Virginia Key Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

It's Tuesday, June 23, 2026. Virginia Key Advisory Board, thank you all for being here. And we'll promptly see if we have a quorum. And also, we have one new member who we will say hello to after we hear about the quorum. Excuse me, Monte. Thank you very much. Rafa, do we have a quorum this evening? Yes, we do?

Thank you, everybody, for coming. We will do a Pledge of Allegiance and then we'll move on with the agenda.

Thank you very much. Any requests for absence waivers?

Okay. And just so everybody knows, when would be their next meeting? Will it be in August or September?

Okay, thank you very much. If everybody can put that in their calendars. It's very close to Labor Day, but there'll be a meeting on August 25th at 5.30. And we're going to move on to the Virginia Key Advisory Board discussion items. And there's one item that's been on our prior agendas that hasn't been, that's not on this agenda, which is the chairmanship for this board. I'm currently the chairman of the Virginia Key Advisory Board, but I may be at my eight-year term limit. I may be stepping down before the next meeting. So the board members will have to nominate and appoint a new chair and pr

That you'll have to ask the city attorney, I'm afraid.

I know in previous boards, there's always been one or two board members that are happy to be chairman or be the vice chairman. I'm sure that will be the case again. And I also would like to announce that Andres Rivero, who's been a board member for... two or three the last two or three meetings he is not a board member today but he may be a board member again representing a different group he was representing francis suarez through the mayor's office and he may be the representative of the urban environment league if he sits on the board again in august or october just everybody has a heads up

Anybody else have any other questions or thoughts on that issue? All right. Since we have a representative here from Saviano Miller, the architect, the very well-known and renowned architectural landscape firm. We're going to discuss the landfill site. And I know the firm, and it was Mr. Miller who presented at a previous meeting some changes and the updates to a plan that's been actually years in the works. and we will see an abbreviated update tonight and the board members will have the ability to ask questions of city staff and also of the wonderful landscape architect who's present tonight

And we'll also hear from our wonderful professionals from the city staff.

And while we're waiting, Gary Milano, our board member, has been very involved in this site and this section of Virginia Key Park for many, many years. And we look forward to any questions you have you see updates to the plan. Thanks, Gary.

Any questions before Gary asks a question or two? Any board members have any questions at the moment? I'd like to ask if any board members have been to South Point Park in Miami Beach. Has anybody been to South Point Park? It's really designed by the same firm, Saviona Miller. Incredibly beautiful and incredibly popular. How many acres is it approximately, Patricia?

How many acres is the other park you recently did in Miami Beach is Bayshore Park? Is that right? Okay. And that's incredibly beautiful and award-winning and popular with residents, particularly residents in the adjacent neighborhoods. Correct. Can we have any questions from Gary Milano on the...

I have a quick question. Gary Milano, and thank you for bringing up some of the history of Virginia Key Park and the master plan. I have a copy of the master plan that's dated 2010. I think Patricia has a copy, too, and we saw one of the drawings from the 2010 master plan in her presentation. Gary, you attended dozens of meetings during that period, 2008, 2010, until this was approved. Was it your opinion that residents wanted to maintain nature and have as little structural or building footprint on the site as possible? They want to protect it and preserve nature?

Then my question was, you never heard any residents asking for condos or hotels?

I have a question for Hector. Hector, approximately how much would this cost the taxpayers to execute this conceptual plan?

Patricia, do you recall how much it cost the City of Miami Beach to do South Point Park?

That's okay. Everybody has to keep things in perspective. The plan's beautiful, but of course there has to be money to pay for the plans and execute the wonderful drawings.

Thank you very much, Gary. Hopefully everybody at the city will take note of Gary's phone number and contact information. Thank you, Gary. Let's see. If we don't have any other questions on that issue, we'll move on. The next item on the agenda, there's important articles in the Miami Herald and also in, I believe, Miami Today and I think Miami New Times. I think, Miami New Times, I think everybody, does everybody have a copy of the articles that Rafa provided for us? And I think she also provided them to us via email. As all of us know, the Virginia Key basin, historic basin, which I think is

Yes, we did get some comments a month or two ago from Leah Kennard, who represents the historic basin, the water, and the Miami Rowan Club.

You could see the bottom of the bay that you weren't able to before, and it was largely because There were less abandoned vessels. And I think there was some enhanced enforcement from police and Florida wildlife, from the illegal motor boaters, jet skiers, who often have a preponderance to drink too much or do too much drugs and speed ride illegally. Did everybody see Leah Kennard's comments on the cleanliness of the water in the bay? And also, obviously, if the historic basin is converted to a mooring field, well, a lot of that cleanliness will likely disappear. Any other board member comment

It's an excellent idea, Gary. Any comments from any board members? Maybe we could hear from a city staffer on the progress of the mooring fields. I know they were approved by city commissioners maybe 12 or 18 months ago. They're in the works through the city administration. Does Hector want to comment on the mooring field? Is Hector still here? Hector, would you like to bring us up to date on the status of the mooring field?

Would that be being managed by DREAM? Correct. Well, we have the new board member here, Virginia Key Advisory Board, who happens to be the director of the DREAM. And DREAM stands for Department of... Alejandro, would you want to introduce yourself? By the way, thank you for joining our board.

Absolutely. Alejandro Martinez Esteve. I'm the director of the Department of Real Estate and Asset Management. Thank you. That's your dream acronym. I'm not familiar with the Mooring Project, but I will definitely follow up with staff and I'll provide that update to the board so they have that update. Just by way of background, I've been the director since June 1st. I am a registered architect in the state of Florida, and I have lived in the Coconut Grove area for 25 years. So I'm very familiar with all of our projects and the geography of the area. So I'm really looking forward to serving on

Thank you very much. We look forward to getting your feedback. So you're probably familiar with the marinas in Coconut Grove, having lived there for so long. Thank you very much, Hector. Gary, any other questions? No, thank you. Alejandro, you might not be aware, but when the mooring field issue came up three or four years ago, there was a proposal for, I think, mooring field for 50 boats. And in the midst of a commission discussion, I think commissioners elevated that to perhaps 75 votes. this board has you know for a decade since our existence we've been in favor of the natural environment a

Yes, maybe the size of the boats too. Thanks, Stephen.

All right, if we're finished with that issue, we'll move on to... There's a new board member who was appointed by the city of Miami mayor. That's Chris Norwood. He's replacing the former appointee of the mayor, Francis Suarez. Andres Rivero happens to be in the audience tonight. Chris Norwood is Mayor Higgins appointee. And we will hopefully see Andres Rivero sitting up here again as an appointee of the Urban Environment League. Mr. Rivero, would you like to say any comments tonight? Thank you. There's a memo to clerk's office submitted regarding removal of board members due to lack of attenda

Okay. I know Vincent Richter's here tonight. I guess he might have missed a meeting.

Thank you. And I would like to point out that Vincent Richter has been a fantastic board member for the last, he said, I think, 10 years. He's done, oh, since the beginning.

The board, as many of you know, was created by then-sitting Commissioner Francis Soares and Greg Bush. Greg Bush was the president of the Urban Environment League. And it's wonderful that Vincent is an original sitting member and has been here and so contributed so well and done such factual research on many issues, Vincent, thank you very, very much. We look forward to, you know, the next appointee from your board and they've got big shoes to fill.

Ms. City Attorney, you had an answer for that question very promptly. Thank you very much. Any other comments?

Gary, thank you very much. Rafa, if you don't mind, I'll likely be termed out. Gary's termed out. Can you put this aquarium as an agenda item for next agenda for the board members?

Let's see. Moving through this quickly. On Thursday, which is in two days, the city commission will be hearing our item that we put on the city agenda, which is CA4.

We've done very well with getting five, six, sometimes seven members for this board. Sometimes it's difficult. The item that will be heard on Thursday is to reduce the quorum, I believe, to the city attorney says it's to five. But it will certainly be easier to have a quorum than the, I think, eight we often need now. If anybody wants to go to the city commission meeting or send a comment to city commissioners, you can do that online, speaking in favor of the commissioners voting for CA4. And it's a consent agenda item, so it might not even be, we hope it isn't pulled out and dealt with separa

We had a problem last year where both myself and the Vice Chair weren't able to attend the meeting. And instead of having the items discussed by the board members that showed up, and we had a good number of board members that showed up to discuss it as a discussion item, the meeting was terminated after five or ten minutes. Stephen would like the discussion items to be discussed, and if that situation happens again, he's hoping somebody will step up as an interim chair and discuss all the items.

Okay. Ms. City Attorney and Rafa, I'd like to put one more item on the agenda for the August 25th meeting, and that would be discussion and briefing on the voter referendum question pertaining to Rickenbacker Marina or the Marina land and boat slips that are the subject of the 75-word voter referendum question in November. And I guess that would entail A representative of either Suntext or RCI or the Abad Malani family from Rickerbocker Marina and a city representative. So there'll be some discussion because it's probably the board should be well aware of that voter referendum question, that 7

If it's at all possible, then an agenda question pertaining to the renovation or a bond issue, funding for the renovation of the Marine Stadium. Would that be okay? What is the status of the renovation of the Marine Stadium?

That's true. I guess you could ask Suntec's RCI, their attorneys, or the RIC Existing tenants, Rickenbacker Marina, voluntarily show up and educate the public and this board. Yes, they have no obligation to show up, but we're on TV. It's free publicity for their issue. Anybody else have any questions or comments?

That's a great question, Stephen. I think you'll have to ask the city attorney for an answer for that.

It's a complicated issue, but hopefully... enough facts will be distributed to the board either in August or October for a good decision.

Andres Rivero, any comments, anything you've heard lately?

We hope that item passes on Thursday. We've been waiting about a year for it. We hope it will go through successfully.

Ms. City Attorney, I believe the board was meeting pretty much monthly from almost the very beginning. And it was, I thought, going very well. Attendance was quite good, and it was effective. And we were lucky tonight. We have two department heads. We have Chuck Ellis from the director of the parks department, Alejandro, director of the dream, the real estate division, and asset management, who's here. They're not voting members of our board, but they count for quorum, and they have wealth of knowledge and information, and we're very lucky that we have them. Yes, and unfortunately, in the last

Thank you all very much. And our master plan, which I pointed out before, this is available online, the City of Miami website.

incredible amount of wonderful activists from all over the city. Any other comments?

Anybody like to call for dismissal? from Mr. Vincent.

All in favor? Aye. All in favor? Thank you very much.