City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone, and welcome. I'd like to call the City of Homestead City Council meeting to order. Today is Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026, and it is now 6.01 p.m. This evening we'll have the invocation by Reverend Michael Stiles. Is Reverend Stiles here? Do you hear him? I don't see him yet. Councilman Fletcher, would you mind? The invocation by Councilman Fletcher, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance with Councilman Fletcher and the Homestead Police Explorers. You please rise.

Heavenly Father, we come to you with grateful hearts today and we thank you for your mercy and your grace. We ask you today for your wisdom to guide us to make the right decisions for our community. And we ask that you bless all of those who are in this chamber this evening. And that you watch over the city employees, our first responders, our folks protecting our country around the world. And we ask these in your gracious name. Amen. Amen. Please join me in the pledge.

Right, right, left, left, left, right, right, left. On guard, halt, right face.

Please join me.

Present arms.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Forward, march. Left face. Forward, march.

Thank you. Please be seated. At this time, we will now open the floor for public comments as to any issue. Please be advised that now is the time to speak on any agenda issue. with the exception of at the time any quasi-judicial item or land use item is called up, you will have the opportunity to speak at that time. Yes. Getting ahead of myself on the agenda. Thank you, Councilman. Roll call, Madam Clerk.

Councilman Cannavale? Here. Councilwoman Avila? Here. Councilman Roth? Here. Councilman Fletcher? Here. Councilwoman Konski? Here. Vice Mayor Bailey? Here. Mayor Lawson?

Here. Now, as I was saying, public comments. Is there anyone wishing to make a comment as to any issue, any agenda item, with the exception of a land use quasi-judicial item? Please come forward, give us your name and address for the record, and please limit your comments to three minutes. Now note for the record that no one has appeared to have pre-registered, so we're calling from the floor now. Hi, good evening, welcome.

Hi, my name is Ariella Diaz, good evening, everything. This is Claudia, it's my translation for today, for tonight. Claudia.

Good evening. My name is Claudia Gonzalez, and I'm trying to interpret it. Good evening. Good evening, everyone. I came two months ago, and I asked him about a proposed ordinance, and I think Ms. Erica presented about it, and she wanted to know about what is the follow-up for that.

What was the subject matter of the ordinance?

uh... it is uh... second-rate so they don't get in state and traffic or then there has been a home to the point so it is that you know which is actually in this day and a lot of that you know it was you know that they can't stop or that's what they don't mean to say that the send out a stock opening on the end knowing that you know this was that they didn't want to be open and i can see that he's a part of the city that i don't know if it is there are no i mean it's quite that he's going to have anything that I tried to remind everything.

I want to know if it's important in the life of the community, and does she want to know about the resource? Does she know that she's bringing information to somebody else? And she want to know what is the result for her opinion.

Councilwoman?

Thank you, Mayor.

I was just going to see if the reminder was, I think it was about cell phone usage, texting while driving, and those things, right?

Yes, she says about driving and texting, and it's about different accidents in the community, about that, and that is the...

I'm not sure what they want.

I can speak to this. Yes, so I thank you. Thank you for asking about it. It has not formally come to the council yet for review. What I can say is that back in February I did request for our city manager to work with our police department and with legal to investigate different possibilities on how we can reinforce safer driving code and language to give more power to our police department to um, cite people for distracted driving and to, um, just be stricter on cell phone usage to save, to reduce traffic and accidents. Um, I know that our attorney opined on it like next day. So did chief Knapp and that information, um, I believe is still in the works with our city manager's office. I have not received a response, but you have, maybe you have an update.

I think at the said council meeting, the city attorney opined that this is subject to Florida Statute 316, which preempts local government. Mr. City Attorney, correct me if I understood you correctly.

There are two statutes that cover texting while driving, and it is covered in Chapter 316. The cities are preempted from local regulation, but there are uniform traffic citations that can be issued under 316 under existing law without the city doing anything. It's just a question of enforcement. It's not a question of having enabling legislation in order to prevent it.

If I may, the This is something that I would like for the city manager's office to look into. The request at the time was for a briefing to be put together for us to discuss further. We haven't had that briefing yet with the results of what the council and the police departments ADVICE AND RECOMMENDATIONS AND RESEARCH PROVIDED SO THAT WE CAN THEN COME BACK WITH A POTENTIAL ORDINANCE FOR CONSIDERATION. BUT THANK YOU FOR REMINDING US OF THE URGENCY OF THE MATTER, THAT THERE WAS DIRECTION THAT WENT OUT RIGHT AFTER THAT MEETING. IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN THE NEXT DAY OR THE DAY AFTER. We did have some information and research conducted. So I will continue to make it a priority, and they're hearing it now as well. So thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. All right.

Mr. Mayor? Yes. Also, just for information, Pastor Stiles has arrived. If you'd like him to re-bless us.

Good evening, Mayor and Council, and all of our distinguished public servants in your capacities. Our names, Chandra Mallory, Jeanette Mallory, 45-year residents here in the city of Homestead. And I just come before you tonight to humbly ask that we consider... Yes, sir. Sorry, y'all. I humbly come before you tonight to ask that we consider two things. One, the flow of traffic in the southwest section is becoming an ultimate nightmare to cross Flagler Street during the operating hours of, let's say, 10 to 12 on the weekends, which becomes an inconvenience for families that are, you know, trying to move around the city. And the code enforcement... We are homeowners. We have been homeowners for almost 50 years now. And I think there seems to be some sort of confusion as it pertains to the homeowners association type of restrictions versus homeowners, single family homeowners. So we just humbly ask that. We consider those of us that have been in the community for many years and that have tides in our properties and have worked hard to accumulate the things that we do possess at our properties. So I don't know if this is the meeting to discuss it, but at some level, can we consider those of us that have been here for a long time residents and we do accumulate things at our properties that we like to keep and we don't like to be told what to do with it because we work hard to earn these things. So I just ask that the council keep us in mind as we move forward with the things that we propose and impose on those of us taxpaying citizens that have been here for almost 50 years now. Thank you.

Thank you. Always good to see you here.

Likewise. Thank you.

Anyone else? Last call for public comments.

Good evening. Brandy Ramirez, two, two, three, one Southeast first street.

Um, I just wanted to piggyback in regards to, I think there's an item that you'll be discussing today in regards to boats in, in the art or association. Um, And just like she mentioned, people work hard for items that they have, so just take us into consideration making those type of decisions. But I also just wanted to come and share, I do notice some community residents mentioning code enforcement going into gated communities and that they're having some issues or concerns about that. But I wanted to share that as a resident that is in a gated community, I had a very positive interaction with code enforcement and a positive interaction with the permitting department, the building department. So I wanted to thank code enforcement, the director, and the manager for taking the time to explain to me the proper procedures and the process to go through to make sure we correct some permitting concerns. And then the building, department and the permitting. Nora has been great. I'm looking forward to working with the other building people to complete. I've already completed one and in the process of finishing the other one. So I think we should as residents, it's not always negative or complaints, but to also praise the different departments when they're doing their best to assist us as residents. So just wanted to share that and I look forward to seeing the different things that you guys continue to do in the city. Thank you.

Again, last call for public comments. We'll get you to the microphone one way or the other tonight, Pastor Stiles.

Good evening. I do apologize for my tardiness. However, one concern, two concerns. The light that is at US 1, and I want to say we're... I guess that's dominoes or the peace places. It needs a turning signal. That is one reason why I'm late. I sat there like 25 minutes where people can't get to make a left-hand turn to get onto US 1 or come straight to come into City Hall. It's very confusing, especially when you've got to zoom around and you're scared that whoever's going to turn left going back north of US 1 or who's going to turn south to go back south towards Florida City, it's going to be an accident there, if there has not been many accidents there. And every time, no matter how early I leave from the east side, it still takes 25 minutes to get through just that one light. Second, the road that is being torn up, I think I've said this a number of times, right in front of the hospital, I have personally had to have my vehicle realigned four times because of the water line that they dug up to be able to tap into the big development that's right there in front of Publix. It is a safety hazard. It is a great safety hazard. I do want to say thanks to the city for correcting the deep potholes that I've been hit, two flat tires by a racetrack. So it is an ongoing building project, but it is a nuisance to road hazards as well. So those are the only two things. And I do apologize about my targets.

Thank you, Pastor. Okay. Mayor, we have one on line. Okay. Let's hear who's on the line. I bet I know.

Anibal Garcia.

Okay, no. Please go ahead. If you're on the line, go ahead, if you can hear us.

There we go. Garcia? There we go. Can you hear me?

We can, yes. Thank you.

Okay. My name is Anibal Garcia, and I am here today on behalf of the Florida Department of Health and Miami-Dade County Tobacco Prevention and Control Program in support of the Smoke-Free Parks Ordinance before you today. This ordinance is important because it protects our youth and preserves the environment within the city of Homestead's park system. And we know that youth vaping continues to rise. And many young people mistakenly believe that vaping is safe, when in reality these products contain nicotine, which can harm brain development and lead to lifelong addiction, which we all know. When smoking or vaping is visible in parks, spaces designed for families and recreation, it normalizes that behavior. And passing this ordinance helps shift that norm and sends a clear message that our parks are places for health, not harm. There is also a growing environmental concern. Disposable vapes are made of plastic and contain lithium ion batteries, which when left behind, they become hazardous waste, leaking chemicals into our soil and waterways and posting potential fire risk, especially in our South Florida climate. So this is in addition to cigarette litter, which already impacts the cleanliness and safety of our parks as well. This ordinance is not about punishment. It is about prevention. And with proper signage and community education, smoke-free park policies are highly effective through voluntary compliance. They reduce exposure, decrease litter, and they create a safer, cleaner environment for everyone, including our youth. By passing this ordinance, the City of Homestead is taking proactive steps to protect its youth, support public health, and safeguard its natural spaces. I respectfully urge you to support this ordinance. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for calling in. We appreciate your input. Very, very important and informative. Thank you again. Is there anyone else online? Okay. All right. We have a lot of lengthy presentations tonight and a very long agenda. So if I could have the opportunity, I have a couple of appointments I'd like to make. I think one of them, one of the potential appointees are here. I think Councilman Davis, former Councilman Davis is under the weather. is not able to join us, but if I could go ahead and get your voice vote confirming the appointment of Natasha Oliveira and Tom Davis to fill the two vacancies by virtue of term expiration to the Homestead Housing Authority. Are there any objections? Are they all in favor? Aye. Thank you all. All right, we are very fortunate this evening to have as company in our people's house. I'd like to call her our third commissioner. I don't think she likes me to say that publicly, but I have to. But our very own Miami-Dade County Commissioner, District 7, Raquel Regalado. Welcome and thank you.

Thank you. Well, there are three commissioners that represent South Dade, and I am one of them. So there you have it, right? First and foremost, it's always such a pleasure to be here with you all in Homestead. You're doing such amazing work. As many of you know, I am the County Commissioner of District 7. I was a school board member before. But here, I'm really here in my capacity as the proud mother of two neurodivergent adults. I want to thank all of you for raising the flag. It was such a beautiful event to have our families come out. And this year, my rollout has been a little bit different. What I did was capture the body of work. I've done a lot of things in Miami-Dade County as pilots trying to prove a concept. And that's what I want to share with all of you and with all of Florida for that matter. So what I launched on April 2nd is the Florida Neuroinclusion Toolkit. So it's actually a collection of all the legislation, the data, and everything that we've been doing over the last 10 years. Just generally to explain why neurodiversity and not autism. Neurodiversity just includes a lot more humans. Both of my children are in the autism spectrum, but a lot of autistic individuals are diagnosed with another another neurodivergent symptom. And in the case of my daughter, when she was an adolescent, even though she had been diagnosed in the spectrum, she was also diagnosed with ADHD. So she has ADHD. And there are a lot of autistic children and adults that are autistic with dyslexia, autistic with epilepsy. It's actually very common for neurodiversity to ride together, is what we call it. So when we talk about autism right now, we're at one in thirty one in terms of the diagnosis. But when we talk about neurodiversity, we're actually one in five because there's that many people. And I say it because neurodiversity includes dyslexia, epilepsy, ADHD. autism, Tourette's. It also includes at the very top people who suffer from traumatic brain injury and become neurodiverse as a result of that. And then on the other side of the spectrum, we have neurological decline. So the first ones that I mentioned were neurological delay. So they get better with time. But then we have neurological decline, which is dementia and Alzheimer's. And a lot of the work that we do for autism actually fits everybody in the entire spectrum. So I think that once you put it in that perspective, you start seeing that these are not outliers and it's not just about April and October, but it's really about providing an entry point for individuals when we talk about government. So, um, I used to be at the school board and I love talking about Ed, but when I got to the county, I did some research with urban impact lab specifically. We were dealing with employment for people with disabilities. And what we found is that the biggest obstacles were not at the employment side or not at the education side. It was the transportation. It was access to an ID. It was being arrested or Baker-acted. These are all government functions that we actually have the domain over. So people could do as much as they want on the ed side and on the employment side, but if we don't push through those barriers, then they never even get to that opportunity. So that's what the toolkit does. The idea is for people to replicate it. It has all of the data. you know, what we've tracked, what we've done. As many of you know, my first item at Miami-Dade County was training for all of our departments. In the toolkit, it says that we've trained 2,120 first responders. That's because that was the last report, and I wanted to mention the report. But as of today, we've trained 4,125 first responders in Miami-Dade County. in person, actually meeting autistic adults and hearing from those autistic adults what that interaction felt like. So not a video, not a tutorial, but actually meeting them and speaking with them and understanding from them and from their caregivers what that interaction looks like. And that has reduced the Baker Acts, that has reduced unnecessary arrests, and it has really changed the dynamic. of our police and fire as they enter into people's homes. The sheriff has been very supportive. When the police was under the county, I launched the DECAL, which is the Occupant with Autism DECAL that's available to everyone all over the county. And it goes into your 911 system just like our 911 system. And that allows you to register and to put the actual information of de-escalation for that person. So for example, my daughter Isabella is very different from my son Sebastian. When I registered both of them, I put Bella, her de-escalation, Sebastian, his de-escalation, right? They're two very different people, and how you would approach them at a point of crisis is very different. The sheriff, this April, added to the home registration A vehicle registration, so now you can register your vehicle and you can say there might be a neurodivergent person in this vehicle so that when the police officer or fire pulls up your tag now they're on alert and they can see that same information. So it's so important to do training. At the county, we've trained everyone in our parks department, everyone in our libraries, all 50 of our libraries not only have training, they have social stories, they have sensory kits, they have sensory activities, the larger ones have sensory rooms, and we've really opened up those public spaces for our residents, and it's wonderful to see them finally coming into those spaces, because most of our families just stay home. And that's why you don't hear from them. But not all of it costs a lot of money. We actually did the training with UMNSU CARD, which is a resource to everyone. They do it for the cost. They're not making money from the endeavor. And they're a state resource. There's seven cards in the state, and everyone can contact their cards. But a lot of the information that I have in here is simple things. So for the youth fair, for example, they worked the first year with UMNSU CARD, and they started a sensory room, and we did a social story. The second year I worked with them and we did a sensory map where you can show sensory areas and how you could walk the fair a little bit different. And then this year we did sensory hours. So we had sensory hours every Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 3. And that was simply turning off the music and turning off the lights. And I will tell you, even the neurotypical people loved it. Everyone really liked it at a lower pace. And that, as I mentioned, is really important for all neurodiverse people. So back to Alzheimer's and dementia, most people think that the first sign of that is forgetfulness. That is not the case. The first sign of neurological decline is sensory overload. 89% of people who have dementia and Alzheimer's, that is the first sign. They have issues with lights and sounds and textures in the same way that autistic people do and other neurodiverse people do. So at our airport, we actually, and at all of our transit stations, we have the sunflower lanyard. So you can get it from me, you can get it from the airport, you can sign up and get it yourself. But this is a lanyard that we use nationally to denote invisible disabilities. And this, you know, it comes with the training and that way everyone knows that that person may need some extra help. The same thing with the work that we're doing with the decal and the sheriff. I'm actually having an event at Beth on this Saturday where the sheriff is going to be there and the tax collector and we're going to be doing the registrations there for everyone. The tax collector partnered with us through this last year. and we establish neuro inclusion days. So in the state of Florida, you can have a state ID starting at five years old. Two years ago, they changed the law that allows you to place your disability voluntarily on your state ID. That means that if you have a six year old, an eight year old, an 18 year old, a 22 year old that's in the spectrum, They can have a Florida issued ID that has their picture and has their disability and will serve as evidence of that disability. We have a lot of parents walking around with a diagnosis from 2003 and a birth certificate because since their child doesn't drive, they haven't gotten a license. But without an ID, they're at risk. Without an ID, they can't volunteer, they can't work, and they can't even prove their identity. So we're really pushing the IDs and getting parents to understand that whether they want to put the disability on there or not, this is a tool that they need specifically to travel. At MIA, we have an amazing program that's available to all Miami-Dade County residents. It's called MIA Air. It's a dress rehearsal. where we take the kids through the entire experience with their caregivers. So they get to the airport, they get their boarding pass, they go through TSA, we sign them up for TSA Cares, they board the plane, they meet the pilot, and then we go buy them Chick-fil-A. Who doesn't like Chick-fil-A? And we show them the sensory rooms, but it allows them to walk through the experience so that when they go for real on a trip, they don't have a meltdown because they've never been there. It comes with a social story in English and Spanish, and we're with them the entire time and we take their t-shirts with them in order to make the experience a pleasant one. So those are some of the things that we've been doing in Miami-Dade that's in the toolkit. The other thing that's in the toolkit is the use of April and October as really goal-setting moments and looking at what we're doing in our communities. So we have April, which is obviously autism acceptance, and we talk about what we've done. But October is disability employment, and we really focus on opening opportunities there. At the county, what I've asked the county to do is to change the way that they hire. So instead of putting on LinkedIn that you want someone that has good communication skills, an autistic person will never apply for that, to allow people to come in and rather than focusing on eye contact and them talking to you, to actually let them do the work. Let them do the work, especially if it's in the area of tech and let the work speak for itself and not hold them to a very neurotypical standard of hiring so that they can have an opportunity. I've also opened up our internships so that we have to interview neurodivergent people and give them those opportunities. And finally, also in the toolkit is our zero drowning initiative, which is a countywide initiative that I know you guys know about. I changed it to include neurodiverse individuals, specifically autistic children and adults, because irrespective of age, the number one cause of death for autistic people is drowning. irrespective of age. And that is because water is a form of sensory relief. They seek water, they run to water, and if they do not know how to swim, many of them drown. So it's been a priority for me and for the Children's Trust to provide folks with as much information about the need to teach individuals in the spectrum how to swim. and how long-term it really is a wonderful commitment and endeavor. So with that, I'm here to answer any and all questions that you may have. There's a lot more in the toolkit. It was emailed to you, and also I have the QR codes here so that you can check it out. It has the legislation, social stories, how to do all these things, how to do sensory events, And I'm happy to help you navigate all of that. Because the last thing I want you to do is use your resources on getting a consultant. Just give me a call and we can do it together. You've been such wonderful partners. And there's such a need in the South to talk more specifically about neurodiversity.

Thank you so much, Commissioner, for being here tonight and for sharing this very valuable information. And I do hope that we can be advocates to continue the messaging and to incorporate a lot of the tools that you're mentioning into our process improvement plans for the future. I do have a question regarding the police department's access for the vehicle registration at the county level. Is that automatically generating for our officers? Yes. Perfect. Yes. And then with regards to the trainings that you mentioned, has that already been done? Do we know for our police department?

So we've trained our Miami-Dade County police officers.

So I don't know what you guys are doing and if you've reached out to... Chief, can you speak to that?

Yes, we do training yearly. And as a matter of fact, as a result of some grant money that we found, we're going to have some autism training coming up. But we do do it every year.

I WOULD LOVE THE OPPORTUNITY FOR PERHAPS COMPARING THE TRAINING THAT WE'VE BEEN DOING AND WHAT WE'RE GOING TO BE DOING COMPARED TO WHAT THE COUNTY IS DOING SO THAT WE AT LEAST ARE MAKING SURE THAT WE'RE TOUCHING ALL BASES AND WELL-ROUNDED TRAINING.

SO AUTISM TRAINING IS A STATE REQUIREMENT, BUT IT'S AN UNFUNDED MANDATE, YOU KNOW, AS A CHIEF WELL KNOWS. WE ALL KNOW ABOUT THAT. YOU ALL KNOW ABOUT THOSE. Um, so there is a lot out there in terms of, um, virtual training. Uh, but I'm happy to work with you all and get card out here. We have some great individuals, one in particular named Kent. He actually lives in Casa Familia now. Um, and he comes and talks to the officers about his particular experience. And I will say talking to autistic adults that have been detained is really a game changer when we talk about de-escalation.

And I have not heard that we're doing that kind of one-on-one, face-to-face type of engagement, so I would love to see that get incorporated with our police department. With regards to inclusivity and inclusion efforts, I know that we have at least one page within our parks master plan that speaks to this, and I would invite you to... maybe review that and offer us your insight and ways that we can maybe improve it and and expand on that and i know the parks our parks department our parks director has done a great job in trying to make sure that as we roll in new playgrounds that we're making this a priority but The plan itself, I think, could be beefier, and I would love your input and guidance on that, if that's okay.

Happy to do that and happy to work with your parks department. One of the things that's in the toolkit is how to do social stories for all of your parks. So parks usually have ADA compliance, full stop. What we've done, and we've done it in small parks and larger parks too at the county, is the placement of things is kind of beyond ADA compliant. So certain swings, right? The height of different things, like what we're choosing. I don't think there's like an autism playground, but you can make it autism friendly, right? By your selection of certain things. And then the social stories are very easy. You just take pictures of the park and you put it in a PDF and you put it on the website. That's what we've done on our parks. And then that allows caregivers to, to see what's there and to show it to them. That way, they'll want to go to the park.

Right. Thank you. Because if they can visualize it ahead of time, the sensory overload at the time is less. Exactly.

It reduces the anxiety.

Right. And I certainly can appreciate your sunflower branding. I don't know who came up with that idea, but many here know that I love sunflowers. And being in a city where we used to have fields and fields of sunflowers, iconic for us, and now that's sadly gone away. Maybe this is a good time to announce I'm working on a resolution to bring for council consideration, making us the sunflower city and potentially rolling that into some of our landscaping initiatives. But I love the parallel messaging that we see our autistic families and that we are being as inclusive as we can with respect to making our playgrounds, Police departments, our process improvements, IDs, jobs, et cetera, a focus priority for those families. And I think you'll be happy to hear that we did roll out a zero drownings initiative program with the Children's Trust, which it's not just learning how to swim, but surviving in those environments at a very young age. So we hope that that mitigates a lot of those unfortunate deaths. But again, thank you.

Thank you.

Hey, Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor. Definitely. Thank you very much. And you didn't mention Councilman Avila sponsored a portion of Art Walk this year to have things that were sensory specific for some of our guests that had special needs. So headphones and just different sensory type toys. So we are working on it. One thing that came to mind as you were talking, an idea for the parks. I know that a lot of our special needs kids and even adults going to parks have headphones. Maybe there's something to do with a QR code. that would have some type of anxiety-reducing sounds or something that they might be able to, I don't know, learn about the park and drown out noises around them?

So we have sensory kits, and we have them at libraries and at parks. And then also museums that have autism-friendly designation have them. We also have earbuds because... Depending on the age, some of them may not want the headphones. So it's like some very little ones and some very older ones don't want it. So we try to give them those options. And then in the social stories, we also, to your point, Vice Mayor, we call out if there's noise. So, for example, I have a beautiful park named Ron Eman. There's tennis there. So we're like, and by the way, these are the tennis courts next to the park, right? So we, you know, we give them that information. We have another beautiful park in my district that's next to the library. It's a very small park, but we went out of the way to make it an ADA park that's right next to the library. because of its location, it didn't have a lot of noise and a lot of movement. So we're focusing on the more passive ones and kind of leading with those and letting parents know that there may be activity in these other parks. Because sometimes things are just co-located and they're a little noisy.

There's not much choice. No, I really appreciate all the headway that you're making. Keep us continuously in the loop so that we can keep working for our residents as well. One of my favorite preschool students, who's now 15, was nonverbal for many years. and he's coming tomorrow to read to the kids, which is his, like, his favorite thing is to read to children. Amazing, amazing, amazing.

And I know you appreciate this, you know, Vice Mayor, because we've talked about it. You know, one of the things that I have, and I mentioned it in the toolkit, and that's more of an October thing than an April thing, is the need to have adult programming. As many of you know, the world ends at 22, and I really focus on getting people to understand why we need adult programming and how you can co-locate adult programming with individuals that have memory issues, the two communities go very well together. Autistic adults and individuals, older individuals that have dementia and Alzheimer's, a lot of the therapies are identical and they usually get along very well. So as you look at finding those places, I just want you to consider that our health system was built for elderly people. And what happens after 22 is if you're lucky to have MedWaver, someone goes home with you. So we literally graduate our children to the couch. And when we talk about that, everyone's like, oh, that's great. You get to watch YouTube. You get to go home. That's fine if you're an elderly person and the rest of your life is 7, 8, 10, 11 years old. not when we're sending you home for 50, 65 years. That's what we're doing. And I know that's a little jarring to people when I say it, but it's important because once we let them go home, it's very hard to get them to go to a program. And that's why I think as a community, we have to start having more events and we have to start talking about adult programming and the benefit of adult programming. I have two children that are very different. One needs less resources and was able to attend a program that I helped create at Miami Dade Community College. My daughter needs a lot more resources and a lot more care. He can work with supports. She cannot right now. But she makes jewelry, and she gives it away to the people that go to her adult daycare, and she'll tell you that that's her job. And she's in vocational training, and I think in five or six years, she will be able to do some volunteer work. It's a developmental delay. She's 22, but it's a developmental delay. I can't tell you that she'll never work because I don't think that that's the reality. Much like your visitor in the next few days, my daughter was nonverbal and I was told that she wouldn't even be able to feed herself. And she graduated from a culinary program. So, so much can be done for these individuals. We just have to give them an opportunity. They just think differently and they experience the world differently. And that's why I really wanted to make it about neuro inclusion, because we have to focus on their abilities. They want to work. They want to be part of our society. When my son was working, we talk about the issues that we have with employment and retention and how everybody read the four-hour work week and it went to their head, four-day work week and it went to their head. But my son was upset that there was no work on Labor Day. He wanted to work on Labor Day. He didn't understand why we would take a Monday off. They're amazing workers. They have a Puritan work ethic. They're so excited to be here and to be involved. and to be part of community. So if I have one ask is that as a community we stop graduating them to the couch because they're amazing humans and it's gonna be a lot more complicated 10, 15 years from now when we have this ever-growing population that is at home with a healthcare aid that really cannot provide for them. And we know that their mental health declines, that their health declines, and that it just spirals into a lot of different issues for all of us.

Again, thank you for coming down. And as promised, we've already added your flag to our display back here. Thank you. It's not hot air. Yes, I really appreciate it. I want to say something. Of course.

I want to thank you for being here. And I want to congratulate you on this toolkit. The Neuroinclusion Toolkit is amazing. I think it's a proactive tool that can avoid a lot of things, bad things happening to these kids. So thank you for that.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Before you take off, we're going to deviate from the agenda just a little bit. Colleagues, we have in front of us a resolution regarding the conveyance of a county parcel to the city. It should be laying here somewhere. It's that property that the county has declared surplus. that we have requested, and it's part of the County Parks Department. It's vacant property, surrounded by thousands of units. For frame of reference, Ms. Ramirez, it's the 10 acres immediately south of your neighborhood. So this has been an initiative by Councilman Canabal, working with our city manager. So Mr. Pearl, if you would read that resolution by title.

Yeah, put it up.

I have the paper copy in front of me. Nobody put it on my table.

He needs a copy. Josh has got it. Thank you, Josh.

This is a resolution of the City Council of the City of Homestead, Florida, requesting Miami-Dade County to convey certain county-owned property identified by folio number 10-7917-001-0580 to the City of Homestead for public park purposes, authorizing the city manager to accept the property on behalf of the city and take any action necessary to effectuate the transfer, providing for implementation, providing for transmittal, and providing for an effective date.

Thank you, Mr. Manager.

Not too much, other than that, Commissioner, welcome. We've already met with county staff regarding this potential conveyance. County staff is very excited and they want to work with us. Hopefully, before you go on vacation in August, they promise us that there's going to be traction on this. So we're hoping to expedite the process. This afternoon, I believe, we transmitted all the checklists that they had requested with additional materials. So we are soliciting for your cooperation, your support in making this possible.

Of course, I'll talk to Christina about it. Happy to do it. Thank you.

Appreciate that. Councilman Canabal, it's in the heart of your district. I know you've worked hard with other commissioners and our manager to get us to the point. where we are now. So if I can have a motion to adopt this resolution. Yes.

I do have some questions. If there's a motion, you want to make it, I'll second it. But then I do have some questions.

Moved by Canabal, seconded by Avila. Thank you.

I do have some questions on this. I would like for this to come back to us for final acceptance once we know that it's not mitigation land and that we can also make sure that it's deeded, restricted in perpetuity for a park. So that's something that I want to make sure that if we're receiving it and that we're going to have it, that it's going to be a park, 100%. So that's my condition on the second. Thank you.

Typically, that's built into the conveyance. But it's not. It's not in this. It's titled in the Parks Department now.

Could be. I would hope so, yes.

No, at the county.

I would hope so, yes.

Mr. Mayor? Yes. I'm sorry. Just procedural very quickly. We didn't add this to the agenda at the beginning of the meeting. Can I have a motion to add the reso to the agenda? And then we can take it to the agenda.

I'll move to add to the agenda. So it's moved by Cannavale, seconded by Avila to add this item to the agenda. All in favor?

Mr. Mayor, before you approve the amended agenda, I want to delete tab 29, card number 4973, the vice mayor's permission where we're drawing that item from the agenda.

Oh, okay. All right. So do we need two separate votes to add one and delete another?

We can take them together to accept the amended agenda.

We're going to add the... request for the conveyance to the agenda and uh... and defer or delete for tonight tab twenty nine with respect to that's the uh... certificate of use item it's a fee waiver that's a fee waiver oh that's right it was before the education committee came gotcha okay to be so very good so all in favor of that addition and the deletion aye any opposed all right so now um We're going to vote on the resolution requesting the conveyance for park purposes.

Can we restate the motion?

Right now, the motion as made was just to adopt the resolution. If you'd like to make a motion to amend to stipulate that it needs to come back to you for review, then we can do that. Or you can amend the motion to provide that we'll accept it as long as it's deeded as restricted. It has included the restriction for park purposes. So you can make a motion to amend.

And mitigation-free.

and uh... it's not one that's what i would be part of our due diligence before we accepted it so but the resolution isn't specific to that so the motion has to be specific to that in my opinion so if you want to make the what i'm hearing is will accept those amendments council and cannibal so contingent on it not being wetland property and that it is also comes with a deed restriction for park purposes for park purposes

The maker of the motion has accepted that at the request of the person who seconded the motion. No, he accepted it. So we're good. All right. So let's have a roll call vote on this resolution.

Councilman Cannavale? Yes. Councilwoman Avila? Yes. Councilwoman Konski? Yes. Councilman Fletcher? Yes. Councilman Roth? Yes. Vice Mayor Bailey? Yes. Mayor Lawson? Yes. The motion carries.

All right. Thank you, Commissioner.

I will advise the director first thing tomorrow.

Thank you.

It's always a pleasure.

All right. So let's get focused again.

I think that takes us now to one hour in to tab two.

This is a presentation, or is there a resolution that goes to the presentation? Presentation.

Mayor, if I may, while we're taking a little break.

Well, they're setting up the presentation.

Just for city manager's office, with regards to my end-of-the-year VIP Christmas party that I held, I would like to expand on that and perhaps work in some additional programming throughout the year that we can, on the basis of what we heard today and the toolkit and whatnot, let's see if we can get that going sooner than later. Absolutely.

Actually, I have some very, very good suggestions for you. I mentioned at the beginning of the meeting that I have some good news. Let me let you take the thunder. Let me brief you first, then you can inform your colleagues.

Thank you. I appreciate it because I'm also working with my VIP group to try to have soccer programming, and that's been a little challenging. So more to come. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. Good afternoon, Mayor, Council. I will make this two and a half minutes, if possible, at the direction of the manager. This item is a discussion item, and the intent is to provide a brief brief updates to counsel on uh... to primary initiatives that we have uh... before us i will categorize it with the american two fifty signage that we're looking to implement or install at the end of May and will have in place through the end of September. And then we'll talk a little bit about the street banner program that will also be installed at the end of May but will have a much longer shelf life because there are different sequences and or rather seasons and sequences of the banner program. Last year, if you recall, Council adopted an America 250 logo in advance of the city rolling out a year-long campaign in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the US. worked with a vendor to develop design concepts for several banners to be installed at City Hall, the exterior of City Hall, the interior of the chambers, and at the police station. And then we have worked in conjunction with the CRA to develop conceptual designs for a street banner program to be implemented citywide. Before you, you have a proof of concept that we are proposing two banners to be installed again at the end of May in advance of Memorial Day on the east and the west entrance of City Hall. We are also looking to do five banners around the column of the exterior of the City Hall building and half flags towards the bottom portion of what I call the Coliseum feature outside of the City Hall building. The half flags are also going to be installed at the rear of City Hall and right outside of the balcony area. Within chambers, we're taking the opportunity to enhance chambers a bit by introducing two banners right behind the dais that you're sitting at this time with the newly adopted city tagline of The Future Lives Here. The intent is that this banner can be changed over time at council's requests to celebrate many different things, including November's, the national championship of coming back to Homestead, right? So it is intended to be interchangeable. We would just need to replace the ribbon itself and install it with the hardware that would be made permanent. While we are doing this work, we're also taking the opportunity to do a little bit of a reconfiguration behind the dais. We're looking to relocate the In God We Trust signage. We're looking to make it a little bit bigger as well. A few months ago, we adopted the circular logo as the newly official logo of the city. So we are proposing to install a circular logo in lieu of the arch logo that is currently there. and the current arch logo that is currently installed behind the dais we are going to look to council to give us some recommendations on what you'd like to have installed in lieu of the archway there are some designs imperfection if we remove it so we need to find a method to replace that replace that archway that we do not see the blemishes that's behind the panel. So that is something that we can workshop with council individually, but that is something that we need to work on. Before you, you'll see the proposed banners installed on the exterior of the police building. This is the entrance, and then we have two banners that faces Loessner Park and the Veterans Memorial. So that is the update on the America 250 banner installation. Now we are going to shift into the street banner locations, or rather the street banner program. So the intent here is that we will have street banners that is representative of The city, what is happening in the city, the entertainment offerings in the city installed citywide. There are some that will be specific to downtown Homestead. And then there are other banner option or concepts that will live throughout or rather be installed throughout the city and specifically the major corridors. We're looking to install these banners on the either decorative poles or the light poles that are owned by our HPS Energy Department. We have also, we've done a ride along, we've identified several corridors where the county owns the streetlights and we have already reached out to the county to understand their requirements should we want to attach to their poles. The poles that we're proposing for the street banners, or rather the banners for the poles are 48 by 30 and As you see before you, there are different concepts that is being presented. The style or the stylistic approach is the one word verb, the action, and then having some sort of a visual aid that is Descriptive of what is happening in the in the in the city or in the area as you'll see before you you have the downtown homestead Logo that is a That is a sub brand of the discover homestead brand so we wanted to keep our branding consistent So that is how you that is what you would see on all of the downtown homestead specific banners And then we also have several concepts for, again, entertainment, eateries, exploring downtown. Also, again, the intent is to encourage folks to visit or dining options and utilize the pedestrian opportunities that we are presenting. You also have, again, different shots of what visitors, residents are able to explore in the downtown area. We have some seminal theater shots. We've included our standing holiday treatments, whether it's the Race to the Fourth. We have been intentional in incorporating several agricultural pictures to make sure that we ensure we remain or keep the history of the city alive. We've also talked or incorporated several of the Everglades. um, our, the air base, the military branches, we've incorporated the speedway as well as the rodeo. Um, and then of course we are also looking ahead at, you know, the newly improved, um, uh, Chrome Avenue, what the SPH sports hub will look like. And really what I would like to, uh, point your attention to are these two options, which is again the America 250 banner and the Future Lives Here banner. This would be the first, as a part of the first deployment, right? So these two banners would be installed in concert with the other banners that you saw earlier. We have intentionally switched the America 250 logo to the city of Homestead logo that we are able to utilize these banners in future years. And I will, from an investment perspective, the improvements to city hall, or the banners to city hall, the PD building, and the interior of chambers, there's a fiscal impact of $39,000. On the street banner program, the first push, we have several funding sources. ARPA, our CMO communications budget, as well as the CRA's budget for the banners for the downtown area. And with that, I think I went to three minutes, so I apologize, sir. With that, I am happy to take any questions and or feedback at this time.

So just to be clear, you want us to focus primarily tonight on the interior and exterior of City Hall, the police station, and... Street banners that are America 250? The 4th of July banners.

4th of July, that is correct, sir. Council?

Councilwoman Bailey?

I'll kick it off. Thank you. Just a couple comments. If you can go back to the 250 related banners, my only comment with that is just trying to visualize it while you're driving down the street or passing by, that we might want to take better use of the size and make the lettering and the logo larger.

Okay.

So use maybe the similar font to the... America. It could be a little smaller, but take advantage and make it pop. As far as behind us, I think it looks very nice. I don't know what price tag removing it and fixing what's behind us. but I don't necessarily think we need to switch the logos behind us. I love the idea of all these banners and flags, but as far as what's behind us, I think it looks nice now. Just throwing that out there.

It does look nice, but personally, I've always thought it was too low. The former assistant city manager was left unsupervised, and this was mounted at the wrong height. Whoever sits in this seat, blocks that, and we have all the dead space above it. That was the thinking, that it's really too low and not to scale for the wall. That was the thinking.

If that's the case, then great. And the only thing then, which we're not talking about yet, but the smaller the future lives here banners, for me, I think we have enough to talk about that is already happening. In the visioning sessions, I think that's great, but to advertise something that's not quite there yet, getting ahead of ourselves, and like I said, I think we have enough that we've already done to advertise. That's all I have. Thank you.

Are you talking about these that have the tagline or this stuff? Okay. Gotcha. I agree. Not now.

Agreed.

Okay.

All right.

Mr. Mayor. Council Fletcher and then Councilwoman Avila.

Not to belabor the subject, I think all these are great. Some are a little too busy, but maybe we can tone them down a little bit and make them pop like you said. But I'd like to bring up again, I've been asking for this for quite some time on our city letterheads, you know, where we have our logo and then down the side, most of the time we have the names of everyone. I'd like to do the the co-branding with the championship race. Soon we're going to be adding Miami FC to Homestead and hopefully a championship there as well. We talked about this quite some time ago, but we've never really implemented it yet. I think we need to really market our facility that's leased by NASCAR, but we should be helping that when we're sending out our normal mail.

Thank you. Even on email, between now and the race. Correct. And do we have their final logo that doesn't use the word homestead?

For SPH? No.

No, no, no. For the track, for this championship race. Yeah, we do.

Yeah, we do.

And we, well... We are working with the track to do some elements of joint banners. They're working with us jointly on the banner program as well as the water tower. They have shared with us a design concept.

So Mayor and Council, the administration is going to come back with all those concepts for your review and approval before we adopt anything. I don't recommend we put stuff on our letterhead without council's concurrence first.

One final? Okay. I know we reached out to, you said county-owned streetlights? Yes, sir. Can we reach out to Florida Power and Light because the main thoroughfare, especially in the Southeast District, is Palm Drive, and I know those are FPL streetlights, but I know there's liability that comes with that as well.

So last week I reached out to the... governmental affairs manager for FPL. Because of that, as well as some other additional law-related issues, he's currently out of the country until the 27th. And he promised me that as soon as he comes back, he's coming to Homestead to finalize on all pending issues.

Can you go back to the one with the tomatoes and the avocados? Okay, yeah, you passed it. Okay, so... You know, to not, and again, not to belabor the point, but to not have too many of the happy birthday America banners downtown. Why not intersperse one of the tomatoes and one of the, and I like the first avocado and the first tomato. You see, that would be my preference. To alternate the happy birthday America.

Future lives here.

With produce. The future lives here. And they have three different kinds of banners, so it's not so monolithic. This is in downtown Cromwell. And there are some that we like that we can go forward with later. But as we're going back into and really trying to showcase our agricultural roots, for the first tranche of banners, if we could do that. And I think Councilwoman Avila had some comments.

Thank you. When do we think we're printing the banners? Yesterday?

To be installed by Memorial Day weekend.

To be installed by Memorial Day weekend.

So then the locations and all that, we're not going to have a second hack? Say that again? For the locations on the map and all that, we won't have another hack at this, right?

Well, certainly we will. Because what I imagine will happen is for May, we may... be certainly able to install on our street lights, right? Or decorative lights. And then maybe the county will give us approval later thereafter. So I anticipate there being a rolling implementation that's possible. It depends on when the county or FPL gives us a determination.

For example, like Speedway Boulevard for race weekend leading up to the race and some of those major east-west corridors where folks would come in from the west of the track to come in there. We also touched on some of the 4th of July banners in that corridor when folks are coming out there for our programming.

OK, so a few things. The logo behind the chair, for the same reason why we want to raise the logo, I don't think we should replace it with another tombstone style sign. Perhaps just something simple to hide the defect you're referring to. But if the goal is to be able to see the full logo during live play of the meetings, I can understand why you want to do that. I'd prefer not to spend that kind of money if we don't have to. I agree with the vice mayor.

We'll get it right the second time.

Okay. The banners in the inside, I don't know if that's necessary. I think that it's another distraction in the room. It's more work. But I do like the alternating of the signs. The 250 signage per se, it wasn't a wow factor for me. I'm not sure if there were other renderings to consider, but if this is what we're going to work with in terms of the basic style, making the verbiage like vice versa. You mean the ones for outside? Right. Let's see what it looks like. Thank you.

Well, what you don't really pick up here is kind of the watermark behind it and the fireworks. It may not be really visible here. I think maybe on a printout.

I mean, it's temporary. It's not permanent. It's just this year, and then it's off.

Well, we're going to take the 250 logo off of these and put our round logo on them so that they can be used year after year.

So then the background, the blue and all that will stay the same?

Because nobody's proposing that we spend this money for these large banners to use one time.

Got it.

So we put the round logo there. We can use them for several years.

Okay.

And perhaps in different locations.

Got it. So they'll have fireworks on it all year long? Not all year long.

No, no, no. This is just for that period this year, Memorial Day to Labor Day.

So you're saying you'll reuse the banner but put a new print on the banner as you phase out the seasons? How are you going to reuse the banner?

You're going to take these banners down, store them, and put them back up.

Next year I understand what you're saying right, but they're not going to be a permanently a fixed. Oh, no No, no no no okay with regards to the branding I do believe that we have an opportunity like councilman Fletcher said with Highlighting home of the championship race right so we can brand with that for this year on all of our Templates and then next year. What are we home of home of the I don't know F whatever's going big game whatever and then the year after that or the season and Home of the Sunflower Festival coming 2027.

It was a stinking cover crop. They weren't selling them. It was a cover crop.

It's definitely something that it just throws messaging. It highlights on what to look forward to, and it's a buzz for whoever's receiving it. Thank you very much. Thank you. So great idea on that, and I do support that. In general, the signage and the locations, we'll just keep working on it. Thank you.

All right, thank you very much.

All right, thank you. Does that include comments from council? Councilman Roth, you're good? Okay, all right. So do you have what you need from us on this item at this point?

We do, thank you very much.

I guess you don't wanna jump into picking out floor coloring while we're decorating, no. At the direction of the manager. Let's don't. That's not the next item, I was kidding. As long as we're picking out curtains, let's pick out carpet. We'll take a break on that. All right, our next item is the approval of the consent agenda, which is tabs 3A through tab 11. It's been moved. Do we have a second?

A second with a comment, please.

A second with a comment. Go ahead, comment.

Thank you. I support the consent agenda. One point I want to make with regards to the PAL gym, not necessarily the contract that we're approving under the item for the PAL, as I do support the extra programming and the formatting on how the programs will be provided to the PAL kids and everything in general, but I DID HAVE A BRIEFING WITH OUR CITY MANAGER, THE POLICE CHIEF, AND IN REGARDS TO THE PAL PROGRAM IN GENERAL, AND THAT'S SOMETHING THAT I WOULD LIKE FOR THE REST OF COUNCIL TO BE AWARE OF AND TO REVIEW HOPEFULLY SOON. I DID RECEIVE A MEMO WITH REGARDS TO THEIR INTERNAL AUDITING OF THE PROGRAM. And I want to continue to have the city and the staff to support the PAL program, as is under the Homestead Police Department's purview. And I just want to give you all the opportunity to review that information as soon as possible, and perhaps let's call a sunshine meeting to discuss further and make sure that if that is the will of the council, that the staff knows that and is able to... ENCOURAGE THE PROGRAMMING, THE STRUCTURE OF THE PROGRAM AS WELL AS THE ENTITY TO BE MAINTAINED AS SUCH. AND I DID REQUEST FOR BUDGETING INFORMATION PRE-COVID AND I DID NOT RECEIVE THAT YET. I REQUESTED IT A COUPLE TIMES. SO I WANTED TO KNOW IF THAT HAS pulled from record. I can't imagine that it's difficult for us to find what the budget was for a program that we have been funding for 2019. It's not like it's buried in the basement of the old city hall.

Yeah, Councilman, I think the finance director pulled up one of the years and is working with PD to get additional information for you.

Great, thank you. All right, I'll rest there, but that is my second.

Okay, thank you. All right, any further comments on the approval of the consent agenda? All right, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right, Mr. White, have at it.

Yes, quasi-judicial items. Please be advised the following items on the agenda are quasi-judicial in nature. If you wish to comment on any of these items, please indicate the item number you would like to address when the announcement regarding the quasi-judicial item is made. an opportunity for persons to speak on each item, will be made available after the applicant and staff have made their presentations on each item. Swearing in, all testimony, including public testimony and evidence, will be made under oath or affirmation. Additionally, each person who gives testimony may be subject to cross-examination. If you do not wish to either be cross-examined or sworn, your testimony will be given as due aid. The general public will not be permitted to cross-examine witnesses, but the public may request the council to ask questions of staff or witnesses on their behalf. The full agenda packet on each item is hereby entered into the record. Persons representing organizations must present evidence of their authority to speak for the organization Further, details of the quasi-judicial procedures may be obtained from the clerk, and according to Code Section 2-590, any lobbyists must register before addressing the council on any of the following items. At this time, council members must disclose any ex parte communications concerning any items on the agenda. And I would just note that Tab 12 and 13 are not quasi-judicial items. They're legislative matters, so we can take those up when we get to the legislative matters section. Okay. So quasi-judicial items for consideration this evening would be second reading of tab 15, tab 16, tab 17, tab 18, and tab 19. 18, not 19. 15 through 18.

I heard you say 19. That's 18.

Okay. Right, right, but not part of the same project. So do we need to go to the...

Right, so 19 is the... A separate item, right.

So do we need to go first to the second reading of the rezoning for this package?

That would be correct, but first... Disclosures, okay All right, so then at this time anyone in the audience wishing to speak this evening Please stand raise your right hand to be sworn in by the clerk You swear by do you hereby swear for him to tell the truth and nothing but the truth to help me God So Mr. Mayor, we can move to the second reading, the rezoning, tab 15. I can introduce that as well as tab 16, 17, and 18.

Right. Let's introduce the entire package, and then we'll vote in the order that's necessary. Right. Individually.

So tab 15 is the second reading of an ordinance of the city of Homestead, Florida approving the rezoning as requested by Bama LLC and Penco LLC of an approximately 62.35 acre parcel of land from agricultural AU zoning district to one family, one half acre ATU zoning district. FOR PROPERTY GENERALLY LOCATED SOUTH OF SOUTHWEST 396th STREET, NORTH OF 302nd STREET, AND WEST OF SOUTHWEST 192nd AVENUE AS LEGALLY DESCRIBED IN EXHIBIT A IN PROVIDING FOR CONFLICT SEVERABILITY AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE. Tab 16, card number 4974 is a resolution of the City of Homestead, Florida, granting site plan approval as requested by Bama and Penco LLC for the development of 119 single-family dwelling units within a new residential subdivision on an approximately 62.35-acre parcel of land. Tab 17 is card number 4975. It is a resolution of the City of Homestead, Florida granting tenants of flat approval as requested by Bama and Penco LLC for the development of a 115 single family unit new residential subdivision and lastly tab eighteen car number forty nine seventy six is a resolution of the city of homestead florida granting a variance as requested by obama and penco llc from the city code of ordinances section thirty dash ninety eight one regulations to permit a minimum building site or lot area of fifteen thousand seven hundred eighty square feet where a minimum One half acre, 21,780 square foot building site or lot is required for each single family dwelling unit. This is for the development of 119 single family dwelling homes within a new residential subdivision.

Thank you. Any issues with waiving the staff report and we can come back to staff if necessary after the applicant's presentation? Mr. Orza. Is his mic on?

It's on. Can you hear me? We can hear you. Thank you, sir. Good evening. Hugo Arza, 701 Burkle Avenue. I'm joined today by my partner, Alex Arias, as well as representatives from Lennar Homes. Pleasure to be before you. Thank you all for your time. I had an opportunity to sit with all of you prior to first reading and again, before this evening for second reading. So I know you're familiar with the site and the property. I want to thank staff for their work with us in getting this project to the finish line. We hope this evening and see that we've already we're on the subject site. So again, you know, just to orient us a little bit out of the eastern portion of our properties, 192nd Avenue, 296th Street, Avocado is on the north side and Basically, a budding to the north, the under construction Aspen Estates project that you see on the on the screen there under development and under construction and approved by this Council. And I will come back to that approval in a few slides because the really the theme of. The application, when 1st presented to me to submit to the city for approval, and in my discussions with, I think all of you throughout time was that having gone through that approval process recently, the city had expressed support for what you now see there under development, an application that contain the exact same for requests before you this evening. The site plan, the T plot, the rezoning and the same variance for lot sizes. So, when when our came to me, I said, whatever we do, let's make sure we can match what this city and council have previously approved in the recent past. Um, that approval happened, uh, I think not quite 3 years ago. So, in the recent past, and so what we had this evening is a project that is just a hair under the density that aspects states had approved. And we use that kind of as a bit of a guiding principle. Um, we felt that it was appropriate to try and, uh. Take a nod to what this council had already previously approved. Um, it also factually, and we'll see it meant that there were places where that project and the roads that exist because of that project, we're going to come into our project. So, really, it is a continuation of a theme, even though it is 2 different developers, but the state homes in this. Corner of the city, which does about your city boundary and I'll show you in a minute that, in fact, a portion of this project once developed the one before you this evening, a portion of it actually is outside of the city limits. It's in the county. That's already been through approvals for a state sized homes. And so we have before you the 62.35 gross acres that you have within your city boundaries, existing land use designation state density. That is. Important I noted it obviously 1st reading talked about the, the rezoning and so I made the point that I'll make it again. Now we are not seeking an increase in density above that, which your master plan already contemplates for this site. Your master plan has for quite some time intended for this site to be developed with up to 2 and a half. 2.5 dwelling units per acre and so we're below that we're at 1.98, but we're not asking for any additional density beyond what your master plan. That's important to keep in mind because that is what you're governing. Planning document envisioned as envisioned for since the mid 2000 is as far back as I can go showing that that property for the better part of 20 years. uh had and there was an expectation that it would be developed with estate homes and so um it's important to note that you get many land use changes not maybe not many but you do get the you get some land use changes sometimes where you can do this much on a property but applicants will come in and say i want to do more than what is allowed under your master plan this is not one of those cases i think that's an important point uh worth noting uh because this is already something that's contemplated by your master plan Existing zoning classification agriculture, I mean, by and large, most parcels in Miami-Dade County, both within Homestead and unincorporated and in other municipalities until they are developed, they carry with them 1 of 2 zoning categories, GU or AU. Many carry a you because many were historically utilized for agriculture. That doesn't mean, however, that the master plan doesn't govern the intended use. And again, that's the estate density. So, while the existing zoning is agriculture, the master plan has contemplated, as I said, for over 2 decades that this be developed. With a residential project for a long time, it was farmed much like all of South data and a lot of our county in general. And now we would see the rezoning to allow for us to. Develop a project consistent with your master plan, and this is the, the graphic. It struck me when I looked at this graphic and just just to point out that the community, the much more longer established community to the east on the other side of 192nd Avenue. And there's there's a few different, you know, that's been there for a long, long time actually has low density land use designation. So what that means is that. It that area could have up to six walling units per acre and I know it's fully developed and it's not a vision, but just as a nod, while there are larger state homes there today, there's nothing that the master plan that precludes at some point down the road from people, perhaps assembling some of that and seeking an approval in the future for greater density. That's not possible for us, but it was telling to me that even an area that has. The larger estate home lots on the city still has a more intense land use category. We don't have that. We are in the state density in its entirety and can't ask for that. So, again, before you this evening is the 2nd reading of our request. The reason the property to a 2, which is your 1 half acre states. Site plan approval, which obviously all of your projects require. 10,000 approval, which goes with your site plan approval and skipping over, but I'm leaving it for to note that obviously a lot of the discussions that I had with all of you regarded the variance. And again, our. Guiding light in asking for the variance was that it was incredibly consistent almost down to, you know, within 0.02. Dwelling units per acre with the community that had been approved to the South Aspen estates. And I thought that that was telling and important. So the very same variance request that this council approved about 3 years ago, give or take. I will note there's no CDD request before you this evening. I know a question came up earlier about perhaps placing some restrictions on a CDD, and I can get into that a little later. But we will be filing and processing for consideration by this council a CDD, the recommendation by the city for the county commission to create the CDD. I have confirmed, Councilwoman Avila, because I don't want to forget later, that a CDD petition can be made without where it... Prevents or prohibits the expansion of that CD at a later date. So I will again, we're filing that application. We will work that through. I can't make a commitment for an application not before you this evening, but to the extent that there might be. Concerns when that CD application will, I mean, I actually already texted with CD council. She's assured me that that commitment can be made. We can file it that way. And when it comes before you, obviously, you'll be able to evaluate that. It's not before you today. What is also telling is that there will be no way. I think when we first started visiting with some of you prior and first reading. There was a discussion many of our communities have both an H. O. and a CD. They piggyback their responsibilities. They serve different functions given that there were this community doesn't have a centralized amenity. Like a clubhouse or something that required other management. The, the is able to remove any from here. Obviously, that represents a savings for these folks. They'll have a CD and we'll have the numbers and the price and the amount when we come before you at a later date. But there will be no way. Many of the communities do have both. And so I think that hopefully that will be positively weighed on. This is a different kind of community. It's not a gated community. It's not a community where folks are going to have larger homes and larger lots and. YOU KNOW, CAN KIND OF DO WHAT THEY WANT WITHIN THEIR PROJECT. AGAIN, AND I'VE TALKED TO THIS, OUR PROPERTY IN YELLOW, 1.98 UNITS PER ACRE, ASKING THE STATE'S 2.01. Right there and very, very slightly below. Um, so I think that it's, um, telling that that we try to match that and try to create something. Um, and I will, and I'll show you in the site plan that again, the, the, the road network does connect through. So, even though these 2 communities are going to are being developed at a different time, you know, the 1 to the South obviously is under development already. Um, folks will have access through for for any kind of mobility purposes. Um. And there you have some of the information about the surrounding properties, and I've been touching up on all of this, but basically, we are consistent with everything around us. We are state density and around us. We either have a state density, or, as I noted on the East load density, we have the same zoning category in the county property, which is a part of this project. But in the county, they have a category called it's a state density with. And so we are compatible and again, there's no small single. FAMILY LOTS THERE'S NO TOWNHOUSES HERE THERE'S NONE OF THAT SO IT IS COMPATIBLE IN THAT SENSE OBVIOUSLY IN SHOWING THIS WE'VE TALKED A LITTLE BIT ABOUT BUT HERE WAS YOU KNOW SOME OF THE THE HIGHLIGHTS OF THAT ASK IN THE STATE'S APPROVAL THE DENSITY THE LOT VARIANCE THAT WAS APPROVED THE TENTH OF PLAT AND THE REDESIGNATION AGAIN ALMOST MIRRORING MANY OF THE ALL OF THE REQUESTS ALMOST DOWN TO THE LAST COMMA OR DETAIL And that compatibility goes through also with the development pattern and the road network and everything that is contained. I will note, because I've been asked before, maybe this is a better slide, we don't control, so there's a little notch up at the top, you see the little rectangle up there, that is owned by a different owner. It's my understanding that they're into the city or will be into the city for a Similar type of a state home development at 1 point, we had a conversation with them. They, you know, for their own reasons, and they would not have to, of course, didn't didn't see a need to join our project. So, but the, but the city is aware that that notch there while it's out of the confines of this project will also be developed with a state home. So I just mentioned that so that. You all can can appreciate that it will be the same continuity of pattern. So, here's the site plan. The yellow is the county parcel. That will be part of this development in this community. Once finished, you know, I mean, the folks. It'll be curious, right? So people living sort of behind each other or have a walk away are going to be in the county and not in the city. But that's where the city boundary is. So that parcel is already approved in yellow. But as you can see, it ties in on the South and on the North and in the middle point. and then to the south you see those connection points into aspen um particularly in that block in the bottom and i will talk a little bit about that block because that block is the block that contains some of those smaller lot sizes and in large part it's because of the configuration of the roads to the south when you look at those two roads to the south you break up that square um and and at a fixed point right i mean you've got to connect exactly with the roads that exist in the south which meant that we in a couple of those blocks Don't have quite the depth of lots. I've gone back to the drawing board and I have a couple of thoughts and suggestions for what we can do to enable and make sure that the future residents of those lots, even if their lots are the 2 blocks are 5 feet. Less in depth. So obviously that makes a little bit of a difference with a backyard, with the ability to have a pool exactly where you want it. And we have some thought given, and I'll wait if there's some questions as to how we might be able to ensure that even those lots, even though they're a little smaller, still can enjoy a fully functional backyard. And we have some thoughts for those that I'm happy to share with all of you. We'll get to it. Some of the site plan graphics again, the 119 units and all the requests for the variance requests. The only variance required again is the minimum building site, the lot size. And so I want to note here that out of the 119, you know, 90, whatever it is, 24 lots, I'll stick to the number on the screen, 24 lots are under 17,000. So the great majority of the lots are actually greater than 17,000, including many, as you can see, like the entirety of block seven, which is 19,000, the entirety of block six, which is 18,500 and higher. So by no means is the request to bring down every lot to the 15,800 or so feet that we have in a handful of lots it's the majority of the lots are 18, 19, all of block 9, as you can see on the right, is 21,000, with the exception of a couple of lots that are actually in excess of the half acre. So again, the request is somewhat borne out by the road networks and how you break it up, and then some of the blocks getting a little smaller, and also driven, candidly, as we've discussed with all of you, by a lot of market economics. The development of the site is a fixed cost. The property Comes at a fixed cost. I mean, whatever the cost of the land is, the water and sewer that will be brought to this site from the county, we're not going to be taxing the city's infrastructure here. We're going to tap tap into another one in our community that has to be brought in at the developer's cost. All of those are fixed costs, regardless of the exact number of lots. And so, you know, given how expensive land is, how expensive development is, how expensive water and for sure. Water and sewer infrastructure is the project before you is the 1 that is able to provide for a project that works for all folks. And we talked a little bit about the prices. I mean, these are homes that are, we anticipate will go on the market between the middle 700s to the middle of the high 800. so it's in that spot of homes that are admittedly step up homes. I mean, most folks will buy an initial home. It might be a town home. It might be a small single family home. And this will be obviously, uh, you know, for a lot of folks, a second family home, a little later in their life. Um, and and we'll provide for that space and amenities. Um, but frankly, it's hard to get in most of the accounting at this point to have 18, 19, 20, 21,000 square feet lots. Here is a graphic depiction of the smallest lots. You had it in the tab form or in the chart form. And here is the smallest lots. And again, the smaller lots are principally driven by the fact that those road networks on the west side also break it up. And so that is the space that we have, so to speak, on both sides of those roads, which when you then divide it up into to the home sites generates the lot sizes that you have before you. But it also means that it's well into the community, will not be visible from 296 or 192nd Avenue. That is, those traversing through the area are not, although I've said this before, it is difficult when you're driving to note the difference between a 16,000 square foot lot and a 19,000 square foot lot. I do this for a living and driving down the street, you're hard pressed. Because it's both width and depth, so it's really hard to see what you're going to see is an estate size lot. But nevertheless, they are within the community. To the West side closer to the county parcel for this away from the established pattern on the East side of 192nd Avenue and the major thoroughfares of avocado and 192nd. And I think we've talked about the compatibility of the project substantially. The tentative plot, which, as you all know, is – and I'm going to go back because I want to touch on one other point. The tentative plot, which is your – You know, surveyors review of all of the technical requirements of state and county procedures. It's mostly governed by state and county planning. But obviously, your city has an obligation to approve the tentative plot. The tentative plot is. Pursuant to your staff recommendation and review consistent with the site plan and meets all of the requirements for the subdivision of this parcel. I brought it back to this cycling because I wanted to talk a little bit because there was a lot of discussion. 1 of the requests that we got from staff. And again, we work closely with. With the fortune and her team and development services was the desire to have all on the northern perimeter of the property on 26 along the eastern perimeter on 190 2nd Avenue on the. 300 street, which is a street that basically bisects our project from the estimate states project and then on 194th coming down. Um, a wider 10 foot buffer, and I've had some discussions about the implications of that, but I think the belief and desire was that that buffer would provide again for some visible. Greater plantings that would provide an opportunity for again folks driving through to see a more lushly landscaped area rather than. Folks, I'm not having that 10 foot buffer along those thoroughfares and just being able to see more into the backyards of homes. What we're proposing here is with that additional 10 feet of planting is, and that was 10 feet of planning. We'll have trees, not bushes. So those trees, obviously, with the rain that we get in South Florida will grow and will provide for a canopy and a visual break where you won't really see on avocado in 192nd in a few years. The homes that are behind it, because those lots and then we were counting them and most of the lots have 8 trees across their backyard. So they'll grow and they'll they'll fill out 1 of the point on that that I can confirm. So I was asked a question by Councilman. I'll be less. I'll jump the gun here is. We are. Planting hedges and what we're doing is with their on the plans shown as 3 feet tall. But they will grow to six feet. Now, if we plant taller, and we have one of our sort of land development folks here from Lennar today. If we plant taller hedges today, they have to be planted further apart because their root structure is larger. If you do that, they might stay there, they'll be full size, but because they have to be planted further apart, Initially, you'll create gaps. So you'll have the taller, but you'll create gaps. And so your concern of somebody walking on the sidewalk on 296, being able to look into someone's backyard would actually be less contained than planting them at three feet closer and allowing them to grow in to their full size of six feet. But since you're planted at a closer time, they grow in and get closer together. So if we plant them taller, they have to be planted further apart and they don't come in quite as fully and you end up with gaps. That's what the plan shows today. My hope is that that would ameliorate your concern because the intention is that that does grow to be approximately six feet. The fence is five feet. That would be six feet, not like six foot two. So again, unless you're talking about someone very tall. And by the way, those folks would then have to see across 10 feet wide of trees. So, I think hopefully we can address, I started writing it down as a condition for a possible approval this evening, but I believe what's shown today. Is the 3 feet tall at a space that will provide for that canopy? But I know you've got staff here that you can ask that for. Our goal would be to create something that is that is private. So I didn't want to talk about that a little bit. Um, I will say that we are, um, we, we have a, you know, we will be providing a flag. So the middle, the 1 middle green parcel that you see there. Right there serves two purposes. It's not really a common amenity. It is a lift station and it is the mailbox kiosk because as you all know, the US Postal Service no longer delivers to every home. They deliver to a centralized location for every development across the country. That is not something we can get out of. So that that will have the mailbox kiosk, and that will also have the lift station that we need for our project. And so we will have a flag there, which is the kind of the center point of that community on 300 street 194th Avenue can also say that if it's the wish of this council, we are happy to include. A I had to look up what it's called, but it's called a flagpole bracket and we can install flagpole bracket on each home. As we construct those homes on and and, you know, folks can then fly as we discussed. Sometimes it's football season. You fly a hurricane flag or Notre Dame flag. And that was for you, Councilman Fletcher. Better luck next year. But but obviously an American flag during all the all of our holidays, an Easter flag, whatever the case may be. So the homes will all come with a with a flagpole bracket. I know that that was requested. And again, I'll leave some time to discuss. I touched on the CDD, the ability to limit the CDD from any future expansion when the CDD item is before you. So I had it in my notes that I wanted to comment on. And the other one was for those lots. In block 10, which is the least deep lots, we have some options in which we could ensure that even with the slightly, there's still 131 feet deep. I don't want anyone to think that these are not deep lots, but. Other lots are 135, 140, 142. So the loss of those few feet does impact the usability when you add in the setbacks. And so it would be a little more challenging for the five homes in that block to, for instance, add a pool. But just for those five, it would be a little bit more difficult. We do have a solution. We can select and put certain models there, the smaller models. And obviously, since they're smaller, there's a little bit more room in the back. If this council wishes, we can have a conversation during questions, but that would ensure that even those 5 homes would have the opportunity for that family that purchases the home. To add a pool at a later date and have the room for it, which, you know, again, not every house has some folks may never add 1, but giving the option is always a good 1. so. Um, I think we've kind of hit on all of the themes and we had a lot of questions and I've tried to anticipate some of the questions. Um, that you've all asked already, but I suspect you'll have a few more and I'm happy to answer those. Um, you know, for us, it's about being compatible to a recent approval. It's about being compatible to the area in the community. It's about not seeking greater density than that, which the master plan allows. It's coming in at 1.98 dwelling units per acre where you could have up to 2.5. That's what your master plan says. It's not, you know, not us picking a number. It's about making sure that the project is compatible and will be something proud. And, you know, On that note, I leave you with scrolling through some of the architecture, which, you know, I often get more comments. Listen, architecture is tough. Colors, everybody, you know, we all like what we like, but we did go for something different. Lennar certainly hasn't built this type of home in your community. They've built a lot more on the east side. It's a different typology of architecture. Here, as you can see, the homes, you know, with the siding, the different colored garages, I mean, there's a lot that's being done here. Homes that have their garages on the side, for instance, I mean, obviously state homes. And so you hide the garage entirely. You provide relief and elevations at different places. Predominantly 1 story models, since the lots are bigger. We do, and as you can see in this graphic, and in this one here, there are some 2 story models for the families that need a little more space or want the privacy. Some folks like to have their bedroom upstairs, whatever the case may be. But again, Options and models, and I think color palettes that hopefully complement a lot of what you're seeing and deciding and some of the architectural features that hopefully are amenable and acceptable to the Council. And we worked on some of those, obviously, with your development services director too. So. I leave you with the pretty pictures because that's always the way to do it. I would urge you this evening to approve all four requests before you. I will leave it to your attorney to tell you the order. I thank you all for your time because I know we met on several occasions with all of you, and I look forward to answering your questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Arza. Let me, before we jump into any questions we may have, let me look to the audience and online and see if there are any members of the public who wish to speak. either in favor or against this package of applications. Is there anyone online? Anyone in the audience who would wish to speak with respect to this new development? Okay then. Last chance. I'll close the public hearing then and open it up to council's questions and comments. Who would like to kick it off?

All right, go ahead. Don't all jump at once.

And I'm going to say a lot of the stuff I want to say are things we've already discussed, okay? I tried. I tried.

I have my list here.

I will I won't be supporting the zoning change but I'm assuming it'll pass and so with that I'll continue with my other comments okay the growth is coming but what we can control is whether or not the growth is going to erase our image and replace it or if it's going to reflect what we want it to reflect which is our our homestead and agricultural roots and lifestyle that we want to preserve we want it to mesh well with our future I can appreciate the the architectural design that was displayed in this plan. I appreciate the color scheme. I think it looks modern and fresh and can appeal to the message that I'm trying to really hear. What I am a little disappointed with is the landscaping plan in general. I know you mentioned about the hedge, which I can understand that if the hedge is the type of plant that can grow to six feet, fine. But the pictures that I saw are small, more ground cover type of hedges that maybe can grow to two feet. So I'd like to see that be more specific. And with regards to just the way that the sidewalk maybe is shaped instead of straight lines, more ergonomic or curvier shapes, I would have loved to see some more influences for agricultural garden to table lifestyle. As you mentioned, this is a step up, right? Maybe these families are more mature. They have older children. They're maybe getting into their more mature years as parents and spending more time at home and gardening and things like that. The other community that we're using as a base for this one had raised garden beds as part of their site plan accommodations. So are these things that you have already considered and can potentially add to this project? And I hope so because Lennar has been very successful in creating agri-hood style communities in Florida. And I would expect that Lennar could be the example and can set that standard here in Homestead. We really don't have a lot of opportunity to make these design initiatives because of everything getting built out. So if this is going to pass, I would really encourage council to try to include these types of aspects. The porches could have been more prominent so that you have that more outside living appeal. And I think, you know, the fact that there's no HOA is definitely a plus, but that could have been the mechanism to maybe help with creating more outside areas and amenities for the families to enjoy that could promote that agricultural loving lifestyle. And, you know, I know that there's the debate of that's not the buyer we want to attract, but that's the buyer we want to have here in Homestead, one who's going to CONTINUE TO PROMOTE THE VOICE OF WE'RE HOMESTAD, WE'RE NOT OTHER AREAS. SO I'LL REST THERE. I'D LOVE TO HEAR THE COMMENTS OF MY COLLEAGUES AND RESERVE FOR RESPONSE LATER. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU, COUNCILMAN. VICE MAYOR BAILEY.

THANK YOU, MAYOR. I DEFINITELY WOULD LIKE TO HEAR SOME MORE COMMENTS FROM YOU ALL AS WELL. YOU KNOW, A LOT OF TIMES WHEN THESE VARIANTS COME UP, There is no hardship. And we understand that it's a matter of maybe making it a little more uniform, getting a couple more units in there. which I can appreciate is in the end going to lower the price a little bit for our residents. But at the same time, offering to put in a smaller house so that they can potentially have a pool, definitely not what we're looking for.

To be fair, the smaller house is, I think, still about 3,000 square feet. I mean, no one would be, I mean, it's still a large home, but just, I mean, if I said it that way, I just want to clarify that point. I mean, it's not a small home.

I understand that. But to get into the thinking about that, then I just start going in these crazy rabbit holes of trying to imagine what people would want. And obviously, none of us are ever going to know. But this is one of the last lots that we have for these half-acre homes. And there is a very big difference from the smallest to what should be approved. So raised gardens, that was one of the small pieces that was concessioned for that other project. For me, the side setbacks and the backyards are key for Homestead. I feel like a lot of us do our living outside of the house as well. The porch is a good point that maybe would be a better concession. I know that you're not asking for a setback of the 50, what is it, 52? Yes, front is 50. Is it 52? 50. 50. So that's a lot of front yard. I think that most people, it is a backyard thing, but if it does pass again, that we can consider having a larger porch Side setbacks obviously aren't an issue here, but that's one thing that after you visit somewhere and you just feel that house right next to you, that's not what we're looking for. Flagpole bracket, great, but we need to talk a little more. So hence the, I would like to hear more from From my colleagues, just because, yeah, the one thing I'm glad about is that block 11, block 11 where the backyards are facing each other, before we were able to talk specifics with the dimensions there. I was going to be a definite no, because they look smaller than block 10 and 12. Right, right. So 11, if you can point to that. Those are the three blocks with the square. Right, right.

So that one I have, yeah, there you go.

So they end up being 30...

135 to 136 deep, not the 131 of block 10. Block 12 is also 135 to 136 deep. So 10 is the one that is by about five feet on average less deep.

And then those backyards would be 29. And the width there?

100 feet. 100. Yeah, the lots are 100 feet wide. Yeah, so I mean, the homes, I mean, we have no site setbacks. And we have no lot frontage. We have a lot size variance, but not a lot frontage. So these homes are going to be your neighbor's home and your home are going to be to code it as far as your code requires. So there is no seeing, like, you know, even if this were being developed without the size variance, the lot size variance, the distance between the structures would be exactly the same. Right.

I understand that.

So we're not, you know, that does go a long way of giving folks a sense of privacy, right? You can't reach out and touch. I mean, no, you've got, you know, 40 to 50 feet between you and your neighbor's house with your property line in the way. So there is an ample difference.

And is this one of those projects where you are going, where Lenar is going to reach out to potential buyers for them to choose the size of the home that goes?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, so Lenar will sell, it'll have a sales center, it'll have a...

A FEW OF THE MODELS AVAILABLE.

THE MODELS IF APPROVED, THE VARIOUS MODELS THAT YOU WOULD HAVE, AND THEN TYPICALLY A BUYER, THEY CAN CORRECT ME, BUT I'VE DONE THIS ENOUGH TIMES, A BUYER WOULD COME IN, A FAMILY, THEY COME IN, THEY LOOK AT A LOT THEY MAY BE INTERESTED IN A HOME, AND THEN THAT'S HOW THEY GENERATE THEIR PRICE. WE COULD, IN AN EFFORT TO ENSURE THAT ANYONE WHO ULTIMATELY BUYS A HOME IN BLOCK 10, WE COULD SAY For these five out of 119, for these five homes, your choice is limited to these smaller, and again, 3,000 square foot lots. So that's going to be their reference. That's their election, yes, exactly.

Maybe the 29-foot backyard is perfect for them because they just want a small patio. So that's my point, is they would be able to see that and know I'm choosing the two-bedroom or the three-bedroom and I'm not getting a pool or vice versa.

More like three or four or five, but yes. Absolutely, right.

So these smallest, any of those backyards could be, would be 29.

For the two smallest models, yes. Either of the two smallest models in Block 10 would permit for a 10-by-15-foot pet.

Correct, but regardless of the size of the house, the smallest backyard would be 29 feet.

I have to double-check that. That's a number I didn't crunch, but I can... It's here. Okay. I mean, is that...

The setback, the required setback is 25.

The required setback is 25.

And you're complying, you're not asking...

Right, so it sounds like, yeah, because we weren't right at the... Right. So I guess, yes. We weren't asking for a variance, so it could have been as small as 25, but yes, then it's 29. I'm sorry, I gave you that sheet. I didn't get it back, so.

I said I'd have it here. You never came. It's okay.

So yeah, I just didn't have it. But yeah, so if that's what that says, then that would be accurate.

What other concessions come to mind that you can throw out there before my colleagues?

Well, look, I'll touch on the issue of the planter boxes. We talked about that. I mean, obviously, Aspen Estates, I don't think it's sold out or is selling yet. um as an offer as an option i think we'd be happy to make that available to buyers i think you kind of woman i'm going to use your words as you yourself said i mean look you know most people if they want that or go to home depot and buy that for a few hundred dollars i mean i don't think that this is a you know but if in an effort to have it be a nod to a continuation of a theme um making it so that they don't have to go to home depot that it could be something that could be Place there for them, uh, you know, uh, an herb, little herb garden or whatever the case may be flower or something to to promote.

Um, to be fair, that was just an example. And with the Aspen estates, they actually had a home, uh, a homeowners association that was going to promote special programming within the community where there would be. You know, participation, organized participation, but I think the example is that. It's a very small gesture that could mean a lot and could encourage somebody who may not otherwise take the time to do it to start trying.

Yeah, I don't think we have any objection to making that something that can be offered.

If the programming isn't there and the HOA to help with it, then at the same time, it is a $200 pain in the neck for someone. Sure, yeah. Well, they can choose it. That's what I'm saying.

I think we can make it an option that we would go ahead and when it gets built, install it so that nobody's got to go do it later. That's what I'm offering. And that way, that might be a person that thinks that they want to do it. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a... Mean personally I think most homeowners would rather not pay an additional HOA fee to you know I mean your city has a lot of programs to promote farm and I think there's a lot of other ways that folks could probably address that but we could give them the option and I'm happy to include giving them the option as as an opportunity Thank You councilwoman council Fletcher I'll just start by saying

Ultimately, I've never been a fan of the architecture that's ever been provided to us on any of these projects. But that's my personal preference. Lennar sells properties all over the United States with different styles, and you could go to their website and see, and I may like one more than the other. It's not up to me. I'm not buying this house. I live where I live. I never thought I'd like the Mediterranean style I live in, but I love it. So I think to each their own when they're buying a home. I believe the lot sizes are comparable to what we've approved in the past. Again, would I like to have larger lots? Absolutely. But I think ultimately they're going to be in relation to what folks like. As far as setbacks are concerned, I would like to see more circular driveways with the larger front yards. But again, that's my inner architect out there, and nobody's going to agree with me on everything. I will just have to say that the buyer is going to have to make their choice when they buy the house. I can support this tonight based on what it's at. Again, the color palettes, there's going to be offered different colors, but if you look at most of the developments in town, they're all the same color. And I'm not a fan of that, but again, that's the buyer's preference at that point. I don't want to put too many restrictions on the builder because those restrictions start costing more money and the house has become more. So I'll rest it there for now, and I'm open to hearing the other comments, and I may change my mind on one or two things. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Fletch. Who wants to jump in, Councilwoman Koski or Councilman Roth first? Go ahead, Councilwoman Koski.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Arza, you're in my neighborhood. Yes, you told me. Yes, and on our farmland. And what, I'm sorry? And on our farmland, which is very near and dear to me and to the neighboring residents that live there. I have stressed my concern that you are on the cusp of the Redlands, and my concern in you being conducive to what is in the Redlands, even though this is Homestead. I understand that development is coming. There's not much that we can do to stop it, but I want you to consider the uniqueness of the area. I'm very saddened to see what the county has approved to the west of you, as we're making that transition into those larger lots, larger homes, a true estate house where people have custom-built their home and made it exactly what they want, that uniqueness that the Redland area offers. So that has always been my concern with you is that... I hate to use the word cookie cutter, but when they all look the same, as Mr. Fletcher has pointed out, I don't favor that either. We refer to the term planned development. Planned development, sorry.

Your point is taken.

I agree with Councilwoman Avila as well, that we're trying to retain what we can of our farmland. I just want to represent my district well and know that I want to offer them the best I can with what's coming down the road. Whether it's today or tomorrow, I'd rather see homes of a larger scale, larger lot line, lot land. If we're gonna make this unique, like an estate home, let's give them room, like we discussed, for recreation vehicles, their boats, their pole barns, their workshops. This is a smaller scale. to what they could possibly buy in the Redlands instead of buying two and a half or five acres to build on. You're offering something different, so let's offer them that. Let's make it something that it will transition well. That's always been my request. So I'll rest there.

Yeah, and we talked about this, and just to point out, and obviously I think with the vast majority of the lots being $19,000, $18,000, $19,000, $20,000, I mean, your city regulations will govern... The use that you're referring to, I mean, and there are for the vast majority of these properties, there are. 40 or 50 by 40, 50 feet wide entire areas in their backyards where they can build an accessory structure where they could build all of that. Nothing is prescribed by what we're proposing here. Admittedly, some of the smaller lots may not be able to enjoy all of those opportunities. Maybe you can't have. you know all of those by the way in the county you can't have multiple accessory units unless you get special permission either so it's it's you know it's on a smaller scale but nothing here prescribes if they meet your code otherwise this is not a pud or something where we're going to tell people as long as they meet code i mean if somebody wants to do you know an accessory in the backyard such as the ones you're talking about um they would be able to do so um and for a lot of the lots Um, they will they would have room they could choose to do that instead of a pool into a smaller pool and do that So that option will be there as you said on a smaller scale The two and a half or five acre parcel and you know this because of your line of work Is considerably more expensive and so it is a trade-off and a family may say well this gives me a new home the ability to do one of those things and You know get a taste of all of that Undoubtedly if they could you know, perhaps would love to buy the two and a half acre parcel outside Um, but that one comes at probably twice the cost you would know better, but I think it's hard to find a 2 and a half acre parcel in the Redlands for less than a 1,000,000 and a half or. Maybe more these homes are going to be half a little more than half the price. It's a trade off. I mean, these are families that are going to come into your community. We'll still be able to do some of those things. Admittedly on a smaller scale. So I mean, we're trying to find that balance.

Councilman okay. So I'm really torn. As someone who's lived here my entire life, who had his druthers, this would remain a farm field. That's not reality. And I don't really think that that's what's trying to be saved here. I think what's trying to be saved is the atmosphere of more open spaces and, you know, as on one hand is the grandson of somebody who built a lot of custom homes throughout Homestead and the Redlands, built what people wanted as they wanted it. Nothing ever looks alike. versus the reality of the cost of land, the cost of construction, and the time value of money. So, to, I think, to both of Councilman Wachowski and Avila's point, you know, this is a unique potential for a unique neighborhood where people have plenty of room to live outside, typically in their backyard. We're not Mayberry, people aren't living on their front porches. Maybe someday when redevelopment comes on the west side of downtown on a larger scale in Pioneer Village, maybe so. My neighborhood, and you didn't want to come here with too many variances. I think most everybody knows where I live. My house is set back about 25 feet, and I've got room for three massive oak trees in the front yard. Thinking out loud, and it just dawned on me here tonight, that on the size lots that we're talking about, a 50-foot setback for a front yard is the waste of a lot of space. That you're killing the backyard. Thinking out loud. Even at 35 feet, you still have plenty of room for the circular driveway, the pad going into the garage that could accommodate a car without being out in the sidewalk or blocking the street. And I'm wondering if your concern, my colleagues' concerns of open space and cramped backyards could be alleviated by layering in everybody being at a front setback of 35 feet to create backyards that are 15 feet deeper. Now look, I don't know if anybody and everybody wants planting beds. But if we want to create old South Dade and old Homestead, we could talk about Every backyard coming with some fruit trees or an avocado tree or a mango tree or what have you as part of the landscaping plan. I hate to say it, but this is not going to be ag property. The folks who are selling it are not agriculturalists. We're way beyond that. So if it's a look and a feel and an atmosphere, and again, just thinking out loud, I'm wondering if to a certain extent that could be adjusted by moving everything up to the 35-foot setback line. and layering in a couple of kinds of fruit trees in the backyard somewhere, like old Miami, old Pinecrest, before it was Pinecrest, where every, you know, the ones that are left, they have massive ancient mango trees in the backyard. So dispensing with all that theoretical frustrated architect and planner, When we first talked about this, we obviously made the analysis to the DR project to the south. And I'm sorry, the name of the subdivision escapes me. Aspen Estates. Aspen Estates. We were kind of making a one-to-one comparison. One of the issues we had in Aspen Estates was it was all single story. And I think we talked about that when you first came to visit me. And to me, that's very appealing. And I understand here you've got at least one. We have one two-story model. Two-story model. Right.

The majority of the models are one-story.

Yeah. And echoing Councilman Fletcher, not that it's great, but these designs are a step up from what we have seen in Homestead and Deep South Dade. So to that extent, I'll compliment your client who's with you. today, so I'm wondering if, and I understand it's a major adjustment, going back to the drawing board, if that would ease some of the discomfort some of you have with this entire package by moving the houses slightly forward to create larger backyards that can accommodate the pole barns, the sheds, the pools, and trees and shade trees.

Councilwoman? Thank you, Mayor. What I really would like to have is the client take ownership of bringing forward the ideas. Off the cusp here, we can think of a couple things.

That requires variance, to be fair.

I understand that. I think that if you're showing us a 50-foot front yard and a 10-foot backyard, it doesn't make sense to us. Sometimes Contractors will call their inspection so that it can fail, hear what you need to do, and then call back the inspector to pass the second time. And I think this is the opportunity for you to take it back, redesign the backyard, and bring us some options that a potential buyer could select from that promotes the agricultural and preserves the agricultural components of our community. So bigger yards, fruit trees you just do it rather than have it as an option you just right but you know and that would be in their landscaping plan in their landscaping plan that we would approve right the single stories what i would like to see as well is just maybe you know instead of it being square lines or straight lines give show me some some movement in the design um And Lennar is an excellent corporate citizen, right? I'm not going to ask you guys to help us create programming, but proffer something. You're asking for a variance. Help us get there. I'll rest it there. Thank you.

And that's the difference. I like traditional old neighborhoods with the straight streets because you've got a heavy landscaping plan that basically hides the density. that is, you know, the straight line is more in line with what was traditionally on the west side than the curvy linear streets. Yeah, I was thinking, you know, the streets, but just thinking out loud, 50 feet of front yard in my neighborhood, because those lots are essentially, you know, my neighborhood runs from 15,000 and I'm on a little over 20,000. 50 feet of front yard is a lot of wasted space. I think it would make for a much more livable and usable piece of property.

Mayor, if I may. Also, early on in our city manager's appointment, there was a lot of discussion about creating a community benefits package. I haven't seen that. I don't recall seeing one on previous developments in the recent... in the recent applications. Is there a community benefits package that I'm overlooking in this case?

Nothing beyond impact fees and the like.

All right, so that might be an opportunity for us to consider.

Can I come in? So I think the city attorney is going to do a comprehensive code rewrite, which is where he's going to embed some of these initiatives into the city code.

Well, go ahead, Vice Mayor.

Thank you, and if it's going the way I think it is tonight and they have a chance to go and reimagine, maybe also look at, you know, if you're moving the house closer to the street, allow for that potential extra accessory building in the backyard, similar to maybe a one-bedroom with a small garage-type scenario, a workshop like we kind of have in Westbury now, to have that potential there where you could put a, in law if you needed to down the road to help with those Those type of issues.

Let's don't double density. Let's find a place to put your boat and your play cars, not renters that create more solid waste.

Not renters. It'd be more like, again, more family type oriented like we would do back in the old days. Right.

I think there is experience here because Lenar leads on that next gen product where you can have, there's a sandwich family where you have the parents raising their children, but the grandparents are also with them. And that's the village concept, but-

And I'm open to something like that again. Just if it were in mine I would live in a condo without any yard, and I'd want a garage to go with it.

Yeah a big garage, so yeah Thank you But you know because I look I don't know because we've got we've got a rezoning which you're entitled to because of the comp plan overlay Your next item your next just to recap so we're all on the same page you got the rezoning and from AU to a state density to A2, which you're entitled to because of our long-standing overlay. And then the next question becomes, how are you going to lay the lots out? And so the next item per vote would be the variance for the lot sizes. If the variance fails, you go no further than... Correct. You know this. I'm not preaching. Just so that we all kind of take a step back and see where we are in the process. So let me ask you this. Hypothetically speaking, what would be the expense and time frame to layer in

a variance for thirty-five rather than a fifty-foot setback realistically it probably would take us two months to get back here my guess is you know you have to redo all the plans everything needs to be shown you've got to get it to the city the city has to review but they've already looked at everything else Then, I mean, I won't put them on the spot. Then, you know, I mean, I can assure you as the director, our, our, our, yeah, our architects would prepare that and get it to the city and, you know, by early next week, something like that, obviously that will require an additional item.

And then that's, well, but that's just a, a text filing. You're not, relocating and redrawing your lots.

Well, I think we do show depictions on all of the sites of the distance as all of your development services folks are nodding. So, yeah, I think those have to... Now, I mean, look, that's a CAD program that... And I'm speaking... The only people not here tonight are the architects, and I'm putting words in their mouth, but we could probably get that to you guys in short order. We would have to, of course, file an application for an additional variance request. Staff would prepare their... undoubtedly recommendation of an aisle because there would be no hardship necessarily you bring up great points trust me that you said it like we try not to ask for any other variances it stands to reason that 50 foot front yard is a really big front yard and 35 or 40 would you know still look nice and would just give people that extra room but it would be an additional item that would come with basically we're doing r1 lots under an a2 category

Home said R1, right?

No, R1 would be $7,500. We're not doing that.

Okay.

Yeah, no. We're doing kind of... County EUM plus. Right? Like nothing is smaller than me.

Let's not kid ourselves. Some kind of development is going to happen on this site at some time.

Mayor, I suspect if your front setback was 40 feet in your code or 35, we would have designed it to 40 or 35 and we may not be having this discussion. So... IT'S 50. WE DON'T LIKE TO ASK FOR A LOT OF VARIANCES. WE WERE TRYING TO MATCH. IF WE GO THROUGH AND SUBMIT, REVISE OUR PLANS, WHATEVER HAS TO BE DEPICTED, FILE THE APPLICATION AND SHOW IT, YOU WILL HAVE AN ADDITIONAL VARIANCE. BUT WE COULD CERTAINLY ADDRESS A number of the concerns, because you'll have more.

That could overcome the open space concerns.

Right, you'll have more usable open space. The backyard usability. Right, exactly. You'll have more usable open space to provide for.

And a lack of wasted space.

Right, and I think as you put it, that it's not, you're not preserving farmland. No. Say that you can preserve a. The field. The field with additional, obviously, backyard with more trees or the potential to have that accessory size available. Which again, a lot of the lots do provide for that. But certainly if you move the houses forward, then those lots will be that much more. And even the smaller lots will all have ample backyards to do at least some of those things. So look, obviously we can... Appreciate some of the comments and I can read the room You know certainly we would welcome an opportunity to think down those lines But I do want to be clear on the record that would be an additional variance.

Let me let me ask the attorney I'll put you on the spot not and not practice on my own up here if the rezoning passed tonight our next item is the variance from the lot sizes and If that passes, we go on to the next two votes and everything moves forward. If the variance were to fail, in order for that to come back, there would have to be a motion for rehearing by someone who voted against the variance. And only at that point would you be in position to bring to bring an application back that would include the variance for the lot size and the setback. Is that fair?

The way that it works in your code is that if you denied it, you would deny it with either prejudice or with not prejudice. And the difference is whether you can bring it back in six months or a year.

You could... Look, it's an irrelevant point. I think you could also... It's an irrelevant point because I'm probably not going to... I'm going to hope that we don't even get to that vote if it's not going to pass. But I also think you could vote it down in theory and remove the six-month cooling-off period. Correct? Correct. No, I do, I do, but I want to, but the lawyer in me wants to answer the question. I mean, certainly, I want to get the project approved this evening.

He could do that, but he's got to get client approval.

Yeah, I mean, I would prefer, I mean, I would think it would show, you know, to my client at least some ability to move forward, some faith that we could, I mean, that the property could be rezoned. To your point, you can take the first vote.

And then, you know, rezone the property.

I mean, this is an appropriate category. You have a recommendation of approval. And then we would respectfully prior to the second, the variance item potentially failing. And I, you know, can count. It's a seven or four. Not much higher than that. That's why I'm a lawyer. We would respectfully ask that you defer the remaining items, let us discuss with staff, and then we could modify the application to include potentially an additional variance and move and come back to you with something. I would rather not get into denying it and having to resubmit or reapply, because that does require you to file the application anew, which is a bunch of costs. And I don't think anybody would.

It's going to go forward in some form. We don't want to put undue burden. We're not giving away the farm. Pardon the pun. We're not giving away the farm here tonight.

But we don't want to put an undue burden out there.

Do you need us to take a break and have you confer with your client?

Yeah, I'd like to, yeah, for sure. I don't think I need more than a couple minutes.

Let's recess for five minutes, allow you to confer with your client, Yes, Councilman Fletcher.

And I'll also make a motion to extend the meeting to 9.30.

Okay, so we got that. Let's move to extend this meeting to 9.30. I'll second that. All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? All right, so my iPhone says it's 8.23, so let's just say 8.30. We will come out of recess.

Amen.

Okay, we'll call this meeting out of recess and back in session.

Mr. Orza.

Yes, Mayor. So, thank you for the time to confer with my client. So, what we've got more than anything else is a bit of a time crunch. As you know, this application was submitted well over a year ago. It's just taken time to get here. Even first reading was a couple months ago, so we've just kind of lost some time along the way. And so, you know, we've got sellers that have expectations that, you know, believe we'd be done this evening. We'll have to go back to them and secure extensions and more than half of you on this board are real estate professionals of one type or another, so you know how that process can go sometimes. So, you know, we believe we could do so, but we'd be very hard-pressed not to do it for more than to next month's meeting. So we really, you know, we just think the sellers... You know, might want to extract too big a pound of flesh, so to speak, if we ask for more time than that 1, that would be unsaleable. So. If our team could resubmit or submit. The additional variance and the revised site plan. Um, the additional variance would be a front setback variance and the revised site plan to show them that the homes are closer to the front. By close of business on Monday, which is the 27th, I believe. Um, you know, of of April, um. YOU KNOW, I WOULD LOVE FOR THERE TO BE SOME COMMUNICATION TODAY THAT THEY COULD, STAFF AND THE ADMINISTRATION COULD START WORKING. I MEAN, LOOK, THEY HAVE THE RECOMMENDATION OF DENIAL FOR THE EXISTING VARIANTS. I KNOW THE RECOMMENDATION WILL BE.

IT'S THE SAME ANALYSIS? EXACTLY.

SO IF WE HAD, I MEAN, IN GOOD FAITH, AND WE'VE WORKED WITH, I'VE WORKED WITH MS. STORCH FOR 20 YEARS, IF IN GOOD FAITH WE CAN ALL AGREE THAT WE WILL GET IT IN BY CLOSED BUSINESS ON FRIDAY, BY MONDAY, EXCUSE ME, JUST KIND OF, YOU KNOW, THEY'RE NOT GOING TO LOOK AT THIS UNTIL TOMORROW. So by Monday, close the business. for staff to receive, evaluate. There's no DRC, additional special DRC. I mean, this is part of a project that's been looked at for over a year. And that we would be back here for the main meeting with the deferred items plus the additional variance. We will go to the sellers and hope that we can make it work with just the additional month, I think, to get into anything longer than that might imperil the ability for that.

Let me ask the director, is that within the realm of possibility to review a variance?

The important thing is that you define as soon as possible the variance that you're going to ask for, because we need to advertise for that. The rest, we are going to defer. So if the size of the lots remain the same, and that's the only thing we need to request, we need to know that as soon as possible to have time to advertise and then notice.

I think the council expressed the desire to see a... 35 foot front setback so our right is that what you said mayor 35 when i say 35 yeah 35 right so i mean the request would be consistent with various requests a variance of the front setbacks where all lots require a 50 foot front setback to 35 feet and you know and then obviously the pictures need to depict that but that's for legal purposes i don't know james i mean the i mean that's pretty steady yeah i'm not concerned the legal I can, I can commit to having the legal description or the legal request for the variance. To staff by Friday, and then we'll work on it tomorrow and get it done by Friday. That's the part that I can do. I'm not an architect. I don't want to put it in their mouths. Redoing the plan, I need to let those professionals do their job. We'll have that by Monday, but that would be there by Friday, which I mean, again, I know you have an advertised for next month. So. With that, again, I think it would help us and go a long way and hopefully in the spirit of compromise if the rezoning, which we all agree this is an appropriate category to occur, gives some comfort to our sellers to work with us. We don't want them to run for the hills and make this an impossibility and then defer the remaining three items and come back then with those three plus an additional one. and layer in some of the other things as now that we have room and we can do so, then we'll look into obviously some of the other concerns that were brought in and see what else we can add. But that's the big one. Okay, appreciate that.

So yes, Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor. First staff, there in the middle, that block 11 where the backyards are facing each other. We're talking about moving the homes closer to the front. But what does that look like for their backyard? Is that going to be some type of entrance on the side of everyone's house if they want to take a boat to the back? How does that even work?

Well, they've still got the width to do that. The width, we're not going to touch the width.

That doesn't change anything.

Right. But I'm trying to picture what that looks like. If you're the house in the middle, you're going to drive your boat between the two homes to your backyard?

No, there's no house in the middle. Sorry, let me.

There's only two houses, so everybody comes from the street and goes to their backyard.

The front? Sorry, what do you mean? No. Okay. These backyards are touching each other. They're facing each other. So how does this person get their boats in their backyard?

From the front.

That's what I meant. Between two homes. So on their side. Okay. I just wanted to make sure that the side setbacks would allow if that's the point of this whole thing.

I think that your architects should really we look at that and see maybe the 10 setback is the minimum setback required maybe you need there to leave 50 so 15 so they can drive to the to the backyard but currently it's only 10. well that's your code again right so if we're talking about the point of having boats and an additional right there goes your two hours in front only then that that serves but that's just for those smallest lots and people are going to have to understand that but you're

you're enhancing everyone else's backyard.

No, we're only talking about 10, 11, and 12, or are we talking about the entire project?

We're talking about the entire project. No, I mean, the moving to the front, we understood to mean everything. The whole project.

The whole project. Moving the houses.

So that everybody's backyard is bigger. Right.

Give everybody a bigger backyard.

Yeah, yeah, not just for those three.

Within the confines of the existing drawing. Right.

Will you be able to meet with us between now and Monday, even virtually, to consider some, just to continue the conversation? Yeah, of course.

Of course. And the landscaping improvements. Yeah. Yeah.

You mean the fruit trees? Does your code prohibit that? Some codes are funky about fruit trees.

And my last...

I just want to make sure we don't... That would be supplemental to what's already required in the code. Okay, but it isn't prohibited.

You don't have a prohibition on... On canker trees.

And, Director, with the new item that's coming up regarding landscaping and the requirements, this project wouldn't fall in line?

That doesn't change anything, no.

Yeah, it already...

Vice Mayor, if I may step in. Thank you. These are going to be private right-of-ways or public roads?

The perimeters are public. The interior are private. Publicly accessible. Private meaning the CDD will maintain them. So they're 50 foot. But they're designed at the same width, 50 feet, that all roads are. It's just that... The CDE will maintain them, so the taxpayer in Homestead won't maintain those. The perimeter ones are, in the case of 296, it's a county road.

So in effect, in simple terms, these are private roads? The interior, not the exterior. Yes, the interior.

Ungated private roads.

Ungated private roads, yes.

Thank you.

Okay.

Anything further from council? All right, so the first item we're going to have a motion and a vote on is the request for the rezoning, which is tab 15. So moved by Councilman Roth, second by Councilman Canabal. Let's have a roll call vote on tab 15 for the rezoning.

Councilwoman Acuna. Councilwoman Kansky? No. Councilman Roth? Yes. Councilman Fletcher?

Yes.

Councilman Canabal? Yes. Vice Mayor Bailey? Yes. Mayor Lozano?

Yes.

The motion carries.

Okay.

Now, and you're requesting a referral of 16, 17, and 18.

Yes, we would appreciate the referral of the remaining three items.

Move to defer.

All right.

All right, so we have a motion by Councilwoman Avila, and I take a second from Kansky. Councilwoman Kansky to defer items... to have 16, 17, and 18, which I assume we'll have to have separate votes on. Is that correct, Mr. Attorney?

You can do it collectively.

All right, so that's a global motion for tab 16, 17, and 18, the variance, the site plan, and the T-Plat.

To next month? Yes, to the date, sir. To the date, sir. May 20.

May 20, correct. Which is? May 20th. May 20th, okay. All right, so a roll call vote on the motion to defer.

Councilwoman Konski?

Yes.

Councilman Cannavale? Yes. Councilwoman Abula? Yes. Councilman Roth? Yes. Councilman Fletcher? Yes. Vice Mayor Bailey? Yes. Mayor Lawson? Yes. The motion carries.

All right.

Thank you, Hugo. We'll see you next time. Thank you. Mr. Hugo? Hello? Hugo? One thing, when you come this time, just say, we moved the houses 15 feet. Stop it there. You talk too much, man. Or I lose your vote.

You guys heard it.

I can't get into it back and forth. Thank you. Thank you. All right.

Okay, moving on to tab 19, card number 4980. This is a resolution of the City of Homestead, Florida, granting final plot approval as requested by Castellanos at Coral Way Inc. for the development of an approximately 20,252 square foot building.

Did we do 12? We did it on the OPA, but we didn't do it here. The warehouse. The entity of title was tab 12.

No, those are both legislative items that we're going to take out.

Okay, we're going to finish the quasi-judicial. I'm sorry. As you were saying.

For the development of an approximately 20,252-square-foot building consisting of a medical center and two retail spaces on an approximately 1.04-acre parcel of land located at 304 North Graham Avenue, legally described in Exhibit A and provided for an effective date.

Thank you. Any questions or comments from Council? This is the final plat.

Did they move the depth between the front of the building?

I can report to that. They removed that palm tree, the one that was dead, but they don't have a CO yet. They just have a TCO. So before getting the final, I put a hold on the CO, and the condition is that they should replace that tree.

It's fine. Thank you. Because that palm looks horrible in there.

Yes. All right. Very good. All right. If there are no further questions or comments from council, do we have a motion to approve the final plat at 304 North, was it 304 North Grove? 304 North Grove. We have a motion to approve the final plat. Moved by Vice Mayor Bailey. Seconded by Councilman Canabal. A roll call, please, Madam Clerk.

Councilwoman Avila? Yes. Councilwoman Konski? Yes. Councilman Roth? Yes. Councilman Fletcher? Yes. Councilman Canepaul? Yes. Vice Mayor Bailey? Yes. Mayor Lawson? Yes. The motion carries.

So now back to tab 12.

Yes, Mayor. So tab 12 and 13 are going to be legislative matters, so we can take those. Okay. Now so tab 12 car number 49 51 It's an ordinance of the city of Homestead, Florida amending the city code of ordinances by amending chapter 25 subdivision and platting article 1 in general section 25-1 definitions and further creating article 16 any title covenant in lieu thereof fighting for severability inclusion of the code conflicts and providing for an effective dates for treating And we heard this at the LPA are there any further questions or comments council Fletcher approval

Move by Councilman Fletcher.

Second.

The warehouse. Second by me. Second by Councilman Canabal. I want to make your appearance, Maritza.

Good evening, Maritza Harrow, Office of 200 Southwest King Boulevard. Available for any questions.

There are some.

There are several contracts.

This is one of the cleanup items to be able to close on those.

Can you share any insight as to what the community can expect in terms of businesses coming in?

I don't have any of that. I will inquire as to that, and I'll be back for a second reading.

Perfect. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. We have a motion and a second on tab 12. Let's have a roll call vote.

Councilman Fletcher? Yes. Councilwoman Clonsky? Yes. Councilwoman Avila? Yes. Councilman Cannavale? Yes. Councilman Roth? Yes. Vice Mayor Bailey? Yes. Mayor Lawson?

Yes.

The motion carries.

And moving on to tab 13.

Tab 13, card number 4949 is an ordinance of the City of Homestead, Florida amending the City Code of Ordinances by amending Chapter 29, Vegetation, Article 1, Landscaping by establishing the minimum standards and landscaping regulations pursuant to the City of Homestead Landscape Manual to supplement Miami-Dade County landscaping standards and requirements. Establishing regulations related to landscaping and irrigation certification and recertification for properties developed as multifamily residential, commercial, and or industrial, and providing for the enforcement of such certification and recertification. And further amending Article 2, tree preservation and protection, by modifying regulations to clarify applicable permit fees and tree preservation trust fund contribution rates. Providing for severability, inclusion in the code, conflicts, and providing for an effective date. This is first reading.

Thank you. Councilwoman Alderman.

Thank you. I appreciate this initiative to create a comprehensive plan for maintaining and encouraging for our development and business community to keep up their landscaping minimum standards. But I also think it's an opportunity for us to consider maybe between first reading and second reading for me to try to plug in some colorful sunflower initiatives within our city buildings and with some of the landscape designs. And I know that they're seasonal and there could be potentially some encouraged and influential verbiage to try to promote seasonal changes within the development design standards. So if there's no objection to anyone on sunflowers and how beautiful they are, I would just like to have that encouragement.

So again, they are a good looking flower, but the problem with sunflowers is once you plant one, they continue to blow throughout and they spread everywhere. That's the only issue I have with them because once you plant them, they spread everywhere. But other than that, they're nice looking flowers and I like the idea.

My concern would be is this booklet, enacting this, is with respect to, and correct me if I'm wrong, respect to the installation of permanent landscaping. We could encourage that as we plant downtown when that's rebuilt and in other places, but sunflowers are seasonal. That's correct.

You might be very right, and I might bring it back in a different way, but I'll just look into some options.

Yeah, I mean, and I think there's an opportunity to do that, but not in this guidebook.

Maybe not. maybe it's not here there's some proposals to create new districts so maybe we can incorporate that when we incorporate the new districts and things that they're going to put there for public benefit and for use of the public maybe we can incorporate that as a seasonal program thank you i'll explore options thank you you know it's it's not a bad idea i just don't know if it's properly included here in the permanently escaping guide okay so

Council Fletcher, you've lived here a long time. Do you remember commercially grown sunflowers, or were they just pretty much cover crops, isolated cover crops?

Cover crops for the most part, other than Robert is here.

Yeah, it's just not as a commercial crop, but a cover crop.

Ms. Konkski may have more information.

Dr. Fishman used to grow them, 10, 20, 30 acres. I used to insure them.

Where's that?

Dr. Fishman, he was a local farmer. It was a hobby, but it was... His son grew sunflowers for commercial cut flowers.

And I am aware of existing farmers, not in the city of Homestead, but local, nearby, that still grow sunflowers.

I'm just always concerned that we're going to perpetuate a fiction. Tomatoes were not a fiction. Mangoes were not a fiction. Avocados are not a fiction. Vice Mayor Bailey. Thank you.

Just wanted to ask real quick. This is the item that I was asking doesn't apply to the last discussion Item we had the Lennar project Right, so that's what I meant is they would fall in line with this where the inspection would happen 12 months after okay, that's what I wanted clarity on Okay, and I'm growing sunflowers in my kitchen. I'll send you pictures when they start blooming I

Yeah, to put them on the floor, they're going to get so tall.

I have a hydroponic power thing, yes.

Okay, neat. All right. Did we vote on the landscape guide? No. No, okay. Do we have a motion and a second on the landscape guide? Moved by Councilwoman Avila, seconded by Councilman Canabal. Let's have a roll call on the landscape guide.

Councilman Roll?

Yes. Councilwoman Kosky? Yes. Councilman Canabal? Yes. Councilwoman Avila? Yes. Councilman Fletcher? Yes. Ice Mayor Bailey? Yes. Mayor Lawson?

Yes.

Motion carries.

And that takes us to tab 14.

Yes, tab 14, card number 4982 is an ordinance of the city of Homestead, Florida, amending the city code of ordinances by amending Chapter 16, local business taxes and business regulations, creating Article 7, certificate of use, providing for definitions, application procedures, fees, regulation, denial, revocation, and suspension of certificate of use, providing for conflicts, durability, and providing for an effective date. This is first reading.

Thank you. Madam Director?

Yes, this is the certificate of use that we are making official, a process that we already have. When a new application comes, we review first if they are approvable, if they are allowed in that zoning district. And then we check with the building department if the use is established or not. And if it's not, they need a change of views. In this way, before applying to the VTR, the applicant will have to obtain the certificate of use. And after that, it will be very easy to go and pay for the business tax receipt. And then it lasts forever if the business is the same, it's the same ownership. If they change, they need to come and they need to ask for a new certificate of use. But this will give clarity and the person that is renting a space or that is moving to a space, once they have that business established, that certificate of use will clearly point to what is allowed there.

Okay, thank you. Appreciate that. Okay, good. We'll get it on the table and move by Councilman Canabal. Second by Councilman Roth. So I'll open the floor to questions and comments on this item. Councilman Fletcher.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Although I think something like this is needed, I think we need to have a little more detail as to what the overall impact is going to be. I would request that we defer this to a special call or a workshop to understand what the impacts could be because I think it's going to be quite significant to someone who may be a small office and they decide to add an additional person to their office that could possibly affect costs.

That doesn't apply. For example, if you call a medical office and you have 15 doctors and then you're going to change and have 17, you just come, you add the doctors, but that doesn't change the use of the business. It's just adding one more professional to the business.

Councilman, if I may?

Please.

Thank you. And not to discredit the work that's been done by the Development Services Department and staff in general, but I did have similar concerns, and so I'll move to defer this item.

Second.

We need to have a workshop, I think, to discuss this.

And I had asked a lot of these questions, probably some of the same questions you had on my one-on-one. And I was prepared to talk about some of the questions and concerns and amendments that I'd like to see. And I'll go ahead and put them out there for the future discussion. was that I don't know that a change in ownership or business name should trigger the requirement of a CEU. Take that off the table. But with the caveat, because we see a lot of these issues, that if in the event of a change of name or ownership, we might want to leave the opportunity open to bring signage into compliance and landscaping into compliance. But beyond that, to open up a property just by virtue of someone selling their business or bringing in a partner and changing their name, I don't know that that would merit uh... having to go through the uh... certificate of use uh... process just those were some of the thoughts i had you know that we can address it you know next reading workshop with whatever that may uh... maybe you know it's an interesting balance between we can't allow buildings that clearly have violations to continue forever but we want to be respectful of businesses who are continuing It's going to be a real educational process, though, I think, that we're going to have to be very attuned to with respect to realtors and commercial landlords, because they're the ones who are going to bear some of the brunt, and we don't want folks signing a lease and putting down real money and being obligated for real money and getting into a months-long process either. So if we could schedule a...

workshop post haste that would be a a good thing so let's have a roll call on the motion to defer yes councilman yeah because i had some concerns too um in reference to that but i think what this does is kind of speeds up the process so that they don't go to one department and get an approval we'll go to the next department and they don't get an approval because of zoning or because of change of use and there's also some safety things that kick in as soon as there's a a change of ownership when you come for your business license, you automatically trigger safety inspections. So they have to come and they have to look at the electrical and all the systems in the building, which then trigger other things. They will trigger other things because, as you said, some of these buildings that are dilapidated or that haven't been maintained for 20, 40, 50 years, whatever, they get caught up in all that stuff. And my other thing was, and you mentioned real estate agents and commercial property owners, when I had my one-on-ones, the biggest problem is the unsuspecting potential tenant signs a lease and then goes through the process. and I couldn't figure out, and we talked about it a little bit in the one-on-one, is how do we change that where it becomes the responsibility of a property owner or a professional real estate agent that needs to disclose that there may be these challenges in the future where a change of use may be needed, and that's not a one-month process. That's a six-month process at that. There are a lot of things that we can speed up, but I think there's also things we can't change. And I think the workshop will be very enlightening to a lot of us that most of us that are familiar with it know it, but those that aren't will learn a great deal about this whole process. So I just want to put that on there so we can talk about those things in whatever we do next, workshop or special call, whatever it is.

yes councilwoman alva and to councilman roth's point i mean i have advocated for a long time for relationship building between the city of homestead and our partners in the community which include real estate professionals and perhaps we should be hosting workshops educational sessions in their arena or renting out the seminal theater and inviting you know realtors to come and listen you know what is it like to GO THROUGH THE CEU PROCESS. THE SOUTH DADE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE DOES THIS ON A REGULAR BASIS AND WE'RE NOT UTILIZING THESE TOOLS TO EDUCATE THE PUBLIC TO MAKE OUR LIVES EASIER. AND THAT'S MUCH SIMPLER IN MY MIND AND WILL BE RECEIVED MUCH BETTER THAN A VIOLATION, UPSET CLIENT, LEASE GONE WRONG. THAT JUST PERPETUATES MORE AND MORE FRUSTRATION AND AGGRAVATION. And these are not new ideas that we've talked about. It just needs action and it needs to be rolled out. Thank you.

Thank you.

Same thing goes for transferring utilities and that process and the time it takes to close an account, open a new account, and you have a closing, happy closing date, and they're all moving in and there's no utilities and they got to wait three days and then all the deposit. Oh, there was an outstanding bill. until the seller gets that paid i mean this is the chaos that happens frequently and everyone blames the city of homestead this never happens this never happens with miami-dade county but you know what are we doing about it so sorry broken record turning it off so let's vote on the motion to defer

Councilwoman Affler? Yes. Councilman Roth? Yes. Councilwoman Konski?

Yes.

Councilman Cannavale? Yes. Councilman Fletcher? Yes. Vice Mayor Bailey? Yes. Mayor Lawson? Yes. The motion carries.

So that should take us to 20. 20.

Tab 20 is the first reading of an ordinance of the City of Homestead, Florida, amending the budget for the general fund for the fiscal year beginning on October 1, 2025 and ending September 30, 2026 by increasing the total budgeted revenues and expenditures by $50,000, providing for severability and an effective date.

All right. This is just to move the match for a grant we approved months ago.

So he moved it. I'm seconding it.

All right.

I would like more apple blossoms in District 5.

They'll die.

Apple blossom trees will die? They're all over the Northwest. They're beautiful. Am I talking about the right tree?

We might know it by a different name. Oh, maybe.

The orchid trees, those are beautiful. Some people call them apple blossoms.

That's what I meant. Give us the opportunity to check the application for the grants. Usually they will ask you to specify the tree species before they give you money.

I'm just putting it on the record that if there's an opportunity, please, please, please, more flower-bearing trees. Thank you.

Your district's too affluent. Remember those grant applications we approved pretty much wiped you out because you're not as poor as the rest of the city. No, no, no.

District 5 in its entirety is within the CDBG block. Let me remind you, please.

Mayor and Council, let's put some context to this. This item is for a tree census. I understand. For the grants for trees, we'll consider your recommendation. Yes, thank you. I am taking the opportunity to vocalize.

Thank you.

Not until I get my royal palms back on Chrome Avenue that I've been bitching about for four years. That the DOT killed when they widened Chrome Avenue. Yes, I said it.

That was a rotary project.

Yes, roll call on the tree census grant.

Councilman Fletcher? Yes. Councilwoman Abula? Yes. Councilman Canepaul? Yes. Councilman Roth? Yes. Councilwoman Konski? Yes. Vice Mayor Bailey? Yes. Mayor Lawson?

Yes. I'm telling the Vice Mayor is trying to vote for Konski.

Okay.

21. AB 21 is the first reading of an ordinance of the City of Homestead, Florida, amending the City Code of Ordinances by amending Chapter 20, Parks and Recreation, to repeal and replace existing regulations related to fees levied for the use of park facilities, establishing a new schedule of fees for the use of city facilities, providing for conflicts, providing for severability, and providing for an effective date.

I move to reject.

Sorry?

Just for the sake of time, I don't agree in codifying the park fees, and I think that this is something best kept in the department purview, and I don't see a reason why we should remove the ability for the park director to bring to us for council consideration any changes throughout the year as needed. I'm not sure why we have to codify the park fees.

Okay, anyone else? All right, so my thought on that would be is we need to have consistency. Everyone needs to understand what their fee is, and there can be no claims of favoritism or corruption or whatever you want to call it, that no matter who you are, who you know, you walk in the door and you pay the fee, and they can be amended by counsel from time to time. We've been finding for years that we do not have enough policy and procedure in place. Yes, Councilwoman Bailey.

Thank you. Vice Mayor Bailey, I'm sorry. I think the main reason that this is needed now more than ever is the amount of times that fees were waived in the past. I know that I was a big part of that. But to be able to advertise for nonprofits, and just the different parks and the differences. Some are in higher They're requested more. Fico Williams is also just booked all the time now. So just to be able to have that a little clearer out there for the public, for them to be able to make their plans. We're booking things months and months and months in advance. So just for that sake, I think that it is needed.

Thank you.

Is there any changes to the briefing that I received because there was no section for the wave?

Considering the nonprofit so that'll so there is a separate nonprofit price but the the fee waiver will still stand as one of us putting it under our item and All of council voting on splitting it or us using our discretionary funds but it wouldn't just go into the black hole of of waving the fees where it just comes out of the parks budget and

Is that correct?

Correct.

Would you like to move this item? Okay. You didn't have a second anyway, I don't think. Okay. So do we have a motion to adopt this item? Moved by Councilman Roth. Seconded by Vice Mayor Bailey. Roll call, please, Madam Clerk.

Councilwoman Apolo? Yes. Yes. Councilman Fletcher?

Yes.

Councilman Roth? Yes. Councilwoman Konski? Yes. Councilman Cannavale? Yes. Vice Mayor Bailey? Yes. Mayor Lonson? Yes. The motion carries.

Thank you. So that would take us to tab 22.

Tab 22 is the first reading of an ordinance of the City of Homestead, Florida, amending Chapter 7, Article 1, Section 7.5 of the City Code, entitled Special Master System Created Qualifications Terms Removal to Revise the Qualifications and Compensations Structure for Special Masters Providing for Inclusion in the Code, Providing for Severability, Providing for Conflicts, and Providing for an Effective Date.

Yes, Vice Mayor.

I'll move it with a quick comment. If any of you have never been to one of the Special Masters meetings involving code, okay. So these volunteers work very hard, and I know it's tough for the city, so I think this is a good move in the right direction.

These fees haven't been adjusted for years. Okay. It's been moved by Vice Mayor, seconded by Canabal.

I just, I do have a yes, thank you. I agree. We need to have the extra resource. I just, is there a way to, or maybe I can get clarification. Is there still an opportunity to leave the upper? Is there still a way to leave the opportunity for a homestead resident to serve who wants to serve so that the position still is available? Because I believe that the reason why this is happening is because it's hard to fill. It's hard to get the volunteers to be able to do it. But if we. exclude them 100%, then you're just taking away their opportunity to serve the community in that capacity. Unless we really don't want any, no, okay, all right.

Councilman, I think the section 7-5 says preference shall be given to residents of the city of Homestead.

With the qualification.

Within the category.

Yeah.

Okay, thank you for the clarification.

Mayor, also an additional clarification on 7-5C and A read together. The appointment for special masters shall be met by the city council with recommendation from the administration. So we're going to make a tweak between first and second reading.

Okay, thank you. All right, so I believe we had a motion and a second on this item. So let's have a roll call vote.

Councilwoman Konski? Yes. Councilman Roth?

Yes.

Councilwoman Avila? Yes. Councilman Cannavale? Yes. Councilman Fletcher? Yes. Vice Mayor Bailey? Yes. Mayor Lawson? Yes. The motion carries.

Now for the really hard one, tab 23. Better extend the meeting to ten. Tab 23 is.

A resolution of the City Council of the City of Homestead, Florida, approving First Amendment to the addendum increasing the scope of work for the procurement and installation of epoxy flooring at Harris Field, parked by Gell Unlimited, DBA, Miracle Method of Miami North, in the amount not to exceed $177,910, plus a city-managed contingency allowance of up to 10% for the total project cost, utilizing the interlocal purchasing system, hereinafter referred to as TIPS, RCSP 24010401 agreement exempting the purchase from competitive bidding pursuant to section 2-411.185 of the city code authorizing the city manager to execute all necessary documents providing for implementation, providing for an effective date.

Thank you. If you could bring the samples back up, I think Councilwoman Avila needs to take another peek at them. Mr. Mayor, if I may.

Which one is the top one you like? That's what I want to know.

I'm not telling you guys. Just circulate them down.

Mr. Mayor, if I may? Yes. Again, I don't want to get into the color picking. I'm going to take number four. It's pretty close to what is currently there. Yes.

What's the name of number four?

About here or there, just remember, this is a temporary fix. I know, but it's still temporary for if we reimagine Harris Field in the next few years, the pavilion could be relocated possibly. So this could be temporary in nature. I'm good. So I will defer to my colleagues.

Can we meet in the middle and add a little brown so it ties into all the wood? That is what I was bringing up last time. There were no brown options. And those have been added. Just a little brown will tie in with the wood. People try and walk up the walls.

Whatever Vice Mayor Bailey wants, I will agree with.

Don't put that pressure on me. This isn't.

Firebrick? Is that what that one is? Do you like this one? I think it meets in the middle. It goes with the wood. And gray is too trendy and doesn't go with the wood.

I have a public comment.

Yes. You're right. Comment from the vice mayor?

No, I'm good with that one. There's public comment. Hold it for the photographer, right?

Okay. We may have a concern. Is brickyard?

That's fine.

But I have a question, though. Not about the color.

Be it noted that Councilman Fletcher could care less.

I just have a question. I'm sorry.

Not about the color, but it says here 177,910 in what Matt read, and it says here 137,280. I think I like this. Is there a problem with that? I don't know.

I believe that might have been a typo. The actual proposal is 124,800, and then the 10% contingency is another 12,000.

So it's 137, that's with contingency and everything. It's only going to be 124.

And the 17 is something? What is that?

That looks like there must have been a typo, a mistake when they typed the...

It's going to be then 134,000. It's 124,000. Okay.

Plus 10% of the 137, that's just in case.

Mayor, if I may? Yes. I think we got the color picked up, but in terms of the proposal and the pricing, did we go out to multiple vendors, or how did we get to this vendor?

So at this time, this was done via piggybacking agreement. This vendor did another job for us in the past and had a very good warranty, and the product has stood the test of time there.

Okay, because their pricing is saying $135 an hour to conduct, and it's going to take 650 hours for them to finish, and that's what they put in the pocket.

It's roughly $11.35 per square foot is what it came down to be.

Just a clarification on the price. The reason it was you jumped from the $170 to $177,910. It's a contingency. No, it's not the contingency. It's because this is an amendment to the existing agreement, and the original contract price was $53,110 with an amendment of $124,800. The 10% contingency does not go into the contract. That authorizes the manager to make further amendments up to that amount. That is how you got to the $177,910. That's what it is.

because they had already done the kitchen and the bathrooms.

That was the original. Pedro, are you comfortable with that price? I know you said they have a good warranty and they've done other work for us, but did we get any other proposals? No, we didn't.

For this particular project, we did not. I did get a proposal for a smaller project that was $9,000 from them, and we got a second vendor that was like $10,800. So on smaller projects, we've tested them against other vendors. But at this time, for this one, we did not.

And the warranty is lifetime? One year. One year.