Wynwood Design and Review Committee - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

On this rainy day, how about we start with the Pledge of Allegiance and then get into our agenda. Fantastic. Thank you all very much. Do we need to read the lobbyist's note before we do the roll call? Okay. Tom Dunlap, present. Alan Kett, thank you. Kathy Leff. Zion Mass. Present. Miguel Omar. Heidi Weigand. Present. And welcoming Jared Brunabend, our alternate.

Present.

It's wonderful to have you. Thank you. It's the first time I can recall that we've got a full house. It's wonderful to see the process work. Great, everybody. Thanks.

Patricia?

Ready. Okay. Any person who is a lobbyist pursuant to Chapter 2, Article 6 of the City Code must register with a city clerk and comply with the city-related requirements for lobbyists before appearing before the Wynwood Design Review Committee. A person may not lobby. a city official board member or staff member until registering, a copy of the city code section about lobbyists is available in the city clerk's office or online on www.munico.com. Any person may be heard by the Wynwood Design Review Committee through the chair for not more than two minutes on any proposition before the committee unless modified by the chair. Members of the public wishing to address the body may do so by visiting miamigov.com backslash virtual boards to submit their written comments via the online comment form. The comments submitted through the comment form, if any, have been distributed to the committee members and city staff so the subcommittee members can consider the comments prior to taking any action will be included as part of the public record for this meeting the online comment form will remain open during the meeting to accept comments and distribute to the committee members up until the chairperson closes public comment additionally the city will accommodate any speakers designed to appear in person when addressing the committee the member of the public must first state his or her name his or her address and what item will be spoken about. The video of this meeting may be requested at the Office of Communications or viewed online at www.miamigov.com. Please silence all cell phones and other noise-making devices. Any persons with disability requiring assistance, auxiliary aids, and services for this meeting may notify the city liaison. Please note, board members may have generally been briefed by the city staff on items of the agenda today. In order to ensure that the public has the ability to view the meeting, the city's communications department will broadcast the meeting, and the meeting can be viewed live on Miami TV, miamigov.com backslash TV, or Comcast Channel 77 within the city of Miami. The broadcast will also have closed captioning. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, I believe requests for absent waivers, are there any?

No, there are none at the present moment.

Great.

Minutes approval of our December 16th committee meeting. Can I have a motion? Assuming there are no questions or comments, can I have a motion for the approval of those minutes?

I move for approval of the last meeting.

Second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Okay. Just the button by your thumb.

Just for clarification, since I wasn't here, I assume I'm not allowed to vote. Since I wasn't here at the last meeting, I assume I don't vote.

Have you received the minutes?

No.

Okay, that's fine not to. Noting Kathy, Kathy Leff has abstained. I believe we basically have approval of those minutes. Let me just get my My notes, keep up with those. Great, those minutes are approved. Before we head into the WDRC resolutions, we have a kind of a fortunate first time situation here in that our alternate has been staffed and is actually in attendance, which is great. And it raises a fair but important question, and that is, should the alternate participate in the dialogue of the meeting that they're in attendance at and vote in the process of that, or do they sit strictly as an alternate? So staff and Patricia will seek your guidance on that.

So, this committee is made up of seven, no, the committee officially is how many members? Six, sorry, six, okay, and we have one alternate, okay. So, when you have all six present, so all six of you, if all six of you were present for all intents and purposes, right, the alternate is not necessary, right? Presumably, after you've met quorum, the alternate is not necessary. So in my previous life, when I had to make this decision as the attorney for a board, my theory was this, was that if I have less than whatever the committee is made of, I have no issue with the alternate remaining. correct, because it fills the blank of the person that's not here and would presumably be allowed to either participate, ask questions, do whatever, even vote. If all six of you were here, right, then the alternate, in my opinion, I never had an issue with them participating, but presumably could not motion or vote because the committee is only made up of six. So that was kind of my guiding, way of doing it. So because we don't have all six, then he can motion, vote.

I think that is fantastic guidance. And I just want to clarify, even though we may have a quorum today, we're well past that. But even though we may have a quorum, it's only if there's a missing member that the alternate would have voting, or I'm sorry, would have vote in motion.

Correct.

But otherwise, if it was all six members here and the alternate was here, they can be fully engaged in the dialogue and the participation up to the vote.

Up to the vote and motioning. And then my other theory with that was, okay, so I have quorum now. What happens if four of you decide, or three of you, whoever the number is, right? Something happens and you all get up at the same time. That's the point of the alternate, no?

Yeah.

So, I mean, like in this case scenario, I don't see that happening just because of the makeup of how it is. And we have so many right here right now. But let's say we only had three and the alternate was here. Definitely, you know, having an alternate is valuable because then there would never be an interruption in quorum.

Superb. Do we need to motion that to put it on record?

Nope.

Fantastic.

So...

Jared, I hope you brought your helmet, because you're going to game today. Since Miguel is absent, you not only would be under the conditions that Patricia outlined, would be participating, but today you could also participate in voting as well. Ricky.

Since there is no online public comment, can we please close them, Chair?

I'm sorry, close the public comment?

Please. Please.

My apologies, I think I missed that at the top of the prior page. Can I have a motion to close the public comment period? No motion needed?

Okay, then as chairman, we will close the public comment period.

Thank you. Thank you, Ricky. Sorry about missing that. Great, so with that bit of preamble, I'll flip it back over to Ricky and Andreas so that we can tee up the resolutions for this session.

Item number 18715 happens to be the voting of the chair. We're going to start with 18715, which is the vice chair. I believe 18716 is the vice chair.

Thank you, 18716. Very good. So just before we jump into that, I understand that there may be a couple options that we have for this, that one option, and these are not in any order, one option is we can maintain the vice chair that presently exists through the 2026 sessions. Another option is we can entertain a motion from the committee to appoint a new vice president for the 2026 sessions. If I've stated that correctly, I believe I have, then we can put it over to the committee members for a discussion of those two options or other questions and ideas. Kathy?

I mean, I have absolutely no problem retaining that chair and vice chair have existed. I said I have absolutely no problem retaining the chair and vice chair as they existed last year.

Okay, so we'll take those in two bites. So we'll stick with the vice chair. Well, I'm sorry, not say stick with it. Kathy's voicing her support of staying with the current vice chair structure. Anybody else? Miguel, bless your heart. We'll step back in a second and make sure we log you in, but it's great to have you. Jared, so sorry, I think your voting status just got bumped. So back to the agenda item 18716, do we have a motion regarding the election of vice chair?

I move to keep the vice chair as is.

Do we have a second to that motion? Okay, Zion has moved, and where are we? Heidi has seconded. Could I call for a vote? All in favor of the maintaining the existing vice chair?

Aye.

Aye. It's unanimous. So congratulations, Alan, and glad to have you hanging around. Fantastic. So let me get that. The next item then would be 18715. And I believe I should pass the gavel on that at this stage to let the conversation continue. Would I pass that to the vice chair? Okay, so Alan, if you would, you can lead us on 18715, which is the election of a chair for 2026.

So certainly, the recommendation to maintain the chair for 2026 was mentioned earlier, and so I move to vote to maintain our current chair into 2026, can I have someone make a motion?

I'll move that motion. I move that Tom Dunlop be retained as chairman for the next year.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Second.

Second. Okay, with that case, 18715, Tom, you're back.

Thanks. Thank you all. Okay, just taking a minute to get our paperwork in order here. And just take a second to loop back and make sure we got our attendance in order as well. on our rainy day here, first start of the year. Okay.

Superb.

With my apologies to the staff, if I haven't stomped all over the agenda so far, then I believe we are up to 18688.

Item number three, 18688, project name, 2826 North Miami Avenue, location, Old San Juan, transit zone T68-0. Application type is an adaptive reuse, WDRC requirement pursuant to Appendix J, Section 5, specific to Zones T5 architectural standards. Art or glass treatment shall be a design to be approved by the planning director with the recommendation of the Wynwood Design Review Committee.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Hi. My name is Jimena Duran, and I'm officer of International Midtown, the company owner of this place. This is a place located in 2826 North Miami Avenue. And we are in the process of improving the space because it's under an unsafe structure. And we've been for more than a year in the Miami building department going through all the requirements. And we are almost done with all the requirements to be able to start the improvement of the building. We've had a lot of obstacles, but we've passed most of them. We've been required to put an elevator inside because there's an upper level. It's a small level, but we're going to install a small elevator because it's required. And the reason that we are here is because we learned that there are two things, either one or the other, that we have to have the front of the place with at least 75% glass, or have it designed with an artist approved by Wynwood to have graffiti there. The thing is that we are doing this improvement to have a safe building so that we can rent it and we don't have a specific tenant yet. So the idea when we presented this to the city was let's prepare a good healthy building so that any tenant can come and do whatever concept they want. Whether it be a restaurant and they adapt it to a restaurant or any other retail store. So we are doing it plain vanilla shell so what we can rent it to whoever wants to rent it. So the reason we are here is because, I don't know if I'm gonna connect my computer but I printed out, we cannot do 75% glass because inside against the wall there's a stairway that goes to the upper floor. So as we have the stairway we cannot put glass there. And the other idea of the graffiti, we wanted to have it plain white, presented plain white, so that the tenant who comes can have their certificate of occupancy with whatever they want to do, the concept. We cannot determine if it's gonna be a salon, an art place, we have to do it as plain as possible so that a tenant can come and have it for the intended use that they want. So that's the reason why I need to connect the computer so that everybody can see it. We kindly request if you can consider us having it white and plain, and once we are ready and we have a tenant, they will come and do the use that they want and that they will be approved. I don't know if you have any questions. It's my first time here, so I don't know how the process is.

Yeah, I have just one comment to follow up. Those drawings that you're showing are different from the package that you submitted. The package submitted has renderings with an art, and the reason why you're here today is so that the WDRC can give the recommendation on the art. So if you remove the art, then it's not code compliant. If I remove the art, what? It's not code compliant. It doesn't comply with Appendix J. and the requirement of art or glass. If you're not providing the glass, the art is required. And that's why you're here today, so they can give you their opinion.

Yes, thank you.

So, tell us about what you submitted which had some sort of rendering on it.

Yes, let me look for it. We did a generic rendering in order to be able to come here to request this specific request of having it plain white. I'll look for it.

I guess we all saw it. It was right. I guess the question is you don't intend to do that and it was just a generic thing that you put together. What she explained was that it's either one or the other to present so that we can give you a recommendation on how to move forward. The next question is are you currently under permit and you were kicked over to the WDRC as condition for approval for your permit.

Correct, correct, yes. And we've been, as I said, we've been more than a year with the improvement process of the building because of the unsafe structure and the 40-year recertification. So it's a very complex project, and in all this time, we've been putting money, money for the plans, for all the- Right.

This is a recommendation so that you can get approval today. It's a suggestion you submitted a cute rendering that makes sense with what I've seen in the past that gets approved here. And so what you could say is something like this. You could say, we intend to put a mural on this project. We haven't chosen it, and the mural It conceptually falls within the parameters of the Wynwood Design Review Board. We still haven't received an artist, but this is the kind of art that we're looking to or intend to do as the owner of the building. When you say that you're going to have a tenant come in there at some point, as an owner of a building, it's almost always better for the owner to select the artwork for the building as opposed to the tenant. Let's say a dentist moves in there. They can come in as the tenant and you as the owner can say, yes, I approve this artwork and you have to, the Wynwood Design Review Board has to approve it and then you paint over the mural that you currently have, right? So as a condition for approval today, you could say, hey, I'm looking for an artist and this is the typology of art that we're looking and intending to do. That way you don't lose time with your permit process. Otherwise you have to come back and show another piece of art.

Just to clarify, so having it plain white is not an option?

So to Zion's point, you cannot go plain white, period. and you as the building owner will always be the one subject to the final resolution at the city. So whether it's this mural or a different version, different colors that maybe you say, to Zion's point, maybe the color palette is different, but I believe for you to get your certificate of occupancy, the building will need to be painted in line with where it is located in the WDRC.

The other thing that I'm going to mention is that I've worked on several buildings in Wynwood, and my experience with all white buildings and all black buildings is that they end up getting tagged by regular graffiti artists. But the moment you put a mural on there, for some reason they respect the mural and they pass by. So what inevitably ends up happening is my clients will end up calling me and saying, I got a violation from the city for non-compliant graffiti, and then they're getting $500 a day violations. So plain white, even if it was approved, it becomes an issue for you as a landlord that you have to keep it from being spray painted.

And a question. If we say today that we haven't decided which artist and which art we're going to have, but we are in the process of selecting, that would get us approved today. But for how long? What period of time we have until or we are not going to have the city permit until we choose? I don't know how the process goes.

For me, I would give you an approval today contingent that you you you know, the typology of design is based on something similar than what's on this thing. But I can't speak to the rest of the guys here.

It may be more technical answer from a staff point of view to how long the approved mural is good for.

Yes, thank you. I was going to get to that. You could get an approval with conditions today, and then that condition will be attached to your building permit, and then we could condition the approval saying before TCO you need to provide the art in a manner as specified on your rendering, but the design can change according to the artist, right? But it has to follow the artist's guidelines of the area. It's like a placeholder. and you're subject to the area, but your artist will have to design the mural once.

And that allows me to move forward with the building process?

Yes. But it's a condition, yeah.

Another question, because we proposed something generic, but do you have like a place where we can select more that it's going to be approved by the Wynwood board? Like, do you have specific colors, specific artists, like a guideline or we just present and is there something that we can base on?

There is no guidelines with projects with reference. There is a guideline of explaining what's windward art, and that has been uploaded to your building permit application.

Okay.

No, no, no.

Okay, so we would like to move forward if you can approve us to review. We're going to do an art in accordance with the guidelines of the Wynwood board, but we need some time to choose and to make sure that we are in accordance with the style that we are going to put under your guidelines.

I'm just not sure I understood. I'm sorry. So are you asking us to recommend authorizing the proposal as presented so that you can move along and then return? Should there be any changes, recommended changes, prior to getting your final COO?

That's the way I understood it.

Do you understand the difference? Yes. Right now, if you move forward, if you pick another artist, I understand that what you'd have to do if you want to pick another artist other than the rendering that you presented, you should first come back before retaining them to get pre-approval to have that artist replace what we're approving today.

I understand. And meanwhile, I am following the building process so that I can move forward with approval of the permits for construction. Because as it is an unsafe structure, I have a timeline. I have to hurry. And I came for extensions, but I don't know if I have another extension, so I have to...

I apologize. When was the last time you went to the unsafe structures? I came November 7th. Of this year? 2025. 2025? Yeah. Okay, give me a moment. Yes. You don't have to wait on me. Okay.

I'm gonna go look at that order.

Okay.

So I make a motion to approve the rendering shown in her proposal, and if they are contingent that if they are changed, that she come back and present the new design. All in favor? Or someone second?

Do we have a second on that motion?

All in favor? Aye.

You've got approval.

Thank you very much. Thank you. We thank you. We know it's a challenging process. Thank you for your advice. Yes.

Thank you, Ms. Hemana. Thank you.

Thank you.

We'll all get our paint brushes and join you at the mural.

Amen.

Okay, board members. Our next item is our first discussion, which is 18720, the 2026 global calendar. I sent this out some time ago, and hopefully you've had an opportunity to review it. So we actually already voted on it, if memory serves me correctly. But these four items here are housekeeping items that we have to go over every time at the beginning of the year. So if you guys want to discuss about the calendar, then you can. Otherwise, we can... Move on to the next item. Any questions regarding the 2026 calendar? It's the same meeting date, the second Tuesday of every month, starting at 10 a.m. here in City Hall.

Is that clear to everybody? Yes. Yes. Cool. That works.

All right, next discussion item, 2026 Wynwood Design Review Committee Annual Training.

The annual training usually happens in August, the month of recess, in between meetings from July and September. is usually we try to keep the same date, the second Tuesday of the month, but last year we did it with the Wimbledon bid, and we allow them to give us options into what day works, and then once we're closer, we'll reach out with a few dates to see when we're available, but do we all agree that August might be the right month to do it?

Just more of a high altitude, and I apologize if you said this and I wasn't paying attention, The work that's going to be going on concurrent with this,

Vision plan? Yes.

Yeah. Did you just refer to that?

No, this is for the annual training of the WDRC. That's like a wider scope. We're going to talk about the vision plan during that meeting for sure, but it's going to be more about, you know, like what's the preview of the board, the ethics training, like it touches on everything, attendance and like legislation that has happened or any, you know, like other projects in the Wynwood area. But separate from that, I'm sure that once we engage with Gensler, they're going to reach out to WDRC as a stakeholder to get their feedback on the vision plan. But we haven't started a contract yet.

That's great. Just it just occurred to me managing their timeline and schedule. That would be a really great report out.

Yeah, you're definitely one of the community groups. So once they are ready to start, they should reach out, you know, like, we need to have a meeting with them and see how their project is going to move forward.

Super. Okay, the next item is the WDRC Rules and Procedures, and I'm going to assume that that's what we're going to also cover in our August meeting, along with the fourth one, which will be the Ethics Refresher. Awesome. So that takes care of our discussion items. If everybody's fantastic and ready to stay dry, if we can get an adjournment.

Motion. There's no questions otherwise. Motion for adjournment. Move to adjourn. I believe we are adjourned. Thank you.

Thank you.

We're building a stronger more connected Miami

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The turning of a new page for Rolando Calona, it was a privilege for me to be able to introduce him. So much fun to be here with the people from this district, and we wish him the very, very best.

I am so excited to be here to celebrate Commissioner Escalona's swearing in. He is a wonderful man who has spent months and months talking to neighbors, understanding what they need, and he is ready to serve the residents of District 3.

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We have a lot of emotions. I mean, I feel very honored to represent City of Miami, especially District 3. Now it's time to work. Today we have to start to work, so we're ready.

It's overwhelming. It's a dream come true. A biggest prayer answered. It's a beautiful feeling. It is. I just want to say thank you so very much for making a major dream come true.

It feels like God has answered my prayers. It feels like my mom is very proud of me. It feels like my daughters have something tangible that I can leave them. I'm overwhelmed.

The team makes the dream work with the City of Miami's Building Department, from the Public Works Department, Miami-Dade County Water and Sewer. We all work together for this cause and we brought everybody out and that's what we like to do, bring everyone out to see what the finished product looks like.

In almost every instance, the mortgage is less than what they were paying for in rent. And that's amazing. So I'm very happy. I am looking forward to doing this again and again and again. And I cannot ever get tired of welcoming a new family into District 5.

Ladies and gentlemen, the mayor of the city of Miami, Eileen Higgins.

I'm so proud to have been sworn in as the new mayor for the Magic City. I'm looking forward to getting to work for you, for every resident in every neighborhood. I cannot tell you how grateful I am for the trust you have placed in me to serve as your next mayor.

This is the right leader for these times and someone who is going to be able to continue the unity that we have but also address some of the very pressing problems. and work collaboratively with Miami-Dade County and with our sister cities. So I'm very, very hopeful for our future.

We ushered in a new era in the city of Miami. It's been wonderful for me to serve for 16 years, aid as commissioner, aid as mayor, and turn the page. Of course, as a lifelong Miamian, I'm always going to be cheering for the city, cheering for the new mayor and the new commission as they try to move Miami's agenda forward.

We expect great things from her.

awesome electrician awesome public servant and with the new board together i know that they'll do wonderful things for our community we wanted to continue to collaborate together with the new mayor eileen as we do in the past and when she was a miami-dade county commissioner we are here to continue to putting people first in miami-dade county we are looking forward to working with her we know that together we're going to keep transforming lives in the city of miami

I am so excited to get to work with Mayor Higgins and her team and all of my colleagues as we serve our residents every single day.

I hope to work with the new commission and the mayor so we move Miami forward and I want the taxpayer and the residents to know that we're going to work hard to get the business done in the city of Miami.

We are ready to lead. Eileen and I have a lot in common. There are changes that we want to make in the city of Miami and we're going to get to that right away.

So I was really excited to work with Mayor Francis Suarez, and I'm equally excited to get to work with Mayor Eileen Higgins. I know she's got a wonderful trajectory in the community of getting things done for Miami-Dade County, and now she can laser focus on the city of Miami. And we have a wonderful team in the commission, and we're really excited to work together.

forward to working with her i look forward to her energy i don't know women bring a certain je ne sais quoi to elected office and she's a wonderful public servant she's already proven herself and now we get to work together and i'm so excited for what is to come may god bless the city of miami

I feel very proud to welcome James Reyes to be the next city manager here in Miami. Today we swore him in. He's promised to serve with integrity, care about our employees, care about our city and our residents, and I'm happy to welcome him to the city of Miami.

Very proud of this day. It's a full circle moment in my life. Obviously, being a kid in Miami-Dade County and being able to serve this community is truly an honor. To be sworn in here today, it's no coincidence that I wanted to be sworn right here at the MRC where our staff does the great work that they do. And I will be working with them hand in hand to serve our community in a more efficient and effective way. So I look forward to building relationships and tapping into the talent that's here.

You guys serve our residents, and I want to be here to serve you all.

So thank you so very much for being here today. Thank you. Get to work.

Y yo no estaba en un festival así desde que era niña chiquita, eso me da muchos recuerdos ver los policías, the camos, los caballos y toda la gente que están aquí con su familia. Me da mucho gusto que están haciendo esto para la comunidad.

Aquí estamos con la familia compartiendo y disfrutando. El desfile de los policías en las motos, todo súper lindo.

It is a beautiful day on Coyote. We are celebrating Three Kings in Miami fashion. We've got fun, we've got a parade, we have camels, of course we have Three Kings. It's a wonderful way to build community right here in Little Havana.

It's a great event. Obviously, we're extremely proud to be here representing the city of Miami. And growing up, I got to spend so much quality for age where my parents brought me to it. So fast forward a decade or two, and here I am with my kiddos enjoying it.

It's a tradition. I mean, our parents brought my brother and I here when we were three and six years old.

So, you know, just glad that it's happening again. We've got to keep it going for those generations of human Americans that come after us. So I'm very pleased to be here and participating with the parade.

I have been coming to this event. I started when I was eight years old. It's an amazing event. It's a great way to bring the family out, to really get everybody focused on the generosity of giving the receipt of the gifts from the Three Kings. It's a very important tradition for us, so I'm proud to be here and I'm honored to be part of it.

This is what Miami is about. Three Kings Parade is what brings our communities together. Fantastic event that Rosado has put together. Very proud of Miami at the moment, but I know it'll be fantastic.

This has been a long time tradition. I remember coming to this as a kid. The city had to stop it for a few years because of COVID, but thankfully Commissioner Manolo Reyes, my predecessor, may he rest in peace, he brought it back last year. It was a huge hit. So we've said, you know what? Let's keep the tradition going.

Being here at the Three Kings Parade is so special. Everything that we do in the city as a collective is uplifting for our community. And I'm so happy to share this moment with my colleagues,

It's an amazing tradition. I have been a part of this Three Kings Parade for many years. It is beautiful to see the turnout that we have, the community, and it's awesome to see how they smile when they get to see the police face to face.

Loving it, man. It's the Three Kings Parade, something that's historically Miami. And they brought it back last year. And now we get here to walk with the folks, man, and spread a little bit of joy.

This is such a great day for the city, the Three Kings Parade. It's amazing to see the community out, all of our elected officials, the fire department. This is something we look forward to the whole year. We're looking forward to a great parade and a great concert at the end.

This is a wonderful tradition here in Miami. And also we have some special keys for our very important guests, our local musicians.

I'm very happy to be here at the Three Kings Day Parade. I want to thank the commissioners and the mayor for putting...