2015-1015 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes:Regular City Commission Meeting October 15,2015 City of Sunny Isles Beach.Florida Architect Larry Kline presented a power point of the conceptual design for the Government Center Expansion. He described the site as about one acre, 45,000 square feet and almost evenly divided. The educational uses are to the west side of the property so that they really address Atlantic and the existing school, and then civic office retail uses to the east so that they address the expanded civic plaza, and a way to really expand the whole idea of a civic building. One of the concerns we have is how students drop off, and what is that additional program that are grades 6, 7, and 8, roughly 600 students. Are they dropped off on a staggered schedule to alleviate some of the crowded streets? Do we have them queue through the existing City Hall property at that hour to help alleviate that? We just want to make sure we cover all the bases about how best to have this very much needed educational program but make sure it serves the neighborhood and circulation. Mr. Kline said we will start talking about the ground floor of the building, and the existing City Hall has to the north, then basement level parking, and parking is a huge issue here in terms of the number of cars and the requirements that we are looking for. He went to the table in the presentation, we have 113,000 square feet in the new project, roughly 42,000 square feet of educational, a senior and community auditorium of about 13,000 square feet, meeting and pre-function for the senior center of about 5,000 square feet,one full floor of the new tower for civic expansion of about 10,000 square feet, three floors of condominium office about 10,000 square feet for each floor, a small fitness area, and a small retail component at the ground that we think would be great to activate the plaza. We don't know what that retail is, whether it is a coffee shop or a lunch place but it enlivens the plaza, the library function, all now tied together. If that is the location for the pedestrian bridge crossing Collins Avenue, it is a great location to tie it all together. So 113,000 square feet is the total program,by Code we are required 200 cars,we are looking at less than that because we are assuming there is a shared parking issue that some of the functions in the senior center could happen evening when some of the parking is reduced. The fitness is already parked for the staff within City Hall so there is some shared use. We are looking to reduce the parking count as we can because it is very difficult to place parking on this very small site and really make the building accessible and aesthetically pleasing as you walk by. We don't want structured garage after structured garage sitting in front of the property. Mr. Kline described the building from the bottom going up. The basement level parking is completely underground and obscured, and the ground floor is one level of parking with a retail component, the same with the civic plaza. On the second level is a courtyard school that has all the classrooms opening on this open air school on levels 2,3,and 4. You will see appearing on level 4 the community hall that we have been talking about,another component to the design. We have designed it in a way that it fits well within the building. It is about 100 to 120 seats but we really haven't programmed the uses yet and so we will look for your input as to what uses could be there, and do you feel the seating capacity is commissariat with your needs. As we move up from the school, there is a landscape roof garden in the school,what we are calling"learning gardens"that could be tied to an educational program. It is also a great amenity as you are looking down from the office at City Hall, not onto rooftops but onto landscape green. The first level of the tower which is about 10,000 square feet about 2/3rds of it facing the ocean,and east is for the seniors and about 1/3rd facing west is a fitness health wellness center. The level above that is for civic expansion, and then the three levels above that are condominium offices and that tops out the building. 5