Village Council - Regular Meeting

Hey, hey.

We'd like to start, so if everyone could start finding their seats. Recording in progress. Where did Alejandro go? Is Alejandro in there?

Is Alejandro in there? Oh, we've got pizza in there, too. Alejandro brought that.

I think it's you. Okay, we have a full agenda. I'd like to get started. I'll take one, too. Welcome, everyone. to our regular meeting of the Val Harbor Village Council. It's April 20th. The time is 634. Mr. Clerk, with the roll, please. Ladies and gentlemen, we're conducting business here. Can I ask you to be quiet? Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Here.

Here.

We have quorum. Thank you. We're going to do two brief presentations, and then we're going to skip to R7D. So just bear with me. I know that there's a lot of people here tonight. The first presentation is for... Are we not doing the prior meeting? Oh, I apologize. It's on the LPA agenda.

Okay. Oh, it's on the LPA.

Okay. Let's stand. Thank you for being here tonight. The first presentation is for Autism Acceptance Month. Whereas April is Autism Acceptance Month, bringing a chance to move past awareness and focus on what autistic people and families need in real life, respect, access, and supports that make community life possible. And whereas this year's theme, Celebrate Differences, encourages communities to move beyond tolerance toward a genuine celebration of neurodiversity. And whereas about one in five young adults with autism will interact with a police officer before the age of 21, and police interactions can escalate quickly within this vulnerable population due to lack of training. And whereas in response, Police Detective Hector Gonzalez and the Bal Harbor Police Department were instrumental in the passage of this year's Florida HB365 and SB418, creating a blue envelope program. for improving communication between individuals with autism and law enforcement officers, also providing for a new required officer training component based on the village's training objectives, and whereas Detective Gonzalez and his son Christopher have also provided autism awareness and acceptance training to over 56,000 police officers, firefighters, and civil service personnel throughout Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, and whereas the village of Val Harbor is a long-time participant in the Best Buddies Jobs Program, which provides integrated employment opportunities to candidates that bring a range of skills and abilities to our diverse workplace and community, and whereas workplaces and community spaces that foster flexibility, communication, and understanding enable autistic colleagues and community members to contribute fully, enhancing creativity, innovation, and collaboration across all sectors. Now, therefore, I, Seth Salver, Mayor of Bell Harbor Village, do hereby celebrate the month of April 2026 as Autism Acceptance Month. So I'd like to recognize our police chief, as well as former Vice Mayor Joni Blatcher. I'd like to come up and say a few words. Yeah. Oh, and Detective Hector and his son Christopher.

Good evening, everybody. Mayor, Assistant Mayor and Council, Mr. Gonzalez, our wonderful manager and city clerk and the audience. I happen to see this on the agenda, and I just had to come in because... It is such a beautiful thing to recognize these individuals for putting this out there. I myself have a son that's autistic. He's high functioning on the spectrum. And it's just an amazing opportunity for people like him to drive and to feel that they could be confident so when they get stopped, it's not a shock for the police officer to realize that they might have a little difficulty in talking with them. I've known Hector Gonzalez for many years, and I'm just so impressed by all the things that he has done over the years and his son, Chris, to make the public aware of the situation that these young adults, young children might have. And I want to thank the chief for backing it up, because without a chief like this, realizing that it's necessary is really a beautiful thing. Being that this is Autism Acceptance Month, I also wanted to thank the council, the city manager, and our city clerk, Dwight, for employing someone who has autism in the clerk's office. Daniel Budolovsky started working with the village clerk in March of 2019, and that's seven years ago, and I think you should all be really give yourself kudos for allowing someone the opportunity to work here. He primarily assists with document scanning and electronic filing in our LaserFish repository. He is necessary and valuable, and I just commend the village for practicing what they preach. And that's what it's all about. So thank you, Detective and the Chief, for teaching others about autism and making a difference in the community. Thank you, Bell Harbor. Thank you. Chris, thank you.

Detective Gonzalez, would you like to say a few words? Yes, I'd like to say a few words, and I also would like to take an opportunity to recognize someone. Many years ago, when I was a young police officer, we were not taught about how to deal with individuals with autism. And as I became a father, I realized that my son was special. in many, many ways. He's made me a better person, a better parent, and a better all-around person than anybody could ever be. And it has been an honor standing in front of you guys and having the support of not only my chief, the council, but our residents. They see me everywhere. Joanie and I have created a beautiful bond because of autism and thanks to all of you guys. We have been able to save lives out there. There are some lives even in Volusia County that was attributed saving a kid's life out of a pond. The officer was there. We were able to put him out moments before that log that was holding onto broke. and the officer said that the reason why he knew, that he was able to save lives, knew where to look, and thanks to the training that he has received from Bell Harbor, the police of Bell Harbor. So I want to thank you guys for believing in me and putting the trust in me, and I promise you that I will try to do my best to keep Bell Harbor's name up in the clouds and make sure that this town continues to shine. And I would like to take one second to recognize somebody. Give me one second. I would like to recognize my chief, Chief Riley Flowers, who since he became the chief of police, he has never said no on anything that I have dreamed of or anything that I would like to do. to think of and he's always supported me in everything. For example, the blue envelope that is actually the Senate Bill 418 and House Bill 365 that is actually waiting to be signed at the desk of Senator DeSantis. Well, it actually grew in the chief's office, bouncing ideas back and forth from each other. And he said, that's a great idea, Hector, run with it, and you got my support. And we achieved about seven years later or so, and here we are. It's going to be law, it's going to be mandated for the state of Florida, trying to save drivers on the autism spectrum to be able to have less anxiety or more safe interaction with a police officer. Chief Flowers, this is to you, sir. And it reads, Chief Riley Flowers, Jr., in recognition to your unwavering support, steadfast belief, and exceptional leadership in advancing autism awareness training for law enforcement, your commitment to this training has created a lasting legacy and has set a powerful example for others to follow. 2026. Chief, thank you for believing in me, and this is for you.

Congratulations.

If I can invite the council to join me in presenting the proclamation to the chief and to Detective Gonzalez and his son Christopher.

Thank you.

I'll take care of it.

All right, everyone, this way.

One, two. One more. One, two.

All right, great.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Appreciate you. Sir, thank you so much.

Okay. The next presentation is a Portraits of Bal Harbor presentation. It was a program that we developed to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Bal Harbor Village and all those that make Bal Harbor unique and the wonderful destination that it is today. And it gives me great honor to recognize Raj Karan Singh as our next recipient. Tonight, we are proud to recognize Raj Singh as part of Portraits of Bal Harbor program, honoring individuals whose leadership and service helped shape our community. For more than three decades, Mr. Singh has been a dedicated and influential presence in Bal Harbor. As general manager of the Seaview Hotel, he has played an important role in defining the hospitality experience that makes our village a world class destination. Beyond his professional accomplishments, Mr. Singh has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to civic service. He served eight years on the Resort Tax Committee, helping guide investments that support tourism and community initiatives. For the past 12 years, he has served on the Budget Advisory Committee, where he has served as chair various times, helping ensure thoughtful stewardship of village resources and long-term fiscal responsibility. His leadership extends beyond our village as well, having served as chairman of the Greater Miami and the Beaches Hotel Association, representing and strengthening one of our region's most vital industries. Mr. Singh's leadership reflects a deep sense of responsibility, humility, and dedication to community. It is our privilege to recognize him this evening. for his continued service and lasting contributions to the village of Bal Harbor. At this time, on behalf of the Bal Harbor Village, it is my great honor to present Raj Singh with this award as a small token of our appreciation, recognizing his leadership, his service, and the meaningful impact he has made within our community.

Thank you.

Okay, everyone look this way. One, two, one, one, two.

Thank you very much. I'm a little humbled by this recognition. I just want you to know that I've been here for 38 years at the Seaview. I'd like to say two things that I'm always most proud of. One is to fly the American flag on the top of the building. And many times people have asked us, how much does it cost to fly the flag on top in 38 years? And I said, we fly it at all costs. And this... Thank you. And the second thing is I also want to think of all those absent here today and that have gone, that I've grown up with over here, many past council people, many residents. They love Balaharbor, and they left us this legacy. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Raj. Thank you. Okay, so we're going to put a pause on the presentations for now, and I'm going to request additions, withdrawals, and deferrals. Okay, Councilman Levy.

I would like to withdraw item R17. If I may, I would like to share a few minutes to address the council.

Go ahead. R17 is the...

I would like to share a few minutes to address... the council, and the people who came here tonight before I do.

Okay.

Good evening, everyone, and thank you for being here tonight. Over the past several days, I've spent time listening to people and to residents inside the Girit community and all across the village by email, by phone, and in person. And I want you to know that I heard you loud and clear, does in favors and does with certain concerns. After careful consideration, I have decided to request to withdraw this item from tonight's agenda. I believe that this requires further review, including clarifying jurisdiction, addressing valid concerns that were raised, and making sure we have the right information before we move forward. For clarity, The item, or the intent of this item tonight, was simply to provide direction to staff to explore whether a small, thoughtful addition, such as a set of swings for younger children with appropriate safety measures and design, no parking on premises, and no bathroom facility, would even be feasible for the space. Before I conclude, I would like to share something personal. Many of you know me not just as your councilman, but as someone who has been in your house in very different circumstances. As a Hatsala first responder, I have said with your families, in some of the most vulnerable moments, I have left my own family at the dinner table in the middle of the night, unawakened, because when someone in this community needs help, I show up. And in those moments, I do not ask who you are, what you believe, or what your background is. None of that have ever mattered to me. What matters to me is the person in front of me and what I can help. And that is not the role that I played as the person that I am. So when I engage on issues like this one, I bring that same intention. I'm not here to win. I'm here to serve. And sometimes serving means slowing down to make sure we get it right the first time or at some point. This conversation about our shared space and about the need of our growing community, including more young families who are making Val Harbor their home is what happened. And I'm committed to continue in the right way with all of you. Two people whose words have shaped how I think about service came to my mind tonight. Number one is Reverend Menachem Mendel Schneerson, thought that leadership means seeing the needs of others and responding with responsibility. And Nelson Mandela, who I had the privilege of meeting, said that what counts is life is not the mere fact that we have lived, but the difference we have made in the life of others. That's how I approach my role here. Thank you.

So the item is being removed, but I know that there are a lot of people that came out tonight to speak on it. So we'll be able to open for public comment for you to be able to share your views if you still like to proceed with communicating to the council. Okay. Okay, I do see some hands, so Nina Rudolph. Then I'll get you after.

Nina Rudolph, 212 Bell Bay Drive. Thank you for listening to us. And everybody wants to make Bell Harbor the best place ever and for our children, grandchildren, and everyone. Which gets me to the point then. Let's fix the park. The first thing you guys do, whether it was your children... Your grandchildren. The first thing you do when you think of a park is you think of a swing set. That's the first thing you think about. I walked through this park last year with my grandson. We slipped going up. I fell into the hole there. I don't know how you get insurance on this property because there's a huge hole that you try to grab a silver pole that's too hot to hold on to. You can fall off or break your head. I was literally with a pediatrician today who lives in Val Harbor and said to me, I have a three-year-old son. I will never go back to that park. That's a pediatrician. So let's fix the park. Let's put a committee together. I think you guys need to go to these people. Whoever built this, it's dangerous. So let's fix it. Let's put a swing set in. It's not for 12 to 14-year-olds. They're not looking to climb up into a little house. They're already playing sports somewhere else or in our basketball field. This is for the young children that want to swing. Parents want to take their kids. Let's fix it. I'm happy to be part of this group, but let's fix it, guys. Okay? Thank you.

Who else would like to, anyone else would like to address the council on this item? Okay, .

I want to for drive. Again, thank you for withdrawing it. My concerns, notwithstanding that the park does have some shortcomings that we could improve, especially some of the stuff I know the person who built it caused overrun and so on. But as far as the front, we have a park. We dedicated a lot of money for that park, and I think it should be used as it was intended. My problem in the front, there is no place for parking. You can't control children. There's cars coming in, cars going out. It's a safety issue. It's going to be people maybe going with their pets and stuff. So for me, it is a very dangerous area to put a parking in front of that gate because the traffic is so high. And so I appreciate it that we drive. And if you ever decided that that is the most important thing, we're trying to put something for children. But we don't want to put him in danger. And I don't think that's a good place for a park.

Thank you.

Okay.

I just want to... Okay. Daniel Marrow? Anyone else after Daniel? Okay, so then we're going to close public comment. You're the last comment.

Thank you. Alejandro, I want to thank you for withdrawing the proposal very much. You need your name and address. Oh, yeah, name and address for the record. Oh, my name is Daniel Male. I live at 165 Ball Bay Drive. When it comes to – I'll just echo the first comment about the swings. Thank God on – in the weekend, there's a lot of families with young kids that want to go to the park, and – there's a lot of danger with some of the elevated holes coming out of the structure and there's no swing set. I can't imagine that it's cost prohibitive to have a basic wooden swing anywhere in the facility or on the property. So I'm not sure what the mechanism is, but if there's a way to actually investigate what it would specifically cost so we could present to the residents of Ball Harbor what we're looking at, I'm sure if we needed to fundraise for it, we could fundraise for it. I just don't understand how there aren't Two or three swings including a baby swing that seems to be the most basic and straightforward thing I could ever imagine When you have structures that have holes, you know eight feet above the ground that kids could fall out of So we're sitting there and we have the same conversation over and over and over the bunch of us that go to the park and It's not really a space issue in the grass. There's plenty of area in the corner. No one's looking for it to be state-of-the-art. It doesn't have to be as beautiful as this building. It could just be a basic wooden swing out of a 1960s or 70s movie. And my hope is that we can get that done expeditiously because I just don't – I truly don't understand. Thank God we have young kids that go to the park. And I hope that we can first figure out that issue. And I think you're actually going to see a lot more people wanting to utilize the park once there are swings. And then once you see the traffic in and out, you'll have a better feel for what the needs would be with an additional park. But right now, you have... A basketball court that's used by older people, older kids, have a great time there. You have a field that isn't used all too much on the weekend. And then you have the structure, which is intended for people between the ages of, I think, 10 and 14 or something in that range, but it's utilized by people between the ages of 18 months and 6 years old. It doesn't make any sense, and I hope we can just figure that out. I can't imagine it's a cost issue, but if there is a cost issue, I think residents should be made aware so we can try to figure out what to do about it. But there's a lot of people that would love to use it, and I think that should be priority number one when it comes to the park, just to see what the space could actually become. Because right now, younger kids really aren't able to use it as it should be intended.

Thank you. Appreciate you sharing your comments. Okay, I kind of said last comment, but you're here, you can come up. Anyone else? Anyone else? It has to be about this item.

Yes. Thank you. Adam Petrillo, 172 Camden Drive. I don't know how many of you that don't live in the community have tried to get out of here at any kind of hour of the day when there's traffic. The amount of heavy construction vehicles coming in and out of this community is unbelievable. It's actually dangerous just to drive around here as a resident with... Long flatbed trucks coming through, concrete trucks coming through, and they're all going through the front gate, entering and leaving. So a park is just an inappropriate use for that space. It's very dangerous. It's very congested. There's no way anyone is ever going to make me believe that a parent won't drop their kids off with a car especially in inclement weather, or a grandparent coming over to pick them up, they're going to have to line their cars, they're going to have to park them somewhere, and it just is a horrible mess for anybody. It's difficult now. We go sometimes through two cycles of a light just to get out when you're leaving the community. So I would really just please reconsider this. The idea of improving the park here, all you have to do is go to 85th Street. That's the city of Miami Beach that did an amazing job on a park over there, right? And they don't have the resources we have. It could be equal to or nicer. And as far as community residents are concerned, if they were a distance away and the weather was a little inclement, they have free shuttles that can take them over there. So I think there's a lot of ways to take advantage of that park and make it more accessible to the community and certainly improve it without going through the morass of trying to build something new. That really is a problem for us. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Last comment. Yeah, this comment. Yeah. If I can get up. Okay. Name and address for the record.

Good evening. My name is Anna Marie Stopa. I started in Bell Harbor. I'm 77 years old now.

We need a current address. Pardon me, dear? We need an address. An address.

Well, I'm going to be at 60 Park Drive right at the minute I'm in a hotel because the apartment isn't ready yet. So I can speak from being a resident since I was nine months old, and we never had a park. Well, I never had a park in Bell Harbor growing up. In my opinion, children are our future. If we don't take care of them, then we've wasted our time. And I think the first concern has to be their, number one, safety, and number two, their enjoyment, and to have a place to go with their friends. The park across the street is extremely well used, well built. I have never been in this park, but from the word that is on the Internet, it is not a healthy place. adequate place that represents Bell Harbor. So I would ask at the council for you to take a personal interest in the children that one day hopefully will sit where you sit, but they will have grown up with a park and a place to park that they can call home. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, so that completes discussion. We appreciate all of you coming out and making your voices heard. And I did get the many emails, the phone calls, the messages. And I appreciate Councilman Levy sharing his remarks as well.

Let me just bring one point up that I think a lot of people might not realize. Sure. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. One thing that a lot of people might not realize is we're going to have another beautiful park in Bell Harbor where we're building the new jetty. So there will be a park at the north end for a lot of the children to be able to enjoy that's safe, out of traffic. So there is another park being planned. So I just wanted to make everybody aware of that. Thank you.

The more parks, the better. Okay. Anyone else want to say anything before we move on? Okay. So now we are going to item number, yes, consent agenda. Motion to approve the consent agenda. Second. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Voice vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Okay. Opposed, none. I guess for those that are going to be sticking around or exiting, if you can do so quietly, because we still have a full agenda tonight. The consent agenda has been passed, so now we're proceeding with R5A. Oh, no, not R5A. Sorry. Is it R5A? Yes. Oh, yeah, R5A. Okay. Sorry.

Ready? Yes, Mr. Clerk. Yes, R5A, an ordinance of the Village Council of Bell Harbor Village, Florida, amending Chapter 21 zoning to regulate lot splits by establishing minimum lot size and width standards in the R1 and R2 single-family residential districts and providing consistent density limits, providing for severability conflicts, inclusion in the code, and for an effective date. This is the first reading ordinance.

Thank you, Mr. Manager.

Mr. Mayor, a couple of months ago, Councilman Wolf, Vice Mayor Wolf, placed an item on the discussion agenda for us to consider the request of a resident regarding a lot split inside the gated community. From that request, what the direction we received was to take a look at it more holistically and see if there's justification for or against doing so from a planning and zoning perspective. We had our planning director Mike Miller go through an analysis and bring back some recommendations that he and our village attorney have crafted into an ordinance that will allow but doesn't open the floodgates, so to speak, kind of certain circumstances where that might make sense, but it's not just a free-for-all. I'll ask Mike to come up and kind of walk you through what his analysis has yielded, and then from that, Susan will fill you in on the specifics of the ordinance. To Mike, come on up.

Good evening, Michael Miller from Michael Miller Planning Associates, Bell Harbor Village consultant planner for many years. As George summarized, we were tasked with taking a fresh look, if you will, at your codes. As you know, the community was master planned shortly after World War II in the 40s. There were some simple plots that were done. that incorporated all of the areas, one for mostly the single-family area and the west side, one for the ocean, and so forth. Over the years, the vast majority of development in the single-family areas has been on a single lot. Some chose to build a bigger house, and maybe, you know, they took three lots and split the one in the middle, and they're one and a half, some are on two, and some are on three, if you will. quite large estates, if you will. The waterfront lots known as R1 are considerably larger in size than the interior dry lots. The average of the waterfront R1 lots are roughly about 100 feet wide and a little over about 20,000 square feet in area. where the dry lots are about 80 feet on average wide and about 11,000 square feet plus or minus. The way the code is written right now, I guess it presumed that people would build just on the lots themselves. There is no quantifiable criteria, if you will, like a normal modern zoning code of today that says you have to be over this size of area and this wide and so forth. So we, as the discussion went, as George said a couple months ago, we did an extensive data search and tabulated each lot on the water in a good majority of the dry lots to verify our data set. And we're coming forward with some criteria in an ordinance that would be added to the code that would accommodate the request that's been discussed here at 44 Belle Bay. But it would broadly, I think, help in the future for people that want to redevelop or build new. And that's where the genesis of this is. So the ordinance is drafted to put that data in the R1 and the R2, the minimum size and the minimum lot width. We do have, you know, this is not a track subdivision community. It's kind of romantic with curvilinear roads and so forth, the way they laid it out. So there's almost no perfectly square or rectangular lot. Everything's on a curve. or the water curves or something where we have a few cul-de-sac lots that get tight, and they call those pie lots where it looks like a piece of pie. It's skinny at the street, and it's bigger at the back. So we've accommodated for all those things in the code that moving forward would assist you. There is one little tweak that we are offering. It was something we talked about in the early genesis of our things, is where you measure the width of the lot. The most common in the industry is to measure at the street frontage. I'm aware of a few cities that measure it like midpoint on the lot. If you have a pilot, you would measure it midpoint. But the most common and the most practical is at the front street line. So that's a little tweak that we would recommend over what you have in your agenda package right now as we move forward through the hearing process. Other than that, that completes my presentation. Thank you.

If I may, Mr. Mayor, what Mike is referring to is Section 2198, subsection B, and Section 2123, section B. which is at pages 125 and 126 of your packet. And in each case, these are the sections that establish the minimum lot width in R1 and R2, and we would add language specifying that it's being measured at the street frontage. The other thing I would point out, because Michael's covered everything else, is that if there are perchance lots that do not meet these minimum standards at this time, prior to April 1st, 2026, they would simply be treated as legal non-conforming lots. But based on the analysis that Mike has done, it's your understanding that all the existing lots meet these standards, correct, right?

Yes, yes.

May I, Mayor, add one thing? Susan or Mike, if you can mention. One of the things that we did recommend in here is to make sure that this is kind of stand-alone. You should be able to meet this requirement without then asking for additional variances of other nature to try to meet the criteria.

So to that point, Mr. Manager, it's at Section 21-98D. as well as in 2199 and in 21123D, where in each case we say that if you're creating these lots, if you're dividing and creating new lots, they shall comply with the appropriate regulations without requiring a subsequent variance to meet those regulations.

Okay. Before I open up for public comment, any comments from counsel? Okay. Is there any public comment on this item? Yes, please come up and say your name and address for the record.

My name is Paul Chaplin, 108 Bell Bay. I was just wondering how these recommendations affect the setbacks on the sites in the front and the back.

Okay. We're going to wait for everyone to complete their comments, then we'll address everyone's questions. Mr. .

Rahab 128 Balfour Drive. I know before you used to have things so we could read it. Exactly what are they talking about? What size and what? Because you're talking numbers but not being specific about it. The lot's going to turn from what number to what number because it's confusing for me to even reply on anything because I don't know what numbers are you talking about. They have it in your packets but I don't know what that is. So I'd like to know the loss is changing to what? From what to what?

Okay, thank you. So we've got your question. Any other questions before we close public comment? Okay. It might be helpful if we put the memo on the screen for folks to see.

Yeah. I don't know how to, but I can certainly be reading while they try to do that.

Yeah.

So at page 125 is where we address R1, and the current code, simply points to the platted lots. It doesn't independently create a zoning standard for these lot widths. What this will do is set a minimum width of 70 feet at the street frontage for R1 lots, And it will set a minimum width of 60 feet for the R2 lots, which, as Mike explained, are smaller. And in both of those zoning districts, if you have a cul-de-sac lot, which are the pies that are narrow in the front and bigger in the back, the minimum width at the street would be 50 feet. So those were the standards that our planner derived and suggested.

Let me try to help out. R1 are all of the properties that are along the water. R2 are the interior lots. So take a look. The map kind of reflects what is a lot that exceeds the amount required to be able to be subdivided. So if the minimum size lot on the water is now going to be 15,000 square feet, then you, by definition, need at least 30,000 square feet or more to be able to split it. And to answer the other gentleman's question, What the ordinance suggests or says is that if you split it, you still must meet all of the other requirements, setbacks, and otherwise. You can't come here and say, well, I would like a zero setback in order to achieve the split. Does that make sense? And so on the interior lots, the R2 lots, the minimum is not 15,000. It's, what did we say, 10,000 or 12,000? 10,000. 10,000. So the interior lots, which are generally a little smaller than the waterfront lots, you would need at least a 20,000 square foot lot in order to be able to achieve a split. There aren't that many of those lots in that size to begin with. Many of them have already been built out. And so the likelihood that you're going to see a rush of properties now going to subdivide is not in the near future. But there are a couple of lots, one in particular that is the genesis of this, that is interested in doing that. And so these are the guidelines that you've now suggested get put in place. If you approve this, that will say, okay, in these instances, if you can meet every other requirement, then it has to be at least 15,000 square feet or at least 10,000 square feet. You can't subdivide into five lots and do 7,000 each.

Mr. Mayor, one point of information. I think we may have neglected to say at the beginning of the meeting that we're going to do the LPA on this and the subsequent ordinance at next.

Right. It's being deferred until May. Yeah. Thank you. I guess we should have said that in the request for additions. Okay. So seeing no further public comment, any further questions from council, I'll be happy to entertain a motion. I'll make the motion. Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded, and we need a roll call for this.

Roll call. Councilman Fremark? Yes. Councilman Levy? Yes. Councilman Sklar? Yes. Mayor Salver? Yes. Vice Mayor Wolf? Yes. The motion to recommend that the... No, no, this is approved. Oh, sorry. The motion to approve the ordinance on first reading passes 5-0.

Thank you. Okay. Now we're going to continue. We're going to hear R5B with item number R7E. So we're going to move on to R7A and PA3, which is a presentation from our friendly auditors.

Mr. Mayor, Anil Harris is the partner with RSM. There are some music.

It's like someone's phone is on.

I want to answer the phone call. Anil Harris is our partner. As you know, RSM is the external auditor that is required every year to conduct an audit of the village's fiscal year. So he is here to do a couple of things. One is to present his report and for you all to accept it, of course, hopefully. And then also... the presentation regarding the Government Finance Officers Association and recognition for our budget and audit process. Welcome, Anil.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. So in your packet, I'm going to go over Exhibit 1, which is the report to the Council. So this booklet is separate from the actual financial statements themselves, but it kind of gives an overview on what we as in our role external auditors are required to communicate to you in your role as the counsel for the audit. So I just want to start by thanking the finance department for their help. The audit process is about a four-month process. Even though it comes down to these two booklets, it's a lot of work that goes into getting the final financial statements issued. So just at a high level, just going down their communication. First, we issued an unmodified opinion. And what that means is it's a clean opinion. So it's the highest level of assurance we as auditors can provide to any client when we perform an audit of the financial statements. So when you look at the audit opinion for the village, you'll see it's clean. There's nothing really to highlight related to the audit itself. In terms of accounting policies, there were two new standards adopted during the current year, those related to compensated absences and the risk disclosures in the financial statements. Both those standards had no material impact in the financial statements, so it really didn't change from one year to the other in what's being disclosed. There were no significant unusual transactions during the audit process. Had there been anything of unusual nature, we'd bring that to your attention, but there were nothing of significance. Moving on to the next page, there are no audit adjustments. I think that's always key in our role as auditors. When we do the audit, if there's a number of adjustments, that tells you that the information in the interim that you receive is not reliable. But in this case, there are no audit adjustments. That's really what you want to see when you go through the audit process itself. In terms of past adjustments, there was one past adjustment that was reversed in the current year. So this is a prior year item that's reversed in the current year. Immaterial in nature, so really no reason to highlight that any further. Just some observations during the audit process. We had no disagreements with management through the process. We had access to all books and records, access to all employees as we completed the audit itself. We had no disagreements with management. Had there been any, we would report that to you. We're not aware that management consulted with other auditors or accountants during the audit. And we maintained our independence through the process to be able to issue our report. That's important because we, in our role, have to be independent to express an opinion on financial statements. We also issued two other reports, one an internal control over financial reporting and a state management letter. In both those reports, which are at the back of the financial statements, there were no findings. Again, very positive results when we complete the audit with no findings to report. And before I discuss the GFOE certificate, I'll take any questions you have on the audit itself. Questions from the Councilman? In regards to the certificate that the manager mentioned, that's on, if you look into the actual book letter, the financial statements, it's on page, Roman numeral page. And the certificate is this is the 11th consecutive year that the village has received this certificate. It's the highest level of assurance that a government can receive in terms of governmental accounting and financial reporting. The certificate itself, like I said, is the 11th year, and it's what you want to see. It's independent of us, so when the financial statements are prepared, so it relates to the prior financials. It's submitted through an independent process, and an independent reviewer actually looks at the statements themselves, grades it, for lack of a better word. It goes through an extensive checklist and determines that it meets all the requirements that a government auditing standards board requires for the financial statements. And with that, I'll take any questions you have.

Thank you, Anil. I just want to thank you for, once again, completing the audit. I want to thank Claudia and our accounting team and the village administration for getting a clean opinion. As always, it's what we expect here in Bow Harbor, but we know that under your watchful eye, every dollar is accounted for. So we appreciate all the hard work, and the certificate is just a testament to that hard work. So we thank you, Claudia. And if you'd like to accept the certificate and say anything. Thank you.

Thank you. In general, the audit is a collaboration with several players. And so obviously the finance department, but it's also our departments. The audit encompasses an IT audit. So they look at our systems, our controls over our systems. It encompasses the audit of our general employee pension plan. It's audited the police pension plan, which is audited by other auditors. And so overall, I just want to thank everyone that was involved. Once we start the process, we create a timeline, and everyone understood what it took to get the audit done. So much so that... I know I didn't share, but I was pleased to hear that we were one of the few cities that have issued our financial statements. And so as the requirements for disclosure, that book is this thick, so I hope that you take it home and, you know, when you're bored, you can read it. But the requirements are getting bigger. and more significant, more detailed. And so it, you know, we continue to get it done, try to get out there ahead of time, make sure that we're in agreement in how things should be treated. And, you know, we have a common sense approach to the way that we do things. And that's, you know, that has resulted in us having a cleaner opinion as well as having the financials issued on time. So thank you.

So we have to accept the audit? Yes. So is there a, do we have to read anything, Dwight, or no?

No, just pass the resolution that accepts the audit. Public hearing?

Yeah. Do you want to read the resolution? R7A. Yes.

Okay, R7A, a resolution of the Village Council of Bell Harbor Village, Florida, accepting the annual comprehensive financial report for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025, relating to the annual audit performed by the village's independent auditor, RSM-USLLP, providing for implementation, providing for an effective date.

Thank you. Is there any public comment? Seeing none, is there a motion? I'll move it. It's been moved. Is there a second? It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Okay. So that is R7A. I'd like to... 7B? Yeah, no. Before we get into 7B, there was a presentation that I was notified of today. I'd like to recognize just briefly... Getting the name here. Sorry. I'd like to call up Mauricio Arrayo, a renowned artist, who is gonna present a piece of art to the village. Yeah, no, we're doing it. Not my choice.

Thank you. My name is Mauricio Bayou. Thank you for inviting me here. I want to present you a piece that I have given to a lot of political and spiritual leaders around the world. So now is the moment to Valharbor. I am very happy and it's an honor to me to present this the mayor and the city. One of my piece that is the name, the title is I'm Israel High, and I think it's very important in this moment, so I want to bring and give you, and I would appreciate if you can take a photo with me.

Yeah, yeah, of course, the whole council. Okay. Okay. Yeah, we're going to take a picture. Okay.

This piece has a lot of secrets behind. First of all, you can see here five bricks, four bricks, and one brick. Five means hay, they are hay. Four is the letter Dalet, that is, Dalet is the door. One is Hashem. So the He is the door to Hashem. Also, the five-four-one is the gematria of Israel. And the other thing is that Yehudah, the Lion of Yehudah, if you take out the letter Dalet, that is, Dalet is the door, is the Yud Kebab Kei. So that means that the lion is the key to open the door. So if you see, the lion is inside a keyhole. It's opening the door.

Okay. Beautiful. Thank you.

And also, I bring another thing. I ask you to sign here for me. Oh, okay. Let me bring this, please. No, this is yours.

Yes.

If someone can take a photo for us.

Thank you, Mauricio.

We are going to continue. Okay. R7B, budget amendment.

R7B, a resolution of the Village Council of Bell Harbor Village, Florida, amending the fiscal year 2025-26 budget, providing for expenditure funds, providing for amendments, providing for carryover funds, providing for conflicts, providing for severability, and providing for an effective date. Thank you. Mr. Manager.

Mr. Mayor, this is the item that comes together with the audit report. So as we close out fiscal year 2025, we then have to make sure we do whatever final movements we do with regards to any surplus funds that are retained from 2025. In your package, we report on the four funds that we operate. We have our general fund, as you know. We have the resort tax fund. We have the water and sewer utility system fund. And then we have the gated community fund that we are fiscal agents for. In each of them, you have a report. They all ended positive with surpluses or net position adds in case of the utility fund. But it's the same account that essentially all are positive. And we have fiscal policies on what we do with our surpluses from year to year. And so if you look at the chart that's on your page, 377 of your book, our policy, well, let me just say, the general fund closed the year with a net surplus of $12.9 million. That is, revenues ahead of budget, expenses below budget, certain unexpected revenues that came in relative to developer contributions, payments in lieu of for building permits, things like that, as well as better performance than was originally budgeted. We have two fiscal policies. One is related to what to do with that surplus and that is that generally we fund 50% of the surplus goes to the general fund balance and 50% of the surplus goes to the capital reserve for future capital projects. The other policy we have is that our general fund fund balance has a policy goal of having 75% of the fiscal year next general fund. In other words, there's what we call the rainy day fund. If things were to really go sideways, our general fund fund balance can fund up to 75% of a full fiscal year. Currently, that fund stands at 82%. which is an excess of your fund policy. So this year what I'm suggesting is you take the full surplus and put it into your capital reserve fund, which is where you then pay for capital projects planned or to be planned going forward, and you fund that in your capital reserve since you've met your policy goal of the fund balance. After you take the 12.9, you have to take about $5.6 million, which is carryover monies that were approved for capital projects but haven't yet been spent. Oftentimes our capital projects run more than one fiscal year. In addition to that, there are interest earnings that are generated in the general fund relative to the monies being held for the village hall. And so we're suggesting that those interest earnings be allocated to the village hall project, as that's where the funds were generated. We're also suggesting that you increase the fund balance that you have for the building department since a lot of these monies came in as payments in lieu of and that's for services that you will in the future have to render in this fiscal year or the next. And so that $500,000 is set aside to make sure that you can meet that obligation. And so the balance remaining once you do those set asides is $6.2 million. And that's what I'm suggesting you put into your capital reserve 100% rather than doing the standard 50-50. as it relates to general fund. The resort tax fund also had a surplus that was, bear with me a second, let me get there. The resort tax surplus was $777,000. That just goes to the resort tax fund balance, again, to fund one-time type expenses, additional promotions during the fiscal year, for example, this year. our 80th anniversary or the 250th, and also capital-related activities that are eligible through resort tax. The security and landscaping fund had a surplus of $293,000. That will go to the security and landscape fund balance for their use as they direct. And then the final one was the water and sewer utility fund and that had a net excess of $771,000. That too stays in the system. That's what keeps our rates low and or pays for the capital improvements that have been ongoing. So the only one that we're deviating from policy is the one I just described to you in general fund, but I think it's the right reason that we do that this year.

Thank you. Any questions or comments from council? Any public comment? Mr. Rahab.

Rahab. If we have a surplus, generally, if it was a company, give it back, either to tax reductions or whatever. But in this particular case, why change it? You've been working with 50-50, so I'm suggesting to keep it the same way. Keep putting monies for the future that we haven't even spent it yet. I recommend to keep it the way it was, the same 50-50 that we've already been used to. Thank you.

Any further public comment? Seeing none, is there a motion? I'll move it. Second. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Okay. Passes unanimously. R7C, Mr. Clerk.

R7C, resolution calling for a general election to be held on November 3rd, 2026 in Bell Harbor Village for the purpose of electing three village council members from village council districts 1, 3, and 5, providing that Miami-Dade County Elections Department shall conduct said election, providing that the voting precinct for said election shall be established by Miami-Dade County, providing for notice of said election, providing for a runoff election if necessary, providing for the forms of ballot and registration of voters in accordance with the state law providing for payment for conducting elections to Miami-Dade County.

Thank you, Mr. Manager.

Mr. Mayor, thank you. This is an every-two-year cycle. We are on an election year, even years in November. So this year we will have a general election. Three seats are up for election, as you heard in the resolution. This pro forma, we must call for the election in advance so that the election supervisor can do the things they need to do.

Thank you. Any comments or questions from council? Any public comment? Seeing none, all those in favor say, oh, sorry, is there a motion?

Motion.

Is there a second? Second. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, none. We will have elections in Bell Harbor. Okay, R7D has already been withdrawn. R7E, basis of design report. Mr. Quirk.

R70, a resolution of the Village Council of Bell Harbor Village, Florida, approving the basis of a design report prepared by Wanamaker Jensen Architects, LLC, for the Bell Harbor Village Hall Police Station and Emergency Operations Center, providing for implementation, providing for an effective date.

Thank you, Mr. Manager.

Mr. Mayor, thank you. We have a PowerPoint slideshow that we want to put up here as well. Guys, if you can get that up. Maddie, come on up with the folks and the team. As they come up, Mr. Mayor, as you know, the... process we do with major capital projects is to work through collaboratively with all of the players to work on a design that we can generally accept generally accept as a basis of design report that then locks in and allows the architects to proceed with construction drawings that's the state we are in now we are in the place where if if you're satisfied with what we've gotten you to and you're ready to allow us to spend the dollars allocated for CDs or construction documents, then now is the time to vote on it. If you're not, then this is the time to send us back and do more work so that we can get it to that place. What you don't want to do or I'd urge you not to do is begin the CD process in earnest and then start making changes because that starts to get significantly more expensive. So if you would, I don't have a clicker, so whoever's following the clicker, if you could just go on. I'll do it. It's better for me. But you're going to need a back. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so where am I aiming, guys? There you go. So this is the team that was put together. You know, we went through an RFQ process. We then went through a second RFQ process, and we selected Wanamaker Jensen there here today to kind of walk you through the design. But I do want to take a few minutes just to kind of tell you kind of where we've been. And where we've been dates back more than a decade, frankly. But most importantly, it really solidified in 2017 when we approved, the then council approved the development agreement with, between Val Harbor Village and the shops. included in that development agreement was an obligation on the shop's part to provide the land and to construct on our behalf a village hall at their cost. Subsequently in this proceeding that development agreement was amended twice in 2019 and again in 2021 where it was slightly adjusted from their constructing a village hall to their deeding us to land and funding a significant portion of the cost as the building would not be constructed by them, but that that project would need to essentially be delayed to allow for the expansion project to be constructed and a site where the Village Hall will future sit be used as a staging site for their project. At the same time, we've been engaged in a pretty significant capital program of our own. You've seen a lot of it, infrastructure and building vertical. But most importantly, you know that there's a series of dominoes that have taken place. We went and constructed an operations facility for our public works in North Miami. When we did that, that allowed us to then proceed with a new waterfront park. The plan then was to, once completed with the waterfront park, was to build the new village hall relocate from the current site to that new village hall and from there then use the current existing old village hall site for the recreation portion of the community and recreation facility that is future planned. And so there is a phase B to the waterfront park. indoor basketball court, recreation facility, additional parking, freeing up some of the land that's on the waterfront park site to become more park space when you move a lot of the hardscape over to this side. So that's still in the works. So there's dominoes that still need to fall. And the need really becomes, you know, evident when you see that basically the village is pretty scattered. There are various locations where we operate from. There is the operations facility that was intended to be for public works only, but the administration side of public works is still there as well, and they really ought to be elsewhere. staff in the new waterfront park. It's supposed to be recreation staff, but it's also the administrative side of parks. There's still the old village hall site. I think it says new, but it should say old village hall. There's a trailer back here, if you haven't noticed. It also has staff in it. Our police chief and our deputy chief operate just outside here in this building as the police annex, but they are completely disconnected from the rank and file that operate in the building that is the shops. And so when you see all of that, there's a lot more space that is required than simply just what you see in this building, number one. And number two, bringing that all together, I think, lends to have greater efficiency and greater level of service. The next thing, when we speak of a village hall, I really want to expand the horizon to suggest that it's more than just a village hall. It is a village hall, it's council chambers, but it's also our administrative offices for all of the operations. It is going to be the police department. in its entirety, so everybody under one roof, it is, when necessary, the Emergency Operations Center. So when those hurricanes or other events, and while we don't plan for those, they do actually occur. Every year we deal with an activation of some sort through our EOC That becomes the new facility as well. It also serves as a public place, a gathering place, a plaza, a civic space, a place for the community to gather and come together, whether it's the holiday lighting or some other activity that we want to bring folks together. We can't forget it's also a parking structure. Our zoning requires and our aesthetics want that we don't park a surface parking lot on Collins Avenue and simply have cars parked there for all to see. And so this design, and I'm going to let the architects really go into it, has effectively and I think really smartly commingled the operational service public purpose of the building together with the garage in an elegant way that it's not two buildings standing side by side. It's not an ugly parking garage. You will really never see vehicles from any perspective when you look at the renderings that they've proposed. And it meets operationally and from a parking perspective what I think the scope that was laid out even 10 years ago. So we'll get to that. From assembly perspective, as you know, you've all had an opportunity to meet one-on-one. We've had retreats multiple times. We also had a community charrette where we invited the public to come and speak a little bit about what the renderings are and what was being proposed. And I'm not going to steal their thunder, so I'm just going to hand this back over and let the architects really do what they do best.

So this is Rafael from Wolfberg Alvarez Partners and Jason Jensen from WJA.

And Maddie has definitely been one of our team members throughout this process. I will say the collaborative mentality of all of the staff, even being in all of these different locations and coming together to make sure that this is the best, well-suited, most efficient facility new facility for the village was an amazing process. So we have a full team, including all of your staff of designers. When we think about the design aesthetic and what we wanted to implement here, we really looked at this coastal elegance and sophistication of bringing that into this village hall to be this representation to potentially some people visiting Bell Harbor for the first time. And this might be their first gateway into the community and making sure that we embrace that and the materials, the colors, and the longevity of the facility. From a site analysis, we looked at all of the neighboring context, making sure that it fits in and connects with Collins, but also is respectful to the residential to the commercial side, it fits right in between everything. Making sure that we have all of the circulation accounted for, thinking of the solar analysis, making sure that we are very resilient, thinking about the floodplain today and into the future, make sure that it's harmonized with the future storm. And then site access. These are a few diagrams. The upper left is your pedestrian. We know we have a lot of pedestrian flow around this building. We want every moment that you're coming around this building to be a beautiful walk, an opportunity to rest, an opportunity to see new things, and to be presented with real civic pride when you walk around this building. And thinking of residents coming from the west side is just as important if somebody is coming from the north along Collins. Thinking about the service going up on the upper right side around the building, so that service is out of the way. When you pick up your trash, when the police are dropping off evidence, that's not important. interfering with your public way. Thinking about on the lower left when you have people connecting quick into your building department or they need to stop in for a few minutes that you have those type of spaces for that up front outside of your parking garage. And then easy access into the parking garage that's all hidden. Police department, we have one spot that's actually hidden. in the back for them for those deliveries. And we're able to secure that zone behind the building, which is really important. All of that circulation, and we talked about the pedestrian, making sure that there's a variety of opportunities. We mentioned potentially sitting. The two left images are a water scrim, potentially more of a civic water opportunity, seating for not just one person but maybe a group of people if you're walking down Collins that you have an opportunity. And then we're adding that landscape that's protecting you from Collins and protecting you from the roadway. So we put a lot of energy and we're required to put a lot of energy into the landscape in those civic spaces. And we're thinking of every space, both inside and outside, as opportunities for flexibility and for multiple uses. The manager mentioned some of the civic opportunities with that. You are going to find new ways to use this space. Our job is to make sure that it's flexible, that it accommodates those future uses and those civic opportunities. That landscape, we have really pushed this far with our landscape architect and team. Part of the impetus for this is to connect with your other facilities and make sure that we have the same caliber plantings and echo some of the plantings on some of the other facilities. So if you go from the park to your village hall to the jetty, that you feel that there's a connected community here that's being represented. really embracing the rest of the community and pointing back to the civic pride. From a massing, we mentioned that, say, in this upper right, the blue is what you're inhabiting. That's your offices. And you can see that actually tucks underneath and in front of our parking area and hides that from the street. So the idea truly is that you don't see any of those vehicles in that parking garage at any time. And by going over some of that space, we're able to serve your population better. So we're able to, by raising up the parking garage, we get your police department, your building department, your chambers, all of those on your first level. Easy access, easy to get to without going upstairs. and easy for them to get out of the building. If you're in the police department and the EOC, you want to be able to also exit the building quickly. So we were able to accomplish all of that. The lower left shows that we have a very simple building, but we have this one special point that this is this glowing jewel of the chambers. So we're highlighting that. And then on the lower right, adding that civic pride, some shade to protect people as they're coming in, protect from the rain, give some sun shading, but also have some of those civic references that you're used to, civic stairs and columns. From the section, you have a three-story building. We have a mezzanine for the meeting, but you have some extra height for your lobby and chambers. That gives you a lot of flexibility for what you might do in those spaces, accommodate that. And this all works with hiding the parking that's behind. So we're able to do this with hiding all of the parking. So you have actually one extra level of parking behind this.

So just to quickly walk you through the different levels of the proposed building, on the left we have the ground floor. As Jason mentioned, all of our main public programmatic components are located on this level. The main entrance to the building for the public into the reception there that's highlighted in yellow is off of the east side off of Collins. And then we have the police department in blue, building department in the orangey color, and the council chamber there on the lower right. And each one of these spaces has their own independent, dedicated entry and exit to, you know, obviously security is of utmost important here, so each one will have its own entry. And it allows for access at different times and different hours and different days. On the left-hand side is the entry to the parking garage. It's a speed ramp that accesses off of the entry shared by the Bell Harbor shops and will access the upper levels of the garage. On the right, you have the first level of parking. And on the right of the parking garage, you have the mezzanine level that's a multi-use executive conference room that can be used by any department for different functions that they see fit. Continuing up to the next level, we have on the left another level of parking and then our full office level four village hall offices and then continuing up another intermediate level of parking. And the last occupied level, level three, is executive village hall offices with parking that's open to the sky. And all of the parking, both for... Visitors, staff, and police will be in the garage. We'll still continue to work with police and staff on separating the different functions and the different parking spaces and areas for that, but essentially that's the... the overall layout of the building. In section, we're elevated above the minimum FEMA elevation. This is an essential facility, so the requirements are for us to be elevated a minimum of two feet above that FEMA minimum elevation, which is eight feet is what's required by FEMA, so we're at 11. On the left, you see a cross-section of the double-height space of the council chambers with the two levels of... of the village hall offices. And on the right is a section through the main entrance lobby. You see there we're approximately four feet above existing grade with those steps to get into our main lobby. Again, making sure we have a resilient facility that's harmonized and anticipates any sea level rise issues, which is important. And then this is our longitudinal section showing the council chambers on the left and mezzanine and the village hall offices above. Finally, a longitudinal section through the parking garage. This is our speed ramp going up the building. Below the speed ramp is where we have some of the back of house spaces, the parking space for police drop off and pick up that Jason mentioned.

And part of this, even the mechanical systems are hidden. So actually behind the upper level. So you don't even see those mechanical systems from the roadway. And we know that some of the buildings across the street, that's really important. So this would be your view from across the street into the facility where Even working with the landscape to kind of accentuate the lobby and the point of view of the signage going into the building. Then as we move around the building, looking northwest, you have the chambers holding the corner, even the rounded edge, thinking about the pedestrians moving around that edge and having that shade to accommodate that. You see a strong landscape edge to the left, protecting you from the Bell Harbor Drive. Then as you move into that space on the corner, we have a plaza that could start to be an opportunity for some of those civic events. And then we mentioned that we're not... We're not eliminating our view of how it would feel to come from the west. That's a really important view. So thinking about walking from the neighborhood, from the west, we've connected across through that space. As we move inside, we're keeping that same mentality, light, fresh, coastal, bringing some additional warmth, some woods, some other activities. terrazzo, some materials that bring that civic but coastal and light aspect into this. The plaza outside of that glazing, you have a significant space outside for events, and then it comes through and opens through multiple doors into the inside, so you can really function as one event or pre-function space. Looking the other direction to the north, you see the police. This lobby is really important because you have one manned desk that can direct traffic to any of the other locations in the building. So that's key for a secure building, easy to find, easy for your residents to be directed and greeted when they come into the facility. As you move into the chambers, we have a very flexible chamber. We're thinking of spaces the curtains can cover the outside to have acoustical curtains that also allow you to regulate light when you want to, and even a movable dais that you could change the flexibility of the space. You see the materials. We're deep into thinking about materials and making sure that it has that classic reverence to both civic and the coastal aspects of the project. Then in the evening, making sure that this really is a jewel that shines and provides that civic pride to the community. In the elevations, you'll see in your package that there's an extensive amount of work that's been done for every detail. But one thing I want to highlight is that we don't see the parking in any of these views. Obviously, you don't really see these views. This is the north view, for instance, to your neighbors. And then from the west side, you have a significant landscape buffer there, but we're also incorporating landscape into the building itself so that we are really a chameleon from the neighborhood side.

This slide is something that we dwelled on more specifically at the retreat about comparing to other communities and what is being built and what is being built in other communities. And the important takeaway on this slide that I shared with you in February is that 10 years ago we thought we would need about a 32,000 square foot under air facility. That's about what is being designed under air. But as I mentioned, it also is a 51,000 square foot facility. parking structure that is melded in and attached. So it is a larger mass, and as a result, that larger mass comes with a larger cost than, say, Golden Beach or some other places. The current budget, what we have in our funds right now, is $34 million. You see there all of the different sources. The great majority of those sources is the development agreement and the funds that spun off from the development agreement, including some monies that are still due, such as project management and the true up for the delay that we established back in 2021. We're not there yet from a dollars and cents. We're not asking you to approve a dollar or approve a contract associated with who might build this. What we're asking you to do is if this building is the building you'd like to see our architects proceed to develop, the funding for that has already been approved. Their contract's already in place. It's just a go-ahead to go forward. if for some reason additional dollars are required or as you know we always do, we're always aggressive with our grant opportunities and so below the line those are different funding sources that might become available associated with this building if it were required including a capital reserve, our building reserve, the building department occupies a pretty substantial footprint in this building, And so building permits can pay for that. Similarly, with resort tax, there are some resort tax eligible expenses associated with this building. And the resort tax fund balance can fund that as well. As you know, we continue to receive monies through the truest rents that we collect. And those monies are annually appropriated based on the capital budget. And so those dollars are available as well going forward. And at the end, which I do not expect ever to get to, is the general fund balance, if you even needed to get there. Next thing is just your... Oh, I'm sorry. is kind of your key milestones. We are, I don't have a pointer here, but you can see we're at April 20th here, current council meeting, consideration of the basis of design report. This is kind of your go, no go, if you will. If you are satisfied and want us to proceed, we will release and start doing construction drawings. Those drawings should hopefully be done close to the end of the year, if not sooner. Go through permitting. and then go through a procurement process. All those take time from which we then get to ultimately bringing to you mid-year next year a award of contract for a construction company to begin construction and then from there we can proceed with commencement notice to proceed and the like. We anticipate We give it 36 months to build. We don't think it's going to take that long, but just in case. So ultimately, you can see a substantial completion about March of 2030 or sooner, subject to your decisions now. And as we get into the two key points now are Now and then when we do the award of contract, assuming we've got it, you know, within the construction estimate. I believe that's it.

Thank you for that presentation. I'm sure there's public comment. Before we get to public comment, I want to turn it over to the council. Any comments, questions for the presenters? Okay. Public comment? Rahad?

Rahab128, Balfour Drive. I don't know where to start. This building has so many problems that I'm opposed to it. Every council that appears, and you probably won't be here when this thing is finished, but every person who does something and make a deal, we ended up with a white elephant. The previous councils, when they voted with the Battle Harbor Shops, promised, promised the taxpayer that a village hall would be built by Battle Harbor Shops. Now we're coming to, well, don't know. They weren't going to build it. They're going to give us 21 million to build it. Now we ended up with 35 million minimum because to be determined because God knows whatever. And then there is no, Other designs presented to you. I oppose this design. To me, it looks like a white elephant. It's going to have a problem in the future. It might look good now. If you set up a meeting and you want to take people's opinion, but you don't take it into consideration, then don't fool the public. Tell them it's important for you to give us your design, but then you do whatever the hell you want. There is no option building A, building B, building C. You just give it your one and approve it. This is a village so far of 2,500. There's not going to be new buildings. There's not going to be growing. To have a $35 million or maybe $40 million building, to me, it's big. We don't need that space. This, how far apart it is, this village, it has confirmed the past 80 years in this building and other things. Now, we understand there are certain things that have to be updated, but to have this building and this budget, Look what happened with your park. You went over budget. The design was wrong. People are still complaining about it. Look at the white elephant that they promised in the Valhalla shops, and all we have is a big white elephant parking. And this is the same repeated. You basically do it. You won't be here to answer the public, just like the other ones are not here to answer for their previous mistake. And for me, it is a mistake to pay that kind of money for a town of 2,500. We're not going to grow. The population is going to explode. To pay that kind of money? You promised, promise was made by the village of Bell Harbor that this thing was going to be built by a Bell Harbor shop. And now you're saying, no, it's not. You're going to pay for it. I'm opposed to the design. I'm opposed to the structure. And I don't think how big it is.

Rick Kelly.

I have to get out of my wardrobe.

Reese Stopa, soon to be 60 Park Drive. This gives me thought, and I'll tell you why. Because I'm tired of the traffic, and this adds an additional four years of construction on that street. The other issue I have is I went and looked at the old platte. No additions, no subtractions. That's a residential district. I grew up in this town. I was nine months old when I came here. I am now 77. I have been through all these town council meetings. What I'd like to know is how did we get from a residential community to now putting up a very contemporary, which is not the style of Bell Harbor, police station, council meeting, whatever it all entails. I'm not sure I'm clear on what the original proposal was in the years that we fought the expansion of the Bell Harbor Club to what it is now. Because according to the plan, it's never been changed. So what are we doing? Who are we trying to prove? We lost the oldest building in Bell Harbor, which was the Church by the Sea. That magically disappeared. Now we're having magically reappeared a new whole town hall in a residential section. So I'm still a little confused. Maybe I know too much history. Maybe I know where all the skeletons are buried. But I still think that these people that are at this meeting are entitled to answers. How is this all happening? And how many years are we going to be fighting the traffic? Think about a hurricane. How are you going to get out of here when the Bell Harbor Bridge, there's no money to rebuild it? How are we going to get out? That would be my first thought. I rest my case. Thank you. Thank you.

Any other public comment? Ms. Collins?

Hi, my name is Rita Collins, 155 Biscay Drive. I kind of agree with Rahab in that I think the architectural design is fine. I don't think it's amazing. I would like to see another drawing, another something, a choice for the residents. And I also think of something of this magnitude that you should hear from the people. I mean, maybe you take this picture. There's a meeting in two weeks for the shops. Maybe you post it there because there'll be a lot of people there. I think that people need to see it before you vote on it and see what the residents feel, whether they're on the east side, west side, in the village, wherever they are. This is such a big undertaking that I think that you need opinions. I know it's after season. A lot of people are leaving. But this is huge. $34 million isn't chump change. It's enormous. And I do agree that there are shortfallings to the community center. It was a very big undertaking. The amount of money that we spent was huge. And people are... Listen, you're not going to make everybody happy. I get that. I'm in real estate. I get that piece. But there are a lot of things that we're missing that I think people, had they had their voices heard or showed up, as you see, it's not easy to get them here. But I do think that this is such a big undertaking that you need more input. And I do think that people should be entitled to either see it on a website, see it in person at that next meeting, something to get voices heard because then you don't have to be the only ones that have to answer for the design. You can say, well, we opened it up and you had your chance to voice it. I missed voicing for the community center. I didn't get to see those renderings early on. I wish I had, but I'm here. So I just think you need to put it out there to the residents all over the, all over bell Harbor and let them have a voice.

Penny Sepler, 102.75 Collins. I'm just going to play devil's advocate a little bit. I do think that Val Harbor has changed from when it was a quaint little community. I think the fact of having Village Hall on A1A is incredible. Very cool. I like it. People don't even know where Village Hall is. I mean, no one knows where it is. You go through Golden Beach and they've got, that's like us, and they've got their Village Town Hall or whatever it's called there right on A1A. And it's impressive. I think it's very impressive. I think the fact that we can have everybody housed in one place is great. I mean, our police department deserves to be in a wonderful facility where it's going to be state of the art and it's going to be great for them. Our employees deserve to have really nice space. a light, they deserve it. We're an affluent community and I think we should honor that instead of saying we don't need it. And the other thing is things do progress and there are more people coming. And just like the park, some of this is already we don't have enough space. We don't. I mean, I'm there all the time, and we don't. And so you don't know what the future is going to bring. The fact that we've got, we would have a village hall where we could actually have some functions, and people would gather, and that's really nice. So I'm in favor of it.

Any other public comment?

Seeing none, council action. Okay, does anyone want to say anything? I mean, well, George, there were a lot of comments. You want to address some of them?

I can try the best I can. One thing that was mentioned was the issue of the shops had promised to build it. That is correct in 2017 when that development agreement was entered into. That was the case. Subsequently, that was negotiated out for mutual reasons, including the reason that we were not sure that they would actually be able to deliver it on time and where we wanted it, in the manner we wanted it. We would be an afterthought. have seen their construction progress and were not necessarily impressed with their timetable and their performance on that. And so we decided at that time in 2021 to say, listen, instead of that obligation, why don't you just deed the land to the village, which was part of the agreement, and pay the funding that was contemplated in the agreement, which they did. And that money has been invested so that there's interest earnings that have occurred and will continue to occur. And so the developer contribution component of this project, as of now, is on the order of $28 or $29 million when you add up all of the stuff not including the land. So the difference between that and what the budget that currently is in your capital program of $34 million is a small fraction of the total cost. Will there be cost escalation? Yeah, the longer you take to build, the more it costs to build. That has been the case. Originally, this was supposed to have been built together with and to be entered into at the same time as when the shops opened their expansion. Their expansion is not yet done. They expect to be done this year. We're scaling for our project to be later after that. As it relates to the additional construction that's going to take place, that too is correct. There's construction going on in Bow Harbor now and for the foreseeable future. Whether or not even the shops get what they've already applied for with their live local application, the days where there will not be construction, it'll just be a quiet community, I think have passed us by. There's always some level of construction. Just drive inside the gated community and there's probably 18 or 20 projects actively going on as we speak. and will continue, and there's houses that come to the architectural review board from time to time, including every month, so that's the nature of the business of a community that is active and desirable. I'm trying to find what else. As it relates to the design, while this is the design that's being presented, you've had the opportunity to see various options along the way. While we've tried to stick to the 32,000-ish square foot, the designs even dating back to the previous architect have been modified and, generally speaking, have shrunk. the massing has shrunk from even the three designs that Wanamaker Jensen has presented at different iterations. And so our goal was to fit as efficiently as possible all the programmatic needs on a parcel that is kind of odd shaped. It's got that angle that's coming through and is limited in its space. And so if we had a double lot there, we'd be able to do much more. But we don't. We have the lot that we have, and I think they've done Yeoman's effort at trying to accomplish all of the programmatic needs with the constraints of the site. Penny's comments about Bell Harbor having changed, it is true. I believe that relocating the site to the Collins structure, I think, makes your government facility closer to your community. The first floor in particular, which is your more public-facing space, is, I think, better accessible on this site and the way they've designed it with our police and our building department, which are the two general services that receive most of our public questions, public community coming forward. The access to the gated community, if the gated community wants to allow us to open up that gate, therefore police vehicles creates an enhancement in public safety to the community than what exists today. It's a more direct access, and so even though we have a, I don't know, less than a minute response time, this will I think, greatly enhance it from what is currently, you know, inside the shops. Design is something that people's taste, you know, different people have a different taste for design. I leave that to you all. I think it's an elegant design. I think it's a timeless design. I think that it will stand the test of time. What they've tried to do, the architects, is use a lot of natural colors and materials. Woods, whites, glass. not much beyond that, which are timeless types of elements and colors. And so, you know, We've had plenty of opportunity to analyze this, and I think this is as best a Rubik's Cube as we can graph for you. Obviously, as we get through the CD process and into the permitting and bidding, we'll be coming back to you with the realities of what construction costs are. The only true thing I can tell you is the further we take to proceed with that, the more it's going to cost.

One other thing. A reader brought up that it was never put out to the public. On February 9th of this past year, we did have a public charrette on this where everyone was able to give their opinion based on what was seen today. So we did have that meeting. Yeah. Yes, it was. Yeah. Yeah. But we did do it just for the communication.

So to the point that the mayor asked before, I would be prepared to make a motion if we're prepared to move this forward. I would be prepared to make that.

I'll second that motion.

It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? None? No, aye.

You're opposed? No, no. I said aye. No, aye. Okay.

So it passes unanimously. So now that we've approved the basis of design report, we're going to go to R5B.

This is a companion item that goes with the basis of design report, Mr. Mayor. I need to read. Yeah, go ahead.

I'm sorry.

R5B. An ordinance of Bell Harbor Village, Florida, amending Chapter 21 zoning of code of ordinances to modify regulations applicable to municipal buildings and uses in the RM5 multiple family district, providing for severability, inclusion in the code, conflicts, and for an effective date. This is also a first reading ordinance.

Thank you, Mr. Manager.

Mr. Mayor, thank you. As was read into the record, as the basis of the design report is now going to proceed, one of the things that that design requires is some zoning relief associated with the site. As I told you, the site is odd-shaped and, you know, compromised in its size given the all that's being tried to do. And as you know, with a mold of clay, the more you constrain the footprint, the higher it will go up. And one of the things that we wanted to do is keep the building as low as possible. In doing that, there are a couple of things that would be required from a zoning perspective, particularly related to the setbacks. In your package, you see that there are some suggested amendments to the setback on what we call the front setback or the east along Collins. Currently, the requirements in our code is for a 50-foot setback. which is a pretty significant portion of the property, we are suggesting a 20-foot setback, which will still allow for a significant front yard, if you will, and you saw the design calls for a public space in that front area. It's not necessarily to build more building necessarily. to the south where the angle is given that the underlying, if you go there now you know that the street entrance to the shops and to the future village hall is perpendicular to Collins, but the underlying right of way is actually at an angle. And that was done several years ago to change that. But in order to make sure that we do not run afoul of that right-of-way, what we've done is you saw the building has kind of an angled shape on that south side. But given that... That's the case while the street is further away. We're suggesting a zero setback on the true right-of-way. There's still plenty of room there because the street is already removed, but technically we wanted to make sure that there was no additional setback that would just further encroach onto the building. And so the south side is a zero setback and then the north and west setback would be 15 feet from a current, what is it, 20 feet? 25 feet. But much more from the west. You'll have to come up as well, Mike, because you're the... And then the other thing that we're seeking is that the architectural feature, that canopy, that since that's 20 feet high, that that be able to encroach over, hang over. It's not structures, but it can hang over into the setback for some portion so you can get the full value of that architectural feature. The other stuff in the ordinance is that it's an RM-5 district. It allows for municipal uses. We will be following all of our parking and FAR and all those other requirements that exist, but since it's still an RM-5 district, there's no FAR. when there's no parking requirement. So that will continue, even though, as you see, we are making sure that there's sufficient parking and that the FAR is within the envelope that's being proposed. I think that covers it, right? Right.

Yes, sir. Michael Miller, again, for the record. This was a challenge. And it was a lot of moving parts. As you can imagine, the community master plan had this linear area for low-rise multifamily on the west side of Collins Avenue. Before there was zoning in your city in 1974, There were the 1945-46 master plan and the developer's deed restrictions, which act as zoning regulations. And that's popularly what people used before zoning laws became modernized in today's world. So in this case, you had all the, I think there's 21, if I remember, 22 small multifamily complex from the inlet down to the shops. What was sitting here before, if you remember, was an 18-unit complex known as Fairfield Manor. The mall people bought the property. They demolished it and they were using it, you know, at least the last few years for the construction staging for the mall. The piece of land that we got, as George said, we wish it was better because it's actually one of the smallest pieces. It seems like the bigger pieces were up north near the inlet, and as you came south, they kind of got smaller and smaller. So here, this is the last piece next to the mall, and it's actually, from a depth perspective, it's the least deep. And then instead of being rectangular, you got this severe angle for Balcross Drive on the south side. So a challenge to begin with. And the plat, as I said, had some setbacks on it, which they did throughout the community. When your zoning code was written in 74, it pretty much just followed the same setbacks that were on the plats and in the deed restrictions from the original developer. Um, and as we have been working with the design team, um, the design itself has been changing around the volume of the building, the placement and so forth. Um, so we, we waited to bring zoning changes to you to, to, you know, hand and glove, if you will, fit with what, what, what is presently being proposed. Um, So there's some things you had already a couple years ago changed the building height allowance here, which is similar to what's in the commercial area with the shops. And we have to address some landscaping issues, setbacks, parking, and some other aspects as well. In Dade County, good or bad, the county has ordinance that supersede local regulation. Example, landscaping. The county has a landscape code. The county has a street tree code. So we have to comply and be knowledgeable what... the countywide codes are as well as what we're trying to do locally. So we've been working with the team for months and months and looking at studies and tweaking this thing to the point now where we feel comfortable with what we're bringing you. George mentioned the Collins Avenue setback, which, you know, the one thing that impresses me about your community is when you drive through, as opposed to other areas around us, some of the buildings are up on the road and ours are back. So I was a little concerned initially with the building being much closer to the road here. But I think if you remember the site plan that was up there, the main building is actually back. It's not at 20 feet. It's back further. And then there's that big canopy that sticks out, which is going to provide shade area for the civic area out front there. So we were trying to write the code to allow that and cover that kind of thing rather than talk about yard projections and other things like that. So that's kind of the essence of it. I don't want to long, but yeah.

Let me close with this, and it's what your zoning code will read, which is all of what we've just discussed is part of Section 21-269, which is titled Additional Standards for Municipal Buildings and Uses. This is not opening the door to any future developer, any future development, or anything like that. This is strictly a section within the code that will address municipal buildings. And as far as I can tell, this is probably the only building that will be a municipal building in Bal Harbor, let alone certainly Collins. On Collins.

Thank you. Is there public comment? comment, would you say? Yes. We got someone coming up. I'll get you next.

It's Hans Zimmerman, 121 Ballcross. I wasn't going to say anything. A very disingenuous approach to the City Hall to have public comment on a design that is unbuildable as presented without a follow-up zoning ordinance variance on every single side. So you showed a design that cannot be built unless every zoning on every side of the building is violated as it currently stands. So instead of 50 feet, 20 feet on the front on Collins, instead of 15 feet towards the gated community, instead of 20 feet on the gated community goes to 15. On the north side, it goes to zero. You actually have no setback. And then similar, I think, from 20 to 15 on the south side. So I'm not sure if there was public comments or questions regarding this. I mean, the design was nice. I think it would have been okay to... to you know offer some different color variations but whatever it's up to taste and people have different tastes but to present a design to the community that cannot be built unless an additional extreme variance on all zoning setbacks passes is not in my opinion the way to go about gaining community support for a 40 million dollar project whether it's necessary or not is a totally different conversation but it's been passed off as here's the design oh great okay oh by the way in order to build this we need to violate every setback that's been in place in ball harbor thanks

Hi, I'm the same person at the same address. My question, I agree totally with what he just said, totally. But I also wonder if by rule, since this is a government building, shouldn't there be a referendum of the voters to see what they want instead of just what the council wants? Since there has to be alters to a set agreement because it's not in stone yet, wouldn't a referendum be the proper way to go to see who wants this and who doesn't want this? There was never a referendum to expand the shops. There were lawsuits, but there was never a referendum. So the people in Bell Harbor never had a say of what's going on. Now we have another meeting with lawyers next Monday over an issue that the shops want to build three new buildings. If you would ask the people what they want, it would give you a stronger opinion as to what you're authorized to do. And that's why I asked for this motion or whatever you want to call it to say, let's think about a referendum. Let's think about what you're responsible and to who you're responsible for sitting on that dais. Thank you.

Paul Chaplin, 108 Bell Bay. I think driving down Collins Avenue when you see the large setback, I think it was mentioned 50 feet on those buildings, looks very nice. When you think about 20 feet, I think about some of the homes that are built inside that went to 20 feet and they got a whole wall of concrete right near the street. I think 20 feet on Collins Avenue is way too close. I think it should be, you know, 30 or 40 feet and go up another story if you have to. But, I mean, the beauty of driving down Collins Avenue and seeing everything back 50 feet, I think, is nice.

Thank you. Any other public comment? Seeing none, we're going to close public comment. George, do you want to?

You'd like me to? Yeah. And so as it relates to the zoning, this is something that has been at various public meetings now that it's always been said that the design will require certain zoning relief because of the nature of the site. Several months ago, probably more than a year ago now, when you fixed the height of you kind of set in motion a decision, which is if you have to fill the space that you need to fill and you fix the height, then the footprint expands. And a choice was made then, affirmatively, to say we'd rather have a lower building. And in its place, then the footprint would expand. As it relates to the 50-foot frontage, and we always tried to make sure that that one is the most important one, What will not be enough, what will be less than 50 feet is that projection, what do we call it, a portico? Canopy. The canopy. The building face itself respects to 50 foot. And so what we're trying to just suggest is that another way to approach it is to keep the 50 feet and allow for projections to encroach. But what the drafters decided is since this is only for municipal building.

Don't we have a special provision for portico shares? Not that large.

a projection. And so it was decided since this is only one building, the civic building, only for municipal purposes, that's the clearest way to suggest that that's what's going to happen on that side. The south side, it's not the, Eitan mentioned it was, he got it inverted. The south side is one that goes to zero. And again, I mentioned that's because the street has been reoriented. And if you did 20 feet from the right-of-way, you'd probably have about 100 feet or more from the street itself to the building face. So the setback is still – The setback is still – there's still a large setback by the – you can see by the footprint. It's just the street has been reoriented. The site was selected for a couple of reasons as well. When you look at to the west, you have the linear green space. the street and then you have two additional green parks on the west side. So from a west side setback, the true setback is significantly more than what is being proposed as a building when you look at the public space that's there. It's behind the wall, but it's there. And so the only setback that I think might have a concern is to the north. And as you know, that property is being consolidated for a single use at some point. And so that future user is not going to be adversely affected by that setback. And so we've tried to do as minimal as possible to still accomplish the design. The last speaker that said it, otherwise you need to go up. and you can squeeze the footprint. But you start affecting the efficiency of the parking structure at that point, I think, and you would be, you know, defeating your cost purposes.

What I'm hearing is the irregularities in the lot shape basically force us to do this if we want to maintain the height that exists with the rest of the neighborhood. And that the impact will not be felt given that we're still having the building 50 feet back from Collins and then on the south side.

Look at who your neighbors are. To the south, it's the shops. To the west is single family homes well removed from the wall. That is the security gate. To the north, it's going to be a single user and To the east, which is the one we tried to respect the most, the 50-foot, I think we were able to accomplish that. That visual corridor that exists today will be enhanced, if not affected.

Thank you.

Yeah, Mr. Mayor, no, I just think that one point that Eitan made, which is a good point, I think, for future notice, is that, again, just the order of the way we did things, right? We said we were approving a building, which didn't contemplate the fact that we had to make these changes. So I don't know. We had it on the agenda. Opposite, I'm not sure why it changed. But I think just for future, it would make sense that, you know, if we needed to make changes in order to accommodate something, that's what we show first. Yeah.

Fair comment. The devil's advocate would suggest that if you didn't approve the basis of the design report, then there's no need to change the ordinance. Okay, but we should have discussed that in the design report.

Okay, we have a motion to approve? Okay. Is there a second? Okay, it's been moved and seconded. We need a roll call.

Yes, roll call. Councilman Levy.

Yes.

Councilman Sklar. Yes. Mayor Sauer. Yes. Vice Mayor Wolf. Yes. And Councilman Fremark. Yes. And the ordinance passes on first reading 5-0. Thank you.

I just want to put for the record that a fiscal impact statement or whatever the business impact statement that the state requires is in your package and was posted for the state requirements.

Okay. That's all I'm excited about. R7F. R7F.

Resolution of the Village Council of Bell Harbor Village, Florida authorizing the village manager to execute an agreement with L. Diaz Design in an amount not to exceed $25,000 and Print Pro Shop in an amount of $290,070 plus a 15% contingency for unforeseen conditions for a total not to exceed amount of $358,581 for the design, development, fabrication, and installation of of entrance signage at the north and south entrances along Collins Avenue, a placemaking sign at the Bell Harbor Waterfront Park, branded signage installations, and a residential building identification signage system providing for implementation and providing for an effective date.

Mr. Mayor, I'm going to ask Romero to do the full presentation, but I'll just mention that, as you know, we are in the 80th celebratory year for Bell Harbor. This is our 80th anniversary, and what we're trying to do is identify a legacy project that we can leave as a marker and a remembrance of the celebration. Ironically enough, the current signage that you find on the north and south ends of bell harbor were erected uh 40 years ago for part of the 40 uh the 40th anniversary so maybe it's fitting that it's time and this conversation has taken uh quite some time we've explored different options and i think we've landed hopefully at a good place and uh something that we can move forward on so i'll let the mayor uh romeo take it over yeah

Thank you, Mr. Manager. There you go. As the manager said, and as you know, we had a chance to discuss this at our retreat a couple of weeks ago. The item really first arose, Councilman Sklar, you raised it a couple of retreats ago, and we started working on it. Originally, we had, in partnership with a previous architect that we had been working with, had asked for some designs, and then we opted to move in a different direction. Just a little bit of background, we put a notice out, we received proposals from a number of different vendors, ultimately deciding on the ones that we're going to present to you here today. Had an opportunity to present to Resort Tax, solicit some feedback from them early on, tweak those designs, and then eventually brought them to you at your retreat back in February. But as the manager said, the way we've packaged this, it's really in honor and recognition and celebration of our 80th anniversary this year. The manager pointed out that the last time at least the two entrance signs on Collins Avenue on the south and north ends were installed was approximately 40 years ago in recognition of the 40th anniversary back in 1986, so we figured 40 years later would be a great time to reintroduce this, and who knows, maybe 40 years from now will be the appropriate time to do some additional signage in the future. All right, let's go through. We've got, originally we talked about the north and south entrance signs on Collins Avenue, but as we worked through this project, we identified other potential areas in the village that we feel are appropriate to, you know, adorn with some nice signage, and we'll go through those as well. So we'll start on the north end here. If you recall back at the retreat, we provided you with some of the inspiration that our designer, you know, used for the development of the signage. This is the north end of Collins Avenue. So as you come down entering the village, there's currently a sign there. Of course, as you know, this is the proposed design for that area. I'll go through all of these. This is the night image of that design. Some schematics here that were in your packet, including the image of the current signage that's there. The sign on the south entrance, of course, is here as well, right adjacent to the Truist Bank. It's a challenging area. It's a great area, right? Because as you come down entering the village, it's a beautiful area. There is some FDOT installations there that make it a little challenging to kind of try to orient around. So we're working to make sure that we get the maximum exposure for our signage. There is a crosswalk that's there that makes it very difficult. But, again, we've got some ideas to orient it in a way that you can really maximize the exposure without that crosswalk, you know, interfering. Councilman Sklar?

I mean, I think it's great to your point. It looks like we really need to move that northeast because having a beautiful sign with a pole right in front of it, don't put the sign there.

There is some space. Let me see if this image helps. Maybe not. Let me go back. Yeah, there is some space. Our plan is if you look at the current sign, it's got that Well, actually, the landscaping has been updated since this photo was taken. But nonetheless, there is an ability to orient it a little farther to the east. And north. Yeah. East north. Correct. And orient it.

So the edge of the sign is to the east of that pole. And we own the property, so we can pretty much put it where we want. Yeah.

Yeah, so we've gone out there, we've measured, so the current configuration here is exactly how it currently is, and that's how I wanted to present it. But we do have the ability, as you mentioned, Councilman Sklar, if you can kind of tell in the top photo, since it's the day version, to orient it a little bit farther northeast and tilt it a little bit farther north and escape that crosswalk that... Depending on the angle that you look at it, you know, can interfere because the top image is taken from a different angle and it doesn't, you know, impact it as much. But nonetheless, we think we've got the ability to do it. And with the installation of the new signage, that landscaping is, you know, reimagined landscaping, but our plan is to do more appropriate native species landscaping that is more fitting to the more modern design of the signs that are there.

Just let me see exactly where the footprint is before you put hammer to nail on this.

Yes. Understood. All right, let's keep moving. This is some of the details about the measurements and so forth based on the actual current measurements of the current signs that are there. A night image of it lit. We tried to maximize. This was input that the council provided at the retreat to really try to use the teal as much as possible. In front of me here, you've got some of the materials that are being proposed. We are trying to use the teal as much as possible. Gabriel from Pro Print Shop is here with us as well and can certainly answer any questions as far as the materials and that kind of thing.

Remember, at one time this was a flat surface with the design etched in. It's now inverted, which should create a better standing, stand out more, which is something that came from the retreat as well.

Yeah, that's right. We failed to do this at the retreat, but this paneling here was inspired by our actual pattern that we have as part of our branding for the village. So Leo, our designer, took this and incorporated it into this. And Gabriel's now been able to develop something where it's textured and patterned so that it really pops out more and it's more noticeable. All right, so night view there, nicely lit. Oops, I'm sorry. I'm going the other way.

I was going to say... Yeah, sorry.

Okay, number two. There we go. Oops. All right. So those were the two originally proposed. We had actually allocated dollars in our budget probably a fiscal year or two back out of the resort tax funds. As I mentioned, going through this process, we identified other areas in the village where we felt that it would be appropriate to do some signage. So, of course, the waterfront park becomes central to that. So... As discussed at the retreat, we've identified an area that is just off of 96th Street. So as you're coming into the village, coming from the west, going east into the village, this area right off the dock in the park really presents a really nice area. We were looking for a place to put it on 96th Street to do a welcome sign on 96th Street. And it became difficult because you've got Surfside with their signage on the south side. So we looked at the median, but that became a little awkward because you had Surfside sign on the south side and then ours in the median. And then we looked at the park, and we found this area that we thought was really nice and appropriate. It's in the style of what's being proposed for the two signs on Collins Avenue, so it complements it, but it presents our brand in a really nice way. So as you're coming into the village, from the west, you're greeted with this signage. This also, oops, I don't have an image there of the lit, but of course it has lighting, so in the evenings you can see the bow harbor. Right, and then we try to find other areas of the village. You know, one of the areas of feedback that we get, especially from influencers that come into the village, is that there really isn't a place other than our beautiful beach and now our waterfront park and some places along Collins Avenue where we can, you know, let people kind of have some fun and you're welcomed into the village, but create opportunities for people to be able to take pictures and share and that kind of thing. So we developed some signage that we're proposing really for the waterfront park and the beach path. So this would be two signs that On the beach path, probably the area that we believe is the best oriented is the 96th Street entrance. There's a nice area there that signage like this would look really nice and create an opportunity for people coming into the village at both the beach and in the park. to be able to not only be welcomed with something that's really nice, but also an opportunity to, you know, have an area or a place that they can take some pictures with and brand the village. This is branded for the 80th, but the way that the design is that this would be a temporary design. And then, of course, once we conclude with our 80th anniversary celebrations this year, then it's just branded as a welcome to Bow Harbor Village. It becomes welcome signs in both the beach path and the park. All right, oops, I keep going the wrong way because, all right. And then finally, what we discussed at the retreat, you know, each of our residential buildings along Collins on both the east and west sides have address signs currently. The top one there, the one for the palace, is really the one that the majority of the buildings have signage for. Some of the newer buildings, including the hotels, of course, to the Ritz-Carlton, The St. Regis, the Beach House all have their own signs. And then the newer buildings, Oceana, Harbor House, and then Ravage will have their own signs as well. But for those that don't, we had presented some designs to you back at the retreat. You gave us some feedback about the scale and the size and adding some teal to it and so forth. So these are the proposed designs for the address signs from both the front and side views. We had talked and proposed that we do one sign for each residential building. Some buildings actually currently have two, not all of them, but some do. But we're proposing that we replace the existing signs with new signs, one per building, and find the appropriate place to do that. These, of course, I'm not sure that I have a night view here. but that would be lit, of course, in the evenings as well so that you can see. And I'll just wrap it up with some future ideas. Of course, we've got the jetty project and village hall project and those coming up, but obviously we'd want to create signage that's consistent with what not only is on Collins, but in the park and the beach path as well that would complement to really create a unified, cohesive, wayfinding, welcoming entrance package to the village so that it's all tied in nicely together. All right.

Thank you. Any questions, comments from council before I open up for public comment?

Question? Yes. In terms of the buildings, I heard you say one sign per building. So many of the buildings, if not all, have two signs today to delineate the entrance and the exit. So if it's going to be one – and you still see people going in the exit and all those things. So – If we're going to go with one sign, where is that going to be placed and how will buildings delineate the two?

Councilman Freemark, so it depends on the building, right? Because if you look at the buildings now, they've got them in different places, but you really only need one address sign, right? I think a lot of the buildings have the two address signs, so it almost becomes confusing to people because you expect the next one sign and then the next one to be a different address, but it's not as consistent. So we'd have to work to really create, you know, the one sign that would be placed in the appropriate place and then make sure that the entrance and exit signs are, you know, notified properly so that it's clear where you come in and where you come out. You know, typically the southern entrance, or I'm sorry, the southern entrance is the entrance and then the northern entrance

you know lane is the exit and that's why we i'm convinced that's why we get many people to drive in the exit which is the southernmost driveway i i think well first of all what we're talking about is that if i'm not mistaken all of the buildings on the west side have one sign

So that's generally probably at the same location. That's where the electrical is and all that. It's the east side that we're talking about. And actually, I think you'll enhance the safety if you put true vehicular regulatory signs. or whatever entrance and exit and not try to make the address sign also be a vehicular regulatory sign. But we still work with each of the buildings to make sure that we place it where they want it placed. We're not just going to go and plop a sign somewhere. We want to make sure that that's the case. But I think you're be better served with, you know, like an F-dot type sign that says enter here and exit here versus the address sign, which is not really what you look for when you're looking for arrows.

Thank you.

one other question i had so can you clarify you said oceana has their own sign so that means they won't be getting a sign i'm not clear on whose signs we're putting in whose signs we're not and i guess we're going to still have a mix of a lot of different things so it seems like we're not yeah i don't and mr manager you may recall i don't under i don't recall why oceana installed their own part of their development so the wits

Harbor House has its sign. It's a big, large monument sign at the entrance. So we would not do a sign there.

Why wouldn't we change those two signs, the two front signs? The Ritz has the big sign by the fountain. I think you change the two signs that are at the front to be consistent with that.

Is one of these in front of the Ritz? I don't think so.

The Ritz has the big Ritz Carlton sign of the fountain, and then you have the two small signs.

You have these? Yeah. Okay, we would replace those.

See, there's two small signs.

Well, yeah, that was, like I said, it I'm going to tell you that the buildings that have signs that are different is the Ritz Harbor House, the Oceana, St. Regis, and the Beach House Corso. Those are the four, you know, there's some commonality between the commercial properties, development agreements. In fact, the CVU does have one of the traditional signs, if I'm not mistaken. And we will work with them to see if they still want it or not. If you know the CVU has like a wall along its entrance, and so it may not be conducive for a sign going forward. But we've not touched the idea of trying to tell Oceana, for example, that they have to change their marble sign to ours or the Ritz. And we can have that conversation, but I think they'll probably reject it or would not want to do that.

I think consistency is the key for this. Again, if it's for properties, I'm sure Harbor House and the Ritz, you know, they're you know, the signage to be consistent with everyone else. I mean, it's almost like you have to sell it into them.

Yeah, I would say don't assume that they'll accept it. But we are happy to have that conversation. But we haven't had it yet because we really were not – What we're trying to change is the old, however long or however old those are, which are the ones that we maintain. Those signs are village property we maintain. These down here are not ours. We do not maintain them. It's the commercial properties or the exception or whatever. We're happy to try to get those for us as well. It'll change the numbering here a little bit, but not significantly. These signs are running, whatever they're running now. 4,800. 4,800. But I'm going to tell you, they'll probably not want it, but we can have that conversation.

I think positive.

I always do. But realistic.

Again, I think it's a great job. I mean, from 12 years ago when I was on resort tax, we were trying to get a consistent signage package for the village and the monument. So, Romero, thank you and the team and the resort tax committee for finally getting us there 12 years later.

Any other questions from council before I open up for public comment? No. Is there a public comment?

Any?

Hi, Penny Sepler, 102.75 Collins. I love it. It's gorgeous. It's gorgeous. The teal is beautiful. And I do think we should try to get all of the buildings to be consistent. It would... it would look so good. And maybe, you know, we approach each building and you'd get somebody on the board and you, you, you know, you get, you get it going because it just would look, especially with this lighting, it would look beautiful going down Collins both ways and seeing everything look the same. They should join us.

Thank you. Any other public comment? Okay. Closing public comment. We have a resolution. Is there a motion? I'll make a motion. Is there a second? I'll second the motion to approve. Yes. I'll second the motion to approve. It's been moved and seconded. Voice vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Okay.

And with that, do you want us to try to get everybody else in on it as well?

Yeah.

The four others, if we can get that? Okay.

Okay.

R9A. Okay. Try and make these kind of quick. I think they're real.

Not very complicated. Just on R9A, again, some vacant lot standards in the gated community. I think actually there's two proposed ordinances we want to have on there, although I think the second one didn't get put into your packet. For the gated community, working with the BHCA, two items. Again, one is just proposing some changes to what already exists on vacant lot standards. Again, if you guys had a chance to look at it, again, it's about the lawns being mowed, no overground vegetation. Some people are putting stuff on empty lots and making playgrounds with no shrub in the front. So we modified, again, I hope everybody got a chance to see it, to add, again, shrubbery if they're going to be used. And if they're not going to be used, they have to be kept up. Some of them have mounds of dirt in the middle and so forth. I think it's a good modification to an existing ordinance and just adds more clarification to what needs to get done. And the second one actually on this was some sports court fencing guidelines. We have more people building sports courts and having multiple lots. And right now there's the – Code limits fences outside the building lengths of five feet. And if some people are building a court, whether it's even a paddle court or a tennis court, you need higher fences. Otherwise, the balls can't be kept into the courts. And so we're proposing some changes to the ordinance to allow that to happen. Again, heights up to 10 feet for the fence, which I think is what it is for paddle and tennis. But again, they have to be shrubbed in. The shrubs have to be the height of the fence so they cannot be seen from the outside. It has to be maintained all the time. If the shrub dies, they have to replace it. They don't have time to wait six months for it to go grow back and so forth. So these are the two general concepts that we, again, I would like to have the city go ahead and formulate and the city attorney and the manager formulate to be able to present to us for passage. I know Eitan's here from the BHCA, so I don't know if anybody has any questions with the appropriate process for Eitan to share any comments he has on any of these. Mr. Mayor?

Sure, if you want to call him up. Sure. Did the BHCA, I guess, like, discuss this and make a recommendation? Yes.

Okay. That's good. I'm much happier now. I can see him over there. We couldn't see Penny with the things up there. Yeah. Again, eight tons of room in 121 Ballcross. Yeah, I mean, I think Councilman Wolf covered everything. Pretty straightforward. There's a little bit of... There's a couple empty lots that are just unused that are not kept up that should be. And then there's some double lots where there's a home built on a single lot, but the adjacent lot is owned by the same person and they're being used, which is great. But it should be screened in so when people walk by, they have privacy and you don't have to look into whatever it is that they have. The second part of it, Because the sports courts, people are buying lots and building tennis courts. All that's great. The tennis court height, you know, or sports court height does need to be a little bit higher. And the BHA is okay with all that. Just important that... The screening matches the height of the fence. You know, they don't plant three-foot, you know, Clusias that are going to grow in six years. Other than that, it's, you know, pretty straightforward. It would just beautify the community, give everyone privacy, let people use their land for what they want to use their land for. And that's all I got.

Can I ask Susan a question? Just make sure that we get this covered. Susan, I think your initial review said that there's already something in regarding upkeep. So I want to just make sure you understand the difference.

My understanding is the current ordinance, it's not upkeep, it's whether or not it's considered a nuisance. Is that accurate?

So through the mayor, actually there's two sections of the code. There's section 5.5-6, which is the appearance code that applies to all of the residential properties that specifically provides for how vacant properties shall meet various listed standards. And so that's why I was pointing to that as already touching on this area. separately in Chapter 11 is the part about keeping unclean premises, trimming the grass, and so forth.

I just want to make sure that whatever it is you're asking, we make sure we get it.

I'm not really sure what is additional that you're looking for.

That's what I'm asking you for.

So it may be that you all didn't know about that.

So there's, I mean, it's not us. It's more code compliance, I would say. So specificity on exactly what it means to have nuisance or kept property right so the specifics of a of a vacant lot like are you allowed to have mounds of dirt which they do okay right so to specify what a vacant lot needs to look like which is grass and plants the second part is the screening the second part is the sports sports and the screening no no but here i think you can have a perimeter hedge anyway uh on the perimeter if it's used for a used lot so what's happening it doesn't i mean it might cover it and i'm unaware but Again, if there's a house next to a vacant lot and that lot is being utilized, it's not a vacant lot, really. It's now like a recreational lot. And there's nothing that covers just screening it off from the street and, you know, kind of keeping lawn chairs, whatever it is that's there, out of the public view or private view.

All right, we'll give it a stab. We'll make sure that part one captures whatever it is you want to make sure we capture.

I mean, code compliances are the ones that come out, and then they're the ones that say they may or may not have a tool to deal with it, and they should have that ability when they're called. You know I like you, so I'm going to tweak you.

Do you want proactive code or just complaint-driven?

Reactive, complaint-driven, 100%. Complaint-driven, like it runs almost everywhere else in the world. Complaint-driven code. Okay, thank you.

Thank you. So just so I'm clear, David, I guess you put this together, or the Civic Association put this together?

Okay. Yeah.

Okay, the proposed ordinance concept.

Typically with our discussion items is before we go to an ordinance, we get it. Input, guidance, direction, if you want to have us go ahead and work it, we'll work it.

Okay.

Yeah, I mean, I have no problem with this. I mean, it doesn't...

really affect my day-to-day. As long as you notice everyone, you know, give them time to comply, I don't see an issue.

All right. So we'll work on an ordinance that comes back to you.

On both? You guys are with both subjects?

Yeah, the sports court as well. You don't have the sports court concept in there because whatever, it just didn't get put in.

We'll send it back out.

Well, we'll see it on first reading when it comes to you. Okay, great. So you have consensus to proceed. Proceed.

Council people won't. Okay, next item. R9B. Okay, just very quickly, you know, lighting along the beach path. Do we have some of those pictures? So I got some feedback on this, and I appreciate it. Actually, Ramira went out and did some looking, and I went out and did some looking as well. Just a few quick pictures. The picture on the left was me coming from the Ritz-Carlton. And when you start getting on the path right from the Ritz-Carlton, it's dark. Many places in our walk, in our path, hard path, are very, very dark. I walked there. There was a lot of people walking there. I couldn't see people coming until they were maybe 10 feet in front of me in some cases. And if we go to the next, so the ones on the right are where we do have some lights on the jogging path, but our lights on the jogging path are very far and few between from each other. Actually, I think I measured them. They're almost about 100 feet in between each other. Is my random measurement as I counted by feet? Yeah, 27 steps. 27, which is about three feet per step, is almost about 90 feet. No, no, no, no, no. Anyways, if you go to the next pictures, again, these are just areas that I'm walking. Those are some people there on the right. They're not too far, but it's very hard to see them. And if you keep going... This was just on the left side. I was walking, so the Ritz, you see these lights are... Cut walk. Yeah, cut walk. The lights are much closer together. And again, on the right-hand side, this is on the jogging path. You can see this is a first light, and then this is my camera on my phone. I could barely see the second light, which is all the way down there. It can't be 30 feet. And the lights are different. Some of them, just whatever, for random reason, are different colors. These, I guess... Different views give you different angles of views and perspective. You can see on the right side, you have some yellows, and then you have a, whatever, that red color one back there.

Most mostly amber.

And if we go to the next, so just saying, this is a picture on the left is... I forget. On the right is Surfside. As you go to Surfside, you can see there's just lights after lights after lights. And I think on the left side, Miami Beach and Surfside. Yeah, so again, these are beautifully lit walking paths where people can walk and you can see people. It's just very dark for people to go in our streets, people who want to walk. Actually, after I went there, my daughter told me she was walking there a few nights. I told her she can't walk again until we do something because it's really, you can't see people. God forbid somebody's out there and something wants to happen so i would like to propose that we look at adding lights to our area it's a beautiful part of our village it's a beautiful access point again when i was out there that night a lot of people were walking even though it was dark but i think it's a an important enhancement and for safety security and usability of the beautiful space

And I see people there, they're usually wearing like the... Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I wore it in the morning with my flashlights.

Yeah, flashlights. Yeah.

But, yeah, the one thing we have to take into consideration, if we could go back to the Miami Beach picture and Surfside picture... The nice thing about these, A, they have to be amber lights out there because of turtles. So that's a state law. So we have to be cognizant of that. Well, that's what I'm saying, which is what they have. And then I would suggest, like they have in Surfside, how the lights are actually projected down because you don't want them shining up into people's faces. So I think the way Surfside did it and the way Miami Beach did it are great. as long as they're amber and they're pointed in a down direction to actually light up the path as opposed to up light. I think it's a great idea because, I mean, I'm jogging out there in pitch black.

On that note, what happened with your idea to have exercise spots?

We're working on getting bids. Hopefully, by the next something.

We can do whatever we've got. We've got one proposal. We're trying to get a couple more to come out, and we're also looking at the easements, legalities of it. But as soon as we have at least more than one bidder, we'll kind of tell you this is what we have. Do you have other potential bidders? We've called them, and they are or are not going to – and Sylvia here. Are they are or are not coming out? Yeah. Yeah, we have one bid. No proposal. It's not really a full bid. Come to the microphone. Okay.

I'm just coordinating a site visit with Game Time and Compan. Those are the other two that I've reached out with and trying to get them here to get some measurements and a proposal from them.

Do we know the people that did the one on Miami Beach? I'm sure we can find out who they are.

Compan did one of them, and then there's another company that they're working with now called Street Barbells, who I've also spoken with. But they're very new, and so I don't know – I'm in communication with them to see how well that product will work Oceanside with all of the salts there.

Do you think we would have something to present for the next meeting, potentially?

I'll provide whatever we have. We definitely have the one. I'll push to get at least a second one, but I'll try to push to have all three by next meeting.

That's what we're trying to, you know, bring you something you can then act on.

If I may, Mr. Manager, just real briefly, because when Vice Mayor Wolf brought this up, I I couldn't picture, right? So I had to walk out there at night, right? I'm there during the day, but not usually at night. So a couple of things, if you just. Can bear with me a sec. Remember, we've got the hard pack, and we have the jogging walking path. So the walking path, which is presented there, there are the light ballards there that are, according to my measurement, they're about 30 feet apart. And to your point, Councilman Sklar, you can't tell here because of the way the pictures were taken, but they are the amber lighting, of course, and we're in compliance with all of that. So I do believe that the walking path is properly lit, and the walking path, as you pointed out, Vice Mayor, kind of, comes in and out of the hard pack, right? So that what you're seeing those lights in the hard pack is when the walking path meanders onto. So the hard thing about the hard pack is it's for bicycles really and dogs. But as the vice mayor and I have spoken, our current ordinance has the hours of when you should be biking. And it's really during the light, when the sun is out from sunrise to sunset. And riding your bicycle per our code is prohibited from sunset to sunrise. So, you know, the other thing, because Julio, before the Vice Mayor brought this up, had actually gone out and was, you know, identifying areas for lighting because when we scaled back the landscaping on the hard pack side, you know, within the last year, that created opportunities to do additional lighting. So Julio and his team have gone out there and they've identified areas where lighting is properly appropriate, you know, to be placed, additional lighting. So, That work is ongoing by our public works team.

Quick question. About eight, nine months ago, we lost all electricity out there. And we had to do the terminal or the power and a powered via solar. Correct. Who has all that been fixed now? So everything is proper last.

Yeah, the panel was replaced, and so the power should be sufficient to add additional lighting. Okay, I just wanted to make sure. The sweet spot of what, you know, where do these exercise equipment land on that path as well? What lighting? But it's a policy question as well, is if the place is not supposed to be used at night, Do you want to light it up? We can change the ordinance and change the use.

Yeah, so I think you can do that. If that's the case, I think, first of all, I want to thank you because I sent him this message and the next day he was already out taking pictures. So thank you so much for that quick response for sure. I think these pictures are a little deceiving. I think this is like even way before like night, nightfall. Because I even went out at like 8 o'clock and I had to wait until like 10 o'clock until it really got dark. So I think these are a little, you can see the sky is actually very light here. But again, your right side picture is one, but if you look on the left, they're far apart. And when it's dark, it's very hard. And I think if that is the case, you said biking, but people are not allowed to walk on the hard pack. People are doing it anyway, so we should make sure it's lit.

I mean, again, all from Surfside all the way down to First Street, it's lit the entire way.

Again, if we can get them to walk on the walking path, then it's a little bit better.

Surfside and Miami Beach don't have buildings as close as we do if we're going to light the hard pack.

Surfside does, has buildings all along.

No, but I'm saying, but their hard pack isn't lit. The jogging, the walking path is lit. No, that's the hard pack. No, that was the walking path. No, it's the hard pack.

The hard pack has a surf side. You have it?

The surf side hard pack? Yeah. The path on the west side and surf side. That's the west. The hard pack. Gotcha. Okay. On the east side is not lit. It's more east.

I don't even think their walking path has lights. It doesn't. So it's the hard pack. Okay.

Yeah. Their walking path is not lit.

This is your heading south.

South. So it's on the left of you.

Yeah.

Which is like saying where's ours would be on the left side. Yeah. Again, I just think from a security and aesthetics and usability of our beautiful space, I think it's a big, a huge enhancement for us and for the community and visitors and so forth.

Safety is a pillar.

Just so you know, the approximate cost per ballard, Julio, correct me if I'm wrong, is about $2,500 just for the actual pole, you know, not the connection. But there definitely are some areas, a few areas where we've identified that, it probably would be appropriate to add.

Maybe what we do is we need to look at a different light fixture that is elegant for the hard pack that is different than those ballards.

So I think the many beach ballards are much smaller than ours. They're more modern. Sure, for sure. Streetlight doesn't even have ballards. They're kind of like sticks, so I don't think we want that for Bell Harbor, but I agree.

They're going to be tiki torches if you want to have somebody light them up every night. Every night, yeah. Yeah, our current bowers are about $2,500. Julio's identified some nice lighting for about $600, $700.

But I think it might make sense to treat the beach path differently than the driving trail and keep the nice ones on the driving trail and do that different standard for the hard pack. And, you know, maybe you get more lights that way.

Yeah.

Yeah. Great. Thank you so much.

You're still wearing sunglasses while sitting in my living room.

Yeah, that's the, yeah. For sure.

For sure. It has to be down and focused and for sure.

And amber for little turtles and all that.

Do you have direction?

Yeah. Yeah, I know we've got what we need.

Okay.

Great. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Wolf, for bringing this up. Public comment, general public comment, or is there any other council discussion? No, okay. General public comment, any?

Penny Seppler, 102.75 Collins. I love the idea of lighting that path because I'm on that path every night. And I know I probably shouldn't be when I am, but I am. And it's going to really look great. And it's going to be so making us much safer. And there's no reason why we can't stroll at 11 o'clock, 10 o'clock at night. And now we won't be able to.

Thank you.

Any other comments? Okay. Dwight, any comments?

Well, I sent you, I'm here in the packet of a bunch of emails. There's two more that came in. But they're related to the same item.

Okay. Okay.

Let me do a, in my manager's report, Mayor, I want to do a PSA, if you will. You know that there's a special council meeting scheduled for next Monday, April 27th. That council meeting is going to be held at the Seaview Hotel. It is an opportunity for the community to receive the latest update regarding the Live Local application that the Battle Harbor Shops has submitted two years ago and the subsequent litigation that has taken place. So it's a really a good opportunity for the community to come out and hear firsthand from the village lawyers specifically where we are so that there's not different ideas or different thoughts or different rumors out there. And at the same time, an opportunity for them to give input to you on what's being discussed at this point. And so it's, again, April 27th, Monday at the Seaview, beginning at 6.30 p.m.

Thank you. Can I just add something to that point? I think it's important for everybody who's here and even public record. A lot of people sent emails in. I think that's great, but not as effective as people being here in person. So I think for that meeting especially, everybody should speak to whoever they know, all their friends, all their neighbors, and get people to come in person to that meeting on the 27th because emails, I don't believe, will be as effective.

And it's a very, very important meeting, as I'm sure you can all imagine.

I look forward to seeing you all a week from tonight. So village manager's report, was there anything else? That was it, sir. That was it. Village clerk's report? Village attorney's report?

In your package.

Okay, motion to adjourn.