2015-0416 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes:Regular City Commission Meeting April 16,2015 City of Sunny Isles Beach,Florida lasta Sobuti. Landscape Architect of Enea Garden Design presented renderings of the landscaping. It is always important for them to create spaces for people to occupy. Here in Miami we have a climate where it is extremely hot in the summer and humid, and we want people to be able to use those spaces outdoors and so we use this landscape as a means to create life climate,provide shade,provide wind barriers,etc. When we start to design we look at the plant material which becomes extremely important. Using native plants is our number one priority to not only work the long term viability of the plant material that helps the project but also we want to make sure that we are not adding any kind of evasive elements into it. Our site plan is fairly green, we wanted our residents to be able to look down and feel like they are looking at a park, each form they are creating are visually pleasing to the eye of the people that live there. And so that is the one element that we always look at, the residents, but the other element they always look at is the neighbors. We want to be good neighbors and so one thing that was really important to us is that the facades of the building feel as green as possible,and we are always thinking about the visual element for people that are passing by. She showed a rendering of what people will see from Collins Avenue, they are providing a series of green walls as they cascade back, and you basically drive through these walls to get to your porte- cochere and we would have vines climbing up the walls. They would also have planting that mimics what is happening along the street fronts throughout all of Sunny Isles Beach, and so they are maintaining that memory,that scenery that you are all very used to but we are adding a greener element. From the beach side we wanted to green that up as well and so we have this opportunity to create some kind of green barriers between some of the cabana units along the waterfront. As Mr. Sieger mentioned earlier, we do have a very wide beach public access that we have integrated with our southern neighbor,giving us 30 feet of pedestrian access way from Collins Avenue to Oceanside. We are also enhancing the dunes by bringing vegetation back into them which will help with erosion of sand in the long term. She showed the views you can see from the beach access side, and from the northern neighbor side. And so, either way,whenever you are walking along this façade you are next to greenery,you never feel like you have a stark architectural element that is towering over you. Mayor Scholl opened the public hearing and several people spoke in favor of the project, however, concerns included safety, traffic, hurricane evacuation, and TDRs. Estela Bruscanteni who is a member of the Miami Beach Club Board asked if there is going to be a beach access on the north side of that building, and Ms. Hasbun said the north side is not a public easement however the developer has included a designated access there. Mayor Scholl said that it is not a dedicated public access, we have 22 beach accesses in the City and so we have got them pretty well spaced. We get them as folks redevelop property. Gene Newman asked about officials having ex pane discussions they also have to reveal the basic substance, and City Attorney Ottinot said the Commission has met the requirements with respect to disclosing all the discussions that took place including the substance which was about the Application. Mayor Scholl closed the public hearing after hearing citizen comments. Stanley Price, Esq. addressed the concerns on the TDRs. He thinks there is a misconception that TDRs are a bonus system where you buy rights that don't exist. Under Chapter 163 of the Florida Statutes this City and even'other City in Florida must submit a Comprehensive Plan to the Department of Community Affairs which addresses traffic, densities and intensities. The City of Sunny Isles Beach had a box of development rights. He explained that a transfer of 9