Regular City Commission Meeting - Regular Meeting

All right, mayor Ron.

All right. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to City Hall and the City of Hollywood. Today is echo day. I hear an echo. Today is 03/25/2026. We're here for a regular city commission meeting, although as we always like to say, there's never a regular meeting because there's always important and exciting and impactful substance on the agenda. Today is no different. And so before I ask everyone to rise for the Pledge of Allegiance, I would like to extend a moment of privilege to Commissioner Quintana. We all, all of us, as a community, lost a great special friend, our good friend Frank Leonardi.

And Idoma would love to reflect about Frank, remember him. And if anyone would like to join her in some comments on the dais or off, we invite you to do so as well. Idoma.

Thank you so much, mayor. I think that probably many people in the room today and perhaps many people at home have, at some point, come in contact with Frank Leonardi.

Frank

and I worked together at Broward County with Commissioner Fert for the last almost twelve years. And we really got to know each other well. But everyone up here on the dais has stories to tell about Frank's influence on their life. And I'll tell you, we're all going to miss him. But Arlene, if you would just show who we're talking about.

This is Frank. Frank was 97 years old when he passed away about two weeks ago and he worked until about six months ago.

This

man lived a full life. He was such a big presence at Rotary. If you go to the library, he was always there. You can see that he spent time in relationship with Commissioner Bladner and with Commissioner Hernandez. I do feel sad that I won't get to be with Frank every day anymore.

But there are just so many good memories together, a man so full of joy and brought joy to so many. So, his job at the county was really constituent services. So, people with difficult problems in their lives would walk into the library office. And he helped everyone with the same open heart, no matter what their situation was. He didn't judge them.

And he just did everything he could to help, never letting bureaucracy stand in his way. He had a reputation for advocating for residents passionately to the point where people would do whatever he said just so that he would stop calling and harassing the people on staff. So Frank was a big spirit, very much a good man and a good heart, and we have lots of great memories to share of him. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you, Adama. Great reflection. I knew Frank from when I first ran for mayor. He really befriended me and kind of took me in and gave me a lot of guidance along the way. He was politically active in Hollywood for decades, even ran for a city commission, I think, the eighties or nineties? 2000. 2000? 2000. With ninety seven years, it's hard to keep track. I only knew him for, like, the past eleven. But I know he had a great history starting out. His family served was a US veteran, right?

Yes, Korea.

Korea. Served in Korea. Also owned, I think, a restaurant in the Northeast before he moved to Hollywood. He was a very proud Italian American here in the city, gave a lot of his time and a lot of love to the Italian American club here in Hollywood. And all that Idelma said was such a great heart, a gentleman, always treated everyone with respect and really had that old world character to him that really stood out.

And I'm going to miss a really good friend. I used to tell people, I'm going to lunch with my 90 year old friend because I was so proud of the fact that he was so with it. As Delma said, he even worked and would drive and would have his own unofficial parking spot right in front of the library. And thanks to everyone, Javon, for accommodating Frank's needs in his, you know, final years where his mobility, you know, started getting less and less. But a lot of us a lot of reasons to be proud of this person, to have in our community.

He Commissioner Gruber, who's not here today, reflected when he learned of Frank's passing that Frank was like his little league coach in the rotary baseball days. So this is going back almost fifty years of Frank's contributions to the city and his impact on kids and what he gave of himself along the years. And so we're really gonna miss him for the person. I know his family, he's gonna miss him dearly. But we're all certainly proud to have known him.

And again, we're just going to miss him. I'm going to miss him. And just grateful to everybody here who did their best also to help Frank in his final year of life where his physical ailments took the best of his mobility. His his mind though, I want you to know, stayed sharp all the way to the very end until he was, you know, intubated, let's just say. And Commissioner Caleri, you, you know, like you do to so many people who have medical needs and are in their final moments in life, you go so above and beyond.

And your heart really goes out to people. And you just try to help them navigate this medical care that's so complicated. And you do it because you care about the people and about Frank, which you guys knew, I think, for decades from the rotary days, too. So thank you for all that you did to try to help Frank at the end, well. Yadavna, the family, Abim, all the friends.

I know he was excited about a lunch that he was scheduling with George Keller and some old foe and some sorry, wouldn't say old folks. Some older older generation of Hollywood leadership that Frank knew along along those decades. George's history, who we know he's, you know, in his final days of service here in Hollywood, go back decades and he knew Frank for those decades. So it kind of speaks to Frank's legacy with all of you who have been here for decades and knew him. So I'm going to miss you, Frank. Tracy?

Hi. So yes, just to add a note. So we all have people that walk in your lives for a short period of time or you've known probably your whole entire life being in Hollywood and Frank is one of them. He definitely would leave his mark. And his mark was a phone call every Mother's Day, every Christmas, every holiday you can think of, even probably Memorial Day. And he would always say, I just want to call and tell you I love you And thank you. Thank you for being in my life. And he thanked everyone, good, bad, indifferent. And he loved everyone. And he truly gave his all just to make people happy.

And if anybody ever met Frank, I think that you could feel that love. You could feel that energy. And he just wouldn't skip a beat. He wouldn't miss a beat. He'd make sure if you were in the room, he would find you. He would tell you thank you, how much he loved you. And really, he did it his way. He was a go getter, stubborn as all get out. God bless him, stubborn as all get out. But that's what made Frank Frank.

And God bless his children, Ada, Dina, and Frank Junior, Diane, his ex wife, who they were with him every minute up to the end. We tried as much as we could as colleagues and friends. But ultimately, I know the day before he passed, I had the privilege of sitting in the room and talking with him briefly and his daughter. And the best part, I think, is he made his mark because he was able to tie bonds with his family and build bridges. And you know what? What a blessing that is. And so I'm sure he's smiling up in heaven down on all of us. And he's doing keep up the good work. And we're going to keep it up for Frank. So thank you for having that opportunity to meet you, Frank. Love you.

Great words.

And Tracy, as you're talking, I want to let this moment go without saying how much Frank appreciated the nursing staff and the doctors at Memorial Health Care System and Memorial Pembroke specifically. They took good care of him, even when he was a little resistant to the care. And so just big thanks to their

hearts as well, everyone at Memorial.

Mayor. Commissioner Hernandez, then Biederman.

Thank you, mayor. I love Frank. Frank was, as you said, from the old school. He just told you how he felt and really could care less how you felt about what he said. Frank was the type of person that would just tell you how he felt and what he thought of what was happening. And that's what I loved about him. So we will miss you, Frank. Love you.

Kevin.

So as everybody's already said, I, too, have known Frank a long time, back to the early 2000s when he ran for District five commissioner. And we are friends with his daughter. His granddaughter went to school with my daughter. So there's a lot of connection there. As Commissioner, Vice Mayor said, he was always about building connections, building bridges. And he was a resource to many. But I think many of us were a resource to him because he knew who to call to get something done a lot of times. But nobody could say it better than Frank, so let's see how this goes.

Uh-oh. I'm gonna put it on speaker.

Speaker. Speaker.

Speaker. Morning. It's just me to say hello to you and your lovely wife, daughter. You're what? Two wonderful people, and I love you so much. You you're the only one that's called me, and I love you for that.

Everybody that? Know the truth.

Make me more busy, but you are busy too, and I love you for calling me. I just wanna put my word in with you that I love you and your wife. And if you get a chance, just call to say hello. Okay, Kim, thank you. Bye bye.

They called you too.

And he didn't call me to say Happy Mother's Day, but he called me to say Happy Father's Day.

He called me on the Jewish holidays. Just a real special guy.

And Thanksgiving.

George, do you want to say something?

I can remember. And we had talked recently and had another luncheon planned. And what I could always count on was we would solve all the problems of the city and then the world at those luncheons. And I only say that partially kidding because Frank had a real feel and understanding for geopolitics and how things worked. And he was many times, we would bounce things around.

And he always gave very sage advice. And he understood and was sharp and knew what was going on. And he was still in the game. So it was always a pleasure. After a while, I did the driving instead of him because sometimes he turned on sidewalks and we didn't need that anymore. But it was always a pleasure, always. And I will definitely remember him at every lunch we do now.

So let's think of Frank, everyone, as we rise for the moment of silence followed by the pledge. All right. Another important moment for us. Let's please recognize our veterans, active service personnel, and their families. You're here, we always take a minute to recognize you.

Roll call, please, clerk.

Commissioner Hernandez. Here. Vice mayor Coleri.

Here.

Commissioner Gruber? Commissioner Biederman?

Here.

Commissioner Cantana?

Here.

Commissioner Schuham? Here. Mayor Levy?

Here. All right. Let's show the attendance being that. Our consent agenda items five through 10 today don't usually require individual discussion. However, if there is a comment card, a speaker card on one of the items, we'll hear it later. Or a member of the dais may ask for an item to be brought up later. We entertain that as well. Item number seven on consent just has a term sheet update that was left here on the dais. And so with that, Pat, are there any speaker cards on five through ten?

No cards.

Motion to approve. Second. We

have a motion from Vice Mayor Caleri and a second from Commissioner Quintana to approve consent agenda items five through 10. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the items carry six-zero. Before we get to our 1PM presentations, proclamations, and awards, I'd like to invite Chief Devlin and a number of other folks who wanted to extend a moment of privilege of their own.

Thank you, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, city manager. I appreciate it. You always allow us each quarter to come up here and recognize our outstanding officers, our outstanding civilian employees. So today, I'd like to recognize just a little something different. And on behalf of the police department, we'd like to recognize and honor city Manager George Keller on his last day of official day of commission meeting here with the Chief Special Recognition Award.

So besides obviously being an outstanding city manager over the last three years and bringing the city forward in many aspects through initiatives and projects, his leadership, his mentorship, and friendship. The relationship with George really started with the police department shortly after financial urgency. George was one of the first ones that stood in and said, what happened to you was unfair. It shouldn't have happened. And he's going to fix it. Honestly, those are some of the darkest days in the police department. And to be heard from somebody like George, the assistant city manager, meant the world to us. So they weren't only words throughout his career. He stood by here. He stood at this very podium at risk of his own professional peril and dug in there and got us through financial urgency, took care of us and treated us fairly.

So you talk about legacy or how you'll be remembered. Besides being a great city manager, you talk about the police department throughout the years and history, your legacy will be that you stood by the police department as a true friend an honest person and got us through financial issues. So that, we thank you, George. We're forever thankful.

I don't think I had ever heard the word restoration before George's letter. But I came to understand it. Thank you. Thank you all. Can't let this moment go by without asking Andrew and folks from the Fraternal Order of Police to have their own moment of privilege. George?

Thank you, mayor. Mayor, vice mayors, commissioner. Obviously, we're just gonna keep this train rolling a little bit. George, ever since I took over as the president of this police union, it's been a breath of fresh air with your professionalism and your just overall relationship of how you lead. Public service is not for the faint of heart from anybody, especially elected officials.

But it's it's easy for me to come up here and demand certain things, and we need this and need that. But as a city manager specifically, you're caught between a rock and a hard place, And you're balancing so many things that I could never conceptualize with until I started having those conversations with you. And it's been enlightening. It's opened up my eyes, not just from looking up, but looking level with you. And you treated me not as somebody lower than you, but as a partner in our relationship.

And it's always been something I will always cherish. So on behalf of the Fraternal Order Police, we got you something a little bit better than the chief. Just saying. So, obviously, this is our symbol. This is like a Captain America shield for you. Every kid wants to be a cop at one point in their life.

George, you gotta gotta show it this way. Oh, wow. Look at that. Alright. So

if you can hang it up in your bathroom, your garage, wherever you wanna put that thing because that's massive. I ordered it. I was like twenty two inches. That's pretty small, no, nope, no, it's not. I just want to, again, thank you for your leadership and thank you for always that partnership.

Where's the handle? He needs to

put it on the back of his car so it doesn't get stopped.

Alright. Well, you know that was important for a police chief and also the FOP. But fire never wants to get outdone, right? So at this moment, a moment of privilege for Fire Chief Levy and the command staff.

So George, I'm the short timer here. I've only been here for ten months now. Time flies when you're having fun in Hollywood. But it's been a privilege to work with you in the short time that I've been here. I want to thank you for entrusting me to lead this amazing organization. I put some words down. I'm not as good as Chief Devlin. I'm saying that in public when it comes to public speaking. But I put some words down. We have something to give you as well.

But we are going to outdo the police chiefs award and give you a fire helmet signed by the members of the fire command staff. So, George, it's a privilege to stand here today to honor a leader who has been steady a steady hand for the city and a true champion of the first responders. On behalf of the entire fire department, we wanna thank you for your years of dedicated service and for the unwavering support you've shown our department through your tenure. To mark this milestone, we want to present you with something that carries a great deal of weight and tradition in our world. We're proud to present you with our very own white fire helmet signed by the members of the Hollywood Fire Department command staff.

In the fire service, the color of the fire helmet is more than just gear. It's a symbol of the rank, responsibility, and leadership. While most firefighters wear yellow, black, or red, the white helmet is reserved exclusively for chief officers. It represents the person who stands back to see the big picture, directing resources, and ensuring the safety of every soul on the scene. It symbolizes the weight of decision making just as you've steered this city through challenges and growth.

The white helmet signifies the ultimate authority in the calm at the center of the storm. It's a reminder that while we protect the citizens, you have spent your career protecting the infrastructure and the people that make us make the city run. George, may you hang this up may you hang up your hat as the city manager's aide, but we hope that this helmet serves as a permanent reminder that you always be part of our command family. Yeah.

We're

on a roll, George. I've had a lot of great

Yeah. I did not know this was coming. DAY: So thank you very much. And I'm going to keep quiet so I get through it here.

Alex with the International Association of Firefighters.

I I thought that was a shield and an axe, you're ready for battle.

We're going to appoint him as an ex officio negotiator to finish up the unfinished business.

I'm good with that. George, I'm going go ahead and echo much of what's already been said. You've led this city through some dark times and some really great times. I did also write a couple of words down, if you don't mind, if I could read it. Obviously, good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners.

George, I want to take a moment to recognize the years of dedication and service that you have given the city of Hollywood and its people. George, your leadership has guided this organization through both steady days and challenging times. The role you hold is not an easy one. Definitely not easy. It requires balancing priorities, making difficult decisions, and always keeping a long term well-being of the city and community in focus.

That responsibility you've carried with commitment and professionalism. Throughout your service to Hollywood, you've left a lasting impact on the city, not just in policies or projects, but with people. You've helped shape an organization that continues to move forward, adapt, and serve. Often in public service, the work is often behind the scenes. It's not always recognized, it's rarely easy, but it truly matters.

The work that you have done matters most. As you step into retirement, I hope you do so with a strong sense of pride in what you've accomplished and the legacy that you've left behind. You've earned the opportunity to slow down and enjoy the next chapter, whatever that looks like for you. You didn't just manage a city, you helped build it, shape it, and leave it stronger than you found it. So on behalf of Local thirteen seventy five, Hollywood professional firefighters, we thank you for your service.

Congratulations, George. I'll tell you, I know we're the the city employees and the whole city team is gonna have a moment to celebrate your retirement with you, I think, tomorrow. But before beforehand, and on behalf of the entire city workforce and behalf of the city commission and the residents of Hollywood, I'd like to be the one to it'll be honored to read to you this what's inscribed here, George R. Keller junior, city manager, in recognition of your leadership and dedication to the city of Hollywood. Your vision, integrity, and commitment helped shape this community for more than three decades.

City manager, deputy city manager, assistant city manager, department director, planning administrator, community development director, and back a long time ago, urban planner, with appreciation for your lasting legacy of service, 1978 through '99 and 2015 through 2026. Congratulations. I'd like to invite everyone up for a photo of George and all of these different competing, you know, meaningful recognitions. If you can please, FOP, bring up the plaque. Let's bring up the helmet.

Everyone who wants to join this photo police command staff, fire staff, employees, residents, whoever wants to be in this historic picture for George, please join us.

That's as close as you guys can get. Three, two, one.

Those are not Thank you. A a large format.

We also have a video.

Hi, guys.

Always good moments. Right? Alright. Well, thank you so much, everyone, for that important moment of privilege recognizing George and his years of service here in Hollywood. But he is committed to continue volunteering for the city, I just want you to know, on the city's pension board.

So George, I know you'll still help us guide our good way going forward. Absolutely. At this moment, we will extend to the 1PM proclamations, and awards in this meeting. Item number 11 is I'd like to call back up, please, Chief Devlin, awarding members of the Vice Intelligence and Narcotics Unit with the Chief's Special Recognition Award.

Well, thank you again. And George, nothing further for you. Don't worry. We're good. But I do I may be having an extra badge, a gun to give you after I take it from the FOP president. I will get to that after the meeting. Seriously though, again, thank you for allowing us. And we come up here and we recognize our officers and our civilian employees every quarter. But there's a group of individuals who don't get the recognition that they deserve, And that is our Vice Intelligence and Narcotics Unit. They don't get that recognition for a number of reasons, but it's certainly not because they seek it out.

And they're quite happy doing their long term, fruitful investigations in the shadows. Heck, even when I see them out in public, I'm not allowed to acknowledge them. So they did come in and give a brief on some of their investigations to the city manager, assistant city manager, as director of public safety. And at that time, that team said it would be a great idea to recognize them publicly. And I couldn't agree more. So although they're not here today, they are watching on TV. And we won't be able to say their names. But it is important for them to know that we see them. And we are thankful for them. And we are grateful for the work that they do. So Deanna.

DANIELLE Good afternoon. I'm Deanna Beteneschi, public information manager for the Hollywood Police Department. Starting back in 2024, the members of the Vice Intelligence and Narcotics Unit initiated several complex and highly sensitive investigations, ranging from illicit narcotics to prescription drug diversion schemes and into multi level fraud syndicates. The VIN unit is compromised of seven detectives and one sergeant. All seven detectives are assigned to various federal and county task forces, which greatly enhances the law enforcement effectiveness of the Hollywood Police Department.

At the 2025, their collective efforts resulted in the undeniable disruption of some of the highest levels of criminal activity, and in some cases, the destruction of these criminal organizations altogether. The performance of the Vinn unit over the last two years has yielded the seizure of over 130 firearms, 1,000 grams of heroin, 72,000 grams of cannabis, 6,000 grams of fentanyl, 7,000 grams of MDMA, 48,000 grams of cocaine, 19,000 grams of meth, 800 prescription tablets, and approximately $66,900,000 in currency and assets. This high level overview does not include or quantify the unit's ability to gather and utilize intelligence at varying levels of need with remarkable effectiveness. Due to the sensitivity of their assignment and law enforcement mission, these members will not be named publicly. Their commitment to duty, in conjunction with their professional representation of the Hollywood Police Department, makes us proud to award each detective and the sergeant the Chief Special Recognition Award to honor their accomplishments.

While we can't say their names, know that these dedicated officers are watching remotely so they can get the recognition they deserve. So if we can please get a round of applause for the Hollywood Police Department venue. JAMES

DAVID:

That was very nice. Thank you. And in case the venue didn't couldn't see, you got a standing ovation. So great job, guys. And keeping on with the awards and the recognitions, I know there's many times where we bring forward resolutions to you with technology advancements and at the direction of the city manager, director of public safety. We've done that over the past two, two and a half years. It's really brought the department forward in our technology unit. So I thought it important the city manager thought it important to share with you visually what those resolutions and what those assets have been doing and what we've been up to. So we do have a short video to play for you so you don't have to listen to me anymore. It's the end of here to talk about it.

Well, thank you, chief. I know that these investments in technology to help ensure the public safety of our city is something that, as as you mentioned in the outset, Georgia has been a big proponent on. And I think public safety, Georgia, has been obviously, you know, one of your priorities, funding it adequately and and and demanding and leading to to the good results that we have along with the chief, the command staff, and all the officers and civilian staff of both public safety departments. So it's great to see this get to where it has. And we know that with the police headquarters completing construction later in the summer, that the fusion center and the technology is gonna even get more robust and be just that much stronger of a tool to keep everybody safe in Hollywood.

So very exciting and transitional time with AI, all of it, you know, having needed the city to to move forward with investments and decisions early. And and thanks to you, George, and the team. Yep.

Yeah. If if I could, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, I tell you what's impressive, like the secure briefing we had last year with the VIN unit, the things that are happening and the work that's being done that you don't see is always there. And it results in having the kind of environment and the kind of community that you can enjoy and that you want to have that's not interrupted by those kind of things that you see happen in so many places. And it's not that we're immune from it. Just a few days ago on the beach, springtime, and there was suddenly a gathering of a large number of people.

And special ops and everybody else participated in not only recognizing it and being prepared for it, but responding quickly and even used some other cool equipment, including the LRAD, which is one of my favorites, that resulted in really not much happening at all, which is exactly what you want. And couldn't be happier. Couldn't be happier.

Well, you, chief. Thank you to Lieutenant Burroughs. Lieutenant Burroughs, thank you so much. And to everyone, only good things. When I saw the VIN unit recognition, I said to myself, hey, wait a second. Are they really going to be here? And of course, we understand why not. And it makes all the sense. And the guys and gals perhaps watching, appreciate it. Thank you, and thank you for your good work.

All right. Proclamation recognizing National Autism Acceptance Month. I'd like to recognize Commissioner Quintana, please. She will be presenting the proclamation. Accepting the proclamation will be Fire Chief Jeff Levy with the Fire Department and Fire Rescue, who always have to know professionally how to attend to the medical needs of everyone in our community, including those folks with autism. Commissioner Quintana, please.

Thank you, mayor. A proclamation, city of Hollywood, Florida, in recognition of Autism Acceptance Month, April 2026. Whereas, April is recognized as National Autism Acceptance Month, formerly Autism Awareness Month, focusing on fostering understanding, inclusion, and support for individuals on the autism spectrum. Throughout the month, organizations emphasized moving beyond awareness to promote acceptance, celebrate neurodiversity, and advocate for resources, with April 2 marked as World Autism Awareness Day. And whereas autism is a complex brain disorder that often inhibits a person's ability to communicate, respond to surroundings, and form relationships with others, And whereas, according to the World Health Organization, approximately one in one hundred and twenty seven people worldwide, or about sixty one point eight million people, have autism spectrum disorder, based on global data from 2021.

And whereas ASD is a group of developmental disabilities that causes challenges in many areas of one's life, some of the profoundly affected areas include social communication and behavior. Children with ASD may be nonverbal or may have restricted or repetitive behaviors. And whereas ASD affects people of all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds, and whereas the month long observance of Autism Acceptance Month takes place each April, highlighted by World Autism Awareness Day on April 2. World Autism Awareness Day was adopted by the United Nations in 2007 to shine a bright light on autism as a growing global health priority. World Autism Awareness Day activities increase worldwide understanding of autism and emphasize the importance of early diagnosis and early intervention.

Additionally, World Autism Awareness Day celebrates the unique talents and contributions of individuals with autism around the world. Now, therefore, Josh Levy, mayor of the City Of Hollywood, Florida, and the Hollywood City Commission, hereby proclaim April as National Autism Acceptance Month in the city of Hollywood, Florida.

Chief.

Thank you, commissioner, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners. And this is important. As you know, Commissioner Cantana is wearing the autism awareness shirts being sold by the fire department. Police department's doing the same thing. We, in the month of April, our firefighters and police officers will be wearing these t shirts to recognize the importance of Autism Acceptance Month. One of the other things I want to bring to your attention is something that we have on the fire department. Our police officers and our firefighters go through training on how to recognize, communicate, and treat those with autism. So I'm going to this is our sensory kits. These kits are designed to help us care for children and those particularly with autism spectrum disorder. These sensory and other sensory sensitivities during emergency situations.

When we respond to a call, the environment can be overwhelming with sirens, flashing lights, multiple responders, and physical contact. For some children, this can trigger intense anxiety or sensory overload. When that happens, communication breaks down, assessments are delayed, and situations can escalate quickly. These sensory kits give our crews simple, effective tools like fidget items, tactical objects, and noise reduction options to help calm and engage the children. This allows for us to build trust, reduce anxiety, and safely move forward with care.

From an operational standpoint, this leads to faster assessments, better cooperation, and reduces the likelihood of needing restraints or sedation. It also improves the safety of both the patient and our personnel. Most importantly, it reflects the commitment to providing compassion, inclusive emergency care to all members of our community, especially those that are most vulnerable. All these sensory kits are carried on every one of our ambulances. So when we respond to a situation that we identify, whether it's somebody that's on the autism spectrum or even a child or an adult that is having some issues and we're not getting through to them or they're nervous and they're affected by those factors, we can break out this kit and helps us reduce the anxiety and be able to treat these more faster.

Thank you.

Beautiful. Please come on. We'd like to take a photo to help spread the word.

If I

may, just a quick word.

Sure. Commissioner Quintana?

Just a quick word. You know, everything that has to do with the brain, I feel like there's so much that has been learned, but there's so much that's still unknown about how the human brain works. And I just love that I want to repeat the line from the proclamation that World Autism Awareness Day celebrates the unique talents and contributions of individuals with autism around the world. Because we do call it a disability, but the truth is that the more we learn, the better we're able to understand. If you meet one person with autism, you've met one person with autism, and it shows up in so many different ways.

And all of us have someone in our lives who may or may not be diagnosed with the label. Many of us work with people, have people in our family. And so, let us just always keep an open mind about the different ways that people are in the world, and really learn to appreciate the differences for what they bring to us. So that's all I wanted to say. Thank you.

JOSEPH Jose, please come on up.

Ready? 123. One more. 123.

Thank

Thank you. You. All the picture is how we get the word out about the proclamations. And that's a good segue to the next and final proclamation, recognizing Paralyzed Veterans of America Awareness Month, which is April 2026. I'd like to invite commissioner Schuham to present the proclamation to mister Juan Perez. He's past president of the Paralyzed Veterans of America, Florida chapter. Please come on up, mister Perez. And commissioner Schuham, go ahead.

Thank you, mayor, and thank you, mister Perez, for being here. Paralyzed Veterans of America Awareness Month, April 2026. Whereas in 1984, the Paralyzed Veterans of America set aside a week to raise awareness for issues of importance to paralyzed veterans and all individuals with disabilities. And in 2011, the Paralyzed Veterans of Florida, Inc. Extended awareness for the entire month of April because it is important to recognize the many sacrifices made by veterans.

And whereas many of our neighbors within the boundaries of the city of Hollywood, Florida, have served as members of the armed forces, and in doing so, honored our community with exemplary dedication. And whereas it is important that we recognize the sacrifices made by our community's veterans who are paralyzed, Their stories of hardship and triumph provide life affirming lessons for all of us. And whereas paralyzed veterans help their fellow veterans at VA facilities, meet with school children, as well as Boy and Girl Scout troops to share their experiences, and to aid other people with disabilities by their advocacy for civil rights issues, including achieving accessibility in public buildings. And whereas there are many local community service organizations, particularly those serving our youth, that seek involvement in worthy projects and Paralyzed Veterans of America Awareness Month meets and surpasses that standard. And whereas the city of Hollywood honors paralyzed veterans because they personify the highest ideals of service to our country, sacrifice of self, and perseverance in overcoming adversity.

Now therefore, Josh Levy, Mayor of the City Of Hollywood, Florida, and the Hollywood City Commission hereby proclaim April 2026 as Paralyzed Veterans of America Awareness Month. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, commissioners, on behalf of the Paralyzed Veterans of America, Florida chapter, thank you for this award. And I appreciate to be here. Thank you very much.

Well, we thank you, mister Perez, for your service to our country. We thank those men and women of the armed forces that are serving today to protect The United States around the world. Appreciate all the sacrifice that yourself and your families have made so that we can all be here and be free in this land and spread that around the world as well. So thank you so much. Please come on up.

If you could position yourself, we would love to take a moment to take a photo and help spread the word. Well, as we said at the outset, every meeting has impactful moments. Right? And we've already had a great number of them

today.

So let's go ahead. We've got a really good hearted member of the community who is in the publishing world. Miss Isabel Borden is here. And she is the president and founder of the Latin Business TV magazine. And she was involved with our centennial celebration and took a lot of pride in the centennial celebration of the city of Hollywood.

And through the Latin Business TV Magazine, also published a special one hundredth year City of Hollywood anniversary edition, who she so proudly put together. And we are proud to have you here and to share your spirit for what the city of Hollywood has accomplished and the direction that it's going. So thank you so much, Ms. Borden, for being here. The floor is yours.

Thank you, mayors. Thank you, vice mayor and commissioner. So I'm so excited here because this city's past peace and love is many recognized and many people, very, very good people here. So, I'm so happy to stay here. So, today, decided to celebrate this magazine because it's for the Holyoke City, a special for one hundredth century.

And it's for me the honor to present this edition. And congratulation, the mayor and the office, the mayor, and all the, your team, the commissioner, the mayors, and the police, and other office help for the city made better always. And happy to introduce this magazine for us.

Well, thank you so much for featuring all the accomplishments of the city and recognizing the elected officials. Some of them are completing their fourteen years of service this year. And I know this will be a very much appreciated memory for them to just really use this edition of the magazine, of Latin Business Magazine, as a keepsake. But you really put a lot of heart into the stories that you wrote here about the city and about its elected leadership. So we thank you. And I'd like to love to extend an opportunity for you to say what you'd to say in Spanish as well, since the magazine is, I'm sure, bilingual and you have a big audience. So please go ahead.

Yes. English is Spanish. So Latin Business Network Magazine Latin Latin Business Awards We organized very big Spanish, please. We organized very big events for the women entrepreneurs here in the South Of Florida. And in this moment, the addition is for DCT. In the next month, it's for the woman's entrepreneur. So thank you so much.

Oh, we'd love to take a photo with you if you'd

like Yes, please.

Thank you so much. Go ahead, Commissioner Hernandez.

Thank you, mayor. Thank you.

Do you want to get in there?

Let's do one

more. Three. There you go. There you go. Three two one. Very nice.

I can say that with a good accent fast, but it it goes down real quick. I'll make up the words as they go along. This is regarding the annual report for the Emerald Hills Safety Enhancement Board. Welcome to mister Ruben, who is the chair of the board. Item 15.

JEFF I'm mayor, vice mayor, commissioners. I'm here to present the annual report for the Emerald Hill Safety and Enhancement District. I wanted to start by saying thank you to Chief Devlin, Detective Diaz, and the officers of the Hollywood Police Department, and my fellow district board members for their support and assistance in enhancing the safety of the district. So we're happy to report that based on the information provided to us by the Hollywood Police Department, that our district has significantly less crime than the surrounding areas. And that's due to two things.

We have police patrols, have proven effective to create a safer community. And we've enhanced that security by relicensing Flock Safety license plate readers this year, which provide HPD notifications to direct access to the '20 fourseven feed of six LPRs placed at key points of ingress to the district. This is also now part of a broader mesh network that the city has been that the police department can respond to. Next item is we've balanced our budget. That's been very difficult.

We've been able to do it by tailoring the hours our patrols the hours that we patrol. We would like to expand them to cover areas during holiday seasons, for instance, or during times of heightened security issues. This year, we promoted community engagement, encouraging meeting attendants to share our ideas with public. And to that, we've actually this is in response to what we discussed with the commission last year, which is the commission suggested that we go out and we apply for grants to see if we can bring in some extra funds to reduce that cost to our constituents. And unfortunately, no viable grants have been identified.

And that's been after several months of talking back and forth with the city grant writer. The last thing on the agenda, really, is that we, under the direction of Commissioner Gruber and at your request, we went out and we polled the people in the district to see really to ask them two questions. One was, do they want to continue with the district? And the second was, do they increase support in the annual assessment from $250 to $500 Now, the poll questions were written in conjunction with Commissioner Gruber, and the results were tabulated at an open meeting with Commissioner Gruber there so that everyone could see that we were doing it the right way.

JOSHUA TRANSPARANTIS yes.

And we had approximately 24% of ballots returned. So that's 124 out of five ten possible ballots. And to response to, do you want to extend this district beyond a 2027 expiration? We had 81.3% saying, yes, we do. So we think we are doing a good job, and we're helping with the community to create that safety that they want.

And then regarding the second question of, do you support an increase? We have a super majority of people saying yes. So over two thirds had said, yes, we're Okay with increasing that amount. So to that end, I've met via phone with the city attorney and reached out to the city clerk. And we're actually going to draft a new ordinance, which would extend that sunset for ten years and would increase that annual assessment up to $500 So just wanted to let you know and so you're aware of what's happening.

Well, thank you. And that's all that I have for today.

JAMES Well, thank you, Mr. Rubin. I know that Commissioner Rubin, as you mentioned, has obviously been very much involved with the district. And I understand from the item and speaking with the city manager that what your district now needs is for the city commission to consider the results of the of the that was those polling questions, the extension of time, the increase in the in the fee. And so I would ask the commission that if you want to comment that we would extend our support to having an item come to us for decision at that time.

So I certainly support it. And so I'll extend now the opportunity to speak to anyone else on the dais. Commissioner Hernandez, I just want to make a point of parliamentarian organization here that my system, when you press the Speak button, is just activating your microphone. So I don't really see a queue of folks allowing me to activate the person next in the queue. But Commissioner Hernandez here has queued in, of course, and his microphone is there. Go ahead, Commissioner Hernandez.

Commissioner, I'm sorry. Just one moment before you speak. I just wanted to let the commission know that due to Commissioner Gruber's inability to attend today, he did want to reach out to me and my office and express his support for this, for the ten year extension, and also for the amount that the Safety Enhancement Board is seeking. So I wanted to let all of you know that the commissioner for this district does support the measure.

Commissioner Hernandez. Thank you, mayor. I certainly support the extension. I certainly support the increase. The question that I have would be for the city attorney and the city clerk.

I believe that the ordinance that we had talked about a particular way of There you go. Thank you, Mayor. Regarding the ordinance that was established, there was a process, a particular process, in order to poll the residents of the area. As long as that process is being followed and the majority of the people, in this case, the super majority of the people approve that, I am certainly in support of bringing the ordinance back for the extension and the increase. Thank you.

Thank you.

Alright. So it looks like we have four in support. Gruber in absentia according to the city attorney. So thank you so much. We'll have an item come before us for official adoption. Thank you, David. And thank you to Ohio police for embracing this district and obviously extending your own know how and helping them with their supplemental funds to better take care of the district. Thank you so much. All right, ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our 1PM presentations, proclamations and awards. There are a few time certain items.

I'll go ahead to the 01:15 time certain item and there's a 01:30. For those that are here on the beach presentations, those are a 03:30 time certain item. So if you need to stretch your legs, we do have an hour and fifteen minutes before those items can be presented. In the meantime, we'll go forward with the the agenda. Let's go ahead with our one fifteen ordinance on second reading.

It's an advertised public hearings advertised in conformance to state statutes and city codes. No changes since the first reading by the police department. An ordinance of the Commission of the City of Hollywood amending chapter 98 of the code of ordinances entitled Marine and Waterway Regulations, Boats and Other Vessels, creating the applicable section in the code entitled Overnight Anchoring Limitation, Revising the Penalty Provisions and Providing for a Severability Clause and Repeal Provision. This really is an enhancement that was made through state law that enables us to even better manage the anchorage our waterways. I'm going go ahead and open the public hearing. Are there any speaker cards on item 16?

No cards.

Public hearing is now closed. Vice Mayor Caleri?

Motion to approve.

We have a motion from Vice Mayor Colari, second from Commissioner Schuham to approve this ordinance on second reading. I'd like to invite the city attorney to read the ordinance, and the clerk will call roll call.

An ordinance of the City Commission of the City Of Hollywood, Florida, amending chapter 98 of the City Of Hollywood Code of Ordinances entitled Marine and Waterway Regulations, Boats and Other Vessels, by creating section 98.015 of the code of ordinances entitled overnight anchoring limitation and revising the penalty provisions, providing for a severability clause and a repeal provision.

GREGORY Commissioner Hernandez?

Yes.

Commissioner Gruber? Commissioner Biederman?

Yes.

Commissioner Quintana? Yes. Commissioner Schuham? Yes. Mayor Levy?

Yes. Alright. Let's show the ordinance passing unanimously six o on second reading. Next is an ordinance as well. It's a quasi judicial item.

That's an ordinance on second reading advertised as a public hearing in conformance of state statutes and city codes. This is from the Department of Development Services. I'll go ahead and read the ordinance into the record, and then we'll go through with an inquiry as regards to the quasi judicial procedures or proceeding informally, which I imagine we will. Let's go ahead. It's an ordinance of the city of Hollywood changing the zoning designation of 1.11 acres generally located on 19th Avenue between Jackson And Van Buren Streets, municipally known as 1841 To 1857 Jackson Street, 1856 Van Buren, and the corresponding folio numbers from Parkside high intensity mixed use to Federal Highway medium high intensity mixed use, amending the city's official zoning map to reflect this change in zoning and to provide for an effective date.

City attorney? With regards to the quasi judicial procedure. Oh,

Florida courts have determined that there are certain types of matters, including items 17 on today's agenda, which are to be treated differently from other issues considered by the commission. Most decisions of the commission are legislative in nature, meaning that the commission is acting as a policymaking body. However, in quasi judicial matters, the commission is applying existing rules and policies to a particular factual situation and is therefore acting like a judge or jury in a courtroom. In such cases, courts have determined that due process and fundamental fairness require that more formal procedures be followed. Therefore, in quasi judicial matters, all witnesses are sworn in and subject to cross examination by the parties.

In addition, the decision of the commission must be supported by competent and substantial evidence presented at the hearing. However, in Hollywood, we have adopted a rule that allows for the waiver of quasi judicial formalities. Waiver can only occur if agreed to by staff, the applicant, and any member of the public who is present. Therefore, at this time, I ask that the chair inquire as to whether there is anyone who objects to waiving the quasi judicial formalities.

JAMES Is there any objection from the applicant to waiving the quasi judicial formalities?

JAMES Mr. Mayor, on behalf of both my clients, Ventis and Gadamus, we waive quasi judicial.

JAMES Okay. Staff, you waive.

ANDREW WINGITT, staff waives.

All right. Commissioner Hernandez, I see you go ahead.

Mayor, if there hasn't been any I don't know if the public waves or not. But if there hasn't been any changes on the staff in the ordinance, I move to motion to approve.

All right. We do have a waiver of the quasi judicial procedures. We do have a motion on the floor. I anticipate there are no speaker cards on item 17. Pat? Correct. All right. We have a motion from Commissioner Hernandez, second from Commissioner Schuham to approve the ordinance on second reading. I'd like to invite the city attorney to read the ordinance, and we'll take the roll call vote.

Excuse me.

Did you open the public hearing and close it?

I asked that there were speaker cards, but I'll go ahead and open the public hearing. Pat, are there any speaker cards?

DAVID No cards.

MALAN: The public hearing is now closed. Thanks for keeping me in check. And let's go ahead to the city attorney on the motion.

DAVID An ordinance of the city of Hollywood, Florida changing the zoning designation of 1.11 acres generally located on 19th Avenue between Jackson And Van Buren Streets, municipally known as 1841 To 1857 Jackson Street, 1856 Van Buren Street, and folio numbers five thousand one hundred forty two-fifteen-one-seven five forty, from PS3, Parkside High Intensity Mixed Use District, to FH2, Federal Highway Medium High Intensity Mixed Use District, amending the city's official zoning map to reflect the change in zoning designation and providing for an effective date.

Commissioner Hernandez?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Kalari?

Yes.

Commissioner Gruber? Commissioner Biederman? Yes. Commissioner Cantana? Yes. Commissioner Schuham? Yes. Mayor Levy?

Yes. Alright. Let's show the ordinance passing unanimously six o on second.

Thank you, mister mayor, madam vice mayor, members of the commission.

Thank you, council. Alright. Item 18 is a one thirty time certain item, an ordinance of the city of Hollywood amending the city's existing comprehensive plan by amending the potable water sub element of the utilities element to adopt by reference the water supply facilities work plan 2025 update in accordance with the applicable Florida statutes as specifically set forth in exhibit a and obviously providing for an effective date. This is an ordinance on first reading advertised in conformance in accordance with state statutes and city codes by the Department of Development Services. Andrea.

Good afternoon, mayor. You said it right. This is an amendment to the city's comprehensive plan regarding our potable water for the city. There's been a lot of talk about water and infrastructure over the last several meetings. And one thing we all know is that water is not unlimited. It's something that has to be managed and projected based on our population growth. And that's exactly what this does. The days of having unlimited cheap water are moving behind us. And our rate structures are going to change over time in response to that. And what this plan does is it sets forward what our estimated water supply and demand is going to be.

And it ensures that we will have that adequate supply over time. So the city of Hollywood is within the South Florida Water Management District's authority. And based on state statute, once South Florida Water Management updates their plan, all municipalities within their jurisdiction are required to update their plans based on that information. So here we are today. And we're updating our plan. We're continuing to show reduced consumption. We're maintaining and upgrading our facilities as required. And all of our projections are positive. And so this is first reading of an ordinance. We will transmit it to the appropriate state agencies and then come back to you for adoption.

I'd like to open the public hearing pad. Are there speaker cards on item 18?

No cards.

Public hearing is closed. I'd like to entertain a motion by

Motion to approve. Second.

We have a motion from Vice Mayor Caleri and a second from Commissioner Quintana to approve the ordinance on first reading. City attorney.

An ordinance of the city of Hollywood, Florida amending the city's existing comprehensive plan by amending the potable water sub element of the utilities element to adopt, by reference, the water supply facilities work plan 2025 update in accordance with section 163.3177, subsection six, subsection C, subsection three, Florida Statutes, as more specifically set forth in Exhibit A, and providing for an effective date. Commissioner Hernandez? Yes. Vice Mayor Caleri?

Yes.

Commissioner Gruber? Commissioner Biederman?

Yes.

Commissioner Cantana? Yes. Commissioner Schuham? Yes. Mayor Levy?

Yes. All right. Let's show the ordinance passing unanimously six-zero on first reading. Thank you so much. All right. Since it is not 03:30 yet, we'll come back to items nineteen and twenty. Item 21 has been withdrawn by the city manager for later consideration. Item 22 is a resolution of the City Commission, City of Hollywood, appointing city commission members as voting and alternate voting delegates to the Broward League of Cities for the twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven year. City clerk, who's our current slate for the Broward League Of Cities? If you could just enter the record? And if you don't know, I'll ask Commissioner Cleary.

I know Commissioner It

is myself. I believe Commissioner Hernandez is alternate.

The alternate, yes.

And then the alternate alternate is you, Mary Levy. Okay.

Well, you know what? Since you so graciously fulfill that role, and I do attend and take it seriously, there hasn't been a need for myself as the alternate alternate to really represent the city as a voting delegate. I think maybe Commissioner Hernandez has attended some

And I have delegated to him on certain events that I wasn't able to attend. But just taking note that come this November, my term is up. So I'm assuming that it would just automatically take over as Commissioner Hernandez and just put that in suit because things get

Would you be willing to continue as a voting delegate until November? Yes. So if a vice mayor Coleria would like to continue as the voting delegate, and there is no objection to, commissioner Hernandez continuing as the, alternate voting delegate, I think that completes the slate, as needed right now. We have a motion from Commissioner Biederman.

Second.

Second from Commissioner Schuham. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the item carries unanimously.

Thank you. Item 23 is an exciting resolution. I see some folks in the audience who might be wanting to talk about this opportunity to really expand Stan Goldman Park. This is a resolution of the city commission, City of Hollywood authorizing the city to execute a purchase and sale agreement, special warranty deed, and require any other required closing documents for the purchase of property located at 600 Knights Road from BlueVis LLC in the amount of $5,250,000. There is some corrected information that was put into the record here on the dais, just updating some of the closing costs and some minor language in the contract that perhaps Lisa will tell us about.

This is from the Department of Communications, Marketing, and Economic Development. Lisa Liotta, floor is yours.

LEAHLEY Good afternoon, mayor. For the record, Lisa Liotta, development officer, Department of Communications, Marketing, and Economic Development. I'm pleased to be here today to present the opportunity for the city to acquire the former Knights of Columbus property located at 600 Knights Road. As the mayor mentioned earlier, we did have to make some very minor changes to the purchase and sale agreement and the resolution in regard to additional costs associated not the purchase cost, but additional costs that are traditionally absorbed by the buyer. We'll begin with a brief forgive me with a brief history and overview of the property.

The property was acquired by the Knights of Columbus on 06/01/1966, for $11,600 At the time of the purchase, it was undeveloped land. And construction of the clubhouse took place shortly thereafter. Bluvis LLC purchased the property in November 2023 for $4,600,000 The property taxes in 2025 were approximately $52,700 The property is approximately two acres. And it includes a clubhouse that is 7,828 square feet. The land use is community facility.

And the zoning is Commercial District C4. The property was listed for sale in March 2025 for $6,500,000 On 06/10/2025, the Planning and Development Board approved a design, site plan, and variance to reduce landscaping for a 22,000 square foot outdoor Padel facility. The property was then marketed as an opportunity to purchase an approved Padel facility and for future redevelopment, including Live Local Act. In February 2026, the price of the property was reduced to 5,995,000.000. The property is strategically located and completely surrounded by Stan Goldsman Memorial Park.

Its acquisition would create a contiguous park corridor extending from Hollywood Boulevard to Johnson Street, and provide approximately 105 additional parking spaces to support the park's many amenities, including pickleball courts, the skate park, the dog park, and the fitness walking trail. Additionally, the existing structure offers the potential to be repurposed to support the needs and programming of the Parks Recreation and Cultural Arts Department and free up parking spaces from other facilities. Staff negotiated the terms and final price of $5,250,000 with the listing agent. The commission is paid for by the seller. Funding for the purchase is available in the fiscal twenty twenty six operating budget and capital improvement plan.

And as we know, section 13.03 of the city's charter requires that any purchase of a property in excess of $250,000 be approved by a fiveseven vote of the commission. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Lisa. All right. Well, we're here to consider the purchase of this property and the purchase agreement that is part of this item. I'd like to ask if there are any I see the city clerk walking in if there are speaker cards on item 23. No cards? All right. I do see some folks here from Hollywood Pickleball. They want to speak Yes. Please come on up, and you can fill out a card. Oh, we do have one card. Alex Riccio, Hollywood Hills. Are you on item 23 on this item?

I can defer to them if you wanna defer.

No. No. Go ahead. I have your card.

Thank you, mayor, vice mayor, and commissioners. My name is Alex Riccio. I'm a Hollywood Hills resident. I'm also the dad of a six year old boy who loves the new Justice Skate Park. I'm also an aspiring pickleball player, although I'm horrible. The pickleball guys can tell you that. Stan Goldman is a victim of its own success. Thanks to the facility and programming upgrades, it is very hard to get a parking spot at any time of day, particularly if you have a six year old boy trying to get out of a moving car to go skate. This purchase is forward thinking, in my opinion, because my favorite part about it is it's a true asset. It allows for revenue generation, which mitigates the cost of the purchase over time.

Having witnessed firsthand the care with which Hollywood Pickleball Group cares for their adjacent court, I know that those parking spots will be very well looked after. And the city won't have anything to worry about with what's going on at that facility. So I rise and join Hollywood Pickleball in encouraging you all to make this purchase, particularly given the revenue generating nature of the property. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Risio. Mr. Todd Fipiano. Come on up, Todd.

Good day, mayor, commission. Thanks for the opportunity to speak. I'm on the board of Friends of Hollywood Pickleball. We kind of run the program over there and very active in the community. I was born and raised in Hollywood, 1958, Memorial Hospital. Born and raised here, still here. My kids were raised here. My kids went to that skate park. We have parking problems, as the city knows, everywhere, which is a problem for everybody as well. Over there, since they did the skate park over, our pickleball community, we have over 4,500 members on Facebook.

They're not all here all the time, but we have a lot of transients and snowbirds and stuff that come through here. We also have Jefferson Park, which is east. The city has been looking at this property for quite some time. And we definitely endorse buying it. I mean, saw the purchase price in 1966. If that wasn't a typo, it was $11,000,000 So it's a no brainer, I guess. Oh, 11. Okay. I thought there was an extra couple of zeros.

A little inflation since then. But yes.

Yeah, I mean

It's still

a bargain on vacant land.

Yeah, it's a bar. It goes up. I mean, it's the park would be continuous from Johnson Street all the way, like they brought up to Hollywood Boulevard, which would make it all stay on Goldman. Now, the parking excess that the city could use and we could use, we did have an agreement with them for a while to use that parking. And it was wonderful. And now it's not so wonderful, trying to manage the parking over there and so forth. But we certainly would like to condone and recommend that we approve. And as a resident, I wish you would buy it. So that's all I got to say.

Thank you, Todd. That concludes the speaker cards? Okay, great. So I'd like to call on folks to speak on the item. Obviously, Commissioner Kalari is Vice Mayor Kalari is queued in first because Stan Goldman has been really a a great focus area for her over the years of her commissionership here in Hollywood overseeing and and and pursuing the improvements that that made this park really I think the most active public space in the entire city after the beach is now Stan Goldman Park between the pickleball and between Justice Skate Park.

And for those of us that drive by it every day, even in through 10PM at night, it's super active and there's cars all over the place. So with that, I just do want to mention that if someone's going to make a motion, just to be consistent with the corrections that were made to the corrected item, when you make the motion, let's just say in an amount up to $5,275,000 up to, and not just the amount of. This way it gives the staff some needed flexibility to not exceed the 5.275, but if it comes under that by resolution, we give it that latitude. And with that, Vice Mayor Caleri.

So I feel first, today, I feel like I might have hit the lottery, which is super exciting. Because when I first stepped into this role as commissioner almost fourteen years ago, the first complaints that I received as commissioner was deal with the homeless issue. It's a scary park. It needs just be a walkable park. The pickleball courts and the skate park were old roller hockey courts with fences up that were inundated by homeless individuals and drugs and you name it.

And so with a lot of hard work, it started off with clearing out some of the foliage and making it a Hollywolf Park. And we represented Pete Brewer and Mel Pollock awards. We put a lot of effort into it with the community. And we had Be Mine Dog Show. North Central was very active in that.

Patty Antrigan. I mean, I can just name so many people who really helped make that what it was. And then it grew into Justice Skatepark and the Pickleball courts. And so it's really become such an amazing synergy in the heart of Hollywood. It's literally in the center of Hollywood.

And then most recently, we just did the naming of the walk of Chris Hickson Memorial Walk. So you can walk along the water, the manatees, see the just nature in its finest. And I even remember discussion years back when we were trying to relocate the historical home that was by the JCC Hall. Do remember the name of that?

JCC Hall? Oh.

No, the

The Garden Club.

The Garden Club home. And we had thought that we could move it into the center of Stan Goldman and use it for like photo, picturesque type of atmosphere and really provide something. There were three phases. We just finished phase two. I don't know if phase three will ever come to fruition. But it was incorporating the train station and having a complete usage from Hollywood Boulevard to Johnson Street parking and such. But what do they say? Build it and they will come. Well, we built it and they have all come. And now I went from homelessness and Scary Park to, we don't have enough parking and we need help.

And here we are now with this opportunity. It has knocked on the door a couple of times and hindsight is twentytwenty. We had the opportunity many, many years ago to purchase the Knights of Columbus when it went up for sale for 2,400,000.0. But times have changed obviously, and now we definitely see the demand and the need. In addition, which I'm surprised we didn't talk about or present and maybe logistics can be provided. Where the funding is coming from for the purchase of it is through our parking fees and our impact fees. So it's not affecting our general funds. We have to utilize those funding. And we can provide a source of revenue in addition to it. Does anybody want to speak on that or am I okay?

Did I say anything wrong? Okay. With that being said, this is really an amazing opportunity for the city of Hollywood, not to prevent affordable housing. That's not the purpose of that. And so I want everyone to be put away because we understand the need and the demand.

But it's the right place and the right structure. And a structure of such that has been presented in the past would never fit. There's one road in and one road out. The traffic would be insane and it would be really an unsafe area if that were to go to its point. Really also in addition to that, which I'm super excited about is the opportunity for us to have our parks and recs as a central hub for their parking vehicles, for our meeting area.

And the building itself, we had a commission in the community in the past. So this building can be multi use, multitask fundraising. I think the sky's the limit. And it really just will be an added bonus to the city of Hollywood and we will definitely get a return on our investment. But most importantly, it's safety.

For me, parking is such a huge issue and this now will provide us and award us the opportunity to provide parking in a safe manner and also utilize the park to its fullest ability. And this is gonna be one of those parks that everybody's gonna wanna be at. And I am super excited if it passes today. And so I would love to make a motion to approve the purchase up to 5.275. And maybe we can negotiate a little bit more, but I'm excited about it. And thank you.

All right. We have a motion on the floor. Second from Commissioner Schuham. Let's go to Commissioner Hernandez for discussion.

Thank you, Mayor. Vice Mayor Caleri, you've done a great job pushing for that park to be cleaned up, active, and now, a way coming to fruition from all the residents in the area and all the residents of the City Of Hollywood. But I've got a couple of cleanup questions that I'd like for the residents to also be aware of as well. Number one, the parking impact fees are some of the monies that is being used for that to happen. I want to make the public aware that there will be parking fees to be able to park in this place.

There's not going to be free parking. That goes hand in hand with having the money from the parking. So my thing is informative in nature. It will probably be a nominal fee, but there will be parking fees in order for this parking area to be used. Also, it's being purchased with impact fees.

So my question to the commission, my question to the city manager, my question to the city attorney is how is this area going to be classified according to the charter amendments that have been put in place from the charter review committee regarding the sale of this property or the use of the property. In other words, we have in our charter that it's coming through, that no park land or anything like that could be sold without going to the residence. So being that this is being purchased with parking revenues, And it could be used for other things other than just as a park. How does the commission feel that this should be classified? I want the public to know and I want us to be

Well, guess the question is

Moving forward.

Real quick to your point, Peter, since we're using in part park impact fees, does that bind the property to be called a park or considered to be a park? And if you don't know the answer, we can research it. But your point is well taken in terms of that. Go ahead.

I would agree with you because we are clearly delineating this as a parcel of land that is appropriate for the use of park impact fees. I believe that it would be characterized as a park. I would like a bit more time to be able to research and answer your question fully and come back to you.

What about the fact that we're using parking revenues to purchase it? That's not a park.

That's not a park. There are two different parts that are two different pieces that are being used to purchase this land partly, parking impact fees and partly park impact fees. And so to the extent that park impact fees are used for, I believe, the actual building, that would be considered parkland to the parking section.

It done could more than you can skin the cat more than one way. But my point is, the park impact fees can only be utilized for new park new building Expansion. New expansion and building and stuff like that. Yes. But what the land that it's being the majority of the land is going to be used for parking and is going to be generating revenue.

So the parking department can own the land and they can lease the building to the park itself. I don't know because all of the land is not going to be a park. And that's the reason that I'm bringing it up. So if we need more time in order to do it, rather than for you to say it's going to be a park because I don't foresee it as being a park, being used for parking revenue and parking revenues are being used to purchase it. So I don't have an issue one way or the other, but let's delineate this in the proper way in order for everyone to have a clear understanding of what it is that's being done.

I'll work with staff to determine

Yeah, fine. This could be done on a second reading, the clarification as to how it's going to be classified. But I just want everybody to be aware that the parking in the area is not going to be free and the land itself may not be a park because in reality, it's not being used as a park. It's being used as amenity, as an amendment for the park. But nonetheless, that's up to you guys to figure out. But that's wanted all to add.

Thank you. Hold on. Commissioner Cleary?

This is not a From my understanding, we're giving the approval to purchase. So in the negotiation fees, if that could be worked out, so that we understand. Because you are correct. We don't want to get into splitting of the hairs and what is what and what's not. We just wanna make sure that we're doing the best for the area, less impact but providing that importance of parking and facility that could be used for storage. It could be used for parks and recs. It could be used for several different things. And I guess what you're saying is not limiting our hands?

Well, my point is, right now what we're voting on is the purchase of it. And I'm okay with that. I just wanted to make it clear to the residents that we are okay with the purchase, but how is it gonna be classified? It should come back to us for us to be able to make that decision. I don't think that this

What we do with it after we buy it. Correct.

Okay, perfect.

That's all. I just wanted to make everybody aware of the fact that there will be parking fees.

JOSHUA And I think it would be suitable and appropriate to bring back a resolution with whatever that decision of the commission is on how to use this property. Once we own it and legal has a chance to review it, bring back an item so that it's set in And the public a record for the legislative intent.

And the public would then be able to weigh in as well. Yes.

Okay.

Thank you,

mayor. So I mean, at first glance, I shared that I had serious reservations about

Sticker shock? Taking

well, it's not just sticker shock. I have serious reservations about taking property off of our tax rolls that, number one, we're spending a lot of money to buy that has limited return on investment other than the feel good purpose of it. And number two, we're taking $50,000 off of our tax rolls. So $50,000 over ten years is $5,000,000 So we're really paying $11,000,000 for this property in reality. I'm happy to hear that we can use parking revenues to buy it.

I had similar concerns to Commissioner Hernandez about the disposition of the property. Know, but whatever we could do in the wording to make it that we're not tying the hands of future commissioners similar to what we experienced with thirteen oh one when they did that acquisition that they made sure there was language in there that wasn't tying our hands. I want to make sure that we have the similar language in this purchase so that if there's something that happens in five years or ten years or twenty years that a future commission can do something with the building that might benefit all the residents of Hollywood, I think that we need to make sure that there's language for them to look back on our discussion today that our intent isn't to, in perpetuity, to really lock up this property.

Are you saying pickleball might not be popular in twenty

I'm saying that we don't

That was a joke, everybody. That was a joke. We know it's just growing in popularity.

Well, listen. Fifty years ago, I don't think they thought golf would be a dead sport. And I'm not saying it's a dead sport.

Revival now. Revival.

I'm not saying it's a dead sport. It's reviving. But at some point, they thought that so and it has nothing to do with pickleball.

Yeah, I know.

Know. It has to do with locking a property up. We just locked up 47 acres. Now we're going to lock up another two acres. So I just want to make sure that it's clear, and I'll vote for this, but I'm voting for this that we're clearly going to have language that isn't going to tie the hands of future commissioners on what the disposition of this property would be without having to go to a special referendum.

I gotcha.

All right, we're not doing a referendum to buy it. I don't think we need a referendum to sell it or other future development that might be appropriate at a later time.

All right. Well, staff, hearing the city commission's points on this, if between now and the closing you need to utilize any particular set of funds to make this purchase, assuming it's gonna be approved for purchase today. We're not binding ourselves today to a source of funds even though you've described to us the source of funds that you've identified. So just take this discussion to heart because commissioners are making a good point in terms of the flexibility, whether it's public works usage of a building or what have you. We don't want a limited opportunity considering the dollars paid and that there is a finite number of facilities that the city has to city has to use.

What if the the utility department needed the property in the future to have, I don't know, a a some kind of a well or a a lift station, pump station, you name it. I think that's the point the commission is getting at, and so I think the point's well taken. We do have a motion and a second on the floor for the purchase in an amount up to $5,275,000 on this resolution. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the item carries unanimously. Six oh.

Can I retire now?

Hold on. Hold on. Commissioner Galleri?

Can I retire now? George, I'm going out with you right now.

A fourteen year endeavor for this part of Park East. Congratulations, Vice Mayor Calera. I know this has been a big focus area of yours.

Thank you.

And congratulations to those who were worried this was gonna be an intense use over there because it was up for sale.

Thank you, pickleballers, for coming out.

Thank you all. Alright. It's not 03:30 yet, so we'll go on to item 24. Resolution of the City Commission, City of Hollywood declaring the city of city's official intent to reimburse itself for capital expenditures for certain municipal improvements by incurring debt, maximum principal proven maximum maximum principal amount of debt, nature of project costs, authorizing incidental action, repeal of prior inconsistent resolutions. That's a mouthful department of financial services. Adam, why don't you give the public a quick summary of this item?

Sure. Good afternoon. Adam ADAM Meischbeck, assistant city manager. The intent behind this item is a companion item to the prior item regarding the Knights of Columbus building, would be that if the city's intention would be to take out a debt issuance on this purchase and the eventual potential construction work related to this project. It allows us to be able to do that in the future. This is an intent resolution for us if we choose to take a debt issuance out on the property.

All right. Thank you, Adam. I'll entertain a motion.

Motion to approve. Motion to

approve. Second.

We have a motion from Commissioner Beeterman, second from Commissioner Hernandez to approve item 24. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, show the item passing unanimously five o with commissioner Kalari absent from the dais.

Item 25 is a resolution of the city commission, City of Hollywood authorizing the city to apply for and if awarded, accept the Florida Inland Navigation District 2026 Waterway Assistant Program grant for the Waterfront Access and Resiliency Project in an amount up to $1,500,000, etcetera, authorizing one to one matching funds to be paid from the general obligation bond project funding and executing all applicable grant agreements, again, if awarded. This is from the Department of Design and Construction Management.

Motion to approve.

Well, let's go ahead and invite Jose real quick here to say a few words about the item. And then we have a public speaker, Pam Borgio.

Good afternoon, commissioners. And so this item is to supplement the funding that we currently have with the tidal floating project. It's mainly for the keyhole, but on the north, the north keyhole. And the idea is to really continue to build on the preliminary design or everything that has been done for the tidal floating project and adding additional funding. It's mainly to elevate the sidewalk around the keyhole and also to provide opportunities for adding the living shoreline.

A living shoreline in the water, yeah.

Yeah, living shoreline in the water, which was contemplated as part of the scope for the tidal floating project anyway. So the grant is up to that amount. We're submitting up to $3,000,000 They could give us less. But if we get up to $3,000,000 then the matching funds will come from the tidal floating amounts that we have today.

Okay. Public speaker card, Pam Borgio. Thank you, Jose. Is Pam here? Pam Borgio? Alright. Commissioner Schuham, floor is yours.

Just a motion to approve.

Second.

We have motion and a second to approve item 25. No speaker cards. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the item carries unanimously five-zero. All right. Well, concludes all the items in our regular agenda but for our advertised presentations. And even though there are not items of quasi judicial, we could probably take them up now, it's only fair to those folks who we told this was a 03:30 that we hold on this item. So I'll just ask members of the body if they want to move forward with comments by the city commission, city attorney, city manager now or we do. All right. Since vice mayor is on a roll, let's go ahead since she's first. Vice Mayor Kaleri with any comments today?

Well, I have one, a couple more things, I guess, on my agenda before my end here in November. I would like to take the liberty to ask for support. And let me, if you just bear with me for one moment. Arlene, do you have that as well? So here we have a couple of pictures.

And I have been asked Detective Jerry Christensen, who has played a pivotal role in shaping youth intervention programs in the city of Hollywood. His efforts began with a personal investment and evolved into the city supportive initiative. Through his advocacy, the Hollywood City Commission initially provided Boggs Field as a dedicated PALS facility. Laying the foundation for a structured program that has positively influenced thousands of local youth. Detective Christensen's vision and leadership expanded the PALS offerings to include basketball, football, boxing, academic programs.

And his vision ultimately led to the construction of the current Powell facility. Prior to the Powell facility, Detective Christiansen used his trunk and provided services for the youth in need in that area. It was formally dedicated in 2001 to Powell. The facility is located at 2311 North 23rd Avenue, and now serves over four fifty youth daily. Anywhere between two hundred and four fifty youth daily.

Particularly from the underserved surrounding neighborhoods, including Liberia. Reinforcing that the Hollywood Police Department's commitment to provide community oriented policing. I am requesting, by the support of my commission, for renaming of the Powell Building in honor of retired detective Jerry Christiansen, for his lifelong commitment to youth engagement, community policing, and public service that has left a superb enduring legacy.

All right.

Support. Chief Devlin, if you could come up and say a few words as well. And after a few words, I'm going make even a special bigger request. I might as well go all the way, right? Go big or go home.

That's your motto.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. I really can't add more than what you've read here today. But Jerry did start the out of the trunk of his car. The caring that he showed for the children in that neighborhood is undeniable and really unbelievable what he did. And his passion to start the Pal and get that going and keep it going, What a great honor, long overdue in my opinion. So thank you for that. I appreciate it.

And normally, we don't name we have currently, but usually we wait until the passing. But I'd like to

Take a fiveseven vote, yeah.

Take a fiveseven vote. And my request with that fiveseven vote would be, how long can you get that utilized, chief, or implemented?

Upon this passing, I will order this tomorrow. We'll get it in the next couple weeks and have a nice ceremony.

So the faster we could do it, the better. Just for appreciation and the support for Jerry while he's here and present, sound, and mind, I think that it would be monumental to provide this gift to him.

So it's just great to hear and actually learn about Jerry. I didn't have the pleasure of meeting him since he started his work with PAL, obviously, many decades ago. But just want to express my pride in everyone else that since him that's expanded the PAL program. So many kids have benefited from it, including, you know, Patrick Aguinore himself who was kinda came out of the program and now is leading the program. So we have a lot to be proud of, a lot of great mentorship that happens for kids there from all over the city.

It's something to be proud of when when we invite people to the city. We can showcase these kids programs that we do, that PAL does. And really, it's a feather in the cap of the city of Hollywood. And so, certainly supportive of this as as we we we have. So just for the folks who are wanting to know how this works, we will have an item come before the city commission and hopefully the next or following city commission meeting to adopt the resolution for the naming.

And because the gentleman is living, thankfully, that'll require, Adam reminding me, a sixth, seventh vote. So when the resolution comes, I'm sure it'll be unanimous. And we'll go ahead and take that action. And if we have the opportunity to have Mr. Christensen here for the pleasure of the moment, then that would be beautiful to be, aside from, of course, commemorating signage at the site at a future date. So at this moment, Commissioner Cleary, we've got support to bring back the item forthwith. Good enough, city clerk? Thank you.

We can't take a vote today? We have six here. McCann?

I think that the naming policy has an You

know, instant gratification.

It's Okay. It'll come quick.

All right. Thank you so much, everyone. And my last comments are, I just want to say the Hollywood Youth Ambassadors have had the opportunity, thanks to Alison, Lauren, and Tamara, arranging the opportunity to visit our facilities throughout the city. Thus far, we've been able to go to public works. We were able to go to the PD and most recently to the fire department off of Sterling.

And they got to use the hoses and just see how everything works. And actually, the most important thing to me is they were greeted with open arms and they also were taught CPR. And they weren't certified, but they were given the tools to be able to save a life. And so it's just so important for them to be exposed to everything that the city has to offer. And we are going to continue to go out.

But I want to personally thank the fire department for such a great experience, the police department and public utilities thus far. And the youth investors are on their way to see every department that this city has to offer, expose them to opportunities that they had no idea about. And they're really learning such valuable opportunities for their future and direction, leading them in the right direction. So thank you, thank you, thank you. And that's all I have.

All right. Thank you, Vice Mayor Coleri. Let's go ahead to Commissioner Gruber is absent today. Let's go ahead to Commissioner Biederman.

Thank you, Mayor. I just have one thing to cover, that's to thank Alex from DCM for communicating with me about the upcoming traffic calming project happening in District 5. I could be critical at times, but when kudos are due, kudos are due. So thank you, Alex. And to remind everybody about first of all, thanks to Parks and Rec for the great concert that they had at the Boulevard Heights Amphitheater.

And invite everybody on April 4 to the next concert, which is going be Latin music. So we encourage everybody to come out, enjoy the free parking, enjoy the free concert under the Ocamic and if they continue with their plan, I assume there's going be free hot dogs for the first 100 people that come out to the next concert also. And I think that we're going to do some kind of raffle drawing for the people that show up on April 4. And again, I'm looking forward to having a great Memorial Day concert on May 22 and looking forward to stepping it up also with maybe some flag giveaways, more raffles. And if Parks and Rec can reach out to the American Legion and the VFW and the organizations like that so that we can get a collaboration and invite more and more people so that more groups involved, as more people, maybe we can get like one of the high schools to do some an opening act for the main attraction would be great.

But I appreciate everything that they're doing. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Biederman. Let's go to Commissioner Quintana.

Thank you, mayor. I wanted to express appreciation for Christina Rivero. She's the media person working with our Parks and Rec department. And I think she's doing a great job of spreading the word of the many programs that Parks and Rec is growing. So please follow on Instagram HollywoodFL Parks and Rec.

I'm happy to see that there are some new programs being developed to be delivered in our community centers. As you know, I've been kind of harping on the idea that certainly the community centers in my district were lacking programming and I'm seeing efforts being made to address that. So I want to express appreciation for that. I also am seeking support from my colleagues. We've been talking so much about water and I think we'll continue to be talking about water.

So I'm asking if you would support engaging our staff and our sustainability department to develop programming related to water conservation and resilience in our city with the effort of empowering our residents to take individual and community action to find balance in their relationship with water. So what that might look like is ways to safely store rainwater in order to reuse. So that's something that people can do right there at their home, empower them to do that, learn about rain gardens, and perhaps other ideas that will be developed with our staff. So looking for support from all of you. Thank you.

I see three. So I'm good. Thank you so much, everybody. And that's it, mayor.

Thank you, Commissioner Quintana. Commissioner Schuham?

Thank you, mayor. First, I want to just thank the Hollywood Lake Civic Association and the Hollywood Police Department for an excellent event on Sunday. We had the lake softball versus the police department. I think we had 100 people from the community out there. And it was really great. I want to thank the fire department for the goodie bag they left up here today. All sorts of nice things from Hollywood Fire. Of course, the police department says they don't have to give us things like that. Just sharing. But it's very nice.

Also, we had our conference today. And I had raised a suggestion for the city, which is another city in Hollywood to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the end of World War II and the Holocaust. Did a beautiful sculpture and have placed it in one of their public parks. And I think for Hollywood, this would be a great endeavor to acknowledge the Holocaust, commission an artist, determine the proper location, determine the proper inspiration, be it the Holocaust or a combination of the Holocaust, and of course, the tragedy several years ago in Israel on October 2. So what I'm looking for is support to have staff begin to look at the idea of commissioning an artist.

As you had mentioned this morning, Vice Mayor, it took several years to get the COVID memorial in place. I don't envision this being something as complicated as that. But it could take a while to put out artist requests and things like that. So do I have support for staff to begin to look at a piece of public art commemorating the Holocaust and the recent tragedy in Israel?

Support. And I just do want to echo a good point that Commissioner Hernandez made during conference meeting when we had briefly discussed this, that we we have a sister city in Israel, Herzliya, of which there is a budding artist community as well. And I think together with the initiative of soliciting, inspiring, asking, working together with, commissioning art from those sister cities, that perhaps we can collaborate with Herzliya to see if they can help us through that and really have something meaningful in so many ways combined together.

I'd

love to see the sister city committee work on that, Peter. Go ahead, Peter.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm in support of that, and I think it's very fitting.

Thank you.

Thank you all. And lastly, you know, it is the city manager's last meeting. He got plenty of attention at the beginning of the meeting, but I just wanted to publicly thank him. The past few years, we've had the benefit of some very calm, consistent, and transparent leadership. And it's very deeply appreciated. And also just want to thank you for leaving us a remarkable staff. So thank you.

All right. Commissioner Hernandez, floor is yours.

Thank you, mayor. Doug Park, Stammon Goldman, can we name it after one of our officers, K-nine Kimbo. I'm looking for support for that in order to honor our K9 genera.

Support. Absolutely. Support.

So thank you. Short and sweet. A tweak for the notification that comes in the mail for us from the developing world that the department says that they must mail. And I think everybody knows how well the mail carriers and the mail services is. All we would ask is if they could also email the same notice to mayor and commissioner so that our staff can be aware of that notification and put it in our calendars so that we don't get it a day or two before and then have already been committed to something else during that time, if that's something that we can do. I don't know if the city manager feels that we need support from the commissioner, or is that could just be a directive from you in order to

Let's just give support. I think we all echo the support of that. We would like that. It's not already part of process we'd like it to be. It's just a Okay.

Okay. And then I want an announcement that the Sister City International Program appointed a new chair yesterday. We have a new chair, the same vice chair. They are actually looking to do something with the youth in sending them to international conferences so they can be aware of what Sister Cities International Program does. And they've already started fundraising, which the money will go into the city.

CAFA will write the check out to the City of Hollywood. And hopefully, it will be earmarked for the Sister City International Program, if that's okay with the city manager. Sorry, George. I'm putting you to work all the way to the last day.

All good.

Okay, thank you. That's the only thing. That was just a point of information. And, you know, I think I've known George for better part of four decades. So in different positions, he's always been the same.

He's been level headed. Even when things have been very controversial, he always finds a way of having another way of doing something that is not as confrontational as it has been. So for having been able to work with you from the private sector, with the nonprofit sector, and the community sector, congratulations, long overdue. But just don't go out and buy a farm, believe me. Pleasure working with you. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Hernandez and commissioners for your comments. Certainly represents that we have a community that is both mindful of its heritage and, at the same time, always looking forward to continual improvement and continued evolution and betterment. And that goes to the agenda that we have in front of us today. And George, it is fitting that in your last meeting, are really reflecting on the past, honoring people in the past, improving the city, and at the same time showing that there is a a great variety of work that needs to be done by all the department heads and everyone under them throughout the city organization. If we think about the improvements and the new leadership of fire chief Levy, who you recruited to the city, Joseph Kroll, and the work set under public works that's ever growing and demands more and more and is exciting because we're giving him more resources to police and their advancements in the new headquarters that's about to come online, public utilities, the very large set of of improvements that they're seeking to make to the water, wastewater, and storm water throughout the city.

I can look at each department. Parks and Rec has an ever growing list and ever more exciting results to show for it with the bond investments in the various parks, golf, pickleball, you name it across the board. I think recreationally, we're in the best set ever in the city's history with renewing facilities, but yet at the same time, to ever improve the activities that we have at our community centers. And I spoke at the Hollywood Hills Civic Association just the other week, and the center manager of David Park was asking feedback about his plans already to introduce yoga and tai chi and other activities that he's seeking out to activate, you know, that community center. Know that same work is happening across the city.

Roger having coming in with code and parking to help modernize that. We saw an item today on on consent to bring forward new technology to help market make parking more more user friendly and easier to manage and less costly to manage. Andrea with the big set of work with development services and every everything under her her realm with development services is is going to be continue to need updating and work, and Jose Cortez coming back to help lead that effort as assistant city manager. Russell being the awarded building official of the year. We know we have a great team.

Thanks to you for attracting some of them, retaining them, empowering them, leading them. And we know we're gonna make you proud as the commission and the leadership here in the city continues to work on the endeavors of a of a city that's worthy of our of our vision statement to empower the city to be, you know, economically and culturally viable and thriving, you know, for future years and future generations in the city. And so thank you, George, for your service to the city. You took the role very seriously, and you handled it seriously. And now we're continuing that work in the same serious fashion. So thank you so much. With that, I'll ask the city attorney if she has any comments today.

I do. I have an announcement. So I have an announcement for an executive session regarding critical infrastructure. Pursuant to Florida statute section 286.0113, subsection three, subsection A, governing public meetings, I, as the attorney for the city of Hollywood, wish to advise the city during this public meeting that I desire to hold a shade meeting on Wednesday, 04/15/2026, at 9AM to discuss issues regarding critical infrastructure. Invited to attend this meeting are the mayor, vice mayor, and commissioners, future city manager Raylan Story, assistant city managers Adam Reichbach, Jovan Douglas, and Jose Cortez, director of public safety, Chris O'Brien, Vincent Morello, director of public utilities, Cassandra Myers, Assistant Director of Public Utilities for Operations Amir Khan, Public Utilities Asset Manager Phyllis Shah, Deputy Director of Public Utilities and Finance Donnelly Chin, Senior Project Manager Giselle Hippolito, senior project manager, Phil Cook from Hazen and Sawyer, and myself.

And on a personal note, I just also really want to thank George for his service. I haven't known him as long as everyone else, only the past five years. But I do want to say that, George, you have always been a support to me and always been so kind and generous with your knowledge and with your experience. And I have appreciated, especially in the past year and a half, your support and your friendship. So thank you so much, and we'll miss you.

Thank you. George, before we let you speak, we do have fifteen minutes, Akhil. I know you won't want to talk for fifteen minutes.

No, no.

So as I was looking out and calling out departments and thinking about the workload, I mean, continuing to look out, we can see the great work that Allison Saffold's been doing with her set of responsibilities. Tammy Heckler in this ever evolving world of HR management and health health care management and the steps we've taken to reduce the health care costs of the city. Rahim and and kind of being seen, I think, as taking a leadership role with the AI revolution that's upcoming and all the cybersecurity and improvements and that IT has been making. Joanne Hussey with all of the work and the expanding, you know, reach of of CMAD has been exponential over the past number of years and is only continuing to move forward. And I know I'm missing some.

Ryan Coot, who's done such an exemplary job with community development in helping further those programs and I know now has been promoted to a more senior position in that regard. I see some folks here from Budget who keep doing things most professionally, finance, you name it. I'm probably missing some people and not seeing them here. But we really have a team that I think our residents who are seated on this side of the room can really be proud of. We want you to be successful in what you're passionate about.

And that includes all of Hollywood's responsibilities, from infrastructure to business opportunity to life here, quality of life, and all of it combined. None of it stays and is looked to an island on its own. It's all intertwined. In order for Hollywood to be successful for everyone, every realm of our city's responsibility needs to be successful. And that's a little bit of a segue to the discussion we're going to have about the beach and its current condition as well. So George, thank you for helping us lead the way here. Sure. The floor is yours.

Thank you, mayor, vice mayor, and commissioners. Just a couple of public announcements, and then I'll keep my personal comments brief. Spring Marshmallow Drop, Saturday, two to 4PM, Boulevard Heights Community Center, fun family event for children up to the age of 10. Egg hunt, over 30,000 marshmallows dropped from a helicopter bounce house and special visit from the Easter Bunny. Also, Arts Park Experience, Tank and the Bangas.

There you go. Sunday at seven to 10PM Arts Park Young Circle, rap with rich melodies. Tank's album, The Heart, The Mind, and The Soul, was awarded Best Spoken Word Poetry Album at the twenty twenty five Grammys. She is in concert with support from Miami based Neo Soul Quintet Bungee. I got that all out.

So I'll keep my personal comments brief because, one, I want to get through them. And two, I will probably send you all something in more detail in writing. Obviously, last commission meeting today and Tuesday, last day as a city employee. But I will tell you that what I won't say is goodbye because I am let's see if I can get through this.

You could blame it all on Wise. He brought you back.

Yeah. I'm going to, as you said, Mayor, continue to volunteer in service with the pension board. And will continue as an ambassador for the city.

Well, we're proud to have you. We could do an eleven minute clap, you know, kind of like so, treat it as George, thank you so much. We know those folks here, members of the community. I can see Wilson here who's been active in the community for decades as well. John Pasalakwa, other folks that are here, Civic Association folks, Terry, longtime beach people like Dan Kennedy.

You know, what we do here as a city takes all of us to bring that forward. And there's so many stories that everyone can tell and reflections. And that story continues. And so thank you for leading us to a good position and enabling Raelynn to have the best organization GREGORY that this city has ever had that she can start with to continue your work.

Yep. We're in a much different place than we were a few years ago. And the city has been able to create such a good foundation to fully realize its potential going forward.

It's a very

proud moment for the city.

It is a proud moment. I will tell you, it is also a proud moment for the state of Florida because they seem to want to manage everything we do as well. So it's like we're co managers now. So, you know, you know, we're proud of where the city is, everyone, today. It's it's much stronger financially.

At the same time, the list of needs of the city, primarily infrastructure wise, really outweigh the city's opportunity to fund fund everything to the speed and to the rate of investment that we would all want for ourselves. And so we're mindful of all that. We have some long term plans that'll see the city's improvements come forward over the next couple decades. At the same time, there are some storm clouds ahead with regards to threats to whether it's home rule, local control, or the funding of cities and how perhaps property tax reform, if it's put to the voters and will impact the city, might impact the rate of improvement that we can offer our residents here. So that'll just mean that we'll have to work that much harder on on realizing the city's vision and the city's goals with the the set of dollars and the regulatory framework that we have to abide by as one city out of about four eleven in the state of Florida.

So with that, we're going to recess until 03:30. That'll give you about seven minutes to stretch your legs and come back at 03:30. Thank you.

There.

Alright. Thank you so much. We're back in session here at the city commission meeting. If you haven't yet filled out a speaker card and you'd like to speak on the beach item, then that's Pat. She's waving her hand.

Just walk up to her desk and submit your speaker card. If you'd like a blank card like Craig has right there, he's filling one out now. And so remaining on our agenda today, we have the 03:30 time certain items, presentations regarding the Hollywood Beach hotel property, and also an overview of the feasibility study and zoning analysis that has been conducted and is continuing for Hollywood Beach. I'd like to now turn it over to the city manager to speak on the item, and then he'll bring up Department of Development Services. George.

Thank you, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, and to all the members of the public and staff listening out there. As you mentioned before, these items really flow together in the presentation. We'll kind of flow from one to the other and together so we can really treat them as such. What this is and what this isn't, we don't anticipate nor expect any kind of formal action or vote today. This is for informational purposes.

This is to talk about the issue, whether it be singular in the first one or the broader view in second part. Because obviously, the beach in the city of Hollywood and a special focus on the central commercial core of the beach is a very special place for the city. And there is a lot of interest there. There's a lot of desire there. There's a lot of market activity there.

It's only gotten more interesting in recent years with Live Local and then some litigation that we happen to find ourselves under right now. So literally, any day now, we will get a judge's decision on that litigation. And what we thought was the smart thing to do was, as we discussed concerning that litigation over four months ago in an executive session, was to have some information and to be proactive about dealing with a public process that would kind of focus the vision of what this city wants the Central Beach to be and how do we get there. And to get there in a proactive, managed fashion with public input and process and not be in a reactive one that might find itself imposed upon us by those kind of actions of the courts as well, too. So that's what this is about.

It's a start. And we anticipate from here future steps will involve a good deal of public process and comment and workshops long before it comes back for any kind of formal action to the city commission. And obviously, we anticipate to get a lot of that public input started right here today. But to have some foundation and some information to work from, I'm going to ask Andrea Winget, director of development services, to give both of those presentations flowing together, first addressing the Hollywood Beach Hotel resort property and then fitting into the grander issue of the beach and especially the central commercial corps. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Thank you, city manager, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners. Andrea Winget, director of development services. As the city manager and the mayor said, we're here today to talk about items nineteen and twenty on the agenda together. These items are with regard to Hollywood Beach.

It's looking at the feasibility, a high level zoning analysis of the beach, and as well as the Hollywood Hotel. The city manager talked about this is a start of a conversation. We're here today to provide information and facts, and no decisions are being asked to be made. While I'm kicking off the presentation, there'll also be speakers from Anand Balram and Cameron Palmer, both from the Planning and Urban Design Division. And while they'll be up here representing the planning team, there are also several other team members from their staff who worked on this Nicole, Urja.

And I could have forgotten someone else. But the whole team was really on this. There was a lot of passion behind getting it right and bringing forward factual information today. And they had that through the support of Calvin Giordano and their team. Also Jim Hickey, Dave Dixon, and Eric Liff are here. And they are also our planning experts, as well our economic analysis experts. While they aren't standing up here presenting, they are here to help us answer questions. So we have a variety of experts. We can triage your questions through. And I'll be more than happy to help you navigate that when the time comes.

The city of Hollywood just celebrated its one hundredth birthday. We're 100 years old. We have a long history. Again, we're here today to initiate a conversation. We're not starting a conversation in the middle or picking up something at the end. We're simply here to share information for future, again for future policy consideration. We have a five part agenda that we're going to walk you through. It will be a little bit lengthy. I apologize for that. But we have a lot of facts that we felt is really important to start this conversation with.

So we're 100 years old. We all know our founder was Joseph Young. So before we really jump into where we're going, it's important to just recognize and take a step back and remember where we've been. The beach was created very intentionally by Joseph Young. It was important that we balanced public access, thoughtful design, and economic vitality. That vision still matters today. And it's not a constraint, but we need to use it as a guide. The beach is meant to be public. It's the backbone. It's the experience of what people feel when they're here.

And not just the beach, the Broadwalk itself as well. The built environment is meant to support and complement that experience. It shouldn't dominate it. It's important to consider human scale, light, openness, the design. And that's the feeling that we all get when we're out there today.

The beach wasn't done based on a reactive or a piecemeal. It was planned out. It was very intentional and thought out. It was always meant to be, and at least in the Central Beach Park, economically attractive a mix of uses and destinations that people of all walks of life are attracted to. Over time, that vision seems to have been narrowed down to more so of a height discussion about what's going on out there.

Height should always be looked at as a tool and not the principle driving us. We always want to keep in mind what does something feel like? How does it function? And is it thriving today? Today we have aging buildings.

We have underinvestment. There's a pattern where reinvestment has been becoming more difficult over the last several years or decades. We also have a state legislator that is determining the fate of many, the entire state, all the municipalities in many critical areas for our city, including the beach. We all hear the words live local. We all know that those types of laws that are coming down from the state can determine our fate if we allow them to.

But if we put the necessary tools in place and create the appropriate safety nets and guardrails, we can determine what our future will look like. And that's really why we want to start this conversation, because we know what's going on at the state. And we want to control our destination of our city. So before we jump into our conversation of what the beach looks like and some other interesting facts, let's talk about how we got here. In 1994, we had baseline zoning established.

In 1997 we had the beach CRA that was established to reduce slum and blight on the beach. In 2002 there were additional protections created. And in 2005, city staff was asked to look at the beach heights. And at that time, recommended a tapered approach to building heights. Having the heights reduced as it stepped down towards the broad walk and increased as you move towards A1A.

At that time, the city commission chose a different direction and adopted a flat, more or less 65 feet in most of the area out there on the beach today. And we'll go into more detail on that. Shortly after that, we had the design, the CRA master plan done by Ziskovich. And at the time, Ziskovich was told, look at the design and the principles that are out there. Let's not focus on the height because we've just addressed the height.

So how can we look at setbacks, look at design elements and other architectural features in order to help promote reinvestment? In 2019, there was a study done, a workshop that the commission did, where hotel incentives were discussed. We talked about looking at, should we be scaling height at that time? At the time, nothing ended up moving forward from that. There were shifts in priorities.

It's also important to note that a lot of the studies that have been done haven't necessarily taken a multidisciplinary approach when they were evaluated for those regulations to be put in place. We need to look at comprehensive data. We need to make sure that that drives just some of our decision making and so that we're making deformed decisions based on the data that's provided to the policy holders. So what are we doing today? Today we're again initiating a conversation.

We fully recognize as staff that there is a lot more work that needs to be done before any decisions are considered to be made by this body. We're not asking you to arrive at any conclusions today. We're just beginning a process. We recognize we need to do more analysis, more engagement with the public. We need to refine exactly our study.

Again, to be clear, we're not proposing any text amendments today. We're not proposing any land use amendments. We're not proposing any regulatory action to take place from staff. We don't have a predetermined outcome. We're providing factual information. We're providing scenarios, all of which starts a conversation amongst us and our community. And so now Anand's going to come up and talk us through where we're going.

Hi, everyone. Good afternoon. Anand ANNAN Bahram with Planning. It's great to be back.

Good to have you back, Anam.

Thank you. And thank you to Andrea for kicking off the presentation. So now that we've established much of the context and the purpose of today's discussion, I want us to focus on where we are today and the questions that we need to be asking to move forward. At a broader look, this is about the greater Hollywood Beach. And really, it comes down to a few fundamental questions.

First, is the existing zoning framework aligned with today's market realities? Not the market that was ten or twenty years ago, but today, and where is it going? Secondly, we want to understand what are the constraints that are limiting feasible redevelopment across the beach, whether that's physical constraints, regulatory constraints, or economic feasibility. And how do we begin to think about maximizing public benefit within those realities? Third, does the existing vision still achieve the outcomes that we desire?

Or does it need to be redefined to reflect current conditions and future goals? Now, to help ground that conversation, we are also using the Hollowed Beach Hotel as a case study, not because it's unique, but because it actually illustrates many of the broader challenges associated with the beach. And it's important not just as a redevelopment site, but because it represents the charm, scale, and character that we often associate with Hollywood Beach. At the same time, it's aging with operational and economic challenges. And it highlights where the current zoning framework may limit reinvestment.

So rather than speaking in abstract terms, this gives us some tangible, real world examples to inform policy and decision making, market conditions, and physical realities that we have to contend with. Ultimately, serves as a lens and a means for us to step back and really ask ourselves, are we creating the conditions for reinvestment and long term success? Or are there gaps between what we intend and what is actually achievable? And that's really important to frame these questions so that moving forward, we're grounded not only in subjectivity and perspective, individual perspectives, but we're grounded in data and reality and not solely on assumptions. So, as we move forward, as Andrea mentioned, we have begun to conduct a study that really examines the economic realities around a lot of this.

And in order to do so, we have I'm going the wrong way. Back. Sorry, guys. So in order to do this, we employed a number of scientific methods in order to help answer these questions. We structured a data driven approach to help support what these answers ultimately are and to provide opportunity to question them in the parameters of that data.

So GIS analysis was used to identify where redevelopment opportunities exist across the beach. We looked at a parcel level evaluation and assessed size, age value, location, flood exposure, and market trends of various parcels along the beach. We looked at development scenarios where we conducted a developer pro form a to assess and understand the financial realities around development on the beach, which assumes land value costs, acquisition costs, construction value, etcetera. We also use this to help distinguish between what could be built and what is actually feasible. We also did a jurisdictional scan across South Florida and looked at various case studies to understand what their policies were and what their natural outcomes were.

We also looked at the assessment of the potential value created through development and what public benefit ultimately resulted from that development within these jurisdictions. Overall, this shifts the discussion from opinion to evidence based, from theoretical outcomes to fiscal outcomes. And this provides the foundations for the findings to follow. Before we jump into some of those things, I just want to rehash land use planning within Broward County because, as many of us know, we are really at the behest of the parameters that the county puts us in as it pertains to land use. We know land use is established at the county level and sets the overall framework for Hollywood Beach and the city at large.

The city's comprehensive plan, on the other hand, implements that framework and zoning is the ultimate implementing tool. As we move from county to city zoning, the regulations become more increasingly restrictive And this is most evident in Central Beach. At the county level, I want to, just for everyone's benefit, note that there is no limit on hotel density. Within the commerce designation of the county, there is no restriction. That is something, however, that the city comprehensive plan aims to establish.

Conversely, height is not regulated through either comprehensive plans. That is a tool that is leveraged through the city zoning to manage growth on the beach. All of this to say is there is a potential misalignment between what is permitted and what is actually achievable on the beach. As we move forward into some of the spatial analysis that was conducted, we did conduct this analysis to identify where redevelopment is most likely to occur. This combines multiple layers, not just zoning, not just land use, but also physical constraints as well as market realities, or market activities rather.

From left to right on the screen, we see future land use, we see zoning, we see flood exposure, we see recent market activity. And this allows us to move beyond a single variable and understand how these factors interact across the beach. We also considered parcel level conditions such as building age, lot size, ownership patterns, and proximity to commercial areas. And the goal is to identify clusters of opportunity, not just isolated sites for potential redevelopment. This helps distinguish where reinvestment is feasible, where it is constrained, and where policy adjustments may have the greatest impact.

As we move on, as I mentioned, we did do some test sites, some what if scenarios to explore what redevelopment could look like. And, you know, in a very general sense, we examined three distinct scenarios. And each scenario represents a different set of assumptions around height, as well as development activity. The baseline reflects the existing zoning conditions, meaning no change, no regulatory change, just what can be built right now. And this generally is maintaining the five to six story restriction.

This allows us to understand what is feasible under today's regulations. The medium scenario on the screen helps begin to test moderate increases in height in the range of 10 to 15 stories. This helps evaluate whether incremental changes improve feasibility. And then lastly, we have our medium to high scenario, which explores up to 30 stories above grade. Before I jump into the specifics around the actual scenarios, I just want to describe developer contributions very briefly.

So, developer contributions in the world of development often refers to the potential dollar value that the public can stand to benefit through development activity. It is not a developer handing over a pot of money to the city and saying, Do whatever, But it is an exchange of value. So, as an example, a developer may stand to benefit from a pro form a basis by additional height and as a result, the city may ascertain or yield a benefit that could be open space. It could be public parking. It could be affordable housing.

It could be historic preservation. And that often is associated with a dollar value. That dollar value and that exchange, of course, is a policy decision based off of what is most, often what is most needed in the area to determine what that is. So, and that will make more sense as we move forward in the next slides, as we describe some of the scenarios and the potential value that can be yielded depending on the incremental increase in height. As we evaluate the baseline scenario, I just want to note that the massing shown on the screen is purely conceptual and is just used to support the pro form a.

It's not a proposal. It's not intended to respect a specific development outcome. The gray buildings simply reflect an existing condition of what is on the ground today. And the highlighted massing illustrates a business as usual. So that is the yellow, the conceptual massing.

Under this baseline condition, there are no changes to zoning. Development feasibility is not achieved within the pro form a. This is consistent across North Beach, Central Beach, and South Beach. And importantly, I want to note that both the county land use, county land use and city's comprehensive plan support this type of development. However, zoning constraints limit the ability to realize it in a financially viable way.

I also want to note, we often see development in North Beach, and you know, that is an active trend. That doesn't necessarily mean that development is feasible. That just means the circumstances with which development is occurring is different than South And Central Beach. Oftentimes, in North Beach, these are private homeowners wanting to build their dream homes. And that investment is worthwhile for them in other areas of the beach.

Doing that is not scalable, especially if you are doing it with the intent to profit. As we move forward and look at our medium scenario, this scenario tests moderate increases in height, generally in the 10 to 15 story range. At this level, projects begin to move from infeasible to feasible. Returns start to approach market benchmarks, meaning reinvestment becomes likely. The massing shown here, again, is conceptual and is used to illustrate scale and form, not a proposed design.

At this intensity, land use at both the county and city level support this type of growth, again, within certain parameters. However, current zoning does not permit it. This highlights a key misalignment. Policy frameworks allow for this level of development solely from a density perspective, but zoning restricts it in terms of height. It is also important to note that while feasibility improves in this instance, the level of height does not generate a significant value.

In other words, the project is viable, but there is not an enormous public benefit yielded from this scale of development. And this reinforces that moderate increases in height are about enabling reinvestment, but not necessarily seeking that developer contribution. As we look at our last what if scenario, we are using the Hollywood Beach Hotel to really understand what would be required to make a site like this feasible. This scenario assumes that the existing hotel remains, with development occurring around it. It also assumes potential reconfiguration of the F dot ramp to unlock additional land and improve site functionality.

The imagery shown, again, is illustrative. I also want to note that on the screen as well, we have an example from Boca Raton that demonstrates how reinvestment and new development can be integrated while maintaining character and making rehabilitation of historic structures more feasible. At this level of intensity, the key takeaway is that development becomes fully feasible and begins to generate meaningful public benefit. This is where the capacity for reinvestment, as well as contributions towards public realm infrastructure and resiliency, are most meaningful. Importantly, it is important to note Broward County land use does not restrict hotel density within commercial designations.

So in this regard, the city's comprehensive plan and zoning does introduce those limitations. So we are the ones limiting the potential reinvestment specific to this parcel. So while the broader policy framework does support this type of intensification, local regulations currently constrain it. And this reinforces that achieving these outcomes would require alignment between land use intent and zoning implementation. So we want to move forward and look at some case studies.

And this is where we really conduct our jurisdictional scan. So this section looks at comparable case studies to understand how other communities have approached growth, as well as community benefit. For each of these examples, they reflect different approaches to balancing development, intensity, design, and community outcomes. Sunny Isles shows what happens when height is maximized with limited emphasis on public realm and community character. North Bay Village reflects a more transitional model where redevelopment is occurring incrementally.

Fort Lauderdale demonstrates how increased height can be paired with structured public realm benefits and design standards. Miami Beach shows how a controlled approach where character and scale are preserved while allowing reinvestment. And then Hollywood Beach, we are going to end on highlighting both challenges and opportunities associated with the site within our existing regulatory environment. There are consistent tools, particularly around how additional development capacity is used and ultimately how public benefit can be generated. So as we look at Sunny Isles, it's helpful here to note that we are not utilizing this as a model of outcome, but as a model of mechanisms from a policy approach.

I want to make clear we do not envision Hollywood Beach to be Sunny Isles. The key takeaway is not the BUILT form, but the framework used to generate public benefit. The program provides multiple contribution options rather than a singular requirement. This includes a trust fund with four direct financial contribution or delivering improvements on-site. Those improvements can include affordable housing, beach access easements, park and open space improvements, public parking, dedication of land or right of way.

It also scales incentives based on context, such as waterfront location or site assembly. So the strength of this approach is flexibility and the ability to align development intensity with public benefit. At the same time, there are clear trade offs on that outcome. It has resulted in a continuous high rise frontage that creates a canyon like effect that erodes human scale and character. There's a heavy reliance on a single arterial, which limits walkability and pedestrian comfort and many of the developments have inactive podiums, private lobbies that do not contribute to a vibrant streetscape.

So, to be clear, again, for those who may have missed it, we are not suggesting Hollywood Beach becomes Sunny Isles. What we are evaluating here are the tools and how value is captured and translated into public benefit. When we look at North Bay Village, this is a more structured approach to height with community benefit. The program clearly defines what the community needs and ties additional height directly to delivering those outcomes. In practice, projects receiving additional height in exchange for tangible improvements, such as parks, waterfront access, in some instance, kayak launches, and pedestrian connections.

It also includes a defined contribution framework. Fees are calculated through a study and tied to the amounts of bonus height being received. For example, for every 10 feet of height carries a per unit or per room contribution. There's also a structure for contributions through transfer of development rights, which is of interest of exploring, and payments of in lieu options, such as workforce housing contributions, that are clearly established. So the strength of this model really is predictability for not only city staff administering it, but also the development community leveraging it.

Developers understand what is required, and the city can ensure that growth delivers the specific outcome that is desirable. At the same time, it's important to recognize that the context is different. The urban form and island geography and development pattern are not directly comparable to Hollywood Beach. But the underlying approach linking height to clearly defined public benefits through a structured system is highly relevant. Fort Lauderdale takes a very different approach than the last two examples.

They link additional height to design performance rather than a fixed fee or contribution schedule. Here, contribution is based on a point based system that evaluates design compatibility and community benefit. Projects earn capacity by meeting specific criteria tied to the surrounding context. This creates a direct relationship between what the community values and what is incentivized. Higher quality design, better integration with the surroundings, and resiliency feature are all rewarded in exchange for height.

In effect, height becomes a tool to achieve better outcomes, not just additional density. This approach allows for flexibility since the scoring system can be tailored to different areas and conditions. And the key takeaway is that this aligns development incentives with design quality, achieving the community character that Fort Lauderdale wants to see. One of the This is our second last case study, and this is the city of Miami, which takes a geography based approach to deliver contributions. Additional height is tied directly to contributions into a dedicated resiliency trust fund.

The contribution is calculated based on the cost of resiliency infrastructure multiplied by the number of bonus units or capacity generated. This creates a clear and predictable relationship between increased development and public investment. Funds are then reinvested within the same geographic area supporting projects such as storm water systems, street elevation, sea walls, and green infrastructure. The strength of this model is it directly links growth infrastructure to the resiliency needs of the area. However, it is more focused on capital improvements and less focused on urban design or place making outcomes.

The key takeaway here is the ability to geographically tie value to value created by development to targeted public investments. So this brings us the conversation back to Hollywood Beach. Up until this point, we've looked at how other communities structured growth, feasibility, and public benefit. Now we want to ground our discussion in our local context, using Hollywood Beach Hotel as a reference point. I want to emphasize that this is not a proposal, but a real world example of the conditions we're working within.

This helps connect the policy discussion to an actual site with real constraints and real opportunities. At this point, I'm going to hand it over to my colleague Cameron to walk through the current condition of the hotel and the regulatory framework that governs it, including how land use zoning and existing entitlements shape what is, what is not, and what is feasible today.

Thank you, Anand. Good afternoon. As Anand stated eloquently, today is not about a proposal, but it's simply an understanding of the case study, this case study being the Hollywood Beach Hotel, the constraints, opportunities on the site, and the story. The Hollywood Beach Hotel is located on approximately 10 acres of land. And I'll go into the division of that in a little bit.

The existing height of the building is approximately 78.5 feet, or seven stories. The hotel was constructed in 1925 and was constructed in ninety days by Joseph Young. And it was his jewel in the vision of Hollywood by the sea. The current land use in the comprehensive plan is general business. The current zoning in our zoning code is his Broadwalk Historic District Commercial 25.

And the historic status is the building is not designated on the National Register, but it is a contributing building in our historic district overlay. Zooming in closer to the site, we want to take a look at what we know as the Hollywood Beach Hotel. Oftentimes, when those words are said, we're referring to the building. But really, it's much more than just the building. It's the greater site and the lands that surround the building that make up the idea of the Hollywood Beach Hotel.

And at the time of inception, it imagined that this property would work together. And as we go through this presentation, we will see that theme reemerge. As it pertains to ownership, I wanted to provide the commission a bit of a breakdown on how the parcel looks today. It is heavily fragmented, with the hotel sitting on a parcel in of itself and the adjacent lands plaza to the ocean are under the same ownership. So these are parcels eight and three, depicted in red on the screen.

The surrounding lands are owned by two different entities. Parcels one, two, four, and six on your screen, depicted in blue, are owned by Gary Jaffee. And then finally, and we can never forget, Parcel 7, which is the F dot ramp and associated landscape area within the ramp. Getting ourselves a step closer to the property, we're moving to what it looks like today. And on the screen, you'll see some images that are taken by staff of the existing conditions of the property.

In its vacancy, the property has fallen into disrepair with roof and tarp damage, compromised stucco, compromised structural elements, water intrusion, and mold in certain parts of the hotel. And at present, the property is being brought before the unsafe structure board. And you may ask, why is that action being taken? And this is because the pictures shown before and the conditions that are taking place at the site have led to the city raising a flag that a potential situation of demolition by neglect be taking place here. And the unsafe structured board's job is to hear and review applications of the building official to review his or her actions and to provide a final decision.

They can either affirm, modify, or reverse decisions made by a building official upon appeal or application. And the board's role is limited to determining whether a structure is unsafe and whether it should be repaired, secured, or demolished. The authorities focus on structural integrity and life safety considerations and does not extend to zoning, development, and land use matters. However, the decisions of the board as it pertains to the condition of the structure are indeed final. So the request of the app that the city has put before the unshaped structure board is to have the property owner repair within thirty to sixty days and obtain a permit to secure the building envelope by repairing or replacing the roof, windows, doors, walls, any exterior openings to prevent further water and moisture intrusion.

Now, it's important to understand that at this juncture with property, the unsafe structure board is one of the few mechanisms the city has left to bring the property owners to the table and to highlight the urgency or the dire condition of the property and to demonstrate the seriousness that the city has towards maintaining this property or bringing attention to the existing conditions. As a reminder, the city does not own the property. And therefore, the unsafe structure board is a mechanism which we are using to ensure that the property does not fall into total disrepair. Now, the outcomes of the board are outside the control of the city, and those include several different options. The board may rule in favor of the city and at order that the reappears be conducted as requested.

The board may rule in favor of the city, but issue an order of a different action and a different course. Or the board may rule contrary to the city and issue an order of a different course. So again, this could go in many different ways. And the hearing is set for April 15. So after analyzing, or rather understanding the conditions of the slide, let's take a moment to observe the constraints that affect this property.

And one of the primary leading constraints that affects this property, but also many other properties along the beach, are FEMA and coastal construction control line considerations. For the purpose of this presentation, I'll refer to that as the CCCL. And on the screen, there are some several stats as it pertains to this specific property. But I think I want to the main thing I want to highlight is that this challenge is not unique to the Hollywood Beach Hotel. And that's what makes this case study such a pertinent one, that it has elements that are both unique to the site, but also affecting sites throughout the beach.

Both FEMA flood based elevation and the CCCL both have implications on what construction can take place on the site or what redevelopment at what level the new redevelopment can take place on this property. It is important to note that the CCCL bisects the Hollywood Hotel, meaning that any construction seaward of that line has to be built at a much higher elevation than just the standard elevation on the screen. And that would equal 17 feet on the screen before you. Switching gears a bit to understand another constraint, and it's a rather important one, are the financial constraints that this property is facing. The property has accumulated a tax burden of over $750,000 over the last couple of years with the city.

Beyond that, there is debt accumulation on the property with mortgages totaling more than $120,000,000 and one of the mortgages pending auction. It's important to understand these constraints when looking at this property, because it is the reason why the property is a non performing asset. Furthermore, it's complicated by that it remains vacant and non operational. And now, with the foreclosure or the pending foreclosures of certain elements, ownership uncertainty is becoming another constraint that the site is facing. And the reason I say site is because while this is just a hotel segment or a hotel parcel, what happens to one parcel inevitably affects all parcels.

On this slide, we speak about opportunities. So we spoke about the constraints. Let's switch gears and talk about opportunities. On the site, again, this is not a proposal. This is not a design exercise. This is simply staff highlighting areas on the property that have potential for opportunity. And they're color coded on the screen, but I'll go over them briefly with you. The purple is the oceanfront element of the property. The red is the historic Hollywood hotel building. The yellow is the surrounding properties.

And then the blue is the F dot ramp and the terminus view of the hotel. Now, we're going to discuss a case study. Yes, a case study and a case study, to keep it interesting. We're going to look at a hotel that's we wanted to evaluate hotels within the Florida State area to see if this trend was unique to Hollywood, or is it indeed something that other municipalities or other properties are facing. And what we found was that in the case of St.

Pete Beach, Florida, the Don Cesar is a similarly situated hotel, a beachfront property, that was designed in 1925 and constructed in that time frame, similar to the Hollywood Beach Hotel. It was also converted to military purposes during World War II, similar to the Hollywood Beach Hotel, and fell into disrepair, similar to Hollywood Beach Hotel. The difference in the story with the Don Cesar is that in the 1970s, the property was acquired for $460,000 Now, I know a lot of you are our gasping. I've converted that number so it's a little bit more understandable. In today's value, that's 3,600,000.0 And at the time, a significant sum of renovations were done, the total of $3,500,000 which converts to today equals $50,000,000 And then after that rehabilitation, the property was then listed in the National Register.

But it's important to understand the takeaways of this scenario when we compare it to the parallels of our own scenario of the Hollywood Beach Hotel. When a low basis and a manageable reinvestment sum is presented, original restoration is clearly possible. However, if those conditions, low bases and manageable reinvestment, are not both present, then restoration alone is unlikely to be able to revitalize the site, because the conditions that existed back then or in other scenarios may not be existing here in the Hollywood Beach Hotel scenario. The image on the screen you're going see now for our second case study in a case study is the Boca Raton, which we previously and Ann previously alluded to in his scenario slides. And this hotel took a different direction.

And it's very interesting how this story unfolded. Very similar, this hotel was built in 1926, the age of big hotels. And it was built in the Boca Raton, the municipality of Boca Raton. It's a waterfront property along the Intracoastal with a large surrounding land with a large surrounding grounds to the hotel historic building. Of note, you'll see on the right of the image I've highlighted it in red for your ease of viewing is the 27 story tower that was added to the property in 1969.

I want to take a moment to pause here to say that staff is not recommending the design, the form, or any of that in this example. We are simply showing what was done in a different municipality. And while the times have changed and design considerations will naturally change, the Boca Raton Hotel did this to remain financially viable. And in doing so, they were able to preserve the historic building on the site. The relationship between the low rise historic building and new, at that time, modern tower demonstrates how a hotel or how a business can pivot to be financially feasible while maintaining historic context.

Bear with me.

So through our research, we're able to see certain trends and parallels with our hotel here at Hollywood Beach and others throughout the state, where we see deterioration in other sites, repurposing in other sites, and how those other case studies overcame those challenges. It's important to note that with our particular case, the interconnectivity of all the challenges cannot be ignored. The vacancy that leads to deterioration, that leads to unsafe structure actions, which leads to temporary repairs, that leads to continued decline, and then we go back up to the top that starts with vacancy. It's a cycle, and it's quite vicious at that. It is important to note that without change or without intervention, similar to our examples that we studied, repurpose or rejuvenation or revitalization of the site will be extremely difficult.

And that's where reinvestment comes in. And again, this is an observation we made from the case studies, that with reinvestment, reinvestment is able to break the cycle that is currently seen on the site and lead to different outcomes that are perhaps the productivity that we were looking to achieve, things such as planned growth versus temporary repairs, activated public realm instead of deterioration, context specific restoration instead of unsafe conditions, and lastly, and probably the most importantly, landmark development instead of vacancy. And these are key elements that are important. They emerge when there is a plan and a vision and a direction. So I don't want you all to get lost on this chart.

I'm going to walk us through it carefully. But up until now, we've been speaking about a lot of elements that are outside of the city's control. We observing the conditions that are impacting the site in this case study. But I want to bring it to I want to bring our discussion into the regulatory framework, because these are things that we do have some control over. And there is overlapping regulation as it pertains to this site and many sites throughout the beach. Starting on the far left of the table, we have the county comprehensive plan. And I'm going to read the county and the city comprehensive plan together. There are certain commonalities. They're both in commerce or general business land use designation. Both plans do not speak about height.

Comprehensive planning is not about height. It's not something that's covered in that document. While there's no hotel density prescribed in the county plan, the city's plan goes a little step further and prescribes a density, depending where you are on the beach, from 50 to 300 rooms per acre. The hotel pool is a pool of hotel rooms. The county does not have such a program.

The city has created this mechanism to pool hotel rooms. Flexibility units, the county provides a maximum density. The city has to abide by that density, but also provides on top of that density criteria for the use of those units. Stepping one down closer to the property, we're talking about zoning. So we're talking about the second to last right column where it says current zoning permissions. The property is zoned Broadwalk Historic District. The height there is limited at 40. And it's important to note the height is not limited in any other document except the zoning code. We speak to the hotel density. The zoning further restricts the density to 70 rooms per acre.

As it pertains to this zone, the hotel pool and flexibility units are not being implemented. And then lastly, I think it's really important for us to look at the last column and that is the existing hotel today. With regards to the zone, the zone is the same. With regards to the land use for residential uses, those are being investigated through the memorialization of legacy entitlements. When it comes to height, you'll notice the height of the hotel is actually taller than the zone prescribes, at 78 feet versus the 40 feet that the zone prescribes.

The hotel density is 123 rooms per acre, if you were to do the math based on how many rooms on the site to the site area, which is above what the zoning code would otherwise prescribe. And there's no hotel pool or flexibility units applied on this site. So in summary, the objective of this presentation is to demonstrate the constraints, the opportunity, and the legal framework. On the screen, you'll see a chart that's very similar to the charts that Anand was showing you. And it's just talking about the tools that we have in our toolkit that are ours to use and are to leverage to receive a productive or incentivize a productive end result.

It's very important for us to realize that as non owners of this property, there's many things that we cannot do. But as the city and the body functioning in the regulatory framework, there are many things there are certain things that we can do. There are certain elements that are within the city's control, whether it's seeking to memorialize legacy units, or is it leveraging hotel room density, or modifying height restriction, or creating design parameters. These are within our controls. And on the screen, you'll see those are highlighted with the green boxes to show the tools that are in our toolkit, so to speak. And with that, I think I've spoken talked to your ear off on the Hollywood Beach Hotel. I'm going to hand it back to Anand to speak about initial findings and carry on with the remainder of the presentation.

Thank you, Cameron.

Hi, everyone, again.

Welcome back.

JAMES I am back to talk your ear off now. So as we move forward, I just want to contextualize this a little bit because I know up until this point, we've heard a lot and we've received a lot of information. So I do want to ground us in both the broader framework and the site specific conditions. Now that we have that context, we can begin to look at some of the analysis and what some of that information is telling us. So what are the consistent patterns that we're seeing across the beach?

Where the constraints are and where the opportunities are? How do those findings begin to inform a path forward? And I just want to emphasize that these are initial findings. They are not firm conclusions. But they do start to highlight where alignment may be needed between policy zoning and market realities.

So let's start off with the first of two slides that kind of describe our findings. The analysis points us to a few consistent themes across the beach. First, there are three distinct character areas, which I think many of us are aware. North Central and South Beach have all different physical conditions, all distinct development patterns, and very different market dynamics. This means that a one size fits all approach is not appropriate, depending on how we decide to move forward with intervention on the beach.

Second, building conditions are a key driver. And we're seeing clusters of aging and underutilized properties, which creates both a need and opportunity for reinvestment. And importantly, these conditions vary across the beach, influencing where changes more likely occur in the near versus longer term. Third, resiliency is an underlying factor. Flood elevations and ongoing infrastructure projects will influence how and where development ultimately occurs.

In addition to where and how based off of infrastructure availability, I do want to note that FEMA requirements ultimately change the way building design will happen in a contemporary way. And without a strategic approach to design contextually, we may not be receiving the same public realm that we are expecting. On their own, these aren't a justification for increased height, but together these findings reinforce that a future policy needs to be targeted, context specific, and grounded in both physical and market realities. As we move on, we also want to discuss Live Local and the legislative nature of the state as we know it today. Live Local is shaping conversations across the state in terms of how redevelopment occurs and who determines the fate of that redevelopment.

As we may be familiar, Live Local allows for the highest height within one mile of a prospective development site above three stories or whichever is greater. This means the city needs to be proactive in defining where and how height may be accommodated, but also in a strategic way. Live Local provides specific exemptions that exempt sites from being benchmark sites. And those are through bonus programs, special exception, or variance. So any approach to enable additional height within the beach should be within one of those frameworks as to not snowball or deliver unintended consequences associated with redevelopment on the beach.

All of that to say, what we are trying to emphasize is we should be avoiding by right entitlements. Second, the case studies. They show that there are multiple ways to structure growth and deliver tangible public benefit. But the most effective approaches balance urban design, historic context, coastal resilience, as well as economic feasibility. No single tool solves everything.

It's all about how they're combined and utilized together in a strategic way, again depending on context. Third, I want to emphasize urban design. Heightened density alone do not determine success or economic viability. The quality of streets, the quality of our open spaces, the quality of our public realm are what shape the ultimate experience of the beach and help to support and maintain the character that we know and love. Design should be a primary tool utilized to guide development, to set expectations, and make development sustainable and predictable.

We should not be just reacting to increased height, but establishing a framework to ensure that growth enhances the character of the beach as opposed to detracting from it. Looking back at the city's past approaches, there were strong values that were utilized to guide Hollywood Beach. But there was not necessarily a clear end state or defined identity of what the beach should ultimately become. Direction on form, intensity and economic role need to be clearly established. And this often leads to case by case decision making or inconsistent outcomes over time.

And on the screen, I have, you know, displayed a pre application that we received on the top which lends itself to, you know, what the development community can expect from our current and existing code, which is really unfortunate because this type of development results in oftentimes Nicole, who is our urban designer and city architect, advocating for better design. And that's what we see on the bottom. That's the same property designed with a different design application. But there is no guiding document that serves to provide that predictability to the developers, to staff, in terms of what this commission, what this public desire from development on the beach. And this is really the core of the issue.

There's a lack of a unifying vision. An updated master plan would help better address that. It would identify what Hollywood Beach should look like moving forward. It would align policy, urban design, and market realities into a single framework and help coordinate infrastructure investment across departments. And that fundamentally is necessary.

We need to assess this above and beyond the realities of planning. There are infrastructures and implications of growth. There's mobility implications to growth. There are abundance of other technical issues that need to be resolved as we realign our policy. Ultimately, an updated master plan would provide clarity and reduces a need for project by project negotiation, improve predictability, and ultimately lends to higher quality development from the outset.

But most importantly, it establishes a consistent identity for the beach and one that can guide decisions over time, while still allowing for flexible outcomes. So, as we move forward into some things that we're hoping the commission will consider, height should be considered in a context specific way on the beach. Every area has different characteristics that should be approached very differently. North Beach, the priority in our minds is maintaining the existing low rise character, generally within the range of two to four stories, with targeted and context specific updates to allow modernization of the existing code, to eliminate some of the long standing variances that planning staff have received over the years, specific to setbacks, open space, amenity space, and those types of things. In Central Beach, the focus begins, the focus shifts to supporting hotel investment.

We know there's a pent up demand for hotel reinvestment in Central Beach, but the longstanding constraint has been the height constraints. This is where moderate height, generally in the range of 10 to 15 stories, can help enable that reinvestment. But this should be paired with careful transitions to protect views, access, and the pedestrian experience overall. In South Beach, the pattern is already established. Higher intensity exists today, so the approach may be to align with that existing character.

There are very few development sites that would offer the same intensity, allowing heights up to approximately 25 stories while improving the quality of design, ground level activation and relationship between buildings and the street. Overall, the key takeaway of this is height should not be applied uniformly. It should be calibrated based off of geography and context to ensure the desired outcomes. And I just have a couple more slides, so just bear with me. We're nearing the end.

As we move into near term considerations, you know, there is an opportunity to establish a targeted overlay framework. Again, a bonus program that removes us from the jeopardy of Live Local. The purpose of this would be to enable reinvestment in the short term without predetermining or jeopardizing our long term objectives. This would not be a one size fits all approach where we would be prescribing uniform heights within these areas, but attempting to implement something that supports gradual transitions rather than uniform height applications across the beach. The focus would be calibration, not maximization of what could be on the beach.

It would be using feasibility as a guide, but balancing it with design considerations, as well as community character. The framework could also incorporate tools like transfer of development rights, allowing development capacity to be redistributed in a way that aligns with the goals of the comprehensive plan and the existing goals of the Hollywood Beach. It could support targeted increase in density rather than broad based changes that may have insurmountable effects. All of this requires design analysis along with community engagement to ensure that we are getting it right in whatever regulatory framework we propose, particularly around how height is distributed, how areas transition, and how the public realm is impacted or otherwise activated. And most importantly, this is an intern step and is not intended to replace or predetermine the outcomes of a future master plan, but rather allow progress while the longer term vision is being developed.

As we take a little bit of a step back, I do want to emphasize that there are many ways that the city can request public benefit. This outlines the potential framework linking height to public benefit, where the focus is on many different things. It could be one thing. It could be many things. It can be a combination thereof, where public benefits could be infrastructure, open space, housing, activation, economic vitality, urban design.

Really that is a policy decision based off of what is most needed on the beach. And again, as I mentioned, there's many different things that could be done to address one of the many challenges of the beach. As we look at the longer term considerations for the beach, this is about setting a clear long term direction through a beach master plan to establish a unified vision with defined character for each sub area grounded, and grounding all decisions in technical realities of infrastructure, mobility, and resilience to support and accommodate that growth. We would translate that growth into clear design, into a clear design and skyline strategy, develop context based heights and gradual transitions, not uniform increases, focusing on redefining tools that we already have at our disposal, and of course, leveraging overlays and bonus frameworks to shape outcomes and not expanding entitlements. Ultimately, we would want to ensure everything is coordinated and implementable, and at the bottom line, height and form should ultimately be driven by design, technical analysis, and community input.

As we look to next steps, the slide outlines a clear phased path forward. First, we would initiate community engagement, seeking input from the community in terms of what public benefits are worthwhile to pursue, where does height belong, where should height not belong. Building an understanding around feasibility with the community, understanding what the constraints are, what the opportunities may be. Second, we would advance a targeted overlay in the near term as a tool to allow for reinvestment of the beach. Again, provided that public benefit is received, it would not be an as of right entitlement.

There would be very specific criteria that would need to be met. We could then refine the bonus strategies and bring forward options to city commission for their consideration. Third, we would want to begin our beach master plan process, which we know will likely be a longer process. This would establish the long term vision, begin to establish the sub area character, and a design framework. Fourth, we would want to complete the technical studies associated to ensure sustainable development is feasible, ensuring that there are plans for infrastructure improvement to facilitate the development, ensuring resiliency goals are met, ensuring mobility options are aligned with growth, and finally return to commission with a refined and implementable option for the beach, grounded both in community input as well as technical analysis.

Overall, our near term actions paired with our longer term plan hopefully will generate a plan for the beach that we can all stand behind. Again, as we continue the conversation, I just want to remind us of what this presentation was meant to do today versus what it was not meant to do today. This is about continuing the conversation, not concluding it. We set out to really frame the issue, what the constraints are, and what the opportunities are. We do intend today and in the future to always ground the conversation and data in feasibility, in terms of practical redevelopment opportunities.

But again, in terms of what the community can bear and how we maintain the character and the long standing vision of Joseph Young. We want to highlight the trade offs between market realities, constraints, and public benefits. And just as important, this is not a policy proposal. There are no zoning changes today. There are no entitlements being imposed on any specific property. There are no predetermined outcomes. The goal of today is to align the direction and next steps. And from here, the conversation ships to you all. What direction feels appropriate for North, Central And South Beach? And with that, I conclude.

I want to thank our professional staff. I think you're getting this round of applause because it was clearly a well done and well researched approach to a very heartfelt and sensitive topic in the city of Hollywood, and that's the great Hollywood Beach. I think we all know it's a special place. As you all said at the outset, it has a special character to it. And we want to, as we look to make it economically successful for the future and in a manner that retains its character, its scale that we all love.

But through the recommendations and the analysis he presented, I think we can all, in a level headed fashion, pursue that goal and achieve probably the best of both worlds the economic success, addressing some of the problems that were pointed out, and at the same time preserving character of the different sub areas. So I really want to thank Andrea, Anand, Cameron, and the planning staff for a job well done with this presentation. So Pat, if you could please hand over the speaker cards. Let's hear and have this initial public comment opportunity. As everyone knows, this is a high level presentation today.

And we will continue with public conversation in the weeks ahead and ultimately get to these near term goals that were set out. All right. Pat, did you Pat, one card per speaker, correct? You already sorted it out? Okay. Whether you know, wrote 19 or 20, it doesn't matter. I'm gonna call you on this, so don't worry about that. Alright. I'm gonna call them as I have them. Let's begin with Michael Seltzer and we'll follow with Alex Riccio, then Skipper, I believe. Okay. Mr. Seltzer, welcome.

Thank you. I live at 956 Hollywood Boulevard. And just to be very honest, I have a client looking to purchase the Hollywood Beach Hotel.

There are many clients looking to purchase a Hollywood Beach Hotel.

That's right. The property. There is a discussion of who owns the property now. Does Madison Capital own it or does retreats own it? Who is going to do those repairs, or who's going to walk away from the repairs?

Whose responsibility is it? I used to live in Bal Harbour. I don't know if anybody else has lived in sunny isles of Bal Harbour. I don't know if anybody else has not been able to drive a car in those areas from mid December, probably till the March, April. The traffic is horrendous, absolutely horrendous.

To do the same thing that's been done in those communities here is terrible. I moved to Hollywood Boulevard. I was told the traffic would be terrible, hardly terrible. The roads in Hollywood, in that portion where you're looking to redo the zoning, will not handle the kind of traffic that you're looking at. It's bad enough today with what we have.

When these gentlemen did their studies of these different properties, I think you should look at Hillsborough Beach. Their zoning is spot on. And when you're looking at the Don Cesar Hotel, you should look at the Vinoy in Downtown Saint Pete, a very old hotel, 100 years old, that was redone several times with condos built adjacent to it. North Bay Village is hardly a study. There's not enough built there and finished to look at the traffic that's going to be generated there, which is bad today.

I don't know the public benefit there is for all this traffic. I really don't. And before you make a decision, maybe you should hear from a developer, whoever's going to buy the Hollywood Beach Hotel, to decide what they see and what they want to develop. Because having these nice people decide might not even come close to what somebody who has money that has to be invested to decide what they want to develop and what is going to make sense. I put myself down for number nineteen and twenty because there's two separate things, and it was three minutes each.

No, it's three minutes total because it's a combined presentation. So go ahead

and Well, I have more to say, but I'm finished for the moment.

Yeah, I'll be continuing conversation. This won't be the only time for public comment on this, everybody. Alex Riccio, followed by Mr. Skipper, then Dennis DiMartino.

Before you start my time, I just want to second the gentleman's comment that this was two separate agenda items. The clerk requested that we fill out two separate speaker cards. I've written two separate speeches. And so I implore the commission to reconsider and allow the two agenda items to be spoken on separately.

Well, clapping, please proceed. There'll be one opportunity. And then continuing conversation.

Well, maybe my thank you. Maybe my commissioner can read it into the record during her comments. Good afternoon. My name is Alex Riccio. I'm a resident of Hollywood Hills. I'm here this afternoon to ask for balance. We all understand that the world is changing. FEMA requirements are becoming more demanding. Resiliency standards are evolving. Tallahassee is intent on cutting tens of millions of dollars from our budget.

Construction costs, insurance pressures, and market conditions are shifting in ways that make modernizing our beach more complex and, at times, less financially feasible. These are real challenges and they deserve thoughtful solutions. To that end, I am encouraged the commission is having staff thoroughly research the topic and present their findings in a public forum with public comment. I trust that same level of public engagement and input will continue as you make your way through this very important decision making process. But as we adapt, we must also protect.

What makes Hollywood, Hollywood? Thankfully, our city is not defined by towering skylines or dense high rise corridors. No, what sets us apart, what draws residents, visitors, and investment, is our identity as a small town beach community. It's the human scale of our neighborhoods. It's the openness of our skyline. And most of all, it's the unique, walkable charm of our historic Broadwalk. That identity is not accidental, and it cannot be reclaimed once it is lost. It takes preservation through intentional decisions over many years. Let me be clear. This is not an argument against modernizing Hollywood Beach.

It's an argument for thoughtful modernization that honors our brand and our history with public engagement at the forefront. We can meet resiliency goals while still respecting scale. We can support economic feasibility without defaulting to over development. We can adapt to new realities without abandoning our identity. I urge you to consider the policies of incentives that help bridge this gap.

Whether that means creative design solutions, flexibility in certain requirements in lot sizing, programs that modernize our charming but aging motels, many of which are not up to code in an effort to reestablish Hollywood Beach as the historic small lodging destination leader, or targeted approaches that allow projects to remain viable without dramatically changing our skyline. Because ultimately, our brand is not just about marketing. It's about it's an economic asset. It's why people choose Hollywood over other South Florida destinations. It's why they return and it's why they invest.

If we lose that differentiation, we lose the character and we lose our competitive advantage. So this afternoon, I respectfully ask you to continue leading with intention to weigh resiliency, modernization, and project feasibility alongside preservation of history, brand identity, and beach experience.

Thank you, Alex.

And to ensure that as Hollywood evolves, we all know it must, that it remains recognizable, authentic, and true to what makes Hollywood special.

Thank you. Well said. Rocky Skipper, followed by Dennis DiMartino, then Kathy DeBona.