City Council - Regular Meeting

Let's start at 615. My apologies. So let's do the call order.

Please rise for the invocation led by Councilman Perez-Crespo.

Thank you, Mayor. We gather here today united by our shared commitment to the well-being of the city of Miami Springs. Let us be mindful of our responsibility to serve the common good, to act with integrity, and to strive for justice and fairness for all our residents. May our discussions and decisions be guided by wisdom, compassion, and a deep respect for diverse perspectives. May we work together to build a brighter future for our community, one that is inclusive, prosperous, and sustainable. Let us begin our work with open minds and hearts, seeking common ground and striving for unity. Let

Amen. And please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you. You may be seated. And now we move on to awards and presentations, swearing in ceremony of Miami Springs Police Officers Oliver Felipe, Joel Bowen, Arturo Morales, and Christopher Kendrick. Take it away, Chief.

This special presentation is adjourned while we take family pictures. Six. Call the roll, please.

Okay. Please stand for the invocation by Councilman Fabian Perez-Crespo.

Thank you, Mayor. If there is one word I hear more than any other when people talk about our city, it is community. We come together to celebrate our history and our achievements, and we rally around each other in times of profound loss. Tonight is one of those times. I'd like to dedicate tonight's invocation to two exceptional women in our community who recently passed away. Carmen Lily Martinez, longtime board member of Miami Springs Historical Society, and Suzanne Collin, Waller of the Miami Springs Women's Club. Many of us knew Suzanne from her local business, Cheesecake, et cetera, and he

Thank you, and please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you you may be seated Okay, so we move on to agenda in order of business are there any items from the consent agenda that anybody would like to pull I And are there any items that you would like to move?

Okay, I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the agenda as written here. Do I have a second? Okay, we can do that with a voice vote. All in favor of approving the agenda as stated here, say aye. Aye. All against, say no. Okay, the agenda is approved. So we move on to 5A, awards and presentations. We have employee service awards for Bill Collins and Lazaro Rodriguez. Is Laz here? Laz was here a second ago. Okay. Well, Bill, come on up.

Thank you. Bill, stay up here. Let's take a picture. Thank you very much.

CAN WE JUMP BACK IN TO FINISH LAZ AFTER OPEN FORUM?

OKAY. SO WE'LL MOVE ON AND WE'LL JUMP IN AND DO LAZ'S AWARD OF SERVICE. OKAY. SO WE MOVE ON TEMPORARILY TO 6, OPEN FORUM. PERSONS WISHING TO SPEAK ON MATTERS OF GENERAL CITY BUSINESS ARE INVITED TO COME UP. REMEMBER, IT'S ONE-WAY COMMUNICATION. WE DO NOT RESPOND. IT'S JUST AN OPPORTUNITY FOR YOU TO ADDRESS THE COUNCIL AND STAFF. you can always come and address us outside of the council chambers and we'll happy particularly uh the city manager's office please remember that you have three minutes to speak and once again that we will not be responding so come on up when i call your name mr carlos

LOVE YOU GUYS. THANK YOU, BRAD. MR. AGUILAR, YOU'RE SIGNED UP TO SPEAK FOR 5B, BUT WE DIDN'T PULL IT OUT OF THE CONSENT AGENDA. WE'RE JUST GOING TO DO YOU WANT TO SPEAK TO 5B BEFORE WE BRING IT UP AND VOTE ON IT? YOU WANT TO DO IT NOW DURING OPEN? COME ON UP. ALEX AGUILAR, STATE YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS FOR THE RECORD.

Actually, you did have a, and I'm sorry, Alex, because you got a number of things here. You're down for 10, it looks like D, C, and F, so C, D, and F, and E. It's like, gee, those are all the ones that are on the consent agenda, right? So 5B actually, five is awards and presentation. What you were referring to, the FDAT, is actually 12B, so. Okay, all right, do you want to speak to those consent agenda?

Thank you Okay Laz is back. All right. Well, I'm gonna go ahead and close open forum. Thank you for those who shared and I will bring up chief Sandoval come on up and Police Officer Lazaro Rodriguez for 10 years of service.

Thank you. Say a few words about Laz. Yes. He has to. Just a few. He has to say a few words about you. He has to.

Okay, so that closes out awards and presentations. Yes? No, no, no, say it.

Don't start crying, though. Don't start crying. Crying? No.

All right, so we move on to seven, which is approval of the council minutes. I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the regular council minutes for June 22nd and the special council meeting minutes for July 23rd. SO MOVED. WE HAVE A MOTION. DO WE HAVE A SECOND? SECOND.

OKAY. WE HAVE NO REPORTS FROM BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS, NO PUBLIC HEARINGS. WE HAVE THE CONSENT AGENDA. IT WAS APPROVED IN THE ORDER OF BUSINESS. I WOULD LIKE TO ENTERTAIN A MOTION TO APPROVE THE CONSENT AGENDA.

Okay, we have a motion. I think, Joseph, you want a second? So we have a first and a second. Go ahead and call the vote.

WE MOVE ON TO 11. WE HAVE NO PREVIOUS OR UNFINISHED BUSINESS, BUT WE DO HAVE NEW BUSINESS, SO WE MOVE TO 12A, WHICH IS A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF MIAMI SPRINGS AFFIRMING A RECOMMENDATION OF THE CITY'S BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT TO DENY AN APPLICATION BY RAUL AND IBIS CRUZ ALVAREZ FOR THE PROPERTY LOCATED AT 381 DEER RUN. I why we do have somebody who wants to speak so she'll probably allow absolutely mayor um but if we could just read the entire title yes of the resolution um would you like to uh yeah I can finish it off since I I stopped there the property located

Okay. Before I get to the resident who signed up to speak on this item, do we have any questions or comments for city staff regarding where we're at with this?

Okay, thank you. All right, I'm going to call up Judy Walton from 371 Deer Run. You're going to have an opportunity now.

Thank you, Judy. Thank you. I'd like to, you guys are the property owners, I'm assuming? Raul and Ibis Cruz Alvarez?

Right. Can you just give us the Cliff's Notes version, and then if you come back before us, you can do a full presentation.

And again, you would have another opportunity to come before this body in a different role, but Thank you.

Do any of you guys have any comments before I ask for a motion one way or the other to either affirm or deny? Anybody have any comments to make?

I'd like to ask a question. So I'm looking at a Google map of the house as it currently is and your proposed design. You still have a garage? You can't park a car in the garage? Absolutely. That's one. But but you have a garage that you can actually put a valuable car in okay, and then the other thing on your proposed design You've completely blown out the front yard and the swale The renderings are incorrect Wait hold on if we're gonna do questions and answers which we said we weren't going to do Right there.

No I mean if you have a Again, they're going to have an opportunity if we affirm the recommendation of the Board of Adjustment to deny this variance, they will have an opportunity to come back and do the full blown presentation and get, you know, questions from us. But, you know, I mean, I think I think that if we have comments that lead us towards a decision, right, if you guys have a motion, I'd rather not get caught up in the weeds going into the

I understand. I'm sorry, Mayor. I understand.

OK. So if we affirm this evening, then it's dead.

right um i mean obviously i respect the the board the variance board and our city planner but i think just in fairness to due process let them come back and their presentation and get proper argument from both sides and then you know we uh vote at that point to me that's the way to do it it's the due process at its best when we allow them to give a point of view and do the presentation i think they've worked hard on it okay that's my opinion any other comments

OK. So do you want to make a motion then to deny the Board of Adjustments recommendation of denial of the application, meaning that they would come back?

Through the chair. Excuse me, Mayor. Was this presented to the board? Was this presentation presented to that board?

I would like to just add that, you know, I'm a black and white kind of guy. And if the variance is what it is, I expect to follow that. But for, you know, the purpose of, you know, keeping the peace and making sure I mean, I love this neighborhood and a big reason I love living in the cities because I have great neighbors. I get along really good with my neighbors, and I'd hope that, you know, maybe if we come back and we have another meeting on this, you know, we could, you know, find a compromise, or at least, you know, if it doesn't go your way, you could, you know, state your case.

I don't know how we would find a compromise, though, right?

But the variance request is what is... Yeah, I mean, if I could just chime in, right? Like when you... I appreciate the investment that you've you've made in the city and that your kids live here. I mean that's we we've all got many many years of living here and respecting and loving the city as well. When you do a variance it's it's it's it's presidential right like you're doing something that then people can be like hey you did this. This isn't the time this is that this all right okay.

Well, you're talking right now and you're not at the mic. And I'm not inviting you to speak. I'm making a comment. It is presidential even if just how we are perceived in terms of what we approve. And it seems to me that if the setback is 30 feet and you're asking to move it to eight, that's like a 73.33% encroachment into the setback. That's a lot. That's... A lot. And like I... I would end up being conflicted how I just don't see how I can approve something like that when you know the the the criteria that have to be met in terms of like true hardship for why you are doing it again you're I

All right, so George sound like you wanted to hold a cell if that's what you want you can not just think process I'm looks I'm There's a lot of the point that you brought up. Obviously. I feel in a lot of sense the same you know, but I'd like to hear him out.

To me, it is a significant encroachment into the front yards. And they are, and they do have an impact. I like the design, so that sense, it was a little bit better than initially I'd heard, you know, because obviously the whole structure of a garage all the way to eight feet is almost unacceptable, completely unacceptable. So to me is, I understand the concern, but obviously the garage has already a frontage to the actual home, right? Because it's one of those that sticks out. And I know it kind of takes some of the view out of the bedrooms from the golf, but couldn't that, if the concern is

Come to the mic, please, so that we can have everything on the record.

It was a chair. Do we have a proof of that with the golf balls and stuff?

Respectfully, so was evidence asked from you, from anyone up here, to bring to this meeting about the golf balls? Did anybody ask you to bring proof of the golf balls?

Councilman Perez-Crespo, you had a question. Do you want to ask it while they're up there?

I mean, I would love to give them a second chance to present this new or whatever modified presentation they're talking about, but I also see your point, Mayor. The variance is given for, you know, little give us a little bit of leeway this is a lot and this is a major major structural in the front yard and no other house that I can tell has that I mean aesthetics aside I mean and I disagree with the comment all homes need to modernize no I mean sure impact windows up to code but know my house is 1941 i'm not going to knock it down to modernize it no it's beautiful and ours is not knocked down

You have cameras? Top cameras? Yeah, like maybe you got pictures of the balls hitting. I don't know. At the end of the day, the variance is what's important. You have to stay within that. But if that's an argument that you want to put out there, I think...

I got to stop you because I feel like this is going in all kinds of different places. I know, I get it. Thank you. You guys can be seated. Thank you. Before I ask for a motion, do you want to chime in, Landy? You've got an interesting, you know, you've got a perspective on this. As an architect, vice mayor, you want to just chime in?

I appreciate the design. I like it. My only concern is, again, one, we don't meet other criteria legally. And two, it just won't be in keeping with the rest of the street. That's my concern. I think as a standalone, it works. But within the fabric of that entire street, it won't. So if we... If we allow eight feet now, then the next 10 years, everybody will be within eight feet. And it just keeps pushing the boundary more and more. That's my concern.

Yeah, I mean, again, like the modernization, the aesthetics, all these things are important. To me, I feel like it's all irrelevant when it comes to a significant, can you have a very significant encroachment? I mean, it's 73% encroachment. It's a lot. To me, I feel like it's too much. Erica, do you know what the vote was on the? It was 4 to 1, sir. It was 4 to 1.

OK. All right. I'd like to have, because it's always been under the impression that any type of decision that we make on variances does set a precedent for future. So I'd like to hear from our own attorneys exactly what that is.

It doesn't lock you in to make the decision, but it does serve to.

Individually. OK. All right. George, did you have a motion? Do you want to make a motion to affirm or deny the BOA?

So we're either affirming their recommendation to deny the variance or setting it for a hearing.

Thank you. So we don't have to deny to get?

I mean, it's pretty overwhelming, but I think still like to give them due process. And this is part of the due process. But you know, you obviously have a lot, you feel like you left on the table, and you haven't explained. For that purposes, I'd like to make a motion to request to have an appeal to set it here.

So I'd like to set a motion to set a hearing on the next council meeting to revisit this.

Okay, so a hearing will be set for an upcoming,

Feel free to work with the city clerk's office ahead of that meeting so that they already have all your materials and your PowerPoint so that you can be ready for that.

Okay, so we move on to 12B, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Miami Springs, Florida, supporting Florida Department of Transportation FDOT Alternative 5-B for the design of the intersection located at State Road 953, which is Northwest 42nd Avenue, State Road 948, which is Northwest 36th Street, and State Road 25, which is U.S. 27 or Okeechobee Road, known as the Iron Triangle, providing for transmittal and providing for

And I can I give a little update based on absolutely okay so we met with FDOT at least 3 or 4 times. At different times and they've it's been kind of like They've come out and always said everything that they had, but we've been very consistent as a city, going back to my predecessor, to Maria Mitchell, who was the mayor at the time. We didn't want an overpass. And we have just kept coming back to them, kept bringing back in, are there any options? Are there options to do things at grade rather than do an overpass? They could never get past the fact that their main charge is to help the backup

If they're going to give us an overpass, I'd rather be pushed south and I'd rather that we gain space. That doesn't happen. And none of this is guaranteed, right?

we even discussed with them and you could speak to this we even discussed options like you know can you make lejeune an overpass to help get people out of out of there but it that wasn't feasible because there's already so many highway overpasses and and bridges there along the way so it really seemed to me like we kept calling them in and they kept saying we need to have an overpass in order to move the westbound traffic off of 112. So this proposal to give us space to move everything south and take take the land from the county that to me that It I feel like as you said JC it's a win win. I

it's just something that fdot requested um because of the positive reception and there's still a possibility the county says no we're not going to give you our land in which case we're back in the same fight they're going to be putting an overpass and we're going to be losing land in that corner uh well unfortunately we can't take public comment now but please reach out to us alex with with any questions and we'll we'll bring that up uh gentlemen do you have any uh any thoughts on the matter

Um so if we're just uh doing a vote like just to show which side we're supportive on if voting on this doesn't it show like there is support for it one way or another or should we even be voting on this?

Doesn't it send a message of just supporting the project?

I would add that we've been having meetings and town halls and stuff with FDOT, and they always were... we have to do an overpass it's the you know it's the only way we have to do an overpass we have to do an overpass as much as we would talk about it and get feedback from the residents when they do the next open house guess what the plan was to do an overpass and we kept fighting it on our own as a city please can we you know like we you know we've we've been We've been, you know, trying our very best to get, you know, to get some kind of say in this. But I think that this is an option that a

Go ahead. Yeah, this is a long way from where we started. I went to the first few meetings and the holiday and and all. And it's I mean, I wish it didn't have to happen, but it dlt needs a solution because it's getting worse and worse it's going to happen and i think this is the lesser of all the evils for us and again it's great we don't have to lose anything we actually gain a bit of space and with whatever ends up happening north 36th street this will only help so it'll force change in one way or another sidewalk and public access so i i agree i think it's not a great resolution but it's th

mayor if i had a magic wand i would connect the 112 with the palmetto over the perimeter road that's it you don't want to come you don't want to be on 36th street we got it just go straight west if we could if i could if i had a magic wand i would do that um i think this will help traffic i've been having to take the 112 all summer to get off SUCKS IT HAS TO BE A BETTER SOLUTION MAYBE THIS IS THE ROAD TO A BETTER SOLUTION YOU KNOW JUST THAT GOING WESTBOUND YOU GET UP TO 112 IS A NIGHTMARE SO I DON'T THINK I THINK IT WON'T INCREASE TRAFFIC I JUST DON'T SEE INCREASE TO TRAFFIC IF WE CAN MITIGATE

We just always preferred not to do it with an overpass.

fdot listens to what we think is important uh you know to varying degrees but we have been fighting for it and this seemed like a compromise so to the chair um i think you know as many of you have been able to uh be privy to a lot of those meetings in the last three or four years been pretty contestant on any other options and this option has actually been thrown at them I could recall several times where, like, why don't you guys go to the other side, you know, towards the airport? And it was never enough. And it was not even, they weren't even entertaining it. So this is huge to come back wi

So yeah, if the county doesn't agree to give up the land and do this version, then guess what version we're defaulting back to.

And we will keep fighting that one. But this was an opportunity for us to You know compromise based on all the fighting we've been doing so. So we need to vote on this resolution like to entertain a motion then to approve 12 be.

Motion motion to to create a resolution support of the was it 5 be yeah, it's done all turned 12 12 be 12 be 12 be right with the alternative 5 be for.

Yes, alternative 5 be yes, yeah. I'll second it. OK, we have a first and second. Call the vote.

This is a request by Councilman Santin to discuss directing of staff to determine what steps are needed in order to do the renaming and establishing of a physical address

ALONG CURTIS PARKWAY FOR WHAT WE WE FEEL IS A A HERITAGE TRAIL PARK TAKE IT AWAY COUNCILMAN SENTING I BROUGHT THIS ITEM FORWARD TO DISCUSS THE VISION THAT MANY OF US HAVE AND MYSELF ESTABLISHING GLEN CURTIS STATUE MEMORIAL SITE IN THE CURTIS PARKWAY CORRIDOR a recognizable heritage destination including the selection of an official address for the site and future opportunities to promote heritage tourism and supportive economic activity in our downtown Miami Springs so this is not a discussion about naming the park tonight it's just about the larger vision that we have and directing staff to i

I would like to add that I was approached by the Greater Miami Visitors and Convention Bureau to do like a little video about brought to you by tourism because obviously that's what the GMCBB does is promote tourism. In that video, I was asked every which way about like, so what would you, you know, where would you go if, where would you take somebody if they were visiting? And I had to really think about what we offer in terms of tourism. And I, it became clear to me like, just have layover tourism that's about what the city of miami springs offers uh i mean you can have lunch and get your na

YOUR CHAIR? CONTRARY TO THE SPRING BREAKERS THAT WE WOULD PROBABLY BE INTERESTED ON.

THAT'S NOT WHAT THE TARGET IS, ACTUALLY. YOU KNOW, HERITAGE TOURISM, A LOT OF THEM ARE VERY WELL EDUCATED, RETIRED FOLKS WITH DISPOSABLE INCOME, GOOD PEOPLE THAT ARE GOING TO BE REALLY INTERESTED IN OUR HISTORY. and obviously they come over and before they'll end up having lunch or breakfast or dinner after but this is not you know spring breakers and they come here to cause a ruckus and it's you know it's a low impact on our community I mean you know we already have people that come from miles around to walk on our walkways if that can be some kind of like official

heritage trail or something. Again, what we're looking for is what is needed in order to designate it as such so that we could start to have it be a place and people can come visit that they can find easily that we can promote. So I'm again in favor of finding out more.

Any comments? Through the chair? So I was born in a town called Sleepy Hollow. It wasn't always called Sleepy Hollow in New York. It used to be called North Tarrytown. And for probably 100 years, the General Motors plant was the main employer of that town. When the General Motors plant was announced that they were closing down, you can imagine the town was wondering, what are we going to do? Where are people going to employ? And it was around the time that the Tim Burton movie, Sleepy Hollow, was coming out. And they did a smart thing. They rebranded their town as Sleepy Hollow. I mean, the hi

OK. All right. OK. So do we need to vote on consensus to direct staff? OK. So do we have consensus?

Yes. So we have consensus on directing staff to find out what it is that we need to do in order to find the designation to leverage the heritage tourism potential that we have along this walkway. And just I want to reiterate, And I know the councilman sent in this was important to you that that you know, this is eventually we're gonna we're gonna Work with our local advisory boards on this, you know when when you know, whatever naming gets done And you know, we don't know yet exactly yet. What is necessary? but once we do know we will be leveraging the the perspective of our parks and parkways

Thank you, JC. TO THE CHAIR. QUESTION. HOW ABOUT A PROJECT THAT OBVIOUSLY OVER THE YEARS SITS STILL AND NOW HAS EXPIRED ALL PERMITS EVEN INCLUDING SITE PLAN APPROVALS AND THEY COME BACK.

Thank you Roger this is a long time coming to we're getting as we see light at the end of the tunnel.

Through a terrorist Roger are we coming up on a. Review of impact fees?

It's not before November. No, okay Thank you.

Yeah. Okay. Any other questions? Roger, you want to move on to 14 reports and recommendations from our city attorney? Anything? Okay. I kick it over to our esteemed city manager. JC, do you have any reports or recommendations?

NO. SO SCHOOL STARTING MEANS THAT THE SCHOOL SPEED ZONES ARE BACK UP IN EFFECT. DID I STEAL YOUR THUNDER, OMAR? I'M SORRY. OKAY. SO I RETRACT WHAT I JUST SAID. TAKE OVER.

Thank you, Omar. Okay. Reports and recommendations from our city clerk?

Thank you. All right. Reports and recommendations from our city council. I'll start with Councilman Santin.

As I'm sure you guys are expecting me to say something about the Glenn Curtis statue and monument, long overdue. Been a lot of work to get to this point. But August 22nd, we're going to unveil at 11 AM. And I'm very thankful to a lot of generous donors. This is a project. We haven't been able to put the banner out there. So let the public know this is no public funds No tax money was used to to create this all from generous families That obviously believe in the in the vision that his legacy should be upheld So thankful for all those We also have a drone show and a celebration date later on th

I'D LIKE TO WELCOME EVERYBODY BACK. IT FEELS GREAT TO BE BACK OVER HERE. I HOPE YOU ALL HAD A GREAT SUMMER. TO MY COLLEAGUE GEORGE SANTIN, GREAT JOB. YOU KNOW, YOU DEFINITELY LED THE CHARGE WITH THE GLEN CURTIS MONUMENT, AND IT'S BEEN AN HONOR WORKING BESIDE YOU ON THAT. EVERYBODY COME OUT AND SUPPORT THE CITY. OUR FOUNDER, GLEN CURTIS, Everything is being posted regularly on the social media sites and we're happy to answer any questions anytime. I attended today the renaming of the Miami Springs Preparatory and I'd like to congratulate and thank Principal Nelson Gonzalez, He had a surgery, wh

I just want to welcome everybody back, and it's great to be back tonight at work. Thank you.

to mention um tickets for the september pelican playhouse centennial celebration celebration are on sale on their website it's great to see how this everything centennial related is coming together so i encourage all the residents to participate in our centennial in our history buy your centennial pins i can't wait to see that statue up uh it's going to be a big deal and it's i know it's going to attract a lot of attention NOT JUST MIAMI PROBABLY OUTSIDE OF FLORIDA IT'S GOING TO BRING IN A LOT OF CURIOUS PEOPLE TO SEE THIS STATUE AND THIS JUNE BUG MONUMENT SO I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO UM TO ALL T

two years plus where we were talking on the council here about getting ready for the centennial and it's here so we're looking forward to it uh and yet again we lost some some some real pillars of the community uh terry moss's name wasn't uh wasn't mentioned but uh suzanne wohler was uh near and dear to my heart uh so our our thoughts go out to uh their families um That's it. Everybody enjoy the start of school. And this meeting is adjourned at 8.48.