City Council - Regular Meeting

Let's start at 615. My apologies. So let's do the call order.

Mayor Fahad.

Here.

Vice Mayor Lamas. Here. Councilman Santin. Here. Councilman Dion. Here. Councilman Perez-Crespo. Here. There is a quorum present.

Please rise for the invocation led by Councilman Perez-Crespo.

Thank you, Mayor. We gather here today united by our shared commitment to the well-being of the city of Miami Springs. Let us be mindful of our responsibility to serve the common good, to act with integrity, and to strive for justice and fairness for all our residents. May our discussions and decisions be guided by wisdom, compassion, and a deep respect for diverse perspectives. May we work together to build a brighter future for our community, one that is inclusive, prosperous, and sustainable. Let us begin our work with open minds and hearts, seeking common ground and striving for unity. Let us also pray for the safety of all the men and women in uniform who put themselves at risk to protect our community. Amen.

Amen. And please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. You may be seated. And now we move on to awards and presentations, swearing in ceremony of Miami Springs Police Officers Oliver Felipe, Joel Bowen, Arturo Morales, and Christopher Kendrick. Take it away, Chief.

Good evening, everybody. I'm Chief Sandoval with the Miami Springs Police Department, and I want to thank you all for joining us. Tonight marks the beginning of an important journey for our newest officers. It is more than accepting a job. It is a commitment to serve our community with integrity, professionalism, and compassion. We are honored to have the family and friends here tonight to share in this momentous occasion. And because we're here to celebrate an important milestone for them. So I want to thank you all again for being here and being supportive for them. We'll begin our soaring in ceremony as I call each officer forward. They can bring a family member if they choose to be. They have them here at their side while I do the oath, OK? So friends, family, whatever you want to come up. So we'll begin the night with Officer Oliver Felipe. The stage is yours. Before I begin, I'm going to do a quick bio. These guys submitted a little bit of their history about themselves, and I want you guys to get to know them a little bit before we start the actual ceremony. So Officer Philippe was born and raised in Hialeah, Florida. He earned his associate arts degree at Miami Dade College and a bachelor's degree in computer science from FIU. Before entering law enforcement, Oliver worked as a supervisor with UPS and later as an inspector for an FDOT contractor. A lifelong athlete, Oliver credits his experience in football, basketball, and martial arts with developing his discipline, teamwork, and dedication he brings to the career of law enforcement. Ladies and gentlemen, Officer Felipe. Raise your right hand. I state your name. Do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the state of Florida against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

That I will bear true faith, allegiance to the same, to uphold and enforce the laws of the United States, the state of Florida, the county of Miami-Dade,

and the City of Miami Springs and I take this obligation freely without any mental reservations or purposes of evasion and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of a police officer of the City of Miami Springs acting to the best of my ability so help me God.

Does this look a little mad at you?

So good evening, everyone. I want to give a huge thanks to my family for coming out here for the City of Miami Springs. Chief Sandoval, Deputy Chief Vargas, thank you, brother. You gave me an opportunity of a lifetime, man. Appreciate it. And just happy to be here. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to get to work and be the best resident myself for the city. Thank you.

If I could have Officer Bowen step up. Officer Bowen was born and raised in Miami-Dade County, where he developed a strong appreciation for family, community, and hard work. Outside of work, Bowen enjoys fishing, playing sports, working out, and spending time with his family and friends. Above all, he takes great pride in being a father and creating lasting memories with his son. Bowen began his law enforcement career as a public service aide. What started as an opportunity to serve the community quickly developed into a passion. Through dedication, perseverance, he discovered that law enforcement was more than a career. It was a calling. Bowen joins the Miami Springs Police Department commitment to serving with integrity, making a positive impact in the community, and continuing to grow both personally and professionally. Ladies and gentlemen, Officer Bowen.

Good evening, everyone. First and foremost, I just want to thank God for the opportunity to be here. I also want to thank the city of Miami Springs chief, deputy chief. Can't thank you enough. I want to thank my family for being here and supporting me. Thank you to my son, pushing me every day to be better. I can't wait to continue to serve the community of Miami Springs and give the best version of myself and give everything I have to the city. So thank you.

All right, raise your right hand. Aye. State your name. Do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Florida against all enemies, foreign and domestic. I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, to uphold and enforce the laws of the United States, State of Florida, the County of Miami-Dade, and the City of Miami Springs. that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservations or purposes of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of a police officer of the City of Miami Springs, acting to the best of my ability. So help me God. Officer Morales, come on up. So Officer Morales was born and raised in Miami, Florida. He earned an associate arts degree in Miami Dade College and a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from FIU. After graduating from the Miami Dade College Basic Law Enforcement Academy, he began his law enforcement career with the City of Virginia Gardens. He now joins the Miami Springs Police Department and looks forward to continuing his commitment to serving our community. Officer Morales. Raise your right hand. i state your name do solemnly swear that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the state of florida against all enemies foreign and domestic i will not bear true faith and allegiance to the same to uphold and enforce the laws of the United States the state of Florida the county of Miami-Dade and the city of Miami Springs that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservations, purposes of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of a police officer of the City of Miami Springs, acting to the best of my ability. So help me God.

Good evening everybody. thank you so much for the opportunity I pray and hope that I live up to you guys's expectation to all the council members and everybody that gave me a chance Thank You chief Thank You chief Vargas I appreciate everybody for coming out here thank you guys officer Kendrick

All right, so Kendrick comes born and raised in Hialeah, Florida. He is a graduate of Miami Springs Senior High, where he played football. Before entering law enforcement, Kendrick spent 14 years serving the community through the City of Hialeah and Miami-Dade County Parks and Recs Department. He graduated from Miami-Dade College Basic Law Enforcement in 2026, and he begins his next chapter of his career here with the Miami Springs Police Department. Raise your right hand. I, state your name. Do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Florida against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, to uphold and enforce the laws of the United States, the state of Florida, the county of Miami-Dade, and the city of Miami Springs.

That I take this obligation freely without any mental reservations or purposes of evasion.

That I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of a police officer of the City of Miami Springs, acting to the best of my ability. So help me God.

That's all right. I'm ready to go. Hold on, this is a little different from mine.

um thank you for everybody from Miami Springs chief deputy chief especially deputy chief um my family my mentor my boys I really do appreciate everything that you guys have done and will do and thank you

Congratulations to all the new officers. To the families, thank you for your unwavering support. Your encouragement and support will continue to play an important role in their lives from this moment forward. And be part of our family.

It happens. . . . Thank you. That's all right.

Yeah, awesome. Can I get our officers? Dobbins, Dobbins. This is me.

This is the only guy I've ever met.

The first three days. Yeah, Oliver. Legend. Hey.

Hey, 18 in the lobby. Do you want me to start with somebody? Yeah. Okay. Paul. Good to see you. Thanks for the information. I'm still happy to be here. It's been a great year for me. I'm here. It's been a great year for me.

This special presentation is adjourned while we take family pictures. Six. Call the roll, please.

Mayor Fahett. Here. Vice Mayor Llamas. Here. Councilman Santin. Here. Councilman Dion. Here. Councilman Perez-Crespo. Here. There is a quorum present.

Okay. Please stand for the invocation by Councilman Fabian Perez-Crespo.

Thank you, Mayor. If there is one word I hear more than any other when people talk about our city, it is community. We come together to celebrate our history and our achievements, and we rally around each other in times of profound loss. Tonight is one of those times. I'd like to dedicate tonight's invocation to two exceptional women in our community who recently passed away. Carmen Lily Martinez, longtime board member of Miami Springs Historical Society, and Suzanne Collin, Waller of the Miami Springs Women's Club. Many of us knew Suzanne from her local business, Cheesecake, et cetera, and her tireless work with Relay for Life. Hers was a family of service. Her brother, a Miami Springs police officer, her father, a World War II veteran who went on to serve as councilman. Suzanne carried that spirit forward in her own way. I'll admit, I'm still shocked by how sudden it was. I was working alongside her just a day before. She was serving as the honorary judge for our jail and bail fundraiser, where the women's club and our community policing department arrest people in this city who are doing good. This past Thursday, we arrested Councilman Dion and Lamas. Before that, Councilman Santin and Mayor Fahed stood before Judge Suzanne to post bail. Every dollar raised, goes toward causes like pediatric cancer research. Suzanne believed that this was one of the best councils the city has had. She believed in this work, serving the public good, acting with honesty and kindness, and pursuing fairness and justice for every resident. So tonight, let's hold both the Martinez and Colin Waller families in our thoughts. And to everyone here, If you have a friendship that you truly value, tell that person so. We can be here one day and gone the next. Don't let that said go unsaid. Let us begin tonight's meeting grateful for the people who built this community before us, mindful of the ones we lost, and committed to the same honesty, kindness, and fairness they gave to it. Amen.

Thank you, and please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you you may be seated Okay, so we move on to agenda in order of business are there any items from the consent agenda that anybody would like to pull I And are there any items that you would like to move?

No?

Okay, I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the agenda as written here.

So move.

Do I have a second? Okay, we can do that with a voice vote. All in favor of approving the agenda as stated here, say aye. Aye. All against, say no. Okay, the agenda is approved. So we move on to 5A, awards and presentations. We have employee service awards for Bill Collins and Lazaro Rodriguez. Is Laz here? Laz was here a second ago. Okay. Well, Bill, come on up.

Thank you very much. Bill Collins is our...

Right, that's right. Thank you very much. I want to thank JC for all of his support, for all the things that you've done for me. So I really appreciate that. I love working for the city of Miami Springs. Everyone knows it's a very special and unique place. So really, I'm very proud to work here. I feel very privileged to work alongside so many really talented and dedicated employees. And I appreciate the opportunity to work here for 10 years, and I hope there'll be many more. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Bill, stay up here. Let's take a picture. Thank you very much.

Thank you. 20 more.

CAN WE JUMP BACK IN TO FINISH LAZ AFTER OPEN FORUM?

HE'S ON A CALL. ALL RIGHT.

OKAY. SO WE'LL MOVE ON AND WE'LL JUMP IN AND DO LAZ'S AWARD OF SERVICE. OKAY. SO WE MOVE ON TEMPORARILY TO 6, OPEN FORUM. PERSONS WISHING TO SPEAK ON MATTERS OF GENERAL CITY BUSINESS ARE INVITED TO COME UP. REMEMBER, IT'S ONE-WAY COMMUNICATION. WE DO NOT RESPOND. IT'S JUST AN OPPORTUNITY FOR YOU TO ADDRESS THE COUNCIL AND STAFF. you can always come and address us outside of the council chambers and we'll happy particularly uh the city manager's office please remember that you have three minutes to speak and once again that we will not be responding so come on up when i call your name mr carlos lumpuy

We live in Miami Springs and we're proud of it. Sadly, we're losing it one address at a time because our city government continues to allow for the division of lots. I'm Carlos Lumpuy, 181 Hammond. Long-term quality of life should be the mantra of every city hall. Here we are celebrating Glen Hammond Curtis and Jane Bright's 100th incorporation anniversary, yet ignoring their development concept of mostly small homes on large lots. For instance, 13 years ago, I saved 181 Hammond Drive from the wrecking ball as it was to be demolished. The first buyer called Secure Financing as no insurance company in the United States would insure the house. having failed all four points of inspection. As a second buyer, I successfully found a very expensive Lloyd's of London insurance policy of $3,800 a month over two years, giving me time to replace the electrical plumbing with city permits. Caddy Corner to my home at Hugh and Hammond was once a similar small house, a once 1,900 square foot home on a 14 square foot lot, making for 50% building lot coverage with 85% green grass. Two Hugh Drive was torn down, divided into two lots, and worse, allowed to construct two huge two level McMansions with 80% lot coverage. and a doubling of the density, all by our failure to promulgate zoning and land use regulations, preserving our quality of life, the complete opposite of what Hammond and Bright conceived of a century ago. Want a two-story McMansion? Go to the golf course or Poinciana Boulevard along the canal, which Hammond and Bright provided for and plotted. Continuing to allow these two story McMansions of failure of government that thinks short term, as 14,000 residents on three square miles is gradually becoming 28. residents one address at a time. The mantra of long-term quality of life trumps short-term thinking about higher revenue any day of the week. Stop it. You have the power to do so. Do what's right for all of us. Promulgate rules that do not allow for the division of residential lots and stop two-story McMansions that are not contusive to the rest of the block. Like parents, who say yes to everything and then wonder what happened to their kids and their families, this dais must simply learn to say no. We live in Miami Springs and we're proud of it. Let's preserve our low density and our quality of life. Just simply rise to the occasion, gentlemen, and say no. Thank you, Carlos. Thank you.

Next up, Brad Curtis. Come on up.

Gentlemen, how are you? Good to see you. So you all know who I am, Brad Curtis, publisher of River Cities Gazette. So I'll just cut to the chase. We have now come October will be the year, the anniversary of the start of the website to transfer from the print newspaper to RiverCitiesGazette.net. and um you know so far we've had 100 000 visitors to the website which is an amazing number but again it's a free website and um you know we we collect you know very discount advertising to cover like the cost of hosting things like that but there really hasn't been a huge influx of of we're in the prof profit rather than like my father when he uh was printing the newspaper just going deeper deeper in debt So yeah, I just wanted to, what I would like to do, hope to accomplish is we started a GoFundMe campaign so that we could raise funds to, you know, increase the quality of equipment to hold events and, you know, sell like River City Gazette products and things like that. Of course to compensate our employees and our writers and staff, but just to advance and to evolve with the community like everything. We're not asking for too much. We're not giving a sob story and saying that you know we're staying confident with it and and um i'd like to to hang a banner uh on the on the circle for at least you know a couple months through the the birthday of the website which is october 1st you know as long as i would like it to be out there for the the centennial event you know not long term just a short term with a little qr code so people can you know see it and and you know help out the cause and we've Within the last two weeks, we've raised $1,000, which in the grand scheme of it is not that much. But you multiply that by six, and you got six grand in six months. And it only takes one large donation to where we can even have a headquarters with an office and an operator. And we're taking it seriously. And we're here for the community of Miami Springs, no matter what it is, whether it's an emergency situation or an event coverage. And we're here for you. You can personally just let me know. Like Dan Espino called me last night and said, I need you at the high school for the unveiling of the prep. And I was there. And that's why I'm here. It's a community service. And I'm not asking for too much. I'd just like to hang that banner for a couple of months.

And I have proposals here, just with all the details, America. That will just sum it up. I appreciate you guys giving me your time.

Thank you.

Short, sweet.

It's not like a five-page proposal. It's really short, yeah. I APPRECIATE IT.

LOVE YOU GUYS. THANK YOU, BRAD. MR. AGUILAR, YOU'RE SIGNED UP TO SPEAK FOR 5B, BUT WE DIDN'T PULL IT OUT OF THE CONSENT AGENDA. WE'RE JUST GOING TO DO YOU WANT TO SPEAK TO 5B BEFORE WE BRING IT UP AND VOTE ON IT? YOU WANT TO DO IT NOW DURING OPEN? COME ON UP. ALEX AGUILAR, STATE YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS FOR THE RECORD.

Good evening. My name is Alex Aguiar at 810 Swan Avenue. Just want to bring up some topic on it. I just want to say that on the 5B agenda, before we support this SR 112 expansion, I think we need to remember what just happened a few years ago under the former mayor, Maria Michelle, pushing back against the FDOT plan for an elevated roadway. along 36 because of the concerns about the traffic, local businesses, and noise that impacts our community. That opposition worked. The FDOT eventually dropped the plans for that roadway. Now we're once again looking at SR 112 proposal that could affect the access to business along 36th Street and a potential bringing more cuts through traffic into East Drive and on. So my question tonight is simply, what has changed? Before we support this project, we need to make sure we're not repeating the same mistakes we fought against a few years ago. We want to make sure that we make the right decision before moving forward. Thank you.

Okay.

Actually, you did have a, and I'm sorry, Alex, because you got a number of things here. You're down for 10, it looks like D, C, and F, so C, D, and F, and E.

Yeah, I mean.

It's like, gee, those are all the ones that are on the consent agenda, right?

Correct, correct, yeah.

So 5B actually, five is awards and presentation. What you were referring to, the FDAT, is actually 12B, so.

Sorry, I do apologize, correct.

Okay, all right, do you want to speak to those consent agenda?

Yeah, I mean, yeah, that's fine, it's quickly, it's very briefly. Please. I mean, I sent an email today to all the councils today, just kind of getting a breakdown. I just want to make sure that we are being very clear and transparent when it comes to these agenda items. You know, some people do not speak lawyer lingo when we present it, but we need to make sure that we kind of make sure where the funds are coming from when we have these projects going on. A lot of times I read through them and there's not a full breakdown. There's just description. You know, there's been a change. There's been an increase. But it doesn't say where the funds are coming from so we want to make sure that we are being transparent with our residents Letting them know where the funds are coming from When it comes to these projects, that's all. Thank you.

Thank you Okay Laz is back. All right. Well, I'm gonna go ahead and close open forum. Thank you for those who shared and I will bring up chief Sandoval come on up and Police Officer Lazaro Rodriguez for 10 years of service.

Thank you, everybody. I'm blessed to be here. Thank you.

Thank you. Say a few words about Laz. Yes. He has to. Just a few. He has to say a few words about you. He has to.

He just handed it to you. He should say a couple of things. All right. So Laz comes to us. He's been with us for 10 years. And he came to us with a wealth of knowledge and life experience. So he's become a role model. Yeah, that's a nice way of putting it. But he became a role model for some of our younger officers, and he brings a unique energy to the shift that only LAS can bring to the shift. So, you know, we appreciate everything that you do. He's one of our major traffic enforcement guys, so if you haven't met him, it's a good thing. So thank you, LAS, for everything you do. We really appreciate it. On behalf of all of us at Miami Springs Police Department.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, so that closes out awards and presentations. Yes? No, no, no, say it.

Say it.

Don't start crying, though. Don't start crying. Crying? No.

I'm very sensitive.

The ones that know me here from the police department, Caitlin, the rec director, Omar, that personally have known me. I'm truly blessed to be here. And just a little side note, I just came from a call. I delayed this because we came from a call where it was an emergency and a resident needed our help. And that's truly, truly and honestly what I love to do. I love to help. I was born for this. I'm a retiree from American Airlines, 23 years. So I fit right into this little city, being an aviation city, that said, happily, this resident that needed our help, their father was in law enforcement. And he was able to use his first responder skills that we are trained to save lives. And that was for me, you know, if not, then we would have been there, but this is why we're here. We serve the people of Miami Springs and we save lives. Thank you. God bless you, Laz.

All right, so we move on to seven, which is approval of the council minutes. I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the regular council minutes for June 22nd and the special council meeting minutes for July 23rd. SO MOVED. WE HAVE A MOTION. DO WE HAVE A SECOND? SECOND.

ALL RIGHT.

CALL THE VOTE ON THAT, PLEASE.

VICE MAYOR LAMAS. YES. COUNCILMAN SANTIN. YES. COUNCILMAN DEJON. YES. COUNCILMAN PEREZ-CRESPO. YES. MAYOR FAHET. YES. MOTION CARRIES.

OKAY. WE HAVE NO REPORTS FROM BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS, NO PUBLIC HEARINGS. WE HAVE THE CONSENT AGENDA. IT WAS APPROVED IN THE ORDER OF BUSINESS. I WOULD LIKE TO ENTERTAIN A MOTION TO APPROVE THE CONSENT AGENDA.

SO MOVED.

Okay, we have a motion. I think, Joseph, you want a second? So we have a first and a second. Go ahead and call the vote.

Vice Mayor Llamas. Yes. Councilman Santine. Yes. Councilman Dion. Yes. Councilman Perez-Crespo. Yes. Mayor Fahed. Yes. The motion carries. All right.

WE MOVE ON TO 11. WE HAVE NO PREVIOUS OR UNFINISHED BUSINESS, BUT WE DO HAVE NEW BUSINESS, SO WE MOVE TO 12A, WHICH IS A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF MIAMI SPRINGS AFFIRMING A RECOMMENDATION OF THE CITY'S BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT TO DENY AN APPLICATION BY RAUL AND IBIS CRUZ ALVAREZ FOR THE PROPERTY LOCATED AT 381 DEER RUN. I why we do have somebody who wants to speak so she'll probably allow absolutely mayor um but if we could just read the entire title yes of the resolution um would you like to uh yeah I can finish it off since I I stopped there the property located at 381 Deer Run folio number 05-3119-010 to permit an eight-foot front yard setback where a 30-foot front yard setback is otherwise required, providing for conditions, providing for final order, providing for violations, and providing for an effective date.

Thank you, Mayor. Got it.

Thank you for keeping me on task.

no no absolutely so mayor members of the council this is a variance request that went to the Board of Adjustments and the Board of Adjustment recommended denial on a variance request to permit an eight-foot front yard setback or a 30-foot front yard setback would otherwise be required for a carport we have Mr. David Dixon from Calvin Giordano here in case just to give it a quick overview as a reminder the City Council today is sitting in a position where it either affirms the recommendation of the Board of Adjustments or schedules a separate hearing in its quasi judicial capacity as the Board of Adjustments to consider the hearing de novo

Good evening, Mayor, members of the council. I'm Dave Dixon. I'm a consulting planner with Calvin Giordano and Associates. I'm stepping in for Sylvia Vargas, who's formerly here. It's nice to meet you all. Forgive me for not having the benefit of the full background. I stepped in just really recently. But I'll hit on the high points. So this is a request for variance from a required front setback of 30 feet to a proposed setback of eight feet in the front to build an attached carport. It's a total encroachment of 22 feet that they're requesting. There is an existing principal structure, and this carport would be attached to that structure. The applicant has provided some rationale. I can let them speak to that. Staff finds generally no property-based hardship or special conditions are demonstrated, and the requested reduction is a substantial one. Only four of the five criteria for variances is met here, so the staff recommendations do not. Correct. And all variance criteria have to be met.

Okay. Thank you.

And again, Mayor, we are sitting and affirming or setting a new hearing. However, as a courtesy, we, of course, allow the applicant and the city staff to make a brief.

Okay. Before I get to the resident who signed up to speak on this item, do we have any questions or comments for city staff regarding where we're at with this?

Can we go over what was met and not met?

No.

Absolutely. So in the report, there are five criteria. Would you like me to read each one in response or just which one were met? Sure. Okay. I'll read the criteria and whether it was met or not. So criteria one is granting of the variance will not be contrary to the public interest where owing to special conditions, a literal enforcement of the provision in the chapter will result in unnecessary hardship. The spirit of the chapter shall be observed and substantial justice done. The evidence presented does not sufficiently establish a property-based hardship or special condition, so that condition is not met. Two, the variance shall not constitute any change in the district shown on the zoning map. Granted relief will not alter those boundaries, so that criterion is met. Three, the variance shall not impair an adequate supply of light and air to adjacent property. or material increase to danger of fire. Staff analysis shows that requests would not impair the supply of light or air. That criterion is met. Criterion four, the variance shall not materially diminish or impair established property values within the surrounding area. Record does not include competent substantial evidence showing that approval would materially diminish or impair. So that criterion is met. Criterion 5, the variance shall not in any other respect impair the public health safety, morals, and general welfare of the city. The record doesn't indicate that this would materially be detrimental or impair those public health safety morals or general welfare, so that criterion is met.

Any other questions for staff?

No?

Okay, thank you. All right, I'm going to call up Judy Walton from 371 Deer Run. You're going to have an opportunity now.

Okay, okay. All right. Judy Walton, 371 Deer Run, a 70-year resident. I want to say a few words about adding structures to front yard setbacks in a residential area. How many residents here tonight would like to have a structure built in the neighborhood or next to you where every time you come home or every time you go in and out of your door you see that structure. Not many people would feel happy about that. I encourage the mayor and council to deny the variance request to add a structure in the front yard of 381 Deer Run. According to research, property with golf course views such as ours has an increased value of 8 to 30 percent depending on the house. A structure in the front yard will cause a decrease in our property value, I feel, and the neighborhood. During the past 54 years living in our home on Deer Run, we have not had any damage from golf balls to any vehicles or to our home. When a person buys a home on or adjacent to a golf course, they assume a possible risk of golf balls coming into their house or into their yards. My company's been involved for 27 different real estate transactions, either properties on the golf course or adjacent to our historic golf course. I know the values. During my over 40 years of working full-time as a real estate broker in this town, I have never heard anybody tell me that they did not want to buy a house near or on the golf course because they were afraid of the golf balls. Most bars want to be as close to the golf course as possible. All properties have curb appeal. Curb appeal is a factor that adds value to your home. And there are, some of these are mature trees, landscaping. How far do homes sit from the street? How far are the homes sitting from the sidewalk? What is the view coming to the house and leaving the home? These assets add to the value of your home. Building a structure in the front yard of our neighborhoods will cause negative curb appeal from buyers. There's a great bike path and walking path across the street. A lot of people use that walking path, little children, people pushing baby carriages, and people jogging. I have never heard of anybody being hit by a golf ball walking on the jogging path. we live on glenn curtis's street glenn knew what he was doing when he laid out our town the curvy roads the named streets the setbacks the open parkways we i think that also glenn felt we should all have the front yards where neighbors and families could enjoy the open peaceful and serene beauty of what miami springs has to offer let's keep it the way that glenn curtis planned the way we all love it. It has worked well for all of us for all these years. Thank you. I'd like to submit some names of that petition. I have it. Can I do it here?

Thank you, Judy. Thank you. I'd like to, you guys are the property owners, I'm assuming? Raul and Ibis Cruz Alvarez?

The procedures that the city has is to affirm the Board of Adjustments recommendation or to schedule a new hearing where a public hearing- In which case they would be allowed to do their presentation. we of course allow mayor just a general comment by staff and by the by the property owner but a full-blown presentation is not expected at this time right right that would not be appropriate

Right. Can you just give us the Cliff's Notes version, and then if you come back before us, you can do a full presentation.

If you could just take a look at, or maybe we can put up the renderings really quick so you can get a visual. I mean, if you give us those, we'll look at them while you're talking to us.

And again, you would have another opportunity to come before this body in a different role, but Thank you.

Good afternoon, everybody. So before I start speaking about the variance, with all due respect to Mrs. Judy's comments, I do appreciate the fact that she doesn't want anything blocking the views from the golf course. However, when I moved into my property next door, she had an old pickup truck parked in front of her house on the grass on the city between her home and mine that blocked the view, and she wasn't concerned about that for years. So I take objection to the fact that she's stating that this would block views because it will not block views. That didn't bother her. I don't know why this would be because this doesn't affect her property in any way. On the contrary, it would increase property values. So I just want to say the reason I'm requesting the variance is not to create additional living space or extend the home or parking. It's simply to protect my property of my car from being hit by golf balls. There is a receipt there that I had to pay regarding a golf ball hitting my car. So if you guys go down a couple of pages, you will see that. At the end of the day, reality is that this is gonna enhance the property values of the homes. If you take a look, the structure was designed specifically to meet the actual design of the home. So it stayed within the architectural design, mid-century modern, because the home was built in the 50s. It's see-through, it does not impact, it doesn't block any views. It will add value to the home, the surrounding homes. i'm not going to go through the whole presentation because i know that this is not the time for that but i would like for you guys to review it and see that um it's not going to diminish in any way or obstruct any views or cause any harm like they said we've met four of the five criterias so i would respectfully request that you consider this and let us go ahead and present again in the future

Just to add a couple things to that. I've added on there, which is the same thing we presented to the council last time, Yeah, I've been playing golf on that golf course, and Judy knows our history on Deer Run. We like Deer Run so much, and we appreciate the value there so much that this is our second home that we buy there, right? Don't want to leave the Springs. We can live wherever we want. Believe me, we can live wherever we want. We choose to live in Miami Springs. we choose to live here because not only do we live here our kids live here our two kids moved here because of the miami's Our kids have both bought homes in the Springs. We're planning on doing things. Like I said, we moved from a bigger home to a smaller home because it's just her and I. We're modernizing our home because we are getting older. Sooner or later, we are going to need 36-inch doors to move us around, especially me with bad knees. She'll probably outlive me for 40 years, but that's okay. Again, We live here. Our granddaughters play in the front yard. I'm not going to bring my five-year-old granddaughter up here to see how many balls she's ever found in the front yard. I've given you renderings. I've looked at Google Maps. I've asked the questions. Now we have AI, so there's a lot of things you could do. And the possibilities of the ball is coming off the fifth tee, regardless if you're in the back tees or in the forward tees. or depending on where you're at, the possibility of doing it. Mr. Mejia knows that very well, because he loves slicing the ball that way.

So apparently it is unique to our property. I mean, I can tell you, we weren't planning on asking for a variance until we started remodeling the home, because we don't have any place to build a garage. And last time that we were here, they recommended that we build it in the back. Besides the fact that there's really not, because of the pool and everything, there's not a lot. Even if I was to build it in the back, I'd have to enter my home through my bedroom. not through my front home the home was not designed to enter through the back of your home and the bedroom right so um like Raul said we've we've lived here since 2002 we love our community um I feel that in order for us to attract quality home buyers in our community we have to have homes that are that that are appealing that look nice to to to people that come to buy and purchase homes in the community so I feel that this is definitely something that would be attractive, especially to younger home buyers that are looking for homes that are renovated and that look modern. They could see the potential of what they can do with older homes if they remodel and make their homes nice.

It goes back down to the same thing, right? Codes change. Things change, right? So you got to modernize the house. Sooner or later, all homes got to be modernized. You're going to need impact glass. You're going to need, you know, roof to be able to withstand for, be able to hold for hurricanes. You've got to be able to have all these structures. Again, we've modernized the house to a certain point by keeping the same appeal that we left before. Again, the ability to have knocked it down and build a massive house on there or do whatever we wanted to. We could have done the other one in 4290 or run where we lived three houses down or four houses down. The ability is there. We want to stay here. We want to do this. We've tried and worked very hard. We had no idea what a variance was, to be honest with you. I knew what a permit was. We've been working on this house for 15 months, and it's one permit after another. As a matter of fact, I was at the city again today picking up additional permits. everything in that house has been done with an absolute permit sprinklers a tile anything that's been touched has been done with permits when i heard the word variance i had no idea what it was to go through that we started this variance process just to give you guys an idea september of last year forget about the cost because that's been horrendous um Again, we knew we had to roll the dice. We knew we had to bring it in in order to get it done through a variance process. But it has been painful. But I think Joshua from the consulting company said, well, you guys are actually doing this right. So we even had the renderings, not the renderings, the architectural drawings and the structural drawings drawn twice. The last time, because we were half an inch off. So I told the architect and the engineer, redraw them to meet the specs. I want to meet every single spec. I want to make sure we're doing this correctly. We looked at bringing the cars through the back. Let's say I travel. I'm in the aviation business. I'm constantly all over the world. If my wife has to come home alone and she drives her car through the middle of the alley and has to come through the back and then walk all the way around the house, that's absurd. But if we keep leaving these cars outside, And I'm okay with a bicycle, but she likes driving nice cars. The last damage was almost $6,300 for a golf ball.

No, and we had one before that with that fix-it-then thing that I couldn't get the receipt for or whatever it was that time.

So, again, we respectfully ask you guys to really take a good look at this. Give us a shot. Again, we don't feel that we're causing anything to property damage. On the contrary, we think that it's adding to the property values.

All right, thank you. Thank you.

I appreciate your time.

Do any of you guys have any comments before I ask for a motion one way or the other to either affirm or deny? Anybody have any comments to make?

I'd like to ask a question. So I'm looking at a Google map of the house as it currently is and your proposed design. You still have a garage?

Yes.

You can't park a car in the garage? Absolutely.

That's one.

That's one. But but you have a garage that you can actually put a valuable car in okay, and then the other thing on your proposed design You've completely blown out the front yard and the swale The renderings are incorrect Wait hold on if we're gonna do questions and answers which we said we weren't going to do Right there.

I mean yeah.

No I mean if you have a Again, they're going to have an opportunity if we affirm the recommendation of the Board of Adjustment to deny this variance, they will have an opportunity to come back and do the full blown presentation and get, you know, questions from us. But, you know, I mean, I think I think that if we have comments that lead us towards a decision, right, if you guys have a motion, I'd rather not get caught up in the weeds going into the

I understand. I'm sorry, Mayor. I understand.

Through the Chair, I just want to clarify one quick thing. The decision for this council today is either to affirm the decision of the Board of Adjustment, in which case that is it. It is a denial. Or to schedule a new hearing at a future date to hear the application on its merits in a quasi judicial capacity as the Board of Adjustments.

OK. So if we affirm this evening, then it's dead.

right um i mean obviously i respect the the board the variance board and our city planner but i think just in fairness to due process let them come back and their presentation and get proper argument from both sides and then you know we uh vote at that point to me that's the way to do it it's the due process at its best when we allow them to give a point of view and do the presentation i think they've worked hard on it okay that's my opinion any other comments

I agree with that.

OK. So do you want to make a motion then to deny the Board of Adjustments recommendation of denial of the application, meaning that they would come back?

Through the chair. Excuse me, Mayor. Was this presented to the board? Was this presentation presented to that board?

Not completely.

Not completely.

We weren't prepared.

We weren't prepared because we didn't know. Like we said, we've never done a variance before, so we didn't know. So we presented something.

Councilmember, I want to be very clear, though. Everyone that comes before the Board of Adjustments has an opportunity to make a presentation before that board, just like city staff does. So the requirements of law were met, just for the record.

Mr.

Chair.

I would like to just add that, you know, I'm a black and white kind of guy. And if the variance is what it is, I expect to follow that. But for, you know, the purpose of, you know, keeping the peace and making sure I mean, I love this neighborhood and a big reason I love living in the cities because I have great neighbors. I get along really good with my neighbors, and I'd hope that, you know, maybe if we come back and we have another meeting on this, you know, we could, you know, find a compromise, or at least, you know, if it doesn't go your way, you could, you know, state your case.

I don't know how we would find a compromise, though, right?

No, I'm not entirely sure. I think if the applicant wants to speak with our city planner and come up with a solution that maybe reduces the variance, that's a different question.

But the variance request is what is... Yeah, I mean, if I could just chime in, right? Like when you... I appreciate the investment that you've you've made in the city and that your kids live here. I mean that's we we've all got many many years of living here and respecting and loving the city as well. When you do a variance it's it's it's it's presidential right like you're doing something that then people can be like hey you did this. This isn't the time this is that this all right okay.

On that.

Well, you're talking right now and you're not at the mic. And I'm not inviting you to speak. I'm making a comment. It is presidential even if just how we are perceived in terms of what we approve. And it seems to me that if the setback is 30 feet and you're asking to move it to eight, that's like a 73.33% encroachment into the setback. That's a lot. That's... A lot. And like I... I would end up being conflicted how I just don't see how I can approve something like that when you know the the the criteria that have to be met in terms of like true hardship for why you are doing it again you're I mean if it was a 30 foot setback and you're you know you want to take it to 25 yeah it needs a variance and we'd have to discuss it but if it's 30 you want to move it to 8 like that that Whether it's legally precedential or not, it politically is precedential because we are going against the recommendation of the Board of Adjustment, right? And kind of started that, what was the vote on the BOA recommendation? Was it 5-0? I'd have to look at the minutes or I mean, I just just stating that that's that's where I'm at. This is a huge encroachment. By percentage, it's like almost 75% encroachment into the setback. And so that that makes it difficult to, you know, make these decisions into the future because, you know, it's, it's just difficult. So that's just my comment. But I know that you guys had some other uh do you guys have any comments before i entertain a motion because they they sounded like they were going to motion for something well the point is we can't even ask a question that i would like to ask because then the due process of that and getting an answer back doesn't quite i mean i guess we can ask questions right even though they were given uh and Opportunity we can allow them to answer some questions from us.

You as the chair, you can certainly ask questions of someone in the public. I would suggest that if it's going to enter into quasi judicial, you know, statements, then maybe this board wants to hold a separate hearing. Right.

All right, so George sound like you wanted to hold a cell if that's what you want you can not just think process I'm looks I'm There's a lot of the point that you brought up. Obviously. I feel in a lot of sense the same you know, but I'd like to hear him out.

If you want to ask a question, you can ask a question. If we start treading in waters where it's kind of quasi-judicial, we'll pipe up.

To me, it is a significant encroachment into the front yards. And they are, and they do have an impact. I like the design, so that sense, it was a little bit better than initially I'd heard, you know, because obviously the whole structure of a garage all the way to eight feet is almost unacceptable, completely unacceptable. So to me is, I understand the concern, but obviously the garage has already a frontage to the actual home, right? Because it's one of those that sticks out. And I know it kind of takes some of the view out of the bedrooms from the golf, but couldn't that, if the concern is really that it has so much, you know, the golf balls, could you do that same carport on the other side? and it would be a lot less impactful than all the way to eight feet. It does take away from your bedroom, I would assume.

Come to the mic, please, so that we can have everything on the record.

So yeah, absolutely we could, but aesthetically it would look, so the reason that it was designed this way was for it to look the best way possible and to maintain the home to look well balanced. So if I have the garage here and then I build a core part on the other side that just looks off and then it also takes away from green space. So what I was going to say earlier, right, the actual design of the driveway is not the way it is. That's the actual driveway now. However, it will be. So what we need to focus on is the design of the carport and not the actual space of the driveway, because we will have the adequate green space that we need to have in the front of the home once the driveway is designed. This was kind of designed on top of the existing driveway, which is going to be completely eliminated and made to accommodate the car so that we can pull it in but keep the green space in the front. because I like green space and I want to keep it that way. And this is unique to our property, which is the reason that we're doing a variance is because what we understood was that in order for you to apply for a variance, back to the question of if we do it, everybody else can do it. From what I understood in our meetings, that's completely incorrect. So just because this variance is allowed does not mean that every other person that wants a variance can have that. It has to be something that's unique to our property.

And clearly it is, because even our neighbor that's lived there for 50 years has never been hit in a car with her golf balls. And it happens to me all the time.

And I have multiple neighbors that have told me I've never had that issue. So I don't know if it's the way my house sits in, in the direction of the, of the actual whole, I don't know what it is, but I can tell you, honestly, if you drive by at any point in time, you could see 10 golf balls in my yard, in my planters, on my tree, on the things by the porch, they're everywhere. So I, I don't know why I don't have that explanation for that, but I can tell you that it happens all the time.

It was a chair. Do we have a proof of that with the golf balls and stuff?

So it's back to what I was telling you earlier. I probably, if I go through pictures of me playing with the kids outside where they're picking up balls and stuff, I can have that, but I was never intending to do this variance. However, when we started remodeling the home, we didn't have, we have some pictures there of the golfers crossing and getting the balls, but, and you see the golf ball right in my bushes there, but that's recent. Like that just recently happened because we've been under construction for the last year and a half and remodeling. So I wasn't planning on variance. So I wasn't collecting evidence to support this. This receipt that I put in here took me like three weeks to get it because I had to stay on top of the people. Can you please send me the receipt? I need the receipt from when I fixed the car. I just, this was a long time ago. I know, but find it, I need it. Because I wasn't trying to get a variance. This is not something that I had supporting documentation to because I was planning on doing.

So for many years, one of the jokes that she had is she was going to put a sign out front. Golfers, pick up your balls and go get lessons. That's how, like I said, that's- If your ball landed here, you need golf lessons.

Yeah. Because it's constant.

We took pictures just because when we met with Ms. Vargas, she says, you're going to have to prove or show that. So every time I go over there to meet with the construction guys, I'd sit there and sure as heck, there they are. Boom, the ball would be in the front yard or in the- Even in the dumpster. In the dumpster that we have outside. Again- The biggest thing with this is it's damage to the cars. It's damage to things. It is unique to our property because, again, we've talked to Judy. We've talked to Alan, who's our other neighbor.

We have done 429, four houses down in the golf course for 18 years. Never had a golf ball hit my car, ever.

Respectfully, so was evidence asked from you, from anyone up here, to bring to this meeting about the golf balls? Did anybody ask you to bring proof of the golf balls?

yes in the last hearing they said did we have a receipt that's why I got the receipt that's why I went back and asked for the receipt because I said I don't have it because I didn't know I needed it so I called back the gentleman the company that fixed my car and said can you please look for the receipt I don't even remember it was in 2024 at some point and so they started looking and they finally sent it to me because it was requested last time in the hearing and I didn't have it

Councilman Perez-Crespo, you had a question. Do you want to ask it while they're up there?

I mean, I would love to give them a second chance to present this new or whatever modified presentation they're talking about, but I also see your point, Mayor. The variance is given for, you know, little give us a little bit of leeway this is a lot and this is a major major structural in the front yard and no other house that I can tell has that I mean aesthetics aside I mean and I disagree with the comment all homes need to modernize no I mean sure impact windows up to code but know my house is 1941 i'm not going to knock it down to modernize it no it's beautiful and ours is not knocked down but impact windows cleaning a roof you know things like that your house looks pretty nice as it is but um but i i respect the decision of our board and um i don't know i would want to uphold that decision of that board unless there's some some other compelling case

You have cameras? Top cameras? Yeah, like maybe you got pictures of the balls hitting. I don't know. At the end of the day, the variance is what's important. You have to stay within that. But if that's an argument that you want to put out there, I think...

I mean, I'd have to go back and check. Like I said, we haven't been in there for a year and a half, so we didn't have internet or anything recently. I'd have to go back and see if there's anything still recorded on the history. I don't know how far my history will retain that or stuff, but what are we trying to see in the cameras? Are the balls hitting? I mean, I can't answer that right now. I'd have to look into that and see.

It's a beautiful home, by the way.

Thank you. And my front door now is spectacular. Like, I'm in love with it. It's going to be beautiful. And so, like I said, I'm just trying to protect my cars. I don't want to leave Miami Springs. I love this. And I understand and I respect the variances and the codes. But I honestly do feel like this is not something that's going to make any kind of burden on any neighbor or do anything that's going to – It doesn't bother anybody. It's on my property. It's not affecting anybody else. I've met four of the five criterias. There's only one. And so I don't see, like, if mine ever wanted a carport, I wouldn't mind that. I mean, as long as it's something that doesn't take away from the home and it adds value to the areas.

Yeah, and like I said, you know, going back to your point, Councilman Deanne, there's nothing... I want to do more than love my neighbor, love my friends, love my things. Listen, I work extremely hard. I've worked extremely hard all my life. I've done what I can for the community. I've done everything I can. The last thing I want to do, I've had friends and neighbors that I've had forever. I don't like to be conflictive. But that will not be pushed around. And it's every time there's anything being done to that house. I mean, we had to apply for a fence three separate times. We had to get five different surveys.

I got to stop you because I feel like this is going in all kinds of different places. I know, I get it. Thank you. You guys can be seated. Thank you. Before I ask for a motion, do you want to chime in, Landy? You've got an interesting, you know, you've got a perspective on this. As an architect, vice mayor, you want to just chime in?

I appreciate the design. I like it. My only concern is, again, one, we don't meet other criteria legally. And two, it just won't be in keeping with the rest of the street. That's my concern. I think as a standalone, it works. But within the fabric of that entire street, it won't. So if we... If we allow eight feet now, then the next 10 years, everybody will be within eight feet. And it just keeps pushing the boundary more and more. That's my concern.

Yeah, I mean, again, like the modernization, the aesthetics, all these things are important. To me, I feel like it's all irrelevant when it comes to a significant, can you have a very significant encroachment? I mean, it's 73% encroachment. It's a lot. To me, I feel like it's too much. Erica, do you know what the vote was on the? It was 4 to 1, sir. It was 4 to 1.

OK. All right. I'd like to have, because it's always been under the impression that any type of decision that we make on variances does set a precedent for future. So I'd like to hear from our own attorneys exactly what that is.

So thank you, actually, for the question. That is something that I've been wanting to clarify. uh every single variance that comes before a quasi or every single quasi judicial item that comes before uh the board or the council is heard individually past decisions are persuasive and can set precedent but every single application has to be individually voted on. So just because in the past XYZ has happened doesn't mean that it always has to happen as applied to the specific case. But it does carry precedential value in the sense of it can be used as persuasive. I know that's not a bright line test, but the nature of variances is every property is unique.

But it certainly, to add to Roger's comment, it certainly adds to, like, say they're before you, they're like, hey, you let my neighbor do it. It adds to the testimony. Right.

It doesn't lock you in to make the decision, but it does serve to.

Another way to say this is past precedent is competent substantial evidence, but every single application is heard on its merits.

Individually. OK. All right. George, did you have a motion? Do you want to make a motion to affirm or deny the BOA?

It wouldn't be affirming or denying. If you're scheduling a hearing, it would be that option or just upholding.

So we're either affirming their recommendation to deny the variance or setting it for a hearing.

Thank you. So we don't have to deny to get?

Until you hear the case. So it'll come forward before you again.

I mean, it's pretty overwhelming, but I think still like to give them due process. And this is part of the due process. But you know, you obviously have a lot, you feel like you left on the table, and you haven't explained. For that purposes, I'd like to make a motion to request to have an appeal to set it here.

I believe we can schedule this item for the next council meeting, which would be August 24. So that's

So I'd like to set a motion to set a hearing on the next council meeting to revisit this.

Okay, do we have a second?

Second.

Okay.

Call the vote.

Okay, second. Okay. Vice Mayor Llamas? Yes. Councilman Santin? Yes. Councilman Dionne? Yes. Councilman Perez-Crespo?

No.

Mayor Fahed?

No.

Okay, so a hearing will be set for an upcoming,

August 24th at 7 p.m. Great.

Feel free to work with the city clerk's office ahead of that meeting so that they already have all your materials and your PowerPoint so that you can be ready for that.

Okay. Thank you.

Okay, so we move on to 12B, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Miami Springs, Florida, supporting Florida Department of Transportation FDOT Alternative 5-B for the design of the intersection located at State Road 953, which is Northwest 42nd Avenue, State Road 948, which is Northwest 36th Street, and State Road 25, which is U.S. 27 or Okeechobee Road, known as the Iron Triangle, providing for transmittal and providing for

Effective date. Mayor, if you could just jump in real quick to address the comment, the question by the resident Alex Aguirre, this item was never tabled. FDOT was just always constantly coming back with different options. Recently, they came in with this option and it accomplishes Their goals which is to move traffic smoothly up the one 12th and it addressed our concern which was the ramp was way too close to to our city here what they're doing is pushing those ramps to airport property where they would be acquiring portion of airport property and they have to get into an agreement with the airport in the county that's to be determined if whether or not they will allow it. But where the on-ramp is now to the 112, just imagine that. That would be replaced with an on-ramp and an off-ramp. So they would configure that side there. It would be basically, the project is basically from Lejeune Road to Sheridan. The other benefit to us is they're widening the sidewalk. They're proposing to widen the sidewalk from Lejeune Road to Sheridan. So they'd be shifting traffic over a little bit. and widening our sidewalk there. Actually, it's a pretty good amount. It's a pretty good amount, too. So it's a win-win there, because the sidewalk's along 36th Street. I just hope FDOT would continue that all the way down. But it would be an absolute win for us, in my opinion. The requirement that their need to acquire his property or encroach on people's property would only affect the small sliver on the June road because as part of the front they would add a turn lane heading southbound so.

And I can I give a little update based on absolutely okay so we met with FDOT at least 3 or 4 times. At different times and they've it's been kind of like They've come out and always said everything that they had, but we've been very consistent as a city, going back to my predecessor, to Maria Mitchell, who was the mayor at the time. We didn't want an overpass. And we have just kept coming back to them, kept bringing back in, are there any options? Are there options to do things at grade rather than do an overpass? They could never get past the fact that their main charge is to help the backup of State Road 112, which gets down, has to wait at a light, and then cross 36th Street. And so we just kept telling them, like, we don't want an overpass. We'd like for it to be a grade. Problem is, doing the add grade level improvements, even though I personally don't believe they were ever going to get, they were ever going to give in to that because it wasn't going to solve the issues that they had of moving the traffic. But doing at-grade improvements or even just the regular proposals they had for the overpass meant that they were going to use, FDOT was going to use them in the domain, and they were going to take space from the front, from the side, from the 36th Street side, on the Lejeune side, which meant that those property owners were going to lose space. And we kept asking, like, why can't, you've already got, an on-ramp to go eastbound onto 112 that's kind of on the airport property. Why can't you just put it completely over there? And that's something that they kicked around. There's development happening at the airport that precludes it, but they were able to come back at the last minute with a proposal That where they were going to have the overpass, but they were going to shift everything South, meaning that they were going to add between 8 to rather than using eminent domain to take. Land away from us, they were going to add, like, 8 to 12 feet of of of our walkway and then the boundaries of of our properties there from the June to Sheridan and. you know, it seemed to us like that would be a good compromise, right?

Because if you guys are going to give us

If they're going to give us an overpass, I'd rather be pushed south and I'd rather that we gain space. That doesn't happen. And none of this is guaranteed, right?

None of this is guaranteed. I mean, obviously they have to acquire the property from the county, which that is an obstacle in and of itself. But right now, if you look, there is an on-ramp. It's not an overpass, but it looks like one because you're on-ramp. That's exactly where it would be. Maybe a little further down 36th Street, just a little further, closer maybe towards Sheridan, but it's on that side of where the airport is. So it's not really in your face on 36th Street, and it's not something that we're not seeing already.

we even discussed with them and you could speak to this we even discussed options like you know can you make lejeune an overpass to help get people out of out of there but it that wasn't feasible because there's already so many highway overpasses and and bridges there along the way so it really seemed to me like we kept calling them in and they kept saying we need to have an overpass in order to move the westbound traffic off of 112. So this proposal to give us space to move everything south and take take the land from the county that to me that It I feel like as you said JC it's a win win. I feel like if they're if they're if we're going to be stuck with an overpass if they can push it further south and give us space. I felt like that is the best option, but again this so they asked us they said that they were going to approach the county about this and that it would be helpful if we said that we were in favor in favor of of this option of of giving us more space moving everything south and you know because without that i don't think the county would agree to do it there's no guarantee the county's going to agree to do it anyways but i felt like uh every time we met it seemed like just inexorable the there's an overpass that's uh that's going to be coming So I did. Do you want to, Roger, do you want to speak to the resolution and what we wrote and what it basically says in our name to the county?

Absolutely. So this is just an expression of support from the council supporting that alternative 5B that the manager and you have just finished describing. It doesn't carry anything beyond supporting. Sure.

it's just something that fdot requested um because of the positive reception and there's still a possibility the county says no we're not going to give you our land in which case we're back in the same fight they're going to be putting an overpass and we're going to be losing land in that corner uh well unfortunately we can't take public comment now but please reach out to us alex with with any questions and we'll we'll bring that up uh gentlemen do you have any uh any thoughts on the matter

Um so if we're just uh doing a vote like just to show which side we're supportive on if voting on this doesn't it show like there is support for it one way or another or should we even be voting on this?

This is just a resolution of support for this option there's not we're not picking an option here this is the option that we're that we would be supporting if you guys vote for it that's it.

Doesn't it send a message of just supporting the project?

That's the point of it it's an expression of support. So that they can go to the county and negotiate with them saying, you know, the Miami Springs is in favor of it. You know, we would like to acquire this sliver here or this section here so we can do the ramps.

I would add that we've been having meetings and town halls and stuff with FDOT, and they always were... we have to do an overpass it's the you know it's the only way we have to do an overpass we have to do an overpass as much as we would talk about it and get feedback from the residents when they do the next open house guess what the plan was to do an overpass and we kept fighting it on our own as a city please can we you know like we you know we've we've been We've been, you know, trying our very best to get, you know, to get some kind of say in this. But I think that this is an option that at least, you know, has a silver lining because it gives us it gives us space and pushes everything south.

Go ahead. Yeah, this is a long way from where we started. I went to the first few meetings and the holiday and and all. And it's I mean, I wish it didn't have to happen, but it dlt needs a solution because it's getting worse and worse it's going to happen and i think this is the lesser of all the evils for us and again it's great we don't have to lose anything we actually gain a bit of space and with whatever ends up happening north 36th street this will only help so it'll force change in one way or another sidewalk and public access so i i agree i think it's not a great resolution but it's the best one for us right now

mayor if i had a magic wand i would connect the 112 with the palmetto over the perimeter road that's it you don't want to come you don't want to be on 36th street we got it just go straight west if we could if i could if i had a magic wand i would do that um i think this will help traffic i've been having to take the 112 all summer to get off SUCKS IT HAS TO BE A BETTER SOLUTION MAYBE THIS IS THE ROAD TO A BETTER SOLUTION YOU KNOW JUST THAT GOING WESTBOUND YOU GET UP TO 112 IS A NIGHTMARE SO I DON'T THINK I THINK IT WON'T INCREASE TRAFFIC I JUST DON'T SEE INCREASE TO TRAFFIC IF WE CAN MITIGATE THAT TRAFFIC JUST PUSH IT WEST I MEAN THE POINT IS TO ALLEVIATE THE TRAFFIC IN THAT INTERSECTION THAT'S THAT'S BASICALLY THE WHOLE POINT OF THE PROJECT

We just always preferred not to do it with an overpass.

fdot listens to what we think is important uh you know to varying degrees but we have been fighting for it and this seemed like a compromise so to the chair um i think you know as many of you have been able to uh be privy to a lot of those meetings in the last three or four years been pretty contestant on any other options and this option has actually been thrown at them I could recall several times where, like, why don't you guys go to the other side, you know, towards the airport? And it was never enough. And it was not even, they weren't even entertaining it. So this is huge to come back with this possibility because, like the vice mayor mentioned, this is something that they're going to do. It's just inevitable. They have the powers be eminent domain, all the powers that our government gives them. to do it. So I think this was a great turnaround. from our previous men meetings. And I think that if we had to settle for one, I think we had to settle for support on this one versus all the other ones that were brought up to us.

So yeah, if the county doesn't agree to give up the land and do this version, then guess what version we're defaulting back to.

We're back to square. We're back to square one. We're back and finding that we'll fight that.

And we will keep fighting that one. But this was an opportunity for us to You know compromise based on all the fighting we've been doing so. So we need to vote on this resolution like to entertain a motion then to approve 12 be.

Motion motion to to create a resolution support of the was it 5 be yeah, it's done all turned 12 12 be 12 be 12 be right with the alternative 5 be for.

Yes, alternative 5 be yes, yeah. I'll second it. OK, we have a first and second. Call the vote.

Vice Mayor Llamas? Yes. Councilman Santin? Yes. Councilman Dionne?

No.

Councilman Perez-Crespo?

Yes.

Mayor Fahad? Yes. The motion carries 4 to 1.

OK. All right, we move on to 13A.

This is a request by Councilman Santin to discuss directing of staff to determine what steps are needed in order to do the renaming and establishing of a physical address

ALONG CURTIS PARKWAY FOR WHAT WE WE FEEL IS A A HERITAGE TRAIL PARK TAKE IT AWAY COUNCILMAN SENTING I BROUGHT THIS ITEM FORWARD TO DISCUSS THE VISION THAT MANY OF US HAVE AND MYSELF ESTABLISHING GLEN CURTIS STATUE MEMORIAL SITE IN THE CURTIS PARKWAY CORRIDOR a recognizable heritage destination including the selection of an official address for the site and future opportunities to promote heritage tourism and supportive economic activity in our downtown Miami Springs so this is not a discussion about naming the park tonight it's just about the larger vision that we have and directing staff to inquire and what the steps are needed for us to take that next step All right.

I would like to add that I was approached by the Greater Miami Visitors and Convention Bureau to do like a little video about brought to you by tourism because obviously that's what the GMCBB does is promote tourism. In that video, I was asked every which way about like, so what would you, you know, where would you go if, where would you take somebody if they were visiting? And I had to really think about what we offer in terms of tourism. And I, it became clear to me like, just have layover tourism that's about what the city of miami springs offers uh i mean you can have lunch and get your nails done you can play golf obviously if it's a saturday during the right time of year there's a farmer's market obviously we have some amenities like but we basically have a lot of hotels but it's basically layover tourism and i i know that the councilman santine since before you've been on the council You've always been an advocate for heritage tourism. It cannot hurt to try to promote some additional things that we can offer in this city for tourists. And we happen to have Curtis Parkway. We're going to have a beautiful statue and memorial as of the 22nd. But we've got the War Memorial. We've got other memorials. It goes all the way down to the golf course. uh... and if there is a way to designate this area of this uh... you know if it whether you call it a heritage trail or whatever you want to call it i know that the parks and parkways board tried looking into something like this back in two thousand fifteen i'm not exactly sure how to do it but if it allows us to get grant money and uh... and so that when people search it shows up on your google maps that this is an amenity and if we if we get we could promote tourism you could do like what teacher contest on the circle but that's not the kind of uh... things that you want right We want to try to promote some things that align with our family values in the city. So I think that promoting heritage tourism, if there's anything we can do to help us get further down the road and towards making an amenity that people can come out and that will want to visit and not just stay in our hotels and then go elsewhere, I'm all for it. So I'm in favor of asking staff to look into what our options are, what is needed for us in order to designate an area that we could then try to raise some money for to meet these ends.

YOUR CHAIR? CONTRARY TO THE SPRING BREAKERS THAT WE WOULD PROBABLY BE INTERESTED ON.

YOU'VE GOT LOTS OF TOURISM FOR THAT, BUT THAT'S NOT THE KIND OF TOURISM WE WANT.

THAT'S NOT WHAT THE TARGET IS, ACTUALLY. YOU KNOW, HERITAGE TOURISM, A LOT OF THEM ARE VERY WELL EDUCATED, RETIRED FOLKS WITH DISPOSABLE INCOME, GOOD PEOPLE THAT ARE GOING TO BE REALLY INTERESTED IN OUR HISTORY. and obviously they come over and before they'll end up having lunch or breakfast or dinner after but this is not you know spring breakers and they come here to cause a ruckus and it's you know it's a low impact on our community I mean you know we already have people that come from miles around to walk on our walkways if that can be some kind of like official

heritage trail or something. Again, what we're looking for is what is needed in order to designate it as such so that we could start to have it be a place and people can come visit that they can find easily that we can promote. So I'm again in favor of finding out more.

Any comments? Through the chair? So I was born in a town called Sleepy Hollow. It wasn't always called Sleepy Hollow in New York. It used to be called North Tarrytown. And for probably 100 years, the General Motors plant was the main employer of that town. When the General Motors plant was announced that they were closing down, you can imagine the town was wondering, what are we going to do? Where are people going to employ? And it was around the time that the Tim Burton movie, Sleepy Hollow, was coming out. And they did a smart thing. They rebranded their town as Sleepy Hollow. I mean, the high school mascot was a horseman. So Sleepy Hollow was already part of the legend. My grandmother's buried in the cemetery that the Headless Horseman supposedly rode through. They had the public local government component of it, the renaming of it, the building of sidewalks and monuments, but it's a multi-pronged approach. You have to have private enterprise, you need to have tourism boards, you need to set up that we as a city, we as a city can set up things for walking tours to exist for guided tours for gallery exhibits for tour of homes that we can do our part but it takes more than just public money to make this work. So I'd like to see what else can we do? What else can other people in the city do to make this reality? I believe in historical tourism. We've got aviation. It's perfect. But it's not just on the city's shoulders. It's gotta be distributed equally among different components.

All right. Gentlemen, any comments?

Nope. Agree with that, no.

OK. All right. OK. So do we need to vote on consensus to direct staff? OK. So do we have consensus?

Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. So we have consensus on directing staff to find out what it is that we need to do in order to find the designation to leverage the heritage tourism potential that we have along this walkway. And just I want to reiterate, And I know the councilman sent in this was important to you that that you know, this is eventually we're gonna we're gonna Work with our local advisory boards on this, you know when when you know, whatever naming gets done And you know, we don't know yet exactly yet. What is necessary? but once we do know we will be leveraging the the perspective of our parks and parkways and other another citizens advisory boards OK. All right, so we move on to 13B, a presentation by our esteemed city attorney on impact fees.

Take it away, Roger.

All right, Mayor, members of the council, I know it's been a little bit of a longer meeting, so I'll try to keep this as brief as possible. But I still think that this is a pretty informative piece, I think, as we approach the presentation of the city's impact fee ordinance on first reading in August. So just so that everyone's on the same page legally, or not legally, but at least understands the frameworks of the impact fees, I want to give an overview here. So good question here is, what is an impact fee? And legally speaking, an impact fee is a regulatory, a one-time regulatory fee that is assessed against properties that must confer a special benefit on the fee payer in a manner that is not shared by others who are not paying the fee. This is different from, and this is important, a tax which it has no, a tax does not have any requirement to provide a special benefit on anyone. It's just something that is done for the public benefit, welfare. You've seen some of that language in our resolutions. And again, I'm emphasizing that there's this difference between a fee and a tax here because we cannot let an impact fee become a tax. If not, it's unconstitutional. Taxes must be specifically authorized by the Florida legislature. good examples of fees versus taxes fees include things like renting out a tennis court or a pavilion at the park and after school care program permit fee transit fares things like that and obviously attacks well we've seen taxes in the form of property taxes we've seen taxes like the communication service tax which is added on to our you know our telephone lines things like that okay okay So the Florida legislature has acknowledged just how important impact fees have become since Florida started really urbanizing and developing. It's an important source of revenue specifically that a local government uses to fund infrastructure that is needed due to new growth. And I'm emphasizing that again. It's new growth, not existing growth, but new growth. The Florida legislature has acknowledged these things in its statutes. And because of that, and because of the prevalence that started arising from the impact fees being adopted, have created a sort of baseline framework that all cities have to comply with. So, for example, uh... and many of these we have already met and we have been working towards them right impact fees must at a minimum ensure that there's a calculation of those impact fees based on a study that takes into account the most recent and localized data available within the past four years of the impact the study uh... in addition prior to actually enforcing the impact fee, we need to provide 90 days notice before those impact fees begin to get imposed on new developments. The study, you have all seen, of course, we've hired Binesh to conduct the study. And they have provided us with a draft that staff and the council has received. And of course, we're going through it and making sure that it actually makes sense what they're suggesting. this is again tied to the fee aspect of an impact fee impact fees have to meet two very crucial legal requirements which is the impact fee must be proportionable and reasonably connected right to the need for additional facilities that is created by the new development whether that's residential or commercial right so there's a connection between the need for new infrastructure and that new development And then the second really important standard here is that an impact fee must also be proportional and reasonably connected to or have a nexus with the expenditure of those impact fees and the benefits that accrue to address the new development. If you can imagine that, you cannot impose an impact fee to fund a new infrastructure project that's completely unrelated to that new development's impact. If you can sort of visualize it, there's two prongs here, right? You have to have a proportionality and an axis between the need for the new infrastructure and the actual impact that's being collected from the new development and the actual expenditure of those impact fees must be used for infrastructure that benefits that new development, right? The idea here is you are collecting an impact fee to address an infrastructure deficiency.

Okay.

Again, this is a little snippet from our impact fee study that was prepared by Binesh. You can see here, and staff will provide you, of course, with the impact fee again, just so everyone can see it. The folks at Binesh have studied the need for governmental facilities created by new development, parks and recreation, uh facilities law enforcement facilities and stormwater utility facilities again this is all infrastructure it does not include maintenance maintenance is something that is paid for through the general fund or other sources of revenue that are available to the city um when we can when when the council considers impact fees uh you are setting a pretty long-term goal here. Once an impact fee is set forward, it cannot be increased for four years. And then once the impact fee is actually set, increases to that impact fee are sort of phased in, depending on how large of an increase. So when we're looking to impose these impact fees, let's make sure that it looks at that five-year sort of window, 10-year window, so that it doesn't need to be updated or it doesn't become obsolete instantaneously upon our adoption. Impact fees in the future that would increase beyond 50% would have to be rolled out over four years. And those that increase impact fees by 25% would need to be implemented over two years. Impact fees aren't retroactive. So truly what you adopt is what you will have for the foreseeable future. Yep, absolutely. Right if it's in the process right now, there's no impact the ordinance that's in effect. Once the impact fee goes into effect remember what I said in the beginning is a 90 day period that is given to the note that to the to the public. At that point that's when impact fees would be collectible. And actually brings up another point. Impact fees are not immediately collectible they must be paid at the time of the issuance of a building permit. OK so purposes of the council's consideration for example a site plan comes before you an impact fee is not due immediately upon approval of a site plan but rather when that then that developer goes to the building department and says here's my site plan approval i'd like to build at that point they would say okay impact fees are due okay That is the earliest date at which impact fees can be collected. I do have some caution if we would want to go beyond certificate of occupancy because at that point it does become much more difficult to collect.

Yeah, in my experience it's at the building permit because that's when they come in to pay. So you collect it at that time.

Thank you, JC. TO THE CHAIR. QUESTION. HOW ABOUT A PROJECT THAT OBVIOUSLY OVER THE YEARS SITS STILL AND NOW HAS EXPIRED ALL PERMITS EVEN INCLUDING SITE PLAN APPROVALS AND THEY COME BACK.

Well, if there's right, if there's no site plan that governs the approval and there's nothing that it can that has been approved to be built, then at that point they would have to go through the entire zoning process again. The caveat, of course, is certain applications don't ever have to get approval from the council like single family homes, right? Individual ones. So just consider So we know what they are, how we need to implement them, things that we need to consider. What can they be used for? I've hinted at it again. It can't be used for just maintenance or repairs or reconstruction, but it actually has to be used for the acquisition, construction, or improvement of specific infrastructure needs. And what that means is actually defined under the statutes as fixed capital expenditures excluding cost of repairs or maintenance that are associated with construction, reconstruction, or improvement of public facilities that have a life expectancy of five years. There's related land acquisition costs that can be funded through impact fees, land improvement, design engineering, basically everything that is needed to actually construct a new capital infrastructure project. Police Department vehicles could also be considered infrastructure here. That's a big one that I know that the city is always interested in and of course equipment for those vehicles. In terms of what our public facility might be for purposes of the infrastructure definition, major capital improvements, transportation, sanitary sewer, water, solid waste, drainage, education, parks and recreation, those type of facilities. restrictions on the actual use of impact fees. We've gone over some of it, but again, impact fees must be used to acquire, construct or improve capital facilities to benefit new users. Revenues generated by the impact fee can't be used in whole or in part to pay for prior debt that the city has incurred unless it's specifically basically addressing that need that was created from the development. And that's a very specific circumstance. The payment of impact fees, we've talked about this. Impact fees are collected at the building permit usually. They're imposed on new development, not existing development. So again, the Florida statutes say collection of impact fees may not be required to occur earlier than the date of the issuance of the building permit for the property. So it can be a little later, but not earlier. There are exemptions from impact fees, for example, Local governments cannot assess impact fees for the reconstruction or replacement of a previous existing structure. If that replacement structure is the same land use and degree of a public facility. If a facility is torn down to create a brand new facility that expands much more to provide greater access, then that's a different situation and the delta between what currently exists and the improvement would be payable from impact fees. Let's see. A couple of other exemptions. Public schools, including charter schools and schools of hope, are exempt from the payment of impact fees. This is statutorily provided, it's been upheld in courts many times. So just know, public schools, charter schools, they don't pay impact fees. Certain private schools could be determined to be exempt. The exact category of those, it will depend on the fact by fact situation by situation, but essentially there are certain exemptions provided to private schools going into libraries, community service organizations, museums, performing arts venues, theaters, churches, cinemas, private schools by universities or colleges of the state, child certain child care facilities and now a recent bill that just went into effect certain private schools that enrolled less than 150 students that are entering into a commercial or mixed-use zoning district may be exempt from impact fees so again that would be private schools with less than 150 students yeah so any questions

Thank you Roger this is a long time coming to we're getting as we see light at the end of the tunnel.

Through a terrorist Roger are we coming up on a. Review of impact fees?

Yes. So the BNESH was retained, I think, in November 2024. And the agreement was actually signed in 2025. They commenced their work. And they provided the report sometime earlier this year. So we have 12 months to adopt the impact fee ordinance from the study.

When does that expire, that 12 months?

I had to get back to you on the exact date, but we are still with it.

It's not before November. No, okay Thank you.

We do have time. Okay. Thanks Yes, that is correct you can go down Keeping in mind my prior caution more of a policy caution not a legal caution that once they're set You have four years where that must be the impact fee that you collect And if there are no other questions, of course, reach out to me if you do. I just wanted to make sure that everyone on the council was aware of the land of law that we're going to be exploring and making good policy decisions.

You know, it's when I started here, I asked, oh, what are our impact fees? Which ones do we have? And I was told we don't have any. the one town center for example when that was built they would have had to pay impact fees if we would have had them and any hotels that come in they would have had to pay impact fees as well so it's it's just a useful tool it's not to um to take over our operating costs like you said it's it's for new facilities that result as a need you know result from the new development

offset the needs of a new development.

It offsets the need of a new development. So it comes, you know, it's really handy to have and I've had them in other municipalities where I work and you build parks, you build, make improvements to parks because of these things and it just makes sense to me.

Yeah. Okay. Any other questions? Roger, you want to move on to 14 reports and recommendations from our city attorney? Anything?

I have nothing further for you tonight.

Okay. I kick it over to our esteemed city manager. JC, do you have any reports or recommendations?

Mayor, I just want to wish everybody a great school year. It kicks off, at least for my kids, tomorrow. But I know Thursday. And then just remind everybody that next Monday is our budget workshop here. So come to that. Stay tuned. All right.

NO. SO SCHOOL STARTING MEANS THAT THE SCHOOL SPEED ZONES ARE BACK UP IN EFFECT. DID I STEAL YOUR THUNDER, OMAR? I'M SORRY.

A LITTLE BIT. A LITTLE BIT.

OKAY. SO I RETRACT WHAT I JUST SAID. TAKE OVER.

NO, ACTUALLY, I WAS GOING TO REMIND THE PUBLIC AND OUR RESIDENTS THAT, YES, SCHOOL ZONE WILL BE OUT ON THURSDAY. SO MAKE SURE THEY FOLLOW THE SPEED ZONE SO WE DON'T, YOU KNOW, FOR SAFETY OF THE CHILDREN, OBVIOUSLY, AND SO THEY DON'T GET ANY CITATIONS. BUT THAT'S ALL I WAS GOING TO REPORT.

All right.

Thank you, Omar. Okay. Reports and recommendations from our city clerk?

Yes, just a couple of things. Well, since July was our recess, we didn't have a formal regular meeting. As most of you know, July 10th was Juan Garcia's last day. Our deputy city clerk, he's moved on into another position in the municipality. So just wanted to wish him a wonderful adventure and it's just rewarding and wish him the best of luck. July 14th, we had our first passport facility inspection. We passed with flying colors. We just had a minor, we just have to post our fees at the counter. That was the only thing that the inspector had noticed. But other than that, we passed. August 18th is our primary election or the county's primary election. That is when all precincts will be open. So you might see a little more traffic around our precincts.

August 18th early voting is available from August 3rd to the 16th.

There are 23 locations. Unfortunately, the city of Miami Springs does not have an early voting site. Got a lot of calls about that. I believe the closest one that we have is in Doral, which would be the elections office, which is off of 25th Street and 87th Avenue. And I think the other one is JFK Library, which is, I think, West 49th Street. Yeah. So, yeah, that's it. That's it for me. All right.

Thank you. All right. Reports and recommendations from our city council. I'll start with Councilman Santin.

As I'm sure you guys are expecting me to say something about the Glenn Curtis statue and monument, long overdue. Been a lot of work to get to this point. But August 22nd, we're going to unveil at 11 AM. And I'm very thankful to a lot of generous donors. This is a project. We haven't been able to put the banner out there. So let the public know this is no public funds No tax money was used to to create this all from generous families That obviously believe in the in the vision that his legacy should be upheld So thankful for all those We also have a drone show and a celebration date later on that day, the 22nd at 3 o'clock, which also a good portion has been paid by donors, private corporations that have business in this city. And specifically, we were able to also fortunately have a drone show the following day at their country club by the driving range, thanks to a very generous donor who paid for the whole drone show. So we're very thankful that we have those kind of residents in Miami Springs that love it as much, that want to share so we can all enjoy. But go out and enjoy the festivities. It's around the corner and looking forward to it.

I'D LIKE TO WELCOME EVERYBODY BACK. IT FEELS GREAT TO BE BACK OVER HERE. I HOPE YOU ALL HAD A GREAT SUMMER. TO MY COLLEAGUE GEORGE SANTIN, GREAT JOB. YOU KNOW, YOU DEFINITELY LED THE CHARGE WITH THE GLEN CURTIS MONUMENT, AND IT'S BEEN AN HONOR WORKING BESIDE YOU ON THAT. EVERYBODY COME OUT AND SUPPORT THE CITY. OUR FOUNDER, GLEN CURTIS, Everything is being posted regularly on the social media sites and we're happy to answer any questions anytime. I attended today the renaming of the Miami Springs Preparatory and I'd like to congratulate and thank Principal Nelson Gonzalez, He had a surgery, which was a very intense surgery, and he was right back on the saddle. Like if nothing, definitely it's been a real pleasure working with Mr. Gonzalez. Whenever we have anything that we could offer to the school, to the students, he's always all ears for it. And a big example is now, you know, the hiring of T.Y. Hilton. First game will be coming up next Friday, so...

All right, Vice Mayor?

I just want to welcome everybody back, and it's great to be back tonight at work. Thank you.

to mention um tickets for the september pelican playhouse centennial celebration celebration are on sale on their website it's great to see how this everything centennial related is coming together so i encourage all the residents to participate in our centennial in our history buy your centennial pins i can't wait to see that statue up uh it's going to be a big deal and it's i know it's going to attract a lot of attention NOT JUST MIAMI PROBABLY OUTSIDE OF FLORIDA IT'S GOING TO BRING IN A LOT OF CURIOUS PEOPLE TO SEE THIS STATUE AND THIS JUNE BUG MONUMENT SO I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO UM TO ALL THE ATTENTION WE'RE GOING TO GET THANK YOU THANK YOU ALL RIGHT AND I THINK EVERYBODY BASICALLY SAID IT WE'RE LOOKING OUT UH MAN I THINK BACK

two years plus where we were talking on the council here about getting ready for the centennial and it's here so we're looking forward to it uh and yet again we lost some some some real pillars of the community uh terry moss's name wasn't uh wasn't mentioned but uh suzanne wohler was uh near and dear to my heart uh so our our thoughts go out to uh their families um That's it. Everybody enjoy the start of school. And this meeting is adjourned at 8.48.