Community Redevelopment Agency - Regular Meeting

Alright. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to City Hall here in the city of Hollywood. Today is 04/02/2025. And today, of course, we are here for a regular community redevelopment agency meeting. Although meetings are never regular, there's always exciting and important items on the agenda. Let's go ahead and begin, of course, with the Pledge of Allegiance. Please rise. Thank you. Roll call, please.

Board Member Shuham. Board Member Hernandez. Board Member Kalari.

Here.

Vice Chair Quintana.

Here we go. I'm catching up. Go ahead. Here.

Board Member Biederman.

Here.

Board Member Gruber.

Here.

Chair Levy.

Here. All right. Great. Let's begin with any conflict disclosures today. If none, we'll go ahead to a 9AM citizen's comments. If you are here to speak on any matter relating to the CRA, you could see the clerk here and she'll take a card. We have one. And just to clarify with the acting executive director, Susan, item five is withdrawn today?

That's correct, chair.

Okay. That's the Waterway Seawall one, right? Okay. That was withdrawn. All right. Thank you. Bob, please come on up.

It sounds loud. Good

morning. Bob Glickman, Hollywood Beach. First off, I'd like to say I'm so glad to see Susan sitting in this chair, many of us that have known her for more than twenty years. And most of the Beach residents are glad that she's here. And we hope that you make it permanent. And you should have done this a long time ago. What can I tell you? The monument sign at the Beach Community Center is still not working after two years. I know you're going to have your meeting there in a couple of weeks, but we need to get this fixed. Also, the lights in the parking lot don't work.

And on the ramp, most of the lights are out. So we need to get these things fixed. The beach has become the stepchild of the city, but yet it's the cash cow. In downtown, we're still having a problem with self-service. It's still difficult. I know we spoke about it last month. We continue to speak about it. I just want to put it out there for you. Back in 2019, FDOT gave a report to the city about the flooding in the city. In the past six years, we've done some things, but very few things to resolve it. The major thing is flap gates. Flap gates, flap gates. We need to get the flap gates fixed. I can talk about this endlessly. But the water is coming in.

This is creating most of the flooding problems. We need to stop the water from coming in. I understand that it's FDOT's responsibility. But the city needs to do something. You need to step up. Rainy season is just around the corner. Storm season is just a few months away. We can't continually go through this year after year after year. I mean, I've been coming here at least the last six years, if not longer, to talk about fixing the

flap gates. Yes, there's other problems we have with flooding. But flap gates seem to be number one.

Please, you just need to do something to help the residents. It's an implorable situation. Some of us can't get out of our buildings when the flooding starts. You can't get back into your buildings. What do you do? Where do you go? We can joke about it. We can talk about it. But really, you all need to do something about this. I don't know what to tell you to do. But you need to get on FDOT's rear end and make them do something. This is unacceptable, totally unacceptable, the flooding that we continually have. And there's no relief in sight. We're going to hear about reports and reports and reports. But yet, we still have flooding.

This is the number one cause. Everybody agrees to this. So there's got to be a way to fix this. I'm asking you to put this on rocket fuel to get this done. Thank you.

Thanks, Bob. All right. Let's go ahead to our regular agenda. We have items six, seven, and eight. Let's go ahead with item number six. It's a resolution of the CRA approving and authorizing the CRA to execute a property improvement grant with eighteen eighteen Madison LLC for improvements to the property at 1818 Madison Street in a grant amount up to $75,000 All right. Let's go ahead and hear it. Thank you, Susan.

Thank you, chair. This is a property at 1818 Madison Street. It's just off of Federal Highway. And the grant being brought forth for you today has exterior improvements. It's in a residential area. So there's paint stucco, impact windows, fencing. And the grant is really to make the property much more attractive than it is today and add value to not only this property but to the street. We have a presentation on the property today. We also have here today the owner, Alex Goyman, who's the owner. And we have the operator of a business called Barkology, Nicole Zafrani.

This business is going to be a change of use from the current residential property, which is being rented. It's two units. It's 1,000 square feet upstairs, 1,000 square feet downstairs, 2,000 square feet duplex. They currently have drawings in the building department for interior renovations. That is not part of the grant, but I did want to give some background to the board members. And Chris will have the presentation. And then, like I said, the owner of the building and the owner of the business that's being proposed for this property is also here in the audience today.

CHRISTOPHER Thank you.

CHRISTOPHER Good

morning, chair, vice chair, board members. Chris Crusitto, project manager with the Hollywood CRA. As Susan mentioned, in the context, 1818 Madison. Again, the owner is here in case there's any questions that I can't answer. Located just on Madison Street in between 19th And Federal Highway, just some context of where we are.

So the breakdown of how everything is going to be improved is there's going to be impact windows and doors, 21 to be exact. They need to do some shop drawings in order to make those kind of meet the standards that they have now. So some architectural engineering services, new paint, new stucco, some pavers in their parking area totaling out to 173,000 Our grant would be 75. So just some context photos of what it looks like today. This is the view from Madison Street and what they're proposing.

Again, impact windows and doors, paint and stucco, some fencing, pavers, and the view from further down on Madison Street. So site plan and what it will look like. So that's a better view of what the pavers and some of the outline will look like. So again, the total private investment is just over 170 with our approximate grand amount of 43%, dollars 75,000. Again, that's impact windows and doors, some work to be done structurally for the impact windows and doors to meet the surrounding area, new paint and stucco, sealing the building, driveways and walkways that are pavers.

Thank you. So could you just go back and I just want to get more familiar with fence.

Sure.

Is that that's the front yard. Correct?

Correct. That's fronting Madison Street.

And the height of that fence is four or is it allowed six here?

I'm sorry?

How high is that fence?

I believe it's four feet.

Four feet. Front yard Yeah. For current regulations? Correct. I'm just I'm hearing from the board. They're they're surprised. And and maybe planning wants to clarify if this is considered commercial. Is this a is this is it it appear appears to be a six foot fence just from the rendering, but it maybe it's a four. I mean and maybe I could ask the property owner. But as far as what's permissible, let's just hear it from Andrea real quick on the fence.

Yeah. Sorry.

Good morning. Andrea Winget, director of development services. In this area of the city, well, most in all of the city, in this type of zoning district, a four foot fence is permitted. And it might be a little off in the render, but in the building permit comments, that's one of our comments in there.

Okay. Andrea, while you're here, since I know the board is going to want to discuss the change of use, maybe you can speak about the zoning district and just give us the overview on the permissibility of the change in use.

Yes. This zoning district is what we call FH2. It's Federal Highway 2. And I was actually looking up a portion. I did not flag the page.

Take your time. We have until 01:00.

Oh, plenty of

time.

I actually it's in my code if you can bring me the code. But the FH2 District is a district that is to support the neighborhood there. It's designed to have a mix of uses and allow mixed uses within one structure. And this type of use is permissible there as well.

And the boundaries of FH2 are Federal Highway.

It starts at Federal Highway and it goes west a few lots about, give or take, 200 feet from Federal Highway, I believe, if I recall. So

it's that depth

of that.

Depth of zoning that we've been talking about is kind of how what's how it's been deployed on Federal Highway to allow for sufficient commercial, let's just call it, space and viability.

Yes, that is correct.

The most common use that we've seen obviously in Parkside has been residential is what's been coming in. And it just I think it just has it happens to be that besides the long existing like motels that are there and commercial few commercial I guess it's shopping centers and stuff along Federal, you know, at Parkside.

Yes.

Maybe you can give us the perspective of that.

So the actual the district purpose and character as identified in the zoning code is to encourage higher intensity mixed use buildings which accommodate a diverse mix of commercial large format destination retail and neighborhood commercial uses that support residential uses.

This use here

Encourage the creation of strong urban residential neighborhoods providing for array of housing types, have transitions, orient high intensity ground floor towards Federal Highway, but create a more urban environment with buildings on the street end with sidewalks and active uses. So the intent when we adopted this was to allow for the depth of commercial to go westward from Federal Highway and to encourage redevelopment mixed uses, and allow mixed uses where you can be directly supported from the neighborhood by people walking there, taking local transportation, and the like. I mean, is the hope that eventually we're going to see demolition and new construction and seeing those taking place? Absolutely. But that does take time and it takes investment.

So there needs to be interim strategies and uses to encourage, you know, the neighborhood to maintain its revitalization and move forward.

So yesterday, I spoke with a resident who at first was up in arms about the idea of the use of the dog business. But then when we talked it out and she realized, hey, a lot of people have dogs in Parkside and maybe this would be an amenity to the point of neighborhood uses, neighborhood company uses that I think she felt less, you know, less opposed to the change and it was, you know, more understanding about how it could be contributing to use a word to life in Parkside. Okay. All right. Well, know the board might want to discuss that but from a use standpoint this is a permission From

a use standpoint this is a permitted use within the FH2 zoning district.

I gotcha. All right. So I'll open it up to before you go away, Andrea, just if anybody has questions for planning, I'm happy to, of course, recognize you. Let's go to Commissioner Hernandez, then Biederman.

Good morning, Mayor. Thank you. And by the way, I do recognize that the use is usable for this. I also know that there's a better use for the property. And as a matter of fact, the property was approved for higher and better use.

And I would like for that picture to be put up if we can so that everybody can actually see what What we've been trying to encourage. What we've been trying to encourage. Could we please bring the picture up? No, I provided the picture to you earlier today, so I'd like to see that picture to be brought up. And I too spoke with the same, probably the same resident that used to, and they were not real happy for this.

But there's other points that this is what was approved for that neighborhood. And I believe that this is what we're trying to encourage rather than to have a duplex currently turn into a business using the CRA money to do so. And that's what my objection is. I'm not objection to the use. I don't have a problem with staff providing all of the prerequisites that are needed.

The certificate of use is just a letter saying that yes, you are allowed to have this use if you meet all of these criteria. And if you read the criteria, as you can see that the person that it's applying doesn't have all of the knowledge of everything that it's required. And their answer says, I don't believe we need this. I don't believe we need that one. In fact, this is not an existing use that it's looking to enhance the outside of the property. Quite the contrary. This is an existing property that is being fully used residential. They want to change the use to commercial and want to use public dollars to do so. I don't believe that that's what the grants for the CRA dollars are used for. This is more or less what I think that the CRA dollars are used for.

And that is the reason that I am opposing this. And I know that everybody wants to talk about this, and I respect that. But this is what we really look for in the neighborhood. And whenever you say that you're going to have 20 dogs encircled in a thousand square foot area, that is a lot of dogs to have in a thousand square foot area. And right behind us, if we go back to the other pictures, you can see that there are multiple residential buildings in the back.

And being the district commissioner, I will be the one. And you, Mary, you could probably be getting the emails of the barking dogs and complaints. We'll have that amount of dogs. I do agree that this is what the zoning allows. However, I don't think it should be done at the public dollars expense to be able to bring that into something that it would more than likely be a destructive and and very destructive business to the neighborhood. So therefore, I'm making a motion to deny the grant.

Alright. We have a motion to to deny the application. Is there a second at this point? Alright. So motion dies for lack of second right now. So let's have continued conversation. Let's go ahead and recognize Commissioner Biederman for any questions to planning. Go ahead.

So I didn't have a chance to second it, but I would have done it for discussion, but it will come up later. I have other concerns here. Do we have a timeline of the this picture when this was approved versus when they applied to the CRA for this, for a PIP grant?

I don't have that right now, but I could try to get it as you converse.

Okay. And Andrea, don't sit down. Sorry.

Oh. I

thought you said go sit down. No. Yes, sir.

My concern, while I have the same concerns about barking dogs, I think that this is kind of a great ancillary use for the neighborhood. This is kind of like a lot of things people are doing now is taking their dogs to doggy

Everywhere.

Yeah, everywhere and to doggy camp so that they're not sitting at home alone because whatever dogs have their social desires these days, I guess. My concern is if you can put up the picture of the grant because my concern is the parking. We already have a parking issue on Parkside. And now if you're gonna have 10 dogs dropped off in a day, 20 dogs, whatever it is, because you gotta be able to make money so to sustain an operation, so you gotta have some scaling amount of dogs. Right?

That's a lot of cars pulling up to drop off a dog that there's no parking. There's no parking on the street. There's no

What they have in for permitting, they have parking off the rear coming in from the alley. And that's still one of their outstanding comments that they need to address is that configuration and layout of that through the building permit process.

So can we see this quasi site plan? Because an alley is not for retail traffic. An alley is for garbage trucks. An alley is to get to your house. Right? So I don't know that listen, I'm not a planner. I'm gonna leave that up to you guys. But there's gotta be some kind of what's the do what's the calculation on parking spaces for a business of this size and Okay. And so my concern is the traffic down the alley. That's not meant for, like, retail traffic, right?

This area is designed to become a more urban area and encourages the use of alley at times for the reuse of some of the existing structures. If this was coming in as a new site plan based on those volumes, we would be looking at it probably through a different lens. But in terms of adaptability and reinvestment, this is being looked at to use the existing structure as is and how can we adapt that to fit the use.

Okay. So I assume that when all this comes in for permanent, they're going be required a certain number of parking spaces. They're going to have to make that work.

That's correct. And that's one of their outstanding comments that they still need to address.

And my biggest concern is return on investment. Could we get that TIF slide back up? Because it's a little confusing. Is this an additional $2,000 on top of the current $5,000

Correct. Based on that $173,000 they'll be paying CLARKE: an

additional 2,002 and $45 on top of the $5,349 So the TIF will go up. All right.

Correct.

JOSEPH So we're talking about $7,000 on a $75,000 investment. That just doesn't make sense to me. I mean, we do 75,000 on a million dollar investment on in some cases, you know, where where we're getting hundreds of thousands of dollars in in TIFF, and $75 is no big 75,000 is no big deal at that point. But to give $75,000 for a for a a $2,000 return on investment just doesn't make sense to me. I know there are certain circumstances where we have approved that and we very rarely deny PIP grants.

This just doesn't make sense to me. And when we're promoting highest and best use, that's what the, you know, the the other picture I I believe is. I I would support the denial. I just didn't step up quick enough.

Alright. Let's continue the conversation. We'll have the folks that are here to speak on the item and then we'll take a vote on whatever motions are made. Let's go ahead to commissioner Gruber.

Just to make one thing clear, we're we we can't decide whether or not they can put this dog daycare there. Right? That that's an as of right thing.

Correct. What you're technically voting on today is just the exterior improvements to the property, not the change of use.

Right. So, you know, if we deny that then they can still do this business and probably downgrade whatever improvements they're gonna do. So, you know, that that that's my concern. Like, this is an as of right thing and now we're deciding based based on something that's that's allowed per zoning, but we don't want that use even though it's allowed and we're gonna decide which uses to not give to. So I'm concerned about going down that path but still willing to listen.

Okay. Let's go ahead to board member Kaleri.

Hi. So also, there is concern and I did meet with Susan. So thank you very much for, you know, sitting down and going over this project. There's a couple of things that I agree with commissioner Gruber that we can't say no, right, because it's allowed. And it's not even allowed for us. But our expectation is where the concern comes in. Number one, we talk about housing and the demand and the need and the improvements within the neighborhood. So we have a vision that we all have strategically put together and hoped for. And being that the project that was shown, the original project what year was that in? Or is the owner here?

Yeah, the owner's here.

I'll come to speak in a

minute. Okay. So I would like to, I guess, just curiosity, know why such a beautiful project was presented that would actually meet the neighborhood's vision, and expectations along with, when that was in process and now why it's

You like to call them up now?

Yeah. If that's okay.

Yeah. Go ahead.

No. No. No. I know that's not the picture. But this is what I why I wanna know what date it was

Maybe the owner of with the owner is the owner here, mister Goyem, was it? Come on up.

But do we know when that that original project was approved?

I think he'll Anybody? He'll probably elaborate.

Pre pandemic.

Go ahead to the microphone and just state your name for the record.

Hi,

I'm Alex Goyman. I'm the representative for the company. I'm one of the owners.

Okay. So you worked through the process with the city, your original presentation, and now it's changed to this. Is there a reason as to why?

Yeah. Honestly, it was a 15 unit new construction built. It was over designed. It was too expensive. We couldn't build it. It wasn't feasible to build it. It was over $8,000,000 for 15 units.

How far in the process did you get? Because we saw a rendering. Obviously, you worked with an architect, but did you get through site plan approval?

And Yeah. We got through site plan approval. We got planning and development board, and we even submitted permits.

And how far along in the permits did you get?

We have a couple discipline spending still.

Okay. So you still have almost like a ready to build set of plans if someone were to build it.

Yeah. Gotcha.

This presentation, I will say, to me, is just so bland. And if we're so how can I express this properly without offending? I don't wanna offend. Number one, the presentation is totally, not what we expect. The gate is too high.

In addition to that, foliage is not there. And then my concern mainly is the noise ordinance and the burden that it's gonna place on our city staff. Because of the noise, how do you I guess, how would you achieve not having dogs barking and affecting your be a good neighbor type of

Okay. So basically, this is aimed at small and medium dogs. The idea is to have an indoor area with AC where dogs can be they're enjoying themselves. This is a daycare for dogs. Like, we're dog lovers. This business is aimed at people like me. I'm seeing the neighborhood change. I'm seeing a bunch of new construction builds. And all those new owners are going to have dogs. And they're going to need to leave their dogs somewhere. So the idea is for this.

So you saw an opportunity.

Not only an opportunity. Like, this is aimed at us. We have a small dog and we're looking for something like this. So I'm building something for dog owners by dog owners Mhmm. Where they can feel good about leaving their dog and

Okay. I I I get it. I get it.

I'm changing impact windows for noise. We're doing new insulation. We're gonna have acoustical ceilings and most of the times, their dogs are gonna be inside. This is Florida and during the summer the weather doesn't allow for dogs to be outside. It's dangerous. So you shouldn't hear that much barking plus there are small and medium dogs.

Okay. Well, I will say small dogs, because I have them, are very loud. They bark a lot more sometimes than big dogs. But it just depends on the owner, I guess, and the disposition of a dog. Everybody has their personalities, including dogs.

So usually when we have this breakdown so let me just do a couple of things. One, I have some pictures, most current pictures. And since you said pre pandemic, there's also that statement of being a good neighbor. And currently, I would say we've had a couple of years and it's very discouraging to see the current condition of the building now as far as being a good neighbor. And so the expectation is that how will that change because of what it looks like now. So if we could just show some of the pictures of the current condition of that neighborhood and the project. That's your place, correct? No. No. No? Next one. That's it.

That's it. Yes.

Okay. Keep going, please.

That's the one image, I think.

Yeah. That's the other image. So is that so if you're I have a question. Where are you enclosing the runaround park for the dogs? Like, you said it's gonna be enclosed in air conditioned?

Inside of the building. Like, all 1st Floor is an indoor park for them.

Okay. Continue with the pictures, please. That's your property here, the gravel part. That'll be all changed and be grassy area? Or is it gonna be astro like, what do you plan for them to be outside to do their business?

Okay. So that area right there is the parking where you're showing.

Okay. And next?

That's the alley.

And where would the dogs go to the bathroom?

Is that the back or no? That's behind

That's still the alley.

Okay. So this to me from, I guess, during your process or planning, I just want to know with the funding that we're going to be approving, I want to make sure that you're that good neighbor that you're stating. Because I have neighbors that have dogs and they bark. Everybody has different schedules. How are we going to not put a burden on staff?

And how are we going to make sure that you're not being a good neighbor? That, I guess, is my biggest concern with this type of and there's nothing to say we can't let you go in there. But because of the funding that we're going to provide, I'm hoping that all of this will be improved. Because right now, this is a burden to the neighborhood. Right?

Agree with you. I'm trying to get rid of the tenants. I know they're bad tenants.

Mhmm.

I found that great operator for the business. I loved her vision for the business.

Okay.

And I think she's gonna do a great job.

Okay. So I've I've thought a lot about this because my first comment was noise and then my second was the the the distribution of their mess. How will that be contained? I'm sure that there's a process that goes with it. You can't just dump it in the garbage because it will create a problem in the neighborhood as far as smell goes, too. Correct? Correct. So are you having a

There's several services for pickup of disposal. They're going to be coming several times a week.

Obviously,

as the business starts and we see the amount of traffic we're going to have on dogs, we'll have more pickups. In the beginning, we're thinking two to three times a week. But if we need, we'll

Perfect. And then the only other thing is usually when we get the presentation, we have a breakdown of all the improvements that are going to be done on the property. And we haven't seen that yet. Do we have that?

They showed the exterior improvements.

Yeah. I want to

We also have a permit for the interior. We're also investing a lot inside of the property. It's not shown here because this is for exterior improvements. But we're investing at least the amount that we're investing outside inside. Like we're improving all new electrical, all new plumbing, all new mechanical, drywall finishes, tile. So we are investing a lot more than what it's showing over there.

So I think where I'm going at with this is the funding that we if we decide to approve it is, do we have a say on how that money gets utilized? Or is it just in the entire scope of his practice? For example, when you look at the original picture that was presented of what's to come, I think that there needs to be more greenery, more landscaping needs to be placed into that design. Also, again, like I said, thinking about it because I did receive phone calls, when you have a music studio to help lessen the sound, they put

Sound insulation.

Correct. And so where I'm going at because obviously, this is a business. There is so many dog lovers that they're probably going to eat this up. And so I get your vision. I get your idea. But we have to be good neighbors.

Yeah. How do we improve the harmony how do we improve the harmony with the surrounding, uses?

So my thought is if you could put those type of bear, sound barriers as well because the less impact we have to your surrounding neighbors, the better off you're gonna be, the less burden it's gonna be on our staff that has to go out for these complaints. So I'm just trying to think, can we designate our funding to make sure that the hurricane windows are in place, impact windows are in place? Can we put sound barriers and foliage? Like, those would be my Conditional.

Right.

Condition Right.

To make sure that this project goes forward because then that way, it's amicable in the neighborhood to some extent.

Okay.

See? Okay.

So thank you, mister Goyem. So I know we have do we have any public speakers on this item? We don't? Okay. So let's go ahead to vice chair Quintana. Then we will hear from CRA staff on on conditions that, you know, commissioner Caleri had had discussed and what you all might think we can do within the context of the of the PIP grant. I think we position on anything, basically. So we'll just talk about that and see where the board lands on the issue. Let's go to Vice Chair Quintana. Thank you. Go ahead.

Our chair. So I I was a little disheartened by seeing the pictures that board member Kalari showed. And I understand, mister Goyam, you were saying about the tenants being the reason that your property is in that condition. Help me understand because because because I my question is, you know, where does the responsibility lie for the condition of the property to you know, where is the tenant's responsibility? Where is the property owner's responsibility as far as you understand it?

And if I could just get your perspective on that.

Okay. So obviously, the owner is partially responsible as well as the tenant. We're looking to make amends. I'm looking to have a responsible tenant that's going to help keep the property up to the standards required. So

if I could ask, what is your plan for the the paving surface of the parking area? I think in the in the plan, it showed that it was crisscrossed and almost looked like it was gonna be pavored

It's pavers.

Which is a higher end look.

It's pavers.

So the paving the the pavers would replace the asphalt that's Yes. There

The paving will replace the asphalt inside of the property and obviously I'm gonna fix the asphalt coming into it.

And what did you plan to do for example with regards to landscaping because if the board would like to consider approving this with conditions, you know, the standard of the of the pavers even though it's it's a stated, you know, desire and intent, we could condition it on on other elements of the exterior improvements that would help the neighborhood that are, maybe beyond what we're contributing the dollars for, but we can still condition it on a standard of what we expect to see outside. Correct, Susan?

Yes. You can condition it on additional landscaping. Also, could ask for like a double glazed impact window. Landscape definitely helps with sound attenuation. It's very effective, especially dense bushes as opposed to just single trees. That will help. And like I said, on the impact windows, you could have a double glaze where that air pocket does help with sound baffle. It kind of creates that.

I gotcha. And pavers, we could require that the rear parking area be pavers?

Yes. They could be either something that goes with the architecture. It could be a colored concrete paver.

I gotcha. All right. I'm sorry, Vice Chair. Go ahead.

That's Okay. I just I mean, I guess I'm thinking that beyond it's more like an approach to the way that you manage the property that I'm a little bit concerned about. There could be simple fixes to something that might not have garbage strewn all over the back of the property, even if your tenants are not ideal, that it would at least be contained somehow. And so it's kind of disappointing that simple measures haven't been taken to now. And yeah, I mean, I agree with the chair about if we could condition what we're seeing here with because it is a very basic kind of thing.

And then separate and apart from that, something that we're discussing or deciding today. But I mean, I'm sure there's rules about how many animals can be within which spaces and, you know, whether they get any outdoor time at all during the day. I'm sure that that's all, regulated for doggy day care facilities. I'm a little concerned about that. I know it's not what we're deciding on today, but I would want to better understand your business plan for how you're gonna address all of that at some point.

If I may call the operator, she's here also. She could give you a little bit more insight on that.

Okay. That's great.

Nico.

Hi. Good morning. My name is Nico Zafrani. I am the future contractor or the person that is going to be managing the place. Let me tell you a little bit of how I came into this idea. I used to work as a tax advisor for eleven hours, and I had a dog. And I didn't know what to do with him all day. He would have a lot of energy. And I realized that I needed a daycare. So I started going into daycare.

But what is happening in Florida, that daycares are not regulated by anything. That's what's happening. So every time that I went into a daycare with him, he would be maybe hurt. He would be not eating anything that is happening. He would be on enclosed spaces that I didn't know about that they didn't show.

So I came into this idea of finishing working as a tax advisor because it was too much. And working for dogs like this and making a place that is actually regulated. So I am being right now trained by the ASPCA. And I'm trying to look for other organizations that also care about this and it's regulated. So they actually regulate me and everything is regulated.

Because right now, every time that I try to apply for something, they tell me back. There is no such a thing like this. There has never been regulated. We need to change it. So this is my way of changing it in the community. And why did we begin with this idea on this place? It's because there are a lot of buildings coming up with a lot of dogs. And I think this can come and unite the community. Why? With there's a lot of people that walk their dog around, okay?

So I feel like this is a meeting place for them somehow. And also another thing that I wanted to tell about the sound noise. Sorry about my voice. I'm a little bit nervous. My first time.

So we have some ideas for the noise. I would have itineraries and whole schedules for each dog personalized. It says that it's up to 20 dogs, but I'm not going to have 20 dogs because I believe that is impossible and I believe that that is bad for the dogs because I would need to have someone taking care for one person for three dogs maximum because I want them to have personalized care. How do I fix the issue about the sound aside from all the ideas that you have that are great and that we're going to implement? As they have different schedules, they would be going on walks.

So they won't be on the area. There is a small dog park that you created beautifully in the center the roundabout. So they would have regular walks all the way there and back. So this way, they are so tired and they will have so many activities within the daycare. Everything that is I don't know if you have ever heard about this game, interactive games that they have for the brain. They will have a whole schedule. So, they will be tired. So this is my idea for the sound. For the poop, we have the waste disposal that they will come in and pick it up. So I and I know that it looks very plain.

It won't look very plain. I'm not a plain person, believe me. But they told me that to put because I don't know if I am going to change the logo and stuff like that, they told me not to put it yet. So that's why it doesn't look with colors and stuff. I just didn't want to mess it up. But there's going to be some landscaping also. We just didn't know because of the parking lot. We want to finish everything about the parking lot and then decide where we put the landscaping because we don't know where it fits, when like if it's going to change the parking. Thank you. Sorry.

The parking is in the back. Yeah, in the back. That's where the parking is. I mean, look, traditionally, park side has alley parking, but traditionally that has been admittedly residential backyard parking. This is a little different because it would be, you know, a commercial business parking in the back, which maybe there are along the Dixie and some federal pockets. I haven't driven there to see exactly where every commercial business's parking is. But I mean, that's just the layout of the property. That is what it is.

So I guess Whether or we like my final point is just that idea of what's permitted by right versus seeking the best and highest use for a particular property. And I could I could understand how in a nearby location, this would be really beneficial to everyone in the community. I just don't know that that this is the best and highest use of this particular location. But again, that's not what we're discussing today. I I I don't know, is it? I mean, I thought what we're talking about is primarily about whether we're gonna fund the pip.

Look, the pip grant, you know, has its it's an application and whether or not the CRA board feels like, you know, this is a a an application that we seek to support is I think within the purview of the CRA board to decide. Usually, it's about aesthetics and the idea that this extra $75,000 will result in additional improvements to the exterior that, you know, where we, in the end, result in a better result for the neighborhood. I think that's, you know, our goal is a better exterior, you know, quality. If we were not to approve it and they still build their their business, it could be that some of the aspects of the application they wouldn't do because of the lack of funds or they would do the same thing and the $75,000 wouldn't hold them back. We don't know any of that, but obviously if they had more money they could do more.

Now, if we condition the money that we want to deploy for the benefit of the neighborhood, then that's, I think, the perspective is what are you know, are we making good use of public funds for the public good and for the neighborhood quality that we're trying to elicit? I think that's like our main question or our main goal. And so the question is, do we have elements here that sufficiently justify the $75,000 that we, you know, feel is good for the neighborhood and good for the values of the surrounding area. So that's for the board to, you know, evaluate today. So let's go ahead. You can have a seat unless and we'll call you up if need be. There are no more speaker cards, so I'm going to open it up to the board. Let's go back to board member Hernandez.

Thank you, Mayor. I have a question for staff because I'm kind of confused based on the comment that was made. What is the code said? Said if this was a new business, a new use, you wouldn't allow the parking in the rear? Or did I misunderstood what you said?

No. I said if this was demolished and rebuilt, we would look at how it was accessed, the volume of traffic, and where the main access points are.

But what does the code says regarding new business?

New business and access? Offhand, I don't have it in front of me to read it to you, but this one is permissible to access off the alley as currently designed.

Okay, so you mean to tell me that everyone is going to drop off, their dog is going to be coming in through a one way alley? Because I don't understand what you're And you say it's permissible. And I don't understand how it's permissible when it's actually a new use, which means that the new regulations would come to play. It's my understanding, but you're the person that's there and you're the person that has the answer. And if this is actually a commercial new use, why are we making concessions for allow for the parking and what have you to go in the alley?

Those are the questions I have because this is not an existing use where they're actually changing and refitting, if you would, what's happening. This is actually a complete new use of the property. New codes should be the ones that we're looking at. So if we're making concession because it's already existing and we try to make it fit, I understand. I don't agree with it, but I understand why the staff is interpreting it that way.

But my understanding of the code is if it's a new use and if it's a new business, it has to comply with the current code. And current code does not allow parking to be in the rear. Having said that, I want to go because there's a lot of questions that have been asked about axes and where the dogs are going be and everything else. Could we go back to the presentation, what it shows that is going to be the parking some of the pictures that you have thank you so much so that we can answer some of those questions. Okay, right there.

Site plan?

Yeah, that's the site plan. So this is what we have in the rear for access. We have the parking is in the in the rear. Is that not corrected? I see six parking spaces including a handicap. Is that correct?

Correct.

Okay. And I see everything around it as being pavers. Correct?

So

is is the opening in the rear gate 60 feet? Is that what I see in the alley? Or is that complete? That's 22

Looks like it's a 60 foot lot.

It's a 60

foot lot. That should be 22 feet.

22 feet for the ingress and egress, correct?

Correct.

Okay. There is no the alley is kind of narrow. It's

not 15 feet.

15 feet. So you don't have a whole lot of room to maneuver in and out. So when you have two vehicles in there, you will have a problem, Foreseeable, particularly when it's not a resident that's usually coming in and out of their own place. But the one of the points that I wanted to make to the to the commission, to the board is you can see a great deal of area that it's not grassy in nature. So the dogs are gonna go outside. This is what they're gonna be dealing with. It's not the best of quality of life if you would for a dog that likes grassy and do their necessities in there.

Looks like it's the front fenced area.

And that is a tiny little space in comparison to you have any amount of dog. So that's my I wanted to answer some of the questions that the board was asking that Also, we can relate to the comment was made that they were looking to have one person for every three dogs. So you have six parking spaces and you're going to have a handicap parking spaces that you want to leave available. So based on this, if you have a manager or something like that, you don't have any room for anybody else to park unless you're only going to have six dogs. And you're going to have two parking spaces and you're going to have some other parking spaces available for somebody else to come up.

My point is, I am not trying to say that this is not a business where somebody is willing to take a chance to do. My point is, is this the best and highest use that we can use the tax dollars for what we're looking to do? In the past, we've looked into try to bring housing to the area so we can intensify the pedestrian walk. I'm concerned about the parking in the rear and not having access to the people that are gonna drop off their dogs. If you think that everybody's gonna come in the rear and come into that little parking area, which may have two or three cars in it, and trying to drop off their dog and not leave the car in the middle of the parking lot or more than likely would come in front of the place on Madison Street blocking a lane and dropping off their dog, this is what looking to do.

I would ask the board to look at this for what it is. And another comment that was made regarding the dog park in the roundabout, I believe that the roundabout that they're talking about is the Arts Park. That is the closest doggy

park. Poinciana Park, too.

Well, Ponciana Park is not a roundabout. It's completely on the So opposite that's the only thing I can think of.

Yeah, for sure.

And if you're thinking of you're going to have two or three individuals that will be working this many dogs. And by the way, they're asking for up to 29 cages inside a thousand square foot property. This is inside the bottom part. And I know most of us have had pets, most of us have dogs in the back and I can't think of a dog being in this kind of conditions for any length of time even though they may be what you would assume that would have other dogs to play with. Thousand square feet is not enough.

The site plan itself shows you that they're not gonna be in grass, that if anything, they're going to be in the area of the parking lot, which they're not supposed to be because the parking lot is supposed to be accessible for people to come in and go in. And the only other area that they have in the front is a very tiny little area. And quite frankly, I am surprised that the 25 square foot of green area space is not being applied here because it may be, I don't know, I haven't done any calculations. It may be pervious in nature because it's brick but there's no green space for the dogs to actually be in there and be happy. I'm not saying that they can't do it on their own.

If they want to try it, the operator come out and says they've never done this before. So this is a new venture for them. And is this the best and highest use for the taxpayers dollars for the CRA to be done when there's actually existing businesses that need this particular grant money for them to be able to do what they need to do? And and that that's my point.

I It's just a it's a judgment call as to whether or not the board wants to support a property improvement grant for this application putting aside the use issues. Right?

That's Correct. And and and and that's my point. The use is issued. I think that staff has done everything they can and my hats off

to them. To get through permit in a I'm making

it work. But I'm just, there's questions that are being asked and that is, if this is actually a new use, should we try to overlook at what our code says regarding, only because the property is existing. If this was an existing doggy care and they wanted to do this, I could understand why the staff would be flexible in allowing the parking in the back. But this is not a new use. This is something that is coming into the area so it should be considered as a new use. And that's my point. And my point, I don't wanna belabor this anymore. This is the neighborhood is concerned. We have all heard about noise levels. We have an issue that Labios was creating.

Labios was closed for other reasons. However, we still have complaints that you might have received as well from a nearby establishment, the social room, which was happening with their noise and the residents in the back. And one of the pictures is 15 feet away from this building. There is a four story apartment building that will be impacted when it comes to this. So I'm I'm just looking at this.

Let's let's get to the board members and let's wrap this item up so we can move on with the agenda. Let's go to board member Shuham.

Thank you, chair. I guess my question is for Andrea and that is, do we have any requirements in our code for this type of business as far as the physical structure?

Not for the physical structure, no. So

just quickly online because of the operator saying that there were no rules, there are rules in other cities, but not here. So for example, in Pembroke Pines, you have to have soundproofing to have this type of business. So for me

There are some things in the licensing requirements that the city has in the code of ordinance, which is where they came up with a number of like 25 pets and a few other things. And the soundproofing might be within that section as well.

So that's what I'm curious about because

I'm Is it looking for doggy daycare?

It's for things that fall under what's considered a kennel. So pet grooming falls under that classification. So he would be required to have the city license and meet those requirements of the license as part of his licensing and certification I guess

where I'm coming out on this is I feel like we shouldn't necessarily be encouraging this. At the same time, if it's permitted, I don't think that grant money should be spent on things that are required. So if to make this a viable use, there has to be landscaping and there has to be sound attenuation, then I think that the business should be responsible for that. And I think that member Hernandez makes a great point which is typically when we're in this situation we're not helping a new business start, we're improving an existing business. So my feeling is to the extent that there are things above and beyond what's required that would benefit the neighborhood, I would consider that.

But I don't think that we should be using grant money to pay for what is necessary for this business to be permitted in this location. I got you. I

got you. Maybe to the CRA on that question, do you feel like this application has I mean, what aspects of the enhancements go beyond what's already required, if there are any, that you can point to? And or or are there ones that maybe you've thought of that are not yet offered, just for the sake of understanding that while we

Sure. So let me just go back to what their application includes. Impact windows and doors, the architectural and engineering services for the impact windows and doors, the paint stuff though, the pavers, and the contractors fees. Now, I guess if you want to include landscaping in that, we definitely could. That's something that you all can do as the board. You can have kind of conditions for a landscape. But I'm not aware of what's

That's the current part.

He did as far as the license is concerned. Yeah.

I gotcha. I mean, look. So some of these I mean, if they're going to build a business anyway, they're going to be doing these things anyway, you could say. Look, it's up to the board. Obviously, this will be a helping hand whether or not the board finds that this is a, you know, a property they wanna help with is is up to the board. Let's go to board member Clari. Go ahead.

Hi. Sorry. We'll get it. We'll get it one day. So I I really think that this is half baked. I really feel that this shouldn't even have been presented yet. I think it's great that you got a lot of our feedback. I do agree, this is not within our vision. But, there is a need for dog. But I just don't know if this is the right place, but we can't tell you that yes or no.

But I do feel that you've heard, a lot of our concerns up here as far as meeting the conditions of the neighborhood, the expectations, the landscaping, the presentation itself is completely wrong. And based on just looking at the fence alone, it totally throws me off. That's a six foot fence. This is not a four foot fence. You've heard our concerns about being a good neighbor, our expectations of that neighborhood.

Granted, you can do your business. You'll have to follow rules and so forth and so on. But the funding is the issue that I have. We want the neighborhood to improve. We don't want the conditions that are currently as is right now. That is not making the neighborhood any better. And that's been like that for a while. And that's probably my biggest challenge is I just want the neighborhood to improve aesthetically and clientele wise. I want more housing because we only hear about that all the time. But there's also needs within a neighborhood.

So I like your ambition and your optimism of the demands and needs. But today, I just feel that this is not, something that we can approve. I don't know if we table it and you come back with a better rendering and what you're actually going to present and what we're actually going to be approving versus just a half baked project. I I just have not And

the applicant did mention that there were other colors and other visions that

I wanna reflected see here. I I wanna see that. When we get presentations here at the board, we see what it's going to look like. We see what it is and what

it's The corrected fence height, the foliage,

landscaping, how it's gonna look like

Sign. Inside.

The whole nine yards. Right now, we're just having a shell. Mhmm. And the shell isn't even a perfect shell.

It's And I think the kennel requirements that Andrew had pointed out is something that the applicant ought to understand and we ought to understand just a little bit better. Not that, again, we're not we're not, you know, the permitting department here with regards to kennel, at least we I think we would want an overview of, what the capacity limitations are. And maybe it would be good for the applicant to know what the kennel requirements of the city might be and if whether or not their application is their ideas are consistent with what the code may require. So I think it is wise unless we were to deny it if you wanna continue the item and if the applicant wants to move forward with additional detail, then we could and and and invite more feedback. I know this is a lot of time and energy into what is otherwise a small application.

But yeah, I can see where you're right. It's not there yet.

And I also I'm sorry.

Go ahead. Yeah, yeah, please. Oh.

And I also yeah. Hi. And I also think that to be a good neighbor we've heard that the neighborhood doesn't really even know about this and that it's a new business, not that you have to. But attempting to reach out to your surrounding neighborhoods is always a great thing. It's all about communication and how you work together with your neighbors, especially when you came up and said, you know, this is something that all the buildings that are going in the neighborhood, this is something that people will need.

Well, get that buy in from your community because that really pushes your project forward as well. If you don't have that buy in, there's gonna be challenges that you're gonna not understand that are gonna come down the forefront. And it's really gonna just may not be the best suit for that area. But so I would I would make

a

motion. Part of me wants to deny it today because it's taxpayers. But I also feel that you've heard our concerns. So I'd like to make a motion to postpone or continue this. And you come back with a lot of our questions and have them answered before we say yay or nay. That would be my motion.

Alright. So just a question real quick on that motion to the executive director. Do you think that thirty days is enough or did you want us to identify a date that is not the, let's just say, the May meeting but rather the June meeting? Only because it seems like there's lot of things to get flushed out. And I just don't want

to I would say in June. I would recommend to To the June CRV.

Okay. So the motion is for the June CRV.

And then I just want to comment on Commissioner Hernandez's statement about there's other businesses who, I hope they're applying. Because if we don't have those businesses and they're not applying, we can't give them the money. Just so if we can get a list of who's out there in addition to this, it has nothing to do with it, but a list of who out there and looking for money. But I would like to postpone this.

Alright. So we have a motion on the floor to continue the item to the June meeting so that, you know, they can work with staff to flush out, you know, kennel requirements, the enhancements, better identify and and depict the final result here for us to consider in June. Is there a second?

Second.

Alright. We have a second from vice chair Quintana, a third from board member Gruber. Discussion on the motion, specifically on the continuance, or we can take a vote. Let me just call the queue. Vice chair, you're good with your second, or you want an additional comment on the continuance?

Not on the continuance, so go ahead.

So, I mean, right now, the

question should

just be on the continuance. That's fine. Board member Biederman, on the continuance?

I guess I'm okay with the continuance. I just think we're gonna meet here and it'll

be the same. We're gonna We're gonna give them a shot.

Spend an hour talking about it. I mean, feel like we're on Shark Tank, to be honest. Somebody brought up the fact that we're investing in a new business. And that's not what CRA dollars are for. That's what economic development dollars are for.

And economic development dollars are normally spent to bring a business here that has a proven concept, not an idea. I mean, feel bad. I really feel bad beating up on somebody that takes the time to come and speak to us when they appear to be very sincere. But it was brought up earlier about the current conditions and how the current owner let it go and then they're talking about the landlord, you know, that it's the tenant quality of the tenant that's allowing it to go, but he's still gonna be the landlord and he's gonna have a tenant. So we're shifting it to a new tenant whether it's commercial or residential.

I'm a little confused by what what's going to go in here. I heard Yeah.

So you're alright on the continuance? I'm sorry I'm being

Yeah. I think we need more clarification.

Alright.

So bring it back and we could discuss it again. Alright. Talk about when we come when it comes back, we need to talk about the benefit versus cost because it just doesn't make sense in my mind still.

Let's go to board member Hernandez on the continuance and then we'll close it out.

Thank you. I will be voting against the continuance and I'll tell you why. Number one, it's a new business that is looking to locate a new business. It's tax dollars. The CRA has never done anything like this. We're starting a new president. And just to answer my colleague regarding other businesses, they have tried this. Mile High tried for years and it took years for their applications to be heard and it was finally approved and thank you for doing that. And the only reason that it wasn't

You're having we approved PIP grants for businesses on 21st Avenue? I'm not saying like, you know, regards to this No.

We have never

The architect's office, I thought we did something.

Yeah, on Tyler Street.

Yeah, but they were already existing as business. It wasn't a new business use that they were looking into changing. So we were enhancing it in existing use. And this is the problem that I have with this. I have nothing against what they're looking to do. I think what they're looking to do is a good idea. I think the concern that the board has brought up are the same concern. The staff is looking and made some comments in there that those comments have not been answered. And that is the quality that those dogs are gonna be in in a thousand square foot. And we look at what they're looking to do.

So I would be voting against the continuance for no other reason that we may come back the same thing and we're gonna be seeing the same thing. Having said that, I can appreciate what you're doing because it gives the community a chance to get involved. And maybe they want to come out and weigh in their sense. But for the purpose of what the CRA dollars are being spent, I don't think that this is the best and highest use that we can get out of our dollars. Right now, the property is paying $9,200 or $9,600 if I correct me if I'm wrong, in property taxes. I'm sorry? No. They're paying 90 some odd no. No. Well, total

to the county, the school board, all that.

Correct. They're paying 90 some odd $100 into the property taxes. We're only gonna get maybe another $2,000 up on that. It's not that we're gonna get another $7,500. We're only gonna get another Alright.

Just I know we can money

is not there. That's okay.

Let's just close it out. All those in favor of the continuance? Alright. On the continuance?

I'll ask after. Alright.

All those in favor of the motion on the floor to continue that into the June meeting, aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Opposed.

Two opposed. Okay.

Motion carries five to two. All right. Thank you so much.

I have a question, Mayor.

Go ahead.

Real quick, so when it comes back. Yeah. Is there a lien for our investment? Like, they have to hold on to the property because

That's correct. It's actually in the grant agreement. Sorry to cut you off. I know you've asked this before, but it's standard in our grant agreement. The property owner needs to keep the property for at least five years. If the property changes use, goes out of business, or sold within five years, the CRA retains money at a prorated rate, if you will. So within the first year, it's 80%. Second year, it's 60%, so on and so forth.

How do we claw that money back?

I'm sorry?

How do we claw that money back?

Well, would have to be with It's

a contract issue.

Yeah. Yeah. That would be a contract issue, so we'd work with the legal department to do that. Okay.

Alright. Let's go to Vice Chair Quintana.

Thank you, chair. So I guess one one thought I have is separate and apart from what the business would be that would be here, the improvements to the structure itself and the surrounding area. I'm just wondering if there might be some consideration of all the issues with water and drainage that the parking lot can be completely paved over in the back, whether there might be some consideration of changing the material back there or or the concentration of just pavers. When this comes back, that might be something to reconsider. And then, just I don't have much experience at all with dog day care, but I know quite a bit about licensing for child care early learning centers and that might be a place to look at if you want to go beyond just, you know, the minimal that's being asked, if you're talking about really looking at dogs as more than just dogs, you might want to look at that as a model and so outdoor space for dogs, that's required for childcare, that you have some kind of outdoor space and not necessarily be reliant on a public facility to be able to offer your services as a business.

So those were my two points. Thank you.

So just for the record, a series of some of the comments that you all have made, the property is in the building department. So a lot of these comments, your one regarding drainage and some of the ones regarding the planning and zoning, All those are being addressed and those are comments that have been given to the applicant.

Yeah. And I just want to add, it's at the applicant's risk that even if we were to approve a property improvement grant, they would have to get through that process separately. If they fail you know, drainage or fail at whatever, then in the end, the grant never gets dispersed because the grant is at the completion. Correct, Susan?

Correct. Thank you for pointing that out. They have to go through the full gamut in the building department and meet all codes, regulations, and statutory regulations. So that is separate from the grant. We can work with the applicant on the issues that were brought up today and also make sure to coordinate with planning and the building department. But yes, they are taking a risk. They could go through the complete renovations. And the board it's still up to the board whether or not they want to do the grant.

Right. All right. So we have a few more comments. Let's go to board member Shuhem, then Kaleri.

I just thank you. I would just say when this comes back, I would like to know if we've ever done a grant in this situation where we're tying it to a requisite change of use.

Okay.

I'm gonna I think I'm gonna make a, a correction since I'm on the prevailing side. I'm gonna withdraw, my my yes vote. And the reason being is I would, prefer Commissioner Hernandez really, his last statement about the funding and us not doing businesses. We've done existing businesses, and you're 100% correct. I think that they're allowed to do whatever they want to do.

And once you get it established and you worked out the kinks, come back. And if there's funding that we would apply, I think that that would be the right thing to do, to help start a new business and invest this money for, unforeseeable circumstances, I I'm going to withdraw my yes and make it a no vote. And I encourage my colleagues to do the same. Let them get it established if possible and, and then come back. We always will have funding available to help improve.

I think But

is just tying in too much.

Clarification. So if So hold on. Hold on, guys. Hold on. Let me let me try to help. So just a question. If the board denies the application today instead of having it withdrawn, then does that prevent them from coming back anytime soon? Or that's not the way the PIP I just for the sake of understanding. I know with other applications, if you're denied Andrea, if you wanna come up I don't know what application types. If you're denied, then there's a time that you have to wait before you come back?

Yeah. Under the under zoning rules, some of them do have

That's not this.

Denied. But this is specifically and legal could chime in what your procedures are for these type of grants.

Yeah. For the PIP, they can come back and they can apply again.

Okay.

All right. Well, look, I mean, I'm happy to I had the pleasure of the board. You know, if you guys want this to be withdrawn voting on it? There would need to be a motion for reconsideration. Yeah. And then I believe that you would need to take a new vote.

Yeah. Motion for reconsideration. Second.

All right. We have a motion to reconsider the continuance. Now would be discussion on the motion to reconsider the continuance. Why don't we just save time and and call a vote? Let's go ahead. This is the motion to, approve the reconsideration, of the continuance. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the item carries unanimously. So now the item is back on on track to just be discussed with

deny. Second.

Alright. We have a motion and a second to deny the application for reasons stated. Any discussion on that? If not, let's let's well, let me just go ahead to board member Gruber. Discussion on the motion to deny?

I I just want one confirm one thing. Have we ever given one of these grants to for a new business to open up?

I would have to do more research on that, but

I

I in I don't recent memory, I I don't think

I don't remember ever approving one while sitting up here. Okay.

Mean, look, would just say, I mean, is it a bad thing to give property improvement grants to a new business coming to town? Generally speaking, I would say, obviously not. This is something you'd wanna do to encourage and to, you know, attract a new business. It doesn't matter to me whether or not we've done it in the past. If this is an application of the board just doesn't wish to support because it's not bringing enough bang for the buck from a property improvement standpoint, then that's fine. Okay. Yeah. Alright. So we have a motion on the floor to deny the application. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, item carries unanimously. Alright. Now, just to the applicant, obviously, you can see we're a little unsure with regards to the various aspects that we've discussed here at Nauseam.

If you feel like if you feel like after you've engaged with the neighborhood, suddenly there is Kumbaya and everybody loves the idea and that you've, you know, gone through the kennel requirements, that you've made sure that that it's possible to do. The one thing we hate seeing businesses do is imagine that you spend a lot of time into, you know, applying and and fixing up an old building, only in the end to find that the limitations don't make the business successful. So for the business owner, make sure that you understand what the limitations are inside, outside, the expense, and whether or not it's a good investment for you because, you know, whether or not we we put money. I don't want I don't want you to lose a bunch of money or invest way more for a lot less of an outcome. So maybe it's a help to you to let's do some homework first.

And if you feel like we all could be proud, you can come back and reapply again is what we're learning. Okay? All right. Thank you all.

Thank you. Sorry you took the one.

All right.

Yeah. It's all good.

We talked it out. All right. That might be a record time spent on a pip there. But nonetheless, all good feedback. Alright so let's get to hopefully an easier item item number seven is the property improvement grant for Bavaria Apartments for on-site improvements located at 1930 Jackson Street total grant up to 75 ks CRA.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, chair. The following grant is for a co op property on Jackson Street. What's interesting about this property is that it has that kind of old Florida fair, you know, flair.

It's a three story co op and it's around the central courtyard, which we all remember, you know, kind of old Florida postcards of units fronting on a central courtyard. And they're investing in their property. The property happens to be next door to a brand new four story building that was built on Jackson Street. So in terms of the sense of urban design walking through the neighborhood where you see a brand new building and you see some of these old, more vintage buildings and that they're putting some money into it, it really helps with the character of the neighborhood. It's a beautiful tree lined street with an amazing canopy.

I'm just giving some of the background because I think it's encouraging to see these older properties investing in their properties. The property is called the Bavaria Apartments because some of the architectural features are kind of like that Bavarian architecture. Unfortunately, the wooden fences that have that and some of the trim has deteriorated. It's wood. They're planning on putting in picket fencing and picket rails. It's still nice. It still keeps the structure. And they are doing paint and stucco.

And with all that, can't wait to see the image.

The president of the co op is here today, James Marco, and also the vice president, Mark Butler. And so after Christopher gets his presentation, they're available for any questions and answers.

Thank you. Thank you. Well, Francisco, with that intro from Susan, just take it away.

Good morning. Chris Crissotto, project manager with the Hollywood CRA. Item number 71930 Jackson Street, Bavaria Apartments.

Thank you.

Okay. So on Jackson Street, just in between 19th And 20th Ave, so it's just kind of right in the heart of downtown. 20 unit co op, as Susan mentioned. So this is just kind of the context, just a little farther north of where the previous PIP was. And as Susan mentioned, the board president and vice president are here if there's any questions that I can't answer.

So they're going to be doing a new roof, some painting, some railings. Total project cost is just over $150,000 With our 50% grant contribution, it's 75,000. So, just some context images, so you can see on the top left hand side, you can kind of see where that new building that Susan was mentioning, that's the new build that comes into play. It's just kind of just over the property and then you just have some images of the alleyway and Jackson tree views. This is what it looks like today.

As Susan mentioned, it has some architectural styles like the wood pickets on the railings and the roof fascia has like kind of the Bavarian aesthetic to it. It's what it would look like now. The white and navy paint scheme, they're gonna be painting the actual walkways and then upgrading those railings to match the other railing system that they have in the rear of the property. So again, that courtyard that Susan mentioned, and what it will look like once the improvements are complete. So again, new railings, new roof, and just some paint.

It's a wood sided building, so they won't need any stucco. Dollars 150,000, 50% of that $75,000 so it's our grant contribution. The property has a taxable value of $2,200,000 So their current TIF is just over $28,000 and the resulting TIF will be $1,900 based on the $150,000 investment. So again, based on the comprehensive scope of work, the acting CRA director recommends approval of this grant.

Alright. Thank you. Let's other speaker cards from the or would the co op like to say a few words on life in Parkside and your desire to have the property improved? Maybe some hardships that have come along the way? Hey, Mark. How are you?

I'll let mister Marc Hoo, our president.

Please. You can both come up if

you like.

Come on up, Mark. Come on up, Mark. You're like a celebrity, mister Mark Butler, ladies and gentlemen. Attorney,

yes. And I love having him as a neighbor.

All right.

James Marco, president of Bavaria Apartments. My family has been living in that building since 1972. So the history goes right back to fifty some odd years. I am a Canadian. Please don't hold

that We love Canadians. Please do not apologize.

And I love Americans. I'll say that up front. We love you. Okay, that's why we've been coming this long. The building is 62 years old, 63 years old. It has not had major renovations to it up until recently. We have been in the process of changing over to impact windows impact doors. As of right now, we have remaining only 12 wooden doors to replace. It is not part of this project because we felt we needed bigger upgrades and things like that. But that is still on the agenda.

We are still going to continue doing the doors and getting the impact windows because part of the structure. Because of the building next door, beautiful, it's new, brand new, everything else, We have chosen to sort of go with the colors of the neighborhood now. Yes, the browns were there. The back of the building, we already have white railings. Okay, that was already changed and improved.

So we've already had that done. I don't know if there is a slide to show it. So that's why the yeah, you can see yeah, in the bottom right hand corner you can see we've already put white aluminum railings in there as part of improvement as we go along. So the reason for the white aluminum railings in the front is to match the back and to match the color scheme next door and what's going on around us. And so that's where we're at.

The wooden railings and question, yes, they are specially designed, oops, sorry, etcetera. Why we have gone with the and I don't know that the balusters are straight balusters. Was a question of going with the design of I actually went back to the selected railing person and in order to replicate that design would have cost would cost us over $200,000

Yeah, that would have been very customized.

And we just don't have that kind of money in our unit. Right.

All right. So the application here is for the paint, roof, right, and the like, and to help complete the vision. Mark, anything else?

No. Paint, roof, and railings. I moved into the building about five years ago, I guess, when I had sold my home in Hollywood. I had a choice of moving either to Home Tower where I had a small studio or this building here. And I'd always admired the building because of its bevarian appearance, just aesthetically pleasing. But the upgrades that they've done over the years, Mr. Marcou, his family, and the other, I say, unit owners were each cooperative members. So we basically lease under a proprietary lease. But have done a remarkable job in not just maintaining, but in upgrading it to this point. But the building next door, units are selling for, I think, the $4.50, mid-400s. And we just want to compete, keep up with the Joneses. It's a great place in the neighborhood.

Help contribute to everybody's value and aesthetic quality. Yes. And a good solid roof over your head. All right. Let's hear from board member Shuham.

Could I say one more thing?

At your own risk. Quit while you're ahead.

I would just like to commend Christopher because he has helped me so much in this process. He's always been there. He's answered all my questions. If something came up, he warned me ahead of time to make sure we got it done and things like that. And he's been incredible. He really has. Want

Thank to say you, Chris. Thank you for that dedication. Well, remember Shuhem.

Thank you. Yes, we love Chris, too. Can you go to slide five?

Sure.

And my question is on the bottom right, where you still have DAY: some of this fancier woodwork. Is that staying and just getting painted?

Looks like concrete. The staircases

The open web block will just get painted over. They'll still keep that aesthetic there. They're just going to be changing over the catwalks and anything that has a kind of a closed patio. So you can see it here on that left hand side.

And then, Chris, you mentioned the roof has a bit of a Bavarian touch. Is that going away, this overhang?

To my understanding, they're going to try and replicate that with the roof contractor as long as they can do it within reason. If it becomes too expensive, then they might have to move to kind of like a standard flashing with a fascia. But we're going to encourage that they keep that same aesthetic.

Okay. I'll make a motion to approve.

All right. We have a motion from Barbara Schuhem and a second from Barbara Hernandez to approve the item. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, item carries unanimously. Alright. Thank you all.

Thank you all very much.

Thank you, Mark. Thank you. Alright.

Thank you, mayor. I was just gonna say the neighborhood loves the building. They love the fact that they have been upgrading and updating on their own. And and they they encourage for this to be approved.

Great. Great. Alright. We are on a roll. Let's get to item eight. This is the CRA's approval of a property improvement program grant with Atlantic White Caps Condominium Association for on-site improvements to the property located at 3400 North Surf Road and a grant amount up to 34,700. Susan?

So this property is right on the Broad Walk. It's at New Mexico Street. And it has been a property that has been very well maintained by the association over the years. I mean, having started work on the Broadwalk back in 2000, I can tell you they've really maintained the property. They've done over the years thoughtful renovations on their property. And in particular, what they're looking for now is a grant for paint and stucco and some other things. And Christopher will

So just kind of the northern portion of the CRA district fronting the Broadwalk in between New Mexico and Thomas Street. This is kind of some context photos of what it looks like from the Broadwalk and the beach and from Surf Road. They're looking to invest just over $69,000 in a new concrete tile roof. They currently have a concrete tile roof. It's been some patching that's been done, but now it's kind of beyond repair.

So they're looking to do a brand new roof, some paint and stucco throughout the property. So what it looks like today, and then some of the modified color scheme. So it'll stay within the same kind of blues and tropical cyans, if you will, or the turquoise. But I think it definitely enhances the property's look.

Yeah. All right. Let's go to board member Shuham.

Now, I just want to thank the board of the building. It's always beautifully maintained, and I think this looks great. And I'm excited for them to have these improvements. And I make a motion to approve. All

right, motion from board member Schuhem, second from board member Gruber, and a third from board member Hernandez. Board member Hernandez, any comment before we Yeah.

I would just the question I have, are they replacing it with tile as well? Correct. That's beautiful. Nice work. Nice work.

All right. Great. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, item carries unanimously. Alright. Thank you.

Thank you.

Alright. That completes our regular agenda, ladies and gentlemen. Let's hear from acting executive director, miss Goldberg, for any informational reports on the previous month's activities on the beach in downtown, if any?

So under the monthly report, what I wanted to do was have a presentation regarding the

conditions At

your own risk? No. Kidding. Go ahead, Susan.

I'm still only acting I'm

teasing. I'm teasing. Yeah.

Regarding the trees along A1A between Sheridan Street and Hollywood Boulevard, the trees in the median are doing well and some trees that were planted at grade are doing well. We've been having a problem with close to 29% of the trees that were planted along the sidewalks, which the east side of the sidewalk is extremely narrow. So all of those trees had to be put in tree grades so that we would meet pedestrian access for ADA. We have been doing over the last couple of months an extensive analysis between the landscape architect and an arborist, a professional arborist that the landscape architect contracted with. The landscape architect actually had trees removed, sent samples to laboratories and the arborist will be going over the results of those laboratory tests today as well as have some recommendations moving forward.

So I'd like to call up Kimley Horn and Lisa Hammer to do that presentation for the board. This is Jonathan Hague, the landscape architect from Kimley Horn in charge of the State Road A1A project.

Hello. Good morning. My name is Jonathan Hague. I'm a landscape architect with Kimley Horn. I've got about thirty years experience. I've been with Kimley Horn about twenty years and I think I've been working with Susan for at least twelve of those years. At least. At least. So just to give a little bit of an history of the design of the project, we started this in 2016, surprisingly. 2018, we started our first variance was submitted to DOT.

We had to get a variance to plant the trees at the roadside and within some of the clear site windows as well as the median landscape as well required a variance in order for us to plant all the trees that we have in those zones. We had our first one of our first variances was approved in 2019. By 2020, we had a plan revision. We resubmitted and had that variance and design updated and approved then. By 2022, we had submitted the maintenance agreement and that was approved with the FDOT.

And by that whole design had started with a different plant palette. By 2023, we changed to the Montgomery Palms and that was what ended up being installed at the roadside. So some of the design considerations that we had to deal with, of course, there's a lot of being a DOT road. We have the limits of clear sight which is a requires a certain amount of spacing for trees at the roadside so that people can see as they're exiting driveways and exiting the side streets which there are plenty of along this area that they can see traffic as it's coming through. What they call that is the picket fence effect.

If you have too many pickets close to each other, you can't see through the pickets. But if they're spaced far enough apart, they you can see through and have a safe view to the street. So in this case, we were able to space the trees at 35 feet apart that was deemed to be acceptable to DOT and that was what our spacing is pretty much up and down the street. You can see how the limits of clear sight influences the design. This shows the just two of the side streets as an example.

Most of our side streets alternate, you know, one ways going either east or west. It shows these two streets in particular show how the limits of clear sight affects the roadside trees and why we needed to have a variance to get for the spacing to get as many trees as we could in there while still minimizing the picket fence effect in blocking views for traffic. We also dealt with accessibility code. So Florida accessibility code is the Florida's application of ADA. In this case, we had a 36 inch passing as a minimum.

We try to maximize that though. We, you know, 36 inches is a pretty small sidewalk. So in order to do that, we planted, as Susan mentioned, the trees in a precast concrete tree grate, allowed people to walk on that tree grate and use that part of that tree surface or tree planting area as a walking surface. We're also dealing with with with the design itself after installation. We've got the paver sidewalk.

We've got a retaining curb on the backside of the sidewalk and then we've got the curb and gutter on the street side. The in general, the people can walk on every bit of that surface, the top of the curbs, both sides of the pavement, both sides of the pavers, But in some locations, we are dealing with the property owners that have landscape adjacent that covers up portions of that of that retaining curb on the backside of the sidewalk. So kind of our appears as our effective walking area is the paver surface itself. So that further kind of minimizes our passing distance around the trees. So this illustrates a little bit how we've got that effective walking area with on top of the precast grate and how that looks in, I guess, a perspective view as a rendering.

So looking at some similar conditions around this area, looking at Fort Lauderdale Beach, different cities up and down A1A that have planted at the roadside or otherwise just looking at how they've done it. Fort Lauderdale Beach did the same thing we did. They have the coconut palms in precast grates, some in surface planters, as you can see on the left side of the road on that left image. There are areas of closer to Oakland Park Boulevard where they're using a different planter treatment. It's called a Flexi Pave.

You can see that in that dark surface that's on the the image on the right. They're also planting in surface planters, but they have a lot wider right away to deal with and not as many driveways as we do here in Hollywood. Sunny Isles Beach. In general, most of Sunny Isles Beach does not have any roadside plantings that are within DOT right away. This stretch just south of the William Layman Causeway is the only stretch in Sunny Isles Beach that's in DOT right away.

And that has has to do with the fact that there's a big drainage facility there along that side. They were able to put these date palms in small planters that were half cut out of the sidewalk. Again, much wider sidewalks, much wider right away and much more room to deal with. One way that it appears that they've been able to have some kind of consistency up and down in Sunny Isles Beach is they've either required by code or required by application the different businesses or residences along there to install Medjool Palms on both on the private side of the roadside. Ball Harbor looking at similar treatments, it appears that they also have date palms.

Not many in DOT right away. Some of them are straddling the sidewalk. Again, in surface planters, there's some cutouts as you can see in the left hand image there. And then on the right hand side, as it gets closer to like 96th Street, there's a little bit of a verge or a space between the curb and the sidewalk that they're able to plant in there. And then I think this might be the last city we look at.

This is Miami Beach. Again, some stretches of Ocean Drive and A1A have coconut palms or some other treatment there. Largely coconut palms. They plant in a product called Addipave, which is kind of like Flexi Pave except it's not flexible. It's actually a gravel that has a resin built into it, but it kind of acts like a tree grate in that it's a walking surface or a portion of the sidewalk that you can walk on.

Burkhart Construction is also here with us today. They provided this planting schedule. This is when they started planting back in November 2023 and through today. So November 2023, some of the West Side was planted by January 2024. Largely, all of the West side was done and then the East side was started in March and April 2024.

So that kind of sets the dates and precedents for kind of the weather impacts that I'm gonna discuss next. So immediately after planting in 2023, we had an extreme weather event that was not a tropical storm or it wasn't a named storm, but we had pretty high wind high wind event at that point and a lot of rain. We had, I think, sixty, seventy mile an hour winds that whipped through this area. It was pretty damaging to a lot of the trees that went in that first round. We also had a big deluge in June 2024.

Again, not really a named storm, but it was a high flood event portions of Fort Lauderdale. I think I saw people like swimming down Broward Boulevard and this this was a very difficult event to deal with with again new plantings. Hurricanes Helene and Milton also brought in a lot of high winds as well. So we've created a a preview for what we can discuss in a little bit is we've created this tree observations map over the last couple of weeks. This looks at the current condition of those trees.

The green dots, I know it's difficult to read. This is a very small image, but we can zoom in to it later. I'm assuming we can zoom into part portions of it later in the presentation. The red are identifying tree locations where the tree pits or the trees have perished and we do not feel it's appropriate to replace those. In the lighter green color, the kind of the bright green color are trees that have perished that we do feel we should replace.

Next, I'd like to bring up Lisa Hammer. She's our horticultural consultant And she has several slides to discuss as well.

LESSA Good morning. Thank you for having me. My name's Lisa Hammer, a horticultural consultant. Just as a little background, people don't often understand what it is I do. So I just took a little bit of information straight out of my resume.

I thought maybe you were gonna opine on the doggy daycare, but No. Don't buy it.

Don't worry. No, we're not going there. But anyway, I'm a horticultural consultant and a consulting arborist. I've been practicing for thirty eight years as an independent professional. I let's see. We're going forward here. I am a registered consulting arborist since 1992, one of the first in Florida and only the eighth woman in the society since its inception. I'm a certified arborist and I'm tree risk assessment qualified. I have bachelor's of science in agriculture from University of Florida and master's in biology from FIU. So that's me. Go Gators!

There's final There

we go. Okay, so this is the map enlargement that Jonathan was talking about. So we can see that there are some trees that have died in clusters. They called me in early January and I went out and take a look at the trees and I sampled some representative samples of each of the trees. This is palm number one that we sampled. It was dead by this time already. The trunk was shriveled up. The head was nothing left to it. I used soil corer. They removed those extremely heavy grapes, which are not going anywhere on their own.

So they removed those for me and I used a soil corer to core around the base of that tree into the soil. And I found that the soil was really, really, really wet, extremely wet and muddy and it had a bad smell to it. A foul odor in a wet soil indicates anaerobic conditions, which means there's not very much oxygen in the soil because it's too wet. So it's very, very saturated soil. We pulled that tree and took a look at it.

It was very, very wet. The roots were completely rotted. There was nothing left of that root system of anything living. I came back at a later date, week or two later, I came back because they pulled that tree out and we found in the bottom of that pit it was just standing water in the bottom of the pit. There was also an old, what was that line, irrigation line or what was that old? Irrigation sleeve in there that had standing water in it. So I took a sample of that water and sent that to the laboratory. I also took a soil sample from that planting pit too. So that's palm number one and sample number one when we get to the lab samples. Palm number two was looking pretty good.

It does show a few symptoms of some wind damage and a little bit of, you know, browning of the lower front. They removed the grates there. I sampled there with the core. It was not wet. It was very tough, kind of compacted soil that had pretty good root growth in there and so forth. So that one was doing okay. Across the street, there were three or four palms in a linear planter without the tree grates and they were all doing pretty well also. So I cored in there as best I could. I couldn't go very deep because it was compacted soil and full of roots. Has a drip irrigation system as opposed to the bubbler heads on the other ones, but they were doing pretty well and they're at a slightly higher elevation than the ones in the planters across the street.

We sampled one more palm on the East Side, again a little further north than palm number one. And this one was as good as dead. It was pretty well dead at this point. And we pulled this one too and I found the same sorts of conditions as I did in palm number one. Extremely wet.

The roots were rotten. You know, I took soil samples from there too. So I took soil samples from palm number one, two and three and sent those to the laboratory. And then, so what we found, what the soil samples revealed, were that the plant nutrient content was average on a few were high, a few were low, but nothing really out of the ordinary, But the sodium levels were very high, high to very high in all of the samples. The soluble salts were also very high, twice as high in the first two as they were in the three, but they were all in the high range.

So salt in the soil samples. The water sample had sodium levels seven and a half times greater than the target range, which is ideal, and three times the acceptable range for irrigation water. The quantity of chloride was at least 22 times the target range and more than three times the acceptable level and the soluble salts were two times the target range and slightly greater than acceptable level. All of these elements are things found in seawater. So my conclusion is that this is saltwater intrusion coming from below and it's coming up.

It's preventing drainage from going down. Typically with low levels of salt in the soil, you would irrigate with fresh water and just leach it back through but it's not going anywhere. Can't go down because the water table with salt water is so high. So it's not going down. It's holding salt water in these planting pits and the trees can't live with that.

The Montgomery palms are salt tolerant palms but this is just too much for them. And I think we found that there were clusters of these declining palms. There's a few individuals, but there may have been some other factors like wind and the weather events. Somebody mentioned some car, some vehicle strikes have killed some of them, you know. So there may be some other things going on, but it looks to me like the ones in the clusters are probably getting underground saltwater intrusion. So where'd I go with this? Okay, so I think you're next. Oh, so the recommendations, you want to go forward with

the recommendations?

Sure, thank you.

So we looked at our, we've got recommendations for the current phase that's out there. What we're looking at is that the, where the palms have declined again, as Lisa mentioned, in clusters. And anecdotally, from what Burkhart has told us there are some tree pits and it doesn't it doesn't even for no real explanation that we can understand except for the fact there's probably some subsurface structures of some sort either old road bed the compacted lime rock that's there is helping protect some of those tree pits or there's some other rock formation underground. Some of these tree pits are dry and some are wet more regularly than others. So we've we've what we looked at with that big map that I showed you earlier is we looked at kind of clustering.

So most of these dead trees were clustered up and down the street. So where we have a larger like cluster or small clusters of trees that we know have either from what Burkhart told us wet all the time tree pits or were observed wet during this past, you know, couple of months or a few months. We've identified those as ones we probably don't recommend replacing. Where we do had did see some trees that have perished within groupings of other good trees or other good trees that are living and healthy, we're recommending that those get replaced. We have looked at also what we're gonna do on phase four which is South Of Hollywood Boulevard at the future phase and what we're what we're looking at there is the potential for actually changing the design to a different species that's more appropriate although we're still kind of in discussions on how we're going to get you know all through that.

This alternate tree for phase four we're looking at right now green buttonwood. This is a relative of or it's also called a button mangrove. It can handle being wet. It can handle some salt water and we feel like it's a good tree to introduce to the to the project. We are gonna be somewhat limited in where this can be introduced, but we are going to take advantage of the fact that most of the sidewalks on the southern portion in phase four are wider than what we have on the current phase.

Because we had such narrow sidewalks, we almost had to go with palm trees on the North Side and there really aren't that really great selection of palm trees to select that both like being wet and both like salt and like salt water. So we had we made the best choice that we could at this that time which was the Montgomery palm which met a lot of our criteria and has generally been successful. If you drive up and down A1A, you will see that there are Montgomery palm, solitaire palms, Christmas palms, palms of a similar type. They're thriving and doing really well up and down that street, just not in the sidewalk where we have ours planted and that probably had been established by the time, you know, all this wind and high wind events happened and the storms and flooding that we kind of our trees kind of experienced. And this kind of shows how those how we could implement, if we choose to do that going forward, the green button woods into phase four.

We would look at switching those to the backside of the sidewalk to give them a little more room to grow and create that effective walking area or that walking space closer to the curb which is not ideal and not the original goal of what we're trying to do but this gives the best chance for a tree canopy along that street. And we have a you want me to present the slide?

Okay. Go ahead.

So this is the conclusion of where we ended up. This is the acting CRA executive director recommends the following. We're gonna replace 22 trees on the current phase north of Hollywood Boulevard with Montgomery Palms, remove the dead which are the 30 trees, fill those tree pits, those where the dead trees were removed and with structural fill and install pavers that to kind of match the existing treatment that's along the street and no change order to the contract.

So just to clarify, it's a total of 30 and you're replacing 22 out of 30 or is it 30 eliminations and 22 replacements?

There are 52 dead.

Okay. Alright. And so if you're replacing 22, is this like one last shot? And if it dies again, then we're gonna seal I mean, I would imagine we would seal those locations as well?

That's correct. There are a 179 trees out there currently. The ones that we're recommending to replace are already in clusters of trees that are healthy and looking good.

So give it one Yes. Yeah, I gotcha. Alright, let's hear from the board. I mean, a lot of great background. Thank you so much. I think in the end, we're facing the reality that we're dealing with. There's actually a resident in the back here, Bob Wickman, has been asking us to do something about the trees. And I'm going let you comment after we comment, Bob, so that we hear from you today and not later. Let's go ahead to board member Hernandez.

Thank you, mayor. Lisa, I'd like to ask some questions, if I could, on some of the soil probes that you did, the samples. If we can go back to some of those, whoever has the clicker. On palm number one and two and three. Keep going. Keep going. Right. On the next one. Right. The first one. Go. The first one. The first one that we had to sample is back.

The monkey one. Yeah.

Hey. Keep going. Yeah. But it's a slide prior to that.

One more back. Another one.

The other way. There you go. Stop right there.

Yep. Okay.

The source sample you have over here, the core sample you get, that's muck. That's really mucky soil that we have there what's dense there, would

you say?

It's hard to tell. It's so saturated. I mean, it's gooey and nasty. And there's probably a muck content to it. But I don't know that it's 100% muck.

No, no one's saying it's going be 100% muck because it would be all black and it would not be that sandy brown thing. It would just straight charcoal color on the muck. But my point is, the soil conditions are not helping some of these trees because if you move it forward on the other course, you could see that there is more sand particles in it. And my question would be is, is the water not draining because of some of the conditions that the gentleman just mentioned because maybe some roadbed underneath that is preventing from the water to continue to percolate as it may should, maybe exist in other places. In other words, the retention of water is actually what's rotten in the trees.

I get that 100%. And the soil conditions may not be the best for that tree to start with. And if we don't have any percolation, saltwater will rise because of pressure, but it only percolates and it's not percolating because of the condition of the soil.

That's hard to know. But it's not percolating, but the soil samples were high in salt content also. So it's coming up.

Correct. That part we know. And the percolation may have a great deal to do. I'm not against any of the recommendation. But I'm saying before we actually make it all a concrete jungle and do away with some of these things, maybe we ought to look at what's underneath those things as it was mentioned. There may be some other roadbed or some other inclined material that it's not letting the percolation exist. In other words, the pressure of the saltwater intrusion does bring it up. But percolation is pretty much based on gravity and soil conditions. And if we move it can you move the pictures up a little bit as to the other soil conditions? You could see the difference on the soil condition.

So I guess the question is

Keep going. One more. Soil probe. Right there is good. You can see the soil probe on the right corner, right upper corner, where it's more sandy in nature, which means that the water might have gone up. But because of the soil condition on the bottom, it may have the ability to percolate with gravity rather than just the pressure bringing the salt water intrusion up and not allowing it to go down. There's no way we can know that unless

No, can't know that. That planter was more filled with roots also. So it's a healthier tree. There was a lot more root growth on that tree too. So it's a little harder to get a good core sample. You notice the depth of the core on that one too is not as great as the depth on the other one. I couldn't get in there. Plus, we didn't pull that tree. So I don't know what it looks like underneath there. Pulled those other two trees

No, no, I know. JOSHUA to

see what was underneath there.

JOSHUA I'm going by your sole core. And the core shows one that it's really mucky, really dense, and all saturated. Appears to be a percolating type soil.

Nearer the surface, as far as we know. It's nearer the surface. Don't know what's beneath that.

Correct. I'm just going by the soil condition. I think before we do what we're looking to do, which is terminate the trees altogether, maybe we should explore to see what's underneath and see if there's a soil condition that it can't change because we may have utilities or we may have anything else, then we go to plan that we're talking about eliminating them. But if there's a potential to actually either get that soil, if it's mucky in nature, out to get some more percolating better soil condition for the tree to have a chance to grow, we may want to consider that. It's up to the board. I guess the

question is that, and whether this is for the 22 that we're looking to replant, the question that he's bringing up is and typically, when you when you plant a palm tree, have to you ought to, you know, dig, you know, bigger than the the root ball. And then maybe the question is is should there be, you know, a foot of gravel, like something to allow water to percolate out? What could prevent and reduce the, you know

Right. I understand the question and we've had these discussions.

Design or or not really?

Well, we've had these discussions. We talked about putting gravel in and so forth. But one issue here is the size of the planting pits. They're limited in size. 36 by 36. And that's what is required, I think, for the sidewalk sizes and that sort of thing. So there's very little backfill in those planting pits. In fact, those root balls had to be cut down a little bit to even fit in those planting pits because of the size restrictions on those. So while your point is well taken, there could be other things, different soil conditions and so forth going on. We talked about putting gravel in the bottom of the pit, but we've already had to take part of the root ball off.

They have to be low enough that the trunks fit in the holes in those grates. That's another issue. We can't raise them any higher. They won't fit in the grates, the hole. Then the trunks won't fit in the hole in the grates. So there's a lot of restrictions here on what you can do. There's height restrictions too, whatever the clear trunk is.

Yeah, I think the point is not to try to raise it because we're trying to utilize a sidewalk in order for it to be able to have ADA accessibility and what have you. So I get that. And we only have three feet or four feet of sidewalk. I'm just trying to see what's underneath. The only way we can do that is MICHAEL

we talked about possibly I asked, is there a hydrologist on the project perhaps who can tell us where the salt water might be coming from? There's probably little riverlets or whatever underneath. I doubt it's just a sheet flow completely underneath the island, right? It's got to be running probably in riverlets or courses of some kind. I don't know.

I'm not high I the whole street floods. So wherever the salt water goes, whether it comes from the top or the bottom, the whole area floods at any given time because of the high tide. So we get that the water comes up. My only question is in hope that we may be able to find a way for the same way the water comes up in order to percolate because this may be six inches or so below the next size that is doing well. And I don't know what the soil condition is on the other one because since they're doing well, we're not checking their soil condition. But if we can find a way to save them, it may be worth the while doing. And if the answer is no, then the answer is no. I was just wondering what's underneath to prevent them from percolating.

All right. Let's go to board member Shuham.

Thank you, chair. My question is I have two questions. One is you mentioned in Fort Lauderdale, I believe, that there were palms in planters.

Yes.

Is there an opportunity here to do a planter either at sidewalk level, or is there a way to dig this pit out and create an in ground planter similar to create a condition like you would have with an above ground planter? Or is the opening too small?

Underground Did we

get to the picture from Fort Lauderdale? There we are. The difference between this stretch of A1A and the stretch in Fort Lauderdale is the A1A in Fort Lauderdale is literally right up against the beach. And it is at higher ground. The soils are higher highly very highly draining. It's probably just pure sand underneath there. It's just a different condition. And I guess that's what part of the illustration we're trying to make was even though we're when you drive down A1A from let's say from Hollywood going south or even from Fort Lauderdale going south or from anywhere, the road varies in its distance from the road

and elevation. I just asking you mentioned there were palms in planters.

Yeah, those are the when I say planters, I meant in planters in the ground like

Ah, okay. They're not in physical

No. There's not. Container. Not a pot. No.

Okay. And is there the opportunity for a actual planter in this location? Or is that something that's prohibited by FDOT?

Isolate the tree from the soil conditions.

Not above ground because that would you'd have to have a very, very large planter pot to be able to hold to be able to have enough soil volume to support a tree that would Okay. Grow with

about underground? Is there a way to contain it so that you prohibit saltwater from getting into that?

It is something that we're looking at. I have found that they're, they are experiencing a similar situation to this in like Saudi Arabia right now or Abu Dhabi where they're getting they're getting salt water intrusion from the below. They are using a geotextile, a combination of geotextile and like a suspended pavement grid system which is like what you'd use for soil volume like a, I don't know if SilvaCel makes sense to anyone here, but that's a brand name of a product. It almost looks like Mark calls them put together like bookshelves, like you put like plastic bookshelves, but it holds the pavement up and it allows the soil to be a little bit looser for soil, for roots to grow into more advantageous. What they're doing with that is they're taking that and wrapping it with a geotextile that's a salinity barrier and it has a drainage aspect to it that actually blocks the salt water from intruding from below but actually allows the drainage to come out through the bottom.

And that's ultimately what if we were to design with palm trees down on this phase four, that would be something that we would definitely want to pivot and look at. By changing trees to like a green button would, we wouldn't need to do that because that tree is actually adapted to growing in a wet and salty environment. So But it is possible. It's just very it can get very expensive to try and support.

Yeah. I mean my concern is what board member Hernandez mentioned. And we don't want a concrete jungle. Want as much greenery as possible. So in these areas where, first of all, I would personally like to have maybe a pilot of what you're describing in one of these really bad places to see if it works.

I don't know if it's big enough or if it's cost prohibitive, but if both of those conditions can be met, let's try one. And the other thing is when I look on the picture here on the left at the base of the palm where they have that greenery Yes. Does it make sense to do something like that, that greenery without a palm as a part as opposed to just a concrete cap?

Where we have room, yes. And that's the, unfortunately, problem with the phase that was recently installed. The sidewalks are just too narrow to introduce, you know, significant amount

of What about making them longer as opposed to wider?

And that did occur in that one planter, that one spot that Lisa pulled one of the trees out or looked at the trees.

Is Like that.

Can't remember which condo this name it is, but there's a small older condo on the west side of the road. So

I guess my my other suggestion would be in these areas, Susan, where we just have to pull them, and we're not gonna do a pilot or whatever. If if there's a way to maybe elongate them a little bit to allow for this ground level greenery.

We can have a look at that.

Yeah. That's all. I I just think that we wanna keep it as green as possible. We know that we're living with groundwater, you know, at the surface level. So the best that we can figure out to make it look pretty while not repeatedly planting things that are going to die. Thank you.

All right. Let's go to board member Biederman. And I think so far we understand, and correct me if I'm wrong, board members during your comments, but we've been presented with with recommendations. I think the acting director would like some direction from us on on, you know, authorizing, you know, this this this direction for what's being recommended. If we have feedback and say, hold your horses, I think today would be the day to instruct the director in such way. And so we'll hear from board member Biederman, then Kaleri, and then I'll ask Bob Blickman to to weigh in. Alright. Commissioner Biederman?

So we'll start by asking the question of if we were to plan, replace, what's the time frame before we know whether it works or not? So that we could do a test a test project and know if it works or not.

Do we know how long how short a time

before the tree dies if it's gonna die?

Well, the next king tides are when? June, maybe? You know, towards the end of the summer, I guess.

But at that point, they don't

have I don't what I know how long it I don't know how long they were in the wintertime.

The main tides are in the fall. The spring tides are now.

But that's not long enough for it to establish itself before it gets killed. Right?

Probably not.

So here's my other idea. And I and I like the way commissioner Xuam's thinking on some of it. But can we move the tree since the sidewalk is too close to the water table which is causing it to die? Can't we move it with permission to the, property the private property owner? You know, I don't see private property owners object well, I guess they would object some places, but move move our trees off the sidewalk would eliminate the ADA issue and it would maybe bring it up higher.

We could burn the area a little bit next to the sidewalk to bring it up a little bit. Obviously, it would take Susan and our staff to meet with property owners and ask them to allow us to move some trees so that we're not losing this tree coverage. Is that is that a possibility?

Where there was green space, Susan, I don't know if you ever evaluated, you know, who has green space

mean, of the pictures it showed to the east of the sidewalk, there's grass growing which if there's grass growing, it can't be that poison of of soil.

Yeah, we