Virginia Key Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

you so so Thank you.

City Attorney, lobbyist note.

Should any person desire to appeal any decision of the Miami-Virginia Key Advisory Board with respect to any matter to be considered at this meeting, that person will need a record of the proceedings and may need to ensure that a verbatim record of the proceeding is made. including all testimony and evidence upon which any appeal may be based. Any person who receives compensation, remuneration, or expenses for conducting lobbying activities is required to register as a lobbyist with the city clerk prior to engaging in lobbying activities before city staff, boards, committees, or the city commission. A copy of the applicable ordinance is available at the office of the city clerk, Miami City Hall, located at 3500 Pan American Drive, Miami, Florida, 33133.

Thank you very much. And for everybody here and everybody watching on TV, this is the Virginia Key Advisory Board, and we will now stand for a Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. Rafaela, is there any requests for absence waiver?

Nicholas Lopez Jenkins. Yeah, there's no quorum, so we won't be able to vote on it.

But we can do roll call just to. Roll call, that'd be great.

Peter Ehrlich.

Here.

Nicholas Lopez Jenkins. Luis Casamayor.

Here.

Jackie Collier. Carrie Johnson. Stephen Leidner, Lynn Lewis, Gary Milano, Vincent Richter, Monty Treanor, Andrew Frey.

Thank you very much. We'll go through the agenda items. I know we're lacking a quorum, but this will make us more prepared for next month for, I think, even a more full agenda than we have today. The first item on the agenda is hearing from city manager Art Noriega, who's right outside in the hallway. Can somebody knock on the window? He's talking to the city clerk. City Manager Art Noriega, thank you.

So the only real update I have, and staff can give updates to some of the other projects going on, The selection committee has met on the RFP for Marine Stadium Flex Park. They have a recommendation, which is in the queue to me, hasn't gotten to me yet. Our intent is to begin the negotiation process, come up with some overarching financial and deal terms, and then draft the ballot language around it and hopefully have that ballot language to the commission by the second meeting in July so that we make a November ballot. That's the goal. So we're trying to accelerate the timeline a little bit on it because we don't want to obviously lose an entire year to... to begin that process of getting the improvements done, Marine Stadium restored, and begin that process. We can finally get that whole project, the entire footprint, to the finish line. Any questions on that?

Yes, I'm sure there are some questions from board members. I have a quick question for you. It appears from looking at the applications that the bidders are bidding on the managing Marine Stadium, but also the adjacent 15 or 17 acres? Is that your understanding?

The entire footprint includes Marine Stadium as well as the Flex Park.

How many acres is the Flex Park? I don't remember off the top of my head.

I mean, you have that. I think the details is part of the normal update, but I don't remember what the total square footage was or acreage was.

Board members, any questions? What is the ballot for? What are they voting for?

So anytime you dispose of or do a long-term lease or sell waterfront property, you have to comply with the Charter Section 29, which has a number of different categories incorporated in it. And this particular solicitation, because it would be a long-term deal, requires to go to the voters for approval. Similar to what we've done, we just did two referendum items for Watson Island as an example, last election cycle, same exact process. Ms. Lewis?

Mr. Manager, the committee made its recommendation.

They have made a recommendation from what I've been told verbally. I spoke to the procurement director today, and the update she gave me was that that recommendation was being drafted in a memo and being forwarded to me for my review.

Is the recommendation a public record?

Not yet, it's not, because it hasn't been actually produced yet. There's a cone of silence still on that particular solicitation. So when it comes to me and I review it, then I'll either sign off on it or reject it. And then at that point, it would become a public record shortly thereafter. Because there will be a recommendation at some point from me to either accept the recommendation of the committee or to reject it. That's typically how it works.

Okay, so where I was going was, is that not a public record even if it is oral?

Well, there's no record other than I know that the selection or recommendation has been made. I don't know what that recommendation is. I have not seen it yet.

So you don't know who may have recommended even though it's oral?

No, I don't know who the selection was. I don't know which of the two proposals they're recommending yet. It hasn't come to me yet. Thank you. Any other questions?

Steve?

Good afternoon, City Manager. How are you? Hey, my name's Steve. In terms of the boat ramp, do you have an understanding how the boat ramp will be managed with the Marine Stadium and the Flex Park?

The boat ramp will be managed similar to how we manage all of our boat ramps So when events are happening Yeah, so the tricky part, and that'll ultimately depend on how the operator utilizes the Flex Park and Marine Stadium as to how we create the policy around how the boat ramp will be operated. Without knowing specifically what they proposed and how they intend to operate it, it'd be impossible for me to give you specific parameters of that.

Very good. And in terms of the Rickenbacker Marina, do you have any idea where that's at in terms of its renovations, its...

status of going before the voters to update the lease yeah I don't know what to what level you have been updated up to now but I'll give you sort of a brief summary so as you know many many many years ago now it feels like I made a recommendation for an intended proposer to be recommended that recommendation was voted down by the City Commission and subsequently we never moved forward with that solicitation the Proposer who was my recommendee ultimately filed suit. And went through the process went through the courts and the judge. Ruled that the city. needed to award that contract to them. So we have been negotiating some final, there's some handful of terms that are still being negotiated. And part of that process as well, because that solicitation was so old, it's now probably five, six, seven years old, we're updating some appraisals as well. But we're on the very tail end and we're trying to get that on, because that has to go to referendum as well. That requires a referendum.

So you see that happening?

I'm very optimistic that we're going to get there. We have like an all hands on deck meeting that's in the works, I think, Andrew, probably in the next week or so. Yeah, with the proposer. So everybody's going to get in a room and we're going to try to try to get that done. So that can also be an agenda with battle language for the second meeting in July.

And is there any coordination between what the Marine is doing and the Marine Stadium and Flex Park?

There ultimately will be another element to that. We have some other uses in the area like the rowing club, so we're going to try to incorporate that as well into the overall plan.

That would be great.

Thank you. The rowing club is kind of critical to that too. Yes.

Tonight.

My pleasure. Hey, Gary, how you doing? Yeah, I mean, you can ask me questions. I'm not sure I'm the subject matter expert, nor do I, but staff can certainly update on that as well.

Well, I think I'm looking for more of the administrative position. Were you around when the port tunnel was being created? and the county wanted to bring fill to that site, did the city of Miami have any say in allowing that fill to be deposited there?

I wouldn't know. I wasn't around. You were not there. Yeah, I wasn't around when that entire transaction occurred.

Because when I worked with Durham, it was like at grade, the site, as far as landfill material, which is about plus six equal to the roadway surface areas. And now, to my surprise, after we've done some survey work, it's 30 feet high. They brought in so much fill to that site that there's like a Mount Trashmore there. Not that it's trash, but it's fill. And it's port tunnel fill. What are your positions on the landfill site as far as the commercialization? that site if a developer came up to you and said hey if I got a deal for you would you stand up and support the communities master plan for that site which is a park a public park yeah so I you know there's been a lot of ideas a lot of different outside vendors a lot of proposals that have been we'll call them you know

contemplated right people have come to me and said hey look we think we want to do this from you know a sports complex to a water sports complex to you know simple pickleball tennis you know things that are that are recreation in nature right and quite frankly I I haven't had anything tangible that's ever come to us to be evaluated. And I certainly couldn't comment on something that's really hypothetical at this point. I know there's a master plan. I also know that I need to solicit the input of our elected officials, in particular the district commissioner. Um, because ultimately they generate, they create policy. It's my job to execute on that policy. So, um, you know, I'm certain at some point we'll get everybody in a room and kind of figure it out once we do have something that I think is reasonable or tangible to evaluate. I'll take the time to brief the commission on it. Um, and I began particularly district two, um, so that, um, give that particular commissioner an opportunity to sort of weigh in and give us his perspective.

Thank you. Just so you understand, there is a balance in the conceptual plan for that park. There is a balance for all fields, as well as pickleball fields, etc. So there is that existing balance.

Yeah, look, honestly, probably the most robust conversations I've had relative to that footprint has been with the village of Key Biscayne, because... They've long had an interest in doing some sort of joint venture for for public access. Right. And some sort of active area where their residents can make use of it as well. More of a regional footprint. But, you know, we've where we haven't really. I would say, you know, I kind of wanted to get through certain milestones first, one being get the marine stadium flex park. process done before we kind of circled back and because we weren't pressed for an immediate timeline because the county's remediation has been delayed and delayed and delayed, it didn't make sense to put that in the forefront just yet. But I think once we get through Rickenbacker and Marine Stadium, I think the next logical evaluation in terms of what the future for that particular footprint looks like. We've also had some internal discussions about whether we just continue to let the county handle the remediation as well. That's something else we'll probably do some serious evaluation of, given the timeliness of it and how long it's taken. So that's another thing we'll probably consider.

Well, I hope in the end that you will think of the city of Miami as a whole, as far as all of the residents of the city of Miami. and not just the close proximity of the village as far as having a central park for all of the city of Miami.

No, I mean, when you look at the visitors to the Key and particularly the Causeway and a lot of what the county has been discussing in terms of sort of the additional utilization of the waterfront there, you know, I think there's a bigger discussion to be had because, you know, you have... a lot of public park access along there between the county and city facilities. You have the tennis center, which I think, you know, depending on what can be reasonably worked out with those that have generally expressed some concern over what that future footprint looks like. I think, you know, there's a lot to be discussed in terms of master planning. Just that, you know, sometimes the county Village of Key Biscayne, the City of Miami, it takes a lot of work for us to kind of all get on the same page. So sometimes that isn't always that easy.

I just want to make sure that you understand that this group was put together to make sure that the master plan was followed through with as per the community master plan.

You have a role.

That's what we do here is make sure that the master plan is followed. And it's something that I think the residents of the city of Miami would love to keep a park there as far as a central park for all of the residents of the city.

Thank you for your time. You're welcome. Mr. City Manager, again, thank you for being here tonight. As it pertains to the landfill site, if you get any changes or any proposals for it, this board would very much like to be kept informed. Sure.

We'd be happy to.

You mentioned the local commissioner. We haven't seen the local commissioner here or his staff, but you know, by charter, we're supposed to be kept intimately involved in anything substantial pertaining to the park. Yeah. We'd be happy to review any documents. Sure. And the staff was very nice and sent us copies of the applications for the RFP this week, and, you know, they were fascinating, fascinating reading. A lot of reading, I'm sure. And by the way, regarding the RFP, it seems ultimately you'll need to get to a lease stage or a management agreement stage. It looks like it would be pretty complicated because there's potentially a huge financial investment on behalf of the winning bidder, whoever that ends up being. So the bidder that's chosen by the selection committee might ultimately drop out looking at a larger financial commitment than maybe they were prepared for. And then I guess that would take you to the second bidder, is that right?

Um, typically, uh, in some solicitations, the commission does allow for a, um, if a deal's not reached with the first bidder, then we, we would pivot to the second. Since I haven't seen either proposal and I don't know what the feedback was from the selection committee, that typically comes from the committee. Um, and, um, but sometimes there's, there's such a huge disparity between the two proposals that, you know, they kind of feel like, hey, this is the one. If you can't reach a deal with them, then... You got to go to plan B, and plan B may not be to go to the second bidder.

I mean, they look like two extremely substantial companies that expressed an interest.

Yeah, I just want to add, as the representative for Key Biscayne resident, I'm a resident, and on the board I represent the SITO village. It seems like the coordination, you mentioned it now, county and the city, the coordination, I know that there's a lot of talk for the tennis and golf center, maybe there's some things going on there. We have the Marine Stadium, we have the landfill, we have marinas. And that coordination, obviously traffic is always a major concern, and we also have the construction of Bear Cut as well. So I just want to make sure that that coordination is happening so we can control that in the best way possible. So they're not all kind of happening at the same time.

Yeah, I'll tell you that the... county commissioner for that area. Commissioner Regalado and I talk pretty frequently. She's very good about keeping me in the loop in terms of where her ideas and what her thoughts are. I've also had a couple of conversations in the past, not recent, with the mayor as well. So we are communicating. I think eventually there'll hopefully be some consensus on some of these ideas. What there hasn't been is really a consensus even at the county so you know it and it's it's hard to build um a plan or a strategy unless all the parties are are really or at least mostly aligned you don't have to ever get 100 of their way there but if you're mostly aligned then there's a there's really an easier path and i look we're talking so i mean it's not like anybody's you know trying to um to force a concept or idea for any of those different uses. I think the issue is that we're trying, we're at least making a valiant effort at having it being collaborative, but we're just not quite there yet. Okay, great.

Thank you.

Mm-hmm.

Chair, sorry, if you could kindly turn on your speaker.

Thanks for reminding me. Both of the bidders would want to generate massive, massive traffic on the site. They're huge companies, extremely successful, and they're working on arenas and venues all over the world. How do you counteract that decision to let them come in and take over a site when, obviously, they'll want to have millions of customers where that's contrary to the experience that Key Biscayne has seen, Brookville Avenue has seen, the city has seen? Correct.

The unfortunate part of, in the history, of how that particular footprint has been operated is it's been operated in a way that they sort of fit events into an unnatural footprint in terms of even the ingress and egress. If you look at the way this site, the way you get access to it, it's a very cumbersome way to do it. Part of the ideology would be to reorient the site anyway, right, in terms of even how you park cars and how you gain access in terms of the means of getting access. We also have a history of dealing with noise complaints on that side as well. Part of that is the way we've oriented the stage in the past, which we've been working on re-modifying that as well, that behavior and that expectation. All of those things are going to get worked into, however, the final site plan, and will certainly be built into the operational parameters, because the one thing we don't want to do is create unnecessary traffic issues. Look, one of the current plans to address the Rickenbacker in and of itself, or the causeway, sorry, actually has... the ability to have a straight cut-through straight to the village, and then all that local traffic gets segregated from that. That makes a lot of sense. If that plan ultimately can be finalized and everybody can get on the same page and then there's a funding source for it, That'd be the most natural way to alleviate the traffic issue. We may not get there. So whatever plan we have, we're going to have to do so under the current conditions. If we get to that, we'll call it that next elevated opportunity, then so be it. And then it'll make our lives a lot easier. But there are a lot of factors at play. There's traffic, there's noise, you know, and then. Clearly what we'll do there too, as I think, is put limits on how much the facility gets utilized. So we'll probably cap the number of event days as well, and in some ways restrict weekday activity as well. So there'll be a lot of, there's a lot of nuance to that agreement.

Yeah, it seems incredibly complicated.

It is. I mean, that's... Satisfy these criteria. Nothing that we do is not complicated.

And regarding the Rickenbacker, were you referring to Commissioner Regalado's proposal for the Bear Cut Bridge and the raised...

I don't, you know, I haven't really weighed in on it. I don't really have a good enough feel for it. We've talked about it. It's clearly not our project, so I don't really have any stake holding it. But, you know, if somebody were to ask me, I'd probably, you know, do a deeper dive into what I think of it. But look, in the end, that bridges everything. long overdue to be replaced because it's just in really poor condition. And, you know, we get a halfway decent storm, you know, to come in through Miami with any significant tidal surge. From what I've heard, you know, it creates a problem for the village.

I think we read, I think, that it might cost $450 million or $475 million. Chump change. To achieve.

You have that in your piggy bank at home. We can put that together. Look, in the end, every capital project that you do that has any significance, whether we're talking about building a new bridge over 17th Avenue in the city of Miami or in Brickell, you know, the tunnel project. The problem is that we have a pattern and a history, and I think that's one of the things why we need to address that bridge now, because whatever the cost estimate is now, Right. If you kick that project or that or that or that opportunity to fix it down the road, even five years or 10 years, you're going to have a multiplier effect on that number. That number is going to escalate by 30, 40, 50 percent. And it's just going to ultimately cost the taxpayers even more. So I think it's time to, you know, kind of address it. And and I think the overarching project.

Right.

The whole thing. Because because then you buy yourself. 20, 30, 40 years in terms of utilization at ultimately pennies on the dollar of what it'll cost you if you did it now. I mean, look what we've done with transportation over the last 30, 40 years. We kept kind of putting off certain projects, putting off certain projects. The cost to do those projects now is almost virtually impossible. But if we'd done them 20 years ago, we would look back and reflect on it and go, wow, that was relatively cheap.

You make a great point. Why don't you get into it more deeply with Raquel Regalado and the people you need to at the city of Miami just to do due diligence on it?

I mean, we could. I mean, she certainly kept us in the loop. She's allowing us to participate to this point in a process you know, a little more limited way. But, yeah, like I said, we don't not talk. So we're involved. We're ultimately not going to be the decision maker there.

No, you make a good point. Sometimes it's better just to spend the money now rather than have it be two or three times more.

If the project has value, absolutely. It's way better to do it now.

This was the next item on our agenda, so I'm glad we're talking about this. There was a Miami Herald has done a few articles on this topic, the Bearcut Bridge.

Any other questions for the city manager?

You're back. It's a pleasure.

Thank you very much for your time. Our next item was a discussion of the Miami Herald article, which was what the city manager was just talking about. Anybody else have any comments on the proposal that we read about in the Miami Herald pertaining to the Bear Cut Bridge?

Well, it's an exciting proposal. I mean, it's more than just a bridge. It's a whole different way of you know, commuting into the cities. But it's also timing is what also concerns me. I mean, that's a 10-year minimum project before that happens. What do we do now in the next, you know, 10 years, especially if we start repairing the bridge? And is that money then going to be, are we spending that money if we start doing that now? And then we're going to double up the payment and do the other projects? So it seems like the timing is where... all of these things become cumbersome. And if we don't, that's why I'm saying a strategic, overall strategic plan, I think would be very beneficial for everything, from the golf course, tennis, and even the state park at the end. So we have state, city, and county all kind of communicating in one roadway. So it would be critical to have them all coordinate and build a master plan so we're not spending money for nothing. Because we do that bridge, maybe we tear that bridge down and we do the other proposal. So it would be a shame, right? Yeah.

Gary?

Excellent point. I think whatever is done, it needs to be comprehensive because with sea level rise, you've got the causeways. You can see the water getting closer and closer to the surface of the road. They're going to be raising that road. So there's all kinds of issues, and it has to be comprehensive across the board sort of look at the causeway itself as well as the bridges.

Any other questions?

comment on the Miami Herald article, the Bearcut Bridge? Let's see. We had an agenda item to hear from a consultant, but I think that'll be done at the July meeting pertaining to the landfill site, the dump site.

Yes. Peter, I'm waiting for confirmation if it's going to be in the July or the August meeting, so I'll advise once I get a response.

Don't we usually not have an August meeting or...?

We voted, I guess, in the beginning of the year that we were going to have meetings for the rest of the year. Oh, okay. So I'll advise, once I get confirmation, if they'll be able to attend the July meeting or if it's going to be on the August meeting.

Thanks. If we don't have substantive items on the agenda in August, we might postpone August if there's no agenda items.

Okay.

We'll wait a few weeks for that.

I just got confirmation, and they'll be able to present in the July meeting, so I'll add that to the upcoming agenda.

Oh, great. Thank you very much. And then the last item was... Mr.

Chair, can I ask, what are they going to be presenting?

An update on the project.

Okay, thank you. Any other questions on that one?

And then the last item was the Marine Stadium RFP submissions. The city manager just went into great detail, but Raffaella was very nice and sent us the applications. I think they were about 250 pages each. Anybody have any comments regarding the applications for the two bidders?

I think you brought up with the city manager, which was a great point, to make sure that we consider the egress and ingress into those parks. We just don't have hundreds of events with thousands of cars. There should be a plan. And again, even on a busy beach weekend, just being able to turn in creates traffic. So I just don't know how they're going to address Just crossing over from, you know, you have to cross over from the traffic coming the other way. And that alone is a, even when we have events in Virginia Key. So if you have an event in Virginia Key and an event in the Marine Stadium, and it's a beautiful weekend, I mean, you're not going to get out of that, you're not going to get out of the key for days. It's going to take days to get out. So hopefully, as part of their submission criteria, that they're looking at how they're going to address that. And I know he mentioned it, but I just want to make sure that that's part of it, right? We've got to make sure that selection committee is considering that. They're not considering how much money they can make. They're considering what the impact is going to be to the residents.

You're absolutely right.

It's a very fine line.

Any other comments or questions regarding the Marine Stadium, the RFP submissions? I know they were extremely detailed and a lot of financial information.

Chair, if I may ask, I did not read through the RFP, but I'm curious as to what parameters the Flex Park requires in the RFP. Was that articulated?

You'd have to ask somebody from the city. My understanding was there was a bit of flexibility. It was a little bit open to what the bidders wanted to propose. And also the potential capital investment could be small or huge from each individual bidder. But ask the city attorney or have somebody that might be more directly involved. Andrew Frey.

Andrew, in terms of the Flex Park, what's being envisioned or what's articulated as far as the RFP?

What was the question again, sorry? About the Flex Park?

What are the parameters that the city is establishing for the Flex Park for Marine Stadium?

I think you just heard the manager say we'd have to talk with whoever the proposed operating partner is about what a feasible business plan is to help pay for the restoration of the Marine Stadium. and what would make it a successful venue in order to determine what those parameters might be.

Because initially a flex park, there were certain hopes that the flex park would be not only provide parking, but also actually park space, green space. But it sounds like it's turned into a profit of what makes the Marine Stadium profitable.

I'm I'm not sure. I wasn't around for that. I don't know. Are you saying we shouldn't earn a profit?

No, I think Steve's bringing up the Civitas proposal, which I believe the city has spent $750,000 on the fees for that proposal, which envisioned the Flex Park, 12 or 15 acres. How could you do the two projects simultaneously? The summation or the executing the Civitas project after the massive fee?

Yeah, I'm not sure why we hired an architect to design something that we didn't know what we were designing either. So the city does a lot of things that I don't comprehend. We think that the right way to do things is to find a business partner in order to understand a business plan, in order to design parameters for what should be designed, and then hire an architect and then design the thing. And I think we did everything in reverse. So as to Civitas, why they were hired, who hired them, what they were hired to do, whether that conflicts with other priorities, I can't speak to any of that. That was long before my time. And I think that... The overarching goal, at least for this space, is to try to package something together that makes it feasible to restore the Marine Stadium, sort of the jewel, the centerpiece of this area, in a way that either makes a small amount of money or loses the least amount of money. And... And so that's, as I understand it, the main point of this part of the island. Obviously, we have the marinas, we have the rowing center, we have other things. But for the marine stadium and the flex park, That's the overarching goal.

Thank you for your honesty. Steve, any other questions?

Well, the master plan articulates use. How does the master plan envision use of that space? Can anyone enlighten me? Can anyone enlighten me? It seems like the purveyor would have to, should refer to the master plan in terms of how they proceed with development.

I'm trying to pull it up here.

I think I can maybe help you understand that. When we developed the master plan, there was no flex part. Basically, it was the Marine Stadium with an open space there. It was green space. It was before they concreted over and built everything for the boat show. That's when everything went downhill. That's when the master plan just totally got put to the side. So the area adjacent to the Marine Stadium was going to be used, which is a grassy area, going to be used for exhibits, for triathlons, for open space uses. But now it's a total different animal, the fact that it's all been concreted and wired and plumbed and and drained, there's a drainage system that runs that whole thing. So it's changed remarkably. So I don't know that the master plan, we would be able to get too much, but we may be able to glean some aspects of the master plan elements for that site.

Just again, for adhering to the master plan, it seems like that space should be the vision of the developer, and what the RFP articulates should embrace what was envisioned.

Steve, you make a good comment.

Andrew, thank you very much for your comments.

Is anybody from the public like to ask a question or anybody from the public like to speak? Our wonderful representatives from Key Biscayne. Nobody else in the room? Any other questions from board members? We will have a meeting in July. I think we'll have even a more full agenda than we have tonight. Anybody like to make a motion to adjourn?

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you all very, very much. 620.