2012-0315 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes: Regular City Commission Meeting March 15,2012 City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida Commissioner Gatto said that she lives in Winston Towers 300, and in December she met with Wendy, one of the owners, and at that point she did not have six children signed on. Also she had said they were considering moving to a larger space and taking over the bank area. She suggested to her to test the market first, and she volunteered to inquire about some other areas that might work. The reason she did that was because Wendy had mentioned to her that they were no longer interested in using the back yard area, and so that opened the door to other opportunities because there are not a lot of backyard areas available and was a little problematic. She deals with the corner of I 74th and North Bay Road several times a day, and she is concerned about the traffic as there are 2,800 apartments in the seven buildings of Winston Towers. Just about all have cars, and most of have two or three cars. She doesn't see the traffic study as compared to the bank as apples to apples, the bank is commerce, people go into the bank on an as needed basis. At a daycare center when you are dealing with children in diapers and car seats, and time spent trying to coordinate getting them out and in will add to the congestion there. A couple of weeks ago there were cranes in the area doing permitting work for the bridge, the parking area that goes right up against the proposed backyard where these kids are going to play, and she is worried about the future when the actual construction takes place with the bridge. She is not against the concept, she just thinks this area is not right for it. Vice Mayor Thaler said he was also there in December and his conversation was having 25 children, putting a fence up in the back of the playground, and it is a walk through the door to get to the playground, there is no street involved. Is there a need in this City, absolutely. He likes the fact that the applicant will not come back until 2014. One thing he discussed when he was there was dedicated parking spaces and he did not hear that in tonight's hearing to dedieate some ofthe parking spaces just for the daycare center, as they had for the bank. Mr. Price said they would agree to make that a condition if this is approved. Commissioner Aelion agreed with Commissioner Scholl, opposing arguments were not convincing but when you look at the big picture, we are limited in capabilities oflocations of uses and we have plazas here. The point here is when parents are going to drop these children, they are normally working parents, and he has a few issues with this. We have issues with noise where the Skate Park was built with no studies or pilot testing, and when you see in the baekyard, 100 Winston Towers, and the other side 300 which would be less impacted, but when you have 25 children outside playing, he doesn't want to be back here because of a noise issue. There is a child learning center with 25 kids in the RK Center,and there is one at Intracoastal Mall and A ventura. The issue before us is a greater issue and it is an issue of impact to the community of 5,000 residents within the complex. Commissioner Scholl said that every building in Winston Towers has a swimming pool, he will never subscribe to the fact that the sound of children at play is a public nuisance, we build parks, children play in the parks, and people do not complain about the parks. The fact is that we have a facility close to Winston Towers but a lot of other invasive uses that could go into that center that could cause just as much traffic or more and not have 5% of the benefit to the community. At the end of the day it is something we need in our community, from a safety standpoint that location is probably the safest place we can put a daycare center. 8