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Summary Minutes:Regular City Commission Meeting May 21,2015 City of Sunny Isles Beach,Florida <br /> there, most of those buildings are largely unoccupied. You have heard him say that before, <br /> when you look at the first tower, you think it will create a lot of traffic. Truthfully there are a <br /> lot of people that will not be there very often and so with these buildings,we get an incredible <br /> benefit in a City like ours because that building will probably generate $500 Million in tax <br /> base and it will be occupied maybe 10% of the time, and have very little burden on our <br /> infrastructure. He for one looks at the character of the east side and say give them the TDRs, <br /> let's stack the density on the east side because we know it won't be that intense in the long <br /> run. That is not evident to the public all the time but the fact is when you live this stuff day in <br /> and day out and you talk to the developers and you understand what happens, and that is the <br /> Commission's job quite frankly to figure out, it is evident to us. The tipping point on the west <br /> side is, and he agrees with what everybody said, the west side is where people live, the west <br /> side is where those buildings are full. <br /> Mayor Scholl said the fact is that developers do have rights. We can't sit here and take the <br /> building rights away from them. More often than not he believes that whether we like the <br /> Comprehensive Plan that we have or we don't, it is the one we inherited,and it is very difficult <br /> to downzone. Hollywood tried to downzone a few years ago and they are still getting sued. <br /> Actually some developers from Sunny Isles Beach that own property in Hollywood are suing <br /> them. It is very difficult for us to sit here and say we feel like taking the developers rights <br /> away but the truth is we don't have to give them what is optional. It is unfortunate for this <br /> developer because historically TDRs got passed almost with carte blanche but the fact is that <br /> most of them are on the east side. He never had an issue with that but going forward we are at <br /> a tipping point, and the tipping point is on the west side where we know the buildings are <br /> going to be largely occupied. It is in our best interest and the community's best interest to <br /> lower the density as much as we can without taking away the developer's property rights. It is <br /> interesting, he came into this meeting even before this issue came up, he didn't have a clear <br /> position,he wanted to hear what people had to say and he wanted to understand the feeling of <br /> the public. He feels badly because when we do something fairly consistent for a long time,the <br /> developer relies on that but the fact of the matter is developers also take risks when they buy <br /> land before they get their entitlements and so he advises this developer to not buy the land <br /> until you get your entitlements because you may not be sure what you are getting. The tide is <br /> changing in the City and you are one of the first west side developments and it is going to be <br /> very controversial. To the developer's credit, they have done everything they can to satisfy <br /> their neighbors and bent over backwards. Who would think that they are going to build a <br /> building 15 feet off from the King David and they get the King David to support the building, <br /> and so that is an extraordinary event in itself and he applauds them for that. His position <br /> tonight, and he is not really against this project per se, is that west side development going <br /> forward is going to get the intensity that we owe them, not the intensity that we gift them. <br /> TDRs are not a right, they are a privilege and it is up to the Commission to look at the <br /> disposition of the neighborhood and decide if they want more of these checkers in that <br /> particular spot, that is how it works. On the east side, the characters of those buyers and the <br /> intensity on the community of those buyers is completely different then on the west side. He is <br /> fortunate to live in a house where there are 400 houses and 22,000 condos in the City and he <br /> lives in a neighborhood where it is not dense. It is incumbent upon the Commission to look at <br /> this and say okay, realistically moving forward what message do we want to send the <br /> development community about our expectations of how we see the west side to be developed. <br /> 15 <br />