##VIDEO ID:NKVurQQMClc## [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] 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 one good afternoon and welcome to the January 16th 2025 meeting meeting of the land use and sustainability committee uh Mr attorney let's do a roll call thank you Mr chairman commissioner Dominguez hi commissioner Suarez will be arriving shortly uh commissioner uh Vice chair bot present and chairman Fernandez present we have a quum as the attorney mentioned uh commissioner Suarez will be arriving shortly today's meeting of the land us and sustainability committee will be conducted in a hybrid format with members of the committee physically present in the in the commission Chambers at Miami Beach City Hall and staff and members of the public appearing either in person or virtually via Zoom to participate virtually members of the public may dial 88847591 59923 037 pound or log into the Zoom app and enter the webinar ID which again is 8505 9923 037 anyone wish wishing to speak on an item must click the raise hand icon in the Zoom app or dial star9 if participating by phone with that Mr Mr director are there any changes edits withdrawals referrals on today's agenda uh yes Mr chair I have two announcements uh item number five which is an amendment to the comprehensive plan and resiliency code regarding non-conforming provisions and rm1 regulations um specific to on-site parking residential uses in non-conforming hotels on the north side of B Isle this item is being deferred to the February meeting and item number nine the monthly update on Geo Bond Beach Walk reforestation project this is being deferred to a future date perfect uh and I will also announce that at the February 20th meeting we will also be doing our discussion on the LTC bi-weekly LTC having to do with the North Beach Code Compliance and Property Maintenance uh of there and that will be happening at the February uh 20th uh meeting of the land use committee and I've also asked the city Administration to consider whether it would be feasible to have the meeting in North Beach to take the committee meeting up to North Beach so we're checking to see if that would be feasible with that is there a motion to set the agenda I assum move the is been moved by the Vice chair second by the chair so by acclamation uh we can show the agenda adopted I'm going to take item number two out of order take that first then we'll follow the agenda's print so with that commissioner vice mayor bod you recognized thank you um so I wanted to have the staff and the developer themselves um come and give us an update on what's going on with the Ocean Terrace project it is a really important project for the health and well-being of North Beach it's been vacant for too long uh the park looks like it's bursting ready to open and that's great um but I'm also really curious to hear what's happening with the the hotel and the condos themselves before we recognize before we recognize staff I'm sorry let's just have uh the director read the title into the record oh sorry yes I'm sorry uh this is item number two discuss the status of the private portion of the Ocean Terrace Redevelopment project all right and David Gomez welcome you're recognized good afternoon Commissioners David Gomez director of Capital Improvements um this is a a fairly positive uh update the public portion of the project commenced in October of 2023 it has been moving essentially on schedule and is scheduled to be completed or attained substantial completion this spring um so we'll be able to put that Park and that asset online later this uh spring the developer has reported to us um that the design remains consistent for the private portion with HPB approvals uh they are looking at some minor revisions that they're discussing with planning staff now but it is generally in in alignment with the original HPB approval um and they anticipate launching uh sales of residents in the first quarter of this year there should be a a representative from the developer online to give you a further update all right uh PJ uh GMA there's a representative uh online via Zoom let's recognize him to present to the committee do we know commissioner B should be Jared green who's um making himself available Jared good afternoon welcome we cannot hear you Jared we cannot hear you I see okay in the future anyone from the public that is coming to make a special presentation you know they're not in public hearing you know I would like them to be in person we have other is coming to speak onight so Jared if you could just unmute yourself um okay so while we're waiting hopefully for Jared to sort his technical issues out um would it be possible to I don't know what the right mechanism is but to have this come back quarterly so that we can get real time updates on what's going on I will be happy to request the developer do that and I I would and and to add on to that I'm you know happy to hear about the residential sales that uh they're going to start the first quarter um and the park completion I believe the spring my concern continues to be um the structures the historic structures um on on Ocean terrorist I I want to make sure uh that they remain uh in proper structural integrity uh that is my concern there uh as we move forward and commissioner bond this is your item um I'd encourage uh you as a sponsor uh to perhaps be requesting uh a structural analysis on the existing uh structures to make sure they're not in Peril uh and maybe you know uh through the guidance of our staff maybe when this comes back in a quarter they could come back and since we've w't able to hear from from Jared today maybe since we'll be up in North Beach on Fe hopefully we'll be in North Beach for our next committee meeting uh maybe they could attend in person and present to the committee in person yeah I will follow up on all of that all right and and staff if uh Tom I don't know there's anything else you would like to add on that no I'll uh reach out to my staff to have them uh take a look at the conditions of the buildings on site to make sure that there's nothing out of the ordinary there yeah I mean I think I think um through the chair if I may of course I I think um there may have been one over the the number of years since when this first got um approved by the commission at the time I think one of the buildings um where facades has been lost I don't want to lose any additional facades and I know um last year I met with sandor and we talked about um upgrading the way it looked because it was looking really kind of Ratty and there's talk about painting and I think some stuff has been painted but I I'd like that's what I was haven't had the conversation with Jared about um was to really get a full update on what's going on what needs to happen sooner rather than later like progress that it's continuing a pace is good let's remember though that this has been a project for you know almost a decade now um and so we need to really make sure that we keep our our eye on the ball and move this forward that we don't have any more delays and we don't have any unintended consequences and losses um up there but we're very excited about the park and we're very excited to hear that things are moving and uh let's keep that going we can celebrate spring at Ocean Terrace Park there go there we go uh commissioner uh Dominguez or any other members of the public wishing to speak on this item commissioner Dominguez no no com said this time all right um are there any members of the public wishing to speak on this item seeing none in person any via Zoom seeing none via VIA Zoom thank you Mr Gomez for your presentation and I I'm gonna just take a moment of personal privilege um before we move on to our next item I just want to take a moment to congratulate my mom and dad that today they're celebrating their 49th uh wedding anniversary so I just and uh to my mother-in-law up uh who is celebrating today a big birthday I can't I will be uh 29 I will be forced into Exile if I say which which number birthday it is but to my parents happy anniversary and to my mother-in-law Kathy wolar a very happy birthday and Mr director yes for the Ocean Terrace item do you want this move to the next meeting February right February and hopefully it'll be very appropriately located in North Beach perhaps in the Broadmore the where the Broadmore have work with d y all right with that uh let's call up item number one Mr director okay item number one is discuss amending the Land Development regulations of the city code for the RO residential office District along Alton Road between 12th and 14th Street as well as applicable sections of the non-conformance use regulations to permit alcoholic beverage establishments on a limited basis as an accessory use commissioner Dominguez this is your item you're welcome to present your item thank you Mr chair uh so this item was brought forward by a resident that um also owns the nursery that is on on Alton Road uh I took a former planning board member with me uh um to look at the site and uh get their thoughts and they actually wrote the legislation which then the legal team here at City Hall uh made into what we're reading today um it's and maybe Tom can expand on this a little bit more the block before and the block after can sell alcohol and it's just this little space because of um how it's zoned it can't and there aren't any uh residences near it and um on either side it's businesses and uh it's meant to be a local hangout there's no parking other than metered and uh I think it's a a good item Tom anything you want to share um I'll just clarify that the area the 12200 and 1300 blocks on the east side of Alton Road are zoned Ro they were rezoned Ro in the late 90s as part of a Citywide down Zone and they used to be cd2 and a lot of those uses including this gardening center became legal nonconforming when they were down Zone you're correct north of 14th Street is cd2 you can sell alcohol south of 12th Street once you get past Flamingo Park is cd2 and alcohol sales are permitted there so this proposal here would allow for The Limited sale of alcoholic beverages within existing non-conforming cafes and it's not hard liquor they want to sell beer and wine it's a Charming uh Cafe Cafe if you will that sells salads and sandwiches and uh they'd be open till uh 10 or 11 o'clock at night and um I think it's everyone should go take a look at it it's a beautiful location and I would agree with you this is certainly a very unique and special location longstanding establishment in our city with a very positive history of with a very positive history of performance in in our city uh so I you know I I welcome this very much commissioner Bond you're recognized yeah I um I think this is great the resident came to me as well and and I I know the area and I've looked at plants there and you know staying open till 10 o'clock inside and 8:00 outside um seems to be very compatible with a positive Neighborhood use um question what is the current occupancy of this establishment this occupancy this this establish currently has 10 seats that's what's on their V they're allowed to have 10 seats and which I think it's something so reasonable um and uh and and I think it would align with the spirit of this legislation that this serves a very you know it's a very modest use this isn't a large establishment and the legislation is not intended for anything large it'd be great to to to reference that the sponsor agrees in the item itself that you know this is for small establishment like like that with with you know limited seating of no more than 10 or no more than a dozen because that way it keeps with what the spirit of this is It's a garden center that happens to have a little cafe and we're not talking about a bar or a wine club or anything like that this is just a small Neighborhood Place so if the sponsor agrees I would like to just put that 10 occupancy limit as part of the legislation and what did you say the occupancy was currently their BTR allows for uh 10 seats it's a very small Cafe yeah I've been it seemed like maybe more than 10 would fit there yeah they may have room for 10 but technically they're only allowed to have 10 and if they were going to propose more than 10 that would be an expansion of a non-conforming use so all right well let's start with 10 okay yeah and um and also let's just make sure you know how does the vesting work in this situation because whenever we talk about alcohol and the past we've had conversations about vesting uh Mr attorney could you guide us on that BEC sure because this is an amendment to the ldrs to allow alcohol to be served even on a limited basis um when somebody comes in and obtains approval btrc for an alcoholic beverage establishment they would be vested in that approval um what we could do here if if the commission wanted to preserve its ability to change ours again in the future is to clarify that the the hours of sale are subject to Future change and I think that that's reasonable again it goes in line with the with with prior legislation we have passed and authorities said we as a legislative body would have liked to have kept in the past and so and so I think it just makes um at this point legislative sense to ensure that we retain that Authority okay awesome all right there members of the public wishing to speak on this item seeing none in person on Zoom seeing none via Zoom uh any other comments from the de seeing none can we show this item adopted by acclamation all right good job commissioner Dominguez thank you guys and I'd like the record to reflect that commissioner Suarez has made it uh to our meeting thank you commissioner Suarez for joining us uh let's call up item number three okay Mr chair uh item number three is discuss amending the land development regulations to authorize the city commission to approve a fee waiver by resolution for L use board application fees for variances where variances required to make repairs or improvements to correct a deficiency identified in a building recertification inspection report for a residential apartment building condominium or cooperative all right this is an item I placed on the agenda to discuss the feasibility of waving land use board application fees for variances needed to make repairs or improvements based on issues identified in recertification reports for residential buildings and as we all know all buildings have to go through these recertifications uh and the notations made in those recertification reports usually relate to safety requirements requirements needed to bring their buildings back up to the standards of today a code and to the standards that are needed for Public Safety what occurs is that individuals you know they're forced to do these repairs and at times they've had to then go before a land use board to get approvals to do repairs that they are required to do in order to obtain their recertification certificate and this can become often a costly Endeavor for associations especially for cash strapped associations and so with the assistance of our City attorney and our planning director we've we've crafted legislation to to to help address that uh and I'd like to recognize our City attorney to walk us through the legislation that we've crafted today to help those associations facing the scenario sure I'd be happy to so the ordinance has been drafted to allow the city commission to wave by resolution some are all of the fees associated with variance applications when the variance is required to comply with with an applicable building recertification so it would allow the commission to do that on a on a case-by Case basis where uh where property owner is required to make uh changes to the property but to do so um they would need a variance from one of the land use ports great and Mr direct dard know if you have any comments to add regarding this legislation no Mr chair the only thing I would add is that uh if there is support for this it would be sent to the city commission for referral to the planning board is an ldr amendment okay uh and I'd like to recognize Gabriel caravano that is joining us today and the members of his Association uh they they're they're an example of uh of of a Condominium Association that was going through a 40-year recertification they felt victims to to what we can call predatory activity of bad contractors that in essence stole their money they had to then hire new contractors they had to file applications to go before the land use boards that that was going to put their members in a very difficult s financial situation have to pass you know further Assessments in order to pay for this uh and they came to me pretty much in tears the the the community came to me in tears for with what they were going to be suffering and Gabrielle I want to recognize you to explain to us what it what it was that you experienced and why this legislation is important for associations like yours so uh I'm going to translate for Gabrielle I'm my name is Mike I'm the property manager for Boston Plaza and I'm here them as well for okay so B they the new board they've been struggling you know for the past years with either uh he said vendors taking advantage of them mismanagement of their money as well their funds and one of the biggest issu they had was the the the 50 year reification so the misuse was one of and the the Ben that were Tak care of was led them to reach out to the DPR and you know start the whole process of removing the the board that was back then and and at that point they had four red tags the building was going to be closed due to the reification that's why they they had to act uh speedly so so part of the uh certification is required for them to pass a photometric uh test this photometric test uh test included them uh they had to install three posts three light post in order to pass this test if they were not if we couldn't install this post we would not be able to pass the reification which mean another red Tack and possible eviction of all the unit owners for so at that point we since we changed vendors we due to the fact that they were not taking the inefficient uh the current engineer that we had uh before he was terminated he had sent a safe to occupy letter to the city I'm sorry sent a what a safe to occupy letter to the city okay that was going to guarant us a couple more months to be able to actually go through the process of variance you know and and take care of things at that point uh the moment he was terminated he took back his uh state to occupy letter letter and left us uh with no uh with no means of protection yes can I just for clarification um I'm not sure if this is a Tom or Nick question but um are vendors allowed to um resend letters that they swear under oath are legit legitimate documentation certifying that something is is safe I mean that's punitive and retaliatory and it either is or it isn't safe I think the best way I can answer that is to say that the the property owners the management company the association um may have a claim against the individual contractor but that would you know that would be a private dispute that the building should you know consider Consulting with an attorney on can't the city say I mean if you submit a document to the city swearing that something is true how does that get rescinded from the city's point of view like how do we all of a sudden it's no longer true I mean I I think the the challenge there would be the building department would have to do its own evaluation of of what the facts are what the conditions are in the property and and and make a decision sorry uh at that point we had to install the post we we had a a time a timeline and so we went ahead and installed the post we just didn't do it you know uh without any information we actually had an engineer new engineering team to go and tell us what was the best spot to place the the post uh without uh having SP spillage into the adjacent or or neighboring um properties uh you know meeting all the other requirements except for the distance from the property line so at that point we went ahead and and we installed them everything withw drawings architectural drawings everything that the city would normally request and we install them we're able to pass the reification but then you have to go now after the fact having to go and uh get these approvals these variances from the land from the board of adjustment correct yes and and how much is that costing your Association well at this point just a reification we have to pass a special assessment to all the unit owners uh we have 60 unit owners majority of them are elderly living on Social Security and we have to pass a special has been of 10 years so on top of that now we have to pay a variance uh to be able to you know get everything in accordance and how much is a variance for your uh building I believe they total is $18,000 how much $18,000 $18,000 uh that's just for the city's part of the variance that doesn't include your the the engineer do you need to hire or the drawings or anything like that that's just for the bureaucratic side of the city correct and it's a 5050 chance because we could still the variance is the process of going to the variance we can might we might still get denied the variance at the end so for us is we know it's a 50-50 chance of paying $8,000 paying engineering paying materials we have to relocate them or you know and at that point we we really can't afford it hardship on the owners that's let trans and we can bring this inform at this point U just to translate the the community doesn't have the funds it's they're struggling they said it's uh mostly Elder community that lives there they've been un owners most of them from from the development time they're living on Social Security and and at this point we cannot force them to have another special assessment in top of what we currently have it'll be a struggle for them right and so I ask them to come and present before the committee uh because I think this is representative of what other struggling associations might be encountering um you know scrupulous contractors uh irresponsible boards or bad Management in the past and addition to then having to deal with the expensive bureaucracy of being able to get their approvals just to be able to comply with the recertification of their building a recertification of their building which usually these are safety requirements that are required uh of them and so and so I think this this situation that's happened with this building is just but one example of many other situations that are happening in our community and this legislation could potentially provide some Financial relief to struggling individuals in our community to be able to maintain their properties uh especially individuals living on fixed incomes and our elderly so with that uh I welcome feedback from from the days commissioner bot um so I I like this idea a lot I think it makes sense we're trying to help people and incentivize them to try to make the changes that we need them to for Collective safety um I'm curious to know how you think the process would work you saying here that the commission would approve these these waivers the the waivers of the fees and so I worry that we're going to become a glorified zoning board if if this is something that there are a lot of requests for is it something that can be handled administratively or done in sort of a collective um or done on consent like gets provided to us you know here the five um properties here's the total here's we think these three are great we think these two don't qualify and then I don't want to get into the weeds here but I do want to like time is so precious on commission meetings right anyhow and and and I believe and I'll and I'll defer to the administration I believe it was the recommendation of the administration that any decision to weigh fees for variances uh applications it should be approved it should be up to the city commission um I think you know the the subject of the variance that would still be part of the jurisdiction of the of the a um but what would actually come to the commission itself would be the consideration of the fee waiver and Tom I don't know if you want to expand as to the administrative recommendation as to the city commission be the one to approve the waiver of the fees yes um Mr chair I'll just add to that that after looking at this carefully we would recommend that any waiver of fees be uh under the so perview of the commission from a procedural standpoint I believe these types of requests could potentially be done as part of a consent agenda um we don't anticipate that there would be a lot of these and the commission could decide on a case-by casee basis whether or not a fee would be uh appropriate to wave or not there may be circumstances where it wouldn't be appropriate to wave the fee um but there would be um a number of circumstances potentially where the waiver of the fee would be appropriate and an application and an association would make an application to the planning board for a fee waiver and then the administration would place that on a consent agenda with either a favorable or an unfavorable recommendation for us to accept correct okay and it's does said uh satisfy uh the city attorney's office would this process satisfy the city attorney's office yes all right are there any other comments from the deas um I know this is well intended and I applaud that I I wonder if there's any um um proof of financial hardship this required because I you know I think this is well intended what I don't want is it for it to be abused by people who don't need the help and so many people could is there a possibility to add a requirement to to show if you wanted to include a provision for the application containing a statement of financial hardship you could certainly do that yeah yeah and I'm happy to include that as part of the requirements of this um I'm happy to include that but in all in in all reality I really do believe that when when some when a variance is to get individuals to comply with 40e recertifications anything that we can do to reduce costs frankly we should be doing and so you know hey you know they're already going through a bureaucratic process um and you know we want to encourage individuals to do this and to deal with as few extra costs as possible and so I just don't want an association just because they might not necessarily have a financial hardship they may have already been dealing with fraudulent contractors and it doesn't mean that they haven't already been victimized by a failed system and for example individuals report things all the time to dbpr they might not be a financially struggling struggling Association but that doesn't mean individuals haven't been victimized by bad contractors by bad Engineers by individuals who work together you know you do a report saying something is unsafe and I come on the other side and I'm going to try to get the business in order to fix it and you know uh and I'm a relative of the management company and you know we know these things happen and so even if individuals are not financially in Peril they've become victims and I think you know this is one of the few things we can do to help those individuals uh even if they're not the ones that are you know the most cash strapped so I agree with that I but what I don't want is people to just think that it is as of right that they can right um come and get these fees waved right there needs to be some kind of you know we've been trying to do it but terrible circumstances happened or you know we we have Financial constraints or whatever like I just don't want some super wealthy building that has not had any bugs in the system um right to have an issue commissioner Dominguez yeah thank you for bringing this forward um from what I gathered the City ad Administration said this wasn't a blanket it was Case by case so I don't think there would be a worry that there would be a rubber stamp of people getting this through I agree with you that um Mr chair it's so important as a community to try to help because not only are buildings doing 40 and 50e res certifications but now uh the state and county has other requirements they're having to fund reserves now because of hurricanes in the city insurance has gone up 200% so any little bit that we can do to help the Condominiums is really important yeah and if and if not we're going to only become again a city where only rich people can afford to to to to live in and you might not be poor but that doesn't mean that you you know have a huge savings account to be able to get now another assessment and pay for something extra yeah Mr attorney I just want to ask you something else because again A lot of times you know it's not just the cost of these applications but it's also the time uh and sometimes you know right now the boa doesn't have the biggest agenda but these things change over time we go through cycles of these things could we make sure that when these applications go before our our boards as it relates to applications that are to comply with these uh with these reifications that they take priority consideration on the agenda of those Sports we can include that okay and if if there's no opposition from the committee I'd like to include that in in the legislation because that way we don't hold back these individuals who are actually our residents in our city okay are are there any other members of the public wishing to speak on this item seeing none in person any via Zoom none via Zoom commissioner B and then we'll move the item no I just want to say I think we're having some technical issues with zoom and not everybody in the public can hear um or see what's going on so I just want to make sure I don't know if it's been resolved yet or all right our City attorney I do see people on Zoom the question is can they see or hear us because I've had two people say that they couldn't okay all right so so while they figure that out is there a motion on the table for item number three I'll move it as amended okay moved as amended uh seconded by the chair can we show this adopted by by acclamation wonderful thank you thank you all right Mr director let's introduce item number four okay Mr chair item number four is discuss amending the notice requirements for amendments to the Land Development regulations and comprehensive plan to permit the city to use a publicly accessible website hosted by Miami D County as an alternate means of publishing notices and advertisements which are currently required to be published in a newspaper of General circulation commissioner Suarez this is your favorite theme of legislation yes it is after voters saving taxpayers their money um Nick maybe you can also speak to this these are some of the loopholes that we uh are closing up as far as saving on notices um as it relates to papers of General news circulation sure I'd be happy to so recently the Florida legislature adopted a law that allows local governments to publish newspap newspaper notice uh newspaper notice on a website a publicly accessible website hosted by uh Miami J County the cost of publishing notices on on the uh on the County's website considerably lower than publishing in the in the newspaper um this is a companion ordinance to other ordinances that the city commission has passed or is currently considering uh to allow the city to publish notices on amendments to the comprehensive plan or amendments to the Land Development regulations on the County website instead of in the newspaper and and through the chair I move my item I second you moved by commissioner s second by commissioner Dominguez members of the public wishing to speak on this item none in person none on Zoom can we show this adopted by acclamation all right Mr director let's introduce item number six okay item number six is explore zoning incentives and identify appropriate zoning districts to encourage the development of schools and other educational facilities commissioner Suarez this is an item we sponsored together to consider potential zoning incentives to encourage the development of schools and educational facilities you're welcome to uh introduce this yeah I think the last time we touched base on this we had a sunshine meeting uh and no actually we we meeting here and then we we thought it wasn't enough um and so I would welcome staff to rec to see what you have recommended to really incentivize um our our idea okay I can go ahead and go over that um as commissioner Suarez mentioned the last time this was discussed at and use the administration presented an initial set of potential incentives and the direction of the committee was to take a look at those and come up with even more robust incentives some of the additional more robust incentives that we've uh come up with include the following removal of mandatory design review board approval for Education facilities up to a certain height and intensity threshold and the transfer of the site plan and design review approval to staff uh number two would be eligible educational facilities May request a commission warrant for an increase in allowable intensity F and Building height uh item number three uh eligible educational facilities May request a commission warrant for reductions in setbacks open space lot coverage and similar development regulations that would avoid the need to request a variance from either the board of adjustment or the applicable land use board uh number four in commercial and high intensity zoning districts conditional use approval would not be required for eligible educational facilities um and item number five um eligible educational facilities will have no minimum off street parking requirement this would not prohibit schools from providing off street parking but it would not mandate a certain minimum number of spaces regarding um applications that may be located in local historic districts uh there may be a way to also forego the need for hbb approval um if there is direction to move in that um area we would just want to do a little bit more research to make sure that such a change did not run a foul of the um requirements of the city Charter commission swars yeah thank you Mr chair um you know one of the schools that are opening up base camp 305 they they went through significant challenges through the hbb and I think it cost them to the tune of millions of dollars and just and just simple design changes that kept on becoming before them when when they went to the board um and to the point where the operator was very very frustrated about the whole process um and I I I I certainly would be okay with um removing the approval process from hbb uh and the and the drv for specifically for schools up into a certain height uh or or or standard um Tom and through the chair what other things could we add have you left anything off the table we had we had also identified previously things that are outside the development review Arena and that includes things like uh Pro potentially providing for on street parking spaces to use as drop off and pickup without requiring a fee uh potentially providing City Park and recreational facilities for use of the students of the school um During certain times of the day um those were a couple of the additional things that that we had come up with I think certainly the provision of on street parking spaces if they're available um and they can be administratively approved is something that I think could help uh a number of of schools especially when they're you know outside of a commercial Corridor I think is one of the things that yeah it's a no-brainer to to offer these schools commissioner b um I I like the idea of encouraging more um schools to State their claim here in Miami Beach I do worry a little bit about um the parking for staff especially since some of these schools would be smaller they'd be potentially in residential neighborhoods um I'm thinking just in the areas where I walk the dogs up in North Beach there are a couple schools that are um you know tucked away in the middle of 100% residential areas and I worry that the people who work there aren't going to have a place to park because they don't have adjacent parking facilities there's no lot of there so um I just don't know how we handle that exactly through the chair yes um well I think the infrastructure is already there commissioner bot the residential spaces I think go into effect um not go into effect they go out of effect where they're non-residential from 7 to 6:00 p.m. and so if you're in school you can park in a residential neighborhood until 6:00 p.m. School usually gets out at 2:30 maybe 3:30 for some private schools um so I I think there's adequate parking if it's in in or near a residential neighborhood um I know there's a 2hour maximum weight or 2hour where you have to move the car one space I'm sure we can maybe make a provision at where if you are a teacher at that school or staff you you're not bound by that um requirement to move your car every two hours but you know from what I understand there's plenty of parking during the day it's at night when There's a constraint on parking I think just maybe between now and wherever this goes next we just do a little gut check on the parking situation during the day because I've never looked at it with this through this lens of oh are there plenty of places to park during the day um you know I look at it sort of like where where are contractors parking but I don't see Big Blocks that are just empty and I just want to make sure that we're not assuming something when you know um if that's if that's the case that's great if not let's just figure out how to solve that issue yeah and and Tom any did we make any consession on F or or height um it's one of the there it's one of the recommendations in our item is to uh for for them to be able to request a commission warrant both for height and for f which I think is part of what we discussed in our Sunshine meeting okay and how would that commission warrant uh work uh Tom what we would do is if um the land use committee endorses this we could either bring back a draft ordinance to the committee or bring a draft ordinance to the commission for referral to the planning board and under the warrant process we would set up a procedure for the commission to consider warrants for the increase in F specific to educational facilities as well as any other uh development regulation relief like setbacks Open Spaces lot coverage and height correct and uh in in those commercial districts where schools may be looking to uh open up ad the conditional use approval would no longer be required as part of the recommendations to today a conditional use is required but we're trying to incentivizes or saying if you want to open a school and let's say you're not asking for a warrant or anything like this uh you wouldn't have to do through go through the conditional use bureaucratic process that you would have to go through today that's correct okay all right so do we want to refer to Backus or I think let's have it move forward we don't need it moving back we need it moving forward for the good of our educational community so it goes to the planning board next with the draft we'll bring it to the commission uh draft ordinance commission for referral to the planning board I'll second commissioner sar's motion yes all right can we show this adopted by acclamation all right excellent Mr director let's introduce item number seven okay item number seven is discuss and consider adopting a live better program including zoning and other incentives to promote attainable Housing Solutions in Miami Beach for Middle inome individuals and families all right thank you Mr director one of our community's uh biggest challenges is the rising cost of living and particularly housing middle income families have increasingly been squeezed out of the market a trend seeing Nationwide but I think that especially holds true in cities like ours here in Miami Beach where the demand for housing is high and availability of affordable Workforce and attainable housing is you know is extremely low the financial struggles faced by families um in in our area including Miami Beach is widely and frequently reported on uh our area's cost of living is 30% higher than the national average and sadly we are one of the most financially stressed cities in the the United States even surpassing New York LA and San Francisco to address this I am sponsoring legislation to create the live better program aimed at providing rental housing for Miami Beach residents from lower income families to what is new here uh as part of a legislative intent which is the missing middle so we're not forgetting about the lower income families but we're going Beyond lower income we're going Beyond Workforce to address the segment of the population that is appropriately named The Missing mid middle because everyone forgets about and everyone misses to address both of whom are being priced out of the market the missing middle are people who earn too much to qualify for affordable housing but earn too little to afford market rate or luxury housing this policy is intended to guide all future development incentives in our city at any time the city commission considers new residential incentives I feel there should be a minimum standard or threshold that is consistently applied and to establish a clear and measurable Benchmark for future developments I'm proposing that we create a definition for attainable housing and this would provide Clarity and set a consistent reference point for developers and decision makers including our land use boards right now our residents are at risk of being priced out of our city this program is aimed to as a direct response to the challenge and aims to create a sustainable pipeline of affordable and attainable options for everyone part of our problem is the lack of of new inventory in our city that is attainable rental inventory most of new projects in Miami Beach are luxury de development and simply limiting the unit size I feel does not guarantee that rental prices will be affordable or moderate and just yesterday at our Retreat we were we were hearing about how on a public piece of property with subsidized financing we were seeing a 500 square foot unit I think they were saying was over 2500 of rent that was being asked for so it goes to indicate that even when it's subsidized even when it's public property limiting a unit size doesn't necessarily equate to attainable rental rates one of the objectives of this policy is to incentivize developments that specifically cater to renters providing them with modern amenities typically found in luxury developments here at Miami Beach at a more accessible price point Additionally the proposal contemplates zoning changes Financial incentives and Regulatory adjustments that make it easier and more attractive to build housing that meets the needs of our Workforce and middle income households to ensure this policy is community informed we intend to launch a community housing needs assessment survey to gather valuable input for residents for example what are our housing needs of our residents how much is our Workforce earning those individuals who are leaving our city at 5:00 how much are they earning and what price point can they afford to rent so that we can create that type of inventory here in Miami Beach how much are they currently spending on housing off the beach so that we know what's our Target point of what we need to develop develop in our city to cater to that Workforce and that will help us refine this policy and ensure that we accurately uh legislate something that reflects the needs and the desires of the people who not only live here but who also uh work here so my commitment is that for this not only to be a policy but for this to be a vision uh for Miami Beach a vision for Miami Beach that remains vibrant and accessible for everyone and with that I want to recognize our planning director to guide us further on how we further develop this policy and how we can really create something that creates not only rental housing but rental housing that serves the needs of those who are being pushed out of our community sure um Mr chair and members of the committee um concurrent with the uh development of uh a definition for attainable housing by establishing the appropriate Ami um the uh comprehensive survey that the chair spoke about will go a long way in informing um the drafting of policy that will Implement a live better program and the drafting of that policy would be based upon creating incentives for actually building this type of housing um one of the things that we face not just in South Florida and Florida but nationally is the lack of attainable housing the lack of housing for the middle um The Forgotten middle um and nationally what we've seen is finding ways to incentivize the building of that is one of the best ways to address it um when um the appropriate um survey is completed and it informs the types of incentives that can be developed we can then begin to identify the most appropriate locations to incentivize the building of this type of Housing and so we think that by first having the results of a survey um defining the parameters of that survey and then having the results of that survey we can then come back to the committee um with more informed recommendations on potential policies um that would um be true incentives for this type of housing wonderful and just to give the public just for those that don't have the survey uh you know we're we're we're asking the public in this survey um both our residents and those who work in our city uh the current housing situation whether they own or rent the type of housing that they live in how long they've been in their current housing how much their monthly rent or mortgage is whether they own or they rent what size housing are they most in need of uh what are the most important features that they look for when making a housing decision um you know for some people it's not just affordability some people really need you know laundry in their units and not everyone offers that or for other people as proximity to public transportation or for other people as proximity to work or SCH schools or others as Community amenities um how much space do people need in order to live comfortably uh and other questions that can help uh guide uh this this policy and and again to to the chair's Point uh to the director's Point um what we seek to Define here is an appropriate Ami through the outcome of the survey what would be an appropriate Ami for attainable housing units and add these to the provisions of our city code identify those areas based on the responses that we get from the from from the survey identify the areas in our city where we should be directing these incentives to identify what would be the proper uh zoning incentives um and identify you know other incentives that may be needed side zoning you know whether it's City fees um or certain administrative reviews for for projects that uh meet the definition of attainable housing with that I'm going to open the floor to my colleagues I welcome you your your feedback and uh you're you all are going to be an important part of this process so I think this is a great initiative and I applaud you for thinking about how to address this I think it's terrific um uh I'm very curious to see what the feedback is from the survey uh one of the things I would suggest a small tweak on the survey um is the question about which are the most important important features that you look for I would actually ask them to rank it um not just identify um and the other question I had is how how are you going to who's going to be asked to answer these surveys um are we hiring uh an external Source uh provider to do this are we doing this internally um I want to obviously make sure there are no short-term rentals allowed even if the buildings are built in a shortterm rental Zone I mean right we can we can profer whatever the whatever the development becomes um we can profer that and and we have control over that um sure uh but I'm I'm very curious to see where this goes it's a great initiative so thank you thank you and uh and I want to thank uh my my my office staff Monica Matel Selenas and also Cara Petrella who have been uh meeting with the city Administration and other stakeholders on how to properly do this we we have three options on how we could potentially uh do this one option would would be to do an online City Le and city hosted survey that would be one option the other option would be a university Le uh in person uh survey or the alternative would be a consultant Le survey I don't feel we should be paying money for this uh but I also like the independence of not only having the city do it but having a university come in reach out to the neighborhood meet with a neighborhood canvas neighborhoods for a University from an academic level to conduct this this Outreach and I see we have Dr Rosenfeld in the in the audience I don't know if Dr Rosenfeld if you mind if I recognize you to guide us on how on how uh University Le uh partnership uh could be framed to get the most the the most valuable data to help guide this policy no now you're on thank you uh good afternoon Leslie Rosenfeld Chief education officer um chair Fernandez I was listening to uh what you're seeking uh based on uh and the conversations I've had with your staff if there is a desire to partner with the university we currently do have uh very robust Partnerships with many universities here in South Florida uh we um hire their students as paid interns uh throughout the year uh and they're very successful uh Partnerships so perhaps with the information uh that's been uh developed we can reach to our University Partners gauge their interest in working with us and providing an opportunity for their students uh perhaps in a specific school at at a university uh and then determine uh next steps great well and and I know that um that that our office of of education and performance initiatives which you lead very professionally and I thank you for that because it really is one of the highlights of our city government you have uh Partnerships uh with un with FIU that we explored in in the past FIU has the office of research and economic development um also has the office of Civic and Community engagement and perhaps those are entities that we could look at uh because I I I do think um I I do think that there are several benefits to a university-led survey uh I think this approach can enhance the credibility of what we're doing I think a lot of times when the public hears of initiatives led by the government having to to do with zoning policies they're always very skeptical and this really this isn't led by developers this is led by a desire to address the housing needs of our residents and our Workforce and the policy needs to originate from the feedback uh of those residents and Workforce and I think if we have a university-led survey residents may be more likely to participate in the survey um viewing it more impartially and more as a more trustworthy source and addition to the fact that I think universities may have access to Grants and funding sources that could potentially support a survey initiative you know and hopefully reducing what would be the financial impact to the city um and so I don't know um Mr director what direction do you need from from the committee today is it a recommendation back to the city commission to engage in the survey and based on the outcome of that survey to craft the policies within in items one through four yeah I think that would be good and perhaps you want to leave the item on the land use agenda so at the completion of the survey we can come back to the land use committee with some uh draft incentives okay do we need to do we need to send this back to commission for any action at commission yes I think as to the survey but I agree with Tom I would keep the item in committee for you know to to continue working on the policy so so it'd be proper to uh make a motion or to consider a motion at this time uh recommending a a resolution to the city commission approving conducting a survey a university Le survey with the outcomes of that survey to help craft uh items one through four in the summary of our of our agenda item that could then come back to the land use committee is that what I'm hearing Mr director yeah and basically you would be recommending through a resolution that the city commission authorized the university LED survey and number two that this item would be continued to a future date so at the completion of the survey we could come back to you um policy recommendations based upon the survey all right is there a motion I'll move it it's been moved and seconds I'm sorry is there any other committee input I'm sorry commissioner Dominguez I'm sorry I know we need to move the meeting along we have a lot of things on here uh but great job I was very impressed with uh the amount of work and time and effort that you put into uh ensuring that the middle is accounted for and stays here in Miami Beach and I too looking forward to seeing the results of the survey I like the creativity of having um a university Le survey so well done thank you and hopefully this can be an overarching policy for future policies in in the future any other feedback any uh comments from members of the public seeing not in person not on Zoom with that we can show this item adopted uh Mr director let's move on to to item number eight okay Mr chair item number eight is expedite the opening of the Baywalk and move the development of the Baywalk up on the Geo bond prioritization list and present the Baywalk plan to the land use committee commissioner Dominguez thank you uh and let's hear from uh David Gomez and uh hear what the progress is on the Baywalk and the pedestrian bridge please good afternoon it's great to be here when I have good news uh David Gomez director of Capital Improvements uh the report I have for you today is that as you may have seen in the LTC that went out recently as well as the activity on site the developer has mobilized to the pedestrian bridge site on the south side of Fifth Street at the causeway they've begun installing their mot and they will begin the process of relocating the underground utilities to make wave for foundations and the bridge structure um just as an update to the LTC was sent they currently uh took over part of the right turn lane coming off the causeway they will be reopening that intermittently when they're either not on site or or during the weekend uh until they bring in the heavier equipment that then they won't be able to keep that lane open but they will be doing that intermittently to try to keep the the lane open as much as possible um this is the underground portion of it or the utility relocate portion we are still finalizing Iz ing the permits for the structure itself which we anticipate to have in the next couple of months well ahead of them needing it in order to begin the structure and the foundations the update for the Baywalk itself the 10th to 12th Street Baywalk they're actually in the final stages they're installing the last of the beams in the walkways um and they remain on schedule to complete by the end of this month that update was as recently as today so it it looks like we will be done before the end of the month what's going on with South Bay South Bay Club is we had actually had a meeting with their board last week um it is a new board and they were not quite as open uh to the Baywalk as the previous board was um we did meet with the city attorney and their attorney and we made some adjustments or tweaks to the easement agreement um we received assurances from their attorney that they will figure it out and and move forward with it but they are going through the process of getting it approved by their residents and um what about Bay View Terrace Bay View Terrace and Bay Garden Manor Bay View Terrace is in a similar situation as Bay South Bay Club in that we have a a a an easement agreement in place or excuse me we've developed an easan agreement that they are reviewing um Bay Garden Manor is the building that was uh essentially purchased by a developer they own most of the units and they're looking to redevelop so we're looking at that uh development proposal uh and what that means to the Baywalk itself going back to South Bay Club I thought we had a signed agreement already we have assigned agreement with a uh drb order the location of that original agreement is is not ideal in terms of the seaw wall location and and work that potential future work that needs to happen for the seaw wall so we had proposed adjusting the location of the easement to to simplify that and make that a little cleaner um that's the revision that they're that they're looking at I did explain to the board that if they can't agree on on the new layout we'll just go back to the original right we have something signed and approved so um and are there any expirations on that signed agreement or drb order I want to make sure nothing lapses not that I'm aware of no can you double check absolutely it is a recorded easement so there shouldn't be an issue but I will double check thank you colleagues I'm just very excited about the mobilization that happened uh Monday uh commissioner Dominguez you've you've you you know kept the iron Hut on this um and I see Hector is here from the developers team and uh and you know the fact that we've reached this point that you know the utilities and the trees are being relocated to make wave for for for the bridge uh you know it it's it's good movement it is is very welcome to Good News and uh and and good movement so I'm happy if I could just add one more thing just in the last few minutes you should have received a save the date invitation for a potential groundbreaking so we are scheduling that in coordination with the uh developers uh public information folks and I and I just want to say again because you know the your your persistence commissioner Dominguez you placed this item on the agenda month after month after month you've been putting the pressure on and and it's ultimately been to the resident's benefit now after years of waiting people kept on asking us what's going what's going on with that bridge and you know it was on channel 10 yesterday it was on world red eye on social media uh and we can finally say you know it's finally moving forward so uh thank you for your persistence thank you Mr chair and it actually precedes me because our late commissioner Mark samin uh was leading the charge on getting the Baywalk completed and the PED Bridge so it's like wow we're here um I do have one other question I got a meeting request from the Icon and the Bentley Bay what concerns do they have have they reached out to you they if they've reached out to the team I haven't heard it yet um I think I did see something they reached out wanting a meeting about the PED Bridge so I'm just curious I'll I'll double check and find out what that's about I'm not up to speed on okay commissioner Dominguez you you just mentioned something this bridge has you you you've let the charge on it continue pushing it forward but we know why you've LED this charge because it was something so important to our late friend and and dear colleague Mark zellan and you know since we're in the sunshine and we don't have these opportunities that often maybe it's maybe it be a beautiful tribute uh since it was something that he pushed for so so much to think about dedicating this bridge in his honor and something that we should naming it for him naming it for him I I would be thrilled with that you're going to make me cry um uh if it's something that could be brought to the full commissioner for a vote I would happily sponsor that co-sponsor that with you and and and U yes absolutely and I think we should work on a referral for that because you know it it really it you're doing it but you do it with heart this is it's not just a political item for you it's something that you really have fought for with so much energy with so much passion month after month dealing with a bureaucracy uh but you do it in the name of our dear colleague our dear friend who's uh who's not here pushing for it but it's here present through you pushing for it and I think it's the right thing to to do as this project moves forward thank you so I think we could show that by acclamation let's show that recommendation to the city commission so that when this is finally up we can have this there in his name and honor that sounds amazing all right so by acclamation let's do that might have to be just the mark Bridge because it's a short Bridge you know yeah thank you all right with that uh any anything else with this item Mr director no um and I think that this will be moved to the February meeting for an additional update correct excellent yes all right yay thank you David yes we like that all right uh let's call up item number 10 Mr director okay item number 10 is uh monthly updates on Historic Hotel Redevelopment on Collins Avenue between 14th and 20th Street including an overview of pending permits and progress updates from development teams all right and this is an item that I placed on the on the agenda is you we have so many buildings that are part of our iconic Skyline that are under construction held up by Sticks your yes held up by Sticks being held up by by by sticks and you know it not only affects the historic character of our community we're certainly very happy uh that Investments are being made in these buildings but their delayed closure does have an impact on our community on the businesses and on our overall um our overall dis quality of life dealing with those construction sites so um our our planning department have reached out to to these property owners and uh Tom I believe you have an update of where we are with these different construction projects yes uh Mr chair um in terms of the permitted projects that are on the list that was provided in the land use committee memo the Delano hotel is 1685 Collins Avenue is a fully active construction site uh 90% of the new windows have been installed and they are processing a revision permit um they have indicated that construction continues at full speed and that they are trying to complete the renovation as soon as possible um regarding the Raleigh Richmond and South seed site at 7 1751 to 1775 Collins Avenue there is currently no active construction work taking place on the site the facades of the historic Richmond and South Seas hotels are braced and the Raleigh is completely boarded up although the site has a construction fence uh like I said that there there is no uh construction taking place um a private provider is being used for the um construction work and apparently they have an inspection deadline of February of 2025 and they have to complete a an inspection report to the satisfaction of the building official in order for that permit to be extended staff has reached out to representatives of the developer but we were not able to make contact regarding any uh more detailed information or status update the shelburn hotel at 1801 Collins Avenue is a fully active construction site uh and they are proceeding with the construction there and then finally the bulgary hotel which is uh the old historic seagull um although no active construction work is taking place now uh exterior demolition of the non-contributing andilar buildings has been completed the building is secured and boarded up and there is a construction fence installed our staff has met with the project team as recently a few weeks ago to discuss the project and they were advised that the project is moving forward the applicant actually went back to the historic preservation board in November to receive approval for the Reconstruction of the port toer I just want us to note uh you know it's it's a good it's a good problem when you have investments in your city but I just want us to know you know in a where like four or five block period you have one two three we have six buildings they're being held up by Sticks you know where you have no economic activity going on um and and again it's more than just economic activity God forbid something happens in the economy and so you know I just think we need to consider you know phased approaches you know how do we work in the future so that you don't end up in a short area like this with six empty buildings with no economic activity that God forbid something happens and you end up you know with six you know six buildings significant buildings and a important Corridor completely boarded up commissioner Bon vice mayor Bon um I want to actually ask for my own edification when when those buildings are held up by Sticks we all know they're more than sticks but are they designed are those trusses designed to withstand hurricanes what happens I mean not just it the economic impact but if those six buildings were wiped out in a storm now understanding caveats storms can take out fully built buildings I got that but um you know that is a significant loss to our historic infrastructure so what happens are there any contingencies or any benchmarks are there are there requirements to withstand up to a category two storm like how does that work my understanding is that the Shoring and bracing used is designed to withstand hurricane force winds up to to what category I don't know I would need to get back to you with that information but my understanding is that they are designed to withstand very substantial hurricane force winds if something happened either through a hurricane force wind or other means where those remaining portions of the building became compromised and they had to be either demolished or further reduced they would have to go back to the historic preservation board and the historic preservation board would have to review the project to determine whether or not they were going to require the portions that were removed to be replicated and reconstructed or whether or not they would require a different direction U be moved in okay Mr attorney Mr director in the future how can we Pace this I I just don't think it's good it's it's a good approach again we welcome the investment we encourage the investment we want the rehabilitation and the Improvement of property but how do we past this so that we don't have entire blocks of an entire Corridor closed off I we see what it's done to you in this case through demolition by neglect but in North Beach you know you have a significant that's their one property here you you're you're talking about six properties six buildings how do we take a more measured approach in the past future in the future how we take a more measured approach in the future Mr TR I think the the biggest challenge here as the committee knows is these are all these are all private developments each one by a different owner um these are not City LED project so um at the end of the day it's up to it's up to the property owner it's up to their contractors um it's up to the economics of of you know of the the moment in time of the financing they're able to obtain or not um to push these projects along and it you know we have we really have little to no control over the timing of of construction activities this is a very risky proposition it's it's very risky to overse I mean I think part part of what uh has made Lincoln Road suffer over the past few years um yeah I think it started with the closure of the of the convention center during during uh while while was being fixed up and then the closure of these hotels all this is you know economic activity uh that that deprives those that's being deprived of the businesses of the of the area so um thank you for the update um I think we need to reach out again to the rally the Richmond and the South ceas um if um hopefully their representative is watching and um I would tell the representative you know call us back call us back answer the phone do you want to move this to the next month yeah let's continue we will reach out to the developers again and ask them if they could provide this committee with an up yes that that representative does not want to become Persona NR of the committee you know I would say if I may through the chair um not for nothing but even if it's not a historic property um which comes with its own opportunities and challenges but uh you know up in North Beach and 71st Street in Indian Creek we've got a bunch of things that are incompletion or almost complete semicomplete just starting you know construction fences abound it's not a great look I mean if you want to talk about revitalizing econom development and and um encouraging people to come here it's you know we talk about the entrance ways to our city our thorough Affairs at some length yesterday and this morning and you know it's some of the the most crucial I don't know what the plural is for Nexus nexi of our of our um of our city um you've got more than one in pretty significant thing happening at a time and um I I think that's just something we need to keep in mind as we go forward it complicates traffic it's unpleasant for people who live there have businesses there it um you know it's it's a thing that we should keep in minded yep Tom for next month I also want an update on the bank profit I think one of the first items that commissioner bot and I uh vice mayor bot and I voted on as colleagues we were both members of the planning board um it was we were also work wearing masks it was during the co time and we were all very excited to be voting for this transformative project Class A office space at the bankof Y uh and how many years ago was that already commissioner bot too many to count too many to count four or five not withstanding that we're youth no I mean perpetually young but four or five years yeah four at least four four or five years uh since and it seems like the property just sits there in an idle State yeah and you know at least before you had the taco place there you know at least there was a restaurant there like now it just sits there empty this is the bankr um and so you know something spectacular was promised there and the area merits something spectacular um and so yeah we need an update of of what's going on with that and and frankly I mean we got to start thinking if we give approvals to individuals and then they empty buildings and the buildings just sit there we have to think how many approval how many more approvals are we going to give this person and maybe it's something maybe we can address things from that angle if you've gotten an approval and you've emptied a building and you already have a building that's sitting empty you know we might not give you future approval until you have real activity going on at your other side because again we just cannot afford to sustain a community with um with with empty construction sites so Nick I need you to put on your thinking cap on that because we may need to work on policy regarding this and Cara we need to follow up on that all right okay thank you guys let's introduce item number 11 okay item number 11 is discuss as applicable zoning incentives for non-transient long-term residential development establishing a policy that whenever a covenant restricting transient uses on a property is submitted as a condition of eligibility for residential zoning incentives that the Covenant shall require a 67 Super majority of the entire city commission before the Covenant may be released or amended in such a manner as to weaken a restriction on the transient use of the property so this is an item that I've introduced uh back in November we were considering at the city commission a residential uses uh ordinance uh which was applicable to our zoning District where non-transient residential uses uh were being incentivized and as part of that ordinance I proposed and the sponsor accepted uh language to include a coven requirements um um so that when um so when a covenant is being put into place and then it's going to be removed in the future that it require a 67th requirement that if you're saying you're profing by Covenant that you're not going to have short-term rentals and then you come back in the future and you say you want to have short-term rentals that it not be a simple majority that could do that way that it be a 67th super majority uh of the city commission that say we're going to reverse that uh Covenant and we were able to put it uh on one ordinance and I want to thank commissioner Dominguez for accepting my Amendment and for your teamwork and and collegiality to to introduce that language there while this was going through the process but but the idea is to put this on our future covenants to have this requirement in all future covenants uh that restrict transend uses on properties not just those uh related to residential use incentives and so Tom I want to recognize you to walk us through the text Amendment we have in front of us sure in the land use memo we've drafted a new section under chapter 7 and um specifically it would be section uh 7.1 uh 1.2 um which would be uh Covenant restricting transient uses on a property and although similar language is included in the recently adopted amendments creating 7.1.1 one1 for the residential use incentives by establishing a separate Standalone requirement under a different section this would be applicable to not just those projects that Avail themselves of existing and future residential use incentives but any other typee of project that may include a um transient use uh incentive that may not be part of that section this would basically be a catchall for all of those so if there is consensus on this we can take a draft um ldr Amendment to the commission for a referral to the planning board all right is there uh questions uh from the DAT on this item is there a motion on the item second okay it's been been moved by commissioner vice mayor bod Suarez and seconded by uh commissioner doming so I think by exclamation we're adopting this yes is there any members of the public wishing to speak on this item none in person none via zoom and I apologize I missed the public comment on the last couple of items uh and I apologize for that uh but we can show this item adopted by acclamation all right commissioner Suarez you're speaking so much today we taking up all of our time um Mr director let's introduce item number 12 okay item number 12 is review the current loading requirements and how to mitigate the impacts of loading and deliveries on traffic congestion and residents quality of life including without limitation increased enforcement efforts as well as legislative amendments and to introduce this very good item I'm going to introduce vice mayor Bon I'm I'm actually going to let Jose take the heavy lifting on this this has been something we've worked on for a while um um it is an issue with um you know seemingly simple somebody a truck or a lift or somebody pulls over to the side of the road to to try to pick somebody up or drop something off and it causes all kinds of jam UPS um especially at rush hour and so um instead of beating our heads against the wall about this I thought we would uh try to put some actual plans in place so Jose take it away thank you mad VI chair I'm sorry uh good afternoon Mr chair Madam vice mayor committee members Jose Gonzalez transportation and Mobility director and interim parking director so the last time we were before you with this item there were three components that we ESS essentially discussed the first was statistics um for Freight loading zone enforcement the second was a pilot program that we have ongoing with Uber and the third was um some strategies that we're looking toward for automated uh curb management and optimization strategies and uh so in terms of of an update I'll start with with the first component which is the freight loading zones um you may recall during the discussion um there were we discussed the two different types of Towing that occurs for Freight loading zones Towing that occurs by the parking department and then there's Towing that also occurs by the police department and so what we're doing is we're collaborating with police to try to to uh increase our enforcement on from both sides the parking side as well as the uh the the police side and I know that major morgalo is here as well if there are any questions regarding ing the the police Towing uh but just to to recap when we look at Parking Department statistics between the last two fiscal years in fiscal year 23 um we towed or in terms of number of citations it was 7,241 citations issued in TW in fiscal year 23 and in fiscal year 24 it was 9,46 1 so a significant increase there between the two uh last fiscal Years and we're anticipating this fiscal year will also will also uh our goal is to surpass uh that number um I could also speak to an update on the pilot program with Uber that we conducted during art week and it was actually very successful we held a a uh debrief meeting with Uber where they shared with us their heat maps and if you recall what we did was we established uh Geo fenced zones within the city at hotspots uh those included the convention center of course uh the Goodtime Hotel on Washington Avenue and the one hotel on Collins and 23rd those are areas that typically have a lot of um right share activity uh during our week and activity which blocks travel lanes and causes a lot of congestion so what we saw according to the the data that they shared with us is is that there was a concentration of um activity at the Geo fenced uh locations which is actually the the purpose of of the pilot versus all around it um for example on Convention Center Drive if we we look at what happened last year versus what happened this year last year there were a lot of pickups and drop offs all along uh Convention Center Drive and even along 17th Street creating congestion on 17th Street this year a lot of that was happening at the designated locations and then similarly um in other there were other locations that were geofence that were along the side streets of Collins Avenue rather than on Collins Avenue itself and those were successful as well in terms of the activity occurring along the side streets where there's less traffic rather than on Collins Avenue which as we know only has one lane in each Direction in South Beach I'm referring to the South Beach area so it was it was very successful uh Uber is uh very excited to continue the pilot we we actually continued it we didn't really put a stop to it so uh it's continuing and what we'd like to do is expand it and work with them to identify additional locations throughout the city that could be designated and Geo fenced on their platform for right share activity before you move on yes um before you move on to another topic um a couple things one is can they share with us heat map data of um nons special event week locations that get jammed up because I think it's one thing during our bosle and it sounds like it's working great but you know what's it like during their regular year um you know are there certain hotels that at like you know 8:00 in the morning everybody leaves for their meetings wherever they're going or whatever it is um it would be interesting to see that so that we can if there are opportunities to expand for regular usage um that would be great and then also to expand to the other Roger company specifically lift cor correct yes we started our pilot with Uber but it will expand to to lift as well and um and absolutely we we're continuing discussions with them uh asking for some more information uh some of their information they will share with us but it's not for public consumption they're very careful about the information that they share so that's why it was not part of this item but uh that is our goal is to continue working with them expand the program to more locations not just during a major special event art week was just uh the pilot proof of concept exactly exactly and uh and then in terms of automated uh curb Space Management and optimization strategies we have a few conversations going on with different vendors including our own uh vendor we currently have a vendor that can provide automated curb management strategies and so we're very excited about that uh it's going to take a few more few more conversations with our our current partner as well as as some other vendors uh that are out there that provide these types of services to see which is the best fit for the city and I think at some point in the in the next few months we hope to bring to you some semblance of a of a plan that may or may not require a a procurement for these services but the good news is our current vendor can actually provide provide these services and what that does is it it manages our our limited curb space there's a high demand on our curb space for different uses from right share to to loading to passenger pickup um Uber Eats you name it um so it what this does is it it uh monetizes our curb based on on demand and provides that technology and the infrastructure to be able to enforce that um I just wanted to hear from our colleagues in the police department how how things are going from your perspective we talked about maybe there's an opportunity for improvements and so good afternoon uh Madame Vice chair chair uh Daniel morgalo assistant chief of the police department on behalf of police so under uh Chief Jones's guidance one of the things that we've uh initiated is expanding our flz enforcement Beyond just our motor units support uh which is primarily been the method that we've used to support um flz enforcement so we will be expanding flz enforcement throughout um all of our uniform Patrol and Citywide uh part of the implementation process is to conduct a brief roll call training with officers that aren't familiar with flz enforcement so they understand the mission and what's Ed and then we should be able to have much more of an impact on traffic conditions by keeping the flz's clear and then the trucks will have somewhere to park without obstructing traffic so we should have much more of an impact than we have in the past so the notion is that anytime any officer sees somebody blocking an flz or impeding the flow of traffic they they will be trained enough to mitigate that either you know moving them along and giving them a break or riding a ticket or whatever correct well sometimes want to be nice and give them a break if they're complete idiots but um yeah but to or warning is what I meant not a not a complete break but um and then and so when do you think that will start happening when when so I know that I've spoken to uh some of our area captains I'll be coordinating with our major to conduct the training over the next few weeks it's very brief um and we should have everything up and running within a couple of weeks so you guys are going to need to coordinate so Jose's you keep advancing what you're you're doing with the ride shair and with the the um the loading zone automated program and all that kind of stuff that make sure that everybody has the most up-to-date information and then also another layer on top of this is an item that's going to come before us in February to the commission um about when people come before the special magistrate and they say but your honor I had no idea um which is annoying because they you know they think they can just get out of things we're going to be asking um anybody who does business in the city to you know have an affirmation that they are educating their drivers of what is proper and what is not proper and if they can't conform to what is proper in our city given the space that we have then they need to think about using different size trucks or coming at different times or whatever so um you know it's the Swiss cheese um Theory right like none of this is going to solve everything by itself but once you layer all the different pieces and you have fewer holes so that's what we're hoping for excellent thank you for the update I just kind to use the opportunity since we have the parking Department in front of us uh I just got a text message from a actually the second complaint I've received in one day uh from residential neighborhood about you know people getting tickets about parking on the sale uh in the past week we have received three tickets in one week for allegedly parking on the sidewalk on Prairie we're not parking on the sidewalk see ticket slash image and image run today any inside what's going on it's and like the person is is parking on the sidewalk and they're getting tickets for this and this is a residential neighborhood and like and I'm like all of a sudden I'm getting these these complaints uh so you know something we need to look into because people in residential neighborhoods want to be able to park and maybe we could have people focus on FLC instead of you know people parking trying to park in front of their homes but just you know it's just getting all of a sudden a lot of complaints about this well we'll look into I apologize I'm under the weather well we'll we'll look into it okay thank you I appreciate it all right guys keep up the great work thank thank you thank you and is this item concluded or do you want this to come back for U Future updates come back okay so continue it to the we are and how things are going we need to tweak anything so we'll show this as by acclamation continued to the April 15th meeting excent be quarterly excellent okay excellent excellent um Mr director let's introduce item number 13 okay item number 13 is increase security requirements for nightclubs and other late night drinking establishments all right so this is an item that I place on the agenda uh you know to to consider what increased security requirements uh we could uh have in place um you know under understanding that we've seen improvements in our city um and I and I think that that's that's a key thing we don't we're we're not facing some of the challenges that we had in the past and we're not uh facing some of the challenges that we've uh seen in other areas uh but Mr director or Mr attorney if you could walk us through some of the proposals that we feel might be adequate to pursue at this time Mr chairman I believe this memo was prepared by PD but I'm happy to go through the I think the three major options I just don't want to speak for PD um would you like me to go through them sure sure and then I see major morgal is also approaching the podium and then he can give us his recommendations as well sure so so my reading uh of of the um of of of the committee's options are are first um to potentially expand the off-duty requirement currently uh alcoholic beverage establishments that are that are on Ocean Drive between Fifth and 15th streets are required to provide uh at least one off-duty officer on if they're if they serve alcohol after midnight um it applies Saturdays and Sundays and on holiday weekends and City events it also applies on Mondays um there is an exemption if two adjacent alcoholic beverage establishments share in securing an off-duty officer um and also if a bar is located entirely within a hotel and the hotel and bar are run by the same operator or if the bar is located within a restaurant with a full kitchen and the restaurant closes by 2 in the morning um it is an affirmative defense to this violation if an operator is not able to to secure an off-duty officer due to unavailability um uh in in due due to the unavailability to to obtain an off-duty officer um the second option would be to expand the current notice requirement for promoted events our code requires certain alcoholic beverage establishments to provide the police department with 96 hours written notice uh prior to any promoted event if the establishment is licensed to serve uh liquor until 5: in the morning if they licensed as a dance hall and if the total total o load is greater than 350 individuals um and the last the the last recommendation that the that the plan that the police department identified is taking an approach similar to what the city of Orlando did for its uh for its downtown area which would involve a a roll back of alcohol hours of sale and creating a uh a late night approval process where an establishment would be required to provide uh a number of security measures um uh in order to obtain that approval thank you Nick uh and so I I'm just going to give my my my thoughts on this um you know I think requiring more more off duty will be onerous on the on the establishments I don't know if right now are we meeting the off-duty demands of of establishments Chief no sir there's many off duties that go unfilled unfortunately and what can we do to address that because I think I think rather at this point when it relates to that rather than expanding the requirement on the businesses what can we do to help meet the demand of the businesses for off duty so what we've done in the past with certain businesses or certain establishments that neighbor each other is the establishments partner to hire one off duty officer that covers both locations that's an option that we've explored in the past uh potentially we can look at trying to expand Outside Agency officers working and covering certain off duties and how many how many agencies are allowed to do off-duty work in our city so any agency that's allowed to do off-duty work with us has already gone through theou process with how many are allowed to I honestly don't know the answer off the top of my head I know it's a it's probably five to 10 agencies is a safe number okay okay okay i' like to you know and I can get that information for you yes yes because it it is Gering to this item on on how we could better improve on that um so given that that right now we have requirements that we're not meeting we we've imposed the requirement people are trying to meet the requirement and we're not able to fill uh those those demands I don't want to touch that uh what I do feel has been very successful something I think commissioner salian initiated which was a promoter ordinance uh the registration yes and expanding that um and uh Chief uh can you guide us how that will benefit uh our Public Safety initiatives who who right now is supposed to participate in this promoter ordinance provide us with notification and how expanding it would benefit our efforts so any establishment that's going to have that's going to have alcohol sales uh till 5:00 am that is going to have a promoted event has to notify us 96 hours before that event gets promoted what has happened in certain situations is that they do not promote the event outside of that 96- hour window so we're getting notified very short notice before so are informing us that they just became aware of or that it's not being promoted by The Establishment it's being promoted by an artist not affiliated with the establishment so there there are some issues issues with with particular with regard to that that we need to that we need to fix potentially through a legislative process that we can discuss offline but there but this is the item to do that yeah well might might talk offline yep I mean this is the item to do that so the issue that we've run into with certain establishments is that they look for loopholes in our current ordinance to not make that 96-hour notification and we're getting notifications much closer to the actual date that the individual are expected to perform uh what that does for us is it hampers our ability to look into issues with that particular artist at other venues or issues that have occurred potentially public safety issues violence um and to ascertain if we need to ramp up our Public Safety presence in the area one of those establishments so there's been a several incidents that have happened um where we've gotten a late notification but we've been able what is the penalty for giving a leue notification well what's happening is that the venue is not notifying us the venue basically says hey we just became aware of this particular artist that's coming to visit us and it's the artist that promotes it not the venue so the issue we have is we're unable to take action with regard to The Venue because it's not it's a venue saying hey we just became aware this artist is coming to visit us may not necessarily Co collaborate with a performance it's an appearance so there's certain aspects that the venues are able to not have to make that 96-hour notification and we're becoming aware of it right before commissioner B I just I want to let you guys know that I actually have an item coming to the commission on the third that deals with trying to close these locals um and and I think um from somebody who's been event marketing and and event management it is a very easy thing for the venue to say to the um performer we can't wait to have you here but we're not going to promote it it all has to be from you because we're we are not supposed to have you here or we don't want to get involved with having to to notify the police so the fact that it's not the venue promoting it or they didn't know is a bunch of hoie in most cases look it's it's possible that somebody you know somebody's down here and they stop into a club and you know get onto the stage sure that happens happens but the majority of this when the V when the pro when the um um performer is is promoting you know there's no way that I own property if my tenant starts construction without pulling a permit I get the violation or if someone shows up of my property and starts to do work without a permit I get the violation yeah no it's it's not accept or or or or if I'm if I'm if I'm a landlord and my tenant engages in short-term rental I get the violation ultimately the person that's responsible is the person who owns the property if if you know if if you owned the property if you owned an iclub and you know whoever might be renting it but I go in there and I slip and fall the liability is on the owner the buck stops with the owner and you know the owner can claim whatever they want we need to we need to fix this up commissioner commissioner Suarez and then Nick um Nick you mentioned three three three concerns that the the police concerns but um possibilities one of them was to I think the last one where we would shut down we would make everyone 2:00 and then have an approval process till 5 is that can we legally do that we can legally do it it's one of the many options that the city commission has considered over the last couple years to regulate alcohol hours of sale um we would be subject to challenge as we are you know when we when whenever we roll back alcohol hours and this happened I think you mentioned the city Orlando this is what Orlando did yes and and were they challenged they had they were challenged on a on on part of it um and I I can find out what the outcome was of that but they were challenged actually they impos subsequent to that ordinance they kept having issues they imposed a curfew um I think of midnight and they were challenged on that um so but I can look into it and see if the original ordinance was challenged I I'd like to um I'd like to explore that idea so let me let me just ask you this it don't we have an issue of vested rights in this city that perhaps Orlando might not have we do I mean many of the claims that we've seen um is based on on alcohol hours are are are based on uh operators who take the position that because of their land use board approvals or other city permits that those that those vest them in certain alcohol hours of sale um and and so that was the basis of the of the claim filed by The Clevelander in 2021 and it was the basis of a few other claims uh when the city has over the years tried to regulate alcohol Al alcohol hours of sale um the city and the last one I think was the roll back for alcoholic driver establishment south of fifth um the city prevailed against one of those one of those claims um but we we're whenever we roll back alcohol hours we're we're going to be subject to challenge and I don't think it's where I mean I personally don't think it's where we're at right now because I do think I I do see us making Improvement um and I think you know some of the legislation that we've passed um that you've sponsored commissioner Suarez is helping us move the needle with that especially by incentive vising serer clubs and upping the uh caliber of the of the establishments that are here I think it's very difficult to get existing businesses and change the business models of some of these existing businesses we've we've encountered significant uh challenges uh with that in in in the past um but I would love Nick for you to work on the promoter ordinance uh and get some of the recommendations of the police department and bring something back as relates to that or or if it overlaps with what commissioner bot is is already working on uh then you know obviously will we will defer to to vice mayor bod um but I you know there is a loophole we need to close that loophole uh because it it we don't create laws to be preempted by loopholes but you know I think there's something we talked about it yesterday at the strategy meeting we've talked about it on the planning board together we've talked about it a bunch of different times um and on a bunch of different contexts that in the at the end of the day it is um it's a it's a privilege to do business here in Miami Beach yeah and if you can't operate a business adhering to The Rules of Engagement that everybody else seems to be able to operate their businesses um then there's something wrong with your business model or your your management team or whatever there's some there's something Miss like twist has been around for 30 some odd years they are open till 5 they have all kinds of you know people coming in and out at all hours of the day and night and to the best and correct me if I'm wrong assistant chief um I don't think they're a problem actor in the city nor do they have a history of being a problem actor and I believe they're profitable and they're certainly much beloved um Bob's your uncle's up in North Beach and they're huge and they're quiet and they're open till five and nobody has an issue with them so if you are a business that is doing your conducting your business in such a manner that there is an ongoing issue with you and look everyone gets a mulligan right happen stuff happens um and and I get that but but if you're consistently a location that there are calls for service or there's stuff happening that shouldn't be happening people are getting hurt then there's a problem and if the if the business operator doesn't want to be responsible for that and they fight every time they get called before whatever board is is apping on that then is there an opportunity for the property owner to be held accountable for the for the actions of their tenants right if if your if your nightclub tenant is has had three strikes does that then roll over into something where the owner can be held responsible and they need to find a new tenant is that something that we could do commissioner I think Vice chair I I I think this ordinance could apply to both the event promoter the operator and the property owner I mean we can look at that but I don't I don't think there's any exclusion here the other thing I would say is um the 96-hour uh requirement applies unless the pro the uh the event or the the performer is booked after you know within the 96- hour window in which case the The Establishment is required to immediately notify the police department if we become aware that a that a that a let's say a performer um was was booked before the 96 hours was promoted online before the 96 hours and they and they didn't provide the police department with 96 hours notice that is a violation of the existing ordinance and what's the penalty it's a it's the maximum civil fines that we can that we can Levy as a as a code enforcement matter so it's I think it's 1,000 for a first violation and it scales up is there a limit to how many they can get before their business is on pause uh yes yeah it's scaled and it's um is it three okay three and what three three violations within 13 days subjects The Establishment to a 14-day closure three three and 14 days third the third offense you get 14 days shut down 14 days shut down in what period of time no period No period of time okay so what happens if you get four like at what point can we close the business for being a bad actor I mean it's four over 10 years that's not a thing but if it's four over the course of a year and a half this is a pattern of behavior right if it's for the city can initiate proceedings to revoke the the CU and the BTR uh and and to deem The Establishment to be a habitual offender yeah but I don't understand so so you know right now people the the the ordinance already applies even if you are within the 96 hour window right and so I don't understand the concern of the chief so the issue for us is that what the promoters will do is they will notify us immediately when they become aware and that notification is coming 24 or 48 Hours sometimes before they I'm sorry if they if they have not okay there's a reason why it's 96 hours and I would imagine you need 96 hours because that is the time it takes you to do background research and if if and if that if there's a concern it gives you time to reach out to the event organizer to the promoter whoever it is listen we have a concern we feel we need this type of resource or that type of stuff if they don't do that I think we need to amend this to you know you're not allowed to open up if that person is there or potentially if if they don't have they don't provide the 96- hour notice they can't have the performer perform yeah I don't think I don't think you wait for the third time because that all you need is that first violation right with something really bad for something to go really South just because they didn't notify and so and so I you know you know that's where we really need to tighten things up I I think waiting for the third time uh that they that they wait till the 96 hour window no like like after the first time the first time that you don't tell us within that 96h hour window you know no you can't open up because you have not given the police sufficient time to do the appropriate vetting commissioner Suarez I I I I think you know with spring break around the corner you know we should be moving this as fast as possible I know commissioner bot is working on it and I I'm hopeful to get um feedback on it but you know March is is right around the corner and I'd like to see something very strong um where where it's not just $1,000 you know maybe during high impact weekends or high impact months there is a zero tolerance policy we have something already where if during a high impact period you violate some of our regulations you are prohibited from getting a permit for a 13-month period uh Nick I don't know if you're the one that that I worked on with that or uh Mark I don't know if you recall this it was for doing business without a it was for operating without a BTR for operating without a BTR If you were operating without a BTR during one of our high impact periods then we were going to um we could suspend you for a 13-month period so that so that then you couldn't be operating during that same period next year which addressed the issue of spring break someone you know operating during spring break or let's say during bosel you know during illegal stuff without a BTR well you wouldn't want that type of operator operating during spring break next year so so so the 13 month covered it perhaps you know the same should apply for something like this it should be a very strict penalty commissioner Suarez yeah thank you um right on and we have two meetings in February and I hope by the the second meeting in February we can have a a second reading where it would apply I think we should have a very strong and strict standard for for this uh type of event because it really does take into account a lot of uh planning from police um and and you know a lot of these artists have a following and and some of them you know have like enemies where yeah and and the police need to know about that and I think um we should have a a zero tolerance policy I understand there there's there's been legislation for BTR but I'm looking more for if there's a violation they have a BTR and they violated uh the the notice rules because it takes it puts not only the residents at risk but it puts the police at risk and so uh we really should be echoing to The Nightlife establishments that there's at least during high impact periods there's a zero tolerance policy and I'm hoping that we can have that commissioner bachan have that buttoned up by um the second week the second meeting of February yeah no it's it's coming to the first meeting and hopefully we'll we'll get it right um the other thing that's tangentially related but is no pressure yeah sorry let me excuse myself start working on it um the other thing that's tangentially related to it is um the fact that we have we have nightclubs that have other VI other types of violations beyond the 96-hour violation where they are violating they they are not in compliance with our code and they are dismissing it well it's only a this it's only only the tinting of the windows it's only the queuing wasn't right it's only this but at the end of the day those are those are laws on the books to protect our residents and protect our police officers and protect their patrons and so this um you know this sort of dismissal of oh those are just in inconsequential oh it was one-off like I as part of this whole conversation I think we need to really talk about how those Cavalier attitudes towards the laws that are on our books when they not just like you know if we're not catching people violating those laws but they are violating those laws and don't think they're important I mean like the law is Law and if you're not adhering to it then the fourth time the third time the second time um you know you're done so that's a little bit different from the 96 um hour rule but I think it fits into this overall topic yeah and the one thing I would say you know we want to convey very strict enforcement very strict penalties of this um you know we I I want to be very careful of you know of any terminology that can be you know misinterpreted but I think it it's you know strict enforcement and strict penalties uh Associated uh with this uh because it it it it really is a problem and the only other thing I I'll say is um I'm glad you're bringing forward um the issue issue of the promoters going back to to 2 a.m. I would tell you I don't I might be wrong I don't think 2 am right now um you know has has a shot at moving forward um and uh and I would just say you know in the past we've considered like 30 different pieces of legislation Nick how many or was it 29 it it was I think it was 30 yeah 30 pieces of legislation uh and and the amount of staff time and legislative time spent debating it and debating it and debating it uh and the amount of energy is sucked out of every single meeting it just stalled progress and all the other things that have helped Advance meaningful Solutions and improvements I don't want to say Solutions because you know shutting down a city is not a solution but improvements in public safety and many of which we've helped drive forward together uh and so and so I just want to put that out because I don't I don't want us to get stuck in that Log Jam of of discussion again so with that I think we can um close this item uh and I look forward to commissioner bot's uh item having to do with the promoters vice mayor Bots yes both the commissioner and the vice mayor the commissioner and the vice mayor exactly all right thank you Chief thank you for being here Mr director let's introduce I item number 14 okay uh item number 14 is discuss amending the Land Development regulations to provide for limited relief from setback requirements to permit the installation of package terminal air conditioning commonly referred to as PTAC units and many split AC units all right this is commissioner dominguez's item uh Nick is the commissioner on zoom to% on her item commissioner Rosen Gonzalez here um I'm sorry commissioner Rosen Gonzalez soundar no she's not Mr chair she's not uh I mean I I I'm familiar with this this is to allow certain AC units for multif family buildings within setbacks which seems to be very very uh good legislation uh especially you know helping with older residential buildings and can help preserve um those units and help those tenants out so I think I I don't know Mr director if you want to present the item on the commissioner's behalf sure I can uh present it very briefly Mr chair uh the proposal here would amend section um five 7.5.3 point2 which deals with allowable encroachments in uh required yards of multif family districts and the proposal would be to allow for an expansion of limited encroachment specific to package terminal air conditioning units central air conditioning units and min split air conditioning units on existing buildings uh it wouldn't be for new construction because new construction from what we've seen can easily accommodate that but these would be for existing buildings which in the past have shown uh some difficulty with meeting setback requirements particularly if they're converting from wall units and so uh if there's consensus uh the administration is recommending that this proposal be sent to the full commission for a referral to the planning board I support this item I don't know there's a motion to approv this item yeah I'll move it is there a second second by commissioner SS are there members of the public to speak on this item seeing none in person not in Zoom we can show this item pass by acclamation um let's introduce item number 15 okay item number 15 is discuss the business practices associated with accessing required parking spaces on private development and the underutilized parking provisions and the Land Development regulations of the city code so you know I think we've all been receiving complaints and nauseum uh about the business practices on private parking lots um and uh and what can be done about these parking spaces I just yesterday I was seeing on social media um you know now now that we've addressed the issue uh the paid parking at the Chicken Kitchen at Smoothie King and Pine Crest Bakery on Alta road now it's the whole foods that uh people are getting are having issues at and so um you know I don't know what what recommendations staff has I I know we've worked already on the signage that there needs to be uh clear signage on private parking lots and those lots that are licensed to operate as private parking lots have we engaged in any effort to an operation to make sure that these private parking lots that are charging people for parking are actually licensed to do so and are meeting the requirements of our city code there's nothing in the ldrs that speaks to the operation of a private parking lot that is used for purposes of providing required parking if an entity has a commercial parking lot that is not specific to reir parking then they do have certain operation if I go to Whole Foods and I park at Whole Foods and I pay to park at Whole Foods to go I don't know somewhere else not to go to Whole Foods isn't that a commercial parking lot a probably operating like a private parking lot the parking lot itself is considered required parking for Whole Foods how they manage and operate that would be up to them a surface parking lot that would be considered a commercial parking lot would be for instance the parking lot at the corner of Lennox and 17th Street where you had a building torn down and then a surface parking lot was constructed and that's used as commercial parking for whoever wants to come and and pay for the parking there commission bot vice mayor bot um is there anything that we can do to regulate the fees that they charge I got a an email from a resident where he went into a particular parking lot specifically to use their charger so it's fine with paying the the the fee for parking in order to be able to use the charger you know some the ticket didn't work or whatever and instead of just like here's a $20 maximum fee for you know the day um he was charged $500 which seems egregious is there anything that we can do to limit how how much people can charge for Miss unfortunately not we at parking is a lawful business activity and under Florida law we cannot impose uh price controls on any lawful business activity but one thing okay and you just said it parking is a lawful business Activity one thing is to have parking to meet the demands of your establishment of your development and if you want to charge you know to go to your establishment I guess that's your prerogative and if your tenants complain well then you need to make to to make a a decision based on that but a separate thing is when you're getting you're parking and now okay you are charging people to park there so they can go to other places and that to me is a very different type of business activity now you are operating a commercial parking lot which from my understanding what its own category on our zoning code that has to abide with specific signage requirements and specific business practices for example our new sign requirement that and so and so the moment when you go from just providing parking to park there to go to your establishment as opposed to providing parking to just you know go you know and go you know you're you're parking at Whole Foods but to go to some other place three blocks away that's a whole different type of operation and you need to operate under a whole different segment of the code and get the right licenses make sure you have the proper consumer protection signage in place a whole different set of business practices have we done a detail to enforce that not that I'm aware of now okay well I would like for us you know if we can't regulate the pricing if we can't stopped the practice we need to make sure that the consumer is protected that the consumers that we're going into it and I would like for us to contemplate sending a motion back to the city commission directing the administration to to engage in uh in an enforcement detail on this I mean for crying out loud we are ticketing people for parking outside of their homes and yet people are getting away with with with with giving people tickets in in these private parking lots I I mean it's it's just to me it's kind of like reverse it's sick you know it's it's so crazy to me you know the commercial activity is not being penalized and people are getting these crazy tickets by mail that end up going to some sort of collection agency someday and that there's nothing our hands are tied on that yet yet someone parks on their Swale and they're getting three tickets in one week and this is outside of their homes I mean like I don't get it I don't get so like you know like let's have some compassion for our residents let's give our residents a little bit of a break you know and by the same token let's sure let's make sure that our residents that they're protected from predatory charging at commercial parking lots let's protect our residents and so I would like to you know for us to to contemplate that motion and pass it along to to to to the city commission you know it's just it's just so weird to me that the brick and mortar stores are bemoaning the lack of their business and bemoaning the fact that it's so much easier to order everything online and get it delivered and yet when people do take the trouble to come to a store to get their their products live and In the Flesh um they have to pay for the service for the privilege to go do their own shopping as suppos to getting it delivered like something's wrong here I get it that everyone's trying to make a buff but you know something's wrong yeah so I I move that along okay all right so understood uh do you got the motion order okay so we can to show that adopted by acclamation all right I'm going to defer number 16 to the next meeting I do I would like us to reach number 17 and I to do justice to item number 18 I'll defer to the next meeting uh because I know commissioner bod needs to leave in a few minutes um so item number 17 commission uh Mr director let's introduce item number 17 okay item number 17 is discuss the use of the middl turn lane as reversible lanes on 41st Street to improve traffic flow during PE Peak traffic hours and I think anyone who has been on 4 First Street during Peak uh hours understand the capacity issue that we have on 41st Street not just because of development in our city but it's really the development in other cities and the traffic of the workforce trying to leave our city because of the affordability issue and so we do have a capacity issue we can't expand 41st Street but what we do have is that center turning lane and Jose I think for years you and I have been talking about that center turning lane and how can we better use that center turning lane during rush hour traffic to increase the capacity of individuals leaving the city and so what is the feasibility of when everyone is heading west out of the city to be able to use that turning lane as an additional Lane of straight traffic welcome hose thank you thank you uh good afternoon again Mr chair committee members so uh absolutely uh reversible lanes increase the capacity of a roadway um typically they're done uh during Peak periods in the direction of the peak traffic to to increase capacity along along that uh Direction in this case we're talking about 41st Street so as we know that is a state road under ft's jurisdiction uh so we would need to follow a process that they have which of course entails doing a long arduous traffic analysis um say long how long is a traffic analysis to consider something like this it it really depends on the nature of the project in this case 41st Street is not a very long Street you know it goes from Alton to to Collins uh but the process would is the same regardless um as part of the analysis we look at things like distribution split um traffic split how much traffic is coming in the morning uh in terms of percentage volume versus in the afternoon and there's got to be a discernable split uh something along the lines of 80 20 70 30 where there's a significantly higher volume of traffic in One Direction than in the other um however in this case this is a slightly different uh situation what we're talking about here is converting a left turn lane into an additional Lane so it's not taking a lane away from from one direction to give it to another it's using the existing left turn lane as an additional Lane and uh added capacity so it's a little bit of a of a uh slight uh maximizing our built infrastructure correct because I mean we have to remember that based on the FDT 2022 level of of service map 41st Street and this Corridor has been operating at a failing level of service based on the annual average daily uh trips uh and so and so you know it is a capacity and who is ultimately suffering are our residents and our Workforce and I'm so grateful I know that the administration is uh is exploring various strategies to manage the traffic volumes and increase the vehicle Demand on 41st Street uh commissioner uh Suarez's uh 41st Street traffic recirculation uh pilot program I I think has has uh has I think it has improved uh conditions there I mean there is traffic we can't make cars disappear but to the extent that there is traffic I think it's it's improved the situation there uh I know we're looking at the creation of dedicated turn Lanes on North South Avenues I know the administration is looking into that obviously the Gob program uh but as part of what we're looking at uh you know tell us what action you need from us so that we can uh you know study um the feasibility of doing doing the reversible Lane of 41st stre uh so in essence a motion from this committee supporting uh a a traffic analysis pursuant to fd's process to evaluate the feasibility of uh converting in this case it's as as we were mentioning slightly different situation it's it's it's converting a left turn lane into a through Lane in the direction of peak traffic flow so with that motion and if it's approved by by the city commission we can proceed with the traffic analysis we would get together with fot to define the methodology for this analysis the scope of work if you will and we would need to identify funding for it what do we anticipate to be the cost of a study of this nature and B Park I would say over 100,000 over 100,000 and when like with the pilot program that we do that we have the recirculating re recirculation pilot program uh did we have to do a traffic study with that so that was a pilot we are doing a we did a pre uh study we do a pilot program on we do a pilot program on given the need I mean people are stuck in traffic probably right now they're probably watching us in traffic if you're watching us in traffic we our hearts are with you and we're trying to find solutions to alleviate the issue for you they should not be watching this well you should be listening you should be listening um can we can can we do this via pilot program to see like is this worth even studying than as a perous solution Mr ter well I would love to say yes this is a bit more complex than than the 41st Street uh pilot um because this is an entire Corridor it's 41st Street from Alton to Collins and we're talking about um for example the there would need to be either an officer at every single intersection directing people on that lane as to where to go and where not to go because signalization is a big component of these types of projects okay so we so we can work around that we can't riding a lane we can't do the commissioner Suarez approach of doing a pilot program no this this one is is a bit more complex well I so um you know commissioner Bond you made a motion uh I would I think I I you know certainly we want to move forward with this so I would like to bring this back and maybe you know rather than having to wait until the next budget process if we could find a way you again traffic is one of those things that people are you know they need the solutions and they need the solution now they don't need the solutions next fiscal year or three fiscal years the road it's going to take after about a year to get this study so yeah the sooner the better yeah so commissioner Suarez who recognize thank you Mr chair Jose so do you think this would actually improve the situation during rush hour well it would add capacity excuse me it would it would certainly add capacity So to that extent I believe it it could um because I mean I think the the issue on 41st Street going west is really backups on 95 or or 195 with adding an extra Lane health so if the causeway it's very good point if the causeway is backed up I95 and the causeway is backed up everything everything is backed up but um there may be times where just having an additional Lane this version of the left turn lane may help get cars through but there's there's a lot of details that need to be evaluated as part of this at some point uh there's a merge there's going right because there aren't three lanes that are if even if we put three lanes going westbound on 41st Street there aren't three receiving Lanes on the causeway itself so there's already going to be a uh a pinch point there and all these are uh elements of the traffic stuff that will be looked at to determine if it makes sense or not and isn't isn't isn't there going to be a change on 195 coming to the beach that I think it was at this committee where they explained the changes that are there is a future project but it's way it's it's way out there they're still in the preliminary engineering phase and it's still many years from construction and it's not fully fun we can't wait that long but correct but what this uh at least this feasibility analysis will do is it will look at whether this you know whether this uh makes sense to to do and what it would cost because there are signalization implications I think you know Mr chair and colleagues I think the number one issue definitely the top three issues that our residents always tell us about is traffic and I think it's money well spent to explore every opportunity U where we have severe pain points um so absence of building a bridge from Collins Avenue to to the to the Tuttle we can at least uh try to maximize our our existing roadways to add capacity yeah all right so I I'll move the item all right second second all right awesome with so by acclamation we can show this adopted and let's try to bring this please to the February commission meeting so this is concluded at land use and a recommendation on traffic study will be brought to the commission yes okay yes please with that uh any other items to be discussed here today do you think on the last item there should be as part of the recommendation of the commission a referral to ferk since it involves a um potential budget amendment I would I I think there's Mr attorney there's well I I want to be respectful of my colleague uh commissioner magazine I I I would like to see if we can get this passed at finance and the commission um um with the 57th waiver is there a 57th waiver for for an item um Mr attorney give me one second let me just make sure so let's let's let's see if if I I really like to be respectful of my colleague if my colleague wants it to go to F I'll send it to Ferg you're the vice chair of Ferg uh what is your feeling Mr Vice chair um I'm okay with sending it to commission and seeing if we have a 5 SS vote to to approve it there so with the with the guidance of the vice chair of FK uh input we will send it to to the city commission there there is the option of a of a of a waiver um on a 5 sens yeah okay and and if commissioner magazine really wants this to be considered a fum you know I'll I'll respect that if he wants to pull the the item colleagues thank you for your time uh commissioner B I promised you 5:30 and 5:30 we're we're concluding the meeting and to the uh 50 officers heading to the presidential inauguration representing our city and uh and representing us at a at at a historic moment uh thank you for representing the city of Miami Beach along with the other police departments in our country thank you so much have a good night for