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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHPB Minutes 2007-0123 SUMMARY MINUTES City of Sunny Isles Beach Historic Preservation Board Meeting Government Center, 18070 Collins Avenue, Sunny Isles Beach Tuesday, January 23, 2007, 7:00 p.m. 1. CALL TO ORDER BY CHAIRPERSON: Action: Chairperson Bud Scholl called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. The following Committee Members and City Officials were present: Committee Members: City Officials:; Bud Scholl, Chairperson Mayor Norman S. Edelcup Joe Masters, Vice-Chairperson Commissioner Roslyn Brezin Cassey Gabor Commissioner Gerry Goodman Bonita Shoki Deputy City Attorney Patricia SaintVil-Joseph Phillip Chernoff City Clerk Jane A. Hines, CMC City Liaison: Absent Members: Richard Schulman, City Historian Michelle D'Arbelles Trina Duluc Audience: Dione E. Del Monico 8 Son Jesse Jacob 2. SELF INTRODUCTIONS: Action: Chairperson Scholl thanked everyone for attending and noted that this is his first meeting and that he is taking over for his wife, Dione E. Del Monico. 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FOR THE MARCH 28, 2006 HISTORIC PRESERVATION BOARD MEETING: Action: Cassey Gabor noted a correction on page 5, Section 7, "Cassey Gabor suggested that when we place the plaques, we should have a ceremony." She said the plaques were already placed and no one knew about it, the media and board members should have been invited to attend. Chairperson Scholl said that we will take that up as an agenda item tonight and keep the minutes as they are. Ms. Gabor said one thing is missing, page 5! Section 7, it was said that the camels would collapse if moved, if they withstood the hurricane, then they should be strong enough to be preserved. Chairperson Scholl said to amend the minutes that Cassey commented regarding the structural integrity of the camels in the event of a major storm. Joe Masters moved and Bonita Shoki seconded a motion to approve the March 28, 2006 Committee meeting summary minutes,as amended. The motion was approved by a 4-0- 3 [Michelle D'Arbelles and Trina Duluc absent; Phillip Chernoff arrived late] vote. Chairperson Scholl asked City Clerk Hines to make the change to the minutes and resubmit a copy to the Board members. Summary Minutes 2007-0123 HPB Mtg Page;1 of 7 4. DISCUSSION OF HISTORIC SITES. Historic Plaques Placed onto Atlantic Isles Entrance Bridge, and Lagoon Bridge in Atlantic Isles; Newport Fishing Pier and the Water Villa and Pergola, pending. Action: Cassey Gabor said the plaques were already placed onto3tlantic Isles Entrance Bridge, and Lagoon Bridge in Atlantic Isles and no one knew about it She said there should have been a ceremony and the Board members, media and the public should have been invited to attend. Chairperson Scholl said when we place historic plaques in the future we will make a note to try to have some kind of small ceremony and invite the media, as there is very little public awareness. Richard Schulman said the Newport Fishing Pier has negotiations underway so until we know the results of those discussions he feels that we should defer the Fishing Pier until the next meeting at which time we will probably have more information. Chairperson Scholl said his property is the Water Villa and Pergola and we are going to defer discussion on that as well because he has been working with staff based on the condition of what we can do there. Bonita Shoki moved and Cassey Gabor seconded a motion to defer discussion on the Newport Fishing Pier and the Water Villa and Pergola. The motion was approved by a 4-0-3 [Michelle D'Arbelles and Trina Duluc absent; Phillip Chernoff arrived late] vote. Chairperson Scholl said as a point of reference that the Atlantic Isles Entrance Bridge and Lagoon Bridge in Atlantic Isles is really the only historical bridges in the City, these are the only original bridges in Atlantic Isles, when he first moved here the entrance bridges were just like this bridge. There were two little narrow bridges that only one car could pass at a time, and in the early 1990's the County condemned those bridges because they were sinking and were not properly designed for vehicular traffic which is'one of the reasons that this bridge is now one lane. Chairperson Scholl said in regards to the two bridges in front of Atlantic Isles, he would call them historic reconstruction, so what the County did was to bring a proposal to the Island residents. He said it was not a formal process, they said that they have to rebuild the bridges, and because they were historic, we all felt that we wanted to see something nice there. The County rebuilt the bridges completely b'ut built little light towers that emulated the light towers in the old bridges. Richard Schulman noted that they were originally built in the 1920's. Chairperson Scholl said if this bridge ever gets structurally unsound we can just put a post in it and it will be a walk-over. He said we try to keep trucks off from it, now that was the real issue, when a truck came on the island they would either have to go down by his house, and they really could not make the cul=de-sac turn because it was too tight for them so they had to go on the lagoon. Heavy trucks would go over this bridge and that was damaging it and so ultimately they narrowed the bridge so it is much tougher for a truck to go over and hopefully that will help preserve it for several more years. Richard Schulman passed around pictures of the historic plaques ithat were placed onto Atlantic Isles Entrance Bridge, and Lagoon Bridge in Atlantic Isles.' He said that they have not made up plaques yet for the Newport Fishing Pier and the Water Villa and Pergola. Chairperson Scholl said he is not really in favor of having a plaque put up at his house because it is a private place. He has people coming on his property all the time trying to take pictures and it has been very frustrating and that is why he put his hedge up and put gates up. For years they would pull their car up and walk up to his house and try to take pictures and walk around the property. • Summary Minutes 2007-0123 HPB Mtg Page 2 of 7 5. DISCUSSION OF POSSIBLE HISTORIC SITES. Review of Letter from Golden Strand; St Mary Magdalen Church; and B'Nai Zion Temple. Action: Richard Schulman said that he had done a survey on sites that the Board discussed as possible historic sites. He said he went to the Golden Strand in April 2006 and spoke to Joe Feldman who is the President of the building. He said after his discussion he received a copy of a letter addressed to Mayor Edelcup and he read it into the record, stating that they came to the conclusion that it would not be in the best interest of their 7,752 owners which is a time share, and asked the City to terminate any further action. Chairperson'Scholl asked when the Golden Strand was built and Mr. Schulman said in 1946, and the second building was completed in 1949. Richard Schulman also read into the record a letter from B'Nai Zion Temple dated August 2006 addressed to the Mayor and Commission stating that their members' are not interested in designation at this time. Chairperson Scholl asked when that was builtland Mr. Schulman said it was originally owned by a church built in the late 1950's. Richard Schulman said that he visited Father Hanold from St. Mary Magdalen Church which is the oldest church in Sunny Isles Beach built in the late 1920's, and he said Father Hanold has respectfully declined to have the Church designated as an historic site; and that he lives in the rectory. Chairperson Scholl said that the City is growing and people get nervous about wanting to get an historic designation. He said that a commercial enterprise gets real nervous because they know that, in the future if they are designated, they lose their flexibility for selling their property or demolishing the site. From his perspective we have to be careful, we can force the issue if we thought we had something that was worthy of designation. He said with his house if he was giving you a hard time, you could force the issue because his house was built in 1922 and it is unique. He worked with the Historic Board on Miami Beach and they looked for something that was unique, not necessarily old, and there is a difference. Chairperson Scholl said he feels that Mr. Schulman has probably flushed out everything in the City that is worth looking at, at this time, we just don't have that many old unique structures in the City. Mr. Schulman asked what flexibility does the Board have, we have not only sites but we could also say artifacts, memorabilia, because we do have the first artifact which is the horses and carriage, and we are running out of possible sites. He said the second artifact that we are going to place for discussion is the Pelican which has been in a museum downtown. Chairperson Scholl said he agrees with Richard as we do have some tiriique artifacts that were very germane to the history of the community. He said when you show'the Pelican it certainly brought back memories for him because he lived over the bridge fof the last 45-years. Mr. Schulman said they are landmarks, and Chairperson Scholl agreed and said that Mr. Schulman has a catalogue of Sunny Isles Beach artifacts. Mr. Schulman said that we also have the five (5) Egyptian images which we got from the Dunes Motel, and he hated that the piece of driftwood he had from the Driftwood Motel fell apart. Commissioner Brezin reminded the Board that the Rascal House has three(3) rascals and Mr. Schulman said that they have spoken to Seth and they said they would save them for us. Cassey Gabor said that the Rascal House is really a landmark and she has composed a letter Summary Minutes 2007-0123 HPB Mtg Page 3 of 7 to them which she read into the record asking them to have Epicure dedicate a wall to the Rascal House for artifacts, allow the City to place a plaque on the wall stating that this was the site of the Historic Rascal House Restaurant from 1954 to the date' of demolition, and all memorabilia not used for the wall to be donated to the City. She said if everyone will write a letter asking them to do the same. Chairperson Scholl stated that if we try to force them to do something within their structure then we are going to have issues. Mayor Edelcup said that they might agree to put a plaque up. Chairperson Scholl said as a Board, let's authorize Richard Schulman to write a letter as the Board's Liaison to the developers of the Rascal House and we can copy the lawyer, and say we respectfully request that the Rascal House memorabilia be donated to the City and upon completion of the building, we would like a spot in the building to place a!designation plaque to the memory of the Rascal House. He said he likes Cassey's wall concept but then we are trying to dictate their interior design and we are going to have a problem legally because they are building a more modern building and they may or may not have'that theme in the new Epicure. Mayor Edelcup said to offer an alternative to turn them over to Epicure, and Chairperson Scholl said yes that is a good idea, the alternative would be, if you are not comfortable in donating the materials to the City would you please consider donating them to the new Epicure. Richard Schulman brought everyone up to date on the Rascal House memorabilia, the Rascal House is a good part of our History Book that will be out in 60-days. He said that we have the old menus, tickets, original pictures of Wolfie Cohen sitting at the counter with the waitresses lined up, and we have a lot of memorabilia which will be shown in the, named "Our New History Book" by Seth Bramson, called "From Sandbar to Sophisticaion, the Story of Sunny Isles Beach", it goes all the way back to Harvey Baker Graves who founded this area in 1918 and purchased land in 1920. He said the book is 7" x 10" with 192 pages and over 200 black and white pictures but colored pictures are on the front and back cover. He said it can be purchased for $5.00 for residents, and Mayor Edelcup said it will be $19.95 when it hits the stands. Mr. Schulman said that we will have a book signing by Mr. Bramson downstairs in the lobby at certain times for the 10th Anniversary. Cassey Gabor asked for a listing of artifacts for discussion at the next meeting and then we can decide where we can place each one. Chairperson Scholl asked M . Schulman to bring a listing of the artifacts to the next meeting. Ms. Gabor said she would like to consider the camels, and Mr. Schulman said we are not only looking at the camels but we are also looking at the Sphinx, when they moved the Sphinx it fell apart and the camels are made out of the same material. Ms. Gabor suggested leaving them in the same original place, and Mr. Schulman said we can't because they are planning a high-rise there, 'and Chairperson Scholl said they would be there as long as the building is there. Chairperson Scholl said that is kind of more like a policy as far as the Board is concerned on how aggressive,we want to be and he is not in favor of that but we can vote on it. He said we could open ourselves up to lawsuits on that one. He said we are doing the artifacts on our own accord within the Board, we don't have legislation in place to make people keep artifacts on their property in good condition, and so he doesn't feel we have the infrastructure legally to do that. Deputy City Attorney Patricia SaintVil- Joseph stated that she had spoken to Mr. Schulman about amending the Mission Statement to incorporate artifacts. Mr. Schulman said amending the rules is for us not the property owners, but he said we will show a valiant effort to save the artifacts. Summary Minutes 2007-0123 HPB Mtg Page 4 of 7 6. DISCUSSION ON VISIT BY SUSAN LIPP, GREAT GRANDDAUGHTER OF FOUNDER HARVEY B. GRAVES: Visit to Historic Sites, Mangrove Reserve, and the Rascal House; and 10th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION JUNE 16, 2007 AND DEDICATION OF HARVEY B. GRAVES PLAQUE "MANGROVE RESERVE" IN THE TOWN CENTER PARK. Action: Chairperson Scholl said that Richard Schulman took the Great Granddaughter of Harvey Graves, and toured his property, the Mangrove Reserve, and the Rascal House, and he got a lovely letter back from her. Richard Schulman passed the letter;around and noted that they are planning on inviting her and her family here for the 10th Anniversary. He said the Grandson is 86-years old, and his father founded the Graves Real Estate Company which is in the history vault, and we are going to try to have them here for the unveiling of the plaque dedicating the mangrove area at Town Center Park as the"Harvey Graves Mangrove Reserve" to be dedicated June 16, 2007. It was noted that the pathway will be completed in 2008. Mr. Schulman said it was very hard locating Susan Lipp. He said Mr. Graves left a will of 156 pages and thanks to Mayor Edelcup, they found it. Mr. Schulman said he went through the will and called everyone in that area and left messages. One day he received a message from Ms. Lipp and as it was, she was the only one in the family that acquired all of the memorabilia and photographs that were historic to this area. They invited her and her husband down and they stayed at the Newport. Ms. Lipp is going to send him a list of those in her family that would be interested in our history book, and a lot of her photographs made up the book. Mr. Schulman noted that Harvey Graves owned the largest furniture dealership in the northeast United States, he was born in 1855 and died in 1936 and they sold his business which included a 50-story building in Rochester, New York, which has since been demolished.4 Mr. Schulman said he was the first one in the United States to put rooms together with furniture as show rooms. 7. PRESERVATION OF DRIFTWOOD PELICAN TO ACTIVE PARK, NOW NAMED "PELICAN PARK" APPROVAL BY HISTORIC PRESERVATION BOARD. Action: Chairperson Scholl asked Richard Schulman if we need to officially approve that, and he said yes and passed around pictures of the Pelican. He said the dimensions of the Pelican are 12-feet 5-inches high and 6-feet 10-inches across at the wing, and will be mounted on the wall of the new Recreation/Cultural Center. Mayor Edelcup asked if they were going to amend the Mission Statement to include artifacts, because if they include artifacts then they could dedicate the artifacts with a plaque for each artifact and the Board agreed that was a good idea. Richard Schulman read into the record the wording on the plaque"This Pelican structure was a landmark at the Driftwood Motel 17121 Collins Avenue, for 30-years iin Sunny Isles Beach, Florida". Cassey Gabor suggested putting in the actual dates rather than 30-years, and the Board agreed. Chairperson Scholl asked for a motion and Phillip Chernoff moved and Cassey Gabor seconded a motion to preserve the Pelican at the Active Park [Pelican Park]. The motion was approved by a 5-0-2 [Michelle D'Arbelles and Trina Duluc absent] vote. Summary Minutes 2007-0123 HPB Mtg Page 5 of 7 8. NEW BUSINESS. Action: Mayor Edelcup said we need another motion to dedicate the Florse and Carriage to the Gwen Margolis Park. Chairperson Scholl asked for the motion and Bonita Shoki moved and Joe Masters seconded a motion to dedicate the Horse and Carriage as they are placed in the Gwen Margolis Park. The motion was approved by a 5-0-2 [Michelle D'Arbelles and Trina Duluc absent] vote. Chairperson Scholl read the amended Mission Statement for the Board as follows: "The Mission of the Sunny Isles Beach Historic Preservation Board is: To Designate, Preserve, Protect and Maintain Historic Buildings, Areas, Sites, Artifacts, and Memorabilia as a Source of History and Heritage iri the City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida." Chairperson Scholl asked for a motion to adopt this as our new Mission Statement. Joe Masters moved and Phillip Chernoff seconded a motion to adopt the new Mission Statement. The motion was approved by a 5-0-2 [Michelle D'Arbelles and Trina Duluc absent] vote. Cassey Gabor suggested incorporating a room at the new school as a museum and Mayor Edelcup and Commissioner Brezin said that the County is building that school and we have no authority. Mayor Edelcup said that there may be room in the new Cultural Center that we are building at Pelican Park. Chairperson Scholl said we can make a Motion to direct staff to investigate our opportunities for incorporating the memorabilia and the history of the City in public places. Cassey Gabor moved and Phillip Chernoff seconded a motion to direct staff to investigate our opportunities for incorporating the memorabilialand the history of the City in public places. The motion was approved by a 5-0-2 [Michelle D'Arbelles and Trina Duluc absent] vote. Chairperson Scholl said to Richard Schulman that his mandate is that we go forward and have public places to use for our memorabilia and our City heritage and that we try to take advantage of that. Cassey Gabor said at the next meeting maybe we can organize and'begin to think about a museum because it is a lot of work. Chairperson Scholl said it starts with a public place that we know we can get control of so we have to be very careful because we don't want people to be anti-historic because they are afraid it may infringe on their rights. He suggested an exhibition in the Library that could run for 3-months, we do a little mailer about the exhibition, and we can look for opportunities which is now our Mission Statement, to look for opportunities for public awareness. Commissioner Brezin said the Commission can work with the Board in working with the Library for an exhibition. Mayor Edelcup reminded the Board that they need to file the Annual Report with Miami- Dade County. Chairperson Scholl said he will work with Richard Schulman to prepare it and review it at the next meeting and then file it with Miami-Dade County, Chairperson Scholl said he always thought what would be interesting in a Park was the observation tower in front of the Colonial, that was a real landmark. Mr. Schulman said he tried to get the dolphin and the mermaid and someone had stolen it the night before. Mayor Edelcup said you can't keep what is gone but in the case of the Newport Lighthouse, you could Summary Minutes 2007-0123 HPB Mtg Page 6 of 7 probably try building a replica of it, and Chairperson Scholl said we need to talk about that one because replicas take away from real stuff. He said he calls it historic reconstruction and classical historical experts completely frown upon that. He said when they build on an historic building, they want it as different as possible, they don't want it to look like the historic building. 9. DATE AND TIME OF NEXT MEETING. Action: Chairperson Scholl said we should meet in about three (3) months, and after discussion it was decided to have the next meeting on Tuesday, April 24, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. 10. ADJOURNMENT. Action: Cassey Gabor moved and Bonita Shoki seconded a motion to adjourn the meeting, and Chairperson Scholl adjourned the meeting at 8:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted. ' kApril 24, 2007 Jane A. Hines, CMC Date City Clerk • Summary Minutes 2007-0123 HPB Mtg Page l7 of 7