##VIDEO ID:Zm1HXDvS9rY## good evening city of Homestead City Council meeting Monday March 17 2008 will be brought to order we will have the invocation tonight by pastor Howard harden press Baptist Church of Homestead and the pledge of allegiance by the police explorers and councilman McCormick would you please rise let's pray I learned and I dive it is with grateful hearts that we pause to acknowledge you we acknowledge you as the source of our blessings we acknowledge you as the author of our rights and even our freedom and it is with humble hearts that we acknowledge our dependence upon you and we ask your help and your guidance we ask for wisdom and all of the work that is done and the decisions that are made this evening as they impact the lives of this community and I pray these things in Christ's name Amen bird [Music] could you please show me plays - flat thank you you may be seated welcome Adam foot mayor bound here mice marriages there councilman Lobos in McCormick's councilman Nelson Councilwoman Waldman edition serrations were false the false mr. manager additions deletions to both the item list under for a just needs to be deferred to labels 7 that we could ever motion on that face I'll second it's from probably movement second you off favor say aye and the eyes carried thank you so much special presentations we have a judicial candidate with us tonight we have attorney Stephen Milan who is a judicial candidate would you please welcome thank you madam mayor members of council members of the community my name is Steve Milan and I'm running for Circuit Court judge I'm running in group 19 which is an open seat judge Roger silver is retiring I'm running because I believe that judges should be involved in the communities that they serve in and that they have a moral podium to bring people together such as just life in the way mental health and jitter eyes liquid drug court but lastly I'm running because as a parent of five children in this community and as the husband of a Dade County school teacher I believe that and I'm concerned about our children I believe in and I am concerned about our children I'm concerned because more and more children in our community involved in one more serious crimes I'm concerned that as an attorney over the years that I have over the 18 years of they have practiced as a prosecutor and as a private lawyer the last 11 years that it uses a prosecutor I see that for example all the homicides that were committed for the first six months in Dade County last year were committed by children on children and what I'm concerned about as a judge is it's all about character as you know as as politicians per se and being more in touch with the community that way judges don't get to talk about the issues per se because we are neutral and we are perceived to not be able to discuss the issues but it is about characters about the examples that we set for me as a judge the most important thing is to be able to set that example many people say that these were lawyers there's a dichotomy between professionalism and ethics and that professionalism is that aspirational goal that lawyers should aspire to but many don't and that ethics is that minimal standard but for me is and for me as a judge there is no more pinnacle exam model than the fact that the 201 and that as a judge you set the tone and by your practice of practicing with the two as one professionalism and ethics you raise the level of the standard of practice of law you raise the level of standard of the judiciary in this community and more importantly you set that character example for our children in the community all of my involvement in this community has been for children as a mentor with younger lawyers but also more important starting mentoring programs through the Kiwanis and in partnering with the Dade County school system where we adopted different schools and provided mentoring programs to the inner-city schools working as a guardian ad litem to protect better than abuse children in the court system and as a scout leader I appreciate this opportunity to speak to you I welcome your support I ask for your support in all of your votes and thank you very much thank you so much thank you item b1 restriction update South Florida Water Management District good evening madam mayor mr. vice mayor mr. manager members of the council my name is Nestor USA as I'm the lead public information officer for the South Florida Water Management District and I'm here to give you a brief update on what's going on with the water restrictions as you know in December of last year our governor to implement modified phase 3 water restrictions throughout the entire 16 counties where the South Florida Water Management District has jurisdiction bills to fix those water restrictions went into effect on January 15th one of the first questions that I get as a public information officer is well why are there water restrictions if you had above-average rainfall in the accounting my answer as well unfortunately the water management districts not just one County it's 16 we've had a boy a bird rainfall in miami-dade approximately 62 inches last year in 2007 Lake Okeechobee which serves as our secondary water supply when they received 30 that's a difference of two to one you look at you know areas of the district that are in the right now in critical water levels you know for their regions as a matter fact you have to go back to 1932 between the last time that we had consecutive years as all six and all seven were where we have broken records and there are not records that we're not happy to see broken but the truth of the matter is that it's there as water managers prepare for the worst that we hope for the best this year we implemented the water restrictions earlier than we did last year due to the fact that Lake Okeechobee today stands on the five feet below its historical average now if you stop and you think about Lake Okeechobee it's 732 square miles of lake five feet missing from that Lake is a significant amount of water when we implemented these phase three water restrictions modified face that we took a lot of things into account first of all we've worked very closely with the agricultural community we've worked very closely with the Farm Bureau down here in miami-dade County and obviously you know the many many nursery growers that depend on water for their livelihood another thing that we took in consideration of the residents we got a lot of complaints when we implemented these water restrictions about before a.m. to 8 a.m. watering time and obviously a lot of them were senior citizens saying hey we can get up at 4 o'clock in the morning the water the district took that into consideration and we allotted a second timetable basically from 4:00 in the afternoon to eight o'clock in the evening to be allowed to water considering all the measures that we've taken we've tried to keep the community involved with the emedia radio print and obviously making these kind of presentations to distinguished board as the distinguished councils like having a pleasure of speaking to here tonight as we enter the dry season actually the two driest months of the dry season the district is now considering and this will be actually be coming up in our next governing board which will be next April and April the governor will be considering implementing year-round water conservation methods which basically would be looking into allowing people all that water year-round only twice a week it's it's a measure that people are going to say well why are they doing that you really don't need to water in the middle of rainy season so that way we are able to concern from your water during that time as we're we're receiving it and when the dry season comes around like we are in right now we have more water so we don't have to go to further restrictions I thank you for your time if you have any questions I'd be more than happy dies from a disappointment thank you very much thank you madam there we will now have a free presentation on underage drinking awareness which we care of South Bay with nikolai guzman thank you met him there council residents my name is Nikolai Guzman and I'm from we care South David as well as a drug free communities coalition I'm going to share with you three points on underage drinking the national aids for initiation of alcohol use is twelve point eight years old we've conducted a survey a drug-free comedians coalition survey and three of our middle schools here in Homestead and the numbers tell us and the surveys have telling about when we got all the surveys together is telling us that 40% of the 436 youth that were surveyed had taken one or more sips of alcohol before the age of ten this is a very high number it was very concerning for us 65 percent of children that consume alcohol receive it from friends or from families the best place for a youth to get some type of alcohol is at the home frigerator next to the milk weed to get the education out there so we can stop this from happening number two the drug-free communication and iron it in our in our fight against underage drinking is not against alcohol we don't want to stop we don't we're not against alcohol itself but we are against underage drinking early this evening our youth are influenced by adults who mounted this behavior of drinking and alcohol affects our entire community through crime violence and death my third point this issue is emerging in in Homestead because of the mcgrill that we are experiencing and the changing dynamics and our demographic in our population as well as events that have got more visitors to our city like the racetrack and a lot of this is a tourist attraction because the keys were so close to machines were the gateway to the keys so this has brought a lot of advertising for alcohol and a lot of maybe Spring Breakers that have come by in our city we don't want to stop people from having fun we don't want to stop at people who are of legal age limit to consume out well we don't want to stop that we want to stop our children from drinking and getting hurt because we know it's proven that someone that drinks before they're 40 before they are 15 years of age with 40% more likely to show alcoholic dependency later on as an adult two of the strategies that have brought today we're going to be very brief with you we want to be able to you know we know as proven that parents are the key to keeping their kids from their the biggest influence from keeping their kids from drinking we know this so we want to we want to implement a parent training academy which we have been partnering with in familia which is a nonprofit organization here in Homestead and they already have a parent's union all they would need to add is something on alcohol and drugs so this is very simple to do we just need to get the funding to be able to implement that those strategies and also there are new retail vendor training initiatives that are out there where we can go this can be voluntary for retail or this could be city the city ordinance for retailers to go through a training where they can identify fake IDs where they can identify a soldier tab make this other tab method going on the the under dazed person goes and that's another person to buy them alcohol they they can also know they can be trained in all the laws that are going that are in place of the city ordinances and also those state laws regarding the vending of alcoholic beverages a big big thing also is the training to be able to know a big thing now is the energy drinks that there's new energy drinks that have alcohol in them and those are very hard to distinguish from the regular just to everyday energy drink so we can train them that on that also well my last thing when I'm reclosing three requests that we would like for the city to be able to support us in one to be part of the drug free to use coalitions and to promote the means to all the residents would be a part of number two to provide messages through city employees paychecks and through energy bills if possible to be able to get the message out to parents in through our residents and lastly to provide the vendor training for all retail outlets and once again like I said this could be voluntary or this could be through a city ordinance I want to thank you madam mayor for giving us the time and your support thank you mr. Guzman thank you for coming it's a very very important issue and I appreciate your concern and I appreciate your work in your school thank you we now have inspiron van the Resta you've been okay when the rule then to inspiring I'll use gala event this year mister my minions I believe we need to lower the screen yeah it's a PowerPoint presentation so you might while we're setting up I would take this opportunity on behalf of Aaron and myself to thank the Batman bringing us this opportunity to bring in this presentation to your attention just to give a a deep background basically Aaron and I do open failed attempts and basically we're trying to learn to go to sleep but what we have school our only options besides working at the fields nurseries or just drop an operator but as you can see Evan and I work that mode so I went to USA and I went to Miami college and where we both got our education and we both be picking somebody so basically this is just to inspire you that other options up there besides fields besides going to to work straight off the high school so ever okay members of the council and mayor I'm here to talk to you about a program that was created as a joint student organization that I've heard by masa which is a Mexican American Student Association at the University of Florida and Sigma Delta Alpha at the University of Southern California growing up and Olmstead and having the opportunity to go study to the west coast and being involved with a lot of community service I challenged my sister to do something in return for our community and we wanted to do something in return to to help the we know that there's a need and especially in and there is where children are underserved so what we wanted to do was to give a little back to the community that supported us in attaining a higher education so we created this joint venture with Florida and USC to sponsor students of migrant background who have where they excelled academically to bring him to the University of Florida and allow them to experience what college life would be UF made had a requirement where all the students that if we would take would have to have a 3.5 GPA and a 1300 or higher on their SAT scores to our surprise we had over 20 students who qualified 19 of them which happened to be girls and only one boy but we were able to take all these kids who had excelled academically to experience college life at UF and to show them that there is more than the Miami Dade Community College not there's anything wrong but um that there are other great universities and what we're trying to do is to inspire them to to be able to live the college life and they managed they were able to experience UF for a series of three days there was a series of student panels where they met other students who have the same background as they did whose parents worked in the peels but for you know for their achievements in and academics were able to to it to to go to UF on a full scholarship and the terrific consisted of three days a series of student panel workshops icebreakers with other student organizations on campus such as fraternities and an introduction to Greek life and everything was provided thanks to this partnership that we created with USC UF and the Mexican American Council and we're here today because of this joint venture and this one particularly in dedup taking who didn't meet the requirement cuz we hadn't taken C but we took him anyways prior to us screening them and he made such a big change in his grades he was a 2.0 or student from Ferguson senior high who didn't meet the initial criteria the UL had said but we took him because we had a vacancy and ever since he's went to the filter he has completely changed he went from a 2.0 GPA to a 3.9 GPA because now he has experience what college life is even other West for three days he's seen it he wants it and he's extremely motivated to attain a higher education with that his grandparents who happy to own constructive catering were extremely motivated with what we had done and therefore they created they asked us to to start a fundraising gala so we wouldn't have to go around asking for sponsorship to be able to provide this experience to to our children so where we're at now is with the support of the following municipalities and napkins and associates we're hosting the fundraising gala called inspiring our youth inspiration to education to continue with our mission which is to promote Latinos and other in the represented groups institutions of higher learning and our event will take place on the 9th of May 2008 at 7 p.m. at the Palmetto Bay Village Center the pom pom room and we asked members of this council to to attend and to sponsor a table if possible so we can continue providing this service to the students and we'd ended up taking that I guess had a total of 20 students 10 from the South Dade area most of them were from southeast senior high homesick senior high and with the exception of that one student who happened to be from Ferguson Senior High and that's all I can say and thank you very much for giving me the time opportunity to to let you know a little bit of inspiring our youth and what it's all about all right thank you cuz that's women basically the tickets for the dinner are $65 our tables with sponsorship or $1,000 we have one more presentation that will take place in a few more minutes just give it a few minutes I'll go ahead and attain the motion for the consent agenda just note that the item on the Galata is there's a an update on your table so you'll be approving this oh man I'll second it's been properly moved and seconded any comments a question on the minutes there's one correction page number five of the minutes states vice mayor Councilwoman SIA so unless I've had a title change or mr. Burgess has changed his last name thank you thank you it's been duly noted I like that we say aye aye it carries thank you so much good evening please be advised the following items on the agenda are quasi-judicial in nature if you wish to calm please indicate the item number you'd like to address when the announcement regarding the equation an additional item is made an opportunity for persons to speak on each item will be made available after the applicant and staff have made their presentations on each item all testimony including public testimony and evidence we made under affirmation additionally each person who his testimony may be subject to cross-examination if you're not wish to either be cross-examined or swear your testimony would be given it's to wait the general public will not be permitted to cross-examine witnesses but the public me requests the council to ask questions of staff or witnesses on their behalf the full agenda package on each item is hereby entered into the record persons representing organizations must first percent evidence of their authority to speak for the organization for the details of the quasi judicial procedures may be obtained from the clerk cordons Code section 2 591 any lobbyist must register before addressing the council on any of the following items this time council members please disclose any ex parte communications concerning items on the agenda mr. Weiss I have one actually met with a representative from vision Council and we ended up I ended up mentioning item date so I put on the record thank you thank you I met with Keith Collier and Daryl Corvina about the chroma Plaza thank you any later at this time the threat was swearing any persons to which the test to find any quasi-judicial item please stand and raise your right hand I state your name hereby swear or affirm that the information shall be the truth and nothing but the truth so help me God thank you now fewer than tells me for one minute mr. white and mr. Weiss we have a special guest who here with us this evening it's my daughter Jenna and my granddaughter she was a little preoccupied a few moments ago she wants to address us this evening for just about two or three minutes about a very important fundraiser that she's conducting so Jenna would you please come forward please that's my newest make sure it's turned on Jenna good evening and I don't know most of you probably know that my best friend was killed in a carjacking in December her name is Nasim Alderman and she left behind two little girls so we've set up a foundation and we do a fundraiser it's a reverse raffle for a Harley or $20,000 and I'm selling tickets the tickets are $100 apiece the raffle will be held April 5th in front of students and the police station with hosing off the road the ticket includes two free dinners with it there will be a silent auction that night it's gonna be from 6 p.m. to 12 p.m. like I said to reverse raffle they're storing their tickets the last ticket pulled wins you do not have to be there to win this isn't Missy and her little girls just so you guys know I'm gonna go ahead and leave it back there somewhere if you want to look at it the dates gonna be April 5th I'll leave my phone number Mike I'll write it on here for you guys you can call me and I have tickets so you can just let me know I'm gonna be leaving though so thank you for your time tell us what the funds are for the girl oh it's it's a college account we're setting the trust college fund for the girls so thank you Anna is that not the most beautiful babe you've ever seen I know that's true though thank you so much Tara we really appreciate the work that you're doing and I know there's a lot of people involved in the missing Alderman fundraiser and the trust so thank you very much for making directory little girls Thank You mr. white yes item 7a as a resolution of the city of Homestead Florida grants in the request of Valencia Partners LLC for six-month extension so previously approved site plan for a thirty-nine thousand square foot one-story public supermarket and drive-thru pharmacy located at the southeast corner of Southwest 344th Street on Jonathan Southwest 167th Avenue as Lili described in Exhibit A and providing for an effective day our motion for a second it's been properly moved and seconded I will now open the public hearing is there any any report on this extension is this the first extension on this yes good evening madam mayor and member of council this is the first business expansion through a resolution that went to the council last February 2011 or 213 is a 4-point 88-acre and is a is a Publix store that is at the corner of 344 and 167 thank you any comments or questions from Council no I was just wondering are there any representing us from Publix for the other developers here okay guess they won't answer a question then if we know it do they have any intention to start within the six months that they started is that just the economy as predicted that they haven't started or is there something else holding them up they haven't mentioned anything to me high but the maximum bacon gravy is one additional six mice I understand that I just wondering what to what their reasoning was for not starting it and if they had full intentions of starting are we seeing back here in six months again nobody's here thank you thank you any any members of the I'd like to address this this item roll call madam clerk councilman Otis yes councilman Harnack yes councilman Nelson yeah councilman see yes councilman Goldman yes ice mayor Burgess yes mayor Bell yes motion carries thank you moving on to seven I'm sorry mrs. something yeah this is a trend you know we city of homestead is experiencing and other communities are experiencing and actually and I see we're allowed to get from Lela batiste about some publication talking about these extensions it's it's it's a friend again all around them we are just one of these cities that are experiencing this for you yeah responded construction thank you thank you very much yes 7b is a resolution of the city of Homestead Florida granting the request of maria martin Hidalgo Pablo Medina and Maria Medina for six-month extensions are previously approved site plan for Brookstone townhomes located on the southwest corner of Northeast 9th chord in Northeast 14th Avenue as Lee we described in Exhibit A in approximately 2.6 acres site consisting of 20 townhome units and providing for an effective date I move it it's been properly moved second it's been properly moved and seconded I wanna open the public hearing I would like to I believe this is the last six months more term that they're going to be allowed on this is that correct but this is the first this is the first yes thank you any any comments or questions yes and I also have to thing you know for the public you know you've seen history as the resolution and also their Maps you see the location that we are talking about we don't have an agenda thank you any comments or questions from ma'am from Council any members of the public would like to address this item will now close the public hearing roll call madam quit councilman McCormick yes councilman Nelson yes councilman Sierra yes councilman Waldman yes vice mayor Burgess yes councilman Lopez yes mayor Bell yes motion carries thank you item C is a resolution of the city of Homestead Florida granting site plan approval for development consisting of a thirty eight thousand nine hundred and eight square foot warehouse expansion to an existing warehouse building on approximately three point three five acres of land located at the southwest corner Alex muxo Boulevard in southwest one 47th Avenue from the villages of homestead development of regional impact just south of the park and commerce as legally described in Exhibit A and providing for an effective day an emotional available well second it's been properly moved and seconded I will now open the public hearing Joe staff recording this item yes madam this is the cyclin approval for a thirty thirty eight thousand nine hundred and a square feet is that addition to existing where has the P hat is only three three point three five acre and we do have approval from consultant for the base they don't have any objection to this site plan and is 142nd and Alex matzo ball over thank you very much and in any questions from Council comments or questions from the public we're now close the public hearing your comment on Clark councilman Nelson yes councilman CR yes Councilwoman Bergman yeah vice mayor Burgess yes council woman Libous yes councilman apartment yes Maribel yes motion carries thank you item 7d as a resolution of the city of Homestead Florida granting site planar pool for the development consisting of a 7605 square foot building on a portion of an approximately two point one three acre site located within the homestead for commerce at the northwest corner of Southwest 336 Street in southwest one 42nd Avenue asleep we described in Exhibit A in providing for today I'll entertain a motion for approval we moved in a second now open the public hearing is a staff report miss Kamali yes this is a 2.1 3 acre of property that is right name of the spirited museum is a 7,000 square feet office building and they comply with all our requirement and there in the village of file homes that you realize there's no traffic requirement for this project thank you very much any comments from or questions to start from Council I do America fear the Air Force said no objection no objection thank you miss Waldman Thank You mayor um this project just looks beautiful and I want to thank Adam bass and his dad the architect there I'm mr. bass for respecting the Jo study because I know it would have been so much is it would have any for you to have tested us just a little bit and I just want to thank you so much for that I did the math and it was just perfect so thank you very much thank you man you're welcome mr. bass any comments I see him jumping up at Lucy [Music] we wouldn't want to disappoint the kids my name is Adam Bass I live in 1262 Southfield lug Lane in the villages of homestead our offices are at 100 northeast 15th Street on Kings Highway I grew up in homestead never worked here since 1975 and I think that voted for everybody who was in the last election up on the council here we've been architecture soldiers here detection builders here homestead since other place for over 30 years and we've worked throughout every municipality in miami-dade County and the number of the municipalities in South Florida and throughout the United States several other cities as well and we just wanted to say it's important to recognize and a real pleasure to work with the building department right here in our hometown sherry Kamali leads an outstanding team she's excellent to work with she's always forthright candid easy to get in touch with ray Ortiz French wards are always very helpful and we wanted to recognize that also we'd like to thank everybody on the council mate Bala Beauty when everybody really for allowing us to move forward with the party Commerce we look forward to getting an excellent project started there it'll make it proud as far as the quality of construction it'll start generating taxes and it'll bring in some very high quality jobs with the FBI so we just want to say thank you and thank you Thank You mr. bass but that being said we're now close to public comment if I just make one statement or describe um I just wanted to comment on what you did on that corridor on chrome Avenue and how you turned that vacant lot and all the businesses now that our house they're not only the Water Management District but the Red Cross driver's license place and so you did a spectacular job there and I just look forward to this project here as well mr. bass since miss Lovelace brought that I've only had one complain about that project it's in Florida City thank you very much thank you mr. bus well madam clerk counselor in the morning yes vice mayor Burgess yes councilman will vote yes councilman McCormack yes comes women xià yes councilman Nelson yes mayor Bell yes motion carries thank you that completes your quasi judicial matters moving on to your legislative matters agenda item 8a is the first reading of an ordinance of the city of Homestead Florida granting the requests of bdg Grove Plaza LLC for a small scale amendment to the comprehensive plan by changing the land use designation of an approximately 4.6 acre site from low density residential you sell are you to light commercial use LCU located at the southwest corner of South West 137th Avenue Tallahassee Road in Northeast 15th Street as we were described in Exhibit A and providing for an effective date this is first reading a motion for approval on the right I'll second it's been properly moved and seconded initial comments from Council do we have a staff report of it yes this is a four point six acre of vacant property that is owned 137 they're between 16 15 and camel drive this is a person that has been in our office for last few years in the year 2000 economics to the city and he came to the council year 2005 for land use change however due to some legality of 12 months waiting period if they've been behind sitting on office and they came back to us how the yoga's insufficient so they've been the process for a long time and we just brought it to your attention right now for your review and approval mainly because why you got approval and in January share with Vic with the audience with the ear is miss Kamali is appraisal and and I wish I place on point yes thank you maybe I have some questions thank you I'm the applicant is here as the applicant would be ethical applicant like to present and then we'll go ahead and have questions from Council comments and that might answer [Music] oh good evening Council my name is Melissa Tappan is yahwah's I'm an attorney with the law firm of burg Khalid and Fernandez offices at 200 South Biscayne Boulevard Miami are we representing the owner in the applicant vdg Grove Plaza LLC and joining me this evening is Ashley Bash and Manny Fernandez they are both principals with BDG Greg kala or traffic engineer my colleague died Jeffrey workout and our friend Eric frozen who's assisting us with this matter we're requesting a small scale amendment to the city's comprehensive plan to read doesn't name the property from low density residential sorry to like commercial zoning site plan and tentative plat applications have been submitted to the city and the plans contemplate a two-class aid office buildings are with a bank out parcel fronting on South West 137th Avenue a staff mentioned we have a favorable staff recommendation urging your approval as you can see in this our area exhibit our property is approximately 4.6 acres located the 137th Avenue just north of Campbell Drive the property is located between an FPL utility easement and the Waterstone PD to be leased as well as the homestead Air Force Base to the east I'm sorry water so much to the rest the grave that water stone which is a 40 unit residential community is located just to the north and that was also developed by the applicant bdg vacant land lies to the south and construction of a commercial development is underway at South West 137th Avenue and Campbell drive and Homestead Hospital as you can see at the aerial photograph is located west on Campbell Drive the applicant is proposing to redesignate this property to light commercial and origin develop of property as homestead office park again a première classe office complex the goal of the future land-use element aims to establish and implement a future development pattern that provides adequate lands for growth then read the and avoids undue concentration of people and fosters growth in the city's traditional economic base as well as new industries approval of this application ensure neighborhood serving retail and office uses to surround a be residential communities there is a significant need for Class A office space to serve homestead Hospital as well as the growing professional class of residents that have purchased homes in the homestead area over the last few years approve of this application will vary the undue concentration of population by providing a mix of uses and rather than develop this property as what it's currently does it as low-density residential thereby adding to the residential market in this area which provided which actually you know create some issues with parks and schools in the area are the resulting development would bolster the city's traditional economic base and attract new businesses and provide jobs to the immediate area as you can see by the this area there commercial and office uses in this of the city and to service not only the residents but also home said hospital they approve of this application is consistent with the policy 3.5 on your comprehensive plan that requires an adequate inventory of commercial lands so that expanding and new businesses can access the communities they will force our urban planning principles usually dictate that commercial nodes should be located at the intersection of two section line roads in this case it would be Campbell drive and 137th Avenue so it would be the four corners of that intersection transitional uses such as neighborhood serving retail and office uses and higher density residential shall line the section line those in this case 137th Avenue and Campbell Drive the purpose is to buffer the low-density residential uses to the interior of the section construction of this commercial develop and commercial development is already underway at the northeast corner of Campbell Drive in South West 137th Avenue we have a townhouse development and a project by the homestead Housing Authority to other intersections of camel driver 137 bhavini so there is limited room in this area of the city to provide commercial and office spaces it's also encumbered by the fact that the homestead Air Reserve Base is located just east of South West 137th Avenue in this area so implementation of these planning principles are important because not only do they ensure compatibility but they also reduce the impacts on infrastructures such as traffic you'll have Gregg Kyle make a short brief presentation to you as far to show that the having these mix of uses in close proximity to one another actually reduces the length of vehicle trips as well as number of trips persevere by if you have this mix of uses in close proximity what it does is reduces I the impact on area and reduces traffic congestion there are two major concerns that arise when you're developing neighborhood serving retail and office uses in close proximity to residential areas the first is how do we buffer the use to preserve the quality of life for the established residential areas and the second is again the impact on infrastructure specifically traffic first regarding buffering in this specific case the property of bolts the latter Stern PUD as well as the applicants own Grove Atwater stone project these residential areas are very much in the applicants state of mind when he was designing the site plan that it will be before this council at a later time for your approval the reason is the owners their owns are this residential most of these residential lots to the north so in designing this property he really took that into account there is a 20 foot utility easement owned by FPL that serves as a permanent safeguard between this property and the ladder stone BD towards the rest there there's also the applicant designed this property to provide an 88 foot setback between the building line and the property line and there is also a minimum rear setback required for that residential areas that a budget of 25 feet all in all the minimum space between two buildings are over 115 feet in addition to this distance of the site plan that will come before this council at a later date provides a six-foot-tall CBS wall as well as lush landscaping and when you add this all up the idea is as when we come back to this council we'll be able to provide you to the line of sight exhibit that shows right will will actually be the view from the abetting properties to this property we've provided beautiful precise aesthetic elevations to make sure that it is consistent with the urban design guidelines that the city has adopted to make sure that the view if there is one after you put on all the landscaping and because of the distance is a wonderful one the bottom line is that any future development on this property will have to be approved by this council the firm rezoning and site plan application at that time we will be meeting with the area residents will be more than willing to address any comments and concerns that staff has the City Council has planning and zoning has or any residents have in a form of a declaration of restrictions prohibiting uses the property owner intends to own this property for a long time so it is in his best interest to be a good neighbor to his own property and the people will purchase Eva's homes as well as the residents of the Waterstone PUD the second issue a to address compatibility was traffic and I would like great call our traffic engineer to just say a few words about traffic in this area good evening Greg tile with Kim Lee horn and associates office at 5200 Northwest 33rd Avenue and Fort Lauderdale this area presently has an imbalance between the location of housing in the number of jobs and services that are available within the community and providing a place of employment and services closer to the residences can result in shorter trip distances required to commute to work and for some basic service needs according to the 2000 census the existing number of jobs in the south part of miami-dade County is only equal to 63 percent of the population of the workforce this point forces longer trips and places more demand on the transportation system forecast out to the year 2030 population expected to grow right now by 83% in the southern portion of the county where by the employment where the jobs are only projected to grow at this point by 45% based upon the existing future land use maps this imbalance will place additional strain on the transportation network generally residences serve as origins or generators of trips another hand uses such as offices service destinations or attractors of trips the area needs more tractors to reduce the need for longer trips to satisfy employment and basic shopping and service needs this project will have a positive impact on transportation by providing the opportunity to have trip lengths reduced to satisfy some of the basic needs in terms of employments and services thanks thank you a few more comments on the 2005 number to this public hearing application which I think it's worth noting the short answer is why this is public hearing application 2005 it starts of in 2005 it was that this applicant has been working with the city for over three years to get through this application actual process the application process began in April 2005 at the time that applicant was purchasing the property he held a pre-application conference with city staff where this middle of the small-scale application was brought up for the first time as mayor Bell and Councilwoman Waldman can confirm back in 2005 the city was being inundated with residential applications and that is what this property is designated for residential as such staff had asked us to provide my office and commercial to serve this growing Kuran residential community so we submitted an application and on June 9 2005 we appeared before the DRC for a first hearing at that time the Iowa Planning Group Marty Schneider informed us that there might be an issue because this same property have been we designated as part of the annexation process from the county map to the city map change actually took place but because that she that actual legal process had taken place in the same 12 months that there might be a chance that the state law would prohibit us to fulfill with this with a small-scale amendment process so DCA Department of Community Affairs said that that was exactly the case and basically told us that we could not move through it until 12 months of that actual comprehensive plan process being finalized as you as you know the comprehensive plan amendments were appealed by a third party which lengthened that 12 months and by the time it was november 23rd 2006 the year issue had been had to come up so there we have worked with city staff on this project for a very long time we until trips to Tallahassee to assist the city in getting this year and finding of sufficiency and consistency so we have been partners with the city for a very long time it would have been very easy for the applicant to have built homes on this property just like he did next door it was not in his best interest to hold on to the property for three years as you know the market has changed a lot in those three years but this applicant did that because of the idea that the city does need office and neighborhood serving retail in this area so which I just thought that was worth noting in conclusion this is process could develop this parcel as a residential uses staff and the applicant did not believe that was in the best interest of the city as an abetting property owner this applicant has a vested interest in this immediate area it is consistent with the goal of the future land use settlement as well as policy 3.5 of a comprehensive plan approval of this application will maximize the city's tax base attracts new and expanding businesses bring jobs to area residents Butler the residential communities in the interior with sections from the major section line Road the he'll be a homestead Air Force Base to the east we'll also reduce the traffic congestion issues that you're starting to see in the see the specific impacts of that we will move further in this site planning process will be addressed at the site and the appropriate process which is site plan we are more than willing to work with staff the council area residents to address any concerns that may come up at that time this council will have the final word as to what comes into the property we have a favorable recommendation and urge your approval respectfully request time for rebuttal if it's necessary and thank you very much any comments or questions from Council while the applicant is here I didn't say I have first yeah yes I do I'm sorry it's faster when I ask questions okay thank you sure yeah yes PMZ did not give a favorable it was three to three when they approved or did not approve the rezoning and some of the comments made during their minutes and their reading is exactly right yes resident of Waterstone another thing that that is disturbing is that and Waterstone this was coming up and I think a lot of it had to do with the way it was published and 137th Avenue and then North East 15th Street as 137 thousands in Miami address and North East 15th of Homestead address was quite confusing to the residents on my way over here when I passed by the area and I realized exactly where the space was I started calling some of the residents from Waterstone and they were quite upset that they really didn't realize where the location was we have a very very horrible time with trespassing and the public's that's neighboring to our community in fact I live in exactly that community and I know the police has been there quite often with the trespassers that jump our fence to get into the commercial area I understand the office and I understand that there is no need for work but I also understand that it's very important for us to keep our neighborhoods safe and I'm quite disappointed that my community was unable to be here their fault maybe because they really didn't understand where the location was to be able to express themselves as I have right now thank you Miss yeah miss Waldman thank you there Monsieur and you touched on many things that that that I was concerned with as well I'm just gonna ask you directly did the home where the homeowners inform when they bought their house their homes that this that you had the plans to put a commercial strip there well the this this is this vacation has been part of the public record since 2005 right on so that would be the notice when you first started advertising this public hearing in 2005 so they've had repeated notice since 2005 as we have appeared before DRC Planning and Zoning and now the City Council so as far as the actual we provide the city with the mainly labels and they're provided they're actually they send them out pursuant to city code so this has been in the works since 2005 and to answer the council women's concern regarding planning and zoning we were very disappointed with our three three no recommendation to the City Council we believe that we earn the favorable staff recommendation and we we should have had a favorable recommendation at Planning and Zoning the issue there and if you look at the minutes the expressed concern was very much the site plan issue and before back in 2005 when we started this process small-scale amendments came to the City Council and to planning and zoning and to DRC with site plan zoning tentative plat and the small scale amendment the city has sense changes process because of the issue of legislative items and quasi-judicial items that is not the applicants do mean it should we should not be prejudiced by that point I believe that the questions that were made when the Planning and Zoning members asked us about our site plan and what we told them about our site plan we were able to get a three to three vote and those are all part of we have a bit expressed here regarding our site plan is all part of the public records and with your city staff since 2005 so I would say that yes the neighbors have had notice of this and we were more than happy we meet with them and address any concerns that they may have I believe that our commercial properties such as Publix is much different than what we're asking in this application as limited commercial that wouldn't that is more than limited commercial also in this case we have a specific safeguard between property between properties of 20 feet so it's not just a CBS wall and residential and you know heavier commercial it's a transitional use office light commercial that's that's the designation will I can just get back to Dora I'm trying to find out here the 2005 where the seat will be partial living here in 2005 mr. mark yeah yeah well we the CIO's issue don't think there's a very important thing because it's one thing to say the neighbors were sent letters but if they weren't living in the houses how did they know I have to check that for you I misled when I visited this city at that time but I can get the number of the seals for you if you understand but they don't have that information right now do we even know if there was a response back you know from the mailings that was set out the mails that were sent out do you have the responses we don't have the minutes from those MacMurray Kelson unfortunately I don't have that information but I almost can't guarantee we don't have the same number of Rosetta and residents around the property looking back three years because that's one of the areas that and that's what that's what concerns me is that we say yes they will inform yes I did everything I was supposed to do yes the labels were sent sent and yes the city sent it out but these are people living in those houses and did you say 20 feet there's a total of 115 feet right there's no less than 20 feet we said near theirs FPL when utility easement a property owned by FPL is 20 feet between properties the setback is 115 feet but what I'm saying about the 20 feet is that there's another property owner between us I never PL easement well I'm so that's separating the properties now you mentioned a bank what else are you planning on putting in there I think the applicant would like to see a good okay can I pause for a minute I want us to be very careful because we are talking about a zoning application tonight we're not talking about a site plan so I want us to be really careful not to cross the line though because the site plan is going to be very subject to this council anyway actually we're talking about a future land use map light on that's not a rezoning or site plan which will incur which or quasi-judicial items which would be coming back before you there because she brought up the bank you know so I just wanted to achieve it but you know I'm just piggybacking on what on what was said yeah I'm sorry is it not appropriate for me to ask that question James I'd be happy to I think it's appropriate you've been a bit but I I would let the applicant record the applicant and responding and and not for you all to get very specific or start having a dialogue in regards to those uses because theirs will be quasi on solid becoming I withdraw the question then but I do just want to say as a general comment that I know how it is when you have commercial wet in the middle of a residential area and and they go home at five o'clock and then you have the traffic that goes into those parking lots and and you know you never know what's going to happen I'm sure you'll have wonderful security I'm sure that's ought to be considered but but I am very much as Mesilla concerned about the planning and zoning vote so I'm interested to hear if there's any other comments I also have a comment absolutely miss Lobos yes and I do want to acknowledge mr. Shelley's comment I see that he's sitting in the audience upon reading that minutes I do understand the concern with having Light Commercial within mixed in with it residential but they I kind of thought about our city and realize that starting within my own neighborhood right across from lakeshore there's a small plaza there that has a gas station and at least ten retail stores and it's all surrounded by residential if you want to Campbell then you have on the if you're heading west on the left-hand side all of the shops there are right next to residential if you head on over into the on the east side and you look at the corridor of restaurants Publix it's all next to residential so this is not and so that I wanted to see if there's been a deterioration of anything because of the commercial presence within those neighborhoods and I really couldn't see it I think that it can exist I support like commercial in residential I don't think that it's as much of a detriment as perhaps you know what once you think about it that perhaps it could be and as a matter of fact I think it adds something to the neighborhood I know that neighborhood a lot of people like it that if they don't want to drive too long that they can just hop into that gas station or just get something real quick and I'm not saying that they wouldn't build a gas station but I'm just saying that it's an example also if you go on Palm Avenue and you're going through the chrome corridor all of those shops all of those different stores off its buildings - right in front of residential houses so I don't believe that this is anything different than that I don't think that it's going to be a detriment to the neighborhood I would like in the future and I know that you've expressed that you will do that that you will consult with the residents and for happiness ii-era it just moves forward that you can kind of run coordinated to make sure that the residents do have a say on the site plan thank you thank you Miss Lois actually I was I would recommend that when it comes to site if it passes tonight when it comes to the site plan phase that you make sure that you coordinate with the Waterstone community so that whatever you know whatever is brought those please into the community I want to echo some of the comments that Miss Lobos had them and add a few of my own over the last few years and attending different workshops and going to different conferences one of the things that we've taken a good look at is urban design and the new urbanism and how we're trying to get the traffic off the road by bringing in commercial in towards the neighborhoods not the way around and what happens when you have this and I and I actually did read the PNC minutes as well and I did I did take a very good note of the comments I don't find it to be conflicting whatsoever to have a light commercial within the neighborhood community because of what it does is it gets the cars off of the road to go a longer distance so if you do happen to have a grocery store in your community you're going to the closest one to you so it's taking you off of Kimball Drive off of us one if the bank is close to you if this particular gas station is close to you it's taking these cars off of the road and that's actually lessening the impact not increasing the impact especially when we're talking about artists of New Urbanism and I once went to a Design Institute and took a look at a bunch of difference and that that is the it's really the old it's just the old is new again and that's the way it was when you would walk out and you would be able to go very quickly sometimes preferably in the future within walking distance if not a very very short drive so this is not conflicting with the neighborhood now not whatsoever and I haven't in an area that's just behind the chrome Avenue corridor and exactly what miss Silva said is exactly reflective of my neighborhood as well and so if you can go right to the corner and get gas rather than crossing over us one well that's that's better for the entire community because that's less that's less traffic on the road as a whole so I support this I don't find it to be conflicting whatsoever and I think and I've consulted with staff on this and I and I know that stood that staff has given a favorable report I have no problem with this whatsoever and I will support it but as miss Silva said as with anything we had another issue with another a b-1a that they consult with the neighborhood and those we solve everything by consulting with the neighborhood so I would greatly encourage you and Monsieur to facilitate those meetings within the Waterstone community to make sure that that that's facilitated and that those residents are happy we're committed to do that thank you any further comments we are just have one more since traffic was brought up several times I just want to make the council aware that we the process of getting to traffic lights on 137th Avenue one will be on water stream Boulevard one will be in water Steinway at 137 and this particular area where they're planning to to do this light commercial will be two or three blocks from that light are they playing to put another why I mean it just is it's just and one of young and one of the items that both of those brought out is the fact that these other commercial sites are in front of residential this is not in front this is kind of embedded into and that's where I find the biggest problem with it thank you Thank You Monsieur any further comments from Council any comments from the public when I took my voices office my history just to answer your question constable Waldman in July of over five I was in the market and seeking a a new home and I happened to pass through his residence which was still under construction and part and part of the sales pitch was that they and informed the vendor clients that behind them residential hands now if I were to buy it one of these homes and then they show for this I feel like a victim of a bait-and-switch so I just encourage them to just speak to the resident because I mean like men's CEO said I'm sure they weren't aware otherwise they would be here okay so listen thank you any other further comments from the public I now close the public hearing any final comments for council madam mayor council members I represent BG Group as invincible and I also am the owner of the property to its north the 40 homes that are will build to its north I'm sorry my name is Ashley Bosch and I reside at 3907 Coral Gables Florida we've been in this morning ways in this community we invested interest in this community one of the reasons that were here working very closely with staff and with everyone very committed to working with with the residents in that area as far as we're concerned we know that we've made every effort possible to ensure to the best of our ability that everyone was informed I can tell you I don't know the resident that just spoke what property he was referring to he might have been talking to their career palms also two arrests that was done behind this parcel but the parcel to its north I can guarantee you that every time any person walked into our sales office we made sure that they were aware what was going on next door furthermore we made sure that they understood that we were committed to enhancing the values of this area and not detracting we would never do that we've got a long-term vestment here we're not here to to run away we're here to be here for a long time and the things that we have done is there are there's already like council has already mentioned there is that FPL buffer which specifically buffers the rest and those homes have an additional 25 feet from their property line to where the house actually starts that said I don't know the I cannot answer the CEO dates compensable can I answer but I can tell you I did talk with mr. Martinez the principal at curry palms because we actually created one of the other buffers which is the one to north because we went through a vacation of three or fourth Street I believe you on the council we went through all that so there's another buffer on the other side because that Street has been vacated the reason we spoke with mr. Martinez was because the only properties that were served by that Street at that time is the current property that's here today our property to its north and mr. Martinez's property in the rear because that Street wouldn't that ended in the South Florida wild Miami's district canal that runs in the in the rear there which actually mr. Martinez of Albany who runs up to when we spoke to him he was okay with it we were under the impression that he was informing everyone because we had talked with at the time director Charles arpád and he was the one that had really gotten us focused on getting this done and we took into account during all this was that we were taking all the considerations of everyone in the community when we were doing it without getting into some of the site plans because I know that's not something it's appropriate for here the reason that we contemplated office use is because of the natural times that offices used versus homes in other words most offices obviously where people are leaving between thirty and six therefore it's more of a quiet setting for residents who were most people coming home I can tell you in general that the site plan definitely takes that into account and where you are speaking to would definitely be fronting the main the main avenue which this is almost a fight it's just an under a five acre parcel and it's like deep so we make sure that we've we've taken the spacing into account and in order to create the proper circulations for traffic as inside the parcel as well as maintain these buffers that are out we are very sensitive to understand that it is a consideration to continue our value in that area so we're not without getting into more detail about the site plan those things are concentrated definitely towards the East which fronts on 137 Avenue the rear and that site is asphalt parking stalls as well as green space and then the building's line will start for office uses so that that's I just want to make that clear and explain that if there's any other questions I'd be happy to answer thank you so much thank you very much yeah just one moment and again I know we can't get into what you're planning but I just want to say that in our neighborhood I mean I get most people in my neighborhood sitting in this audience and we all know that we can't go to that shopping center after dark there's been armed robberies there's I mean I'm cheap wrong you know exactly what I'm talking about because I've been in contact with major major candidate even even last week about about crime and loitering and things that are going on in that shopping center people are afraid to go there at night so all I'm saying to you is that that's that's a big concern for me as to what's going in there so that's all I'm going to say right now rest assured councilman Waldman this is not intended to be a shopping center okay this is intended to be a class a professional center serving the professional smaller offices that we believe are going to be coming up since you have such a higher concentration of residential homes and more professional people moving into your area as well as ancillary medical services that might be in this area as well as any of the that want to expand better in other areas of miami-dade south I want to expand their services we're looking at a professional center which we respect we expect a manager maintain a very high level I'm gonna say I'm going to support this for now but I'm gonna tell you that when you meet with these folks and they come back and they say no I'm offended I don't want this in my neighborhood you know depending on what you'd bring back you know mine they changed my mind at that point but I will support you now because I think you have a beautiful beautiful presentation but I I'm very concerned appreciate that and we understand and I we are committed to working with Councilwoman Ciara and her group and the group residences in area in whatever way shape before we need to thank you thank you so much mayor Bell with us councilman Waldman and you know this is all in good nature here but I have to also tell you that in our neighborhood we also have a problem with home since senior high so it's not necessarily the commercial aspect of it I know if any for a long time there was a high breaking incident from students that would climb the fence from home to see a high into the San Remo townhouses and so I don't know if it's just because there's a lot of vacant land in the area I don't know it's if it's just primarily one the gas station perhaps but I you know the same in said that you were just describing I know I've heard a lot of San Remo evidence complaining about the high school and that's during the daytime yeah there was just jumping over the fence I so I just wanted to make also acknowledge that we do have a high level vandalism from coming from home since senior high thank you thank you so much we're not close the public hearing vice mayor Burgess yes councilman Otis yes councilman McCormick yes councilman Nelson yes councilman Sierra no Councilwoman Rodman yes mayor Bell yes motion carries thank you thank you thank you for your presentation moving on to item 8 2 is the first region of an ordinance of the city of Homestead Florida advancing the requests of Joseph Longo for small-scale amendments of the comprehensive plan by changing the land use designation of an approximately 0.46 acre site from union density residential mru to light commercial use I'll see you located at 29 North East 14th Street between your chrome Avenue so I suppress 170 seventh Avenue and North East chrome Terrace as legally described in Exhibit A and providing for an effective date this is first reading I'll entertain a motion approval I move it I'll serve it's been removed and seconded any initial comments from Council any staff report this is a point for six acres is is a small scale land-use change from a medium density to light commercial is beeping boom Avenue and chrome Terrace is is between 14 and 15 lights out of Tiffany restaurant Oh Tiffany restaurant and this app recommends for approval thank you thank you very much any comments from Council any comments from the audience well combatant council Manila's yes councilman councilman Nelson yes councilman SIA yes Councilwoman Waldman yes vice mayor Burgess yes mayor pop yes motion carries thank you next item is a motion to reconsider pH mm 775 a the request of investors Services LLC for a rezoning from one family district Garwood to parking district P for property located the south side of Northwest to the 19th Street just west of Krome Avenue been properly moved a second as the property moved and seconded and the initial calls from Council this is placed in the agenda at the request of councilman Nelson yes it's a reconsideration thank you comments or questions I'm mayor Bell I don't have any comments I initially voted YES on this so just to start I get the process correctly what are we building on today to bring it up again I think the applicant here again tonight well know what we're voting on to tonight is the procedure that we've for reconsideration is that a third equations usual item is sought to be reconsidered we place it on an agenda to see whether the motion for reconsideration passes that's all that's on the agenda tonight not a substantive discussion on the item councilman ounce nelson has indicated that he would like to move reconsideration he voted in the on the prevailing side Matt last time which was no and he's placed it on the agenda and it's here to determine whether there are four votes for reconsideration if it passes tonight and the boat is reconsidered then what we will do for the next agenda is advertise it as a regular zoning hearing as we've done in the past and that way everyone will be placed on notice of the the you know the fact it's gonna be heard again but on the agenda tonight is just emotional reconsideration not a substantive discussion of this item thank you thank you it's been properly moved and seconded I think it's an appropriate motion and it's appropriate to work to reconsider this island it seemed to me that there was confusion over the actual point to three acres that was just mainly going to consist of parking and there was a confusing it with the actual site plan and when I talked to the different residents that's with us when we had the northwest the meeting in the northwest that seemed to be the biggest focus was on the site plan actually they were a little more concerned about that when they were concerned about the parking but it seemed to kind of overflow so I think the motion is is in order for discussion on the actual item itself so thank you very much any further comments or questions from Council welcome our hood councilman McCormick yes councilman Nelson yes councilman Sierra yes councilman Wagner yes vice mayor Burgess yes councilman mobis yes mayor Bell yes motion carries ok so for clarity this jury advertised in place on the agenda next time as if it had never been considered it'll be look like a brand new zoning item the day for the record of the April 7 thank you without them the corporate public comment if any member of the audience would like to make any public comment okay Jonah yes president of East Lake and Eastlake mayor and city council what I'd like to do is I got a phone call last night and this is a thank you from one of the east lay presidents she lives at East Lake she has a daughter that oasis and she walks back and forth with her bar and since we had a new sidewalk about this but earlier this month there was an accident out there were on King and kinda lost control a little bit while all set sidewalk bend down into that 10 acre a lot the next door 48 tending a lot next to us but the thing was the lady called me and she wanted to know and just asked me to come here to be Sofia tonight but I don't see her to thank you for putting on that Sidewalk because she says if the waiting for that Sidewalk more likely her daughter would have probably been hit by that car so I thank you for your speedy work and getting that sidewalk done I believe vice mayor bird just had a lot to do any keep pushing that along and getting that done she would felt that she or her daughter would definitely would have been hurt so thank you for getting that Sidewalk weiners fast as possible that pleasure thank you very much very much good evening man remember the council gen house 166 and West 19th Street I include the person to the public works director Julio but I've noticed right on our street today they started ripping up newly paved asphalt and I didn't know what that was for I think he's gonna get me an answer tomorrow I didn't know since you were just talking about the project on the corner if it was related to that though because it's right there from second the first being ripped up I just didn't know it just happen a little ooh we'll get an answer for you I'll shake you [Music] Reverend Jerry Williams five five zero southwestern down the whole state just want to publicly thank their bill and Wendy levels and Councilman will call me you all showing up for our law enforcement day back in February and so I want to make that publicly but let you all know we appreciated you and honoring chief role and his distinguished police divorce a man ok so thank you so very much that you all know that kitchen how you doing my Marin and Lulu's the council people homestead my name is victim Ming as I graduate in South Bay class 2001 after I graduate had left to the army I've been there since I just came back I got injured in Iraq and I'm moving back to home saying I just want that I guess reintroduce myself to the city I'm glad to be back chief full your son and I and with that I basically grew up together it's good to see you again and I heard that you guys got a new firing range coming up I think that's a great idea for you guys anything else if you got anything for me I love to help i18 with that that's it thank you very much thank you and welcome back oh it's great to be back by the way I see you got a 10-round thing ran to get you a ranger a hunter first thing going on thank you so much thank you business embassy manager mayor councilmembers I have just two quick items the last council meeting council ones and Councilwoman what we've brought up the issues security we have metal detector will through a metal detector it's a portable one the police department has if there's no objection from Council you will see it at our next public meeting and that would be the next gal it's wonderful thank you you were welcome the other thing mayor you asked us to look into the logo they have letters on the logo and we will bring it for you for the next call so thank you very much as I said that report from Council councilman McCormick I have one thing you got to get these days not this Saturday morning and 9:30 Harrisville that's all I have for this week thank you so much councilman Kaufman elfin I have a couple things um out of who I need to address the to Public Works or it might even be Dade County but I was driving back Mallory the other day and I noticed that six Adam that we have no street signs at all and I was wondering if there's something we could do to get Mallory and six happiness and street signs whether it's state county or us that fit okay and we we did Kelvin okay we will get to fly them and more money bit of sparked all of the fish and and there is a school right down sixth Avenue about six blocks away five bucks away there's no crosswalk lighting at this intersection I noticed that an intersection just just east of it there at all that intersection and I was one the reason why there's a slimming the elementary schooling a lot of kids I saw walking dodging traffic and I was wondering there was something that you know the walk don't walk signs if that could be looked at again into that nation of big County but I can tell you this school board is the most difficult entity to work with when it comes to spending money thank you and I rode with the police department about two weeks ago a couple times with officer beaver very professional we had a uneventful night but but we did did some good I understand the problems on the east side and with crime and stuff like that how it's becoming a big burden and I understand Missy era with with her concerns and this is something when the applicant comes back these are problems that need to be addressed with with them I met with the police explores tonight very very nice very awesome little group they're very structured I've never been to a meeting it's just like here they read the minutes they know all the items and it was very interesting and I plan to do a couple things with them in that in the near future and I hope everybody has a excellent Easter coming up and I see a lot of green today I hope everybody a corn mutant cabbage as I know I love tonight so thank you that's it thank you so much councilman fear yes mayor and council I would like to let you know that you have 21 remarkable citizens working on an educational compact with Dade County Public Schools they've already met Mosul groups have met once and and some have met already met twice we have identified five tasks that we're going to be focusing on for a great city and within those tasks were identifying three areas that we for the first year our next meeting for the Education Committee will take place on March 27th here at chambers at 5:15 also and mr. Shaw has stole my Thunder there I wanted to let the mayor know that miss Lynn Delgado has already presented some of the ideas for the new logo for the new city logo we will be bringing it to you very very shortly I wanted to mention that the next truism committee are the first choice on committees on April 3rd at 5:30 city manager's conference room and I have one question from staff or city manager I've been getting a lot of questions from residents within my own community and abroad as to how we are doing on hiring the Auditor I know that we have advertised and I know have we got me any information anybody applying become someone Seattle first I apologize for stealing your thunder that's what I did secretly like that she submitted so I'm sorry Beth Beth Marcy can you give us an update yes mayor Bell mayor councilman tiara we do finally have some candidates that that look promising and part of it has been trying to coordinate every Bunch schedule but that was one thing that I did have to speak with our manager after this meeting we do have some candidates that they're not all local they're all over the country from California to New York and down to Florida so we need to focus on if you want to start local and but we do have some good candidates so I appreciate it thank you very much I'll be able to give an answer now when they asked me come too Thank You councilman see ya councilman Walberg Thank You Man I'm happy st. Patty's Day I'm as green as I can be here I had the honor to attend the military affairs luncheon that was helped out at the Homeland Security building on the air base it was wonderful it was so well attended and we honored with a slide well this was a PowerPoint presentation of all the Chris I couldn't tell us everything but but their maneuvers and how they go about doing certain missions and on top of everything else they gave us a tour of the building and our the hangar we were able to see the airplanes that they use and also their helicopters and to stand next to that Black Hawk helicopter was just amazing you know it was so big and and you see it in the sky and it's so magnificent and majestic but to see it firsthand was just absolutely wonderful and I know I speak for each and every person on this council we all know how important the bases and we we respect and admire everything that you do and the gentleman that just got back from Iraq god bless you thank you for serving our country and you have a smile on your face thank you so much and thank you for coming to the council thank you I also attended a ceremony announcing the historic downtown national registry designation I lost no Park last week this was a wonderful wonderful morning the mayor spoke and I want to just give a personal thank you to Sophia Lucy RA the Historic Preservation Committee because they did work very hard was it was a very arduous task a tedious task and it came about damn congratulations I think that this will open the doors to saw many opportunities for the downtown not only the downtown merchants but the downtown community as a whole so I want to I want to give you my congratulations and thank you also congratulations I do for women of the year of the city with homestead unfortunately I was not able to attend the dinner and the fashion show but I supported it and I sent my poor husband to get a takeout because I knew how good those ladies can how they can cook so but I did want to congratulate all the different web clubs and their choices for their women of the year and say congratulations they work very hard in the community and they deserve this this award little angels we held our fifth annual Monte Carlo night Saturday night and I am tired it was absolutely fabulous where I think we have about 300 people there we raised about $20,000 and people are still giving this cheque so I know that that going to go up even more Keith Keith I want to say congratulations to the new manager of keys gate his name is Dan and Lisa are the event coordinator they just worked with us beautifully and everything we asked they did and even more and the food was delicious so I missed the little plug there - Keys gate I wanted to income our chairwoman Michelle Tolbert and Ken Boothe for all the hard work that they did and thank you to Norma Brothers for the cake Tim I'm sure you probably baked it thank you very much and and it was just wonderful I can't tell you how much we appreciate it with that money we'll be able to help a lot of children in the community and then my ultimate event that I was able to attend I was invited to a dinner last week they're both there and our city managers were there as well hosted by male callers out with us and it was held at the during the state it was a kickoff party for the great part summit 2008 which was held the following day they surprised me because when they call them I said judy you have to be there you have to be there and I said okay okay but they surprised me because the park the park was their showcase one of the projects that was showcased and I was so thrilled I get to see all the people that I've been working with all these years and we have nice chats and talks and I really enjoyed it I just want to say that Will Rogers I know that name is he's not related to the original Phil Rogers he said in the presentation he is the president of the trip of the Trust for Public Land and he he publicly said that the trail will be the largest economic tourism boost not only to the city of Houston but Dade County and make a major impact on the state of Florida so he is inviting me to work with him and I will be working with him in Washington the Department of Interior and Jack artists the new director for parks and recs he and I have known each other for a long time and and jack is going to work with me as well in Tallahassee in Washington and of course I'll continue to work with Jim Campbell with the Everglades National Park and Mark Lewis with Biscayne National Park and I see representatives from the Everglades hours thank you for being here as as a scientist with with with this with Everglades and we're gonna make this happen I just want there's a lot of different articles I met in the hair to read one or EXOR of an article that was written by xavier martinez says the plans crown jewel is proposed Biscayne Everglades Trail a 42 mile long bicycle trail that loops around the southern portion of the county from Biscayne National Park to Everglades nowhere else in the country do you have a bicycle and a pedestrian pathway that brings two national parts together Carter said and it goes on and on you can pull this off the Miami Herald website I mean there's so many different things wonderful things that were said about the trail way and I'm just I'm just proud to be a part of it and I want to thank the community and I want to think this council city manager city attorney everyone on staff because you've been a part of it with me throughout the duration and know that I want to say a big thank you to you for the last meeting when you said that you were going to do everything you could to work with me and vice versa so thank you so much thank you man thank you very much I smell very good okay I just want to let the council know that you always been working very hard and will be bringing someone beautification projects forward at the next town meeting that I think the council will be be very happy with it as well as the general public with some of the things we want to do to improve the scenery along the highways some of the main corridors here in town and I think they've done an excellent job so we'll be bringing those forward to you guys next time which you know that I've talked with several people who are going to help me get this mayor's Youth Council going and the right direction and we'll get that going ASAP they've got some good ideas that they want to bring forward there may be some little changes and tweaking of the other way it's run and how things are done but it's on its way the Human Relations Board is having a meeting this Thursday at 6:30 is that right Brian here in the manager's office and anybody that wants to attend from that they do great things for both homestead and Florida City and that to people I want to thank angel tezo and both Leo Barea they've done hard work for I guess almost a year year and a half getting us a stop way around Palm Drive and and over there by the high school and that should be taken place hopefully soon maybe whoever could tell us exactly a timeframe on that but I think within several months we'll see something done there and and helping out the firehouse over there with a better access to cross in the highway so well that I know that will make them happy attended a great grand openings this weekend of three three new businesses here in Homestead that everybody is talking highly about the Atlanta Bread Company now the Miyagi sushi bar and Havana chose on the Saturday afternoon they did a joint grand opening over there at the pawza which was attended by its a several hundred people now I think a good time was had by most and the food was good as I took a lot of it home with me I see one guy that must tonight and get quiet time from the new baby back there well and tell Adrienne congratulations on his newborn daughter and use your quiet time well he's a great volunteer from the city helps with many different things and helps to you yeah I was I was there too two years ago I was there so I know what you're doing anyway that's all I have mayor Thank You mr. Burgess Council of MLS Thank You Man hmm about a month ago a resident who was not here tonight and I'm sorry that he's not here because I'm going to acknowledge an idea that he brought forth and it may be very simple but it was significant he asked us why the parking lot wasn't more customer service friendly to its customers since I went ahead and told our city manager mr. Shahana I said why don't we look into it every company that you go to has a welcome mat out by making sure that all of its customers can part as closely as possible and that all the employees park as far back as possible to allow that parking lot well immediately our city manager got the entire we paid we painted be done and I don't know if you've noticed or not but now you have social parking and that's one of our small initiatives and showing that we're really trying to be customer driven so Thank You mr. Shahana for that I also have to and this is a side note I agree with Councilman Waldron that presentation and was one of a kind to be out there and to be up and closed with the aircraft's and the presentation to me were thumbs up because as many of you know my mom works with the air force base she didn't assistant manager audit the vxo she has pulled her mobility so that means that she cannot be sent anywhere else in the world so as long as the base is there she has a job I was very happy to hear that they are and that they're expanding that me my mom can continue and does not have to pull any early retirement so I'm glad to hear that this past week that we are with Mr Dan wick and we did kind of let the CIA tour and I know with all of the media stories and the past headaches that we've had with some of the CIA projects that when we say CIA a lot of us think the shotgun houses so it was I was impressed with how much area the CRA covers because it really is more than just a Southwest section we went over into the Main Street corridor and then finally I was really excited to see some of the things that are happening out in the industrial area there's a lot of new warehouses we've big I'm in a lot of businesses are investing that industrial area including this beautiful old train station that is going to be converted into kind of like an auction house kind of deal and there's something that we can do to help that happen there's like an alleyway that is completely destroyed so I know mr. Wade said that that was going to be one of the priorities and so I was just glad and hopefully once it's intermission the shotgun houses once this is done and over with we can concentrate on other areas of deciare stuff and so another two to also say about the shotgun houses and I've been saying this and I don't know what kind of ceremony but because of its significance I think that once a demolition bid goes out mr. wick I would like to have some kind of ceremony and I thought about sledgehammers and giving it to each other there so we can all take a hit at that project but we can also do demolition uh you know under though we can we can stand around and watch the first house be torn down but I really wanted be significant I want to be in by their and I want you to give us the timeframe as to when this demolition things gonna happen I know this is 110 and out there and every time I Drive by I always look to the right and there's always a car there so I'm hoping that this moving Hertz is happening quickly by the end of the month we'll begin first week in April should have a route we're gonna identify some new units for her and AB is gonna be probably released in mid April with an opening date so we'll try to coordinate in selection of the contractor with a groundbreaking ribbon-cutting some wine thank you thank you mister wait I know someone couple of things have been talked about already so I'm just gonna save in historic preservation boy that's what I say congratulations again on your official visitation the ribbon-cutting AT&T was also part of that and I just wish them well and lots of business and lots of customers and I just want to say to everybody happy st. Patrick's and I hope that you have a joyous and peaceful Easter weekend thank you thank you miss Lopez sorry Maribel I have a brief report I didn't know if you wanted to give it before or after such when after your report yeah a false report just it's just I don't know what you mean dewd got more after that you need to request some executive set Mike reports are not that exciting I need to request on the reliable substation case which involves the electrics substation we have an issue with with the lawsuit that's been filed Kathleen wheeler versus city of Homestead as a second case which is a slip-and-fall Sidewalk case their odds that outside counsel has suggested settlement on we have a another one on the red line company versus city homestead there's another there's an offer on the table that we need to present to you and and if your next meeting we don't need an executive session but I wanted to report you that we did were able to sell the bowling alley case and now less than you had authorized so that will come to the to the but there was a mediation I guess Friday might where mr. Shahada and Mike Pope up from our office were able to resolve that less than the authority that you had given us so we're will have that on your next agenda I know it wasn't very exciting but I need to get it necessary thank you Mike thank you mr. Weiss first item on the agenda on under my business I have board committee appointments I like entertain a motion to receive and along with the tourism committee Brian Knesset Gonzalez mo I said it's good properly moved and seconded Allah to say I am and the ice carry thank you item to Human Relations boards reappointments Ronald Donaldson and Morford presa I'm a second then properly moved and seconded Allah favor say aye aye and the ice carry thank you and Ivan never created the 2008 Charter Review Committee we are about to begin the Charter Review process and these are the names that I put before you William e Davis jr. Lois Jones Elvis Maldonado David Peyton and Kevin Sullivan on at a motion for approval of all the names I'll move it no second it's been properly moved and seconded all in favor say aye and the eyes Kerry thank you so many of the items that I was going to talk about however had already been mentioned so I won't mention them the construct ribbon cutting in the historic designation I also took the CLA tour the very next the very next day and also is equal in fresh and Joyce Kachinsky will be very glad to hear that she is the one that owns the train station and that is she it's just phenomenal what she wants to do with that business and so I'm very excited about about that congratulations to the city of homestead police department for a very successful Texas Hold'em poker tournament for juvenile diabetes I'm still waiting on the final tally they brought in but it was a great event for a great great cause from you not diabetes which actually affects some of us city employees some of the children of our police officers so this is a this was very very good I wasn't able to be at the last Mak meeting because I was in Tallahassee with our manager and we actually testified before a commission that only meets every 10 years on our 20 20 years on a issue that's related to the tax that we have to pay to the county on the Speedway and this was so successful that we passed out of this commission with only one person voting no now we still have some major hurdles to go but just to frame it we want a level playing field the cities have to pay a tax to the counties if they if they own a property and then they lease it to a for-profit company or for-profit corporation even if it has a public good in the public use the cities have to pay a tax to the county but by the way the counties are except from paying attacks the states are exempt and the federal government is except the only ones that are on the hook for that tax are the cities so we're trying to get that actually removed mr. Schad anything else on that also the school board is exempt so practically over thank you and so what's happening is I'll give you an example st. Petersburg owns an airport whether it was a dated the airport over to the county so that they wouldn't have to pay attacks they the the county like it's the county owns the airport like an art in our county they don't have to pay a tax but if the city worked on the airport in the city would have to pay the tax so we're just asking for a level playing field in the legislature and so that's something that we're working on and this like I said we do have other hurdles to go to but this this win was huge I want you to understand this is this was a big win and Mike Jean and I testified before this commission and I just I just wanted you know thank you for that I think it was a success and I'm very pleased about that and you know I'm excited to hear about somebody else being excited about the military affairs committee because aren't attending the military affairs committee for four years and that Black Hawk helicopter is exciting and it's just as exciting from the inside when you're up in the air let me tell you it is great and so I was privileged to attend a tour VIP no joke trying to be in the Blackhawk as well as the f-16 so I am so glad to see that other members of council are getting interested in motel first committee I'm thrilled because it's been a part of what I've been doing for the past four years so I welcome just absolutely welcome that when we went to that it was really it was fun it was a it was a good evening and what we got to see was so impressive to me was how cities can utilize its its common areas as green space to create a form of linear park such as neighborhoods with a lot of space between let's say the sidewalk in the homes of the sidewalk in the streets to create linear parks and to create these green parks and I thought that was something and that and Mike and Joanna wet and I thought that was something that we really could take a good look into it these linear parks and I learned something that day I know if it was something commit homestead mr. Zadok Creek Menace homesteaders but I had the very first bike path city bike path in the nation in the 19th was it the 1960s or something like that but the sixties yes I mean we are the foot we were the first one so that was that was amazing that's correct the guy who did the presentation David who did the massive love babysitting Ofsted brought all our attention something I did not know I said back in the 60 60 s and 70s and years before there used to be a national event held in Homestead for bicycles and actually Wells did try to fight that war for us about this event and see if we can bring it back to the area yes it was very very fascinating pretty nothing maybe I'll find that just tell you that I mean with cameras are no expert on all this but but in 1960 and I think for several years we were known as the bicycle capital of the world world world for that so no the country ever I was wrong wasn't really yeah it was the world bicycle capital of the world so that's a big deal and that's why we've has worked very hard in raising several hundred thousands of dollars with a lot of bicycle museum now we're gonna be working on together so thank you think of mayor pension thank you so I thought that was a very interesting footnote so anyway I want to thank everybody for your attendance tonight and we've no further business to attend to this meeting is a charge