Climate Resilience Committee - Regular Meeting

now and we have to be prepared go to miami.gov

Welcome to the City of Miami's Climate Resilience Committee for June 1st. We have a packed agenda and the most people here that we've seen in a long time. So thank you for your attendance. All right, we'll get started with a roll call from our right.

Good evening, Grant Musser.

Allison Weinstock. Sarai Perez.

Aaron DiMeo. Wayne Pathman, Pathman Law.

Aubrey Jane. Nick Atkinson, City Attorney's Office.

Hi, Sonia Brubaker, Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Miami.

Miriam Flores for the Office of Resilient Sustainability.

Welcome, Nick. And thank you to Gigi, who is still here with us this evening, but has served us for a while now, so thank you so much for all your service and help. So we'll move to item two, which is public comment, which is limited to two minutes per person. If anyone here would like to make a public comment, please approach.

Hello, good evening. I'm Katrina Morris. I live in Coconut Grove. And I'm asking that the CRC gets involved with the tree committee for Chapter 17. Some oversight would be greatly appreciated. I'm also really happy to look at the greenways and the sponge parks. I think these are real, you know, I think that green infrastructure at this point, the verdict is in, the studies have been done. Green infrastructure is cost effective and creates benefits for humans' mental and physical health and really helps in an urban environment to keep us, you know, breathing and drinking clean water and not flooding and not having runoff into our bay every time it rains. So I appreciate the work you're doing.

Thank you, Katrina. And just one moment, we'll do another roll call for Silvio, please.

Silvio Pocasco.

Thanks.

Good evening, Chairman, members of the Board. My name is Mel Meinhardt. I live on Virginia Street, but I'm here representing Friends of the Commodore Trail, which is the five and a half miles of potholes and death-defying crosswalks through Coconut Grove. But we've also been an active participant in the Greenways registration that you're going to hear from today. But We are supportive, but we want to make, I'm here today, we're very supportive of the effort. But I want to make it very clear, and I would like the board to ask the city staff to make sure that on the record, we have some very clear understanding of what is involved, especially with respect to NCD3, that's Coconut Grove. We have worked with city staff to ensure, we hope to ensure, that the upzoning or the additional bonus height that is part of the Greenways program has been cut out of the NCD3 T5 and below measures so that we are protecting Coconut Grove from being upzoning. We understand there's a trade-off that we won't receive funding from that program, but that's an active piece that we're doing. I ask then that you ask the city staff to describe exactly where within the Coconut Grove area, NCD3, that bonus height would be available under the T6 provisions of the proposal. So we're asking, we understand that the Bonuses are available only in T6, which is a very limited set of properties. We expect then that they'll be able to produce a map that shows where that is. And those areas we expect are already in areas which have very high buildings that are fully built out already. So most important is the priorities throughout the city of Miami to protect the local neighborhood character. Because if we lose the local neighborhood character, then what's the point of all this good intention anyway?

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello, okay, great. Hello, my name is Michelle Yee. Do you need my address? Yes, okay. Office is 2937 Southwest 27th Avenue, Suite 301, 33133, zip code. I work as a student research assistant at FIU, restoring Florida's wetlands and seagrasses. As such, I also work organizing youth in climate and environmental awareness through GenCLIO. It was FIU alongside UF that helped develop the urban tree canopy assessment in 2021, which promised to increase Miami's tree cover to 30%. And as I am soon to graduate, I wonder what the urban forest that was promised. And so with the hottest summers on record, compounding adequate tree cover is crucial for the well-being of the community across all sectors. And so I'm here to urge this committee to continue advising on tree protections as they are reflective of the climate crisis occurring at our shorelines and provide great relief to a landscape already experiencing record long dry seasons, shorter and more intensive hydro periods, all at the mercy of developers and lobbyists. The City of Miami's Tree Trust Fund, once audited, was found to have not used the majority of allocated funds to meet its own law of using 80% of the funds to replace and restore Miami's lost canopy. 57,000 of that was intended for Hurricane Irma cleanup efforts, though it was never submitted. And so where did this money go? Commissioner Pardo's office recently released a statement admitting to illegally cutting down 15 trees at one site for an alleged temporary pickleball court, but was later discovered to be reserved for construction of luxury units. This, unfortunately, is a failure of leadership and a severe lack of representation in one of the nation's top cities threatened by climate change. This is why we need the climate resilience committee's continued advocacy to ensure the city is following its own rules to protect our trees. And so, while immensely grateful for the creation of the tree committee, it is essential to be transparent with the public on the city's relation to its own tree ordinances. Miami is witnessing a slew of environmental indicators in the midst of many unprecedented and underreported natural disasters. And so as a citizen, as a student, I'm asking you guys to please represent us. And thank you.

Thank you. Good evening.

Hello, good evening. My name is Angelina Alvarez. My address is 2937 Southwest 27th Avenue. So I'm here to represent and speak on behalf for those who cannot speak the trees. So I want to tell a little story that time sure flies. About a year ago, I was standing right here in the same city of Miami, fighting against changes to the tree ordinance that would have made it easier for developers to cut down trees. I remember the relief of the people when we left that room. They were happy because the commissioners listened to the constituents. Today, I want to emphasize how important it is that we protect the tree ordinance and ensure that it is not weakened. Our canopy is under pressure, and the policies that are safeguarded need to strain strong. I'm asking this committee to continue leading on this issue to keep offering guidance, pushing accountability, and making sure our urban forest remains a priority. I might sound like a broken record, but trees are essential for our living. They cool our neighborhoods, they reduce flooding, and they give you shade on days when heat feels unbearable, which is a lot of days here in Miami. They are not decorations, and they are climate infrastructures. That's why I urge this committee to take an active and formal role in the City Street Committee and stakeholder process for Chapter 17. This is just not a tree issue, it is a climate issue. One of your core responsibilities is to recommend policy that helps Miami withstand extreme heat, flooding, and environmental degradation. There is no climate resilient strategy without protecting and expanding our urban canopy. If the city is serious about climate resiliency, then the CRC must take an active role and demand the data, move the workshop forward, and ensure any further changes strengthen nor weaken Miami's ability to withstand climate change. Every tree removed without accountability makes this city hotter, more vulnerable, and less resilient. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening. Hey, I would stay later, but I got to go after this. So Albert Gomez, District 2 resident. I just wanted to thank for the consistent support of the CRC around the Biscayne Bay Marine Health Summit. It was a resounding success. And of course, I got in the mail my two MyBay license plates that help fund restoration efforts. I think your waterfront authority has an important role. Right now, right near Aria on 22nd in Edgewater, they had a massive discharge of waste. Into Biscayne Bay we saw some beautiful manatees, a mother and her calf floating over the debris. I would like to see if maybe City of Miami would take it personal since it came out of their outfall. And we can maybe send some people to go over there and clean that up as opposed to leaving it to residents. Now, that said, I went ahead and shared with Ms. Flores a little document that I put together on how to access the iBuild permit guideline and how every permit has different codes that are linked within iBuild and the GI ArcGIS system. It is nothing more than a query and referencing those codes In general, you don't need an individual code, you just need the code designator and a timeframe. And then you can pull all of the data that was requested by you with a unanimous vote to request that the existing tree removal permits and all approved tree removal permits since the founding of the tree giveaway program, so that we can kind of balance and audit the true numbers that our canopy's at right now, so that you can have informed decisions ahead of your workshop. I really hope you guys set that into date, and thank you always.

Excuse me, Albert, you said you shared something with Ms. Flores? Miriam? I am Miriam.

Yeah, I know.

When?

Right now. didn't receive anything right now it usually has to go up to two satellites and then comes down but you'll get it in your inbox i guarantee it um but thank you again thank you all right um and there were any online oh let's do roll call hi jenny we

Jenny Lee Molina.

Thank you. Miriam, we have online submittal. Yes? Okay.

Just downloading it again to see if any additional came through. And we do. We have around nine.

Okay.

All right. First one's from Maria Gonzalez. She says subjects on green waste benefit. And as I read these along the way, and if I mispronunciate the words, the name, please forgive me. Okay, going back to Maria Gonzalez. First one's good evening, Chair and members of the Climate Resilience Committee. I'm asking the Climate Resilience Committee to become an active participant in the both the City Street Committee and the upcoming stakeholder's process regarding revisions to Chapter 17. The issues being discussed extend far beyond landscaping or aesthetics. They directly affect Miami's ability to address rising temperatures, stormwater management, air quality, and overall climate resilience. As the advisory body changes with advocacy policies that strengthen Miami's environmental sustainability resilience, the CRC has both an opportunity and a responsibility to engage in this process. Trees are critical infrastructures. They reduce urban heat, absorb stormwater, improve air quality, and help mitigate the impacts of climate change. Any policy affecting the protection, removal, or replacement of tree falls squarely within the CRC's mission. For that reason, I was concerned to hear suggestions that this committee should remain on the sidelines of discussion involving tree policy. Miami is experiencing significant canopy loss throughout many neighborhoods, including the removal of mature, protected, and specimen trees. Residents continue to raise concerns about inconsistent permits, decisions, questionable arborist assessments, and a lack of transparency regarding how approvals are granted. This is where the CRC can provide tremendous value before any meaningful discussion about changes are granted. This is where the CRC can provide tremendous value before any meaningful changes can be made in Chapter 17. The three trust funds contributions and the cumulative impacts on canopy coverage, urban heat, and flooding vulnerable data-driven policies require data. Public trust requires transparency. The CRC should also support The proposal tree workshops forward as soon as possible. The workshop provides an essential opportunity to staff, committee members, and the public to review facts, identify trends, and better understanding the consequences of current policies before considering future amendments. If Miami is serious about climate resilience, then decisions affecting the urban forest can occur in isolation. The CRC should be fully engaged in the discussion and insist upon complete and public accessible information ensure that any amendments to Chapter 17 strengthen protections for the urban canopy rather than weaken them. Every acre of a canopy coloss increases the heat exposure, reduces stormwater absorption, diminishes the city resilience to climate change. The decision being made today will shape Miami's environmental future decades. I respectfully urge this committee to take actions, grow in process and help ensure transparency, accountability, climate resilience remains in the center of the conversation. Second person, Samantha Wilson. Good evening, Chairman of City The CRC has both the authority and the obligation to be directly involved in the shaping tree policies in Miami. I'm here to ask that you use trees as part of the peripheral concerns. They're a frontline climate defense, and Chapter 17 must be treated as a climate policy. Miami urban canopy is under pressure. The tree movements are increasing, oversight inconsistent, and the public has limited visibility into how these decisions are being made. That has to change. The CRC should be requiring city staff to produce complete transparent data on all tree permits and removals, including species size, location mitigation measures, replanting commitments, and tree trust fund usage, and evaluating how the cumulative loss of trees is driving up heat and worsening flood risk across the neighborhood. The tree workshop cannot be pushed aside or delayed. It is the foundation of any credible policy conversation. Before Chapter 17 is revised, any way this committee needs to see numbers, understand the trends, and make that information available to the public through genuine community engagement process, Miami Resilience depends on the decisions made in rooms like this one.

Samantha, no, same person.

Aurora Alkaide. As a landscape architect working on climate resilience public spaces in Miami, I strongly support the SPUNCH program. The initiative recognizes that parks can function as essential infrastructure, managing stormwater, reduce urban heat, and provide high-quality public space. Done well. SPUNCH parks can deliver multiple benefits from flood protections and water quality, improving biodiversity, community gathering, and long-term public health. I encourage the city to prioritize strong landscaping, architect designs, leadership, interdisciplinary collaborations, and ongoing maintenance and monitoring to ensure these bases succeed over time. Dennis Tubnow. Good evening, Chairman and CRC. I urge the CRC to take active and formal role in the City Street Committee and ongoing stakeholder engagement.

It looks like this was copied over again.

Urban forestry is not a separate issue from climate resilience. It is one of the most important foundations. The CRC mission is to help Miami prepare and adapt to challenges climate change, including extreme heat, flood, and sea level rise, environmental degradation. Tree is among the most effective and cost-efficient tools available to address these challenges, to reduce urban heat, improve stormwater management, enhance public health, and strengthen neighborhood resilience. For this reason, the Tree Committee Works is directly relevant to the CRC responsibility. The Tree Committee provides experience preservations, removals, mitigation, canopy management, while the CRC brings a broader climate resilience perspective needed to evaluate how these decisions affect Miami's long-term sustainability. These bodies should work collaboratively and independently as the city considers potential changes to Chapter 17. The CRC should ensure ensure that decisions are informed by complete, accurate, and public accessible data. This includes information on tree removal permits, protecting the specimen tree removals, mitigation requirements, replanting efforts, tree trust contributions, and the cumulative impacts of canopy coverage. He vulnerably, Flood also encouraged CRC to support moving the planned tree workshop forward as soon as possible. Before policy changes are considered, both the committee and the public deserve an opportunity to review the status, understand the current trends, evaluate the impacts of canopy loss and climate resilience. I'm going to go to the second page now. All right, this is from Jesse Johnson. Good evening, Chair and CRC. My name is Jessica Johnson. I am a Miami Resident Committee Organizer, the founder of Miami Canopy Watch. The comment has grown into a citywide movement documenting illegal tree removals, permanent violations, systematic destructions of Miami's urban canopy in real time. I'm here because what we are documenting every single day is not just a tree crisis. It is a climate crisis, and the committee has both the authority and responsibility to act. I urge this committee to take an active formal role in the city's tree committee and community state coalition engagement process related to Chapter 17. One of your core mandates is to recommend changes to city code policy that will help Miami withstand growing threats of extreme heat, flooding, environmental degradation. There is no climate resilience strategy that does not begin with protecting, expanding our urban canopy, Trees are not decorative. They're infrastructures, and right now, Miami's losing them faster than anyone else in this room is willing to admit. When Miami Canopy Watch is documenting daily mature trees removed without permits across every district, specimen trees lost without independent arborist review, no public transparency across how removal decisions are made, and the Tree Trust Fund with no meaningful public accounting, this committee must demand the city staff provide complete, accurate, and public accessible data on all tree permits and removals, including the number, type, size, location, tree, every tree being removed, full accounting and mitigation, replanting obligation, tree test fund obligations and expenditures, and analysis how these removals are impacting canopy coverage, heat index, flooding. Without data, there is no accountability. Without transparency, there is no trust. And without both, there is no policy worth having. The planned tree workshop must move forward without delay. We can't evaluate Chapter 17, recommend meaningful changes, or engage the public in good faith without first understanding what the data actually shows. I also want to address directly the suggestions that this committee should not play a role in tree policy. With respect, that position is indispensable. Every tree removed without accountability makes this city hotter, more than flood-prone. and less survivable for the residents who cannot afford to leave when the next hurricane comes. Next person, Lindsey Cain. Hello, I'm writing an urgent committee to allow the Climate Resilience Committee to have an active voice in involvement with the tree committee. Tree removals in the city have actively increased temperatures and heat is being felt by the residents and will lead in the long term to health crisis in the city. from Mariella Lopez. It is a must that the committee takes active and decisive actions to take a formal role in the City Street Trust Committee as stakeholders in the engagement process related to Chapter 17. This is real climate issues as well as our canopies and green space enabled to survive the reality of what is to come in level sea rise and city ignoring how to mitigate mindful and realistic flooding situation which most more soil, more shade and less cement helps in the process of sustain or someone reverse the process allowing rainwater and sea level to drain itself through the real soil and vast strong rooted trees. The community is speaking out and are fighting hard to have the city and this community to take a real look at reality and know the deep pockets of developers that come and go and leave the mess to citizens. Taxpayers that after live with the aftermath, not the developers. It is time we all work together in the process of development and being inclusive for our natural habits and wildlife to learn that we can come together to build mindfully and soulfully This is not hard to do. Just have the will and the generosity to do so. Sandy Moise. Good evening, CRC. I urge the committee to take an active, formal role in the City Street Committee and community stakeholders engagement process related to Chapter 17. This is not just tree issues. This is a climate issue, one of our core responsibilities to recommend changes to city code policies that will help Miami. withstand the growing threats of climate change, extreme heat, flooding, and environmental degradation. Trees are one of the most immediate and effective tools we have to address those threats, which is exactly why involvement is essential. I was deeply concerned to hear that the member of the committee does not believe that CRC should play a role in policy impacting our trees. Respectfully, there is no climate-resilient strategy that does not include the protection or expansion of our urban canopy. Miami's facing a full-blown tree crisis. We are seeing increasing tree removals, including protection of specimen trees. We are seeing inconsistent, at times, questionable, adverse reports. And we are seeing a lack of transparency around how decisions are being made, which brings me to the most critical role the CRC must play. The Climate Resilience Committee must ensure that city staff provides all requested data on tree permits and removal, complete, accurate, and publicly accessible. Without data, there is no accountability. Without transparency, there is no trust. And without both, there can be no meaningful policy. The committee should insist on full disclosures, removal permits, and approvals, data on the numbers, type, size, locations, and trees being removed. Accounting of mitigation, replanting, and tree trust fund contribution. Analysis of how these removals are impacting canopy coverage, heat, flooding, equality, and importance of CRC must ensure that these plant tree workshops move forward without delay. We cannot evaluate the policy recommended changes chapter 17 or engaging meaningful stakeholder process without first understanding the data and the trends and the impacts. If the city is serious about climate resilience, then the process must include CRC. and start with facts provided by staff reviewed by the committee in the TRIA workshop, ensured with the public at the community engagement stakeholders process. The CRC must take an active role, demand the data, move the workshop toward, and ensure the future changes chapter 17 strengthen, not weaken Miami's ability to withstand climate change. Every TRIA removal without accountability makes this city hotter, more vulnerable, less resilient. I urge you to step into these responsibilities. Thank you, Sandy Moise. Michelle Baptiste. Regarding the city of Miami's trees and threats to cut the trees, I am writing in Miami residents to strongly urge the protection of our trees, especially the four native and threatening mahogany trees and edgewater. We must preserve these trees because they are irreplaceable and provide more long-lasting benefits than many made constructions ever will. These trees are valuable resources to cooling our cities, enhancing the air quality, reducing hazardous flood impact, and reaching the city of Miami's goal of 30% canopy over cover by 2030. We cannot lose them now or never. Thank you.

We're done.

You had a little time remaining on your public comment, but could you make it brief? Okay.

I would like, please, the city to clarify if the Greenway provisions for bonus height or density provide

density or bonus height in situations where properties would not otherwise get it thank you all right well thank you all for making taking time out of your day to attend and give public comment and get here through the rain and um you know i think we we hear the comments and i think we should talk about them later possibly during open discussion but i'd also just point you all to the meeting minutes from the last meeting where I read off a direct message from Melissa Fernandez-Steers as far as the tree committee and its timeline. And we can talk about that during open discussion and how we want to proceed. Is that OK? All right. So we do have a pretty packed agenda. Let's move to the next item then. which is approval of our minutes from April 30th. Do I have a motion to approve those minutes?

Motion to approve.

All right, and a second?

Second.

All right, all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? All right, minutes are passed. So we'll move to item four, which are presentations. So we have two main topics tonight. The first is the Greenway Benefits Program.

Can you guys see the presentation on your screen? Everyone? Yeah, okay, awesome. Hi everybody, good evening. Thank you so much for having me tonight. My name is Samantha Maldonado, planner two with the City of Miami Planning Department. And I'm here tonight to talk about some proposed amendments to our codes related to greenways. So these are gonna be greenway development requirements and incentives. So just to provide a little bit of the background on the benefits and the purpose, obviously everybody here knows the benefits of Greenways. They help connect the city, they provide alternative and recreational transportation routes, they improve public health and promote active living, introduce active uses, and they also boost our local economies. So the purpose of the legislation here tonight is to promote development along Greenways. to support greenway reinvestment, development, and construction, and also to improve existing greenways. So here's an outline of the proposed amendments, which I'll go into. The first is an update to the Miami 21 zoning code. We're updating our definitions. We're updating the public benefits program. And for the third one, we are introducing new greenway frontage requirements for properties along greenways. And the second piece is an amendment to the city code. We have an update to the Parks and Open Space Trust Fund. where we're gonna clarify the process for the allocations and expenditures for contributions from properties along the Greenway. So the first update is greenway definitions. We are just updating a couple of the definitions. So greenway and the definition of frontage in our zoning code to basically ensure that all of these specified greenways are gonna be available to use the different programs in terms of the incentives and also that they are gonna be required to comply with the design guidelines. And we're updating the definition of frontage to include Greenway as a frontage type. Next, going into the Greenway public benefits. So we're not exactly changing the benefits that are already existing in the code. So for the only transects under the zoning code this is impacting is T6, also the D zone, So basically, the program is to allow sites within a half mile of a greenway or fronting a greenway to receive these sort of public benefits like the bonus height and the floor area up to the allowed amount if they participate in the Greenway Public Benefits Program, which is either constructing the greenway in front of the site or paying a cash contribution. Now, through this program, we're only allowing half of the floor area. So if you're a site fronting a greenway, for example, you can only do half of the bonus height, which you would normally be allowed, through the greenway program. So you either have to construct the greenway or pay out. And then for the remaining 50%, you still have to participate in the public benefits program, which is the normal program under Miami 21, which you're allowed to use anywhere in the city. And here's a map exhibit I put together to show the different sites eligible for the Greenway public benefits. Again, the purple is the D1 industrial zones, the orange is the T5 zones, and the pink is the T6. I wanted to address the concerns we had from public comment today as they relate to Coconut Grove and CD3. So just to clarify, we aren't changing anything that's already currently allowed in the Grove. So that means T5 inside Coconut Grove and CD3 is not allowed to use the current public benefits program or this new one. So that's not changing at all. The only update we're making is Well for T6 in Coconut Grove, you are still allowed to use the public benefits program, now you just have a different option. So basically what this program does is provides a new mechanism through which you can unlock the bonus height and the FLR. So that was an overview of the proposed public benefits program. Next I'll get into our new requirements for sites fronting a greenway. So again, this is just for sites that are fronting the greenways that we as a city have designated and called out under the definition. So that could include, for example, the Underline, the Commodore Trail, also the Ludlam Trail, the River Greenway, and Flagler Trail. So if you're fronting one of these greenways, the developer has to construct the greenway in front of the building for an equal amount of frontage length in front of your greenway. and this is gonna be across the city. So there's a couple alternatives to the Greenway construction, so if you don't want to do the construction, or if it's not feasible for you as a developer, we're still offering that cash contribution towards the Parks and Open Space Trust Fund, but the money has to be used for the Greenways. If you don't wanna use that program, you're still allowed to use the public benefits program, which I mentioned a couple slides ago, a couple minutes ago, to unlock the benefit height and then provide your benefits that way. Lastly, we have an opt-out provision. So basically, if the proposed construction or cash contributions are not feasible for the site, then it's gonna be a pretty simple opt-out. which, again, stay with me, sounds a little bit silly. The reason we're doing this is because of a Florida statute you might be familiar with called SB 180. It's a preemption law. that comes from the state basically telling us that we're not able to make the zoning code or we're not able to make the development regulations for the city any more restrictive or burdensome than they currently are. So what this program comprehensively does is introduces kind of a pilot program through the public benefits program and through the frontage requirement program while still allowing an easy opt out. so that we're still complying with the Florida statutes. Next I'll go over some of the design standards that we're proposing for Greenway. So if you're Frenching the Greenway, you have to provide things like articulation. If you have a long Frenchage at least 100 linear feet, then you have to break up the facade with different architectural elements or art or civic space. And you have to provide an enhanced pedestrian realm. And then Lastly, if you are providing the greenway, then you have to include all these certain design standards. So it has to be a paved multi-use path of an average 14 feet width, provide canopy trees, irrigation, provide lighting design, street furnishing, curb ramps, and traffic calming and safe crossing enhancements if your greenway intersects a vehicular roadway. And here's the exhibit just to show you guys a little bit of what that would look like in the city. So here's the sites that would be required to construct the adjacent Greenway. Lastly, we have an update to Chapter 62 for the Parks and Open Space Trust Fund. So referring back to the Greenway Public Benefits Program and also just the normal Greenway standards if you're fronting a Greenway, We're updating the Parks and Open Space Trust Fund to say that any contributions that are specifically coming from these two greenway programs have to be spent on the greenways. The greenway corridor from which the contribution was generated has to be prioritized. So this would kind of help make sure that any cash coming from the sites along a respective greenway will go towards that greenway. And then we've also updated the allowable expenditures only for greenways. This doesn't impact the expenditures for parks. So for the greenways, can only be spent on greenway construction, greenway improvements, operations and maintenance, and also the design costs. So the last thing to kind of introduce and to discuss is the greenway costs and the next steps. So for the public benefits program, based on kind of the stakeholder and industry feedback, we came up with a number for the public benefits at about $200 per square foot, and that would only be for the public benefits. However, when the greenway construction is required, like if you're actually fronting the greenway and you need to, you have to construct it, but let's say it's not possible and you're doing the option to pay the cash contribution, we're still working out the cost schedule for each greenway because the different greenways cost a lot of different money. And then lastly, next steps. In this legislation, we're going to PSAP this Wednesday and then commission later this month, hoping for adoption in July. That concludes my presentation. Thank you guys so much. Happy to answer any questions and take any feedback you guys may have. Thank you.

Thank you, Samantha. I don't have any questions as of now, but I think that projects like the Underline and the Commodore Trail and the Miami Loop, which all of this kind of contributes to with the Miami River Greenway, Baywalk, are amazing public benefits and also are an important thing for mobility, for people to get around, to get to work, to get to school, to get to their job in a safe manner. I've supported the underline for a long time. I've supported the Commodore Trail. And I was happy to hear that they passed the bike master plan last week. And I think that this is an important thing. They could also work with the bike master plan. In fact, one of the segments of the Greenway, I think, was one of also the priority segments. The one going north looked like it aligned with what I saw in the city's bike master plan. So I think we should support this. I think this is a good mechanism to get funding to pay for that, especially given conversations of removing property taxes and just like we saw their presentations last month on canopy Park, there's, there's certain benefits that can be created, which allow for these amazing things like canopy Park to get built. And I feel like more of these types of things are going to allow for those allow for that infrastructure that we're going to need to be built. Anyone else have comments, questions?

Chair, what are you looking for from us? Just that we make a recommendation or was this just a presentation? What would you like to see?

It was just if you guys had anything to discuss or any comments, any feedback, concerns, or if you just want to express your support, that's completely fine with me.

I think we should express support. similar to how we've done for waterfront projects that we've reviewed in the past with a simple just statement of, we saw the presentation on this day and we support it for whatever reasons.

Well, I'm happy to make a motion that we support the Greenway amendments brought forward at the meeting of June 1st, support the recommendations and the efforts that you all are making.

Do you think we should add any why? Anything? Or just keep it simple? I'm okay with keeping it simple.

Yeah, I think keeping it simple. The why is pretty lengthy, like many of the comments we got from the public. So, you know, I mean, we could certainly say mobility, heat, water, you know, resiliency.

Alternative mobility.

Yeah, you know, for those reasons, but...

Would you? So would you amend your motion? Those four things? And I'll just put like a bullet point of those items.

Yeah.

Okay. So do we have a second on that motion? Or any comments or questions?

I'll second the motion.

Okay. Second. So all in favor? Aye. Any opposed or abstain? No, okay, wonderful. Well, thank you so much for your time this evening and for the hard work in putting this together. I think it's gonna be amazing to get to use that Greenway as it gets built.

Thank you, everybody. Have a good rest of your evening.

All right, so. Let's move to our second and third presentations of the evening, which are spongy urbanism, developing a vision for South Florida, and Florida's sponge parks, lessons and benefits. So this is the second meeting in a row we've had on this topic. At our last meeting, we saw those two great examples and also heard some of the benefits of sponge parks. And also this was an item that I asked for about a year ago when we had the our budget recommendations that we crafted for 2025. This was one of the items that we had proposed then. So this is kind of a continuance of that subject. And then later in the agenda, we have the sponge resolution hopefully to vote on. So welcome this evening. Thanks so much for being here.

Thank you so much for having me. Great. So we're going to do this presentation together. So my name is Tom Klein. I'm the director of the Center for Urban and Community Design at the University of Miami, and I think I've seen all of you before. So thanks for having me back. For those who don't know, sorry, it looks like my slides are a little off. Let me go.

Okay, that's better.

Thank you. So for those who don't know what the Center for Urban and Community Design is all about, we were founded in 1992 in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew with the mission of fostering a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to create and strengthen resilient communities. We as a center at the university seek to integrate research, teaching, and service, encouraging interdisciplinary thought and action. And in this way, we assist and lead faculty, alumni, students, IN THE PRODUCTION OF RESEARCH, PUBLICATIONS, COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS, WORKSHOPS, SHRETS, AND MANY OTHER ACTIVITIES. THIS TAKES ON MANY FORMS, SO WE CAN ENGAGE IN COMMUNITY WORKSHOPPING, WE CAN DO DESIGN WORK AND PLANNING A DESIGN WORK IN A PRO BONO OR A LOW COST MANNER FOR COMMUNITIES AND NONPROFITS AND VARIOUS STAKEHOLDERS, AND WE ALSO OFTENTIMES GET ASKED TO ENGAGE IN SPECIAL PROJECTS, WHICH IS WHAT WE'RE TALKING WITH YOU ABOUT TODAY, WHICH WE'RE VERY EXCITED ABOUT. I have a little bit of an introduction to sponge parks and spongy urbanism as a whole. So what is a sponge park? I share these images with you today because they show two very different scales of what a sponge park can be. So the image on the left is a forest park in Bangkok by Khun Jung Yoo, who is the founder of TurnScape and the father of sponge parks. As you can see, it's quite large. It's designed to manage the stormwater for a very large, dense district in a major global city. Whereas the image on the right-hand side is from the Gowanus Canal Sponge Park by Susanna Drake with Sasaki. And you can see this one right here is very, very, very small. I think it's probably smaller than most of our backyards. But they're both performing a similar task in that they're both focused on how we can use natural-based infrastructure to perform as a sponge for our stormwater, to manage our stormwater, to reduce the velocity of that water, to clean it before discharging it back into our waterways. So at a high level, sponge parks, it's a framework for how we live with water in urban places. It was first popularized, as I said, by Kong Zhenyu, who is a Chinese landscape architect and unfortunately passed away this past year. But it's also a hybrid approach in that it uses both green infrastructure or nature-based infrastructure and gray infrastructure to perform. The redundancy is what makes it resilient. In turn, it acts as an amenity. It reduces runoff. It slows, cleans, and recharges stormwater. It improves regional water quality and decreases nuisance flooding in our streets, all while providing amenities for people and enjoyable places for people to use. And here are some different examples of some of the types of things we see with sponge parks. Some of them are coastal, some of them are inland. They change in the types of program they offer, whether they're active or passive. And they just help create beautiful respite in our cities. And with that, I'd like to pass the microphone to Robert.

Thank you, Tom, and thank you all for having us here today. I'm going to share a few examples of how this has been accomplished in Florida. I'm Robert Colon, I'm a Resiliency Coordinator II with Miami-Dade County, the Department of Environmental Resources Management, and we're the Division of Environmental Risk and Resilience. We help the county adapt to different climate stressors and shocks, including extreme heat, sea level rise, and flooding. I'm also a 2026 Landscape Architecture Foundation Fellow for Leadership and Innovation, and I'm researching how to scale nature-based solutions throughout specifically South Florida. So why do we need sponge parks compared to other places? You might hear we can build a wall to hold water out, but that's not the case in South Florida because we live on an ancient limestone reef. When we build a seawall here, it's to keep the land in, not to keep the water out because the water can go right underneath those walls. And this really stresses out our canal system that we use to drain our entire region from Lake Okeechobee down to here. Because it's gravity operated, as sea level rises come up on the tailwaters, they can come above the headwaters and the gravity doesn't do its job to get that water out. So we really have to start finding places to put the water within our landscape as it was for thousands of years. So the county's currently working to eliminate barriers to implementing this. And one of them is a research study. I'm actually joined by our prime investigator, Dr. Troxler, here as well today, harnessing the power of nature for flood protection and community benefits. So like Tom mentioned, green infrastructure provides a great host of benefits, not just drainage. Of course, there's aesthetics, public health, water quality. We currently treat water quality and flood control as opposing forces. You can move the water fast or you can clean it, and sponge parks help eliminate that conflict by letting the water fall in place. What we're doing in this study is we're visualizing, modeling, and looking how we'll scale green infrastructure in the Little River Basin, which is part of the Little River Adaptation Action Area that the City of Miami has participated in. So we're trying to align these green infrastructures with community priorities, so it really represents what the people want when these things are instituted. And this is a collaboration with FIU, the county, Dover-Colin Partners, they're urban planners, the Everglades Law Centre, Miami Waterkeeper, and the South Florida Water Management District. So our goal is to put all the modeling, all the language into one thing that we can all understand and use, because sometimes we look at things a little bit differently. So these are some examples of renderings that have come out of this process, and I want to be clear that none of these are currently design projects or construction projects, but these are just visualizations of how sponge parks and other spongy infrastructures, even parking lots, could look throughout South Florida. But lucky for us, we know it works because we have seen this implemented all throughout Florida and specifically in South Florida. In our own Miami Beach at Bayshore Park, just up the street from where I live, they recently opened a 19.4 acre massive sponge park that is actually plumbed to eventually take the water from the neighborhood to a fairly large 85 acre watershed. And this was a remediated brownfield This is an area that has very high groundwater. It's coastal. All the restrictions that would sometimes lead people to say that's not possible here, this project really exemplifies that it is possible. And even though it's a wetland, it's also urban and hosts a lot of active recreation and passive recreation. It has a lot of interactive water features. Floodwaters can often be so dirty that they're a hazard. Here they're so clean, you can touch it and play with it and let your kids get in it, and my dog drinks that water all the time. Up in Tampa, they also recently opened the MacDill 48 Park. What I find very interesting about this one is resilience and conservation funds were used to make this happen. So for a $51.4 million project, the city of Tampa only had to pay for about a quarter of it. Half come from resilient Florida funds and a quarter coming from the Southwest Florida Water Management District. We have our own analog, the South Florida Water Management District, who collaborates with us to look at initiatives like this all the time and would be happy to work with the city of Miami. Again, wonderful with this one, it's in the center of the urban core, eliminating this myth that something cannot be natural within the boundaries of the city. On a much smaller budget, but incredibly ingenious, the Ripple EcoArt project in Martin County was funded through arts funding because it hosts arts in public spaces and educates people about the environment. Often we can't find very large parcels of land to make sponge parks happen, but they stitched together four very small neglected county parcels totaling just over two acres. And those two acres of stitched together parcels support the watershed of over 20 acres, remediating the water quality and flooding. So they've reduced nitrogen pollution 34% and phosphorus 72%. And these are the primary pollutants that are currently harming Biscayne Bay, and why the Biscayne Bay is currently under the reasonable assurance plan to make sure we can get the water quality up to the standard it needs to be, and all of our municipalities have to participate in that. So again, this is something that can provide multiple functions and save us money in the long run. And these are stitched together underground through pipes. So like Tom said, it's green, but also uses conventional infrastructure as well. So the water starts in a bio-detention wetland, which means it's temporarily wet. This can fill up, hold water, and slow it down. And then it's conveyed across the neighborhood through a bioswale that also has a pavilion and a cistern, providing more passive recreation. That conveyance takes it to a larger bioretention pond where it has a residency time, meaning how long the water sits there. Usually we want to get it off the land as fast as possible. And that residency time is the primary agent that removes the pollution from the water. And as you can see, this is much more beautiful than a traditional sod into the retention pond that we often see in South Florida. And then finally, it goes through an outlet stormwater polishing, which just means it goes through one more round of plants to make sure we get all the large pollutants and any remaining chemical pollution before it goes into the Indian River Lagoon. And as you can see there, some of the educational signage that supports its arts funding. A much, much larger regional example in Tampa from decades ago, it's about as old as I am, is Al Lopez Park, a park that I grew up going to all the time. And this was also created with Southwest Florida Water Management District. So this combines in a very large series of dry to wet spaces. So it has bioretention, meaning areas that are permanently wet. Programs that go along with that are floating plazas, fishing and birding piers, educational signage. But as you go around, there's detention. Again, areas that can hold water and then be dry at different times. So kids can play around in the forest when it's not raining, and this can fill up when it is. I think this has also benefited from arts funding. It has a wetland art trail, elevated walkways, and upland swales that connect the upland to those wetlands. And on the highest ground, presumably from scooping out that soil to construct those wetlands, is the upland programming. So they have the traditional parks program that we associate with our cities and regional parks. So just a community center, playgrounds, dog parks, and this sort of eliminates the myth that Having sponge bark means turning everything into a wetland. Taking the soil out to make that wetland allows us to elevate the things that matter the most to us that we want to always be dry. We don't want our plaza to be wet or our community center full of our gyms, our senior programs. We don't want them underwater. And one final example is Giralda Plaza and Coral Gables, and I choose to show this one because not everything is a big, lush, wet wetland, and not everyone is that big either. So Giralda Plaza uses structural soils, meaning it's a really sturdy soil that doesn't get compacted, so the water can continue to flow through it over time. But this is really based on some astonishing research out of FIU that shows that in the Everglades, tree islands connect down to our high water table, and through their pumping, through their leaves, they can lower the water really significantly allowing for more storage in the soil underground, meaning when it rains, there's somewhere underground for the water to go. When we don't have tree roots, when they don't have the right amount of soil, it can't get there, and that's when it ends up in a pipe, and we have to pay for that pipe, and we have to pay to clean that water as well. So this is really astonishing that in a really, really urban setting, nothing's more urban than a stone-lined plaza, you can still have this natural infrastructure doing its job. So please feel free to reach out to me personally through my email or contact Durham on social media to follow along with these initiatives. Thank you.

Great. So that leads me to the last bit of our presentation, which is to introduce you all to the Sponge Park Studio that we're running at the University of Miami this fall. So you should have a copy of this flyer in your packet, so I apologize for the screen not being that legible. But this project, which we're calling Spongy Urbanism in South Florida, is really a truly interesting, I'm just really excited about this, because it's so collaborative and it's bringing together so many stakeholders, and I think we're going to do something truly unique together this fall. So at its core, it's a collaboration between the University of Miami School of Architecture and the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design. We anticipate having 30 to 40 students across institutions, including architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, planning, engineering, and environmental science students. And we also have a really large instructor team. So these are the faculty you can see on the screen here, including Teresa Pinto, who is sitting here in the front row and can answer questions as well. And then Matthias Bough with the University of Pennsylvania. But in addition to that, we have so many great collaborators who will be joining us throughout the semester, including Robert from the county. Some key dates and course information here. So the course will run from August 17th through December 1st. We don't have a final review date yet, but that's coming. We're going to study the region at two scales. So the first scale is to think about the region, so the sponge city, and what it would look like for South Florida to be a truly spongy city. and then we're also gonna zoom in and we're gonna look at the site scale and think about what a sponge park in South Florida looks like. I think we've shown you some great examples, some from here and some from elsewhere, but what does it really look like for us to engage in spongy urbanism holistically and systemically in the region? We're going to be hosting students from Penn at the end of September, in which we're going to go into the community, we're going to have workshops, we're going to have tours, and you all are invited to join us in these events. We're also going to do a water as leverage workshop as a part of those site visits, and you will all be receiving an invite to join us for that on the weekend of September 26th, 27th. We don't have the dates fully sorted yet. And then a week later, our students along with students from Penn and some community stakeholders will be taking a trip to Rotterdam and to visit with TU Delft and some of our collaborators on the other side of the Atlantic. And after that, we're gonna identify next steps. We'll have a report out. We'll have some public presentations. Maybe we'll be invited to share this work with you all in some capacity. And then hope to continue evolving this project as we move forward. And I just wanted to end with some images that kind of showcase the breadth of expertise and experience you'll have among our faculty, among our collaborators, and the types of projects and things that we've done as a group, and the things we're excited to do with you all. And with that, I'm open to questions.

Thank you guys so much. I'm really excited about this initiative, and could you just touch one more time when you said, you know, at the end, that part of this is about, part of this resolution of Sponge is about looking and encouraging the commission to proactively work with this studio. So could you mention kind of how you think that might work and how it's working with other municipalities?

Yeah, absolutely, so we've identified, with Robert, we've identified a park site in Biscayne Gardens that's gonna be one of the sites that we explore. We have a large collection of students and researchers who are participating in this project, and so we would love to have a site or sites within the city of Miami that we could also explore. Additionally, we're collaborating with North Bay Village on a site that's coastal and provides its own set of challenges that we're really excited to dive into.

Awesome. I think that this item, we're going to just transition into the vote in a minute. But do you guys have any comments or questions for our presenters? Yes, very impressive. Yeah.

Amazing presentation. I'm really excited to see this, and I know this is something the chairman has been talking about quite often. I want to create a bit of a culture change here, especially with staff in the city. And I want to make it okay to ask, right, and make it more straightforward to ask, how can both staff and the community get help with what they're doing, especially really incredible endeavors like this? So on that note, how do you think, and I think you just answered that, so would it be giving you a list of parks? Would it be sharing maybe our most vulnerable flood-prone area? What can we do today? And Chairman, the same goes for you because this is your expertise here. What do you think we can do to help really move this forward in some meaningful way? And maybe even a pilot for one of our parks or waterfront parks, which we need to consider for budget recommendations. So, you know, what do you think would be a good ask to help kind of dovetail all of this together?

So, like, if you look at the sponge resolution, item five says report to the city commission within 180 days with a sponge program assessment, including. Candidate site maps across all three site pathways, and I'd describe what those pathways are, because there's different uses for sponge parks. That's in the WHEREAS statement. Acquisition cost estimates and available leveraged funding. The leveraged funding that we just heard from Robert was incredible in making some of those happen. A CRS improvement pathway toward a score below five, which is actually a policy initiative in one of the already adopted city of Miami documents, an evaluation of potential gray CIP cost deferral, a summary of academic and intergovernmental partnership opportunities, these wonderful people in front of us or others as well, and a review of maintenance monitoring and stewardship funding best practices. So I think that part of the timeliness of this is that it would go to commission and hopefully be supported, which I think it will, and then be able to be done in time that a City of Miami site can be identified to participate in the studio, which I think is gonna be pretty incredible with all of the different stakeholders involved. I think what comes out of this is gonna be a really great work product.

Just to add really briefly, we're gonna give them a list of, like, of... Well, Chairman, just to clarify, we're gonna be sharing some data with them to select a site and then get back to the commission on?

Well, like, as far as we, like, the sponge resolution recommends for the Commission would vote hopefully in past sponge which directs the city manager to work with staff and then come back to Commission on this item five and the first I'll read it just the first line again so report to the City Commission within 180 days with a sponge program assessment including candidate site maps across all three site pathways so that is a little longer than when their studio darts but we also need to be realistic with what we're asking here so I Hopefully, you know, once this passes, there's some level of finding a site. But even if there isn't a site identified at that time, you know, there's maps out there of where these can possibly go, and I'm sure they could even identify it. But, you know, I don't want to come up with a bunch of what-ifs. I feel like the process will play out.

And yeah, I think that that makes sense. I mean, the two things that come to mind is if we're able to share like some of our flood data that we have. And number two, I know that we made a map of some of the mangrove parks last year. We shared with Stanford, Alyssa made that list. If that's helpful, I'm sure that staff can get that out your way. Could you talk a little bit about water credits, carbon credits, stormwater runoff, like some of the environmental and maybe economics implications of other things that are possible with something like this?

Sure, and really quickly, just to your last comment, I would also suggest that we, you know, remove our assumptions on where these things might belong. We often think it floods in this location, so it should be there, but maybe we need to catch the water upstream. Or maybe there is a stressed out pump. If it had a sponge park near it, that would really take the pressure off of that pump. So I think a great ask would just be leave that to be an open process and to take time to really thoughtfully find where those locations might be. And as far as environmental credits, the one that immediately comes to mind for me is, for example, the water quality improvement is one of the things that we absolutely have to do. So under the reasonable assurance plan, the county and its municipalities must reach certain water quality goals or we risk the state taking over and providing an alternative pathway where we have less control over our own water bodies. So I think that's a really important one, that grey infrastructure, unless we're buying a lot of filters and things that have to be changed and maintained, it's one cost or another. So I think the water quality one is the one that immediately comes to mind.

And I just wanted to add very quickly, so our hope as a center, and we're affiliated with the School of Architecture and the Climate Resilience Institute as well, is that we can be an asset to the city. So actually our hope is that the city will engage with us throughout this studio process, whatever that means, but then that we're able to provide resources and support and research and data to the city as opposed to the other way around. So that's where we come from.

So while there may be some staff hours associated, hopefully there's a much higher ROI on the work that comes back from it. Katrina, did you have a question? Please, you want to make sure we share with everybody. Just make it brief, please.

I was just wondering if it's possible to have a percentage of the Greenway project be spongy. So say like, OK, 10% of all Greenway must be spongy.

It's a great thought.

Just for you to know, I wrote that down, best practices, but that's something I was going to pass along to the city, so we were thinking the same thing.

I think that's fantastic, and I know that Mayor Hagan's office is currently looking into permeable pavement, and do you have anything else to share maybe on that or not at this time?

I can share some information on that. Higgins has actually asked for impact fee reductions. Impact fee reductions for projects that use permeable pavers in their project.

If you have a comment, you can approach the mic.

So anyway, so the city is trying to encourage best practices with developers. So I actually think that was a really great idea. So I'm not sure where it is, but I think it passed first reading.

Yeah, and we saw that example of Giralda Plaza, and I was speaking with Walter Meyer at the Biscayne Bay Marine Health Summit last week, and he was sharing with me that Coral Gables is actually going to be working to do research on what the maintenance costs have been of that plaza and of Coral Way, which has incredible sponge characteristics. He can tell you about it, and he's presented on it online. You can read about it. and they're going to just review what the costs were over the last eight years of that project, which is kind of what I also had mentioned last year in our budget recommendations of someone who would be working on reviewing the pros and cons of the two so that there's data to inform this moving forward. So I think there's a lot of great things kind of all coming together right now. So as far as like what we saw tonight, the history of it, best practices of other locations um the example that robert showed of the many smaller parcels kind of linking together i think that one's probably the most applicable to kind of how i'm looking to push the sponge resolution tonight because the way that the city's already working on spongy things like we heard about the blue street project from sonya a couple months ago we heard about morningside park which has retention I believe Jose Marti does as well, but those are waterfront projects. And I think the reason why I'm pushing for this now is that the city already has in its existing codes identified that sponge parks are of use. The stormwater master plan identifies that they should be purchasing flood prone properties. parks master plan also has similar language and all that's cited here in the in the whereas statements so i the the main point of the sponge resolution is actually to go in further inland into neighborhoods that are already having flooding where when you we look at the stormwater master plan which is broken into phases because it's identified that the stormwater master plan directly states like You need to be aware that you're going to have multiple $50 million projects per year for the next 20 years to build out the stormwater master plan. That means that there's going to be neighborhoods that need infrastructure that are waiting to be hooked up to the larger system or new pumps, new exfiltration. The way I see the sponge program working is we're kind of putting us like a little spotlight to the existing code that already exists. That commission is already adopted in the past and just asking them to identify locations where that may be really appropriate for them to work on right now. So that's kind of how this all kind of came together and.

I just wanted to add to that City of Miami has been a really incredible partner to date on a lot of this work. So part of City of Miami is in the Little River Adaptation Action Area funded by Resilient Florida. That is also the same area being explored by that NIFWF funded grant project that I shared. All those areas when you've already invested the time, invested the effort, and they've already given you money, they're eager to come back and fund you some more. So we're not starting from square zero with City of Miami. There's already a really great relationship existing. We work with the city's Office of Sustainability and Resilience quite frequently. So we have a lot of knowledge shared between the two partnerships there that I think, you know, we've got the knowledge now.

Amazing. Any other questions or comments before we pull up the other documents for the sponge vote? No? Okay, well, thank you all so much. I mean, more questions may come as we look at this, but let's move on to the item seven. So we're just gonna go slightly out of order so that it's just continuous kind of train of thought here. So items to be voted on, sponge, stormwater parks, offering natural green infrastructure enhancement program. Miriam, could you pull up that document? So there's two documents here for us today that I prepared. And we also have the document I prepared last year as part of the budget recommendations for 2025, where I identified some potential locations, which was requested for us to vote on that. That was the most expensive item that we recommended last year. So what I did is, after putting together the resolution, there's a document here where each page is one of the whereas statements, and then I show you the page where that information came from from the document. So it's kind of like a visual reference guide, and I did that just to make it easier to understand this and to see where everything kind of came about. In the past, I've actually, like, linked within the resolutions, but when they get passed, they actually remove the links. So, like, when they get adopted, it just becomes a plain document. So I thought having that document may be helpful for all of us, as well as the general public, as well as commission and staff, just to kind of see I did my best to find relevant citations. And I know that it is a bit long, but it is also, I think, really important. And all of the different statements are, they go through an order of kind of telling a story. I also put a title on each of the slides. Is it up or not? Are we able to do it?

She's trying.

She's trying still?

Okay.

So we'll just, I'll just keep talking and hopefully it comes up. But you can see like the second whereas statement is just about like kind of the history of weather and climate of what's kind of creating this. Okay, so there's, that's the actual reso. And then is there any chance to pull open the, that PDF document?

You want the word of the PDF?

No, the one that has like the... Or you want the, you want the... There's a Word document with the presentation document that had the pictures. Got it. Could you pull that up for a second?

Okay, sure.

So this is the document I put together that has the references. Could you hit minus a couple times? And then... Perfect. And then let's just click to the next page. So the way I just introduced this On the top that dot down the down arrow yeah and maybe just hit minus one more time so, for instance, on the left I put the whereas statements and then on the right I just kind of cited. What the where that came from so like the first you know the first one is like what is it why are we doing it now and the title you can see the titles up in the top next one. It's like the climate risks. So why are we, why do we need to do this? Like we're citing those risks and from the direct data of the, you know, climate ready next. Also we're citing NASA data and NOAA data as well as a memorandum that was just recently passed from the County on their, on their resilience plan for the next five years. Okay. This one is the city already does it and spot the sponge resolution expands it, so this is directly from the parks master plan okay. And then we cite the forever climate ready plan and also in the forever climate ready plan it's a little hard to see on this screen, but one of the things that they cite here is that. The Community directly said that they wanted green infrastructure and that first bullet point on the bottom left is creation of sponge areas. So again, it's already in the code. Next page. And then this is about looking to reduce the NFIP CRS rating. And in the guidance document, they directly state buying flood-prone land and doing flood retention parks. So this will likely help support a lowering of CRS ratings. for whole areas, if not the whole city. Okay. Keep going. And then regional tri-jurisdictional commitment. So there's also commitment to doing green infrastructure and just citing that as far as flood mitigation, keep going. And 305, keep going. And the point of that is again just like the what we're what we're doing here is it's already part of code just reminding the Commission to please act on it all right and then here's the stormwater master plan and that they make the case directly for green infrastructure and. keep going. Another another sheet from the stormwater master plan keep going. And this part is about the. the facilities in parks keep going. That's why they're showing parks on the right. And then here's the parks master plan, and they're citing the stormwater master plan. That's actually a photo that I took on the right. Keep going. And then here's the parks master plan showing level of service, meaning access to park. So the sponge resolution can also be built in areas where there isn't existing parks. So it also brings level of service up. which is another goal, OK? And where are they most effective? So they're effective in places that flood, like repetitive loss properties. And then also, as Robert was saying, adjacent to those lower-lying areas. Because if it's too low, you may not be able to actually hold as much water. So it also may be slightly adjacent. Like, on the same block or nearby. Okay. Next. And then gray and green infrastructure work together, as we heard again from Robert. Like, this is not just... We need to just build these things. Like, it's a collaborative system, and they actually work better with green and gray. And these... The green infrastructure actually sometimes does work better than gray, particularly in... where the height of the water is ineffective for gravity drainage, which would require pumps, which are really expensive. OK, next slide. And then the CRS credits. I think this is going to help us get to that next level. Keep going. And then again, the CRS credit in the Forever Climate Ready strategy. Keep going. And then this is directly from the CRS stating that those actions bring you to that rating. OK. then the florida precedence of funding which i think is critical we you know by doing this we unlock new opportunities to pay for these amenities and infrastructure keep going and then we had the precedence so we just cite that we had uh ben hutchins from architectonica geo last month and we had barry miller um adriana kelly we tonight we referenced at the bottom tom robert so just again tell it reminding the commission that we did our homework here. Keep going. And then just some photos of Bayshore Park. Next. And then knowledge sharing. So this is the last paragraph about, and kind of, again, why it's important that this happens right now, so that there can be a City of Miami site that's included in this studio at UM. So that's it. And could you bring up the other document now for a second, please? Nick actually reviewed this proposed resolution, and he had comments mostly around formatting and of breaking up the paragraphs into more whereas statements, which is more traditional per city standards. And then also Nick added in there were some acronyms, and he wrote out the acronyms. That's primarily the only changes. There was no real material changes. Is that correct?

Yeah, that's correct. There were no substantive changes. It was just mostly formatting and structure.

So, you know, here it is in front of us, and maybe we could just, like, slowly scroll through this, but I'd like to request that there's a motion to adopt this with these adjustments that Nick has suggested I reviewed before the meeting. I think it looks great, and I think it is simpler having the warehouse statements broken up.

chair can i ask a question um how how does this and then your budget recommendation item like how do they go together and how do they work like if the commission adopts this resolution do they simultaneously have to commit to like spending like allocating budget on this so the item five of the um resolved statements i think are the most

direct way of answering that. So report to the city commission within 180 days with a sponge program assessment, including candidate site maps across the three site pathways, acquisition cost estimates and leverage funding. So sponge is not saying that they must allocate funding or build them. It's looking to kind of start the process into looking into how that may happen and allowing staff to, to work on that. You know, I don't think we need, like, I didn't want to direct direct dollars or, I feel like this is open enough for interpretation that it allows them to find the best options that they see fit. And then the budget document would hopefully ask that they start earmarking dollars to build something next year.

Thank you.

But it may also not necessarily be new dollars. This is part of the Stormwater Master Plan and part of the Parks Master Plan, of which there's usually dollars already earmarked for both of those programs. It's kind of saying, just look at it in this other lens and try to use these tools for those dollars and for that infrastructure that you're already building. So it may not even necessarily need additional funding. In fact, it may actually bring funding, as we heard tonight, by doing... those programs and then save money. So I think in this kind of moment where budgets are being cut and people are really taking a close look, that this program shouldn't be thought of as this new additive thing. It's actually hopefully going to reduce budget strain. Any other questions?

I'd make the motion.

OK.

I mean, I don't want to stop any discussion, but what I liked about your presentation was it's really just referencing sort of existing policy. So it's just hopefully going to encourage them to do things, you know, take a look at it faster and quicker.

So I thought it was really well done. Thank you so much.

Yeah, same, Chair. And I think one of the things that I know has come up even before getting appointed here is the city's always asking, could you show us where that ties into our existing master plans? And that it's come up over and over and over again. And there's so many that's hard. So the format of your presentation, I think is excellent to show, hey, this is a resolution. This is where it comes from. This is an image. I love that. I think if you could, I think we already have this in our inbox, but I think this is a really great leadership An example to how this could be done in the CRS credits. I'm not sure if there's anything else there if you want to add because you're talking about CRS score to talk about water or water credit consideration. And again, you've already put so much work into this. So I'm okay to adopt as is with the with the changes that legal made. But if you do want to talk about credits and you want to add something for future consideration of water credits or other economic things. And I think your question on budget is really important. But more importantly, as Chairman said, when you can point to, hey, the budget should already be there, then that's more powerful.

Thank you. I don't really know what water credits are right now to add them. I feel like I need to do more research on what that is.

So I would make the motion to approve the resolution to include next comments.

Excellent. And I want to just add one more thing. That presentation we flipped through where we had all the images of the different source documents, all of those where I statements on the left were prior to some edits that happened on the version that you all received yesterday or today and what we're having in front of us. So just, I mean, they're minor, but I just want to put it completely abundantly clear that there were small changes from that document to what we're actually voting on. So we have a motion from Avra. Do we have a second?

Second.

All right. A second from Sylvia. All in favor?

Aye. Aye.

All right. No opposed. No abstain. All right. Awesome. A unanimous approval for Sponge. And hopefully a very amazing collaborative process with Tiffany and all of you. And really looking forward to see what comes out of that. And thank you guys so much for the time that you took to put this presentation together and be here this evening. And for all the work you're doing, just even outside of this, which I know is a lot. So thank you guys so much. Appreciate it. All right, let's move to item five, which is old business budget recommendations. So at our last meeting, we had some recommendations from Allison, and then I prepared like three or four, and Allison, I believe you made a couple edits possibly, and Silvio also submitted something. But this item is on the agenda today, less so to actually go through all of the items, but more so to ask if this is something that everyone still wants to do because there was a little bit of limited submittals, which is okay. But are the submittals that we already have in front of us generally something that you guys think we should be working toward? And if so, I think we should have a workshop like we did last year, prepare that document and bring it next month. So that's kind of my question this evening. But also, I mean, if you want to kick it off and kind of just briefly tell us what your submittal was.

No new updates have been made since last meeting, so it was the same document.

All right. And Sylvia, do you want to briefly mention, just very high level, because you submitted something as well?

Yeah, so my submission comes from the Miami-Dade Heritage Trust, and it's basically picking up on the work that Chris Baraloto did in West Grove called Re-Leaf. He came and Dr. Baraloto presented how they use citizen science to gather tree data and census data. And so it's effectively that, only... with Overtown, in the Overtown area instead of West Grove, and going to be with Dade Heritage Trust and local, you know, public school students together with, I think they're going to be engaging Institute of Environment Support for that. So that was that recommendation.

I think that's great. I would support that. And then the four that I submitted were budget for a sponge park, and then also This, similar to last year, an inland street pilot implementation of the Southwest Streetscape Master Plan. That's a repeat from last year. A cost estimator for green and gray infrastructure, which is also a repeat from last year. And I added a citywide tree canopy inventory, which is something you've been asking for and the public's been asking for. So at a budget to make sure that that can be implemented. So would you all like to have a workshop to finalize a budget recommendation?

I think it's helpful. I think it'd be helpful. If anybody can attend, I'd love to certainly attend. I have a number of other budget recommendations that I just haven't been able to come around to. And I'd like to send them before that, that budget workshop.

Okay, that'd be great. So should we should we plan for something? Perhaps on the 17th or 18th in the middle of the month? Miriam, any chance that that would work for you? 17th or 18th of this month can work for me yes okay 18th from alvarez okay 18th let's do let's let's plan for the 18th at noon and whoever can make it great if not um it's okay if you want to submit something for us to review at the meeting feel free to do it please at like multiple days in advance, not like the morning of, so everyone has time to kind of think about it. And then whatever comes out of that meeting, I'll try to draft something and have that be on the next agenda for next month.

Okay, so we're looking at June 18th?

Yes, please.

If you need a conference room, mine is available.

Thank you. Awesome. That works. So like noon, right? Middle day? Same as usual? All right. So we'll set that. OK, awesome. So let's move on to item 8, which is Office of Resilience and Sustainability Updates.

Hi, good evening. Sonya Brubaker, Chief Resilience Officer, City of Miami. I am going to give some updates. One on a project that you guys have heard about before, the FIU bio-cap living seawall tiles. I'm so happy to say that they are installed. They are installed at Morningside Park and It's a collaboration that we'll have with FIU for two years, with the ability to extend it two more years, where they're going to monitor how they are bringing additional marine life into that area of the bay. And so they are shaped in a very specific way for specific organisms. to come and live in there. So that's part of what they're gonna be monitoring is if those shapes bring the organisms that they would like. And I did list out those organisms. Let me do my due diligence. Uh-oh, having technical difficulties here. All right, well, we'll come back to the organisms. But some of them were very, very small ones, and some of them were bigger, like puffer fish. So we'll see. We'll see. The next update is the Compost for Life composting pilot that we are doing from May through the end of July at five different locations. So hopefully when you came in, you saw a pink bin right here to the right of us and are utilizing it. So we have one here, we have one at our administration building. We have one at Morningside Park, Shenandoah Park, and Charles Hadley Park. And recently one has been added to Leishman Park. People were asking and we had the capability to to do that. So we've been having some in-person events to let people know that they're there, but then also to let people know what composting is and how you can bring your food scraps and what that does. And so for the first two week period, we have 142 registered participants. So I'm sure that's up a bit more. So we're really happy about that. And then we also have diverted, we collected 2,750 pounds of food scraps. And a large part of that was the cafe that we have at MRC. And sadly, we do not have that cafe vendor. So we are looking for a new vendor. And so we... We will see a little bit of a dip until we get a new vendor in, but as part of the agreement with the new vendor, we will be implementing our plastic-free concessions, and then also having them participate in this composting pilot.

So happy for that.

I'm bringing all of my composting from home into the bins to make sure we get some pounds in, and so I encourage... people to do the same so that we can show that people would like to have the service and we could be able to extend it. And then lastly, Biscayne Bay engagement. We also participated in the Biscayne Bay Marine Health Summit that was last week, I believe it was last week, where we had, the city had a panel, my office convened the panel where we talked about our comprehensive approach to pollution prevention. We had the Department of Resilience and Public Works talk about the stormwater system and what kind of goes into that collection, as well as the cleaning of the river, getting the trash out before and the pollutants out before it gets to the bay. We had our Department of Solid Waste there who talked about street sweeping, and then we had our Department of Procurement there talking about our internal plastic-free policy where we can prevent plastics, which we do see coming out of the outfalls from getting into the bay in the first place. And so it was really good to have all the departments there to share with the community these things. And I was able to bring up my organisms. Now we're talking about the bay. The computer's working. And so for going back to the living seawall tiles at Morningside Park that the tiles are going to attract, it's going to be turf algae, oysters, limpets, barnacles, hydroids, tuna cats, Atlantic surger major, sailor's choice, and pufferfish.

So how are you going to monitor, well I have two questions, how are you going to monitor the success of the seawalls. There's somebody going every quarter or every year to take photographs. So I'm curious about that. And on the composting, is there a way that we could ask the public schools, like the lunch programs, things like that, is there a way that the city could make it a policy so that so that public schools get involved?

Yes. Yes. Okay. So for the monitoring with the seawall tiles, FIU is going to come out at a prescribed time every couple of months and take pictures, including, well, definitely underwater pictures, but then also some of these are above the waterline. And so they are also going to see, like, okay, well, you know, or the organisms, you know, what sorts of organisms are there and, you know, how long are they staying for? So yes, so we will have that information and we do have an MOU with them. And so they're sharing the data and that's something that, you know, is that we can put on our social media, we can put it on our website to show people kind of what's happening on that front. And then with composting, I actually just learned that the county has an environmental grant for schools. And so I don't know how many of the schools are doing it, but I found one where they are composting. And so that's something that we are looking at because we actually have been awarded a grant for youth environmental activities. And so we're looking at how that's going to be set up and what sort of activities people can do. And that was one of the ones that we definitely thought about.

I just had another question for the composting program. Are you, do you guys have any like key performance indicators for how much you guys have been collecting? Um, and if you're like at those targets and if those targets indicate that like further implementation of this program can continue.

Yeah. Yeah. So we are looking at it by site and, um, and so we're, we're, we're seeing that, you know, there are, you know, there, you know, there's a location that is definitely using it more. And so we're using that to be able to then say, okay, well, then in these other areas, we need to be more on the ground and we need to be at those parks that have the different programming, the senior programming, the youth programming, and talk about it more. And so we have done that. And so it's gonna be interesting to see what this next cycle brings us of participation, because that's definitely something that we've noticed.

Another suggestion would be like farmer's markets and things. So like at Legion Park, which is a public park, you know, Commissioner King's like maybe having something there so that as people might bring their compost on the way to farmer's market, because that's a kind of a higher potential candidate. And then as people leave or the vendors leave, maybe they would

then they would use it too.

Yeah, I mean, there's guys that are making juice and doing stuff like that. But I think Lesion Park, the farmer's market, would be a great candidate.

Great. Yeah, when we think about as this potentially moves forward, you know, like what, you know, from the things that we're learning, you know, what are some additional things that we can do or what are some things that we can do instead? And so that's a great idea, and that makes a lot of sense.

I also wanted to ask, as you're discussing with programming that already exists in these locations, if composting workshops have been maybe a topic of discussion. They could be light ones, how folks can compost back at home, what they can bring to the pilot locations. I think that could be a good moment of collaboration with the parks and farmers markets.

Yeah, no, we haven't talked about that, so that's a good thing. Thank you.

All right. Well, thanks for all the great updates. Awesome to see all the progress on so many different fronts. I was also just thinking that, you know, Aubrey, you made a comment about sponge or permeability in the Greenway standards. Would that be something you'd like to suggest modifying on our initial?

Yeah, I wish we had had the sponge presentation before the Greenway presentation. So if we could do that, As a recommendation to the Greenway, I'd like to amend that we adopt best practices from the sponge, best practices from sponging to be considered for the Greenway improvement.

Wayne, can you hear us? Wayne? Wayne? He just stepped out, but I was gonna try, because he technically voted on that other item. I feel like it's cleaner if he was here. Right? It should not be a recorded vote.

He's coming back.

No, he's here, he just stepped outside. We're going to make another vote on that thing, and you were here earlier. We're going to add that there should be permeability to the Greenway standard.

Yeah, we're gonna do it now, because, I mean, you voted earlier, and it's, like, I don't know how, what was gonna happen, because you voted, and then we're changing it, and, like, I don't, like... We just added for best practice that, to the Greenway support, that we would add best practice, best sponging practices to be considered.

So, do we have a motion to add that to the resolution, to the memo that we did earlier? Motion from Silvio, okay, and a second?

Second.

Okay, all right, all in favor?

All right, thanks so much.

All right, so we'll move to item nine, open discussion, other items. I guess that was another item for a moment. The first one was budget recommendation workshop, which we already identified as June 18th at noon. The second one is CRC Presentation Recommendation Protocol. So that was added to this document that Miriam shared with us. This was produced by staff. And it's just to try to streamline the process even more. I think processes are sometimes good just to make sure that we can plan for everything that we want to do. So basically just when submitting things, try to put like rationale, any supporting materials that may already happen. So, you know, more than like a prop, like a little bit of supporting information and you can, I don't think I need to read it, but essentially just this will make my job easier in planning agendas into the future. You know, and at the end of the day, this is just the guidance document, but just if you could review that and try to add a little more detail when suggesting future agenda topics. Okay, so we'll move on. Open discussion, other items. I guess now might be the time to address all of the public comments that we received. There was a couple of trends of the request that we remain involved, which I think is kind of a given. I don't think we should not be involved at our last meeting. For many meetings, we have discussed that there is a tree committee being formed and that, you know, if we do things right now, I'm not sure what the process is going to be. The commission has made it clear that they wanted this process to go forward, and likely our recommendations could be considered by that committee, but I don't know if anything was going to happen in the near term. The flora proposal has been indefinitely deferred three times. you know, about a year ago, and then six months later, and then six months later, which was last month. But it's still alive, and it's had great reception, but it just, it isn't being acted upon.

So I feel like that's kind of the same thing that would... Yeah, so just so everybody knows, because I'm on the tree committee, the holdup has been some appointments by commissioners, but they engaged... A group of people, I think some professionals out of, I guess, Tallahassee or something like that, that are going to run this process. I don't know who else is actually, honestly, I don't know who else is on the committee. I think I know one other person. But we have not had a meeting yet because we were waiting for these other appointments. I have not. I just reached out to the organizers because I understood that maybe one of the commissioners finally... So far, only three had appointed, and I think maybe a fourth one now has. So now that maybe there's quorum to move forward, I'm not really sure. But nothing's happened yet. And so this committee is actually, they've interviewed all the members that have been appointed to date for input as to what the, you know, what are the goals of the committee, what is the objectives and all these things. And it is supposed to make, the committee's supposed to make recommendations. And I always said, well, before I said yes, I was like, is there an end date? Like, I don't, we don't need to have more meetings to know we need more trees, right? But the goal really is to help improve the policy. And so, and the goal would be to have done it within a year. So I don't know what the time schedule is now, but I have not received notice for the first meeting. And so hopefully it will happen soon. And I'm happy. I don't think these meetings are confidential. And I'm certainly happy to report back to the committee. And I would want the committee to, you know, if there's input to be shared with the tree committee, I'm happy to be that conduit.

I appreciate that. And I think that once the tree committee convenes that I think we'll even add an item on our agenda to for you to give an update. And then our last meeting, we did receive a written notice from Melissa Fernandez years about the committee. And, you know, I'll just select these two sentences from it. District two, four and five have advised and this is from our meeting minutes. have advised that they have appointments ready to submit, and we are actively working with Districts 1 and 3 to identify the remaining appointments. An item formally establishing the Tree Advisory Committee is expected to be brought before the City Commission in May. While a few steps remain outstanding, our current expectation is that we will be in a position to convene the Tree Advisory Committee for its first meeting in June or July. Depending on the timing of the remaining appointments, it may be necessary to convene the committee with a majority of appointments in place in order to avoid any further delay. That was the timing and you know that's I haven't received any other end of indication from Melissa but. You know some of the comments today included asking for data which I agree, we, I think we do need to have data and we did actually request the data and it wasn't available. or wasn't provided in our last meeting, there was a discussion about. if data isn't available that they don't create it, but hopefully it is being created for the tree committee to review. Hopefully there's some packet that goes out with information

I think, and what people are suggesting really is this idea of transparency, that may be something that comes out of a tree committee meeting. Like, how are they going to provide more transparency to the public? You know, I don't think everybody's going to look on iBill for every tree permit. But my guess, my hope would be that not just policy comes out of it in terms of more transparency, but what is the tree policy? How are we going to add more trees? I don't know if it's about cutting down a tree for a building permit, but what is the true tree policy goal and how can we improve that tree policy as a whole? And that if development can help fund maybe this sort of bigger policy, which could include you know, how we're going to collect trees for the sponge parts or whatever, right? So to me, I'm really hoping there'll be a larger tree policy discussion.

So at our last meeting, we also discussed sharing the public comments that we had received with the tree committee, which was something we all kind of like took like an informal... You know vote on I guess you could say and miriam has provided all of that she sent all of that to us that's three pages. And it includes all of the comments that we have received from the public on on trees which there were dozens of so all of that is going to be submitted to to the tree committee into the consensus Center for their you know review and hopefully that helps. I also have a list of ideas that I've put together and that I made publicly a year ago. And I think it's also important to note that when this topic started at the end of 2024, we did make a motion requesting the commission to delay the vote. We then also made a motion suggesting that the proposed revisions be withdrawn until further understanding. We have clearly taken an active role in this process and tried to be proactive as much as possible. If there's additional things that we can propose at some time, we can do that, but as far as a workshop or something goes, we kind of keep going back and forth of should we do it, should we not do it. At the end of the day, what are we going to talk about at this workshop? There needs to be some things that are delivered. I have a list of items that I wrote up, but I'm also just sharing it directly with the Consensus Center, which I think is the best way to do so. I don't think it necessarily needs to come from CRC, but I don't have a direct answer on how this should proceed or what more we should be doing at this time. We have limited time. I'm kind of surprised that we even It's 758 we may have to make a motion to continue, but we got so much done by eight o'clock today, so we have you know. I don't you know i'm open to hearing requests or suggestions, but at the end of the day. People need to contribute and show up for us to do something if we were going to do anything else, but even if we did do something. your comments could just go to the consensus center directly.

And then as far as like- I'll make sure I'll follow up with the people that are running the program. Are they gathering that information and how are they sharing that with the other committee members? So the good news is you have a conduit. So that could be, hopefully that's helpful.

If we were going to do anything, it's like, I've seen, you know, I've seen the comments and I've seen what's going on of people asking for tree permits to be stopped and reviewed. But there is a process for that, which doesn't involve us. And that's being done at that committee, I believe tomorrow evening. And I also think it technically happens directly through a staff process. It doesn't actually happen through a commissioner. I think that, that process is led through staff and then that appeal process. The only thing I could think of is us saying, make sure you're making a recommendation, make sure that all tree things are being done properly. But it seems kind of obvious to me in saying that. I mean, it's kind of just reinforcing that we care, but I think it's already been shown that we care through those actions that we took last year. So I'm open to hear what you guys have to say.

Chair, just from a housekeeping perspective, I'm thinking, is this, and maybe this is a question for Gigi, Is this a proper committee, or is there a timeline on this for it to come up with its recommendations and then to sunset? Because sometimes there's a task force that's created that has a specific goal versus committee. So I was under the impression, again, I should have read this myself in the last meeting, but is this a task force or a committee? Because I'm under the impression it's meant to be a task force, but it keeps using the word, everybody's using the word committee. Okay.

It's about the tree committee?

Right.

My understanding is that it's a committee, not a task force.

But we've been advised that they're hoping that what comes out of this is some policy recommendations. So whether it's a committee or a task force, I can tell you as a member that that's what was presented to me. I don't know that it matters for vocabulary, right? It doesn't matter. I can tell you that the advisors that are handling this process hope to have policy come out of it, recommendations. It's like us, right? We can't decide policy, but they are looking for recommendations, which I'm sure the CRC will have a chance to weigh in on, but they are looking for recommendations for improvements to the existing ordinance.

and I think the consensus center has a scope of work which includes a timeline and and some deliverable so what yeah a year right from when you probably from when you first start and that's just again it's it's just because task forces are usually have a finite life and a specific goal anyway I won't I won't I understand you're right because it says committee and doesn't say yeah and then that does create a

a conflict of separation of powers, if that is the case, because now it's, and so we'll address that, I think, but in terms of recommendations.

There's things that have multiple overlaps, like things that come before us also go before ESAB, and things that have to do with trees also go before HEP, and so I don't really, Nick, do you have comments on that?

Yeah, I mean, both committees can make recommendations, you know, and have different recommendations. And then the city commission can choose which one they want to go with. But it's kind of, I think, the idea is probably for it to be more collaborative.

So Ian, just for updates, I know Ian Wogan got appointed.

A lot of people are excited about that.

Chris, Dr. Baraloto got appointed. People are really excited about that. Myself, I sent my recommendations, two names plus mine, to my commissioner's office, because like I said, I would. And New York City Parks is really eager and ready, willing to come and present and share some of their stuff. So I think I'd like to... both have our workshop because I have leaf and canopy that I want to move forward in the New York City parks is part of that conversation in terms of like how I think they can present. And then I can have a resolution that gears towards, you know, citizen science, just like relief. And then, you know, I think from there, I will come up with a short list from our workshop and say, okay, this is our handoff. But it doesn't, I think, really prevent us. I could probably go and attend and present, et cetera.

So yeah, I think the NYC parks thing could happen. I just don't see it. I didn't see it as a priority today. I don't really see action being taken by a commission right now from reading the room. And I think that you had some ideas in those documents that were good, but they really needed a lot of polishing. And it may not necessarily need to be in the form of a resolution that you polish. Why don't you just make it a little more of like a document. Just write out your ideas and then maybe I can help you polish it. But there was like conflicting things in there. So, you know, we've spoken about this I don't even know how many times at this point. So I think it just needs to be kind of cleaned up and when the time is appropriate, I think we can work on it. It's just there's only so many hours that we have the meetings for. So I'm hopeful that they follow through with the timeline they told us of June or July for it to start.

Yeah, but I mean, in the meantime, we said we were going to have these folks come, present, and then we were going to have this workshop. Are we still going to do that? We're going to still invite them, New York City Parks to present, maybe at the next one, and then we'll still have our workshop, or maybe workshop before so we can prepare for that meeting?

So I have that as a recommendation for an agenda item. I also received, I guess we can kind of just move to future agenda topics. I also received your request for the parametric insurance from...

Sorry to interrupt, but I think we'll have to have a motion to extend if we're going to continue.

Can I have a motion to extend? Almost done. Second. We didn't have a first.

Motion to extend.

Okay, thank you. And second?

Second. Second.

All right, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Let's just wrap up. So I received your thing about the parametric assurance, and that looks interesting, so I'll try to put that onto the schedule as well.

Awesome, thank you.

All right, anything else for future agenda topics? Any public, all right, we'll move to public comment then. Any public comments? No? All right, so motion to adjourn then. All right, thank you all so much. Great meeting.