Village Council - Regular Meeting

Meeting to order.

If we could please bow our heads in a moment of silence. If everyone would stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible,

Madam clerk roll call councilmember Burch president councilmember Devaney

Present.

Council Member Walensky?

Here.

Vice Mayor Cantor? Present. Mayor Charles? Here. You have quorum.

Thank you. At this moment in time, order of business, are there any additions, deletions, or deferrals to the agenda?

I have one addition that I would like to add, if you all would agree to it. I contacted Senator Jones, and he in turn contacted Congressman Wilson, Federica, and he has asked that the village send a form to her which would start a congressional investigation into our golf course and the South Florida Water Management's desire to build that pumping station in it. I would like the council to discuss it and hopefully then give Esmond permission because the letter needs to be signed by the village manager. And he did not want to do that unless the council approved it. Is that correct, Desmond?

Yes, I had some trepidation because the form that they were asking me to, well, I mean, just listen to the title of what we were asking them to do. I didn't want to undertake that. And then the form was asking for my social security number and all those kind of things. It seemed a little personal. That's the kind of thing that you would ask a resident. to do. I have no qualms in writing something to her office, asking for certain things, if I'm so directed by the body. So yeah, a long way of saying yes. Okay.

Well, again, you would have to... That's not written in stone. You send whatever you would be comfortable with, but I think it would be... It has an opportunity to be beneficial to us to... get this project moved to some other location. So I'd like that as a discussion and possible action added to the agenda.

Do you think we should do that or as just council comments? Council comments. Because if we did discussion and possible actions, the public really didn't get an opportunity to chime in on that. So I think we could have it during council comments.

Would that be satisfactory with you, Esmond, if we didn't? Absolutely. It could be done there.

Is that correct?

Yeah. Well, I just want to walk it back a little bit. Yes, it's correct. However, I don't want to make it an absolute because ultimately items can be walked onto the agenda. So it's not necessarily improper, but it's also a form that you can obviously do it during council meeting.

comments and get some consensus maybe not an actual action but you can get some consensus from the conversation that come about but either way is proper all right thank you all those in favor of that okay with that what is that uh he wants to speak what what he just what is that that that is to have a discussion on to have a discussion we're going to have a discussion at the Well, yes. I mean, either way, we could have done it without announcing at the beginning, but we formally announced that we're doing it. Councilor Cummings, if you want to stick around.

I'll be here.

Okay. That's all good. Are there any other additions, deletions, or deferrals? Seeing as there are none, Madam Clerk?

Item five, a ceremonial presentation of plaque to Alberto Bozzi in recognition of distinguished service as Country Club General Manager.

I would like to read something tonight. Madam Clerk assisted me in this in writing it. Tonight, we have the privilege of recognizing an individual whose leadership and dedication has left a lasting imprint on one of the true gems of our community, the Miami Shores Country Club and Golf Course. For more than 30 years, Mr. Posey has served the village with professionalism, vision, and an unwavering commitment. Alberto began his journey in December of 1990 as Director of Food and Beverage. Just two years later, in 1992, his leadership and impact were already so evident that he was promoted to General Manager, a role that he's held ever since then. When Alberto first joined the Country Club, it was facing financial challenges. Through strategic leadership, operational improvements, and clear long-term vision, he helped transform it into a thriving and successful enterprise we know today. Under his leadership, the Country Club has become more than a facility. It's truly the centerpiece of Miami Shores, a place where residents gather, traditions built, and community comes to life. A major milestone during his tenure was the 2011 golf course renovation, which significantly enhanced both playability and overall conditions. Projects like these reflect how Alberto's forward thinking, leadership, and commitment to excellence And even as he concludes his tenure in Miami Shores, Alberto's impact continues. He's played an instrumental role in ensuring a thoughtful and seamless management transition, once again demonstrating his dedication to a long-term success of our country club and this village. While formal awards may not define his career, the true measure of Alberto's legacy is found in the strength of the institution he leaves behind and the community he helped shape. Alberto, your leadership has elevated Miami Shores Country Club into the treasured asset it is today. And on behalf of the village council and the entire Miami Shores community, we're thankful for your decades of service and your lasting contributions. Thank you.

No, I know everybody wants to go home. First of all, let me say this very sincerely. Your generous gesture and comments humble me. And I'm not a humble person. So I am humble. I'm also grateful to all of those of you sitting in the dais for the opportunity to serve not just the country club, its members and patrons, but really the community at large. You have a treasure and a unique community here. It is very special. It has always been, and I trust it will continue to be. I had the privilege of working with many of your predecessors, going back to Mr. Canton, Mayor Canton, and Mayor Courtney, back when. As a matter of fact, I was just thinking and looking at some of you. It is unbelievable, half of the room, I knew your parents. And some of you are not exactly young. So, you know, it's really scary how time passes. And, you know, it has been a fun ride. At times we have had our challenges and our disagreements. But I think especially those disagreements have made us all happy. better professionals. And I just want to really thank the community for the opportunity of being of service. I also would like to say something. Somebody once said regrets. I had a few. I have my share and one of them is my inability to convince many of your predecessors to undertake the mission that now it looks you are committed to undertake and that is a full complete total renovation of the physical plant of the country club the country club today is a successful viable enterprise and It is rewarding to me to see that you have taken a the necessary steps to revitalize it and create something special for coming generations and for the next 50 years. So this last month has been a bittersweet time for me. I'm looking forward to the next steps, but also look back to the good times we had. So I congratulate the village manager, the mayor, and the council for the vision and the courage that you have exhibited. in taking the necessary steps to renovate the facility. It's a treasure. It just needs a little bit of TLC and update it. So congratulations to you. Thank you very much for the opportunity. And I extend this not only to the elected officials, the village administration, And also I have to say to those members that have put up with me for all these years, thank you, and the community at large too. So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Just so everyone knows, we did ask Alberto to stay.

That was very kind. It was a pleasure. No, no, just leave your phone number so we can get a hold of you.

You all have it, so I'm going to change it.

All right, good. Good. We'll get into your office next week. Madam Clerk.

Item 5B, presentation of the Parks Master Plan, presented by Framework Planning and Design Incorporated.

Good evening. I'm Angela Dorney, the Parks and Recreation Director, and I am excited after 16 months of preparation and working with framework design, planning and design, that we will be showing the Parks Master Plan. It's Ryan Cambridge, Mark Beer, and David Armbruster.

Mr. Mayor, if I may add something to that. It's more significant because it's the village's first master plan.

That's true. I was going to add that. To be honest, I was really hoping she wasn't going to say how long it's taken. I hope you'll see as we get into this, because we have quite a bit of content to cover to sort of bring you up to speed on not so much kind of what we heard, since we've already done that, but what we have done with that information and how we're translating that into actions to meet the needs, not just of residents today, but for generations to come. So a lot to cover, but we appreciate you sticking with us through it, and we're excited to share it with you. Let me do a little quick tech test here.

Does this work? Yes. Oh, yeah. There we go. Okay.

All right. So again, thank you, Angie, for the introduction. I know it has been a lengthy process, but we've really enjoyed working with your team and not just Angie and her team, but also, you know, I've seen many faces in this room, including everyone on the dais that has participated actively in this plan. And that's something that we are really heartened by and is not something that always happens either. So I think what you see up here is also reflective of your effort and your commitment to your community and its parks and recreation spaces. So what we'd like to talk about today, I'm going to do a very, very brief needs assessment recap, which is just sort of setting the groundwork of what were the high priority needs that we're attempting to tackle as part of this vision. And then we'll dive into kind of what we call the fun stuff, the fun part. The master plan vision, which is what are we doing with these needs? How are we going to meet them in a way that is unique? appropriate for the village we've broken out into what we call subsystems so that's in and these are ranked in order of priority in terms of what the needs assessment said so that's indoor recreation improving your existing parks spaces walkability new park spaces programs events and then we'll close with fun part which is oh my gosh how do we eat this elephant right how do we tackle such a big task what are different funding mechanisms or funding strategies we can use to make both immediate and incremental progress towards these goals. Now, I will say as much as we do have to cover, I know that there's some of these topics that people are going to have questions. How did you come to this conclusion? Why are we showing this? Did we think about this? I'm always happy, and I can speak for Mark here too, to be interrupted, to have dialogue as we go. So we have a lot to get through, but at the same time, I don't want to gloss over anything that we could answer as part of this process.

What do I point at?

Okay. All right. So just, again, we hit on this has been a lengthy process. Typically when we do these, regardless of the community size, they take a minimum of 12 months to get through. With yours, we spent some extra time because, as you see, you're sort of leading up to this potential referendum around this larger picture of how do we get a large capital investment. So to do that, we wanted to make sure that we had all the information necessary to be defensible in our decision-making process, but also to clearly communicate the benefits and what we're proposing and sort of how we're proposing to meet these needs to your residents. So multi-month process, we're sort of at the tail end here where we're saying, hey, this is our recommendation. We're buttoning this up in the plan that you will eventually adopt. Let's talk about next steps moving forward and make sure that we're all on the same page here. When we do a Parks and Recreation Master Plan, there is no preset methodology that says if you do these things or meet these numbers or have this many of this or this or that, that your community will be successful or your residents will be happy. There's also no uniform way to evaluate all of that. So what we employ in any park system plan we do is what we call a triangulated approach where we're using, in this case, 11 different needs assessment techniques to ask questions through different lenses, some technical but also a lot that are engagement based. We spent over 20 hours in focus groups and stakeholder meetings with staff, with existing program providers, with existing partners, residents, Angie and her team, many of you here. In addition to that, we completed a statistically valid community opinion, public opinion survey, and held what? four or five total workshops across the public workshops across the process. So you'll learn a little bit more about that. But as much as we do lean into some technical analysis, we also are doing a lot of listening, a lot of translating of what you all know intuitively and what your residents know intuitively. At the end of the process, as we go through this across all these techniques, and if I could extend this monitor down another 10 or 12 feet into the ground, you would see this spreadsheet continue further. These are not the only needs that your community has. This is simply the ones that came up the most consistently across all of the techniques. So that helps us weed out or identify any potential bias in any of those and have really good confidence going into visioning that we know that just because this one technique said it's important doesn't mean that that's the only technique that said it's important. So when we look at these top priorities, things that showed up in over half of the engagement techniques, or excuse me, the needs assessment techniques, Obviously, number one, far and away, and all but one of the 10 is indoor recreation, the need for additional indoor recreation spaces. Right behind that, and I'm not surprised by this, because your residents really do love and cherish what you have, is improving your existing parks and green spaces. Also not surprised by the fact that because of your community and the density and some of the barriers you have to walkability, people want more. They want access to more green spaces. So that's number three. And tied immediately also to improving connectivity, how people move between those. I think another thing that you'll see as we get into looking at improving these parks long term is a lot of your facilities, in terms of things people would use, or I should say amenities, are co-located, so fairly centralized approach currently. So people have to cross some of these barriers in order to get to them, which is why we heard really consistently across the process from your residents that we need more things, we need more playgrounds, but specifically on this side of this road, or on this side of this road. And understanding some of the challenges you have with your road infrastructure, that's reasonable. So these are what we used as the basis for each of these different subsystems, and we're going to dive into high-level solutions to each of those. Now, I will sort of say as a caveat here, as we get into some of the fun imagery and things we're helping to communicate, we are still at the master plan level, right? We're helping to illustrate scale. We're helping to illustrate vision. As you take any of these projects, regardless of the detail that we're at right now, into a further layer of design, A lot of additional choices can be made around aesthetic and scale and materiality and all of that, all of which inform cost. So I just say that with a caveat because we're going to show some cool stuff, but at the same time, this is stuff that will continue to evolve over time. And also, just like we mentioned with engagement, this process, everything that we're going to show you with visioning began as a collaborative process. We came back to the community. Yeah, Angie, you're featured, you're highlighted. I know, I see that. Front and center. Well, it was a long day. It was a long couple days. But, you know, we spent half of the project duration trying to hone in on what needs were, priority needs were. We came back, collaboratively worked with many of you, including your residents, to start to develop a framework for how do we meet these needs. And that began in a collaborative process here in the village. All right, let's start with indoor recreation. This one is a doozy. You'll notice each of these, they are arranged sort of in order of priority, which in a lot of times, not always, but a lot of times that also is in order of complexity. So in this case, we'll start with indoor rec. We did a fairly thorough, and I will say as part of this process, they're not here with us tonight, but we did have a local architecture team that assisted us in the evaluation of your facilities, as well as all of the building and facility planning that you'll see. Having a hard time with this clicker here. OK. So when we did that analysis, just like you'll see we did with all of the park sites, our key takeaways with your existing facilities is you're doing the best you can with what you have. But what you have is in a condition and sort of represents an era of construction and programming that isn't reflective of what your needs are. And it's sort of far enough gone or far enough to the other side that it really, instead of warrants, instead of a sort of renovation or expansion of what you have, it's most likely most cost feasible and most reasonable to do a full replacement of what you have. And that's especially true with the field house and the current community center. They're just not conducive buildings to invest in currently given their age and the infrastructure. So with that in mind, a key part of this process, which you sort of had a hint of going in, is coming up with a vision for, and a vision backed by data and input for what a future Miami Shores recreation facility looks like in the village. As part of the statistically valid public opinion survey, we asked a lot of different questions, and you'll see some of these come up because it is one of the more defensible and important techniques that we do because it does also reach non-users. If you think about a park workshop, who's going to show up to that? It's usually park advocates or sometimes people who are really upset about other things, but it's not often the people who casually don't use your facilities, whereas a statistically valid survey does capture that user group. So we did ask them to tell us, in terms of an indoor recreation center specifically, what types of amenities, experiences, areas are most important to them. And I think the reason I put this in here is because you'll see it play out in the different areas of the vision. You have a very connected and social community. So when you think about all the pragmatic needs that you have, like you don't currently have an indoor gym at all, that is a need, but also one of the biggest desires folks had were for social spaces, things like a cafe, places where people can spend time together, multi-generational areas. Those were as important or more important in some cases than actual active recreation. So as we think about this new facility and what it looks like and how it's different from the facility that we have today, it's important to keep that in mind that we're not just showing a different building that's bigger, we're showing an entirely different approach to meeting indoor recreation needs. Okay, so I'm going to walk through each layer, each floor of the building. Again, we try to get as detailed as we possibly can here, working with the architecture team, Angie and her team, really over months specifically on this to hone in on what is the ideal sort of starting point for what this facility looks like. So you'll see here total building footprints just shy of 70,000. That includes all the exterior overhang covered spaces. But really we're looking at about a 57,000 square foot conditioned building over two stories. The first story, things to note here, obviously you're looking at a couple of things that you don't currently have right now. One being a double gymnasium with a movable partition between the two, so those spaces can be reconfigured in quite a few different ways. You'll also see areas and infrastructure that allows you to expand on some things that you're doing right now really successfully. Those things also happen to be some of the larger revenue generators that offset operating costs for Angie's team. That being gymnastics having its own dedicated indoor space where you don't have to move things around It's not interfering with anything you might offer in the gym and fully sort of code compliant regulated before after-school area both indoor and outdoor that's a very successful program that you have right now that honestly is really really limited in its capacity by not just the space that you have but the types of space that you have In addition to that, you'll see a lot of support spaces on the ground level, things that help support the operations of these different areas of the building, both indoor and outdoor, in terms of storage or infrastructure. I think that's important noting too, and I'll turn it over to Mark in a little bit as we look at some of these images, that we don't want this building to be one of the aspects that we want to be very different than the current building today, which is sort of isolated, you walk in, you experience it, you walk out, and you're going somewhere else as quickly as possible because of how confined it is on the site. We want this to be an indoor-outdoor experience. We want the ability to program not just the interior of the building and the site, but the edges of where the two meet, because that gives you the opportunity to program or have events and functions in challenging times of the year. So think about inclement weather or during your hot summers, shaded covered spaces allow for that indoor-outdoor porosity. So that's something you'll notice not so much on the backside or the top of the slide here, which is towards where the rail is to the east, but on all other edges there are complementary exterior spaces. Moving to the second floor, what you'll see up here, I think the theme is a lot of flexibility. We have a lot of high ceilings. Obviously, the gym is open to the second floor, and the gymnastics room occupies the volume of the second floor. But what we also have up here, as you'll see in number eight here, is an active fitness area. and a looping walking track that surrounds the gym, sort of an elevated walking track. That's a great multi-generational, four-season amenity. It's one of the most highly used in a lot of community centers that we work with. So that's a very desired amenity that we tried hard to incorporate. And then everything that you'll see to the left here, where you see a lot of threes showing up, number threes there, those are multipurpose rooms. These are rooms that are flexible, reconfigurable, and can be used to host not just dedicated senior opportunities, which are important that those programs have their home but also allow you to host many different types of things as community needs and trends change over time so we're really trying to bake into this critical infrastructure that we need to support the greatest amount of flexibility long term you're not going to want to do this again you're not going to want to build another one of these hopefully ever so it's important for us to think about lifecycle and change and adaptability over time Okay, I'm going to turn it over to Mark to talk a little bit about some of the inspiration for the exterior. Again, all the caveats that really what we're trying to convey here are a sense of scale and sort of indoor-outdoor approach. There's lots of decisions that still can be made around aesthetic and materiality and all of that.

You're exactly right, Ryan. you know these images that you're going to see again are very conceptual in nature but they take into account all of this very deliberate programming and process that we've worked in conjunction with you all to go through so what you're seeing here is an initial concept view of what the recreation center could look like as you would enter into a main court space that would be a drop off in a new venue to enter into the to the building itself, and what you notice about some of these images is this great transparency and porosity into the building, and you'll see that across several of these images, and that's very intentional that we tried to open up, particularly to the west, having some trouble.

I know, you really gotta click it.

There we go. particularly to the west, as we front surrounding residential. We know that there's a lot of sensitivity to scale and how things blend into the Shores neighborhoods. And so we very intentionally planned this building to sort of step in terrace and elongate and be pushed back from surrounding residential edges and up against maybe some edges that are a little less desirable, notably the rail where we positioned a lot of the back of house sort of amenities and the storage and made a lot of the more public facing frontages nearer to where where residents live, interact. and will come into the the site as ryan mentioned earlier a lot of the spaces beneath overhangs of the building can be multi-season programmable they provide shaded opportunities and respite from into inclement weather but they also afford uh transparency and porosity onto the broader site so we're going to move forward here in just a little bit into some images that start to connect the building to the broader site in broader park and you'll start to see how these interactions between interior and exterior start to play out. Again, at the south end of the building, really taking into consideration some of those view sheds, how we can open up some of the lines of sight towards the bayfront and have interaction in play between interior programming, notably the gymnasium and its interior courts, and some programming that could happen out on the site with some external sports courts to the south end of the building. Again, broad overhangs that provide ample shading of glazing and sort of integrate this low flat plane into the village environment. So now we're going to move into improving existing parks. And this was, again, a key priority that we took away from all of the stakeholder interviews and the workshops that we did with you all. And you all love and heavily program each of your park spaces, but they need this refresh in order to bring them into a new era We have a lot of young families moving to the shores, a lot of people are aging in place, and we need to find ways to integrate different pieces and parts that each individual, each resident can see themselves in.

Well, I think I'll just jump in for a minute. You know, when we looked at your system and visited each of your parks, you know, it was obvious to us maintenance was a priority, and by that I mean it's happening and, you know, that they're actively cared for. But what was also apparent is that they really do represent, and I think this bears out when you look at the data of when they were constructed and sort of how they came to be, they represent an older era of parks and recreation. They're not reflective of the expectations that public park spaces have on them now, not just from the community in terms of what types of benefits and experiences they provide, but also from the owner side or the municipal side in terms of how sustainable are they, how sustainable are they from a maintenance and operations standpoint, are they flexible? So those are all things that while we're looking at these sites, it's not just, oh, you know, things might be quote unquote old. It's that they represent an era that the parks world has moved on from for reasons that your community is actively seeking. So when we looked at all, oh sorry, I guess I just kind of covered that. Now one thing I will say as I hit on this, and then we'll dive into some of these individual sites, we'll look at each one of your parks individually. We're gonna start with, hang here for a minute, we're gonna start with what you all call the rec complex, and we're gonna kind of lay out a big vision for that. And then after that, we're going to pause so we can handle some questions that I'm sure have probably arisen related to the rec center and the site. So we wanted to do that after we've kind of covered both. But before we get into that, one of the exercises that we did during the community engagement workshops is we gave folks 10 coins. And we said, look, if you were in charge of the budget, how would you choose to invest these 10 coins? And we had different buckets that folks could choose, including another of like, oh, we didn't have one up there. That was the right choice. And you'll see like Indorect got 164 coins or dollars if you want to look at it that way. But the top two got 60% of all of your residents investment choices. And that was we want more programs and community events because the ones that you have are cherished, they're well attended, they're very high functioning. Angie and her team are doing a lot with the infrastructure that you have and your community participates. Now, what they're able to do is pretty limited by the infrastructure that exists. So it's sort of a push-pull, right? And then the other is improving existing parks. Those were by far and away the most common choices that people said, hey, this is what I want to spend my money on in this city. Next slide, there you go. Okay, I'll turn it back to you.

And of those facilities, the rec complex has always been sort of the heart of Parks and Recreation in the Shores. And as part of that, we wanted to consider how do you sort of bring together what has historically been referred to as these sort of disparate entities with the tot lot and the rec center and the field house and the rec complex into one unified park site. So you see we're calling this the village commons, which sort of takes into account all of those different facilities and brings them into the fold of one larger facility, considering the new rec center at the center as sort of the hub of this park site. But then also looking at the edges and how broader connectivity weaves in throughout the Shores Village through all the different trail systems and connectivity to the future golf course trail. So this really becomes a genesis connectivity within the village or within the shores. But it also is this new hub for socialization, for recreation, for events, for all of the athletics that happen here. And it all hinges upon this central node of the rec center. So you notice the rec center is kind of shifted up a little to the plan north to the left in the middle of the site. The existing rec complex is kind of a challenging site to work in. It's narrow. It's got a lot of constraints with the rail line up against it. It's got surrounding residential uses which need to be heavily considered, right?

I don't want to... Drop-off is super challenging.

Drop-off is super challenging. Parking and circulation with vehicles and pedestrians. There's a lot of complex things going on. The reason we put the rec center in this concept plan where it's located is is primarily for two reasons one it considers leaving online the existing rec center during a construction cycle so for angie and her team to be continuing to run their programs and running all their events out of that facility while this one is being built that's seemed to be a very high priority for her and her team and the shores writ large. The second is that we want to do, and I alluded to this earlier, really sort of buffer and set back the building and the scale of it from some of the surrounding residential uses so that we're not just fronted and slammed up right against people's homes and providing a little bit of that terracing effect with both landscape and the structure itself. So I'll start kind of on the right end of the site then. We're sort of looking to reintegrate, if you could imagine, in the future where a new rec center has come online. The old one has been demolished. In goes some new pickleball courts, which is a high priority from the needs assessment, as well as some outdoor basketball courts that could also serve dual use as hard sport courts for additional pickleball facilities in a tournament scenario. Kind of moving a little bit further up in the plan, there's this sort of central node and drop-off that sort of brings everyone to a common point for circulating into the new recreation facility. And Ryan mentioned this in the floor plan of the building, really this social node of a cafe, this very social environment that you all have as residents of the shores. We really wanted to lean into that. as a knuckle and a hub for the building itself, but also the site. So adjacent to that sort of interior building programming are spaces like a new tot lot, urban swing structures, and open vistas and views to flexible lawns and athletic fields over to the left of the building. Encompassing and circling all of that is a new internal looping pathway system, which is something that you don't currently have and that we heard repeatedly throughout the process that was a high priority from residents. is the ability to circulate in internal to the site.

And that's as much from a convenience standpoint as it also is from a recreation standpoint because of some of the challenges that you have with roadways. So if you think about, and Doral Central Park's a good comparable when we worked on that project, having interior looping, a network of looping paths, that ended up being one of the highest priorities and it's already one of the most used.

We were just there earlier today looking at it and there's people walking, running, jogging, all sorts of recreating happening along those looping paths.

You mentioned the looping paths around the athletic fields. We heard a lot about the athletic fields throughout the whole process, about the need for improved field quality, about how important they are to the leagues that play there, about some of the risks that the current fields pose, but also some of the challenges with managing them. We tried to, as much, you know, we did lose some athletic field space by shifting the building. We displaced, you know, one of the existing rec-level softball diamonds that was there that appeared pretty underutilized. But what we gained in reconfiguring those spaces was efficiency. So the field space that's laid out there, obviously, if this were fully reconfigured as a new park, it would be a higher quality with the right irrigation system and the right soil and all those things that are challenges now. But in addition to that, it also would be laid out in a way that was more efficient to program, to stripe in as many different ways as you can, but also not just for athletics. This is the home of a lot of your large events. So as we were thinking about these things, as Mark mentioned, the perimeters. pathway and the indoor outdoor experience of the building as well as the new sort of destination tot lot that you see there all of that embrace that lawn so we're thinking about it not just as a place for active recreation that you would have in soccer leagues or things like that but also as a community hub where you have these large events that you really just don't have the opportunity to have somewhere else because this is your this is your largest site so

One of the current challenges with the existing site, too, with the ball diamonds and the soccer fields is we have sort of competing uses, right? We can't really be playing baseball while we also have soccer practice going on because we're using shared outfield space. So what we considered in this plan is moving some of those recreational baseball facilities up to a sports suite on the north end where you would utilize a multi-use synthetic lawn that could cover things like lacrosse, which is a a rising recreational trend that Angie and her team have identified, another soccer pitch, but also a recreation-level, little league-sized baseball field that could be used for practices up on that north end. So you could have baseball going on while you have soccer or football or an event going on in Milan, which is something that you currently cannot do.

That's number nine you're talking about?

Yes, yep. And we have an image that shows a little bit about the scale of that facility. And as, Mark, as we get to that, it's also, because it's synthetic turf, it allows you to have not a place where you would have a competition soccer game, right? It's not the right size for that facility or for that activity. But if you think about one of the biggest needs that those fields meet, it's actually practice space. And you can have the greatest field in the world with the best turf and the best irrigation, but if it gets dumped on in the summer with rain, and gets played on immediately after, it's going to get damaged. It's just part of it. So having a small synthetic space that's flexible and reconfigurable for different uses is a good practice space, especially during some of those challenging times where your turf is recovering maybe from a heavy season of use, which right now you don't really have that opportunity. Everything's programmed the whole time.

A few other things to point out in this plan, too, especially around the building is a new after-school facility. care dedicated outdoor venue. So after school program is a much loved program, but we also wanted to provide a secure space outdoors that is access controlled for Angie and her staff that those kids could have as their own space to play while they're in that program. Also, on the north end of the site, you can see where the current tot lot is, where that gets sort of supplanted and brought closer to the central hub at number one, a new dedicated operations and maintenance facility there. would go at the north end of the site. Right now it sort of is in the middle of the park and poses some challenges with circulation of maintenance traffic and pedestrians. So shifting it to one of the perimeter edges was a logical place that it could move and have its own dedicated venue. Then Constitution Park down planned south here starts to build in some of these fitness and team gathering place themes. that is there, it's a much used amenity as well as the open passive flexible lawn space. But you'll also see integrated into this in some of the images forthcoming too, destination fitness course, a ninja course, something that provides teenagers and adults alike a venue to recreate and have another fitness opportunity.

Adults with health insurance.

Adults with health insurance. You'll also see that the sand volleyball courts shifted down to Constitution Park just north of that open Flex Lawn.

Before we jump into the images, one thing to reiterate here too is, and the reason we're showing all of this together, is they're all interrelated pieces and they rely on one another to be functional. And a key way, a key aspect of that is parking. So you don't have the luxury of space here where you can take three or four acres of green space and convert it to large open lots, centralized lots. So with the current plan, We're leveraging the edges of existing roadways, both around the Village Commons Park site, but also around Constitution Park, which actually is happening currently. It's just not structured. And formalizing that for parking, in addition to the agreement you have for the shared lot with the church. So in total, across the site, looking at it as a campus, that's over 300 parking spaces that are either on-street or in off-street lots. without having to have a large multi-acre asphalt parking lot.

So around Constitution Park, I see you have parking all around the perimeter. Yes. People do park there, especially for big events. You know, just like how you have it. It's kind of, yeah, you can kind of see how it's being used. Which is basically the space between the sidewalk and the street. Correct.

Mm-hmm.

So is the plan to pave that space?

What we're showing, and I think what we would envision, is that it would be paved. It would be a maintainable hard surface, but it could be a porous one. So it could be porous pavers. So we also have to think about how we're handling stormwater in these improvements sort of globally, and porous pavement is a way to do that. And it's also something that breaks up the field of asphalt. So if you think about living along that street, If I lived adjacent to it, I already know cars park there and they park in the turf and kill the turf and that doesn't look amazing, but I'm not sure that I would want 20 more feet of asphalt either. So if it's 20 more feet of a decorative pavement that's also infrastructure and functional, that's sort of a compromise of both there. These are just some different views looking at the tot lot. I think this really reinforces the connection of indoor-outdoor experiences.

Yeah, this is a really great image that sort of illustrates that connectivity, that social hub around the building, the destination tot lot, the cafe, these indoor-outdoor spaces as well.

Closer to the mic. Oh, sure. Yeah, we got it.

Here's a view to the north end of this sports suite that we talked about earlier. So this would afford you the ability to have multiple different types of athletics on this synthetic field, either for practice or for recreating while there's different events going on in the main lawn, whether it's soccer practice or an event.

You're expecting to play baseball in that?

Little league. So this would be like T-ball practice in rec league. This is not a game field. This is not a regulation. You'll notice in the distance here, too, you have a three-story net as your outfield. It's not the ideal condition for that use, but that's also a use that is the least programmed in the space that you have. So if something had to give when we were looking at the different priorities and what takes up the most significant amount of space in terms of flexibility, it was the diamond sports. So the compromise was to have a space where recreation-level play could take place with the understanding that it was never the goal of the site to be the home of a competition event. travel league, if you will, for diamond sports. And it's not currently. But we do have improved practice facilities and new batting cages and a diamond on synthetic turf.

So it's a view of Constitution Park, kind of looking back over to the west. You can see this sort of ring of formalized parking around it and this new hub of fitness and outdoor training.

Now, while he's saying what you do see, the other thing you don't see in this site, because it really is more of a passive, well, it's a program, but a neighborhood-scale park, is you don't see a lot of large area lighting. You're not seeing field lighting. You're seeing things that you would expect to see in a small neighborhood park surrounded by homes. We are making better use of the precious green space that's there, but doing so in a respectful way.

And a key part of that too is providing ample landscape buffer around the perimeter and the edges for surrounding residents to maintain that green and also buffer from activity and noise that might happen in the park. So a quick view of what an athletics course could look like in the middle or a ninja course could look like in the middle of Constitution as well as a relocated sand volleyball court that sort of holds the end next to the flexible use lawn.

can I ask you a question what's the intent or the plan when it comes to Like the tot lot, for example, is just wide open. Anybody can show up and go and use it at the moment. Yeah, so that's a good question. Is that your intent with the...

The entire perimeter of the Village Commons is secured with a fence, as the tot lot is also. It's adjacent, right? It's right at the heart of a lot of activity. There's vehicles moving into... The new drop-off, there's vehicles moving and parking along the street edge. So that whole quadrant, the whole north end is all secured with a fence as it is today with improved access, specifically around the tot lot. Now, internal to the park site where we're adjacent to field space or adjacent to social spaces of the building. Okay. Those spaces are open and porous for people to sort of move through and sit along the edges.

Will I go through the community center to get to the top lot?

No, you don't have to.

Okay.

Yeah, so as Mark mentioned, there's both active perimeter security in terms of fences and gates that you can selectively close. Those would be typically during open hour and enclosed hours, but there's also passive security, perimeter security of individual assets like the tot lot where it's designed in a way you can't just run from the tot lot out to the street. So there's a retained edge, harder edge, things of that nature.

My concern with the tot lot is that currently it gets a lot of use currently but it's also in a hidden like spot basically and it's not on display and if you don't live here you're not a resident i was a resident here for a long time before i even knew where it was sure so uh it gets a lot of use currently and it's hidden yeah and i think if you take it from its current spot and and put it out in front the community center it's good it's a total it's going to get a totally different amount of use um so expecting to get you know that you're going to have the same use from the where it is now versus moving it you know to be a front piece of the facility um i think you're it either is going to have to be way bigger or it's going to have to have some kind of residence like access to it sure um i don't think you're gonna be able to get away with both.

Well, I don't have the total square footage number where you could compare apples to apples, but it is significantly larger than what you have currently. And I think the other thing, too, is to differentiate between use and abuse, right? We want to make sure that we're providing use to the right folks and accommodating as much capacity as we can because activation in general is good. But at the same time, thinking about some of the challenges that you have with your rec center right now have to do with how hidden it is, or not rec center, excuse me, the tot lot, have to do with how hidden it is. You know, not just that it's sort of not visible or tucked away, but also because of the tree roots and some of the challenges back there, you're really going to be dealing perpetually with maintenance long term.

I don't want to sound like a Grinch, but it's not an issue currently that we're worried about people from all over coming to use our facilities. But if we start building a bunch of new fancy stuff, we're going to attract a lot of outside use. So I don't want to spend a lot of residents' money to build a bunch of facilities that are going to be overwhelmed with use that is not them.

That's a valid concern. Now, one thing Angie pointed out that's worth mentioning, we hadn't gotten to this slide yet, but another thing that we're looking to do long-term with these parks in activating them is to decentralize some of the facilities you have. So right now you have a tot lot available. which is part of the reason that it sees some of the traffic that it does. It's the only place to go. You'll see in some slides to come, we are proposing several additional sites where you'll have play assets or tot lots throughout your system. So that will also help buffer some of this demand because you won't be relying on a single facility to meet all of it. The other thing about making the tot lot central is it makes the experience of using that tot lot for your residents a more multi-generational one. I have young kids. They're kind of aging out of the playground age. Yours are right in the heart of it. You know, it's fun to go and watch them play, but a lot of times at most playgrounds, that's kind of all we can do, right? There's not a great asset or amenity that we can use or enjoy while the kids are also playing. So centralizing it with things like the cafe and some of the shaded overhangs and the seating and adjacent field space, it allows for a critical mass of activity that is a benefit in addition to maybe some of the potential challenges that you mentioned. I want to be respectful of their time. So before we move on to Bayshore, do we have any other questions? I know we covered a lot on the rec building, the recreation center, but also this concept of Village Commons Park. Any questions on that before we dive into some of the other sites?

I mean, I believe that this is an overview. I think we'll have to... Oh, yeah.

Yeah, again, we're casting the vision here. The devil's always in the details, and every one of these projects we'll go through as they move forward over time, multiple iterations of design and refinement. So everything you're seeing is sort of the starting point of expectation for outcomes, less about exactly how it looks, but more about how it's performing and what it's doing. Okay, now we're on to, unsurprisingly to us, I think maybe unsurprisingly to you, your most visited park in your system, according to the survey data that we got. So, Bayshore.

Yes, most visited and very loved for the views, right? Who doesn't like to go and look out over the bayfront? But currently there's some challenges, right, with parking and people showing up and maybe some activities we don't want to have going on there. But a lot of that has been, I think, over the years spurred on because we haven't positioned it for success with the correct level of investment. So we've just redone the seawall. Correct. And we are looking to integrate in some more passive amenities into this space that leverage some of the wonderful view sheds out onto the bay, but also are respectful of the neighboring areas. uh residents views out to the waterfront so if you can imagine a new revitalized edge along bayshore drive that allows some of those porous views but then also integrates in a promenade walking edge along the sea or along the bayfront edge with some amenities like an urban swing structures where you can look out over the water ample seating some flexible tables and chairs and low level lighting that just provides some ambiance and safety level lighting without inundating surrounding residents with light pollution so these are just some quick images of what it could look like if you're standing along the promenade looking along the bay you see on the left there a hint at what this sort of urban swing structure could look like you'll see this sort of theme kind of repeated they're a really attractive amenity that allows for you know, a nice seated posture and some active sort of swinging while you're taking in some of the sights.

Now, before we move on from this, I will say, I think we visited the site six different times on visits here. There were always people using it, even in its current condition. And similar to like the tot lot and some of the challenges with how it's used we're looking to address those in this redesign So for example by positioning vegetated islands with low sort of elegant monument signage at the terminus of each of the roadways You're preserving resident views of the bay down each of those roadways. Right now, you can park a car straight in front of it. And if I lived there, I would be pretty bummed every day that I drove home and there was a car blocking the bay view. So we're helping to preserve that and structuring exactly where parking goes. So that's just an example of where we're not just meeting a sort of infrastructural need. We're trying to solve a challenge.

Well, and in addition to that, controlling some of the access for residents. village residents right that's a that's been a concern for this park in general as people come they park willy-nilly everywhere and they're off just sort of doing their thing providing a little bit more structure on that edge and some ample signage that allows for residents to have those spaces to interact with the bayfront is one of our primary considerations in the vision for that space Any questions, comments about Bayfront? Okay, so moving on to Memorial and Optimist. These two sort of share a broad vision We took into consideration the programming of both as you kind of leverage Northeast Second Avenue in certain event scenarios where we shut down the street, we have farmers markets, we have food trucks, and we have all of these sort of flexible uses that happen on the edges in these two parks. But they're two very different spaces. One is a very solemn space that is dealing with war memorials and our fallen service members. And the other poses a great opportunity for passive recreation. So you'll see those two sort of themes play out in these different plans. Here we're looking at Memorial Park where you can start to see really in the center of the space is this large park. Open flex use lawn and it can serve multiple multiple purposes passive recreation during the everyday but then and also in an event scenario where you might set up a live performance in the park when you're having an event on Northeast 2nd Avenue and where the water feature, the urban splash feature on the left, while it could be a really cool amenity on the everyday, could be shut off and become a platform for larger events. So you can bring in a temporary stage, you can backload it from the left in the parking and have this open event lawn at the middle of the park space. You can see in this image we repositioned where the memorial space would go. And really that was about providing ADA access and providing ample access to that space. Today the memorial spaces are sort of on the back edge here down by the alley, but there isn't a way to get there. if you are not able to walk or you're hard of sight, it's difficult to find those spaces. So we wanted to provide a place of respite and a solemn space where you can interact with those elements and take in them. And we found that putting them in a place where you could access them around the perimeter was most beneficial. So along the edge down at the bottom too, you'll see that we have started to make hints at how we could reposition the alleyways. between the surrounding residential streets and the park itself and leverage those as both pedestrian connectivity but also access for program and events where you could have food trucks lining those edges and people within the park space. So this image here, you can see how this Open water feature could also be used as a flexible venue to set up a multitude of different program event opportunities on and how it would embrace the lawn. You could have movable furnishings that can be scattered throughout the park that people can drag into shade. provided by the mature trees along the edges and then again accessible location for a memorial plaza that has a really wonderful you know place of respite for people to sort of take in that solemn nature of those

And it's also something, as you look at this plan, that you could say, well, that's something that maybe is aspirational that we could work towards over time. Even in this configuration where the memorials exist currently along that western edge, you can still provide access to them in their current location. So it's about increasing access, but also the sort of critical mass of that sort of function. Great.

If we flip across the street over to Optimist Park, this takes a slightly different approach. We talked just recently about integrating new play amenities throughout the Shores. One of the things that we heard was that a lot of the play, the tot lots, are all on the east side or in the rec complex. They're harder to get to for people that live maybe near the economic heart or the west side of the Shores. This became a great location where we could leverage some mature shade trees in the canopy to integrate in a nature-themed or nature-based play tot lot amenity in the park, but also have a large, open, flexible green space that is ringed with accessible walks and repositions the story walk internal to the park. Currently it's along the edge of Northeast 2nd Avenue and if we can sort of flip that inboard so that you have a more integrated experience internal to the park site and able to interact with that amenity it'd be a major benefit. So you're seeing in this image here some hints at sort of pieces and parts of nature-based play as well as a nature-themed tot lot that takes advantage of some of the large live oak structure in the natural shade that exists on site today.

And if you look at these two parks, they both function independently, but also in an event setting where you might have Second Avenue closed in between, they're also complementary where they can function as a larger site that you can move between.

And crucially, with the edges, they really start to lean into this broader discussion about connectivity and walkability in the Shores. What a good transition.

Okay, I promise we're going to be going faster. I appreciate you hanging in here. This is a lot of content to cover. But walkability is a really important one because when you think about some of the needs that you have in your community, some of them can be met by improving connections versus adding new amenities or new infrastructure. So similarly, when we asked folks in the statistically valid survey what were the most important facilities to them, so important in terms of they said it's important and they have an unmet need for them, walking paths and bicycling paths were in the top two, which is unsurprising when you know your roadway network. You've got a lot of great stuff. When you actually look at a community that's your size, you have decent coverage from your existing parks and open spaces. So what you see here in the green bubble, if you will, is a 10-minute walk from each of your existing facilities. Well, when we would look at this from a master plan standpoint, all things considered, we're like, hey, that's actually pretty good coverage. Obviously, there's a gap in the northwest, but we can figure that out. Well, we start to add nuanced layers of where are your barrier roadways? So these are roadways that, because of their width, their speed, or their volume, or in some cases you have an unfortunate combination of all three happening simultaneously, people don't cross them, or significantly fewer people do. So when we factor those in, you start to see, oh, those service areas actually get reduced a good bit. And this is only taking into account the primary barriers. If we factored all of them in, it would go way down. And adding a layer to that, when we look at where the majority of your active recreation is, the facilities that people choose to go seek out and use, the dog park, the aquatic center, rec center, fields, and tot lot, those are all centralized and surrounded on each side by a pretty significant barrier. So when you look at just service area from those with barriers in consideration, That's why we're hearing some of the things we're hearing about walkability and connectivity. So what we wanted to look at with your existing system is how can we leverage some of the great assets that you do have in your community, like some of your exceptionally wide right-of-ways on these beautiful tree-lined streets that are also low speed and low volume, to provide these connection corridors that help your residents move both east to west across your community, but also specifically on the west side, north to south. And how do we do that in a way that takes into account some of the very realistic and pragmatic challenges of working with county roads and state roads, which you happen to have both in a very small amount of space. So what you'll see in our vision here, leverage those existing right-of-ways to provide these wide sidewalks or side paths, as we'll talk in a little bit, You have a great opportunity for a dedicated, fully off-road, or separated from the roadway, three-mile looping multi-purpose path around the perimeter of your future reworked golf course, which is already sort of a discussion that's ongoing. And you have the opportunity to identify and prioritize some key crossings where you can partner with the county, as challenging as that can be with these roadways, to make those improvements and prioritize strategic locations. So when we look at the two primary facilities that you really have access to, taking off of the table, bike lanes, which are important, but bike lanes typically serve 2% to 4% of your user group. It's a pretty small population, especially in South Florida, folks that are comfortable being in a bike on a roadway. So they're important, but they don't meet a lot of your residents' needs. What do meet those needs are separated or protected paths. So separated is exactly what it is. It's a trail or a greenway, something where there's a sizable buffer between that facility and you on it and vehicular traffic. A protected path is one that is closer to the roadway, but there's physical separation, either by grade or by a barrier device. And so we'll show you some examples of what these look like. Shared youth paths, typically 10 foot is the absolute minimum, 12 foot's the ideal. This is your destination signature facility for someone who wants to go out and bike and or folks who want to walk. It can comfortably accommodate both. This is a cross section looking, this is actually just to the west of your existing tot lot. So we're looking across Northeast 101st Street here. Everything over here is existing as it is today. And obviously this is the golf course to the north. Well, what we're sort of showing is how you can leverage the buffer edges that are not playable space, that separate the golf course from either roadways, right-of-ways, or in some cases residences, as these vegetated buffers that protect a shared trail. Now it's important to note that anything proposed here is not intersecting with the field of play. So as you're reworking your existing golf course, this is something you can do from the beginning. It's very difficult to retroactively add facilities like this to existing courses that are going to stay in their current configuration. So you have a unique opportunity and time here as you're rethinking the vision for the course long term, not just as we've heard so eloquently tonight, how it's impacted so many people as a wonderful world-class golf course, but also how you can leverage the edges of it for greater public benefit to those who don't play golf. So it's achieving both of those things. This is obviously the solution that requires the most space, which unfortunately is what you have the least of. So what we look at here, this is sort of just an example of the vision for this shared use pathway. This is the REC Complex, or Village Commons as we're showing it here. If you can imagine this three mile loop, you're connecting all of these different community assets without really ever having to cross a roadway with the exception of Club Drive at the future Racket Complex. Everything else allows you to stay internal to the loop. No roadway crossings. It would be an amazing asset. Yes, it's aspirational, but as you're rethinking this major rework of the course, this needs to be a community priority. Now, what you have a greater opportunity for throughout the rest of your system where you don't have the luxury of all of that green space is leveraging your wide right-of-ways to selectively identify routes where you can work within the existing infrastructure that's there to create what we're calling protected side paths. So these paths are going to look different depending on where they are because you're working within different right-of-way conditions. So in some cases, you might only have eight feet separated by a curb and a baller that gets you on the edge of a low-speed, low-volume roadway. In other cases, you might have 20 or 30 feet of buffer. It just depends on what exists. But what we did is look at, okay, if our target is an eight-foot minimum width, what types of different streets in your community do you have that might present good opportunities for these or what would they look like so this is an example of Northeast 95th Street I believe right at 5th Ave 80 foot existing right away from back a sidewalk to back a sidewalk as it is currently obviously this is not the condition along the entire corridor so as you think about maybe this being a path the trail might be out or the path might be on the far north edge and it might come closer to avoid existing trees or things of that nature, but you have a lot of space to work with. This is looking at that same cross section, but instead of having a five foot sidewalk on either end, you're simply compromising some of this buffer space, which used to be 20 to 25 feet, to add a widened sidewalk or side path on this end. that could be completed with some additional trail related or pedestrian related amenities like lighting or branding. But this would get you, this is actually showing a 10 foot wide path keeping the same back of sidewalk on a great low volume shaded comfortable street. Similarly here, looking at Club Drive, this is one of the most important connections, because it gets you from Village Commons and the Recreation Center to the tennis complex, or the racquet complex, and then eventually to the clubhouse. You've got about 60, 65 feet of right-of-way from the rail easement to the west there, to the existing sidewalk. But you have a little bit more of conflicts related to existing trees that we want to preserve. So in this case, you're moving the path closer. You're fairly close to the street, but you could separate it physically by a small bioswale that would serve to meet some stormwater needs, as well as a series of bollards along that route, and then accompany that with trail signage. So you're seeing obviously here a slightly less ideal condition, but still much preferable over A, a five-foot sidewalk that really only allows one person to walk comfortably, or B, putting a path right along the road edge. And then looking even more restrictive at even a more challenging cross section, this is right in front of the rec complex along Northeast 96th Street. 76 foot right of way, back of sidewalk to back of sidewalk, pretty challenging, lot of infrastructure, complicated roadway, super high volume, major thoroughfare in this area. But there's still an opportunity there to change how you treat the edges, working within the applicable standards that are set forth that are relevant to that roadway, leaving all of the road as it exists currently, from the back of curb to back of curb, and changing this edge condition and adding a widened path with a protected zone between it, so this allows you for two-way traffic, getting eight or nine feet of a side path on either side, allowing you to work with that existing train track crossing, which you're not gonna wanna go create another one of those somewhere else. So it's an intersection you have to deal with, but you have the opportunity to do it in a way that makes crossing it more comfortable for a broader audience. So when you look at the network across the whole system, and again, this was not intent on being a bicycle and trails master plan, but connectivity was so important that we said, OK, how can we leverage some of these streets, both the streets that you have that are high quality, low speed, low volume, compared to some of your larger arterial state or county roads, and work with what we know are pinch points for those roads. Obviously it's working within their right-of-ways, but it's also critically crossing points. So if you think about crossing Northeast Second Ave, well, I want to cross that at a crossing point. The traffic flow engineers want you to keep vehicles moving, so they don't want to add a whole bunch more of those. So the thought here with this vision is how do we work with each of these existing crossings and your low speed, low volume roads to create this network of side paths that bring you both north and south and east and west across your community. Now, this is a big lift because this represents 10 plus miles of potential connections. You're never going to do all of that at once, but what you are also doing right now is going through the process of updating your sanitary sewer and doing quite a bit of public work around that, all of that within the right of way. So as you continue to do that work over years, that's a great opportunity to partner that with some of these selective improvements. But you can see here, just by addressing some of this flow, you're connecting Bayfront, this whole green space area in your heart here, Memorial, and then as you'll see in some slides to come, some potential future park spaces to the north in ways that are not necessarily offset trails, but are certainly more comfortable and safe than on-road facilities. Okay, new parks. So we did also here, and is quantified by our analysis on the data side, that you do need more green space. You are fairly built out, and so that's pretty challenging. But no matter what metric we used, whether we looked at access analysis, whether we looked at acreage-based level of service, or even facilities-based level of service, you're fairly deficient compared to not just national benchmarks or regional benchmarks, but also your local peers. So how do you find more green space in an area where you're already built out? It's a fairly challenging problem to solve. Now what we're illustrating here with the level of service is the reason this is so important is you really have an added new green space. Looking back to 2010, the parks you have now are really the same parks you had in 2010. In that time, your population has also grown, and although you're built out, it will continue to grow modestly into the future. So your level of service from an acreage standpoint in 2010 was 1.81 acres per thousand population. Well, even in 2024, that dropped to 1.59, about a 12% drop, just simply because your population increased. Now, if population projections hold true, that's 14.4% drop by 2040. So a quality of life is typically correlative with park access, and this is one of the key metrics we use to measure that. So if your level of service is going down, your overall resident's quality of life as it relates to parks and recreation, but also their satisfaction of living here is going down. I'm not going to go into all this, but we did the same thing with facilities, looking individually at how many facilities you have as a ratio of your population. And you're doing okay in some items, but there's obviously quite a bit of red, specifically on the indoor side. So what does that look like? How do we sort of solve that challenge? Well, there's some low-hanging fruit already, some opportunities that you know of. In the far northwest corner, you have some land, undeveloped land around Barry University that's sort of primed for redevelopment. It's your job as a community to advocate that there's a park component, probably a neighborhood-scale park component, that meets day-to-day recreation needs of both those residents and the surrounding ones incorporated within that development. That's an essential opportunity that you can't miss. A second is you have the opportunity to look around some of these key corridors, as you'll see in this gap area in the sort of center here around Northeast 2nd Ave. It's fully built out, but there are underutilized parcels of land, ones that are currently parking lots or vacant lots. You have to find some of those, leverage them to meet some of these needs. It's not going to be what you consider a full-scale neighborhood park, but it could be a pocket park or a top lot. The third opportunity, which we're gonna talk a little bit more about in just a couple slides that follow, is this concept of a 9900 Plaza or something along Northeast Second Ave in your business district. And then the fourth, which we think is a significant opportunity to consider that would provide an amenity you don't currently have, is access to the water along, access to Biscayne Bay along the canal. So I know you've talked already a lot today about the 9900 building. What we wanted to do as part of this process is to articulate what role that building, regardless of how it's owned or how it's developed, what role it could play in meeting community recreation needs, specifically those related to indoor and those related to broader economic goals. So the vision that we have for this facility that again I think could be accomplished whether you own it and develop it and serve as landlord or master developer or whether you work with someone or even sell it off to a developer to operate and develop is incorporating some public multipurpose use space on the ground floor. That's not something you need access to 24-7, but it would be a great amenity to have to complement and supplement some of the facilities that you have at a future rec center in a highly activated portion of your town. So we're showing that here in this concept on the southern side with a large multipurpose room and an art gallery right along Northeast 2nd. Now, in our concept here, what do you do with the rest of the building? It's probably not radically dissimilar from some of the proposals you currently have, except that you wanted to generate economic activity and activity along Northeast 2nd Avenue. So in this concept, we've subdivided the frontage along Northeast 2nd into business incubators for retail or commercial suites. that you could rent out for startup businesses, activate that street edge, it's great frontage, shared infrastructure in the building with restrooms, parking, et cetera, and you can do that at a below market rate cost if you chose to provide some activity on that street. And then obviously on the second or third floor you could have a mix of office uses probably as you've already heard. So the key here is that you have an opportunity for an economic, it's more of an economic development, community development play than it is we're meeting these big recreation needs of the community with this facility. But the other opportunity is leveraging the parking lot behind it, which is typically under-parked. You can still use the perimeter edges for parking, street edges, and incorporate some parking, but here we could envision as a complementary asset to the 9900 building, what we're calling the 9900 Plaza, which is this flexible, urban, distinctly urban multi-use space that could serve both as an event venue to support the 9900 building, regardless of what sort of use it has, but also as a means to draw people to and activate Northeast Second Avenue. People in the Shores love the Shores. They want to stay here. They want to do things here. They noted that. Like, we wish we could do this here, but it's not offered here. We go to Wynwood, or we go to the beach, or we go somewhere else. So the thought of projects like this are, how can we bring people to the commercial heart of your community so that they stay and spend their money and their time in the village? And this is an opportunity to do that. And again, as you've heard, there's a lot of different ways that you could achieve that from an implementation standpoint. These are just some images, I'm not gonna go in, but just show the sense of scale, of the porosity, of how you could open up the 9900 building on the backside, which would all be community-facing spaces to this shared synthetic lawn sort of plaza space. And the last is the water access parcel. So this is a currently vacant site. I believe it used to be a derelict hotel. That was a public safety challenge for quite some time, I think. You could leverage that parcel, which in total is 1.5 acres, use the bottom canal portion for a water access site. So this is where you'd have a small parking lot. Maybe there's a canoe or kayak rental vendor there. You could have canoe, kayak, paddleboard storage lockers where residents could safely store their water toys, if you will, and then have a canoe-kayak launch, non-motorized, where you could access the canal and then ultimately within a half mile to the East Biscayne Bay. Now, the northern portion as well as the shared right-of-way in between could also still be a potential redevelopment, smaller-scale redevelopment project. Okay, this is getting faster, there's only two of these slides. So when we look at all of these different assets that you have in the physical world, it's also equally important what you do with them, how you program them, and how people use them. So we ask similar questions throughout the process of what do you really cherish, and we mentioned this already, people want more of what you have, but your infrastructure limits you. So when we look at the most important things to folks, what's interesting is you're not seeing a ton of kid this, kid that. It's community events, adult sports, adult dance. You're seeing a desire for things you also don't offer because that need is not currently met. So what you really need to do in the context of this overall vision of how you program it is position Village Commons as a central hub. You expand upon the things you're doing successfully right now. And you get a little more intentional about how you track the metrics around those and how you grow those programs and events. So a little bit more sophistication in how you manage cost recovery to offset some of those investments and how you grow those programs. And key to that is planning for staffing growth alongside capital implementation. You can't just add a 60,000 square foot recreation center to your system and not add the appropriate amount of staffing to support it and program it to make sure it's utilized. And same thing, establish a more realistic and predictable revenue capture or cost recovery metrics for each of these different assets. And as you think about doing these new parks, whether it's the large community center or a smaller park, you're thinking long term about maintenance and operations costs, lifecycle costs, as you make those initial capital decisions, because those are going to set the tone for that long term. And then again, I think optional there, but to position the 9900 building as a secondary complementary asset, I don't think that's – I should say I think that's irrespective of ownership. Find a way to leverage that asset, whether it's sold or owned and maintained by the village, to provide both the commercial value but also a supporting community value. Okay, I know it's a lot. We're like way, way over our time. But this is the whole part of typically of our presentation where a lot of folks say, oh, that's amazing, but how are we ever going to do that? How do you eat the elephant? So what we did is we took a look at the projected high level, and again, these are planning level costs associated with each of these projects. So For example, with any of the new parks, which are sort of full reconstructions, we're using square footage numbers that are representative or derived from different regional projects that are delivered here recently. So we're pulling numbers from real construction costs to provide a range, which is why you see a range. But it's not just about saying, okay, well, what is all of this going to cost? So, for example, this is sort of the have your cake and eat it too option, where you might leverage a large bond referendum to do not just the indoor community recreation center, but also a major renovation, full renovation to each of your existing parks and the side path that connects the rec complex to the clubhouse. If you total all of that up together, you're looking at $60 to $78 million. Again, those are planning-level costs. But these are challenging projects, specifically the first two, the recreation center and the site around it, to do incrementally. You could address the parks one at a time, but it's difficult to build a rec center one room at a time. And you could take a $34 million building and scale it down by 20%, but you're still talking about a multi-million dollar building. The benefit of doing something like this is you would have generational impact to your system in a very short amount of time. If you were able to pass, this would really be a legacy setting project for the village where you could see all of these projects including the rec center implemented in five to seven years from planning through full construction versus what could be decades if you do them incrementally. And while this is a very big number, This works out at current bond rates to an average annual impact per household of about $1,000. That's not insignificant. I don't want to downplay that. But what you get for that as a community investment is substantially different than what you offer today. Now, a reduced option that says, okay, maybe that's too big of a bite to swallow, is let's just focus on Village Commons Park. So we're looking at the connection, the park itself, the side path, and the rec center. You're still looking at $50 million today. which is why we think broadening the vision to be sort of full village generational impact at this scale is warranted for consideration. Now, of all these other projects, there are also ones that make sense to pair with other initiatives or other funding sources. So, for example, if you think about the golf course perimeter path, any improvements to the racket center or facility, and some of the side paths that are happening in and around your utility improvement areas, those are all projects that can be stacked on top of complementary efforts. So for example, you're probably going to fund, or at least it's an option to fund, the golf course improvements through a revenue bond. You could pair that and the multi-use path around it, as well as some improvements to the tennis complex, as part of that project easily. And then there are also efforts, as you'll look at some of these, specifically as it relates to filling in paths and infill development areas or new park spaces as opportunities that are more economic or community redevelopment focused and funded as sort of P3 type projects. So these are any of the ones we mentioned that like, for example, the 9900 building or some of the adjacent lots where in the berry example you may not have to build that facility at all that could be developer delivered as part of that development agreement but it's important that you use this plan to advocate for those so that you get the benefit but not necessarily have to pay for all the capital up front oh my god that was a lot I know I know but that you know this is so I appreciate everybody hanging in and I'm happy to answer any questions but I I Thank you. Honestly, I think if you're clapping, you're clapping for yourselves and for your residents because they truly love, or they're clapping because they're undone. Yeah, two things can be true. But your residents love the shores. They love being here. But they also want to spend more time here, and they want to invest in your park system. We heard that constantly. So we hope that this plan serves as a roadmap for how we can do that, and I'd be happy to answer any questions. We can entertain them later, too.

Yeah, thank you No, it's a lot to do. It's a lot to digest on and this is the draft form, but I'm happy that you presented it to the council There are some previous meetings with this as I've been in this for a few years There's gonna be people that will come up to me and say well, I didn't know we were working on a master plan so got any Comments to say back to that now that we have this like when did I get my input? I?

Sure. Well, I would say, you know, we conducted three different needs assessment workshops, two visioning workshops, all of which were open to the public. We have run and will continue to run, and this material will be uploaded to it, a public engagement website that is specific to the master plan.

When did you do the third-party one where it wasn't you, but you did the other survey? The statistically valid public opinion survey? Yeah, that one.

That was, I would say, in the first third of the planning process. I don't remember the exact date we wrapped it up, but it was early 25.

And you had good participation with them?

Yes, we got more than the required amount of submittals. We got a good response rate.

These are all valid.

And it's statistically representative of your community.

No, and I think we opened this up and bookended it with the village in its almost 100-year history has never had a parks master plan. And having a plan, then the next thing to do is line up projects to the plan. But the plan is pretty comprehensive, and I appreciate it.

Well, it's been a pleasure to work with you all. Angie, Jackie, Anna, all of your team have been great. And we look forward to incorporating any feedback you have and answering any future questions that might come up so that we can make sure that everybody knows sort of where the ship's headed. And we'd love to help you get there.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Wait for a second for a public comment As a comprehensive comprehensive it is a master plan I oh it's it's way substantial no the bulwark on the I think some of the roadway stuff it's in our plan and it's easier to go to do T and the county never had a plan Managers update The managers waving at this time At this time the meeting is open to public comment general comment or you can wait for item specific comment coming up Madam clerk are there any comments in general comment?

No, they're all item specific.

Item specific. Then Madam Clerk, next is approval of the minutes.

Item 8A, approval of the April 7, 2026 Village Council meeting minutes.

Motion to approve the minutes.

Second. There's a motion to second. All those in favor, signal by saying aye. Aye. That passes.

Item 9A, in ordinance of the Village Council of Miami Shores Village, Florida, amending Appendix A, Zoning Administration, Section 906, authorization by development permit required prior to undertaking development activity to require site plan approval by the Planning and Zoning Board and a master building permit for the proposed redevelopment prior to the issuance of the demolition permit for any building providing for historic preservation board review for structures listed on the sites of historic significance inventory list. providing for exceptions, providing for severability, providing for codification, and providing for an effective date. Staff on this item is the interim planning and zoning director through the village manager.

Good evening, Mayor, Council Members, Mr. Manager, Ms. Clerk, Eddie Nunez, Corradino Group, Surveillance Interim Director of Planning and Zoning. At its December 2, 2025, Village Council meeting, the first reading of the item was approved, along with direction to revise applicability criteria within the ordinance. So previously, the ordinance WAS WRITTEN TO APPLY TO STRUCTURES BUILT IN OR BEFORE 1965. HOWEVER, THE COUNCIL DIRECTED STAFF TO COORDINATE WITH THE HISTORIC PRESERVATION BOARD AND UTILIZE A FORMERLY ADOPTED SITES OF HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE INVENTORY LIST WHICH IS CONSISTENT WITH THEIR HISTORIC PRESERVATION BOARD SECTION 11-5A OF THE CODE. Important to note, this ordinance clarifies that the amendment does not impose additional development restrictions, but rather modifies procedural sequence of required approvals and furtherance of the village's preservation goals. So this ordinance essentially does two things. Number one, On the development process, if a developer or someone is seeking to develop a single-family home where they're seeking to demolish the site, they first have to go through a site plan approval with the Planning and Zoning Board, obtain that approval, and then they can file for their building permits for the site. So with those two things in hand, then they can apply for the demolition permit. That's part A. Part B is if the site that they're seeking to redevelop falls on this list, then pursuant to that process, they have to be routed by our department to the Historic Preservation Board in order to be considered for the project. And that's where the board essentially gets their opportunity to... Advocate for the the site and kind of talk about the historic significance of it in hopes that the applicant will Adjust their plans and then move forward with the planning and zoning process I THINK ONE IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW IS THAT IN YOUR PACKET YOU HAVE THE CONSOLIDATED LIST, WHICH IS AN EIGHT-PAGE ITEMIZED DOCUMENT, AND THEN YOU HAVE YOUR MORE THE BOOKLET FORMAT, WHICH KIND OF GIVES YOU THE CRITERIA THAT THE BOARD ASSESSED. SO WHEN THIS ITEM WAS DIRECTED TO STAFF, THIS WAS DECEMBER, AND WE IMMEDIATELY STARTED WORKING WITH OUR BOARD IN JANUARY. We went through three meetings, and it was ultimately approved and adopted in March. So they put in a significant amount of time in curating these lists, in assessing each and every property. And I'd like to say that the same criteria that is utilized for assessing historically designated properties was used in assessing these. So the same criteria applies. With that, I would like to give an acknowledgment, because our board members couldn't be present tonight, so I'd like to read into the record. The Historic Preservation Board has devoted extensive time and careful research to identifying residences of significant historic value, each selected for its contribution to the village's architectural character and cultural heritage. The board's collective efforts culminated in a thoughtfully curated booklet, skillfully organized in a clearly documented and accessible finished work. This work reflects a strong commitment to preserving the village's history and underscores the importance of considering these properties for future protection and recognition. And with that, the proposed ordinance before you aligns with the village's comprehensive plan, specifically Objective 6, which ensures the protection of historic resources. And village staff is recommending approval at second reading. Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, this is a public hearing.

Is there any public comment on this item at this moment? Thank you.

John Bolton, 1202 Northeast 101st Street. I'm the chairman of the planning board. So I wanted to give a little history on this item because it looks like, in my opinion, I'll give the board's opinion and my personal opinion. I think this item's gotten a little too complicated, personally. I think the intent, the original intent was, especially I guess on the east side there, we see a few lots, quite a few lots where a building has been demoed and you have a construction fence up that's usually half maintained and a lot of weeds and the lot's not maintained. Sometimes I can think on top of my head probably two or three lots that have been in that condition for over a year, maybe even two years. And that's simply what we were trying to address. By making it a requisite that the buildings stay up and constructed until we have a permit in place, then demo the building, start the construction project. You don't have this long period of blight. So when the board member that proposed that went ahead and proposed that, He added a condition on it, which I dissented from, so this was not unanimous by our board, it's three to two, that all houses listed earlier than 1960 go in front of the historical board for comment from the historical board on whether they're historical, significant, or whatever. And I oppose that for two reasons. The first reason is I hated to just add another whole layer of approvals on people trying to build something in our village. It takes time, effort, money to go in front of a board, and delays. Could delay it easily three months to go in front of the board, get their opinion. But more importantly, as the planning board person, I've been on the planning board six years, When we get comments from the historical board, what do we do with those comments was my concern. We're viewing this and reviewing this development order on the basis, and this is per the code, on the basis of is it in harmony with the neighborhood, not is it historically significant. So the problem you're going to have if we get a historical board that says this is historically significant, we really want this thing to be preserved, now it comes in front of us, if we defer to the board and say I agree it is historically significant, I think it should be preserved, then so we're not going to issue the development order on that basis. That's just fodder for lawsuits right there because we're supposed to be reviewing it for I can continue or I can stop. We're supposed to be reviewing it for the code for harmony to the neighborhood, not on historical significance. So that's just going to give us a confusion factor for reviewing these things. It'll be fodder for a lawsuit if we side with the board. Or if we don't, then we're going to have a whole group of folks that are going to be mad at the planning board for that reason. So that was a big concern of mine on that. Secondly, I don't like, not as a planning, not as the board, but as my own personal comments on this item, on the legislation here. I think what you have written here in front of you tonight is poor legislation, and I'll tell you why. The first sentence is good. Prior to issuance of the demolition permit, an applicant shall first obtain site plan approval from the planning board and a master building permit for the development project period. The second portion says if the structure proposed for demolition is listed on the sites of historic significance inventory list as further described in 11-5 of our code, which we have already, then the applicant shall first have appeared before the Historic Preservation Board. Well, that's completely redundant because if they're listed on that inventory right now, there's a covenant on their property that they have to go in front of the Historical Board and they have to go in front of the Historical Board, that is correct, and get a certificate of appropriateness. That's what is written in our code right now. So this list that was listed in the agenda is not this inventory list. And it's not per 11.5. And if you're on that list, you have to be given some due process. So there's two ways to get on that list. The owner, the homeowner can nominate it or the board can nominate it. If the board nominates it, there's a due process. They have to send certified mail to the homeowner and then the homeowner has to come in front of the board and then the historical board can decide if they want to continue to process it or not and then make the recommendation to the council, to the village council. Then that homeowner is allowed an opportunity to come in front of the council and tell them if they want to be on the list or not. And then the council has to adversely nominate it. So it's an adverse condition at that point. And I think if the council wants to limit what private property rights of these homes are, then I think they need to do it in the process that we have in place. We have a present process in place. And then the homeowners have to come in front of the board and get on the inventory list. And then once you're on the list, a covenant is placed on that property. And then, you know, our code covers this. So I don't think – I think this is a backdoor way of trying to put some control on properties when we have a front doorway to do it. And I think the backdoor way is going to initiate lawsuits. So I don't think this is good legislation here. And if anybody's shaking their heads or has questions, I'll be happy to try to respond to them.

It's public comment.

Okay.

I don't want to turn it into a workshop, but it's public comment. We'll have a discussion about it.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

We have, it's Alice Birch, 1440 Northeast 101 Street. We have had a process in place about this for a long time. And I agree with what Mr. Bolton just said, that when we have that process in place, we have to be very careful about how we change it. We have two volunteer boards that are going to be considering these things, and they need a good guideline of how to do it. I'm not sure that this piece of legislation is that. But I do want to take a moment, and I wanted to at the last meeting. The Historic Preservation Board has done something for me. It has made me fall in love with some of these properties. and a lot of other people with me because they are special, because the owners value them so highly, because we went through the Centennial Homes part, and I was a little lukewarm about those tours, and I just did the mid-mods, which was just a couple weeks ago. A lot, a lot of work rolled into that experience that those people had to enjoy and appreciate everything that these homeowners have done. And I know that the real fear here, and I have it myself, is restricting the way people can change their homes to make them more resilient. And it is so important now that we don't restrict that. But for these people, I hope that some of them are watching tonight to hear me say thank you because it has been incredible. A group of volunteers over a period of at least six years now have put together these lists, have worked with the homeowners, have helped us to do at the Mayor's Ball a presentation and other presentations around the village that have made us appreciate these homes and know what we have. And I want to just take this time to thank them. So thank you.

Madam Clerk, are there any e-comments on this subject?

Yes. The first one is from Patricia Bonaduce. Dear council members, I'm writing to express my strong support for the approval of Item 9A at today's council meeting agenda. The preservation of historically relevant structures is not only about maintaining aesthetic character, but about safeguarding the cultural identity and heritage that define Miami Shores. These buildings serve as tangible links to the village's past, offering residents and visitors alike a sense of continuity, place, and shared history. After significant effort and careful consideration by the Historic Preservation Board, the current proposal reflects a thoughtful and balanced approach. Rather than adopting the initial broad measure of including maybe thousands homes built before the 1960s, the Board undertook extensive research on a street-by-street basis. This rigorous process resulted in a refined list of just 283 homes, substantially reducing the administrative burden on the Village while still protecting properties of true historic relevance. Approving Item 9A represents a commitment to the responsible stewardship historic structures once lost cannot be replaced Their architectural craftsmanship, historical context, and community significance are irreplaceable assets. Protecting them ensures that future generations can experience and learn from the village's unique legacy. Additionally, rehabilitation and adaptive reuse can strengthen property values, support local character, and reduce the environmental impact associated with demolition. and new construction. I respectfully request the council to vote in favor of item 9A and affirm its dedication to preserving the historic integrity of Miami Shores. Next speaker is Warren Bittner. My apologies for not being able to attend the meeting tonight in person, but I am presently out of town. I have been a resident of the Shores for 36 years. I have lived in two homes during that time, both of which are locally designated historic landmark properties. I served as chairman of the Historic Preservation Board for a 10-year period in the 1990s. In the 1990s, the demolition of historic properties was not a problem. However, over the past decade, the redevelopment climate in the village has intensified greatly and we have tragically lost a number of historically significant homes without the Historic Preservation Board even knowing about it. As I understand it, the proposed ordinance does not prevent the demolition of a property included in the Sites of Historic Significance inventory list. It merely requires that the Historic Preservation Board have the opportunity to comment prior to a development permit being issued that may include demolition. This is a minimal burden to a property owner wishing to redevelop their property, if any at all. To a community priding and promoting itself on its historic character, this amendment is way overdue. I fully support the adoption of this proposed ordinance change, and I applaud Stafford's creative and simplistic approach in addressing this problem. Thank you. This concludes e-comments for this item, Mr. Mayor.

Council comment?

Sure. Mr. Mayor, we really have two issues. This is a demolition ordinance. I want to talk about the demolition first. You all are familiar, I'm sure, with the lot that is on the bay at about 92nd or 93rd Street. It's a fairly large lot. It's mowed, it's maintained. The idea that an empty mowed lot is ugly or detracts from the village I don't know, everyone's entitled to their own opinion. But there used to be a house on that, a fairly large house, and the fellow and his wife that owned it, the business didn't do well, and there was health problems, and so they ended up moving to Miami Beach. But he did not put, he knocked the house down. Why? Because you no longer, your taxes go down without a house on it. your maintenance costs go down, you're not maintaining something that you do not intend to keep. But more importantly, he felt that that lot was going to appreciate in value probably faster than the four per three percent he could get on a CD. And so he doesn't even have the lot for sale. He's kept that lot. It's one of his investments. I think, you know, we're back to private property rights again. It's his lot. I don't see why we're going to pass a law that says basically every lot in Miami Shores has to have a house on it. And if you want to knock a house down, then you have to previously get approval for the house you're going to build. Now you weren't kind enough to change the ordinance as far as adjacent homes. I tried to buy my neighbor's home on each side unsuccessfully, but there are people who want to have a larger yard for their kids to play in, etc. I don't see where we get the right to pass a law that says that every lot in this village has to have a house on it. I'm back to private property rights. And as Jesse said at the last meeting, as we talked about buying an adjacent lot, what are we trying to accomplish? If we have an empty lot, in order for anyone to build anything on it, they've got to bring it to planning and zoning, get permission. It has to fit our code. And so the second part of this issue becomes the historic homes. There's 286 of them, according to our current historic preservation board. When Marty Stofik was the chair of that board back in the 50s, there were 47 historic homes. And as you all know, and as Jerome stated, You know, naming any house built before 1965, I thought it was, maybe it was 1960, as historic, according to ChatGTP, that includes 80% of the homes here in Miami Shores. Now, I don't have any problem with people that want to have a historic home. uh... and that they're proud of it and i think that that's fine but if we are going to assume they're going to be no more hurricanes uh... according to the people that i have heard and listened to we're not only going to have more hurricanes they're going to become stronger they're going to occur more often and of course we have sea level rise And so now we go to our historic homes. Are we allowed to put hurricane shutters on those? No. Are we allowed to put in hurricane windows? No. Are we allowed to put on a metal roof, which research shows by nailing those panels every 12 inches as opposed to gluing on a piece of tile, the metal roofs survive hurricanes better. are we allowed to put solar panels on them? And the answer is no. And yet FPNL right now is so desperate to increase their electricity production because of all the AI centers that are getting built that they are offering people the opportunity to, if they can't put the panels on their own house, you can go into partnership with them and they will put panels up in an alternative area, which in turn then will will theoretically belong to you. And lastly, we need to deal with FEMA. The current FEMA regulation is that the lowest living floor in a house, a new house under construction, has to be 11 feet above mean sea level. Well unfortunately, the majority of the homes in Miami Shores are not 11 feet above sea level now. And why did they write that? Well, they wrote it because according to their medium-high projection by 2070, the ocean level is going to be four and a half feet higher here in Miami Shores than it is right now. So that means the bay is going to be coming over the top of the seawall we're building and going up our streets. And so Again, the people that like the historic homes and want a historic home, God bless them. Everyone should do what they want. But are we going to have no diversity in this village? Because I will promise you there are some people who don't want to have a historic home. So I would... Let me end with this. Are we going to live in the past or are we going to live in the future? Or is there going to be some combination of it? Because the future that's coming here is going to require a different level and kind of housing than we have had in the past. I would hope that the village is going to prepare to address that.

Thank you. First, let me just point out, as we learned when we did some modifications to the residential zoning recently. The original zoning of Miami Shores involved a lot coverage minimum. So it was one of the very first foundational things that you could not have a blank piece of land in Miami Shores, I believe. Correct? Okay. You actually never had a right to just have a blank piece of land. You're supposed to have a house in Miami Shores on the land. And if we follow that through to its logical conclusion with the case of the gentleman who's land banked, if we let everybody bank their land, there wouldn't be a Miami Shores. So there has to be some kind of limit to what you can do in that regard. So I understand the concern, but I think that part is reasonable. And I think we need to back up and make sure we're all on the same page here. This is not a list of historically designated houses, correct?

It's a list of inventory. This is a wish list. Right.

Let me provide some context to this. What you all asked for was us to bring back an ordinance that referenced an inventory list. At that first reading, I provided concerns about how that list was going to be created, and then boundaries around how it's amended, as well as what criteria determines whether a house gets on this list. And so at that time, we discussed tying it back to Chapter 11. However, in tying it back to Chapter 11, the inventory reference in Chapter 11 does align more so with a property that has been historically designated. So I do think that this ordinance tonight, sure, you may be able to pass it, but I think you're going to have to go back into Chapter 11 and clarify the difference between the inventory as defined in chapter 11 versus this particular list that was created that is supposed to not be inclusive of properties that are historically designated. The list is supposed to be properties that are historical significance, right? And so there should be a distinction between the two.

These are houses that, according to the Historical Preservation Board, would qualify for historical designation.

What they found as significant. They never said qualify. I think for the discussion that we had and what they've been asking for is those are volunteers. and by our muni code we're allowed that board is allowed to identify trees parking lots whatever that is a historic significance that just happens to be a house list now if this ordinance is saying that we are impeding somebody i don't think that i don't think the intent of this ordinance was just to notify there's not we're not blocking anybody from doing anything on this it's just that we were asked for And that's what the board is. Otherwise, if they didn't have an inventory of what's historic, what's the point of having a historic board? We have a list. What happened was it might be reactionary. There was no notification of one of the historic ones. Now there's only less than 30 of them. just got demoed and there was nothing in place so we were trying to write a demo ordinance that fit this and i thought from our last reading that how restrictive even recently as 2024 we can't write something that is going to go against state law about this and there's rules about demo impeding i thought this is just this is just noticing the person who purchased something

by the way you what you bought is historic it's not the plaque on it that's historic that we designated historic there's two different things one's an inventory and one's actually got a plaque i wouldn't categorize this as just notice i think that this ordinance is very clear that the individual has to appear before the historic preservation board so it's not as simple simple as just notice needs to be provided to the Historic Preservation Board. Rather, the applicant must appear at a public meeting before the Historic Preservation Board. At that meeting, no action is necessarily going to be taken. That's why we're here right now. No action can be taken. Right. If an action were to be taken on this item, I would advise you that it would be violation of SB 180 because now we're adding a new action in this case. The reason why we're even allowed to have this move forward is because we are – Not adding a new process, rather demolition permits are allowed to be permitted right now without a site plan approval. But when you do go and build a house, you do need site plan approval. We're just flipping the order of when that is received. To now add an actual action item for the historic preservation would be different. In this case, could you amend this so they can be simply notified, which the chair in the past... at the P&Z board meeting said that's all that was required initially when she addressed the P&Z board was that they just wanted to be notified of when something took place. That is a little different than what this ordinance does. This ordinance requires the applicant to appear before the board, so obviously that means at a public meeting.

Can I ask a question? Wouldn't it be fair to at least notify the people that have been put on this list by the Historic Board? Because I promise you, most of them have no idea they're on this list.

So by the nature of this item being publicly noticed, technically you're put on at least constructive notice for that matter. But by all means, certainly you could have sent them direct notification about their house being proposed on this list. I'm not sure what the process was, Eddie, and the creation of it or whether those properties were notified.

No, the typical ad noticing.

Yeah, so... From my understanding, I guess they weren't directly notified, but constructive notice at least, at minimum.

I never got to finish my comment. I just think we need to get everybody on the same page and be clear about what this list is, because we're having a lot of talk and conversations about stuff that I don't read in this text.

Again, I like to be very verbatim with you guys. So I'm going to go to Chapter 11 and read the definition of what they consider an inventory. But it's not an actual definition. But when you read subsection A and B, it appears, obviously one could put two and two together, that this is the actual list that is for historically designated homes. So give me a second to read it.

The criteria should be the same.

I don't think. I don't think so. I think they're different, right? Because if the criteria were the same, then you should just historically designate them and put them to the process.

No, because we can't unilaterally. I mean, we can, but this council has made it clear that we have no interest in unilaterally designating historical properties against the will of the property owner. We would only do that if the property owner wanted the historical designation.

Right.

That is something completely separate than what are the qualifications to be historically designated according to the Historical Preservation Board.

But we should be mindful to not to, those rules are in place for a reason, and those procedures are in place for a reason. We should be mindful not to require similar or same treatment for if they're not historically designated. So that's the line where I think we have to be very clear here where, sure, if you want to use the same criteria, Maybe that's possible, but we should not be treating them the same. Absolutely not.

I don't see anywhere where that's implied. Why would anybody think that?

I don't know if this helps.

I feel like people are reading into that, but I don't see that that's not the intent, and I don't see that anywhere in the text. And I think it should be common sense that the criteria is the same, because This is the list of stuff that the Historical Preservation Board thinks could be on the list. But I don't know why that would imply that it is on a list when there's a whole formal process that has to take place and they have to be put on it.

I still think there needs to be clarity. I'm all for that. I think there should be clarity. We should have as much clarity as possible. In Chapter 11, because as it reads, the board will be responsible for a comprehensive and continuing survey of building structures and sites of historic significance in the village. The inventory created by the survey shall include as much information and documentation on the sites as possible. If we stop there, I would say we're fine. Subsection B continues to say nomination for inclusion in the inventory. Such nominations shall be reviewed by the board, and if they meet the general criteria listed in Section 11-3 of this chapter, they shall be recommended to the Village Council for designation as a historic landmark. I think that is very clear and verbatim that the nomination on this list is a designation of historic landmark.

No. That it's recommended to the council. They have to go one more step. They have a whole inventory.

Yeah, they shall be recommended at that point. So I just don't understand how – I think you need clarification at one point or the other.

I have no problem with adding clarification, but when I hear what you just said, that just says to me that this is a list of stuff that the Historical Preservation Board would like to see designated.

Okay. And –

But they haven't brought it before the board. It says recommendation. It's not designated. Even if they wanted to, they can't designate.

So here's my concern with the interpretation from that lens. A list that's created that they can, amongst the board, decide, determine this is historic significance. Unless it's recommended to you at that point and accepted by you, it's not a historic landmark. But at what point, what is the discretion for when items can be added, right? Tell me if I'm wrong. And so I don't want an abuse of discretion. is the clarity I think is needed.

I assume by them putting it on this list that that just de facto automatically means that they're requesting it to get designated. And this council has already said that they are not doing that. So I think we all understand each other. This is their wish list. I appreciate these public comments. The concern is inventory. Correct. So the concerns I think I heard in some of these public comments are are correct in the sense of like, this is what the board wishes was designated, but that's not what the inventory is. It's just an inventory. It's just a watch list.

The inventory is when it is designated, then it becomes an inventory. No, they can't designate. That's the way the code, I believe, reads.

Well, the worst part right now is still the Dade County law that states that if the historic board decides to designate your property historic, you can't prevent it.

This council has to do that. This council has to vote on that.

The council can vote on it. It doesn't change it. Read the county law. The county law, which is what I've been fighting. Janae, help me out here. Line 261 in the Dade County Ordinance on Historic Property.

The county gives us that power and says that we can't take it away from ourselves even if we wanted to, but it doesn't force us to designate anything that we don't want to designate. And we've already said that we don't want to designate anything against the will of the property owner. And we can't change that. That's out of our hands. I think we went down this road already saying, hey, can we take this power away from us? Because we don't even want to. And the answer is no.

So here is, I think, the struggle with the interpretation that you all are drawing from this language is that the operative word here is shall. And so if they're on that list, they shall be recommended.

The list is the recommendation. No?

Through the Chair, so the normal course of action when the HP Board approves recommendation to Council for Historic Landmark Designation, staff works with the attorney to draft a resolution that goes before Council for Historic Landmark Designation?

Correct. Okay. Right. But I'm saying based on this language that we're reading. I don't honestly I don't care how we split this and how much we talk about it clarification is needed in this ordinance like I think that it's very crystal clear from the standpoint even from the standpoint of amendments of how this list would be amended in the future I think valid points were made tonight as it relates to what position the P and Z board will be in when a recommendation is provided to them. And I do think those issues need to be addressed in a way of addressing it. If you want to pass this tonight, so be it. But I do think, and my recommendation would be to go back into chapter 11 and make clarifications about the distinction between the two lists and how they should operate.

I think also just to add what you did, I don't think the intent was this to trigger a public hearing for that house.

What do you mean by public hearing?

What you just said. As you have interpreted it as it's written, that then we just made a list, which they're allowed to make a list. That's what their scope of work, they could put it. But there's a difference between inventory list and designation. And if it's on the list, you're telling me that the way the ordinance is written out, it would trigger a meeting in front of that history.

The way this ordinance is drafted, just being on the list alone triggers you to have to have appeared before the P&Z board, not necessarily for a recommendation on whether or not their property should be historic, but simply to say, hey, I plan on demoing my property. This is the site plan that I plan to present to the P&Z board. And that's really the conversation. And so at that point, the boards, my understanding from, and the minutes can be checked and the tapes can be reviewed, the board, when I say the board, the Historic Preservation Board, primarily wanted an opportunity to comment on that application, to say certain things about it, to possibly convince the applicant. to change their mind, that is the intent.

I don't mean interrupt, but to have the experience that Alice Birch had when she went and was saying how emotionally moved. They want to have that opportunity, right, to try to educate them on their own house and sway them and say, hey, wouldn't it be nice to designate this thing, but you're not obligated to do so.

And so I think there are two different things that this ordinance is trying to do. One, prevention of those empty lots, but you also want to be careful about the historic preservation component and not creating a different stream of process for, I guess, sites that would otherwise not be historic landmarks, right? And so it's a thin line. I think that it's still doable in how we are presenting it, but I do think further clarification would be needed because you, me, I mean, I don't think I'm going to be here in the next 30 years and i don't know about you guys but we need to make sure that whoever comes after us doesn't have to look back at our back and forth minutes to understand what was the point of this so i think the more clarification we can provide we should a big flaw in this to me also which i think mr bolton brought up is uh how often does the the board meet Monthly, if they have a... Oh, okay. Yeah, monthly.

It's not too bad, I guess.

But it has to coincide with our... Well, I guess it probably wouldn't matter because we have certain requirements now with the noticer requirements for the P&Z board. So it kind of kicks back your time frame of when you can be reviewed. So those are the things that you kind of got to take in consideration. But it might be fine.

I just also wanted to clarify that the board didn't have the veto power to not stop the demo. Also, to be clear, it just seems like there's a thing out there that they could block it. It's not. My understanding as well, yes. It's just a clarification is what this was. It's not that they can actually veto a demo. I think there was talk about earlier, this is not what it is. We'd run into a problem with the village if we were passing an ordinance that way.

I feel like people are getting the impression that we're forcing these homeowners to go plead their case before the board when it's actually the other way around. We're saying, please go to the board so that they can plead their case to the homeowner.

yeah because there is there this ordinance is a blanket requirement whether you're historic or not right if you want to demo your property you have to now present a site plan first that's the overarching and i think people are kind of forgetting that's the point of this right and then there's a secondary component of this which is if you so happen to be historically significant to the village then not only do you have to stop at the P&Z before you make it to the building department, but you also have to present before the historic preservation board. So it's just an additional I guess, step, but this additional step is not an actual item that they'll be voting on. It's literally, hey, this is what I plan on doing.

Would you feel more comfortable about this if we waited to pass this second reading with also the clarification?

Certainly, as your attorney, yes. But I also recognize... Well... I mean, I don't want you turning around and looking at me if something comes up in the interim is what I'm saying. So but certainly the preference would be that we amend Chapter 11. So we're crystal clear. But I think in the interim time or I don't want to do anything. Yeah, that would be the only thing because we're at second reading right now. I wouldn't be able to add any additional clarifying language at least. that wouldn't have make me have to come back and touch this again so right now as drafted we could leave it and then um immediately go into trying to get something on the agenda for to make that clarification with chapter 11. but because we have a list attached tonight to the agenda i think there's some clarity in terms of notice of who we're talking about right now That's clear. But for the future, I think we need to make some clarity about the distinction between these two lists.

Do you need direction?

Sure.

Council on that? Are we all in agreeance that we would like to?

Also that it doesn't conflict with any laws that have been passed by this legislature. Most recently. Yes.

So in that case. There's always this. Hold on on that one. This council would never do that. Right. The next council won't do that.

we went down that path there's nothing we could do about it we asked if we could if there was any way that we could take that power away from ourselves but we can't supersede the county law which says that we have that power so as much as we would like to take it away from the councils that come after us the county law states that the historic board can designate any property

they wish to not the council that they wish to in spite of how the owner feels that's that is the county rule it's line 267 and the county can clarify but i'm sure uh they mean whatever the the uh yeah it doesn't go to the commission from there for instance if it's on incorporated dates

Right. So in this case, we have designated our actual historic preservation board. So the way our ordinance is structured is a two-part. They don't have final authority. If they have final authority, it would be different. Some municipalities do grant their historic preservation board's final authority. We don't. So they have to come to us for that final approval. So by default, where they don't have the sole say, if that makes sense. Okay, well, that's interesting.

So what Mr. Birch is saying, that is a possible arrangement in other municipalities.

Yeah, if you get the same. That's not our city, okay. Yeah. You still have authority, so you haven't granted them the full authority there.

Well, I would hope that we would postpone this tonight and get the clarification that we're talking about.

Are we tabling it then?

You certainly can until you can defer it until first reading of the Chapter 11 ordinance. And I can try to expedite the Chapter 11 ordinance so that way you feel more comfortable with the two together.

Is it also, since we're discussing this, and it was, the initial intent was for demo, and I know there's a bunch of demolition laws out there that the state has that are higher up than ours, can one be written now?

I have not looked at the law since my last time of reviewing this with you all as far as the legality of it as it related to SB 180. And so this was already in the pipeline before this session ended. Certainly, I can revisit it because we wouldn't want to adopt something that we wouldn't be allowed to.

Wait, wait. I got to get in here, please. So I got a problem with this because we keep referencing whether we're violating SB 180. First of all, are we not engaged in a lawsuit fighting SB 180 with 14 other municipalities?

We are, and I sent an update regarding it, which is that it was not favorable on a number of the counts.

So you're saying we don't – as the representation, we don't believe in the merits of our case.

No, I wouldn't say that.

Well, I'm saying we keep referencing SB 180 and – No, we're not, though. But I'm saying we're referencing laws that supersede our law here. And so what I keep going back to is we entered in this lawsuit and signed up with all these other municipalities to say that this law is not a right law. But then every time we talk about it here on the dais, we're like, oh, well, are we violating that law or not? Either we... believe in the merits of our case to win that lawsuit against SB 180 or we're in it for I don't know what reason and that's where I'm struggling here because I feel like we should go ahead and do what we feel we need to do because we're we've we're literally engaged in legislation that says that this is not a law that should govern what we say and do and so does anyone else not see the conflict there I'm not scared to pass this tonight

I think we should certainly do the clarification down the road, but in the meantime, I don't think there's anything.

So let me clarify. I think I've said it time and time again this evening that if this was in violation of SB 180, if our firm thought it was in violation, I would not be signing it. And so that's the difference, right? While, yes, we have a lawsuit, and yes, that lawsuit is still pending, there's been some ruling on some of the counts, nonetheless, just because you have a lawsuit does not mean you still, you can now exempt yourself from the law, right? And so if the law still is valid at that moment, even though we are pending a lawsuit, there's no injunction to stay it or to stop us from having to comply. And so if there was... a true issue with this particular ordinance, or if we thought that there was an argument to make that it was actually in violation of SB 180, then it'd be a different conversation we'd be having. And it'd probably be behind the scenes, where I would probably have advised you that you can move forward, but you likely won't have a signature for legal sufficiency. And what that means when you do get challenged will kind of play out in court from there. And so there are things, and I'd say this now, because there will be things that come before you that, in fact, we have flagged that could be potentially in violation of SB 180. And so those are largely related to the our district provisions. So you will have to have this conversation again. You just don't have to have it tonight, because tonight we are comfortable, and I've verified internally with our law office, on this particular ordinance solely based on the fact that we're not adding in anything new, we're shifting the process around, and we're not actually requiring additional extra burden by doing something where you have to get an approval per se. So SB 180 is fine. I think what the mayor was referring to was the most recent legislation that may have passed in this legislative session. That I have not had the opportunity to review against this. So I caution, and from that standpoint, yes, if you wanted to defer it, at least to allow the Chapter 11 amendment to catch up on first reading, you can, and then that'll give me the opportunity to just double check on the building permit. But SB 180, that's a conversation we'll have another day, but tonight, that's not the reason of a hangup if there is any proposed one. Hope that clarifies.

Just for one more, for my own clarification, if your house is on this inventory list, you are required to start a preservational HPV.

If you plan on demolishing your home, yes.

If you plan on demolishing your home. Yes. That's it, only a demo. Okay.

Okay.

Motion or do we haven't heard from councilmember? Is he still on? Mr. Devaney so long.

You have a fifth person. I Wouldn't wanna know let's hear from he has something to say councilmember Devaney.

I see you unmuted. Would you like to share a comment?

I think I'm in favor of approving the ordinance on second reading, but yeah, I would like some more clarity moving forward.

Is there a motion for this item?

Well, I would move to defer it. I mean, we're going to approve it agreeing ahead of time that we need to change it. I don't understand why there's such a rush, why we couldn't do it two weeks from now. What is the problem? Let's get it right to begin with and then not have to come back to it. So I would move that we defer this maybe to the next meeting, give Shanae a chance to look at current legislation that would have just passed, and to clarify the ordinance that, because we don't know who's going to be on the next council, and we don't know that they're going to agree and do the same thing that we might.

So my colleague says you're going to have that ready by the next council meeting.

It's okay. You heard me over here whispering to the clerk asking when's the agenda deadline. So if Monday would meet Friday. Okay. Got to do what you got to do, I guess, sometimes. But if you – so Chapter 11, yeah. Yeah, we'll make the change a slight – a very streamlined change to chapter 11. And then that way you can read them both together.

Is that a pretty straightforward thing, clarifying?

I think so. I think we can get it there. And let's hope we get some other things taken care of, too.

Is Trump the other person thing we have going?

Like your golf course.

Yeah, like that.

Squeeze it in between the golf course contracts.

I think the one for the legislature failed also, by the way.

Technically, if we wait, we're in a worse scenario because there may be legislation that passed. We might not get – but I also – Council Member Birch makes a good point. We do want to get it right, and I'm not feeling super confident either way, so I don't know where you guys stand on it, but I definitely... I could go either way.

I mean, this is one of those things where we're being reactionary. We're trying to... address a thing that's going on. And so it is kind of like a fireman coming with a fire truck to try to put out the fire kind of thing. There is some urgency because if some demos take place between now and, you know, then we're going to get a bunch of emails about, man, a lot of crazy things happen in two weeks around here.

How many demos are on the website?

I mean, I think we've been lucky. I haven't really seen any come in through the building permit, but in the public hearing realm, we probably have at least four or five in queue that we're reviewing trying to get to a hearing. So they're not ready yet, but... It's tough. It's real tough.

And when is your next hearing?

Next week. I'm sorry, this Thursday.

So because of the urgency, let me... I don't do this very often, but I will go on record to say I will have it to you at the next meeting Chapter 11 amendment and verification of this ordinance And wait before we continue what is the clarification so good What I understand what I'm hoping to do is to go in and create definitions between the two what this list is and versus what the inventory as drafted and how it actually operates now. Two different things. And this list can only be amended once approved by you all. So this is going to be the list. And if the Historic Preservation Board decide that they want to now add more later on, there's no unfettered discretion to be able to do that. That will have to be approved by you all. If you want something otherwise, I can shift it and put some more criteria along the line.

Is the criteria that they're using in the ordinance? Or that's just there?

It should be the same criteria, but we can just clarify the distinction. I just want to go in and make it crystal clear.

So I think we have an option here in terms of do we want to police their adding things to the list or... Do we just want to police the criteria?

That's an option, yes. I just care about you having criteria.

Right. I get it. So, you know, what if we just want to have control over, like if they want to change the criteria, we, you know, versus having to approve every house that they want to add on to their wish list.

Well, again, when Marty was the chair, it was 47. Now it's gone to 268. When we get a new board.

Inventory or designated?

inventory well I don't know that what they called it then her statement was at the meeting she was the chair in Miami Shores we have 47 historic homes do you know how many we have yes sir through the chair so as of today we have about 55 historically locally designated properties He confirmed the list. This list does not contain any one of those properties. You should clarify that.

So I think that's important clarification and the reason why we should definitely separate the definition of the two of them. Eddie, just clarify that.

This list doesn't contain any of those 55 properties.

These are all non-designated properties in this inventory. Definitely. This is an inventory list.

So those 50 are not on this list? Correct. Totally different list. They're not even overlapping.

No. Which is why we need to change Chapter 11. That is exactly why. Because right now, this ordinance ties you back to Chapter 11. And Chapter 11 doesn't even speak about a list.

Well, you got me thinking like a programmer now. There's a lot of other things going on. Because it's like, what happens if we actually do designate one of the houses? Does it automatically come off of the inventory list?

We can draft that. And I can, I think... we might need to draft some type of policy or criteria or something associated with it. But I'll do the best we can do in a matter of two days or so and give you the most solid one. But just take into account that those nuances and details might, as this play out, have to be further amended. But I think as drafted, we can probably get started with something general that gives us that distinction and clarification.

Okay. Okay. Well. We need to vote on that.

So, Mr. Mayor, I had, the motion was proffered by Council Member Birch, but I don't, I didn't receive a second.

There wasn't a second. Okay. The motion was to defer.

Defer for two weeks to the next meeting. To the May 5th meeting.

Do we need a chance to... Do we need to add any more about the, you know... Clarification.

Well, she's got a lot of stuff to do. She's got a look at the current legislation that just passed She's got to do the clarification of the list I'm fine with it. I'm crystal clear on what I need to do. So if you just do a motion to defer I mean I

Second. There is a motion and a second. All those in favor, signal by saying aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye.

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Item 19 ordinance of the village council of Miami Shores village, Florida establishing and excuse me It's actually nine being ordinance of the village council of Miami Shores village board amending the village code of ordinances chapter 11 Sustainability and Resiliency Committee to update regulations pertaining to sustainability and resiliency committee providing for severability conflicts and an effective date. This item is brought forth by the Public Works Director through the Village Manager.

All right, so this item was brought at our last meeting, meeting before actually, for first reading, so we're bringing it back. There are no changes that were required, so we're bringing it back as it was presented before.

Madam Clerk, are there any comments on this item?

No, but it is a public hearing.

Are there any public comments at this time? Seeing as they're done, is there any council discussion on this item? None?

Do I have a motion? Motion to approve Ordinance 9B, amending village code pertaining to Chapter 11, Sustainability and Resiliency Committee.

I have a motion and a second. All those in favor, signal by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries. Madam Clerk?

Item 9C, an ordinance of the Village Council of Miami Shores Village, Florida, establishing an enterprise fund for the Miami Shores Country Club, providing for the deposit and expenditure of all revenues generated by the Miami Shores Country Club, providing for accounting, budgeting, and auditing in accordance with Florida law, providing for severability, providing for conflicts, and providing for an effective date. This item is brought forth by the finance director through the village manager.

Mr. Mayor and Council, this is something that we had discussed and we're now delivering on it, that we wanted to have an enterprise fund for the Country Club operations given our new proposed management structure that we'll be having there. What this simply means is that all revenues that are collected by the by the by the country club will remain in the country club and all expenses it will be it's fully operational budget so everything cash goes in whatever is paid from their stays and theirs is and there'll be an operating expense account and um we'll be able to see what the true um earning potential is actually from this this this thing it will carry a fund balance because we know we're going to be making some dollars there. And that's – it would be a true enterprise fund, as it should have always been. Thanks.

Any discussion?

Move to approve motion to the second.

It's a public hearing, Mr. Mayor.

Okay. Hearing as there is no public comment, are there any e-comments on this item?

Motion to approve Ordinance 9C. Second. Establishing the enterprise.

There's a motion and a second. All those in favor signal by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Item 10A, resolution of the Village Council of Miami Shores Village, Florida authorizing the establishment of certain bank accounts and TD Bank for Miami Shores Country Club operations, providing for separate accounts for revenue deposits and operational expenditures, authorizing the use of check and electronic payment methods, providing for internal controls and compliance requirements, providing for implementation and providing for an effective date. This item is brought forth by the finance director through the village manager.

Mayor and council, again, this is, if we're going to be operating an enterprise fund, then everything, we have to make sure we put systems in place to make sure that we could track monies in, monies out. So the plan is just to, so you can get a full understanding of this, is that or better, I understand this, is that we plan to open two accounts with TD Bank. We have already spoken with them. They're poised and ready to move, waiting on an approval from the council about two accounts that we will open with them. One will be a deposit account where all the dollars will go in, and then the other will be an operations account where all the expenses will go.

public hearing public comment hearing is there's none are there any comments on this item any discussion on this item second There is a motion and a second for item 10A, a resolution of the Village Council of Miami Shores, authorizing the establishment of certain bank accounts to TD Bank for Miami Shores Country Club operations. All those in favor? Aye. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Item 10B, a resolution of the Village Council of Miami Shores Village, Florida, approving and authorizing the execution of a charitable donation agreement between the Village and Doctors Charter School of Miami Shores. a charitable nonprofit 501c3 organization providing for authorization and implementation and providing for an effective date. This item is brought forth by the Village Clerk's Office. The Village Clerk's Office received the original application as the council witnessed at the last council meeting. They rescinded the application for charitable donation request because the annual 5K Hawks Run was postponed to the fall. So now they've presented a new application for $5,000 towards athletic or sports programming. The village last year did donate $5,000. Specifically, it's about $2,500 out of the five for in-kind services for the 5K Hawks Run. The village originally allocated $25,000 in the current fiscal year for charitable donations. Currently, $19,000 remains available. This item is presented to council for discussion and direction regarding the charitable donation request. You do have some e-comments on this as well.

Is there any public comment in the room?

Can I just ask a clarification on what she – is the implication that they're going to come back in the fall for – okay, they didn't say. They didn't say.

Good.

So as you know, we are trying to grow our student body, and we are trying to recruit students based on some of the needs that are expressed. And we have always been struggling to bring a full athletics budget to the floor for all of those students who have interests. But in some areas of athletics, we have been very successful. So we are trying to build on that. And we do have dollars for capital projects. So we are looking to, let's say, for example, repair and replace some of the equipment that we have so that we can go forward. But we do not necessarily have the rest of the story, which is good coaching, and availability to students for transportation to sporting events, things like that. So that's why we're asking you for these funds and hope you think upon that favorably for your charter school. Thank you.

Hayden McAdams, 406 Northeast 103rd Street. I'm also a student at DCS. I'm a proud senior. Although I never participated in any of the sports offered at DCS, I know many friends and many classmates who have, and they have made incredible experiences and have journeys. And for example, our school has the seventh best, got the women's weightlifting team to be seventh in the state. And that's just, And it's just to show is that we have the passion. We have many students that want to learn and want to be the best athletes, not just the best students, but the best athletes and therefore student athletes they could be. And that's why we're coming to ask for more, more opportunity, more funding for the opportunity to be the best they could be.

Andrew Lemke, 307 Northeast 95th Street. I'm also on the board there. And I'd like to thank, I know that all the village council people and the manager have been very supportive of our school in the past. But like all schools, we always need something extra, and this would be very helpful, this extra funding. And there's a lot of things we can do with it, and I would appreciate your support on this program. Thank you.

everybody Rachel fabricant 406 Northeast 103rd Street I'm here to respectfully request your consideration of the $5,000 charitable donation as outlined for the last year the board has been focused not only on strengthening the school and internally but also rebuilding and improving our relationship with the community we believe that expanding our athletic programs is a key part of that effort Again, won't repeat and know how long this has drawn out. I wanted to also make a couple of other really quick comments for all of you to be knowledgeable of in my public comment. Next year, we're adding seven new AP classes. On Saturday, 12 of our students will be graduating with their Associate of Arts degree from Miami Dade College, which is the highest number in our school's history. very soon we plan to announce a partnership with barry university to launch our health sciences pathway beginning in ninth grade for high school students which will create additional college and career opportunities for our students and next year we are working to develop a global citizens program with plans for students to travel to europe for spring break of 2027 and then most importantly all of you should have received today an invitation from miss matos And we would like to extend an invitation to all of you to attend our Class of 2026 graduation at Berry University on May 29th at 7 p.m. Again, you all have an email that invites you, and we would be honored to have you in attendance. Again, these requested funds would be used specifically for equipment, coaching, traveling. et cetera, for our sports programs. And so I am very grateful for all of your committed resources and your time and attention to this. Thank you.

That'll work.

I have one comment from Barbara Quinez. I'm a Miami Shores resident. I am a board member of Doctors Charter School. I'm in favor of this item. I believe by expanding the athletics program, it will have a positive impact on the school, especially for recruitment and retention of students. Thank you for your continued support of Doctors Charter School and all that you do for our village community. Next speaker is Risa Strickland. I would like to express my support for the proposed charitable donation agreement between Miami Shores Village and Doctors Charter School of Miami Shores. The athletics department at Doctors Charter School greatly needs additional funding to continue supporting its student athletes and athletic programs. These students have demonstrated remarkable dedication and achievement, bringing recognition and pride not only to the school, but also to the broader Miami Shores community. For example, our girls weightlifting, have earned multiple team awards and individual medals in Olympic weightlifting. In addition, our cheerleading and track teams have also brought home trophies. These achievements reflect the strength, discipline, and talent of our students, while also serving as positive exposure and promotion for the school and community. Continued financial support for the athletics department would help ensure these programs remain strong and continue to provide valuable opportunities for our student athletes. Thank you for your time and consideration. This concludes e-comments for this item.

Is there any discussion on this item?

So when we did the elementary school, they wanted $5,000. We only gave $1,000. And we did a bunch of talking about how we fund Cambridge academies and all kinds of other things, whatever. We fund this school in a very big way. I would say more significantly. And I'll leave it at that. I don't feel comfortable giving more than $1,000.

Me first or you?

You go first, actually.

I know we passed an ordinance also on how the the money that comes before us and the applications are, and I think one of the, if I could get clarification from Ms. Woods, but it's how we wrote the ordinance, it has how it affects Miami Shores, is that correct or incorrect?

Correct. So it does have to, in order for something to be a public purpose, it has to contribute to the village. And so there's language on the application that does ask, how many village residents that whatever programming, whether it's this one or anybody else, what it is actually affecting, right? So if I recall correctly, the application stated that they were going to assist 85. They currently, this program affects 85 residents with hopes of it increasing to 100. That kind of equates out to be like 15%. of their overall number of, in terms of how many people they actually affect with this, with the sports program. So to that effect, the resolution as drafted, the whereas clauses, as well as the agreement itself, does bake in certain, Notification or sorry reporting requirements. So they'll have to be explicit as to how many residents they actually affected if you were to provide them the funding and so forth. So that's generally the nature of public purpose. It has to tie back to the village.

Okay. Thank you.

For the chair, for clarification, the $1,000 we gave to the elementary school was to the PTA or to the actual school?

For the chair, it was to the PTA.

PTA, right. It was not actually directly to the state.

Specifically for an event, public outreach event.

Okay. Do you have any comment on this?

Well, my comment would be this. We gave them $5,000 last year for their run. They only used half of it. I'd propose, if you're opposed to the five, I'd give them $2,500. That's what we gave them last year. And, I mean, this is our charter school. And to 85 kids is 85 families that live here on the shores. You know, I don't... see why we as far as the miami shores elementary number one that's not our school and number two they didn't even bother to come to the meeting they gave us that stuff and but there wasn't one representative here look at the people who came tonight and sat through this whole council meeting and the and what you read on the emails of the people that sent those in so you know i i would like to see us be a little more generous with them but that's my opinion

And I would also like to see us not be any less generous than we were previously. So maybe we can meet in the middle, and I'd like to make a motion to approve $2,500 to DCS Athletics Program.

Does the documentation have to change on that, or just whatever the dollar amount is?

The documentation, yeah. If it's $5,000, we just adjust it the same way we did at the last meeting.

Okay. first and second there's a motion in a second to approve 2,500 for the school's athletic program correct all those in favor signal by saying aye aye all those opposed no okay motion carries next item

Manager's report.

Mayor and council, good evening. Let me just get this what I call a housekeeping item out of the way first. And it's just to speak to the residents to apologize for our bulk trash. There's been a lot of pileup in bulk trash in the village. And it's really as a result of not having enough staff, whether folks have retired or we've had some illnesses. I can say, you know, we had someone who had a surgery even as late as last week and is going to be recuperating for maybe another three months at home. But the, I mean, we've had Jimmy and Johnny, who are supervisors, have been jumping into equipment to get it done and also I'm also doing some additional overtime just to clear up the backlog of us here. So we sincerely apologize for that. Just ask you to, in the vein of what I just said, that you piece out those imperfections with your thoughts. That's from Shakespeare, not me. And also, just to assure you that we're doing everything that we possibly can to make sure that we become current. We have had some interviews last week, and we hope to be making some offers, or I think we have made some offers already. And so we should be up and going very soon. So our apologies for that. We own that one. The other thing I really wanted to talk about was just a follow-up to the resolution that we had when we selected Kemper as the number one firm with whom we would negotiate. We started that negotiation some time ago. In fact, when they gave their proposal, it was a 6-3 markup, 6-3 markup red lines that that we had gotten. I'm sorry, that we sent back to them when we got their proposal. We've been able to wither it down to about three or four red lines as of this evening. We were hoping that we'd have had a contract. I would have been saying right now that we have a contract. Because just to remind you that that resolution said that the manager, that you had given an okay to the manager to negotiate and execute this contract. Nonetheless, the way I am, I like to bring back these things to you. The plan was to have done that tonight, so at least you'd be able to see it and be a little bit more familiar. I know I've spoken individually with you. I know you're aware of the team that has been assembled and has been working diligently even on Sunday afternoons just to get this thing done. It's a big contract. It's something that has not been done in the history of the village. It's our precious resource, one of our precious gems as we heard earlier this evening. And I just want to take, I mean, we're very, very close to very, very close to completing this. We're hoping that when we meet with them tomorrow morning, that we're going to be able to wrap it up and I'll send you a text to say it's done. I want to thank ahead the Bill Diggs and Bill Griffith and Kevin King from the advisory board. I want to thank staff, Ms. Wood for everything she has done thus far. There's still three or four things to iron out. ahead of the historic preservation board stuff. And Ms. Alou, who is really now buried into the little details. She has taken on all leases and service agreements. Those things are ongoing as we speak. Kemper has ordered time clocks. They've met with employees. It's just that we're stuck in... some things that we we're not budging on and so we're we're going to be meeting tomorrow and some decisions will be made made then because the the runway is running out um on may 1st there'll be over um 250 people um in that country club uh because of a special function that's going to be had there on may 2nd there'll be another one on may 3rd there'll be another one so um our country club is busy and um we're doing everything to make sure that that this goes um according to plan um that's just a short of it i just don't want to say much more because i don't think you negotiate well in public and so i'll just leave it at that Oh, gosh, I know I was forgetting one person. Well, there's Marcia Fennell, who is also on there, Miss Alou, Shanae Wood, Donna Rockfield, our procurement manager, and I'd say you just... Someone was worth ever sent that we have um, we've offered him is Steve Brennan who as you know is the the the official from Eagle Gulf who was shortlisted but at At some well he he decided to to To take himself from consideration and maybe or maybe not from the urgence of others and um and so he's joined us and is able to look over these things with uh um with the kind of deep knowledge that none of us would have been able to look at it um with so i want to thank steve brandon he's still on the team and he'll be around for another um two to three months um just to make sure that as we transition that everything will be going fine there and that you'll be that classic owner's rep for us in the very short term. But I just want to say that I was hoping that I would have been able to have had a sit-down conversation with you outside of this and to be able to even bring it to the council now and speak to it, even though you have given me the authority to negotiate and execute the contract. I keep you updated. I welcome any comments you may have on this right now, but at least I'd like to bring it back. I'd really like to have some one-on-one sessions with you after this contract is signed so you are in the full loop of what is happening or what has happened there, how things will operate, so you're informed. Thank you. Thank you. And Mr. Mayor, if I may say one more thing. And thank you for all of your input into this thing. Thank you for taking me to golf courses. And thank you for... for showing me that you're a golfer and I'm a non-golfer. But this is just real exciting times for us, and we'll be in a better place after tomorrow comes.

Thank you. The amount of work that has gone into this is, I don't think the public actually knows, but it's been inordinate. So I'm very happy for everybody that has participated in this. Everybody's done their due diligence, and I'm looking forward to May 1st. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Attorney's report. None tonight. I think I've spoken enough.

Thank you. But thank you also for your input on this contract.

We have more to do.

Yep. Counsel comments? Is that next? Or announcements? Which one is it? You want to do announcements? Okay.

We can go to council comments.

Okay. Since something was deferred to council comments, then we'll go to announcements.

You brought up something in the beginning. I did, but I think that's already been answered. Esmond said he was willing to write a letter. He just doesn't want to fill in all of the personal information. That's fine. I don't have any problem with that. It just needs to come from the village manager. I'm still hopeful we can get this pump station moved to North Miami. And if this is a step in that direction, that will help us. It can't hurt to try. So that was the recommendation from Senator Jones. I sent you that email. I know you have it.

And I spoke with Kai.

And you spoke with Kai. So let's send the letter and we'll see how we do.

And also as an update, the village itself, sorry to cut you off, Mr. Walensky, is the village is out another meeting also. So this will be in conjunction with that, but we're out another meeting with the district.

I don't know that it can't hurt. I mean, I would like to actually strategize a little more on this because I feel like we're now involving Partisan people in the upper levels of government that are on opposite sides, and we keep things very nonpolitical here. We deal with Miami Shores stuff, and I don't – let's just be a little cautious about what forces we're entertaining or we're inviting into our – I understand that. No, it – I don't want to make us a pawn in somebody else's drama. That's all.

But like I said, the manager has been working with the district, and I believe, yes, and in constant communication. Yeah. I mean, also just for schedule stuff, the district is understanding that we're getting a new management company also, so there's a timeline to everything that's happening here. I just don't want to talk bears unintentionally. You know what I'm saying. I mean, even coming for all of us, I mean, for municipalities and also that entity, I mean, a lot of decisions are like we just did pre-budget today. I mean, decisions are made by how much money is out there. And the district still was uncertain about the budget for 2026. So I think timings, even for us and clarification what's happening with us, I think it will get more clarity in May than April. And this is for the chair.

I was sending you an update on their most recent request. Okay. Thank you.

One more thing. There are nine individuals on that board, and two of them now are trying to help us. So this, by the board, I mean the South Florida Water Management Board. And so, you know, this is an opportunity. And, again, this is the recommendation of our senator that this is the avenue that we ought to – because if Federica Wilson is willing to start a congressional investigation, that gives us the possibility to resolve this problem instead of waiting on them to impose whatever they intend to. So whatever, I would hope you would send it. I will.

Do you have?

Yeah, but point well taken.

I am not consenting to that. No, I do not consent.

Yeah, I think I heard consensus four to one, so to speak. Not from a vote standpoint, but I got consensus. Thank you.

Any other council comments? Not even about brain day? I was just going to say that. How much effort was put in by staff and the chamber and what a spectacular day it was. That Miami Shores logo gets smaller every year, though, on the flyer.

I just want to put that out there. Otherwise, it was a fantastic event. We loved it. It was awesome. It's my favorite event every single year. My understanding is that I think they had 90-plus vendors last year, and they had over 140 this year. That is extraordinary. That is amazing growth. So Chamber of Commerce, great job.

The logo might be small, but the village shone on that. Everybody knew they were in Miami Shores. And then our staff and police and everything, the event went off without. And then to get a visit from the mayor of Dade County was also very nice.

Fortunately, we didn't have a bird for her this year, but...

Unfortunately, we didn't have a bird for her this year. I want to thank everybody involved with that. I think it was a really, yes. Any other announcements, madam?

I did have one about the boards and committees. Several terms across the villages, boards and committees are set to expire. The clerk's office has initiated annual recruitment process to fill the upcoming vacancies. An application has been made available to the residents with the submission deadline of May 20th. So that includes Arts and Culture Board, Court Enforcement Board, Country Club Advisory Board, Doctors Charter School Board, Education Advisory Board, Historic Preservation Board, Library Board of Trustees, Personnel Appeals Board, Planning and Zoning Board, Police Retirement Pension Board, Recreation Advisory Committee, Sustainability and Resiliency Committee. Please note that your Employee Pension Board was not included. in this recruitment cycle. As previously discussed, the council expressed a desire for the board to review its current membership composition and provide recommendations prior to proceeding with new appointments. So given that any potential amendments to the governing ordinance can affect eligibility, recruitment, appointment considerations, it was determined appropriate to defer inclusion at this time, even though certain terms expired last year. If anyone's interested in serving on any of the other boards, may contact the village clerk's office or go straight to the village website under the government tab, click on boards and committees, and you'll find mobile-friendly and obviously computer-friendly board application.

And that will be in the newsletter also for May?

Yeah, in the newsletter, social media. It will go out this week as well.

Okay.

And Mr. Mayor, I think the chairman of... of the general employee pension board will then introduce that as an item at a meeting in the future.

Good to hear. Motion to adjourn.

So moved. Second. Second.

All those in favor, aye. Meeting over. Good