in Bickle um which will be uh an over billion dollar building um including a hotel and lots of amenities um for the local community
um in Florida he jumped right in in terms of his commitment to community uh he funded initiatives such as uh the uh Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center um a Neuroscience Institute at Baptist
Health uh a surgical Tower at Nicholas children's and uh many education initiatives as well including a scholarship fund at Miami Dade College for over 8,000 students and he's been very active in Miami schools and will continue to be in public schools in
charter schools and in uh private schools uh he believes that each child should have an access to a high quality education and that will be a big focus of his for years to come um he'll also support cultural institutions around the community and other community
initiatives such as the underline the Perez Art Museum the frost Museum and uh Regional Tech initiatives for economic development so needless to say he's quite committed to the region he's very proud to be here and this again is an
application for his personal family home so I'll let the discussion Center on that thank you uh again Matt amster also with the firm of burkel Fernandez Len and tapenz offic at 200 South biscan Boulevard uh in Miami um I think
everyone's aware but here's you know Star Island it is a very unique place um it has uh very large uh single family home lots uh in a sort of an enclave all to itself uh the zoning you know is basically uh entirely this
um rs1 for these larger single family homes this zoning is actually quite unique in the city it's only located in three places obviously Star Island being one uh the eastern half of Palm Island uh which is up at the top left and then
on the right you can see that there's a small area on Pine Tree Drive interestingly enough uh right in the location where the application before us was heard that is in rs2 uh but these are um very small segregated uh unique
areas um this is the place where homes can be distinctive and uh have Innovative designs uh here's now the property itself looking from the water same view you have of the model uh we have an
assemblage of four Parcels uh that are um uh you can see the separation here on this uh diagram um there's a historic develop vment pattern where there were multiple Lots um that were developed for
many many years and so that pattern is mimicked in our uh assemblage and that's where we have four Lots uh I'm going to call up Craig Greenberg now uh to walk you through the design thank you thank you all uh my
name is Craig Greenberg uh my office is located in New York City at 210 11th Avenue uh although I have lived in New York for more than 30 years I was raised in Miami and I'm a graduate of Ransom Everglades and then Cornell uh I'm Ken's personal architect for his and his mom's
residences for Ken here on Star Island and for his mom in Palm Beach we it's been alluded to we've uh We've assembled an amazing team of designers and Engineers for this project um starting with Joseph Duran of Paris he's our
architect and designer and he's designed amazing homes throughout the world including in South Florida including uh Surf Club Four Seasons uh Ken asked me to focus the team on the design and Engineering of this project with the guiding uh
principle that this is his home this is his forever home um so here yeah here's a visual of the overall house um and I'm going to start by focusing on the roof which I think Michael mentioned at the beginning
um or Helio did relative to the variances um the the dictate from K was that this was a was to be completely integrated home no surface Left Behind um including the roof uh which we called
the fifth facade so um because of because of all the mechanical equipment that was needed we and the the the constraints of the site we we engineered the roof to hold all that equipment and skylights but to
be invisible to anybody either From Below or above which we thought was very important and and pretty cool um so we're going to get Jennifer will get more into the details of the roof and how that happens but that was a big
impetus for the design and also part of that and part of the integration of the horizontal on the height of the building was that we're not bringing we we could but we're not bringing elevators to the the to the roof nor are we uh designing or contemplating any rooftop Terraces so
that keeps everything at the same level um next uh this is the main entrance of the house um you'll see the underside of that roof Edge um and the balcony Edge a very soft uh form um and and as we go
through the design of the house you'll see how that wraps around the house and TI the whole thing uh together horizontally and completely conceals what's going on above from All Views uh we wanted uh the landscape design to be
integral with the architectural design and hopefully you'll see that in the a presentation a a quick note on the materiality because one of the items I want to raise is how much engineering went into this design work um before we
got here which we're very excited to to be here finally um but we are uh working with Engineers using a to use a material called uhpc ultra high strength performance concrete which would be used to make all these curved shapes come in
in 8 to 10 foot sections assembled on site tied together seamed in place and then monolithic no joints no seams which is something that all Architects sort of dream of um and we think we have a way to achieve that
uh next uh process so this is a this is an unprecedented process I could fairly say safely say that we went through in the design of this and and that's why the team mentioned the VR goggles so we printed out the house during the design
three times at full scale one to one um and placed it in these W uh air hangers outside of London and and so you could walk the floor plan but not only walk the floor plan but we commissioned VR to go with the floor plan so as you walk
you see the house you look around um and that was instrumental both for Joseph you see on the left and Ken on the lower right um who who put a lot of time into saying yes this works it doesn't work it meets the the criteria you gave us and
and it's never been done at the scale and certainly not three times um yeah you go to the next um site plan another important concept of the house was uh building in a park um we did not
want to crowd this house in any way we wanted it to breathe um the setbacks are no less than 70 feet at any point and in most cases more over 125 feet um you'll see that in the video that we show at the end of the presentation and some of
the renderings but space for the house to breathe both from the inside and from the outside was was very important for Ken and for the design team uh th those big setbacks and the landscape design allowed the impact from
the street to be very minimal these are views of the front entrance the house is very far set back the landscape will be extensive so it's all about glimpses that you get to the house and so that it looks like a a house um there's a family side and a and
a more public side this is the family side you see the continuity of the roofs there and and that um uhpc material that I was talking about and the tyin and no possibility of seeing any mechanical both because of the sight lines and because of the Shroud on top of the
roof uh the Water side um similarly or here more strongly the continuity of the roof and the balconies you'll see in the video also the the rib of the balconies on the first floor purposeful to to um
add a rhythm to the length of the facade and to give it scale um and we think that it works really well and softens the architecture um and then a view looking to the South across the main pool and a view looking from the 70 foot
setback to the North End of the house house you could see how we're we're at 70 ft right here so the house still has a far way to go before you see it and and the same idea about the roof you don't see anything from anywhere above the roof at the family entrance um materials
I talked about uhpc so it comes in sections it gets seamed it gets adjusted and seamed in place and then monolith uh coating and a very soft plaster finish all the vertical surfaces are Chine or will be Trav tee there's samples over
there for you to have a look at um I should talk about the glass A little bit and uh for Ken's mom's house in Palm Beach we worked with a German company called Cel they own a glass company called cedc they do all the Apple glass every window is uh individually tested
the windows move um it's just an amazing Engineering Process uh the molans are amazingly thin you know in Miami you generally see or anywhere in the South South already you see very wide mle these are thin solid steel um and and
and quiet and fast and then the Shroud material and we have samples of that to look at also all right thank you yeah and now I'm gonna have Jennifer join us good morning my name is Jennifer
mccan um with Studio MCG architecture offices at 230 uh Northeast 97 Street in Miami Shores um we've provided several design components uh of the project that meet and beat what's required by code in in
terms of resiliency and sustainability we've provided 450,000 gallon systemns that are buried below grade that capture a total of 200,000 gallons of rainwater from the land and the roof for irrigation we currently have permits for a 700t linear
seaw wall that we're raising from 5T on gbd to 7 .5 ngbd also the mechanical systems are raised up to the roof to protect the residents from flood waters next slide we've also provided 129,000 square feet of perious green
space on the land which means almost half of the site is perious the land has also been raised five three five feet throughout the property which allows for more rain water storage and protects the residents from potential flood waters also all the mechanical equipment
another another 10 minutes please also all the mechanical equipment in the project will be commissioned what that means is an engineer will ensure that all the systems and components are installed tested operated and maintained in the most efficient manner man manner which
will therefore reduce energy consumption and I'm going to turn it over to Matt to discuss the variances thank you Jennifer so I know roio did a great job of uh explaining our variances I'll I'll add to that uh in a as quick a fashion
as possible uh we have a four parcel development to achieve that uh it's important to note that the code has a preference for no more than three um however there is an intent behind that code uh it's to make sure that uh the proper the building itself is centrally
located and it does not impose on the neighbors and allows for privacy and we have generous setbacks all around not just to the North and South where we have our closest neighbors but even at the front uh and the rear
uh this is also star island has the largest lots to begin with many of the developments are also uh either double or multiple Lots uh and in fact uh the frost residents to the north of us is of a similar
size uh to look at this differently at the top is just a uh a possible alternative uh we could develop these four parts separately you know each at the maximum 50% unit size uh you can see that there's a lot more massing especially to
the neighbors you know at the South and at the North whereas our proposal down here this is that 70 foot setback um where no structure uh is impeding the Privacy for the neighbors and you have a same 70 foot setback in the north uh and
in fact those two accessory structures in the north also further break up you know the impact of this home on this assemblage uh and part of that feeds into our next variance about the sum of the sides uh the 70 ft that we keep
talking about which is the purple um on the both South and North sides is the minimum required side setbacks and so we meet that completely uh the code though also um requires uh a bit more 5% more for What's called the sum of the sides
um that actually took that was a role in a minimum Fashion on the prior application for that accessory structure so here though uh providing that extra 5% is the area shown in red uh at the North side that would mean that we have
to um have a setback of 105 ft that's notable that a single lot on Star Island is 100 feet so that would be a setback to not develop on a entire lot and for um comp comparison purposes again that
uh alternative which we're not doing um if you were to develop the four Lots separately you could develop a 20,000 square foot home that is either 10 or maybe 15 feet from your property owner to the north and we have 70 feet of uh
open space between and Jennifer why don't you continue okay as Craig is describ the residence has a unique design where the roof or fifth facade has been carefully designed and studied to conceal all of the rooftop equipment while minimizing the
height with its slope Silhouettes the code allows a residence in a single family District a height of 28 ft to the top of the structural roof slab the code also allows up to five additional feet for the mechanical equipment and 10 additional feet for the screening of that equipment we are requesting three
additional feet for the overall height of the residence due to the amount of mechanical duck work will be located in the ceilings furthermore if we had placed the ground floor at of The Residence at the maximum design flood elevation which is 15 feet ngbd instead
of 12 ngbd and use the 28 foot height limit Allowed by code we would be at the exact height that we are currently proposing in this variance similar to what you had seen in the previous um uh submission you can also see in the image at the bottom that because the roof silhouette is sloped and we have
provided extensive setbacks the house has minimal impact from the street and the neighbors next Slide the image on the top left is a section through our project and the image on the right is a corresponding section of the project from four to six star
island that was presented to the design review board last year you can see in these images that four to six star is raised over the minimum design flet of elevation which is 17 ngvd and that residence also has an active rooftop and an elevator and stair that access that
rooftop our project is not proposing any active rooftops and therefore no vertical bulkheads above the roof for Access we will simply have rooftop hatches within the mechanical areas again minimizing the height impacts to the neighbors and we have also placed
our building lower on the site at 12 ngbd the roof of is our fifth facade and the crown of the home the image shows the house with and without the Shroud due to the high visibility of the roof because of Drone footage Cruise traffic at government cut and the high visibility of the Mii Beach skyline the
roof and its equipment have to be screened with the same detailed Beauty as the rest of the home next um we are also requesting a variance of 3 feet in height for the mechanical equipment all of the large windows in the residents have been designed to open up to the elements to
create an indoor outdoor experience we have large custom-designed operable exterior window walls that not only open sideways but on the second floor two of the large Windows actually move up into the roof with a hydraulic mechanical
system to allow for this the engineering uh and the equipment are very sophisticated and with this sophistication comes larger equipment the code is inflexible on the height but due to the creativity and carefully designed roof silhouette and locating all of the equipment below the Shroud
the impact of The house's height is minimal and the equipment is completely screened which is the intent of the code next in the code a dector screen is allowed to be up to 10 ft in height but our proposed decorative screen is only 8 ft the top photo shows how the
silhouette of the roof screens the mechanical equipment and meets the intent of the code the intent is for the roof not to look like a third floor and at the same time hide the mechanical equipment and as you can see from this rendering on the top this is clearly a two-story resonance and no mechanical
equipment can be seen the bottom photo is a typical residence in Miami Beach where the screening has become part of the cladding uh the clading design but unfortunately the equipment Peaks above the screening in our design the engineering has been thoroughly studied and the current
height of the Shroud will conceal the equipment um we have one fireplace in the residence which is located in the center of the home due to the building code the chimney of the fireplace is required to terminate 3 feet above any surrounding structures so what we have
done is pull back the Shroud in that area so the chimney can terminate at the same height of the Shroud and therefore cannot be seen from the street or surrounding properties but we do need to ask for a three-foot variance for this jimney so it can terminate 3 feet above any surrounding equipment the coat
allows for it to terminate 5 feet above the roof and we need eight the footprint of the chimney is that small red dot that Matt's pointing out right now um in the center of the roof PL um so the impact is really minimal for that
variance um on the skylight lights the residence has 12 proposed skylights integrated into the design of the roof three of those skylights are above the staircases along the east side of the home and because they are above the staircases the views through these skylights are impacted by the adjacent
mechanical equipment we are asking for three additional feet for these three skylights highlighted in Red so when one travels up the SC the staircase they are not able to see the equipment through the skylights again these skylights are completely below the roof shroud so they not they cannot be seen from the neighbor of the street and their design
has been fully integrated into the fifth facade and I'll hand it over to Matt to discuss the last two variances so this uh again we have four Parcels uh which at least minimally would have one driveway each so uh we are only proposing four driveways um the
two on the North ends are compliant in width uh and the two at the center um again these are our main entrances both for uh the family and for guests uh and we they the width helps to uh identify
them to provide a sense of arrival uh as well as can accommodate larger Vehicles should that be needed and then uh our final variance um I think roio did a good job of explaining how FEMA uh is proposing to reduce the base
flood elevation which is a measure of how high your required yards everything in the front the rear and the side within the required setback areas uh would have to be reduced should FEMA's uh proposed plan be adopted uh the
differential is about 2 and A2 ft that is significant both in uh transitions to the house itself the rest of the Yards that are next to all of this as well as to our own storm water retention you know raising up the uh the ground level
is actually a part of the storm water uh design uh for this project so this is a prospective variance that should that be adopted we want to maintain uh the maximum of 10 ft that uh the code allows for
today we've uh done extensive neighbor Outreach um it's very important to Ken he's going to be a member of this community with his family living here and so we've reached out to more than just the people listed on here um but we
are happy to report that we have uh nine letters of support uh you had a packet handed out to you which has all of those individual letters um but very notably we have our neighbors uh to the South and to the north uh and we even uh did
Even though there's a a quite wide median linear Park in the middle of the island we did also go uh to the east side um all told um it's roughly about half of the island is support of of our uh request and again we we not haven't
heard of any objection at all right now I um I want to five minutes five minutes enough to R yeah what we have uh we're almost done we do have uh two videos that were mentioned by Craig that I want to um okay you want five or 10 Mr to to wrap up to 10 would
be more than we need okay let's do 10 more than enough time do 10 minutes again please it's an important project so I'm happy to Grant the request yeah so uh through the 3D modeling and through the design we developed this 3D modeling which is very accurate basis of
the VR but here you have the approach from the water you see the the roofs that I was talking about and the rhythm of the house as it goes north to south so it's not flat at all the curves um tie everything together the composition that Joseph came up with we think is
just you know very beautiful the pool at the end a dining Pavilion at the end um but again very far from the neighbor that's the view down Green roofs every roof that has landscape is planted roof I should say um that was the position we were looking at before of the private
pool um our our magic shroud roof which I think succeeds as a fifth facade uh the street street view use uh which I gave you some stills of one second while I to the other one and then into and and up to the
front door this is the the main entrance to the house come into a double height space um these windows uh disappear into the walls just a touch of a taste of the
Interior architecture clarstone stare the skylights that Jennifer was talking about um you'll see how the skylights come out of the roof and those circles we're proud of the roof you could tell from the rendering and the hous is to 12 as
Jennifer Matt's said and slopes down um to 10 new sea wall one more now I'm going to go back to our presentation just to make some concluding let's
see there we go perfect thank you so thank you for uh having us here today for what I I know is a little longer than a usual but this is a project that as Craig had
mentioned has been years in the making um very thoroughly designed um we spent many uh hours going through the code and doing our best with this design proposal to make sure that we didn't have to come
here this is a project though that um has a lot of creative and Innovative design and where essentially much of this comes out and is here before you is uh our way of utilizing that Innovative
design on an area of the city that allows for such expansive uh and Innovative homes uh to still meet the intent of the code that basically our practical difficulty for much of this comes into play that the code is guiding
um you know designers to design in a certain way for example all the mechanical equipment the code encourages you not to have it on the on the ground level in The sidey Yards being an impact and imposing to your neighbors putting it on the roof instead well why would you put it on the roof uh in addition to
that you would want to make sure that it's screened well the screening as you saw in one example uh from another home um can actually be uh this jutting and very visible uh aspect so here although it needs a little more height to allow
for it um we have a very Sleek uh and hidden you know rooftop including that it's not active at all so that actually um has been worked in um it is uh also so one of the more fully designed homes from a not just mechanical but
structural standpoint to allow for all of this to be built um it's uh it's been a great undertaking and uh while again we are here we do feel that we meet all those practical difficulties we agree with staff's conditions um and we are
all here to answer any questions we respectfully request approval of our variant requests and uh I would like to uh just end with an an invitation to come down to take a closer look at the model and we do have the actual you know program you can virtually see the home
if you want to put on the goggles you can't we don't need to walk around you basically stand in a in a little circle um but if indulging your uh so we appreciate so you know and I appreciate that great presentation I I'll ask the board if you feel it's relevant that you
like to get off the Das and go look at the model and and use the 3D glasses I'm fine with that I would I would go ahead and um I I would take a short break that doesn't need to be on on video on the record unless I'm wrong um Madam City attorney uh if I want to go ahead and
take a break and allow the board to step off the dis and take advantage of what's being offered by the applicant I can do that yes it is appropriate that doesn't need to be okay would you guys like to take a 10-minute break and walk down and okay all right so with that we're gonna go ahead and take about a
10-minute Break um those watching um in the public I hope you understand it's a very important project for the City of Miami Beach and Mr Griffin and um we'll take a 10-minute break and we'll be back to you soon thank Youk you come
e e e e e e e e e e %
good to see EXC ni not yet yeah nice uh oh actually hey okay we're GNA go ahead um and and start
uh public I appreciate your patience um just I just thought it's extremely important with this project that that we get a close-up view and make sure we make the right decisions um so we appreciate your patience and allowing us to do that with that being said I'm going to go ahead and open up first to public comment uh do we have anybody on
Zoom Mr meton anybody on Zoom if you'd like to speak raise your hand I don't see any hands raised nope okay anyone in the chambers for questions public comment um yes could you please come up to the podium state your name please Jerry Roland um I'm here
representing the Miller family they are the neighbor to the South they have been in Residence of Star Island for over 45 years uh Ken's team was so gracious to present to us at The Miller's home and uh they are in more very supportive of
the project thank you so much for coming in we appreciate your time thank you any any other additional public comment with that being said I'm going to go ahead and close the public comment I'm going to open it up to our board for questions through the chair I'll recognize anyone that has questions and
I'm sure we have a few Miss Sil turn your mic the right um I just I have no context as to why a driveway would be m maximum of 18
ft like do need some context to why it's written that way in the Zone on on your on your standard lot um that's that's probably an appropr that's an appropriate number uh but what we're trying to limit is uh a few things first vehicular uh conflict so typically you
have sidewalks so you want to have um driveways be as narrow as possible to minimize conflicts with pedestrians and the sidewalks um and so we also have a Max a minimum spacing requirement between driveways in order to to improve pedestrian safety um minimize uh paved
areas we want to minimize paved areas as much as possible to have as much open space as we possibly clan um so those those are the two primary things that we're trying to achieve there with those requirements but in in this case we have the the home has a significant amount of open
space you good okay questions from the board presentation was that good or are we still in all Mr nagine no I can I can always count on you Mr nagler go ahead yeah I I have a few is a pre preemptive variance a thing does that
exist um I can't say that I've seen one before but there's nothing in the code that prohibits you from from from doing that so A preemptive variance so you've never seen one before so we'd be like making it up this would be like a new
thing it would it would essentially be a new precedent yeah and a preemptive variance would be a variance from something that doesn't currently exist yes so it's it's something that this is a regulation that's based on a regulation created by another agency
it's a regulation outside of the city of Miami Beach's control um so it's not something so we wouldn't do it for our own regulations our own regulations are in our hands our city commission votes on them this is something the city commission does not approve does not vote on um it's set by FEMA um so so
that's the reason why we felt it was justifiable um they have released um the draft maps and they are expected to take effect this year they have said that they will take effect this year um so we know it's coming um but it hasn't taken effect yet so it didn't seem to us to
make sense to make the applicant come back in the event that FEMA changes that number later this year if um so if it was built without the preemptive variant it would be on that particular issue would be tood code on that currently
currently yes they are at code right now and if they built it to code now without the preempted variance and then the change happened would they have to come back or is that legal non-conforming at that point if they if it changes before they have their full building permit um
they would have to come back and they could ask your variance and we could give it to them correct okay so I do have two other question all right you got the floor snagler all right um this is for four Parcels put together is that correct correct and the four put
together what do we call that the the lot what would be the term for the four together what do I call that the assemblage or code there's lot aggregation the lot the lot aggregation this is um there's a house on it now but that'll be taken down right correct and
once that's taken down this is the lot aggregation the lands will be a blank canvas is that correct in essence yes okay and is there anything about the lot aggregation uh that makes it an
irregular lot irregular irregular the I would say the shape of it is is is fairly regular um what is irregular is the size we we generally do not see lots of this scale okay the shape is regular the shape is regular
okay so then I would just say that I think um I think there's you know given that it's a a regular lot blank canvas um from what I can tell from the
presentation um Mr Griffin has assembled an impressive team of attorneys and Architects and everyone else very skilled um impressive people in their professions and I trust that with a blank canvas Um this can be built
without the need for going outside the codes thank you okay thank you Mr nagler uh any other questions from the board okay so if we have no other questions um I think on this one I'm
going to follow lead that that we had on the first one because there are eight variances and they're all very different I think we should take them up one at a time um so if you all agree with you all agree with that I don't think we need to vote I Think It's my prerogative that I
can I can do that without a vote um so let's uh go ahead and make sure you have them in front of you please and I'm just going to recite them you know as you have them on your package and um they are um they were named by Mr Madden so I will take
variance number one called the lot aggregation variance and see if there's any motions to approve variance one move to approve variance one the lot aggregation VAR thank you Mr Davis approved by Mr Davis do I hear a second
second um well I I did see okay okay I I did I did see Jim raising his hand so we we'll give we'll we'll give you that one Mr Silver second all in favor I I opposed okay great that's one let's go to variance number two which is the sum
Was the vote on that one unanimous I apologize no no you voted okay yeah oh I'm sorry were you know Miss nagler oh okay I'm sorry I didn't catch up thank you thank you for cat you that Mr Madden okay it does still does still pass variance number two called the sum of
sides variance are there any motions on the floor motion to approve okay motion by Mr krennic do I hear a second second okay I had I had a senior second by
Steve second by Mr Davis uh all in favor I opposed okay one opposition variance number two passes variance number three called the height variance any motions to approve variance number three move to
approve okay move by Mr Davis do I hear a second okay uh second by Miss Silverman all in favor I opposed okay we have one nay that variance passes variance number
four height exception variance number one any motions to approve motion to approve exception Vari one motion by Mr Davis do I hear a second okay second by Miss Morelli all
in favor I I opposed okay we have one n that variance passes variance number five the exception variance number two do I hear a motion to approve move to approve exception Vari
okay move by Mr Davis do I hear a second was that Miss Melly okay Miss merell second by miss merell all in favor I opposed okay okay we have one Nay by Mr nagler that variance passes variance
number six known as the height exception variance number three do I hear any motions to approve okay move by Miss Silverman do I hear a second second second by Mr krennic all in favor I
opposed okay we have one day Mr nagler that variance passes um one number seven right almost left you number seven number seven known as the driveway variance do I hear any motions to approve to approve the driveway driveway
variance okay move by Mr Davis do I hear a second second by Mr Mr Silvers all in favor I opposed that passes unanimously last variance number eight
the maximum maximum yard elevation variance do I hear any motions okay move by Miss merelli do I hear a second second by Mr Silvers all in favor I opposed n
nay okay we've got three nay so that variance does pass correct wait no you need five sevens okay so number eight uh does not does not pass noic no that was not I just want I just
want to make sure um Mr we have we have four eyes and three Nays and we require five eyes to prove a variance okay is there any any reason for did you want to yeah I mean I'll open it for some discussion why you're there I'm be helpful to get
some color on why we would not be able to move forward with that variance at this time I can comment on my vote if you that's fine yes we do that go ahead M yeah absolutely yeah there's um from the answers to my question there's no precedent for it and uh I don't know if
we've been provided sufficient grounds to set new precedent with a preemptive which what I've been told doesn't has never existed before he's welcome to come back and get it when he needs it okay uh I'm not sure what the other
options are um the vote is what it is it is what it is unless there's a motion to reconsider from the prevailing side and the prevailing side would be the N the N yeah through the chair May at least have some minor
response yes thank you absolutely I just wanted to explain that variance a little bit more So currently we're allowed to have our sidey yards at at an elevation of 10 if we were to have the flood zone lowered which is what's going to happen sometime this year our yards would have
to go down which is less resilient um which the the um the the side yards would then be able be able to retain as much water um it's really pushing down it's it's anti- resiliency so that's why we were coming forward with a preemptive
variant um we may be able to get our permit in in time before um uh this would uh go into effect but there's no um we don't know if this would go into effect the the second we we um apply for
a permit or if we receive a permit so um we're going to be kind of in a limbo pattern and that might hold up our permit if we have to wait 45 days the three months to then go in for a variance we wouldn't be able to pull our building permit so um I mean I think it's it's good for everybody for us to
be able to build up a little bit higher on the sidey yards I just want to make sure everybody understands you know what that means okay I'll open up to board for discussion M Silverman I think you have something I just have a question do you have any you have no context as to why
FEMA would be lowering the base elevation for this I mean just given everything that's going on in the world it seems weird to me I'm just curious I I I they're doing they do modeling using liar radar technology to to get different elevations and and from what
I've heard I I don't have specific uh sources is that they believe that the bay in this area is shallower and therefore there is not the same opportunity for the storm surges in this portion of the bay than was previously thought um that that's that's the best I
can I can say I'm not sure why else in most of the city they're raising the number um by maybe half a foot maybe half a foot to a foot in much of the city um I'm not sure why this area is is dropping and and dropping so significantly Mr chair I can yeah M
Hamer I don't know if it's just anecdotal but you know many of the seaw walls have been raised over the time that since the prior modeling the the last FEMA maps are 2009 quite uh quite old data so so I believe that while
that's a great thing and in fact the sea we talked about this in our resiliency the sea level the sea wall will be raised here by a couple of feet but that doesn't mean that uh you know we not we want to just throw away resiliency as a a city effort the city's been raising
streets as you all are aware uh I'm sure that this these streets will be raised here on Star Island at some point and that's all a factor from the city's planning uh which you know this is going to undercut what the city been putting in for many years to raise and be more
resilient so we're just trying to capture that now we're here before you for these variances right now if we had to come back our our construction time frame would be we put in for building permit you know in uh the middle of this year and and get that permit issued by
the end of the year as you've heard FEMA's uh Maps may actually be adopted before then if we don't have our building permit we're going to an additional hardship of needing to come back before you when we are already here today uh and the height also just to Mor
a Jennifer's point if those entire which are very significant 70 feet you know side setbacks uh and uh front and rear setbacks have to be much lower the transitions on this uh the home will still be and has to be where it is right
uh the base flood elevation um while it is so there's two things happening the side yards are going to be negatively affected but the first floor of the home based on the code uh in the city's code would not be affected so when fma's base
flood elevation goes down our home will still have to be at 12 feet uh ngvd when the yards will then have to be decreased to about uh 7 and A2 ft and so that is uh a 4 and a2t difference uh over you
know uh significant portions of of this property will create terracing and bming and and also as Jennifer was saying affect our storm water retention so because the house has to be at the same height and the code today allows for a more appropriate transition which also
helps the resiliency and sustainability of this project having more fill feeds into our own storm water drainage uh that's these are numerous hardships are are are in effect today because these Maps exist we know that they're in fact they would have there's been some um
they obviously contentious for lots of reasons uh but this ties into the cities as well as the rest of the County's uh flood insurance program um so they've been delayed in being adopted but the writing on the wall as it is appears to
be that this is going to go into effect and negatively affect us so that's all we're asking is that you take into account that the city's code should Prevail because it is the more resilient in this case uh and we would would hope that you may reconsider the variants and
uh allow us to proceed as planned yeah I've got a Mr do you have something had a comment question but I'll go ahead defer to you yes Mr chairman just one more comment than that you know the code has an excellent vesting mechanism when it comes to if there's pending legislation if you get an approval here you're vested but that doesn't protect
you against FEMA regulations which are a part more of the permitting process but if you all approve this variance today we're vested we can go forward without having delay in the future to come back you well what Jennifer was saying was accurate you know having the yards where we want them to be is actually better
for our neighbors you know we already are a model resiliency and we're asking to not go down from that model but give you all our our best you know best model of resiliency here thank you yeah um this is really maybe for staff Mr Madden um I just want to make sure that I
understand the way the way I picture it and staff is recommending approval of all the Varian is um obviously Mr Griffin is making a significant investment um in the City Miami Beach and they're trying to be proactive versus reactive that's that's kind of how I read it that's why I don't have a
problem with it but um with I want to pigy back on Mr nagler's Question um on have we ever done something of this pre you know pre done a preemptive a variance not you know and you said no at this board but I know you've you've served on other City boards at all has
has have we had this in any of the other boards for any other variances that have been issued this type of scenario that this is just this is one time I think this is a one time this is really the only regulation for zoning purposes that we rely on that comes from another agency uh which is is the base flood
elevation um all of the other regulations of variances that we deal with are the city's own regulations setbacks Heights uh other architectural standards those are the city's regulations we have control over those base flood elevation is really the only number that we take the number from
another agency um to guide us and so I I can't think of any other situation and the other boards that I've served on that we've done a so so what is the you know as a banker we always look at what's the downside if I make a loan we don't get paid back what is the downsides of us approving this variance
from a city standpoint from their neighbors is there any downside by us approving this preemptive variance do you see anything I can't think of any we generally would not um it's it's not I don't think it's a
negative precedent because it increases the resilience of the home um and we have part of the criteria that we use is the resiliency criteria um that's part of the criteria that this board can take into account is the resiliency criteria and so um I can't think of us ever
recommending a similar type of variance in any other situation except for in these islands where the base flood elevation is is dropping uh because um all of for all other regulations let's say there's a there's a regulation
in Pro the that uh is going to be considered by the planning board next month if the if the board of adjustment approves a variance today that's it they're locked in the code is set for them they don't have to worry about future city regulations impacting them the co the city code Provisions
provide that they are grandfathered in the second the vote uh the board approves um a development order in this case it's a regulation that's outside of the city's control so so then their their only option can you explain I just want to make sure the board understands
what this did not pass what would their process be I mean we said they have to come back they would have to come back before our board correct um so okay so additional cost additional time will that impact their ability once they get their parking per permit to to start
doing what they need to be doing um if if so let's say they could potentially get a building permit with the yard elevation at a lower height um they could start work on it and then request a modification and come back to
the board and then modify their building permit plans at a later date would be an option for them but that that would that would C that would create that would affect their engineering and create a lot of cost for them Mr Mr D I'm not trying to make it difficult for the for the Apple because certainly it's an
amazing project I really but my my objection is all on procedural grounds has nothing to do with the merits of others I believe that the resiliency of what is what has been proposed is better than what could be if but I'm not I'm not a flood guy I don't that's up to
FEMA and people that are a lot smarter than me that that will do this but I'm trying to follow the law that's in front of us as to and to make a decision about something that under existing law so can you tell me what's going to happen with uh the permit process for them I mean
what would be the likely per permit time I'm just trying to understand this because if it does create unnecessary hardship I'd be willing to make a motion to reconsider so so our code provides that your maximum yard elevation is the basee flood elevation and that's what they're they are looking to go to the
maximum elevation that they possibly can build for their yards which is the base flat elevation in this case it's 10 um the if FEMA let's say next month FEMA reduces the base flood elevation to 7 and a
half they have their permits in progress that number um they they don't have their building permit issued so that number gets dropped they now have to reduce their um their yards in the setback areas for the purposes of Permitting s and a half years and it's your view that that's likely to happen
before the permit will be issued from what I understand yes and and you believe it would create an unnecessary hardship for you correct sir okay I I would move to reconsider all right um we have a motion to reconsider hang on we have more discussion Mr nagnar before we
do that um by the way I love um uh I I have a rain barrel myself it's not a retent it's not for retention tanks but I have a rain barrel it's modest um if if we were holding this when is
this expected to change this law because I someone said this year but like when this year it's already March we don't know but it's sometime this year okay and and if we were holding this meeting this application like if it wasn't today but it was a few
months from now and the law had already changed they'd just be asking this as a variance and not a preemptive variance right correct okay so so um m m we have a motion to reconsider we need to we need to open up for a full board Vote or we would need a we would need a second and
then you would need a motion to reconsider to pass and then you can take another motion so the second has to be from one of the Nay though correct no no it can be from either side uh yes it can me anyone okay so we have a motion by Mr Davis to reconsider the vote on variance
number eight do we have a second second okay great we got a second by Miss Silverman uh all in favor I opposed okay one opposition okay we're going to go ahead and reopen we're going to reopen the vote for variance number
eight um can I ask Mr Madden that you do a roll call this time please absolutely do we have a a motion in a second to approve the variance we have a motion by Mr did we do that we had a motion toot so now I need to do okay I'm
sorry yep y yeah we need a new yes oh you're arrest okay so the reconsider is unanimous okay so now we're going to open it up for any motions to approve variance number eight do we have a motion to approve
variance eight as presented that is the maximum yard elevation variance okay motion by Miss merelli do I hear a second second second by Mr Davis all in favor I
I said you're going do roll call oh oh yeah go back thank you see that's why that's why you have a vice chair he's got my back okay you're under your Mr Mt take a roll call please we have a motion by Mr Melly second by Mr Davis for variance number eight and so we'll do a
roll call Mr Goldberg yes Mr Davis yes Mr krennic no M melli yes Mr nler no Miss man yes Mr Silvers yes so we have
uh five to two the the motion passes Vari is approved great congratulations and you know we really appreciate Mr Griffin picking Miami Beach as his home and the investment and everything that he does and congratulations we're looking forward to seeing the finished product great than much thank you thank
you for your presentation great job okay um we have no appeals Mr mad uh other business our next meeting is May 2nd May May second there no there no it we are going to have you want to we have a couple appeals um right now on
the agenda we have three appeals for the May 2nd agenda um we do expect that one of them will likely be settled beforehand but but we have to plan on it being there for the May 2nd meeting okay um any other good and Welfare or Business board okay thank you for your
participation and have a great day and a great weekend motion to close the meeting all right you move it e e