2008 0221 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes: Regular City Commission Meeting February 21, 2008 City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida 12B. Discussion regarding Commercial Vehicles "Resident Only Zones". Action: [City Clerk's Note: A map indicating Parking Zones distributed prior to meeting See action Item 4A.] Community Development Director Robert Solera reported noting that this came about because the Condo Associations are passing stricter regulations prohibiting commercial vehicles within their premises which provoked an increase of requests from residents to park their commercial vehicles in designated "Resident Only" parking locations. He presented a map indicating the "Resident Only" on-street parking, south of 178th Street to approximately 174th Street. He said he is looking for guidance from the City Commission in allowing taxi cab type of vehicles to acquire "Resident Only" parking permits. Mayor Edelcup said when he and Community Development Director Solera first talked about this, they talked about vehicles that are basically cars, whether they be utilized as a taxi or somebody has their own private car with his business name on the side, so in his mind he would like to limit it to those types of vehicles which are standard with the typical automobile or SUV that people drive as a normal course of their private lives. He said that anything of a higher weight, and maybe we can handle it by a weight ordinance or size ordinance, panel trucks and larger vehicles, they would go underneath the William Lehman Causeway if they were much longer vehicles, and he would like to keep the ones for the street limited to vehicles as described essentially as an automobile. Community Development Director Solera said that we had proposed originally a while back underneath the William Lehman Causeway to have an area specifically designated for commercial vehicles such as boats, RVs, etc. He said at this point we have an agreement with Fortune International which restricts us from allowing that space to be limited to that specific use because we have an agreement for 400 spaces underneath the Causeway, where 500 spaces are present, and out of the 100 spaces we are using about 30 for School Board parking. He said until Fortune International's agreement ends in June 2008, we can either renew or terminate, and within 60 days of the agreement finalizing or ending we need to notify the developer whether we want to pursue a renewal of it or not. Mayor Edelcup said maybe it will be a moot point and the developer will finish his job but if the developer is requesting an extension, maybe we need to carve out 100 spaces and say that they are no longer available because it is just as important for us to resolve the problems of our residents as it is to resolve the problem for the developer. He said that we need to be equally sensitive to our residents needs as well as the developer, so come June he would request that the City Manager bear in mind that we need to resolve the commercial vehicle parking for our own residents at that time. City Manager Szerlag said another issue is Ramada parking when we relocate 400 spaces to construct Heritage Park and Parking Garage, they will be relocated to the William Lehman Causeway for about a year. Commissioner Scholl said he has a hard time differentiating the aesthetics between a taxi cab and a delivery van, and Mayor Edelcup said that is why he is suggesting to go by a weight limit because what we don't want is a big truck. Community Development Director Solera said he will work on an ordinance for the March agenda changing the definition of commercial vehicles that applies to multi-family locations "Resident Only" parking, not in terms of the single-family residence. 25