City Commission - Regular Meeting

Afternoon, everybody. Is my mic on? Okay. Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the Citi Commission Conference meeting this 01/20/2026. Sorry, it's a little late. I got caught by the freight train. Anyway, thank you all for being here this afternoon. We have a number of important topics to discuss, and I want to thank you all for being here. So let us begin. We have a communication to the City Commission from the

Infrastructure Mayor, pardon me. I just want to highlight that at the last meeting, the Commission made a determination on the order of the meetings and that the CRA would begin first.

I don't recall that, but we can certainly do that. We talked about it. We didn't agree to that, but I'm I'm okay with that. Is there something on the CRA board meeting that, we need to discuss right now that's controversial? Is anyone here from the CRA board meeting? No.

Mayor, I thought we did agree to that, though. Yes.

We did.

We we just We were in

agreement just to, to eliminate the long wait. It's usually a very short meeting. Right.

And we agreed

to go forward and have that meeting first

That's fine.

To keep a courtesy

So for our we'll suspend the conference meeting right now, and we'll go into the CRA board meeting. Mister Clerk, would you please, call the roll?

Vice Chair Herbst? Commissioner Glassman? Here. Commissioner Beasley Pittman? Here. Commissioner Sorensen?

Here.

Chair Trent Ellis?

Here. M1, this is a motion to approve the minutes for the 01/06/2026, Community Redevelopment Agency Board meeting. Someone move?

So moved. They're moved. Second.

They're moved and seconded. Alright. Please call the roll.

Vice chair Herbst? Yes. Commissioner Glossman? Yes. Commissioner Beasley Pittman? Yes. Commissioner Sorenson? Yes. Chair Trentell?

Yes. M1 is now approved. R1, resolution approving modifications to the Central City Community Redevelopment Area Residential Facade and Landscaping Incentive Program, and renaming it to the Residential Enhancement Program. No one has signed up to speak. Someone like to introduce the resolution? Introduce. Any questions or comments?

Comments.

Yes.

Yes. Good afternoon. I just wanted to share some concern from a neighbor. If,

we can have CRA, come forward, please. When we were doing this project before, I know we're doing the name change, but before it was the facade and landscape initiative, the neighbor has concerns with the timeline of, payment for those, vendors that are being used. There was a delay. She,

highlighted, we waited. They did the inspection, then there was a delay in payment to that particular vendor contractor. So if you could share with us the timeline, what that looks like far as them being, paid and the process overall.

This is in the Central City, CRA?

This is for the, no. We're not Central City. Who are we?

This is all we're talking about right now, Central City. See, resolution approving modifications to the Central City community redevelopment area residential facade and landscaping incentive program and renaming it the residential enhancement program.

Okay. I was under impression that this also was affecting District 3.

Is it?

District 3 was approved back on 12/02/2025. So it's an accompanying item, I would say.

But can we answer her question? Sure.

So the timeline, once the application comes in, we do review the application and from that process, we then go forward. We inspect the property to make sure that the applicant meets all of those requirements and then the process begins from prior to the new modification, the applicant required three quotes in order to move forward. Now we're decreasing that to up to two. So and we're now implementing a process list of all of the professionals that we do receive so that when the applicant comes in, it kind of decreases the process of them having to find their own professional. So I think that that would eliminate a lot of the delay in moving forward.

Thank you for sharing and explaining that for me.

All right, great. Any other questions or comments with regard to r one?

I make one point of clarification? So a couple of things just to clarify what was said. So this item refers to District 3 even though it's Central City because there's a small portion of District 3 near Powerline Road that's included. The CRA did make similar improvements and changes to the program that applies to the Northwest Progressive Flagler Heights program. So I think that's where there's some similarities and why that question was relevant to both. It's also a reimbursement program. So once the person does the work, they submit reimbursement to the CRA for those funds. So that might cause some of the delays. So as an administrative improvement, we could look at how that timeline works out.

Alright. I I think the neighbors appreciate that review. Thank you.

Alright. Great. Would someone like to introduce a resolution? It's been introduced already. Okay. Please call the roll.

A resolution of the Board of Commissioners of the Fort Lauderdale Community Redevelopment Agency approving modifications to the Central City Community Redevelopment Agency residential facade and landscaping program and renaming the program, delegating authority to the executive director to execute any and all agreements relating to such award under the program providing for an effective date. Vice chair Herbst?

Yes.

Commissioner Glosspan? Yes. Commissioner Veeslip Pippin? Yes. Commissioner Sorensen? Yes. Chair Trentales?

Yes. And r one is now approved. R two, resolution approving a third amendment to the interlocal agreement for the Northeast 4th Avenue Complete Street Project between Broward County, the city Of Fort Lauderdale, and the Fort Lauderdale Community Redevelopment Agency. No one has signed up to speak. Anyone have any questions? I have a question. I drove down there this afternoon, and a number of the trees look a little they look like they need some help. We planted them. We don't seem to take care of them. I hate to see such expensive trees die. And so I just wanna bring that to everyone's attention that we need to pay a little bit more attention to the upkeep and maintenance of those trees. Alright?

Thank you, mayor.

Someone like to introduce the resolution? Introduced. Resolution has been introduced. Please call the roll.

A resolution board commissioners of the Fort Lauderdale Community Redevelopment Agency approving a third amendment to an interlocal agreement among Broward County, the city Of Fort Lauderdale, and the Lauderdale Community Redevelopment Agency to extend the term of the interlocal agreement and providing an effective date. Vice chair Herps? Yes. Commissioner Glassman? Yes. Commissioner Beasley Pittman? Yes. Commissioner Sorenson? Yes. Chair Trentels?

Yes. And r two is now approved. Is there any further business of the CRA? No, Mayor. There being none, this meeting is now concluded. We'll resume back to our conference meeting. Our conference meeting infrastructure task force sent a communication to us. They sent us a lifeline. The question is, do we have any interest in extending the life of the CRA, which excuse me, of the infrastructure task force, which expires in one month, February 18. What have we charged the committee to do so far?

What is the what projects have we sought to engage their assistance? I'm I'm trying to think where we are with that.

So mayor of staff has been drafting an item to come to the city commission for the February 3 meeting that would establish this Board more officially. We have shared a communication with the Chair in which we look to define and potentially refine the scope of this Board. The Board has been working on any number of infrastructure reviews of city assets to also include some vertical construction projects of the city. One of the ideas that might be appropriate should the city commission determine that this was more efficient, we want to make sure that the board has enough to work on with staff. At the same time, we want to make sure that the scope isn't so broad that the board and staff are looking at every single type of project within the city.

So for example, one of the recommendations that we have is that the board focus on roads, sidewalks, water and wastewater treatment plants and the like for projects such as parks bond projects where there is a Parks Advisory Board that's already in place. It may be redundant for this Board to work on that as well, but that's something that the City Commission would outline and determine, just something for your consideration.

So, does it make sense then to establish this task force committee as a permanent board? If the need is so great and continuous, why do we have to keep renewing its existence if really what you have explained to us now is something far greater than we originally anticipated this Board was supposed to do? Any thoughts on that, anybody?

Okay. No thoughts. Go ahead, Beasley Pittman.

Okay. If you recall a couple months back, this was a request that I had, hoped to have a conversation about. So I appreciate, the direction that we're moving in today. But I do believe that there is, a place for the task force advisory, committee, making it a true, board where it is defined as far as the scope where they will be, reviewing and giving us recommendation on. But I believe that their expertise with those who are, currently a part of the board and then even those who will be appointed in the future, it would benefit us as a commission to have them to look in, give us a purview of what they see, and come back with a great report, given some direction.

In terms of their of of the need to con make it a permanent board?

Yes. Because they're sunsetting. Right?

And a They're couple sunsetting in a month. And I'm just saying that, you know, in response to what the city managers just described as the necessity for continuing the work of the task force committee, do we want to make it a more permanent board because there is never a shortage of projects that we are involved with. And if the administration relies on the task force committee to advise it on a number of projects, is this something that we should continue long term? Commissioner Sorenson?

Yes, sure. Thanks. City Manager, were you

I just wanted to clarify. It's not that there's a reliance on the part of staff for the participation of this advisory board. We just want to make sure that we identify the scope so that the Board isn't necessarily tasked with all of the projects that the city is implementing. So we're interested in the focus being more on infrastructure projects, mostly underground as opposed to vertical construction projects such as city hall or parks bond projects or fire stations.

Okay.

So city I'm sorry. Go ahead, ma'am. No. Go ahead. I would just want just to, dovetail on that. So city manager, the enabling legislation of the infrastructure task force, did it did it strictly look at just like you mentioned underground projects, whether it's our, you know, our Fortify Lauderdale projects, water, storm water, sewer, or did it did it address all of the other items that the infrastructure task force has weighed in over the years?

We've asked them to weigh in on a lot of different things. First, it was established for the Fortify Lauderdale agenda, but we have tasked it with doing much more than that, including the City Hall. So question is, seeing that we keep renewing it every year, is this something we really want to make more permanent because they are in fact become a good resource and a good sounding board for a lot of the projects that we've been involved with. And so I just raise it as a point. It's not being asked of us, but I just thinking is this the time start considering the possibility of it being a more permanent board.

What do you see, city managers, the timeline to bring the audience to us for this to become a board? Did you say February 3?

We are pending some feedback from the chair, but we're eyeballing February 3 as the opportunity to come back for initial consideration by the commission.

And that's to change from a task force to a board? Correct. Okay. Thank you.

So what do you wanna do now? Yeah. Thanks mayor. So couple of one Peter Perdington's from I I don't know if he signed up, but I'd love to hear from him from Peter.

The one signed up to speak on this. Is Peter here? Peter's here. Come on up Peter.

Come on down. And the mayor, as Peter's coming up, you could punch the button at the bottom of the speaker. One of the suggestions I'd have, city manager and and mayor is as we think about Fortify Fort Lauderdale, as we think about moving our infrastructure work underground as fast as possible, we've had some discussions about P3 projects. We're going get further analysis from City Manager about P3 undergrounding. To me, Mayor, that's a great topic as well that they could be exploring in the ITF is P3 partnerships, Fortify Fort Lauderdale, traditional bid and do some of that thinking and work and analysis, think, could be good too.

Mayor, just as an example of one piece. Peter?

So Peter Paddington, currently Chair of the Infrastructure Task Force. A couple of things. Basically, think you already decided in principle that you were going to move from an advisory group that was reauthorized every couple of years to a permanent board. And this resolution was passed before we knew the timeline for the draft ordinance creating the board. And that now has been revealed as being the first reading on the February 3 and the second reading on the seventeenth.

At the time we passed our resolution, we did not know that. So really, that timeline for the ordinance obviates the need to take any action on a resolution because all being well and subject to your agreement, obviously, we will become or there will be a Board after the seventeenth. We will have most likely a discussion on the draft scope in the draft ordinance on our meeting, which actually takes place on February 2. So we will be able to give input on certainly on the second reading as a result of our consideration of that. And pretty much speaking only for myself, I'm in lockstep with what the city manager said.

The scope appears to me to be fine and similar. We have only similar to previously, we've only involved ourselves in certain projects at your request and direction, for example, City Hall. Personally, I see no need to be involved in that again unless you request that, Olas.

Okay. So it's already on the schedule to make it more permanent. Okay. There we go. All right. So you need no action from us now then because the second reading is February 17?

Correct.

And this says we're you're expiring your committee is expiring on the eighteenth. So we're good.

Yeah. And just to mention, if and when you do create a board, then you'll have to appoint new members. Is it the old When members of

is your term up?

I can't remember, but it's up February 18. All

right. Well, thank you. We appreciate it.

Okay. And just to say, appreciate the commission's priority on infrastructure. Thank you very much.

Okay.

I I have one question.

Go ahead.

Existing board members or members that are on the the, task force, is there anything that prevents us from reappointing them to the permanent board?

Only if they're don't we have a rule you can be on a committee and a board, but not two boards? So if there's somebody who's on a committee on this committee and also on a board, we may not be able to reappoint them. But we can research that and see if they're taking two roles.

All right. Thank you.

You're welcome. You, So

city manager, I just want to track. So what happens next?

So we would work with our public works department. I see O'Neil Rodriguez, our Assistant Public Works Director here. We would work on drafting that legislation for consideration by the commission, take it to the infrastructure task force to get feedback and hopefully incorporate that feedback and present to the city commission for a second reading in February.

Okay. All set. All right. Very good. Thank you. I see when I look at the minutes of that task force, I see that we have a full complement of board members participating, but I also see you have a legion of staff people who attend there. Is there some reason why all these people were asked to come to these meetings?

I mean, that's one of the considerations for refining the scope of the task force because the inquiries may be very broad. We want to make sure we have the staff available to answer their questions and be responsive.

All right.

Do you want to refine the scope now or at the next reading?

I think if you would like to give the feedback now, it would help guide us in drafting for first reading. Otherwise, we could also wait and make the update between first and second reading.

So my feedback is underground, water, sewer, storm water should be the primary focus of ITF. Agreed.

Or unless the commission asks

otherwise. Agreed, mayor.

Alright. There you go.

And and the current draft has that provision where the commission can ask for anything.

Okay.

Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. So

first presentation, we are honored to have as our guest today, School Board Chair, Sara Leonardi, and School Board Member, Doctor. Jeff Holmis. Come on up. You're going to make a presentation. Give us some updates. After your presentation, I have a couple questions to ask. Yeah. Please come up here. Just press the button that's below the speaker. Good afternoon. Did you enjoy the Martin Luther King parade? A little chilly. Right? I

especially appreciate their dancing, Mayor. It was

I really hope there is no video of that.

There is. We'll actually be sharing it soon here, chair Leonardi. Thank you.

With your elected opponent.

Thank you. Thank you for your eagerness.

Go ahead, Joe.

Okay. Okay. Great.

Welcome. Good afternoon, everyone. It's an honor to be here, and, we're going to be providing, academic and district updates. And, Chair Leonardi will go ahead and start.

All

right. Well, it's a pleasure to see all of you. You have the two board members who represent all of Fort Lauderdale together. So, thank you so much for having us. And again, thank you for a wonderful MLK Day Parade. It's always such a joy. But for those of you who don't know, I'm Sarah Leonardi. I'm Chair of the School Board and I represent District 3, which is a lot of East Fort Lauderdale. And we have Vice Chair, Doctor. Holness.

Thank you. Thank you. So if you could change the slide to Slide three that would be very helpful. Is there do we have a do we use is this what we use? Okay.

And that should be working. But city clerk can help.

Slide three.

Oh, that's it.

This one?

Yes. Okay.

All right. Great. Okay. So thank you so much again for having us. It's an honor for us to be here to update the city of Fort Lauderdale. Just want to speak about some real positive things that are happening in Broward County Schools as well. So for the second year in a row, Broward County Public Schools earned an A rating and the number of C rated schools were reduced by half from 70 in twenty twenty three-twenty twenty four school year to 34 in year twenty twenty four-twenty twenty five. In addition to that, the district reported no D or F rated schools. So I think, Mayor, if you don't mind, I think that deserves a round of applause.

And I've been talking a lot about the new Broward schools. Given a lot of the the noise and the news, I think it's really important to talk about how, we are succeeding at our core mission, which is educating students. As you can see, more than half of our, Broward traditional Broward public schools are a rated. We are only one of two large school districts in the state of Florida that have no D or F schools. And we are a vast majority of our schools have received A or B grades.

So when people are talking about moving to Broward, specifically moving to Fort Lauderdale, which we'll talk about later in this presentation, you can assure people that we have great traditional public schools for children to go to. And we're really, really proud of all of our teachers, our families, everyone who works with students, who deliver these excellent academic outcomes for our students. That's my slide. I'm really proud of our district three schools. In the last few years since we've moved to this new accountability system for the state of Florida, we've seen a lot of improvements, schools that were historically C rated moving to B or A schools, and we're really, really proud of that accomplishment.

So two of the schools in District three that earned, that went from a C to an A grade include Northside Elementary, the beautiful historic Northside here in Fort Lauderdale as well as Cypress Elementary, which is right, on the other side of the border in Pompanoa. It used to be my home school until I moved to this great city two years ago. And then we can be really proud of Stranahan High School, which received its first ever A rating. So 93% of our district three schools are A or B rated. Again, something really for us to brag about as a city.

Chair Leonard, could you share with us just a little bit, maybe folks who rates the school, what are some of the factors in that rating and how what leads to changes from scoring from year to year?

Yes. So this is the state's accountability measure. So students now they take three assessments throughout the year. They're called fast assessments. And there's a calculation of, you know, proficiency, how much the students improve, from the first test in the school year to the end. So there's a multitude of different metrics that go into this, but this is the state's own accountability system that we that has rated us, on such an excellent level. And the state has also rated us a high performing school district.

Great. Thank you.

Okay. So we look at the schools in my district that's in Fort Lauderdale and we have three schools that increased by two letter grades and we also have 11 schools that increased by one letter grade and 18 schools that maintained the same letter grade from 2024. So if you look at the slide for District five, you'll see that in District five in general rather, have schools that improve from a C to an A and this is overall in District 5, which is Horizon Elementary, Rock Island Elementary and Sunland Park Academy. And in District 5, we have some schools that receive A for the first time ever. We have Oriole Elementary School, Plantation Elementary and Bord Anderson High School.

So there's a lot of wonderful academic improvement that we are observing in Broad County Schools and we are so proud of our teachers, our staff, our district and our school board members as well who work diligently to make sure that our district continues to perform.

So again, we're kind of diving into the data a little bit more on our schools, but I do wanna highlight. So in district three as well as district five, you have some schools that have historically been high performing. Your your Bayviews, your VSYs, your Harbor Dales, Fort Lauderdale High School, they have been able to maintain their a rating from the state. But I think what an exciting story in addition to that is you have, again, some schools that have improved over the last several years. You have Bennett Elementary, Northside, Westwood Heights, Stephen Foster, New River, Riverland that are going from c to b to a schools.

And so, again, as you're trying to attract families into the city, and talking about affordability, we have great public education options available for families that are doing a really excellent job at, again, our core mission, educating students. Okay.

So if you notice on this slide, these are the schools that are in, Fort Lauderdale in District 5. And prior Chair Leonardi showed schools that are in Fort Lauderdale in her district as well. So if you look at the schools in the chart, it shows that Dillard Elementary has shown outstanding improvement from a D to a B in just two years. North Fork has maintained a B rating for two consecutive years. Rock Island and Sunland Park made a major leap from a C to an A.

And Thurgood Marshall and William Dandy has maintained a C rating over the past three years and was just one percentage point rather shy of achieving a B rating. Walker has shown remarkable progress as well improving from an F to a B in just two years. And Dillard six through 12 has shown positive improvement improving to a B after two years at a C. So when we look at all of our schools in Fort Lauderdale in both, Cherry Leonardo's district and mine, most of the school except for one either maintain the same letter grade or improve. So we're very proud of what we're achieving here in Fort Lauderdale as far as Broward County Schools and our efforts to ensure maximum student learning outcome.

At this point, we will have Doctor. Wanza, come up and provide some additional redefining updates for you.

And before the wonderful Doctor. Wanza speaks, I do want to acknowledge, I think a huge part of the story of academic success in Fort Lauderdale is the commitment from this commission and from the city. The amount of money you all have invested in the the parks at our schools and the playgrounds, Your EAB and your chief education officer are very excellent partners in all of that. So thank you for your commitment and partnership in making Fort Lauderdale schools as excellent as they are.

Good afternoon. So I guess I'm gonna get a every two week invitation.

Keep coming

back. Keep coming back. So Would you

like a seat up here?

No. No. No. No. No. No. I'm I'm I'm fine being appointed, not elected. So as I told the commission and the community two weeks ago, tomorrow the board will engage in the culmination, if you will, of the conversation this school year around redefining our schools and then in another month or so sort of tee up for, next year's conversations. But, as we all know, the district has been in this second year of redefining our schools because we are experiencing unprecedented, enrollment declines from year to year. As I said, two year, two weeks ago rather, from one school year, we declined by 10,000 students.

And what that equates to financially is over 90,000,000 in one year. But then over the ten year, look, it's over 300 almost $350,000,000. So, the board, has been very, very concerned about this, and we've worked with the communities over this past school year. We actually had, approximately 13 different community meetings across the Broward County County area to discuss redefining. And so I'm gonna click to the next slide.

Okay. And so that right there, this slide outlines all of the conversations that we have. But more specifically, we did target the meetings that we had here as it relates to the city of Fort Lauderdale or schools that are located in the city of Fort Lauderdale. So you can see we've had community conversation in September. We've also had it in November.

And then the board has had multiple board workshops around redefining our schools. So the next slide doctor. Thank you. So these are some commitments specifically as it relates to the City Of Fort Lauderdale schools, but also district wide because there are opportunities. We know that the board has said that definitely wanna partner with the community, the city to implement a maritime industry program at at Stranahan High School.

The board also solidified the partnership and reaffirmed its commitment to work with the city for the k twelve sports academy between Bennett, Sunrise, and Fort Lauderdale. And then some opportunities that may be in feeder patterns here in the city is around establishing some feeder patterns for for dual language as well as Gifted Academy and then something new around this whole technology emphasis around Broward powered by AI. And then we are looking and working with communities around some real really some future ready type programming for students. And then but on tomorrow's board agenda as it relates specifically to the city is the item as it relates to North Fork Elementary School and consolidating North Fork into the four elementary schools, Christen Park, doctor Martin Luther King, Thurgood Marshall Walker, and then trans transforming that campus for another district use. Also, expanding the opportunities at Thurgood Marshall to be from birth to grade five.

And then lastly, the consolidation of Wooden Rogers and Seagull onto the Wooden campus and then working to transition the Seagull campus for another district use. So what after tomorrow's board meeting and whatever action the board takes, we're certainly ready to operationalize those decisions. And then we're gonna come back to the board on March 24 as I told the commission two weeks ago, we're gonna have the conversation around the the proposals that we received for the North Fork campus. And then at the May 12 school board workshop, we're actually gonna start to tee up the conversation for next school year.

That's it. Does that complete your presentation? Yes. Okay. I have a couple questions.

How does a school or a school system experience such a precipitous leap over a short period of time and accomplish this level of achievement? And what I mean, it's more than just the cities adding some pickleball courts and playing field. There's got to be more to it. Is there a formula? Was there an agenda? Is there something new added to the ingredients of higher education that maybe Doctor. Hepburn has brought into the system that you can share with us today?

Yes. I think we'd both like to speak to that. I think it's no secret that we experienced a lot of chaos, over a very short period of time, about five years ago, where we had six superintendents in three years. There was a lot of staff turnover. And there had been kind of some entrenched issues for some time.

And finally, when we were able to appoint a superintendent who has had a strong academic background, he was a chief academic officer, and bring some stability to the system. For me, that's that's the story, that that I've seen play out. I mean, obviously, the the accomplishments are owned by our students and our teachers and the people who are in our schools working every single day. But I think the stability that doctor Hepburn has brought, to the school district is definitely a part of that that narrative. And I don't know if Doctor. Holness?

Thank you. And as, Chair Leonardi mentioned, Broward County Schools, we did experience, unfortunately, some periods of instability, but we've actually done some different things. For example, I believe this started with Lakota and continued with Hepburn and Hepburn pretty much did a really great job. We formed what we call the Student Transformation Office and that office is a department that focuses on our low performing schools and we try to provide the right resources, targeted instructions, targeted resources for those schools. So initially we had three regional offices.

We added a fourth, which we call the Student Transformation Office, and that office focuses primarily on our low performance schools. I believe that helped a lot. We also had programmatic changes in many of the schools. I would be remiss if I did not say as well that it's our teachers, our staff, that have worked diligently to ensure that our students are learning. So I believe with a combination of concerted effort with the school board members, the district leadership and our teachers and staff who were able to make significant improvement in our schools. And Doctor. Wanza may have something else to add, I'm not sure.

Okay. Any other questions? Ben?

Yes, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you both for being here. A couple questions. First, I'll start off with city manager. I'm gonna turn to you on this. So, chair Leonardi and school member vice chair of wholeness. We have a education advisory board in the city. City manager, do we have students on the education advisory board? When I was on it years ago, I thought we did, but do you know if we do?

I'm not 100% sure. Susan Leon, our chief education officer is here.

Okay. So my question is how can we better engage students in our government in supporting the good work that's happening in our schools? So that was just one immediate thought I had. Education advisors, so it's a volunteer meet once a month in the afternoon, Susan, is that right? I think we meet, the education advisory board meets once a month in like 05:00 or 06:00 or something like that. So would that be a good opportunity to engage students? Is there anything else we should be doing? Like years ago, I thought about a student youth council that the city would support in

some way. Susan, go ahead.

Good afternoon. Thank you for the question. Yes. Through Parks and Recreation, there is a teen youth council in place already.

Oh, we do. I did

not know that. Yes. We have one.

How many students are on that?

I would have to defer to Parks and Recreation to get the exact number. It's operated through Carla Hibbert and the team program.

Okay, great. Okay, I'll find out more about that offline. Susan, have we thought about students being on the Education Advisory Board? Is that something we could contemplate or

Absolutely. We could research that. It's actually never come up at the board meetings. Okay. So certainly Okay.

Mayor, is that could we just look at do a little research on that?

Is it

Well, let her do the research. Yeah.

Her yes. I just wanna make sure we're supportive of exploring that. Okay. Think that'd be good. City manager, if we could do that, I think that'd be great. Okay.

Absolutely.

So there's a couple of things. Then I'd also and I think you all can talk about this following Sunshine Law because we're Sunshine, but so there's two schools, Seagull and Wynn Rogers, sorry, Seagull and North Fork. And so we had a good discussion at the commission meeting recently about Wynn Rogers and Seagull and exploring the possibility of regional training facility for our fire and police. Have you heard our feedback about that? Or

Yeah. Yeah.

Got it.

The your your fire chief and I I don't know what what Mike Owen's official title is. Deputy

fire chief

or assistant fire chief.

I've spent a lot of time with Chief Cohen and Mike discussing this and they've been really excellent partners throughout the whole redefining effort. I don't think there's redefining meeting we've had about, Fort Lauderdale schools that they haven't been at. And they've just been really great advocates for your vision. And then I've been very supportive of that. We've talked about it at board workshops and board meetings on this.

And and I'm really excited about the opportunity for the city, but also for our students to to participate. Yeah. So, yeah, it's been it's been really great. And to your previous question, there are multiple different avenues in which we engage students for for input. So we have a group of students organized by our student adviser to the board, and the alternate student adviser to the board.

They organize a workshop every quarter where they bring, middle school and high school to the dais with us and they share their feedback on different issues. And that's been really enlightening and really productive. We again, we have a student adviser, an alternate student adviser, and then the superintendent has his own committee of student advisers that he meets with. So there's a lot of different ways that we've been able to engage that you guys can can also utilize. And I know I was just with a group of students at Fort Lauderdale High School this morning, and they are there are many who are eager to get involved in local government and excited about that. So, however we can assist with getting you guys access, through the appropriate channels to students and student feedback, we're happy to do that.

Okay. That's great. Thank you. City manager, where what happens next in our, let's start with Seagull discussion with school board exploring options there?

As mentioned, we've been advocating over the course of the last several months and I know that the school board has a meeting coming up where more determinations will be made as to the schools and how that will progress. Once that happens, we will have another opportunity to advocate on behalf of the city for that public safety training facility. We do need to do a little bit more due diligence on our part in terms of what it would take to make that facility what we intend for it to be in terms of fiscal resources and a timeline. But all of that would be subject to those discussions with the school board. It is not clear at this moment as to what the consideration would be for the city to be able to utilize that site.

I know we've had previous conversations about various sites and whether it would be market rate or a long term lease or some other mechanism. So we are looking at this as a true partnership for the betterment of our entire community. And so anything market rate would be a challenge for us in terms of a rental opportunity, but we are hoping to have further discussions with the school board on that.

Okay, great. So, Trillion, I mean, what just me, just one person here, but I think for me a long term lease of part of Seagull to use that as a training facility seems to make a lot of sense for us rather or from I think for the city rather than a purchase. Is that long term lease something considered? Or are you thinking something different?

I think there's been a lot of different conversations. We have to first, the board has to take official action

Come on.

Tomorrow is when when we'll be voting Great. To close the facility, and then it's up to staff to negotiate that. But I'm happy to carry the sentiments to the Board tomorrow during the meeting. And Doctor. Wanza is here, so she hears the conversation Yes. As

great. And I think, again, long term lease. And again just it would take, I think investment from the city to transform it into a training facility. So that's cost retrofitting all that kind of stuff and maintenance. So I'd really love to see just a minimal yearly lease and us operate and maintain as such. And I think the yearly lease of like $1 a year would be amazing. So I just want to share that with you for your your consideration for for

They think it's amazing too, but not the same amazing as as you as you They

may define amazing differently, but definitely. We're at least for the main same word. Yeah. It's good. Fantastic. And then commissioner Beasley Pym was leading the discussion about North Fork and our interest again in a partnership there, which

we're very interested.

That is I do wanna respect my colleague that is, his school. So I don't know, doctor Holness, if you wanna speak to North Fork or

Okay. So North Fork in terms of the possibility of having some sort of a lease with the city. Well, what we've discussed at the board and prior board meeting is that we're looking for the best option as far as proposal for that site, being within my city. Part of within my district rather, part of what we discussed is that we would love to see options that will involve community input as well as immediate community benefit in addition to whatever the options are that's going to be there. We do also had a discussion on government rate as far as any leasing option.

Our school district has lost students and it's important that we're making fiscally responsible decisions. So while it may not necessarily be a market rate and I leave that to staff, the Board is looking for a reasonable governmental type rate in terms of any leasing options that would be presented.

Great. That sounds great. That's good. Commissioner Biesen Pittman, is that something?

Yes. Thank you for sharing, and thank you for bringing conversation back to the dice. Thank you.

Thank you. And then, Chair Leonardi, one other and and you and I had had a chance to talk with this with city manager, but, city manager, I just wanna share with with everyone that we all collectively continue to work with the school board and Chair Leonardi to find options for Fort Lauderdale High School, public schools, graduation venues. So we're continuing to explore that. City manager, is that right, options for possible graduation venues?

Thank you, Commissioner. So just as a follow-up to the information provided to the commission last week on sentiments that we can share with the public. Staff has been doing research at the request of various members of the City Commission as to venue opportunities within the City Of Fort Lauderdale, within our purview or via partnerships that we may have in addition to other venues that we may not have a defined partnership. We are in communications with the superintendent and his staff as to what the needs are for each school. As you are aware,

there are

certain requirements that the school board has put in place that determine which venue a high school graduation would take place at. We're taking the information provided in terms of class size, the amount of tickets afforded to each graduate, which is four at this time. That's what has been shared with us and we're looking at various venues within the city. So we're researching not just War Memorial but also the Broward Center, the First Baptist Church, the Convention Center, Nova as well. And we plan to come back to the commission with further information on that to see which schools could be accommodated where.

There may be costs associated and the school board would have to take that into consideration. As far as War Memorial is concerned, we do get a number of rentals through our engagement with War Memorial, our agreement. However, based on the class size and the number of attendees, War Memorial may not be best suited for the schools that are being discussed, which are Stranahan and Fort Lauderdale High School. Dillard High School's graduation is intended to be held at Dillard. I have not, received a request for that graduation ceremony to potentially take place at another venue, but we would bring back the full, result of our research and then the city commission can provide additional feedback so that we can either engage the school board with discussions on how we can facilitate this or if there are any additional costs or considerations that need to be contemplated, we would have that discussion.

Great. Thanks city measure. Does that all sound good, Cher?

Yeah. Yeah. And I you know, again, I am open to to any kind of partnership, that that can provide solutions. I do wanna to share that I did meet with a group of about 30 to 40 students at Fort Lauderdale High School this morning. We weren't we I didn't go there to talk about graduation, but that became the topic. And just anecdotally, a lot of the concerns the students had, we were able to address. So they were worried about ADA accessibility of the of of Dillard. We were able to to assure that, you know, any grandparent, who has a ticket is is able to physically be there. The valedictorian and salutatorian were both there. So I was very overwhelmed intellectually.

But they were very worried that there wasn't don't know about that. They were worried there wouldn't be reserved seating for those families as there usually there usually is, but we were able to assure them that there will be reserved seating. They were worried that they were gonna be just walking across a gym floor instead of on a stage. We were able to assure them there there is in fact a stage at Dillard. I've been to graduations there before.

It's really been incredible. They were worried that there wouldn't be like a big screen because Fort Lauderdale High School usually does a beautiful slide show of different photos and things like that. We were able to assure them that that there will be a big screen. So a lot of the the concerns that the students had were able to be alleviated. So I I say that all to say, like, I'm again, we are open to any partnership that that the city is willing to bring to us. But having sat down with the students myself this morning, I feel I felt a bit of a a sense of relief with that conversation.

Okay, great. Do you want us to continue pursuing options or not? I mean, I

think we're open to options, but, I do want to ensure that, you know, we do have a wonderful experience planned for our graduates.

Okay.

Doctor. Williams.

Thanks.

And I just want to mention that as a district as we if we expand graduation locations, to a certain number, it does create some logistics and challenges as far as programmatic challenges. And I have Doctor. Juan to speak to that a little bit so everyone can understand. Traditionally, we have a few venues for graduation. If we expand that out to many venues, it then create a significant challenges for the district to be able to implement. So Doctor. Wanza, you can make some additional comments.

Thank you.

I'm back. Yes. Graduations also fall within my portfolio of administrative responsibilities. But the only thing I will add is, you know, we were very successful coming out of the pandemic at hosting graduation ceremonies, multiple ceremonies at Dillard High School. And I think that what people may sometimes not understand is unlike any other high school gymnasium that we have, Dillard, Blanche Ely, and Pompano Beach are arena style, facilities.

They're not the traditional bench seats that you're used to going. They're actually individual stadium seats that everyone sits in. Dillard probably has the largest high school facility, if not the region, probably the state, with the number of people that it can just seat individual guest wise and the students will be situated on the floor, which is very, very, very similar to the design at Nova Southeastern University. That is their basketball gym arena that we have graduations in. We we certainly respect the sentiments that we have heard from the community, but what I will the last thing I'll say is is when we start to add the number of venues, we start to stretch already strained resources.

And I'll give an example. We livestream all of our graduation ceremonies because we know that many graduates have families outside of the state, outside of the country. They're not able to get here. So when you start to take us out of our traditional, you know, four or five places and now different municipalities want to add, we we may not have the resources to then provide certain services. So it it does become logistical challenge. But as our board chair and, you know, vice chairs, said, we will work at the behest of their direction, and we are happy to serve. Okay.

Any other questions or comments?

Yes. Thank you, mayor.

So, Sarah, could I just follow-up a little bit on but before I ask a couple of other questions. So, how is it left with your meeting this morning, at Fort Lauderdale High School? My office has been in touch with a lot of folks. Obviously, it's in my district, so we've been very into to what's been going on there. Were there any next steps outlined? Were you basically saying we're gonna meet again? Or how is it left?

So the the roundtable with the students was really about, it was supposed to be about technology. Obviously, you know, there were there were the lot of the conversation was on graduation. There were some, like, small things that that we left with. You know, a a student was particularly concerned about her parent, her grandparent having access to the facility. I told her there shouldn't be any ADA issues, but, you know, we will work with whoever if if, they they need extra assistance.

So I mean, that's how

the conversation ended. I was we were able, along with the student adviser to the school board, we were able to answer a lot of questions and concerns.

Did you see there there was a need to maybe have another meeting? Or were their concerns addressed in in a satisfactory way where they all said, okay, those were our concerns and we're happy to hear these answers?

Yeah. I mean, think it I felt good leaving today. I felt like we answered a lot of questions. I think there's still some angst because change is hard. But I think it seemed like the students felt better leaving than they did coming in talking about it.

Okay. Thank you. That's very helpful and thank you for your work. And by the way, so before I ask this question, I wanted to say also thank you to all of you. Everyone is very well aware that these have been very difficult years. A lot to navigate. Congratulations on these results. You know, I I actually just texted the former principal at Northside because I've spent a lot of time at that school. I know that she's no longer here, but just so thrilled to see what that school has achieved. Amazing.

That's such a precious place, and those kids are amazing. I have not had the pleasure of meeting with the new principal yet, but I have with the former over the years and always attended functions there. And just that is a it's a magical place actually, not just the historic structure, but also the kids and the faculty and the commitment there has been amazing. So congratulations on all of your incredible work. It's really greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your leadership. My one question is, and this is an issue that received a lot of attention in the press, but then I haven't heard anything about it, so maybe you can help me. The whole notion of charter schools taking up space in the public schools, Where exactly are we with that? And do you see that even impacting some of the issues that we're looking at with some of the schools in our district that we I mean, our city that we're looking to do things with? But where where is that issue right now with charter schools taking space in public schools?

Yeah. So we did receive a number of letters, from different charter school management companies. School districts all over the state did. I think, my hope is that through the legislative process in session, some of this is cleaned up because it would pose, really severe, implications for, us as a system, but also for the redefining effort, our budget. So, I know that the Florida School Boards Association is lobbying, for some changes, because I think there were some unintended consequences of that rule that came from DOE.

So I I I don't have any solid answers for you because I think a lot of it is up in the air, during session.

So we expect to know more by the end of session. Is that what we're

waiting Yeah.

Okay. Well, thank you for that update. I really appreciate it. And again, thank you so much for everything you do. Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions? Alright. I have a couple more questions. This is the year of our two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of our country. Has the school board considered programs or activities that are going to allow students to be educated and celebrate the anniversary? We haven't heard anything. And is there anything the city can do to be more involved to help participate and promote the anniversaries? I guess we should have started this conversation last year, but anything that you can share with us to let us know what's going on?

I'm not I wish we had some academics people here. I'm not aware of any specific efforts, but we're happy to I'm happy to bring it up at the meeting tomorrow.

Celebrating the we're not celebrate you're not the school year is not celebrating

the July 4 is, not during the instructional year, but, yes, we will we will No.

But it just this is a whole year. It's not just

the July 4.

July 4 is for fireworks or drones. Okay. But but it's but, you know, it's a whole year celebration. So so you're saying the school board's done nothing.

I'm unaware. So it could be that there are things going on. I just don't know what is going on. But we will definitely get some more information back to you on that.

Okay.

All right. Thank you.

Yes, Jeff. And Mayor, I appreciate you bringing that up. And I am sure that the district will likely have, some things in place to ensure that we are celebrating. So thank you for bringing that up and, that's a district operation issue as well. So we're I appreciate you bringing that to our attention.

Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. There being none, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you all. Thanks for work. Appreciate it. You. Mayor, can I just a question for Commissioner Go So based on that for you, Commissioner Glassman, I just wanna make sure what's your take for four lateral high school graduation? Mean, is it worth continuing to explore options? I wanna defer to wherever

you think.

Well, we continue to get the emails. I I well, that's why I was trying to find out if they felt necessary.

I mean,

it almost sounds like they're okay now. So I Yeah. But I I know there's issues, and I I mean, I don't mind us looking for other options and then presenting those options to the school board, but that's why I was interested to see if they decided on any follow-up necessary. But, like, I'm sure we'll hear today what happened at that meeting, and this way we'll be able to see what that information is. I still don't think it's a bad idea to to continue to see what we can do. That's all. Yeah. And then present it to those folks.

That's how I feel. So I'm gonna do the so I'll I'll keep doing the same for schools in my district. I know you're doing with yours, and then we'll we'll just see what options city manager comes together with it.

Okay. Sounds good.

Okay. Is that good? City manager?

Thank you. Thanks.

Yes. Thank you.

Well, it doesn't sound like they're really asking for our help anymore. Right?

I'm getting a lot of now I haven't gotten emails today about an update, but just historically, and it sounds like commissioner Glassman, you're you're probably getting more than I am, but a lot of feedback, a lot of concern from students.

Okay. How many does anyone have a number of what the First Baptist Church can hold? Is it the sanctuary or is it the the function hall?

I I think we're looking at the main sanctuary. Okay. I don't have that number

Yeah. I don't know.

Yet, mayor. But

Okay. Just curious. I know it's big.

Yeah. I I think, you know, and obviously emotions were really running high when this was announced, this policy. But folks need to understand, Fort Lauderdale High School and Dillard are like arch arch rivals. So to tell Fort Lauderdale High School that they're going over to Dillard for their graduation, that's a part of this. You know, it's like an emotional thing. So we have to understand it, but maybe though maybe those emotions

I thought the arrival was more between Stranahan and Fort Lauderdale.

I I Well, maybe well, maybe everyone has a rivalry. But but this graduated from Fort Lauderdale.

Yeah. She doesn't

have any problem with Dillard's? Yeah.

But just just sharing, you know, as it was said, you know, everyone has a vision of what they would like

Right.

Their graduation to look like. But also, Dillard is a superior, location to host a graduation. So even with what's being shared, as a commission, you know, we do want to, you know, help our neighbors reach the desires that they want, but also help them to understand that plan the plan is not a chopped liver plan. It's a good plan as well. So keep that in consideration.

No. Although I love chopped liver. Don't get me wrong. But I I just wanna say Okay.

So just that the plan b is or the plan a right now Yeah. It it is something to is worth entertaining and considering. It's not

a bad plan. And I

think that from what we heard today, it looks like the dialogue is is helping. And sometimes that's really what it is. It's, you know, it's just that dialogue and sharing those ideas. And but I don't I don't think it's bad to still present options. But at the end of the day, this is a school board decision.

Yes. That's the point. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Alright. Let us move on. Let's see. Alright. Working on new business. Business one, Los Oles Mobility Western Corridor. City Manager.

We have Milos Mastrovich, our Director of Transportation Mobility. He's going to lead the presentation, and I know that our consultants are here as well.

Great. Milos?

Thank you very much, Madam Manager. My name is Milos Mestorovic, and I'm Director for City's Transportation and Mobility Department. So today, we would like to provide you with an update on Las Olas Mobility Vestry and Corridor design that goes from South Andrews Avenue to Southeast 17th Avenue. So in terms of the background, back in 2019, the City Commission started a process of developing a new vision for Las Olas Boulevard from Andrews Avenue to the beach. Las Olas Working Group was created around that time to support this effort and included members of the neighborhood at city associations, businesses along Las Olas Boulevard and also the neighborhood.

The city ended up hiring Coradino Group in 2019 in order to help with the developing vision plan, and that process took about two years. From late twenty nineteen until adoption of the vision plan for Las Olas, the Coradino Group attended more than 90 meetings to collect input from working group members, neighborhoods and business associations. This process included in person walks, virtual walking tours, neighborhood meetings, attendance at the business association meetings, individual stakeholder meetings, citywide survey and regular working group meetings as well. All this feedback was, collected and, ultimately considered and incorporated as part of the vision plan that new of development the WSP, in order for them develop a design for the Western Corridor. The Western Corridor goes from, again, Andrews Avenue to Southeast 17th Avenue and includes a downtown section from Andrews to Tunnel Top, a shop segment that goes from Tunnel Top to 12th Avenue and then Koli Hammock that goes from 12th To 17th.

So the consultant WSP is tasked with developing 60% engineering plans And per direction from the City Commission, WSP is to advance the cross sections identified in the approved version of 2021 Vision Plan to 60% design plans for the downtown section and Collihamok section. And for the retail shops, they are tasked to develop two conceptual designs. The first one would be one that was identified and adopted as part of the 2021 vision plan, which removes the medians along the shop segment. And the other one would be designed that retains the medians, modifies the parking lanes and expands the sidewalk widths. So the intent was to bring these back to City Commission for feedback and direction as to which concept for the shop segment to advance a 3060% plan development, one without or one with the medians.

So we have worked with WSP and developed conceptual designs. And over the last few months, we have conducted public engagement and presented the project update to Downtown Development Authority, Las Olas Company, Broward Workshop, Downtown Civic Association and the Colley Hammocks Homeowners Association. We also went before Beverly Heights Civic Association and met with Eidlwild as well. Public town hall meeting was also held mid November. And aside from all the groups that I've mentioned already, the Council of Civic Association was also invited to that meeting.

So after today's presentation, we plan to bring this item back to City Commission on February 3 as part of the evening agenda and really seek direction from the City Commission as to advancing conceptual designs to 60% for the Downtown and Colliham segments and also for the City Commission to provide us with a direction as to which alternative for the SHOP segment to proceed with, either one without a median or one with the median. Again, securing City city commission direction for the design is very important in order for us to stay on the schedule and within a budget. Once provided that we do receive a city commission direction in February, the plan 60% design plans will be available by winter of this year. And once that is done, there would be a new solicitation that the city would need to issue in order to advance 60% design plans to 100% and also secure a firm that would be conducting design and build. So consultant team is here with me today, and they'll take us through presentation.

Feel free to answer any ask any questions in the meanwhile, and we also have some city staff as well

available. Okay.

Great. Thank you. Why don't you proceed with your presentation? Hello.

Good afternoon, Mayor, good afternoon, Commissioners, City Manager. My name is Catherine Prince. I'm the project manager on the consultant side. And with me, I have from Bersaga, Alec, who is leading our engagement for the project Brian from Shenmoor assisting with the Arbor side and also Greg from WSP. He is leading the engineering side from the civil and the drayage components.

And folks who are not here in our sub consultant teams, we have surveyors, landscape architects, lighting specialists and other engineers as well. Since the team received our NTP in order to proceed, the WSP and our sub consultants have completed the topographical survey, subsurface utility exploration and we've reviewed the city's latest storm water model. With this information, we've developed the preliminary design built on the La Solas Mobility Plan approved by the commission in 2021. We have met with several stakeholders, as Milos mentioned earlier, and we also held a public meeting on November 13 to provide a forum for anyone interested in the project. During this presentation, will go over the design improvements proposed in the three sections within the project area.

The first section is the downtown. In the downtown section, we advanced the adopted 2021 La Solos mobility plan from an engineering design and a construction feasibility point of view. We focused on increasing the tree canopy of safe crossings. Otherwise, there is minimal sidewalk and roadway changes within the this section of the corridor. This is a view looking west from Southeast 1st Avenue existing conditions.

And here are the proposed conditions. The major investment along this section is increasing the tree canopy. So we are proposing or we're looking at almost three times the existing tree canopy along the entire

All right.

So stop right here. Anyone have any questions with regard to this section of Los Soles? Looks pretty good to me. Okay. Yep. You have questions? This is your district.

Yeah. Yeah. Thanks, mayor. So thanks for being here and sharing. This was a feedback gotten before. Let me try to summarize it here. They're concerned about adding six inches to the six and

a half

foot sidewalk abutting Hyzinga Park? And is that I guess, is that worth the adjustment on that, if that makes sense?

Say it again. The Hyzinga Park.

Sidewalk in front of Hyzinga Park.

Right. To the left.

Yep. Yep. Feedback from Doug Egan's concern that it's just adding six inches to the Hyzinga Park sidewalk. Jenny, you're here. Don't know if that makes Six inches? Yes. So I don't if you heard my question. Does that make sense, Christine?

Isn't a it's Catherine. It's not six inches. Catherine. No worries. It's we are not we are looking at between one to seven feet, in front of Huizinga Park.

Okay.

It's not six inches. It's one to seven feet, plus five additional feet for landscape area.

Okay. So then he's just

Might be an error.

Not tracking this. Yeah.

I think the only thing that I

would add is that we

did not move the curb line when we constructed Heisinger So there is a sidewalk that runs from the curb back to the landscaped area within the park. Yeah. And then further back is the lawn. So, you know, it's a little bit different here. That's all.

Okay. Great.

Thank It

seems that it seems that most of what we're seeing here is the trees and the median. Is that correct?

That is correct. And I also want to clarify, all the improvements you're seeing here is within the cities right away. Nothing is within the parks.

I understand. But that's basically what we're seeing here is more trees and then the addition of a

median. That is correct. We are extending the median.

And one of the important parts of this, in my view, Mayor, is adding the trees gathered as a buffer between the street and the pedestrians.

Correct.

And why is that an important functionality in this?

One, there is sufficient space. In the rest of the corridor, there isn't enough room to provide this amenity. In this particular area, there is that space to provide. And in this particular area, it also allows for the roots to it's a good space for the roots to grow. In the rest of the corridor, we are not providing a landscape area. What we are doing is providing structural soil, which will provide the same benefits, but it's not going to look the same visually.

Okay, great. And how many trees would be added to this portion?

So let me go back a slide.

Thanks.

Actually, I'm going to pull my folder and give me a second.

Yes, please take your time. Take your time.

You never trust a picture.

That's right.

I think it's 20, but something like that. No. Not for that. Christian, just on your last question, one of the important parts is right now Please identify yourself. I'm sorry. I'm Alec Bogdanoff on the consultant team. Right now, a lot of the sidewalks are directly adjacent

to So the

if you step onto the street, you're in traffic. In this case, there's a a focused effort on creating a landscape buffer between the sidewalk and the street, which for this was one of the biggest comments in the engagement side for parents and pedestrians. It just provides an added level of safety. You're not just gonna step off into the street on into oncoming traffic. Right. But how many trees are designated between Andrews and the tunnel?

Total number of trees, 122.

Hundred and twenty one two

hundred and twenty two trees. Of that, the large canopy trees, 32 medium trees, 81 small, four and five palm trees, only five compared to if you look at existing, majority of the trees are all palm trees, 65 existing palm trees.

Right.

Okay.

So that would be 122 total or 122 in addition?

Total is 122.

So it's adding 60 or 50. How many being added? 57 or so added.

I can pull up my backup slides.

Go ahead. Take your time.

Your time. And here use this if you need more space. Can't turn up here.

Yeah. And this just take away from our need to plant 200,000 trees over the next ten years. This it yes. Is this come off our column here?

200,000 minus 50. We're on our way. Making progress.

We'll start somewhere. I tell you.

On our way.

And I think, mayor, for example, in this section, the because there's largely not a median that this would be a new median with additional trees in the median. That's what it looks like. Correct. Right. We just those are all new trees. And what I've also understood through in talking with this is, as Catherine mentioned, is these are not just small caliper trees. And that's my understanding throughout the quarter is these are significant caliper trees.

Supposed to be 60 to 70% mature Yeah. According to the backup. Yep. Okay. So according to exhibit nine, page seven, it says 3x increase of the tree canopy downtown, 43 shade trees and 74 flower trees. I believe those are the additional trees that are being added to that segment. Is that correct? Page seven of 32. No, I'm asking you, is that correct? Page seven of 32. You want to go to Page seven?

Page seven of 32

is what you want do. Exhibit nine, your presentation.

It's the proposed Southeast 1st Avenue.

43 shade trees and 74 flowering, trees. That is correct.

Okay. So those are being those are the ones being planted. Is that correct?

That is correct.

Okay. Very good. Thank you.

And here you can see on this slide, you can see existing versus proposed, the number of trees, the comparison with what's existing right now and what's being proposed.

Thank you. Thanks, Catherine. Please proceed.

Do we want to go back to the downtown slide deck?

We're doing the Heisinger Park dedication this weekend, right? DDA, yes. Let's hope it's not cold. I'm tired of this cold weather.

So the existing trees, since we're talking about trees, the trees were selected based on three criteria. One is resilience to hotter, saltier future conditions, resilience to pests and diseases and the ability to thrive in constrained urban environment. Number two is place making. So we have a combination, as you saw, of flowering trees as well as shade trees. And the flowering trees can provide a sense of identity to the corridor as they will be blooming at different times of the year.

And also what see is small, medium and large canopy trees. And lastly, we did work with our city staff to ensure that these trees when they are planted, they can be maintained over the long term. And one last item I want to point out on the slide is safety improvements. So we are proposing to raise the intersection of Southeast 1st Avenue and also there is a raised mid block crossing here between Andrews Avenue and Southeast 1st Avenue. And the cost of construction is the preliminary cost of construction is $5,000,000 This does not include fees for CEI as well as design build contractor.

Is the design including an irrigation system?

Yes.

It does. So this $5,000,000 includes the trees or not include

the trees?

It does.

It does. It's all in?

Yes.

Okay. And this is between Andrews and the tunnel? That is correct. Okay. So let's go now to what a few people are here to discuss, the shops. In

the shops area, we looked at two design alternatives. Alternative one, the no median option advances the adopted 2021 La Solas Mobility Plan. The improvements include removing the existing median, increasing the sidewalk width, installing a sheet canopy along the sidewalk and making on street parking permanent. Alternative two with the median option retains the median, replaces the existing trees, and alternating parking on the north and south sides of the block and expands the sidewalk width where there is no parking. Here's an existing view looking, west on Southeast 9th Avenue.

And as you can see the sidewalk width, is five feet wide within the right of way and there's a varying private sidewalk width along the corridor. This is a visual of what, it could look like in the alternative without the median. The significant change here, obviously is removing the median, making the on street parking permanent. With this option, we estimate a loss of about 12 on street parking spaces. Also, we propose widening the sidewalk by an additional five feet to a total of approximately 10 feet wide.

The private setback space is where the outdoor seating is set up. This section will remain as it is and will not be impacted.

So this is 10 feet on the North And South Side of Los Olas?

That is correct, Mr. Mayor.

And that eliminates the median?

Yes, Mr. Mayor.

Okay. So that's what alternative one is about. Correct. Eliminating the median, making the sidewalks 10 feet wide or adding 10 feet, which is it?

It is 10 feet wide total. It's adding five feet in addition to the existing.

So wherever it's so where it's there are some areas where it's already 10 feet, but to make it uniform, it would just be the same. Correct? Well We're adding five feet all along the the the road. Is that correct?

We are adding five feet additional. That is correct. Okay.

And that's on the north and the south side? That is correct. Okay.

Alternative two, this is a visual of Alternative two, which retains the median. The significant difference here is we are making the on street parking permanent and the parking is alternated on the north and south side of the block. With this option, we are able to widen the sidewalk by an additional two feet in the sections which have the on street parking. So this is a visual. So this brings this makes it about seven feet wide in the section that has on street parking.

So this is keeping the median, making the sidewalk up to seven feet, in some cases, the sidewalk could be wider because some of the new construction has already accommodated the wider sidewalk. But at maximum, it would be seven feet on each side. Correct?

Correct. Within the right of way, it will be seven feet.

Now I noticed in this particular photograph, there are no trees in the median. What is the what is the what are the thoughts there? Is it the anticipation that the black olives will soon exhaust their useful life?

That was not the intent. Definitely, that was not the intent.

So I'm just curious. I mean, I'm just curious. If if for some reason, the trees because the urban foresters come here and said that they probably will not last more than a decade. And if that's the case, is it the intention of the city to plant more trees in the median or just rely on the design you have here to accommodate the canopy that we are intending to plant going forward?

There is an error in this visual where there is no tree in the median. What we are proposing I'll take a step back. What we are proposing is to put new trees in the median.

Now we were told that you cannot put trees in the median because of the root system and that would be frustrating for trees to grow in the median area because there isn't a sufficient area for a root system to grow. Has that been taken is that a true statement or not?

Well, according to the landscape architect who is designing Are they

here now?

Unfortunately, the landscape architect who is designing the corridor, give me one second, was not able to join us. He had a family emergency. Here is Brian Shen from Shenmoor who is stepping in. He is an arborist, certified arborist. The way the landscape architect designed this corridor is proposing a structural soil.

So they are going to go in about 10 feet deep to ensure and replace that soil to allow the root system to grow within that soil. So it doesn't have to fight the existing ground to push and push the asphalt and sidewalk up as it is doing right now, rather go in, get the nutrition it needs. So that's how we can ensure that any trees that is planted both on the sidewalk as well as in the median will thrive long term. Did you want to add more?

Can you please speak into the microphone?

I'm Brian Volker with Chen Moore and Associates.

Hi Brian, how are you?

Good. Yourself?

Good. You speak into the

microphone We're the consulting arborist sub to WSP. And as Catherine said, we're not the landscape architects designing, but through discussions But

know enough about trees to Yes. Be able to

So basically, the idea behind the engineered soils is it allows two things. It allows you to support the weight of vehicles on the roadway and also is not compact. Its compaction level is such that it allows for roots to grow under the substrate. So that's the idea behind this system. It allows us to have trees that, at mature that can actually get to decent size at maturity and the roots won't won't be confined by, compacted soils. So with the center,

with the median trees be able to grow to the same level of maturity and size and canopy as the ones that are anticipated for the sidewalks given their limited root ball?

If I can take that question. And I'm going to show you a plan view because the way the landscape architect designed the or planned the placement of the trees, he did prioritize larger trees for the sidewalk. So the large canopy trees are on the sidewalk. The smaller trees are in the median. So if I can just pull up the plan view so you can take a look at it and you can speak to the vitality of the planted tree right after.

Catherine, if you go to page Wait.

She's gotta show us.

Okay. On. Curb your enthusiasm. No. I just wanna show you there is there is a slide with the median with the trees. That's all. Three pages later. Oh, is it? Yes. Page 19.

Well, that's the current status.

No. Page 19? Yes. It's an alternative two with the post. See. Page 19. You'll see.

Okay.

So these are two plan views. And in here, what you see is the larger trees are prioritized on the sidewalk and the smaller trees are on the median. And he did and if you want to add into to talk about the vitality of the trees in the median when they're planted in the structural soil.

Yes. So basically, the nice thing about it is we're not the roots aren't unlike a traditional system where you have the median that's a certain width and that has soil in it and then you have just the compacted roadbed beyond that, the roots aren't going to be confined to the So often cases, if you have we did this in the past and it sometimes still happens where you might plant like a live oak in a three foot wide planter. And what happens is with the compaction flanking the median, you basically have a root system that's linear. So it doesn't do very well in storms, whereas with the engineered soils, we actually can have root growth in all directions. So you get a proper root plate or proper root zone under that matches the canopy and better supports the tree.

All right. Can I draw your attention to Page 19, which the Commissioner has pointed out? Can you go to 19? I noticed that, what is the intention here with regard to the width of the sidewalk? Is this single lane in each direction?

Because all of a sudden, see the sidewalks now completely exposed to the sun, which is of counterproductive to what we thought was the original design goal, which was to shade the sidewalks. Now we have completely exposed sidewalks with shade trees on either side and median trees. Is this the design where you're going to have no on street parking, just one lane in each direction? What that?

There is gonna be one travel lane on both direction. You are correct.

Right.

And this is the one with the median. So the on street parking is alternated on the north side, on the south side. So it's eliminated, right? It's, alternated.

So here,

in this case, the parking is in front of Anne's Floris, which it's hard to really

Well, I'm just saying, did you notice am I saying this correctly? I mean, this is completely exposed to the sun. So what do you think we've kind of gone too far in this direction? Milos, what do you think?

Yes. And Milos just added, can we add more trees? Absolutely, there is an opportunity to add more trees. I think there was a comment from the DDA as well, if we can add more trees. One of the design principles of the landscape architect used was to add visibility, as you're walking down the retail street to ensure the sight lines, so people someone walking down can see what's there.

I understand that, but I mean this completely exposes the whole sidewalk area. What so have we just like I said, have we taken this too far? You know, we we've narrowed Los Oles to such a point where not only is it impassable, but it also defeats the purpose of creating a canopy along the sidewalks?

No, absolutely. If priority is shade trees along the sidewalk, we

can Well, isn't that the priority?

We can maximize the trees along the sidewalk. If that is the direction, we we can add more trees to the sidewalk.

Okay. Catherine, stay on that topic that the managers put up for a second because if you look at the slide before that, 18, Okay. Okay. I have in my backup, I have stuff on my side that is not on this slide. But

Yes.

This it says 39 shade trees and 34 flower yeah. Can you put that back?

Mhmm.

Okay. 39 shade trees and 34 flower trees. 39. Right. With no median. Now go to the next one with the median. Why with why with the median does the number of trees increase so significantly to 67 shade trees and 39 flower trees? In other words, the shade trees almost 30 more shade trees with the median. It doesn't make sense to me. Can you explain that why you would

have all the put them in the median.

Well, okay. But as you said, you're leaving the sidewalk all exposed.

Yeah. The so I I just think that the the the design here is too wide. The sidewalk's too wide, and it defeats no no canopy tree can can spread its its branches that far to accommodate both the street and the sidewalk. You're saying we need a line of sight so that shoppers are not obstructed in their view as they're looking east and west. I don't think that's an issue here. I think the plan here was to create a shaded area for pedestrians and still be able to enjoy the experience here on Las Olas. And so I mean, going forward, keep that in mind.

Absolutely. Not a problem. And I do want to reemphasize that this is only a rendering. We need you can absolutely go back and make sure that the rendering is updated to reflect this priority.

Well, I just want to know, when you were charged with the assignment of working on the street, was a shaded pedestrian pathway not one of your goals?

Yes. It was one of the goals as was balancing the visual cues to be able to see what's across the street, to be able to also be able to way find navigate the street. So if so the landscape architect balanced all these priorities. Now if we are saying the number one maximize the trees along the corridor that we will go back and put more trees. That should not be an issue whatsoever and update all the renderings to show what that could look like.

Could I could I just ask a question? I'm sorry.

Yes, John.

I don't remember in all of our conversations we ever talked about being able to see every store in the street when you were standing on the sidewalk. Did I miss a meeting?

You missed that meeting. It happens.

You know, I get I it. I'm I'm

just curious. This is the

first time I I I ever I mean, of all the conversations we've had, I don't remember that ever being, like, explicitly discussed. You need to be able to see every store when you're standing on the sidewalk all up and down the block. I mean, I'm not feeling like I'm walking up and down 5th Avenue and I need to be able to see Bvlgari, you know, and and Cartier down the block. Am I missing something?

Well, also the trees the trees are not obstructing the view because if you look at them, you know, the the foliage doesn't begin until 10 feet up. So you're not you never really your view is never really obstructed. But you're right, John.

No. I just I I don't remember that having ever been a robust part of the discussion that we wanted to be able to see every storefront on the street as you're, you know, strolling up and down the corridor. So this is just kinda new to me. That's all.

And I don't remember it ever being a part of the conversation when we had the working group meetings for over two years either. I I but I do remember the consensus was, and that's why that was the plan that went forward to the commission, was that the, the consensus was from that working group after more than two years of meetings that they rather see the pedestrians be shaded on the sidewalk than the cars be shaded in the median. That was the consensus at that time. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that was what was moved forward to the commission. Right.

Yep. Agreed. City manager, do we have our city forester here? Or Yes. We do.

Great. Okay. Great. So, Alana, if I May I? Go ahead.

Thank you very much. So if I may just appreciate your feedback. I completely recognize the fact that these are just renderings, so we'll make sure that we reflect additional trees in the renderings. As we continue with developing plans, we'll make sure that disposition of the trees is included in here. And we'll also be mindful of balance between the effective width of the sidewalk and number of the trees. Also, it looks like the rendering reflects midday about where the sun is directly above the trees, but there is definitely lack of the tree that of trees that we're recognizing here, and we'll add additional. So the the intent in here is to provide shade on the sidewalk.

Great. Thank you, Mitesh. So going to the trees. So what type of trees would be buffering the street and the sidewalk?

The species? Yes.

The species. My understanding is it's oak.

I think there are sorry.

We have, several tree species.

Can you can you pull the microphone closer to me?

Sorry. We have, several, tree species. Give me one second. Do you want to take a stab at this?

Yes. And actually, excuse me one second.

Ben, I think there's a variety of different trees. It's not just one type of tree. I

am Brian Gamichemwa. I'm trying to sub for our landscape designer. But so on the large tree side of things, we had Jamaican dogwood, thornless pink sabotree, gumbo limbo and live oak. On the medium side, we had sea grape, green buttonwood, white mangrove and black ironwood. And on the small size category, we had Bohemian Trumpet Tree, Lignum Vitae, Bridal Veil and Silver Buttonwood. Also, there's a small number of palms, I don't believe proposed for this for the shops section, but there were some palms including Buccaneer Palm, Thatch Palm, Silver Palm, and Coconut Palm.

Quick question on the main menu.

If I could.

I'm sorry. Apologize.

Okay. So what will determine what size tree, which species of tree goes between the sidewalk and the road on this section of Los Olas?

So that's gonna be dictated by the width of the planting space. And again, I can't speak in detail to that but that is the Okay. Driving

I'm just doing a little quick research. So what I think the mayor brings up a good point about the canopy coverage of the sidewalk. Right? That's Mayor, that's one of your questions. Is the canopy coverage of the sidewalk? Okay. So let's just kinda go through understanding the radius of a canopy of each of the species of trees. Right. Okay. So city forester, please, this is, my limited knowledge, of trees, but I'm looking at oak trees, live oaks, generally 30 to 40 foot radius of a canopy.

This is saying radius not diameter, but love to hear your feedback.

They can get to that size. Yes. Okay.

Jamaican dogwood, I'm seeing canopy radius 20 to 30 feet.

Is this

Radius would be from the trunk

Trunk to the drip line.

Drip line. So diameter would be doubled. So that's I wanna make sure we're clear.

So I'm talking radius. Okay. 20 to 30 feet for a dogwood. Is Jamaican dogwood? Is that Yes. Yes. Seba. Seba, am I pronouncing that right? Seba? Okay. I'm seeing 40 to 60 feet plus for a radius? Correct. Okay. Oak, white oak, I'm seeing 35 to 40. It seems like that's similar for live oak. Is that okay.

Wait, sorry, we're not doing white oak. Maybe you heard white mangrove?

I just I didn't see I'm not seeing live oak radius, but I'm assuming live oak what would be the radius of a live oak?

Well, they can get enormous, but you got to keep in mind too, when you look at sorry, when you look at the maximum sizes for the trees, often that's not based on an urban setting. Typically, in an urban environment, unfortunately, we have soil volume limitations even with engineered soils where the trees are not likely to get to those sizes. Just for example, like a live oak tree technically can grow to be 100 feet across almost, can grow to be several 100 years old, whereas the average age in urban environment might be thirty years. So that's So part of the trick we won't quite expect the maximum sizes, but we would expect them to be to provide good coverage in these areas.

So what radius would you expect for these trees?

Well, we can definitely get for the large trees, we can definitely get up to say 20 feet, 20 foot radius of 40 feet, so easily covering the area. And of course, can control that control the spread by doing reduction cutting to kind of retain the canopy.

Great. So Laura, is that all do you agree with all that? Yes. Okay. Okay. Great. Thank you. So the distance then, Catherine, the distance, so I'm looking at alternative two right now. The distance from the, bless you, from the curb to the shops shop frontage? Obviously, it can vary based on the shop, but what's the distance from the curb to the shop frontage approximately?

In alternative two?

Alternative two, yes, with the median.

So, we said seven feet, with the on street parking, plus the sidewalk a private setback, sorry. So we're looking at seven feet plus.

Looks like 15 feet.

And the option without the parking would be 14 feet plus with the private setback.

Okay.

So in other words, so what I'm hearing then is the radius of the trees, not full grown, but full and healthy, in our urban center would well cover the drip line to the trunk would well cover the sidewalk. Is that am I saying that right?

Yes. Yes. Definitely.

Ben, if you look on page 18

Yeah.

I think this is a more desirable schematic because it narrows the width of the sidewalk and the tree is able to cover the entire width of the sidewalk and allows for on street parking. I just think that the other one on page 19 is just widens the sidewalk much too much, and we're we're losing the whole point of having the canopy trees.

Right. But what I'm saying, mayor, is that's a function of the The tree? Diagram, not the diagram, this visual representation is not accurate. Is that what you're thinking? Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Because on that, I agree with you. It looks not what we're trying to achieve. But what I'm hearing just just now is that it would in fact cover the area sufficiently. Is that am I saying that correctly?

Yes, definitely. So again, looking at the landscape designers list of large sized trees. These all get can get to a good size and they would definitely give you shade over the whole way.

Shade over the entire sidewalk area and then 20 feet north of the sidewalk going into right the parking lane, the travel lane, okay, and possibly parts of the median as well, if you're going 20 feet that way. And that's true for both design features. Again, correct me

if I'm wrong,

but both design features with the median or without the median would have full coverage of the sidewalk under the drip line, right, from drip line to trunk and would have full coverage of on street parking if there was on street parking in that portion, the travel lane and possibly part of the median if there was a median or possibly part of the other lane, of traffic as well. Is that

Yes.

You're saying that all right? Okay. Great. That helps because

for us to

visualize On

my end, I think one of the issues is with the rendering is a rendering.

And

you're looking at areas that appear to have no canopy cover. But of course, that it's a rendering. And putting in these large shade trees along the corridor, even the medium sized trees, they're going to fill in the area pretty well. And over time, if anything, you'd want to be pruning them to contain that canopy.

Great. I have more tree questions, but Catherine, I want to defer to you if you want to keep speaking because I want to talk about existing median. I want to talk a little bit more about structured soil and so forth. So whenever you like me ask that Catherine. Thanks.

If I could just jump in a little bit. One of the questions I had is I'm just kind of looking up some of these trees as we're talking about it. So like the Ceiba for example, as I'm just looking here, it says that this is basically bare from December through March. Doesn't sound like a great shade tree. Am I missing something? And by the way, which I thought was really funny, I was just sharing this with my colleague over here. I just asked Chad, what's the best shade trees for South Florida urban environment? You know what he said? Black olive.

Well, yeah.

I'm I'm not trying to say we keep the black olive.

I just thought that was

it was

kinda You know, I'm again, I'm I'm not I'm not selecting tree species, but I can, I guess, speak to what I know about them? But Right. I believe the idea behind the Saba tree in particular is not that would probably be an accent tree here and there because it it it's a kinda like the Tababooi is a certain time of year. It just flowers completely.

Right.

And it makes a beautiful look. I don't think the intent is to have a bunch of Saba trees because yes, they wouldn't shade the corridor.

Right. I mean, same thing with crepe myrtles. I've had crepe myrtles. I've you know, red maples. I mean, these are beautiful trees for like a short period

of Yeah.

They you wouldn't that yeah. You would just use those here and there. So obviously, your oaks, your gumbos, and so on, those would be the trees that would provide better shade. And even looking at let me see my

Sea grapes. Right?

Yeah. No. You've back to back to my list. Sorry. Jumping around here. Take your time.

I mean, think the problem with the sea grapes is I don't know if they're high enough. Right?

They're they're not tall tree.

What you

can do with the sea grape, I guess this is kind of true for for a lot of different trees, but left on its own, it'll just grow kind of bushy.

Right. We've got those like a birch state Park. Right? So out by the out by the cafe they

can grow. It as what they call a standard. Basically, you just limit up and you can grow it as as a street tree.

Got

it. Same thing with the white mangrove. Right. So, yeah, you can you can definitely prune for that.

Right. So the the white mangrove as I'm looking at the more of a so that one's gonna keep a more narrower tree canopy from what I'm reading. Right? So it it it that one keeps a tree canopy all year long. So I'm looking just trying to see what what keeps a tree canopy all year long.

Yeah. Looking at the list of what's proposed, it'll keep like, so what is truly deciduous? Right. Deciduous

ones. Exactly.

So you're you know, now your gum your gumbo could slightly seasonally defoliate. That does happen, but not, you know, not completely. Right. So Jamaican dogwood, no. Gumbo, no. Live Oak, no. Sea grape doesn't lose its leaves. So all now keep in mind too, your medium trees do get big. You you can get a sea grape, buttonwood, a white mangrove with a 30 foot spread. I'm talking diameter. Black ironwood is a little smaller. That's maybe in the 20 foot range, but none of these will defoliate seasonally. I mean, a lot of stuff doesn't. I mean, technically, our live oaks will still lose a little foliage here and there, not completely.

Well, like live oaks because I've had those in my yard and I've also had mangoes in my yard. They tend to drop leaves continuously, but maintain an overall tree canopy. The only problem is cleaning up after them is brutal.

Yeah. Luckily, most of these, I guess the live oak you could say, semi deciduous.

Right.

But yeah, it does it'll lose foliage, it won't defoliate. And then for the small trees, bridal veil doesn't defoliate. Silver buttonwood is really just a variety of the green buttonwood. They're both Conocorpus erectus. So that will be foliated, keep its canopy year round. Lignum vitae and Bahama Bohemian Trumpetree are smaller trees, more like in the maybe 15 foot tall range give or take. And especially with a Lignum vitae, it's a slow grower. That

was going be my next question. So out of the deciduous ones, which of these are also relatively fast growing because obviously we don't want to wait thirty to forty years to get our tree canopy back. What's going provide a reasonable tree can? What can we buy that's already of reasonable size that will also then grow in a reasonable amount of time? I mean obviously I don't expect this to be a robust tree canopy in five years, but I'm thinking a decade is probably realistic to expect. Does that sound about right?

I'm going to take the first stab at this, Commissioner. The proposal is to plant the trees at 75% maturity. So they're not going to be baby trees. They are going to be at 75% maturity. And we hope that they'll reach their full canopy size within five to eight years.

And then what's typically the die off rate for a tree that's at 75% maturity when you transplant those? Obviously the younger it is, the more likely it is to, I'm assuming, take root. I'm assuming the older it is. And again, not my area of expertise.

Yes. We do have to keep in mind when we say at maturity, right, we're talking about based on the lifespan in urban settings. So they're really not at their maximum maturity for their potential life. So when we if we move like, say, a 10 inches oak or something, right, that is a that's a good sized tree, not something your average homeowner can afford to put in their yard. But that has a very high rate of success. It's not really for example, you can relocate 30 inches trees. There are companies that will do or larger. And if everything's done well

The rain tree, for example. Yes. Said the rain tree, for example. So we know we can do it, right?

So really, relatively speaking, these aren't enormous they're not at their maximum potential lifespan. We're just talking about their size, when we put them in relative to where we want them to be to kind of shade out the street.