Laserfiche WebLink
<br />Summary Minutes: Regular City Commission Meeting <br /> <br />June 15, 2006 <br /> <br />City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida <br /> <br />northbound left turn lane without a permit and is required to put it back, but they didn't put it <br />back properly. Commissioner Iglesias said that the concrete was put in by the developer, but <br />he received a call today from City Manager Szerlag and Assistant City Manager Vera saying <br />that the developer was told by DOT that specs have changed. He said he did not recall those <br />specs changing so he spoke to Howard Desdune who is the District Design Engineer, and he <br />specifically told him that concrete is not a prerequisite and therefore they are going to remove <br />it so we can put landscaping in the median to make it more pedestrian friendly. He <br />acknowledged Mr. Abramson's hard work from the very beginning pushing for landscaping <br />in this City. <br /> <br />Herbert Abramson said he was disappointed that he was not appointed to the Beachwalk Fact <br />Finding Committee. He said he spent over a year researching this, and a beachwalk is doable <br />without harm to the turtles. He said he would like the City to go forward with a beachwalk, <br />and he had over 3,000 citizens that signed the petitions. He urged the Commission to hire a <br />professional beachwalk engineer to design what needs to be done to give the citizens of <br />Sunny Isles Beach a beachwalk. Mayor Edelcup said when the Beachwalk Fact Finding <br />Committee was appointed it was done at an open hearing and all the members of this <br />Commission participated, and we increased the size of the Committee because <br />Commissioner Iglesias wanted to add one other person. Commissioner Iglesias said that <br />person asked him to be put on that committee, and Mayor Edelcup noted that a lot of people <br />were involved that wanted to be on this committee but we had to limit the size so that it <br />would be a workable committee. He noted that they had thanked the Sunny Isles Beach <br />Beautification Trust at that time for all the work they did. He said the Beachwalk Fact <br />Finding Committee did not advise the City as to what to do, but only brought the facts <br />forward. <br /> <br />Dr. Schultz said that Mr. Abramson must have missed their Beachwalk Fact Finding <br />Committee presentation because had he been there he would have understood more clearly, <br />as we provided a very thick report on numerous matters including the reasons why our beach <br />was in no way comparable to Bal Harbour in particular, the fact that we barely have a <br />primary dune, the amount of beach that would be lost in generating two layers of dunes <br />which would be required if you ever built behind one, and that our private property lines are <br />far forward into the sands of the beach, which no other beach in South Florida is actually in. <br /> <br />Dr. Schultz said the people on that committee came on board initially with very strong <br />opinions and quite evenly decided, and deliberately so on the Commission's part, on both <br />sides and they sat together over a long period of time and looked at what things were <br />possible. She said the report states approximately 4 or 5 different ways a beach can have a <br />walk placed and we looked at all of those and why they would or would not be possible or <br />useable for our particular beach. She said by the end of the time when that committee <br />worked together, people on all sides were very clear that the various things that we presented <br />that we were all in agreement that this was as near as possible. She said Calvin Giordano and <br />Associates, provided them with an expert who works with placement of beach walks in areas <br />and various other environmentally sensitive issues and she was tremendously valuable in <br />providing very accurate and scientific information. <br /> <br />15 <br />