all right uh good evening everyone welcome to the uh North Miami special Planning Commission agenda this is an item that was continued uh from a previous meeting um I now call the meeting to water and uh at this time let's all stand and do the pledge pledge allegiance flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Madam Secretary may we have the call of roll please roll call okay um chairman erns pres Vice chair mcer ma commissioner e commissioner blir present commissioner seed present commissioner Clark pres commissioner Bob pres and commissioner abess present okay we have a full quum thank you very much uh do we have any two staff uh do we have any amendments to the agenda sir good evening Mr chair because the way the item was continued last um for last time for the um Land Development regulation txt Amendment it had to be first on this agenda but as the order goes the actual comprehensive text Amendment needs to be go first and then the land regulation pay Amendment needs to go second Mr H so what we had discussed is um calling both items together so that there would be a combined public hearing uh the comprehensive plan amendment is typically considered a legislative action of the city but the Land Development regulation Amendment would be quasi judicial and what we would do is treat them both alike as quasi judicial items which essentially just adds additional due process protections sure everybody would be sworn um the U commission members would make their disclosures what we do have to remember though is that the vote uh would be on the comprehensive plan Amendment first as a separate item and then we would have a vote on the Land Development regulation item and in addition when staff makes its presentation they will review the criteria for each separately because there are separate criteria that apply apply to each application thank you now in the presentation I believe uh Council you you'll you will distinguish between the two at one point or or um what is your plan of attack here so that the public will not get confused when addressing each one of the item thank you chairman patri ass tonight with offices at 701 Brickle Avenue So the plan is to take them in tandem at the same time the comprehensive plan is a simple uh mirror image of what's happening in the ldrs is actually a bit broader and then the ldrs actually go into more specific So the plan is to actually talk about the more specific one um in totality so that we can talk about uh the nature of the ldrs the changes and what would have to be done in order for the uh text amendment to be in place in order for a potential project to be to come before you so we would take them up at the same time right and then uh Council we will u u take separate votes on each one in the public hearing portion where we uh allow the public to come forth to give testimony um I'm going to normally we have a two-minute rule but since we're doing these two items uh we'll go three minutes um um per per item if you wish to uh give testimony on the item and since this is quasi judicial at one point before we um um go into the item we'll ask everyone to be sworn in at that point um and U um if you do make your presentation I would suggest that you address in particular the item that you want to talk to a first and then uh and reference it so that we can keep track of what your comments are regarding one particular item or the other is that U pretty clear to everyone you're fine with that that's very clear all right thank you okay um any other amendments Mr cook thank you Mr chair no other amendments thank you very much um approval of minutes of Madame secretary I see a not available here or on the agenda do we in fact have any well the minutes will be at the next meeting all right for both for both because we had one item that was sort of that was a continuation so I'll have the minutes for the at the next meeting in May okay uh Communications um I see we have another um special meeting planned the staff listed that as a special meeting on May 7th rather than a regular Planning Commission meeting it's a regular meeting so that must be an eror um all right okay so noted um that's supposed to just be the regular pc meeting okay on May 7th okay though it's always special meeting with you all no but everybody special here so it's always special thank you but I'm sorry it's a regular meeting for staff and for our commission members that is a regular meeting and then I understand now that you're asking for a is there a presentation to be made from the Urban Design and preservation um um assistance team um perhaps somebody could uh come forward with that information for us staff good evening good evening good evening um Christina with uh this office of sustainability and um last session we discussed the initiatives from the deep rat workshops that we had in November and we put together a quick uh presentation and they're actually virtual and uh so it's members of the APA Urban Design and preservation division so they'll go over some of the initiatives that they suggested okay and your your prepared to do that this evening we're prepared yes all right um You may proceed then thank you thank you thank you this is uh can everyone hear me okay and see the screen yes we we see you sir thank you thank you yes um my name is Chris kryder and I'm joined by my colleague David Goodman um and I'm also joined online by Shannon sentto we three represent volunteers from the American planning ass associations uh Urban Design division um this is an annual program that this is the third one that we've done and each year we put uh encourage folks to apply and it's a competitive uh offer for a pro bono um in this case idea book we didn't want to call it a master plan or in even recommendations because uh we just want this to be a shared collection so the deap program um is is sponsored by the American Planning Association and the division and it brings together Urban designers from all over the country um professionals like myself and midcareer and then also young younger folks graduate students and so forth who are just entering the career it's a great opportunity for us to work with the community uh we were approached by Christina and uh she was she was looking for some ideas around um sustainable development and low impact design and being Urban designers and and focus on preservation we wanted to give our team an opportunity to look at both uh transportation and Mobility options as well as uh preservation so what I'd like to do is quickly um go and sort of introduce uh one of the important efforts and this is the team that was on in place and we were joined uh by a similar number of folks online who worked in in a virtual environment many of those may be joining us tonight and thank you all who have done so um part of our our Pro uh process is to have a site visit and to do that tour um we conducted uh over two days we also had a number of interviews um and really got some terrific feedback from that it was we were able to generate uh three areas that we wanted to focus on and tonight we're going to talk about uh each of those um we encourage you uh in your time to really look through this because as I said this is an opportunity to learn um how there might be further information um one of the important things we did is we we engaged with students um the future of our our communities and they they told us a lot about what are the things that are important to them what's missing in North Miami um and also where are some of the things in their world around the high school in particular that they could see some improvements that would make them feel safer uh give them something to do and engage in as you can see in the picture here they really got into this exercise uh we also had another engagement at the at the community center with the volleyball team and they gave us an additional perspective um and and this was really helpful so at this point I'm going to turn it over to uh Shannon sentto who's going to talk briefly about the goals in in group one Shannon thanks Chris uh good to be here tonight thank you for allowing us into your community and to to give some input on on some things that we saw so uh my my my group primarily focused on some parks and and public spaces so when we were looking at some parks and public spaces in North Miami both existing and not yet activated we're really thinking about creating places that are not only active and beautiful but also resilient to floods heat and all those environmental factors that that you guys face in in Florida um so we kind of came into it uh with with three goals and the main one of which being transforming underutilized parks and Open Spaces in North Miami to those vibrant resilient spaces that uh integrate uh re Recreation storm water management and also um use and Community stewardship and engagement um and then as we figured out those design plans for Activation we also want to go to the next layer down and develop and discuss strategies for stewardship storm water management funding and maintenance because without those things you're not going to have a sustainable um long- lasting successful place and then additionally suggesting um looking into some public education campaigns on storm water management climate resilience native plantings things of which are are again important for the long-term sustainability and also communicating to the the citizens of North Miami uh and those active in parks that this is why this park is here and these are are the benefits to having a park so we really really were looking at those goals and we came in and we found four places that we wanted to focus on and explore these goals within and those places were Oleander park on the West Side Good Neighbor storm water park uh which which is an existing Park uh and then there were six uh six or eight passive Park spaces in the historic Griffin Parks neighborhood and then there were spaces on either side of the pedestrian bridge on Northeast 131st Street uh that we also found and and thought would be make really wonderful Parks so Oleander Park uh currently vacant enclosed for when we were there um and we just thought it was such a fantastic location walkable um had a really great space asset to reactivate so we looked at you know um some improvements you could make here as well as how to connect it to the other parks in that area to create cre a park Network um and think about not just creating these Parks but how are they active in relation to one another um and creating a park Network throughout North Miami um so if you keep going down so we have some strategies here and I invite um you know questions or input after when you when you review the the idea book um but again some thoughts around flood mitigation activation plantings um and and those kind of things so then we move on to um to the passive Open Spaces in in this neighborhood that we were in and they're really not treated like Parks now they're treated just kind of Open Spaces we thought these are really gems in these neighborhoods to be really Key Community Gathering spaces so as you can see we have um some recommendations in here on some different uh structures that you can Implement some different plantings designs and again that theme of connectivity throughout this whole plan is really was really important to us and those those networks and how people move from place to place and and and go through and and around these Parks um if you keep going forward so we have some really great plans here that again really create these as as neighborhood hubs um and then as we move forward we have storm waterer Park we looked at storm water park again different set of circumstances because this one is already a great Park and a lot of educational programming has been implemented here so we just wanted to we didn't want to ignore it we wanted to include it and look at it in the framework that we were studying these other spaces and give some recommendations for improvements or uh you know for a new era for storm water park and some public education there uh more plantings more um public art educational pieces updated signage um and as you continue on oh yep so that was uh storm water park and then we also when we were here and we went to this pedestrian bridge we realized there were these two vacant spaces that bookended that pedestrian bridge and there were so many people traversing it on their bikes on foot to go fishing to go to work um so that was a really active pathway that we figured deserved some attention um as far as Activation so we have some some proposed designs here then involve bios swells and Rain Garden and and different types of Bio retention to really help with again with that storm water management and and flooding resiliency but also creating an attractive place that people feel comfortable um passing through and uh and A really lovely Oasis uh for people along the canal which is a great asset um and so as we continue on so you can I invite you to look deeper at those designs and and see what we've proposed and what we've come up with um but I do want to just kind of mention that that in in looking at these four places of course we have the site specific recommendations in the plan um but we also have some overarching uh recommendations that might benefit all of these public spaces the first of which would be implementing Parkland fees for developers which could really help um boost Municipal budget to be able to invest in these spaces differently uh additionally we you know not all of these spaces are necessarily treated as uh under the parks department are treated as as public parks um but rather just open spaces so thinking about um who is is responsible for maintaining each of these spaces and so that uh budgets are you know thoughtfully allocated to developing them something that we talked about a lot in in this process was cues for care and when um when people see people maintaining and taking care and investing in a place um you know that's that's a really wonderful thing for the community and there's a lot of benefits uh to that additionally we recommend investing in a full-time arborist for the city um these parks and public spaces are vast and there are so many trees and plants that could really benefit from full-time care and and maintenance when it comes to providing shade trees and um again that that flood resiliency piece of it and then also creating a schedule of events in city parks that invite the community to engage with the space with City with County with additional staff um to activate those places and um something that I look at in my professional career I am a a planner but I also work for I work for a nonprofit organization that focuses on Community Health and so there are the the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation um does County Health rankings and they have identified in 2024 that Civic health and Civic engagement is one of uh an indicator of Community Health and people who are more civically engaged and active with their communities um have better health outcomes so the more that you activate Parks through events through creating great spaces there that people uh feel take ownership of and want to visit uh the better that their overall health outcomes are going to be in general so that was something important to to me as well to convey um so those are our recommendations for the parks and public spaces piece of of the plan and I look forward to connecting with anybody who has any questions or or suggestions thank you thank you Shannon um should we continue to the with the next group let's do that um and and as you as you think about your questions please uh make there that we'll be available um as we conclude this so I'm going to turn things over to David Goodman um and he's going to talk about uh group two David thanks Chris so group two our Focus was on Mobility Transportation access moving around the community and uh we came up with four over overarching uh goals as part of this project and we'll will expand upon them on subsequent Pages first one is uh establishing a low stress bicycle network uh our in this case in North Miami it focuses on uh 131st Street as the primary East West spine um low press networks are different than regular bicycle networks in the sense that they are tailored towards the needs of most average people so you can get on a bike without being intimidated by the roads and by riding around the community and we'll explain that a little bit more in next Pages uh G one of the other goals is generally improving East West connectivity under I95 right about two onethird of your community is west of I95 2/3 of it dis East they really ought be together better uh we came up with some strategies once again focusing on 131st Street as a as a Trad as a terrific underpass opportunity but there's others as well uh as well also on the west side of I95 Northwest 7th Avenue um 441 it's actually 441 uh softening the environment there it you we got a lot of feedback from people about that they didn't like the way that environment feels and we've heard a lot of uh scenarios for redeveloping that Corridor and our team came up with some strategies for doing that and finally uh reclaiming swes in residential areas we UND you know we know that this is a common issue in all of South Florida and there's some pretty straightforward and not particularly expensive strategies that we can Implement that you can Implement for reclaiming those SES allowing them to look nicer and also at the same time time improving storm water so let's go into our into our things um oops there we go uh we could probably skip over the existing conditions uh just going on right into the proposed Network so the really bold green line is north west and Northeast on June 31st Street as it passes um under uh I95 it's a terrific opportunity for the community because there's very few underpasses that pass 95 that don't also incorporate a highway interchange and you know we know that 125 and some of the others are pretty daunting intersections to go through so 131st is a terrific opportunity to knit together the community all the way from the West End and all the way to us one Dixie Highway and US1 and Beyond so the idea is that we would we've got some strategies for how to start that as the spine and then you you Branch out literally you know one of the great things about North Miami it's got this terrific grid of streets um and a lot of the streets are actually low volume and low speed perfect for biking and walking on they just need a little bit of help and so uh ultimately you can build this out into a network that looks a little bit more like this one with uh also a north south connection along uh Northeast 8th Aven that would connect to the high school and the library and also to the the business uh to the retail core and city hall right along uh March 25th yeah that's fine this uh this is just one example of opportunities to build safer intersections uh this is uh it can't remember the name of the road that it was right along um Mixie Highway or Northeast 16 oh yeah sorry 16 yeah where there is um this sort of web of Street segments that all came together and and it's probably been this way for a while and I know the city um beautified it and has made it look a whole lot more attractive than it used to be but it's not uh as as easily navigated if you're uh on foot or biking and also to we can make it for cars and so the example below it is a roundabout example um there's different ways you can resolve this but this roundabout is roundabouts you've you've seen Florida has a lot of them they're really quite safe and easy to work with and easy to navigate and in the lower right corner there's an example of a rapid flashing Beacon which is a piece of traffic engineering um that didn't used to exist uh just a few years ago and it's a great way for making pedestrian Crossing safe safer um here's another example Crossing Dix Highway where right now traffic east west traffic is blocked off well this is um what we're showing here in this drawing is a way of stitching together the bicycle and walking Network so that you can continue on if you're walking and biking without changing that traffic the car traffic pattern at all so it's kind of a win uh for for alternate modes of transportation there this page uh shows the existing condition under 95 uh at 131st Street and we've got some um there's some opportunities for both introducing art public art and reusing some of the space that's underneath there you could see in some of these illustrations there's examples of using it for recreation uh and we know that the the church um is I think leasing some of that space from the city um there's lots of creative strategies for for sharing that space uh some of the other things that we are suggesting for under 131st Street for along 131st Street rather is the idea of um one thing is like is called a yield Street where uh generally and this is how a lot of people drive down these streets today anyway is you drive down the center of the street and when you have to pass another car going the other way you yield over to the sides well um one of the things you can do on 131st Street is create a Bicycle Way in the roadway you can mark the edges of it you can paint it green if you got really excited um but it's a way of designating a a bicycle path that also can be used for cars I think we have another graphic maybe on a subsequent page or was a previous page that showed the incremental changes that you could do there um yeah I know yeah well it may not be in this ah there it is there it is there it is one thing I wanted to point out because a lot of times uh communities can be little intimidated at the thought of turning their Auto oriented Community suddenly into a bicycle oriented Community it doesn't have to be all at once it could be incremental and it could you could even incorporate different things at different times according to your budget and according to the community's uh taste and temperament and this is just one example I encourage you to go look at it but there's examples here of widening sidewalks uh hardening the edges of the swales which we'll get into a little bit further um planting Street trees even creating designated parking spaces rather than leaving the whole thing open but you could do this incrementally and at relatively low cost we should spe yeah and then the very last thing here is reclaiming the swes uh we used uh Northeast 137th Street as an example of how you can do that and this is common around the whole Community where people are parking in these swes um you can use something as simple as parking stops you know those parking lot concrete barriers wheel stops to define the edges and reclaim those selles allow them to percolate water back into the back into the water table clears the streets and beautifies your community all at the same time um yeah just just quickly um one of the things that when we went out on Seventh Avenue is that we recognized there's actually a you know it's a fairly well done uh Street as a as a an important arterial recently a lot of Investments there are bik Lanes but when you look a little closer into the hood you see that people when they do bike they tend to bike on the sidewalk um it's very difficult to cross uh there's only a few Crossings over the course of a mile and a half and then you have these sort of no man's land where there's uh the parking lots have gotten smaller as the roads gotten wider and they become this ad hoc nature of cars and they're actually using the curve Cuts uh as part of their circulation to get in and out so in observation of this you know there's been a lot of investment so are there some loow hanging fruit short-term opportunities and one thing we would recommend is moving the bike lane curbside and then bringing the parking out near the street uh one that gives the pedestrians and the bicyclist a much more comfortable environment they're more likely to be in shade and then it actually increases the parking capacity tremendously because what we do is we get rid of some of those curb cuts and then you have a lot of on street parking which generally makes it a much more uh enjoyable and safe experience and and it's traffic caling as well and it slows the traffic overall and and this is the intersection that David was talking about earlier about you know there are ways without decreasing the the volume and the capacity of cars that you can make it an overlay a much more pedestrian and bike friendly Network meanwhile you're also creating opportuni so one of our big Ideas was to uh to look at those spaces and I'll quickly go through group three I know we're running past our time but group three really looked at um first of all your historic resources um for those of us visiting from outside we see a lot of character there that has so much potential um there's also an opportunity to gain tax credits and look at reinvestments uh we also wanted to look at the edges between the commercial areas and the single family areas as that infills and really focus on the transition to these single family neighborhoods um and then and look at okay if development's coming which is an awesome thing can we create the guidelines that ref reflect the character of the community but also can we make sure that the west side and the east side are connected both in terms of access to these other areas and that they don't be become divided so uh we we looked at uh you know a number of analyses about identifying uh some of the the observations that we had um first of all I think it would be very important to sort of get a better handle on what resources you have because this then becomes the grounds for other Economic Development opportunities um and and part of that was looking at the old post office site but also looking at the the you know improving the area around the the William J Bryant School and and one of the exercises that we did was to look at that intersection um and and and imagine how that could the post office building which ab buts one of the passive Parks could be a infill project that ultimately uh is is really becomes the heart and soul of North Miami and that this is the Dixie Highway 125th this is really sort of in many ways the heart and potentially it could be the most pedestrian friendly the most pedestrian focused uh looking at both the the areas you know surrounding that for an awesome opportunity and and we think that it also begins with like on Seventh Avenue what are some lwh hanging what are some things that we can do today such as parklets and Streeter that would Aid the economic activity but also maintain some of the culture and some of the vibrancy and some of the local uh jobs and and opportunities and and really look to that economy as an important uh step uh doing things like providing shade and other elements so uh we we had also an opportunity to look at what the future might be and how uh through you know various levels of of transformation that some of these single story buildings could ultimately become multi-story buildings so we wanted to think too about how that transition over to the West Side uh should be managed both at the Grand scale you see 95 on the right there uh and this potential Redevelopment in the center um but also at the scale of transforming 7th Avenue over time to a vibrant commercial uh Street that's still carrying the same volume same Lanes but it's also become an economic engine but it's a very pedestrian friendly focused on the wonderful climate there uh creating Shadow and and shade with the trees and really also looking at that opportunity finally um looking at the future transfer orian development site uh breaking down some of the the properties into a more walkable mixed juice neighborhood and also looking at you know this young man you know he's biking on the sidewalk like we were saying earlier is like how do we make this area uh much more walkable and once again uh accessible and also provide the kind of density that is necessary for Transit oriented development to succeed so these are just some uh the the recommendations um David do you want to talk quickly about sure yeah some of the recommendations for group two again this was about Mobility um for one looking at Seventh Avenue as at the whole area that Chris was just explaining the idea is that you could create an incremental Redevelopment rather than rather than wiping the Slate clean and creating something all brand new it's incremental over time using what you have uh one of the things that would help that is eliminating on-site parking requirements to to for some of the smaller businesses there uh that would free up a lot of space that could be used for other purposes that the community would actually like like outdoor dining or um you know actually expanding the businesses out into this out into that space so instead of it being a hard asphalt where cars are parked it could actually be used by the community for other purposes uh creating a Community reinvestment Fund kind of like a business improvement district but not quite as intense um and finally ways to connect the landlords and the tenants so that they actually are working towards the same goals uh also for 131st Street and the other corridors we're calling them bike boulevards create uh them by ordinance designate them as bike boulevards and this allows you to sort of create tailormade special exceptions to the otherwise uh uniform traffic regulations around the city um so you can Implement a 25 M M our speed limit no ride on reds um increasing fees for parking violations if that becomes an issue uh bicycle priority is possibility there's a lot of different ways of doing this including wayfinding signage which is sort of a natural um as well uh our third goal is considered tactical urbanism projects these are sometimes called quick build projects uh it's a way of getting uh improvements on the ground quickly using I say in air quotes temporary materials sometimes temporary materials can stick around for a long time but they don't have to be cheap and ugly um there and there's fortunately a lot of really talented uh designers who can help the community Implement that with with um that relatively low cost um Chris you want to hit these here yeah what these are just uh some of the programs that we we were the and the other thing I wanted to point out too is um and I failed to do this earlier the city staff was just a tremendous resource and we also engaged with Miami dat County staff from the resiliency program and from the historic preservation program and they uh were really an asset in helping us get our feet on the ground and understand some of the regional issues but they also identified some uh some wonderful funding programs that certainly deserve more exploration um and in terms of group three uh looking at you know the looking at the development standards um under you know really looking at Urban design standards and so forth with a finer grain uh look U and and you can see there's there's a lot of suggestions here and I think what I'll do now is is sort of open up the floor if there are particular questions um and I'll stop sharing uh momentarily and um go on camera so uh well first of all and lastly thank you thank you thank you um we really enjoy this opportunity hopefully the community uh will benefit from some of the observations and uh we welcome to take any any questions that's ass sign thank you well we thank you very much for the presentation uh I did note that some of the commission members took some notes uh perhaps they might have some questions for you uh um and then U one thing I want to before we we close this up is uh to ask a favor of Staff but meantime um Mr cied uh yes I know this is one of your um concerns that you brought up at the last meeting thank you Mr chair I attended the the two night Workshop back in November and and I'd like to know at what point do we get a hard copy of your idea book you know in in in in talking with with staff members and our elected officials uh pictures are worth a thousand words and we really need idea books in hand where we can meet with those that would ultimately make the budget decisions and say this is what we'd like to see at this location uh can you Enlighten us on that yes sir and first of all thank you for attending um and it was it was great to have you there uh yes we have shared the link with uh with Christina um and I believe she has that so work with staff if you would like to get hard copies of those and we also have it on our website uh for the depratt program at the American Planning Association Urban Design division uh depratt just Google depratt and it'll come up but uh yes we'll make sure we'll work with Christina to make sure she has a a copy that can be easily reproduced thank you yeah um directing that to to staff Christina um if you could and you know give us some idea how long that would take for you to get that out to us U immediately I'm happy to share it and print it next the next meeting would be good okay ter on hand yes great thank you Christina Christine are we going to do a workshop with you on other ideas in other areas of the city Wetlands like I were talking about over there in the arch Creek area we'll we'll have to come up with something um I don't have any workshops planned in the near future um but yes that would be a wonderful idea I did think of you I thought about emal Lake um I do have a wonderful vision for it but I do not have one at this time and can I just take the time to thank Chris and Shannon and um David all the members of APA and thank you so much for your time listening to their presentation as well thank you Christina missmer um yes thank you so very much for the presentation um um I loved I love the focus around the park specifically um creating a park Network I think that was awesome now you mentioned some of the parks that um like Oita but I didn't hear any mention of what I would consider major parks in the city of North Miami which is kind of um late to waste if you will Arch Creek East environmental preserve and I didn't hear you mention the Enchanted foris um those are two parks that I think that we can we we're just underutilizing and that we can do so much with I don't know if those two parks are actually a part of the plan that is being presented in the idea book yeah so I I can just speak to that really quickly so we did uh visit them and we thought that they were really fantastic assets and really established ones more established than the ones that we chose to look at so that's why we kind of picked prioritizing some of the ones that were less far along in their development um so that we could provide you with some feedback on those um but we absolutely we saw them we considered talking about them but that was why they were not prioritized over over the other ones we thought they were they were great parks and and Shannon I and I think the other thing is is we see this as a toolkit so some of the ideas are easily translatable um to other parks and how you activate them how you you know so I think that planning process we want to sort of feed these opportunities to you and then you can use them accordingly as you you look at those individually excellent thank you so very much my my next question is um not NE necessarily a question but a comment um under the bridge I think that you guys did a phenomenal job identifying the opportunities there and I want wanted to just hear a little bit I mean this has been a long presentation so about a minute of what you saw that can take place I know you mentioned the paintings but what else can be done under there yeah one one of the things that we noticed right off is uh there's some really wonderful things that can be done with lighting right so you've got two benefits to that right one is just sheer illumination right having having lighting under there makes it uh a less scary intimidating kind of an environment but the other thing is lighting could be a decorative element as well um particularly uplighting and you know you all can work with uh with f. I understand that there are uh beautification Grant programs available through the state to help communities with you know Implement their vision and while also still working within you know the confines of dealing with the state do but there's a lot of really great opportunities but I would say lighting focusing on lighting it could it doesn't need to be white lighting it could be colored lighting it could be multiple different colors it could change right it's a it's a great opportunity uh that and in a kind of sculptural elements you know that might want to get added to it but I would probably if you had the res limited resources I'd focus on lighting and uh Landscaping under there thank you thank you last but not least WJ Brian um I'm not sure whether or not you were able to identify that it is a historic building and so what did you see around there outside of what you already mentioned I I think the U and I was not quite honestly part of that that that group that looked at that they were looking at some opportunities I think along 125th for example there's a fence there and it just if if the fence could be pulled back and some improve improvements some Landscaping improvements uh you know kids walk to school kids walk from school to practice creating shade along there and then also looking for uh you know development that comes adjacent to a gutter some of the Urban Design cues that we want to replicate in those buildings as they transition to the neighborhood but I would encourage you to look closer at some of the detail that the team put together and we can certainly follow up as well thank you thank you so very much I yield chair thank you very much anyone else U like to address have any comments before we uh move on Mr Besson sir yeah I I have a question regarding moving a bicycle lane from the street to approximating the sidewalk in other words can you just Define because from the pictures I couldn't tell too much about that um sounds like a good idea because I I ride a bike around not crazy about riding in the street even if it's a marked Lane you're talking about uh the the graphic that showed 131st Street s was it Seventh Avenue was it the Seventh Avenue where we flip the yeah Seventh Avenue yeah yeah so that it's U it's pretty straightforward actually B yeah it's it's called a parking protected bike lane you take the 7 ft of what would be parking Lane and swap it with the 5 ft of bike Lane right so now the bike lane is curbside with and then there's another couple feet of of door Zone buffer so people don't get hit by parking uh people opening their car doors and then the parked cars actually provide the buffer between you and the moving traffic and it does a number of things it it visually Narrows the streetcape um you know everybody knows you know sort almost intuitively when we're driving down a street that has parked cars on it we tend to drive a little more carefully because there's the possibility that somebody might pull out or they might open a door so it's a natural traffic calming element and also there's there's really nothing like uh you know a couple tons of steel between you and the bike lane uh you know on the bike lane and the moving traffic to protect you so it again a lot of these elements can serve multiple functions reducing stress and yeah exactly it creates a less stress environment which means more people will feel more comfortable riding great sounds like a good idea thank you Doctor pain all it takes is paint right that's true paint and Bol I just have one question yes Mr re did um I didn't hear it mentioned did we look at any of the Alleyways and U utilizing them or did I miss that utilizing the Alleyways for bike parks or bike bike Lanes so forth and so on we have a ton of every behind every home in North Miami is a is an Alleyway and and lot of them are just they're not being utilized they used to be used for our sanitation to pick up the trash but they're not being utilized today and uh there's a heck of a lot of land out there that could with a little bit of imagination uh be utilized for bike paths and you know really you could do a hell of a lot with it and uh Landscaping different types of texture for the roadway papers what have you make those into a thing of beauty instead of just letting them deteriorate because when they go the back of the the back of the homes Go the whole the whole neighborhood Goes to Hell and and um we we we you know we we do have that asset here and we should look at it and see what we can do and see if there's any grants out there you know we we have vacated the right away and a number of homes in San Susi and Keystone so I don't know why we don't look at that and say this should uh be kind of a unique idea for our bike paths to go through well anyway thank you right Mr Bob Mr Clark any comments sir heing none Mr mcdermaid no but just backing on what uh commissioner e said that that's a that's a great idea because we do have those alleys throughout the city yeah all over yeah well again we thank uh staff for putting that together for us and having the team come before us and make their presentation we thank you again and uh I hope we continue to look at this and that staff gives us a progress report um we look forward to getting the um print out of of the of the plan so that U you know we could we could look at it a little bit more closely and then set some more time ahead in the future to address U some of these items that they've presented to us tonight thank you very much okay thanks for having us thank you all let's go ahead and U Move On Now to U or contined public hearing that we're wanting to move um uh Mr chair yes yes ma'am one quick announcement pertaining to what we just discussed I'm going to let Mr cook tell you certainly oh I'm sorry Mr cook no trouble thank you Mr chair Derek cook um assistant director with the development services department to um what Mr E was saying we actually are in the process of looking at our Alleyways and creating a pedestrian bicycle um connectivity within the city so that is in our um dream the um director of DSD is um one of the people spearheading that so that is an our crossair to um to address um also wanted to bring up to let people know that Christina is moving on um to a new opportunity so with that we will get that that's one reason why we had the presentation this evening because initially we had um discussed at the last meeting have it in on May the 7th but she wouldn't be here for that so she we moved it up forward so she could be here and do the presentation and be a part of it um her last day is on the 25th of this month so we be looking to get a new sustainability administrator who who can come in and help continue these efforts and take up the manner of this um proposal that was presented by APA time Christina good luck to you wish you all the best thank you good luck thank you so much for the time and efforts you've put in uh toward the city and we wish you the very best as you move on thank you so much thank you it was my pleasure okay Mr cook uh anything else sir we're ready to proceed on on the next uh item okay now uh as discussed before we have two items U on tonight's agenda that will uh include a public hearing and U what we're going to do is uh um since this is quasi judicial I want to U turn turn um meeting over to Mr held uh to uh uh present um the um what we need to know about the is involved with the credition the qual Quasi judicial proceedings sorry folks okay go ahead sir okay thank you Mr chair uh so this applies to uh the next two items which will be treated as quadal uh under this uh summary of qu judicial procedures so these rules apply to applications on specific process of land like zoning map amendments special exceptions variance and conditional use requests the commission will sit like a court hence the term quasi judicial reviewing the facts presented at the hearing applying the adopted rules as explained by staff in the staff report and verbally commission members can make site visits but must disclose the evidence upon which they intend to rely from that visit commission members will disclose at the beginning of the hearing whether they have had Communications with individuals on behalf of the applicant or otherwise including who to communication was with and what the topic of the discussion was uh to simplify matters I understand there's been extensive email distribution from uh many members uh both on behalf of the applicant and otherwise um so as part of the disclosure if you just say that you've received many emails on the subject I think that would be sufficient uh so we're really looking on looking for disclosure of personal uh verbal communication all persons intending to speak to the commission will be sworn by the clerk staff will make a presentation and the commission may ask questions the applicant will make a presentation including expert Witnesses if any and the commission may ask questions when the public hearing is open the public can make comments on the application limited to 3 minutes each citizen testimony must be fact-based not opinion commission may ask questions and the applicant's attorney if any may ask questions in the nature of cross-examination members of the public can decline to be cross-examined staff may present additional testimony to supplement or rebut arguments made commission deliberates based on the evidence presented commission's decision must be based on competent substantial evidence meaning based on the record staff presentations expert presentations and fact-based comments by citizens according to the standards for approval set forth in the city code uh let me just clarify that for the comprehensive plan Amendment Florida case law treats such decisions as legislative meaning uh in the sense that you basically can decide as a matter of policy whether to proceed or not without regard to whether you have competent substantial evidence before you on the subject uh and I can expand on that as can the deputy City attorney if needed the commission may approve deny or continue the item while staff pre previously read into the record emailed or mailed comments since the letters are not competent substantial evidence for example not sworn testimonies subject to cross-examination the commission's decision cannot be based on what is contained in the letters but they can be used to identify issues and help identify sources of information that do contain confident substantial evidence upon which a decision can be made lastly we ask each of you to treat this proceeding with respect and proper decorum no calling out interrupting speakers applauding or disrupting the proceeding please give this proceeding the same dignity and respect as if you were in court disruptions are prohibited and enforcable pursuant to the city code please also silence your cell phones thank you thank you very much Mr H Mr held at this time I'm going to go ahead and U read um both items in if I may and then after I do the reading I will then ask for commission disclosure and then we'll proceed with staff report after that well after St after disclosures we should swear all the witnesses after disclosures all right okay so um um I will go ahead and read in the items uh this will be in reverse order as we discussed earlier so the first item I'm reading in will be PC 17- 84 this is an ordinance of the mayor and the city council of the city of North Miami Florida adopting amendments to Volume 1 goals objectives and policies of the city of North Miami 2016 comprehensive plan in accordance with the requirements of Section 163 3184 parentheses 3 for the statutes 2023 requirements of section um and chapter 29 article 3 division 2 Section 3-102 parentheses a and section 3-15 through 3- 1110 of the city of North Miami code of ordinances specifically by amending the future land use element of at policy 1.21 and policy 1. 21.3 to establish a height bonus for the bay short Zone providing for an adoption hearing and subsequent transmitter of the proposed amendments to the state land planning Agency for determination of completeness providing for repeal conflicts severability and an effective date so now that that item has been read in sir I'll go ahead and read the second item in yes and that item is originally was listed as 17- 83 This is an ordinance of the mayor and the city council of the city of North Miami Florida providing for Tex amendment to chapter 29 of the city of North Miami code of ordinances entitled Land Development regulations at Article 4 entitled zoning designations specifically at section 4-23 implementing a hype bonus in the BC district for a total height of up to 238 ft 10 in through the conditional use permit process better known as Cup in accordance with Section 66 04 parentheses 3 parentheses C Florida Statutes 2023 in sections 3-102 3-1 04 3-15 through 3-17 and section 3-32 of the city of North Miami code of ordinances further authorizing the city manager to do all things necessary to effectuate the zoning map Amendment Prov writing for repeal conflicts cability codification and for an effective date so commission members um I will be the first up um to let everyone know uh that um indeed I received many emails and U texts and uh also some U um uh phone calls uh which I um chos not to answer the phone calls and what I did was I forwarded all the emails that everyone sent me to staff to uh let them know that I had received them and uh same way with any of the texts I notified them of some of the texts that I received along with the the emails um and um as as been my practice for the last 25 years on the Planning Commission I don't read those um I present them to the city and U and wait for their determination to bring those items up during during our hearings and and our our meetings when the items are presented um so I'll go down the line here Mr Besson um do you wish to make any disclosures other than no I have okay Mr Clark sir um I received a few emails but no verbal communication very good U um Mr re is your mic on I received numerous emails I spoke with uh Mr gasant and I believe it was uh Mr Bello called my home and I declined to have any conversations about the project okay very good sir and there was one other uh Her Name Escapes me uh had left I think a voicemail and I called back at as a matter of courtesy and declined to have any conversation about the project Mr Bob sir um I did receive uh a slew of emails I I didn't get the opportunity to receive or read them all um staff was copied on if not all of them um I did speak with attorney gassan regarding uh today's item uh I did receive correspondence from uh Linda Julian as well uh I was unable to connect with her on it but I did respond to the correspond received thanks sir Mr mcder uh yes I received like everyone else I guess I received numerous um emails text messages phone calls I did speak with several people some of whom were I didn't write their names down but uh for and against um the project so I I got a variety for the project and support including Mr gassant um as well as people who were against the project as well thank you Mr mcder missmer yes and so I also received about a dozen emails I did have expar communication um for the project and against the project thank you thank you and finally Mr cyre as the others I received numerous emails and forwarded them on to staff I hope you got them all I did speak with legal counsel for for marage Bay on Tuesday and Mr gassant on Wednesday thank you U Mr hell that uh that completes our disclosure that's fine no further comments sir or any no now we should do the swearing in so we forget that very good okay at this point then we're going to go ahead and swear in anyone who wishes to give testimony in this even if you change your mind and you don't want to but if you think you want to give testimony please stand now and take the uh U take the oath and the secretary will make note of all those uh pretty much seated everybody that's here okay we stand even if you don't think you're going to talk but you might want to change your mind might be a good idea to get sworn in so that we can keep track of of those who who wish to speak okay all right Madam Secretary you made um proceed okay do you swear or affirm that the testimony and evidence you are about to give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth I do thank you you may be seated very good Mr Mr cook uh may we have staff report please sir thank you Mr chair so as um Mr chair has stated we have two items before you one of them is a comprehensive plan text Amendment the other one is a Land Development regulations text Amendment these are sister items what they're intended to do is to Institute in the comp plan and in the Land Development regulations that through a conditional use permit process an applicant in the bz Zone can seek bonus height up to 238 ft 10 in so the area that is encompassed in this is all south of Northeast 123rd Street it is approximately three lots of a total of 5 thou excuse me 5 5.89 Acres which is approximately 2,70 Square ft of area the future land use designation of the property is called Bay Shore Zone which allots a maximum height of 15 ft and a total of 100 units per acre I believe it's 115 ft it is 115 ft that is an error probably all right so what we have here is the comprehensive plan text Amendment request so the request that they're seeking to um Implement in the comprehensive plan is to toit to permit height in the bz Zone shall be 115 ft however for properties in the Baya Zone we're going to correct this not generally located but specifically located south of Northeast 123rd Street and East of Bayshore Drive and applicant May seek a height bonus up to 238 ft 10 in including parking levels with a conditional permit use for following policies and objectives 1.6 objective 1.12 objective 1.13 objective 1.6 providing public access to thisis game Bay or a contribution to a local park to enhance access to view the bay and the option to profer we're going to put that language in community benefit package acceptable to city council this is the essence of their request so I think it's important to understand what a conditional use as you as the Commissioners know what conditional use permit involves it is not something that you can do by right you have to come before this board for review for recommendation and then ultimately they have to go before city council to receive approval for any request that exceeds the maximum height by right of 115 ft through the bonus process which is through the conditional use permit is what the applicant is requesting per this amendment so their next step would be that you have first reading at May the 1st 2024 and you have second reading at June the 11 2024 and it will become effective 31 days later so when we did our analysis of this we have certain criteria that we go through related to this review and these criterias are taken from section 3- 1105b of the city of land develop of the city of North Miami Land Development regulation requires that all amendments to the comprehensive plan must meet the following minimum criteria one whether it specifically advances any goal objective or policy of the comprehensive plan now in our review We felt that they achieved this um criteria one is direct or location economic growth and associated with the Land Development to Target area in a manner that does not have an adverse impact on the protection of Natural Resources in ecology so this amendment as you understand is just one seeking bonus height through the conditional use H um process it's not asking to change the zoning District it's not asking for more density it's not changing the development standards per se other than the height you still need to meet the minimum setbacks you still need to meet the the um minimum um open space area and you also will have to abide by the shorline um um committee um criterias at the county level when you're doing development on um the Bayfront none of those criterias go away only thing we have here is a simple increase in the height through the conditional use permit process which is not guaranteed that will be granted second you have promotes the efficient and cost effective Provisions to extend a public um um public services and um and and uses we say it's achieved it does not require any additional cost to Public Services the density is the same the intensity is the is the same what I'm talking about there density is 100 units per acre that does not change it not it's not introducing any New Uses in the area so it doesn't change change the intensity of the area it's residential and it will stay that way it's just going to have the height increase potentially if it is granted and that still is going to be locked in to the standards that the bz Zone requires so in that we say it does not have an impact on the level of services and the infrastructure in the city if I could ask a quick question on this if there were um wishes by the developer uh the developer or property owner to make additions to this property in the future um would this would this uh require a whole different rewrite or would this be locking our decision tonight tonight or future decisions and granting them this um height increase would that U not permit them or permit them to expand that development to add additional structures to that piece of property because you mentioned density qualific density qualifications and setback uh qualifications so can you give us a little Clarity on whether or not they would still have a window of opportunity to add to that project um and for foreseeable future or 5 minutes from the time that we walk out this chamber so um if I'm understanding you um chairman Ur U what we have here is that it you you have this amendment if it was qualified it would be as it is that's what it is now could they come in and and say ADD commercial use to the um site no they couldn't they would need to go through a text amendment to do so because development um the bz Zone doesn't allow for commercial at all if you're talking about additional structures on the site you can you have opportunity to put additional structures on the site right now but they will still have to meet the criterias of the setback and um lot coverage maximum area couldn't exceed that 80% and things to that effect such as let's say if they wanted to have like a pool house or something like that they could do that but it still have to follow within the parameters of our setbacks and things to that effect it it wouldn't and density standards should they want to add additional residential units to that property also how would that how would that affect that in the future um so our Cod presently has a provision through the conditional use permit where you can exce bonus units in all of our multif family districts and bz is one of them so they could seek a bonus they could seek bonus units above the 100 units per acre through the conditional use permit which again would have to come to you and have to get approval through the city council and the max they could to achieve there believe it is 40 units per acre more on that number um and but that like I said 25 would be corrected so you're looking at additional 25 units per acre through the conditional use permit process they could do that that's not that's already codified in our code and what I was speaking earlier you may be alluding to is the infrastructure our infrastructure always already takes in consideration our bonus units okay so there so yes sir well you want to ask um no my my my uh question then would be um that I got thrown off here um so while you're thinking if I could just add yes your decision tonight doesn't allow them to go into um obtain any kind of building permit or even file foral use application it's a recommendation to the city council and requires State review as well right so until the city council approves it and they come in for conditional use approval they wouldn't be able to do any and and after that there's site plan review the the clarity that I'm I'm I'm seeking a guess is that this one particular item is the only thing that will leave leave this room tonight that either is approved or denied and any further action would have to either come back to us or present it to staff uh in a different form other than what we see tonight that's correct sir what we have before you is simply this amendment no and how the board choose to recommend that's all that's going before the city council from this up it won't be anything other than that okay if you I I appreciate you answering that if you have more to add it um thank you for letting me ask that question go ahead sir thank you Mr chair it also speaks of does it promote conservation of water and energy we say on this that it achieves that in this capacity and I'm going to beat this and forgive me for being redundant to some extent just to clarify what we are dealing with tonight is just a request for bonus height it does not in any way circum vent any other other requirements that are within the code so with that when we say does it achieve it does achieve water conservation that's because it still has to meet our code requirements which requires that any new development would need to be lead certified or equivalent and it and it also would have to meet our um sustainability um criteria of the code if we was just talking about it's been a long night I'm with you on this excuse me so that talks about in the sustainability elements about water conservation about storm water um um being maintained on your property my apologies things to that effect so that's why we say it achieves that um element it also talks about preserves open space natural lands and provides for public open space and recreational needs again we say it achieves that and why we say that achieves that because in our code we have mandated in the code that you have to have a minimum open space in all development and they would need to still meet that also they will have a waterfront access that they need to meet as we had as you heard read in to the record earlier they had the option of either providing access to the Bayfront or contribution to a local park that provides access to the Bay so either or in this PR in this and also they what they are under as I spoke of early is the shoreline requirements which is another element that requires that you have access to the Bayfront you have view corridors all of these elements are still under their guise of development irrespective of this um um um amendment being request and it also asked does it create a balance of land use based upon demand of residential and non-residential areas we said achieves that because it keeps the same that is already existing it's not changing the density as we had discussed and it's not introducing any New Uses in the area it's maintaining the same balance that we have today talks about number seven does it provide uses density and intensity of uses an urban form that would REM mediate any existing or plan development Pann into the vicinity that constitute sprawl or if it provides for an Innovative development pan such as Transit oriented developments or town New Towns and as defined in State Statute 163 3161 and we say achieves that in that it is meeting the density it's not adding any more intensity and and with the new development is going to have to implement some programs that's going to be more pedestrian oriented it's going to even within the site itself need to have a pedestrian um walk areas that is oriented is going to improve the Waterfront area things to that effect it's going to be incorporated with a new development in it so we say it's going to achieve that and just to reiterate again that the request that they're asking is just to ask for through the bonus through a conditional use for additional height which doesn't impact any other standards in the code other than that through the bonus and then there was several other items that they went we went through as part of our analysis under the comprehensive plan on whether or not this request is adversely impacting the city or not and for from our opinion we felt that they they were there was effective level of service it's not affecting Public Service in um infrastructure as we spoke of earlier is not going to have an impact on the environmental resources for that height we still have very robust items that you need to meet in your development that's going to help protect our environment coupled with the fact you have to deal with Durham because they are Waterfront and things of that effect that they cannot do things that's going to adversely impact that area and hurricane evacuation it's not going to have impact on Hurricane evacuation per this where is it going to increase the density that is already locked in is not so we already have that baked in our hurricane evaporation plan what that density is for the basore area and the last thing does it contribute towards affordable housing now this is um you know this is not going to be a affordable housing project per the applicant but what their advocacy is on this matter is that what this would bring to the city in a a lauring taxes would be a means that we could utilize towards providing benefits towards affordable housing they project that we would have over about the next 10 years or so I believe $100 million that would be contributed to the city avalen taxes from this development alone avalen taxes that they Advocate could be utilized towards bringing in affordable housing which we know that we desperately need in South Florida as a whole and so that's our thought on it as it relates to the comprehensive plan um we leave it in the board's hand on whether or not you think this policy this legislative item should be recommended for approval to the city council or not this when we leave that in your hand so our second element of this is dealing with the compreh excuse me dealing with the bz District which is the Land Development regulations Tech Amendment so as you know also before we have here this property is located south of Northeast 123rd it's approximately 5.98 Acres approximately 270,000 Square ft of area for those properties and you have a zoning designation of BZ which gives you that error that's where you when you copy and paste them um is a maximum height of 115t and you have a maximum density of 100 units per acre so that was some concerns that were brought forth by the community specifically north of 123rd and in our original um text amendment that we put in we put in L located south of Northeast 123rd Avenue street so to change that we went from General to specifically located south of Northeast 123rd we also added as part of our thing from the what was in the actual um ordinance that was in your package that to permit to to be consistent with what is said in the comprehensive plan in language we brought that language also to the Land Development regulations to make it more consistent that we it's talked about in the comprehensive plan that that the permitted height is by right 115 ft we put that here in also part of the text Amendment here saying that by right the maximum height is 115 ft for the be exist district and then what we added at the end is also again because of the general public concerned about activities happening north of Northeast 123rd Street as you may recall that the White House Inn went through a development approval process and they had a restrictive covenant that the applicant proferred that would limit the maximum height on that property to 110 ft and we are just introducing that language as part of this text that no properties north of 123rd without a super majority can change their height beyond that 110 ft which is already a part of the C restricted Covenant that we have already been Rec has been recorded and documented so they couldn't do that without going before city council to break that Covenant they would have to go before city council city council would have to vote it would have to be a super majority to change that Covenant but we're putting it here also in this legislation that it be codified in our ldrs as well and the other elements that we spoke about in the LR for this thing we talked about of course that it would be through a conditional use permit that it'll be able to seek a maximum height up to 238 ft 10 in we also stated in that that they would need to have public access to bis Gan Bay or will provide contributions to a local park to enhance access to the view to view the um Bay that includes but is not limited to enhancement of the park safety and pedestrian experience with review and approval by the parks department parks and Rex Department that the propos building are built under the lead in energy and environmental design which is lead level or greater or and or a equivalent nationally or locally recognized green standard acceptable to the city we also state that the proposed buildings are to be located no closer than 75 ft from the nearest single family zoned property line and that the applicant and we going change this from profer to can option to profer a community benefit package that that includes public input and Planning Commission recommendation to city council that is acceptable and slight through that approved to city council we slice to approve because in the comprehensive plan element it just says acceptable and not approved so we would change that to be mirroring the um comprehensive plan and Mr Hill I thought they were both going to say acceptable and approved not that we so this language should be added to the other as opposed to removing okay okay so to clarify what Mr Hill has said and forgive me that the intent would be to modify the comprehensive plan element where it says acceptable only to say acceptable and approved by city council for the comprehensive uh for any um public benefit package that is profited by the applicant so with that in mind as with the comprehensive plan there are criterias that we went over that are required for review as part of our analysis and that section is part of the Land Development regulations and that is in article 3 Division 10 section 104 of the ldr's Land Development regulations which are father father follows whether the amendment promotes to public health safety and Welfare this amendment to the ldrs is anticipated to facilitate a new development to the area that provides high-end Luxury Condominiums that will generate a safer living environment associated with eyes on Street pedestrian oriented development that contains lighting and walkability so with that we feel that it it it meets that because of that potential B whether the amendment permits uses the comprehensive plan comprehensive land use plan prohibits in the area affected by zoning map change or text Amendment this amendment has no change to the uses it's just an amendment seeking to modify the potential maximum height to a 238 ft 10 in through the conditional use permit process whether the amendment allows density or intensity in excess of the density and intensity which are permitted by the future land use categories of the affected properties no it does not have any impact on it again as I discussed under the comprehensive plan element this also is mirroring that it does not change the intensity or the density of the area whatsoever it's just a potential modification to the maximum height through a conditional use permit process and then it ask whether the amendment causes a decline in the level of services for public infrastructure which is the subject of concurrency requirement to a level of service Which is less than the minimum requirements of the comprehensive land use plan again it doesn't have any impact on the level of services as I discussed earlier the density and intensity does not change for the site you don't add you're not adding any new uses and they not increasing the maximum height I me excuse me maximum density that is permitted for the site either through by right or through the conditional use permit process and whether the amendment directly conflicts with the goals objectives or policy of the comprehensive plan land use and the text amendment to this com a text Amendment for this comprehensive plan excuse me a text amendment is before for you for the comprehensive plan that mirrors this txt amendment for the land for the um Land Development regulations and what I what that is saying is the question is does it conflict because you have to review the comprehensive plan element first which will allow for this change through the conditional use permit and if that is so recommended then the ldrs would be in align with that comprehensive plan because it's requesting the same thing whether the amendment furthers the orderly development of the city of North Miami the text Amendment does not impact normal and orderly development of the city any du new developments are required to comply with the bz Zone District standards so the next steps on this would be first reading at city council at May the 14th of 2024 if so it be if that is um approved then the second reading will be to will be potentially on June 11th of 2024 and after that it will become in effect 10 days after the adoption with that Mr chair and Commissioners I end my presentation thank you Mr cook and uh if you would like to introduce uh the um partitioner for us have him come forward please I have a quick question Mr yes there is a question on it Mr cook remind me this site came before us maybe last year um I believe for some kind of height amendment I wasn't quite sure if it was tied to the northern property the hotel but I remember this came before for approval height modification for the zoning that zone District so Mr Mr clar what we had was for the um White House Inn that came before you that was two years ago 2022 2022 when it came before you um and thus with the extended conversation I had about the restricted Covenant that they have there that maximize their have maximum height to 110 and how the community has some concern that this um Amendment could potentially impact that thus why we introduced the language in it rather than saying generally south of 123rd specifically south of 123rd and we also introduced the language that was specifically put in from the restricted Covenant as part of the um of this text Amendment so it would not you did see it but it was only for that one site only it was kind of convoluted because you know because when they did that they did they put in language in that that would have made any height request that they had would have been restricted to that one site whatsoever and not to the rest of Bay Shore in this instance this amendment is for the rest of Bay Shore but not for that site okay good evening sir state your name absolutely address for the record and you may begin it will be my pleasure one second here good evening Patrick Assan of Holland the night with offices at 701 Brickle Avenue I'm joined this evening by my colleague Alexandri San Romain I'm also joined by representatives of the developer 12,000 property owner which is a an affiliate of the Continuum company Bruce ier Alexandra ikner and William Wallace IV it is my pleasure to be before you this evening requesting a recommendation of approval for these text amendments I want to thank Derek for his very thorough presentation I will go a little bit more into some of the specific language that we're providing uh but I want to provide some quick context before we start talking specifically about the Amendments because I want to make sure that your scope of what we're talking about tonight is clear tonight you're not approving a building tonight you're not approving a site plan tonight you're not approving a design you're not doing any of that tonight tonight the only thing that you're doing is potentially recommending approval for an authorization for us to come back with a plan a design buildings that meet the criteria that we've put within this text Amendment next slide please as Derek has talked about continuously during his presentation one of the aspects with respect to the criteria that we're providing for the text amendments is going to require a conditional use permit which this Planning Commission is very well acquainted with consistently conditional use permits come before you and you make recommendations on them so to the extent that this Planning Commission recommends approval of the text Amendment which I will talk about in a second it will the actual design of the building the site plan the project will come back before you so you can see if we have met all of the criteria that is within the text amendment that is being proposed and I'm going to go through some of of that criteria so that everybody can understand exactly what's being presented and exactly what we're seeking as part of the text Amendment next slide please one of the things that Derek noted and one of the things that we're doing is we're providing a mirror uh image with respect to the uh comprehensive plan that essentially will provide that uh a bonus that would allow a maximum height of up to 238 feet 10 in would be permitted subject to a variety of different criteria that meets uh and is consistent with what we're doing in the Land Development regulations next slide now as to the specific text I want to be clear as to the five things that we would have to do in addition to your code in order to actually have a project approved that is coming before you as part of this text Amendment this text Amendment again is simply setting forth the framework by which any specific spe ific cup application will be judged that is Seeking a height of up to 238 ft and 10 in first any application would have to go through a conditional use permit process which means that this board would have to see that project before it goes to city council second any such applicant would have to provide for either a contribution to a park that will enhance the views to bis game Bay or would have to provide access on their own site for the public to be able to view the bay third any application would have to be able to provide sustainability and resiliency through the green standards fourth and this is a point I know that uh was on dereck's slide but that was not emphasized there has to be a separation of at least 75 ft from any building that is being presented to the nearest single family residentially Zone district and finally there has to be a community benefits package and we we agree with the amendment that's being proposed for for the text Amendment to the comp plan that is acceptable and approved by the city council and with the recommendation from this uh commission and so those are the five criterias that would have to be met in order for any project to be able to go forward tonight you're not approving that project there is no project there is no site plan there is no development that you are reviewing tonight what you are doing is you're analyzing whether this text Amendment would allow for the type of potential development that could come before you so that you can review it and see if it makes sense when it comes back before you next slide please now one of the important aspects of this text amendment is that it's specifically limited uh uh limited because it's located south to nor south of Northeast 123rd Street and the reason why we've done that is because there have been a variety of uh discussions um with respect to another project north of Northeast 123rd Street and we wanted to make sure that there was no conflation that there was no confusion regarding what this text amendment is doing it only applies to the area south of Northeast 123 Street East of Bayshore Drive next slide please and I want to be clear about this because I think I want to make sure that you understand what the text is providing for the text as we've presented it to staff States an applicant May seek only for properties in the bz District that are specifically located south of Northeast 123rd Street and East of basore drive a height bonus subject to the following criteria which I've just gone through and so what this is doing is specifically limiting it to the area that's south of Northeast 123rd Street next slide please and then it specifically talks about some of the items uh that limited to the Declaration of restrictions that had been applied to the White House and I'm going to spin some quick uh moments on the Declaration itself so that folks can understand why we're talking about it and why it does not apply to any properties within the bz north of Northeast 123rd Street so there is a declaration of restrictions that's recorded it's existing and that Declaration of restrictions specifically provides specific limitations with respect to the development of property north of Northeast 123r Street within the Bas Zone next slide and in particular although there are a variety of different restrictions at provision two it specifically states that the property shall be limited to a height of 110 ft next slide please and then in the uh provisions of that Declaration of restrictions it specifically states that any restriction any language any modification that would occur to that Declaration of restriction could only occur upon a super majority vote of the mayor and the city council and so when it comes to the properties north of Northeast 123rd Street it is very clear that this text Amendment will not be impacting it at all next slide now with respect to the text amendment that we're looking at tonight the text amendments that you're reviewing you are not approving a project you are not approving a bonus outside of the area that we're talking about you are not allowing for projects that lack of community benefits uh package to even come before you and you are requiring that anything that would come before you would have a conditional use permit process would go through the process and as you all know the conditional use permit process is a robust process that requires us to submit to staff to have DRC during that process since there's a community benefit package that's going to be included we're going to engage with the community and engage in community input to ensure that we're providing for a balanced perspective with respect to our development and how we can address the needs and concerns of the community next slide in addition anybody that's seeking this hyp bonus would have to provide for enhancement to either a par or to their own property that would allow for public access to view the bay to ensure that more people can enjoy the Beautiful natural resources of the city next slide in addition any project that would come before you would have to satisfy the Green Building certification to ensure that there is sustainability and resiliency for the site and then finally we would have to provide a community benefits package that is acceptable and approved and that would be rev reviewed by this Planning Commission what's important about this is that this these text Amendments have been narrowly tailored to ensure that the public as a whole and as the and that the residents in particular are benefited because it's a process by which we're going to have to come back with very specific items to this commission to say this is how we meet aspect number one number two number three number four and number five in addition to meeting all of the other criteria of the cup Pro process now as part of the cup process there's already a requirement for us to provide a utility impact study so that we can take into account some of the provisions of public infrastructure and so that folks can understand and so that this Commission in the city council can understand its impact this project is not increasing density this amendment is not increasing density this amendment is not changing density this amendment is only providing for an opportunity for for a project to come before you that meets all of these five criteria and we think given the variety of different criteria that we've provided given the fact that it's specifically tailored to address the public benefit and the the benefits of the of the residents here in the city we think that this commission to recommend approval I thank you for your time I'm here to answer any questions and respond for rebuttal thank you so much um thank you Mr pant um is there any questions on any of the points that he brought out before I open up the uh public hearing something that you heard or do you need a little CL clarification on um before we move forward anyone on the commission had a more yes sir Mr Clark not a question to his report maybe David could help me out here the property the southernmost tip of the property I remember once upon a time yeah that has a yeah higher height than anything on that Road 169 ft 169 thank you I just wanted to know what that was thank you right thank you for bringing it up Mr Clark um there there are other properties that um as you indicated was that the only property that would would currently exceed the 115 foot uh limit that the um property allows for now so it's the only property within the bz uh mayorca is the only property within the bz that exceeds the highight but bayew also exceeds the height of its zoning District by 189 ft okay so there are some there are different buildings within the area that as they exist today okay thank you for that clarification my pleasure thank you good to M BL CH recogniz thank you so thank you so very much Mr gassant for that presentation so I have a quick question as you already know the city went through a very long process in putting together our comprehensive plan our 10-year comprehensive plan and today we're coming forth with a text Amendment why so I think what's important about this text amendment is that there are a variety of things that to take into account with respect to changes uh in the area um the the comprehensive plan adoption is an adoption that contemplates that there may be amendments for change circumstances one of the change circumstances with respect to the project and with respect to the amendment process is that there are certain elevations that are going to be changing with respect to certain projects so for example the seaw wall along the site is currently at 6 ft uh the project that will be coming before you will be elevating it to 8 ft for resiliency and so one of the things to take into account as you're looking at a comprehensive plan and as you're planning different aspects with respect to height uh different aspects with respect to different projects is understanding what a project can do and what can be built on the sites uh in addition today in this area there is an existing drainage issue onto basore Drive the projects as they were built in uh 1960s and the 1970s created a scenario where they have to retain drainage on site so when it range it literally pours into the roadway and so what these projects will do is actually retain the drainage on site to help prevent that drainage from going into the roadway so in in in addition to that uh there are variety of factors to take into account with respect to change circumstances within the market interest rates construction costs to be able to have a viable project that can help to address these issues from a policy standpoint to to ensure that there's a benefit to the city uh and to ensure that there's an opportunity for development to occur on these sites that is respectful uh that is uh curated and that is tailored to addressing the concerns and the public impacts from the development thank you Mr gassant thank you Mr M all right at this point then yes sir Mr H yeah I just want to make two quick points yes one is with respect to the community benefits package uh one of the Amendments that Mr Mr cook had proposed was that the language read that the applicant has the option to proper a community benefits package um and we all encouraged that to avoid having some undefined requirement that um could be deemed a version of contract zoning that um was completely undefined and in this way that you know there would be an expectation that it would be provided but it's not codified that there's a requirement that would be provided okay all right so what does that do to the language the ordinance uh yeah the the language was and the uh applicant has the option to profer a community benefits package that includes Community input Planning Commission recommendation to the city council that is acceptable and approved by the city council so it's still there all right it's just not uh an undefined requirement that um May create a legal issue make and to the extent that that is a concern we're happy to profer voluntarily profer a commitment to providing benefit I knew they would the other point is you you actually have eight members sitting here tonight seven plus an alternate so the city code says that seven members shall conduct the business of the board so at this point the alternate which is Dr vesson can participate but I don't think he'll be voting unless one of you for some reason has to leave the meeting early before the vote okay so at this point then um since uh he cannot be voting um I see no reason for him then I mean if you're he's fine to still I've discussed it he he has worthwhile input and can par at in all of the discussion so I think he should say vote okay and this way in case he may be needed to vote we would have a full compliment all right but again there there will only be seven votes taken so everybody understands that not right not eight all right very good okay so um I know there's uh folks that are anxious to um speak on this again I'll stick to the three minutes that I said earlier um and um try to keep in mind toh stick to the points uh if there's other issues that um play into um what you think um would either benefit or oppose this if it's not related to the U the height um then I encourage you to try to you know stick to this uh keep to the point of of that that's what's before for you um and and uh you know judge your comments um we don't want you to you know discuss any other issues that you have uh regarding any other um issues that might exist outside of what we're discussing tonight so I hope everybody kind of understands that and uh you know we'll do our best to to U let you all um uh give your testimony so um the hearing the public hearing is now open anyone wishing to speak on it may come forward and I urge you all kind of maybe like line up so that the Madam Secretary you could take note for those that um have been sworn in um so please we have two podiums if one would like to come to one Podium and wait and we'll kind of move along there's another person that would like to speak after this gentleman your you're welcome to go to the next Podium to wait good evening sir and Mr good evening one second Hernando arto on one second second I would just like to say please don't wait until he's done and then come up whoever would like to speak be here so that way because I know there's quite a few people who want to make comments so we can keep this flowing yeah we like to keep it flowing and we're not here by too long and we start getting minutes I I mentioned yeah uh Mr chairman uh before I start I I present a request to allow additional time to present this document um I'm unfortunately I'm going to keep to my three minutes sir if you had any documents that you could send the staff you know they they have a record of it so please please go ahead and in that okay in that case as the um hearing request uh written observations can be bring I brought those you have copy and I will appreciate for the members of this commission to read through I won't take the time but you read through because we uh respond every single item that Mr Derek now now let me get you started off in the right foot let me have your name and address okay for the record sir and then okay then let me sir uh my name is Hernando VTO uh resident of 11930 uh nor Bacher Drive uh unit 1106 maor towers and and um going back to the question of Mr Clark and and Mr bore this issue has been discussed in this same commission since 2022 uh when we were discussing and this commission was uh reviewing the comprehensive plan the issue about the increase the height was presented was discussed there was several meetings Community meetings workshops and the decision of the commission was not to um entertain an increase over 115 then um and the decision of the council was not entertain not approve anything about that I after that then Mr Gan that represent three projects came with the idea that try to use the bans uh procedure to go around or about that uh limit that is is a matter of what is the character of our city do we want to be sun or do we want to stay in in a city like suide that is 120 limit period and is ocean front then it's about character and that is what is defined in the comprehensive plan then this amendment has been rushed to you in matter of days even the packet that is supposed to be presented with the hidden was only published two days ago then this is just to put in context another attempt of Mr Gan to uh go around this thing on the other hand with all due respect even that that they say that you can um see this this picture that is in there H what the changing the comprehensive zone is doing after the the White House was included in the VC Zone then there are four Parcels in the VC Zone White House this property Mariners Bay the other property one and mayorca and then what is surpris in is now they say Okay White House is not but we are requesting a some change even in mayorca that this already developed and nobody has requested a a change on that then uh finally there is a there is an issue about about they can already do this they already have the ability to do Luxury buildings and and in in 11 floors as a matter of fact they are saying that White House is building a luxury building in 10 floors and is financially viable and the final point is Mr is please no comments from the audience I will conduct this meeting all right everybody will get a chance to talk and we will try to moderate it so we don't cut them off in mids sentence you will have the opportunity to also speak with those conditions all right sir please wrap it up thank you um the last point is Mr disner signed the application um saying that he is the owner of that property but according to the previous hearing they are this company and this developer are still not the owner then there is a procedural issue there because he is not the owner all right thank you so much thank you next please good evening sir name and address yes house shonfeld majorka Towers 11930 North Bay Shore Drive uh first of all in all due respect to the people at the Mariner Bay what they're going through I do feel terrible about it and it this is decision it's very difficult so I do understand what they're going through but it should have not a lot to do with what we're doing here today uh what I don't understand is the height they want to increase the height and that's all they want to do everything prior to today was increasing the height and having much more density what has changed has suddenly as a developer decided if I can go up 238 I can get a lot more for each unit if that's the case that doesn't sound horrible to me but it sounds like they went from more density more height to suddenly no no we just want the height and we'll charge more per uh unit something seems suspect it sounds like again a little back door get the height and then we'll get them later on the density that's my only concern what they're really saying is they figured out that they can make a lot of money by just increasing the height same amount of density I don't see a big issue there but I it's hard for me to believe that they change their whole these are developers they know more than we do they know what they can get and they know the value no matter what the height I don't understand why all of a sudden it's no no just give us the height well don't worry about it that's the only thing that makes me suspect all du respect I'm not a developer thank you thank you sir good evening good evening kareno 1935 South Hibiscus thank you um Mr Clark you said you asked about the VZ Zone hiding height when we were here for the Keystone White House in thing my memory is that it was for the whole beey Zone that they were I do have the same memory but um so Switzerland here um I want to express my appreciation to the developer and to staff for carving out that Northern spot because you all obviously know what we went through at the White House in property we've come to a compromise they've opened up their sales Center we're very excited to see that become a good neighbor and for all of us to get along so we do appreciate that that Northern pocket is not part of this conversation um for some strange reason everybody's called me on this I'm like you guys for some reason I answered the phone um so I've told this to everybody and I just need to go on the record as having said this to everybody um I do feel that the residents that are directly impacted that are residing in the area that will be remaining in the area that those are the folks that do deserve a conversation that's more than three minutes um I think if they had an attorney he would get more than three minutes and I would hope having been that Resident having hire that attorney um I would hope that those folks that are going to be left behind would get their time and I and I heart goes out to Mariners Bay I understand their dilemma they're not going to be living there so they're on the side of needing to leave I get it but it isn't really fair for them to determine what happens for the people that are left behind um I have said to everybody those two things um I do think it's unfair I've said that we I Keystone Point has not taken a position on this not that anybody cares but just a to go on record um I felt it was really hard when people from outside the immediate area were coming up here and saying do it do it do it we need the tax dollars and I just feel it really does belong to the immediate residents not that the city doesn't need help um I have said everybody repeatedly find a compromise we did um I do get a feeling that everybody's been kind of standing their ground saying no there is no way to compromise um I would hope there is um lastly I'm going to show my ignorance something I do up here on a regular basis um I'm really concerned about precedent so is is bonus the precedent is that an okay precedent can that precedent get used again I don't know if youall have driven through Keystone I assure you I can't afford to buy a house there these days um my my homes next to us you know our little single family homes that many of us moved into many years ago cute little things um they're now cement blocks that are the full everything possible many without plants we're talking green Lawns um so my just my concern is does the bonus concept does the precedent get to be used in other ways thank you very much for your time thank you Mr good evening ma'am and state your name and address please good evening Lanna kazlowski with shuin Law Group offices at 100 Southeast 2nd Street I'm here today on behalf of mariners Bay Condominium Association I know that this commission is well aware of the situation facing your constituents at Mariners Bay it's a situation that several municipalities are dealing with right now thousands of condominium unit owners have been grappling with these issues for the last three years we are looking at an aging building and it is in need of immediate attention there is severe concrete deterioration that need needs to be addressed and it is creating life safety issues now in our case the restoration work is feasible but the price tag is enormous and that is Complicated by the fact that we are only 46 unit owners so the burden is tremendous tonight we could have easily filled this room with close to 45 of the unit owners who support this text Amendment but we want to be respectful of your time so we have submitted uh affidavits through email and we just have a few folks who are going to speak tonight they will tell you you know personally what the financial hardships are they will tell you why they support this text Amendment but uh I just want to focus on uh impressing upon you how time sensitive this is and what we're asking for is just that the deliberations take place tonight and that you give us a chance to move forward I think it's been said thoroughly and eloquently by Mr cook and Mr gassant the applicant is is doing what everyone asked them to do go through this particular process come before you uh this is going to go before the council for two readings and again this is not site plan approval the applicant will be back before you and the public will have multiple opportunities to give input on the actual project the last comment that I'll make uh cuz again we want to be respectful of your time is that the Mariners Bay folks are not coming to you or or any of the public officials saying bail us out of this situation at the last minute they themselves have been very proactive they have worked extensively to find a solution to their problem and it's a solution that almost 100% of the unit owners agree age with that's very difficult to come upon but this is a solution that's not available in perpetuity at some point the opportunity will pass and that's why we are respectfully asking this commission to provide favorable recommendation and allow us to move forward the applicant to move forward to city council thank you thank you very much good evening ma'am name and address please e Baba 13350 Northeast third Court um I'm in going to align with the um neighbors who are in different areas that are concerned of how this as um Karen previously said is going to set a president throughout the community you know I mean once developers open one area the next one comes and say well we want to do the same thing here before we know it we have height increases all over the city um and and that is a problem we just went through going through the comprehensive plan and one of that the reasons for doing that it has been the city has been plagued with gigantic loopholes in the law that has been the developers have been running through they have just been barreling through causing severe hardship to the existing residents in those areas we've seen it and we've had a public hearing and you and it was decided that this was going to remain a specific height so now I think it is not a good idea to then now be going around it is like getting us how many times are you going to come back at Apple you know um I am also concerned in terms of um the White House hand I know that they said that they had specifically put stuff in there to not allow it but we have seen I would like to make sure that that does not Happ happen I know that they put a a line in the code but that is that is something that's a process that that we have to make sure that we can have Community benefits agreements and that those agreements stand up where it's not constantly coming back for the the community to go around it now for the people that are selling now I I want to know are they getting a huge premium for their property which then drives up the price which then makes them have to go higher in order to make it profitable and if that is the case you essentially have 45 people getting a premium while everybody else have in that's in the neighborhood have a potential issue that they may not want and they the ones left behind thank you thank you very much good evening sir name and address please good evening Eddie moliner 1875 Keystone Boulevard um I just want to bring to you guys please to take into consideration that we're having de Shabu again we're coming back to once again go against what was given to the city as a comprehensive plan in having zoning this area busy and having a top of 115 so once again same representation for maybe another developer but coming to you guys and asking for another increase what is to say if we increase to them that even though they're putting prop properties that are north of 123rd that it's not being affected for that owner to come and say well why not me if you allow them why not me you know and maybe potentially suing the city because I mean as an educator I could tell you we got to treat everybody the same if we allow one person to do something we have to allow other people also they're saying that the height will not affect anyone that lives on the houses right in front of 135th knows that the Privacy with within two or three blocks is affected by the height of those building so all those houses that you saw on the map okay that are I believe south of that Corridor will be affected by an extra 120 ft of our height so all those houses will be affected by that privacy so please when they say it's not going to be affected not not a deal I've been in Boards of condominiums in Sony house where yes we want to get bought out want to make money but you know what when people talk about being bought out and what their benefits are those people are going to be moving out those people are not going to be the ones the property owners or those houses with privacy shade and everything will be affected so please take that into consideration and like Karen said those Neighbors on that area that will be affected by privacy by the shade and everything that this uh doubling of the Zone will be affected please listen to them because because they're the ones who personally will be affected maybe not me personally because I don't live there but those living there will definitely be personally so I definitely appreciate if you guys take that into consideration thank you hi my name is Deborah Davies 1165 Northeast 127th Street with all due respect I am opposed to raising this um the permitted height on this development from 115 ft to 238 ft if that's the correct numbers does anyone believe that this will be a one-off situation once you approve this developers will be lining up to build 200ft tall buildings all along the bay in Sans Susi and then in other parts of the city as with other high-rise developments in single family neighborhoods it is a complete fiction that they have no adverse imp impacts as the ldrs require as I think maybe some of you know I and my neighbors are living through these adverse impacts as we speak in my home on Northeast 127 Street directly across the street from the gardens residences and I want to say the gentleman who spoke before is absolutely right we sit in our backyard and it Towers over us and we have not even begun to experience the full adverse impacts of this development that will only become clear once it is open for business and that is quote unquote only nine stories high while what you are looking at tonight is about 20 stories what about flooding which is already a problem on North Bay Shore Drive one for which the infrastructure is already inadequate people move to North Miami because they don't want to live in brickl in high-rise buildings that routinely flood during storms why not instead think about protecting Sans sui and the rest of North Miami from the impacts of the climate crisis and sea level rise North Miami needs real Progressive urban planning that will include good lowcost housing for all who need it while improving the quality of life for all of us this is our chance to make North Miami a place where people want to come and live instead of a place where developers come to make their fortunes at our expense thank you very much thank you very much ma'am good evening sir name and address please for the record good evening good evening everybody my name is Stefano campanini and I live at 450 Northeast 127th Street um thank you everyone for joining me and I really appreciate the words immediately of the of the council woman when she noticed that there is a character of the city and that we work very hard to build that character of the city and that suddenly now it wants to be changed in in a in such a quick way uh something else I would like to add when I hear the comment of the gentleman here that says you know we're going to be maintaining a distance of at least 75 ft from the building can you imagine what it is 75 ft for the neighbors with a tower that is 280 ft High you know this is this is really an invasion of private space of property and of the character of the neighborhood we have a huge Tower next to them I don't think this is any kind of fairness to them uh I would like to rebuttle uh if I can uh the the attorney that just spoke um a little bit before me you know because I don't think that it is uh the work of the commission to to worry about the degradation of the building and I agree with Mr Barto that uh 11 floor High it is enough uh and you know the city of Surfside has been managing awesomely really awesomely without only having their height so there is no need to bring any height above that and there is also one last point that I want to bring in uh I actually do not uh person Al agree to use a different standards only for a developer only for an area and not for everyone else it only means to make a ma massive gift to that special developer because he has guaranteed an unoccupied view at the expenses of the of the people that would otherwise come later and ask for the same thing and I don't think this is fair I don't think you know in in any way this should be granted so I appreciate your time and thank you very much for listening to me good evening name and address for the record please hi Jill KH and I live at 289 Northeast 123rd Street and I've lived in my townhouse for 40 years now I bought it when I was 25 and before that I lived in Sans suusi and before that I grew up in bree weep so I am a longtime resident and not that um I'm owed anything for that but as somebody that knows firstand can the hardships that have become on living on Main Street are only going to get worse and the size of that development is just crushing totally crushing to me and another point I would like to make in your planning is that Park and actually this neighborhood this Sans sui triangle that I live in is my uh Center of My Universe and has been for decades so it's not like the heart of North Miami is right here although it could be because my Dad's Law Office used to be right across the street so I feel a big kinship but that part of North Miami is a little bit separate and I remember days when we had fountains entering the entrances to S suusi so if somehow the storm water could be incorporated into a few fountains I would like that because it sort of Lent itself to a beachy feeling and a feeling of affluence and a feeling of Promise of a nice life at a beach toown and I think we're really going to lose it and we're going to turn turn into 79 Street Causeway and the dot will come in and we're so congested right now people don't let me out of my driveway you're trapped okay you're like trapped and I know this isn't a traffic issue also the environment I feel gets harmed and the setback from the street from what I saw of the building there's a lot of focus on the bay but that's only accessible to the units the owners that are going to be there there's no other access and for them to take our Park which is like my Central Park and make it an accessory to a condo I said keep your hands off that it's a dog park a lot of people go to and if we're going to have more dogs in the neighborhood with all these condos it needs to be expanded not gotten rid of and I like how Coral Gables they don't even provide parking in any of their Parks Shenley Park Christmas Tree Park cuz it's for the residents it's not for the whole world to come enjoy our Park there's other places and there's going to be a whole thing by the bridge the new highway for the public that Park belongs to us people in s Susi that live there's a lot of highrises and it's actually a very nice Central meeting park for the community so um I could go on and one more point is I do see it from Mariners Bay cuz my mom owns a condo there and there goes my inheritance because she's spending boatloads of money but I believe the developer given no choice can make a smaller building and 110 ft is a lot for me to swallow cuz it's going from four floors to 10 that's enough people the developers more is Never Enough and now they want to double that and I say no emphatically no okay thank you hi name it address for the record please Max Carney 12,000 North bashore Drive Unit 306 um I just want to say you know I I moved to the city because I didn't want to live in Brickle that that's right um I like the character of the city I moved here from my favorite restaurants um but you know the and candidly I moved here for the centrality right within the county and kind of where I spend my time both for for personal and for work um and a couple of things you know I I've been a resident here for for five years um and I do I love the city and I look forward to saying um I've had um the chart plotter stolen off my boat I think twice now um my neighbor was robbed at gunpoint in the parking lot about eight minutes after my wife and I got home um we had another shooting next door where the perpetrator threw the gun on the property so I look at at for our community what the tax base of this building can do both for Public Safety right but also for public services and something that a lot of the residents in the building would like to continue to enjoy for a long time and the only other thing I want to say is there's a lot of talk about how Surf Side can manage to provide all of these things without having uh you know height above 110 ft I think and I think you guys would know better than I would I think a Condo building and or a condo a single condo in Surf Side just sold for $44 million the adorm taxes of that single condominium unit are likely higher than the entirety of mariners Bay is today so yeah while they can do it without such additional height the tax base which is really what's driving it is so significantly higher than what we have thanks sh good evening sir name an address for record yeah Alberto Jin 2 Northeast 124 Street um I have to believe that the master plan um created the B BC zone for a reason right there is a whole logic behind it what we're asking right now is to change that logic I mean we are increasing the size and there are some repercussions that are not clear 75 ft distant from a neighborhood doesn't answer the objective 1.6 in that plan that talks about uh creating a transition between highrise buildings and single home residence 161 I believe so by by altering this this uh busy Zone even though it's not a project we're altering the plan and there is no fundamental reason unless there is an analysis of why are we ignoring the original reasons why we creating the Buc Zone just to alter a project because at the end of the day it's a project now it will have repercussion for other developers and as I mentioned before you said president that allow somebody else to come in and alter our plan so please have into consideration those elements this is not a rush let's change the plan for allowing to yes is a second consultation or discussion but in essence we're opening the the master plan and allowing for the B BC Zone to be altered so please do consider that as you uh discussed thank you so much thank you very much sir good evening name and address for the record yeah Adam Cohen 12,000 North Bay um I'm not going to harp on the situation that Mariners Bay is in uh it's bad um it's not a position that we at all want to be in or put North Miami through I love North Miami and my home um I never saw myself going anywhere but here we are uh the city of North Miami has such an amazing win-win opportunity uh a new development will will not only help the residents of mariners Bay get out of their awful situation but it'll help the Bayshore neighborhood by preventing another value killing White House in type property and it'll help increase much needed tax revenue for the city I really hope that you all can vote in favor and send this to city council members to work on the details of a practical development project which EV which everybody will benefit from thank you excuse me sir I'm sorry are you a resident of Marina Bay yes I'm vice president okay your name again Adam thank you hi good evening name and address for the record please Allison selino U Mariners Bay 12,000 North Bay Shore Drive um good evening I love my neighborhood I work locally and hope to remain in the area long after development occurs at the Mariners Bay site um and this is why I wanted to voice my concerns about the increasing crime we've been seeing while living in the neighborhood um we've seen multiple shootings from drug deals gone wrong um and so many car break-ins that I have lost count um we've complained many times to the city to help police the park and close it every night but I don't think there are enough resources um sometimes I leave for work before the sun comes up and often times I get home um well after it's already dark and I've become more afraid for my safety I don't feel safe going for a walk anymore and this shouldn't be um just a couple months ago there was an armed robbery in our own parking lot again Max addressed it shortly before he and his wife came home um I arrived shortly after that uh this city needs resources that will come from increasing tax revenue from projects like this one being proposed so just please vote Yes to allow the developer to present this project to the city um so that they can work with the developer and save this wonderful neighborhood thank you ma'am no yeah we can't no yeah she can they tell when she did she gave her name and address no are you a renter or you a owner she she's my partner ah okay yeah thank you just for everyone who's coming forward with Marina's Bay if you if you a renter tell us you're a renter if you are owner tell us you're owner we need to know who's speaking to us so we can understand your position thank you thank you all right go ahead ma'am good morning good evening my name is Laura galano 12,000 North bashore Drive owner president of mariners Bay Condominiums I'm here to ask you to recommend approval of the text Amendment to the council which is crucial not only for the 46 families who own units at Mariners but for the entire North Miami Community if these text amendments do not proceed our association faces eminent Financial collapse which I believe you are all well aware of our operating account is critically low we've been hit with a staggering 800% increase in insurance premiums and if our sale dies we will be years past our 40-year recertification which last year was expected to be $3.4 million like many aging condos we are faced with insurmountable crises moreover any delay in City approval will undoubtably push Mariners Bay into receivership leading to foreclosures fire sales and Plum pting property values in our neighboring North Miami communities I recognize this is a burden that we are imparting on you and I ask two things one that you help expedite the approval process by recommending the project to the council today and two that you recognize and that everyone recognizes that this text amendment is specifically not meant for the White House Insight but rather specific to the location South of 125th if this text Amendment does proceed we are looking at a win-win solution for the city these amendments create an opportunity for the developer to come back before this commission and present a project that creates substantial Community benefits adheres to Smart growth and creates substantial economic incentives for the entire city neighbors will not be adversely impacted by Falling property values and instead they will see a large injection of taxes and Community uh Community benefits this is $4 million a year in tax revenue a substantial increase over the existing $300,000 a year tax from Mariners currently these new funds benefit both the east and west side of our city the 2023 24 City budget is $28 million yet a gap remains in funding critical City Maintenance and resources which we've discussed um everyone on both sides have discussed that need tonight these amendments are the first step to present present a project to bridge this Gap 20 million over 5 years $43 million over a decade allowing for progress in much delayed water sewer roadways drainage police resources for the for the community Safety and Security um I ask all those in support of the project to please stand thank you thank you thank you very much good evening sir name and address for the record please good evening my name is andrees baretto I am a resident owner of 2177 122nd Street part of colonade and I am here today as a supporter of progress development and higher income for the city I'm also interested in that lot and the lot next to it to be devel veled I do not oppose development I do not oppose progress I am not a nimi proponent or resident what I do believe though is that all the benefits or many or most of the benefits presented today as necessary with a condition or an exception or a bonus are there with the current rules that we have so I'll again ask you to please open page seven in what you have in front of you it's easy to get get confused and think that at least myself who opposes opening the door for these conditional changes to height to think that it is that or nothing and that's not the reality we have an option here we have an option of creating a building that fits in that description in page seven and that will bring us all the benefits including the tax revenue including the luxury apartments that the developer wants to build and I do want to make sure that you're not suaded by the things that are outside of the consideration of just height including what the attorney of the developer has mentioned about how difficult it is for the developer to generate higher eida or financial returns or a higher cap rate because of construction costs or because of interest rates that is outside of what you're here to decide today what you're here to decide today will have consequences into how other developers in other properties can come to this committee or similar committees saying and I remember from the variance discussion oh if there's another building nearby now we can request or opens the door for a variance which was shut down so the consequence here goes beyond the residents of Mayers Bay who again is outside of this discussion because we're only talking about height so I invite you to consider the precedent that you're setting and understand understanding that we do have an option of still building luxury buildings in what's allowed and showed in page s thank you for your time thank you very much sir anyone else wishing to address this issue please step forward give you a few more seconds and I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing okay the public hearing is now closed the petitioner uh does have an opportunity to thank you so much so I want to go through some of these items because I think it's important again to think about context this applicant actually went through a board of adjustment hearing got the height approved by Avance went and was told by city council that the appropriate process was a text Amendment so the reason why we're before you with a text amendment is because we were told that the appropriate process for this is a text Amendment that's the first thing number two there have been a variety of statements made that if you make any changes to your comprehensive plan that it's going to apply to every other property in the city today in this city in solia you have a height of over 400 feet nowhere else in the city do you have that height and that's been in place since after 2010 yet somehow that hasn't that hasn't reached this area that hasn't reached White House in that hasn't reached other areas of the city so this idea that by merely changing the comprehensive plan for this site that it's going to create a precedent where it's going to have a rolling stream is just not burden it's not created by the facts it's not supported by the situation that we're in if we were ever to create a precedent this would be the precedent to set a precedent that provides for an opportunity to obtain a maximum height set with very specific conditions conditions that would provide for Park improvements conditions that would provide for access to view the bay conditions that would ensure for sustainability and resiliency conditions that would ensure that there is a community benefits package that ensures that there is community input and approval by the city council if there was ever a precedent that should be adopted by the council and that should be recommended by this commission it should be a recommendation and a precedent that says you have to deal with specific criteria to get hype not just blatantly changing the height so these arguments that you've heard today about the moment you change this height is going to apply across the city just isn't born out by the facts because you have existing height in the city that ex that exceeds greatly the height that we're seeking as part of the Tex Amendment and even as I talk here today about the approval of the TX Amendment we would still have to come back to this Planning Commission and seek approval of a specific project that this Planning Commission believes meets the criteria and that that is appropriate in order to be approved so for me this idea that this isn't the the appropriate process is wrong we've been told that this is the correct process two the idea that this is going to create a bad precedent is wrong because it's not supported by the facts if there was ever a precedent this should be the precedent that you set that creates specific criteria for anybody seeking a maximum height and then I I heard a variety of different things regarding um the public welfare and improving the public welfare when we come back to you with a specific project we'll have the tax revenues we'll have an analysis of the impact we'll have an analysis of the economic impact from the project and we'll have an analysis and AE presentation on the specific Community benefits that are being presented that this commission can review that this commission can evaluate that this commission can analyze to determine whether in fact the specific project that we're bringing before you is entitled to go up to that maximum height this doesn't give anybody a maximum height so let me gave them a maximum height this gives an an applicant an opportunity for an for a maximum height for respect of the site so I thank you for your time I'm here to answer any questions uh and appreciate your willingness to listen thank you so much this evening thank you very much okay uh ladies and gentlemen we've heard the the testimony from variety of of testimonies of a variety of people either either opposed or for this project um I'm going to go ahead and open up uh the commission for discussion I'm sure we all have some strong feelings about this uh either way so um I'll begin with Dr Besson down below sir if you could please your mic sir speaking to your mic um somewhere about a year ago or so somebody did come to the uh to the commission and ask for a height increase to 450 feet were you aware of that so I that property that you now have parceled no no no I'm not aware of anybody coming before to seek 450 ft at this site I know that there has been discussions about that process but there hasn't been an applicant that has come before you a year ago 450 discussions for for the record U staff don't we have a a minimum currently set in place of uh 20 250 ft do we did we not does not the comp plan address the maximum height and I don't recall anybody coming before us with a 450 ft so um height remember yes what happened is during our comprehensive plan um approval process that Mr prel did come up from the ordinance to request if they would consider including in our comprehensive Plan update increasing the height to 450 ft I don't even know it wasn't even even slightly entertained um at that at that meeting yeah I don't recall anything of that nature being um further discussed or voted on yes so and and again could you Enlighten us again as to what our height limit is that is the maximum height that we have listed in the comprehensive plan for a building in North Miami as far as so our maximum height by right is actually the bz Zone at 150 ft now we do have overlay districts that through the conditional use you can in certain areas have a height of 200 ft the north Miami transit station overlay District you can get that the sdt o you can get 200 um on the PCD along Northwest 7th Avenue on the east side you can get 200 ft right and did we not discuss I I don't want to use the term moratorium but I think it was kind of a moratorium that we put on um not recognizing the overlay districts on request for for um a change change in in the um text or or otherwise in the comprehensive plan because this was a discussion we had and I believe we Mr attorney I had asked you about that and you said well basically we were asking for a moratorium to not allow to be considered I probably told you you couldn't do that right so uh there's there is not one in effect um so I'm not sure where this conversation is going well um but at one point we were told that the I Believe Miss love described it as um I wish I could see the the text on it but at one point we were we were told that those overlaid districts basically don't exist after a certain point so anything that was um entertained before that would count in the plan but anything after us doing away with the overlay districts um would not be included in the comp plan maybe you can alight me with the discussion Mr chair I believe you're referring to the nro that's the only time I recall this type of discussion I believe recently we carved out the nro in the comp plan and there was discussion about right a moratorium for the ldrs but it's only that one District the nro it's not the nro only the nro yes in our update of the comprehensive plan we are removing the nro overlay district and in that vein we we will have a moratorium for development once we start the zoning process right but this that's n it's n but that's not Citywide that's what I wanted to try to get a clarification on thank you okay this application is properly before you right there's no issue right okay thank you um all right um Mr Bon did you have any other questions or comments or just the question um why are you asking for the height increase what is the reason so the reasoning uh for the height increase is that we think that the change circumstances orted in the project that we're seeking to develop uh necessitates the height increase in order for us to develop that project we were going to need that height uh and so in order to even come before you with that specific project we had to go through this process again we had gone through a board of adjustments process that had approved the height and we were told that this would be the process to change the height in order for us to present a specific project before the council and that's why we're before you so let me ask council did they in fact get wrong direction from the um from what is the board of adjustments you went to no so we went to the board of adjustments and we got it approved they got approved so this is what I don't understand if they were approved by them why would they then then told that they would have to come to us that would negate the approval by that board of adjustment correct not exactly so the board of adjustment in my mind approved the variant request for additional height because it felt the pro pro proposed project had substantial Merit and it felt it would be a a benefit to the area and that justified the height increase that it met the criteria that were that was set forth in the city code for a variance that that approval was appealed to the city council which reversed the approval and directed the applicant to file an amendment to both the comprehensive plan and uh the Land Development regulations in order to carry out uh the necessary approvals in order to accomplish the project so it's not there there's no abandonment as a result of this filing or or any uh other motive except carrying out the will of the city council which said pursue the amendment process rather than the variance process sir so there was how many there were certain criterias with the variance correct and they had met all of those criterias I believe there were seven out of they needed to set aside I think it's four of six I think they four of six from what I understand one of the reasons that we're back here before the Planning Commission is we did not want it to Happ then we just change or changing the ordinance where you just don't go get a variance to increase your height you have to go and get a text Amendment and we were I am I correct on that the staff was getting were getting worried about everybody would use that variance method to get additional height and we would not have the input of the city council to either say yay ber right and that would circumvent it so that's why we are here tonight for the Tex the idea is that in order to go through the approval process it shouldn't just be the board of adjustment that has authority to do that it's a community discussion through the Planning Commission and the city council which is what they're pursuing and that we're doing the same we're saying the same thing and after and after tonight is going back to the city council again correct yes right this your decision tonight is a recommendation to the city council it's not a final decision correct and it goes to them either either way correct yes okay um sir so let me get back to Mr Besson you may continue sir no I'll I'll hold for now all right thank you Mr Clark sir do you have a I actually don't have a comment for Mr I actually don't have a comment from Mr um Mr cook or Mr G I just want to call attention that um again I'll say my memory um we as a commission discussed increasing the height in this Zone before and I think there was lengthy conversation as far as changing the height as a commission we agreed on changing that height and I if my memory serves me right it was to align with the southernmost building which I believe is 169 as a group when we had this conversation that was our decision and that was kind of the limit I'm not saying that can't be changed tonight what I'm saying is as a group we had lengthen conversations and we came to an agreement I Am pro development I Am pro moving forward we had these conversations and we came to an agreement it seems to me that this seems like a little bit of a backdoor attempt um so I will leave it at that and I will pause for now as we discuss as a grp thank you Mr clerk Mr cyer you are up sir thank you very much Mr chair I'll try to be exceedingly brief I don't fear building Heights 283 fet to me is is negligible it's well under what we've allowed at solomia if this is going to be a successful first class project and if that's what they want I'm willing to go with it my personal belief belief on this is this is a highly unique parcel on Direct waterfront property it does not apply to the rest of the city of North Miami we're not going to see tall buildings spread around the city nobody else is going to get the view that that property is going to get and people pay for views this proposal simply maximizes the value of that land I don't see this as carrying over to random Parcels throughout the city it's just not going to happen I think that this is potentially an outstanding project to benefit the city and I have no problem supporting both ordinances and Mr Cipher just for for the record it is 238 ft sir 10 in right which is well below the 400t we allow at solam Mia thank you sir I'd like to say please recall that Sol portions of solam Mia was a garbage D so I mean we're talking about residential area too now so just FYI we we keep referencing solia but solia was a different type of site okay um Miss PL okay so just for starters I would like to go to the original um presentation by the attorney uh as we started and I would like to know why is this item falling under Quai judicial Oh you mean me so why does that concern you because that that is that is why we're here so you know when an item is Quai digal obviously for me as a commissioner when I sit here I think of myself as a resident I think of myself as a business owner I think about the quality of life that I live here or that I want to experience here but when I when something comes before me that's qu I judicial I now have to balance myself as a resident and what I want to see versus what can potentially be a lawsuit for the city so I would like for you to give us an explanation why this specific item is considered Quai judicial what is the potential lawsuit that that's not why it's quasi judicial so please so an application can be either quasa judicial or legislative uh the zoning application is probably by definition quas judicial based upon a Florida Supreme Court decision from probably the 1980s um I don't remember the name of it at the moment all it means is that there is specific criteria against which that application will be judged um or evaluated in order to determine whether to approve it or not the comprehensive plan application is a legislative application but only for purposes of convenience did we combine the hearings and we treat them both to the higher due process standard that qua judici requires of disclosures by board members and sworn testimony but according also to Florida Supreme Court decisions comprehensive plan amendments whether it's Citywide or an individual parcel is considered legislative which means as a matter of policy you decide whether to approve it or not based upon and both of them involve a balancing um neither of them involve fear of lawsuits it's really just a way of evaluating uh the project and the kinds of issues that a um reviewing board uh should apply in deciding whether to approve or deny it thank you thank you so very much and the deputy City attorney can add or not I'm in agreement and I have nothing to add thank you thank you and so taking that into consideration and understanding that everything that comes before us when we're making our decision they have to be factual there has to be some kind of substantial evidence to by which we make a decision here tonight I have a few questions for the the own I guess the person who's representing uh Marina Bay okay I'm going to have to stop you there we we don't the public hearing if I'm not mistaken because I I want to make sure we don't tread into the area one question have they completed the 40-year certification that's it all right um I think she's allowed to ask ask okay I just wanted to make sure no that's fine that's fine CH that person I believe you're the attorney representing identify yourself one more time correct Lanna kaslowski and no uh the recertification has not been completed there few years behind okay is there reason to believe that if the certification were to take place right now that the bit that the building can be uh deemed unlivable so there has been and Mr gasan also knows part of this process and the the president of the association can correct me if I'm wrong wrong but there has been a a report submitted to your former building official confirming that the building is reasonably safe for continued occupancy but you know that agreement is only going to be in place so long we do need to take some steps at some point to remediate and there was um I know you've heard a couple of folks say that the quote was 3.5 million that contract is no longer on the table you know because of this DeLay So they would still have to renegotiate and find someone else to to do this work and the cost is probably much more than 3.5 million at this point thank you so very much and then um Mr gasat several of the residents mention um the Precedence I know you stated that that would not be the case case with this building but clearly there is a trust Factor here right the residents do not trust in the word or the presentation of the person representing the project that what they're saying is true and that there will not be preceden later on and as commissioner Clark stated we were here before there was a comp a 10-year comprehensive plan that we deliberated over extensively and the decision was made and while I understand that you communicated that you were you guys were basically told this is the process and so you are just simply following what was outlined to you I want you to kind of briefly I know I don't know if reassure is the word but really communicate your stand that what's your presenting before us is not going to be a bait and switch this is what it is it's only for this development there is not an idea that you know couple of months down or a year down you're going to come forth with the project white houseing or any other other project to utilize what you could potentially get tonight for something else so there there is no bait and switch here as you can tell from the presentation what we're doing as part of these amendments is simply getting an authorization to come back before this Planning Commission there is no ba and switch we could not do a bait and switch the White House Inn has a specific declaration that limits any modifications amendments or releases regarding all of the restrictions it's not just height it's also a density restriction it's a height restriction it's a traffic restriction there's a variety of different restrictions that they can't change there unless there a super majority vote of the mayor in the city council as part of this project we're not impacting that at all we cannot impact that and so I think it would be uh silly for us to to try to utilize this recognizing that we would be back before commission that has dealt with this issue and before a council that has been dealing with this issue and so for us uh to be clear there's a there's an aspect of basic fundamental fairness that we're seeking to obtain today we have gone through every conduit every path that we have been asked to do every single thing that we've been asked to do in order to seek an opportunity all I'm asking is for an opportunity to bring before you a project that's essentially all I'm doing you're not approving a Project's height today and so I think if we are going to talk if we're going to talk about predent I think the type of precedent we want to set is a precedent that would say to the extent that you're seeking amendments to the comprehensive plan and there are amendments to comprehensive plans every day in every city in every municipality in this County and in the state it happens all the time but to the extent that you're seeking an amendment to the comprehensive plan there's a specific set of criteria you should meet it should be in benefit to the community it should provide for sustainability it should provide for public wellness and Improvement respect to Parks so I think that if there is going to be a president I think that this presedent would be a good one to be established by the city thank you that you thank you thank you name U Mr Bob you are up Sir uh good presentation as always um I think the main thing at least for me as far as being well I think the first question I have for you is uh you mentioned that you need the additional uh allotment to properly execute the project right in the event that you're unable to and it has to stay at the current allotment what is what would be the plan would it be that the project can't happen at all modify like you know what I mean what what's what's the view I don't think the project would move forward there's a reason why we have gone through a Bo process has spent the time spent effort to go through multiple processes we've been in this process now for seven months and I'm just getting before the Planning Commission because I went through an we we went through an entirely different process before the board of adjustments to the extent that we thought that there would be an opportunity to just develop the site it would make more sense to just go ahead and develop it but when you look at the site that we're talking about for this property there's a substantial amount of enhancement that has to be done you're talking about a seaw wall that is going to be raised by 2 feet from 6 ft to 8 ft and the length of mariners Bay and I haven't had the opportunity to sort of go into this discussion it's about two football fields so you're going to be extending that height for that length that's a substantial amount of money that you have to be able to Encompass as part of your development and so for us it would not make sense for us to just say it and trust me if if it would be something that we could just do I don't think that we would have gone through all of this process we I we wouldn't want to be donot going up against these different windmills trying to get this done just for the sake of trying to do it um if it could have been done it would have been done I I don't think uh Mr ikner missner would have or Mr Wallace would have any intention of wasting their time because they they just wanted to do a different development if it was feasible they would have already done it I think in this scenario at this site we think that this is the project that would be supportable given the substantial amount of investment that has to occur with respect to just the seaw wall I'm only talking about seaw wall I can talk about a variety of different aspects but that's just one as aspect of it that's pretty Salient as to why we wouldn't be able to do it okay and then my next question is the proposed amendment uh obviously given the uh turnout here is is a contentious issue as far as community outreach has anything been done on your part so there has been community outreach because again this is not our first time going before the process we had a community meeting as we're going through the boa process but what the text amendment is specifically contemplating is a community benefits package and as part of that community benefits package it's incumbent upon us to come when we come back to you with a specific project where we can talk about the specific buildings where we can talk about the units what we're doing and where we can talk to the neighbors about what we're proposing and what the potential impacts would be and what the potential benefits would be that would be the ideal time for us to do it and that's when we're going to do it we're going to have to do it because that's going to be the timeline in which we can have that discussion and again the project is going to come right back before this Commission can I have an opportunity yes I just wanted to clear something as far as the boa process and tonight's process any of you that um watched the city council meeting and watched the city's appeal you heard me say that this was for the city about the process and not about the project um for the board of adjustment variance process if you recall City staff reviewed that criteria and said it meant Zero of that criteria and that's why we appealed the mayor and Council specifically wanted it to go through this process because it requires a specific analysis and it's the analysis that you heard earlier in the staff presentation what I want you to know is that when I look at this reports for both the ldr amendment as well as the comp plan Amendment your city staff in their analysis have found that it meets all the criteria and that's something that you don't see every day so I just wanted you to know that there is a difference in what the analysis was and what the outcome is and why staff is giving you favorable recommendations as far as saying yes it satisfies all this criteria to give you that Comfort level tonight right based on again I think the what what the attorney that Jennifer just said pretty much frames what Our obligation is as far as how we judge a project before it comes to us and again we have to look to see if all the criteria is met and that's how you have to base your your decision on and and uh you may not like the looks of something but again you can't deny them on that basis alone that you don't like the looks of something um they they have every right to to I I believe appeal if if uh you don't base it on on the criteria that staff has presented to us and that they meet and again they they've already met What four out of six of the criteria as mentioned by by Mr cook so I want to clarify that just to just to get straight into it so the the four out of six is the criteria that uh deals with the variance uh the criteria here is the the text criteria that Mr cook went through and as Jenifer noted Mr cook well staff had analyzed and evaluated itre and demonstrated that we met all of the criteria correct and that's what we are basing our our our judgment on uh this evening so um um I'll move on to Mr re could you clear up the park issue that is not going to become part of the complex am I correct on it that that is correct it is not becoming a part of the complex that would be enhanced that is correct for the general public to use that that is correct okay exactly you know I I I kind of find it very interesting that major Towers I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly it's 169 ft that's right and you're asking for 230t 10 Ines 238 ft 10 in so we're looking at about a 69 ft difference you know I I I do a lot of walking I walk through sanusi I walk through Keystone I walk the city and I don't look up in the air and I see I believe it's a Bay Winds over there in s sui Boulevard and that's a heck of a lot taller than the majorka towers and that's been there since oh I'm going say 1971 and that has not in any form fashion or manner deteriorated from the neighborhood major Towers has been there I think before 19 I started here in 1970 in the PD I think major Towers was there that hasn't taken away from the neighborhood and then I go over to 135th Street on the other side of the canal from Keystone and my goodness gracious during the 70s and the 80s we built a lot of highrises over there and that hasn't detracted from Keystone Point and there's an older building on exora which is I think 16 17 stories that hasn't taken away you know you say well it's going to intrude on my privacy well some of these buildings are so far away that you need a giraffe to look out the window to to see the privacy of the residential area and I don't say that lightly it doesn't it hasn't taken away from the area I go down to the Coral Gables I see beautiful higher Rises right across the street from residential areas you go up to Sunny Isles you see see the same thing you go up to aventur you see the same thing somebody said well we don't want to be like Sunny Isles or we don't want to be like aventur well I certainly would like to have their money in the bank because then we could have all the goods and services that we need to improve our infrastructure to hire more police officers to get more code enforcement people out there you know we don't print money here and what happened here many many years ago in the late 70s and the 80s I mentioned this before we we passed a height restriction we put in our Charter that we couldn't build anything higher than four stories and the city fell just just went right down people moved away buildings looked like hell and now we're getting development back because we changed our land use ordinances and that's what we need to progress now this building that's going to go up is not a slum it's not a ugly looking thing I seen some of the original things when you guys did the variant and I thought it was quite attractive and I have to agree with commissioner C and he said um this is the ideal place you're overlooking the bay you got to thing of beauty and these people that are going to move in there they're going to have disposable income to put in our restaurants and in our stores and in our city and to help people get jobs and with the community benefits and the taxes that will come out of that we can build a lot of affordable housing you know One hand washes the other and I and I walk around the city I see things that need to be done and for many years I remember one your condo one up there that was in the 70s if I'm not mistaken correct Marina Bay it went up in the 7s I believe in the 70 or the early ' 80s maybe I forget not which and it was a nice building but you people paid your taxes and you worked hard at it and unfortunately the construction at that era in the 70s and the 80s isn't protecting you today they got spoing and of your iron and everything else over there and and these new buildings are a necessity you know the construction has changed the whole art of building has changed and you guys paid your taxes all of these years and if you can sell your property and move to another decent place I'm more for it to me this is a win wind it's a wind for the city it's a wind for San Susi it's a wi for everybody and you know what I'm in favor of it and I I I thank you for coming before us thank you very good Mr mcdermaid sir I think you're last up okay I've heard everybody body else thank you very much um and thank you Mr cook for a wonderful detailed presentation and clarification we appreciate that and Pedro thank you very much uh just a wonderful presentation and answered a lot of questions but one question that was raised by Miss Davies and a question that has been a lot of the discussions back and forth online through emails and Texas and that kind of thing is in reference to what Miss Davies uh talked about um as far as the flooding on bore drive if you could just give us just a a recap of that to clarify because it is a problem absolutely so so one of the things to keep into account is that the buildings that were built from mayorca Towers to Bay Shore to Mariners Bay were all built between the SE the 60s 7s and ' 80s during that time the regulations that existed for developing didn't require require you to to retain the drainage on site and so the drainage the rain could fall and it could literally rain fall into the roadway today the regulations require that you retain drainage on site and so the Redevelopment of this area will help to ensure that one that it's improved because you're going to have to maintain all of the drainage on the site and it's no longer just going to flow into the roadway but in addition to that it's going to help to provide for a substantial benefit because they they're going to have to pay impact fees and when they come in with actual tax dollars dollars those are going to create unrestricted funds that can be utiliz to improve roadways improve landscaping and improve anything that the city determines is necessary as a public benefit uh but to specific to specifically to your question as a rule and as a legal regulation they're going to have to accommodate the drainage on site and not allow it to go into the road so it's going to substantially enhance that thank you very much my pleasure thank thank you Mr mcdermaid um so we're about to uh go ahead and take a vote I will summarize my feelings very quickly um the last question that I asked miss Warren to clarify um it's the same same uh way that I pretty much vote on anything that comes before us and that is kind of a clinical approach and that the petitioner met the criteria that the asked them to and that's all we could ask uh of the of the petitioner to do um so having met those criteria or at least four out of six as was indicated and I believe you pretty much have agreed to all the criteria that that you presented so so just one Qui clarification I don't want to continue with the confusion the four out of six related to the collateral process for the boa we've met all of the criteria under right that's what I thank you for clarifying that pleasure so um now uh question to counselor um we're about to vote um shall we vote for both packages at the same time or shall we vote on each item separately in order to you you have to vote on each item separately and you have to do the comprehensive plan Amendment first right okay so now the comprehensive plan is item 1784 correct so that's the first item that we would be voting on Mr chairman yes Mr mcdermid I'd like to make a motion to approve okay there's been a motion for approval and a second by Mr mcdermaid and this keny I'm sorry it's a long night folks I'm looking at the clock um so this will be a a roll call vote and U Madam Secretary if you could please okay and this is again this is for PC 1784 this is our first item we're voting on yes um by the way it was seconded by Chief each yes second by Chief each all right so oh can each commissioner each sorry you'll have to forgive us but Mr H being the former police chief of North Miami I still refer to him as Chief all right um chairman erns I vote Yes for approval Vice chair mcme yes commissioner blir yes commissioner e yes commissioner CED yes commissioner Clark yes commissioner Bob yes okay the motion passes unanimously on item 1784 yes that's 1784 good now okay and now I'll entertain a motion um for um to approve uh 1783 this would be the text amendment I believe Mr chairman yes in PC 17- 83 a motion to approve I have a motion to approve 1783 do I have a second second second by kth each this will be a roll call vote again please okay each all right chairman erns yes Vice chair MC dear yes commissioner blir yes commissioner e yes commissioner CED yes commissioner Clark yes commissioner Bob yes the motion passes unanimous unan CH thank you members of the commission and the record should reflect that Dr Besson did not vote because he was sitting as an alternate and not needed so it should okay yes okay all right night thank you thank you Mr hell for pointing that out I apologize all right um so um we're not quite done here folks uh let's let's move down to uh if we guys if we can hang in there for a few more seconds Mr Bob Mr re we want to finish up here um we have some any committee reports from staff any committee reports sir thank you um Mr chair no um reports from staff thank you very much uh old business do we have any old business before us no sir very good uh new business any new business that we need no new business as well very good um and I guess our next meeting again we did mentioned that that would be May 7th and it will be a regular meeting May 7th 2024 and at this point I'll move for adjournment move and Mr chairman yes uh Mr cook yes sir yes sir thank you again for a wonderful presentation very detailed appreciate you very much and we appreciate your patience for us having to go over each item meticulously we wanted to make sure we we were got all all the clarifications that that we felt necessary in order to make our our final determination thank you sir you're welcome thank you and we are adjourned very good folks good work it was a tough one it was a tough one I appreciate everybody's points but