City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you everybody for your patience. We'll be starting shortly. Thank you. Buenas noches a todos y gracias de nuevo por su paciencia. Thank you for your patience. We are about to start the City of Hialeah Council meeting for August 25th. I will call the meeting to order officially at 5.58 p.m. Thank you. Madam Clerk, can you please call the roll?

Thank you. Madam Clerk, can you also lead us in the invocation?

Who is it today? Oh. Thank you, my dear. What a pleasure. You want us to rise? You're the boss. All rise. Yes, please. Yes, thank you.

we ask lord for protection and guidance we always give you honor and praise i pray in the name of jesus christ amen thank you please remain standing and face the flag as i ask uh councilwoman monica perez to lead us in the pledge of allegiance thank you

Put our hand on our chest. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Thank you all. You may be seated. Madam Clerk, can you please read into the record the guidelines for tonight's meeting?

Thank you very much. Next item on the agenda will be presentations. We have some very good ones today. They're all good. First presentation will be to recognize two of our police officers for their incredible life-saving efforts, successful life-saving efforts. Chief Fuente, would you like to take over and talk about it, who we're gonna recognize?

Yeah, okay. You gentlemen, you heroes can have a seat for now, right? But they don't... You can have a seat, but don't leave because this part is important to you guys. So we're going to move on to... We're going to skip a few steps and go to a real important step. We're going to move on to item 11F. Surprise, surprise. It has to do with our police contract. Madam Clerk, can you read it into the record?

Thank you. Mayor, do you want us to vote on it first? Have some discussion up here? Do you want the mic?

thank you thank you council council uh does anybody have we have a motion from uh councilman luis gonzalez does anybody have anything to say before we move on to a second motion Do we have a second? Second from Councilman William Marrero. Madam Clerk, please call the roll on 11F.

She stepped away. She's coming, she's coming. Don't worry, we'll get her vote. Are we good?

Oh, hold on. Let's wait for a second. Mr. Gonzalez?

You want us behind the chairs there? Beautiful.

Mayor, where were you when I was a police officer and I needed this raise? I cried so much. I think I was in pre-K. I want to adjourn the meeting. All right. Well, thank you, everybody. I hope everybody's happy. I hope everybody's happy. I'm happy. I live here like everybody else who's up here. So we're going to have an even safer city now that we have happy, happy, happy police officers. Thank you, everybody. We're going to move on to our second presentation. Very important. Also, Madam Clerk, can you read item B?

Madam Vice President, you have the floor.

Thank you. Good evening, everyone. So tonight, it's truly an honor to recognize each of the nonprofit organizations that are joining us here at City Hall for National Nonprofit Month. So tonight with us, we have, um, and when I call you, if you can just stand up, um, we have Andrea Belize foundation. We have, we also have with us the Hialeah women's club. We also have the Hialeah lions club and the yellow jackets. And we also have the farm share team. so each organization that we recognize tonight may have a different mission serve a different population and address a different need but you al

And we have President Melissa Trujillo, Treasurer Olalisa Taglia, Membership Marlene Cepedo, and Vice President Janelle Cepedo.

So just very thankful, so I guess how do you like the number, there is a need within the city, we call them and they're always there, so thank you, the mindset.

I just wanted to add that the Lions Club lost their founder this year. Cookie passed away, Cookie Hernandez. And she was the foundation of this club. And she brought a lot of joy. So I know that she would have been here today with her husband. And they were a beautiful couple, an example of what it is to be here from the city and give back, along with Melinda de la Vega's father, who was also an amazing Lion that worked with them. So I just want to honor those two people that aren't here with us today.

Anna Velasquez, Director of Marketing, and Dr. Alfio Rivera, Director of USDA.

We have served, I would say, over 5,000 meals every quarter, always giving back to the city of Miami.

One more presentation. Madam Clerk, can you read item C into the record?

Hi, Angie, my old friend. Can you identify yourself for the record and your work address will be fine, my dear? Thank you. And you have the floor.

So I'm so happy to see you here, Angie. I know Angie very well through the Hialeah Community Coalition and all the work that she gives back with the youth. About four years ago, I would say, we did something very similar like that. And we did it with police, fire. We taught them about changing the batteries on their fire alarms. We did teaching them about fraud. And I went with Claudia that's here from Freebie. And we went to all the senior centers, and we taught them on transportation, fire, and fraud. And it was super successful. We did it in Los Comedores. I made sure to, you know, bring th

We've been going around with PDE to some of the centers this year. And one of the biggest cases are the AI voice simulators that they capture someone's voice. It sounds like a granddaughter or a grandson. And they start saying, we need help. We're going to go to jail. We got into a car accident. Zell us this money. And they're zelling them the money. And they're losing out. And there's been plenty of cases that we've seen in the community that have fallen into that AI voice trap. Exactly.

thank you thank you angie thank you for what you do i put a little brochure and my information is there thank you so much thank you so much thank you thank you angie good to see you again thank you all right so comments and questions portion of the meeting do we have registered speakers madam clerk yes sir the first speaker is jose ozzy okay mr ozzy you know the rule name and address for the record and you have up to three minutes sir thank you good to see you good evening everybody well they are the 788 southeast park drive i first want to recognize um

Thank you. Thank you, Jose. I'm glad you're OK. Thank you, Jose. OK. Madam Clerk, do we have any other registered speakers?

We have a Elio Oliva and a Maria Antonia Acevedo. I don't know if you speak. Are they here? OK. Do you speak English, both of you? And, OK, this item in zoning, will be on first reading there are no comments related to the item you can come back in two weeks when it's on second reading and then when that item comes up not necessarily in comments in this portion then you can stand up and you can voice your support or opposition of the item There's one vote now, but according to our charter, we do not take public comments. We allow the developer or the lobbyist to make a presentation. We vote on

Yes, sir, there is. It's not too late. Yes, sir, that's when it becomes official. There has to be a second reading. So nothing final is going to happen today. That is the way it works. They will make a presentation. Our rules are. And when it was noticed, it's clear about that. No comments about this. That's okay. That's okay. You could stay, but I'm not going to allow comments related to that item. You follow? You can comment in two weeks. Thank you, sir. I appreciate your understanding. Yeah. Thank you. What? Well, I mean, that's our rules. You can agree with. Thank you. That's right. No. Al

No, Pepe, you were very good, careful, very honored. Thank you very much. Tremendous person. Thank you.

What did you want? Help with the water? Yes.

No, because we can close the water for you right away.

With whom? Yeah. Who's here? Jose. Can you get with Mr. Blanco, refer him to customers, or see if he qualifies for a credit on the leak or something like that? Salvador, before you go, look at this guy next to the door.

Come up here and talk. I'm going to allow it. Please. Thank you, sir. And thank you for your patience. I'll give you up to three minutes today. Go ahead. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. What's her name?

Is that Ms. Acevedo, sir? Yes. Okay, very good.

Mister, un momentico mi amor, gracias. We need to do this, okay. En esta porción de la reunión vamos a tener que traducir cada oración que usted diga para ponerlo en el récord en español. You can talk, but I want you to make a prayer and pause so that the girl can translate it. We're going to start. Okay, Fresquecito, give me your full name and your address, my dear.

and again i wish my pictures and videos would have been shown you can if if they're available we'll we'll definitely show them to the second in the second meeting to someone we're not going to show them today but thank you we appreciate it duly noted sir thank you both of you thank you okay thank you thank you

through the chair all right yes sir um if i may i'd like to recognize maria mejidez who's here with her daughter the former wife for councilman andy mejidez that uh way back in the days was one of the best council person here hi thank you all right any other comments or questions from the audience before sir yeah come come over here okay

I'm going to need your full name and your address, and you can take up to three minutes if you like. Go on.

That's where our trucks... What's your address? 652? The business.

And of course, I don't I get what you're saying. I just don't see what this has to do with the proposed development. Maybe you can clear that up.

Thank you for. Anyone else? If no one else wants to speak, we're going to move to. No, no, no, no, no. Item eight, Madam Clerk, please. Thank you. Oh.

now it's a turn for the city and the mayor to do what's right my man and my father have always taught me to do what's right thank you thank you sir i think that if this development happens we're gonna hear from the lobbyists later but if this development happens those problems will be over

There is a residential- Please, thank you.

Well, Sebastian is a wonderful young man. He's a high school student, so he's home studying instead of being here, which is commendable. Did you come? I didn't see you. Sorry. Thank you, Sebastian. I thought we would have excused you. And he was an intern. You were an intern, right, for the mayor's office during the summer, right? Did you break anything while you were there?

student government president at westland high who else was student government president there you weren't no all right he didn't win that election he didn't win that election he didn't win congratulations to you and i and i and thank you for offering yourself as my nominee for this position uh can i have A motion. Thank you. A motion from Councilwoman Perez, Jaylene Perez, and second from Councilman Luis Gonzalez. Please call the roll.

Thank you, Santiago. Congratulations. Thank you, Mr. Santiago. Thank you. All right, consent agenda. Would anyone like to pull any items from the consent agenda? And this extends to the public. Any items that they want to pull and discuss from the consent agenda? Otherwise, pleasure of the council. Motion for the entire consent agenda from Councilman Luis Rodriguez.

Oh, okay. Second from Councilman Luis Marrero. Please call the roll.

yes mr marrero yes motion carries the consent agenda has passed thank you okay so we're up to 11 administrative items madam clerk this is going to be a doozy can you read it a 11a into the record and drink some water first

Go ahead and read A into the record. Item 11A is on second reading. Open for public discussion. Open for council discussion. Otherwise, pleasure of the council. Oh! Go ahead, sir. Make my address again, Jose, please.

uh do i have a motion on 11a do i have a second uh motion from councilman luis gonzalez luis rodriguez you see i knew he was gonna second it and second from councilman luis uh gonzalez thank you call the roll mr la vega miss m perez

Thank you. Uh, item 11 B madam clerk, please.

This item 11B is on second reading, open for public discussion or council discussion, or pleasure of the council. Motion on item 11B from Councilman Luis Rodriguez. Second from Councilman William Marrero. Please call the roll.

providing penalties for violation hereof providing for a severability clause and providing for an effective d thank you item 11c is on second reading and open for public discussion or discussion from the council or pleasure the television was that you sir thank you a motion from councilman uh william marrero second from councilwoman jaylene perez please call the roll

Thank you. Item 11D is also on second reading, open for public discussion or our discussion or a motion.

PLEASURE OF THE COUNCIL ON ITEM 11D. MOTION. Motion from Councilman Willie Marrero. Through the Chair.

Yes, ma'am. That kind of just brings up a good question. I'm just curious, do we have grant writers or

And we have a second from Council Vice President Melinda de la Vega. Please call the roll.

Changing that again. Item 11E is on first reading, open for our discussion or questions. This item is presented by Human Resources. Does anyone, pleasure of the council, or any questions? 11E. Motion from Councilman Luis Gonzalez on 11E.

F11F. So we're moving on to 12, unfinished business. Or 13, new business. And yes, ma'am, you have the floor. Yeah. I have a meeting next month for you.

If I may, through the chair, I concur. That's an excellent point, Councilwoman. And I think that in the past, we've also discussed having included in the book that we did have it several years ago, but we didn't last year, the budgeted proposed positions versus the fulfilled positions. I don't know if that's included this year, but I did say that.

per department, citywide. Okay. And then the ones that have been vacant. I know in the previous years, we've had kind of like a statistical data for like the last five years. So it will show how many have been budgeted for and how many have been fulfilled in the last five, seven years. We've had that in the previous years. Is that included in this one?

Just to quote Amando Hidalgo, I know that this is a living reading document and it will change. And so if we could have it a month in advance, even if you don't have to print it, because I know there's a lot of costs, it's a very thick encyclopedia. Even if we could have a digital file, we could use the PDF option to search whatever we need if it's a hefty file. Something like that that we could work with and be under the understanding that numbers may change, but at least to look it over because it is a hefty read. And then we're walking into this meeting that we have with you on Monday, and

Okay. I appreciate that. Thank you. You're welcome. Through the chair. Pedro, I have a question. I know we're meeting next week. Will we be able to walk away with the budget book so that we can read it and go through it before our actual first budget meeting?

Okay. When do we make it public? I know our first budget meeting is September 8th, I believe.

Okay. And will we be advertising it to the public? Just last year, we had, I think, less than five people attend. So it would be nice to kind of get.

Right. So residents, you know, don't say that we don't include them in in these decisions. And then lastly, is just to kind of echo on what, you know, last year, I know we went through all the vacancies and we found some vacancies that were 10 plus years. Right. So are we we went through that kind of eliminated a lot of those very single vacancies.

If I may, to the chair, I have one more question. Another topic that I remember that we brought up was how much of the department was funded through grants? How much did they receive in order to function? I don't know if that's something that's included in the.

For example, there's some positions that I know, like in the fire department, that that position is budgeted through grants. But then we also have maybe a position budgeted through that salary. So that's what I want to know. I want to know which position has a grant, but yet we're also budgeting for them in their salary.

If there's nothing outside of, let's get to 13A, Madam Clerk, please.

okay uh thank you for that if there's nothing else in new business we're going to move on to zoning and uh go ahead madam clerk administer the oath well all those persons will be testifying on an item please stand and raise your right hand

from here on in if they are on first reading absolutely no public comments will be allowed outside of the presenter if it's if it's on first reading absolutely no exceptions no public comments please until after until the second meeting second reading on these items so uh our first uh 15A, final decisions, Madam Clerk.

Thank you. Does anyone have any questions? I'm not sure if the property owner is here or from Claudia or pleasure of the council on 15A.

Claudia, is this just, this is. Just to get some information on

Thank you. So this is something that was discovered, a violation, and now they're complying. Any further questions or pleasure of the council on 15A? Motion with conditions as stated for 15A from Councilman Luis Gonzalez. Second. Second. You want me to give it to Willie? Second from Councilman William Marrero. Please call the roll.

This is a final resolution. And do we have the petitioner here or Claudia's here for any questions?

and really here sorry through the chair yes ma'am really here it's that the metal roof should be seven and a half feet and what he has is six correct okay is a reduction of a foot and a half motion motion from council vice president melinda de la vega on 15b

Thank you. 15C is the petitioner here. If anybody wants to talk to him, Roberto Amador and Claudia's here. Just in case. Does anyone have any questions for Mr. Amador, for Claudia? Motion.

We have, for the record, we have a motion from Councilman William Marrero. This is on second reading, though. It'll be open for public discussion. if anyone wishes to do so if not we do have a motion from william marrero on 16a and we have a second from councilman luis gonzalez on 16a please call the roll mr gonzalez yes mr rodriguez he's opposite mr zagmi uh yes mr marrero yes miss g perez

Yes. Through the chair before Ms. Perez, am I able to ask a question to the applicant? Yeah. What exactly is being built here? Is it a resident right now and it's a home?

we reviewed this one this second reading this is second reading yes ms m perez no motion carries the item is approved thank you we are up to well you're up i guess uh item 16b madam clerk please and then we'll stack these right you have a couple more with this correct so Did somebody say something? OK. Let's read it into the record. Hugo, second, right?

Okay. Again, this ordinance is on first reading, only open to the presenter, to the lobbyist of this proposed ordinance. So go ahead, name and address of the record and the floor is yours.

Hugo, so just to understand, the property that is located on Okeechobee, right, like the square, that's all commercial, but the little triangle on the top is residential.

You go a question just I'm looking at this and I see the square footage on the triangle. The 1, that's currently. residential and you want to convert it to commercial because of the uh irregular shape of this lot although it's residential it's not really conducive to build a house on i would imagine if someone wanted to construct a home there with that shape i'd be before you try to get a handful of variances for a home because the triangle lot are very difficult your step backs are yeah and it it

Hugo we. our planning and zoning asked for it to be C2 or the- No, no, no. Why would anybody go down? I'm just curious.

Is there something that you can't do in C3 that you could in C2?

Is this mislabeled? Should this be under C3?

Okay, Hugo, walk me through how, okay, just so I know, what is existing there

Okay, so there's smaller businesses there. And then your applicant purchased that land?

Anyone else we're still before we move on to the connected items. Remember, we're still on 16 B, the land use.

I know that we saw the map that had some of the parking and you shared that it's 45 recommended spaces with six on the street parking, right?

So it would be 45, it would be 39 then and six on the street?

Is the one that's in the triangle that's facing this.

No, the parking, the 45, or the, I'm sorry, the 51 that you're going to do is on that triangle that's adjacent to the residence.

So the spaces will be on that corner lip, on the corner.

three or four i have it here currently there's a storage unit that's there on okeechobee that has it all on the first floor and the building's kind of lifted above it so hugo i'm sorry is the parking below the building and the building's raised up there there is covered parking yes but if you if you go to slide five Because I know that there's one like that right now on Okeechobee.

I'm sorry, the colorful one. That one, okay. So then this is the retail on the first floor, right? And then the parking's on the backside of that property?

So there's nine in the triangle and the remainder out on the street.

All right. Thank you. Through the chair, Hugo, is there? I know right now there's a nine parking spots in that triangle. And that's really the one that concerns me because it's the one that affects the resident residents. Because it's not only your the residents at 652, right? It's also the residents in the front, because you have residents, you have two residents in the front. But is there plans to build something there?

Can't build a house, but developers can get creative.

OK, so there we are asking for a variance for the landscaping.

sorry uh another question that i have i know in the code right or the declaration of restriction correct they're asking so no commercial truck or equipment correct in that property

Six parking spots that will face the neighbors.

Is there any way we can make that fence higher?

we'd be hard pressed to agree to a condition that exceeds your code without a variance but some of them codes were made because of safety it's very hard to scale a wall in a building that might be on fire when it's over six feet seven feet they originally did those you know to for that for easy access to the police and fire and things like that if I made through the chair

Claudia, if I could ask you something. There is a massive center for this, this exact self-storage on Okeechobee. How close is it to this proposed project?

On Okeechobee, we have two other ones. This would be the third.

I don't know if this is a little bit too much of an exaggeration of having these self-storage on this road because they're very tall, massive projects as well. I mean, is there that much of a need for this kind of project to have now a third one on the same main road? Is that all that we're attracting there on Okeechobee, these self-storages? We can't get more creative?

I mean, I don't know. To have a third one on Okeechobee, I think it's a little bit excessive. That's just what I think. And it's eight floors. Six. Well, it seems massive in the photo that you're carrying. Yeah, I mean. And it's just. To have a third one on Okeechobee. It's just. Yeah, you. To me, it's like it's a lack of creativity. You know, this is our main road here in the city. And we keep on approving these excessive things back to back. You go a quarter of a block and there's another huge. Yeah.

yes sir yeah that's what we have to look at we have to look here in front of us is what could be built right now what is it that you are proffering to build we want a motel we want a multi-family we want something to me the the extent of what you're uh representing here for your client is the least intense of views of what right now could be built here. There was a lot of issues in the history in the past about motels. Motels were built here because this was the quarter of all the truckers that brought everybody here and it was commercial and all these things could happen. But you're coming do

So just to address, I agree with some of what you say, Councilman Gonzalez. However, I believe that there should be hands off, but there shouldn't be throwing the papers up in the air and just make decisions that we have no kind of urban planning, no districts, no respect for certain corridors, no quality of life to bring to our residents in certain areas. If you're raising a family here, you don't wanna have an excessive amount of one item, because then you're gonna have to travel outside your city for other ventures, whether it's restaurants, whether it's hospitals, whether it's parks. You n

I do agree with you on some items, but the beauty of this government, right, is that we can agree to disagree and we're up here respectfully to have conversations. And it's okay if we disagree, right? I will say, I think since day one that I've been here, I've always kind of expressed to anybody who comes up here is that I would love I would love to see less high rises, right? I don't wanna take away from residential. So it hurts to change an R1 to a commercial. But in the space that there is there now, we can't say that that is the least, right? Because there's a restaurant there now, there's

The traffic doesn't. Okeechobee is a traffic site, right? But when you have restaurants, that's something that everybody can enjoy. Leave Hialeah. So many people leave Hialeah for restaurants and entertainment and stuff. And I would love to just.

First from Councilman Luis Gonzales. Second from Luis Rodriguez. Okay. I'm still thinking about all these three things. Go ahead. Call the roll.

Second reading and public hearing is scheduled for September 8th, 2026 at 7 p.m. With the permission of my colleagues, let's go to the associated, let's jump to the associated items in zoning, which would be 17F. Would you like to read that into the record, Madam Clerk?

Thank you. 17F is on first reading. not open to public discussion but if anybody has any more questions or pleasure of the council motion motion from councilman luis rodriguez second second from councilman luis gonzalez please call the roll mr marrero yes miss g perez

17 h's on first reading and um Any questions or pleasure of the council? Motion. Motion from Councilman Luis Gonzalez. Second. Second from Councilman Luis Rodriguez. Please call the roll.

I just wanted to say something about the comments that were going back and forth. I think it's just my opinion. It's a valid point. Many cities do create an urban map, a master plan, right? But we have to be careful in situations like this. What we can do in the future is, which we've done before, Claudia hasn't been here that long, but we have areas in the city, for example, around us, we can't open another car wash. There are certain businesses they don't want anymore in certain areas. When they envisioned the downtown, they didn't want, you know... Palm Avenue to be for the car wash and eve

We'd have to create an ordinance like that. Like we have with pawn shops and things like that. Like we limit them, right? But since we don't have it for this, that's what it is. We have to be careful and it's their money. It's there, yes, and we do have that freedom, that right to deny it, but we have to be careful. If we don't want it there, we have to create an ordinance prohibiting certain businesses in certain areas if we really feel that there's too many of them. And I agree, there's a lot of too many businesses. We do have too many check cashing, too many clinics, too many pawn shops, to

I made through the chair. I think that's an excellent point, Councilman. And you're right. We have it for the pawn shops. We have it for the gun shops. We have it for the vapes, the vape stores. I'm not really aware what other business has this imposed in the ordinance, but I would be interested in kind of getting a review on that. If you have any other businesses that are included in these restrictions of radius of being near one another, I would love to get a study on that. And I know that this is something we've discussed in the past. When we did the Hialeah 2050 plan, we asked, what are th

What business have restrictions, right? What business have restrictions? Distance and yeah, okay.

Through the chair, I want to say that I love that idea and I think that's a great idea. Are we able to do what we recently did with the boats, the discussion? Are we able to do a workshop?

Because that's where we'll discuss any ordinance changes and zoning ordinances too can be discussed there. Absolutely. Love it. Thank you. You're very welcome. So we're up to, we're back to 17A, right? Yes. Is that what you said? Yes. All right. Thank you. Yeah, we ready?

One moment. Are you going to speak about this item, particularly the storage they want to build? Yeah. Is that what you're going to talk about? Are you in opposition of that? Specifically, please, not about our parks and our pools. Are you going to talk about this item and how it... Sir, I'm a professional, okay?

All right, go ahead. Name and address for the record.

No, no, don't be the First Amendment rights. You're not an attorney. You can't give legal advice in this state. I asked you a simple question. I'm not denying you your First Amendment rights, so stop going out on those tangents, okay? Thank you.

About this item. You had comments and questions. I have the right to speak. Go on.

That being said, thank you, Madam Attorney. That being said, if you could speak about, if it's directly about this item in particular, fine. If not, I'm going to have to ask you to abandon it.

I absolutely have the right. I'm going to speak on this item. You can't tell me what my rights are. You can't tell me what my rights are.

No, not in the United States. State stuff. Go on. Go on. Go ahead. It's not going to be about this item. Go on.

You're welcome. Pleasure of the council for any motion on 17A. From? Rodriguez. That was Louis Rodriguez. And William Marrero for a second on 17A. Thank you. Call the roll.

I'm sorry, we had the accompanying item, right? Yes. I should thank you for your patience. Does anybody have any questions? This is a second reading. Does anyone have any comments or questions on this for pleasure of the council? Who did first? Thank you. William Marrero, Councilman William Marrero for a first, and Councilman Luis Rodriguez for a second. Please call the roll.

So we're going now to 17D, right? Yes, sir. Yeah. Okay. Go ahead.

Thank you. This item is on first reading, not open for public discussion, but we will now allow the lobbyist, Mr. Lucas, right?

Yeah. And then name and address for the record, sir. Thank you.

It says La Sirena Beach. Yeah. Fish market coming soon.

It is, Claudia, right? It is. You can have outside sales. You can't put an additional, like a little truck with frozen or fresh fish. No. But if it's within, they can...

They can serve it and offer it inside the business.

Any questions for Mr. Lucas? Mr. Lucas, I just wanted to say something also. I've been following this business for years. They've been getting complaints and I've been getting calls from the owner too. No, push and pull. The main problem with this business was its lack of parking. That was the main problem. And that was the biggest disturbance in the neighborhood. People were parking in the residential swales and then tossing their garbage, you know, their containers, their clams, they get the food with just tossing them right on the sidewalk. And there wasn't really anybody monitoring that an

If I made to the yes, ma'am, and thank you for bringing that back. Because, yeah, those were a lot of the concerns when this application came before us and I believe it was also a drive through back when it 1st came and then that was null and voided that. In addition to all the concerns that that the councilman has brought up. Another issue that we had was that the applicant decided to purchase that home and demolish it, going east and west, impeding onto the neighborhood instead of continuing going down north and south and expanding down that main corridor. Now he encroached into the neighbor

It looks like a like a structure to building. So then now they're not using the home, because they're so now the home, but the home then got some asphalt poured in front of the home and became a driveway. Is that home now going to be put up for sale? Are they planning on demolishing that home as well and doing something else?

Well, no, it's not separate because it was part of the storage of those restaurants. So currently, is the restaurant utilizing that property for the restaurant?

All right. Mr. Rieskog, did you want to? Yes, if you don't mind.

including but not limited to the use of the property for storage at restaurant materials or any other commercial use it's a it's a house it needs to stay a house is there anything in there that that um we could add that it's not to be demolished because i think that that they demolished that property that was next that's now the parking lot without even taking out um a permit they just demolished it without

I understand your concern. The way I see it, it was tied because it was being used as an extension of the business. And considering the trajectory of what we saw, the other property was zoned R1 and it was demolished without taking out a permit. The original lot. When the previous director was here from zoning, that's what I was told at the time. And that was one of the reasons that the council had taken such a strong stance because not only were they being bad neighbors, not only did they not follow the rules, not only did the neighbors bring us pictures of littering up and down the block, bu

Mr. Lucas, and I want the council to know, and he's the lobbyist, I'm not. This business has been around since 2006, you said, right? Eight. Eight. With all due respect to the people who preceded us, and it could happen to us one day in the future, somebody will look back and say, shame on us, shame on them. They should never have allowed a business like this be built so close to a residential neighborhood a business like this that needs so much parking that has so much movement they should never have allowed it we should never have a lot wait none of us were sitting in this chamber in that we

Yeah. i feel like i'm in an auction okay so we don't have a motion so madam clerk what happens now we need to take action do we make them what what do we do deny it we table it we we can that those are the choices

Through the chair, Mr. Lucas, I think, and I've been kind of open with everybody that anytime something like this comes, you know, for me, changing a residential to a parking, I have a hard time with that. So it has nothing to do with the parking. It's truly just kind of blanket. I've always been no residential, you know, no switching residential to parking.

uh i think we should be very this is a residential area r1 how would you like to have a parking lot beside your house you know plus mcdonald's very busy i'm born and raised in the area so i have a challenge with this right now so i motion to deny second okay um so we have a motion to deny

We're going to take a vote on that, right? As an attorney, we're well within our... Okay. So we have a motion to deny from Councilman Luis Rodriguez, and we have a second motion to deny from Councilwoman Jaylene Perez. Please call the roll.

Thank you all very much. Thank you, sir. Have a good night. All right. We're up to...

Thank you. This is on first reading, not open to public discussion. Are you the registered lobbyist, sir, Alter Gambardi? Good evening, sir. And we'll also stand by also, Claudia, in case we need you here. Go ahead, sir. Did you want to say something, name and address for the record? Yes.

The use and amount of parking is what we're looking at is setbacks here. Claudia, this, at least to me, this, okay, front setback, zero feet where 10 feet are required. What does that mean? Where is this front? I don't even know where the front of this house is. Is it on 8th Street or is it on the avenue?

But that would be used for parking, not a structure, right?

What's this project? Because I don't see a changing of zone. Is this?

Through the chair. Yes, ma'am. I'm looking up the property on Google. The...

Okay. So they're just here to come up to code, I'm assuming?

There's a building there. They're changing that building?

You just said you're pushing up the whole thing? Okay.

motion carries the item is approved second reading and public hearing is scheduled for september 8th 2026 at 7 00 pm you're very welcome sir okay oh that's it we're done right one more no i know i know i know somebody will kill me here item g madam uh Madam Clerk, read it into the record. Item G, Senator.

Thank you. This is on first reading, not open for public discussion. But we do have the registered lobbyists here with us. Ms. Maritza Haro Salgado, would you like to make a presentation or speak about?

Thank you. through the chair yes sir so I I it's amazing how much need we have this because of and when you try to look for new apartments new businesses you got to go Miami Lakes you got to go down south you got to go to Kendall we just don't have that spaces here so I like the idea I mean it's positive for me uh I think it will attract young you know not young but people just trying to in that office professionalism so I mean I'm good with it um I have emotion

We have a motion. I'm sorry. Second. Did you say second? We have a motion from Louis Rodriguez. We have a second from councilwoman Perez, Jaylene Perez. Please call the roll.

Have a great evening. Thank you, Maritza. Thank you. No other. All right. We're officially adjourning the meeting of City of Hialeah Council meeting of August 25th at 9.54 p.m.