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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 on air in 5 4 3 2
1 good morning thank you to everyone for being here wow it's such short notice we uh we packed the house and thank you to my colleagues uh everyone for being here um this is the hybrid special commission meeting of February 7th 2025 we're going to discuss or take action if necessary uh to obtain an update on the configuration of Ocean Drive between Fifth Street and 14th Place and really want to talk about um the current status why we're here how we're here and what
the really more importantly what's the steps forward and what the future looks like for Ocean Drive I'm going to ask Ralph our city clerk to provide any uh instructions morning everyone during this hybrid commission meeting uh the city commission is physically present in the commission chamber at Miami Beach City Hall 1700 Convention Center Drive third floor the public May attend the meeting virtually however members of the public who wish to attend the meeting or provide public comment in person may appear at the commission chamber to participate and provide comments virtually during the comment dur the
commission meeting the public may join the meeting by visiting the Zoom app on their smart device or on the web at zoom. us or by telephone at 13522 4968 again 305 2241 1968 the toll-free number is 8884711856 71 pound again 81 3928 576 71 pound members of the public
wanting to speak virtually on an item during the meeting must click the raise hand icon if using the Zoom app on or press star n on the telephone to raise their hand the zoom link webinar ID and telephone numbers provided for this commission meeting are static and do not change from meeting to meeting thank you mayor thank you yeah so we um we're not going to do an invocation today it's a hopefully a short meet a fairly short meeting but we are going to honor our country with the Pledge of Allegiance Avalon
Rubenstein uh won an award while at fishburg fineberg to be city manager of the day and today is your day and I we we'd be I see that's your dad right all right congratulations thank you for being here and uh we'd be honored if you would lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance [Applause] I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
Republic from which it stands one nation God individuals and justice for all I think you have a uh a future as uh city manager maybe as mayor or commissioner too I I hear uh I hear a request from commissioner Fernandez well why don't you give him notification then yes right now yes
I'm I think it's I think it's one of the beautiful things that you know when we start a meeting that we do come together in the presence of God and that we do ask God to impose upon this body and POS Upon Our Charter officers who lead our government with his wisdom and with his blessings and that in every decision that we make that we strive to unify a community even when when differences of opinion may may arise May our decisions
work for the greater good and for a future of a city that is always more united and closer to the greater will even when that will might not be evident to us amen wow on the Fly I think you have a future uh actually the way you're dressed [Laughter] today um so thank you and thank you for that thank you for bring that up but it's true we always should recognize um the Civility and of course God so um I
call this meeting today and for a couple of reasons one really partly to educate um you know the people in this room I mostly I'm looking around are very well educated on the issues but there's so much going on between what our city has done what the county are working with the county because we have to get permits from them between the Judiciary and and the appell process there's so much going on that it's it's almost a full-time job to keep track of
of that so I partly this is to educate our residents because um obviously there's a lot of press and there's uh we're really on the imminent uh cusp unless uh unless something happens with the Appel cords that this street is going to be changed back into a 2-way and the one-way pedestrian is going to be removed bike Lanes will be removed there's a lot that's going to happen and I think this is partly to educate why it's happening but really importantly also to and part of the education process is to get feedback from our
residents our businesses what should be the path forward what are the next steps and where do we want to see Ocean Drive it is our postcard it's our most iconic Street it is the most one of the most famous streets in the entire world it's really incredible when we sit here we talk about we have to recognize that that you can go around the world mention Ocean Drive and people know it they know it they know Miami Beach and Ocean Drive um so um I I just felt without with everything going on and and the recent
uh activities that it behooved us to get together as a body with the uh input from the community uh to talk about it so first we're going to start with the snik sutnik hour and I'll turn it over to Ralph good morning everyone uh during the S we're gonna have sutnik for 15 minutes everyone will be allocated one minute if you're interested in speaking please approach the podium uh well just I I won't limit it to it will be one minute just because we want to get to the commission but but I won't limit it
to 15 minutes whoever wants to speak we have the opportunity okay so please start with your name address and please go ahead yes um my name is C fla and I live at 1500 Ocean Drive uh good morning everyone so the The Narrative that City survey showed 70% of affected residents support to keep two blocks of Ocean Drive close was manipulated to justify the violation of the property rights of owners directly
affected by the illegal closing of two blocks on Ocean Drive two closed blocks is not a prominant so let's debunk that idea that we have a prominade on two blocks okay it is an obstruction and mostly obstructing business activity the only votes that count on this survey are the votes of the property owners on the actual two blocks
that were illegally closed all the votes on this survey don't count as this property owners are not directly affected by daily closing or as we say not in my backyard when you add only the valid votes the percentages flip on the reverse Direction 68 in favor of opening Ocean Drive to travel traffic to 32 against you have a court order to open Ocean Drive two way to traffic you need
to obey the law thank you thank you our first virtual speaker is I'm sorry give me one second is you Yan Moore Mr Moore you have one minute state your name and address good morning uh Johan Moore 717 Jefferson Avenue um while mbu's recent excellent call for a master plan was
directed at clarifying the very well-intentioned proposal for Washington Avenue residential incentivization I would urge that going forward medium to longterm we in fact pursue such a master plan and that it cover the entire Art Deco neighborhood association area as well as the area of uh Flamingo Park neighborhood that is affected by uh these I think uh parallel
uh uh Notions that I think have to be brought into uh a discussion with each other we incentivize residential by having a pedestrian prominade that is open to micromobility we disincentivize residential by continuing with our current motorist driven uh uh disorder in our neighborhood so please support full pedestrianization from fifth to 15th Street as the voters have in fact indicated they would prefer and as is I
think best environmental and Resident friendly policy thank you thank you next please state your name go ahead good morning everyone Irene bigger uh resident at 1500 Ocean Drive and U president of the artco neighborhood association as our city strives to elevate its brand as a cultural destination with health and wellness opportunities the Ocean Drive prominade is emblematic of that brand as it has
transformed the North End Of Ocean Drive into a Haven of tranquility and a healthier and safer environment filled with pedestrians bicyclists locals and visitors who can enjoy the natural and Architectural beauty of our neighborhood without the chaos and pollution that comes with cars it is no coincidence that the following two articles one naming Miami Beach is the world's top healthiest cities to live in according
to a study and the dream East Coast destination is the top City to visit in North America both about Miami Beach that both depict The Pedestrian friendly vehicle-free beachwalk and pedestrian prominade nowhere does it say don't come here because these people closed two blocks and regarding the only two blocks I'd like to also remind every everyone of the fame New York City Times Square which is five blocks in the heart of the city's busy
business and Entertainment District and they made it work in fact and I quote the crossroads of the world was pedestrianized in 2009 using cheap and temporary materials a move which was made permanent the following year this wildly successful transformation was made possible largely to the Bold where doing it stance of Mayor Michael Bloomberg a lesson for other cities
Mayors with backbones can do great things thank you mam mayor Miner there is no question you do and there is no question you can please allow for a properly curated and safe prominade to succeed thank you yeah I know thanks how many callers do we have on Zoom just curious on Zoom right now we have three is everyone online going to speak is anybody else want to speak okay let's give two minutes okay but but please stick to the two minutes and then
because sounds like we have about 10 people who are going to speak so okay our next virtual caller is John S John state your name address and you have two minutes hi uh my name is Josh Squire I am with uh I'm at 346 West 47th I also own a business on 10th and Collins for last 20 years um the bike lane has brought tranquility and Sanity to that area um we you know it's used primarily
during the day and versus the uh bars are used more at night um I think that if you're forced to remove the bike lane uh please add another one to the east of the sidewalk um because as you know you restricted electric micromobility vehicles you ticket and restrict endlessly endlessly throughout the city instead of promoting them which needs to change by the way um if anything the bike lane needs to be extended and
connected to the rest of the bike lane network uh on the side of 15th Street uh we need to expand it not remove it um you know traffic is a disease in this city um I hate to say this but you already know it you all are failing miserably in transportation segment I serve on the transportation committee um you know I the transportation Department's under budgeted uh severely
um you're undermining the transportation committee work by sending um things under safety to other committees instead of Transportation you you keep writing into the law restrictions of on micromobility instead of promoting micromobility um so the way to get rid of cars in the city was to add micr Mobility promote it support it extend the bike Network when are you going going to change your attitude towards this and understand that traffic is not going to end until you bring more
micromobility build more bike networks and please please fight this because this bike Lane's been great we don't want to lose it so thank you thank you uh PJ can you promote commissioner Suarez okay next please go ahead Joe Joe votes no on that hi good morning um my name is Mana Sabri and I work in one of the retail store at 15 Ocean Drive I
just can talk about my own experience since of Ocean Drive being closed we have experienced a tremendous negative effect and our business a customer and our job right now we just we don't know how many months we can hold on we may go to bankruptcy we have no customer even the customer steping in the store are just they they're not staying they just
buy some items and look at me and ask us what is going on what is no traffic no business no Ambiance we we come from other country we come from France we have people from all over the world this this treat is extremely famous we come here especially in Ocean Drive because we heard a lot of but we're going to leave if not nothing to do no business so it all I have to say is please keep
the job keep the business running and reopen aan drive thank you thank you our next virtual speaker is has a screen name of BU M's iPhone state your name address and you have two minutes please thank you uh mayor thank you residents our respect for everyone I'm a business owner on 13th and ocean drive I'm a retail business owner for 20 years Ocean Drive used to be traffic like a mall
pedestrians were walking like a mall here a busting mall with putting barricades it has become sort of extreme blockade hours and hours and hours at time we do not see customers coming so we are left in situation as other retail owners said that we don't have a customers we requested City for hundreds of times come and cooperate with us
either will allow us to exit and do some other use but we can't get permits with city as mayor said he had a three years time going with Miami de County to get permits we have the same difficulties in a way with Miami Beach City we can't get permits to change the use because our retail operation now cannot Thrive because we don't find pedestrians potential customers at many hours during season and off seon so this blockade was
brought uh with that emergency situation in some way but planning was not there and it did not realize that it will affect retail businesses like us adding to this 14th Street traffic has been chaos so many delivery trucks and no outlet and Al has a burden and I'm myself victim of this that one time my car was under the delivery truck my hood
was under the delivery truck and wheels were on both sides so imagine that without preparation this situation has been brought so we request City of Miami Beach we are thankful to Mayor and commissioner they are very good people to come and work with businesses thank you so much can you state your name I'm sorry I didn't catch it Bal thank you so much thank you so much next please state your name address you have two minutes yeah uh Ken copel uh for so be safe I'm
addressing The Pedestrian prominade today first I want to correct a a misstatement that a former speaker mentioned uh about the uh the vote the ballot that was conducted uh it was conducted by and under the rules of the county and the city uh we residents didn't uh didn't do it the county and the city did it number one number two it included all residents and all businesses that were Property Owners adjacent to the uh to the prominade and it returned a better than 2/3 vote to
keep the prominade now to the bigger picture what's this all about I think it's all about two things before and after and truths and falsehoods what's before and after before the area was dirty drug infested lots of police uh calls uh residents who had dogs afraid to go out at 11:00 at uh at night or early in uh in in the morning um and residents other than down there
including two on this deis told me five years ago I never go down there unless it's for business I would never take my children down there well here's the iconic area of Miami Beach and residents from mid Beach North Beach don't come uh to it uh because it's un it's unpleasant and it's unsafe that's what it was what is now it's safe it's clean uh you you don't have cars blasting horns all the
time uh I haven't been asked if I wanted to buy drugs in in a couple of years uh right uh right now there aren't drug uh drunks lying around and and fighting moreover what I'm hearing from people is property values have gone up in the last couple of years what I'm hearing from business owners around the prominade is their businesses up and I believe the city's T statistics show that in general our business is is up so don't throw
away something that is remade not just the our immediate area but the entire city thank you thank you our next virtual caller is Mitch noic Mr noic you have two minutes please state your name and address good morning everybody Mitch novic 901 Collins Avenue just want to point out that Resort Resort taxes have plummeted uh this year this past year it's astonishing that
despite being a budget conscious commission the cost for this multi-year prominade experiment has been disastrous to City coffers why are we wasting 700,000 annually on private traffic management to divert traffic from Ocean Drive to Ocean Court why does the city keep throwing thousands into the broken railroad type gate repairs which happen all too frequently in this gated Enclave why are we spending more thousands
weekly on the prominade music series which is either held inside the Betsy or across the street in the park these course have been recurring and automatic just like the increases on our Utility Billing water invoices which we see every October I wish elected officials would reign in wasteful spending as our billion budget has had the greatest impact on housing and affordability and our shrinking residential population
thank you thank you next please state your name address you have two minutes please uh my name is Jim Winston I live at 1455 Ocean Drive uh I've been a resident in Miami Beach for 30 oh God I'm old 30 years I'm uh I have a business on Lincoln Road I'm also a dad of two boys and rough probably 5 years ago I was seriously considering moving from El
vagio because the neighborhood had become so scary so dangerous uh there was always an element of kind of subt trining violence when we walked outside we across the street every weekend there were drug deals my kids got accosted I had a gun pulled on me and I don't think this is hyperbolic the closing of the two blocks of Ocean Drive is been a game Cher it's changed the entire Vibe of Ocean Drive even down to fist Street in my opinion it's now
safe it's still has a kind of a civilized vibrancy so there's still the interesting elements of it but I think it's important from a safety issue that I love living here and five six years ago before ocean Dr the the two blocks were closed I was seriously considering moving because it was so scary as a parent to raise kids in an environment where our neighborhood we walk outside and there was always an
element of there were drug deals there were all kinds of shootings going there it was just really scary so I think from a if we want to draw more families that's an important element in terms of keeping these two blocks closed because it's changed everything even down to fistory thank you thank you next please yeah go ahead hi hi my name is Nina webw worth and I've been a resident for 32 years at
1390 Ocean Drive and I can tell you I have seen it all and I can also tell you that it's never been better in our precious prominade where we've created peace safety tranquility and for both residents and tourists this is the most incredible thing that we have experienced in the last three years and now we have a compromise where bikers are happy the cars are still on Ocean Drive they're just going one way just
this is only three blocks we're talking about and it's just that the chaos of of just crossing the street just to have that knot in our face every day and the pollution of cars it it's been just the most wonderful thing and also I just have to say um this is America's Riviera or considered America's Rivier it's not Ocean Drive should not be a drag strip and once two-way traffic comes back
that's exactly what we have people cruising day and night with their own liquor and their own drugs in their own car and they just C come to watch a show from their car they're not spending money they're not buying anything so and I also wonder where is Eileen Higgins in all of this thank you very much thank you next please go ahead good morning uh Mr Mayor Commissioners fellow Neighbors on all sides of the issue it's not even just two sides this
is been a very civil discussion there's a lot of discussion about why it's a good idea or not a good idea to keep uh our small section of Ocean Drive closed uh there's no question in the spirit of uh disclosure where I stand I'm a soie safe guy and I live at 1500 uh 1455 Ocean Drive but that's not what I want to talk about I I listened to the hearing on Wednesday and uh I'll just start off saying there's nobody who would want Ocean Drive to continue as pedestrian drive if there were a safety
issue and people kept coming up with false statements about there being a safety issue with Ocean Drive Clos it's just absolutely not true I mean just in addition to the testimony of our former F uh fire uh Chief and of our public U uh safety uh people just think about it how in the world could we be a safety issue when we have Gates that go up very easily emergency vehicles come in and out when we have no traffic on our
section imping them whereas in the past there were traffic all over the place um on top of that we don't have cars from which people are selling booze and liquor there is absolutely no safety issue there's no question whatsoever that Ocean Drive close to vehicular traffic uh is a lot safer than it was uh before and so the question should be settled on the legal merits and on the desire of our political leadership and our residents and the safety issue
should just be put to bed once and for all it would be a game Cher if it were true but it's not true thank you very much for your time it's very nice sorry but I didn't cat your name oh Ivan sellin s e l i n thank you thank you good morning my name is Andrew merelli um I'm the owner of b realy s SP realy owns the garage that is underneath the ilal agio condo association IT
Supplies parking for all the retail above it the bushe brothers and other second and third floor condos there's also Surplus parking to give you a history about 15 years ago we received a conditional use permit where we in the course of dedicating some additional spaces in our garage to to the unit owners and to the condo next door I believe it was built together
with uh vagio residential we uh were given the permission to sell Sur the Surplus parking and have self parking in the garage in 2020 the street shut down and it was perfectly understandable 2021 was an extraordinary year but by 2022 I started to notice that people were suffering and uh there were signs that went up that said no outlet they um my
garage was taken off ways and other you couldn't technically get there if you were trying to drive there and essentially the self- parking component of my garage was taken from me and the idea of it becoming permanent started coming out and I I don't see how you can do that in the United States how you could take away someone's property without compensating I looked into legal re REM so I performed a a a uh a a an appraisal on the property we
had done an appraisal prior because I was part of a portfolio loan so prior to 2020 I had an appraisal and I had one valuation and afterwards with the Ocean Drive take shut down the appraisal came in $7 million less so essentially my property is worth $7 million less than it was I appreciate and I know that a lot of the people who want soie to be safe have have good intentions but I have news for you it's not just about
Ocean Drive I have a home on Michigan Avenue and uh someone recently tried to break into that home and crime is much more prevalent in the area I guess a half mile west of Ocean Drive than it ever was thank you sir your time is up thank you for your consideration if there's anyone else please stand in line good morning uh Mark Alida 597 9 Alton Drive um can you start again I'm sorry there was an echo so yeah sure Mark alad 5979 Alton Drive Alon Road and
uh hello good morning Mr Mayor and Commissioners I'd like to start by saying I think that uh Mr mayor's initial statements were right on point we do have one of the most famous streets in the world we can see it every time there's any type of footage of an event in Miami in Miami Beach is always view of Ocean Drive and as somebody that's was born here and whose mother
was born here I've seen a ton of changes over time the recent changes over the past few years are I don't believe have anything to do with vehicles accessing Ocean Drive there we've since this city started we've had vehicles on that street we've had vehicles on that Street which has propelled the street to become one of the most famous streets in the world and the vibrant activity there and
the retail and hotels that are there create this incredible opportunity of Tourism that we have and do show our face to the world through Ocean Drive we also have in my opinion one of the best police forces in the state and I think that the opportunity to increase their resources and perhaps think about a better distribution of
their services throughout the street is the real solution to this problem not closing down the street and harming all of the retail operators that are currently there thank you very much say your name and address please hello mayor Commissioners my name is Cecilia Jorgenson 34 West the Marina Drive I would like to ask to open up back the two blocks on Ocean Drive I've
been here over 30 years and I have had friends and family come visit from all over the world and they love Ocean Drive I mean love it like you say it's one of the most famous streets in the in the world and a couple of times now the last year they've come with an Uber they've been dropped off and it was specifically a friend of mine's grandmother 80y old old dropped off in the alleyway because they couldn't take them to the hotel pouring down rain dragging their luggage
and uh homeless people in the alleyway so I mean it was not a good situation for them at all and they said they would never stay on Ocean Drive again because of this because they couldn't get dropped off in front of their place of staying so I think that's something to take into consideration the safety of of of closing of these blocks and also i' would like to say when I'm there with my friends that are residents in Miami that love Ocean Drive someone said they never come they do all the time and they don't want to walk that block and a half to
try to get an Uber also because of safety so I think there's you know there's different ways to look at this but I would like to see it open back up for safety thank you very much go ahead please good morning honorable mayor commissioner and general manager my name is vanina tagon and I'm a property owner and the res and the president of ocean R prominade Community representing a great
growing Coalition of residents at 1500 Ocean Drive and other residential buildings who support the reopening of Ocean Drive let's be clear that is what the residents wants over 170 residents have signed our petition and demand that Ocean Drive be fully reopened the overwhelming majority residents business owners and visitors want the driving accessible and safe Ocean Drive and not the isolated Dead Zone blocked off from life and movement but let's also talk
about safety because what has been done is not working by forcing a dead end the city has created a tick Time Bomb for accidents reckless driving u-turns and confusion have turned to 15 to 14 Place into danger zones there have already been accidents and with every day that passes the risk increases this is not safety it's negligence the judge was clear this closure was not legal Ocean Drive must be reopened fully and permanently with real safety measures
not artificial barriers that cause more harm than Goods Bard the side along the sidewalk would ensure pedestrian safety without turning Ocean Drive into a barricaded Wasteland that keep people and business away it's time to listen to the residents and the judge follow the law and ReStore Ocean Drive to what it should be a vibrant accessible and safe part of our city the judge order is clear reopen o and drive immediately there is no need for contractor or delays just remove the barriers with
your own hands today as the judge said and stop delaying no more excuses remove the barric cads now it doesn't take a contractor thank you thank you next please state your name address I'm sorry for Madam would you could you just ask a answer a quick question um you presented uh last week I think it was my Association oan Drive Community right and you you said it was not for-profit
are you a registered I'm not profit and I'm not a lobbyist and nonprofit in fact even is it excuse me is it a registered 501c3 have you registered it as an organization yes I'm on sbe.org it's the organization as only two months it's a two months old organization because I'm a I purchased an apartment at 1500 Ocean Drive and I saw that a lot of residents they wanted to make it open and so I I I support those residents I don't want them to be silent voices I understand I
I'm not getting it is on cp.org is active it's all legal everything is good and even I didn't receive anything even I spend my money for my first meeting and I spend my personal money for all the and my time for everything I'm doing I just want to do right by the residents who are uh thinking like me they want to have a like in France n PR something Lively and not dead zone that's all thank thank
you oh yes I am go to sb.org okay next speaker you know it's a public information next speaker uh our next speaker is andreon please go ahead you have two minutes say your name and address mentioned uh I I mentioned this before and uh at the end of the day the regular traffic flow that comes East on Fifth Street is being blocked from entering Ocean Drive because the traffic
is going from north to south if this could be a meeting of the minds to be able to leave a bike path because it's so beautiful the bike path that's there and the traffic would flow Northbound instead of southbound and just like on oneway streets on downtown Miami it could still drive on the west side so that it still stays next to the hotels and that traffic flow is going to be a lot better and a lot smoother from fist Street going north onto Ocean Drive and it could flow all the way to 13th or it
could flow all the way to 15th how uh how the courts were saying but at the end of the day you'll have a free flowing Street going north as well as keeping the bike path the other thing is that the businesses are complaining about the number of people going to Ocean Drive that this is stopping it and the quality of people going on to Ocean Drive again you have to give that Park some additional purpose to attra more people to come to that Park and invite people to go and spend money on Ocean Drive so if you would simply put
beautiful struct uh sculptures like Bato look at the Miami Beach sign you have people in line waiting to take a picture in front of the Miami Beach sign if you create a sculpture garden on Ocean Drive you're going to have so many more people wanting to go to Ocean Drive to enjoy the sculptures take pictures and eat at the restaurants create an environment that is going to make people want to go more to Ocean Drive and it would fix both problems thank you thank you is there anyone else in the
audience David Wallock speaking on behalf of David Wallock the most important concern of this entire matter is safety and for anyone not to recognize it is a disservice to me to our police police department and mostly to our fire department who drive large vehicles and cannot get through those barriers at the
North End without a significant delay the president of the fire Union said to me seconds matter seconds in a fire that barrier and the second barrier create Mega delays now look at the traffic that backs up and has to get into u-turns you u-turns slow 3.4 Point u-turns to get out of there that happens
50 times a day if an emergency vehicle pulls in behind any of this coming around 15th Street and they run into that it's a bottleneck and it's even more delay Dade County three times instructed this city to reopen Ocean Drive why the safety concerns this is from a safety report by Ralph arenburg an expert traffic engineer it
was presented but not really uh listened to he States this closure was not approved by Miami dat County as required under the applicable code provisions and resulted in very serious detrimental effects to both residents and businesses located along the pedestrian Plaza and Ocean Drive as well as to the general public the county has repeatedly rejected the city's application for this closure because it creates a slew of
dangerous conditions that continue to exist the most serious of which is the lack of direct and immediate access to Ocean Drive by fire trucks and other EMS Vehicles the city's closure of Ocean Drive between 13th and 14th Place continues to cause an imminent threat to the life safety and health of the public public that must be resolved by immediately reopening Ocean Drive the safest option to remedy the hazards is
to change the traffic configuration of ocean drive back to the original two-way configuration and by the way here is a resolution from our own transportation parking and bicycle pedestrian facilities committee we urge our elected officials to immediately reopen the Ocean Drive prominade located between 13 Street and 14th Place which has remained closed for vehicular traffic since May 2020 while a study and vote on its
future is ongoing the temporary closure that has been in place for over four years has created safety issues such as restricted emergency vehicle access access difficulties for pedestrians especially those with mobility issues traffic slowing down access for fire and police struggles to navigate the narrow alley way for large Vehicles forced u-turns that encroach on bike lanes and pedestrian areas particularly fire
trucks further if a permanent closure is being considered this board opposes it and believes the current vote which only includes stakeholders immediately near the closure is insufficient and disenfranchises other stakeholders in the area a broader vote should be include more voices and address which portions of Ocean Drive should be closed rather than an arbitrary selection of this area the board recommends that reopening the prominade immediately is
essential while further decisions are made thank you our next virtual speaker is Michael Resnik state your name address you have two minutes uh Michael Resnik um 1500 Ocean Drive um people are blaming cars for lack of shopping but um prior to the pandemic and accelerated by the pandemic and afterwards is the retail environment
has changed um stores big and small malls all across America are are closing because the way America's shop has shop has changed um adding cars back isn't going to bring people into the stores in fact it probably will keep people away because there's less places to walk um just another comment about um there was someone from 1500 Ocean Drive saying
that um she has a community group that 175 residents signed a petition to open the road um there's only 115 units 14 units in our building so I'm not quite sure how that number came to be so just question what what was said there thank you thank you next please go ahead have two minutes good morning mayor City commissioners city manager City attorney and city clerk my name is Matthew ganof
125 Jefferson Avenue before 2020 I used to ride with my children from South Beach to The JCC for swim lessons on the weekends it was nearly impossible to ride through lumus park on the serpentine par Serpentine pathway then in 2021 the commission unanimously approved with strong resident support the current configuration southbound traffic with a two-way protected bicycle lane the design has proven nearly
perfect allowing people to travel to from and through this iconic area safely by any mode of transportation my kids went to school on 17th Street and every day I rode them safely along Ocean Drive what an experience it was for them removing the bike lanes and replacing replacing them with cars in both directions would be a huge disappointment and it would also be a downgrade in quality of life while a painful decision removing
The Pedestrian Plaza temporarily will help build Goodwill with the county and what Mr wallik just said again it focuses on that pedestrian Plaza which is where the concerns of safety reside with the county uh I urge you all to bifurcate the issue here you have The Pedestrian Plaza and you have the southbound configuration with the bike lane there's been a rocky relationship with the county but the differences need to be put aside to work together with
the three days that we have left until Monday so that the bike Lanes aren't painted over and so that people aren't forced to ride in the street either in an unsafe manner on the extremely crowded beachwalk while we respect the Court's decision important facts were not presented which we hope they will be during the appeal and better streets Miami Beach has filed a motion to intervene in the case to help argue those points this is worth continuing to fight for I urge you as a body to take every
possible step to preserve what we have today and to keep moving Miami Beach forward thank you thank you is there anyone else who wishes to speak if you wish to speak please tce last two speakers last two speakers okay go ahead sir good morning Sal I'm not living in my but I am doing business in Miami Beach um I'm in Hospitality business over more than 30
years I never welcome my guest through a trash rooms I never welcome my guest through a trash Alleyway I welcome my guest through a through the front door where you can see the beauty of the of the street um the black hole that we have now on Ocean Drive between 13 and uh 14 and 15 it's a black hole that greed our
uh guest that coming to Ocean drive through a trash room and a trash alley to be honest that the alleyway you can see only dumpster trash dumpsters you don't see there anything but uh trash so uh that's not the way to welcome uh Our Guest to the most beautiful iconic uh Street in the world thank you I'm sorry I didn't catch your name your name was Sal
[Applause] mon this is our last speaker go ahead sir yes I'm John Harris I own uh condo number 204 at 1390 Ocean Drive uh I have not met a single person in our building that's in favor of opening up the prominade uh and I've talked to a lot of folks uh I purchased 18 months ago I paid the highest per square footage ever paid for a unit in that building I have a small
dog I love the safety of having it closed out front so I can walk back and forth to take take the dog on his walk without having to worry uh I've been down here in the past been on Ocean Drive where there's very loud uh Vehicles going back and forth with people yelling obscenities out loud obscene music uh very dangerous feeling environment right now it feels very very safe if this prominade is opened I will most likely sell and uh and not own
again on Ocean Drive um but then when you know when it comes to the businesses you know when I look at places like Espanola Way thriving every time I go down there I mean you know it I can't hardly walk it's so busy every restaurant there is thriving so you know honestly in my opinion uh probably ought to close the entire Ocean Drive fill it up with dirt and Cobblestone it and I bet everyone would be doing a lot better business-wise that's my input thank you thank you thank you everyone for your comments
what I'd like to do um is turn it over to Eric and to our city manager and City attorney to give a little try to do it briefly it's there's a lot there this has been going on for multiple years and actually it predates Rick's time as City attorney Eric's time as city manager but I think it's important to get a context of how we're here um I'll give my two cents on uh I I've been open and out there with my opinions on the street but
what I think is Undisputed This Is Me Maybe people can dispute it because you have different versions of how we got there but the street right now is as safe as clean and as familyfriendly inviting as we've ever had on Ocean Drive I mean that that to me it's unquestionable um cuz and and I've seen the change as as an elected from as a commissioner elected 5 years
ago uh to the time now it there's no question the street and and there's multiple reasons and I'm as you notice there's there's also the police department which is which has done a great job in cracking down on drug dealing um so there's many many different aspects going on but um but the point is I do not want to see whatever happens Ocean Drive go back to what it was and I and and here's here's the trigger to me this is the part that really frustrates me and I and I don't I'm not going to get overly critical but
you know we made some mistakes in the city as well and that's why I mentioned a predates I'm not going to take that away but the county whether it be Eileen Higgins commissioner Higgins whether it be mayor Cava and whether it be the judge does not get dozens and dozens of emails sometimes daily certainly weekly on a yearly basis hundreds thousands maybe I mean especially when I first got elected I mean the emails that came in regarding South Beach and certainly
Ocean Drive I mean it was it was literally almost a full-time job for me to respond to the emails what was going on I don't get those anymore barely barely so it's been transformative so it's very difficult for me when I see people saying things that are just factually false when you have a midlevel County employee say the St dist street is not safe that just if you go down there it doesn't pass the eye test doesn't pass the field test and
by the way and then he wasn't even cross-examined properly we had to go get a declaration so that to to to to back it up this is what's frustrating for me and this is the part that I will fight to the end and this is what Irene mentioned before and I will absolutely fight for the end this decision whatever decision we make should be made here the seven of us represent the residents and the businesses of Miami Beach and that decision belongs here because nobody nobody else knows the problems like we
do and knows the issues and knows the stakeholders on both sides on both sides that decision has to be made here um but unfortunately it's gotten it's gotten uh it's gotten very political to say to say it straight um with the county with the Judiciary and ultimately that's what I will continue to fight for we make the decision whatever the decision that makes we what made we represent the residents and businesses of Miami
Beach Eric so thank you good morning everyone um Eric Carpenter city manager uh just a brief brief history on this particular discussion um this commission issued a resolution back in October 27th on October 7th 2021 directing the administration to design and Implement a one-way southbound condition on Ocean Drive
between 5th and 15th Street um a month and a half later December 8th 2021 the same commission issued direction to move forward with a pilot program for the prominade from 13th Street to 14th Place on January of 2022 the one-way configuration was approved by the county and implemented by the city um same time the pilot program was
initiated for the prominade um lot of coordination lot of back and forth with the county many conversations um I went back and looked at the record we've had 15 ltc's over the last two years on this matter um we've had close to a dozen letters back and forth with Miami Dade County Public Works um on January 30th of 2024 a block party permit was issued for
the prominade with 180-day duration to move forward with what we thought was going to be the permanent um pedestrianization of that two block stretch uh the county was very clear at that time that that block party permit was conditioned upon the following approval of a methodology for a traffic operations and safety analysis based on both the current configuration and a
modified configuration of the prominade as recommended by dtpw the County's Department of Transportation and Public Works submitt of a traffic operations and safety analysis based on the approved methodology conducting community outreach and conducting a survey of the affected property owners and obtaining concurrence from 2third of the Property Owners within the prominade and affected side streets the city complied with all of those requirements that the county
put forward um unfortunately on January 7th of this year we received a letter from the county requesting that we remove the prominade um I believe that was as a result of the ongoing litigation that we're facing um and I do believe that that court hearing is driving a lot of these decisions um I will leave the legal analysis up to our esteemed City
attorney um but unfortunately the judge has ruled at this point in time and has directed the city to remove the prominade and return Ocean Drive from fth to 15th Street back to its preco two-way condition um unfortunately I don't don't see a path at this point to be able to avoid compliance with that court order um I
will gladly hand it over to Rick to talk about the legal proceedings but unfortunately despite our best efforts and despite close collaboration has with the county as has been enumerated in all of our ltc's um the county has basically made us aware that that they are not going to be permitting the prominade and ultimately unfortunately despite the discussions
about the one-way condition um potentially being something they would consider uh it looks like they're saying there's going to be a timeline that they will not be able to approve that prior to our having to comply with the judge's order um on a brighter note I can say that in June of 2023 we engaged with Calvin gardano and Associates to move forward with the design of the long-term
zovich plan for Ocean Drive in Lumis Park um and they are 18 months in they are wrapping up their um traffic analysis that looked at the entirety of the art deco Cultural District um and I am hopeful that we will be able to present that to the commission within the next 60 to 90 days so that we can discuss what the long-term vision is
for Ocean Drive and allow us to move forward with that greater vision and with that I'll conclude Rick and then we'll come back to the body here okay good morning everyone so um everything Eric uh explained is is accurate just to add a little bit of the legal color um I do agree with Eric that the letter we received on January 7th from the county was tied directly because we had a hearing on January 8th in front of Judge
uh beatric Buko Sanchez and the letter was informing as as Eric mentioned uh the city that we had to reopen The Pedestrian Plaza and that we were encouraged to continue to pursue the one-way condition um at the time I think it was the first time that the city heard the term temporarily approved because the city had obtained a permit for the oneway condition I believe at
the beginning of 2022 and that condition has existed for three years um seemingly without any problem or concern raised by the county so in that letter of January 7th the county first use the term temporarily approved um moving on uh that day January 8th um largely basing her decision on public safety concerns although she did buy into the argument
that the Clevelander had suffered imminent harm as a result of the one-way condition um not with understanding our our best arguments that uh they were actually not harmed whatsoever because they had Direct access to the front of their hotel um the judge nevertheless uh found that because of safety concerns that had been raised by the count County uh and that the county had indicated we no longer had a permit for the one-way condition that we had to return Ocean
Drive to its preco two-way condition um absent obtaining a permit for from the county for the oneway condition so she somewhat confounded the issue of what the safety concerns were that had been raised by the county which subsequently was clarified in a deposition uh by by the same uh County employee who had said that there were safety concerns she clarified that the safety concerns
were focused on The Pedestrian Plaza um we um obtained an extension from the judge because she originally said we had to comply by January uh 15th um and then we um um we obtained an extension through January 31st we subsequently filed a notice of appeal because separate and apart from the County's Direction um our belief is that it is up
to the county to direct the city uh in matters involving traffic flow and not the courts uh we believe there's a separation of powers issue and we are therefore appealing and we will continue with that appeal regardless of of the um need to comply with the judge's order and and and return uh Ocean Drive to its its two-way condition um so where we are now is we just had a another hearing yesterday um because as a result of our
filing the notice of appeal we received an automatic stay which basically froze the judge's order in time but the judge herself vacated that stay and said no you you need to comply um and so we will be appealing that as well um I believe that the judge just entered her order this morning at around 9:20 when we had just started so we will be filing an appeal to the third DCA uh to reinstate
the stay I'm not sure that that will happen uh because the basis of the judge's ruling was safety concerns and I don't know that the DCA is going to go into the Weeds on on that issue so we will need to wait our turn to actually argue the merits of the case in front of the DCA um in the next couple of months I suspect um so in terms of where we are legally we um have no choice as Eric said but to comply with the judge's order unless in
the next day or two uh we receive another reprieve but the county has made it clear that The Pedestrian Plaza has to go away um but they are willing to work with us on the one-way condition as Eric also mentioned uh there are new stricter requirements uh when you are taking a road from a two-way to a one-way condition which will simply cause this to be a longer or lengthier [Applause]
process back the only comment I'll make is uh what's I'll tell you why I'm asking what's the expense to turn the lane around because it's it's interesting that you have a decision made and generally the way our court system works is you have an appellant process but here I mean I'm assuming that it's a pretty pricey expense to turn the road road around but maybe I'm wrong I would hand that off to our Public Works team but I believe it's a
six-figure number yeah that's that's you don't have to give me an exact number that that my my point is on the expediency of of having pellet courts heard uh I'm going to turn it turn it over to my colleagues um vice mayor bot thank you mayor I you know I I have a lot of thoughts on this and you're going to hear quite a few of them but before um I share them I would like to ask um police chief Wayne Jones to join us um because
there are a lot of claims being made about public safety and crime rates and vehicle access and um as somebody pointed out anybody who has walked down Ocean Drive before 19 2020 and since 2020 yeah things are really different I know I look good right um before 2020 and and and since 22 23 um it's night
and day so um could you please talk about crime statistics data Public Safety Vehicles both yours and I know you're not part of the fire department but generally speaking you guys collaborate on on issues David with all due respect it's the wrong way it's the wrong way and and the poor man who lost his legs was sleeping on the street I mean he wasn't you know let's not let's not litigate this at theth let's let's keep to the topic at hand please
otherwise we'll be here for days so Chief take it away good morning uh Wayne Jones police chief uh police department um so when the when the road closure was implemented initially what was important for the police department to have is ready access unmitigated unstructed access to that part of the drive in case of emergency and so the fix for that was
having security guards 247 guarding those Gates that has worked very very well for us additionally we sort of supplemented our everyday Patrol efforts by moving out of vehicles to ATVs golf courts bicycles which has also worked uh very well for us in terms of providing uh emergency services to that part of the drive um want to share some data
points with you D need to open this for me again uh since 2021 broadly speaking we have seen a reduction um in crime uh and therefore one can surmise from that that we're safer uh since then uh 12% rest reduction on Ocean Drive 16% reduction in um calls for service on Ocean Drive and that's
the entirety of Ocean Drive okay yes and you know um this notion of um Vehicles can't access Ocean Drive there are two blocks out of the 15 um blocks that are limited in Access and every other block has an entrance Point onto Ocean Drive so help me understand understand that you know because Ocean Drive is not currently closed to traffic it is one way with a bike lane so fire trucks
anybody can get to where they need to go because they can come in a little further south and turn left right as they need that's correct okay so let's just keep the facts let's let's understand the facts are actually factual um I understand there is a lot of passion about this both ways I get that um has anybody here not seen bird cage the movie because it's wonderful on its own
merits um and I watched it again a couple of times recently for various reasons and the scene showing Ocean Drive is magnificent it is a parking lot with people hanging out the windows and rollerblading in the smallest questionable bathing suits and outfits if you want to call them that it's awesome but that was a point in time and that's not what our tourism is that's not what our business model is that's not what our brand identity is it was a
fabulous point in time that that was the beginning of the Renaissance of Ocean Drive but we have evolved and moved on we have grown up from that that No Holds Barred version of ourselves The Clevelander claims they've been damaged in their business model but they haven't changed their business model since we were filming spring break on the beach here you know we do ocean we do we close down Ocean Drive for a couple of days every year we do the art deco week weekend and whether or not you know anything about architecture people
wander around looking and saying this is awesome and if the Clevelander and the other restaurants along the the drive but especially the Clevelander wanted to embrace that and put people into period costumes and have uh Art Deco jazz music coming they would have people lining up for drinks outside right but they're not they're doing their own thing and that is their prerogative but don't blame us for your business model if it's no longer what the customer desires um I think we really need to bifurcate the issues I think we need to bifurcate this
small two block pedestrianization thank you Chief I don't mean to keep up there forever thank you very much I think we need is hey I got this i got this I got you guys I got I think we need to bifurcate the issue between the two blocks that were done as a test really and the bigger issue
arguably of there are three issues we're going to tackle two right now the the two blocks that were done as a test and the the one-way um traffic on Ocean Drive with a very robust bike lane and I'm going to take that one first well one of the callers I think his name was Josh was excoriating us as as a government and as a community because we weren't doing enough for micromobility that we are not helping our traffic because we don't
have safe places for people to ride we have one of the best living examples of how cars and vehicles can coexist safely on a pretty major thoroughfare in our city and we are being told to undo it it flies in the face of Public Safety in the face of common sense in the face of caring about residents we have reams of data reams of data and this is not even most of it this is a suon of data
showing that pedestrianized roads or partially pedestrianized roads generate so much incremental retail sales and value uh retail sales especially to restaurants and bars they help with um uh employment issues because people don't have to drive in from parts uh further west um they help with with um you know the garage person Mr merelli notwithstanding I can't speak to that particular data set but um retail value
of the the retail land of the of the Lea spaces and and the buildings and the residential spaces that all goes through the roof there is significant money to be made for everybody by making Ocean Drive safer more pedestrian friendly accessible to cars as needed and for folks who say well I can't get to my hotel or the Uber driver dropped me in a in a um in a uh in an alley in the rain
well shame on that Uber driver because there are points onto ocean drive all the way up and down and you can go around the block and drop somebody right at the front door of the hotel and you should have an umbrella in your car to help that person to the front door right so that is not that's not a fair assessment either there are pedestrianized streets and plazas throughout the world World Asia South America Central America Europe that are the most expensive real estate to be had the finest hotels the best restaurants
the coolest bars and they think about it holistically and think about the traffic management and the emergency vehicle management and how people are going to get to their destinations safely we can do this properly all of this and this is one of the reasons I ran for office is that we have as a city too long of a history of doing things peace me like oh this sounds like a good idea let's let's do it right here and right now what sounds like a really good idea we should be thinking about holistically and thinking about how to do it in an
integrated manage uh managed fashion so that the businesses on Ocean Drive will be en empowered to thrive that we have ways to get people to their front doors of the hotels and the restaurants that we have places for people to move the cars off of and get their bikes onto that we have people who can coexist in bikes rollerblades emobility cars s whatever you need in a holistic fashion and we haven't done that yet so to say that it's not working is not a fair assessment it just isn't so I think
there's a bigger part of this that we'll maybe we'll get to later today or maybe it'll be a separate issue but you did mention that there is or no Eric I think mentioned that there has been a plan in the works for years to think holistically about how we reimagine lumus park and this is a time let us not let other authorities govern how we choose to live we are trying to make ourselves one of the healthiest most well
this well-being I don't that's not even a word but we should make it one one of the the best places to live in this in in the country and putting more cars into places where there are children and dogs and rollerbladers and bikers is not the way to do that it is counterintuitive it's not safe it doesn't make sense it's expensive and oh by the way it doesn't photograph well when do you think you're going to get those pictures of Ocean Drive lit up in neon at night or at at Sunrise when
everything is glowing pastel those are the pictures that are driving people to your businesses because they want to eat there they want to see the sunrise and have coffee after they go for a run on the beach they're not you're not going to get those pictures they're all going to have to be photoshopped out with the cars beeping and with their exhaust spilling out so let's end this nonsense about it's terrible for us it's terrible for us the way it has been unfolding we know the parts of it are excellent and we know parts of it should should have been done differently and better so let's do it right moving
[Applause] forward think I saw uh commissioner Fernandez hand first yeah then commissioner magazine thank you you know I just want to be very careful um about the words that we say today uh because I think there's a lot of people who are very carefully listening I think you know there's uh you know a lot of political people listening I think there are a lot of attorneys with
uh with with with interests that are listening and our words can and I anticipate will be used uh to shape a narrative Beyond this room and so and so I think it's always you know very important um to keep that in mind because you know our words can be used in ways that we didn't anticipate or we didn't intend for our words to be used in you
know I think anyone who's been following this issue knows how I feel about about about the pr knows that I believe that it's been an asset to our city and that it aligns with the general direction that this commission has been going in but the courts have ruled and whether we agree with that decision or not we are a responsible government and we are responsible leaders and we have to
respect the authority of the Judiciary whether we like what what the Judiciary is telling us or not and that's and that's an issue we you know we we're we're asking governments to respect us and to give our community what our community is asking
for but we can't demand respect from other jurisdictions in government if we if we don't respect their Authority as well and you know I could say a lot of things here today that that my constituents will love um you know and and so many of the merits of this of this
prominade but the county has jurisdiction on this matter the county issued us a letter under a section of the county code that grants exclusive jurisdiction to the Department of Transportation and public works over traffic and traffic how traffic moves exclusively to the county both in
Incorporated areas and unincorporated areas of Miami day County and my Approach would be different my Approach would be we have to respect the ruling of the courts we have to respect the County's jurisdiction but like in other matters the county has granted municipalities the ability to make local determinations on certain issues like for example they've done it on traffic
control devices they've done it on tra on safety devices on on roads they've given local governments by the governments working with with the county the jurisdiction for the cities to do it legally and this might be one of the these things that I feel it might be proper rather than fighting with Miami day County and rather rather than not
following the order of a court I mean I I don't know Mr M Mr attorney what precedent is there for not following a court order I don't I don't believe that the city has ever not followed a Court's order yeah actually commissioner I'm curious because you you kind of warned us to be careful what we say but by asking that question I think we're we're I yeah I don't think we we've ever violated or not complied with a court order and so my point is my point is you know I think it's it's better to
ask if we really want this let's ask for there to be people granting us this jurisdiction because right now we don't have the jurisdiction and we're having to go to the county and the county is doing what the county feels and needs to do um and that's that's that's uh that's that's my point on this we're asking permission from
another government to do something they're telling us what their position is we don't agree with their position the courts have ruled on something we have to respect the Court ruling but what we can do is go to the county and ask them to give us a jurisdiction so that they're not caught in the middle of this oh Sammy doesn't like that Sammy Samy's growling he doesn't like what I'm saying um
you that's is hilarious um you know and there's Miami Beach is very different than so many other places of Miami day County we are a denly built environment we are a pedestrian friendly area uh of of the county and so I think if if we were to take that approach I think it would be received
much better and it would be the most professional I believe and the most collegial way to go about this with Partners who we have right now no option but to work with and so I'm not happy with a decisions the county has made on this but it's their Authority and I have to respect their Authority I'm not happy with a decision that the court has made on this but they are the Judiciary and we have to respect the Judiciary regardless of the appeals in the
meantime you know our manager has has put it in in writing the direction of the Court is for immediate removal of the Ocean Drive prominade and returning the entirety of Ocean Drive to the pre-co condition of two-way traffic I don't agree with that but that is the the order of the judge but what we can do what we can do is ask the county to give us this jurisdiction because of our unique character here to
be able to make these decisions here which is I think ultimately the desire of our government we want to be able to make these decisions locally in the city of Miami Beach and we can certainly ask the county to grant us that Authority so that they're not caught in the middle of this debate thank you Mr Mayor thank you commissioner magazine thank you Mr Mayor to the colleagues of the community for being so interested here um my vision from IM Beach uh simple maybe not simple
to achieve but very simple that's to create the best the best community to live work visit raise a family in the entire country if not the entire world right and we're blessed that our template is there and we need to kind of break this apart into what's going to happen today what's going to happen over the course of the next couple of months and then what our longer term plan is one of the frustrations that I've endured that caused me to run and still uh continue it is just those slow turning wheels of government right we've
had a master plan in here uh I believe we paid half a million dollars for uh I don't six years ago eight years ago something along those lines you know another 18 months for traffic studies and things like that um but we we are where we are today I'm going to lay out what my vision is and how I think we should move forward right of course uh I would never instruct our city to do anything other than follow a court order so while I lament that there could be uh
excuse the transportation puton but a roadblock here or speed bump in executing our longer term Vision it's something that I remain committed to uh that being said the vision that I have a rising tide lifts all boats right if we truly do achieve and execute on that vision of collectively making Miami Beach the best place in the entire world our residents will love it and our businesses will profit right those are not mutually exclusive for so many years
in Miami Beach the quality of life of our residential Community was in an adversarial relationship with our business Community I think Miami Beach is in the process of Reinventing ourselves of branding ourselves where those things can go hand inand where our businesses can prosper and our residents actually benefit and enjoy the quality quality of life that those businesses are helping us to execute and facilitate on so where does that leave us today unfortunately I do believe you know I'll put this part over to City
staff that we will have to uh follow court orders however I think immediately we need to say what is our short medium and longer term Vision are we going to truly execute on this zovich plan or at least large portions of that and I think that's something that we need to iron out understand exactly what that plan is and how we move forward with that my vision what I would love to see is the best the best bar nun pedestrian
prominade that fronts our beach in the entire world right if you think about some of the most iconic places um that front beaches and oceans you don't you don't get that vision of uh cars revving up and down and you know cruising at night and things like that that being said if you're business and you think that you're going to be adversely affected by a pedestrianization there the vision that I wouldn't settle for a vision that
is not going to bring prosperity to our community so I truly think that those two things can work handin hand so while my vision of what is best for Ocean Drive may be different right now than what some of we're hearing from our business community that is a long Ocean Drive the plan that we want to execute on is going to a rising tide lifts all boats here right we're not one of the things that I'm lament the most is we're just stuck in purgatory at the moment and I think that that's why there's some
apprehension from our business Community I think we threaded the needle well but let's say we did continue with a pedestrian not barrowing a court order but a pedestrianization of that promin on 13th to 15th Street I don't want to walk out there and it feels like you're in purgatory where it's just two sidewalks painted and the ugly fence uh in the street that should be a beautiful permanent pedestrian prominade like you would see in Monaco or some of the most iconic areas in the entire world
something that we're proud of as residence that enhances our quality of life but something that is also going to uh attract and Rise uh bring in customers for our business community and even the residents that may not agree on that so I think what we we really need to do is decide here and I think that's unfortunately a bit easy uh you know staff will kind of direct us on what needs to happen now but then also provide some certainty about where we're going one month from now three months from now six months from now and what
that means for our long term because we've thrown out these Master plans so many times in our city and they just get lost in the abyss right and Ocean Drive is too special of an area we are too special of a city just to be stuck in the mud to be stuck in purgatory we need to have conviction and execute on the vision of making this the the best place in the entire world thank you commissioner Dominguez thank you mayor uh this is a
very complicated issue um and I share many of the things that have been said by my colleagues I won't repeat them um I have a few concerns one is we have a court order and we need to be compliant so first is when will that happen through the chair um so as mentioned in the LTC that went out last night we have people on Ocean Drive right now we were waiting for the
judge's ruling to be finalized um and my instruction is as soon as this meeting concludes that they are going to remove the prominade and the um prominade has been extremely successful and they have concerts can we continue how can they get permits to continue until the future master plan and and discussion of the vision of Ocean Drive how can we protect
the Sunday concerts so my understanding is that the Sunday concerts take place on the lawn primarily except if there's rain and then they go inside at the Betsy so I think there's still a possibility for them to continue to have the prominade music series on the lawn But ultimately we have a special event permit process that allows us to isue special events we also have a maintenance of traffic
permit process if there are lane closures that need to be implemented at certain times does this ruling prevent them from uh applying for the special event permit because I've been to the Sunday concerts and while they are on the lawn there's a beauty of how it spills into the street and people go back and forth and have that pedestrianization um does the ruling prevent them from doing that so I would have to defer to our City attorney on whether or not he feels like they're mutually
exclusive well the one thing that comes to mind is that you may be able to apply for a block party permit from the county for these temporary events because that was one of the concerns that was raised uh during the proceedings was that the block party permit issued for uh The Pedestrian Plaza was was supposed to be temporary in nature so you could continue theoretically to have those events if you needed to close off and as the manager said um you know we have the
you know the ability to issue special event permits on our own I'm not sure so there's a concert on Sunday how can we assist to ensure that they have that for Sunday I'm not familiar with the details of what the footprint for that concert is so I I can't answer so I think that they have a special event permit for the concert series in its entirety I just think that there may be specifically for this Sunday I think there may be a need for
it to be focused to the lawn while we have an opportunity to kind of get our bearings and figure out what can and can't be permitted moving forward okay and then as far as um being compliant is there a way to protect the bike lane um and still be compliant with the court order I I would love nothing more than to keep the existing one-way
configuration with the bike lane we have been told by the county on numerous occasions that they cannot permit it and its current configuration um we've worked diligently with them to try and knock down some of the the perceived barriers to getting that permit but the judge has been clear with us that absent a permit from the county we must remove it why won't the County permit a bike lane they did
permit the bike lane they did permit a bike lane they are now taking the position that the prior permit expired and that a future permit would be subject to um a number of Provisions including a recent recently approved State Statute that preempts the repurposing of lanes um see I think those were my
questions for now mayor if I could just clarify one point through the chair um the new state statute it doesn't preempt it just imposes additional requirements so there is a notice period Community meetings and such so it is it will be possible if if we pursue this permit which I believe is the intent to eventually um secure the permit is just going to take longer than what had been anticipated so if if I may um what
you're saying is that we will have to revert back to two-lane traffic with no bike lane to the tune of some six fig dollar amount let's call it three for now and concurrently apply for a permit that was originally originally granted and we were all operating under the belief that it was a permit a permanent permit that it was there was no temporary anything about it and we now need to reapply for something that has
been in effect very successfully for the last three years that that is correct um the only thing that I would add to that is that we have submitted three permits one the original permit trying to to reopen or restart what they claim has expired just to be clear we're talking about the bike Lanes the bike Lanes correct secondly we submitted a um a
slightly modified permit under the prior permit offices that had comments so that we could be grandfathered in um and most recently we've submitted a new permit um on under a new engineer of record um that ultimately the county has said that they are going to require us to travel under the third option as
opposed to the first two the first two would have in my humble opinion been grandfathered under the state statute so is there is there legal recourse on on um encouraging the county to grant us a first or second option we I mean I know the manager as well as the city attorney's office has had numerous conversations with the county regarding that and at at present
their their position is that that that is not possible that we need to proceed under this new regime and so that will take how long you submitted the beginnings of the new permit we've submitted the drawings that drawings that were previous previously approved with um updates for the latest iterations of the new standards and under the state statute it would
take 180 day um basically Burnin period before the um the permit could be issued so we're going to spend let's say $3 million to take the two-way Lanes uh the bicyle lanes down and hopefully in a few months be able to be permitted to spend another few million dollars to reinstate them the only thing I would offer is I don't think it's going to be in the millions of dollars I think it's going to be in the
hundreds of thousands Okay small sols okay so final thoughts I think we're ready to wrap up so when I became commissioner four five years ago and they are literally from both sides of the aisle and I hate to say it that way cuz I'm a big believer that what's good for residents is good for businesses I say that over and over again because what's good for residents is safety cleanliness it's it it it it lifts everyone unfortunately we see um not by
the way there's a lot of businesses who would be sitting I unfortunately it's there this this room has been bifurcated by position for the most part uh but there are a lot of businesses who reach out who would be on this side um but either way one thing I heard uniformally from residents and business businesses 5 years ago even a year ago a year and a half ago mayor we have to make Ocean Drive safer we need more police visibility and we've seen that I have
done that we have done that uh successfully I think everyone agrees with that and we want to make sure whatever happens that we maintain maintain that um this is a really good discussion I'm I'm actually um very pleased at the discussion I'm I'm I'm happy um that I called this meeting because I think it gives uh one our residents a chance to speak and be heard also for to educate people about the process that's going on but I think also importantly and I think Eric and Rick
with your hearing here and I and please colleagues if you if I'm mistaken on this I and we want to be really way more involved in this process um on so many levels I mean I mean I'm literally talking about sitting in meetings with the county um uh understanding our are legal and maybe even participating in some of the legal proceedings um this is this is one of the most important issues in our city right now hands down
and for many reasons obviously we talked about the postcard of our city iconic it's uh it drives so many things the success of spring break last year and using the same Playbook and I'm very optimistic we'll have similar success this year it's all about Ocean Drive it's all connected to this one street um so there it would it behooves us to be way more involved in the process uh I
will be I think my colleagues are all sharing that and we are going to be so um we're going to need regular updates we're going to be participating I'm just giving you the heads up like literally it it may be like a weekly uh a weekly um updates and again I'm going to be very involved in the process and speaking with mayor Cava uh commissioner Higgins commissioner Steinberg uh we need to get that level of involvement at this point and uh also again with with the entire legal
proceedings thank you again I'm I I think we have a good direction I think we know where we're going to go working with the county dealing with the legal issues and working with our residents and businesses to get to the best decision and making our city as prosperous and safe as it can be thank you and God bless you all have a great weekend for