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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-0416 Special City Commission Meeting SUMMARY MINUTES Special City Commission Meeting Thursday, April 16, 2009, 6:30 p.m. City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida A TTENTION ALL LOBBYISTS: CITY LAW REQUIRES YOUR REGISTRATION PRIOR TO ENGAGING IN LOBBYING ACTIVITIES BEFORE CITY STAFF, BOARDS, COMMITTEES OR THE CITY COMMISSION. PLEASE CONTACT THE CITY CLERK FOR FORMS AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION. AGENDA 1. CALL TO ORDER / ROLL CALL OF MEMBERS The meeting was called to order by Mayor Ede1cup at 6:30 p.m. with the following officials present: Mayor Norman S. Ede1cup Vice Mayor Lewis J. Thaler Comm. Roslyn Brezin Commissioner Gerry Goodman Commissioner George "Bud" Scholl Acting City Manager Rick Conner City Attorney Hans Ottinot City Clerk Jane A. Hines, CMC Assistant City Manager/Services Jorge Vera Assistant City Attorney Fernando Amuchastegui 2. Mayor Ede1cup gave opening remarks of decorum. 3. RESOLUTIONS 3A. Plan of Action to Acquire Properties for the Open Space and Public Parking Initiative. 1. A Resolution of the City Commission of the City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, Declaring Public Purpose and Necessity to Acquire Fee Simple Title to a Parcel of Property More Particular Described Herein (Located at 215-255 Sunny Isles Boulevard) for the Development of a Public Park and Public Parking Facility; Authorizing the City Attorney to Initiate Eminent Domain Proceedings; Providing the City Manager and the City Attorney With the Authority to Retain Expert Witnesses and Consultants and to Do All Things Necessary to Effectuate this Resolution; Providing for an Effective Date. Action: [City Clerk's Note: Correspondence from the City's Planning Consultant Jack Luft dated April 13, 2009 re: Update and Addenda for the "Open Space Master Plan", and a graphic was distributed prior to the meeting.} City Clerk Hines read the title, and City Attorney Ottinot reported. Public Speakers: Sydney Callaway, Esq.; Jack Luft; Robert Chapman; Marc Mogil; Arie Stieger; Mark Oken Sydney Callaway, Esq., the City's Eminent Domain Counsel, gave a brief presentation to affirm public purpose and necessity. He reported that the City's long range Comprehensive Plan requires the City to do things that are consistent with providing for the public necessity of having open space and recreational facilities, and the parking that is required and needed to accommodate that activity in the southern part of the City. The City's Urban Planning Consultant Jack Luft gave an overview of the report he presented at the City Commission Workshop on March 20,2008. The City grew from a population in the late 1990's of about 11,000 to approximately 18,000 at this time, and looking ahead to the full occupancy of the units that have been recently developed will in the next several Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting April 16.2009 Sunny Isles Beach, Florida years come closer to 25,000, and with a next phase of development of the build-out of available sites, the City is looking at a population of somewhere between 35,000 to 45,000 people. We had basically 25 acres of park land west of Collins Avenue that was within immediate reach of about 80% of the population and that is not enough. It works out to be about .8 acres per 1,000 residents, and this is not counting the beach as it doesn't meet many of the diverse recreational activities that a community broadly seeks. In looking at the available land to come closer to the 2.75 acres per 1,000 per its Comprehensive Plan, it was felt that the City expand where possible. Mr. Luft said the Evaluation and Plan for Open Space and Recreation that he prepared last year dealt at that time with what we knew to be the existing inventory of public lands and parks. At this time we need to update this report with addenda that reflects this most recent acquisition of public land on Sunny Isles Boulevard, the one (1) acre that City Attorney Ottinot referenced, and be included in the Analysis so that the overall Plan would reflect and consider that new addition as it would impact the final recommendations. It is his finding that the basic recommendation for the acquisition of additional land in the vicinity of Sunny Isles Boulevard remains the top priority. He noted that he distributed an update of four sheets to that Open Space Master Plan, maps had been changed to reflect that added park space, addenda text has been added to the report to address how that additional space affected that Plan and its recommendations. The conclusion is that this one (1) acre addition brings us closer to achieving the ultimate objective of a parcel that would be 3 to 4 acres in size and would be capable of addressing some very significant needs, not the least of which is for major community gathering space and parking facilities that address both that new added space and existing facilities, specifically, the old historic pier and the planned restaurant that today has 29 parking spaces assigned to it, and it is going to be in need of additional secured public parking. The existing one acre that the City has is too far west to adequately serve that from a pedestrian outreach standpoint. It is over the 1,600 feet optimal walking distance, and it wouldn't be large enough to provide the parking and it would leave no room for anything else. The preferable location for additional parking facilities is closer to Collins Avenue where you can have it connected by a pedestrian bridge to the Pier, and service the park space to the west. He presented a rendering ofthe recommended area for the open space expansion from North Bay Road east toward Collins Avenue, between the east and west bound lanes of Sunny Isles Boulevard, the optimal and perhaps the only realistic location for achieving these critical public objectives for open space. Mr. Luft noted that the City has already invested over $4 Million in enhancing Sunny Isles Boulevard, preparing it as a true gateway for the community, and consistent with that, potential overpass connections for pedestrians to Town Center and to neighborhoods to the north as well as Collins A venue to the south. Make this a hub, it is really a huge point for the community where things can be connected, it has great visibility, good accessibility particularly from bus and transient serving your neighborhoods into this space. By adding this additional space to the east we can transform this one (1) acre park into a mixed-use public space with cultural recreational active community events. The recommendation has not changed, it has only reinforced the need that was presented to the City last year. 2 Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting April 16,2009 Sunny Isles Beach, Florida Mr. Callaway noted that Mr. Luft and the City have considered a number of properties that might be appropriate sites for parking, open space, and recreational facilities, but the fact that the City has acquired two (2) parcels already in the Sunny Isles Boulevard Corridor, and the fact that it is closer to Collins A venue that allows your public infrastructure to be pushed into that area so people can get across the street to Collins A venue. The parcels and the property in these two resolutions accommodate a number of considerations, including the economics of it, which is saying that the City has committed funds already towards improving this particular Corridor. The recommendation that he concurs with and has expressed his thoughts to the City Attorney is that from a legal standpoint, the City has considered and has followed all of the proper protocol that makes this property appropriate for consideration to be acquired in Fee Simple Title. Ifthese properties are acquired will they trigger or require as necessity the need for additional parking, and the short answer is yes. Robert Chapman, Senior Project Manager with Kimley Horn and Associates, said his task was to review and provide an update to the March 2008 Parking Demand Analysis prepared by Keith and Schnars Engineers, with respect to the new development for the park and open space in the median of Sunny Isles Boulevard. For this area to be successful, viable, and provide a gathering of community of citizens, it is going to need on-site parking. There are some aspects to looking at shared parking and other uses to minimize the parking demand and with those applications that have been used both in the previous report and in his analysis, those guidelines established by the Urban Land Institute and others, there really is no available parking within the area to use right now for community gatherings. His recommendation is 500 parking spaces based on the land uses in the report. Commissioner Scholl said when the Pier Park Project is completed it will be under-parked as well, and Mr. Luft said that it is vastly under-parked, we are talking about potentially a 5,000 square foot restaurant plus a 700- foot long Pier that could contain from 150 to 250 people, and 29 parking spaces are nowhere near sufficient to meet the demand for that kind of complexity of use. We need additional park space in conjunction with that to the west, and that is going to need parking as well, so the combination of both creates a significant demand. The 500-space recommendation is for a combination of public uses. Commissioner Brezin asked if we considered the cost in selecting this property on Sunny Isles Boulevard, and Mr. Luft said there is a number of costs involved in acquiring land in an urbanized city that is perhaps 95% developed. He said the principal issue is not buying the lowest cost land, but to try to balance issues of displacement, feasibility vs. cost benefit, to find a location that meets the needs of an underserved community that was accessible, visible, and potentially large enough to accommodate the slate of activities that we felt were missing from the long range recreational program. Mr. Callaway said the ultimate costs are entirely important, and the same consideration for what the economic impact of this is to the City. The City's investment in this Corridor along with all the other factors that Mr. Luft talked about in terms of the geographic proximity of these parcels to other property that the City already owns, makes it more appropriate to suggest that we have a fairly significant investment on Sunny Isles Boulevard. He said he spoke to Acting City Manager Conner who said about $3.2 Million has already been invested along the Sunny Isles Boulevard Corridor, and another $4.7 Million invested in the 3 Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting April 16, 2009 Sunny Isles Beach, Florida renovations associated with the Newport Fishing Pier, and other public infrastructure investments that have been taking place or are part of the Capital Improvement Plan. It is a combination of a number of factors, the total cost being one of them, but the fact that you have one acre already that is in that Corridor and you have that property associated with being able to have pedestrian access to the east side of Collins A venue. It really ties into safety considerations and the amenities that you have at the Pier, but most importantly the fact that you have that one acre there, it also brings to scale what the City's long-term plan is and by all accounts the type of open space, public parking and the public park-type facilities that the City is planning. You are talking about a 3-acre tract ofland where you can do some major community cultural kind of activities that has a fairly multi-purpose use. With that you do have the need for parking but you also have the fact that these properties are fairly contiguous to each other and that makes the ultimate cost of the particular parcels in question part of the equation but not necessarily the total formula for where the economic slides. Mayor Edelcup asked Mr. Luft, when we developed the Comprehensive Plan does it actually mandate that we create more parks and open space on the west side of our City, and Mr. Luft said the 2000 Plan did not mandate it, it addressed basically the minimal criteria that the State set which was 2.75 acres per 1,000, and it included, because it was the only way we were going to meet that number, the 98-acre beachfront that the City has. There was a concern at that time if we were going to have the range of full recreational activities that we needed because at that point we didn't have the Community Center, the ball fields, the improved Margolis Park, or Samson Park, and so it was like looking at a blank slate of potential lands we could acquire to see what we could get and where and to try to keep that formula in tact. When we came back in 2007 after the building boom where several thousand housing units were built and the population ofthe City almost doubled in a decade, it overwhelmed everybody's projections. In light of that occurrence, the City amended its Comprehensive Plan and did in fact mandate in 2007 in its Comprehensive Plan Update Process through its EAR and its annual amendment, that additional lands west of Collins A venue, and particularly south of 172nd Street, be acquired or assembled in some manner to expand public open space. That amendment put into formal law the mandate that the City proceed in that direction, and we then did a study and took a hard look at all the options to see what we could do to comply to our Comprehensive Plan. Mayor Edelcup said then that the action we take tonight if we vote favorably for this would be in accordance with the mandate of the update of the Comprehensive Plan, and Mr. Luft said under State law we have realistically a 5 to 10 year time frame to implement our Comp Plan and you must, in your Evaluation Appraisal Review (EAR) Report that you submit every 5 to 6 years, demonstrate to the State that you are achieving the objectives and goals that you set and, the next time you go around on this, you will have to address "how are we meeting the needs of park space west of Collins Avenue and south of 172nd Street." This will be a demonstrative action in meeting that, and so yes, this will satisfy that requirement. Vice Mayor Thaler said in terms of the numbers of Sunny Isles Beach official population, as of April 2008 the population was 20,121. Mr. Luft said he was dealing with January numbers and the best update he had of projections from the University of Florida, and so it grew even faster than we thought. Vice Mayor Thaler asked what will be the environmental impact, and Mr. Luft said if you just put a passive field area with flowers in it and there are 4 Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting April 16,2009 Sunny Isles Beach, Florida no formal activity programs, it is going to have minimal impact on surrounding properties. When we talk about environmental impacts we talk ~bout impacts on traffic, on circulation, on noise, on surrounding property values, and one of the issues that we had to deal with in this Park Study was "were there parks that would be suitable for these kinds of missing active activities, cultural and recreational, etc., activities that we could use." The problem was, like Margolis Park, you are parking on the street in the middle of a low-density neighborhood across from a church, it was not suitable for the long-range on-going consistent basis, meaning environmental impact at that location would have been problematic. 167'h Street was a much preferable location in terms of its relationship to land use as part of which were commercial and high-density to the south, which would be a better fit for that kind of use and so the traffic accessibility, and the ability to get in and out, the major roadways, all added up to a favorable impact between the Park and its surroundings. Vice Mayor Thaler asked if there would be less traffic with a Park and the parking than what is there now, and Mr. Luft said it depends on the event, and time of day. What is there now is one-story retail shops and a club, on a day-in and day-out hourly basis there may be in fact more traffic there today than there would be say at noon on a Wednesday or Thursday in the Park. On the weekends a properly programmed and actively used Park would have more activity than the current low profile small shops there. Commissioner Goodman said most of our parks are in the northern end of the City and there are no parks in the southern end, the southern end is very narrow and we don't have much land there. The only site to build a good sized Park would be on 167'h Street where you can park cars, etc., and so this would probably be one of the last sites that you could pick if you go to the south. Mr. Luft said as it stands today, yes, this is probably our last best chance to get something to serve that area. You have the little Belle Vista Park under the expressway, and the next park would be Town Center Park at 172nd Street. Commissioner Goodman said the problem we have is parking and so building a garage in the Park would alleviate some of the problems we have in Sunny Isles Beach, and Mr. Luft said it would certainly alleviate the problem with Pier Park, and it would make any other Park use that you put there to the west feasible. For people to get there you would have to have some kind of parking facility, and hopefully you will get some walk-in trade to the Park when you have a major event there. If you had an overpass into the shopping area to the north, people would be able to walk from there, what we are trying to do is to create a mix of activities and reinforce where activities support each other. The Park itself would be a major focal point that would enhance the area and improve the values, and stimulate and attract business. City Attorney Ottinot said in order to clarify the record, to take a roll call vote for each resolution. Vice Mayor Thaler moved and Commissioner Scholl seconded a motion to approve this resolution. Resolution No. 2009-1400 was adopted by a roll call vote of 5-0 in favor. V ote: Commissioner Brezin yes Commissioner Goodman yes Commissioner Scholl ~ Vice Mayor Thaler yes Mayor Edelcup ~ 5 Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting April 16,2009 Sunny Isles Beach, Florida 2. A Resolution of the City Commission of the City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, Declaring Public Purpose and Necessity to Acquire Fee Simple Title to a Parcel of Property More Particular Described Herein for (Located at 151 Sunny Isles Boulevard) the Development of a Public Park and Public Parking Facility; Authorizing the City Attorney to Initiate Eminent Domain Proceedings; Providing the City Manager and the City Attorney with the Authority to Retain Expert Witnesses and Consultants and to Do All Things Necessary to Effectuate this Resolution; Providing For An Effective Date. Action: City Clerk Hines read the title, and City Attorney Ottinot reported. Public Speakers: none Vice Mayor Thaler moved and Commissioner Goodman seconded a motion to approve this resolution. Resolution No. 2009-1401 was adopted by a roll call vote of 5-0 in favor. V ote: Commissioner Brezin yes Commissioner Goodman yes Commissioner Scholl yes Vice Mayor Thaler yes Mayor Edelcup yes 4. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Edelcup adjourned the meeting at 7:23 p.m. R~spectfully submitted by: Approved by the City Commission on May 21, 2009 ~~~-Ar~ Jane A. Hines, CMC, City Clerk 6