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[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 1 good afternoon and welcome to the February 20th 2025 meeting of the land use and sustainability committee I want to thank
my colleagues for for joining us today and the members of the public who are attending in person and virtually thank you for your participation Mr attorney let's do a rule call to establish cor um sure I'd be happy to uh so commissioner Suarez is is absent commissioner
Dominguez here uh commissioner bot here and chairman Fernandez present we have a quorum thank you and colleagues thank you again for for your attendance today's meeting of the land de and sustainability committee is conducted in a hyper format with members of the committee physically present 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 wishing to speak on an item must click the raise hand icon on the Zoom app or dial star9 if participating
by phone with that Mr director do we have any withdrawals deferrals any changes to today's agenda uh yes Mr chair there's two deferrals one item two the barlay proposal ldr and comprehensive plan amendments is being deferred to a future date and item
number 11 discuss your marking all rent in excess of the minimum fixed rent received pursuant to the development and ground lease agreement between the city and MB mixed use Investment LLC for the development and operation of the convention center headquarters hotel for the purpose of promoting Andor promoting
and supporting Workforce and affordable housing development is being deferred to a future date okay and we're also going to take out of order items number 23 number five and 22 I'm going to take those items first then I'm going to proceed with the priority items and the
regular agenda with that is there a motion to set the agenda motion the the the agenda has been moved is there a second oh the chair will second the the agenda and uh with that uh the the um the the
agenda is set thank you I didn't vote I'm sorry I didn't vote oh okay is there so is there a motion to set the agenda so move second is that by can we show that addition or anything I think we're deferring items number two and deferring
item number 11 and I'm taking items number 23 number five and Norm number 22 out of order before the priority agenda with that the agenda is set Mr director I'm going to start off with item number 23 okay item number 23 is discuss the
regulation of the use of generators sound systems audio visual equipment and stages at private residences used as party houses thank you uh thank you Mr Mr director and this is an item that we've had long standing on the on the
agenda we've seen in recent years large scale uh party houses and other special events that have occurred during highly popular periods um in the city's residential neighborhoods uh with so many attendees and the use of of
commercial grade uh equipment that it's not only affected the quality of life of of our residents but it's also affected Public Safety uh during during the most recent art week uh we
piloted um certain uh permits for for these large scale residential parties and I think that the effect of those of those permits uh were positive and there was an improvement to to Public Safety there was an improvement to the
resident's quality of life but also an improvement to the ability for the city to impose conditions that otherwise the city wouldn't be able to impose um we need these regulations for other times of of of the year so we've asked I've asked our chief Deputy assistant City
attorney uh Rob Rosenwald to come before us today and to present us with options to extend the piloted measures to other ties throughout the year so Mr attorney welcome uh if you could please introduce this item thank you Mr chairman Rob rosenal at the city attorney's office
you actually have two items before you one is an amendment to the ldrs and one is the creation of a special event permit program for large parties at residential res uh houses I'll take them out of order the first being the one
that you mentioned the special event permit that is an ordinance that mirrors the uh successful art basil pilot program that we did for Palm habiscus and star Islands this past year that uh
allowed us to impose restrictions and uh controls in order to protect residents quality of life during art basil on those islands for very large industrial grade commercial style parties uh this new ordinance would make the exact same
requirements as that resolution uh during a broader period of time for various high impact periods like spring break and uh uh New Years and other listed times throughout the year specifically were talking about spring break Memorial Day Independence Day
Halloween and um and art baso the holidays New Year's Eve correct and it it and it's broad dates around that time uh since the dates uh do change every year and then the only other additional changes it's Citywide now uh in this
proposed ordinance as opposed to just the PHS islands and if you'd like to talk about that one first or I can go on to the second ordinance and just briefly describe that as well well for the benefit of the public and and my and my colleagues we're we're talking about regulations for parties where either
fireworks are involved where there are more than 100 attendees to to be expected where we uh are expect for there to be more than 50 Vehicles picking up or dropping off or parking uh at a party or or event uh where there is
the use of inst institutional or commercial grade speaker lights and door generators or where you have institutional or commercial grade bars um being being used at these parties is that correct yes and keeping in mind
that those are general terms but also that for any application the city manager through the ordinance retains the ability to impose any restrictions or conditions that he believes would protect the quality of life of the surrounding
residences uh any if any that he wished to impose that were suggested by a recognized neighborhood association uh or to deny the permit outright if uh those negative effects couldn't be uh significantly mitigated and that's and
and that's so important because one of the things you you hit on is that any of these types of parties that that we just enumerated would require uh a review by the city manager which who could also impose these restrictions uh to promote
uh a a safety uh but we also by requiring this review we can also make sure like for example if you're going to have something like a porta poot or some other stuff that you have the proper building permits and you comply with the proper safety regulations is that
correct that's correct okay all right so let's let's proceed with the with the second part of this item okay and then the second ordinance is also sort of a companion item that uh uh to The Party House theme and it amends uh the ldr's
the prohibition on commercial use of single family homes we saw during our pilot program on PHS Islands uh this past art basil some workarounds that people had used the language is a little outdated in the ordinance as it is now
so we're proposing to uh make a few minor amendments to include uh soliciting donations that don't go to a charity uh prohibiting that prohibiting uh promoting the party on
social media or any other kind of advertising platform and also uh having the event be sponsored by any for-profit entity and how about um the donations because I know that in the past the
donations uh have been used as as a loophole uh the Association to to nonprofit as a as a you know the donation of of pro of proceeds from these parties being donated to to nonprofit have almost been used as a
loophole in the past is that being addressed with these policies well what's been happening in the past is that we weren't able to really verify that the donations were in fact going to any charity or nonprofit and so what this ordinance says is if you do solicit
donations uh that you must give 100% of it directly to the nonprofit great so we have two items before us uh today colleagues um I want to open up the floor to uh to to comments and questions from from the
dasas before we open it up to the public I'm in favor of this um I think the more we can close down what are effectively commercial Enterprises in residential neighborhoods the the better we are um is there if somebody wanted to throw
themselves a blowout birthday party if they can go through the permit process is that is that correct that's correct and you know so this isn't prohibit it just requires a review yeah so I'm in favor of this and and as a as as a
relates to that before we go to commissioner Dominguez the one of the other issues that I recall vividly from the last go around was the issue of parking and traffic and this Pro this allows the city manager to impose conditions to
help mitigate the issues of parking and traffic yes just like with any special event permit the city manager can uh impose any conditions that he wants including parking and traffic mitigation strategies and if those are violated
what are the penalties of either violating that or let's say saying I'm not going to get the permit you would the code in the plea would show up at your party and order you to cease and assist if you did not do that you would be subject to arrest under uh this
section and various other provisions of Law and in addition there would be uh fines if you were found liable by a special magistrate ranging from1 to $15,000 is there a an ability to
prohibit them from obtaining a permit in the future oh I'm sorry yes and additionally uh if you go forward with a party that requires a special event permit without first getting that permit you would be prohibited from getting any
special event permit on any property owned by the owner for the next 13 months for the next so like for example someone you know annually during Formula 1 weekend says you know what I'm going to you know just just use my house as a commercial party house um but they
choose okay I'm not going to get the permit um now we can prohibit them from getting the permit next year and if they still throw the party they can be subject to arrest and other harsh penalties correct all right commissioner Dominguez thank you commissioner
Fernandez and uh Deputy City attorney I'd like to be a co-sponsor on this item uh this is so important we saw the loopholes and the many things that happened both on palip biscus Star but also on the Venetian but those aren't the
two uh exclusive are that have these illegal parties it happens on North Bay Road it happens in Lor and Lor Island and in all parts of our city so this is really a good way to tidy up some uh loopholes and loose ends and I'm very
supportive thank you for all the work you've done on this you're welcome and you are already co-sponsor on both items so you can replace your suggestion of a co-sponsor with my suggestion I love it I love it if you would be so inclined I I I
believe in teamwork and I and I love being able to co-sponsor with my colleagues uh and just for purposes of of the record I do want to recognize the virtual attendance of our colleague and Committee Member commissioner David Suarez with that are there members of the public wishing to speak on on the on
this item if you're attending in person please feel free to approach the podium or if you're on Zoom uh feel free to raise your hand via zoom and you'll be recognized good morning good afternoon welcome please state your name for the record sure my name is Amy day sen I'm
executive director of the Palm hibiscus star Islands Association and I on speaking on behalf of the board um we'd like to support these two uh well the amendment and the ordinance um the the disturbance during art bosle and prior
to that formula and weekend Latin Grammy week uh it's substantial and uh the disturbances are multi-layered they start with a 4day uh load in then a load out process for the Neighbors um they're effectively creating nightclubs within
residential homes the parking uh issue is incredible we've got gridlock so if no emergency vehicle could uh reach any Resident who called for in an emergency so we've got a real situation we're also draining uh City resources uh mbpd the
fire department Code Compliance it's it's it's a lot big nuisance so we're very supportive and thank you Amy and to and to your Association for raising these issues to to our attention as and as commissioner Dominguez mentioned it's been an issue for Palm
hibiscus star but it's also been an issue at the Venetian islands and throughout other areas of our city has been an issue in North Beach on still water on bising point it's been an issue in Bayshore and North Bay Road pine pine Tre is it is a Citywide issue and so and
so thank you for for bringing awareness uh to to this issue commissioner Bond um Rob can you tell me um I don't know off the top of my head when formula one weekend is but this list of dates does that Encompass yes okay I I don't know when that is either but I will check and
if Alex says it does I trust that we checked yes okay thank you all right are there any other members of the public wishing to speak on this item seeing none in person and none via zoom we're going to close the
public hearing is there a motion to approve this item I'll move it second by the chair can we show this adopted by acclamation yes all right all right so um Mr director can we get this on the
agenda for next week's City commission meeting I believe that well there's two items one is a city code ordinance and I would defer to Rob as to whether or not they could get a first reading ordinance the other I believe there already is on
next week's agenda a referral to the planning board for the ldr amendment perfect is that does that satisfy the need the time needs the the non ldr ordinance is already on for first reading on uh the 26th in anticipation of the vote today and there is a uh
placeholder referral to the planning board already on the February 26th City committee Commission up for the ldr amendment perfect thank you thank you colleagues with that um out of consideration to the tourism and culture Development Department that has a
conflict that needs to leave early I agreed to call number five out of order it's going to be followed by item number 22 and then we're going to follow the agenda printed so with that Mr director let's call up item number five item
number five is a discussion regarding facilitating popups for local cultural institutions and startups in vacant retail commercial spaces so this is an item that uh that I plac on the on the agenda to together
with the support of commissioner uh bod um because we need to see how we can help fill some of the empty spaces that that we have in some of our major commercial uh corridors and sometimes
the opportunity is there to have temporary uh tenants commercial tenants occupy these spaces uh and bring activity uh into the road and give give small businesses the opportunity to test their product before they marry
themselves to a long-term lease in our city and I want to uh thank uh Lett arante who's worked on this item and I want to turn it over to you to to present thank you Mr chair Dante director of Tourism and culture for the City of Miami Beach uh committee members
and thank you for queuing that up so nicely commissioner Fernandez um you know the city's been dealing with bacon storefronts uh for a while uh they have done some um initiatives in the past during covid-19 we had a program called open house um that we incentivize local
artists to activate bacon storefronts uh in the memo before you we have three potential uh initiatives that we can look at which is revisiting the open House program uh two is expanding the pop-up permit process and three is
looking into a much longer term and um is the maker space so I can go into what we feel would be the recommendation for a quick win at no cost or we can go into detail that'd be great let's let's let's talk about quick wins because we love
those no cost Solutions So currently we have uh the popup permit and what that is it's a 90 a uh opportunity for new business to try out a space in a commercial Corridor uh and at that time they can see if that's going to be a
viable location for them and if so then at the three-month Mark they start applying for their BTR and CU um what we what we're proposing is to en encourage and incentivize um new businesses to come uh from an Economic
and Business Development perspective is extending that expanding that popup permit from the 90 days to uh 9 months and at which time if they feel that there is a viable location for them then they can uh start applying for a CU and
extend their BTR from 9 months to 12 months so you know it has the potential for a year uh and I think that that's um the other thing I want to share is that the popup permit uh requires at least 14-day notice and so it's it's uh encouraging again to bring you know some
really cool pop up possible like retail or restaurants and I I know that in the discussions that we had we discussed of having a specific expansion to the Lincoln Road area for restaurant and bars and this would only work for vacant locations that are second generation
restaurants so if there was a previous restaurant there and a new uh business is interested in doing a popup restaurant that would work really easily for them great and the great thing about this is that once the businesses get to experience Miami Beach the likelihood
that they'll want to stay is pretty high so we need to give them that opportunity to roll out that red carpet for them correct I have a question commissioner bot um L said the PO mayor bot Tanya is fine um the popup permits are anywhere
Citywide right that's correct because in the memo there was one of the programs CLS was only available in the art deco myo commercial character overl and that's through the economic development department okay um because if we're still doing CLS which I understand it's not your department but
if we are still doing the CLS I don't know if Heather's here um hi Heather with all the hats you're wearing these days um if that is something that we are still moving forward with I would like to extend that into the North Beach area um especially if we're focusing on
artists and and entrepreneurs um the central fine Gallery in Normandy just had one of their artists um have a piece bought by the Guggenheim so it seems counterintuitive but we have a lot of art happening up in North Beach and we're going to be having a lot more so
to help incentivize and um Elevate artists having opportunity to set up shop um I would love to see if we can expand the CLS so I don't know um expand the boundaries of the CLS program and and and the great thing about the about
the commercial lease subsidy program is that is that you're not just limited to Art you can consider other other things I think we had on Lincoln Road we have um what is it a churro store a churro restaurant that were bringing in new to
the market which is part of the thing that the commercial lease subsidy program does is new to Market um businesses uh that are are being introduced so so we have this churro restaurant from Spain uh that is coming here I think in Washington Avenue we
have a brewery uh that is benefiting from this I think commissioner Dominguez helped and helped uh uh participate in this program and so it's one of the things um that early on in my term I was very proud to work with the economic
development department on was creating this this leaps uh subsidy program so is it is it possible to extend this to other parts of the city good afternoon we can't hear you now we can hear you oh okay oh there you go Heather
Shaw assistant director ecomic development good afternoon vice mayor Commissioners colleagues um we can look into seeing if that's something we can do in North Beach but the CLS program is really for um non um conforming businesses so it's trying to get those
and I'm quote um nuisance kind of of services out of the community to bring in the Arts and to bring in the um kind of immersive type of businesses but we can explore if if that could be done in North Beach absolutely yeah I think um when we did did the sort of um
non-conforming businesses for South Beach at at a similar time frame there's also discussions of North Beach having some of the same issues so um you know what's good for the goose is good for the gander so I'd like to see if we can we will look into that first great thank you commissioner Dominguez thank you yes
I think it would be uh a good idea to expand this to North Beach just this morning I had a meeting with a property owner um who has a lot of businesses vacant storefronts and uh he has the required uh paperwork that he has but if it could be activated this is near
hotels this is a tourist area um to have something with artists in it would be so special up in North Beach great and with that just just wonder because one of the things that that I think that we could also be doing
is if let's say a business participates as a pilot program it almost you know we could guide them walk them you know hold your hand a little bit you know you do the popup program you know you do your your
90 days you get your extension let's say you apply for your conditional use and you you get your 12 months you know but maybe in in along the way we can help them be able to apply for the commercial lease subsidy let's say and you know so
that so that they don't operate on their own they kind of operate together if you don't mind commissioner typically with popups um we don't really get engaged with them as much because they're typically for a marketing of a product so it's like oh we have like shine or something you have a new product or
sneakers that you want to put out so it's just for three months but if it were extended to 69ine 12 months then that would give the economic development department an opportunity to activate our conier program and to actually work hand inand with them to see if they are interested in the long-term lease so we
have those um skills and tools for for that great great wonderful with that um is there is there a motion to approve staff's recommendation on the popup oh that's right thank you thank you uh vice mayor are there members of the public
wishing to speak on this item if there is any member of the public attending in person that would that would like to speak on this item please approach the the podium if you're on Zoom please raise your hand I see Jane crup Jane welcome you have two minutes to speak hi just a some logistical
questions about popups uh first of all if you're doing a food popup there's all kinds of Health regulations and venting and all kinds of things that you know it's there's a Time issue there of getting all those approvals so I don't know how that's going to work uh food
inspections grease traps cooking you know Vents and all that kind of stuff kitchen Hood regulations so I think that the food uh thing should be a separate kind of popup and um the other thing is um vetting who's going to vet vet the
quality of these people anybody could come along be selling anything you know there has to be a vetting process because we trying to upgrade the retail not downgrade it right and the third thing is liette mentioned something
about well they can get a BTR later well what's going to happen in the 90 days how are they paying taxes anyway those are some questions I had just logistically I'm not against popups but I think there should be some kind of vetting process if we're you know
opening up our retail spaces they should not be downgrading the neighborhood they should be upgrading I that's all I have to say thank you thank you and um lad I know I I know that there is a vetting mechanism in place and if you'd like to speak about
also who would qualify uh for a popup of course can can you hear me okay yes uh and I think said Heather touched on this you know uh when we extended and have the concierge program I mean we could maybe do that from the onset you know cuz right now uh we work uh and we have
Annabelle here the executive director for Lincoln Ro bid uh as an example like Brands will come to Lincoln Road bid they already have identified a location they have a lease the Lincoln Road bid introduces them to our office and that's
how we begin that 90day permit process so it's not that we just anyone can apply you know there's there's different processes but I think it would be great if the economic development department was maybe from the onset especially since we're extending it to to a year that would be great as far as the BTR
question that Jean has the point of the popup permit is to encourage uh new businesses and if you're going through that whole permitting process and maybe that neighborhood is not viable for what you're selling and so you wasted some time so we allow them to be active for 90 days and then they know if it's it's
a viable location then they start that permitting process great thank you welcome you have two minutes to speak good afternoon um Commissioners staff uh Annabelle yopi executive director for Lincoln Road I will say for Lincoln Road
we've been very successful popups some of them could be shortterm like you said maybe there's a product launch but many times we'll have galleries who come and want to be there more than three months and unfortunately with the current process they can't extend so for us it's
a positive thing that we can offer this opportunity to to businesses who want to open up and really understand the market and know if they want to stay for a permanent time um and I think this is a great opportunity for Brokers and landlords to utilize this and really
expand on the current program so we feel this is a positive step to to creating more economic viability great thank you any other members of the public wishing to speak on this item seeing seeing none um I'd
like to entertain uh a motion uh following uh staff's recommendation to increase the activation days of the current popup permits by amending the Restriction from 90 days up to a year uh
so that so that businesses can really come in test the market hopefully find their success and make their long-term commitment here in the city of Miami Beach is that if there's a motion to accept that moved it's been moved by commissioner Bond second by commissioner
Dominguez we can show this adopted by acclamation thank you thank you colleagues and also you know important in this as this item moves forward promotion promotion promotion I think promotion is the most important thing that we need to do with the success of this because there is a perception out
there that bureaucracy red tape uh makes it hard to do business in the city of Miami Beach and here we're cutting that red tape so promotion is key in in this and I think we do need to you know put this out there or or else you know we'll
find out about it but others won't all right thank you uh with that uh Mr director let's call up item number 22 item number 22 is a discussion regarding consideration of a waiver of
the maximum Grant amount permitted under the city's private property adaptation program pursuant to resolution 202 23 32614 to fund the work necessary to raise the historic home located at 605 Alton Road all right and this is an item
being presented by our environmental sustainability department is sponsored by commissioner Christen Rosen Gonzalez uh who is walking into the chambers so that's I'm gonna that perfect timing so I'm gonna allow uh commissioner Rosen
Gonzalez to introduce her item having to do with property adaptation hello good afternoon everyone um this item was on the agenda and I know that we were going to speak about it we wanted to we had some questions that we wanted to ask FEMA about the
program and apparently FEMA denied did not want to come speak do you know I just I was going to pull the item but I wanted to find out why if they have this private property um adaptation program why they didn't want to speak to us sure um good afternoon Amy n Chief resilience officer
um and so yes we did reach out to the Florida Division of Emergency Management that oversees these programs and they just were not available um they're running a new program called Elevate Florida which is a a new state program to help uh residents across the state um
and they're in that application period so they uh the chief just said they're not available but we did reach out a few times on a zoom call yes would you do me a favor would you I would like to uh defer this item and um could you please send us a contact information and we're
going to reach out from our office and I made a mistake it's not um the Federal Emergency Management it's hi I guess it's the Florida emergency what is it Florida department it's the Florida Division of Emergency Management and they are the pass through for the federal uh FEMA FMA program um and then
there's also a state program that they're administering um but I personally reached out as well as our Grant's director as well okay would it be okay with you guys to defer this for a couple of months there motion to defer and I'll second that but I'm going to recognize commissioner dingz um I'd actually like prefer if you would
consider withdrawing the item I've been in touch with a property owner and I've been working with Amy NS and her group taking money from the private property adaptation program is not an option that's not what this was meant for but Elevate Florida is something that we've been working on with the pro proper
owner and she was super excited she texted me back like yes um well that's why I kind of wanted to leave it on so that we could have the conversation surrounding um this we're not going to take money from the adaptation program but I do want to speak I want them to come forward and say Here's what our
program is I would like them to speak to us so if it's okay with you I just want to reach out to their office so that I can keep it on here and we'll just have a brief conversation we are not touching the private property adaptation program should we rename the item then I don't know if we're allowed to then can we uh
withdraw it and put in something fresh so that it's addressing the appropriate item and not the property private property adaptation well but then I'd have to go through the I mean I can I change that name
Nick um the the the scope of the the title refers to a waiver of the maximum Grant amount I think the committee could decide today uh by acclamation that you don't want to pursue waving the cap um
but you could decide that you would like to continue it obviously this is the committee's prerogative to discuss I'll make that so I can't make a motion the the committee could entertain a motion to wave the underlying issue of the cap so so so if someone would like to make a
motion denying um waving the maximum Grant amount uh for for property adapt we can make that motion we can accept that uh and then we can defer the rest of the items so we have a discussion uh item so where we can talk about the
stake dollars that could be available I'm fine to do that and uh to make that motion I also want to make it clear is I want to help this property owner they've been through hell so um but there's Federal funding out there that can help and I do want to continue to help this
owner okay so there's a motion by commissioner Dominguez to deny waving the maximum amount for the grant seconded by the chair can we show that adopted by acclamation okay uh then there is a motion uh by commissioner
Dominguez for deferral sure okay and I'll commissioner bod you're you're recognized I'll second that but um when it comes back whenever it is in April or May and if if you're able to get the Florida Dam people or whatever they call themselves um to come or even if they
don't can you guys be prepared to um present what the state program is and what the if there are national grants if if we can't get the actual Representatives so that we can jump on to that because this is an initiative that we would really like to promote in
the city not just for a single person but for anybody living in Pre 1942 single family homes um there has been a false narrative for years I mean when I was just a baby activist of oh you can't do that it's impossible on the other hand we know people who literally got 20
people in a bunch of jacks from from Home Depot and somebody who knew how to do it and successfully elevated their property so whether it's this official person coming in from the state or if you can you know finding that that person won't come you guys come back and really illuminate what's available so
that we can throw our Collective Municipal weight behind this and enable people to take advantage of it so there's a motion for deferral it's been seconded are the members of the public wishing to speak on this item before we move on seeing non in person non in Zoom commissioner Rosen Gonzales before we
defer yeah yeah no I just wanted to add that that's exactly why we were inviting this person in to understand what our residents need to do to apply for the state program which is the pass through to the federal program and how everything ties in together so thank you commissioner bot and hopefully we'll be successful in reaching out for some sort
of presentation and if not we would like you to present but I would really think that we would be able to get the State of Florida to come maybe you want to speak to Peter who's up in Tallahassee this entire time and ask him to actually go and visit that person and invite them personally or throw them into his yeah
we'd be happy to do that and and also just note we did highlight this program through a press release we highlighted it through an LTC it's in our city newsletters and we have um been sending out uh special dedicated emails as well so we're already getting the word out good perfect than thank you thank you
commissioner Wilson gonalez for for joining us with that Mr director let's proceed with the order of the agenda starting with item number one okay item number one is a bu monthly update on Code Enforcement activities and the status of special magistrate cases
involving properties Andor businesses located in North Beach and to address any ongoing concerns and new developments in North Beach all right um and I want to thank um the code enforcement department and hernon cardeno our our director for their work
in addressing violations across North Beach I think this report makes it clear that we have persistent challenges uh when it comes to property neglect sanitation Code Compliance uh in this part of the city uh as the
commissioner who initiated the request for these uh for for these uh bimonthly updates on Code Enforcement activity I want to make sure that we're not just tracking these issues but we're actually improving conditions uh for our North
Beach stakeholders and and residents I think the data shows a significant backlog of cases I think we see repeat offenders um and properties that remain in dis disrepair despite multiple citations and so you I really want the
the goal of this discussion and these regular updates uh to be to better understand what's working what's not working what additional tools and strategies we need to turn things around so hernon welcome thank you Mr chair members of
the committee hernand cardino Code Compliance department so we're actually providing uh biweekly uh updates uh via letter to commission um and then we'll have an appearance here at this committee um by monthly um so as you touched on uh Mr chair this was actually
um promulgated by uh sponsored by you at at the commission level and adopted by the mayor and commission um and so our strategy efforts of course uh include uh education proactive inspections corrective action um and of course penalties for those properties that do
not comply uh just as way of background uh we discussed briefly last time that we have six code officers Neighborhood code officers assigned there along with one Neighborhood code supervisor um in addition to the Outreach we've done uh commissioner bot we've done a couple of uh walks with uh
different disciplines from the city um along the Collins Avenue Corridor to identify at least twice to identify some issues there um and just add we did Normandy too say again we did Normandy 71st and and Normandy as well and then
uh just to add to the bi-weekly report that actually includes not only the code enforcement summaries of all the violations and what's at the special magistrate it also includes Property Management activities and uh special magistrate cases um so let me ask you because uh when when I look at this at
this report you what I see is a high volume of unresolved violations um in 2024 you know as as per you know the latest report I think there were 472 violations uh issued um in North Beach
in 20 24 from what I saw there were about three over over 300 that remain in the process awaiting either reinspection um indicating some sort of backlog they're still somewhere in in the
process which is concerning because you guys are doing the work you guys are going out there and issuing these these violations and these violations indicate that there's a problem the problem is that you identify 400 over 400 nearly
500 violations and only 45 resulted in adjudication and 28 are under appeal which means that we have over 300 violations that you know are somewhere
in in in the process so I'm wondering what is driving these delays what you know are we what what's happening here why is it that we're not seeing the outcome and the results that we need here right and and we're looking for the same to turn
the corner there but I can tell you there's a small percentage of them are where we actually keep the case open for at least a minimum of 12 months especially where it relates to property maintenance standards only so that we don't have to perfect uh due process and service of documents all over again and
if the property falls in disrepair again then the city can actually take action with our vendor and then lean that property for the hard dollar cost how many properties have we but when we put leans yes I mean so we can lean a property how many properties do we have under lean I have to pull that
information I'm not certain yeah because the thing is like okay it's it feels like it almost becomes just part of the process we lean but then nothing happens you know the violation persists the problems persists um sure there's been some higher profile ones that that you're aware of there and there's a lot
of properties this way that are just running daily finds uh for nine compliance which eventually turn into leans also yes the problem with leans it sounds great but that assumes that the property changes hands and so for a lot of people it's just $100 a day is chump
change for them and um it's just the cost of doing business and there's no lever there's no mechanism to force them to comply and how do we fix that I mean Nick that may be a question for you as well that I think that's one of the
missing pieces like cuz we see code out there and certainly on the walks going for two blocks at a time in any neighborhood in the city um we write up dozens of violations or directly speak with the property owner or tenant or whatever to address things on the spot
but there's this like black hole that Things fall into and so what can we do as a city um no and you're right because what I feel is that we have ineffective deterence measures yeah you know uh we are imposing the fines uh but their
effectiveness and compelling compliance is questionable uh we're not getting the compliance you put the leans and the leans uh you know the lean accumulation is noted very well in in in the memo but
does the city enforce them to recover you know our our our CA I I don't I don't know and then you know few cases are actually reaching the point of special magistrate adjudication and then even fewer result
in compliance so something is broken something is really broken and it's not serving the ronance of North Beach well Nick I I just like to add two things one is that the city uh that that uh code leans routinely are satisfied as part of
uh settlement agreements of of pending code matters um and the second is that if and when a property ever changes hands you know if a property sells or transfers for some other reason um that is our that is our opportunity to
collect and we do collect at that time yes but you know the problem is that that's an if and when the property changes hands and by that time you know the neighbors have spent whatever there five years looking at an isore I mean wouldn't we all rather as a city not
have whatever the the leans were that the the Morelos finally paid or are in the process of paying of 5 million or $8 million and still have had the building they haven't paid that well I think they're in the process of negotiating i' I'd have to check with Steve but I
know well or like getting it done not negotiating but getting it done so um but my point is you know we didn't have a lever to force them to fix their building and now we are down one important historic building right yep so
the leans they're not high enough they don't property doesn't change change hands off enough to make make it different it doesn't compel the owners in most cases to do anything to correct the item or items upon which they've been violated and at the end of the day
we don't want to make it the goal is not to make it punitive the goal is to enforce compliance because at the end of the day we're not asking for people to do anything insane like you know we want to see elephants on the roof with purple spots on them no we just want the roof to not drip all over the place where it's not supposed to whatever the issue
is right we just want you to be a good neighbor a good tenant a good property owner and compel um and and um comply with the laws of the city just the way everybody else on this block does and so that's the missing link of and the reality is that in a market like Miami
Beach you know such an expensive Mar Market such a premier uh market like like ours those Lanes we all know it still ends up being the cause of doing business for for this property owner because the reality is you know they're
getting a parachute at the end of the day when they're engaging in these sale transactions and so and and so that's that's that's part of of the challenge here um and one of the things that I strongly believe we need to start
talking about is zoning moratoriums for for um habitual offenders of our code if you are a bad property owner if you are a negligent property owner if you disrespect ECT our
code you should not be able to come and ask for the city to get zoning rights or benefit from incentives that you are not entitled to otherwise and I and I really think that
that's when the message will start to resonate if you want to benefit from incentives in our codes if you want to benefit from uh from zoning requests fine but you have to be a good property owner you can't be an obitual offender
of our code other otherwise people will take advantage of the city's desire to see a city that's cleaner that's safer that's better in appearance that has enhanced sanitation and property maintenance standards and what they'll do is that
they'll say I'll just abandon my property because then uh the city will be so desperate to see that the conditions be improved then I'll go in I'll ask for more height I'll ask for setback waivers I'll ask for uses that I'm not allowed to to do as the
incentive to the city to give me what I want so I'll just abandon my property because the city will be desperate to give me what I'm asking for uh to to to improve and I I'm getting to the point that that is the only way that I see us
going forward in in addressing this because the fines are not working the violations are not working the leans are not working and the only other thing that I can see us do is put a hold on anything that can add value to to to their property commissioner B so I um
you know I think that will address a portion of the issues there is um one of the many uh developments that is starting in North Beach one of the many overd developments starting in North Beach um and I don't remember who the the um developer is but it's a a a
frequent developer in the city of Miami Beach and you know because I would talk to Tom all the time like that damn fence is a nightmare and it was such a simple thing to try to keep their construction fence not looking like um you know a victim of a hurricane and it was just
endless and now it's finally it's been fixed or something but that's somebody who I mean easily 10 10 phone calls or 10 incidents at at a minimum and so that would address that person whoever it is um for future development like you know
sorry we're not going to listen to you asking for some special favors but what it doesn't address and here's here's almost what is the bigger issue is the individual retail or individual properties that are smaller scale where
people don't know don't care don't ever get the message that's part of the issue as well I know you guys have massive Outreach but um somehow there's this Mi this this disconnect and what happens is you have from one block to the next um
something that looks like a beautiful city which we are and on the very next corner and with all due respect to South Pao in the 70s and early 80s it looks like South Paulo in the early in the late 70s and early 80s which is not great you know it's a it's a developing
country and we're not and there's no excuse for our city to look like that because people don't care or they're not being pressured into complying with the law so I I do like that idea for bigger issues I don't think that addresses the smaller
issues thank you commissioner Bond um are there any other comments from the de on this item uh commissioner Rosen Gonzalez why don't you just raise the fines we're limited by the state to 5,000 a day unfortunately we're we're
limited under state law first violation can be no more than than 1,000 and for a repeated violation it's it's no more than 5,000 I mean just I mean h end in your opinion how do we collect and get the
you know and stop you commissioner dinga stop the continuances right at the special master I think that was one step I like your idea about the zoning by the way yeah I I I think it's something that we all need to be mindful of if a property owner is coming to us and
seeking zoning relief and they have a history of being repeat offenders they need to feel the real consequence and the real consequence is if we get in the way of the of the of the increment of their profit that they were that they
will make through the zoning relief that they're seeking from us that's that's when reality will set because I really do think that we've gotten to the point that you know some of them are just some property owners are purposefully neglecting their properties to make the
city desperate so much for change that the city will be you know then willing to contemplate uh the zoning relief that they that they seek and we need to I think put our foot down and say noas yes okay um I agree and I'd be
supportive if you wanted to bring something forward because I think that will move the needle um even possibly on on the smallest ones if people think that they're going to lose uh zoning rights if we're allowed to do that legally and I'm not sure we are um hernand why are people not complying I
mean you guys are giving out these violations and then what's happening it's a mix bag I mean sometimes we find responsible property uh managers that do take correct elction and you know other times we can't find anyone and so we
just go through the legal process of documenting and leaning these properties but uh some do come up you know also it's we talked about uh changing hands but uh also on refinancing they come up and they have to clear these leans um and that's happened a few times yeah so
I I I I just want to know do we have a list of the repeat violators um that we know you know that would be our abicial offenders we can that information yeah was that we can pull that information yeah I think we
need to we need to you know start a list of this I think this list needs to be published I think this list needs to be circulated to us I think the city commission needs to be aware of who these individuals are so that when they knock on our door and they ask us to
consider us to use our legislative prerogative to help them that we encourage them to use their prerogative as private property owners to be respectful of far City's uh codes Nick you recognized if I could Mr chairman I
just want the the record to reflect we are working with uh with with you on legislation which was referred by the city Commission on February 3rd to this committee which would address uh requests for zoning Relief by habitual
code violators the zoning moratorium that I'm that I'm seeking to do the restrictions on uh on applications by property owners who have repeat code violations you call it that I call it zon Mortor all right very very well are
there members of the public wishing to speak on this item if there's any members of the public in attending in person that would like to to speak on this item please approach the podium I see Elizabeth Laton attending via Zoom Elizabeth welcome you have two minutes to
speak hi good afternoon and thank you for for for this item um continuing item I I a good suggestion and it's one that uh you guys don't even realize or if you do
you haven't implemented it and that's foreclosure of proceedings once um you've leaned a property you have non-compliant uh offenders and I don't understand why the city hasn't taken that uh step in
starting foreclosure proceedings um I'd also like to ask if the city finds itself for Code Compliance um violations uh our Alleyways in North Beach our our uh North West slots um the grass cutting
all of that kind of stuff um I I'm not sure what's going on and why the special magistrate is not is listen there's a way and it's foreclosure you just start the proceedings and that is a hammer that you all have and it hasn't been
used we use it in properties all the time um we use it in condos who don't pay special assessment fees um and that's something that that's that's a pretty strong message and I I appreciate yall doing this it's just it's just it's
a mess and and commissioner bot's right it one one lot looks really great and the others look like a war zone same thing with the sidewalks all of it so I think we also need to start with our own backyard thank you thank you Elizabeth
uh Larry schaer welcome you have two minutes to speak hello um it's good to see the commissioner is looking healthy on the dis I know that some people have had the flu recently so it's great to see your smiling faces and look healthy um
related to this item uh Mr Cordo I I believe there are code violations right now on the ocean rescue uh temporary installation on the west Lots we have 8ft fences we have rusting objects attached to the fences we have graffiti
we have if you take a look inside that installation you I believe you'll find more code violations I Believe Miss latone can verify that we inspected the site together have you ever cited ocean rescue have you ever cited the city manager for not maintaining that installation there um so have you cited
the city manager for the West slot that used to contain the Log Cabin it looks terrible I believe there are code violations there The Dumping of of broken cars and and debris piled up by containers um so have you done your work in in investigating your own
organization please please answer this I we need to know if you're on the job here or not up on the west Lots because it looks terrible next is it possible to Institute a bounty system where if a private citizens reports a code violation that they get an incentive to do that is
there a way to increase the reporting of violations so that you come out and look at them because I I know you're not proactive I know you don't Patrol and you probably claim that you don't have enough money and don't get enough funding because you're already tapping into our CRA to do to to do uh funding for resources in North Beach we don't
like that we'd rather use the CRA money for improvements that are that last a lifetime and not just temporary labor costs thank you thank you Larry um Jane Crum welcome you have two minutes to speak yeah hi I just want to it may
sound trivial but I just want to give you my personal experience with my neighbor the Winter Haven Hotel it's on Ocean Drive it's Albert Annis uh crowds of people stand in front of it it's on the art deco tour it's one
of our best pie of architecture in Miami Beach I I live directly across and I stare at black goo oozing off their roof through those little squares and I have been complaining calling code uh going on the
Miami Beach app and complaining for over four years over four years it building went twice through a complete renovation and a gut renovation last year new owner now for about a year and uh finally code
came out in November gave them a violation for Pigeon droppings and they determined the black goo was mold and now we here we are in February it's still there uh code tells me well it's going to go to the special
magistrate so I said well when well it's not on the agenda so this is my personal experience I stare at it every day and it's going to probably be there for another four years if it has to go through the special magistrate office so this is
just my personal experience of one minor trivial thing if you can't get that done you know it it's a problem the whole process is dysfunctional you give people too much time to oh we have to get three estimates all is garbage all you have to
do is get a guy up there with a mop and clean the roof it's not that hard and this is after they painted it's still there they you know anyway my personal experience with this dysfunctional Code system and the special
magistrate it's a revolving door they you give these guys too much time you need to put more pressure on them thank you thank you thank you John Courtney welcome you have two minutes to speak hi yeah thank you for talking about this um I I've chased a couple
issues through the special magistrate process and I think it'd be helpful if staff would speak to the fact that the special magistrate often vacates all fees once the issue has been resolved and like the previous caller mentioned they also give a tremendous amount of
time often six months to a year or more to resolve very simple problems um the only you know we never had any success chasing issues through the special magistrate process and the only thing that has started to drive some compliance is working with the staff at land use boards and with the staff that
uh Grant permits and um talking with them about adding conditions on approvals and on permit issues to get the properties into compliance before those are given so I just agree with the um the greater consequences and also agree with other callers that the
special magistrate process is entirely broken thank you John thank you for your participation are there any other members of the public wishing to speak on this item saying not in person not inum I close close a public comment to to be heard uh before we go to commissioner bod just want to make a
couple of points number one I would like for this uh committee to entertain a motion urging the administration uh through the city commission to make an assessment of all its properties we have to lead by example if our properties and
if our assets have code violations those need to be addressed and it's it's it's it's not it's not anything to be ashamed of it happens to everyone eventually gets a violation I know I've received violations in my own house over a hedge
and that type of stuff it happens so let's identify it let's fix it because if we expect private property owners to comply we need to comply ourselves um you know to the other point you know that that Larry mentioned on the
bounties we have the we know the violations the problems the problem is getting compliance our code enforcement officers are out there doing enforcement the problem is not the enforcement the problem is the compliance which leads me
to the issue of the time that we give individuals for compliance sometimes we give individuals time to comply before the violation really kicks in and maybe we need to revisit that maybe we can't be giving people you know maybe we need
to identify an area of the city where where we say the problems are so serious that we just need to you know wave you know the period that we have and just you know come more more more heavy-handed commissioner Wilson
Gonzalez that's fine I think on Commercial properties but we have a lot of old you know old historic buildings and people get those violations and I think the reason that the special Master waves those finds because she realized that number one these smaller associations cannot pay the fines and
she's you know I think our special Masters try try to do the right thing and giving there has to be a different system for residents than commercial right I and I don't know if we can do that because I know that Nick is smirking like everybody has to be treated equally true there two SS of
circumstances but one thing Homestead residential homesteaded and condos as opposed to commercial apartment buildings because I think we need to treat because we know we know very well we have slum Lords in our city
who who don't take care of their property who are charging our residents on fixed incomes and indecent amount of rent and yet they're not investing a single penny back into the maintenance of those buildings so that would fall
under commercial I'm sorry yeah and I would just I would just add in it's not just um the slum Lord rental apartments of which there are far too many but I was um touring Flamingo Park today with residents and and one person was telling us about the condo association who
wouldn't respond to her issues about um unpermitted repairs above her leading to leaky brown water in her kitchen and you know so and I know we can't get involved with the condo associations because that's a whole different you know baileywick but um but I don't want to
you know I do agree that there's some difference between commercial retail space but we also need to hold the multif family family homes responsible to do the right thing collectively um so I I don't know if there is a way Nick of
bifurcating sort of single family home um you know individual issues where like oh I didn't know I can fix it and then you weigh the fee maybe um but commercial Enterprises um and and multif family
homes whether it's condo or rental apartment with you know hopefully a decent landlord or even a condo um I think it's appropriate that for the commission to give general direction to the administration as far as particular areas of the city or types of
development where you want um where you want in resources to be focused I think that's I think that is appropriate I think you can do that all right so this is a discussion item that we're going to continue uh to
to to next month I would like to see and I would I don't know if this has to go to the city commission but Mr attorney guide us properly the issue of City properties not keeping up with the code I think if there's an issue with it we need to do
an assessment of our properties I think I want to see a list of repeat violators uh I think we should we should know who those who those are and um and I like uh for for for our staff to to
explore you know whatever others stronger deterrence we've discussed today to make visible improvements in our neighborhoods Mr chair you could make that the the the committee could make that as a as a motion to the city commission to transmit that
recommendation all right uh commissioner Bob would you like to make the motion so moved all right it's been moved by commissioner bond seconded by commissioner Dominguez uh any other questions comments discussions on the item before us commissioner Rosen
Gonzalez and then we'll close the item I just never got clarification from Nick if we could have two different systems um I I don't think we could have two different systems but I think we could focus if the commission wanted to give general direction to the administration as far as focus on uh you
know commercial properties focus on multif Family Properties if you wanted the administration to focus on particular areas of the city I think those kind of as long as the commission staying out of like individual you know individual cases individual properties I think can give general direction the
process has to be I think the same you mean like having Code Compliance focus on right commercial if you wanted like like targeted enforcement efforts on you know particular areas of the city or types of buildings I think that kind of general direction is okay I think we
should start with the commercial properties which are the biggest violators speaking of which I I need to I'm not going to call them out like Jane kupt it but I'm going to tell no what one of the things that drives me crazy are just not
buildings that are cracked and unpainted but ripped up awnings like flying in the wind and we don't do anything about it those that looks so bad and I mean it's just I'm so aggravated with it and that's really one of the biggest things I would like you guys to focus on
awnings awnings on Commercial properties because right there I mean that's where you see it if a property owner is really taking care of their property or not it's those filthy you know awnings I'm sure once you start there there will be other violations and I know that you know people property owners are going to
be unhappy about this but I think it's gone on too long but remember just again the problem is not the violation I think following up on the violation the problem is following up with the violation we need to ensure the penalties have
teeth that repeat offenders face real consequences is that's the challenge that we that we have so so I think I think do we have clear direction as to where we want to go in the spirit of this item yeah and maybe
poor eraser um I'm destroying the Eraser on my pencil I got very aggravated with this issue I got I just witnessed the murder of an eraser um the um the other thing and I don't know if there's a way to do this Nick in in what we're transmitting to the commission but if
there is um if staff and admin and people in the administration who deal with this all the time can kind of put their heads together and and take a look and see if there are ways to close some of the loopholes once people do get notice um if there's something that we haven't been thinking about that we
could think about differently as part of that conversation that would be um useful as well I understand that we can't get all the way to two different systems but maybe there's something that works better for commercial that is not relevant to single family or vice versa
I don't know and I think that that can you know that can be part of the the committee's um motion at the end of the day you know the goal really is compliance right so um I think that the the committee's uh consensus is is loud
and clear great okay uh Mr Mooney and Mr chair just to confirm the motion was by acclamation one to recommend to the city commission that uh the administration be directed to review all city-owned properties and correct all code violations and two to continue the item
to the March 11th land use committee meeting uh and for the administration to provide a list of repeat violators repeat violators and uh you know what can we do to ensure the penalties have more teeth we need to strengthen our
penalties and even as you know one of the callers mentioned even even if that means you know looking at at you know foreclosure some cases you know we need to if we have the tool and we aren't using the tool even to send a message
then then we really don't have a tool and so the message needs to go out and that's separate to the legislation Mr attorney that we are working on on potentially doing a zoning moratorium for those repeat offenders and that's
going to be coming before this uh land use committee hopefully next month Mr attorney as as soon as we can yes great looking forward to that next month all right with that uh let's uh let's move to the uh next
item I believe that's item three that's item number three the barlay item uh has been deferred to a future meeting uh item number three okay item number three is coordinate with Miami date County Public Schools to promote historic preservation and adaptive reuse of
historic buildings on school property commissioner bond this is your item thank you for leading on this important issue um yeah so this this um arose as part of the um discussions we were
having about the Rose Cottage and how to try to save it and I've learned quite a lot it seems like the Miami Dave County public school system is not beholden to our preservation laws or demolition criteria our um our requirements to rebuild if something is demolished all
kinds of things that we've learned so we've been working very hard to try to get um a cohesive plan on how to use that space that particular property along with some other spaces that are contiguous I think there's a plan I think there's a developer that Miriam
has identified so in this case it seems like it's moving forward we don't yet have permission to go on the property to document it so we can Recon reconstruct the facade we're still working on that but I don't know what we can do on a
grander scale um how to work together maybe this is a tie in the sky wish of you know how do we how do we facilitate closer cooperation to try to protect things that are within our city that
contribute to our city to our character of place and and and resources that are treated differently because the public school system is not primarily a landlord that's not their
primary function nor should it be but there are babies and we want to protect them make them available as resources for our kids and your teachers and so what what is available to us to to do on that front and thank you commissioner bond for for for introducing this item I
think we have with us today Natalie Simon who is the design design and planning officer design and planning officer for Miami day County Public Schools and thank you for joining us today you're very welcome good afternoon so I was asked to come here I think you
spoke to Rahul Perez the chief facilities officer for design and construction and he told me that you wanted a history of why we are here today and support my colleague and seeing how we can collaborate uh more be between Miami day
County Public Schools and our preservation efforts uh here in this in this property well we have like commissioner bat said we've had several meetings um between staff of you know the school district and the city and we
are definitely be willing to collaborate it's a question of putting together a plan that would allow a solution to work for the both of us um right now the demolition of the Rose Cottage is on hold per your request commissioner bat
um and I think that hold was even extended um but the clock is ticking because that Cottage is in such a state of disrepair that by Hurricane Season we're afraid that it may become a real
liability so we've contracted uh professional they've gone into the cottage some of you have seen the photos it's really not salvageable at this point so we think that the best
solution for this structure is demolition um the only thing that we've see beyond that is sing the area and then perhaps having conversation as to what to do perhaps perhaps in that spec
on that specific site but that's where we are thank you commissioner B so um I my understanding is that for several years prior to my arrival on the commission there had been conversations um there for whatever reason there was no cohesive movement
forward so now we're scrambling at 11th hour and 59th and a half seconds um minutes and seconds um here's where we are and since I have you trapped in the room here I'm going to lay it all out so I think we're close to the end of that second extension I believe so um I
understand and Michael not to put you on the SP spot but U Michael Lin um works with Miriam singer from the JCS as a pro bono legal um adviser my understanding is that Miriam has a uh a development partner that she's working with there's
a plan to um acquire that property from you guys and and and bundle it all together with the JCS site and the parking lot for Fisher fineberg fineberg fish and do something contiguous that um covers everybody's needs so early
childhood education um the JCS Services the parking lot for um the faculty and staff and events and also several stories of affordable housing so nobody wants the building to fall down on anybody but it's also quite protected
even if it collapses it's set back within um the property on which it resides we are still begging for permission to go onto the property not into the property but onto the within the property Greenery to to photo
documented measure so that when the development is is worked on we can recreate the um facade we still haven't been granted that we've been asking for months I don't know how long ago Nick that that um drb meeting was or drb or
HPB but that was like October November that was quite some time ago that seems like an easy thing to do the other thing is um it doesn't seem like there's any way possible that that building could fall down and damage anybody since it's so set in but if there's real concern
and we need an extra few weeks to get the time for our our staff to go in and and document the building we could close those sidewalks the two adjacent sidewalks temporarily and have people across the street and that would give us collectively the room we need to protect
anybody who's in the area without demolishing before we get to measure so maybe that's something you could take back to your folks and just give us another few weeks um so that Miriam can get everything buttoned up and presented to you I think everybody's on board in
general with the plan that she has um so it's really just you know can we get a shot off before the shot clock and I I just don't want to lose this opportunity to do something really great for the school for the students for the community um and and
and and have a lasting impact here because we got our knickers in a Twist about is it two weeks from now or can we get another two months or whatever we're not talking about going into the summer we're not talking about hurricane season we're certainly not talking about next year but we do need a little bit of Wiggle Brom if if you could take that
back I will definitely take that back figuratively reach out back to you I think we've been pretty good at staying in touch and communicating yeah it's just sometimes we said letters and we don't get a response back until like two hours before the deadline is over like
what's happening we don't know what's going on but we're so grateful Miss Simon that you're here for your presentation and and your partnership and I just uh I wanted to support you commissioner B and I reached out to to um to individuals at this at the school board who connected me with
Miss with Mr Perez um and you know who connected us with with Natalie Simon so just very grateful for that before we continue with the dialogue I'm going to open up the floor to public comment um if there members of the public wishing to speak on this item please feel free to approach the podium those attending
via Zoom feel free to raise your hand Mitch novic welcome you have two minutes to speak Mitch welcome Mitch going once Mitch we can't hear you all right with that let's move forward
to Daniel Caldo welcome you have two minutes to speak yes thank you commissioner Daniel Caldo with Miami Design preservation League um it's this Rose Cottage is a really important part of the Espanola
Way historic district which as you all know is a first historic district within the city of Miami Beach it also is in elmarie Dixon he's one of the most noted uh architects of the period And so although it looks really rough right now
that building has so much potential so I'm very hopeful that uh the commission will continue working with myami day school board on a plan to see what the options are before the building would be
demolished forever it's very unfortunate I've lived in the neighborhood for a very long time and I don't think I've ever seen work being done by the owners on that building and as somebody who is also a property owner and and who protects uh the building where I live
it's it's unfortunate to see it got to this but hopefully we can all work together to find a solution to bring this back because it's such an important part it's a landmark in our neighborhood and thank you so much thank you Daniel uh Mitch uh I see
we have you back welcome you have two minutes to speak good evening Mitch sovic do you hear me I'm you Compu great I was listening to your discussion with the code director and I
think we could all agree that the city should be held up to a higher standard in standard in maintaining its properties uh uh consider you know higher standard than
residents but I'm wondering what happened here why weren't minimum maintenance standards being enforced uh uh um I'm also interested has there been recertifications of this building
uh it's over 40 years old and uh has that been uh deferred as well thank you again for taking my comment uh for uh the second time thank you Mitch and and Mr attorney as
as it relates to those comments what code enforcement jurisdiction does the city of Miami Beach have over the uh the RS Cottage it's it's a good question um so under Florida law local school boards
have jurisdiction to enforce the the the building code um as as to their own properties um so so the school boards building official handles all permitting and enforcement issues as far as the
building code goes for school property so do we have the ability to send a code enforcement officer and site the property owned by the school board not under the building code no and how about issues relating to 40-year recertifications how is that also
handled what Authority does the city have over school board 40-year recertifications a 40-year recertification is a is a is a building code matter it's a building code matter so the city can't enforce on that that's correct okay I see all right thank you
so much Mr attorney um welcome you have two minutes to speak thank you Michael Lin here representing JCS on a pro bono basis with miam singer um I think I the issue is clear the liability thank you very much for coming and expressing your Viewpoint they're well taken but like
what commissioner bot was suggesting about closing the sidewalks adjacent to this historic building does make a good lot of common sense that way that if the building would fall even though it is inet within the property that it wouldn't represent a danger to people walking by in the sidewalk and when it
comes to liability there is another Innovative suggestion I think that there's a subdivision of property procedure in Miami Beach called a lot split you could do a lot split here the school district could Grant the property to the city of mayi beach once the city of May beach owns it the city of May
beach is liable not the school district anymore if the whole question is liability if they rush to demolish is based upon a question of liability if you transfer ownership and then Stitch the property back together with a covenant then Miami Beach would be liable to maintain it and keep it up um
and then you resolve the liability issue that way thank you so thank you so through the chair yes um this is exactly the kind of conversation we want to have and why we need more than another day or
whatever the the end deadline is we obviously want to keep people safe we want to figure out the best way to move forward to ensure that JCS can accomplish what um they have in mind which I think has been presented in various um formats to the school board
and which the school board is quite um supportive of it's you know um it fits in with what the the fineberg Fisher Community needs and we just need to make sure that um that we don't um lose this really great opportunity to do something
special and if we can find a way to salvage the the building or part the exterior of the building with part of the as part of the development program that would be amazing um so again miss Simon thank you so very much for being here um and and this is not intended at
all to be any anything Rec crimor or anything like that we are thrilled that you're here and and took the time but also please understand how serious we are about trying to do the right thing for all of us so if we can find a couple more months to figure out do we do a lot split do we we do this do we do the
other thing we can we're speaking for the City of Miami Beach we're happy to close the sidewalks if that makes everybody feel more comfortable it's a small um small portion of sidewalk it's not a big deal to have people go across the street there's it's right on the corner there's crosswalks and stop signs
so if we can continue this conversation um maybe you go back and have a chat with your folks tomorrow and then maybe you and I can connect on on Monday or something like that and and see what we can find that makes sense for us together to work forward um in a collaborative manner to make sure we get
all of our needs accommodated for I understand and I will definitely take all of that back and we'll be talking definitely thank you thank you so much and and you know please please extend back to to uh to to Mr Paris our appreciation and to the members of the
school board as well for your time and you have four out of seven members of the city commission here and you see here a desire to be a good partner and to collaborate uh with in any way that we absolutely can thank you and you have my email
obviously so don't be shy to use it thank you thank you very much all right I'm gonna um take item 13 out of order because commissioner Rosen gonalez is going to have to to step out and we appreciate you joining us today uh Mr
director let's introduce item number 13 um Mr chair before I go there for number three I wanted to see do you want this to come back to the committee in a couple of months for an update or I think next month I think uh um okay can you partic can you
participate via Zoom I'm just saying just because seems like it's a issue of time time seems to be of the essence for the school board hopefully we'll be able to um address let's do something we'll be able to address the issues before next month let's let why don't we put it
on the agenda just in case for next month and we can always defer it um to to to uh to the following month but that way we have it just in case sure all right all right so we want to do item number 13 uh Mr chair yes okay item
number 13 is discuss and review Planning and Zoning restrictions that delay the perate process and consider possible amendments thank you commissioner Rosen Gonzalez this is your item you're welcome to introduce your item okay so um I went to meet with Tom seated next
to me and asked him what can we do in the planning department to expedite and streamline processes because what we find is that a lot of building permits or businesses in general somehow get stuck in planning and I said what are the top issues that we could streamline and he has a list of them here so I kind
of wanted to go through them to see what you guys think because if I'm going to create any legislation I wanted to find out your thoughts first the first was uh permanent fences um Tom you're saying that there is no um and this was actually the people on the front line who are getting these permits and this
is where they're getting stu okay so this didn't come from anything other than you know feedback from our customers so number one the lgrs could be Amendment so that there's a uniform standard for the maximum height of permanent fences um why what's going on
right there and why how many different heights do we currently have the the main height standard used is from sidewalk grade but that presents challenges uh for those homes and those properties that have an elevated yard additionally we have a separate set of
standards that would apply to homes with an elevated yard when a home next to them has eventually an elevated yard and we believe that there's a way that we could simplify those regulations to make them more uniform and easier for uh
design professionals as well as staff to review and that's just coming up with one height one standard height for both it would it would be a standard uniform height that we would be able to apply to all properties okay so people are getting stuck because of this if we come up back with an ldr amendment would you guys be willing to support this so that
people don't get stuck with their fence height wait so it would be the same fence height regardless of if you're a Burma house up above versus the measurement of the height would be different I mean would be the same but um the the the measurement of the the
the place where you take the measurement would be the same depending on your yard elevation you might have a slightly higher fence than a neighbor that has a lower fence but it would still enable you to have the same uh type of of height of or the same height of fence
regardless of what your yard elevation is you kind of lost me too I I'm not quite sure but I just think one standard height you're saying that this will solve problems because people are getting stuck with the heights yes but so I'm I'm all for trying to streamline things but if you're in an older single
family Bungalow you're not necessarily going to want a seven or 8ot fence if you have you know know everything is a lower scale the issue you run into is that if a neighboring property decides to elevate their yard with a new home um
their fence has to provide minimum security if they have a swimming pool or minimum security from intrusion and if they're forced to measure from grade it limits the overall height of their fence particularly on interior side yards and
in rear yards where this is um become more so you're saying that that the height of the fence will start at the elevation of the new higher home of the new yard of the home that is I got to tell you I think that that is going to
be so out of scale you think so with so I this is what H it happened in my neighborhood I saw it firsthand and it looked very out of place it looked very out of place because you had a neighbor who had you know maybe 1940s or 1950s
home um and then and then you had another home next to them that built higher and you know then you had this you know obnoxiously high fence it it just it was really it it's it's a good idea but in
implementation it's not visually good okay so let's strike it I'm not I'm not wedded to any of these These are um coming from the planning department saying that this is where people are getting stuck so let's just exit out the next one I don't necessarily love either
this one is required setx for second floor currently when a two-story home exceeds 25% of the lot coverage the second level of the home must incorporate minimum setbacks from the first level this requirement could be simplified what do you mean by that Tom
this is something where uh if a two-story home and and most two-story homes will go to the maximum 30% lot coverage they're required to provide a minimum setback from the first level and depending upon the width of the home the
size of the home that will dictate what the minimum setback would be this was also something that we think could be further simplified to make it um easier to understand and less complicated to review I don't even I would have to see
a picture to really conceptualize this can you explain it like in simple non-chinese it's difficult because each home is different from another because every time you have a new home in the city it's a custom home essentially and some homes um some homes incorporate
these setbacks um because they want to other times they have to do it um because if they don't then you'll have a large block volume and so we're not suggesting that the requirement be removed we're suggesting that there may be a way that we could simplify the
requirement where it would still uh have to be instituted but perhaps there is a way that we could further simplify the regulation to make it easier to understand like what that's what we would need to come up with there's if there's a desire to move forward with it
we could either bring something maybe explore that and keep it here you could bring it back yeah like we're we're going to keep it here but I just want to go through there's three more okay so this one is a maybe depending on what that means okay number three habitable projections for
architecturally significant homes allow any habitable projection what is a habitable projection a habitable projection could be a one story addition to an architecturally significant home a two-story addition to an architecturally
significant home it could even be something like an expanded carport um a lot of times you have these older homes with these open carports and sometimes people want to extend those this would give people more flexibility if they're retaining an architecturally significant
home to accommodate these additions this one I'm okay with if you have a historic home and you don't because I don't know what it is right now okay this one could you bring back what the language would look like for an ldr okay and for number three okay we're almost done guys number
four I'm not cons I don't think I like but I don't know okay retaining walls adjust those sections specific to retaining walls where they overlap maximum fence height and maximum yard elevation requirements I don't even know what that
means so you you whenever you raise um if you're building a new home and you're and you're elevating the yard you have to have a retaining wall okay if you're doing a burm home where you have to elevate the lot to meet base flot elevation plus freeboard you're having a much larger retaining wall what this
suggests that we do is take a look at where the requirements for the retaining wall May overlap with fence Heights and maximum yard elevation requirements and see if we can bring in some more simplicity so that people that are raising their yard
significantly um would have a more simplified set of regulations with regard to perimeter fencing maximum yard elevation and the retaining walls what do you think guys I'm happy to consider language for it but I think we need visuals associated with that
okay so language for that of visuals too okay finally um uh oh this one is General regulations while more be careful what you ask for right okay while more comprehensive while more a more straightforward set of regulations
that relies Less on allowable encroachments an exception to setbacks unit size and lock coverage oh instead an an outer limit pertaining to setbacks lot coverage and unit size could be established I don't what's that mean instead an outer limit pertaining to setbacks
that that remove sometimes overlapping and complex rules for setback encroachments and exceptions to unit size I would only do that that means for with a box you can do whatever you want right okay so what that means that pretty much within a box you could do
whatever you want more straightforward set relies Less on allowable encroachments and exception to setback unze okay so what would you want to do there so right now under the code single family homes are regulated by a series of
different regulations that pertain to overall Building height minimum setback requirements maximum lot coverage and maximum unit size within that established envelope there are a number of allowable encroachments there are number of allowable exceptions to lot
coverage and exceptions to unit size and that was designed to allow things like mechanical equipment it was designed to allow things like open porches and Terraces but what we found is is that the regulations are very complex and
while good Architects don't have an issue with meeting these the not so great Architects struggle with it and this is meant to protect our city yes from the bad Architects yes and I just I let me let me I mean I want to be very careful
because I don't want to offend anyone but you know this is supposed to be protecting us from the glass boxes the glass concrete boxes that are just you know these solid walls and these solid things right Tom correct I have a big concern with this because if anything
we've introduced Nick an item as it relates to design criteria and trying to see what other cities are doing to make sure that we preserve you know you know whether whe whether it be penetrations and setbacks
and and you I don't know I got very concerned this these these complications were put in place because we are a a city of complicated design that's what makes us
unique and it sounds horrible but but it's supposed to protect our design it you know we are complicated you know I'm complicated oh honey you don't okay so can an agenda item discuss
Alex's complication is this is this a node you want to keep it complicated does this thumbs down I I really think this preserves the architecture and if anything we need to be building upon that because when we see the glass boxes that we complain about and that our
residents feel is out of character in in our in our neighborhoods this is supposed to protect us from that and I really but I mean Tom we referred an item to this committee to if anything make things more strict so that so that we have Port holes so that we have
eyebrows so that we have the curves and the glass and you know the not the glass boxes but what do you glass block and the stuff that retain the architectural character even if it's through new construction but we want to retain that architectural
character in our design guidelines commissioner Bond um you know I I think there's um a desire by all of us on the commission to correct to try to help the staff and the administration um improve processes and and give a
little heft to it as as may be warranted I also and and I think that's that's good because we're listening all of us our listening staff and everybody on the front lines in the building department and everywhere um are listening to the frustrations that have been going on for years and so the fact that we are united
um in our desire to improve that is a good thing I am very concerned though at this move and not not calling this out in particular but there are there are movements of foot to streamline agendas and to eliminate types of review and to
do all these things that were put into place precisely to make sure that things get done in a manner that the city for decades has deemed is valuable and so while the processes may require streamlining um and there is there's
always room for improvement I'm I'm Leary of the general direction of removing the safeguards um because then you know we turn into any other City cosmetically and and one of the things that sets us apart is like you know
going through the city of May beach is going through an open air architecture Museum and I don't think we want to lose that so I applaud the effort to try to go through and identify opportunities to improve what's happening I'm Leary of some of the other things so when in
doubt let's take smaller steps first well so that's what we're doing here we're going through them and we decided that one and five eliminated but that two three and four he could come back bring language and visuals and see if we agree okay yes and that's just these there this one this one this onek you so
two three and five Tom could you bring it back and show us what that would mean if we agree to streamline it yes I I would suggest we continue this to the May meeting so that we have enough time to develop the text and the visuals and then we can bring that back to you thank you what about these other things these
are just this is just and the see the building permit the building department has one set of plans and are we going to go through these issues as well no because these are just planatory setting up the item and then these were the and then these were the suggestions so the item will be coming back are the members of the public wishing to speak on this
on this item if you're in person wishing to speak on this item please approach the podium on Zoom we have Daniel Caldo Daniel welcome you have two minutes to speak yes thank you Daniel S with Miami does preservation League um it sounds like a lot of the ideas are worth
exploring and I'll be interested to see when they come back more of the details I do recall the 25% that the second floor had to do with some of the homes that were being built back in the day that that were a bit topheavy and so
there was a little bit of that design guideline and on the note of design guidelines uh definitely I encourage what commissioner Fernandez mentioned related to developing design guidelines for these neighborhoods and we don't have to look far Coral Gables Palm Beach
they both have very good single family um you know guidelines and in fact I think the planning director lives in one of those cities so uh maybe anytime that we recommend something for our single family neighborhoods let's also see how these other highend neighborhoods
operate and make sure we we become a little more like them and keep our unique character thank you thank you any other members of the public wishing to speak seeing none we are going to continue this item to which month may
may wonderful with that um commissioner Rosen Gonzalez I'm going to call Item 15 because then I need to continue with the rest of the agenda but please be quick with the item okay this is it and I did uh withdraw item 17 which was the artificial turf cuz I can't even testy it I know I know well I asked I asked
Tom and I wanted well you know why cuz people are installing it they're doing it illegally um you know it's a trend and it's causing a problem but anyway um I pulled it you want me to read um item 15 real quick yes please introduce item 15 okay uh this is item 15 discuss amending the Land Development
regulations to provide relief from the city's Landscaping requirements for renovations to single family homes that exceed 50% of the value of the existing building okay so if I'm want to renovate my house let's say live in North Beach okay and I don't have tons of money these Landscaping they're requiring like
super expensive Trees and Landscaping and I don't think it's fair so out of all of the items uh this one I I I agree to the most because number one it's for people who are renovating their homes okay and I think we should go back
to um so let's see where were the recommendations Tom instead of like it's on page two page two right so we could instead of requiring a 10- foot tree we could let them buy a six- foot tree I don't think that that is so bad I
mean if you're building a brand new home I don't care make them buy a 15 foot tree I don't care but if I'm just trying to renovate my kitchen and my garage or I have some extra kids and I want to redo my garage and I hit that 50% threshold all of a sudden you're making
me buy super expensive High trees and I don't think that's right so I I think that we should um be able to go to let's see the city code requires all shrubs of treats to be a minimum of 6 feet in height so I can't find your recommendations here Tom I saw them
earlier yeah what we did commissioner is that the examples that we listed above were the differences between the city code and the county code the county code has the Lesser standard and under the county code even if you're exceeding the 50% rule because you have to meet the minimum standards of the county code we
just kept it simple by creating an exception for homes exceeding the 50% rule that you would just have to comply with the county code as opposed to the city code I like this because this actually helps people retain and so I'm I'm fine with this um it's it's really
not that bad it's like it's the county code for example instead of requiring we require a 12ft tree and this requires an 8ot tree so you're planting the tree it's just going to take a year longer to get the canopy that you want I think it's a I think it so you got you're okay with following the county code on there
but I welcome comments from our colleagues any comments questions from the de no I thought this was a reasonable um Step all right I'm happy to entertain a motion is there a motion on the table I'll move it second by the chair is there public comment on the
item any members of the public wishing to speak in person seeing none via Zoom seeing none either can we approve this by acclamation yes yes all right thank you guys thank you all right and Mr chair will'll show item number 17 withdrawn by the sponsor pertaining to
artificial turf that's correct let's let's do that and with that um item number four is item number four still on the agenda I have concerns that there was materials relating to this item having to do with a North Beach master plan that we're supposed to take a
position on that was not disseminated that I do not appreciate having to be taking a position of something that I'm not able to evaluate in advance so we discussing this item today or are we deferring this item I would leave it up to the Adam sponsor as to whether or not
you'd like to defer it or let's introduce the item just so that the public knows what we're talking about okay this is item four discuss the status of the north beach master plan commissioner bot so I I think the um intent given that we ran out of time to get the most upto-date information is to
have a very brief conversation with where we are now and then defer to April um to make sure that everyone has enough time to view everything and and um we can proceed accordingly because it's a pretty meaty set of information and nobody wants to take a position on
something that they don't do so um but I I listen I do want to commend um Heather Shaw and her team for pulling this together because this is um this is something we've been talking about for a long time um over multiple commissions about how to improve quality of life in
North Beach and how to um invigorate and and and sort of invest in North Beach and what's happening and things come up the West Lots come up the the um the Log Cabin comes up what about sidewalks what about this what about that and nobody's done a comprehensive look at all the
projects that were identified um in the Geo Bond all the projects that were identified as part of um you know guidance from the plan noi there so there have been a lot of things put forth and no real tracking system so I do commend Heather and her and your team
for putting together what is now going to become basically our Bible um and when we come back to um to discuss this in in may we might even have a couple more updates because you know two months is a long time three months is a long time and we might have moved forward in
some things um and some things might have been added so I think um this document will Merit a good amount of consideration and review in advance um and then and then we can have a full discussion of where we are what isn't happening the way we want wanted to
things that are going great how do we emulate that Heather do you want to um add anything to that thank you vice mayor and Commissioners and colleagues and you pretty much said it all um this is a compilation it's not just me I have 10 of my colleague uh departments that
are also working on this from environmental and sustainability fa facilities planning there like I said there 10 dep departments that we've all come together this was something that um we want to make sure there 25 projects on on this uh list that you have which I
will email to all of you as well as your Aid so you will have that um and out of the 25 items that are here about six are complete but this is a great opportunity for to have a a fluid document that we can stay on top of the projects that are taking place um in North Beach in
accordance to the uh noi plan from 2018 um and I commend um vice mayor Bach for bringing this back to our attention so we can stay on top of this to make positive change in North speech this is really great work uh vice mayor and and Heather uh this is the type of thing I
don't mind actually being laid for getting something like this like because this is like wow this is really impressive so I can see the hard work uh put into this and it's easy to read and it's extremely comprehensive and so I can take zero credit
for great I so I really look forward to getting a presentation on this reviewing it at our next so what I would like to do with everybody's permission um obviously this is a public document now I would like to be able to send this out um and if we can as you plan ahead for
the May meeting maybe we can make this discussion item a Time certain um for sure because I think there will be a lot of people who I know reach out to me and I'm sure reach out to my colleagues who are really interested in what's happening with this or why I never saw that or who's whose purview does fixing
X fall into and this is um a really comprehensive document that gives really good updates um so that they can compile their list of questions for us in May and it will serve almost as a um uh you know public community meeting not as robust as that obviously because we'll
be limited in time but at least it can get us going and then maybe as a result of that we prioritize things differently or we do have a community meeting or whatever but I think to set the foundation for that bigger discussion um would be really useful if it's okay to send us out yeah just so you know it's a
fluid so we're still updating as we're going and you know we could the updated as of will always be updated so um that's fine okay great thank you so we'll set a time certain for that meeting excellent great thank you commissioner Bond and thank you Heather
and to the economic development team for for great work on this Mr chair just to confirm um commissioner bot do you want this continue to April 15th or the May 8th meeting um Heather can we do April April okay April 15th
all right uh with that we already heard item number five um Mr director let's introduce item number six so that we can dispense with that quickly okay item number six is discuss a proposal establishing a homeowner assistant program homeowner assistance program for
single family homes to restore flood damaged landscaping and so this is an item I had I had placed on the agenda because we often times at least I oftentimes hear from from residents and homeowners who take great pride into improving their landscaping and then you
have king tide and you have full moon and you have everything that goes on with that and your Landscaping gets gets uh gets burnt uh and it dies and so wanted to see what we could do in order to help individuals you know restore
some of that grass that that uh that does get burnt with this water uh the Landscaping that gets killed the administration does not recommend uh creating uh an assist bus program um so you know I think we already do some pretty good
Outreach um uh I don't know if if if you want to speak a little bit about staff's recommendation sure uh good afternoon Rodney NES the assistant director for the public works department and uh you're Mr chair you're absolutely correct uh there is information on the
city's website regarding uh the best vegetation that we recommend for the area um our recommendation definitely revolves around using Florida friendly Florida native material that is best suited for our environment uh one of the
distinctions we wanted to make was the differentiation between salt tolerant versus salt um material that can withstand uh salt water inundation there's a slight difference there we'll make a A Better Effort at making the public aware of which conditions um they
stand the best chance with thank you Ronney you're wel thank you and and and I appreciate staff's consideration of this item um happy to accept staff a recommendation and with that we can close this item thank you thank you and I want to also thank our public works department I see we have jayf uh here
Jay has been working on a number of issues for us you know from Swamp gas uh to flooding to a number of other things under under the leadership of uh of uh Brad uh Kane our our interim Public
Works director and I just really want to commend the public works department uh all of you uh uh Ronnie you us well I really love the work that this department does I'm grateful for the work for the responsiveness uh I think our residents
uh appreciate how active you guys are out in the community and so I just wanted to express that publicly from the day as as representatives of of our residents how much you are appreciated for the work your department is doing commissioner Bond and if I may jump onto that bandwagon um we've been doing these
walkthroughs North Beach and now in South Beach and we're going to be all about the town and your Department's um your department is is incredibly well represented and Incredibly responsive as we see you know um things that are miss or that don't look quite right um and
sometimes even we have a public works truck following us along and like moving into action as we're as we're identifying problems so well done yes very grateful thank you to the public works team keep up the great work with that uh Mr director let's introduce item
number seven item number seven is expedite the opening of the Baywalk and move the development of the Baywalk up on the goond prioritization list and present the Baywalk to the lusc committee commissioner Dominguez this is the good news item because there's so
much great stuff and exciting progress happening there uh you're welcome to introduce your item oh it's my favorite uh well we had the groundbreaking for the pedestrian bridge um there's been extensive work behind the MRE to complete those segments what I'm most
interested in hearing is uh the missing links that uh contracts with uh board of directors in different buildings um Southgate South Bay Lincoln Court I want to hear about those uh Mr chair vice
mayor commissioner good good afternoon um the update I have for you as you mentioned that it's a good news update the pedestrian bridge High the ground breaking the segment behind the mandre and mirror door is is uh virtually complete they're wrapping up final inspections and and doing the last of
the cleanup the update I have for you on the other links is that the South Bay Club that's 800 West Avenue we received the city attorney's markups on on the final agreement um we're reviewing that and that should be going back to the board in the next day or two once we
have a a chance to confirm that all the the comments have been addressed um and then the other two links uh which is the Bay View Terrace and Bay Garden manner as you are aware there's a a potential development taking place that we've been working with both of the buildings to to
try to see how we put that into effect thank you so much um colleagues any questions um no I great progress uh thank you for keeping the pressure on this and it was great to be there uh last week was last it was last week it's
great to be there last week commissioner Dominguez with you uh celebrating this incredible Milestone hopefully within 20 to 24 months we'll have uh Bridge yes connecting people and communities the future Mark saman Bridge the future Mark
saman Bridge yes yes very excited about that that's amazing all right so we'll talk next month yes all right with that uh I'm going to call item number eight and then after item number eight we'll get uh the update on Ocean terrorist so let's introduce item number eight first
okay item number eight eight is monthly updates on Historic Hotel Redevelopment on Collins Avenue between 14th and 20th streets including an overview of pending permits and progress updates from development teams thank you so much uh and I placed this item on the agenda is
an item that's that's been uh recurring um you know there are ambitious plans uh for this part of of Collins Avenue uh I think there's over $2 billion doll that's been reported on two billion dollar of investments in highend hotels
in residential units and restaurants um and um and you know this is the heart of our architecture District this is part of our cherished uh our cherished Skyline
um and uh and it's something that that we need to preserve and preserving is making sure also that as we approve uh the developments uh to fix these properties that there's progress and that and that we don't risk losing these
historic assets um Tom walk us through where we are uh with uh with with some of these properties um I know I know there's there's you know a lot of press around the shellborne uh there's a lot of excitement around the Delano tell us where we're at with these projects okay
we we attached to the uh land use committee memo a summary of the hotel projects between 14th and and 21st Street um and as you'll note we indicate which ones um have been issue a CO and are done like the Nassau um some of the
projects the smaller projects like the enrosa the Haden Hall the aqua and the Royal Palm no more no permits have been applied for yet or they're still pending at the um historic preservation board um as you get into the bigger hotels um The
Ritz uh Sagamore uh has applied for a permit and they're going through their reviews now but the National Hotel has not yet applied for their permit the Delano Hotel was issued a full building permit it's an active construction site and virtually all the new windows have
been installed in conversations with the um applicant they have indicated that they are moving ahead at full speed and that they would like to be done by the end of the year amazing um the Raleigh Hotel I believe we have a representative
here to speak and we'll get to them yeah um the shelburn hotel also has a fully full building permit issued it is an active construction site they're nearing completion and as a matter of fact they got some good press in the Miami heral this week about their their
restoration um the na hotel is pending before the historic preservation board the Shore Club Hotel renovation including a new residential tower has been approved by the historic preservation board they are in for building permit um and they have gone through two
reviews um and then the last hotel is the bulgary which is the historic seagull Hotel a permit has been issued for the work and although they have not started work as of yet they have met with planning department staff um and the project team has advised that the
project is moving forward and they have done some limited demolition work on the site but they're not demolishing the property no no this was just a non-contributing portion of the building that the historic preservation to be yeah to be removed right okay and so let let me let me just ask you this because
of the larger hotels and I have a concern because you know these um these larger hotels um they are they they are part of this image of of our city the smaller ones as well um but I'm very concerned
about not only you know the image of these shuttered buildings but how that does affect our economy in in in the city so the Hotel one of the big ones why haven't they applied for a permit yet um they haven't indicated why they
have not applied for the permit yet um we can certainly reach out to have they responded to your increase um not as of yet no but we can reach out to them again and and and see why what the delay is with regard to um their approved
project is it question for fre through the list just for clarification so no per applied for the just from that annotation it's unclear if they have gone through HPB or drb as needed or they have when you when you look at the
at the column uh the third column it has the HPD file number and the HPB approval date okay so they've received their HPB approval but they've not yet come in for a permit okay sorry and does that approval expire it does however they
likely Avail themselves of a state extension which would extend the HPB order what we confir that when how okay explain that to to me when does it expire and what state exception ex ex whatever extension is there normally um
under the ldrs an approval of the historic preservation board is good for 18 months so it would be 18 months from the May 9th date after that time a property owner can request up to a one-year extension so it would be
essentially 30 months however understate law whenever the governor signs an emergency declaration that allows for the extension of development orders and building permits anybody can Avail themselves of that extension we have
examples of development orders that have been extended to 2029 2030 through these State extensions but is that but do you have to grant that extension nope they just notify us that they've availed
themselves of this and then we keep a running tally for administrative purposes uh to make sure that wait I need a little bit of clarity here someone can request it and they automatically receive it or or we have to review that request and then it's up
to the discretion of the building department whether to Grant it or not or to the or to planning official Nick it if a if a if a property owner applicant substantiates that they hide an active
permit that was told by the statute and that they are entitled to the additional time we have no discretion and it's not even that we approve it it's it's this the by operation of law the the the permits are extended now the legislature did amend this law a few years ago to to
limit um the total extensions so that it's it's for the for the periods of of the Declaration of any natural emergency plus a total of 48 months it used to be even longer but so this could go on for years it
does go on for years yes and do they need to have applied for a permit before they can Avail themselves of an extension they can only get an extension under the statute if the permit was active at the time of the Declaration of an emergency so like for example with the national they haven't applied for a
permit well some of these will extend orders so some of these State extensions apply to development orders both and So eventually they will have to apply for a permit but if you can if you can extend your development order four or five years then that gives you four or five
years to apply for the building permit yeah but look at the aqua through the chair yes look at the aqua Hotel I mean that's five years in counting yeah I mean that that doesn't seem to fall into these parameters so can we find out what's going on there we can find out whether or not a um extension of time
through the state has been applied for and what the status of that is yes yep I that's you know and that's right there on the saue you that's that's horrible that's yeah we
need that we need that all right let's talk about what's going on with the rally I see we have a representative of the rally present Mr Gonzalez welcome good afternoon Mr chair Alfredo Gonzalez for the record with veror on behalf of uh B
BSD Raleigh the property owner so so it seems like uh the property owner received an approval over four years ago correct okay where are we with that with that project currently if you go on
site the uh piles are in the process of being installed it's a process that started about a month ago um it will be ongoing through probably the end of summer so then they could move on to um verical construction okay has the
property owner secured financing for Full Construction of the projects um I'm here to tell you what the construction project is right now those are more business terms and I'm happy to relay that back to the property owner and schedule a meeting but not
necessarily a public form okay so so so we don't know today if if if they have secured financing for the construction of the project well there is financing because obviously they're currently working on the site
but for the Full Construction it's all done in phases that's projects are typically done in phases so commissioner Dominguez I just have a question is the project for sale yes and the sale center is
open um I meant to another developer to complete the project H is another is it for sale for another developer to pick it up and complete the project at this time um Michael show is actually the one doing all the work and it's project okay
I hadum that it that the project was being corded for sale and I was just curious if there was any um change of ownership being at this point they're actively doing the construction on the project and welcome
anyone to go by the site and and see the work being done Alberto you know I love you but that doesn't answer the question so currently yes Mr shro is doing the work on the site but that doesn't answer the question as to whether or not um there are discussions or there's a
desire to offload the project to somebody else to finish it all all due respect commissioner I was asked to come here to talk about the construction of the project and because there was a concern that construction was not going on on the site and to be
clear the we had informed a several of the Commissioners some uh that the P work was scheduled to start in December but because of the subcontractor committed other um some of the projects got delayed they didn't arrive until
last month so on work is ongoing it's continuing and that is really what I could say so I understand that you were asked to come here to talk about the construction but to us it's part and parcel because we see the Hulk there that is well butress and that's all
great but you know hurricane season is coming Upon Us in a few months and it gives at least me pause because I'm not an engineer I have no idea how useful all these things are I'm sure other people are much smarter have it sorted out but when our residents ask us what's going on with the Raleigh especially
because that that is such an emotional connection to so many residents um I heard they're looking for money I heard it's for sale I heard I heard I heard we need to be able to tell them so it's great that um work is cons is is starting again that the pilings are being put in and understanding that
there are delays it's part of the the nightmare of construction and understanding that projects can get financed in phases to correspond with the outlay of cash that is necessary that's all well and good but I you have to understand the reason why we're
asking about the financial questions is because to everybody who's not deeply involved in the business looking at it it looks like it's been abandoned or up until very recently it looked like it's been abandoned and there have been reports about you know did did Mr shro overextend and therefore
some projects are suffering people are worried about this project and that's why we want those answers so if there is um a different way you would like to get us those answers I guess that's fine I don't know how how that works I think ultimately we want to make sure that
that that this important asset is in good conditions and and so and I and I think that that's you know and it's not to put you on on on the spot um you know but we we just need to make sure uh that
that um that the rally is is protected and and if you don't feel comfortable you know speaking here about the full financing or or other matters about any potential transfer of ownership you I would encourage you to reach out to each of one each one of us individually uh
because I do think you know we need to understand what's going on I understand and I will relay but I want to be Crystal Clear currently these buildings have active building permits and the Richmond the South Seas they've all been
secured so they're secured with Shoring a Shoring plan that was approved by the building department so it's not like they're just sitting there in the wind Wai to fall come down and and and the project is moving forward I mean the sales center is open I can tell you but
going back to the construction because since you mentioned you're here to talk about construction you know can you provide assurances that the Shoring and the bracing of all historic elements of the walls and and you know of this historic structure is sufficient to
protect these historic assets that you have there the city has Engineers reports to that effect um I'll tell you a little story both the Richmond and South Seas right now are under the 40-year recertification and we've been working with the building
department on top of our even though most 90% Center was demolished the portion that remain will require these buildings when they're up for TCO to provide a complete 40-year recertification for the portions that remain so we've been providing working with the building department on
confirming that the conditions of the buildings and and the safety certified by Engineers I'm not an engineer I'm an attorney uh and that has been provided on every six months to the building department so it has been provided so all right I just want to make sure also
you know and I'm I I understand that Engineers have provided reports to the city as it relates to the you know to the bracing um of of of the Richmond and and the South Seas I just want to make sure you know and I want it to be very
clear and I want to make sure that you and the appropriate parties involved with this project are aware that you know should that Shoring embracing fail you know that the presumption under the code is that there is
replication and I hope that we don't get to that conversation but you know I just want to make sure that that is understood Mr chair I fully understand my client 100% understands this this project is already been entitled
building permits contingent on Those portions remaining including the Raleigh so the look of the understood and I understand that there's work going on but the conditions in which this site has been for a prolonged period of time
is very concerning and respectfully a lot of large scale projects take time and they're not done you know they they're also deal with the market and this Pro this project was approved was one of the first project
approved when the state allowed during covid actual hearings so that in itself took some time and I understand that the Raleigh itself prior ownership by Mr scho and his entities had been for years several years had a building permit
under I think Tommy hinger previous owners and it was just staggering so a lot of and this happens when I understand when a large site like this stays empty for such a prolonged period
of time the depression that it brings to the area we see that this is why we're so concerned for example in north beach with a duville it's such a big space and the impact that it has not only to the quality of life of of the residents but
to the economy and the ability of the surrounding businesses to prosper is affected by it we've seen that in real life the same happens happens here I need to know Mr attorney because and I appreciate Alfredo being here today in
representation of his client telling us what's happening today and we can only go by what's happening today let's say construction stops to tomorrow you know do we have any recourse um on the developer you know
should this continue to be delayed um two things Mr chairman one is if there are any um building violations along the way obviously the building official could intervene as an enforcement matter um and the second is
uh I I believe we have an agreement with this developer that involved the vacation of the of the Alon Court uh right of away I don't I need to review that with the city attorney I'm not sure if we have any any recourse under that agreement but but otherwise to see people succeed and we need them to
succeed but we also need to protect our city the interests of our economy and we need to protect our historic assets that is what people identify with our city so so you know this is something that we're going to continue to take very seriously
this is this is the image of our city and this is the economy of our of our city and so I appreciate you being here with us today I encourage you uh to set up oneon-one briefings with us to uh share anything that you might not be
able to share here publicly today understanding that I hope that when you come back in the future you'll be able to share a little bit more publicly because I think when we don't answer certain questions publicly it just raises more questions to the public and that's something that we need to avoid no and I understand it happy to meet
with everyone individually thank you uh with that if there are members of the public wishing to speak on the item before us today feel free to approach the podium seeing none in person Jane crup uh on Zoom welcome you have two minutes to
speak hi I'm you've been just discussing I'm getting some feedback um you've been discussing another Albert Anis oh I'm sorry I would like to discuss another Albert Anis building the Winter Haven which I was called out for um you on
your list of built properties uh there's a big elephant in the room on 15 1500 colins which is the bankr I don't know why it's not on your list the uh residents and Community spent many hours
with a developer negotiating their cup I believe they got permits and then all of a sudden nothing so uh if you could put that on your list maybe because it's sitting there languishing no action it's
a major important historic property and I'm not sure why it was not on your list so of just you know tell us what's happening um with that property anyway that's my request if you could please include that in your discussions it
would be appreciated thank you thank you and I and I think uh I think uh there there might be somewhere a discussion about that um Mr Mooney um but uh but we'll find out and and if there's not a separate item about this we can always try to incorporate an update as part of
this item are there any other members of the public wishing to speak on this item seeing none I think uh with that we can continue this item to next month and we're always happy to welcome Mr Gonzalez for his update so we look
forward to seeing you back next month with that um we let's let's bring up uh ocean terrorist Mr director okay this is item number 18 um and this is a discuss uh to discuss the status of the private
portion of the Ocean Terrace Redevelopment project all right commissioner bot um we are very excited to have this come online um and I appreciate that sandor share is here Live In the Flesh to talk about the
project um the park looks like it's getting ready to open any minute and that that will be a nice change to have that back up and running but we're really eager to know what's going on with the um buildings themselves both on Ocean Terrace and on Collins um I I know
we have our fabulous staff here to talk about it and um but also sandor and I had some conversations last spring I guess um about trying to make it look a little bit better as As you move through the process so I'm going to turn over to
both of you and U eagerly await to learn what I can learn and I I think you're more interested in hearing from Sandra than from me so I'll let him fill in okay okay uh sandor Sher from motion teres Holdings great to see all of you
um I think you're interested in learning about the project uh but maybe just to lead off with the fact we um are in the final stretch uh of finishing the park which um is going to be a really spectacular
amenity for the city of May beach um ultimately it will um cost us close to $20 million which is significantly more than we proferred at the time but um we wanted to make sure that this is a really world class amenity for the city
um we think it will be we think it'll be something that'll be talked about all over the globe in terms of the quality of it we have the the artwork installation commencing um beautiful piece of artwork from prun Nory who's a a world-renowned artist um he's doing an
amazing piece um so but I would I'm sure you've all seen it come together and it's it's really uh really very exciting what what is the um anticipated date of opening uh we're about 60 days away right now from the uh phase one of the
park which is you know basically all of the area of the park that isn't uh isn't going to be directly in front of our properties which we need to use to construct our properties so um that's exciting we're in the process of doing the turnover the city you know the
city's uh Capital Improvements department is going through all of the you know the standards and the landscaping and the maintenance plans and the uh um you know the construction issues if there are defects if everything's there whatever our general contractor has to fix you know the
normal turnover process getting the meters installed um you know moving the irrigation systems to permanent and lighting it's really all coming together beautifully so David do you think by May 1st that Park will be open or the the parts that are ready to become open yes
ma'am it looks their own it looks like they're on schedule yes okay so let's try to make sure that we can celebrate Mayday in a part like we're supposed to hope so yeah I mean look every day that we're under construction obviously is it it's it's a
impactful for us it's impactful for the city we want to we want to get it done yep okay so now tell us about the buildings uh so on the buildings I think I would imagine most of you probably uh heard or read but we um just uh entered
into a a partnership with uh the Whit cofs which are um one of the most world-renowned developers um um in the country and and certainly have done some great work on Miami Beach in the past uh so that's very exciting that was on
February 7th um and that's you know a great launching point for us to to move forward we've got we've got a tremendous team working on the designs and the plans um really coming together beautifully uh you know for the Historic
Hotel for the residences for the amenities um all that's coming together really really well we're excited excited is there an intention with a new partner do they have any desires to change the fundamental scope of the project that was the one of the key
elements is that they're they're generally aligned with us on on everything so we have an existing historic preservation board approval and we plan to be working within the confines of that you know one of the challenges of of not doing that would be time and we don't really want to spend
any more time than we necessarily have to we want to get this going so we're working with our existing hbv approval and and everybody's happy with that so can you give me a sense because one of the frustrations for the community you know obviously we need that to be a thriving Hub on both sides both the
beach side and and the um Collins Avenue side but one of the frustrations for the community is that because it has taken so much time we've actually lost some of the buildings the facades that we were trying to protect um how are we doing on protecting the existing the remaining facades um making them look a little bit
better than they look Shoring them up for the multiple storm Seasons that you're going to go through before this all gets built out how you know because at the end of the day what we don't want to have happen I'm sure you don't either this is would not be um intentional obviously but for this whole thing to
take so much longer than anybody anticipated that we lose all of the contributing buildings that we were trying to protect yeah I I we have uh no issues with with any of our buildings from a structural perspective that that that are in in collapse or anything like that
everything's you know um we just spent a half a million dollars on the Broadmore and the ocean surf on you know remediation concrete restoration um the retail buildings are all occupied we have a just of a new yoga studio that moved in and there's a
great um a great uh Bakery that's that's doing well there hopefully you've all had a chance to patronize it um so I I don't I don't know anything about about that I mean I'm very familiar with all their building condition and okay so there are no issues with that no no we
don't have anything that needs to be you know um that's collapsing or anything like that no so what is your perspective time frame so as you know with these projects the first thing you have to do is you have to uh sell condos uh and that's where how you procure the
financing to actually get the project done so we have to start that process and we're very close to doing that where's the sales office going to be uh temporarily we're just going to use the lobby of one of the existing hotels uh and then longer term we have a uh sales trailer that's going to be located just
to the north of the Broadmore okay so time frame four years 10 years 40 years if it's 40 years yeah that's going to be a problem if it's if it's 10 years that's going to be a problem no we're
we're um our our goal is to is to start construction in the next uh 18 months uh 24 months uh if not sooner it really is predicated on sales it's the way these things work is you have to in order to sell then you have to sell enough to
then get a a construction loan um you know that's really the the harbinger of how this works and um I I'm sorry if I forgot this um Hotel flag do you have that sorted out uh we don't we're we're in negotiations with a with a worldclass
global hotel brand um but it's not finalized and I I wouldn't so I wouldn't really be able to talk about about it we could talk privately if you wanted okay great well thank you for your presentation absolutely uh very very excited about what's coming to to the area it's uh it's going to be
spectacular and we're you know we're really pleased with the way the the park is coming out I really I can't I can't say enough about how great uh uh the city staff has been to work with um you know David and and and David and uh
Carla at CIP everybody's been been really great so we're we're we're on the final stretch now and uh and hopefully we'll all be up there for a ceremony very soon we like those ceremonies yes it's good to see you great yeah nice to see you too thank all right thank you
for taking the time from your day and being patient with us to come in and talk in person it's it's been a Hot Topic and so I'm glad um Can is there a public comment on this is are there members of the public wishing to speak in this item seeing none in person any on Zoom seeing none in Zoom I think we
can uh close this item yeah thank you great thank you s thank you okay thank you with that uh Mr director let's introduce item number nine item number nine is discuss the implementation of a consent agenda for land use board meetings all right this
is an item being sponsored by commissioner Suarez um Mr director did um commissioner Suarez want to speak on this item or are you going to present on his behalf he asked if I could he guys commissioner welcome uh we're we're
discussing your your item on consent agendas for for land use uh board meetings would you like uh the planning director to present this item or we like to forent Tom if you could take it away that'd be great thank you not a problem um commission as far as um this item as
the committee may recall was discussed at the December 17 2024 meeting um and the committee voted to continue it to um a future date U with the direction to staff to develop ldr text that would
codify a practice that we have been using over the years to implement on an ad needed B on an as-needed basis a consent agenda for the city's land use boards and So within the memo um is a potential Amendment to chapter 2 article
one regarding land use boards and under procedures um we've created a consent agenda process that is consistent with how we've applied these in the past um if there's consensus on this um the
Administration has no objection to this ldr amendment and if there is consensus on this then the commission the land use committee can vote to recommend that the city commission refer a draft ordinance to the planning board so with this item
um right now land use boards so like the planning board the historic preservation board the board of adjustment design review board they wanted to have a consent agenda they could have a consent agenda yes and so and and and who
determines today under their current practices whether they have a consent agenda or not uh staff staff based upon the length of the agenda and whether or not the criteria could be met okay all right and this item does not dictate
that there be a consent agenda it just formalizes the ability for staff to have a consent agenda that's correct and let's say because I do believe in the in the autonomy and the independence of of
of these boards and committees and so let's say Mr attorney if the if the planning director puts a consent agenda but the board decides to take a
different approach and the and the board doesn't desire to have a consent agenda does the board have the ability to vote not to have a consent agenda the um the consent agenda would
operate like much like it does for the city commission where one member could say you know I'd like to pull this item for for discussion if and and that I understand however let's say the board doesn't like the idea of having a consent agenda and
pulling an item from a consent agenda is sometimes controversial um and so and so you know let's say a board doesn't want to have a consent agenda can they vote to establish their own position to not have
a consent agenda yes okay and that's in the current practice they right they they and how about in the proposed legislation this would create a framework for for the boards to to to
have a consent agenda but no the planning director May establish a consent a a consent agenda but can the board decide on its own does this does this um legislation allowed the board on its
own independent of the planning director to decide whether or not it wants to have a consent agenda yes it does okay where in this legislation does it say that give a section I apologize Mr chairman I just stepped away from page 83
for those who are wondering our agenda is 521 Pages Tom read it all yes every page Tom most of it Tom wrote most of it too so if you look at um if you look at B two
yeah the uh one of the conditions for the the a board to have a consent agenda is that all voting members of the board present at the meeting shall agree to for go a presentation so implied in that
is that uh that the board by you know would would have to by acclamation um agree to to to having a consent agenda so the board has discretion okay so so so a planning board member can make a motion to say
listen I don't think that the planning board should be having a consent agenda and they can make a motion and say you know I want to move that that this planning board not have consent agenda and that we that each item be its own standing item yes as the regular order for every meeting right okay that's the
case I'm fine with us commissioner B so would they have to do that at every meeting or just once for that excuse me for that impanel it would be uh if there is a meeting where a consent agenda is presented then the
board all members of the board present would have to agree to foro a present and or questions at every meeting they will have to do that at every meeting conflicting I'm getting that conflicting information I'm getting one opinion from the city attorney and one opinion from
the planning director I think um I think if either the sponsor or the committee has a position one way or the other on that we can make sure that the legislation is crystal clear but this could be either way okay I think I'm I'm fine with with
boards and committees having a consent agenda I'm fine with the planning director being able to recommend that they have one but I think ultimately it should be up to the chair of of those boards and the committee members to decide do we
want as an order of business to have uh consent agenda or not uh and so and so that's that's what I would like to see Incorporated in here is the ability for um for each each board to be able to
determine that you know let them make a motion and be like you know the planning director hasn't recommended this but we want to have a consent agenda or let them make a motion and say listen every month we're getting a consent agenda you know and we are approving things because no one wants to pull it you know let's I
want us to have just the ability just not to have a consent agenda and each item be treated as its own you know individual discussion item so if we could find a way to incorporate that in here I'll I'll be comfortable you know support
this um the way the things are set up now a a land use board can do this already we've done it in the past where the the agenda has been so lengthy that if
applicants because the first thing that has to happen is an applicant has to agree to all the the conditions in the draft order and they have to agree that they would be okay not making a presentation the applicant agrees to that then we can list that item on a
draft consent agenda at the beginning of the meeting the board would then decide whether or not they would want to have a consent agenda and if one member of the board says no I I want a presentation for each of these items then there is no
consent agenda and every item is heard uh in its normal order so if that currently exists what's why do we need this the direction of land use at in December was to come up with language to codify that procedure in the ldrs and that's what
this is so this isn't doing anything different this is just making it consistent yeah it's basically codifying what we've done in practice okay I mean just in principle I I have a real concern about you know the
number of times on planning board and a small throwaway line as part of a conversation opened up a whole new set of things to consider um I think that's really valuable and as Commissioners we rely on the land use boards to vet a lot
of things you know we don't necessarily take their guidance um but we know that the a a conversation has been had to vet it and so my concern about this sort of thing is that that would start to erode that function um and also the fact that
all these I mean I can't we were only on the planning board together for nine months or something but even so how many times did the course of a conversation lead into a whole new Direction Where We uncovered like what you can't be doing that that's not a thing that you're allowed to be doing it was a lot of fun that was there's a lot of that stuff
going on um and so I I worry that this emphasis on streamlining things eliminates the opportunity for those things to come to light understood uh are there any other comments ments from the de on this item no all right uh let
me open up the floor to the public comment if members of the public wish to speak on this item please approach the podium Elizabeth Laton uh welcome you have two minutes to speak Elizabeth oh I think we just lost Elizabeth I guess Elizabeth doesn't want
to speak any other members of the public wishing to speak oh Elizabeth your hand is back up welcome you've got two minutes to speak you have to unmute yourself okay you guys didn't unmute me the first time um so I I I I'm not a fan of this
um as to commissioner bot's Point um there are a lot of things that are that need to be heard and I'm not you know I'm afraid something's going to get slipped through the cracks and it'll come back on the planning board for not
having heard it um so I appreciate that I appreciate streamlining streamlining everything but not in this case so I I just want to voice my dissent here all right thanks guys thank you Elizabeth
any other members of the public wishing to speak on this item seeing none all right um with that is there a motion before the the committee commissioner Suarez want to comment commissioner Suarez this is your item
your colleague vice mayor Tanya kbot is inquiring whether you would like to comment yeah listen guys I'm just trying to uh streamline some of the processes and our on our Landing boards and um you
know as you let me know what you guys think all right is there a motion before us I'm fine supporting the the item because it just codifies existing practice but in the absence of a motion what happens
uh Mr attorney in the absence of a motion it would uh it well I think it would remain in committee okay and as the chair I can't make a motion is that correct you can pass the caval okay and so I pass the gavel and I'll make a motion to you
know if if if to if you want to just wait till the next um Landy meeting I can just open and continue until then um okay I mean yeah I mean I guess uh if if this if if the amendments were
were put in having to do with the committee with the board each individual board being able to make its own decision we as a board for the next year agree we're not going to have a consent agenda or we as a board agreed that
we're going to have a consent agenda for for for the next year or we leave that up to the chair you know I'm fine with that um I'm concerned about that commissioner Bon um so my concern about that is that at the beginning of of the
new year for a a um a board they might think in principle oh this is a great idea it'll make it more efficient without knowing the consequence knowing the consequences especially on in those years where you have a lot of turnover on a board and so people might not have
had the so let's defer the item is there a motion to defer the item I'll defer I'll make a motion to defer okay so let's show the item deferred uh to the next meeting thank you commissioner
Suarez with that let's go to item number 10 okay item number 10 is discuss potentially requiring commercial Charter vessel operators to provide sanitation pumpout logs evidencing compliance with applicable sanitation laws commissioner bond this is your item
you're welcome to present your item thank you um so very briefly um I'm not sure why this is a big deal but it seems like if you're operating a vessel hi guys like a recruiting poster um uh if
you're operating commercial vessel um I think there should be the opportunity for um for you and your colleagues to ask for proof of people complying with the law uh and I think the goal of this not I think but the goal of this is to
make sure the good operators are allowed to you know conduct their business and the bad operators are weeded out and this this started um quite some time ago when we were trying to figure out how to give us collectively more tools to weed
out that allous the operators so um it's it's literally a year since this was brought to the commission so tell us in a year how are things going do we need this is this still useful because if it's if it's not necessary then that's a valid conversation as well but if it is
still something that's useful talk to us tell us what you know good evening uh Madam vice mayor Mr chair commissioner everyone uh present and listening in I am major Javon Campbell of the M Beach Police Department I'm the division commander of
our Patrol Division I'm fortunate to be accompanied by our Marine Patrol unit commander and mid Beach Commander Captain Lis Sanchez and Marine Patrol unit Sergeant Javier Fernandez and Marine Patrol expert officer Tommy flashow who would do uh the majority of
the talking points in this uh item here uh I'm going to turn it over to officer flash hour because he's the one that does the majority of the force enforcement that we depend on that's related to this and um from an inspection standpoint and we're here to address any questions or concerns
suggestions that you all may have to make the end go uh come to fruition so with that officer flash hour welcome officer is this on yes okay uh good evening everyone uh my name is Tom
fhow uh I'm an officer with a rine Patrol unit uh and I'm the Der vessel investigator uh what I like to do is is talk to you about the Marine sanitation device uh Florida statute uh how we currently use it and
answer any questions you may have as to um how we could use it with uh Charter vessels and and the state so for starters I'd like to talk a little bit about the uh how the state statute
reads uh any vessel over 26 ft that has a uh a cabin meaning like a room or like a bedroom or a living quarters is required to have a working toilet on the vessel um that working
toilet uh has to be connected to a uh a holding tank the other option is to have a portable toilet on the vessel um those the how I going to say this the uh
the holding tank tank has to be pumped out at a um an official pump out station um and the same goes with the um um the temporary tank or I'm sorry the temporary uh
portable uh toilet so um the way that we the way that we currently enforce that is I'm the Der fesal investigator so part of my job is to go out there and do random checks on the vessels that are anchored within our
city um I'll make contact with somebody that's currently on the vessel um part of my enforcement is to uh check for safety equipment uh to see if the vessel is at risk if it's deric and um I will get into the rain
sanitation device so um I'll check to see if I'll check it one of two ways I'll either check to see if the the valve is there's a y valve if that y valve is is locked and secured um then they're in
compliance if they don't have a working toilet at all they're out of compliance if I put a um a die capsule into the toilet flush the toilet and that ink comes out the side of the vessel they're
out of compliance so um the the fine is a $100 fine and um that's how we currently um enforce the Marine sanitation device um so two questions it Nick are we able to increase the fines that seems
pretty low $100 for violation I think that fine is set byst State Statute right I'm pretty sure yeah okay so so we can't increase that um so what happens if you're a charter vessel like that if you're a charter vessel and you're doing multiple runs in a day so let's say you
book six over the course of you know whatever the the day are are Charter vessels required to pump out between each pay set of paying customers or how does that work because I just have visions of you know Charter U vessels on
trip number five and everyone's had a big day out on the water and it's just disastrous do we have the way that I understand it is uh about the time that the the holding tank gets full it's about the time that the vessel needs f needs fuel so when these vessels are at
the fuel docks that's usually when they're getting pumped out um the holding tanks uh varies between the size of the vessel so like a 55 foot charter boat which is your run-of-the-mill uh charter boat that
thing has a holding tank of of about 200 gallons so when that vessel goes in to get fuel uh from what I understand it typically gets pumped out but that's not like what if you had an extra large fuel tank for instance you know how some people have trucks and they put in an
extra fuel tank so they can gas up 70 gallons at a time and not so what if a boat has that I don't know if that's even possible on a boat but what if a boat does hypothetically speaking and so they don't need to gas up but they have you know overflowing toilets I mean is that is that a thing that you guys see
is it I mean is this a concern that's something we should be concerned about or is this something that we it's definitely a concern because uh we take pumping um sewage out in the bay very serious well yeah uh so um the thing is
we have to see it in order to make the U to to enforce that statute um to the best of my knowledge we haven't had any complaints about um vessels or Charter vessels underway pumping out uh into the
into the bay you know anything about it um it it's it's it is u it's possible it's definitely possible so I know you know we're we're we're talking about all kinds of different um resources to bring to bear
to protect the bay um from irresponsible boating is this particular Avenue worth pursuing in your view uh sure um the more tools that we have is
uh U better for us um the only thing that I'll say is as far as doing random checks on vessels that are underway uh the governor is currently pushing forward legislation to uh to basically
as of right now we do not need probable cause to stop a vessel to do a safety check um but we um we like to have problema with call stop anybody when they're out there doing their business um but the governor is currently making
it U or or pushing legislation forward to um to have the same set of rules that we have when you're driving in your car um pertain out on the water so we would need a reason to stop you yeah the way my understanding of it is unless your your boat's literally on fire we have no
recourse right like we just have no reason to stop anybody if he gets what he wants um so that being said is there's something we can do that anytime somebody does go in to gas up that they do have to either provide documentation that they don't need to pump out or that
they have already pumped out good evening everybody uh Sergeant heier Fernandez I think the being able to keep a log book would maybe be more with our code Partners uh just to give you guys a little synopsis of what it is we do the kind of enforcement we take and some good news over the last year
the Marine Patrol unit has taken a very aggressive and proactive approach to dealing with chartered vessels and with nuisance uh complaints we were getting a lot of complaints about loud noise specifically coming from these boats the unit takes very proactive enforcement action in regards to the city ordinance
for loud music and also with that the Miami date County ordinance which carries a stiffer penalty so anytime the officers are underway and they encounter any vessel whether he's a chartered or just recreationally operating if they're a nuisance if they're exceeding the noise limit then the officers know to
address that vessel so what's been happening over the last years is a lot of these vessels have gone underway from Miami Beach and they'll go to other places kind of like a Marine Stadium where the city of Miami does their enforcement action sometimes they'll go to Fisher Island they'll go offshore uh
some of the boats that we have from our city aren't necessarily being a nuisance to us anymore because the understanding among the boating community is that if you come to Miami Beach and you're a nuisance you're going to be dealt with uh swiftly by the Marine Patrol unit so every once in a while we'll have stragglers that will come through our
city just cuz they don't know the rules they don't know how we operate but we do deal with them um as officer flashow said adding the tool for the MSD check that's a great thing to have I think if we get in contact with our code Partners we're able to have them maybe the the
chartered vessel present some kind of a log with the receipts that those things are being uh addressed but he he did go to Miami Beach Marina today and and the understanding is is that they are compliant with the pump outs every time they go and they and they feel their bolts so do you want to come back in two
months or whatever it is um with a plan that you and code have worked out about how to make that bring that to life absolutely we can me does that work for everybody sounds good yeah we can meet with code okay yeah I and I'm sorry to take so much time on this and thank you guys for waiting but you know it was a
Hot Topic I'm delighted to hear that you know a year of strict enforcement and really focused ition on this has has yielded good results that is the goal but if we have another tool in our toolkit even if we never have to use it you know when the next crop comes through in three or four years and they haven't had the experience you'll have
something else you can whip out um to say look you can't do this and you have to comply with with uh with our laws so Nick and Madam Vice chair I'd also like um when this does come back I'd like to research whether we could increase that $100 fine if maybe the state statute is
a floor and we can be I just want to look into that more closely and um so do you guys have anything to add yes uh Madame vice mayor uh respectfully can we make it three months um considering that we're about to be inundated with spring
break no okay of course you can yeah um May is fine okay may is fine and also if I might point of personal privilege of major Campbell you always ask about my parents you will be happy to know that my dad is celebrating his 83rd birthday today and um was thrilled when I called
to sing at him because that's not that's not a gift if I sing at you it's not a gift um he was about to go out for his 15m bike ride in um estate National Park and um so may we all Thrive as well as he is thriving so I thought You' like to happy birthday to you father I will share that with him thank you thank you
yes and thank you for uh for we'll anchor this uh conversation for now yes before this uh committee Ship Sails away for there you go for for today um but it back in May we'll bring it back in May
um before we we we end today's meeting uh there's a number of items we didn't reach I just want to make sure whether we want to continue um commissioner Bond you had the the conversation about incentives to encourage the conversion of office building to residential would
do you still want this item on the agenda yeah you know I did want it to come back to see if anything well hang on if if anything had sort of popped up as an opportunity and when I read in preparation for today's meeting it doesn't seem like any new awesome ideas
are out there things that we can do so so we want to withdraw I think we want to withdraw sir so we would like to withdraw item number 12 thank you for doing the work okay um commissioner magazine has 14 commissioner B you have item number 16 on the city screen procurement policies would you like this
item to come back uh next month um well in April because I won't be here yeah in April y okay so uh we'll leave this for April um let's see I have the item on the Miami Beach red for the sidewalks okay commissioner B you have
item number 20 um forward leaning resiliency for our build environment I think that relates our R of ways and swales um it was a lot of things it was um building as well what I was looking forward to was really
like what are the leading edges of things that other cities around the world are doing okay do you want this item still to remain on the agenda or yeah yes I think so okay yeah all right and then uh the last item uh was the draw bridge at 63rd Street which we know
that that is such a special and uh and engaging conversation um do you want to keep that on or what do you want what you like to do I look I think I'm becoming bye Laura thank you Laura um I think I'm becoming
the patron patron saint of LA causes so I I do want to continue this conversation um I don't know what is the best way to proceed if we have do more work internally before we bring it back to committee
um or if we bring it back to Committee in order to be able to do some more work if I may throw the chair yes um this is it's a tough item I mean I don't know if you had a chance to to read the memorandum really to move forward is
going to involve u a lot of resources in terms of we we wouldn't we wouldn't be able to approach the Coast Guard or fot for for for even to present our plan without any kind of studies or anything to show for it that you know we know
it's even looking at potentially bringing in a this this uh overpass uh it's going to involve a lot of real estate it's just going to will this involve eminent domain it's kind of premature to maybe
say that and I know Jose Jose just walked in uh but it could involve a need for land obviously the eminent domain a know Avenue only when a need for what single family homes we have not looked at it that
closely Mr chair um all right so you want to keep this on the agenda yeah I think so and you know when I was reading through in preparation for today I know one of the things was X number of dollarss for feasibility study traffic study all that stuff and preliminary design build I I I
want to separate that I want to figure out what the need is and what the possibilities are before we go to design build because what I want to do is scour the world if you will for somebody who's done something like this in very tough circumstances and learn from that so
what somebody might say based on their experience in South Florida or the southeast of the US may or may not be feasible may actually not be correct there may be better ways of doing things that we just don't know about because it's not in our backyard to when would you like to continue this item um
because I have a feeling you'll probably need more than just April May April May May should excuse me may should work so maybe we'll have some more conversations internally about how to be really precise in what we're asking for
which I think is going to be money for a feasibility study but not necessarily all the way to you know preliminary ideas um but so let's take this offline until May you know take it offline from here bring it back in May and in between all of us sit down and have a chat all
right okay and commissioner B on your future items um if there's let me see I don't think actually I think we've done a pretty good job in getting through your items I don't think there's anything um that's really being held number 48 there's number 40 review
current loading requirements and how to mitigate impacts of loading and deliveries and congestion um we're contining that that was continued to April number 46 and 48 we're going to be discussing in the special land's meeting that we're going
to be having okay and yeah so I think uh I think we I think we're good all right sounds good very good all right well thank you uh commissioner Bond and commissioner Dominguez for your time to the members of the public who who participated and to staff and the City
attorney for your support uh thank you this meeting is adjourned thank you everybody for