2012-0419 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes: Regular City Commission Meeting April 19, 2012 City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida insulated glass, heavily tinted glass, and it is going to raise the cost of all buildings. That is probably one of the reasons why you see so many people trying to get in before the Code change. He said this is a living document and he will keep everybody updated as they get updates. The Resolution going through the County right now for this Chapter 8 revision, they are encouraging us to get that approved, what that is met to be is like an interface from the Florida Building Code to our Flood Ordinance, and if they get that approved, that will interface and we won't have to make too many major changes to our Flood Ordinance. Commissioner Aelion said because of a similar situation in 2006, the City wasn't really able to decide the way forward but was stagnant in its allowability to proceed to fix the windows, we had a mass influx of people here and to that end we had to make an emergency amendment and allow them to go ahead and construct. That is why he said it would be a good idea to prepare ourselves so that doesn't get repeated. Mr. Parker said we are doing that and an example is that we just replaced some glass in City Hall, under the new Code they might say you have to bring that up to current standards, and so not only are you going to be changing the glazing, you are going to be changing the framework and everything else within that. There is a lot of new language in the new Energy Code that is going to actually change the way the Code, and Code language, for example, a Building Official has Code language to go by that a railing "shall be" or "can be" or "will be ". There is a new word in there now and there are over 50 sections of the new Code that say "mandatory", and so that is going to make everything a lot different. When the Code says "mandatory" he doubts people will even have the ability to appeal these sections of the Code to the Board of Rules and Appeals. We are educating our staff as fast as we can, we are going to some additional training conferences, and the whole industry has to be educated to this new Code. Commissioner Scholl said just to be clear, if a kid breaks your front window with a baseball by accident, you have to upgrade your entire window system in your house, and Mr. Parker said that is what they are trying to get approved. Mayor Edelcup said it has not been approved yet. Vice Mayor Thaler said that all buildings approved to date will go under the old Code, and Mr. Parker said any application from March 15 on will have to meet the new Code. Mayor Edelcup said if something happens because of a hurricane, damage, or fire it falls under the new Code. Commissioner Aelion said any site approval on or after March 15, 2012 is under the new Code. Mayor Edelcup said that it all has not been settled yet, at some point hopefully it does get settled, and many of our residents as well as ourselves are going to be confused by the issue and he would like to suggest that Mr. Parker and Ms. Ragoonan come up with a plan to educate our residents, either with a seminar, or simple language written documentation that you can send out, particularly to the condo association boards, and single - family home owners that are affected, everyone is going to be lost in the detail of this new Code. He knows you cannot opine on it now until you get further clarification but when that time does come maybe you can have some way of educating everybody here in the City. Vice Mayor Thaler suggested creating a booklet so that when they call, it will be available to them. City Manager Cohen said we were talking about this idea of additional education, and what we are hoping to do is put together something that we can include in one of the newsletters that is mailed out to every address in the City. Mayor Edelcup said from time to time we 15