there's a review process that uh will take place Um so in order to get started let's just go ahead We'll follow normal procedures as is for a regular meeting So let's all stand up for the pledge of allegiance We should do the roll call
first We'll do the roll call after All right I allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands One nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Thank you very much
Madam Secretary if you could please call the role Yes Chairman Chairman Erns Uh present Vice Chair McD present Commissioner each I couldn't hear you I'm sure
Commissioner Commissioner each Thank you Okay Thank you Commissioner Blamir Commissioner Seed presided Yes Commissioner Pierre
Commissioner Bob and Commissioner Besson We have a quorum Good Thank you very much Um I would like to introduce our newest member of plan commissioner commission Mr Pierre if you could introduce yourself please and tell us a
little bit about um your actually long history with the city of North Miami And I and I've known your father for a long time So please introduce yourself tell us a little bit about your
um nice to meet everybody My name is Dominique Pierre Uh I've lived in the city for I I want to say about 23 years Um I uh went to undergrad at FIU and law school at FIU Uh recent graduate last
year and now I'm practicing mergers and acquisitions with uh a firm in Bickl called Acre Mr Beer welcome very much and uh uh he is the son of one of our former mayors
and a former member of this panel a long long time ago Andre Pierre So it's an honor to have you on on board our um our extinguished distinguished panel
Um okay so um we have no amendments to the agenda I believe Is that correct love that is correct sir All right And then there are no minutes to approve since we'll bring
that up in the next next meeting regular meeting Again this is a special meeting Um and uh I want to go ahead and make it a point to let everyone know that there will be no public input during this
discussion Um the discussion will be among the planning commissioners and we will not have uh any u um public input u uh following the presentation Uh that being said um I'd
like to go ahead and pass the mic off to Debbie Love Welcome Miss Love and thank you for joining us We've missed you and your presence at past meetings Thank you sir I appreciate that Again for the record Debbie Love um
development services director Tonight's meeting is a little different It's not a public hearing It's an opportunity for you as power users of code um to talk about some of the challenges that you've seen that could be potentially addressed
down the road Um so this is a facilitated discussion We'll have a separate facilitated discussion with the community We have another meeting on Monday night that is of additional power users developers contractors uh resident
representatives business owners Um and then when we come back with the the and then we'll have a whole bunch of community workshops once we've actually drafted the LDRs um to bring forward to the community but we'll also have a
series of these type of discussions with the community So these are discussions for this evening which is why this is not a public hearing Um folks that are here we hope that you take note and that you bring your concerns or your thoughts
or your ideas uh forward at the meetings that are held specifically for the public Uh but you as a power user we're trying to get that input from you all It's not you you're not making decisions you're not making specific recommendations You're talking about
here's your challenges here's some things we've seen Um and then down the road it'll get So our consultant is going to talk to you about the setup for this evening They have a PowerPoint presentation they would like to to uh start with and then they'll get you into
the facilitated discussion Right Very good So with that if I may introduce Sylvia Vargas you may remember her She is part of the consultant team that worked on our our comprehensive plan that we're very proud of and uh you all
including the public you all contributed to that process and miss Vargas would you take it away Thank you Miss Love Uh it's good to see everyone uh from it's been a while but you know uh thankfully
the reason is because we successfully adopted the comprehensive plan So a couple of new faces Um I want to thank you all for taking the time to meet with us tonight in this special meeting uh granting us your time in that way Um I
am joined tonight by my colleagues Josh Nogera who kindly he just joined our firm and I have him taking notes for tonight already So he's going to be helping us uh to take down your input And then I'm also
joined by my uh colleague and subconsultant Carla Evenbach She was part of our team uh that worked on the comprehensive plan may remember that she uh was uh very immersed in the areas of environmental uh climate change conservation coastal management all of
that Um resilience in essence So um she's uh she's uh taking um slightly different role this time but bringing all that knowledge with her to help us with regulations that pertain to that
aspect of it So um let me see if I can get this going Is this on it's maybe backwards too It's backwards Backwards No no no There you go I got it Perfect All right So tonight we have uh divided our agenda
into two sections The first one is us looking backward a little bit since it's been a while since the adoption of a comprehensive plan And even I'm starting to forget I'm going to try to give you a little um background um a little
refresher and um the reason why I think that's important is so that it gives us context for what we're going to do now Um so that's the first part and then in the second part we're going to go into the future the present and the future
We're going to talk about the implementing uh mechanism of our comprehensive plan uh the the the biggest one anyway which is the land development regulations which is what we are going to be doing over the next uh uh six to eight months and uh we're
going to go over our goals for this project the process and the anticipated timeline um Miss Love has mentioned some of our stakeholders that we are um uh interacting with right now and then we're going to jump into our facilitated
discussion All right So um again this is a little refresher This is where things started Um an RFP was issued by the city of North Miami in
early 2022 I believe it was and it caught my eye because it said a lot of interesting things It talked about trying to create a comprehensive plan that was what I call the comprehensive plan for the 21st century userfriendly
uh easy to understand written in plain language accessible Um and what we ended up defining as accessible is that there would be translations in several languages and it would be ADA ready um ADA compliant um it's a comprehensive
plan that is systems oriented and I can talk a little bit about what that means but you know even though the plan is still organized in in elements in essence what we're trying to do is to think in terms of how those elements interact with each other to create different ecosystems
um land use and housing land use and transportation and services and and so kind of see uh how how they interact how they need to interact in order to provide effective policy guidance and to get away from siloed thinking uh which
hinders uh successful implementation And finally um a plan that was focused on action not just you know sort of high level goals and policies but really kind of bring it bring it down to a more um granular level that says this is what
we're going to do This is when we're going to do it this is who's going to be responsible and this is the timeline for this particular action to happen Um just quick reminder of our process It had four phases It took a
long time because we had first of all we had a long period that we left open for public engagement for public input but also uh there was um a delay with the um um statutory review that required us to
go back if you remember the plan had to come back one more time to you Uh and actually that worked to the city's advantage because there were a couple of things that we tweaked between that first adoption and the second adoption So uh it it actually was pretty uh
pretty beneficial Uh but uh the plan was ultimately adopted in on uh June uh 25th 2024 and became effective uh in August of that same year and the city has been
uh implementing different parts of it Um u we just are now then getting started on this particular uh piece which is really important Um just a um little reminder of what our overarching recommendations or statements and guiding principles for
the comp plan was that in all policies we were going to embrace fairness and inclusion for every resident business owner and even visitors to the city Uh we were going to embrace sustainability
and resilience we were going to embrace community health and wellness and technology and innovation That the revision the update of the LDRs was going to be a really um um critical component of the implementation of the
uh comprehensive plan uh that we would take to that effort um um a flexible approach to create more a framework to accommodate change than a rigid structure for regulation knowing that um
the uh the future is uncertain And we want to uh stay ahead of it as much as we can and uh committing to uh improving the city's infrastructure to make sure that it could provide for the projected
growth that we envision in that comprehensive plan There were four major themes uh that were woven both uh throughout the other elements of the comprehensive plan or in the form of new uh elements or new sections of the comprehensive plan
Community health and wellness I mentioned that before technology infrastructure and access housing affordability and environmental protection and climate change response H um quickly I'm going to tell
you how we uh threaded those themes into uh the vision uh statement that went into the comprehensive planet that sort of frames the overarching framework for everything Uh very simple the city uh the reason why we came up with this and
also the branding for this comprehensive plan which is the future city know me beyond the centennial you have a centennial coming up very important milestone And so thinking about what that means looking at the history looking at the past and also looking at
the future Um the comprehensive plan that you adopt all adopted last year seeks to honor the city's past while positioning the city to steer its future and it envisions the city of North Miami
as a model for the entire region for sustainable resilient equitable innovative functional enjoyable urban living and I think that urban uh aspect of it is really important because it
kind of um um attests to the um uh to many of the goals that have you know sort of been permeating through the comprehensive plan of supporting change and supporting growth A city that is uh diverse and growing and evolving and
that understands and embraces that as a way of maintaining its uh not just its resilience but also its vitality Um you may or may not remember that when we first started coming before you because we came you know a couple of
times at least um that we presented several growth scenarios And ultimately the city uh as a precautionary measure to prepare for a
future that seems likely whether it is within the 20-year time frame of the plan or beyond is an assertive projection is a a projection that says we are growing fast and we will continue to grow fast and we are going to prepare
for the eventuality of that growth with our infrastructure with our services and um this is this is what that uh projection uh looks like There were other uh projections in in in that analysis that um are probably better
suited to other aspects of the plan but for the purposes of infrastructure planning this is what the city chose We also had during the comprehensive plan uh project um process Um you may remember another partner that
I had during that process uh an economist a real estate um um expert that looked at the market uh components uh and helped us figure out where the city stood within the regional market and and where the local market was sort
of heading And one of the um I I wouldn't say surprising but it was a little startling finding was that over a period of 30 20 30 years the city had hardly had any change in the
development of multifamily residential in the city Hardly anything at all It was a fraction of that some you know small percentage And within the past five or six years what he found is a startling change All
of a sudden the city uh had delivered over 800 units of multifamily rental housing with an average average annual absorption of which he projects to continue at about the same pace of about
300 to 350 units and in addition a pipeline of over 4,000 units Uh so that kind of tells you why it was that when we were preparing these growth scenarios the city was
looking at this sort of aggressive projection because this is what we're seeing right now We understand and we we we take into full consideration and I think the city needs to do that as well that there are factors right now that
could change the phasing or the timeline for that to happen So you know we have some uncertainties We have new tariffs that uh we've been there before you know uh that will um sort of uh potentially raise the cost of construction supply
chain issues for uh for construction materials and and that kind of thing and uh other factors such as there are some uh state preeemptions that have already been um adopted into legislation over the past year and a half as well as
others that are coming down from Tallahassee potentially uh we think pretty lightly uh this year Uh so all of those factors are going to change the dynamics a little bit of you know how much growth happens within these next 3
5 10 15 20 years and even if we were to have a condition where that growth slows down I think it's not that the growth is going to it's just going to kind of be pushed pushed down so we still expect that the projections are going to be
valid even if it is for a longer period of time Uh during the um comp plan process uh we realized that over the past let's say 10 years uh the city had been focused on incentivizing growth into
certain areas of the city Uh and that those areas far from being saturated but you know um there was a potential for shifting gears and focusing on uh channeling growth into some of the other
areas so that the growth of the city became a little more balanced and the city had better ability to control the provision of infrastructure to both the areas that are already being developed and the areas that it wants to develop
So in this round uh the these uh growth areas or priority growth areas are going to be the PCD which are the areas in yellow on the map and the uh NMTSDO which is the area in red on the map Those are going to be for the next
20 years Maybe not the whole 20 years but at least for the foreseeable future the areas in which the city is going to be looking to paying um particular attention to how to channel growth into Um we are already uh in accordance with
policies uh that are in the comp plan looking at incentivizing um uh some types of development into areas such as the Northwest uh 7th Avenue corridor um uh with um some incentives for uh
workforce and affordable housing and a high flexibility um uh bonus Uh the other thing that we did was through our analysis realized that uh one of the other overlays the NRO was really not serving the purpose that it
had been designed for and was actually harming more than it was providing a benefit So that uh was a recommendation for eliminating the NRO uh that went into the plan Um the other important thing that happened with respect to
growth is that at the time the uh supply of units in the city's um floating unit pool was being rapidly depleted but not equally between the two areas that were um established uh in the original
floating unit pool And so two things happened One was that the distinction between those two separate parts of the pool was uh eliminated and the two um uh separate areas were consolidated So now you have one big pool Uh and the second
one is that the pool was re uh replenished with over 8,000 almost 9,000 uh units Silia if I for a moment just a point of clarity as you may recall
we selected that high growth scenario as a conservative because then that meant that the infrastructure study that we did to to say that look this is when we plan the we anticipate growth this
amount And we wanted to make sure that the infrastructure was tied to that population growth So that as you reached each stage of population growth certain improvements were made to the infrastructure
um particularly water and sewer in this case roads are a separate issue because it's a lot of that's governed by FDOT but we wanted to make sure that the water and sewer infrastructure so we took the more conservative approach of being ready so we may not get all that development but we will certainly be
ready for infrastructure uh the infrastructure improvements because it's tied to that growth Thank you so much Yeah If I just on a followup with that um regarding infrastructure um I know it's a balancing act
because certain uh u infrastructure is is uh enhanced with new development But again I I would think that we would still have to look at what we the existing infrastructure of older
neighborhoods or established neighborhoods and and having it equitable in terms of of getting their needs taken care of Also it's not it's not focused in a particular area It's
said population growth So when you when you update your infrastructure it's to cover the entire city right to to for growth because growth isn't going to just occur in the PCD or the NMOD It's actually going to include
other areas of the city So this was a conservative move that we made so that we can make sure that the infrastructure is upgraded to meet whatever growth happens in the city because that's a That's certainly an important issue
because right now uh we are we have to look at that for each development but we wanted to do this more holistically as a city Okay And to add what Miss Love just said and to what what you said uh Mr
chair Uh the balancing act is that the city has to serve its infrastructure to maintain it and to uh plan proactively for the provision of future infrastructure and to maintain and increase capacity But at the same time
you have development coming in that has to provide a fair share for the impact that it creates And the city sometimes has a capacity and sometimes it doesn't And so when that when that happens the development uh either can be um pulled
back uh it can be delayed or it the development or the the property owner or the developer can make the improvements to allow his development to occur So that's that's another you know side of that equation that provides you know
sort of the private contribution of it Uh but as far as the citywide planning uh that really has to happen in order to you know um be uh efficient and and and to provide uh for services that um will
um allow for quality of life for all of the parts of the city and all of the residents uh then that that has to be the city and that's what I actually commend the city of North Miami because it took a very proactive approach to doing a study that would um in fact feed
into and provide us with the information that we needed in order to make policy decisions Not me but the city All right So I'm going to turn it over to my colleagueuh Carla to walk us through a summary of highlights of the
policies in different parts of the comprehensive plan that are driving changes uh to the LDRs We know that there are some changes that have to happen to the LDR So you know we're coming here to talk to you about those but those are already set in the
comprehensive plan The plan says we will revise the LDRs to do X Y and Z We know those And so uh she's going to tell you a little bit about those and then we're going to talk about other aspects of the LDRs that um the changes that that that
could happen into the LDRs that we would like to hear from you and and uh and and and from you know eventually from all the different uh power users of the code Carla thank you Sylvia Good evening commissioners It's great to be before
you again doing this next part of the work Um again I'll just uh quickly go through some of the substantive areas of the comprehensive plan as their policies are driving our uh work on the LDRs Um some of this will be familiar to
some of you who may have been through that process with us in the area of land use We've already covered I will not read these Um you can scan over the slides yourself but you know some of the highlights We've already talked about the NRO being eliminated and changes
with the floating unit pool Um other other land use uh issues that the the comp plan uh prompts us to work on are strengthening the transitional standards um protecting single family neighborhoods adjacent to these corridors that we're working on Um
strengthening the resilience and sustainability uh for development and redevelopment design standards various aspects of the corridors Um integrating health facilities into neighborhoods considering uh agriculture uh urban
agriculture different forms of that to uh eliminate food deserts etc Um and this is the future land use map There were not a lot of changes to it Um but you can see here uh some of the changes that the city did make I
guess prior to prior to our work in the area of infrastructure and mobility Um this is you know a kind of a wide ranging thing Everything from to standards to uh universal design standards for street design
um implementing parts of the vulnerability assessment Um we'll be implementing those uh through those development development requirements Housing again we've t touched on that already There's quite a
few uh policies that lead us to change the LDRs especially with respect to uh um making it possible to bring forth a variety of housing types um and encouraging live work units and uh assuring affordable housing for example
in that floating unit pool Um another thing to point out would be you know the strengthening of the sustainability and green construction incentives That's a big uh part of it And um and uh you know of course
protecting these historical and cultural and architectural resources of the city Uh the natural environment This is sort of encompassing everything from the climate change element to the conservation and coastal management
elements Um so we brought forth some uh emissions reductions benchmarking in the comp plan Um the we talked about um mitigating the impacts on the natural environment from development
uh developing tree canopy uh through several means ensuring that we know how to maintain that tree canopy and uh improve our swailes take care of our swailes um and uh and so on Clarifying some some
some open space dedication provisions etc buffering requirements Um in the built environment side there's everything from buildings to uh urban design and uh uh you know public space We're talking about uh um
designing resilience hubs We remember may remember we talked about resilience hubs as a place a resource for the community in the event of uh disasters um where they can find resources and uh fulfill their needs during those times
uh implementing the parallel flood policies uh reviewing uh the energy conservation green building program to make that stronger and to tie it to the developer benefit package Um and the
Miami date county has a new imperous uh surface ordinance We had already been moving in that direction with the comp plan We'll be reviewing to make sure that we're in compliance with that and uh trying to incentivize clean and renewable energy use water reuse etc And
I guess I'll pass it on back to you Thank you Carla So um the reason to give you this little uh refresher is to set up our conversation that we're going to have Um like like I said you know there are some things that
the comprehensive plan already has told us that we need to do as far as changes to the LDRs Um uh you know this in my view uh and from my experience working with um codes across multiple municipalities the code
in the land development regulations in North Miami is actually in not bad shape It's uh it's been updated The last time that uh that that happened to some extent not not wholesale but you know um
pretty significant was by Miss Love in 2017 and and so you know it's a code that I I I look at it it's it's on critics which is very user friendly and uh uh when I when I look at it I think
it's it's pretty well organized and it's got you know the right pieces it doesn't have things that are you know 70 or 80 years old Uh but that doesn't mean that it could not use uh improvements other than the ones that we are going to make
in order to make it consistent with the comp plan So um part of our comprehensive plan was as I mentioned that it was very a uh um uh focused on action and in order to um to do that we
created an action agenda and summarized all the different things that the um comp plan told us that we need to do over the next 20 years into a list of 50 actions Um the beauty of that uh is that it's in the form of a matrix that
assigns responsibilities to the different departments It also identifies who the partners to those uh lead departments are Uh it identifies the time frame um in which these um actions are going to be uh implemented
It identifies um related policies and god I wish I could see a little better Yes it also identifies um measures of uh performance because one of the things that we did in this comp plan is introducing performance
indicators for different um um objectives So we even have a way of track our success or lack thereof for each one of these actions And one of the main um one of the main uh um and and
like the top of the immediate list of actions that we needed to take is the update of the LDR So this is why we're here Um other actions have already you know uh from other parts of the complant have already been under implementation
by the by the city uh and different departments but this one is a big undertaking and so it's taking a little bit uh more time to uh set up Um this is um a summary of what we see as the goals of the separate things that we wish to
accomplish and uh hope uh will be uh the outcomes Um we talked about the need This is something that you know we have to do make sure that the uh LDRs are aligned with the adopted plan because we
made so many changes to the comprehensive plan There's going to be uh parts of the LDRs that may now not be in full alignment So we'll look at those We'll make sure that they are In some cases that will require just tweaking what you have uh or perhaps uh
introducing new language or perhaps eliminating some language but uh that's that alignment has to happen We also um Carla talked a little bit about some of some of that um need to be aligning um
the LDRs with statutory changes that have happened over the past year and a half since we adopted the comp plan as well as uh um changes that are sort of in the horizon Uh one uh example is um
the live local act is being uh is being um tweaked tweaked again Uh so we're looking closely at that and what it means for uh local regulations Uh there's another bill SB 184 I think it
is that is going to require uh local um governments to uh allow um accessory dwelling units So now that's not simply you know like oh well it's our choice to do that now u the the the state
legislature basically is saying you you have to allow them So um that's the kind of thing that we're going to u be u paying attention to make sure that we comply with statutes Um one of our major objectives is to continue to I I I
talked about how I think this code is pretty uh user friendly but that doesn't mean that it cannot be improved And we're going to continue to look at it from the um from the perspective of enhancement of user friendliness Uh whether that means um you know um flow
and organization graphics tabular uh summaries or otherwise And finally and this is where you all come in the power users we want to know what this code is missing today What the challenges are
and things that exist in the code Uh issues that are difficult uh or addressed uh perhaps not appropriately for where we are today and the gaps uh what are the topics that the code should
be addressing that is not what are the emerging uh topics emerging issues that the city should be thinking about and and trying to get ahead of in the form of um provisions in the
LDRs So with that um this is our timeline It's a little bit um uh I would say it's a little bit aggressive now but we do want to establish momentum and keep the momentum going and be done
before the end of the year So uh with that we are in the middle of what we call our discovery phase Uh this is why we are uh looking at different u studies and plans that the city has been working on that can have an an impact and effect
on the LDRs looking at that uh talking to department heads talking to uh yourselves and to um you know um property owners developers residents We're going to go out to the public to talk to them to learn more about what
they see as the issues the topics of concerns the challenges uh and the opportunities Um in April um well we're in April and so between now and the end of May we're going to be in our diagnosis phase as well sort of saying
these are the things that we have found from our discovery that we are going to be doing Uh these are sort of like our framework of initial recommendations It may come in the form of a an annotated outline And then during the summer we're
going to be furiously drafting so that when we come back uh at the beginning of the school year in September we can go out again to the stakeholders to the public and present our initial recommendations to get feedback on those
and proceed in um in um in October and November through uh the adoption process um talked about the stakeholders So I'm not going to linger on this slide but I'm going to jump right into our
facilitated discussion Uh so what we have is about five questions that we want to pose to you to facilitate the discussion Um we can we can deviate from these You can ask us questions We can have what I would like is to have more
of an interactive conversation with you a true conversation with you And um Josh is ready to take down some notes for us to um to uh take home with us And our first question has to do and I I think I
kind of know but you can tell me what your interface is with the LDRs Um obviously you are the planning commission You uh review and make the com recommendations on development So you know if you want to expand on that
or or go in a different direction or tell me I'm completely wrong that's perfectly fine I'll I guess maybe we can start with uh Commissioner each Well there's se several areas that I was thinking I was just listening to you
talk about our tree canopy Well the tree canopy is great but we don't have people to maintain it So what do we do uh we put trees up They're not fertilized uh trees get knocked over they're not replaced That's a problem The other thing I see when
we're talking about sustainability uh and the square areas people park on the square areas You got a hard pan you're not getting percolation What are we doing about that we have curbs that have been put in like on 16th Avenue People jump the curb and they
park on top of the the grass area So we you know it's sometimes it's like a we're chasing our tail Yeah And I I find that very frustrating Like we have an ordinance that says you're not supposed to feed the wildlife So we have these
musci ducks all over the city and we put up signs beware of the duck crossing which is preposterous They're defecating all over the place It goes into the storm drain goes into the canal it's polluting the canal So issues of sustainability little things like that
swale maintenance tree canopy Other things that I was talking about would be um okay let's look at the long run of parking garages within the city and some of them have been up 40 years but some of them still back up to the residential
area under the new code You have to put grill work up there to knock away the harshness or the lights from intruding into the residential area Maybe we should go back and give it like a a sevenyear time limit that everybody comes into compliance with So an amortization
period you know Uh I know and I I just I don't know if this would come under the comp plan or in the LBRS Coral Gables has a uh a setup where if the design comes in and it's exceptionally well done a work of art
you get two extra floors to build on I don't know if that would be in the LDRs or if that would be in the comp plan but I think that's also something worthwhile looking at Okay I've seen some of these projects go up on Sixth Avenue here just recently the gateway to the
city and I get flustered with it because here we have these projects coming in but they're I thought it was me I know I'm going deaf and I didn't think I could
hear myself Um they're just very plain buildings Yeah and the one of the developers had the audacity to say "Well the amenities are in the apartment." Well that's a lot of nonsense you know i mean back in the 60s and the 70s when you built apartments on 6th Avenue
people had recreation They had the uh the pools and and the pool area So you know I I'm looking at for extra credit Maybe we try to gear it where they do rooftop gardens which I think is essential to the environment and keeping the environment cooler And if you can't
afford a a pool on the roof at least put a jacuzzi or m make it a place where not only you come home and you're not looking at your four walls but you you have an area to to recreation out Uh there things like that or now the other thing I was thinking about is the design
review committee Now that's all city staff Am I correct Deb the development re committee is uh all staff And now you guys look at the design and consultants you look at the design of the building and see if it's attractive and so forth and so on Okay
sir Okay Well I was thinking maybe the citizens that live within the community should maybe couple of us should be on that on that committee to give our input See what happens when I was in the police department I used to say I don't want to become an army of occupation I
want to be of the people and by the people and I believe the same thing with the planning commission and the staff We should have representatives that live here 24/7 that might want to give their input I know we we give an input at our
two minutes at our planning commission meetings and stuff like that but when we're looking at the final product it might be worthwhile to have a couple of members maybe of the planning commission address that That that's just a a thought Okay Um I I have a heck of a lot
more to generate but we'll be here at 2 o'clock in the morning So let me give it to my and I'll I'll come back with more ideas Right And by the way this is not your only opportunity to provide us input if you want to send an email to
Debbie Uh she can certainly u address it to us Even if you you know like you have your list right now but like if you come up with other things later you know you can do that Okay Uh one of the things I don't know if it's in the LDRs now but one of the things that really annoys the heck out of me is when I walk around and
I do a lot of walking in the city I see dumpsters Mhm And I believe all dumpsters out there should be enclosed Enclosed And they're not And I don't know if that's in the LDRs now or if it's not we should be enforcing it But I want to make sure that's in there Yeah
Uh it's horrible You see the garbage piling up the garbage blows around and and uh and then there should be a nice transition between the different elements within the city I think we do have some of that right now like if we're going from
public use to residential or whatever Yes You know we want to make sure that we have not only a wall but the proper uh landscaping abilities in there So those are some of the items that I I I would or the the other thing I that
really annoys me and I we ought to look at our bike lanes and uh I was thinking well why not when we look at bike lanes we look at a grant maybe where we get a possibility of putting the bike lanes through the alleyways at least try
one beautify an alleyway make it picturesque something something you know I like to get it out there that we just don't want to be a drive-thru city Hey North Miami is innovative I want to go there Sure And then you have a you go
from say Biscane Boulevard over to the uh to the U canal on Griffin Boulevard Maybe we can look at a bike lane and make it beautiful or if we can get a federal ground I don't know where the money's coming from now but okay But that's those are some of the ideas that
I that I was tinkering with when I walk I I see it and I say "Well maybe I should bring this up and that up and and I have a couple drinks and I forget what the hell I was going to say." I do appreciate it And um you know it sounds to me like there are number of issues
that you raised that um perhaps are um uh enforcement issues So things that are already in the LDRs in some way or another but maybe they need be they need to be um enhanced Um so we can take a look at those and uh and and certainly
you know work with uh uh your other departments Um I know that we had a meeting with the department heads this morning and you know we heard a lot of the the the concerns that they have as well Uh some of them are coincident with uh things I'm going to I'm sure that I'm
going to hear uh from from you and your colleagues uh tonight So um uh shall we give your colleagues the the mic now or please do okay Hi Hi
Um you know you made a statement early on which I thought was pretty accurate um in that um we um were a city that not not much happened for many decades
Um we've certainly played catchup real quick Um but in that catchup real quick I think we've um not addressed the responsibility and and I work for developers and I I can I
won't say work for them represent them once in a while but I can tell you that um a lot of times that they're confused okay as to what their obligations are because we're not clear about that Okay
Okay Um we're not clear about the their obligations They're not clear about what we mean by some of the language like community benefits What does that mean to them yes other than saying "Oh gee whiz I'm gonna help the golf town." You
know you know so there's there's a lot of things like that like how do you deal with uh the things that are under their ob their obligation roof right you know their community benefits Yes You know their obligations for infrastructure
Okay So they they just sort of grasp at things because of somebody says "Oh you need to look at this or you need to support that or that kind of thing." Right So um I'm not everything he's you know I concur with what he's saying and
and to carry it further it comes to us the decision makers or or the ones that have to advise whether or not these projects work well right uh and we're confused it comes to us in a confusing
manner and we're kind of left dangling in the wind with well we didn't see that coming or or you know we we find conflicting um conflicting meanings in some of the regulations and and some I think most of
us will agree some developers will take advantage of that and leave us kind of hanging between you know the bad guy and the good guy and making the decisions So
looking at any kind of decision making needs to be adjusted somehow to make it clear to both the developers and to our our panel as to what actions are are clearly able
to carry forth uh without conflicting with one another in the decision making Thank you And these are all very useful Yeah these are important issues Yes Um not only for the citizens you know one of the things that you know I think
people tend to forget you know developers come and go the citizens still still are still here So it's important that we make sure that you know what you bring here um benefits everybody long term and clarity is an
important part of that so if you come in and you have definitive regulations if this is what you do sure okay I think they're so vague that they they're able to try to find loopholes and that slows down the process that that muddles the decision making as to whether or not
that project is is viable continue or you know to improve I don't know if this is something that you can do right now and obviously I want to give your colleagues the space uh to uh speak on this and and and also for all
of you to go through the rest of our questions with us but if you uh can think of some examples of these areas of sort of ambiguity that make it difficult for you to render uh recommendations
when projects come before you or where the developer also may be um leveraging uh the ambiguity I I would really appreciate hearing overlays overlays Yes Always cause a problem Yeah Because
there are um how do they work bulk For instance overlays could be allowing something in in a in a area or a um what do you call it
um like a residential area or a non-residential multi-use family residential area or whatever And so if they want to the the overlays have a different it always seems like the overlays have a
different um um meaning as to what they can build compared to what really exists within that that designated area So there's no clear-cut way we would like to see and I think
most of us would agree on this I don't know I haven't heard anybody yet But a more defining um set of standards that apply to just you
know I I I can see not wanting to do away with with uh with the overlays Yeah Overlays But I mean I' I've called Debbie and going "Wait a minute This is this overlaying area is overlaying another overlay area." Yes I understand
We don't know which which uh which one takes precedence which one Yeah Well no not so much of that as which ordinances would apply to which area Okay Okay You know I see That's that kind of sour us on the overlay thing We look at it and
we're confused I myself I'm not a huge fan of overlays frankly but and I know the city has a lot of them and they have they have their purpose Um but if there are any ways that we can simplify you know we'll certainly not just simplify
but you know uh clarify we'll we'll certainly look for those make it uniform first of all okay that you know one set of rules works for both the district you know the district the underlying district underlying district okay one
one final one one final word it's good to have requirements and LDRs and that kind of thing but you have to enforcement and a lot of times um a lot of times the enforcement's not there So um you know
but you know as you well know um you know I I've talked to people who say they're in one city and they have a requirement for this is what we got to do for the infrastructure They go to the city next door and it's like non-existent Yeah So you know it's and
as we go further particularly in an old city like ours we need to focus on the infrastructure Yes And how to make sure that that is as we're fast catching up with the growth Yeah We need to fast catch up with the infrastructure So on the enforcement side there's uh you know
there's several layers to that right one is resources and those are both of of uh of personnel and and and uh funding Um and and uh that uh sometimes um there
there's there's actually a sort of a a philosophy about um uh establishing regulations that if you don't have the means to enforce it perhaps you shouldn't even be doing it in the first place Um but you know we all know that
it's very you know difficult to give up saying well we don't want this and therefore we're going to regulate it um even when you don't really have the means to enforce So we'll certainly look at it I'm not sure how much we can solve
of that in the regulations themselves without you know interfacing with the actual enforcement part of it which has to do with you know uh more of a resource personnel operational aspects
but uh we certainly will look at it and then and then looking at at an item let's say comes before us where it only would relate to one specific um area
like um somebody wants something changed in the R2 district but and it could in fact be bad for the R3 district or whatever or or that person would question why why
would R3 be exempt from having to do what R2 has to do Okay So you know that's when I talk about uniformity um I am of the thought of what's good for one district should be good for the other
for all the districts within the city because I think you get into an area where people can take advantage of of that and not in a good way but in a bad way and then we get it
would become a whoops moment uh in in allowing for that Um okay I was not Debbie and I have gone round and round about this in the past Uh for instance you mentioned that the state is talking
about allowing uh um additional structures be put on properties and everything Um in some cases that may be wise other cases it not might not be wise So how do you balance that out and
and having affair to to everyone well and that's that's our responsibility to make sure that you know that the neighbors are are are fine with somebody building that accessory 2 feet away from their fence or whatever and and and you know and
then have that brought to us and having to make that that decision Yeah And then you know if there's any vague any vagueness in any ordinances then we we are kind of caught in a no
man's land with that decision making Right Right So okay Yeah that's that's fair If if the state preempts us in some of those some of those uh abilities to uh tailor regulations whether it is
tailored to them to the city or tailor them to districts in the city um I think that the ability of someone to say well we don't want it here it's going to be severely limited right is for better or worse um it's not just adus as you know
very well there's a lot of other areas that you know the legislature is um you know preempting um the state is preempting local governments but you know it's hard for us to keep up with all the it is hard it is hard yes from Tallahass these days yeah with that said
um if you don't mind I'm going to go to uh some of your other colleagues and we'll come back um commissioner thank you very nice hearing from the other commissioners on the on the panel up here Uh and they've all made some
incredibly valid points Uh I think when we get to three overlay districts we've overdone it and then nobody knows where they're going And there ought to be something where if we get to three districts then we need to stop that take
them all back and take a look and see if we shouldn't rewrite this to a single district We just don't need three overlay districts in some of our areas Uh speaking uh going back to the to the points that that Kenny brought up and
then Mike [Music] mentioned to clarify I'm a bicycle rider in the city Now granted it's not totally by choice I simply can't afford a car so I have to ride a bicycle everywhere Well you know you get an entirely different
perspective on the roads and neighborhoods when you pedal it at my snails pace through neighborhoods you know Um and and uh the swailes are an important issue because there's no place
left to park the cars except on the swailes Many of our blocks look like used car lots There are so many cars out there You've got to wonder how many people are living in a house with how many bathrooms when they have six cars
in the front yard So since we've got all these cars don't park on a swale becomes pointless In which case do we need to reconsider how our swailes architecturally are
developed are they functional as places for grass or is there some alternative where we just dig it all up and put it in some kind of rock system so that you have drainage
that doesn't compact Yeah Because there's no sand areas left that aren't overly compacted I passed a house today where the car is sitting in water for three days Three days which means that soil is so
compacted that you have to pump as for all you know Yeah So we we have a problem with a 1950 swale and a 2025 mobility issue where you can't move in this town if you don't
have a car because none of our neighborhoods are really walkable especially in the six months of the year where the heat is positively unbearable Right which leads me to ask the next
question We really need to permit and encourage developers to provide canopy coverage over the sidewalks You're not going to visit downtowns and other business districts if you run the
risk of heat stroke from block to block That was a nice concept in the 1950s You know we wanted South Florida open air all this wonderful stuff you know and now you've got generations of people with skin cancer and cardiac
problems and respiratory problems and the heat is stifling Yeah A and we still don't require some kind of extended platform or canopy coverage over the
sidewalks If we want to have downtown environments you've got to make them pedestrian friendly and we've forgotten that We don't seem to know how to do that anymore
Yeah if I if I may weigh in on that one By all means we're having a discussion So I'll I'll I'll point out a couple of things and I deeply respect your input and I so miss the times we used to chat when I was in Charlie's position and we would visit and go over issues That's
really great Go ahead And all of you are amazing folks So thank you for that Just a couple of points there We recently adopted a mobility plan that looks at alternatives to swelles to be able to develop on street parking
But the on street parking that we would be developing is actually percolates So you then have on street parking you have an area a space you either replace that with curbless on street parking So we do have
this opportunity In other words we do have a plan that says and it even identifies the areas of the city with different types of street types to to encourage the protection Yeah you mentioned it right to to be able to
percolate but you still could park right And so where are we doing this or is that still Yeah maybe someday if there's money That's part of it Maybe someday if there's money That's right And and but the mobility fee that we'll be
collecting will go toward um projects like that Uh currently what we require developers to do is to put in um street trees uh along the frontages of their property One of the things that we were
talking about doing incentive wise is an example is typically they only have to improve the street right in front of their project So if we have this plan that our goal is to have green streets where it's curbless gutters on street
parking percolation um uh how can we incentivize that developer not to take it beyond just their frontage of their property otherwise then you'd have like one section of it done is to actually maybe wave the
mobility fee payment in exchange for them to extending that that uh street the the redoing of the street to the to the entire block So those are the kind of things that we're looking at to deal
with this issue of parking on the swells along with other things that were other ideas We're hoping that throughout these interactive conversations that we have with the community Storm water is a a flooding here I'm the city's flood plane administrator in addition to the chief planner and the
director This is a critical issue for us in South Florida shade but the trees also do more than shade They're absorbent They they increase the absorbency of the landscape in the city So we're going to be talking about those
incentives of doing exactly what you're talking about So thank you Thank you But I wanted to let you know it's not your thoughts are not in a vacuum It's it's things that we as the planning team have already started to look at And thank you for reemphasizing that we are looking at
the right direction So I appreciate that Thank you for letting me weigh in Thank you Debbie It's always a pleasure to hear from you Thank you sir Um my next point has to do with Let me try and approach this delicately I I don't want to step on
anybody's toes but we were talking about the um I can't remember exactly quite how you put it but the issue came up as to uh water and sewer projects Yes Okay And
we want to look at the city as a whole But you do realize that the western part of the city is serviced by the wind and water treatment plant and effectively center city and east city is serviced by Miami date county And this creates two very
different elements Yeah When you're on the west side our water and sewer piping system is as old as Methusela Yeah Yeah It seems not a week goes by we don't have another break in in a sewer line
somewhere on the western part of the city I know there's they're supposed to be out rellining the pipes and digging up and replacing and it's taking forever to fix a break And that doesn't
get the whole sewer line for five blocks fixed It just fixes one little break on the west side And I appreciate the holistic approach but that tends to leave the older neighborhoods on the west side
really at the bottom of the barrel U and there needs to be some way to incentivize replacing more of these sewer lines sooner Yes And um I will say
that the plan actually emphasizes the equity aspect of that We're not the comp plan was not necessarily focused on just serving new development to attract new development but really emphasize the need to uh upgrade the existing
infrastructure to improve and maintain the quality of life in your existing neighborhoods It's really important And the study that um the city's consultant prepared to feed into the comp plan actually identified a series of projects
that have to be prioritized for the improvement of those areas that that you just mentioned uh on the west side of the city Uh it obviously cannot all happen at the same time It obviously cannot happen you know uh quickly enough
I'm sure for anyone's uh taste But uh that that list of of of necessities has been identified and has been uh the cost has been estimated to you know uh perhaps
not the extent of like a project by project but you know sort of big picture and there has been a prioritization exercise that went into that holistic planning So um I'm just going to say that you know that went into the
thinking in the comprehensive plan with respect to both infrastructure and capital improvements elements Uh and you know anything else that is happening with respect to that I'm going to let you know your your staff respond I'm not in that day today but uh it is it is
part of their thinking Well that's helpful to know because you know we're all getting really concerned about the condition of the Winton water treatment plant Sure At one point there was this wonderful concept of $200 million in grant money to get it repaired and then
that seems to have blown away like Desert Sands You know uh we apparently have lost all of that initiative and we've lost the expertise needed to do it and so we're back to square one in spite of the
uh policy statements of our illustrious city council the action on the other hand it's been left wanting to be polite Okay So then then we look and and that's okay I don't expect you to answer any part of that one Debbie because I know you can't touch that So it's all right
We we understand And then we talk about replacement of trees Now that is an interesting point that uh that Kenny brought up It just happens that on the west side of town we have a divided roadway on 127th Street Right Right Well
I happen to live on Northwest 8th Avenue Isn't that convenient so at the corner of 127th and Northwest 8th Avenue we have these three beautifully tall spindly palm trees that
died and they're standing there like toothpicks You know nobody even knows who's responsible Is it public works is it parks and recreation do we have some garden department that does that
magically i I don't know But they've been sticking up now for a year and it's long past time that we got a decision made to do something with them Maybe we should just hang Christmas lights on them and leave them lit all year long I
that would be fine You know at least at night it would be some justification for not replacing them Yeah do come with the planning commission and and I'm you know I I would go along with anything if we could get some action I don't even know
who to report that sort of thing to It's so painfully obvious and there seems to be no no system of reporting Well right now we do have a a uh public works does have on
their website um a tree uh request our sustainability administrator that I want to bring forward to you all at some point some point um soon he has a um one of the things that I wanted to do right
from the get-go he's able to he's starting to implement is the creation of a food forest here in the city so we plant fruit trees we plant food we we do gardens and this is what they were referencing to some extent but to answer your your question uh you you feel free
to either put it on that website where there's a there's a request or if you would like you can reach out to our sustainability administrator and he'll pass it along to whoever at that point is maintaining um that particular area whether it's
parks or public works we'll take care of that and let and report me a simple email with who I can rang and I'd be happy okay I have no computer I I just have I remember a phone right and uh it's nearly impossible to read anything
that you get on the phone because the text is so small I agree with you I I deal with text messaging a lot more so than the form of letter writing because you can't read the letter written Well I think the general public would would
like to know whether or not public it's a public's works department or if it's the parks department surprised that I see the parks department going around trimming trees when I thought it was the public works department doing it but you
know the the citizens aren't really attuned to who's whose function is is what Yeah So yeah thank you for that Um I know we um we have a few more questions that we wanted to go over with you and I want to give your colleagues
an opportunity to participate Is is it okay if I move on and then you know we can come back yes please I'll be very happy to yield the floor Thank you I appreciate I appreciate your input Uh Commissioner Bob actually I was going to go that just Dr Best Dr Besson
we want we want this city to grow We want to attract people in the city younger people that enjoy the the fruits of our labors into the future There's something that's we haven't talked about
in uh the city of North Miami If a younger person and I'm saying 20s 30s 40s not me I'm a little too old for this but wants to go out at night they'll go to Winwood they'll go to Midtown they'll go
to South Beach they'll go to Hollywood Circle or other areas We don't have an entertainment district We don't have a place to attract younger people at night safe where they're safe
uh to go and have some fun and do some things So we lose people that don't want that don't want to live in a gentrified area but not an upbeat area so to speak Yeah Um we don't have any
theatrical playhouses really I think there was one on Northeast 6 a while ago I don't Is it still there then no Long ago closed We don't really have any music venues unless there's an outdoor
um venue staged by the city There are a couple of places around There's Luna Cafe You can go to Flanigans and listen to recorded music There are restaurants that do have some outside seating but there's no nightife
There's no arcades for the kids at night Um there are no nightclubs Basically I think we need to consider if we want to attract people into this city that just don't get up in the morning go to work come home they're exhausted go
to sleep but have someplace to do something and we don't lose that revenue to other communities and cities maybe we need to put in an entertainment district Okay something uh something different By the way your description of going to
getting up going to work coming back and being exhausted that sounds like my life Um All right But we're But of course we don't have 20-year-old uh genetics Oh I don't know I mean speak for yourself Well I still I got a gym at 9 10 o'clock
at night over here So that's fantastic But but still we we just we need to get things cooking My my kids live in uh Oakland California and they're thinking of music moving into San Francisco because they want more night life They
want to be able to go out to a local bar or you know a nightclub or a comedy club or something like that And that isn't really very strong in in Oakland There's an area right now my daughter's visiting Japan and uh she was in Tokyo just a few
days ago There's an area in Tokyo that has about 200 bars and they're small They seat six or eight people and you can walk down these corridors Um pedestrian pedest Yeah it's pedestrian areas There's no cars uh that
could even get through the area and they have signs on there you know come in we have we specialize in this or we specialize in this drink or something And you can of course have mock cocktails too which is becoming more popular But we need something to attract younger people that want to enjoy the
evenings that don't have uh necessarily two three kids where they have to get up in the morning and get them ready for school and drive them to school and then uh go to work from there I think we're missing that in the city Okay that's I think that's a very good
point All right who should we move to now uh good evening Um so most of the points have already been addressed that I have and it was really just more so as the city is you
know poised for a lot of growth Um some of the main things to uh keep in mind which have already been addressed uh the parking as we continue to get more residents and more people that move into the city uh that there are places for them to park those that are uh visiting
local businesses also sustainability as it pertains to storm water retention Um the building elevation and the floodprone areas that we have um as well as the green infrastructure which you've addressed as far as incentivizing
developers to plant more trees and a lot more greenery Um also as it pertains to the population um as more people are going to be moving into the city we do have an aging
population that um I think it's important that they don't feel forced out Yes And so if there's a way to somewhat bridge the gap between the new generation and old as we usher in kind of this new area in the city um I'm not
sure what that would entail but I think that would be something uh to keep in mind And lastly I had the public participation process Um one thing that the city has been good in
is ensuring that developers um do a lot of community outreach And as we're implementing these plans it is vital that the current residents still have a voice in ensuring that the makeup of the
city does not kind of stray away from its core values Right Yeah So um I've been in North Miami for about 5 years so I'm relatively I'm pretty much a newbie Um but I see that the city is really poised for like it's going to be a boom
You know you see a lot of construction coming in and then a lot of people are interested in North Miami and so it's important that you know there are businesses that reflect the changing demographic right and sure as was mentioned by uh comm my fellow
commissioner that an entertainment district would be really good Um what that would look like is left for the developers but that's absolutely something that would be awesome Believe it or not uh we are working on one on Northwest 7th Avenue Y um I have been
tasked with actually creating um regulations that would create a arts cultural innovation entertainment district for what was formerly Chinatown Uh so we'll be bringing all that stuff
to the public and to you guys and and and I get to I get to actually come back before you um and bring this and we hope to have it at your May 6 meeting Yeah And um and I will add to um to that
um and in and in in response to u some of your comments all of which are extremely valid uh that um in fact one of the directives of the comprehensive plan with respect to um sort of accommodating the spectrum of ages in
the city um from the perspective of housing is to look at uh the regulations for how they represent barriers to forms of housing that may accommodate you as you move through your you know your
entire spectrum of life right um and to um because we have a community health uh element that was um adopted as a new element into a comprehensive plan uh to um to again to remove barriers to
different types of housing to allow the integration and collocation of health facilities for example and services uh with um housing that is geared towards seniors so that they are in a more uh
integrated and sort of um walkable easily accessible environment to those services for example So that's something that we're going to be looking into um um as part of this effort to address So all of your comments are on point uh
with respect to that you know and and as I age myself I kind of have begun to believe very firmly that if we if we serve our aging population we serve everyone Just like we say that you know if we serve our our population of um
individuals with disability we serve everyone You know by making it accessible to these groups we make it accessible for everyone So that's kind of what the way that I look at it So thank you And last but not least um uh a lot of the fellow commissioners
made a bunch of really good points Uh I know you have more questions so I won't take too long Uh I do want to say the again the entertainment district would be nice especially somebody my age I remember when Nomi Village came around
Um so they do a lot of events there and uh I go every now and then and I think as far as attracting people and not making North Miami the the pass through town that would be great Okay thank you very much I think we have three three
takers for that idea Thank you I appreciate everyone's input um with respect to this question Um I'm going to I think I'm going to skip over this one Uh so we'll go uh
some of this has already been addressed and I think I heard a lot about you know issues with the LDRs that either you see them pop up once in a while or you find them to be recurring problems So um unless there's anything else that you want to add for example the ambiguities
that you mentioned and and some of the issues with enforcement of certain issues um I'm going to go on to the next question if that is okay Let's see what we have Um well you also talked a little bit
about this but I'm going to sort of reiterate and ask you more specific if you have any examples of sections or specific regulations or types of regulations that uh you or others for example you mentioned developers come
here and they're confused you know um um is written poorly or it's obsolete or are there any other problems with specific u areas of the of the code that you would like us to take a look at uh so um I heard overlays Uh are there any
other examples of of areas of concern that we should be um paying attention to in this effort yes it's like recovering an awful lot at 2:00 in the morning or driving home When you do that
I'll just be awake Don't call me but you can email me Okay So um you know I I I'll let me throw this in just to just to muddle the water a little bit I really appreciate the huge challenge Debbie is facing and
trying to develop and attain it attain inter You know I shouldn't drink before meetings or maybe I should is to develop an entertainment district on the west side And I'm thinking endlessly that we seriously need to kickstart the train
station And that would be an area for an entertainment district out there Yes you could take an Uber over and otherwise you want people to take the train That's a great idea Why not have incentive to come to North Miami for an entertainment
district yeah Yeah And we just seem to be light years away from that Uh and the train station doesn't have to be a $50 million construction Mhm There's land set aside for it in theory
And you know um unfortunately we don't build it No line does Thinking about it from the Where are we with that anyway i'm sorry It is a valid question Where are we and that's something that is a question that I cannot answer But I was
just going to say I'm going to I'm going to let your staff answer Uh but I was just going to say that you know the the construction of the station may be maybe um a while away that doesn't mean that we cannot put in place the regulatory
framework to allow facilitate the creation of some type of entertainment district there um at whatever point is appropriate right so anyway with respect to the station I don't I don't know I don't know where that is yeah nobody
knows it's okay I would suggest that is if we establish the framework to build an entertainment district over there that would yeah Debbie get us closer How many overlay districts do we have in this area that Kevin's
talking about well right now the North Miami Transit Station overlay right overlay district You'll see that there was a conflict with the inner row because it over overlapped part
We had the PCD but the train station is that pinky Um yeah there you go Right in there And the last respondence the last conversation is that they are um have
ordered the train cars but that's part of the delay right now is getting the train cars for the train So they're looking at um 20 32 32 right because the delay the
primary delay right now is the train cars So line It's gone through the NEPA um analysis It's it's u identified We have developers who are contributing as part of their development parking for the the
the train stop Um and they have included that into their developments right there in that area that we've brought before you Um so it's I'm excited We've been planning for this since 2009 We've laid all the groundwork One of the reasons we
were selected as a stop is because we have all the to plan We have all of the the regulatory construct ready to go Yeah So it's an exciting opportunity and and we're really thrilled about that Sylvia you want to keep moving on yeah I
think we only have one more question Um and we have covered some of this also You know are there gaps in the LDRs there are there topics emerging issues emerging topics that we should be thinking of to address One of them you
mentioned the need for an entertainment uh district Are there other topics like that uh or or even more pedestrian issues than an entertainment district that uh your LDRs do not adequately
address or not address at all uh that we need to keep in mind when you review projects for example or in your experience when you bicycle when you walk around the city that you see um more and more uh that
perhaps you know the the the LDRs just don't even address in any way Debbie you uh with the LDRs with construction don't we have it in there now that they're supposed to keep the
site clean and and Okay So that that's that's another big issue that we I see out there on 120 Yeah When I took over as the department director a year ago one of the things I I kept seeing was all of these construction sites that did
not give a darn And so we made it um where they have to have a pre-construction meeting now for new development They have to keep their site clean They have to wash down the street at night They have to sweep And we have to be on top of them And our department
is our department and right now as you know as you all know has been extremely shortstop So combined with NSD our our wonderful building official which I want to bring her to visit you all um we have
have taken to uh putting stop work orders if they're not doing what they're supposed to do We have so yeah we are but again it's a it's you have to stay on top of them Yeah
So that's that's our goal is to try to do that and and inspect every day Go around and look at all of these construction sites every day and we find trash and debris and we make them clean it up We make them sweep the streets at night We make them wash
it down They have to have uh all these different things in place So yes we do have that It's not in the LDRs It's in the code of ordinances It's in the ordinances Okay I I I know because that that site we were talking about on 123rd Street 123rd Terrace are lane
there and 16th and 17th It's it's horrible But what we what we ask everybody is if because we we can't be everywhere Yeah Is that when you see that happening you call our code or you call NSD and NSD will send uh somebody
out or they'll have one of our inspectors go out and take a look at that But I encourage everyone to help us you know with the eyeballs okay because they're not allowed to do that Debbie um we still are kind of uh bound
by what the state road department has to say about traffic flow on 125th Street Is that correct that's correct There's not much we can do other than and no most the develop most of the traffic there that's in comes through our city is not from our development or even the
projected developments that are coming in It's background traffic that moves through the city And so our goal is to actually reduce um the need to have uh parking the need to have cars uh you
know every everybody doesn't need to have a car and we know we want to we our goal is to develop the city in such a way that we can reduce car dependency and thus reduce the traffic impact So we're asking developers to do things
like create orient their buildings have more mixed use where you're capturing internal capture of um so you you don't have to go drive everywhere to get to a store or get to a grocery store Um so that's the end goal but because
we we want development but we need to mitigate the traffic impacts and the way we can do that in our and our piece of it is to design our design our projects have our projects designed to capture
the trips internally through mixed use and or design the streets to make them more pedestrian friendly So you want to bike and you want to walk Uh so that's the goal But still do you have the pass through traffic situation with people
going to B Harbor or the US one is almost uh doesn't move at times now along our our stretch of business that we have along there and DOT says that they are not these roads are not deficient They believe they they say
that there's adequate capacity um they have level of service standards and that that there is a when we look at trips when we look at development and then and the traffic I don't because I'm not a traffic engineer but when the
traffic is looked at by the engineering team who prepares it um who prepares their studies individually and our team that our our transportation folks who review it um they're looking at the adding additional trips into the roadway
and if DOT says there's adequate capacity and it's not failing I can't make a developer improve that right we can't we can't the level of service standards You can only have them mitigate their individual impacts to any
of our facilities So the goal then is to get the people that are in these developments out of their cars and um make them make those streets more pedestrian friendly So there's a there's a as Sylvia will follow up on this I'm
sure it's really a bunch of different tools that we use and other types of code uh things that may not be specific to the LDRs but maybe projects and things that are recommended that public
works would implement Yeah um the the downtown trolley system that we have is there any way to enhance that or or increase the volume of trips with that with that right Well some of the community benefit packages that we're
seeing are contributions to the freebie for example uh contributions to trolley These are things that you can ask you know to do as part of a community benefit package And it's helpful to have had that mobility study done and plan
done recently because it identifies um uh street improvements roadway improvements that would make it more pedestrian friendly and get people again out of the car I would venture to say a lot of people don't understand what what the freebie system or how it works I
wouldn't know right now who to call if I needed a ride And that's actually on the public works website right yeah A lot of our information we have on the website Um and if you have recommendations outside of this LDR work which is what
we're talking about this is really outside the scope of this it would be feel free to share that um and either with the city manager or with me and I'll be happy to pass it along to uh but I also plan now as coming back with you
all I plan to bring you public works forward to you all as a as a visitor to you can talk to them about where they are on projects as well as introduce you to our building official and sustainability administrator But with that I'd like to get us out of here One
one thing I'm sorry Excuse me All the things I see just growing all over the city storage units number one dollar stores smoke shops tattoo parlors uh marijuana dispensary stores You know a
certain amount is okay but we're just getting a pie whole bunch of them There's three or four tattoo parlors on Biscane Boulevard alone I'm not against tattoos but let's get some we want to get some quality uh uh retail stores in there And
and this is like on the margin Some of those things are preempted by Florida statute like marijuana shops um dispensaries I thought about like the head shops I see you know they don't sell marijuana but you got these head
shops right uh we we there there are ways to deal with that in the code that we can take into consideration because we already have distance separation and prohibitions in certain areas of the city for certain types of uses So you don't prohibit them outright but we do
have distance separation so you don't get a whole lot of those in in one area And we can expand that beyond the C3 in the downtown It's very specific as to like convenience stores uh barber shops hair salons but it's not everywhere in
the city West 60 doesn't have that prohibition or distance separation So those are discussion items that we'll certainly the consultant will um we separated the uh uh when we did the is it the comp plan I think the last time we separated out the uh self storage
areas We have one on 123rd and one on um 14th Avenue and that's it on 123rd Street I mean they were just growing all over the place Right Well one of the things you all did remember the last time we did the Elder Arts together one
of the things you all did is you created a a distance separation for storage facilities We have existing storage facilities that would not normally be allowed to be there now because of the distance separation Um so those are things we can take certainly we'll take
a look at is how to prohibit or limit because I will tell you marijuana dispensaries by Florida statute you have to allow them wherever you allow a pharmacy you have to allow them wherever you allow a pharmacistarmacies
I think them on this game right now between 123rd and 133rd and and that's why you see them and they go into communities and they have to be treated the same Okay The other items we certainly can look at distance separations or other
tools for helping you with that that those issues Anything else no the only other thing is um I think we mentioned this a little bit but um we have um uh one other meeting uh of this type
conversation on Monday with uh members of your development community that you know uh is outreach to everything from realtors to architects to developers property owners engineers etc What time and where it's going to be here and I
think it is at 6:30 6:30 and we have a CR meeting that night Tuesday Yes Microphone that went on Monday will be specific to those groups including um uh
resident representatives so that it's a conversation the same format of conversation from their perspective from their perspective exactly like I said you know what we're trying to do is I don't know if it's
target uh what we call the power users of the code of the LDRs right those who most interact interact with the LDRs on a regular basis Obviously your staff yourselves uh people who look at it for
the purposes of entertaining development projects and then residents as well obviously who are more occasional users And for that we're going to have a series of workshops coming up the details of which we are in the process of finalizing but those are going to
happen probably um in early June So uh with that I'm going to close I thank you again for your time and uh for your uh very uh earnest input and I look
forward to uh seeing you again soon to continue talking about this So we we thank you very much You're very welcome Thank you And we are greatly greatly appreciate everything that you bring to us and have brought to us in the past It's always a pleasure to
have you Thank you For us thank you so much Um I want to go ahead and we'll wrap up the meeting but we do have an agenda that was posted I just want to for the record um go ahead and mentioned that we do not have any uh continue
public hearings Um no committee reports to give Uh no old business new business I think we discussed briefly that the meeting is May 6 planning commission meeting and we do have items for that
I'm trying to get Thank you I do I am trying very diligently to working with our city attorney's office to get the overlay the entertainment overlay to you
on the May 6 agenda Uh that was my direction from the city manager So you know um I'm trying to So we have we have another overlay Well you have to have something in it's replacing the Chinatown because you have to have the overlay says that under over top of the
existing zoning may not allow but you can't have a whole bunch of zoning districts you know and so we take the underlying augment it through an overlay That's why I'll come back to you and you know I will explain it thoroughly Yes
And then we'll also have an item from the housing department They are bringing forward their consolidated housing plan to you all for review as you've done every year Uh so you'll be uh hearing from Miss Bazil andor her staff Very good Thank you At
that point I'll call for adjournment and our meeting is adjourned Thank you everyone Thanks for your time We really appreciate that