Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board - Regular Meeting

Thank you. you A person who is a lobbyist pursuant to Chapter 2, Article 6 of the City Code must register with the city clerk and comply with related city requirements for lobbyists before appearing before the Planning, Zoning, and Appeals Board. A person may not lobby a city official, board member, or staff member until registering. A copy of the code section about lobbyists is available in the city clerk's office and online at municode.com. Any person making a presentation, formal request, or petition to the board concerning real property must make the disclosures required by the city code in writing. A copy of the city code section is available at the office of the city clerk and online at municode.com. A person with a disability requiring assistance, auxiliary aids, or services for this meeting may notify the hearing board's liaison. The agenda and the materials for each item on the agenda for this meeting was published and made available to the board in advance of the meeting. The materials are also available during business hours at the city clerk's office and online 24 hours a day at miamigov.com. A person may be heard by the board through the chair and pursuant to the published notice for not more than two minutes on every proposition before the board unless modified by the chair. When addressing the board, the member of the public must first state their name, address, and what item will be spoken about. Anyone wishing to appeal any decision made by this board for any matter considered at this meeting may need a verbatim record of this item. A video of this meeting may be requested at the Office of Communications or viewed online at miamigov.com. PZ items shall proceed according to Section 7.1.4 of the Miami 21 Zoning Ordinance. The members of the Board shall disclose any ex parte communications to remove the presumption of prejudice pursuant to Florida Statute Section 286.0115 and Section 7.1.4.5 of the Miami 21 Zoning Ordinance. Staff will briefly present each item to be heard. For applications requiring board approval or recommendation, the applicant will then present its application or request to the board. If the applicant agrees with the staff recommendation, the board may proceed to its deliberation and decision. The applicant may also waive the right to an evidentiary hearing on the record. The city requires anybody requesting action by the board to disclose before the hearing anything provided to anyone for agreements that support or withhold objection to the requested action pursuant to city code section 2-8. The communications department will broadcast the meeting through the usual channels and avenues. This meeting can be viewed live on Miami TV at miamigov.com slash TV and on Comcast channel 77 within the city. The broadcast will have closed captioning. A member of the public may submit comments via the city's online comment forum. The comments submitted through the comment forum, if any, were distributed to the board members and city administration throughout the day so that the board can consider them prior to taking any action. Additionally, the online comment form will remain open during the meeting to accept comments and distribute to the board members up until the chair closes public comment. All comments received will be included in the public record and will be considered by the board prior to taking any action. The public comment options established and provided for this meeting comply with Section 286.0114 of the Florida Statutes. As the city has provided these options for members of the public to indicate their support, opposition, or neutrality on a proposition, the city has published an agenda as well as included in the notice to the public the items and topics that will be discussed at this meeting. Additionally, the public has been given the opportunity to provide public comment during the meeting and within reasonable proximity and time before the meeting. Board members, are you comfortable with all these notice provisions set forth in these uniform rules of procedure we've established?

Yes.

Thank you.

Okay, let's rise for a moment of silence and the Pledge of Allegiance, please.

For all those who will be testifying, please rise and please stand and raise your right hand. Do you solemnly affirm the testimony you will give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Thank you. Please be seated.

Okay. Are there any absence?

Yes, I can go ahead and do roll call.

Yeah, please.

Board Member Mrs. Lynette Kadoch. Board Member Ilan Metier.

Present.

Board Member Paul Main.

Present.

Board Member Manuel Vidillo. Board Member Mr. Eduardo J. Fernandez. Present. Board Member Ms. Paula De Carolis.

Present.

Board Member Mr. Mario J. Bailey.

Present.

Board Member Mr. Joshua Patikin. Board member, Mr. Joshua Patikin. Board member, Mr. Andres R. Lopez.

Present.

Board member, Mr. Adam Gernstein. I mean, chair, I'm sorry. Adam Gersten.

Present.

Board member, Chris Collins.

Present.

Board member, Arthur Parasoff. Welcome back. We do have Chrome, and we do have one absent waiver for board member, Manuel Vendillo.

Would anyone like to make a motion on that, please? Move to approve. Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

I'm sorry, who first and second? I first.

Second.

Thank you.

Are there minutes to be approved?

No minutes to approve, Chair.

All right, great. And are there any deferrals? No. Okay.

No deferrals.

All right, let's get going with, oh, is there any online comments? No, yes.

I'm sorry, Chair. We have one alternate board member, Mr. Eduardo J. Fernandez. Do you give him authorization to have full voting rights? Because he's an alternate member. So you guys have to agree to allow him to have full voting rights.

Oh, yes.

Thank you.

I didn't realize he was alternate. I don't get to pick on you anymore.

Sorry, I was kidding. PZ number file ID 19474, a resolution of the Miami Planning, Zoning, and Appeals Board with detachments recommending to the City Miami Commission, approving with conditions of an ordinance, amending ordinance number 13114, the zoning ordinance of the City of Miami, Florida, as amended Miami 21 Code, pursuant to Article 3, Article 7, and Appendix F of the Miami 21 Code, to amend Appendix F, titled Miami Design District, Retail Street, Special Area Plan, MDD SAP, as set forth in a regulating plan attached and incorporated as Exhibit A, and the amended concept book attached and incorporated as Exhibit B, specifically by A, amending the Miami 21 Zoning Atlas to add to the MDD SAP approximately 17,761 square feet, 0.1, 408 acres of lot areas across four additional parcels, resulting in a total combined MDD SAF area of 1,128,148 square feet, 25.899 acres, with the added properties located approximately 80 Northeast 40th Street, 74 Northeast 40th Street, 70 NE 48th Street, and 28 NE 41st Street, Miami, Florida, as more particularly described in the attached and incorporated Exhibit C, B amending the regulating plan to update standards related to definitions phase, projects frontage, setbacks, public benefits, rooftops, fences, enroachments, building heights, parking loading, retail glazing, layers, outside dining, cross-block passages, signage, and floor plates. C, amending procedures for obtaining approvals. D, updating illustrations, clarifying existing terms, and making other technical changes. E, updating provisions for aggregate destiny and floor area to allow greater flexibility to transfer across the MDD SAP F proposing procedural and technical updates to allow the applicant to avail itself to subsequent Miami 21 code updates. And G, updating the concept book pursuant to the regulating plan, amendments making findings containing a severability clause and providing for an effective date.

Thank you, Florence. Hi, good evening everybody. My name is Samantha Maldonado. I'm a planner too with the City of Miami Planning Department Urban Design Division. And today I'm presenting a request for a special area plan amendment in the Miami Design District. So the request is an expansion of the Miami Design District Retail Street Special Area Plan, the MDD-SAP, and the amendments include an update to include four new properties into the SAP boundaries and updates to both the regulating plan and the concept book associated with the SAP. So just for a little bit to provide the background and the context of the application, I know we're all probably very well familiar with the Miami Design District, but again, to provide that context, a little bit of the background. The development involved the retrofitting of older, deteriorating, buildings across four blocks. The buildings were adaptively reused and revitalized to include high-end commercial tenants, which were introduced to create this high-quality, mixed-use retail pedestrian experience. Accompanying that high-end retail, the design district created these enhanced streetscape design, abundant civic spaces, and public art installations, all in a coordinated design throughout the design district to create this really unique identity and help to foster a strong sense of place in the Design District. So here you can see a map of the location of the Design District. The SAP is generally bounded by Northeast 43rd Street to the north, North Federal Highway and Biscayne Boulevard to the east, Northeast 38th Street to the south, and North Miami Avenue to the west. And a little bit about the background of the SAP. The actual SAP was adopted in 2012 and it was amended five times since then. So this next application is the sixth amendment to the SAP proposed under here today. So just to give you an outline of the proposed amendments that were requested today, the applicant has requested to add four new properties into the MDD SAP. Next, they're amending Appendix F of the Miami 21 code to update the design district regulating plan. And third, to update the concept book associated with the regulating plan amendments. First, the application includes four new parcels, as I've mentioned, located at 80th, 74th, and 70th Northeast 40th Street, and 28 Northeast 41st Street. All of the properties are zoned T50, which is the urban center transect zone, and the applicant is not proposing any changes to the underlying zoning. The total area of the new parcels is approximately 17,761 square feet or 0.408 acres for a total combined new SAP area of about 1.1 million square feet, approximately 25.899 acres. So here in front of you, you can see an overall SAP map, including the four new properties highlighted in red. So just in the context of the Design District SAP, the new properties are really proposed to fill in the gaps of the neighborhood and expand the SAP in a way that's compatible with the existing development pattern of the neighborhood and to promote a more cohesive streetscape and pedestrian experience. As I mentioned earlier, there's no change to the underlying zoning. So the graphics before you show the existing and the proposed SAP. So the left shows the SAP as it is today with the locations of the new parcels, and the right image shows the new parcels incorporated into the SAP. Again, there's no change to the T5.0 transect zoning. It's just an incorporation and expansion of the boundaries. So the second request of this application is an update to the regulating plan. So I'm just gonna introduce each amendment. So the first proposed amendment is an update to the definitions. A lot of this is related to consistency with what we've done for Miami 21, to introduce definitions related to game courts, like pickleball, paddleball, stuff like that, and frontages for consistency with Miami 21, and to also update the definitions related to signage. Next, for phase projects, the applicant is proposing to allow project phasing in the SAP, which we already allow under the normal Miami 21, but this is just to provide those requirements for the SAP. The third is public benefits, to expand public benefits in exchange for additional floor area. And I'm gonna come back to this point a little bit later when we talk about the nature of floor area and the flexibilities allowed inside the SAP today, and small clarifications to that. So the next is frontages. The applicant is proposing to add a new frontage type, which is the Loja, which we already allow under Miami 21. This is just for consistency. Next, there's proposed updates to setbacks. Basically updating the setback requirement, because in the design district, there is an established setback. The established setback is zero. SO THE BUILDINGS DON'T NECESSARILY HAVE TO PROVIDE THAT FRONT STEP BACK. HOWEVER, UNDER THE MIAMI 21 CODE, WE'VE ADOPTED SOMETHING CALLED THE BUILD 2 ZONE, WHICH IS BASICALLY A 10-FOOT FLEXIBILITY FROM THE FRONT STEP BACK. SO IF YOU WANT TO MOVE YOUR the building facade within those 10 feet, you should be allowed to do that. So all we're doing is changing that SAP requirement under the SAP to be allowed to do it by right, which is what we allow in Miami 21. And then we're also updating the measurements for the building setbacks to kick in at a certain height measured in feet rather than stories. which is something we've also adopted in Miami 21 for consistency. Next, for the rooftop elements, there's proposed provisions for active and habitable roofs and also provisions associated with other roof elements that are associated with the active uses and also the mechanical equipment, again, for consistency with those Miami 21 amendments we've adopted. Next, for fences for game courts. Again, as we've introduced the game courts use under Miami 21, we're introducing it here under the definitions I mentioned earlier, and also providing standards for fences in closing the game courts. Next amendment is updating the Minimum building height from two stories to one story in T5 and T6, again for consistency with Miami 21. Next is floor plates, providing maximum floor plate dimensions for lodging uses. Cross-block passages, there's proposal to update cross-block passage maximum covering from 25% to 50% as long as the applicant provides certain enhanced design standards associated with the cross-block passage. Next is parking requirements related to transit corridors and TOD. So this is just an update to the parking requirement and reduction process within TODs and transit corridors. So for T5, this is just changing that language that requires a certain proximity to a parking garage inside TODs and transit corridors. And then it's also incorporating the bike substitution provision to allow an exchange for providing the bikes spots instead of vehicular parking requirements for T5 and T6 and TODs. Next is an update to the loading standards. So there's a proposed update for the parking sharing factor requirements. This is just changing the process from a warrant to an SAP permit because it makes more sense to process SAP permits in the SAPs. And then there's also an update to add compact parking stall dimensions. Next is retail glazing. So there's a proposal to reduce the retail glazing requirement from 50% to 40% by right, or 15% to 39% by SAP permit. And this is just a little bit because of the nature of the design district. They have a lot of high-end retail tenants, and they want to more emphasize the architectural character of the facade and don't necessarily need to have as much retail glazing. So this is kind of a way to provide certain design criteria in lieu of the actual retail glazing. Next is an update to signage standards in the district. So it's basically an update to amend and to restructure the standards for signage to allow for more flexibility in sign quantity and quality to help improve the visibility of tenant signage and also the overall cohesiveness of the signage across the SCP. Next, we have some amendments related to approvals, uses, and also just technical updates and general cleanup for the SAP. So the first for approval process, as I mentioned, for a few specific standards, you have to get a warrant for certain processes in the SAP, so we're just updating that to be an SAP permit, which makes more sense. We're also updating some uses to allow outdoor dining by right in the district by certain conditions and then to maintain that existing SAP permit requirement under certain criteria for sites and restaurants that are in close proximity to residential uses. Next, we're also updating the educational uses for consistency with Miami 21 as was completed through education reform to change the process for certain educational uses from a warrant to by right. Next there's technical updates to the regulating plan. So a lot of the standards that I discussed earlier are associated with the different illustrations. So this is basically just a cleanup for consistency for things like setbacks, heights, frontages, things like that. So there's gonna be updates to all the illustrations for T4, T5, and T6. And let's see there's an update to the layers just to clean up the first layer language to align with the established setback. The next amendment related to density and floor area transfer. So there's a request to basically just treat the T6 parcels in the design district as a unified site to more easily transfer the density and the floor area across the district, which is already allowed in the district. You can already transfer these development rights across across the neighborhood, but this would basically just treat the different parcels as one just to accommodate the flexibility in transfer and exchange of density and floor area across the site. And then there's certain provisions for an FLR above 11. So once your FLR reaches 11 and you want to increase beyond that through the aggregate transfer program, the applicant would have to provide certain neighborhood enhancements. And lastly, there's going to be a new process to allow the developer to benefit from any newer Miami 21 updates with approval from the planning department. So for example, if there's any other, I know we have a lot of Miami 21 updates that we've seen and so this is basically just to streamline that process and so that the developer is able to use any kind of positive changes we've seen in the Miami 21 code through this specific approval process. So that was the regulating plan. Now for the third update is just some updates to the concept book associated with the SAP. And this is really just small updates to the concept book to just capture the new properties. And this includes things like updates to the site map, ownership map, frontages, and the thoroughfares to accommodate those new parcels. So I'll show a few of those that this impacts. So for example, the frontages, we have to, the SAP designates All of the thoroughfares and all of the frontages, pedestrian passages, principal frontages, and secondary frontages. So this plan was updated for the new parcels. Parking management was also updated and includes new locations for potential pedestrian bridges. And lastly, updates to the block plan, which shows the different blocks that the new parcels are located inside. That concludes the changes. So just going into an overview of the SAP amendment criteria. We have reviewed and analyzed the application for The SAP criteria and the Miami 21 Atlas Amendment criteria pursuant to Article 3, Section 3.9, and Article 7, Section 7.1.28. And we found that the application is consistent with the intent of Miami 21, the Miami Conquerance of Neighborhood Plan, and other regulations. And the Planning Department recommends approval with conditions of the application.

Thank you for that. THOROUGH PRESENTATION.

THANK YOU.

I don't see it on the screen though. There we go. Thank you. Good evening, Neeson Kazdin and Marissa Amuel of Akerman representing Miami Design District Associates. With me as well here this evening is Alex Shapiro who is COO of Miami Design District and we represent the affiliates who are the applicants in this evening. First, before I continue with a presentation, I would like to thank Sam and the planning staff for their extensive work and their close collaboration with our team to come up with these amendments. Frankly, the presentation that was given is so thorough and complete that I'll spare you a longer presentation on my part, but we'll hit some of the highlights as well and some of the newer developments and evolution of the design district that I think is important for you to understand. I would also ask that the staff's report and the materials that have been provided you be included in the record here. So first, I think it's No, not moving. One second. While Marissa is getting that heat up properly, there we go.

Okay, there we go.

The Miami Design District SAP, as Sam mentioned, was first adopted in 2012. It is the second SAP that was adopted in the city of Miami under Miami 21. I think a handful of you board members were here almost since the beginning and have gone through the different evolutions of this SAP. But a number of you are also newer to the board and have not gone through this evolution. We all know where the design district is. Sam has shown you the parcels for the design district, including the additional parcels, which you see there outlined in black on 40th Street and on 41st Street. um the uh as for those of you who are not familiar with the genesis and origin of the design district it was in the 1950s and 60s into the 70s a to the trade district for interior designers and their showrooms not open to the public the area fell into complete disrepair In the 70s and into the 80s as Dakota was opened in Broward county people moved away from the city in the aftermath of the 1980 riots. And it became a largely an abandoned district Craig robbins starting in the mid 1990s bought up almost all of what is today, the Miami design district SAP. and began to bring in new businesses, open retail businesses for housewares, furnishings, clothing, but also infused art, both public art and also art in buildings and throughout the district. And that brought life back to the Design District. And then embarking in 2011 and with the adoption of the SAP in 2012, the Design District took another turn to become this major retail district as he partnered with the LVMH interests to bring the top global retailers in this district. But a number of other things were done that we'll talk about as well in a minute. The spectacular architecture, the great landscaping, and the art as well, including bringing ICA to the design district and the Della Cruz Museum to the design district. And now, this last evolution that's before you, the one we adopted in 2023, but now further allowing through these amendments, is the evolution of the design district as more of a 24-7 live, work, play place, where there can be residential, office, hotel, as well as a restaurant and retail and art and cultural activities. These amendments to the SAP help fulfill and implement that particular vision. And as Sam had mentioned, many of them are, because this was the second SAP in 2012, many of the concepts that have been adopted in Miami 21 over the last 14 years were not included in the original SAP. And so there has been a a correlation or coordination between those changes and an implementation of them in this SAP. Of course, you're familiar with the beautiful art and architecture throughout the design district, but I would like to emphasize one point, the public benefits. I do not think there is any project, frankly, in this city or perhaps even in this county that has delivered more intangible, valuable public benefits to the community than the Miami Design District. What I have on the screen here is a summary of those. It includes the public right-of-way investments, paving, utilities, drainage, the extraordinary landscaping with mature trees, the unique and beautiful street lighting, all of that has elevated the entirety of the district. But there's also on top of that the enormous public art investment. You walk around the design district, everyone can see for free the great art that's been installed. And it's something that's been enjoyed by all ages. My grandkids, we go there and they... They'll climb on the artistic monkey bars and things of that sort. I mean, it is just extraordinary. Also, the artistic garage facades, as well as the contribution towards ICA. The property on which the ICA sits was donated by the owners, by Craig and his partners of the Miami Design District. That's why the ICA is there. And then the huge investment was made in the ICA, That's a $75 million public benefit in and of itself. So this, going back just a few years ago, the public benefits equaled at least $120 million. I'd like to focus on some other things. I think you're probably mostly all familiar because I imagine you've all been there. The civic spaces that have been created. Excuse me. Sorry.

Mr. Kasdan. The city's recommendation was approval. Yes. Do you mind if I just see how many people are here from the public? Please. Is there anyone here from the public who wanted to speak on this item? There's no one here from the public that wants to speak on this item, so maybe we take it to the board, see if there are any questions.

I'm fine with that. We certainly agree with the staff's recommendation, and we're here to answer any questions.

Okay, great. Thanks. Starting on my right.

Thank you, Chair. A couple of expressions here that make me a little uneasy. What would you... call a habitable roof. What I'm concerned about is that phrase to get picked up by the rest of the city. A habitable roof means all of a sudden more than just mechanical elements. And we know that already developers, architects are pushing the limits of what they can put on a roof. That they're making it not just for mechanical use, they're using it for everyday use. And of course, that's a very small step after that to make it a living space. So what would the city, I guess this is really a question for the city, what does habitable roof mean?

Yeah, it's really just anything that you can do an activity in. So it could be... Like it could be just a roof terrace, it can be commercial use, it can be anything like that, but it's only up to a certain amount of your roof.

A commercial use means you're gonna put a restaurant or a store on the roof?

You can, but you still have to comply with the use table for that transect. So let's say if you wanted to put a, you can't just put a bar or a restaurant if you need an exception, for example. So you still have to comply with just the normal administrative processes. This just allows for you to put those commercial establishments on the roof instead of inside, basically.

Would that effectively- gives them an extra floor, doesn't it? It's not just for mechanical elements, it's an extra floor to use, and that means you gotta have cover, because you can't have people sitting out there, and if it starts to rain, what's everybody gonna run for the elevator, run for the stairs? So now you're gonna put a roof over the restaurant, and now you've got an extra floor. Now, I don't mind that happening downtown, and I think it's fine that it happens in the design district, but what I'm worried about is that this will get picked up across the city including in T3s where we know, for example, in the Grove, people are using their roofs already. And way over what the intent of Miami 21 was. So I would recommend changing that word because that word sounds to the average person who might be looking to build a house and ask his architect to push the boundaries a little bit. Habitable means more than just usable. It means livable. It means you can actually sleep up there.

No.

I know that. I know that you don't mean that, but the word means that. So I would recommend changing that word. I mean, the rest of the word may not be, may not, let me, this is taking too much time. Okay. To save your, I mean, I just want that, I think it's a good idea to change that word. The other thing is, what's a compact stall? What's the dimension of a compact stall?

Let me double check for you.

That was under the parking changes. Does that mean smaller cars? What does a compact stall?

The dimension is 7.5 feet by 15 feet. So that's the minimum.

Mr. Chair. So is that for compact cars?

Right, for compact compared to the standard stall, which is 8.5 feet by 18 feet.

And changing sign standards to increase flexibility, quantity, and quality and visibility does that mean brighter lights bigger signs more signs i don't care what happens in the design district or downtown so much as that the intent here will carry over outside the sap and it'll be much more difficult for us to try and control it when it affects single-family homes or even T4 condos. We already know that downtown people complain about signage in the buildings downtown. So, are there any limits? I mean, this sounds like you're just opening up the limits to what people can do with signs down there. Could you tell me if there are any limits?

There are limits in size and number, if I may. And I understand your concern, and this is why this is in an SAP. Because, for instance, the retail buildings... have multiple facades. So Dior may need a sign on top of the building and a sign on the bottom of the building. And so the design district is different than other areas in town, and therefore it needs the signage that it has, regulations, in order to accommodate specifically what it has. But it doesn't apply, the things that are specific to the design district don't apply elsewhere. And And I would also say that a number of these changes, and you're pointing them out, but a number of them were, there were changes in Miami 21 that were not incorporated in the design district's original plan in 2012. And so all this is doing is allowing the design district to have what some other areas of the city have.

And I understand the concerns, but there's a need for a special... Can we hear from the city, please?

I just want to clarify the point about the signage. So typically in the rest of the city, how the signage works, it's based on the linear feet of your building and of the frontage length. So when you're trying to apply those standards to the design district where you have tenant, tenant, tenant, you have all these different tenants, It's really tricky to enforce, it's tricky to review. It's hard for me as a reviewer, for the zoning reviewers. It's tricky for all of their tenants to try and to wrap their heads around it. So basically, I think that the best way to explain the major change is that instead of having it aggregated across the building, across the length of the frontage, it's more about per tenant. So, for example, you can have a certain amount of signs for each individual storefront rather than trying, again, as a reviewer, trying to figure out, okay, how many signs are approved on this block? So it just makes more sense. We still have the same... Intent behind it to obviously like reduce the proliferation of signage and the district Because that's obviously not what we want But it's it just makes more sense from a zoning perspective and from the the tenants perspective to try and regulate the signage According to the storefronts themselves and not across the entire building. Does that kind of make sense? Yeah

Mr. Chair, for the new members here, will you consider having the gentleman to finish his presentation so we can, some of our questions might be answered here in his presentation, but it's new to some of us.

Just to clarify two points. The first two points that were made on habitable space on the roof elements, on the rooftop, that was a windward idea. It was successful there because they lacked open space on the ground. That's where the idea came from to encourage roof elements and habitable space on the roof. It's since been expanded across the whole city. We've amended the code. Last year it was voted upon by this board and the design district aren't requesting anything additional to what the rest of the city allows currently. So it just brings them up to the same standard. It's not all zones. It's T5 and T6 in the case of the design district. There is a limit on the amount of habitable space you can put on the roof. It's limited to 20%. of covered roof space. You have to have an outdoor area associated with it. You can't just put a roof building up there without an outside garden or an outside space. So it has to be connected with outdoor living of some kind. So this was an opportunity to address the lack of kind of open space and ground floor spaces we have in the city. In terms of the use of it, it can't go beyond the uses that are allowed. on that property already. So you can't introduce a new use on that site that isn't already allowed through the article table four or whatever the equivalent is in the design district. On the second point, which was in relation to, now I've forgotten. Signage. Signage, there was another one as well.

Compact cars.

Compact cars. Again, we have amended the code in terms of we used to have small, we used to have dimensional spaces. It used to be, I think it was car and then large or loading or something like that. We amended the code last year to say that spaces were governed by small, medium and large and things like that. And there was dimensions associated with it. Again, it's simply the same as what the city already allows in the rest of the code. If you remember, we made the dimensional changes, but we took away the right to a waiver. So because all we were doing that the city was processing waiver after waiver to get the dimensions amended. So we said, Okay, we'll amend the dimensions, make them smaller, take away your 10% that you kept requesting, but we would remove the right to that waiver. So again, It's bringing the design issue into alignment with Miami 21.

Thank you. The last item I had was the setback. Changing the metric that you're using for setback, obviously I would imagine that that would benefit the property owner by reducing his setback requirement. Would that be correct?

So it's not impacting the setback itself. It's just changing the way we measure the height at which the setback kicks in. So I'm not sure if you guys remember about 12 months ago, I presented on podiums amendments. So we adopted that across the city. So we basically converted floors from stories into feet. So it just made more sense because we were getting a lot of these different sorts of heights and stories. So to produce a more kind of predictable urban form, we just ran the calculations. Again, this was across the city to get the height at which the setbacks would kick in under the number of stories. So let's say if it was eight stories, we just converted that to 125 feet. So that's something we have across the city, but we're not changing the setback itself. So if it's like, oh, you need a 26 foot setback, a budding T3, for example, the 26 would stay the same. It's just a conversion of the height.

Thank you.

Mm-hmm.

So, real quick, just to Member Bailey's question, you know, I think the main thing here is that we just want to focus on the actual changes that are being requested. And some of the stuff we were getting into is somewhat relevant, but it's about, you know, public benefits, things like this. But just to be clear, we've definitely gone through many, many updates for the reason that we're here today, which is Miami 21. having changes outside the SAP that then have to be, the SAP has to be brought to the same level as Miami 21, and then the SAP making requests within its boundaries to just make adjustments and stuff. So if you want to maybe hold off and see if we get through questions that sort of end up with the answers that help you make a determination, and then if we want to go dig deeper into the public benefits or the history of the SAP, which is very lengthy, then we can.

So, Mr. Chair, he was just addressing the civic space as a 5% requirement, and so there's some things that related to the changes that he was actually addressing in his presentation that I would like to hear.

Okay, so what the, yeah, but do you have a question specifically then?

Mr. Chair, if I may address Mr. Bailey. Mr. Bailey, actually, there wasn't much more to the presentation other than what what Chair Gerstin was saying, which is I was going to expand a little bit upon the public benefits, including future public benefits, and expand a little bit upon the next projects, more sense of information of what's happening in the Design District. The staff's report covered everything, really, and we're really here at this point just to answer questions or provide any other information you want about the Design District. So, like I said, we can come back to you.

I should have said this at the beginning of the item, but I'm going to recuse myself from this item. There's three different projects in the SAP that we're working as civil engineer on. None of them are for the applicant, but in abundance of caution, I'm going to recuse myself. Thank you.

Member Porsoff?

Good.

I'm good.

Good. Okay. So first and foremost, thank you applicant, thank you city, exceptional review. Mine is not perhaps so focused on the applicant or the application itself. It's more of something that I saw within the criterias. If we're looking at the criterias within that Article 7, Section 7.1.2.8, I saw that one of them specifically number seven under criteria H that you have as it may include, you have a consistent, but refer to the conditions of approval. Just as a general question, and again, not to this particular application, but if an item is not applicable within the criteria, it shouldn't be said as consistent, it should be said as inconsistent, and then therefore not applicable to the criteria, specifically when you were talking about situations where, in this criteria, it's a may, not a must, not a shall. So just a general point, just in case we ever get something like this before us again. It's a very esoteric, legalistic point of view. So again, nothing to the application, nothing to the applicant. Phenomenal job to everyone on board. It was impressive because both myself, my professor, and I even had some fun with St. Thomas, obviously, on the record. at the law firm, learning and educating new interns. And they brought this up as well. So thank you for that.

Thank you.

Yeah, that's it. Thanks.

OK, thank you for the presentation. For me, it's very difficult. It's a 700-page document that was sent three days ago to us. So I would lie if I have to say that I understand everything or that I'm familiar with everything that's being changed. I think staff and the applicant has months, many months to work on this, and it's very difficult for us to grasp. The presentation is thorough and it's great, but there's a lot of nuisances that I like to, since I'm here, I would like to be able to be the most useful that I can. So for whomever is listening and for the board, I would like to clarify that the nature of the SAP is to provide opportunities that otherwise are not available through Miami 21. So I think that's inherent to an SAP. You gather land and you make your own code. with the approval of planning staff so that you don't fall too far away from what the city intends for that section of the neighborhood. So the fact that it's different, I think it's what makes it unique. And that's why we're here today. I would also like to highlight that art in public places and civic spaces are typically mandatory contributions when these areas come about. So they're expected. They're not a gift. I mean, I understand that maybe more has been provided, and that's great, but it's something that we also need to contemplate. I have questions regarding the built-to-zone flexibility, which I think it was a member man was trying to discuss. This is a by-right in the Miami 21. I'm not so familiar with it. I thought we were going by setbacks, by what the setbacks are required through the transit zone, rather than flexibility, like a 10-foot flexibility. So if you can explain how that would affect the site. I also have questions in the roofs, the habitable roof. When these areas are allowed, Do parking requirements kick in through the increased habitable space? Is there a requirement to provide more parking when the roofs become habitable spaces?

Yes, it counts to its floor area.

It counts to floor area, so there's more parking requirements that kick in. Okay, that's good. I appreciate that we're making rooftops more usable. I think that's something that the city and residents gain from rather than becoming mechanical rooms I do understand the concern about increased density or increased uses but if that's been taken care through the calculations I'm okay with that and I would like to also understand how many sites would benefit from this amendment because I do not see quite eye to eye how this amendment is to come closer to Miami 21 since it's designed to be away from Miami 21 in its own animal. So trying to say we want to have what other areas have, I don't think that was intentional from the beginning. If now there is an interest in adding more to this SAP, then that's, I think, for clarity and a consistent narrative, that's what we need to be looking at. Because it wasn't intended to have what other areas have. It was intended to have what they need to have, which is different. And I would also like to understand what type of uses, I think you mentioned educational uses, are going to be by right now and not through a warrant process. And I would like to learn more about that.

So I'll start with those questions, if you don't mind.

I can go ahead and start your first question about the build two zone and how that kind of applies to the design district. Yeah, to clarify, it doesn't like, it's not gonna reduce the setback. It can only expand it. So again, like in the design district, you don't have to have a front setback. The established setback is zero because of that expanded public sidewalk and enhanced pedestrian realm that they provided. So yeah, it doesn't eliminate it. I think that, was that the question mostly?

Okay. If I may, Mr. Carrillo, add to that. I put up this illustration of the facades of the storefronts in the design district to create visual interest and interest in the streets. Some of them set back a little. Some of them are up to the street line itself. And some of them have landscaping or other art features. So this is really, it allows for greater setback to create that visual interest that you see in the design district, not that everything is a uniform glass. glass wall. I just wanted to add to that.

What was the next one about density? I think that was the next one, just a question about the density.

One of the questions I have is how many sites would benefit from this amendment?

There's no increase at all in either the intensity, that is the FLR, or the density. Everything in the design district is capped at the maximum FLR that existed back in 2012, and so we're not asking for any increase in density or intensity.

And this is also something we have in other SAPs, like the Brickell City Center. I know it's not an SAP, but it's how we do it in the World Center. You're able to distribute the density throughout, so long as it doesn't exceed the average, so to speak.

But if I may also, and you haven't been on this board, I think, with the prior ones, we're not even... Our cap is not the base FLR plus bonus, which would be, say, 11. It is the base FLR 8. We can't go above that for the entirety of the design district. That's a pretty significant restriction as compared to if we were not in an SAP, every property there could go up to 11. So actually, the cap for the entirety of the district is at the base of the FLR.

And you are doing transfer of benefits, so whatever is unused is being kept?

Within the properties, within the T68 zone, you could have, for instance, you could have a two-story retail building, but then you could have another building, which is residential or office, which utilizes some of that unused FLR.

Okay. I think the other question was the educational uses that are by right and how these are gonna be, well, they're by warrant, and now these uses are allowed by right.

Yes, so the changes, and again, these are changes we have incorporated under Miami 21. I can go through them. So childcare instead of a warrant would be by right. Elementary school in T4, instead of exception, let me just share the screen. Elementary school, instead of exception process in T4, it would be by warrant, and then in T5 and T6, it would be allowed by right. Let me try. I know it might be small. Ah, hold on. So childcare was the first one, and then elementary school is the second one. And then middle school and high school, that process is changing from exception to warrant in T4, and from warrant to buy right in T6. Preschool changing from exception to warrant in T4. Okay.

Okay, so there's not gonna be any input from neighbors if this is permitted and a school occupies the site.

For the T6 sites, correct? Yes, T5 and T6. Yeah, T5 and T6. We have looked at that, and there's not really, like the T6 properties are only the ones towards the south, compared to, I assume you're talking about the Buena Vista neighborhood to the north. So it's a pretty long distance between those two areas. So we don't expect to see any kind of adverse impacts.

Okay. The department thinks that's the process. Thank you.

You had one other question, which was a good one, I think, just to mention, which was about making the design district and the code related to the place it's designed to become. Yes. And it's clear that over time, the original code was written to create this beautiful high-end retail street. And they've been very successful at doing that, the landscape and so forth, and the number of tenants and so forth. But as planners, and with the recent emphasis on neighborhoods, I think the vision that they're implementing right now is to evolve the neighborhood from purely retail and introducing other uses to create a real neighborhood with residential and hotel and office development and jobs and things like that. associated with those elements is a positive thing for the neighborhood. Now as the building permits have been coming in in the last couple of years for these new uses there's been a struggle particularly on the ground floor to accommodate for example a residential building that includes on the ground floor things like loading, access, trash collection, drop-off. Now that's not For the retail street, you don't envision a lot of that. You can share those uses, put it at the back, but you keep your frontage all the same. So the stresses around some of the proposals to bring in other uses is clear. So we've not only had to review a little bit of the code to create flexibilities for those uses in line with Miami 21 currently, but we have pushed them further and said, look, you've created a certain type of neighborhood here We don't want to lose the frontages and lose the continuities. So, for example, they were very generous in offering that when they lose or this creates gaps in the street, for example, when there's trash or there's drop off, you know, that they screen them appropriately. that when there's residential drop-offs or hotel drop-offs, we create portico chairs that are partially screened. So we hide some of those uses that aren't great for the retail street. So yes, we're bringing it up to date in terms of their vision and Miami 21, but we've also pushed them to make sure that we don't lose some of the best elements of the retail street, which I'm sure they're keen to do also. So that's really the moment we're at right now is to help them in. implement their vision and create this already quite clear and distinct neighborhood into something more mixed-use, more 24-7, as Nilsson put it.

Yeah, and I think that's a great avenue, something, I think it's important, so I'm glad to hear that. Thank you.

Through the chair, if I could add something? Yes. I would support a motion to approve if anyone that makes that motion would accept a a textual change. For staff, I just did a little AI search here on the word habitable in a commercial context. And what it says specifically is that habitable refers to residential and it includes living, sleeping, eating, and cooking. But in a commercial property, it's quite different. And the word that AI suggests using is occupiable rooftop space, because that does not include living and sleeping. It allows restaurants, it allows a number of other things, but the word occupiable, I think, would clarify that it is not for sleeping or for living. And I think it's important because using that word in residential is dangerous because people will then think, oh, yeah, okay, I can sleep and live on that roof. And if you put it into commercial, I think it's not accurate. I would be comfortable if staff could change abitables to occupied.

Real quick on that, can I just...

Well, if I just answer real first, because I think you might answer. So we, in the code, it specifically references that it can be used for amenity space or commercial. It doesn't allow other uses, such as residential or sleeping and those things.

It has, if I may... A definition within it. Two things. First of all, yes, there are very specific definitions in the code of what a habitable... Regardless of what a habitable space may be in AI as defined by Google, there's a specific definition in the code of what habitable spaces can be and should comply with the following requirements. May extend up to 14 feet above the maximum building height. and shall have a minimum setback of five feet. May be used as amenity for commercial uses, identified Section 4, Table 3, building function. May cover up to 20% of the roof area. So in the code, they have their own definition of what habitable space can be made on the roof. Now, by the way, if you wanted to change in Miami 21 the word habitable to something else, totally fine with that. But until that code changes, I think we have to live with the name habitable.

To be honest, I feel like we've answered your point. You were concerned that people couldn't live, or you didn't want to support people living up there, our code doesn't say that they can. It says it can only be used for amenity or commercial. It doesn't say anything about the habitable space on the roof being for living, sleeping, those things. So I believe the code is tight in that regard. If you would like to add a condition for us to examine it further, we're happy to do it to make sure it is tight enough. it doesn't open it up to your concern that you've raised.

I think, you know, just on that, I think that when we have like a term of art or something that's already clearly defined in a document and redefined in a few places, If we go down this road, then we're constantly re-re-redefining stuff that already took the time to be defined by code. And it's just for a maker of emotion to feel better, and we just can't do that every time. It's defined. I mean, that's the thing. If there was no definition or it could be read differently in our code... I would totally agree with you, because the point is well taken. The word is a weird word. It's a weird word to use, but since it's defined in our code, I think we're just doing something that really... Can I get tech support to show my screen, please?

Or I can screenshot and put it in the PowerPoint. Maybe that's quicker. I'm just going to do that.

While you're waiting, what the chair is saying, though, the code does define habitable, which takes precedence over any dictionary definition or other definition. The code definition is what prevails.

I mean, to be super clear, a concern isn't the definition of what habitable in the word is. It goes on further than that to say which uses you can put within that habitable space. Right. There isn't, I think that as we've written the regulation, it answers.

It is more stringent as it's written and defined in our code.

If you look at 6B, it says that may be used as amenity or commercial uses identified with Section 4, Table 3 building function uses and should provide associated outdoor roof programming. So the uses are defined there as part of this design district regulations.

It can't be a residential space. It can be an amenity or commercial use. Correct. Can't be putting bedrooms up there.

It is interesting that it says shall comply and then says may, but I would say the shall says that it has to be one of those mays.

I mean, it also can't be an enclosed space necessarily. At some point, if you have a roof and everything, it becomes a story, and that's how we call it.

The building department would have a whole different view of it, and it wouldn't be allowed.

Right. So you can't have an extra story if it looks like a story and you have an enclosed space in there with These kinds of residential uses we that's not something that's allowed So we it's just all out.

Yeah Thank you, thank you Thank you for the presentation a couple questions the first is for I guess

not sure applicant or staff the civic space um five percent requirement just want to know specifically what's that new number and is there a location how defined is that in the concept book well the the civic space is throughout the entirety of the design district sap and the actual amount of civic space exceeds the uh requirement under uh miami 21. i don't have the exact number but the civic space exceeds what is required.

So what we're bringing in, we're saying there's no additional, because we currently have enough civic spaces. Oh, yes. Okay.

And remember, we're only adding four little parcels with like 17,000 square feet of land, and you can see the civic space in the design district when you go there, how much there is.

Thank you. Thank you. Next question I think is for staff. It's regarding the retail front of Gladens. So there was a requirement before, well, 70% by right, but now we're moving that number down. Question for you, why are we now kind of relying versus the public board, UDRB, versus now giving the discretion to the planning director for moving that number?

I can answer. Yeah, well, this is kind of an SAP permit that we receive pretty routinely. So again, because of like just the nature of the design district and the types of retail tenants, they have a lot of specialty kind of high-end or specialty clients is one reason. They also don't necessarily want a lot of the visibility inside the stores. It's kind of part of the experience of the design district. You don't necessarily want to see too much, and that's kind of how they entice and attract customers to actually go inside. Third, sometimes just based on the nature of the products. For example, they have a lot of jewelry stores for example, and they don't necessarily want an abundance of light inside. And the last reason I think is just to highlight that high-end architecture, which is pretty key to the brand identity of the tenants and also the character of the neighborhood as a whole. So that's a reason we've... We've added certain design criteria to provide enhanced facade treatment. Basically, they would just have to provide us that information. And it doesn't necessarily make sense for them to spend two to three months having to apply to the UDRB, go to the public hearing process, maybe get some conditions to do this or that. The process can just be extremely cumbersome for maybe a tenant that's like, you know a Thousand square feet for example when they can just come to the planning department and we can issue that permit administratively They just want to make sure so they still can do it if they go to the board But like you expedite the process so if they go late, yeah, if they go really really below. Yeah Under that and he was 29 percent. They still have that opportunity to go to the board and But we don't expect that.

Just to remind you, the planning director can send any project to refer it to UDRB at any time. So if they go down to a certain percent by right, if we don't feel like the proposal meets the design standards, because there's criteria involved if you go down to that low. It has to be a heightened architectural kind of expression that they're doing on the blank wall. So if we're not satisfied, we can still send them to UDRB for an opinion. But what we're saying is anything below that percentage, when you get the small numbers, then routinely we would need a second opinion from the UDRB as a recommending board.

Thank you. And then my final question is regarding the parking reduction. It removes the criteria if you lie within 600 feet of a parking garage. It kind of say if it's a transit corridor or a transit-oriented development area. I know a lot of our transit is still in development, may or may not happen. So can you speak to specifically why we felt the need to remove this connectivity to a parking garage?

Yeah, so it was really just because there was a lot of confusion from a lot of the tenants. And that specific regulation, it only applies to T4. And also, to be clear, the design district is not in a TOD. It's just kind of planning for the future. But it is in a transit corridor because of its proximity to Biscayne. So it's really just to kind of like... To my understanding, most, if not all, of the T4 tenants are already within 650 feet of a parking garage. So having that 600 feet proximity requirement was kind of just superfluous. So that's why we agree with the recommendation to remove it.

Sorry. Follow-up question. So you said because they're close to Biscayne. So help me understand, like... How does the transit corridor close to Biscayne, how does that help reduce parking? I just want to make sure I...

Oh, I just mean that that's like the transit corridor that's closest to the design district. So it's within a quarter mile buffer of that. So I'm not sure if it's the whole neighborhood or just a portion of it is within the transit corridor. But I know for those sites that are within the transit corridor can take advantage of that provision. And we also, we do want to encourage shared parking facilities throughout the design district. You don't necessarily need to be super close to the parking garage. That's part of the experience, is to go to the design district, okay, you park in one end, and then you have to walk throughout the design district to really experience the neighborhood.

Thank you. Thank you. So we had a motion. There was an amendment to it. I don't know if anyone took the amendment, but...

We don't actually have a motion.

Oh, we don't. Okay, so we have a motion.

Second.

Second. Porosov, Metoyer. Porosov and Metoyer. Roll call, please.

Board member Arthur Parasol. Yes. Board member Elon Metier. Yes. Board Member Paul Main.

Yes.

Board Member Mr. Eduardo J. Fernandez.

Yes.

Board Member Ms. Lynette Cardoche. Board Member Mrs. Paula DeCarles. Yes. Board Member Mario J. Bailey. Yes. Vice Chair Andres R. Lopez.

Yes.

Chair Adam Gersten. Yes. We have motion passes nine to zero.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, next item please.

Item number two, file ID-19463, a resolution of the Planning, Zoning, and Appeals Board recommending approval of the ordinance of the City of Miami Commission amending Chapter 62, Article 1, Section 62-2.1 of the Code of the City of Miami, Florida as amended title, Planning and Zoning in General Independent Traffic and Environmental Impact Studies by Updating Traffic Statement and Traffic Impact Study Requirements. containing a severability clause providing for an effective date.

And I'm Colin Worth, I'm with the Resilience Public Works Transportation Project Manager. And if you have any questions on this item, I'm happy to answer them.

Is there, but...

There's no presentation being prepared. It's been through City Commission first reading.

Okay, you're saying this is one of those ones where they did first reading and it's just here and correct kind of cat we're playing catch-up well the First thing is Was there anybody here from the public to speak on this okay since there's not I I'm just going to see if any of the board members have any questions. Maybe to my right. No.

To my left.

Yes, Member Bailey has a question.

So there's an amendment that eliminates the independent traffic engineer study by the Florida PE. Wanted to know why you rely solely on discretion of the director. We changed the language of it.

It's not a Florida PE, but a traffic engineer is specific.

So if you don't mind, just into the mic, because it's hard. We want to make sure it picks up on the recording.

Okay. We updated the language. It does change it from a PE to a traffic engineer. Let me see which section that is. Okay. It has a registered Florida professional engineer who is a professional traffic operations engineer.

Perfect. And then one quick follow-up. I think you changed the 20 to 100 to match Miami-Dade County. Is that correct?

So for 20 peak hour trips, 299, it is a traffic statement. For above 100, it's what's considered a level two traffic study, which it does match Miami-Dade County.

Thank you. Does anyone have a motion? Or you had a question? Yes, I have a question.

I'm sorry. So for planning staff, when do we request a traffic statement and when do we request a traffic impact study?

So when we see it is at the time of PZ, it is a requirement that they come in and provide a traffic statement. When it is less than 99 trips, which is identified by the zoning, they let us know about the projects as they come in.

So zoning identifies the number of Our trips?

Of peak hour trips.

Of peak hour trips? Yes. And how do they do that?

It's based on the land use.

It's based on the land use?

It's based on the land use using the Institute of Traffic Engineering manual, the current traffic engineering manual. So right now we're in the 12th edition. So they would use that to determine the number of trips based on the land use. So if the land use is a mixed-use commercial, they can identify, OK, it's you know, this many thousand square feet, it would qualify for a trip review or a traffic engineer, a traffic statement.

So the independent reviewer is the one that determines that. It's not determined on the application or the, so they have to calculate that, the independent reviewer from zoning staff? Is that how it works? Do we have a zoning here today? No? No?

So zoning identifies it at the time of PZ, and then they send it to us for review.

Yeah, I understand that it gets routed, but I'm trying to figure out how it's generated. Okay. I don't think I'm going to get an answer. I'll follow up with zoning. Thank you.

Thank you. Because this is before us, move to approve. We have a motion. Is there a second? Second. Roll call, please.

I'm sorry, who's second? Thank you. Vice Chair Andres R. Lopez?

Yes.

Board Member Eduardo J. Fernandez?

Yes.

Board Member Mrs. Lynette Kodoch?

Yes.

Board Member Mr. Elon Metier? Yes. Board Member Paul Main?

Yes.

Board Member, Mrs. Paula DeCarolis?

No.

Board Member, Mr. Mario Bailey?

No.

Board Member, Mr. Chris Collins?

Yes.

Board Member, Arthur Parasol? Board Member, Mr. Adam Gersten? I mean, I'm sorry, Chair, Mr. Adam Gerson.

It's fine, either way, yes. I'm just a man.

Motion passes eight to two. And then we have a discussion item. Then there's a discussion item for file ID One nine five one seven little river transit station neighborhood district.

Good evening everybody. My name is. Ryan Shed, I'm the Chief of Comprehensive Planning. There we go. So tonight before you is the Little River Enhanced TSND discussion item. It's coming back later for the actual exception. And we're going to get into that processing in a few minutes. But... As most of you will remember, as you were here at the time, last year in 2025, the city adopted a couple ordinances that did a couple things. The first one was the TOD node legislation, which adopted our new TOD node future land use designations into the comprehensive plan. And that paved the way for the other ordinance, which adopted our transit station neighborhood district legislation to Miami 21 to institute new language to create enhanced TOD neighborhoods around our premium transit stations. And so tonight, we're going to discuss the first of those applications to come before the city, which is a Little River TSND application focused on creating that TOD area around the new station. So a little bit of background on the TOD node just as a refresher. The TOD node future land use designation is the new future land use designation to focus that development around the premium transit facilities. They are only allowed within the TOD areas as defined by the Miami Comprehensive Neighborhood Plan. So the map on the right hand side of the screen is the exhibit in the appendix which shows those TOD areas around our existing and planned premium transit facilities. So once that TOD node future land use designation is in place, that's the first criteria to apply for a TSND, a Transit Station Neighborhood District. So that's the first criteria once you have that. We make sure that you comply with the other criteria. Notably, you have either T4, T5, T6, or D1 Miami 21 transect zones. You have a minimum of three acres of land as part of your application. and that it goes through the exception process here at the PZAB. And then, notably, it has a number of requirements as part of the application process with a number of diagrams showing things like open space, civic diagrams, frontages, massing, parking, and so forth. A couple things to note. Abutting properties to NCDs and properties within NCDs are prohibited from participating in the TS&D process. And then any property that is a designated historic site has to go through an exception through the City Commission, not just through the PCAB. And so as part of these applications, there's a number of public benefits that are required as part of the package. So the first and foremost one is kind of the first entry gateway to this process, and that's the construction of a transit station or the sort of equivalent enhancement of an existing station, right? So for those areas that might be around an existing metro rail station, for instance. And so this sort of ties it back to the whole intent, which is creating these TOD neighborhoods focused on centering the activity around the transit and tying all of that together. And so the other important aspects of that are the pedestrian mobility connection enhancements, which are vital to the ability for people to traverse the neighborhood and access the transit and their uses. But also we have affordable and workforce housing requirements broken down into specifics there. as well as enhanced landscapes, public parks, specific mobility amenities and infrastructure, workforce development or small business support. And then the final piece is sort of a menu of options that can be chosen from. So they can be a contribution to one of the trust funds. They can be including green building, brownfield redevelopment, or donation of civic space types. So once you've met those basic minimum criteria and then provided all those public benefits, this unlocks development benefits for the applicant. And so the density and the intensity are tied to the TOD node designation. So that underlying future land use TOD node, future land use designation, is anywhere from 150 to 400 dwelling units an acre and up to 40 for a FLR multiplier. In this case, they're not that high. Those are more focused more closely to the urban core. But uses and development criteria are tied to the T624 standards, and this is the case for the enhanced TSND that we're talking about here tonight, like the Little River application that we have. So those uses are where they would normally be allowed by warrant or exception. In many cases, they are allowed by rights, so that includes educational, civic use, civil support, outdoor dining, and large-scale retail. And then, again, T6-24-0 standards. So that includes things like relaxations on maximum lot sizes, cross-block passages, floor plate restrictions, and so forth. Parking is also geared more towards the master planning concept. And so a lot of the, so in the case of the enhanced TSD applications, there are wholly new parking ratios as opposed to relying on the general Miami 21 ratios so that it's more flexible for a centralized parking program where you can focus more of the uses that you want closer to the train station and really master plan the area around those uses with the parking a little bit more flexible. So the process is quite lengthy. So we're here at step six tonight because we've already gone through steps one through five. So step one is way in the past where the proposed station, if it's new in this case, is included in the long range transportation plan through the MPO. In this case, this was done a number of years ago IN CONSIDERATION OF THE FACT THAT TRY RAIL IS ALREADY RUNNING SERVICE ALONG THE IRIS THAT RUNS THROUGH THE LITTLE RIVER NEIGHBORHOOD. THEN IT'S INCLUDED WITHIN OUR MY COMPREHENSIVE NEIGHBORHOOD PLAN. AND THEN AFTER THAT THE CITY HAS TO GO AND THEN APPLY FOR THE TOD NODE FUTURE LAND USE DESIGNATION FOR THE AREA. AND SO RIGHT NOW THAT CAN ONLY BE DONE BY THE CITY BECAUSE AN APPLICANT CANNOT APPLY FOR A FUTURE LAND USE CHANGE WITHOUT A COMPANION and there's no companion rezoning to the TOD node legislation. So right now, this is a very sort of centralized process. So then, you know, that whole process goes through city commission, PSAB city commission and so forth. And then finally, you know, that unlocks the ability for applicants and property owners to apply for the TSND designation through that process. And that is where we're here tonight for the exception for this little river TSND. And Paul is going to get into the specifics on that.

Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. Paul Genovese, Chief of Urban Design with the City of Miami. I'm going to give you a little bit of a background and preview on the Little River TSND. This is obviously just a discussion item for tonight, but in the coming weeks, we'll be coming forth for the exception in front of you all. Some quick background on the site. As the name suggests, this project is up in the Little River section of the city. We'll get a little bit more into that in a second, but highlighted on this drawing in red are the parcels that are included within this proposal. There are 101 parcels that are divided across these three project areas that you can see on the drawing, areas one, two, and three. We'll speak a little bit more about that as we go along. Total site area is just under 60 acres for this TSND. Here are some of the maps that we're looking at, zoning up top, you can see a lot of district zones, T5s and T6s. And then the future land use map that Ryan was speaking about previously, which has been updated and adopted to reflect these TOD nodes that are part of the TSNV process. Neighborhood context, this will kind of give you a better idea of where this proposed project is located within the city and its neighborhoods. It's in Little River. It's bisected by the east-west Florida East Coast rail trunk line that connects into Miami Central downtown and is currently used by TriRail. Little background on the neighborhood. That aforementioned rail line was kind of what spawned development over 100 years ago in Little River. It was the northern junction of the FEC's Miami Beltline, which extends west to Hialeah and connects to the existing tri-rail tracks that run north-south from the airport up to Mangonia Park in West Palm Beach. The neighborhood went through a few different major life cycles and phases, one of the big ones being in 1949 when the Victory Homes were built as temporary housing for returning defense workers from World War II. There were also some additional public housing projects built in the 70s, Gwen Cherry and Newberg. This was part of a displacement caused by the construction of I-95 and an influx of Haitian refugees that turned Little River into the community that it really is today. And, you know, as we've crossed into the 2000s, we've seen a lot of investment in the neighborhood, some redevelopment happening. And finally, in 2023, the county awarded the redevelopment of those two aforementioned housing projects to the Swerdlow Group and AJ Capital to create this Little River District. Kind of just an aerial of what we're looking at. There will be additional, you know, drawings describing kind of the context. You can see that rail line running through the center there, the Victory Homes on the left, you know, showing a little bit more green space, underutilized land. You can see the majority of the area currently is those two affordable housing projects as well as a lot of industrial and warehouse type use with some adaptive reuse happening. These photos will kind of describe what we've looked at contextually on the previous slides. You can see these are photos of that Victory Homes affordable housing area as well as the conditions under I-95 which bisects that housing site. Area two in the center is a little bit different. This is an area that doesn't have those, isn't anchored by those two affordable housing areas. It's more of a organic piece of this project that has a lot of great civic areas like the church and the schools. It's also experiencing a lot of adaptive reuse currently in these warehouses, some restaurants, shops, and things happening in that section. This is an important area in the project because when you have these two anchors in area one and three, those two housing projects that are being redeveloped under this agreement, having area two in the center be a part of this master plan means that everything is going to be kind of this cohesive neighborhood centered around that train station with a lot of connectivity and other public benefits that we're going to see later in the presentation. And then finally, area three, one of those aforementioned housing areas that's gonna be redeveloped as part of this project. So getting into the master plan a little bit, this is more or less the site plan from just conceptual point of view, showing some of the potential building footprints and layouts in all three of those areas. We're gonna look at this in a little bit more detail as we move through the presentation. To quickly get to the more exciting drawings, I guess, the massing model that the project is proposing, you can see here kind of those three areas highlighted in the different colors, the oranges and reds on the left, that area one, the blues in the middle, area two. and then area three all the way in the upper right corner. Those colors do correspond to the type of housing that's being proposed. As you can see, the existing housing projects are being completely replaced with affordable and workforce housing. That's part of the agreement with the county. And that center area is envisioned to be kind of more of the market rate housing section of this master plan. A little zoom in onto these building heights. Ryan touched on earlier that the TSND entitles the project to T624 zoning. That said, the applicant is proposing heights that are at that limit, if not under. And when it comes to the maximum benefit height, they're limiting themselves to 30 stories. The big part of the master plan itself and the TSD legislation involves phasing, which triggers a lot of these public benefits that Ryan mentioned earlier. As you can see here, they have a very detailed phasing plan for the project. That parcel on the left in area one, that's the light blue, the cyan color, that will be the first tower that goes up. That tower will be where the existing residents will be moved in throughout a very strict process that's been agreed between the applicant and the county. So once everyone's relocated from the main part of Victory Homes into that new building, The applicant will then be able to begin construction on the train station and the other parts in area one where that land is finally freed up. You can kind of see here the location of the train station is right along that line that separates area one and area two. There's that blue bar there below two of those purple parcels. And we'll get into later about kind of when these public benefits are triggered and when the train station will come. To give you some zoom-ins and a little bit more detail on the actual proposal, once again, you know, this is just a higher level master plan, but with a lot of detail and effort that was put into it. Obviously, every building will go for a building permit, have its associated drawings and approvals that, you know, are required in the code. This kind of gives you an idea of what the applicant's master plan vision is for the area. Area one is going to be a lot of commercial space as well as workforce and affordable housing. Looking at somewhere just over 3,000 units in this area. move into area two like i mentioned before this is a much more organic section of the master plan but once again one that we think is critical to the success of this project to connect these two anchors in areas one and three through this section um we'll have slides coming up that you know you can see that The applicant and their consultants have made a big effort to try and create this spine and this connectivity that runs east-west and connects residents to the retail, to the train station, to all the amenities that are gonna be provided in this master plan. And then finally, area three, a little detail of this. Once again, one of these redevelopments. This one around 2,000 units, workforce and affordable. Parking, obviously something that's always very important and that people care deeply about in this city. Wanted to share this drawing to show that this master plan proposes parking that's above the minimum required in each phase. Some early renderings and views of the project. One of the main things in the legislation is not only providing these streetscapes and this walkability, but making it where it's kind of a way of wayfinding and journeying through the neighborhood. So these terminated vistas are something that are critical to the success of the project and something that's required in the TSND. You can see this is all about that east-west connectivity that I was talking about earlier, really creating a neighborhood and a district that's walkable, connected, and centered around this train station. So real quick, going back to the public benefits that Ryan outlined earlier, obviously the number one, the main thing, the namesake, the train station itself. This is a great diagram that kind of shows how that train station interacts with our transit in the South Florida area. As you can see, that pink line is your current tri-rail line. I believe they have two or three trains each direction in the morning and evening that spur off that pink line, take this purple line down into Miami Central downtown. So the beauty of this proposal is that there will actually be a station between Hialeah, the Metrorail Transfer Station, and Miami Central. So that train just won't just be blowing through half of our city, not stopping anywhere or not being utilized by potential passengers. Another one of the public benefits is a circulator. The applicant will be providing a circulator throughout the community with regular stops to assist those who may not wanna walk or cannot walk to the train station to connect them to that resource. The aforementioned affordable and workforce housing, this is a much clearer 2D view of the plan outlining where those workforce and affordable units are distributed throughout the master plan. Enhanced landscape is another big public benefit. Here you can see in the drawing on the upper left, They're proposing enhanced landscape along the majority of the principal frontages throughout the project. You can see that east-west spine taking shape there with the dark green lines. They've even proposed some of their initial ideas for plant materials, et cetera, for streets, pedestrian streets, and courtyards and gardens. Enhanced open space kind of goes along with that, another public benefit that's being provided. You can see in the dark green here are where these enhanced open spaces would be located within the master plan. and that some of these will actually be public civic spaces. That'll be for the use of the neighborhood and for the city at large. One of the critical ones is that larger image there with this large courtyard in between these four residential buildings that is on axis with the entrance to the train station. So here you can kind of get a better idea of how that train station may interact with the master plan as a whole. It's that orange bar down there near the railroad track hatching. Enhanced streetscape, some precedent images that may or may not kind of give you a look into what the enhanced streetscape may be. There's vertical elements that extend up from the street, lighting, wayfinding, street furniture, as well as an enhanced actual hardscape or surface of the street and pedestrian zones. Public art, obviously another public benefit. That's part of their agreement with the county to provide in areas one and three. And the applicant's also proposing some additional public benefits. These include employment benefits, ensuring 25% of all new construction contractor hires are Section 3 qualified, 30% of the value of these contracts awarded to small businesses, minority-owned or women-owned enterprises, a lot of employment benefits, resident benefits like free Wi-Fi in common spaces of all buildings, fully furnished RAD units, on-site computer labs, job training benefits in addition, tuition assistance to Miami Dade College for residents of the existing homes on-site that are being redeveloped, and greater community benefits. They're hopefully in the future endeavoring to include a major grocery store, pharmacy service, and to name things to commemorate what's being redeveloped. And that's all for now. Thank you.

Thank you. So just to talk about the process, we have the exception application with us right now. We've been working closely with applicants to make refinements, improve when we see fit. We anticipate bringing the exception to you in two weeks' time. So this is an opportunity to see the outline of the proposal in advance. ask any questions. We will share the presentation in advance so that you have it. We will also have zoning here to answer zoning questions. They've been part of the team, but we'll have them here as well. So this is hopefully an opportunity to ensure that it moves obviously smoothly through the next PSAP meeting if possible. We also want to make you aware that the project has contracts with the county to provide you know, the affordable housing and funding. So it's important to the city that it moves as quickly as possible for the purposes of those contracts, hence the discussion item today. The project in its entirety envisions around 5,700 affordable units. So, you know, it's an important project as part of... What number was that? Around 5,700 affordable units. 5,700? And how many dwelling units do you have in that area now? How many units? Obviously, it depends how it comes forward.

I mean, that's going to be an increase of about 5,000. Yeah.

Roughly. Portable units, but in addition, there will be market rate as well.

At 30 stories?

The majority of the buildings are under 24, but they have the right with the public benefit bonus if they need to, to go. And they're saying they won't take the maximum. They're limiting themselves within the master plan to under 30.

You've mentioned the county a couple of times. Does this mean that it's a done deal? It doesn't matter if 100 people come in here and scream bloody murder, it's a done deal? Well, nice presentation.

Thank you. Thank you. Well, I think the most important thing that we If you have questions, I think now it's probably good for us to discuss some things now. That's what the discussion is for. So that when it comes time for us to look at the exception, we have clarified a lot of this and we're not doing a big... It's not a show. We've gotten a lot of the information that we need.

Well, we can bring information to you.

And that's the thing, right. If there's any questions to... to get clarification on, I think now is a great time. We don't usually get this opportunity. So where we don't have the public and then send them back and make them come back because we asked for something. So now we get to ask for something before the public gets here so that we can have good answers. So I think it's...

The only thing I would ask for is completely unrealistic. And that would be capping the heights. 24 to 30 is you're building a new city in the middle of a low-rise area. And we all know that concurrency in this city is an issue. And it can't take a single more car, much less 5,000 more cars in that area. I mean, I understand that the city is pushing density. And in order to get additional state and federal funding, you've got to get up to a million people. And so this is how it's gonna be done. I don't think there's anything that we could ask of you that's gonna make it more palpable to the public that lives up in that area. I think they're gonna see the handwriting on the wall that it's over. We're going high rise from downtown all the way up to the city line.

So real quick, the applicant was required to do a traffic study.

In addition, all- And how does a traffic study overcome the fact that every one of our roads are already F?

Yeah.

That's why I voted for this traffic study earlier, because it's all just, it's meaningless. We're already at F, we're going to be at F prime, we're going to be at F cubed. You know, it is, well, I think Ms. Steiner, she's on vacation or something? I hope she's still with us.

Yeah. Oh, good. She is still with us.

She said something about Verde ports, about the city going vertical and transportation going vertical. And so that's, you know, that's Jetson territory, you know, from the 1960s. I think it's great, but I think you guys got to be, I know you're imagining how much resistance you're going to get here, so. I don't think there's any way we can sweeten it for the public, especially if it's a county deal and it's a done deal. We can talk until the cows come home and it's not going to matter much.

Anyway. So I think I come from a high-dense area.

I live in the Midtown area, and I've seen that area grow quite a bit.

And my question would be, because what Member Mann, he's pointing out, this is a city, what you guys are building, or what the applicant is building in the Little River area. I think something that might come up, because I see it come up in my area a lot, is the need for green spaces. And I know you touched on that, and I just want to see if you can go back on that and show me a little more

what it is that is being provided. So they're required under the TSD legislation to provide a minimum of 10% open space throughout the project. Their application is providing over 15%. So they're going beyond the code requirement for open space. And as we were discussing before, they're gonna be providing multiple pedestrian streets, providing additional connectivity, the civic spaces and enhanced open spaces that are divided up throughout the master plan. So there is this added gathering space, green space. You can look at the drawings regarding plant material palettes. We're talking shade trees, not palm trees and things that are more decorative and aren't as good at providing shade and comfort for pedestrians and for the people who live here.

Yeah, I just I think that this is going to it's going to be a very highly dense area for sure. And I'm not sure if 15% is going to cut that. I I'm telling you, I live in a very highly dense area and we are constantly expressing the want for more green spaces in our area. We don't even have a dog park and Midtown area is extremely prevailing with people with dogs. And that's something we're always talking about. So maybe that's something that can be incorporated here somewhere. I'm sure that would make a lot of people happy. I don't know. I just... I think it's a great project. I think it's great to see the city growing and the push for affordable housing. I just see maybe some of the neighboring communities pushing back on us over the fact that we're not helping them get more green spaces out there. That's just my suggestion. Oh, I have to make a recommendation?

No, no, I mean, not now. Not now, but how about this? You know, the whole idea of the discussion is to ask for information. So, I mean, would you like staff to come back when we actually hear this in two weeks with an upgrade to the coverage? Yeah. Yeah.

So, yeah, I mean, I think that's, you know, we're not, we don't have to make a motion, we're just telling them, hey, is there a version of this that has... We can certainly provide a map of the parks and open space amenities within the vicinity of this, and then we've also got our past master plan that gives us some guidelines around what types of parks and things should be within a neighborhood. I mean, the idea is that through this development, that obviously there's a high percentage of affordable housing, but it is meant to be a complete neighborhood. There is retail here and job opportunities that are being created in this neighborhood of the city that would benefit from that help. As Paul mentioned, a lot of the streetscapes are designed to be very walkable within the neighborhood, certainly within area two. There's quite a lot of adaptive reuse happening here that we're very excited about that's bringing jobs, gyms, restaurants, and other things into the neighborhoods. So the idea behind this isn't that we're just placing affordable housing in one location, in one type. We're providing housing at different price points. But the neighborhood itself is meant to encompass the different uses and things. So I take your point that parks and open spaces is an important component of that, and we'll certainly report back to you for the next meetings.

And I think one slide that will definitely include at the next meeting that wasn't shown here, you know, unlike Midtown, which, you know, kind of is just took up this big piece of land, kind of a rectangle master plan at all. This outside of areas one and three is very much this organic thing happening in the existing neighborhood. And what you're not seeing here that we will show next time. And my apologies for not having it. is that there are a lot of existing civic and green spaces that are going to be part of this, you know, what the applicant's going to be doing is increasing the connectivity and the walkability to all these existing amenities while supplementing them with these new civic spaces and open space that they're providing. Yeah, for sure.

That's what I'm getting at. I mean, if the presentation's being made in two weeks and possibly you're going to have some people giving public comments here, it'd be great for them to see that.

Yeah.

So it would help us Got this item moved.

If I may, to the chair. Quick question.

Yeah.

What's the current standard for green space?

For the master plan? Yeah, I mean, just period. So for the TSND master plan, it was 10%, and they're providing 50% more, they're providing 15%.

Okay, so Miami 21, if I'm doing a 10 acre site, it's only 10%? Mm-hm, yeah.

All right. Through the chair then. Yes, sir. I would like to request that you provide a slide kind of depicting the differences between county property and city property that might be useful. And then within that, for the... the loops as well. So another request is to a little more detail on how exactly they're gonna be doing those, you didn't call it loops, you guys called it? Circulator, yeah. Circulator, yeah. So yeah, my two requests is one, a depiction of a map between county land and city land, and a little bit more in depth of what is a circulator and how exactly you're gonna be utilizing that vis-a-vis the actual transit itself. For first off, last off, I know it's important to certain individuals within even Alapata, but looking forward, not within Alapata, but just because we've seen that there. Thanks.

Did you say that there was going to be more parking than the minimums?

More parking than required. Than required.

Yeah. I'd play that up. when the crowd arrives, that'd be a big public benefit, I think, if you had a lot, if you had quite a lot more parking, I think it might be more palatable.

Yeah, not to mention, you know, the whole concept behind this project and legislation in general is that a train station's being provided.

To get people out of cars, but this is Miami, so, you know.

And, you know, I'm not trying to say a lot of people are gonna drive or convince people that they should drive, but this is also bisected by I-95. So if we're talking about cars getting on the highway and hopefully not invading the neighborhoods and the surface streets, it's not the worst in that regard.

I can just hear it now. They're all gonna park in front of their houses.

And just real quick, this project obviously was vetted by all the applicable city departments. Public Works spent a lot of time looking at this. One of their big concerns was some of the retail and making sure that trucks that are loading one of these big box stores aren't going through the residential streets and disturbing the existing residents there. Zoning, like Graham said, they'll be at the next meeting to speak on this. Fire, you know, all the applicable departments have looked at it. A lot of the things that you may be thinking about, you know, with this many units are going to be, you know, how it's typically done. Triggered at building permit, you know, for school concurrency, for fire, for those things. The applicant's aware of that. You know, when you're building this many units, obviously we can't force them to go put in a new school and a new fire station right now because who knows, you know, maybe the market turns for the worse and some of this doesn't happen. But all that'll be triggered when they come in for building permits and the city tracking's updated for all those things.

Thank you. Yes, may I? I'm gonna just keep going down the line here, yeah.

Will you talk to me about stormwater? I love stormwater. I can't really tell from the maps, and this is the first time I'm seeing this project, so I don't know exactly the cross streets. I mean, I can kind of see teeny weeny weeny, and I'm very interested in knowing the flood zones, what they're planning on doing, and if it's correct where I think it is, so I'd be happy for you to tell me about it.

Yeah, so applicant met with Public Works regarding that. As far as I know, a lot of this is gonna be handled via upgrades to the right-of-ways. As they're coming through and doing their sections, they're building an entirely new private street on the largest part of the parcel. so that'll be you know up to the latest standards for handling storm water and flooding um at the architectural level you know i'm sure that each building is going to know you know meet floodplain requirements be lifted as high as it needs to be um trying to think gramby of any uh other insight on stormwater what's this i'm sure the station will be fine the other buildings if

Is this currently in an A zone or not? That's what I want to know. That's one of the questions I've got. Where does this sit? Where does this neighborhood sit? I can see like 79th, 71st, and then down at the bottom. It was just too hard to not have a proper map to be able to see this.

My assumption would be knowing that Little River, Little Haiti are typically higher elevation compared to the rest of the city, that it would be one of the higher zones, but we'll have Ryan check real quick.

Yeah, because Little River is so, like, some, depending on where it is, some of it floods so much, and others are really quite high and dry. So that's why I'm asking, because there's some streets on 71st that flood a lot, but then 75th and 79th don't.

Applicants are here, they're just being very quiet. We saw them. We'll get it confirmed, but it's, you know, we're going to comply with the city standards, and we don't believe it's any in a high-risk flood zone.

We don't believe what?

It's in a high-risk blood zone.

Oh, okay.

Chair, do we have permission to go ahead and close online public comments? Oh, yes. Thank you.

I'm fine. I don't have any further questions. The answer is I don't know, so that's fine.

Yeah, we'll make sure we see the questions answered.

Yeah, we'll have it in the next presentation. That's great. You already spoke, yeah?

OK, so I want to echo the comment made previously about open space. So if there is any city parks or green spaces already there, and we can connect them to the site. I also echo that 10% is low, maybe 15% still is. So contemplating what would be a way the right number, and I don't have an answer for that, but it would be, it's a really good point and important to create that neighborhood space and bring the community together, because those are really the areas.

Yeah, and I think there's an important distinction being made that, you know, there's green space and open space, but that's allocated per lot, and it can be on the side of a building. You know, the Miami 21 standard is 10. They're going to provide more, whatever that percentage is. But what you're really talking about is programmed civic space, I think. And that's the piece that you're interested in, usable, public.

You can count me in on that as well. No, I'm not saying. I'm interested to see that as well. It's important. And I think the point that was made too is that, you know, we understand that there are a lot of existing spaces, especially in the more scattered zone. But in the concentrated areas, you end up with, the argument that you made, which is, look, we're gonna have all these jobs, we're gonna have all this stuff, and it's true, and for a while, it'll be great as it's being built out, and then when everyone really has to live there, it's like, oh, this is kinda crammed in this zone, and we missed an opportunity, and that's, I think, what we don't wanna be part of, so, you know, or whatever. So, yeah.

Thank you. So then you said that there's more parking than they required.

what is the required parking so the whole area sorry i'm just showing over the whole area i just got excited because i got the answer to the question um so the whole area is zoned x which means it's not within a blood zone and yeah and we'll you know we'll be meeting all the public work standards in terms of drainage and sewage connections the plan showed about 12 000 parking spots

Between the three areas? I think I did just a rough count and- Yeah, it looks like it, yeah. About 12,000, something like that? Yeah. So about a third of that would be commercial?

Less. I mean, if you're looking at commercial spaces, look like they only totaled about 1,600. But you said 5,700 units.

So if you figure one and a half, that gives you roughly 8,000, so you got 4,000 extra. Mm-hm. And 1,600 is commercial.

Yeah.

So there's still 2,400, roughly 2,400, 2,500, that are public parking? Is there any just open public parking being offered?

Yeah, and the 5,700 is the affordable and workforce, so there's some market rate in there as well.

So as a follow-up for the next meeting, could we have a breakdown of how the parking calculations? Yes. So that would help us understand where we're at internally.

Yeah, and there's an additional drawing. This submittal's about 100-something pages, so I don't want to run through everything with you tonight. But the drawings that have been requested and some additional information we'll have next time, they have a diagram they provided that shows a shared parking concept as well, that not necessarily every building's gonna have a podium or a deck. There's gonna be some areas where it's shared with an adjacent building, which is gonna create better streetscapes, make the housing more affordable for construction.

OK. Has any outreach been done?

Yes.

OK. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

We can't, but it'd be better to come from there. It's fine for you.

Carly Koshal-Burkhow, office is at 200 South Biscayne Boulevard, here representing SG Little River. The applicant on behalf of areas one and three. And so we are the ones that have worked with Miami-Dade County and received the RFP for the redevelopment of the county land. And so much of the community outreach has been at the request and through that RFP process and ongoing obligations as a result of that RFP. So one of the things that we've submitted as part of our application package, which we can present to you when we come before you in a couple of weeks, hopefully, will be a summary of what outreach has been done. Meetings to date this year include a community meeting on March 6th, another community meeting on May 13th of, sorry, not this year, that was 2025. There are resident engagement meetings that are ongoing. There were some of those at Victory Homes in January. There were some in Gwen Cherry in April of 2026. And there have been resident council meetings. And there are additional anticipated meetings in July, on July 16th, as well as July 23rd. So there is ongoing outreach, especially as a result of the Miami-Dade County RFQ process.

And on average, are these meetings well attended?

They are attended, especially the initial ones had a lot of public outreach and I believe that the city planning department was involved in some of the ones last year where a lot of the conversations about what is being proposed and what the response is. So yes, there was a lot of attendance. These meetings are at these locations, but they are open to the public for anyone that is interested in attending.

Thank you. And does this, for planning, this project that is the TSND, is it in any shape or form related to an RTC? Does it fall under that category in some shape or form? No, not at all? Because we are creating a transit station, right?

I can't speak to the planning department, but part of what inspired the creation of the tsnd was to create a development framework that was transit oriented to help people with these larger scale projects maintain city jurisdiction as opposed to going to the county and assuming their the county's jurisdiction for these transit related projects and that's part of what you all really thought about last year last summer specifically in july we were maybe it was June, where we came before this board, and that's what you all were wrestling with, is the fact that the county's RTZ framework does allow for a lot more than what the city's framework allows for, and how do you balance the interests of the city relative to what can be done under the county's rapid transit framework?

So it's a separate, it's like under a separate category or definition. This is city jurisdiction. Okay. So they won't have the overlap of the... No.

This is county lands in the city following city jurisdiction for rapid transit. Okay, good.

Yeah, and we've been working obviously with the applicants, you know, the past year to create something positive for the city. You know, they've been working very closely with us, responding to a lot of our concerns and standards. So we hope that through the program we've put in place, the working relationship, the outcome, the protections that are in the master plan, that it achieves hopefully a long lasting relationship with the city. And it's not going to be overnight, but it's certainly a good vision, we believe, for the neighborhood.

Did you just say that the county is going to follow the city's zoning?

I said we are following the city's jurisdiction.

So we are... I think that'd be a pretty good trick if you actually got the county to agree to build less, to follow the city's code instead of their own.

We are following... We are the winners of the RFP. So the RFP has been granted to us, and we are the developers pursuant to that RFP, and we are committing to following city jurisdiction under this TSND framework.

That's a nice thing, thanks.

Because the city has been working with us and we've been working together to create what you see before you.

And how does this compare to the, I'm unfamiliar, to the density of an RTC? Did the city design something similar to the county?

So that was kind of the discussion you all had last year. And so now we have the density that's in place and we are following that density that has been assigned by the city.

I mean, I don't want to re-rehearse a lot of the arguments from before, but yeah, absolutely. There's a transit system through the city that the density is being encouraged to be increased around those stations. So we created the TOD, the TSND nodes and so forth, and they were calibrated different parts of the city, as you're aware, from TSND 1 through 4. This one is being created new through the provision of a new train station. So the program is working as it intended.

My question is more so for staff. I didn't see much in the actual packet. And so once we get the presentation, I think I have better questions for the discussion. And so I'll just defer all my questions to the next meeting because I didn't have a chance to really

look this over but thank you yeah we'll get you the presentation for next meeting in advance I think the only other point I just want to make clear that sometimes this looks and feels like an SAP it's a little different in that sense not least the size of the area and the fact that you know that each building is going to come through its individual building permit so we are PROVIDING RENDERINGS AND IDEAS AND THINGS, BUT THERE'S A MASTER PLAN BEHIND WHAT IS BEING RELEASED HERE. IT'S NOT NECESSARILY EXACTLY THE DEVELOPMENT SPECIFICS THAT ARE GOING TO COME FORWARD. SO I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE YOUR EXPECTATIONS ARE SET THAT WE'RE APPROVING HERE A MASTER PLAN, BUT NOT NECESSARILY INDIVIDUAL BUILDINGS AND SOME OF THE DETAILS THAT MIGHT BE SUPPORTING THAT. There is flexibility and protections built into the master plan, but just to set that expectation that I don't want you being disappointed that you don't see every detail and every door and every window that's coming forward, but you will see the programming. You'll understand the flexibility. You'll understand the public benefits. You'll understand the important routes by which people traverse the neighborhoods. You'll see the spaces and things like that, the train stations. So there'll be a lot of components to the master plan, but individual buildings themselves will come through individual building permits.

Thank you for that. And, like, I guess going forward, like, how can we get more of this kind of a focus? I'd love to come, like, to prepare, and that way, like, I don't have to wait, like, so...

I have to echo that.

I have to echo that sentiment where we can get more of this before so we can prepare better so we can actually have a robust and that way when all the people show up we can have most of our stuff already answered.

We've done one or two discussion items but absolutely I agree with the sentiment and we'll certainly for the next one make sure your presentation and the materials are with you a week before and we'll share what we have to make sure it's you know, is fruitful like this. And if more discussion items are, you know, something you enjoy, then certainly I'll feed that back to staff, and we'll try and give you preliminaries of stuff that's coming up over the next six months.

Definitely. They're definitely appreciated. But as long as we get the packet before, so we can truly engage. At the minimum, the packet.

Thank you. We're going to see quite a number more of these types of projects, aren't we?

We don't have any yet.

One last, through the chair, one last request. When you come back with the presentation, if we can have also a breakdown of the units? Like if we have three bedroom units or something like that? How many?

Unit count, yes, and that was in here.

They have to have a zoning sheet.

Yeah, so unit counts in here, but the breakdown by bedrooms is not, because that will come at the building permit for each. So we all have detailed tracking sheets?

Yes. to, as each building permit comes in, we'll be tracking it in terms of density, you know, all the caps, the benefits. We've got numbers that are estimates, envisions, you know, those kind of things, and we can show you some of those.

So we're not there yet, in terms of knowing how many units. It hasn't been...

So yeah, these sheets that were provided kind of outline the program at a higher level. You have units, the type of unit, if it's affordable workforce or market rate, the estimated floor area of each lot or building, and then however much commercial space, if any, there is for each. And that was provided for each lot, for each building. You can see area two has a lot more going on there. You can see the tables kind of double in size, but yeah, they have... The units, the type, the floor area, and any commercial square footage listed for each.

Okay.

Okay. All right, everybody good on that? Anybody have any other questions that they want answered at the next meeting? Okay, great. Thank you all. Go USA.

Thank you.

Yes. Motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. Do we have a second? Second. All in favor?

Aye. Great.