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Summary Minutes:Regular City Commission Meeting November 20.2014 City of Sunny Isles Beach.Florida <br /> structure in the building and we put it on top of the building and we shrunk the building here <br /> to create more setbacks and then we brought it on top of that project which basically created <br /> more of this kind of an affect. When you have 150 feet in the park, you have commercial and <br /> potentially restaurants and outdoor seating all the way around so that the side of the site now <br /> opens to the south, opens to the park, and it becomes a place of destination as a proper <br /> gateway to the City should be. Then Dr. Cornfeld said to him, why don't we look at the <br /> building and see how it is that we can make it certified,unique, and we came up with the hotel <br /> rooms and we brought the park in, the green space, into the building itself. We created a <br /> multi-level garden inside the building where the units, and if you have been to the Pan <br /> Museum in downtown Miami, you will walk around the back by the bay and you will see <br /> there is concrete structure but within the concrete structure there is hanging lollipops, if you <br /> will, of vertical landscaping. So we took that as an inspiration and re-implemented it into the <br /> project so when you look at it on the plan, you have a park, you have a huge walkway that <br /> goes all the way around, you have a pool mini-carrier that sits on the roof, and then you have <br /> inside the tower, setback all the way back up against the beautiful Plaza of Americas parking <br /> structure. RK Marshall shopping center to the north, leaving the vistas open. And of course, <br /> as Stanley Price has mentioned, we are the only site that is unique that has the highway ramp <br /> up, you turn around and you are right there next to it. We can clearly see in the rendering that <br /> this is a major effect, this is a divider where Dr. Cornfeld is trying to bring the green space and <br /> continue it. When he met with the Landscape Architect and he came up with this scheme,he <br /> thought it was phenomenal. If you don't approve the height, if you say no variances, no <br /> height no problem, the building works as it does at 170 feet wedding cake and everyone goes <br /> home happy but there is a unique opportunity to create something for the community where <br /> everybody would benefit and in this area it is phenomenal, it is highly visible. <br /> Mr. Karp said this reminds him when FPL had the substation coming in and everyone was <br /> saying what should we do when they had these precast concrete panels,and he said we want to <br /> pretty it up and we tied it to the Intracoastal and then we will put signage in front of it. The <br /> green area where there is the drainage we will make that into a plaza park. People thought we <br /> were crazy, but now when you drive into Sunny Isles Beach, that is what people see, no one <br /> knows that it is a FPL substation there. Here you have an opportunity, everybody who goes <br /> north or leaves the City drives by a beautiful park. Everybody who is going to come on the <br /> highway on the left, when they are going to go up, they are going to see trees coming up. It <br /> would be foolish for us not to take that opportunity, it would be sad not to capitalize on it. It <br /> is a great gesture to the City. He thinks this is a great solution. <br /> Stanley Price said having heard the hearing right before ours, we are also prepared to indicate <br /> that we would lower the tower setback from Collins Avenue to 23 stories under your Code <br /> down from the 27 stories that we had requested,and we would ask that you adopt this plan. If <br /> you decide not to adopt this plan,we would ask you most respectfully to approve the plan as a <br /> matter of right and we will submit it to the City. If there are any issues whether it is a plan for <br /> matter of right or not we will be happy to come right back to you. We think that this is a <br /> wonderful solution for a difficult piece of property. The purposes of variances always have <br /> been to address unique and unusual circumstances. You get a chance for another park and this <br /> City has become famous for its park system. <br /> Dr. Robert Cornfeld said if we have to this is what we have and that is a shame, this is a <br /> corner and my dream, as of right this is what we are looking for. What he is asking for is to <br /> 17 <br />