2014-0918 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes: Regular City Commission Meeting September 18, 2014 City of Sunny Isles Beach. Florida the landscaping, and we want to make sure we are working together. Mayor Edelcup asked the Applicant to explain three (3) things that were left out of your presentation: 1) the beach access; 2) the bridge between the current Acqualina and this project: and 3) the traffic gate proposal between the two properties. Mr. Schulman said the beach access is on the same side as the Trump beach access, and the staff condition is we create an integrated basically a 40 -foot wide beach access, and they are more than willing to do so, they only have legal control on our side of the line but the City has assured us that they will work with us, and the owner of that site to make sure that it is truly integrated and we are willing to do that. The bridge integration is neither new nor innovative, the Mansions has the same integration with Acqualina, and so basically what we are doing is integrating the amenities of the projects together with a bridge which is high enough to allow fire trucks and emergency access vehicles through it. On the issue of the driveway, right now valet parking for Acqualina is exceedingly difficult with very long waits. This will allow us to bring in cars in valet only to get into Acqualina, there is no exit for the valet from this project, it is only an entrance, and it is one -way. There will be safety precautions taken to a pedestrian safety plan which we will present to the City Manager and work with him as well as two technical experts to make sure it works well. The last thing in the world that we want is for it not to work well, it is in their best interest to make sure there are no problems. We will respond to the City Manager who could revoke that at any time if we don't follow the safety plan. Commissioner Levin said she knows it is conceptual but she likes the idea of having the skating rink. She asked what is the rationale for the parking and for the bridge? We werejust talking about going from one building to the next. Mr. Schulman said basically we are integrating so people from this development can go into the Acqualina restaurants without having to go out onto the sidewalk, likewise for the entrance. Mayor Edelcup noted it is a pedestrian bridge. Commissioner Levin asked how the height of these two towers compared to the Acqualina and to the Mansions, are they about the same? Mr. Schulman said no, when the Acqualina was built the City had a zoning height limitation of 550 feet based on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) limit at that point. Subsequently the FAA increased the height that would be allowed in the City to 649 feet plus. The City then amended its Zoning Code to state that the height is whatever the FAA permits. And so, every project over 200 feet in the United States that is built has to go to the FAA for approval. What we did was we went to the FAA and they told us what we already knew because on Mr. Dezer's project, the Mansions is 649, and we are a little bit less than that. Commissioner Scholl said that every developer knows it is very difficult now to aggregate land on the beach, and to get a lot of beach frontage. The sellers of Golden Strand could have taken their property and broken it up into pieces, and that may or may not have been a better economic event for them. But the fact that Mr. Trump was able to make a deal with them and keep that land whole, and design a project on a much larger piece of land and then ultimately have two slender towers as opposed to three or have two different projects on that land, is very commendable. He thinks the extension of time they are asking for the building permit is a very small price to pay for the fact that they are able to make a deal with the condominium and ultimately unravel that, and that obviously puts pressure on the timing. The fact that we are ending up with one project on a large section of land, and a beautiful project nonetheless is again a wonderful testament to Mr. Trump and his organization. In addition, it is contiguous 8