Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

All right. Sounds good. Please take your seats. Let's get this show on the road. If our county attorney Eddie will lead us in prayer this morning.

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. You may be seated. All right. Good morning, everybody. Back again, second time this week. Hopefully this meeting is not as long as Tuesdays. Mr. Attorney, is it proper to set the agenda at this time?

All right. Do I have a motion to set the agenda? It's been moved by Commissioner Cohen-Higgins, seconded by Commissioner Lopez. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed nay. Show the agenda hereby set. Mr. Attorney, can we have the zoning director read his opening statements and swear in the speakers? Yes. All right. Let's do it.

All right. Do we have any defer requests?

No? All right. So do we have any defer requests for CDMP? No? That's a no? Okay. Any from the dais? Commissioner Bastian, you're recognized.

Oh, well, to generate on 3, B, 1, hold on. Watch my 3, B, 1 here. Okay, so 3B, 3B supplement, and 3B1. All right, so we have a motion to defer. Second. And you have that, so the 8A1 is till no time certain. To be re-advertised.

Thank you Fair enough. All right, so we have a motion to defer we have a second my commissioner Cohen Higgins all in favor of the deferral signify by saying aye All right, all opposed nay show the item deferred All right. I'm gonna start and take up Let's see if I go out of order here I'm gonna try to get my bigger groups Oh Where is, I know we have a school or a church here. What's the item number?

8C4. 8C4. That's what I'm being told it is. I haven't found it yet. Can we take up item 8C4 to the attorneys?

All right. So I have I will open a public hearing at this time. I have 14 registered speakers and the position is they're all in favor. So this one want to come up and speak and stand up if you're here in support of this application. Okay, so thank you. You can be seated. And then, I guess, stand up if you're here in opposition. Anyone here in opposition? All right, well, that settles that. All right, so I guess public hearing has been open. It's been closed. And you're the applicant, representing the applicant?

Okay, so bear with me a second. I'm going to do this a little bit different. Commissioner from District 6, you're recognized to see if you want to hear a presentation or how you wish to proceed.

Okay, all right, it's been moved to move this item with staff's recommendation for approval, seconded by Commissioner Lopez.

And you'll have an opportunity to dispute that if you need to.

Let's add that to the record. does somebody need to review the addendum or has it been is the commissioner of the district good with it and the applicant is senior and good with it yes yes sir all right it's been moved for approval on all ends seconded by commissioner lopez um clerk please call the roll commissioner bassian yes commissioner cohen higgins four commissioner gilbert

Let's not do that. All right, please exit quietly. And thank you all for coming out so early. To everyone that did come out in support. All right. Next up, Mr. Attorney, let's take item 383, supplement number one, three, supplement number two, and its companion item in zoning 882. And if a director needs to read anything into the record, now would be the time.

All right. So we will now open a public hearing for all the items. I will start with the public first when I call your name. Actually, I'm not going to call your name because I have no one to register to speak. So public hearing is now closed. Is the applicant here and wish to present? This item was deferred in the past, right?

I suppose that I forgot why this was deferred or who deferred it, but whoever deferred this, everything has been worked out? That's correct. Yeah. Okay.

I'll move the item. It's been moved by the Vice Chair, seconded by Commissioner Lopez. Seeing no further discussion, clerk please call the roll.

Thank you so much. Do I need a separate vote on 882? Yes. All right, Vice Chair moves 882, seconded by Commissioner Lopez. Clerk, please call the roll.

All right, congratulations. All right. Well, he's not here either. Let's see.

If that's what staff is saying, then that's what it is. Thank you, staff. All right. Let's take item 8C1. Anything to read into the record?

All right, we'll now open up public hearing. I have no public speakers signed up to speak, so I will now close public hearing. Is the applicant here?

All right. I mean, does the same way that the last one commissioner from district six, you're recognized.

It's been moved, it's been seconded by Commissioner Cohen-Higgins. Seeing no further discussion, clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you so much. All right, Mr. Attorney, let's take item 8C2.

I'll go ahead and open up public hearing at this time. I don't have anyone. Any public? No. All right, so public hearing is now closed. I see the applicant at the well.

Prepared. All right. Like how many hours, billable hours have you prepared? Efficient. Commissioner from District 5, you're recognized.

All right, it's been moved. It's been seconded by the Vice Chair. Seeing no further discussion. Everything good? Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you all very much. Mr. Attorney, I got to make C3.

All right. I have no speaker, so public hearing is open, and it is closed. The applicant is already ready, also very well prepared, I assume. You want to introduce yourself?

Self-awareness is so good. I love it. Congratulations. Number one quality in a person almost. Commissioner from District 5, you're recognized.

Commissioner from the 5th District moves the item. Seconds by Commissioner Gilbert. Clerk, please call the roll.

congrats all right so i have two left and the district commissioners are not here so i don't know what the will the body will be in the past it could go either way but i guess i'll start with one in district three and one in district 11. we normally defer is not here so for district 11. unless there's a memorandum or a staff for my other staff i'd like to hear the presentation on um for a On which one? On 4A? Yeah. Without the district commissioner?

Okay. All right, so I'm happy to call it up. Mr. Attorney, would you take up 4A, 4A supplement, 4A1?

So if we hear- All right, so what about, let's go with- Let's go 8B1, and although the district commissioner's not here, I don't know if his staff is here, but I do have speakers for 8B1, and they're all in favor of the application. So I don't know if that sways our decision here on this dais. Can my office try to locate, see if someone from his office is available while we wait? And then do we know if commissioner Hardiman is on his way. Do we know has anybody I'm going to go forward. You want to move you want to check what we can check with. You want to take up the 1 in district 3. All right

all right um public hearing is now open and i have without the commissioner here yep he's coming all right the commissioner is coming all right well i'm going to call your name are you the applicant i'm going to call the public speakers first so everyone's in favor of it i don't know if you all want to actually speak or wave in support but i have five Alexis Santos, Giancarlo Vergara, Jarek Mariategui, Alessa Calderon, and Maria Garcia Essen-Wanger. Do you want to stand? I'm for it. You're waving in support? All of you are waving in support? Awesome. Okay. All right. Those are the five that I

Gonzalez is coming. Great, perfect, okay. But we're on 4A. We're on 4A, we're on District 3s. Okay, so everyone wave in support. Public hearing is now closed. All right, to the applicant. Is that the, guys, I see, Commissioner Gilbert, what's going on here? What are we doing? Because I see half the body is trying to see if we defer, half the body is seeing if we hear the presentation. No, I'm not, I'm doing something else.

No, no, I know, but I'm- We're going for a presentation on the item. I've been briefed on the item by staff, and my staff has been briefed on the item by the developer. Commissioner Hardiman's staff has indicated he wants us to proceed. Okay. To proceed.

Yes? Okay. All right. That's all I needed to know. I just saw confusion on the days. All right. Please proceed with the presentation. How much time are you going to need?

So just for clarification, the folks that I called up earlier and Are for another application it's for a b1 so we have all those that we've been supported and I have one That signed up a little late which I'll call up in a moment, but when the time comes But either way, I have no no one registered to speak on this item. So same applies public hearing was open and closed Commissioner from district 3 recognized

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Burkow, can you describe better why it is that you would like to have your version of the application submitted to the state versus what the planning department has recommended?

So obviously, I mean, I just stepped into the meeting, but I engaged directly into the conversation because I was listening as as I was driving on my way here. Of course, I heard other applications as well. And this is the particular part that I'm of concern about, because what I don't want to happen is for everyone's district to be affected and not necessarily know because it's been disguised in. an application that's particularly for my district. And so I want to hear from staff about why you would make that particular recommendation. And after I hear that, then maybe I'll make some changes

so then you would agree then that the the change that you made is more I guess will be more efficient for future applicants not necessarily something that you've deemed to be is something that we should do correct because you would still have to they would still have to go through the process and which would be analyzed on a case-by-case basis as they go into redesignate their property to high density residential so we were just trying to provide some more I just wanted to be clear for my colleagues. So if I made the recommendation to transmit to the state what the applicant requested, which is just specific to the properties that he's representing, how would you feel about that?

To be clear, so you would still recommend to adopt it, even if it was with the recommendations that the applicant provided? I understand what your recommendation is today. Your recommendation is to adopt it the way that you've written it because you think that it will be, it makes sense. It's more efficient for everyone across Marmaday County because you still will have the particular time to look at each and every applicant. But in this particular case, if this body is unwilling to do that because they have not done the research on the entirety of it, and I just wanted to focus specifically o

Are we clear on that? Yeah. So what I would do then is that I would, and you can clear the language as best as you would like, I would recommend that we adopt the language or the application or the specific, what would you call it? The text amendment. The text amendment that the applicant proposed with any and other considerations that the department believes necessary and not necessarily adopt the one that you recommended which affects the entirety of Montmedale County. That would be my recommendation. That's my motion.

Thank you. First of all, I want to thank the maker for clarifying those points. I have an urban center. Not all of us have urban centers, so there's just a few of us that have urban centers. And we've been making changes to our urban centers, and I think one of the things that I've talked to staff about is The need to kind of reset the rules for urban centers, not just in what exists, but in how long it takes to make them because they were really premised on a board that didn't have term limits. So now you couldn't even create an urban center. in the eight years that you have here. And we have

Yeah, so, um. If they're drafted separately obviously is a separate item you can do that you know and we can address those items what I want to just avoid was the coupling of it because just in case just in case everyone didn't agree on what parameters were for everyone. and they will draw draw more more opposition from other districts it's particularly patently unfair to this applicant in this space where he has support and so that's the only difference I don't mind that it doesn't have to be done right now I don't want to confuse the issues I want to stick particularly to this application an

Yeah, no, and then I'm happy if I could request a draft on it if we decouple it, and then what we'll do is we'll list the existing urban centers. I mean, I know them, but just so that everybody's aware of who would be impacted by this, and we'll try to get it done as soon as possible.

Commissioner Gilbert. Commissioner Hartman, thank you for bringing this to our attention. To staff, I think this is just inappropriate. I mean, I don't know how to say it any other way. I think it's inappropriate. We have the ability to actually file applications. We can do that. If we want to change the nature of an area, let's do that. But if you tack it onto somebody else's application and you make it a lot more likely that that application gets objections and how it's rated, you are placing their project and their money at peril. They're paying for this. We have the ability to actually fil

I do trust in the representation and professionalism of that organization.

Thank you so much. And officially, just for the record, I'm going to go ahead and close public hearing at this time and recognize the District Commissioner.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I want to thank everybody that came out today to express how they feel. I want to thank the young lady as well. You did a terrific job. Really appreciate your explanation. I also want to thank the attorney. That was a fantastic presentation. You did a very good job.

Well, before I start, For the record, I need to make a Jennings disclosure. Would that be appropriate at this time?

Prior to today's hearing, my office was contacted by some neighbors in regard to the subject property. However, my staff has not shared the contents of these communications with me. Therefore, I am able to be fair in considering this application, and I will base my decision only upon the evidence presented during the public hearing today. Thank you. And so I'm not completely opposed to this project. I do understand that there was a reduction made from 65 to 57. It was denied at community council. Why was it denied at community council? Were any of you folks present?

Mr. Chair, through you, if I may, I would like to hear what she has to say. Can you approach, please?

Ms. Beltran? You're recognized for a Q&A with the commissioner.

Yeah, and Ms. Beltran, please, if you could be just as brief as possible, but I do want to hear what you have to say.

Well, from your perception of what happened, do you know what the conversation was? Why was it denied?

Do you know approximately how many people were present at that hearing?

Thank you so much. So I do have a few questions on the history because like I said, I'm not generally opposed, but I would like to understand the history of the property. So to the county attorney's office in 2001, there was a site plan profit on this property. What was the contemplated use of the subject property at that at that time? And I'm referring to the 2001 site plan. You're recognized.

For 107,000 square feet shopping center, is that correct? Correct. Now to staff, in 2004 there was a revised site plan for this property. What was the contemplated use of the subject property at that time? Still commercial use. For 50,934 square feet for a shopping center, five one story high retail buildings, is that correct? Correct. And I promise you I have a point and I'd like to discuss. Now lastly, in 2022 there was another revised site plan prepared for the property. What was the contemplated use to staff please? was a skilled nursing facility with 176 beds and that's the one that we we

So are these improvements happening regardless of whether this gets built or not?

Because, you know, you can also, I mean, going down that hypothetical line, I don't know how much that would actually help. I would love to hear from the traffic engineer, but you can also arguably go down Chrome because you're so close to Chrome. However, even if you did that, you know, eventually you need to get to the 836 or you need to get to, you know, either Doral, Coral Gables, downtown, wherever it is that you work. So it would cause congestion either on Kendall Drive or on 8th Street. And so that's my concern. If I can get your traffic expert to just explain those numbers.

I'm sorry to cut you off, and I promise I don't mean to be rude, but are you saying that, because this is what I thought, so we're not considering already existing congestion. We're only considering the congestion that would be provided should this be built. For the traffic analysis that you've done, sir.

Yes, and I appreciate your answer and the fact that you're being candid, but my Now another concern is raised where we're not considering the amount of congestion that already exists, but we're only considering the congestion that would be caused by this project moving forward, which is kind of exactly what seems to have been the conversation at the community council according to both the young lady that spoke earlier. Was there any study done whatsoever, traffic study whatsoever, was there any traffic study done that considered the congestion that already is part of this area?

Look, I don't disagree with you that a center like that that has incoming and outgoing ambulances wouldn't have caused more traffic. But I don't think I would have supported that either way. because of the same issues. Candidly, I'm inclined to deny, but I would be willing to defer in order to further study the traffic congestion situation to try to figure out how we can alleviate the congestion in the area that already exists while adding 57 more homes. But if there's really nothing to be done, it might it might just be better to move forward with the denial. Because on the other hand, I have

And I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to move to defer, but I do want to be clear that I will not approve something or move to approve something that will not take into consideration the existing congestion and existing traffic specifically for this area. And I will say, not only are you a brilliant attorney, but you have a brilliant team with you as well. You guys know that this area is very different when it comes to traffic than all of Miami-Dade County. Because there's no public transportation, because there's no places where folks can work. So just want to put that on your radar. All of

Regional. Okay. Regional. I made comments at a previous hearing regarding a separate project, but I made comments very similarly about just because this area might not seem affected, surrounding areas and surrounding traffic will affect that will affect that area and be directly affected so this is a more extensive traffic study this is why i'm willing to defer it if you guys are willing to tackle um trying to solve the issue absolutely you would be happy to so with that mr child i would move to defer all right so the deferral we have a motion we have a second by commissioner lopez on the defe

Yeah, I'm happy to support a deferral. I just wanted to mention a few things. And Commissioner Gonzalez, I appreciate your comments. I actually represent a large part of Kendall Drive, and yes, it is a parking lot. But I wanted to share some information that might be useful to the applicant and to you. When I got to the board in 2020, F thought was planning on a bus system on Kendall drive, which I put a pin in because they wanted to do a rapid bus system that would take up an entire lane. That's obviously impossible. But I have been since then meeting with F thought and talking about differen