Planning and Zoning Board - Regular Meeting

I will make the motion to appoint Mr. Forbes as the chair.

I'm Carolyn Baumel, I think everybody already knows me. Have a great day.

Ruben Bravo, I work for a general contractor, right? We do big corporate buildings and stuff like that, right? Been in Surfside for 14 years now, and originally from Chile.

the session before and we really had a good time together and i think that uh... we're all going to do some good for the next couple of years i'm lindsay licor i've been a resident of the town for twenty years uh... i am i work for a multi-family developer we build affordable workforce and market rate housing been doing that for about twenty years and been involved with this board pretty consistently since about twenty eleven so happy to be back

James McKenzie. I've been living in Surfside about 24 years, more or less. I'm an architect by profession with licenses in three different states because I've worked in several states. My office currently is in Miami Beach, or I should say my office is in Miami Beach for 30 years already. And I continue to practice. That's about the story.

Turn on the mic. There's a button next to the base. Other side. There's a little button on the bottom. On the right side.

Is there a second? And I know there's a motion on the table, but none of us were. I mean, Lindsay, you were in that, so you know better than anybody, right? But we were not. I wasn't part of that meeting, so I don't know how can we approve it.

Through the chair, I'd like to ask Lindsay, was there anything of any importance in those in that session that we should be cautious about or?

Yeah, I mean, I think they typically reflect a very simple, you know, part of the discussion, so pretty straightforward.

Was this a meeting where maybe design guidelines were discussed?

I don't believe so. The design guidelines had been approved by that point, so no, I don't believe so.

And other than that, there were only applications then?

Regular applications that were all approved or some of them got turned back with conditions or what happened?

I don't think the applications are the problem. I think if anything had to do with any kind of, you said that there were additional items approved for? No, just discussion items. There was just discussion. Were they discussion items that were moved and asked to go to the commission?

So if that is the situation, I agree with Board Member Bonnell to Give us the opportunity to go over this and defer it to our next meeting.

I think that the minutes should be deferred.

I'd like to take a look at them. So I'd say yes.

What was not, which property did not meet?

May I ask, when did we know about that? Because it's part of our package, and we put our time review in it, so.

I would appreciate in the future to give us proper notice when we receive that notification.

Let's get there. I'm sorry. Before we continue, I have a question for the town attorney. I have a question for you. So at what point in time we say that we have been contacted by any parties pertaining to the project?

That's usually at the start of the meeting.

So this time I would like to say that I've been contacted by Mr. Carlos Shady. And now he presented the house, the project to me.

I also met with him. And no, it doesn't affect my decision.

I was also contacted by the owner of the property. It wouldn't affect anything.

Before you move, can I ask you a couple of questions on join A003? right on the understory here yes if we go to the AC storage future elevator that area yes you have a door to get into that area but when installed when you install the elevator you're not going to have a space for maintenance for the pool equipment right so are you planning on having a future door somewhere else

First, yeah. In the first floor. Where you have the future elevator.

Question for you also. Yes. On the roof elevation, there are two sort of conduits or pipes popping up. What are those?

And that doesn't fall into the mechanical equipment line of sight rules?

Ventilating? Ventilation? Maybe we could double check that. Okay.

If we look at the ground floor, can you explain to us or give us any guidance? Because in the plans it's not clear how you're going to create an isolation space, air-conditioned space at the ground level for the stairwell to function properly.

What is the envelope of that stairwell in the understory? What does it look like? Here?

This is a window, exactly. What's a window, Graham? On the left.

Okay, so that glass is sitting in the flood zone, right? It's below plus 10.

Okay. So the owner is cognizant of the fact that if there's a major hurricane, that whole entire space is going to be flooded. And the access and exit from the house will be compromised because of that.

so we're not i didn't understand any of it i'm sorry it's a glass enclosure all around the entrance which sits at plus four plus four correct right now my door that criteria is plus 10 for habitable space correct so we have a habitable space that's sitting below the norm This is not something I'm inventing. This is the code.

I guess my point that I want you to understand is you are now responsible for violating the code, if you will, if we accept it the way it is. Another story would be if you say, I'm going to meet flood criteria by creating a concrete wall, which is going to be waterproofed. and I'm going to, in the doors, I'm going to be putting some flood panels to prevent that area from becoming a hazard, and then I'm going to sit all the glass, all the sectional glass, because I'm assuming they're all straight pieces of glass interrupted by extruded mullions that are larger than a normal mullion, and we're g

Well, I think it's important for the board to underscore these things that are in clear violation of the code. If not, then what are we doing here?

Okay. I think it's important to underscore for this board, at least this is why I'm here. Because if you don't need me, believe me, I have better things to do. The important thing about this board, I think, is not only just taking care of what sensitive areas of design that are in contradiction with the fabric of our town, or that are in contradiction within their own scope of design. You've chosen a modern home. Respectfully, I think it's beautiful. But I think it's important that we understand also that part of our mission is to make you aware. Because I don't think the city wants another la

I expressed my opinion to the owner when he came to me. I thought it was a very smart way of using the understory. And I think it's certainly a far cry from anything that we've seen in Surfside. And I commended him for that effort. It's a one story house. He seemed to be very informed about all of the guidelines and so forth. But in terms of the design language that you chose, I was just wanting to offer you a thought.

i just want to say thank you mckenzie for your points i think they're important and significant and i thank alex for pointing out what he had to say but ultimately it just comes down to you meeting fema guidelines and making sure your property is safe because you won't be able to get insurance without it and

Since we're asking questions, I have another one, right? I just noticed this, my apologies. Drawing A003 again, we go to the kitchen area, right? And you have a continuous window over there, right? In that area. But if we go to the elevation, On 005, we go to elevation. The window is not shown continued. I'm guessing that's going to be the final result.

So this is the double nine is the window.

It shows it in there. So I think that's the final one. Right. OK.

I have a question. Were you done, Ruben?

Ruben? Are you done? Yeah, that was my question. I wanted to make sure that that was the final result.

Um so I think the the massing in the scale of this is really compatible with the neighborhood and I you know I I'm obviously a proponent of the understory so I you know I appreciate that design um there were just two questions I had one being um the the nighttime lighting scheme could you could you pull that up?

Yeah, the rendering is fine. So one of the values in the design guidelines is sort of a subtle nighttime lighting scheme. And I just, I wasn't sure, the lighting along the stairway seems kind of bright and white.

Okay, so I think that could just be compatible with the design guidelines, you know, 3,000 Kelvin or below. Yes, natural, not pretty subtle. Awesome, thank you. And then the other comment I have is more generally about our value in the design guidelines to preserve the tree canopy, and I want to say thank you for Relocating the large Royal Poinciana tree, I think that's going to be challenging. So, you know, where it's currently located, you're putting a tree. I don't know if you could work around that. Instead of trying to have to relocate it, I'm afraid it might not survive that, and it's be

Thank you. Beautiful. Yeah. And obviously the mango, you can't keep... It's right in the middle of your footprint. I don't know if it's worth trying to relocate that. And then the other one, you have a beautiful large mamey at the property line that doesn't seem to be in the way of the pool. Maybe you could try to keep it if you could.

And then my last comment on the landscaping is in regards to, I believe you have the clusia along the sides. And I just, I wonder, those typically get to be about, you know, eight feet tall. Your home is quite tall. I'm wondering if there might be a way to have a little bit more of a green screen for your neighbors for the long side elevations there with a little more layering or higher trees per what the landscaping guidelines are.

Yeah, podocarpus. Yeah, calusia gets out of control.

They also fall over after a hurricane, the calusia, because they're not deep-rooted.

I would move to approve with staff conditions and just the conditions regarding the nighttime lighting and the landscaping be compatible with the design guidelines and and to save try to save the Port Royal painting points in the front.

I think you're saying I'm so sorry I'm so sorry. Yes.

Can I move to approve? This is pretty straightforward. It's moving everything from April to November.

I think this, there's a number of- This is what you had. This is a number of items that are, I think we need to update these because a lot of them have

Yeah, I think a lot of it needs to be removed because it's been already addressed.

Is there any additional literature attached to this or is this it? This is all that the town planner had put in the item.

I mean, if I may, this is just things that had come up over the course of conversation for future discussion. It's a repository. It's not really for discussion tonight. It's just really something to hold ideas for discussion in the future.

It says future discussions. That's what it's titled.

I would, if I may, I would ask to revisit the topics here because, in example, we do have artificial turf, and we are recommending code change not to allow artificial turf, even though I don't like, and I'm sorry I'm going to say I don't like artificial turf, but Florida state law doesn't allow local towns

So to that point, a very valid point, we should get an update on this list and then just where I was going to go. Right.

Second. Come on, guys. Don't be shy. Angelina.