Draft 021016 Workshop Summary Mins re Transportation Master Plan

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City Commission Workshop February 10, 2016 City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida 6 unless the property owner wants us to do something about it, we don’t have a lot of bearing on that. Chief Maas said we cannot enforce or do anything with regard to private property. From the very beginning when people were utilizing the Publix parking lot to drop their children off and to either leave their cars and walk them, or to have the children walk which was a huge safety factor, Publix tried to enforce certain things and then quite frankly he believes their corporate offices were contacted and they said to leave it alone. Chief Maas said in the afternoon currently for the pickup what used to be open for the RK Plaza, which you addressed just north of the Government Center, is now blocked off by Mr. Katz who does not allow any ingress or egress which has incensed a lot of customers who try to get into there and don’t know that it is blocked off. Again, it is private property and we have no enforcement power. Recently Mr. Katz did start towing vehicles from that parking lot that he knew were school related. Commissioner Aelion said he understands the status quo but change is coming to this property. Chief Maas said if you are stating that the private properties that are being utilized currently and have been for the last number of years for pickup and drop-off by parents, if that were taken out of the equation, what would the impact be on our regular streets because it would now be all vehicles that would have to pickup and drop-off. The impact would be immense, it would be huge. Commissioner Aelion said that is what he needed to hear and he wanted Mr. Rathore to hear this because he wanted him to be aware of this and to work with this because this is a real thing. Chief Maas said our only salvation right now is the fact that so many people do utilize those parking lots. Commissioner Aelion agrees and the Mayor had expressed it very clearly that we have no power as a City for the benefit of our residents to do anything regarding private property, that is it, and that is his point. Chief Maas said he wanted to make one point, what he was trying to get confirmation on was, and he doesn’t want anyone to be misled, the intersection at 178 Street and Atlantic Boulevard is not a four-way stop or a typical four-way intersection. You have 60 feet minimum between the next which would be considered a four-way which is Atlantic because it is offset there. So in theory you would have a three-way stop there, there would be then another stop sign placed further down. Mayor Scholl said the good news is that is doable within our purview, and Commissioner Aelion is right about Collins Avenue, we have no leverage over FDOT to make them change the signalization but we can put the three-way stops in if we want to. Chief Maas said for those of you who may not have been on the Commission at the time, the signalization was changed in the very first year, about 18 months after the school was first started. It had to be extended because in those first several months it was absolute gridlock, and finally FDOT came out and extended the timing east. He doesn’t know if we would get that benefit again because as you know FDOT’s concern is moving the traffic north and south on Collins Avenue. Commissioner Levin said one of the things she had brought up was whether or not we have any leverage with FDOT to get them to change anything for us on Collins Avenue with regard to the signalization. One of the proposals was for the 6 through 8 graders to start school at 7:40 a.m., is that unusual? Mr. Rothore said no, that is not unusual. As he had