2012-0301 Special Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting March 1,2012 Sunny Isles Beach, Florida Commissioner Scholl said as a Commission we have two obligations, one to our citizens and one to our property owners, and he did not hear much about how this would affect adjacent property owners. He commended Kobi Karp on a beautiful job, unfortunately the developer did not do his work here. When you are asking for a variance, rule no. 1 as a developer is to settle with the adjacent property owners and any surrounding homeowner associations, and he noted that what Joseph Milton's father signed in 2006 has no bearing on the current situation. What has bearing is that the developers walking in and saying, we want 85% of that setback, he has to satisfy Mr. Milton because Mr. Milton is the adjacent property owner and we as a Commission have an obligation to make sure his rights are protected just like the citizens rights are protected. Somebody didn't deal with our citizen groups either appropriately because Mr. LoCastro was confused, Commissioner Gatto was a little confused, it is the developer's obligation to satisfy our citizens to make them understand what is going to happen in their neighborhood and it is an heightened obligation to deal with the adjacent property owners because it is going to impair your property value. Variances are gold to a developer but they cost somebody something, and in this case it cost the adjacent property owner. What he sees here is that there is limited information in a short timeframe, and so his vote is to defer and let these issues get dealt with. Mayor Edelcup said when we look at all these various projects coming before us, we are always dealt a pretty difficult hand particularly when you are looking at 1 OO-foot lots which we have all had to grasp within our City since the day of its formation and the obligation to recognize that 100-foot lots have property rights attached to them and that there is a basic right of that developer to be able to develop that piece of property. Where we come in to interplay is to see when those 1 OO-foot lots are being presented to us, we have the best of all worlds and sometimes that means compromise to arrive at something that benefits our entire City as well as trying to maintain the property rights ofthe people that own that property also giving cognizance to the neighboring properties and to the people in our community. No one has ever approved of one of the big projects on the ocean because of its height and everyone has always complained about their view being blocked. That is a fact oflife that we have all had to deal with and everyone of us that have bought property here in Sunny Isles Beach or has been a part of the growth of the City recognize that each one of these properties on the ocean when they are going to be developed will be developed with high rises. The height limit has always been 550 feet or higher, as it is today at 650 feet, and so it has been a given that we are going to have high rise buildings on the ocean side. We attempted always to maintain a philosophy though of tall and skinny which he believes this particular piece of property as presented to us tonight is falling within those lines. Mayor Edelcup said in looking at that property as he looks at it right now, it certainly is a lot skinnier than the Pinnacle, or the Doubletree Hotel that is on the opposite ofthat Park. It is being built on ground 100-foot wide but we also have to look at alternatives that can be presented to us, and we know any builder is going to want to maximize whatever he can in the way of profits in developing it. We must look at whether or not this property with its variances is a superior product to a standard product that would come before us that wouldn't have variances but would have pedestals that would reach out to the lot lines, possibly instead of being 130 feet setback from Collins Avenue, it would be 75 feet. In the end the property owner has a right to develop a piece of property that he owns in accordance with our 9