2013-1017 Regular City Commission Meeting (2)

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Summary Minutes: Regular Ciw Commission Meeting October 17, 2013 City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida there is at a minimum and Nye have used it to the fullest to meet their needs. Mayor Edelcup asked the City Planner to clarify for Loretta Mufson the TDRs as to how many they own and how many they are buying from the City, this request covers just this building. City Planner Hasbun explained that there is only one resolution that covers the 100.220 but there is only one assignment of TDRs. The Applicant owns two private TDR bank accounts. one is for 32,000 square feet; and the other one is for 29.000 square feet. They are buying from the City 38.000 square feet and so that is the total of the 100.000 but it is only 100.000 and the 224 is being assigned to the site. Mayor Edelcup reminded the Commission that when they make a motion, it would be for the denial of the two setback variances. City Attorney Ottinot said the motion could be basically to approve the Application based on staff recommendation which is to approve the height variance but not the setback variances. Commissioner Scholl said that staff said it may be justified and that it is up to the Commission. Mayor Edelcup said what we are really looking for is a motion that would deny the setback variances and would permit the height variances, and City Attorney Ottinot said that is correct. Commissioner Scholl said for the record that art can conform and Architect Castineira does beautiful work and he is happy we have a developer that has a large site and keeps the continuity along Collins Avenue but he is back to the same issue. The issue here is that the original approval was for 8 stories and now it is 13 stories but the height limitation was 140 and so the 13 goes over the 140 by 12, we are getting apples and oranges there. But it is not about the building for him, hejust feels that. again. Nye have LDRs and we can design within those constraints if we want to. If we believe that our Commission is going to indulge us with commercial arguments, not engineering arguments. we are going to design with those commercial arguments in mind. If we want to do that, that is up to us but he thinks then what we should do is, the nest time we go to design LDRs, Nye should probably scale them back about 10% or 15% because we know we are going to get bit up every time a developer walks in here and makes a zoning application. Again, he does not blame the developers, they are responding to what they see that happens on this dais the types of approvals that we make. We either take a position that we are going to live within our LDRs unless there is reasonable constraint. Sometimes these lots are whacky and like Architect Castineira pointed out you don't always have the architectural constraints in mind. But a height variance has very little to do with it. There is no building above them that is preventing them from building at a certain height and so the height variance is a completely different matter. Mayor Edelcup said he agrees with Commissioner Gatto that the aesthetics of a building is very important. In this particular issue, the FAR is all within an as -of -right so that we are not increasing the density of this building, all we are doing is modifying the height by 12 feet. The apartments got bigger but there are not any more apartments, they are just larger apartments. The number of people is not changing significantly as to how many people would have been in those buildings had we not enlarged those apartments, you are talking about 5,500 square feet over 200 units. He does not see the things that would be concerning us to the effect on traffic, it hasn't changed one way or another, and the only thing that we have changed is a minimal height adjustment. He thinks it completes the streetscape on Sunny Isles Boulevard. and is a beautiful addition to what is now on Sunny Isles Boulevard. He is very