Virginia Key Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

Good evening.

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, Chair.

Thank you very much. Rafa will do the Pledge of Allegiance for discussion. Rafa, do you have to do a formal roll call or it's just obvious that there's only four people here tonight?

Okay, just to note that Christopher Norwood, who was appointed by the mayor, he's here. He's just, I think he stepped out for a second, but he's going to be sitting right here.

Oh, great. Thank you. And how many people do we need for quorum?

Eight people would be needed for quorum.

Okay. So we only have five? Assuming with Chris Norwood, we have five?

So yes, with Christopher Norwood, it's five.

Okay. Mr. Norwood, thank you very much for joining us.

Peter, so I'm just gonna do the roll call to be on the record.

Okay.

Peter Ehrlich.

Here.

Nicholas Lopez Jenkins. Luis Casamayor. Steven Leidner. Gary Milano. Here. Christopher Norwood. Here. Monty Trainor. Daniel Lopez. Alejandro Martinez Esteve. And if we could just have everybody speak on the mics just so everybody can hear. Thank you.

All right. Any requests for absence waiver?

No, I didn't receive any. All right.

So we're going to move on to the discussion items. Taking them slightly out of order, if you don't mind, from the city attorney, we'd like an update. on the city commission agenda item, a resolution that we provided last year about changing the quorum. Can we have a status for that item?

Yes, so the resolution passed. Now the resolution essentially provides that the city manager will come back and bring an ordinance, which would require two readings at city commission. The next step is for the city manager to bring an ordinance consistent with what you guys have passed, which was attached to the resolution, and then that would require two readings.

I was under the impression that was being taken care of when we submitted our resolution to the city commission to be approved.

No, the resolution that was passed by commission essentially provides that the manager will bring back an item. So that wasn't completed at that time.

So when will that item be back in front of commissioners?

I don't have that information. It would be the manager who brings the item.

Can you follow up with the manager so it can be heard in the next two or at best three meetings?

I can reach out to Rafaela to reach out to the manager.

Rafaela? Because we've been waiting, I don't know, 12 or 18 months for this one item to go through the city commission. It's a shame there's still a delay.

Parks will follow up. We'll follow up.

Will you? Yep. Thank you very much. We appreciate that. Any questions from any board members on that? Everybody familiar with that item, how that item works? For those that are in the audience, we submitted an item resolution last year to change our quorum requirements. It's very hard to get eight people, almost from any board, to show up for meetings like this. We often get six, sometimes seven, five tonight. And our item would change the quorum requirements to only require three, three people to show up to conduct business. Luckily, we often have five, six, or seven the new legislation would let us go forward with three so we hope that gets gets passed by the city commissioners as soon as possible through the chair yes just to clarify um the resolution provides for five voting members to constitute a quorum does it yeah all right well it's still better than seven or eight thank you very much um so then We're going to quickly go to the Miami Marine Stadium base in Mooringfield. Rafael, is there anybody from the administration here to speak on that or present on that item and the status of the Miami Marine Stadium base in Mooringfield?

So Alejandro is here from the DREAM Department, but they requested to provide updates on the October meeting when there will be better updates.

Okay. Then we are going to hear from the public tonight on that item, and we can also continue that item until the next meeting in two months. And so we will be hearing from Alejandro in more detail in two months. unless he wants to add some comments tonight after he hears from the public. And we would like to hear from the public. There's some wonderful advocates I know in the room tonight who have great information and have been attending meetings for years. You can speak in any order. Any microphone that's working? Excuse me.

Clearly, the microphone's working.

Yes, Chris? I'm sorry, ma'am. I'm new here, but... There's an item on the agenda, and there's no one here to speak about what the item is, or is anybody going to speak as to what the item, even as a discussion item,

That's a great question. The board's been discussing this particular item for three or four or five years, so I understand you're new to the board. We requested somebody from the administration to speak on this specific item tonight, but nobody from the administration wants to go into detail tonight, unfortunately. There are members of the public that have a massive amount of information. and some information that hasn't even been distributed to the board. They've been attending some meetings with government officials that we have not been attending, and they're going to be updating us on what they've heard. So if you like, we're going to hear from some members of the public, and I think you'll learn a lot fairly quickly.

Mr. Chair, I would love to hear from the public, and we will hear from the public. But first, I would like to hear Who from the administration is attending this meeting right now?

Two members. Gentleman on your left.

Yeah, so Danny Lopez, Acting Parks Director.

Okay.

And Alejandro Martinez Esteve, I'm the Director of the DREAM Department. Of the Marine Department. DREAM, Department of Real Estate and Asset Management.

Got it. And so can someone explain to me what the Miami Marine Stadium Basin Moring Field is? What exactly is it?

Why don't we let Alejandro handle that question?

Yeah, so I think the better way to probably to handle it is to go ahead and listen to the public, give their presentation, because like the chair mentioned, this project has a longstanding history. You and I can probably meet offline as well, and I can give you a better summary of what the project is. So a lot of the topics on this, there's going to be a more formal presentation made in October. I would like the benefit of listening to the public, because then maybe we can incorporate some of their points in that presentation and address some of their concerns. So I think the best course of action is to go ahead and listen to the public, and then I can provide comments as appropriate. And if not, we can give you documentation onto the project itself, because it's a pretty significant project with a pretty significant history.

If you don't mind, Mr. Chair. No, not at all, Mr. Chair. I'm new to this committee. but I'm not new to service on committees and boards. And I've never sat on a committee or board when there's an item on the agenda that there's not somebody from the administration who presents what exactly the item is. And so I definitely want to hear from the public, and I'm sure they can add to whatever the later presentation may be by whomever from the administration. I just want to know, What is the Miami Marine Stadium based in Mooring Field and why is it on the agenda? And I would like to hear from staff to explain that.

So I can provide a little bit of insight on this. Why is it in the agenda? I don't know, right? But the basin mooring field, basically for years, folks have been able to go to the basin, anchor, and completely neglect their boats. And so now the city has worked through a process of creating a mooring field there to now create rules and regulations for folks to come and properly secure their boats and also pay a fee to the city for that. And then with that comes services from the marinas. Also, the marinas division itself used to be under the DREAM department, and now it's under the GSA department. So that change just happened not too long ago. That's a little bit of insight on that, but that's basically what the mooring field is. I don't know, as far as it being in the agenda, this is my first meeting.

So just to clarify, the marine, I'm sorry, The stadium basin mooring field is out in the water.

Yes.

Okay, so it's near the Marine Stadium. Yeah, so basically you have the Marine Stadium, and then you have the basin right in front of it. So it's a body of water. It's a body of water. And it's called the basin mooring field.

The basin, it's called the Marine Basin, the Marine Stadium Basin. That's what it's called. And a mooring field is going to be implemented in that basin.

Thank you. Thank you very much. You ask very good questions, Mr. Norwood. You're absolutely right. Normally, and it's completely appropriate for an expert from the city or the county or whatever government entity we'd like in front of us to give us a background information on a particular item. The mooring field that we're discussing will be in the Miami Marine Stadium Basin, which I believe is approximately 45 acres.

Is that correct?

And it's also designated historic. Everybody's familiar with that? Gary Milano, you recall? Designation of the Miami Marine Basin as historic. Which means it has a whole different set of requirements that should be honored Anything historic should be reviewed. I have a, for Chris Norwood to review quickly, there's an article, there's a publication here. This is from Dade Heritage Trust, independent, called Preservation Today, the Historic Miami Marine Stadium. Rebirth of an Icon. This is 16, 17 years ago. This is from 2009. Gary, can you hand this to Chris to look at?

I'm fine. I would love to review this. Absolutely. I just wanted to understand what it is. And it's on the agenda because we're reviewing what about it.

Oh, we've heard a lot of comments from constituents, taxpayers, residents, rowers, dragon boat rowers, about the future of Marine Stadium Basin. Perfect. And they've been asking for an update on the status of the proposed mooring field. Perfect. I'm good. I'm ready. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Your comments are excellent. Your questions are excellent. Leah, would you like to speak first?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Leah Kennard, and I am a very frequent user of the basin. And I thank you, Mr. Norwood, for asking those questions. And I also am just going to state the value of this board for the involvement of the public has renewed my belief in democracy. It's a vibrant opportunity for the public to participate in city decision making. And so I'm very grateful that we can talk about what's happening in the basin tonight. So the people who are here are all people who are interested either because they're out there rowing or paddling or because they're concerned about the environment. And what happened and the reason we are all here is because Like you, we did not know what was happening in the basin. And the city was moving forward with a full permitting process to put in 195 helix anchors into the floor of the basin that literally covers the acreage of the basin. Some changes were made initially. to what the city's plan would be, but it was never brought to this board to discuss this. And so we have not had an opportunity as paddlers, as the community of paddlers, to be able to react to what the plans were. So it is something that is discoverable through all of the permitting process with diagrams of what the anchorage will look like. And the city's plan has been a very good idea that we don't want boats to just be dropping anchors in the basin and dragging the anchors around. And so the idea of having a mooring field would be that boats would come in and they would connect to buoys that are anchored in the bottom of the basin and that would be a better idea for preserving the environment. It also is it would take care of the derelict boats. There used to be a number of derelict boats sitting in the basin. And then after COVID began, people discovered that the best way for me to live is on the water in the basin or all around Miami on a boat. And so there were close to 200 boats that were parking in the basin. And we were all out there paddling around them. All these people know that. And it was very uncomfortable because there was a lot of sewage in the water as well. It used to be that the Miami Marine Stadium Basin was a place for manatees. We would see them frequently. For dolphin, sometimes stingray. I even remember seeing a baby shark out there one time from the boat. When you're paddling or rowing, you are touching the water. So you understand the water. It's not like being in a motorboat where you're looking down at the water. I mean, we experience what the Marine Stadium Basin is. And so when I became aware through the Friends of Biscayne Bay that the permitting process was going on, I read every single permit and I was shocked. And so I've prepared this document that highlights what I think the real issues are so that you have some background information to be able to consider. And so you can read through the document. I'm just going to hit the high points of this. And that is that item number one says, the current proposal represents a dramatic expansion beyond previous public discussions and ignores the concerns of longstanding stakeholders. And I know that Roger Bernstein and I have been talking at this microphone since 2018 about mooring fields. Roger is very familiar with mooring fields. I'm familiar as a user of the basin. And so something that is of interest to me is that the Virginia Key advisory, the Virginia Key master plan that dates back to 2010. And this is also for those of you who are newer in this group. It was developed by City Charest that went on for a long period of time. And the public actually designed what they thought the master plan for Virginia Key should be. And the master plan is still being used. And one of the reasons that that got my attention is because it was used as an argument to build the boat ramp. And we were not people that were really in favor of the boat ramp because we weren't sure how the parking was going to occur, how the traffic was going to exist, what the traffic on Rickenbacker was going to be. But in the meantime, the city used the Virginia Key master plan and one line that said boat ramp. And so I point that out now that the Virginia Key master plan has no lines about a mooring field. It does not exist in the master plan. And so if we're going to use the master plan, I would put that out there that it doesn't exist in the master plan. Secondly, the current proposal is not consistent with the long-term public vision for Virginia Key. And that's where I was. I read that. Instead, I need to go back to the first one because the argument for the first statement is that the city commission has approved 75 mooring buoys for a mooring field. There's been no conversation about 195 anchors in the basin anywhere in the public, in a general public meeting that I'm aware of. And so we jumped from 75 buoys to 195 anchors. anchors, which are also potential buoys. Number three, the mooring field must not be planned in isolation. And that's because all of the projects that are going on on Virginia Key right now have interaction. They intersect with each other. And I find it sort of interesting that when it comes to traffic, there's traffic that all of these projects create. There's parking needs that all the projects create. And there's also traffic in the basin as well. And in the permitting process, there's no consideration of any traffic in the basin. Going on, the current proposal fails to account for the basin's daily recreational use by the paddling community who are represented here. I know here we see outriggers, the outrigger community is represented, the paddling teams. dragon slayers who've been out there for at least two decades. I don't know that there are any Puff representatives here tonight. And the SOF, the dragon boat team that I'm a member of, is currently competing in France. That's why none of my friends are here. I stayed back. Oh, thank you. And it's a statement that all of these teams are internationally known. The coaches for our teams are people that are recognized around the world. They're USA certified, quite a number of them are. They offer training. And so the Basin is not only a place for competition, it's also a place for practice. Public input and changes in state and county laws are helping to support the basin as a safe place for marine life and the reputation and attraction for Miami for water sports. And I'm going to refer here to and have Roger Bernstein talk because in going back through my notes, I realized that in 2018, we were already talking about Anchorage Limitation Area. We ourselves had talked to an attorney who was knowledgeable about that. And Roger has kept up with that all along, and he can speak in a much more intelligent way about it than I can. But that's referenced in the last part. So I have two things that I would like to see happen. That the city discontinue the current permitting process. That's why to meet tonight rather than waiting till there's a quorum until October. Because if the city could get serious about involving the community about this, we can avoid making a lot of mistakes. So that's one of my asks. The second one is to engage the public in the planning committees and workshops that consider all the factors associated with the mooring field. And so we're ready to help. I mean, I think the city could come up with a much better plan if we are involved in doing that. But Roger can explain a lot more about the laws and policies.

Leah, before you sit down, quick question. If there were... I mean, this board was aware of the legislation pending for, I think it was, 50 mooring balls that I believe...

It's turned into 75 at a city commission meeting.

I believe it went to the city commission with 50, and during the meeting, commissioners... It was suggested through the interest of some of the boating lobbyists that it go from 50 to 75, and I think it's 75 passed.

75 passed.

75 didn't, I believe, come to this board. But my question is, if there were 100 or 195 morgue balls in the basin, what would that do to people's ability to row crew shells or dragon boats or triathlons or use the basin for recreation and non-motorized boating?

My opinion is it would basically put us out of business because we have a need for events. I know that the permitting process includes the estimate that the Marine Stadium might have five events in a year that would require moving vessels. If the basin was filled up with vessels on those mooring balls, the Marine Stadium would not be able to have events because you cannot move. We can tell you it's tough to move any vessel because we've tried to do that before.

Okay. So I guess we're going to go from Roger and anybody else that wants to speak. Does anybody else have a question for Leia?

I do, Leia. Gary? You said that they're in permitting right now, so they have not obtained a permit for the project yet. Correct. So they're not amending an existing permit. They're requesting a new permit.

Actually, Julia and Valeria can explain more about that. That's how I became... familiar with the process was because of the work that they were doing.

And the other thing is the objective. The objective of the mooring field originally was to get rid of the derelict vessels that were anchoring in the basin, correct? Correct. And right now, all of those boats, derelict vessels, have moved out of the basin, and they're on the south side of the causeway at this point. Correct. Do you know why and how that occurred since the original objective of the mooring field was to provide a mechanism to regulate the area within the Marine Stadium Basin?

That's a wonderful question, Gary. For those of us that have been out there watching vessels disappear, it was a mystery. Once the vessels are gone, the dolphins are coming back, we can only think that it was because of enforcement. And we can say that enforcement worked for calming down the jet skis. We had a horrible jet ski problem in the basin. And, in fact, Cesar's here tonight. What happened?

No, you'd have to speak at the microphone.

Yeah, why don't you come up and talk? And I'll step away.

Thank you very much.

And I'll introduce Andre.

Excuse me.

My name is Andres Souza. Andres Souza, I'm also part of this community. It's that we use the basin what I see in the proper way. The basin, historically, we have the marine staging, I think, It's a mis-purpose that we spending money renewing the marine stadium and at the same time we're discussing something that is gonna block the purpose of the renew of the marine stadium. In my point of view, marine stadium, the basin was good for sports. Yes, water sports, but it was sports. And we wanna keep that way. We have the MRC here that we have a rowing community over there, we have dragon boaters, we have paddlers, that is the only spot, one of the few spots that we have in Miami with access to the water for small watercraft, not suffering dangers. Like crazy people driving jet ski and run over at the, I saw this personally, both friends of mine run over by jet ski. I saw people dying in the marina stage with jet ski because in Miami it's really easy to rent a boat. You don't need a license or nothing. Anyone can have a boat. In my opinion, transforming, as you asked, you asked the most crucial question. The purpose of the mooring fields was to block people from sleeping with boats over there and control that. From the past year and a half, this is not happening, and I have an answer for that. Because Cesar put a race every year, I put an event every year that is a Polynesian festival that I bring people from French Polynesia, from Hawaii, from Hapa Nui, from Brazil, and I do a festival, a Polynesian festival. So we have to deal with the police requesting to move those boats. They move those boats. So on my point of view, I think it's like they understand that it's better to take care or have suffering three months taking boat off the marine stage. So the law enforcement is working right now. We just need to keep the law enforcement running. And we don't need to spend money in putting more in fields over there. That is going to cut the purpose. Maybe we can put the sports again in the basin using the marine stage. You know, with that beautiful skyline of Miami, we can work together as a community if you guys allow us to participate and help you guys to restore that amazing place that is the basin, you know, the Marine Stadium. That's our only access to the water safely. You know, you have like ladies here, dragon boaters, from 15 years old to 80. using that basin, you know? And you don't know how dangerous it is. Sometimes people in a boat, they don't have the knowledge and the perspective of being in a small watercraft in the ocean with a 55-foot boat. They come close to you, they make wakes. You can huli, you can go down in the water. If it's a person that already has a certain age, turns like a death in life in that moment, you know? It's a very crucial point, this discussion here, and we want to be involved. It's not about, oh, we're here to block this or block that. No, we want to get involved to get better for everyone. That's the whole point of we are here.

Staying on a second. Gary, do you have a follow-up question?

Thank you. The other thing I see is that the Marine Stadium restoration just passed through the referendum. So the Marine Stadium is going to happen. So the Marine Stadium to have venues needs to have the basin available to be able to provide a variety of different venues.

Exactly.

So I see the mooring field conflicting with the Marine Stadium venues in the future as well.

Exactly.

So at this point, I think it's important, again, we're going to hear formal presentation on October 27th here at 530 and we'll hear from the city and we'll be able to ask them questions and find out where the permitting is and where the funding is the biggest problem we as a board have seen through the years is that the city provides they put together these projects they go to the funding source they obtain the funding without coming to us And I've got documentation here that any project on Virginia Key is supposed to come before this board, before it goes forward. And that's something that the city has failed doing. And because of that, they get project funding, which they don't want to return. They've got a gazillion dollars, and they go, oh, but we've got this money now. We just can't turn away from it. But that's the thing the city needs to do. to provide the proper, to follow the master plan. Exactly. And that's something that this board was put together to oversee the implementation of the master plan. And that's what we do every day on this board is basically look at projects, hopefully this project will be reviewed you know by you you know once we get a formal presentation we'll be able to ask questions but permitting is one thing and funding is the other and that's the thing that we need to kind of see where that's at and see if there's a way that through community involvement we can maybe change the course of the direction of this mooring field project.

Thank you so much. And I just want to point that this amount of people that you see here, actually, I wouldn't say there's not one 10% of what we have of paddlers over there. It's a huge community that we, if we bring everyone, we're going to load this like three times. It's a big community that enjoy the basing and we just, keep continuing joy, and we don't want to stop progress, and not here, we know there'll be progress, but like, as you said, we can use the money properly, maybe make the basin better for everyone, really better for everyone.

Well, thank you for taking time to come.

Roger Bernstein, and anybody else that wants to speak, and we'll be able to get up after Roger speaks.

Hi there. I'm Roger Bernstein, I live in the city of Miami. I've rode in the Marine Stadium Basin for over 30 years, and I've seen it change, I've seen it deteriorate, and I've seen it improve. This proposal for a mooring field, and this is a proposal, it doesn't exist at this point, proposal for a mooring field is a solution in search of a problem that no longer exists. The problem was that the basin had, over the years, accumulated all kinds of vessels including derelict vessels at risks of sinking, boats that were anchored out there. As the rate for wet storage docks went up and up, people said, I'm not going to pay $3,000 a month for my 30-foot sailboat. I'll find a place to put it. And the Marine Stadium was fairly accessible from the shore, and it became covered with these things. Now, these boats would sit out there, and not be used. I would row at 6 o'clock in the morning. It was pitch dark. By law, they're supposed to have lights on them. They had no lights. They were improperly anchored. They drifted all over the place. You had no idea where the boat was here yesterday, and today it's over there. It was horrible. So the city of Miami said, We, under Florida law, do not have the authority to regulate our own water. It has to come from FWC in Tallahassee. By law, they regulate the waters of the state of Florida. And the one solution the city came up with, they said, if we apply to FWC and we get a permit for a mooring field, we can put that mooring field in the basin and then we will displace all of these garbage boats that are anchored there. And that was the idea. So originally, it was 50 mooring balls. Then the commission passed 75. Two years ago, they came up with this plan for 195. And I've asked that it be circulated here. It covers the basin from top to bottom, side to side. That's it. No more public use. Why did they do that? I sat with them at Dream, and they said, we're doing this because the mooring field by law will prohibit anybody from anchoring their boat there. And in addition, the law says 100 feet perimeter beyond that mooring field, they can't anchor their boat. So mechanically, to fill up the basin, that's what we do. So that plan is two years old. Guess what? The last session of the Florida legislature they extended the 100-foot perimeter to 300 feet. So that's 600 feet from side to side and top to bottom. You don't have to put mooring balls there because you can't anchor there by law. That plan does not anticipate that. The second thing that has happened is I told you that the state had authority to regulate anchoring in the counties. And they were very jealous about that authority. And they would not let the counties do very much. The legislature recently passed a law. And the beginning of it says, previously Florida statutes generally preempted local governments from regulating the anchoring of vessels outside the marked boundaries of a mooring field. 327.4108-2 of the Florida statutes provides a limited exception to the anchoring preemption under which a county could establish a 45-day anchoring limitation area under certain conditions. What that 45 days means is if a boat is anchored in the Marine Stadium, it can be there for no more than 45 days. Then it has to move. So the idea of derelict vessels sitting there for years until they sink is finished. This is a county ordinance. It has gone through all of the procedures. I believe the final reading is on October. It will create section 7-40.1 of the Code of Miami-Dade County. This means that the county can, working with the city, designate any portion or all of the Marine Stadium Basin as an anchoring limitation area and boats can't go in there. So this ridiculous 195 ball mooring field, the plan made two years ago, does not take account of the 300 foot perimeter, does not take account of the anchoring limitation area. It can't go forward. We need to look at this and say, hey, there has been enforcement. The basin is clear. We don't need 195 ball mooring field to clear the basin. We may not need any mooring field in the basin. As Leah said, they can't blindly move forward with this thing when the circumstances have changed. The basin is empty of derelict boats. There's a 600-foot area, 300 feet on each side, top and bottom, around a mooring field. And the county has the ability to create an anchoring limitation area for some or all of the basins. So this idea of a 195-ball mooring field is a solution to a problem that no longer exists.

Questions? Oh, Roger, yes, quick question. Thank you. I know you've been working on this issue for years, many years, and you've been wonderful coming to the meetings and educating all of the board members and city staff. In the next few weeks, can you reach out to Alejandro on my right, who is the director of DREAM, and maybe have a meeting with him and share your ideas?

Question. Is this under DREAM or capital improvements or what?

I think Daniel Lopez said, can you enlighten us, Daniel, on who's in charge of this project now?

Yeah, so my understanding is that mooring fields are within the marinas division, and the marinas division is now under the GSA department. Now, I can't speak to specifically, you know, how that has transpired, but that's the best information I can provide at the time.

You can go ahead and reach out to me, and then I'll make sure that the appropriate people are part of the discussion. Because it's going to be multifaceted, right? So it's obviously a very complicated project. It has a lot of moving pieces. So I'll make sure that the right people are in attendance to this discussion.

Good. Certainly we will do that. And I think everybody has the same intention here, which is to keep the basin open and free of derelict vessels and available.

Well, Roger, that's not an accurate statement. Since you've got a drawing here with 195 mooring balls, you cannot say that everybody is in favor of keeping the basin open. Somebody's working diligently and incredibly in detail and putting in dozens or hundreds of hours to achieve this goal.

Yeah, but the expressed reason for that horrible thing is to displace the illegally anchored boats.

I hear you, and I understand.

And I'm not going to question the intention of whoever is behind this yet. All I'm saying is the problem has been solved by enforcement. And by the way, if you put a mooring field in without enforcement, guess what happens? You get illegally anchored boats.

Gary, do you have any questions for Roger? Chris Norwood? Roger Bernstein for Roger.

Yeah, I do. Not necessarily from the gentleman at the microphone, but... Is your microphone on?

Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah.

Yeah, I do have some questions, but perhaps for the gentleman, but not necessarily. Okay. You mentioned before, someone mentioned before that there has been a project that has not gone before this board relating to Virginia Key. What is that exactly? Is it the subject matter that we're talking about right now?

Essentially, by charter, and the city attorney can opine more accurately than I can, but items that affect Virginia Key Park that are substantive and might be changing the park are supposed to come before this board before moving on to the city commission. And we're supposed to hear the items in detail and vote, we can vote. We only vote as recommendations. We can vote yes or no. It doesn't have to have any import whatsoever on the city commission.

No, I understand that, Mr. Chair. My question was, what has gone before the city that has not come before this board?

What exactly are we talking about? We did hear this item as it pertained to requests for 50 mooring walls. moving it up above 50 to 75, which has occurred during the course of a commission. We haven't seen any item or any information whatsoever about the mooring fields going up from 75 to 100 or 195. Got it.

And then, hearing from some of the members here, some of the people from the public, the question just keeps popping in my mind. What is it that we're trying to accomplish that can't be accomplished through enforcement? What exactly are we trying to accomplish with the mooring field that cannot be accomplished with proper enforcement under the current policies or codes of the city?

Roger, do you want to answer that?

Well, I would like to know from the parks or Dream, what exactly are we trying to do that cannot be done by proper code enforcement?

So that's one of the items that we need to circle back. So obviously a lot of the information that's presented to here is very valuable. I don't want to give an incomplete answer. So I want to circle back with staff. And in the October presentation, that's obviously going to be part and parcel of what's presented to the group.

Thank you very much. That's going to be a big question for me at that meeting. Because I really need to understand what is it that we're trying to do that just simply cannot be done through proper enforcement. And then lastly, my last question is, give me one second. And this is actually to the question that I had, because as I read the code, you know, in 50-2, it talks about the Marine Stadium prohibitive anchorage area. And so what additional regulatory authority does establishing a permitted mooring field give us that we do not presently have? And again, I know that's going to be a question I'm going to ask in October, and I would really like an answer to that question. And then this is someone who doesn't know too much about rowing or anything like that, but I'm assuming the basin is important. Again, I offer that clearly. I don't know a lot about rowing and things of that nature. But I'm assuming this is attractive because it's calm water. Is that why it's attractive to boating and boats wanting to moor that and so on and so forth?

It's attractive because it is protected on three sides, but it does not have the infrastructure that you would want in a mooring field. In other words, if I'm coming here from Connecticut on my 40-foot sailboat, and I want to come to Miami and spend two or three weeks here getting my boat ready to go to the Bahamas, I want a place... where I can safely attach my boat, which you can do a mooring. I want ready access to grocery stores, marine supply stores, parking, restaurants. None of that exists around the Marine Stadium. If I put my boat there, now I'm taking taxis and Ubers and buses to get all this stuff. If I put my boat in Dinner Quay in Coconut Grove, all of that infrastructure is available. And my understanding is that there are unused mooring ball permits for Dinner Quay. You could put another 100 or 150 boats there where they already have parking, showers, trash, walking to stores, marine stores. There is no need from a voting community point of view to put this thing in the Marine Stadium.

I understand. But I guess my question was way more basic than that. The reason why these boats want to go there is because it's calm water. Yes. And the reason why people row and paddle and all these things is because it's very calm water. Is that not duplicated? I guess it's not necessarily duplicated in too many places like that. No.

There are better places to put a mooring field if you want to put one.

I'm talking about just like all people, whether you want to put a boat there, whether you want a paddle boat, whether you want a row. I'm just saying in general, the reason why we're having this discussion is because you guys like to be there because it's calm water and it's attracted to what you're doing.

Yeah, but I'm saying there are better places to put a mooring field in the county than the Marine Stadium. There are not a whole lot of other places where the water is calm to row, to paddle, to swim, and to do water-based activities. Got it. So if you put 195 boring balls in there, you basically kick the people out who are doing passive water sports.

Roger, quick question. There's rowing now on Indian Creek at the Indian Creek Rowing Club? Yes, Miami Beach Rowing Club. Miami Beach Rowing Club? Yes. That's, what is it, in the 70s? Yes. On Indian Creek. What are the complications or benefits and problems with rowing? And I know a lot of college teams come down to Florida and train there to prepare for their spring season, but Are there problems practicing on the Indian Creek? Hurdles from jet skiers and motorboats?

The city of Miami Beach has embraced the rowing club there from the beginning and provided space for it, provided enforcement, provided facilities. That's not exactly the way things have worked in the city of Miami. And Miami Rowing Club is here to talk about that. But MRC is operating without a lease from the city.

Do the rowers on Indian Creek have to stop our practices because there's bridges down or bigger boats coming towards them?

They don't have problems. They don't have jet ski problems. They don't have speeding boat problems. Because number one, there's enforcement. And number two, from what I understand of the setup there, there are not a lot of places or any places nearby where you can drop a boat into the water. You can go to Virginia Key, throw your jet ski in the water, and you're off.

So looking at your drawing that you've provided, Is this 195 balls? That's 195 balls. Where'd you get this drawing? That's the city plan. So if this was executed and there were close to 195 yachts or boats tied up, what would that do to people that wanted to row?

It would be over. There would be no room there. Plus, in that same basin, with... the proposal for a new lease on the Rickenbacker Marina, there would be, what, another 600 boats that'll be launched into that basin from dry storage, forced into a little corridor on the south side of the mooring field to get in and out. You can't look at this proposal for a mooring field without looking at the Seaquarium proposal, without looking at the Marine Stadium proposal, without looking at the Rickenbacker Marina proposal.

I noticed that our esteemed board member, Steve Liebner, is in the room. To my right.

Thank you so much, Peter. I apologize for my tardiness. I was actually on a trolley at 5 o'clock, but the driver decided to take a very long break. So, Roger, I appreciate all the investigation and all the information you provided for us. What I'm hearing is there is absolutely no justification for this mooring field, and I take it we don't have a quorum tonight, but I certainly would support a resolution opposing a mooring field in the Marine Stadium Basin. So I'm waiting to hear justification for a mooring field, of which I haven't heard maybe in October. I doubt it. That's my two cents.

Thank you very much, Board Member.

Could I just add to the record that we do have a lease agreement with the Miami Rowing Club? The city does have a lease agreement with the Miami Rowing Club. It's a license agreement, but it's, yes.

Peter, if I may add, have we passed any resolutions regarding the mooring field, the Marine Stadium Basin?

No, we haven't discussed the item. The item hasn't been brought to us by city staff in several years. We did get some information when it was headed to the commission for 50 boats, a 50-ball mooring field, which got expanded to 75. Nobody, as far as I know, nobody from the administration has come back to update us on the plans to go from 75 to 195, which is shown in this drawing. Thank you. Thank you very much. Roger Bernstein.

Mr. Chairman, I wanted to address the question of why the mooring field is so important to the people that are in this room. And that is because of the use by human-powered boats. All of us are human-powered, and the likelihood of tipping, or hooing, as we would say, in open water is so much greater than it is in the quiet, gentle waters of the basin. So the basin is the favored place for rowers to learn how to row in their shells and for paddlers, and we're all very specific about that. Some of us are paddlers and some of us are rowers. But it's a big deal for us to get out in the open water of Biscayne Bay. Now, that's not the case with the outriggers. The outrigger paddlers who are here tonight, these are very strong individuals who paddle for miles, and they use the basin as their launching place. They cover a lot of territory, and they train in the basin, and there is no other place. Like when you ask about other places during COVID, we tried to use the Miami Yacht Club, It's very difficult. We could not get boats there. There's very limited space for sharing, but we had to alter our schedule. It was not ideal at all. Sometimes we've gone up to Broward County, and we actually have people who, in our team, in the SOS team, we have people from the Keys and people from Broward County And so Virginia Key serves as a great meeting place for such a wide audience of paddlers. And I don't want to take any more time because I know all these people are trying to burst, they're bursting their seams talking about why the basin is important.

Who else wants to talk? You do a great, fantastic job, Leah. Chair, I just have a question. Yes, Chris Norwood.

The people here, just to talk about some of the other items that we have on the agenda.

That's a good question. Is everybody, there's a few people in the room that would like to talk about other items. So we'll finish up with this item soon and we'll move to finish up the other items.

Peter, just to let you know also, you requested that the Miami Rowing Center have a representative to provide an update on their activities and says that is here.

Wonderful, then we'd love to hear from that person.

Good evening. I don't want to interrupt you, because I'm just trying to understand how we function. We take items and have public comment after each item. Is that how this board functions?

Yes, normally there's a presentation from the administration, and then we'd hear from the public afterwards.

But every item. So we have a presentation, a discussion, and then public comment, and then the next item, presentation, discussion, and public comment.

Yes, but often in our meetings we only have three or four people in the room from the public. Tonight is one of the largest gatherings of the public that I've ever seen. Got it. I'm sorry, sir.

Sure, thank you. Good evening. I'm Leonard Levy. I'm a lifelong resident of South Florida, having grown up in South Beach, living in Key Biscayne, active in all kinds of paddling and boating activities. I've been boating in these waters since I'm 14 and 15 years old. I remember the Miami Marine Stadium activities in the 60s. They were just fantastic. The concerts, the activities we had on the barge was wonderful. One thing we're not talking about here is the ecology and the effect of these mooring fields on marine life in those waters. This was addressed, I think we had meetings about seven or eight years ago, in which somebody went to the extent of having a scuba diver going through the waters of the Marine Stadium, taking videos of the marine life. And there was shown to be active marine life. All kinds, fish, crabs, all kinds of fish. We've enjoyed seeing the beauty of tarpon, manatees, dolphin, even crocodiles in our waters. It's fantastic. It's beautiful to see. It's wonderful to have this. How Durham would ever let this happen is beyond me. Durham is there to protect marine life. You know, we have so many condos going up along Brickell Avenue and downtown Miami, Edgewater, everywhere. All these places want a marina, a dock space for boats to make their developments more attractive to people. Durham has been tough on those people. They're not letting them have those marinas. How could they let this happen? Really? A density that we're seeing of all these 195 mooring fields with the boats, those are casting great shadows over the bottom of the water. These are shallow waters. It would destroy the sea grass. You destroy the sea grass, you don't have the crabs, you don't have the fish for the other fish to want to come in and feed. It would be a disaster. So, you know, to preserve, and I think that this is not just applicable, this argument to the Marine Stadium, but I'm sure that you have the bailiwick of considering what's going on with some other projects in our waters, like by the Seaquarium and whatever nearby. This is all going to be affected. The waters are not the same as what they used to be. Believe me, you talk to any old person who grew up in Miami, out in the bay catching grouper, catching, you know, diving for lobster, you can't do that anymore. You know, it's just too much boat traffic, cruise ships, all kinds of stuff. We have to sort of put a brakes on it at some point. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Oh, we have a speaker with a colorful shirt on.

Yes, thank you. My name is Balazs Vandor, resident of the city of Miami for about 15 years now. I've been paddling at MRC for about 20 years before I was coming down from Broward, you know, before I moved to Miami. You know, it's such an important place for paddling and rowing in South Florida. Just one quick comment, additional answer to the question of why this is so important for paddling. Yes, this is a protected area, and why a protected area is important is because these are racing teams, competitive teams. So it's not like, oh, let's go out for a Sunday evening paddle. No, I mean, there's a coach, there's practice plans that need to be followed without interruption. You can't just stop for somebody's dinghy or a couple of dinghies to cross your path and wait on your race piece. No, I mean, these are serious things. As Leah was saying, her breast cancer survivor team that my wife is also a member of, they are in France right now competing. My team also goes and competes. So that's why it's very important to have a large, flat body of water that's available for these sports. My other comment is that if you want to see what this really means, Just come out to MRC on a Saturday morning. You know, see the number of people, you know, the number of teams. And what you will see is just a fraction. I mean, my team has probably about 80 members. Probably 30 or 40 will come out for our Saturday morning practice. But there's a lot, you know, it's not always the same people. It's a lot of people who are connected to this space. In spite of the fact this is a very limited space. I mean, there could be a lot more rowing, a lot more paddling in Miami. if we had the space, but there is just, the facilities are very limited. I like to give the example, Andres from Brazil. Outrigger paddling, for example, started in Miami in the early 2000s. My team was founded around 2003 in Brazil. In Rio, started around the same time. After 23 years in Miami, now there is two teams for outrigger paddling.

In Rio, about 40.

87 teams in Rio.

They organized world championships.

Thousands of visitors coming in for that. Impossible in Miami.

Thank you very much. Do we have a representative here from the Miami Rowan Club? Would you like to speak? We'd love to hear from you. We noticed we were provided with a I think it's a six page summary from the Miami Rowing Club. Thank you very much for putting this together for our board, and we'd love to hear your comments on your activities.

Hi, good evening. My name is Cesar Herrera. I am the head coach and operation director in Miami Rowing and Waterport Center. So in this moment, we have a lease agreement with this parent regulation that we are running several program under the umbrella of the Miami Robin Club. The principal program, or one of the principal program is the youth program. We have a program that We have been in the same place for more than 50 years. I want you to know that in this moment, the youth program in Miami Robin Club is the most important program that we have in the country. And they are in the top in the state. At the same time, we have different program that they are only the umbrella of the Miami Robin Club. We have several programs of the Dragon Boat, Canaloui, another program, a real program that also we have. In this moment also we have one small used sailing program. That's our principal activity in the Miami Roving Club. I want that you know that also during the last I am talking about the last 20 years that I have been working there, you know? So the program has been winning more than 17 state championships, the youth program. We have been rowing, they have participated in the USA national team in different categories, on the 23, on the 19. Also, we have the master program that we have a group of members that they are training consistently all the time in MRC. Really, the beautiful place that we have in the vaccine and supporting everything that we have been talking here, so the Miami The vaccine in this moment that we have is a beautiful place and the only place in Miami that we have to run in our program. Really, we have been, the support, I want to say that one, I have been receiving the support of the Miami Police and the Marine Patrol from the Miami City, Miami. And really, the last year and a half, like they were mentioned, the vaccine has been safe for the first time. Really, in the past, we have one coach that is a woman, that she was in risk of having a serial injury of maybe losing her life because we have five Jeskis running around her for more than ten minutes. In one moment, also one guy, he showed me one . We have in this moment one cause that is still in court because for one situation that we have with one girl's boat and he was in the front of between the girls and the guy that was in the boat drunk. I called the police at that moment, the police arrived immediately and they stopped the situation. This guy was jailed, was under arrest, and this coach is still in the court. But really, I want you to know that in this moment, The most important activity that we have in the MRC are all the paddles that we have. We have a day that we have more than 300 people at the same time on the water. The day that we have more traffic is Saturday and Sunday that also we use our flow in the Flexi Park. some time during the week that according to the schedule that they have the different dragon boat. Also, we have more people in traffic around the area.

Mr. Herrera, I don't know if you've seen this drawing with 195 mooring balls in the historic Marine Stadium Basin, but what would this do to the ability of paddlers and rowers or anybody that wants to use the basin if there are 195 yachts and boats?

This situation with the modern field is nothing new. That is coming for a while. You have all the information that I know that is coming from 2017 or before that year. The modern field was a solution that the city was giving us to try to keep safe the vaccine and all the programs that we have. Really, that was the principal goal in that moment many years ago. I was part of that conversation in that moment with the director of the Dream Department and other people that were involved in this job. Royer that was here also, he was in this group. We found in this moment like the principal solution for the situation that we have in the vaccine for the and everything that you know that we have in the vaccine in the past. We have been several meeting. Facundo is the board president. We have been several meeting with the city and including the commissioner of the district about this situation with the mooring field and really what we needed to continue running the program because We need to be sure that we can continue running our program because we- Well, this is 195 balls.

That is a bit. What would that do to your programming, your ability of people to use the basin for training?

The problem is that the combination- Yeah.

So this is Facundo Barrera.

I'm president of the Miami Rowing Club, president of the board. I work with Cesar every day. So we've been in conversations with city staff in preparation for a previous version, not this exact version, the previous version of the mooring field. We gave some feedback to the city staff of how the mooring field would have to be adapted for us to be able to operate. If a mooring field with 195 buoys and 195 boats is established in the basin, we will not be able to operate. That is very clear.

Now, we've also been assured that it's... Do you mind repeating that?

I will repeat it, but I will repeat it full. 195 mooring fields with 195 yachts would not let us operate. However, I need to finish the sentence. The city has promised us that there will be not 195 yachts nor 195 mooring balls, that there will be 195 anchors only. So if it's only anchors, we can operate above the anchors. That's all. So what we gave the feedback on is we need, whatever the number of anchors, the anchors don't interfere with our rowing. What interferes with our rowing is the number of mooring bolts and yachts. So please keep in mind, if the plan is to put in 195 anchors, there is no problem with us. If their plan is to putting 195 mooring bolts and 195 yachts, yes, there is.

Okay.

Thank you.

Anybody, any board members have any questions?

Steven?

I'd like to know what damage 195 anchors are going to do to the floor of the basin. So we might need a representative from Durham to help us with that.

This item will be heard again in two months. So maybe somebody from Durham can request somebody from Durham to show up. Anybody else like to speak on this item?

I'd just like to reinforce one thing, that we are going to be in circles here. I didn't participate in any of those meetings before. From my understanding, if the mooring field is to block people from coming and stocking your boats in the basin, we don't have them. We don't need one mooring field. We don't need zero mooring field over there. We need that water clear. to be doing our sport safely. As soon as you put one anchor over there and you don't put law enforcement, it's done. We're talking about Miami. We have people here from different, I'm from Brazil, I have like Cubans, we have people from different countries here. It's difficult to control these people. You guys saw what happened on the World Cup here. The year before, they did, thank God, they did the World Championship here, and they saw what different people from different countries can do, right? It's difficult to follow rules, you know? Here in Miami, what I see. If you put one anchor over there, and you don't put law enforcement, it has no purpose. And if you're gonna put an anchor and put law enforcement, law enforcement is doing their job. It's doing their job. It's avoiding people to go crazy in the water. It's not only about the anchors. It's not only about the marine fuel. We're talking about people coming to party, crazy party, in places that with people doing sports. All right.

And in conclusion? In conclusion?

In conclusion, my point is this. It's like we don't need a morning field over there. We need zero morning field. I don't know what was discussed before, but if the purpose was to not bring boats over there, the purpose is already done for less than a year and a half. We don't have boats over there.

Thank you so much for speaking. Do we have a young lady?

Good evening. I'll make it quick. Hi, my name is Julia. Good evening, everyone. I'm the executive coordinator for the Friends of Biscayne Bay. We've actually been holding a citizen meeting every Friday at 11 a.m. We'd love to have you so that you can continue to gather information on everything that we've been researching, not only for the mooring field, but everything that's going on on Key Biscayne. I think everybody already expressed everything that I was going to comment on, so I'm not going to repeat myself. But I think it's clear that the community is very opposed to the mooring field for reasons of the rowers, the businesses, the ecological life, and everything that's affected around it. And I'm just going to keep it short. Thank you so much for listening to me.

Thank you for attending the meeting. Anybody else have any questions before we go to another item? And for the members of the public that have sat through this meeting since 515, 530, thank you very much. We appreciate your presence. Mr.

Chair, I do have a question. I guess it may be pertaining to this. I'm just trying to understand something conceptually. I've heard several times about jet skis in the basin. Is it lawful for jet skis to be in the basin?

I believe it's lawful, but there's a speed limit. Would anybody else like to answer?

So I can add a little bit. As everyone expressed already, the basin in the past was very unsafe. Then one of the first things the city was able to accomplish was to put channel markers, and these markers, there were actually no wake zone markers. So that will give the police department and Marine Patrol and FWC and any other marine patrol within the area to enforce the low speeds.

So when you come into base, you have to lower your speed? Yes. To what?

To no wake zone. It's just a no wake zone. So that means that as you're moving, you cannot create a wake.

It needs to be as flat as, right?

And there's a law that you are responsible for your own wake. So whatever your wake is, Does anything damage or something? That's your responsibility. Do people follow that?

Mr. Norwood a year, year, year and a half ago. 3 people were killed in the marine stadium basin. From accidents with jet skis, I believe they involved most of the drivers that were drunk or drugged. Three people were killed within a six-month period. The problem was terrible before enforcement was improved.

So there is a speed limit. It's supposed to be, like, very, very low.

Yes.

And the people who are forced at... Marine Patrol. The Marine Patrol, which would be the city?

The city's Marine Patrol, the county Marine Patrol also has the jurisdiction, and FWC, Florida Fish and Wildlife. Got it.

Okay.

Thank you. We're going to move on to another item. If those of you in the room that were here for the Marines Basin item, you're welcome to leave. You certainly don't have to stick around. But please come back in two months, October 27th, and this item will be back on the agenda. Thank you, thank you so much for your comments and for participating. Roger, thank you very much, and Leah. Oh, left on the agenda? Oh, great question. We have an item on the Rickenbacker Marina site and a referendum question, and also there's litigation involved in that site. We're not going to be talking about that for very long, but it's very important to the city of Miami and the Rickenbacker Marine Stadium Basin. depending on who takes over that site, is important to the rowing on the basin. And the other item... Yes, that's another item on the agenda, Miami's aquarium site. That will be on the agenda in two months. Again, if there's anybody in the room who has information on that site, thank you very much. We will hear from anybody who would like to be heard, but it'll be heard in more detail with, I believe, we'd hope to have the principal from Terra Group, who will be at our meeting on October 27th. For that item to be heard in more detail. And then, so those are the only two items left to be heard, the Miami's aquarium site, and the discussion on the Rickenbacker Marina site.

Sir, ma'am? Yes, so for the aquarium item.

I hate to keep doing this, but I need to understand when we do an item that I expect somebody from the administration to tee it up. And that's good for, I don't know if this is being recorded, It's good for the public, it's good for the people here that may not be aware of why the item is on the agenda. So are we going to the Rickenbarer item or the Miami-Seaquarium site item?

Well, first we're gonna hear from the public on an item that they're here to speak about, and then we will go on to discuss that item, and then the last item that we hadn't discussed yet.

I'm confused, Mr. Chair. What is the next item on the agenda? Which item are you here to speak on? Sequarium. Okay.

Sequarium.

Okay, so if that's the next item on the agenda, then I think it would be wise for us to have the administration, you know, just tee it up for us a little bit.

We, that's, the item's been on the agenda for weeks. We would love to hear from somebody from the administration on this item. Rafael, is anybody from the administration here to give us a briefing on the Miami Aquarium site?

This is a county property, so per the request of the board, I reached out to David Martin, and he will, I'm in communication with him to see if he's going to be able to attend the meeting in October. But this is not a City of Miami item, so that's why there's no city administration to provide an update specifically on it.

Understood. So Mr. Chairman, why is this on the agenda?

Well, because this aquarium is incredibly important to Virginia Key Park. It's a 32 acre park site owned by the county on the south side of the causeway. And anything that happens there is going to impact Virginia Key Park. And anybody who's in the leadership position at the city of Miami should be incredibly curious and interested what's going to happen with the Miami Aquarium site. And from what we've read in the paper, we've sent articles to the board members over the last week or so on that issue, but Given the current proposal that we're aware of on this aquarium site, I mean, they would increase the traffic count in the Rickenbacker Causeway by 1,500 vehicles a day. That's meaningful to Virginia Key Park and everything the city is trying to achieve. And many leaders of the city of Miami should be following that issue incredibly closely and wanting to get involved in any capacity they can, even though the site's owned by the county.

So this is on the agenda. How long has this been on the agenda?

Three or four weeks?

You said three or four weeks? You mean it was put on agenda just for this meeting?

I don't have our previous meeting, Mr. Norwood. I don't think it was on our previous meeting, but it's probably been requested three weeks ago. Can we hear from Gary Milano?

Maybe I can help. Well, no, no, no. I think I just want to hear from the chair because the chair controls the agenda. So I'm asking the chairman... what items are on the agenda and when they were put on there and for what reason. So I'm assuming that you put this on the agenda for discussion at the last meeting. Is that what happened?

Or maybe shortly thereafter the last meeting. Now, the chair puts items on the agenda, but the chair also adds items that are contributed by any board member or anybody of interest.

That's all I want to know, like how it got on the agenda. That's all. That's all.

Gary Milano, do you want to speak to that? In the microphone, Gary?

At the last meeting, before we adjourn, we basically work with the city as far as the coordinator to talk about what we'd like to hear about as far as projects. Because we hear, we read in the newspaper, as far as this project... aquarium or a marina being developed. And we'd just like to have a representative come talk to us about it. And sometimes the city is able to do that. In this case, for this aquarium site, they're not. But I was able to work with the city to direct them to the person, but they were not able to make it tonight. So that's why we moved that presentation for this aquarium site, which is a county site. But this board oversees all of Virginia Key. the county sites, the Roses School, everything. And that's why this board was put together to review all projects associated with Virginia Key. So maybe that helps you understand why it was put on as a discussion item.

I think, for me, from a procedural perspective, when I see an agenda item, When I see an agenda, I expect there to be a presentation. Someone should tee it up before we give it to the public. That's just something I'm accustomed to.

And that's the way it's always been. It's just that we were not able to get a representative here for tonight's meeting. But we thought, since other people were here about it, maybe we would discuss it a little bit. I have no problem with that.

What I'm saying is, from a board perspective, every agenda item When it's here and it's advertised to people, somebody should give a presentation about it, whether it's the chairperson, if the chair asks one of the members, just tee it up and say, this is an item on the agenda that we thought was important for us to discuss, and then open it up to the public.

I think you have made a difference tonight.

Mr. Norwood, you're 100% accurate.

Yes.

Thank you very much.

So the Miamis Aquarium item, we hope to hear from David Martin, the principal of the Terra Group, on October 27th. And maybe anybody from the city that has some background on that item. And we'll also hear from members of the public on October 27th. And it's crucial. It's a crucial item. It's also a crucial item to the village of Key Biscayne. It's going to have a huge effect on any residents. Key Biscayne and anything that's happening on that site would be incredibly important to them. I've already talked to people in Key Biscayne and I know they're very concerned and curious what's going to happen.

So we had a member of the public who was going to speak, I believe. Would you like to speak? Yeah, I apologize for that.

All good. Yeah. So my name is Valeria. I have a master's degree in marine chemistry and atmospheric science. And I work with the friends of Biscayne Bay. And I actually got my degree at an institution that is directly adjacent to this aquarium site, which is Rosenthal School. So there is no question that the former Sequarium property is an important landmark in Virginia Key, and its redevelopment presents an incredible opportunity for the city and the county to provide, you know, for improvement and public benefit. But the question we should be asking is not simply can this property be redeveloped. The question is what kind of redevelopment is appropriate for this publicly significant waterfront, and what does it mean for the rest of Virginia Key and Biscayne Bay? This aquarium site cannot be viewed in isolation. We are simultaneously considering the Marine Stadium mooring field, the Rickenbacker Marina proposal, the Marine Stadium restoration. So if we add another significant marina component to this aquarium site, we need to understand the cumulative impact of vessel traffic, water quality, stresses, wildlife, recreation, and public access. We also need to make sure that the public receives meaningful opportunities to participate. Friends of Biscayne Bay, along with engaged stakeholders, have identified several areas that deserve careful review, including impacts to sea glasses, coral, and mangrove resources, proximity to non-manatee congregation areas, dredging impacts and increasing water quality stress, noise and line pollution issues, I mean, you name it. We're also asking a question about the existing lease and whether the proposed use represents a substantial change from the property's historical purpose, including whether Article 7 or other legal requirements could therefore apply in this case. Those are questions that deserve serious and legal public consideration. I want to emphasize that this doesn't have to be an adversarial conversation. We can support responsibility development while still demanding a higher standard for our pay. The goal should be to create a project that provides genuine public benefits, protects the environment, preserves public access, and most importantly, we want to leave the bay in a better condition than it is today. I would encourage the advisory board to ask for a transparent public process. independent environmental review, and clear assessment of how this project fits into the larger vision for Virginia Key. We have an opportunity here, so let's make sure that we don't simply redevelop the property, but create a better future for Biscayne Bay and Virginia Key.

Thank you. Thank you very, very much for your summary. Your summary was excellent. You covered a lot of ground. You spoke very quickly. Excellent. And all excellent questions. And as you know, this aquarium is owned by Miami-Dade County, not the city of Miami. We're all, this board and everybody in the room is incredibly curious and interested in those questions being answered appropriately. But unfortunately, it's owned by the county. And I'm sure you're reaching out to county officials too. Anybody else? Mr. Milano?

i just want to point out mr chair that this board was put together to review all properties so we can put a resolution together to the city commission whether we support the project or not and it's important to do that so i i don't think it's a county city sort of thing it's a community project

Thank you. Hopefully, maybe somebody will propose a resolution at the next meeting when there's a quorum.

I'm sure there will be.

Let's see.

Chair, I just would like to add there's an interesting dynamic with the Seaquarium lease in that the lease is, in fact, in bankruptcy. The previous owner is in bankruptcy. So there's a a curious dynamic in terms of the new supposed leasee having access to this lease, depending on what the bankruptcy court determines.

Well, there's been some articles that Rafael has sent along to us in our emails, but I believe I read that the current proposed tenant bought out the assets from the bankrupt former tenant, and then subsequently got approval from Miami-Dade County to approve them as to be the new tenant with a 99-year lease.

Larry, if I could defer to the audience member, is that in fact the lease is out of bankruptcy?

You can speak on the microphone.

I think even we are in some confusion there because we have conversations with Dave Martin and there is something going on with the permitting and the lease and it's not exactly explained to us. The details are not being revealed basically so I'm not entirely sure because now there is a conversation about apparently permitting potentially being put on pause but before we were informed that the permitting cannot be put on pause because they are in the bankruptcy court, we cannot get a clear idea on that. I asked that exact question last Friday on the call and We are kind of at a loss right now.

Those are all good questions, even. Hopefully we'll have more answers. And some of the articles that have been in the media have been fairly complete. They're in three or four different publications.

Journalists have done a good job tracking down the history and even the history of the previous tenant and previous tenant's bankruptcy.

Any other questions from anybody at the board? Mr. Norwood? Your questions have been excellent. So there's only one other item that's left on the agenda, which we're not going to go into too much detail. But at the Rickenbacker Marina, that issue is going to a referendum this year for voters to decide on a new tenant. There's also litigation involved. and we may get a fuller summary on the October 27th meeting. With this, Ms. City Attorney, do you have any update on us on the situation with the Rickenbacker-Marina referendum question?

So there's still an active litigation relating to that. So I'd prefer not to publicly comment on what's going on with the litigation. But the ballot question is going to the voters in November. And if you all want, I can have Rafaela circulate a copy of the resolution establishing the ballot question so you can all see what it says.

That would be great. That would be very nice. And I think that item will be on the October 27th agenda. Even though early voting would have started a few weeks before October 27th, I think this board should hear that item in some degree. And seeing the legislation and the ballot language would be helpful. Gary Milano.

Mr. Chair, I saw a permit drawing for an expansion of the Marina, the Rickenbacker Marina. Does this tie in to what you're talking about?

I honestly haven't seen a lot of details. I have. The pros will... That should certainly be shown and discussed by this board.

Gary, can you speak into the mic?

Thank you.

I said everything already, so I'm done. No, I'm requesting that we have someone from the city talk to us about the Marina, Rickenbacker Marina expansion project, where they're expanding the number of piers out into the bay. So I just wanted to give Mr. Norwood an example of how these discussion items come about. And sometimes we don't get a representative to talk about it because the person can't be there or for whatever reason.

I'll let the court- Raffaella, can you have somebody, can you put that item again on the agenda for the 27th and have somebody from the city able to talk to us?

Is that, Mr. Chair, is that- From when you say that there's a permit for more peers. Yes. Is that because of the Seaquarium site? No, no, no. We're in a different location. No, I'm sorry. We were talking about the Rickenbacker Marina site. So you're saying that that permit is for that site? Right.

There's two different projects. Seaquarium is over there. And then the Rickenbacker Marine is just as you're coming down on the big high bridge. It's the one on the left.

So what's the difference between the marine site that you're referring to and the one that... The referendum is referring to the same site?

I believe it is.

The Ricamarca Marina, there's a voter referendum pertaining to that exact site. I was unaware of any proposed enlargement or expansion of that site. And that is the kind of thing that should be brought to this board before anybody's applying for permits.

But the Sequarium site, I know it's different, but isn't that like a huge development?

It's 32 acres, I think. Yes, that's huge, and that's specifically controlled by the county, but we should be informed about it and updated on it. Got it. Okay. Any other questions? You guys are wonderful to be here tonight, even though we didn't have a quorum. 20 after 7. We covered a lot of ground, and there should be a good meeting on October 27th. Hopefully we'll have some great, informative speakers. Raffaella, thank you very much for everything tonight. Is there a motion to adjourn?

Motion.

Seconded? Second.

All in favor? Aye.