Village Council - Regular Meeting

At this time, I'd like to call the meeting to order. Vice Mayor, can you lead us?

Can we please bow our heads for a moment of silence? Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Madam clerk roll call council member Burch president council member Devaney present council member Valensky will be with us shortly vice mayor cancer presence mayor Charles here are there any additions deletions and deferrals For item 10A, staff would like to defer or rather withdraw since the applicant, Doctors Charter School, did withdraw their application for the charitable donation request and will be resubmitting a new application. 10A. Sorry, 11A is actually the item, not 10A.

Mr. Mayor, I'd just like to ask the clerk this real quick. I know that there is an item that really here I think is 12 a that there is is a memo that was circulated from staff that has the scrivener's error on that and I think it has been sent to you I'd just like to speak about that. Specifically, it refers to a date that even though the exhibit has the correct year, but that in the memo from staff, it has the incorrect year. So there's conflict. It should really, really read 2001 instead of reading 2011.

Duly noted.

Thank you.

To the Chair, per our normal moving extra bill,

officials up should we i guess 9a is the only one should we should we hear that first though or do we want to wait i don't think i'll take that long okay no no it's fine all right is that as is that it for all of them for the uh yeah yes maybe okay then next item

Item 5A, update on the Miami Shores Village Aid Friendly Action Plan presented by the Grants Special Projects Communications Manager through the Village Manager.

Yes. Mr. Mayor, we have an age-friendly action plan that we've been working on. I think we first introduced it, I think, around about 2022, 2021, to thereabouts. But we've had some updates. I know there are some residents that have been asking for us for the updates on this. Even our own Council Member Birch has asked, what are we doing with it? So Ms. Keeley, who handles that under one of the special projects that she does

is going to give us an update as to where we are so thank you good evening good evening i'm elizabeth keely i do grants and special projects and this is one of the items that is under my purview per the village manager and yes we did approve by village council the adopted the village council adopted the age-friendly action plan in october of 2022 and we need to provide an update this is through aarp and the network of age-friendly communities. I'm not sure, Isabelle, do you have the? So I'm just highlighting a couple of things. This is the actual updated progress report that we'll be submitting to AARP for our review. So the Age-Friendly Action Plan, in case you, just to give a little summary of what it is, it outlines goals and strategies that guide the village's work across eight key domains for older adults and residents of all ages. So the eight domains of livability are outdoor spaces and buildings, transportation, housing, social participation, respect and social inclusion, civic participation and employment, communication, information, and community and health services. So our mission statement is, Age-Friendly Miami Shores Village is dedicated to ensuring our community remains welcoming, forward-thinking, and safe for residents of every age. By working together with neighbors, local organizations, businesses, and village leadership, we support and develop policies and practices that help all people stay engaged, connected, and actively involved in community life. So an age-friendly Miami Shores Village unites various departments, organizations, and individuals to build a community for every stage of life. We continue to integrate the plan into the overall village strategic focus to leverage and benefit the domains of livability. So AARP actually has a livability index that they give us each, I'm not sure if it's each year that they do this. Our previous score when we did the original plan in 2022 was 49 and we've gone up to 53. I do think that'll increase based on some of the items that we've addressed in our plan. And so we did increase our score, which was the goal. So we have a check mark for that. And you can visit AARP, the livability index online. I have the reference there. So this is the breakdown of all of the domains and the livability scores that we have, and you can see the shaded areas throughout the village, how it's more, the overall score is based on the area of Miami Shores. This is also from the website. And this is just a summary about us. It gives AARP a little bit about our community, and that's gonna be submitted in this report. And then our profile, which talks about the village as a whole, our geographical boundaries, and our demographics. Oops, sorry, went too fast. So this is just our regular village boundary map that shows the scope of Miami Shores. And then this talks about what the plan is. So an age-friendly community, this is part of the World Health Organization that developed this, and here AARP developed the initiative, and we are one of several hundred cities that participate in this in the United States. We originally adopted a resolution in 2018 supporting it, and our plan was adopted in October of 2022. So this is the meat of why we're reviewing this, of where we are and the progress that we've achieved. So the first thing that was very instrumental, I think, in our plan had to do with the housing livability component. And this has to do with the CR district that was adopted by the village council on March 4th, 2025, that incorporated an age-friendly and universal design concept into the code for potential development programs. So this was significant because we didn't really have a high housing score if you go back You'll see that it was kind of low and I do think that this will bring us our score up a little bit because it does address the Needs of the aging community and being able to stay in your home as you age Obviously our community is generational. We have a lot of that So I think it was a very important piece that you all passed. So thank you for that So the police department also has two programs that they have implemented. I think it was three or four years ago they did the special needs registry, and that includes adults, folks with Alzheimer's, things like that. And you can sign up on the website, and then that way they know that if they come to your home for anything, they know that there's a special need at the home. So it's a great program, I think. I'm not sure that everybody knows about it, but we will be advertising that a little more and in this month's newsletter you'll see the police department senior shield program and that's an initiative as the community outreach program to provide crime prevention education and safety awareness for our senior residents so you know about the scams all the time so they're going to be doing some programs to help people recognize when a scam is a scam And our Parks and Recreation Department, we've had the circulator bus program for quite some time, and it was initially put in place to be able to get people from place A to B. So the idea was that as people get older, sometimes they can't drive their car anymore, and they still want to be active and go someplace, so they can go to the grocery store downtown, to the library, and the country club. And I was amazed when Angie sent me the list of all the programs that we have, because as you know, it focuses a lot on the children, but we are multi-generational again in what we incorporate in our programming. And they recently, the Miami Art League, which was downtown, moved to the community center and they have sold out art classes for adults. They continue to have the FIU Osher Institute lectures, which are also at the library. They have yoga, piano for all ages, jazzercise, the silver sneakers fitness, karate, bridge, and much more. One of the other livability factors is communications, and we try to encompass communications for all ages. All programming is in the newsletter. We continue the monthly newsletter mailing, because not everybody is digital, so we try to make sure that everybody can get information, even if it's not online. And we do post on all social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, xNextDoor, and the website. And we do have two marquees now, in case, I'm sure the council knows, but for the public. Not only did we upgrade our marquee on 96th Street, thanks to the council approving that, as well as the marquee at Doctors Charter School. So we do have two marquee locations that provide information to the public. And so, Brockwood Library went through each livability factor, and they provided things that they do. For civic participation and employment. They have a senior volunteer which is engaging seniors and keeping them social Their communications, of course they they have their communications not only through the village information, but they do things internally as well at their facility and And community and health services, they have a lot of things for people who have issues with seeing. So they have large print books. They have a magnifying machine to view things easier. And they have a lot of, of course, e-books, e-audio, and digital magazines. And they have a small portable magnifying glass. So all things that help. And, of course, that facility is probably... like Parks and Recreation, one of our multi-generational facilities as well. So outdoor spaces and buildings, I took each livability factor, and this was our goal in our original plan, and you'll see that I put a work in progress or a check mark for what the future held and where we're at. I'm not gonna go through all of them, I just wanted you to be aware that we are, we have completed some of the items in each of the livability factors, and of course we are working on a lot of things as well.

Can I just ask a quick question? That score that you showed us in the beginning, this is explaining the score or this is trying to justify a higher score?

Yeah, so if you go back in the beginning where it had the list of all of them, sorry, So each of these had a score on the map page. So they're scoring all of these things for us and how we do.

But all this stuff you're going through, is this us trying to get a higher score? Yes. Okay. So this was part of our plan. So we're hoping that all this is gonna get us a higher score?

Yes. Got it. And so they're just asking us, have we done anything to increase our score, right? So they wanna see progress. Like we said we were gonna do these things, and have we completed any of them? So for instance, the outdoor spaces and buildings. This bench here, it looks like it's a simple purchase. They're only available in Europe. I don't know why in Europe they have these benches. And you can see that it makes people feel part of sitting with everybody else. They're not on the outside sitting on their wheel. I don't know, walker. So I reached out to a manufacturer to see if they would consider making them here in the United States and it has to go through their engineering so I'm waiting to hear back. But I'm hopeful that we'll get those here because otherwise there's a big cost of course shipping them here. So something as simple as that that you think we should be able to access, we can't. But maybe we can in the future. So obviously we have sidewalk replacement that's always in the budget. And for the housing, again, well, did I go too fast? Transportation, sorry. Those are all work in progress because we talked about the circulator bus and possibly upgrading that, as Mr. Scott has said, to a trolley. And the housing is where we did the CR district and upgrading that to include the aging in place items. And social participation, hopefully that, well, it's the social media presence and trying to get more of our seniors involved in our programming. Respect and inclusion is obviously the community center, hopefully when you see that framework presentation, that'll include some senior space, and we will look for grant opportunities with that. We do provide volunteer opportunities at the library, And the communications, we have the special needs registry through the police department. And community health services. We do have the driver's license renewal, which I know a lot of seniors do attend. It's easier for them to come here than make an appointment at the driver's license bureau. And all of the programming. So going forward, this is a summary of what we hope we can do and add to our plan since we've achieved some of them. So to ensure that for communications and information, to ensure residents remain informed and connected through clear, accessible, and easy to understand communication, and maintaining a balance between digital and print outreach so as not to exclude any age group. And for the transportation, as you all know, that we did secure funding for a transportation plan, and we hope that that will give us a basis to move forward with possibly the trolley and a route that will encourage our multigenerational residents to participate on that. For outdoor spaces and buildings, I just mentioned the Parks and Recreation Master Plan, and that would hopefully create a vibrant, inclusive community for all ages today and into the future. And the last thing which I just learned about last month is the Miami-Dade County Age-Friendly Initiative, which is a library certification. So I've already talked to our librarian, Michelle Brown, and she believes that we can meet the requirements for becoming certified through Miami-Dade County. And I think either North Miami Beach or North Miami was just certified at their library. So that's something that we think is easily achievable through the next plan period. And so we're going to add those to our plan, and that's a summary of where we're at. So thank you.

I'd like to pass at this time.

This is a public hearing. At this point in time, it's open for public comments. Please limit your comments to three minutes. Address the council. State your name and address for the record.

Good evening. Maria McGinnis, 1250 Northeast 101st Street. I'd like to address the discussion item that's on the agenda tonight regarding the restrictive covenants and the release of them. I have two asks. One, we have a zoning map that is inconsistent with a comp plan that the CR district is a designation of the land that's a subject property dealing with the doctor's charter and the podiatry school as well as the vacant land to the west. That map needs to be updated, number one. And you updated and adopted the CR district regulations which were necessary to be in place before that zoning map could be amended. So I ask that that be done before anything is released off of any property, number one. Number two, I personally believe there's a lot of deficiencies with respect to the traffic study that was blessed by three members of the board in December. And I think a glaring error or at least omission is that there's no mention, from what I could tell, of the podiatry school that is actually on their website as a commuter lot. for purposes of access. And if you want to check it yourself, I checked it yesterday, it says commuter parking is on that lot. It's not referenced. There's no explanation or qualification of how that parking lot is going to be absorbed in the main campus on either side of North Miami Ave. I think that's got to be reconciled. I think where those classrooms are going to go, where those offices are going to go, where they're going to be situated on the site that's the main campus that they're – because they're basically contracting their campus. We don't have, you know, CR is supposed to be the land where Dr. Charter and the podiatry school sit currently, but there's no mention of any of that. So I think that needs to be fixed. I also believe you need to reference Section 521.66B. that has a parking capacity monitoring that the university was supposed to be doing, monitoring the capacity and utilization of its off-street parking all the way back to 2016. These covenants went on a quarter of a century ago, 2000 and 2001, separate and distinct reasons why they came on the books. This stuff needs to be buttoned up before anything is released. And I don't think it's one and done with the parking study. I don't think that's the way this covenant's written. It's not intended that way. It needs to be looked at and seen that there's differences. And there was never any mention to the Planning and Zoning Board of the substantial additional parking that was supposed to be guaranteed for any new structure, any new structure, including the main campus. of 150% of whatever was required. That was never discussed. And even though they were told that they had no power to release these covenants, which is true, to review it as a requirement, they did. These are relevant covenants for purposes of site plan approval. That's what the purpose of these things are. Cohesive, comprehensive development of vacant land, number one. And number two, that any parking is going to be substantially more than what's required because there was a deficit at the time that this parking covenant went on the books. So it's important to understand how these came into existence, why they came into existence for two separate distinct reasons, but to ignore that the podiatry school is actually being used as a campus building with classrooms, with offices, with labs, with parking for those students and faculty, as well as commuter students, that's a glaring error. And the owner's affidavit says it's supposed to be factually accurate and true. Thank you.

Hi, really quick, Nancy Dawson, 45 Northeast 96th Street. I have the pleasure of pushing away from my computer around 10.30 at night and going for walks every night. And Miami Shores Police are wonderful. And whenever I call them, they come right away. But there's some, I don't even know who to talk to about this, but on the south side of the golf course, on the north side of 101st Street, it's really dark over there. And sometimes there's people lurking around the tot lot. It doesn't look like the tot lot's closed, so sometimes people are hanging in the tot lot. And then on the north side of the field, it's really dark. Sometimes there are cars. People don't know what they're doing there. I try not to walk on that side when I see cars lined up in the dark. It's Super dark, and I don't know who oversees lighting because I know that the chores Please come if you report something that doesn't look right But I don't know how we can increase just lighting along there because when when it is dark at night And the kids are playing you know when the field is lit up Then there's cars along there, and I don't know who to report that to but I appreciate your time. Thank you

Madam Clerk, are there any e-comments?

We do have two item-specific e-comments.

Okay. Any more public comments? Hearing is there none. Madam Clerk?

Item 8A, approval of the March 17, 2026 Village Council Meeting Minutes.

So moved. Second. So motion and a second. All those in favor, signal by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries. Next item, Madden Park.

9A, an ordinance of the Village Council of Miami Shores Village, Florida, amending the Village Code of Ordinances, Chapter 11, Historic Preservation to update regulations pertaining to historic preservation in the village, providing for severability, conflicts, and ineffective date. This item is brought forth by the Interim Planning and Zoning Director through the Village Manager. And Mr. Mayor, this is a public hearing.

Good evening, Mayor, council members, manager, village clerk. At its February 3rd, 2026 village council meeting, the council voted to approve the proposed amendments to the Chapter 11 Historic Preservation Code of Ordinances with the following points of clarification that we'd like to summarize below. some of the general Chapter 11 revisions. At the discretion of the Council, the entirety of Chapter 11 has been included in the ordinance before you, and that's to allow for a general cleanup of the edits and to ensure consistency, compatibility of the review standards throughout the chapter. For example, the definition of undue economic hardship has been further clarified for readability and consistency, and also any duplicate references throughout the ordinance and definition have been updated to remove and avoid any further redundancy. the second item code section 11-4 powers and duties this section has been revised for clarity to specify the historic preservation board shall coordinate any donations of property and artifacts with library personnel upon our further communication with the board members we we essentially found out that it's already being done as as of today so it's a standard practice already between the two agencies so that section has also been further clarified also code section 11-6 effects of historic landmark designation this section was further reviewed to clarify that landscape features are not independently subject to certificate of appropriateness review unless such alterations affect the exterior appearance or context of a designated historic structure So as of right now, the board is not essentially providing approvals for any landscaping features. The language that's in the ordinance, based on staff's review, is that the removal of trees is not independently prohibited under the chapter, rather that tree removal would require a certificate of appropriateness only if such removal would alter the exterior appearance or historic context of the designated structure. And based on those amendments, the proposed change has been deemed consistent with the village's comprehensive plan, specifically Objective 6, which seeks to ensure the protection of historic resources. The objective emphasizes the conservation of local structures and sites of historic significance. And therefore, village staff is recommending approval of second reading of this proposed ordinance. Thank you. Thank you.

This is a public hearing. Are there any public comments?

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, board members, Michelle Headley, 437 Northeast 102nd Street, chair of the historic board. No, I think just, you know, Eddie did a great job summarizing, and I'm just here in case there's any questions or anything, but this initiative actually started, I think, you know, Mayor Birch a couple years ago said about cleaning up the ordinances and So that's kind of where this started and it was just about cleaning up and adding some specifics like the The markers and things like that that weren't specifically in there and cleaning up any verbiage So if they have any questions, please let me know Are there any comments on this yes, there's one e comment from Jeffrey said a dear mayor and members of the village council and

I'm sorry that I'm not able to attend tonight's meeting in person. I had hoped to be there but have an urgent conflict. I respectfully urge your approval on second reading of the proposed updates to the ordinance 11 governing the historic preservation board. These revisions represent a thoughtful and necessary effort to clarify the board's roles and responsibilities while aligning the ordinance more closely with the established framework of the Miami-Dade County. Importantly, these updates do not expand the Board's authority in any way. Rather, they bring greater consistency, transparency, and coherence to language that is currently fragmented and at times ambiguous. By clearly defining the Board's duties, the Village will strengthen its preservation process, improve public understanding, and ensure that decisions are guided by a well-articulated and consistent standard. Adoption of these clarifications will enhance good governance and support the continued stewardship of Miami Shores' architectural heritage. This concludes e-comments for this item.

Open for discussion.

I just want to thank staff. There was a couple of things I recall bringing up last time we went over this, and I see that we got a little more clarity on those things, so I want to thank staff, and it looks good.

I'd like to move this. Okay. There's a motion to move the second reading.

I suck in that.

There's a motion and a second. All those in favor, signal by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Madam Clerk.

Item 10A, an ordinance of the Village Council of Miami Shores Village, Florida, establishing an enterprise fund for the Miami Shores Country Club, providing for the deposit and expenditure of all revenues generated by the Miami Shores Country Club, providing for accounting, budgeting, and auditing in accordance with Florida law, providing for severability, providing for conflicts, and providing for an effective date. This item is brought forth by the finance director through the village manager.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and council. We had said this a long time ago that we, in changing the management structure of the way our Gulf and Country Club is operated, that we would be bringing forward an enterprise fund. We have all been educated as to what that is. Enterprise fund is one which the the entire operation of the country club and the revenues and the expenses are contained within that fund and this is what we're bringing to you today as is there any public comment on this

It just has to get done. No discussion.

Move to approve 10A. Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor, signal by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries.

Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor and Council. At the next meeting, we'll be bringing other legislation just to speak about the bank accounts that we'll be opening. We've already had those conversations with the bank. Thank you.

Item 11A was withdrawn. Item 12A, discussion and possible action regarding the review and consideration of approval of the letter of intent and associated release of covenants related to the property, Bexar University Campus Master Plan and University Parking Master Plan for properties located at 11300 North Miami Avenue, 11300 Northeast 2nd Avenue, 140 Northwest 115th Street, and 11400 Northwest 6th Avenue, This item is brought forth by the village manager.

Please proceed. Thank you, sir.

Eddie Nunez, interim director of planning zoning department. Mr. Mayor, council members, village clerk, Mr. Manager. So the applicant, Ms. Marissa Neufeld of Greenberg Torrig, on behalf of Barre University, has requested release of two recorded restricted covenants affecting vacant parcels located west of Northwest 2nd Avenue. These covenants currently tie the subject parcels to the operations of Bexar University's main campus. Our goal here is to essentially just lay out the facts, some of the historical things that have been done tied to these specific parcels and the applicant's request today. So one thing you'll see before you is that there is no recommendation. It's an item that the manager is seeking your input and consideration. staff would follow suit accordingly. The first thing we'd like to highlight is that the subject property is owned special use University S1 district and is designated community residential CR on the future land use map. And to further clarify, Confirm that earlier comments that is true that right now the future land use and the zoning are not compatible they they Essentially for any development project to come on board they need to be aligned so one of the two needs to change so that is correct and On May 19, 2000, a declaration of restricted covenants in lieu of unity of title was recorded in the public records to functionally unify portions of the university's property for future development purposes. The covenant was intended to allow the university to coordinate development across multiple parcels while ensuring compliance with applicable regulations. Barry has stated that it does not intend to expand its current campus operation and therefore no longer requires the continued use of this covenant. The second covenant, and pardon my scrivener's error, that's on me. I have July 20, 2011. It's actually July 20, 2001. This refers to a separate parking declaration of restrictive covenant, which was recorded in the public records. And the purpose of this covenant was to ensure that university operations and campus activities complied with the village's parking requirements and that adequate on-site parking would be maintained to prevent spillover impacts into surrounding neighborhoods. Furthermore, on December 18, 2025, the Planning and Zoning Board approved Barre University's Campus Master Plan and University Parking Master Plan pursuant to development order 25-58. The board also requested that the applicant in the future should be seeking release of the restrictive covenants by the village council that they should be brought back to the Planning and Zoning Board to assess any potential deficiencies and further consideration. The master plan was approved and adopted, and part of the village requirements in order Well, essentially, the master plan was approved and the university was essentially seeking activities as proposed through athletic field improvements and athletic facility upgrades. And so pursuant to village code section 521.6 subsection 2, the university parking master plan had to demonstrate several adherences to traffic, mobility, and circulation elements. And as such, based on that independent review by the Corradino Group, the master plan and its accompanying exhibits to all the traffic determinations was recommended for approval. So the reason that Barry is seeking your consideration is because within the covenants, there is language that essentially says, these reference covenants, should any amendment, modification, or release of the instruments be undertaken, the village manager or his or her successor shall execute a written instrument effectuating and acknowledging such amendment, modification, or release. But based on the information provided, the applicant has indicated that campus operations will continue to meet applicable village code requirements within existing campus footprint. Important to note, if the covenants are released, the village does still retain full regulatory authority over the subject parcels. Any future use or development will remain subject to all village, county, and state regulations, which include but not limited to rezoning or any future land use amendment, which would be a legislative item requiring public hearing approvals, and also subsequent site plan review, which also has to undergo public hearing requirements. So therefore, staff is formally presenting the item for village council consideration. regarding the applicant's request to release the two covenants. And the manager has initiated this process to obtain council's input and direction prior to any administrative action to be considered. And also the applicant is here to answer any questions and provide any further inquiries that you may need. Thank you. Thank you.

Through the chair?

Through the chair.

Yeah. Yes. Is that okay?

Good evening Council Members, Marissa Neufeld with offices at 333 Southeast 2nd Avenue here tonight on this covenant item on behalf of Barry. I wanted to give just a very brief synopsis in addition to Mr. Nunez's comments and I'm also happy to answer any additional questions or address some of the items that were brought up during public comment. But I'll be respectful of your time. And if you don't mind, I have one visual that I'd like to pass out and I'll also put up a presentation board so that everybody can see. Okay, so just to supplement what Mr. Nunez was speaking about, we did come before our planning board in December with two requests as part of our application. We had requested approval of a university master plan and also a parking plan. And as part of that request, we were required to submit a host of documents that included parking study, traffic study, mobility plan, site plan, and we went through an extensive review process, a couple of cycles of review with staff, and we also had all of our documents reviewed by Corradino Group as an outside consultant, and we received staff recommendation of approval, and eventually a planning board approval. And so really, this covenant item is a cleanup item. I'm going to just go between the two covenants so that we can just take them in turn. So I know that there has been some question over the land that is covered by the covenant. So the covenant in lieu, you'll see, is just that block between second and fifth.

It's this top right here.

And so that portion of property is wholly outside of the master plan area. So the covenant was originally adopted in 2000, and the purpose of it was if Barry were to develop future phases just to have a unified development. It's very common when you have phased development to have a covenant in lieu of unity of title that would basically have the property all linked together for zoning purposes. But since we have the master plan area confirming that we are not developing that, not including that as part of our campus operations, the covenant is no longer required. And as Mr. Nunez confirmed, this does not remove any oversight from the village in terms of zoning authority. The village will retain all of the approval, oversight, authority, site plan approval, permitting, code enforcement, all of that. The second covenant is related to parking. So that covenant originally Barry was developing dormitory and a student rec center. And at that time Barry was required to provide with each new structure 150% of the required parking until Barry met the then code requirement for parking. And I think that it was always intended that at some point in the future, the covenant originally contemplated five years, that the covenant would be released once Barry got up to parking standards. The covenant just wasn't released, so now that we've gone and officially gotten a parking plan approved, it is the appropriate time to release that covenant. We've met the parking requirements and the covenant allows for the release. So, again, similar to the covenant in lieu, there is no loss of oversight by the village with respect to the parking covenant. Anything site plan related, an applicant would need to come before this village. It would need to be reviewed. Code enforcement permitting, all of that. In addition, as part of the parking plan approval, Barry is required by the anniversary of the approval every year annually to submit an update report to the village. So we were approved in December. Before this coming December, Barry will submit an annual report confirming that we remain in compliance and if there are any updates to that. So that is basically what each of the covenants does. This confirms the land area covered, and I'm happy to address any questions.

Through the chair, I guess my My first question is where you refer to this as a cleanup, I guess. Yes. I don't, why is it falling outside of the master plan mean that it's no longer relevant? In other words, when I look at these covenants, they seem to be concerned with development in S1 zoning, not

not Barry specifically so originally the Barry Barry is the only s1 zoning in the village so I think that the intent was always Barry was going to be s1 the only University what are you basing on the zoning map no you're your opinion of the intent Oh, I'm sorry, I'm just clarifying that Berry University is the only S-1 zoned property in the village.

But why does that matter?

Because if S-1 is specific to university operation, and so now that Berry has confirmed the campus boundaries and they're consolidating, we are moving forward. I think the intent is that Berry has always

I'm not reading that as the intent here. Let's back up a little. My understanding is that when this was a Kennel Club, the Village's intent was that when the operations of the Kennel Club ceased, that it was going to become residential. Barry University showed interest that they wanted to expand their university, and they requested that it become institutional, S-1. I wasn't around then, I don't know what the details were, but in going through all these documents and reading them over and over again and trying to get a big picture view here, it's clear that whatever took place, getting from Kennel Club to S-1, these covenants were a very important part of those talks, those negotiations, those concerns, and they're specifically dealing with development in an S-1 zoning. So this is still zoned S-1. And to take it even further, we're being told that now the new intent of the owner is to have it continue being as one. So how are these covenants not relevant?

I think that it's related to campus development, meaning university campus. And so the intent, and I think Barry has, I think there's been some conversations with individuals that Barry intends to sell this property. It's underutilized. It's currently vacant. They want to see something happen with it that would be good for the village. And so that, it would no longer be a university campus operation.

I it seems to me that these were created as part of the process of making this an institutional zoning somebody felt that this was important it's still institutional zoning we're being told that the intent going forward is going to be institutional zoning so I have not been I've not heard the argument about why this is just housekeeping to get rid of these and how they're not relevant anymore

Barry intends to sell the – If Barry didn't exist, make the argument. We don't want to be – Barry does not want – Because it doesn't say, like, it's about Barry.

It says it's about – this wasn't about what Barry's specific intent – it wasn't that specific about what Barry's intent was. It was about making this – institutional zoning.

Well the covenant, I mean both of the covenants talk about the university operations. The parking covenant refers to dormitories, it refers to the student rec center, the covenant in lieu.

Does it say that it only applies to Berry?

It's referring to the owner which is Berry University.

Correct.

Right, campus.

Does it say that it doesn't apply anymore if it's sold?

Well, at that point, that's when we come, an owner would come before and request a modification or a release or an amendment. Right.

But that's not what's happening right now. Right. The old owner, not the new owner is coming, or the potential owner. We have no idea what's going to be there.

And that will be, that is completely under your purview under separate application, right?

Right. And we've gone far down the path on, you know, with other entities' ideas about what was going to be here. And I just, yeah, I don't, I just don't see why, like in other words, that wasn't part of the discussion last time we were discussing development here. That entity wasn't demanding that these covenants had to be gone before we found out like what the intent was of the property. Um, I just, you know, as somebody who's responsible for doing right by the residents, I, I just, I don't see the argument here, why this is, why this needs to be done. Um, and how I certainly don't understand the argument that it's not relevant anymore. Um, is it, is it of your opinion that this, this parking covenant in particular does not apply to the current Berry campus today?

The parking covenant includes the current campus and then this is the area.

Current campus plus this block.

But we've now consolidated all of our university operations as reflected in the master plan and the parking plan. And so that is what was studied as part of the parking analysis. That's what was reviewed by village staff and by the outside consultant. And so we've confirmed...

what parking is available today, what the demand is, what... Is it your opinion that this covenant has no effect on the land that is encompassing the master plan today? Are you saying this has no relevance? Just getting rid of this would be housekeeping. It doesn't affect you at all?

No, no. The covenant itself, the language of the covenant says that once it is confirmed that Barry is in compliance with the village's parking standards, then the covenant may be released.

Maybe released. Well, I have a problem with that too. You said that the way I read this is that there was some kind of parking deficiency going on. They had five years to rectify it. They were supposed to rectify it. And going forward, any new development was supposed to be at 150% of whatever the standard requirement was in our code already.

Right. Am I wrong on that? No, that's the terms of the covenant.

But that's extraordinarily different than the way that you portrayed it when you just said it, because you made it sound like the 150% was supposed to be like a five-year trial period, and once they got up to speed on the five years, then the 150 was... No. That's what you said in your introduction.

No, I'm sorry if there was a misunderstanding. What the covenant says is that until Barry gets up to code required parking, each new structure is required to provide 150% of the what would be required for that building based on village standards. The covenant was originally intended for a five-year period, but if parking compliance didn't occur – MR. That's not how I'm reading this.

There's one part of this covenant that says Barry has to get their parking up to the required number in five years.

That's one item. MS. Right. And if they don't, the covenant remains. So that's what happened. the five years elapsed.

No, that's just a part of the covenant. That was just like, at least that's how I'm reading it. Where does it say that it goes away in five years?

No, I'm not saying that it goes away in five years. I'm saying that if the parking issue is not resolved within five years, the covenant remains. Barry is still bound by the terms of the covenant. The covenant is only to be released once Barry meets parking standards. And

I think that's a wild interpretation. I don't see that here.

To the chair. Two questions. One, it's my understanding that of the three documents that the comp plan would be the primary document. and the comp plan labeled this land CR. The fact that there's a discrepancy in the code is something that might need to be changed in the code. It certainly is not consistent. But we spent a lot of time writing this comp plan and I don't see why that is not our primary focus as far as what would control what could be done with this property. Secondly, I looked and read your traffic study. I know that Miami Country Day School gave a million dollars to Berry to allow their students to have a second athletic field. And they don't have room at Miami, at Country Day to build a second athletic field. It was interesting in the traffic study that you had, this is the number of cars that will be there based on people, and this is the number of spaces. What percentage do you think that stated that it was? And you may not remember, but the answer is it stated that it was exactly 100%. You had exactly to the parking space the number you needed. But what you didn't include is what's going to happen to those kids and parents that leave Miami Country Day School to come there, where are they going to park when they bring their kids there to play on the athletic field? Go ahead.

Yes. So I think there was a little confusion with the exact number. The reason there was an exact number is because Barry, as part of the parking plan, was asked to come up with a standard. So what we did was we took the peak week of parking the peak time and we made that number, the number of spaces that were used at that time, we reverse engineered the parking standard to meet that highest level. So that's why the numbers appear the same. One thing that's not in the study is that we only included the parking that is available within the boundaries of Miami Shores Village. But right outside of the village, which is unincorporated Dade, Barrie has over 200 overflow parking spaces that we did not use in the parking study because we wanted to meet village parking standards using parking within the boundaries of the village. But we have, you know, in – Yes, it's the Lutheran Church.

That's across from 2nd Avenue. Yeah, across from 2nd. On the east side.

On the east side of 2nd Avenue.

But a question for that. Yes.

Why? Why? Because typically when you're making a zoning application and there's zoning requirements, you don't want to rely – we wouldn't be good actors if we were relying on spaces that were not within the boundaries of the village. We can't meet village requirements by taking advantage of land outside of the village.

So we only included the spaces that were within – But you would meet requirements for – we know with the physical We know how many students there are. We know how many teachers there are. We know how many deliveries there are. Why wouldn't you say that when you were doing that? Why is this the first time after a question and answer that's being brought up?

No, that is in the study.

That's not in anything I received tonight.

This was also a question asked at Planning Board, and I'm sure Mr. Nunez recalls at the Planning Board meeting there were questions about how we arrived at the numbers, and it was explained that we made our standard based on the peak demand analysis. So that's how we arrived at the standard.

But you didn't do it in the cover letter to us tonight.

It's it's in the backup material. I we can we can definitely supplement and provide additional clarification on that point Okay, and then when you said the math that you did Since again, there's different meetings.

There's a planning and zoning meeting. There's two different master plan when you went before Planning and zoning you consolidate it because the master plan showed that these properties are no part of the master plan campus but then that board didn't get to see well the absorption of the podiatry school so and then this one then we get the wide one with this all of the land the question is is again why why is that why is there two different ones and why wasn't that brought up when you were dealing with redoing your athletic field

Can you just clarify what you mean with two different?

I saw the map when the athletic fields were doing. It was a consolidated thing. It actually had the tower and then none of this, and then they were just describing the fields.

I think, here, let me, I have a board from that meeting I'm going to show you.

Okay. And then the other part of the question is, what data was used, which traffic study was used when the planning and zoning for December of 25. I also hear that there's another traffic study, but it's not part of anything, so from 24 to 25. So which one, like tonight's one, which one are we doing?

Okay, so these are the three boards that we presented at Planning Board. So it was this board, it was this board, and it was this board. So this is our zoning data. It has all of the zoning information, and it's showing that these two parcels are not a part of the application. And then just for ease, this was just kind of a colorized version of the master plan. And in order to get everything together, we consolidated it this way. But this board was also shown. We were clarifying which parcels were included, which parcels weren't. I'm not sure if that answers your question.

It does answer my question, but it doesn't clear up anything.

Okay.

It doesn't. I mean, I would have never done that. Whatever that one is, I would have never done. But it just looks like it doesn't exist, what it does, and it's part of it.

The podiatry school is being incorporated.

Like your future drawings on your map, you're just going to do that? That's how it's going to look in brochures?

opposed to including yeah I mean just future this so this is the permanent new map of Barry University on any documentation this one over here I think that's the intent now that the we have the master plan area defined okay were you about to say that the podiatry school is getting absorbed into the yes so Barry has underutilized on-campus room now that there's been changes in

I mean, yeah, I didn't know we were going to get into the parking issue, but I agree with my colleagues. I had a lot of issues when I went over that thing. So, yeah, in one part it's saying, you know, we miraculously have exactly enough parking to handle the peak, like on the dot.

Without the unincorporated spots.

Sure. And also if we go into another part, it's talking about how underutilized all these buildings are. So – We're not going to have any increase in capacity? Well, I have a question about that, too. When we say there's no increase in capacity or, I'm sorry, no increase in enrollment, are we talking about capacity or are we talking about current enrollment?

There's no increase.

Are we fully enrolled?

I don't know. We'd have to check. I'd have to check operationally with the university, but they're not increasing enrollment, if that's the question.

No, that's not the question. The question is, are you at full enrollment? No. Because otherwise, it's just a really tricky way to say that, yeah, we've got a lot of headroom to increase enrollment, but we're not going to increase the cap. Right.

I think that it's a little bit different now with hybrid and remote learning. I think that it's really changed campus operations. But the number of cars and students and all of that, that was very carefully analyzed by the traffic consultants.

If you're hitting it on the dot, this is a giant campus. So if you're telling me you have the perfect amount of parking spots, that's telling me that somewhere on this campus you're out of parking spots and you're over capacity.

So we purposely conducted the study during Founders Week, which is a week on campus that is kind of like a homecoming week where you have on-campus events and the most people are coming. So that is when we did the study. That is a very atypical condition for the campus. And so that, and in addition to that, we applied a 6% increase over that kind of peak level. So that gives us an additional buffer. So these numbers were extremely conservative.

If you were short five parking spaces, how would you know that? How would the people conducting the study know that?

I don't understand the question.

It's because it's impossible to answer.

I think it's also important to understand that the parking was, there is not a parking problem at Berry. We have not received any complaint from residents. There's hundreds of excess spaces, so we don't have a parking problem, and it would be in Berry's best interest to solve that problem. You know, it's not a good look for students who come to campus and can't find a spot. That's just not the reality, fortunately.

What year is that Founders Week? What year was that that was done?

So that was the 2021 study. I know that there was a question about that because it was considered a COVID era study. And I was able to speak with the traffic engineer about that who confirmed that basically, even though it was COVID era, Barry had already returned to normal operations. And then in addition to that, there was, the data was cross-referenced with FDOT pre-pandemic data to confirm that it was in line. And then as a third backstop, they added a 6% kind of factor to account for any remnant COVID, you know, lapse. So I think that the engineer really did a good job of making sure that it was the most conservative numbers that we could have provided. And that, again, was also confirmed by the village's traffic consultant and outside consultant.

So was this traffic study then done for the previous applicant, essentially?

So as part of this application, we did a lot of studies that we had to re-stripe, we had to do different things. So the study, the main data was during that Founders Week, but then it was, you know, there were some updates done within the past few months.

This year?

No, like before we did the December P&Z approval.

All right, but that didn't answer my question. Was this study done for the previous applicant?

I think that it was done in the original, data was collected in 2021. That was before my time, so on this.

Has there been a new one done by the university?

Parking study, the parking study was, we submitted it over the summer, it was updated. There's data collection and then there's study. So the data was collected in that 2021 time and then the study was completed 25. your data is from 2021 and the study is finished in 2025. we used the data collection from that founders week period and then it was completed for the december planning board this is best practices just out of curiosity this is what kimley horn felt very comfortable with it's what corradino group felt comfortable with And that parking study was one element of the application. We had several elements. We had mobility study. We had traffic study. I know we're using those two terms interchangeably, but there was parking study and then there was traffic study done.

The other question I have is what does a release document look like so that the five of us could see what a release document looks like?

Um, that's something that we would work with, um, village attorney and Mr. Manager to draft.

That wouldn't even be in draft form? You would never present that beforehand? No. No? Okay. To the chair. Hold on. The attorney's going to answer. I'm sorry.

Are you asking in regards to release of these covenants?

What does a document for release of covenants look like?

it will look similar to what the covenant looked like and it would just be another document that just lays out it is being released and that'll be recorded so it's clear. But in this case, if you were reviewing this and making final action at this point today, then yes, that'd be something I'd probably add to the agenda as part of a resolution. In this case, it's administrative and so no, there would be nothing that would come before you for approval in terms of a release.

Well, one of them, As I read it, or it's not normal, the CIL has to come before council as Miami Shores is a CIL, and the parking one is administrative or ministerial.

The parking is very clear that it is administrative. The covenant in lieu of unitive title has conflicting language that appears to be both village council and also administrative release. And so most times you try to read something so that it does not conflict with one another. And so to the extent that this could be seen as an amendment, then it's an administrative release. But either way, the way this is before you today, If you want to, if the preference is to be formally before you again, that's certainly your prerogative if you want to do that, but you'll essentially be doing this same exact thing again. If that's your preference.

Again, clarification. Two questions. Why was this not bifurcated? That's one question. And the only responsibility that we have is the one that actually is supposed to come before us, and that should be a document that we look at, and then we should vote on that. I don't understand why this is bundled.

Because you asked for it at the last meeting?

To bundle it?

This was discussed, and you guys discussed putting this on the agenda for tonight as is. Might have been my fault.

Might have been my fault.

We asked for clarity as to how you wanted to proceed, and this was the clarity.

I don't think we were directed at how the two documents were and what our responsibilities are.

Because I think it can be read administratively to be released. If you would prefer a different interpretation for it to come before you and you make the final decision, then I will review it again and make sure that it's – the applicants intent is that this is to be a release of the entire property and not something that can be seen as an amendment then certainly if your preference is for the council to make the final decision and ultimately do this same thing just with the resolution in front of you certainly

How is it done in other municipalities?

It's done how the covenants indicate it to be done. Typically, I have seen plenty of covenants be released administratively. It's not uncommon. I want to make that clear. That's not an uncommon thing. But there are circumstances when another board or authority has that authority. And so in this case, the manager, that language with the administrative release is unclear, right? At least for one of the covenants, it's unclear.

Well, the one that is, and we could already discuss it, I mean, it's already been determined that it's CR. That's the CIL, correct?

What do you mean? I'm sorry.

The unity of title, that one. I mean, they're two different ones. One's a parking, one's CIL, correct?

But what are you referring to as CR? They're both CR-related.

No, one's, I mean, yeah, they're tied to CR land. Right. But one is tied to what the land is, which means the university says it's no longer a university, we just haven't updated the zoning, correct? The intent, if they went community residential, are they building the houses and dorms on their own property? Was that ever talked about? I'm not following you. To me, they're two different things, and that's why they're ones in the year 2000, ones in 2001. One was addressing how do you annex land from Dade County and Miami Shores land, make it one land. That's one covenant, correct or incorrect?

We have two covenants. One covenant deals with Unity of title, and those covenants are usually proffered when you don't want to go through an extensive platting process. And so you're coveting that you're going to utilize this land as one property from here on out. I think the village's intent for this property has been very clear from the fact that we have designated this portion as CR. Our intent shows that we no longer want this property to be developed as one whole property. We want it to be CR, because that's what we've designated it as. So the intent to unify this property, I think it's clear that that's no longer the case.

Can I comment real quick on that, though? No, because it is still zoned as... No.

It's not zoned that, but your comp plan governs. Your comp plan... is CR. And so it has to be rezoned.

I don't see Until the day that it is not institutional anymore, why would we get rid of covenants that are related to it being institutional?

I'm not telling you that you have to. I want to be crystal clear. That's not what I said.

And I'm not sure if that's where the mayor was going with this, but I mean, that's the difference. Why are we doing this before we finish? Like, that should be part of the process of making this not institutional anymore and going... But to do it beforehand leaves us with a half-finished zoning, half of it still saying that it's institutional, but we've gotten rid of this thing that is very much related to it. So in other words, we don't know what the future is going to hold. We have people that are interested in keeping it institutional, so we don't know. And if someday we end up with it going back to institutional, I would imagine this covenant is going to be still relevant. And also let me just address one more thing because we keep getting told that we have all this control over the property and there's going to be all these steps in between now and development and we're going to have to approve plans and this and that. But as far as I know, the state already took away our authority. I'm not we're not in a position to just be like willy-nilly like giving up I'm sorry this is not a strong case in fact I'm like walking away with feeling like my intelligence was insulted here so do the chair tooth two questions I would have one is

Has the, I guess you didn't know the answer to this, I do, but has the student body population at Berry University changed over the last five years? And the second part of that is, of course, there were two traffic studies done. The one that was presented at E2, the Planning and Zoning Board was not the most recent one. It was the one from 21.

There was a traffic study, and then there was a parking study. Is that what you mean? They were both included as part of the application.

The one that Kimley Horn did, was that done in 21?

So Kimley Horn was the parking consultant, and then we had TrafTech, who was the traffic study engineer. So both of those studies, we were required to do both studies.

But when? In other words, you keep saying we had Founders Week in 20. Right.

So both studies were completed for the December 2025 planning board meeting. The data, and that was the question about, you know, when was the data taken for the parking study specifically, that was drawn during the Founders Week in 21 with the updated factors applied.

Well, again, I would say to you that the number of cars that go there and teachers is dependent on the size of the student body. And I don't have a crystal ball, and I don't think you do either. But I would say that the population there at Berry has changed. And what it's going to be in the future, I have no idea. That's something at least that needs to be considered. We're at 100% right now as far as people and parking spaces. What happens when the population goes up?

One thing I will add to that to give a little bit of comfort is that as part of the parking plan approval, the Villages Code requires that we submit an annual report. confirming all of the things that we had originally proffered as part of the application. So that would include information on student enrollment. That would include, you know, additional class space or any changes to our campus that changed over the course of the year. So that is an annual reporting requirement that Barry has.

so any changes like that would be documented as part of as part of the annual plan that Barry's required to submit through the chair the podiatry school is getting absorbed into the main campus correct people park at the podiatry at the podiatry school currently

I believe so, but we did not count – we counted those cars for the study, but we did not include those spaces, if that makes sense. Yes. So we basically took the most unfavorable position for Barry to make sure that we were being accurate in the numbers.

Okay.

Is that in the report? Yes.

the spots are absorbed right you minus the fight well how many right and the report shows to the report shows the the lots that were counted and podiatry that lot is not included in in the you minus you minus the spots from right so

Can you confirm those two days of the Founders Week that were used for data, can you confirm, were those the day before and after Memorial Day?

No, I think it's in November. That's Founders Week.

Okay.

Through the Chair. So why didn't Barry University come to have the covenants removed when we were going through the process last time?

Last time meaning?

Meaning when a situation was potentially being discussed with the Lenar Project, why didn't Barry come and ask us to remove the covenants then?

Honestly, I was not involved at that time. I can't speak to the decision as to why. I think that was a different type of application where Barry was involved as a developer partner. I think the situation changed. That's no longer on the table. So I think it's a different set of circumstances now.

And with data collected five years ago in 2021 as it relates to the studies that were I'm thinking to myself, you know, when you go out to apply for financing or you go to fight your tax bill or whatever, they ask for comps within a year's span of time generally to justify because a lot of times I feel like comps from two, three, four years ago prove irrelevant because things are changing. Is it in your opinion that the population of Miami-Dade County has increased significantly in the last five years?

So I know that, and I'm not a traffic engineer, but I knew that this was going to be an area that the council wanted to discuss. So I had a conversation about this exact thing with our traffic consultant. And she explained to me, and Barry confirmed this, that In terms of parking, the pandemic changed a lot of things for a lot of businesses and places, and parking is one thing that changed in that Barry now has less parking demand than they did previously. And so the traffic engineer, even though the study was – the data was collected in that 2021 time, she did do the check – FDOT has historic data available, and you can compare. So she compared it to pre-COVID demand, which is going to be higher than we have today, and she felt that that made it a super conservative number by doing that comparison. So you're not at full enrollment? I will ask operationally. I don't know the enrollment answer.

Well, you just said there's less today.

No, there is less, yes. Less people come to campus is what I'm trying to say because of remote and hybrid learning.

Through the chair, I would like to just ask, though, about that. Is Barry accounting in the future for, like, more in-person modalities, if there's a demand shift, different learning styles? And then another question, like, long-term, I think is something we discussed. And the other question is, suppose that we release Barry from the covenant. and Barry sells the land it is zoned CR then essentially how would we regulate or assure that that property with the purchaser has enough parking so I think that I'm sorry I'm sorry

It appears that the council member is directing the question to you.

Okay. Thank you. I think that there is going to be an opportunity, an extensive public process that's going to occur when a new end user comes in for that site. Just like Barry had to go through a process for the master plan, that would just be the tip of the iceberg of what a new applicant would have to do to develop that site. They're going to be required to do fresh traffic studies, you know, access analysis. They're going to have to do a whole site plan review process, and you have staff at the village that would be your first kind of gatekeeper to analyze an application, and then it would go through a very public approval hearing process, and there's going to be a lot of checks on whatever happens there. And then just to address the question regarding changes in learning, I think that Barry is always trying to adapt to a changing environment. And part of what's good about having to do the annual report is that that will be something that we have to make known to the village. If there are changes to our operations, that will be included in an annual report that the village will be checking and making sure that we're remaining in compliance on a going forward basis.

Mr. Chair, it's my understanding that the data presented at the December planning and zoning meeting said that they have the exact amount of spaces for the current amount of people in attendance required for parking, correct?

So where the exact numbers came is that we took the peak number and then we made that, that's what we used to create what would be required based on numbers of classrooms, that space. We had to come up with a metric of if Barry has X square footage of classroom, that equals how many parking spaces. If we have X number of dormitories, that equals how many parking spaces. we had to come up with a standard to govern ourselves for the future. So if Barry develops a new building, then that would be the parking standard applied to the new building. So that's why the numbers were the same.

So you're saying that that standard that was applied was presented for future development of the new master plan?

Yes. So any future development would have to adhere to that parking standard that was created as part of the parking plan.

Right. So I guess one of the things that is crossing my mind is that I took a very extensive tour of the campus the other day and all that was continually pointed out to me is all these underutilized areas that are soon to be utilized. So based on this quote unquote future metric, how is it possible to predict what that's going to be if they don't know what all the undercapacity areas currently on campus are going to be or become.

So we took into consideration the square footage that exists today. So this would be if we developed a brand new building.

So I'm not talking about like... You're not talking about repurposing of current facilities, which could potentially increase capacity of attendance to the campus, correct?

I think theoretically it could, but just based on the reality of how Barry's Operations works these days with the staggering of remote and hybrid, it just creates a situation where we have a lot less demand on parking than we did traditionally.

Right. And most importantly, do the covenants in place right now prevent the sale or transfer of the land to a new owner?

No, but if we were to sell to a new owner under the covenant in lieu, there has to be a separate document. An easement and operating agreement would be required as part of that.

But there's nothing that prevents Barry from selling the land with the current covenants in place, correct? Correct.

No, but I don't know that a new user would want to take title to the property with these requirements in place.

But you just said you don't know. So they may, they may not, right?

Theoretically, it makes it a lot less attractive.

Okay. But if on that note, what you just said, if they're nothing, then what's the difference if it goes with it? You just said that they're not needed. So then what difference is this paperwork now?

I think, I mean, if you think about it, like if you were going to go buy a house and there were things in title that maybe were not applicable, I think that a conservative buyer would say, even if it's not applicable, this worries me. I don't want this on here. It doesn't apply to me. I don't want to buy a house that's got these old, you know, documents in title.

That person could then come before the manager and just ask for it, that it doesn't apply to them.

correct yes in theory I think doesn't this analogy only make sense if they don't want to put a house there where there's a house you know if there's a covenant there that's dealing with houses and you don't want a house to be there then yeah then it's not relevant to you assuming you're gonna get what you want but if you're if there's a covenant on houses and you're buying a house then it's still relevant it's very relevant

I respectfully through the chair, I just have a question. I understand that there's a lot of discomfort regarding the covenant in lieu and future use. I think the parking covenant is pretty clear. Once you meet parking standards, that one can be released by the manager. So I would ask that maybe in the interest of time, if we could get some clarity on that item where we know we have parking approval. We know that it's within the village manager's purview to release. If we could at least get direction on that item so that.

The one question I do have for you, again, what does that document look like?

I think, and I'll allow the village attorney to weigh in, but it would just be a very standard release.

I still don't know what that looks like. You're asking us to give direction on something I haven't read it. I don't know what that document looks like.

It would have to be acceptable to both the village attorney and the village manager.

And not us, right? Because you're saying it's a ministerial.

We could bring it back before. We have no issue with that.

I mean, for the logic of this, you're telling us to sit there, give direction to an administrative thing for the manager, but he asked us for what our opinion on this, but we can't see what he's signing, but we're going to green light what he's going to do. Is that correct?

We came to the manager. We asked for direction on what the process would be. We're kind of learning here along with you what the village's process is. Typically, what I do in other municipalities, when we have a release where the covenant specifically says the manager can release, we just work directly with the manager's office. We work with the village attorney to get legal sufficiency approved, and it's That's how it normally goes.

It would just be, I mean, to be frank, it would have been nice to see what that document looks like for this exercise tonight. It's a discussion of possible action. But there's other items given to us. There's studies. There's this. There's that. But the actual document that's going to be signed but released by the manager was not presented.

Let me clarify that. By no means were we ever going to do that because that would assume that we are agreeing that this should be released in the first place. And so that's why you're not going to see and you did not see a release drafted from our office because I'm not going to assume that you would agree to something that And if that was on the agenda, I'm pretty sure there's every single... We can just get rid of.

So either the covenants are important or they're not important.

And I think that definitely...

Even need to be cleaned up if it's irrelevant.

Because Barry's been clear. They want to sell that land. And it is very difficult to sell with old title documents that are no longer applicable.

If every time they're trying to sell the land... requires a new land designation and new zoning and all that like I'm sorry but that's this is part of the game here we are our duty here we're representing the residents of Miami Shores and their interests can you explain to me how getting rid of these covenants while it is still designated institutional is How does that benefit the people of Miami Shores?

I don't see any – I think the parking covenant's pretty clear, that once Barry – once the village confirms that Barry meets parking standards, then that covenant – What standards? The standards approved by the village. so so under section 521.6 yes there is the opportunity to do a university parking plan and so that's where um the village came up with this so the standards you just created right so the idea is that there was no standards before that correct we did not have standards before you just created the standards right so same standards that we're all having a lot of issues with right I think, though, that there's a reason why Barry had the opportunity to create their own standards, and that's because a university is extremely unique. They are the ones that best know their operation.

But Barry didn't come into existence last December, so they've been operating this whole time. There was no...

Right.

When this says 150%, 150% of what? Of the then-code-required parking. Which is what?

So there's S-1, and there's parking regulations in S-1, and then there's 521.6, which says that Barry or whoever is zoned S-1 can present a parking plan and come up with their own metric and their own master plan.

So according to our village standard, how many spots is Barry University allowed?

I think that we did not request any... I think that that S-1, and I'm sorry, I don't know off the top of my head, but I think that, and maybe Mr. Munoz can remind me, but I think that S-1, I don't know that, I think that it defers to the parking plan. I don't know that there is its own standard.

Well, I'm saying, so you're saying that the standard is sufficient and we have enough spots, but we don't know how many, we don't have a number about how many spots that is under the code?

I apologize. I don't know in 2000 when the parking code was adopted what the then standards were. I think we'd have to go back.

What is the amount under the current standard, though, is what I'm saying.

S-1 is silent, I think, on the parking issue.

This is the confusion I reached. Yeah, I did this myself. I don't understand.

To the chair, As you well know, this is the first step of many in an effort to create a body of land that would have a use as a kindergarten through high school. You know, what residents have asked me is, what are you going to do? What is the plan? Show us what your intentions are. What are you going to build? It has been said there would be teacher housing. And I said, is that low-income housing? And, of course, the answer to that was yes. Then I said, well, are you willing to put – a covenant on this land to state it could only be sold to a teacher. So, you know, yes, we're arguing right now tonight about releasing these covenants on this land, but that's not the real issue. Give us something that the village wants that we can get behind, and all of these things will flow through. But when you come to us and you say, I want you to change this, this, and this, and then I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do, it is never going to pass.

It's not going to work that way. You got my guard up, like, to the max tonight. I have no confidence whatsoever, like, in just, oh, yeah, no problem. You know, everybody's got our best interest at hand.

No, no, no.

This is, like, this is very concerning. I'm sorry.

And yet, through the chair, I feel that many of us up here, as previously stated, are committed to finding a solution for that land because it has been that way for too long. Absolutely.

We all wish the best for Barry and that land. Wish the best for Barry? Yes.

And so that's why you've got to understand that... We're not going to back into this. We're going to go forward. I don't want to speak for my colleagues, but at least me, I'm saying the thing we're getting at tonight is we desperately want to – it's time to do something over there. We want to help support do something over there, but as Jesse said, we're losing our ability to govern what we do a little bit more, it seems, every day now. Why would we ever give up – our ability to regulate that or one of the few things we have to regulate that when we don't even know what's to come or what's gonna be. I mean, you can understand that, right?

I think that the covenants, there's a lot of fear regarding the release of them because of loss of control or oversight, but I think that what I want to understand better is I just don't see – what does the group think the covenants actually do? Because the parking covenant was just supposed to be in place until Barry – You keep saying that, and I disagree. Okay.

I don't see that in here. Ms. Newfield, they clearly mean something because if they were just nothing, Barry wouldn't be fighting so hard to get them off.

I don't mean that they were nothing. What I mean is there's changing circumstances. They were put in place when the hatched blue parcels were intended to be developed for future bury operations.

Not a single relevant circumstance has changed.

It's not only that. They were to ensure that parking was on the campus, not spill over into the neighborhood.

Right.

And even with you saying, you know, we have this extra one, now we have an overflow one, but you can sell that Lutheran church or that property just like they sold the property that became the magnet school. There's no – Dade County doesn't care. You know, it's unincorporated or maybe they do. I don't know what the deal is. I don't have anything from that. But the covenant was put in place so that the overflow for the campus didn't come into the residential portion of that campus. Again, I understand how they're written. There's no real trigger. There's not a list of we check this box, this box. Greenberg Trier says we checked all the boxes, release it. But then we're sitting here as Miami Shores like what boxes did you check and what does that look like? All the language says is we check this box and give it to you and you're planning a zoning board approves it and the engineer approves it. You have to do this. Is that correct or incorrect?

No, I understand. I wish that I was there back in the day to draft a much clearer, cleaner covenant. I think I know Sinead would never allow something like that today. But I think that we're just working with.

But how do we come to truly satisfied? How about we just do that? It's super simple. The language I think in there that the covenant is truly satisfied to be released. What does that language look like?

I think it's super clean because we have a parking plan approved. That was the village telling your village staff.

2020, again, the clouded. When this is not S1 anymore. As long as this is S1, nobody has made the case why to get rid of this other than to just weaken the village's position. And just to be clear, we've been through this before. This council has been through this before. And as much as we – I can only speak for myself. I don't want this to be a game. I'm not here to play a game and have some adversarial back and forth thing. We want that land developed. We want it to be something positive for the village and Barry. We want the best for Barry. We want the best for the village. But unfortunately, we have experience with doing this already and Again, just speaking for myself, it's become clear that we're dealing with an entity that is convinced that they have unlimited property rights, like a blank check to just do whatever they want with their property, period. And any pushback on that whatsoever is a big slight and like a declaration of war. That's not our position, I don't think. That's not my position. But that's the position that is coming into our chambers here. When you come and you tell me that this is housekeeping, okay I'm sorry but now I'm like wow this is not honest broker this is not I want to have goodwill here I want I don't want this to be like this so I hope we can course correct going forward and have like a real conversation that doesn't insult the council's intelligence because I think I mean again I'll just speak for myself that's how I feel

Yeah, I echo through the chair. We desperately want a path forward, but we've gotten pretty versed in this by now, and I think You know, let's stop wasting both each other's times. Let's come up with a real plan that's not only a win for the village and a win for Barry, but also a win for the charter school that's there that will have to absorb tremendous amount of whatever the situation ends up being there. So, you know, there is definitely an ability for all of us to win. We're just ready for you guys to present that to us.

And I, through the chair, it is a bit of a catch-22 because Barry really wants to see something great happen with that land. I know the village wants to see it. But in order for that to happen, we're being asked to clean up these covenants. And so that's why it's a bit of a catch-22.

By who?

Yeah, but the problem is, first of all, we keep saying –

S1. Our comp plan says CR on it. And we discussed that a long period of time and went through planning and zoning. This land is not zoned S1. It's zoned CR. So there's many other factors here. We want to help you. We want to help Barry. We're interested in improving this village. Why in the world wouldn't you tell us what you're going to do? And then we'll all get behind you, and we'll change all of this stuff for that to work. But tell us what you're going to do. We don't want low-income housing. I can promise you the village isn't going to go for that. We need to be told. We're picking one thing out here, and the next thing we're going to pick something else out. We're ignoring the problem. We'd love to get behind you. Tell us what you're going to do. Show us a sketch. Give us a map. This is my goal. This is what I want to do. And if you're going to go back to your people, I know Barry wants to sell the land. We want to help Barry. We're not antagonistic there, but we're... You're asking us to drop everything as far as this covenant, as far as changing our CR plan, and why? And then you won't tell us what you're going to do after we do all that? You think about that.

respectfully through the chair. I just want to address that point. I don't want this council to think that I'm withholding information. I am not the attorney for the buyer. I think that the intent is for that group to come in and I think they have already started meeting with you all. I am not that attorney so unfortunately I'm a bit handcuffed. I'm here for Barry. Barry's trying to release these covenants. This is Barry's way of trying to move the land forward. So so that's that's the position that I'm in I'm not trying to withhold information It's just not my story to tell and I think that they're super eager to meet with you all and I think those meetings have been happening and There's going to be ample opportunity for that in the future. It's just I unfortunately don't have those answers to give At this point in time it is a public hearing.

Is there any public comment? It isn't? This part isn't?

Just to clarify, public hearings deal morally with ordinances, so this is not a public hearing, but you do have public comment per your rules and procedures.

Sorry.

Yeah, I just want to clarify for the record that we're not at a public hearing.

We're at a public meeting. Sorry. Words matter.

Thank you. Thank you for public comment. And thank you so much. You're doing such a great job. About three years ago, I recommended highly strongly encouraged that you have representation. I'm not a commercial broker, OK? But what this feels like to me, really quick, is like when I see two people getting divorced and one guy says, I'm going to drain the bank so that when I have to make representations about what I have, I have nothing. Okay? So when you're talking about Barry's enrollment and everything's hanging on Barry's enrollment, I'm not sure if your whole transaction really has anything to do with Barry's enrollment. If they rented the whole place to FIU and Barry only kept one classroom, I don't know how all that matches. And when you asked why they didn't use the, like you said, the county records as a supplemental, because you can't probably enforce that and they can't You know, you don't have any traction. You need representation. What we need is someone on our side saying what is the best thing that we should be looking for and what strategically would be a mistake on our part. And if they say, well, the other side is going to try to get you to release this, this, this, this, and this, but your response should be this, this, and this, That would help you. That would help us. And then we would have something called highest and best use, what's going to benefit you, what's going to look out for you. That's not me, but there's plenty of people in Dade County that are amazing, amazing strategic commercial brokers that could advise you strategically so that when we get offers like this, you'll be ready. I mean, you're doing an amazing job. I'm kind of shocked. that you're talking like semi-real estate experts from what you've learned being beaten around for the last three years, you know? And it's amazing. But you still don't have anyone strategically on your side guiding you, which doesn't have to be expensive. And I think the whole thing should look at all of the real estate that the village owns and strategically... Help map out what would be the best since I really do believe in my heart that you want the best for the village And I appreciate that thank you Any other discussion on this item

That was for another item, but it's actually for this one. It's from Jeffrey Sade. I'm writing in strong support of lifting the two outdated covenants affecting the Bexar University parcels that designate the land for future campus expansion and additional parking. These covenants no longer reflect the village's adopted planning framework. for the current realities of the university's needs and their removal is both logical and necessary. The Planning and Zoning Board's approval of the Bexar University Master Plan in December 2025 made clear that the university does not intend to expand its campus footprint and does not require additional parking to meet the needs of its current student population. In essence, the original purpose of these covenants has expired. Retaining them serves no practical function and instead inhibits the productive use of these parcels. As they stand today, these properties remain underutilized and contribute to a sense of stagnation rather than opportunity. Lifting the covenants would allow these sites to be repositioned for appropriate residential development consistent with the comprehensive plan, transforming blighted or idle land into contributing assets for the community. This is not about relinquishing control. It is about aligning our regulatory framework with the village's adopted vision. Importantly, the village will continue to retain full oversight and approval authority over any future development proposals. Any project will still be subject to rigorous review processes, ensuring compatibility with surrounding neighborhoods, adherence to zoning requirements, and alignment with the goals and policies outlined in the comprehensive plan. Removing the covenant simply clears the path for this process to function as intended. Thank you for your consideration. This concludes e-comments for this item.

Thank you. I just have one other thing back to the charter school, and just clarification on the property. It's a 99-year lease with Barry. That property, for the drawing of it, is inside the covenant for parking. Is that then going to be carved out, or that little part is still going to be, or that's also best to be released where the doctor's charter is? Because Barry owns the land.

Right. I think that the covenant, I don't think that it was intended to apply to doctors.

But that's one Foley, isn't it?

I'm sorry?

It's one Foley number, though, isn't how the covenant works. It's on just one, the whole thing.

Right.

How does the covenant then get bifurcated from that if Barry still owns the land of that school?

I'm sorry, I'm trying to understand the question with the...

Look, there's one Foley number for that property, right? Right. Berry owns the whole thing.

Right.

Correct? The only thing that's standing after this, or whatever the future is, is Dr. Stratter with a 99-year lease. Berry University owns the land underneath the school. Technically, it's a 99-year lease. They sold it, but they technically still own it. If the school fails or goes away, the covenant is on that land.

Right, but I think that the covenant was related to, if we're talking about the parking covenant, it was related to bare parking and university parking. I don't think it was intended that it apply to doctor's charter.

It's still the land. I mean, they put it on the land. It doesn't matter what the building is. It's the land itself.

At that point, then I think that, you know, that would be grounds for amending the covenant to be applicable to doctor's charter possibly.

Okay. I mean, there's a lot of, I mean, it's good that this was a discussion and possible action, and that's what it means. It's new business for this council. I think there's a lot of stuff that was brought up and brought to our attention. Again, I don't think, hopefully there was not a message out there that this was just, again, that this council was going to vote on something, or I guess technically we could give direction to the manager. I would like to also, at this point in time, hear from the manager and hear his input on this right now, where you stand on this.

When I brought this through the chair, when I brought this forward, I said that I sought input from the council. I still seek input from the council, clear input from the council, and I'll act accordingly. Okay. Thank you.

Also, where is DCS on this map? And why is it not on the map?

It is.

Where?

That's it. Oh, I thought that was the podiatry school. No, the podiatry was over here and it's gone. They're acting with the podiatry. It doesn't exist. Oh, so the podiatry school is what's missing, not BCI. Okay. That's why I brought it up.

That's why I was confused because I thought that little plot was related to the podiatry school.

And it seems like, I mean, I don't know if the county is correct, but if you go to the property search, there's a parcel of Barry's property that runs through the charter school. the south side and it also is in the area that isn't part of the charter school so I don't know what's gonna happen with that one either and then there's four Lots that are different also that weren't mentioned in your document either towards the corner that were already plotted so again there's a lot I mean this council I hope the manager heard from his counsel but there's more information I think that is needed That's mine, from my chair.

Through the chair, if we're given our advice at the moment, I'm ready to do so. Yeah, I don't understand why we would want to get rid of these covenants while we are still in the middle of a zoning change here. It makes no sense to me. And one more, so I hope I'm clear on my position on that. I am not in favor of getting rid of these covenants tonight. And in addition, it is the position of this councilman that I am not conceding that CIL can be administratively done away with. That's not my reading. I'm not conceding that.

Any other council comments? Council Member Walensky, I think part of it also is the language in the covenant, some of it's similar, and then that one is glaring that the one paragraph's different, and it makes it difficult without full clarification on why that was done, and then Again, how it's written, it would have been great if 2000 and 2001 actually had triggers that release covenants, but we're in 2026 and we'll figure it out. But I mean sooner than later, and I don't want to do the kick the can down the road. I want to keep on getting to yes on this, whatever it takes. A hundred percent. Okay. Oh, that's clear on that.

One more statement of clarity. Just until we are done changing the zoning on this, these covenants should remain and are relevant. That is my position.

Is that a motion?

No, this is just a discussion in possible action. No, no, no, no. No motions. No, this is new business.

So I think we just have a little clarity here.

Yes.

If and when this topic arises again, you all, we're clear that at minimum the covenant in lieu of unity of title will be brought forth as an official item for this council to release on a vote by this council.

That's what, based on

least two of you and comments that I've heard tonight you want the covenant in lieu of a unity of title that that particular one right that covenant you want that to be brought before you as an official item for you as this council to release

I didn't get that.

To see what it looks like. Oh, to see what it looks like is all I wanted.

No, no, no, no. What I just heard is that you're not...

Putting me in that group, I'm saying, no, that is not what I'm saying. Just that you're not... I'm saying until we're in the... I don't see a reason to discuss these covenants ever again until we're in the process of finishing the zoning.

Right. Okay. I understand that. But you also said that you're not conceding that that can be released administratively.

Correct.

So I want to make sure that you understand that to me from what I'm hearing. When something cannot be released administratively, that means no longer does the manager have purview. It needs to be brought forth to you as a resolution. And that resolution will be brought forth to you, at least for one of those covenants, will be brought forth as a resolution. That's what I wanted clarity on.

Right, because to me the trigger is that this is no longer S-1. And getting that not to be S-1 anymore is gonna be stuff that requires votes from this council, probably many of them. And it could be a part of that process.

No, it can't. I'm saying it's irrespective of that, regardless of whether we change the zoning or don't change the zoning. And we will change it, right? But I'm not talking about that. I'm specifically talking about these covenants as a separate agenda item that will be brought forth here for you as this body to vote upon. At least one of those covenants will be brought forth in that form of a resolution.

You're saying when the time comes.

When the time comes.

Yes.

That's what I'm saying.

Yeah, I want to vote on it.

You want to vote on at least the one that has no clarity. Well, it says village council release, and that's the provision that we're going to apply. Understood. That's all I wanted. I just wanted clarity on how we brought that back.

I thought we were ordering this up for the next council meeting.

yeah that's what i thought you were saying you were going to bring it next time for us to vote on but okay well no on the same page no no no i'm just saying procedurally so we're crystal clear we have one that's going to be administratively released we have another that's going to come back before you i don't agree with village council release i don't agree with that i think they both need to come before us i don't think either of them should be administratively released but i think well you can't that's not an option

Wait, why is that not an option?

Because the covenant is clear. In one, it's written clear.

Let me just clarify this. I mean, we have the current manager, and Mr. Scott, if I could speak for you, is with the one for the administrator. Sure. My understanding of this, right, and so for my colleagues, is that In the language of it, the one says the council, so then there's going to be a resolution, there's a document for that. But the second one, for when the document is to the satisfaction, before you would sign it, you would still come to the council and say, I haven't signed this yet, this is what it looks like. Absolutely. Is that correct? Yes.

Okay. Yes, and not only that, but Esmond agreed to that quite some time ago. That's what we're talking about. And because he doesn't want that responsibility, nor, in my opinion, I think he's 100% right, he shouldn't have that responsibility. We're supposed to be representing the residents of this village, and why it was originally written that way, I don't really know, but I mean, again, I think if Shanae could have rewritten it, and now it might have been written differently. You know, but all of that said, I want to say in Esmond's defense, this is not a new position for him. He has held this position since we have talked about it. It's been for months. And I think he's 100% on the money.

Is it clear?

Yeah, I just wanted to make sure that we don't do this again. No. Right? So I want to make sure that for all parties involved, whenever it's teed up on the agenda, it's teed up in a way that will lead to a final result, hopefully. Because hopefully if it's brought back, that means we're at a place where we know all of it. All of it.

Well, I would also hope that, I'm sorry to the chair, I would also hope with what Maria brought up earlier, I mean, there's more to be discussed here. I think we're cherry picking here and that's of course what Barry wants us to do and I understand why they want to limit it to this one item but in fact what's being proposed here is not one item we have a lot of things to change which the council will either want to change or not want to change and those need to be discussed I don't know the right avenue to do it perhaps you all have a good idea for that but we you know I mean, we're going to need to change our comp plan. We need to change our zoning map. We need to deal with these, you know, and we're doing all that, again, for me, with having no idea what wants to be done. We're operating in the blind here. In fact, do we even want to do those things? That's another thing we need to think about. How should we go forward here?

Anybody got a good... How could we possibly know if we don't know? Like you said, we're guessing in the dark here. The thing about it is, and I don't know if this is the right thing to say, but I need to say it because it's the real elephant in the room, is that I mean, at the end of the day, maybe we're not trying to penalize Barry. Our job up here is to be responsible to our residents, all of our residents, whether they're a renter, whether they live in an apartment, whether they live in a home. Every single resident is our responsibility. And I think all of us up here take that responsibility very seriously. And if this is something that's getting in the way, then potentially maybe Barry just needs to adjust its idea of how much it feels the land is worth. I mean, I think that's really what we're talking about here. Because it seems that with the covenants, it seems to be one price. And without the covenants, it seems to be another. So that's not up for us to decide. It's Barry's land. They can decide to sell it for whatever. But we are saying stop wasting our time. Come to us with a real situation. And it's time to get this thing done so we can move on. We got a lot of other business to do other than just this property. But it's time to get this property developed. So please come to us with a serious plan to do so. And we're all ears for that.

Any more discussion?

With the chair, I'd just like to echo that, that essentially the next time that Barry comes to us with this issue, is it possible to have like a transparent end-to-end view of how they ultimately intend to sell the property, how it's going to be developed, and things like that would just give us more clarity because we're just voting on this or discussing the possibility of this release of administrative covenant. but we don't have a clear idea of where we stand, our next actions, and how Barrie is positioning itself. Thank you. Madam Clerk.

Thank you. Just wanted to inform everyone that we have Yesterday we received the response from Kemper Sports. Yay. And we've already started working with this. We have essentially, when we said we, I mean staff has essentially just canceled everything on Monday. our itinerary for the next three days in and when I say staff will also include our attorney and we're gonna be working on this just to get it resolved we have a date in mind we will communicate that to to Kemper on we have set aside Thursday and Friday to have conversations with them and the in-house team will be meeting tomorrow just to go through some things. Just to give you an update as well, just in preparation, Kemper has already been here. They got here yesterday. They have met with the management of – with Alberto from PCM, and they have also started to meet with employees. just to reassure them of what their intent is to keep them. I'll just add one other comment, that the initial assessment that they have done, they thought that this would have been a more, that we'd be in a worse condition, that we're in a relatively good condition in terms of our golf course, and having seen many, many, many country clubs around the place that, yes, we're old, yes, we're dated, but we're not crumbling and falling apart. That's good to hear. That's the good news there. And on other good news, I know I had mentioned to some of you that I'd be doing jury duty tomorrow, and I was ready to go for it. And then I just got a text from them that says, I don't have to do jury duty tomorrow. Hey! You're doing your civic duty today. Exactly.

Thank you. Citizens Academy. Huh? Okay.

Last night was the first night of the Citizens Academy. We have a nice turnout again for the third time. We managed to, thanks to staff, consolidate the length of the program. It was quite a big commitment before, but now we're doing two hours for Mondays. Love to see some of my colleagues out there making an appearance maybe one of those nights.

I'll make it next Monday. I have my shirt.

Yeah, you have your shirt. If you have your shirt, I have a shirt. I've heard there's going to be some good food at the last one if you want to.

What time does it start?

Six to eight.

Okay. You want us to come to that. I would love you guys to come, yeah.

You don't have to stay for the whole thing. It's two hours.

But, you know, if you want to just come from the beginning, say hi. We didn't want to. I mean, it's your gig. That was your gig. I mean, I dodged it on purpose. Oh, no, no, no. I don't want to steal your thunder. We would love to see you. This is the third anniversary of the Jesse Walensky.

Well, just wait. I got big plans to not make it the Jesse Walensky thing anymore.

Pass the torch.

We'll discuss it at the pre-budget workshop, right? Right. All right. Thank you, though. Thanks for putting it on.

And thank you, Ms. Lew. If I may just add something to that is that I really did apologize for all of you not being there, giving the different things that you had to do as you asked me to. Thank you. I appreciate that.

I did tell them I'm dragging the mayor out to at least one of these.

I will be. I will. Last night I had a prior commitment. I would have probably rather been at the academy than what I actually did.

Attorney report.

Oh, are we in? Is this counsel comment? No, no, no. Sorry.

That's the attorney's report.

You're basically there. I don't have any report today.

Oh, thank you.

That was my counsel comment.

There are vacancies on the Sustainability and Resiliency Committee, the Arts and Culture Board, and the Personnel Appeals Board. If you're interested in serving, please contact the Village Clerk's Office at 305-762-4870. And the next meeting of the Village Council will be held on April 21, 2026, beginning at 6.30 p.m., Council Chambers.

May through the chair We also have in the pre budget workshop at 5 o'clock.

That is correct beginning at 5 p.m.

The pre budget workshop village council comments We just pass a budget To the chair I've got one comment and I Didn't make the last meeting. I think it's the only one I've missed but I was really impressed with with what Neil and the Sustainability Committee did in looking into mulching our food waste. I think it's a, you know, there's a lot of research still to do. I think there's, Neil, five or six companies that service this area, so we need to get prices. But that is exactly why we have, in my opinion, why we have this committee structure. If you went to the uh... uh... recreation committee one of the people on that said why aren't we doing anything on the roof of the building well that hadn't been thought of it is these committees allow uh... our citizens to have input into what is being done and i just think that was a tremendous idea a great step forward it puts us in line with uh... daniel levine kava's idea of uh... zero waste for our county, and we've got our incinerator, which we've talked about. You know, it's just, it was really heartening to watch that meeting and watch what you did, and I think you all are doing a fantastic job.

Thank you. Thank you for that, George. I appreciate that. My comment tonight is kind of on the heels of that. I think we all had a lot of conversations this last week And one of the things I keep realizing is that we are such a unique community in the fact that so many other places are going through some really – our neighbors all around us are going through some tough situations. The citizenry is going through some tough situations. And it's not a – a diss to the community input, but we have repeatedly had an active community citizenry. When things are big, people come out, we get calls. So we know where we stand because of the engagement of the community we represent. And I just want to say at the end of the day, I'm super proud to be a part of it, and I'm proud of what we're doing up here. And what we're essentially doing is we're making it so that 11,000 and change of our citizens don't have to come to every meeting because they know that we have their backs. And I think that's worth more than anything. And it's definitely why I sit up here and why I'm so proud to sit up here with the rest of you and with our very talented staff as well. And, you know, as long as we're up here, we're going to keep looking out for our people and our residents and our community. And that means everybody. And I just want to thank you all for all of your time and commitment to that.

Thanks. A motion to adjourn.

So moved. Second.