[Music] [Music] [Music] he he [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Music] he n [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] y [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] please take your seats the meeting is about to [Music] begin please stand by we are going on air in 5 4 3 2 1 good afternoon and welcome to the June 18th 2024 meeting of the land use and sustainability committee is a special meeting that's been convened to discuss the First Street project um Mr attorney let's do a roll call to to establish Quorum thank you Mr chairman commissioner bot here commissioner Dominguez president commissioner Suarez and chairman Fernandez precent you read into the record the virtual participation announcement sure uh today's meeting of the land use and sustainability committee will be conducted in a hybrid format with members M of the committee physically present in the commission Chambers and staff and members of the public appearing either in person or virtually via Zoom to participate virtually in today's meeting the public may dial 1888 475 4499 and enter the webinar ID which is 8505 9923 037 pound or login to the Zoom app and enter the webinar ID which again is 85599 2337 anyone wishing to speak on an item must click the raise hand icon or dial star9 if they're participating by phone thank you Mr attorney there's one item on today's agenda that item is to discuss and consider phase one and two for the First Street project in the south of fifth neighborhood colleagues have distributed a memo describing what will be the order for today's meeting I'm going to start first with public comments for members of the public wishing to to speak following uh public comment I'm going to open up the floor to a presentation from staff following that we're going to just go down a number of things generally on the First Street project the location of the pipe and Pump Station the relocation of trees uh travel Lanes during construction and parking uh that is the order for for today's meeting with that I'd like to open up the floor for any members of the public wishing to speak on this item that we have on today's agenda if you're attending virtually you can raise your hand via zoom and if you're present please come to the podium you'll be allotted two minutes to speak only two minutes two minutes mayor Bower welcome thank you I'm here on behalf of the Housing Authority the Miami Beach Housing Authority I just happen to be chairman now but the Chairman's rotate so it doesn't mean anything uh I hear that we're going to lose parking I was told that is the PID parking and uh there's a lot of parking that has been gone and taken away for different things and that's fine but the Housing Authority struggles we have I think 300 or 400 apartments with elderly that they all or mostly old of them have health care issues and they need people to come either third thy for muscles or to give injections or check out the heart whatever it is we have a volume of people that come in stay an hour or around that they leave and all day long every day we fear and we struggle with the parking right now we are negotiating with the marina to get um 15 parking so that we can move some of our workers over there and have spaces a for the health care people and that is with the actual parking number that we have now we struggle with the parking you go and visit there and it's the visitors have a hard time and we fear I don't know how many parking we're going to be losing but we can't lose parking so I urge you to find a solution for this issue the elderly needs the health care the elderly need the parking can I finish yes you may and we need you to show your caring and to try to do something for them it I hear that nothing else can be done but take away parking I don't understand why I mean you could push the thing a little bit further down I don't know why you can do that but whatever it is we need the parking thank you so much thank you madam mayor with that I see Vanessa via misar has her hand raised via Zoom welcome Vanessa you have two minutes to speak thank you so much um I live on the corner of second and Meridian and I use the parking on second every single day um I know all of my neighbors colleagues we all rely on these spots for visitors for our contractors um I believe we uh have 39 spots now and in option two we'll go to only 15 spots on First and that would be a tremendous loss um I'd like to see um everyone consider option one we won't lose the same number of spaces and I think it's really important for the community I certainly don't want what happened on West Avenue to happen in my neighborhood it would affect not only my quality of life but of all of my neighbors and it'll lower my property values and of everyone in the neighborhood less parking would be detrimental and I'm I'm asking for everyone to really consider option one of this proposal so that we can continue um you know living here comfortably and and enjoying this beautiful city that we live in thank you so much for the consideration thank you Vanessa any other members of the public attending in the Chambers wishing to speak please at this Podium over over this this way please and anyone else who wishes to speak if you could approach the podium so that we know you're CED in line thank you good afternoon Robert selum I live at 90 Alton Road on the corner of First Street um I just want to say that this project has been around a long time it seems to me that it is now very well thought out and obviously needs to be done we can have continual flooding every time it rains on First Street thank you thank you Robert I see Casey Wood has uh their hand U raised on Zoom Casey welcome you have two minutes to speak yes thank you very much uh my name is Casey Wood I'm the president of the Courts at South Beach Condominium Association um the board of directors has unanimously supported the option that provides more green space on First Street um following that unanimous uh sentiment by the five-person board of directors we put out an e survey to all of our 190 uh unit owners as well as to the renters that are residing here and the results of that came back overwhelmingly in favor of the design with more green space 81% of residents uh selected that option 15% of residents uh preferred the option with less Green Space and more residential parking and 4% of the 86 respondents were agnostic to either option um and so I think the courts at South Beach is a strong advocate of number one moving this project along quickly and number two uh being a supporter of the of the street design that offers more green space thank you very much for your time thank you for your participation Matthew welcome you have two minutes to speak thank you good afternoon Matthew ganof for the record and my address is 125 Jefferson Avenue I live on First Street and have been involved in this project for many years well before covid and uh I know that it's been previously approved and here we are now of course in 2024 uh you know we've seen all the rainstorms this past week back in 2023 um and years pass as well so it's really great to see that it's in committee that it looks like it's going to move forward I want to touch on some of the topics that have been mentioned parking is one of them and green space and other things a lot of us you know touched on this at the commission meeting last month uh so without having to rehash it though you know a lot of evidence was provided saying that many hours of the day uh you know the street is is relatively empty by that I mean the parking spaces are not being utilized um so the you know the the project which we just heard from the president of the courts condominium of 200 units you know it's well supported by by the residents that live there they want to see a worldclass design they want to see a resilient design one that will help move the city forward and make sure that we don't see a repeat of what we saw last week uh so I'm very supportive of the project and I also want to mention that I spoke with the public works director because there are maybe some loose ends on the on the kind of the traffic hming and and the traffic safety features and he's committed that you know once we get past this that he's going to work with us and make sure that we add in you know speed humps or whatever else is necessary to make sure this is a neighborhood friendly Street one which our kids can walk around on and bike and be safe uh so I I want to thank you all I want to thank the administration for endorsing the approved design and pulling back from that idea of angled parking which they also you know mentioned is not the safer design uh so that all being said I hope this is a successful meeting today and that we can move forward thank you thank you Matthew uh any other members of the public wishing to speak please sign up here I see we have Russell uh galin with his hand raised welcome Russell you have to speak thank thank you uh some reason I'm not uh being seen and I'm not sure why but it's okay um thank you Mr chairman and members of the commission um I'm very pleased to report that the city uh has worked with the commercial property owners and the Southern Property Owners that amount to half of the property here on First Street and um and we have come to an agreement uh to protect the restaurants and not lose the restaurants as well as to protect these trees uh that took so long to grow and so long to make our streets so magical so um I can tell you that uh no one on the street really wants to go through the amount of effort and work that this is going to take um and it's a huge sacrifice for everybody who lives on the street um but we do agree that it's something that the community needs and because it's in the best interest of the community uh we we have agreed to it but we most humbly request that what has been agreed to on the part of the city be honored and that it not be a Hoodwink job or that we lose the restaurants that are on First Street or the trees that are on First Street that make the streets so magical so I'd like to thank everybody for their efforts um especially the administration and the staff who are so quick to respond it did take a little bit of time but we did get there and we got there because the commission uh insisted on understanding what the issues were and understanding what plan would be put in place to protect the restaurants from going out of business so thank you all very much for your kindness and for your efforts on behalf of the community thank you Russell thank you for your participation representative GCO welcome you have two minutes to speak thank you I'll be brief oh your mic is off oh wait well I guess we have another one over here yes okay here we go one for two so good afternoon everybody Michael greo um I'm also a resident of the courts um and it was good that our our Court's president kind of broke down the position of our building um as he stated over 81% of the residents in the courts uh support the project as designed and they want to see it move forward reminding you that 65% of the neighborhood when pulled four years ago also want to see it move forward as designed and I want to congratulate you I think this is the 43rd public meeting about this project over the last eight years so we are at a point where I think we see a light at the end of the tunnel um I think last week's storm and some of the videos and photographs that I sent to most of you um really the timing could not have been better or worse I guess but it needs to be fresh in our minds that flooding in our city and the size of storms that are going to continue to come it is an existential crisis and it is something that we cannot ignore and and surgery is going to be tough you know Russell talked about it you know these it's going to be disruptive but we're going to work through it as quickly as possible and as professionally as possible and you have my commitment to help as much as I can more than I already have um on the financial end with the state but I'm I'm happy to hear that it looks like we're moving forward um on the parking issue it was it was I'm I'm glad to see Maddie here today and and I work now with the marina again so I'm going to be working with Maddie on making sure that um that Rebecca Towers is is made whole with parking so there's no issues with that but uh I just I look forward to uh seeing the presentation and that that this moves forward positively so thank you did thank you Mega Power yeah Years thank you with that I see Chris has their hand raised on Zoom Chris welcome you have two minutes to speak hi thank you very much uh my name is Chris puer and I also live at the courts and um I just wanted to call and give my support a to the project and B to more green space and less parking um as Casey outlined the courts sort of overwhelmingly have put their wishes forward um and then there was the community survey a couple years ago the community overwhelming um favors more green space over more asphalt um I also want to thank Russell for calling in um the trees are really really important and um please uh I'm asking the city to also honor your commitment to ensure that we don't get a bunch of s foot trees put in that um are you know not going to Pro provide any meaningful stade so thank you very much I hope the project moves forward and um thank you for your time thank you Chris are there any other members of the public public in attending in person wishing to speak on this item any other members of the public attending in person wishing to speak on this item if not I'm going to go to Paula Allen on Zoom Paula welcome you have two minutes to speak okay I'm unmuted hey hi um yes I wanted to say first that I also support the project going forward it's needed for the flood mitigation purposes I disagree 100% on losing any parking parking is needed um and as far as the courts the uh the number that our president gave and the percentages that would basically work out to about 6869 residents of the hund or units of the 190 that were in favor since there was less than a 50% participation in the um survey that was done so say I think someone said an overwhelming majority of the units that's really not true of the people who actually answered the survey which comes out to 68 people that U were in favor of the more green space losing the parking would be very detrimental to the residents that use it and by 9:30 this morning all the parking was full and if that's all taken away or a large portion of it is there's going to be a bunch of chaos trying to find parking circling around Etc and basically people will lose the ability to park and have any visitors or service people Park to service their units the people who are saying that they're for it they'll also be losing that and um they all use it also for their service contractors deliveries Etc so not sure how they're going to feel when they can't get that have those deliveries and service people showing up I've experienced it years ago also when a air conditioning contractor showed up and he couldn't find parking had to reschedule so don't see that this is going to improve anything by taking away parking thank you Paula thank you for your participation I'm going to go next with Cindy esel and our last speaker will be Julie after Cindy uh with that Cindy welcome you have two minutes to speak hi good afternoon um commissioner Fernandez thank you for this meeting and similar to Paula I am in support of this project but I do want you to understand Alex that both surveys as I've discussed with other Commissioners they did not give a true telling of the people um we have almost 70 spaces just in our building that only have one parking space out of 187 units so so there just wasn't time in the weekly the one week that that survey was out to get an accurate snapshot if you're looking at that of right now almost in the middle of the summer when nobody's here of what's going on was also sent um commissioner Fernandez via email and there wasn't really time for people to do that survey so I hope that you will discard that and really look at all of that you have that have you have done yourselves the entire commission and see independently of yourselves that the street is full I kindly ask that you look at two options um and one is to consider what the city approved for three years which was the original option one that will keep the trees that need to stay and replanting we discussed that but it will allow a parallel parking because we saw in the last commission meeting that people um were concerned with the safety of angle staying parallel will keep it similar to Meridian and to West and it will provide um more parking we won't have the loss in parking and it will also allow um helping on the commercial side if needed to tweak the design to allow a travel Lane right what you see outside right now is is very similar to that design which helps both sides of the street street so to speak and and lastly if it can be considered and again I spoke to you about it Alex is if Commerce Street going down the alley may be an option with the pump it may or maybe not but if we have to move forward I ask that you please tweak option one and give all the other ask that the business is asked for and I I think we're set to go and move forward um and I thank everyone for their time and all the hard work on this project thank you so much thank you Cindy Julie uh you have your hand raised on Zoom welcome you have two minutes to speak hi uh Julie relli I live at the courts as well I just wanted to piggyback on what uh Paula and Cindy were saying we definitely want to move along with the mitigation of the flood um and um we were just hoping that you can just give an option to option one that's all I got thank you thank you and I'm gonna there's two more people to have their hand raised uh Ed uh your hand dis raise welcome you have two minutes to speak and you you are muted you need to unmute yourself if not we're going to move forward to our last speaker Stefan Stefan welcome you have two minutes to speak yes hello my name is Steven Mo I also live at the courts um I just want to reiterate what Casey Wood and Michael Greco said um there's there's been a vote um it was a very good number of people as Casey outlined at the courts who are in favor of the more green space so I just want to double down what both of them are saying um uh so thank you very much for hearing me out thank you Stephan uh with that I'm going to close the uh public opportunity to be heard thank you to all the members of the public who have spoken to Mayor B representative greo for attending and your and your input certainly everyone's opinion is very important in this project and is how we've gone into to this point today with that I'd like to proceed with a staff presentation from our Public Works director Joe Gomez welcome Joe good afternoon Mr chair Vice chair and me Commissioners Joe Gomez Public Works director so I I I think it's important given the events that happened last week to to look at some of the photographs historical photographs of the conditions that we have on First Street so I'm I'm I'm I'm so with that um PJ if you could this is 2017 seven years ago you can see the extent of the flooding on that one 2017 this is 20120 this is a compilation of 2022 and 2023 photographs including the Cyclone one June 4th of 2022 which was the rain bomb we experienced this photographs are from last week and now going to play the video now if you would um if you can uh load up the presentation please thank you so with that um committee members I'm going to go through a a brief presentation talk about the the timeline the optimized design and theot associated with the project the 96in trunk line Alternatives that we've looked at at the request of the the community and also uh to make sure that the optimum location was selected other community concerns green space trees of prun we'll talk about that and then our conclusions and next steps so here we are as you can see the process started way back in 2016 eight years later we're here and again just to reiterate what we saw last week is a a foretelling of of more of these events to come just for the benefit of everyone since 2017 we've had over 70 meetings on this project nearly 40 of them are onetoone meetings with stakeholders 32 more stakeholder meetings Jan from January 2021 to the president nine public meetings regular sopher presentations we have a dedicated public Outreach lison for the project uh which is La Fel she's here today uh and we also have a consultant a public uh uh specialist uh for the project and ongoing project team meetings explain the project details to the public whenever they call us to ask us questions so our Pro our our public involvement process has been exhaustive so in 2021 just as a reminder the commission approved the the First Street project so just for as a refresher this project is to to be able to provide drainage for the entire south of fifth neighborhood is a is a neighborhood Improvement project the reason we're segmenting it is is is at at the request of the community and also uh to be able to manage the construction better and minimize the impact to to the public but it's important to note that this project and all its components are for the entire south of fifth neighborhood including the the The Pump Station that's located south of First Street on Washington Avenue where's the water going so the the the two strips you see are are the the one in the bottom represents the existing condition today today on First Street and the top would is the optimized uh version with the Landscaping the wide uh green areas on both sides the two lanes one wide Lane uh on the business side for Valley purposes as well as parking on the on the other side as well um and and it also as you can see it it it it's two lanes of traffic one in each Direction in terms of construction phasing and as a reminder again as you know we stopped the design at 60% and the reason for that was there were questions about the the construction cost we engaged an independent consultant to do a a not only a verification of the construction cost estimate but also to come up with a a potential constructibility and phasing plan and as a result of that we were able to segment the project into four phases four distinct phases phases one and two have to be done together why because phase one is the pump station and the outfall pump station and the outfall does nothing without having the trunk line connected so phase two which is the trunk line on First Street that's that's critical to the project and it also provides the enhancement and the beautification to First Street phases three and four are are are great out because those are not being considered at this time but again those are important because they they're the ones that feed into the into the system eventually will feed into the system and collect everything south of fifth neighborhood so total construction time for phases one and two we're talking about 24 months and again as a reminder on April 19th um we went to the FK uh committee and the FK gave it a favorable recommendation to move forward with only with phases one and two which is what we're presenting to you today so in terms of construction how we would phase the project so the first phase what we call phase onea would be the construction of the pump station that pump station is again located just south of First Street on Washington Avenue that that is the Lynch pin of the entire project so that has to be built first so that would require the closure of the intersection of Washington Avenue to be able to to to construct the the the pump station we would have obviously have a comprehensive MLT to be able to rout the traffic to keep the traffic going once that's completed then we would go to phase 1B phase 1B is constructing the outfall that connects the pump station through South Point Park and out into the bay this is the only part of the the project that is pressurized this is a force main that will be connected to the pump station as once the pump station receives all the water from the system it'll then be pressurized and move through and and and out into into the bay and it'll it will go through a series of treatment uh um boxes uh in an energy dissipator to slow down the water as it makes its way out injection H has an injection the injection Wells the the the the wells are on Washington and alter up as part of phase three and four for water quality purposes then we would go to we would start construction on First Street so on First Street what we've been able to accomplish and and and obviously after meeting with the community and the concerns of the community is to shift the 96 in pipe um closer to the to the residential area so that we're able to keep a work zone of 60 ft we need that work zone of 60 ft why because the pipe the the pipe itself is an 8ft diameter pipe with that then the trench is is a 16ft trench box that's required but it's not only that it's the machine that that that that's required to be able to dig as it excavates and and and then loads onto the trucks and then eventually the pipes are brought in these are these are massive 8T diameter pipes concrete pipes that that I have to be brought in and and then by a crane and and put in place so on the other side on the on the business side we would have eastbound we would have two two lanes two travel Lanes one is a 11t parking Valley Lane that's available and then the other one would be the through Lane so during construction of a First Street proper we would only have traffic in the eastbound direction that would be phase uh 2A so we then looked at we were asked to look at why not Second Street why not Commerce Street why why not other options so we we we did a detailed analysis so in this diagram as you can see on top is the same section I just showed you in the previous slide which is the the First Street proper below it is the act you see the with the blue line that shows you the typical section for Second Street Second Street is a 50 foot right away essentially we would be occupying the entire Street in order to be able to put that 90 6 in F another point that that makes it uh not available is that there's a major FPL duck bank right through there as you can see that yellow box that is is encroaching on on the circular pipe that would have to be relocated that's a huge huge undertaking which be disruptive to to to the community we then were asked why not Commerce Street Commerce Street has one of the most important pieces of infrastructure in the city it's a 60in force main that comes down and connects to our 54in Force man this 54in Force main is the force main that eventually takes all the sanitary sewer flows from the entire city and from our three sister cities to the north and feeds it under under under government cut to the central uh wastewater treatment plant at Virginia key in order to be able to fit a 96 in pipe we would have to do a massive relocation of this San sewer Force mate that's also a huge disruption to the community not to mention at a huge cost I should also remind you that the 54-in force main that's a relatively new uh uh infrastructure that was placed in probably within the last 10 years I think it was in 2014 when it was constructed it would also require relocation of the pump station further on Washington Avenue which would be essentially lay in front of the restaurants on Washington amony which would be extremely disruptive we were also asked to look at smaller pipes uh smaller diameter pipes when you put smaller pipes that are required to hold that kind of volume eventually the trench becomes much bigger you're occupying a a much bigger area it's just in Practical plus the Hydraulics of that are are significant horizontal directional drill horizontal directional Dural is great when you have a pressurized system because it's pressurized so you can in order to put a a a tunnel if you will which is what a horizontal directional drill is you have to go in in in in a parabolic shape a gravity system which is all of the system for First Street with the exception of the force me that goes out to to South Point Park and out into the bay all of that is gravity so what happens when you put a gravity system in a parabolic shape it becomes like a siphon so you would have to have an incredible number of feet of head to be able to push that water through just not it it you can't use it for for uh gravity systems we were then asked to look at the at the alleyway the alleyway is less than 20 ft you can't fit this massive construction into and also we were asked to look at Joel stone crab a parking lot and and we had re I've approached Joel stonecrab and the the ownership has said that that they're not interested in us occupying their their their private property in conclusion the only suitable location and this has been EX positively looked at the only suitable location is where we propose it on First Street in terms of the the the relocation of the trees one of the concerns one of the major concerns that was uh addressed was the issue of oak trees the the beautiful oak trees on we all agree they're beautiful we've made a commitment that in order to preserve the character of First Street we're going to go ahead and root prune these trees they would probably be root three to four months in advance slightly trim them have them relocated we we were looking at spaces within now we to go on to the next slide and slightly we're looking at spaces one of them one of the potential areas is our Green Space facility to to look at placing these trees so that we can maintain them during the construction and then bring them back there may be some that do not survive they go into shock the commitment that we've made is that we will replace those oak trees with 10-in caliper oak trees a 10-in caliper oak tree is a pretty pretty sizable uh tree so and a lot of the calipers of the trees are less than 10 in on on on First Street so we've made a commitment that we're going to end up with 118 trees along first stre we're also going to plant them in the in the green areas in the typical on both sides in a kind of a triangular pattern so that you start developing that canopy and then we've worked very closely with our landscape architect uh inhouse who our assistant director of Public Works Rodney noes as well as with the consultant in terms of the parking The Proposal the the 60% plans have the parallel parking on both sides it has the Val the wide Valley Lane on the on the business side and on the res residential side it has the the singular uh single parking L um we we had been asked to look at another concept to try to maximize the loss or minimize the loss of parking we did look at a diagonal parking configuration we've presented that we've shown it although yes the the diagonal parking allow provides more parking spaces you end up sacrificing green area if you look at the typical section on the screen and in your in front of your screen the red line that indicates on on on on one side you'll see that all that green area that would be available for for planting second row trees would be taken up because it the the diagonal parking has to go in deeper because of the angle statistically it also has been shown that although not not unsafe it is less safe diagonal parking than parallel parking so that was another safety concern and I think members of the community have expressed concern especially with the number of bicyclist that we have in the area and all that so in terms of parking under uh the the current configuration we end up with um active parking spaces 36 plus we would reconfigure Jefferson uh Avenue to with 12 spaces giving us a total of 48 spaces those parking spaces would all be available for residential parking which is the residential zone to which is currently what you have out at First Street and that would be made available to to to the residents so in in in in conclusion uh Mr chair and and honorable commission committee members um what we're asking for today is the your favorable approval to move forward with this project um with the with the the the typical section as designed as we have in the 60% plans to move forward to get us to continue the stakeholder engagement and and and we we were totally committed to that we intend to hold a 60% public meeting with the community once we we restart up the design and our Our Hope and effort is to get the design done by 202 designed and permitted by 2025 so we can go to Construction in 2026 that concludes my presentation sir thank you Mr director uh colleagues uh at this time I'm going to bring the discussion up to up to the days I'd like to uh record to to reflect also that we have commissioner Joe magazine joining us as well commissioner thank you for joining us um and before before we open up the floor to to discussion this the most important thing today is for us to agree whether whether we want to move forward with the First Street project after that we can talk about pipe locations locations of Pump Station trees parking travel Lanes everything else Falls after that but we but before we get into that discussion all of that is mute unless unless we we agree that this is an important project to move forward with and so I just just before we proceed with the agenda do we all agree that the First Street project and these two phases are are phases that we that we want to proceed with okay with that I see by acclamation let the record reflect that by acclamation this committee believes that we need to proceed with the First Street project with that let's open up the uh discussion to the location of of the pipe and pump station is there discussion on from the day's questions from the day is uh the um the the the administration is is recommending the placement of this 96 inch pipe along uh First Street and shifting it as far north as as possible and maintaining uh the The Pump Station at the proposed location at the parking lot of the corner of Washington Avenue and First Street is there a discussion qu uh questions comments uh from the day on the staff recommendation as to the location seeing none is there commissioner Suarez you're recognized yeah thank you thank you Mr chair I I fully support the administration's attempt to mitigate any disruptions to business and moving it as North as needed so is that is that a motion to place the the pipe along First Street as far north as possible uh to maintain the two lanes of of traffic I'll make that motion okay it's been moved by commissioner SAR is there a second on the motion a second by by Vice chair B uh can we show the uh placement of pipe adopted by acclamation Yeah by acclamation we can show that adopted uh do we support the placement of the pump station the placement of the pump station is critical to the placement of of of the line as well you can't have the line uh this 96 in pipe um there unless you have the pump station located at this lot because the pump station only receives the uh water through the northern connection correct me if I'm wrong Mr director that's correct sir all right so is there a motion from the committee is moved by by the Vice Chair seconded by by commissioner Suarez by acclamation we can show the location of the pump station adopted with that let's go into the discussion of the trees we know that one of the points made by by the body at an earlier date was the importance of preserving the character of first stre and key to the character of First Street is the preservation as much as possible of of the oak trees um and so and so the uh staff has made uh a a recommendation to prune uh the trees 3 to four months uh prior to the construction prior to the construction being relocated to a suitable site and once construction is complete the trees will be brought back and replanted along First Street in a triangular configuration and with that uh any tree that does not survive the commitment is to replace them uh with a tree that is at least 10 in of diameter and it's an oak tree correct yes sir is there I'll move that that's moved by commissioner Suarez I'll second that's second by uh by the Vice chair any uh questions discussions on the motion before the table by acclamation we can show the item pertaining to the relocation there and replacement of the trees adopted as as it relates uh to to the travel Lanes uh We've we've heard uh from from from the community the importance to maintain two Eastbound uh travel Lanes during during the duration of the construction period which could extend up to 24 months um is there any comments discussions uh from from the day as to the recommendation on the Travel links is there a motion on the table to support the recommendation of staff on the Travel Lanes it's been moved by commissioner Suarez seconded by the Vice Chair by acclamation we can show that adopted by acclamation thank you with that let's enter the discussion on on parking um after after our our last meeting we we asked the city Administration to engage with all the stakeholders in the in the area a number of meetings have been had by the city Administration by a number of I think all of us have had our own individual meetings and conversations uh with with stakeholders uh there's been an option that's been brought forward to uh maintain uh parallel parking on the North uh side of of First Street uh is there any questions comments on the recommendation from the administration as it relates to the parking on First Street and in the project so you know parking commer body recognized thank you sorry um parking is clearly an important aspect of this I was not opposed to the angled parking um but enough people are and so I defer to the residents um however we have uh opportunity in the marina we have a public parking lot that Smith and W walinsky uses we might be able to work with some of the private businesses or buildings to chip away five spots here 10 spots there and I think that's how we're going to need to solve the issue because we cannot um um delay this project or or try to reimagine it yet one more time um in the absence of looking for the most perfect solution it doesn't exist so we have to go with the best solution before us and try to find the little pockets of opportunity in the neighborhood to address the the parking that used to be all in one place so so I'll make that motion and is that is that a motion for us to identify space uh parking spaces for residential use within the marina the Smith and walinsky parking lot and any other lots that the city has within the area well and any other buildings and businesses that might be able to make spots available during the day okay all right so there's there's a motion on that on on the table uh I'll second the motion so that we can discuss and hopefully as we engage in this discussion we can amend the motion to perhaps uh if it's friendly enough incorporate other comments that that that the body may have as a relates to parking with that commissioner Suarez you're recognized um Joe you said that angle parking is is less safe um how much less safe would you say statistically based on all the research I've done it it varies depending on on on on what you read but it somewhere ranges between 30 and 40% 30 to 40% less safe than parallel yes sir statistically okay so um you know colleagues I I think 30 to 40% is a huge risk to be less safe in in in a residential neighborhood especially where you know children play um you know my son Zev plays there Capri it plays there with seev Dana and Brooke um Matt's daughters and you know with when we're going to be incentivizing more pedestrian and microb micro micromobility everywhere across Miami Beach it just doesn't make sense to have a parking solution that is 30 to 40% less safe than parallel parking I think you know that that's a big red flag for me um I also made a presentation I think a couple meetings ago that there's going to be no net loss to residential parking where we're going to be able to keep the 38 residential parking spaces I I go to south of fifth multiple times a day and in the morning and in the evening it's it's empty it's it's very much underutilized and the the the safety concern I have is that at the end of the day since there's so much more asphalt you're going to have a lot of people speeding down there you're going to have a lot of people making illegal um passing on cars that are slow perhaps the Uber drivers are slow and then people just drive around them potential hit uh children and so I think that it has been very vocal with the community with the survey I understand that um it was maybe about like half the people answered the survey but when you have an 80% uh return uh or favorable on 50% of the sample size and that's it's pretty significant that's not going to change much and so so um I'm going to be fully supportive of the parallel parking with much more green space because that's what the residents want thank you commissioner Suarez uh vice mayor Dominguez you have recognized thank you and um Joe thank you for the presentation I know that you and I have had many uh meetings over the last year and I had come up with the angled parking because of residents being concerned about not having parking available and um a few things came up so that is a business Street so there are businesses there I've never seen a child playing on there and uh commer street is all angled parking so uh it would be interesting rather than getting off the cuff in in the future to get the actual percentage of how more dangerous angled is to uh parallel because we have many streets that are angled and they work uh fine and they help preserve some parking I am in favor of my colleagues uh items that were were just the motion and the second that was just done now um but my question is many residents called in and talked about option one and that wasn't presented or discussed and um how different is that from um what was presented today thank you vice mayor um through the chair um it is substantially different and I can describe it if you don't mind can you bring me up the computer I can describe to you the the basic differences it the reason it wasn't discussed vice mayor is because option one um was not approved by the commission and the 60% the design and the mission we were given was to design the plans based on a community approved which then the commission uh endorsed 60% so let let me just give you a a community I'm sorry a community approved the the the option two which is the current design as and that was approved and approved by the Commission in 2021 so option one which is the one that that was described um on by the callers um has an 8ot median it would provide for parking on the inside and outside Lane on on on one side of the street it would only have parking Lane on the other side of the street however the green areas both um on each side are only 5 ft wide so you're going from Seven I believe it's 17 and A2 17 and 3/4 to to 5T is the green areas are are are narrow the median is 8 ft you take away the curb So you you're talking about 6 feet of of green area in addition to that the sidewalks are narrower on the option one than option two they're 8ot sidewalks as opposed to the 10-ft sidewalks so there there are some uh substantial differences yes and commissioner Dominguez uh thank you and I'll just as a point of uh reference just to say it on the record that um this project has been going on for many years and um several times it's been mentioned that there's been Community engagement but I will say there's been something a Miss with the engagement and I'll tell you why first it was a lady that that had taken over sopna uh Morano Grand and she had meetings and she didn't really share it with the stakeholders but that counted as Community input and she up and moved in the middle of the night um then the second part is we've had conflicting things even from the courts the courts wrote us a few weeks ago and said yes we're in favor let's get it done let's preserve parking and then 24 hours later as if they were um pressed up to a wall they were like oh we take it back so there's been flaws in the community input and there's been a lot of confusion um to the public and I think that's why we're getting so many questions thank thank you thank you madam uh vice mayor um commissioner magazine you're you're present you if you wish to to chime in on this sure I I appreciate the opportunity uh Mr chairman simplistically a as we're doing this project in response to uh resiliency climate change um I would think from just the Layman's perspective having more green space is going to help one uh with uh the resiliency efforts and then two also help with essenti L the cooling impacts that asphalt is going to have a dramatically uh higher temperature in in that area so uh the Green Space I'm not just thinking about this in terms of Aesthetics or design but also uh what is the true goal and intent of this project and that is uh to in response to climate change and having more green space in that area is a better way to uh essentially navigate the challenges that we Face ahead would that be a correct assessment absolutely and one more um important through the chair uh that uh uh having a a wider green area because we're raising the road on average about a foot and a half the harmonization the transition um is is it allows us to be able to harmonize to the existing elevation of of of the properties on the back a sidewalk whereas if you minimize and you tighten up the as you harmonize because you're you've raising everything is more abrupt so that has a impact as well so for sure it it's much better thank Mr thank you and one of the comments I'd like to uh make on on the record because the parking is a concern um it's it's it's a concern that we've been hearing now historically for a while and parking is of a great demand in our in our community we this is very car a very car dependent Community uh even though we are evolving we are an evolving City uh we're going to see be seeing more individuals using micr Mobility we are building a city that is more walkable and pedestrian friendly uh we're looking at uh increasing options for for public transportation um however uh there is a segment of our population that is dependent of caregivers that is dependent of medical assistance um and so and so one of the things that I'd like to incorporate uh into commissioner bot's motion is directing is a motion to the city commission urging uh and directing the city Administration to work with the housing authority to provide them 15 parking spaces at a discounted rate at the uh parking garage at uh at Fifth and Alton we have capacity there we have parking spaces that are available there can that can serve the needs of our elderly residents so commissioner VOD if you would allow that as a friendly amendment to your motion uh because it's clear the housing authority and its residents uh need parking so I'd like to incorporate that into into your motion uh if uh if if if you allow I do okay great uh and and and in addition uh to that um I would like to request specifically uh for uh amending your your motion and again aligned with the spirit of your motion you're you're asking the city to reach out to to businesses um Joe's has two parking lots right there uh and I think we need to engage in direct conversation with Joe's because that is parking that we should be asking Joe's if the city could rent parking spaces there I've already started that conversation wonderful wonderful so and and I think we should incorporate that into your motion motion uh so that's official on on on the record as part of your motion uh that that that this body not just you by yourself but you're leading on this and thank you for for leading on this commissioner Bond but that we support you uh in those in those conversations to see if we can get parking spaces from the Joe's parking lot uh dedicated as residential parking for for the area I support including them in the conversation for sure well ful thank you so so so so let's include that in in in the motion uh commissioner Suarez you wanted to be recognized thank you Mr chair just a piggyback on that I I've also have a have um an item going through the process to address employee parking um and hopefully what I'm have what I'm hoping to have is South Point Elementary parking garage after hours of school be open for valy parking for uh restaurant owners so that they don't have to use residential or paid parking spaces um when when when needed um yeah um Joe if we were to go with the angle parking how much of a delay would this cause we're we're looking at 9 to 12 months uh delay because we would have to essentially scratch a lot of the design that we've done in order to be able to reconfigure the the design that we the schematic that we laid out out in terms of the angle parking okay all right and so um I I'm going to make a motion to approve the administration's um we we just before we get to that motion uh we have a motion on on the table that's been seconded on the on on the parking uh to proceed with the uh parking as uh as as placed on the on the agenda um that uh that will ensure that we maintain at least the current amount of residential parking that is available on First Street to continue being available for residential use on First Street absolutely and then and that together with the Amendments uh made and are the amendments uh clear uh for for purposes of the record yes thank you the items been moved and seconded by acclamation can we show that adopted by acclamation uh that item is adopted and commissioner suarz I recognize you to make a motion I'd like to make a motion to approve the administration's recommendation for moving with as designed okay to restart the design that was stopped at 60% and to finish the design and permitting by 2025 and I guess that includes to go to construction by 2026 correct okay so so so the motion's been made by commissioner Suarez is there a second on the motion second it's been second by uh by by commissioner B on the motion commissioner SW commissioner domingus you recognized I just have a question does that motion affect the parking motion we just approved by acclamation I believe not because the design it it's is consistent okay right and and it it it will allow us time during this design phase to work with those other entities uh to for additional parking thank you any additional questions discussions on the motion before us without without any further questions can we show that item adopted by acclamation yes yes okay great by acclamation we can show that item adopted any other matters for the good of the order before us with that staff thank you for your for your support colleagues everyone thank you for your time dedicated in speaking with the stakeholders businesses and residents alike and to all the members of the public that have participated in this process uh thank you very much thank you thank you colleag so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music]