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 12C. Add-On: Discussion regarding Beach Erosion. Action: Mayor Scholl said we had talked a little bit earlier today about our beach erosion that is quite apparent recently. Vice Mayor Aelion said on behalf of what we just heard about having foresight, biologically the life cycle goes through a progress of erosion but nature has a different application. In 1998 the Florida Legislature came to the realization that our beaches which is our main attraction as a tourist destination,being severely eroded as the function of time and so the Legislature passed Bill 161.01 in which they created the Florida Department of Environmental Protection(DEP)to institute a program called the BMFAA in which funds are budgeted and allocated for use by local governments to do a dollar match for the use of beach renourishment. We are victims of such erosion as a function of time. He has had meetings with staff to try and brainstorm initially before bringing it to the dais tonight about rebirthing because such measures were taken a few years ago by us either through the County or self-propelled through our Lobbyist Ron Book to get funds from the State to be able to have beach renouishment application to our beaches. Tourist destinations specifically hotels on the beach are really suffering because of beach erosion. After meeting with staff City Manager Russo had pointed out that it would be a good idea to start and probe into this possibility of making sure that no Codes or actions have been taken by the State to have the County oversee any such application. If that is not in place, then what he is suggesting is for us to spearhead for our own City the effort to ask the State to allocate monies,because there is an allocation of certain funds today specifically$541 Million have been allocated for such purposes [he distributed a flyer]. We have 226 miles of beach that has been renourished as a result of this program. We have specifically been victimized by the fact that on our south end,Haulover Park has a jetty that has been there for years and that harbor. The wind brings the ocean current in from northeast to southwest and all the sand is accumulated right there at the corner. There is a project that is about to be undertaken by the County and that project includes the building of a new pier instead of the jetty that is going to make better the situation and the other school of thought is that it may worsen it. He doesn't think we should wait to see the impact of that but we should really spearhead that effort. City Manager Russo said that Vice Mayor Aelion had covered it well combined with the comments that the Mayor made at the beginning of the meeting. He thinks we have got a number of areas that we need to investigate here,the funding and the controls that may help reduce the impact when we have a storm, and we can move forward. Commissioner Levin said we give the developers a benefit if they build a park on the beach behind or between their condos and they put grass in there, does that help? Mayor Scholl said the dunes make a big difference. Planning/Zoning Administrator Claudia Hasbun clarified that is an easement that we require. Commissioner Gatto said this has been discussed over and over again. She likes the long range take on this, and she likes Vice Mayor Aelion's idea to take the lead on this. Mayor Scholl said we all recognize the problem independently and so he has had discussions with the City Manager over the past month and basically he has broken it down into three areas,and two of them are mitigation,and one of them speaks to Vice Mayor Aelion's point. The mitigation areas are, and for the record,we cannot afford to undertake the renourishing of the beach. It would bankrupt the City, it is very expensive,we can afford to advocate for 25