2011-0421 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes: Regular City Commission Meeting April 21, 2011 City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida skaters the sound increases by 3 decibels. If you had 10 skaters, it would be 70 decibels, 10 decibels higher, and to the person listening, it would sound twice as loud. He did measurements (10 minutes at each location) from the pool deck at Winston Towers, two units at Building 600, and three units at Building 300, and they found that the sound level was approximately 10 decibels higher at the pool deck when the Skate Park is open. They did similar comparisons at the units and it ranged from 62 to 80 decibels. Commissioner Scholl explained logarithmic means if it is at 60 and it goes up 6 decibels we would normally think that is 10% louder, what you are saying is when it goes from 60 to 70 it is twice as loud to our ears, and so that means that the scale, and we always think of things in a straight line or on a percentage basis, that is not the case here. If it goes up another 10 decibels, it could be 20 times as loud, the sound to our ear is much greater and not necessarily proportionate to the number of decibels as it is increasing. That is important to understand because we look at a chart like this and we say it is only 10 decibels higher, not a big deal. The fact is to our ears it is a huge deal. Commissioner Aelion asked Mr. Fuller ifthese options in his recommendation are as a result of having conducted a pilot project testing because it is pretty specific, or is it out of your experience that you feel will mitigate the sound issue. Mr. Fuller said it was based upon acoustical calculations, which is the standard practice for evaluating effectiveness of a barrier to determine the appropriate height. We know based on some calculations we can reduce it below 60 but the height and the width of a barrier and the types of covering is going to have to be determined based upon the materials and the options that the City may want to pursue. Mayor Edelcup said the report came up with a couple of options which we can't do anything about, or wouldn't want to do anything about, one would be to completely enclose the skateboard park which he suspects none of them would want to see happen, and the second one was to build walls so high that they are not practical. The only thing that really is before us right now is to look at the construction of the acoustically absorptive sound solid barriers. Our Consultant is suggesting that we contact three different companies in that business, and so rather than to belabor this whole thing, we should instruct our staff to go ahead and contact them to see what they can come up with, and see if it is practical and economical, and we know it won't resolve the noise level to bring it down to zero. Commissioner Gatto asked Mayor Edelcup why he does not see fully covering it as a practical option, and Mayor Edelcup said because it is not fully covering it, it said the one option would be to completely enclose it, and that means putting it inside of a building not a covering, and the third option is what you are speaking about which is the construction of acoustically absorptive solid barriers along the north or west side, the top is not going to create it as our Consultant said that you are not going to get rid of the noise unless it is completely enclosed. Commissioner Gatto said she is for totally enclosing it, and Mayor Edelcup said he is completely against that. Mayor Edelcup said what he is trying to do is to get to the steps that our Consultant has recommended to us and that was to pursue and look at the third alternative which was the only practical one that he suggested, that we seemed to agree is the next step, and let's at least go to that step. Commissioner Gatto said we all agree that we have to do something. She has never felt it was a decibel issue, it is like somebody banging pots and pans in your back yard 24/7, ten hours a day. Mayor Edelcup said that it is really not 24/7. Commissioner Gatto said she 16