2008 0320 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes: Regular City Commission Meeting March 20, 2008 City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida extend it. Commissioner Scholl said that they do have the guarantee that it will be credited, and that your own research says under Scenario B, six years and change for full absorption, it doesn't say market is going to recover in six years. He said that he thought four years was a reasonable balance against your own research, and clearly development, given the fact that you got a process that came out of the ground and you are going to front-run that, the recovery and the market to a certain degree, you are going to be in a position to do that because you don't have to come back for entitlement and spend a year and a half getting entitlements. Vice Mayor Thaler said that he has done his homework as well and has gone out and spoken to different builders, not in Sunny Isles Beach, and they basically thought six years was excessive. He hears what they are saying but nothing is guaranteed in life, and that is basically what you are asking for, you are in business, you are making a gamble on putting up a building, and he thinks the City has been very generous in allowing you to go to the six years, and it is your option to take what the City is offering, and he truly believes that the City has gone further than he would go. Commissioner Brezin said that we don't have a crystal ball, we don't know when the economy is going to change, if you had eight years you may have the same insecurity that you have at six years, we started out at two years, and she thinks the City was very generous in extending that to four, which would give you six years. Also in addition to that, as far as your security is concerned, you put this on a scale and it is more obvious that you would get the extension if the economy did not change, and so she feels that her feeling about security would be more secure in that area than feeling insecure about not getting it. Commissioner Goodman said he was not in favor of a four-year extension, he was only in favor of a two-year extension, and it was his interpretation that you could have gotten four years if the Commission voted for four and if the City Manager felt that another two years would be satisfactory that he would make that decision, and he thinks that they voted against that. City Attorney Ottinot said that the program has been approved, this is just for discussion purposes. Ms. Dannheisser said that the only issue at this point is the monies that are being paid and whether they're completely lost if at the end of four years it is not looking too good, the Commission changes, the money has been paid and the City has used them, and that is fine, we understand the concept, we would very much appreciate consideration of an amendment to the Code which would allow for the credit for monies paid to travel with the land if the approval is then used for development if a permit is pulled. Mayor Edelcup said that he believes that we are one of the few cities, ifnot the only city right now, that has addressed this problem here in South Florida, and so we don't have something to follow, we are trying to lead, as we lead in the use ofTDRs. He said things may have to get amended as we discover glitches in the procedure, and certainly, the action that the Commission is taking by having the foresight to look into this problem and act upon it proves our good will in trying to make this a win-win situation for the City as well as the developers and certainly we have never closed our doors to any logical arguments, and we would continue to do that in the future. Mr. Ardid said that the Study says that the prices are foreseeable to go down 30%, that the market would improve in six years, now to start developing new projects, prices have to be 8