2014-1218 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes:Regular City Commission Meeting December 18,2014 City of Sunny Isles Beach,Florida bringing your car but bringing your bike, it could get complicated. The biggest point she wants to make is that we voted to ban skateboards, segways, scooters, etc. off of Collins Avenue and Sunny Isles Boulevard, and to then increase bike traffic which would include Collins Avenue seems counter intuitive to her. Commissioner Levin said she thinks there is plenty of time to do that and that is why she thinks we should do a feasibility study. We have some data that we can look at, and then make a decision based on real data rather than what if,and emotions,because part of this is looking into the future. Commissioner Gatto said she just wants to know if there is a need, are there people there that will actually not get in their cars and go shopping on a bike with a basket in 90 degree heat in the summer time. She just thinks it would be a mindset that would take a couple of years to change in the community. Commissioner Levin said we have to start someplace, she would hate to see everything fall through the cracks because we can't cooperate or we don't get involved by joining the two counties or the surrounding areas getting involved with the Bike-Sharing Program, and we get left behind. That is why she is saying if there is a feasibility study and we can work something out with a bike path to go around the back on North Bay Road because she always thought that North Bay Road was marked for bicycles, and there are signs out there now. Lewis J. Thaler said actually North Bay Road was designated as a bike path. If you go back on the records about five to six years ago you will see the sidewalk on North Bay Road was enlarged. The Bike Path which was designated at that time was to go from Heritage Park all the way to Sunny Isles Boulevard when the bridge would ever get built. It was designated and we opened it by riding from where the School is to the Park. There was an opening of the Bike Path just to get it started. There was supposed to be signs, and he thinks there are signs up on North Bay Road. Mayor Scholl said until we find a clear path for folks to traverse the City safely,we have got to be careful promoting this. He voted against the sidewalk ordinance and he was pretty vocal about it, and we said we do not want anything on the sidewalk that would impair pedestrians. Ironically we excluded bicycles but included skateboards, segways, etc. His point is that he knows we designated it in the past but you still have to go back out to Collins Avenue between Golden Shores and the School,and then you have to go back out to Collins Avenue between the end of North Bay Road where Winston Towers is and then go back behind Epicure. It is very difficult to create a bike friendly City with those constraints. He completely agrees that it is very meritorious to link up the communities with the bike stations. He just doesn't know if our community is well situated right now. What he would like to study is how do we make it bike friendly before we agree to put bicycles out on the streets. He would look at, with the constraints that we have, can we really give people safe passage and keep them off the sidewalk. Putting them on the sidewalk on Collins Avenue defeats the whole purpose of what was passed,and that is really why he argued against it in the first place because he didn't think we had addressed the problem holistically, the segways, the skateboards, and the things on the sidewalks. He agrees with Commissioner Levin in principal in the overall scheme of things but he thinks we have homework to do. Commissioner Levin said that is part of the feasibility study, we have to figure out a plan to make it work like the City of Miami did. People are going to ride on the back streets, it is only a block on Collins Avenue by Golden Shores, and a block by Epicure. Mayor Scholl said he thinks the issue is when somebody comes from outside the community,and they want 23