Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

70 7:07 is the time that the meeting was called to order. Exactly 7:07. Thank you, sir. Okay. Roll call starting with Chairman Erns present. Vice Chair McDermade present. Commissioner Each. Commissioner Plamir. Commissioner Seaff Freed. Commissioner Andre here. Commissioner Bob Commissioner Besson. Present. So we have a quorum. Okay, we have a quorum. Very good. Thank you. Uh at this point, I'd like to stand for the pledge allegiance to the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, everyone. At this time, I'd like to ask staff, do we have any amendments to the agenda? No, we do not, Mr. Chair. Thank you very much. Um, next item is approval of minutes for January 7th. Am I correct on that date, Madam Secretary? We don't have minutes for the other meetings up to that point. Um, I'll be right back with the minutes. There are minutes. Um, I don't know if you can vote on them. Can you vote on them before he signs it? Well, we have them we have them looked at. They're in the agenda package, right? Yeah, they are. January 7th. Yeah, the January 7 minutes were in the agenda package. Okay. And then I'll ask a question after. We have a motion to approve the minutes. Second. We have a second for that. Seconded by

Mr. Each. All in favor say I. I. I. Okay. Um, chairman, I will have the hard copy for you in about 10 minutes. All right. No problem. For you to sign. No, I was questioning whether or not we have minutes for April. We had a meeting in May which we don't have minutes for correct April. April the special meeting right the special meeting was late right that will you will have that at the next meeting at the next meeting. All right yes and anything other excuse me Mr. Chair who made the motion for the minutes please sir. Uh that was Mr. McDermade. Is that correct? And seconded by and thank you sir. Yes very much. Um, so now the next planning commission meeting is still scheduled for June 3rd. Yes, it is. Okay, very good. Um, did you wish to discuss the July or will that be for a later time? We'll do that at the June meeting. Okay. All right. Thank you. Um, now in communications, I see we have the public works uh director with us, staff. if you could do the introduction for us. Uh the gentleman is now uh joined the join North Miami and like to hear a little bit about his background. Okay. I am very thrilled to introduce Carth Sidler. Uh Carth is our public works director. He is not new to the city. Um this is his second time here. And I'm going to let Kareth tell a little bit about himself and then you all can ask him some information that you're interested in learning about with public works. Very good. Good evening sir. Welcome again. Good evening uh Ken Fitler uh public works director um for um um good evening Mr. board chairman and um fellow fellow board members um for the sake of time my

background um I don't want to bore everyone but just a little bit about me um I'm from here I used to work here about 10 years ago as the assistant public works director came back about 10 months ago uh to come back as the public works director been in public sector about 20 plus years uh have a background um in architecture and construction and um masters in construction construction management. Um so been been um quite a bit of experience as far as u public sector goes. We're glad to have you on board. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. So um as I mentioned um to Miss Love, um you guys are probably going to get the Reader Digest version of some of the projects that we're working on. That that'll be fine. Okay. Thank you for giving us this update. No problem. So the first project I wanted to update you on um is the storm water master plan. So, our storm water master plan is complete. Um, we'll be having a workshop tomorrow evening for council at 6 pm. So, I I encourage all of you to attend. Um, it's going to be very informative. Um, and we we covered the entire city. Um, I know prior to me coming on board um July of last year, I remember I was told I think it was June or May, I think it was June of last year where we had the torrential uh um rain event. um from that we were already working on a storm water master plan. Um so a lot of those areas that we had issues with from that event is in the storm water master plan. So again I encourage you all to attend the workshop tomorrow. Um there's going to be a lot of a wealth of information that's going to be in that um presentation. Traffic common study. So our council approved a traffic common study a few months back. Um, right now it's at the county for them to approve it as a resolution. Um, they had a few comments for us. However, our council's already approved it. So, once it goes to

their commission and they approve it, some of the uh the trafficcoming measures that they put in that plan will be able to implement those um without going back to the county. So, that's where we are with the traffic caling study. The citywide water system upgrade. So, we have we have a several projects that we're working on. However, we're in a permitting process right now. This includes water mane upgrades, force main upgrades, sewer sewer main upgrades. So, we're we're currently awaiting permitting for se several of those projects. Big question. I know you guys want to know about the water plant. So, um the the right now where we are with that is the goal is to to build a new water plant. Um, I understand it was it was talked about when I was here 10 years ago. It's been 20 years plus maybe in the making. Um, I I believe there's a lot of enthusiasm and um, support to get something done. There there was four there were four uh, scenarios presented to council. Um, and now we're at a point where we're just waiting on direction on which one of those scenarios we're going to uh, move forward with. Um, council did approve us to apply for a wiffy loan. um once we figure out what scenario we're going to go with, we'll we can include that in the W with you alone as far as the ask as far as the money that we're going to need, the funding um to build that new water plant. Um that's where we are with that. Um I know council, they're anticipating bringing that um here shortly. I know I've been working with the with um our consultants as far as uh capital costs and different funding sources and um that's something that's going to be discussed with um by council I think um here in the near future. With that in mind, um we had we had previous plans, no

doubt. So any any plan going forward now will be a new plan uh to to adjust to the economics and also the need. That's correct. That's that's correct, sir. Yes. Yes. And uh the last project I wanted to update you guys on is septic to sewer. It's a great project. Um we have three phases. We're wrapping up the first phase. Uh second phase, we're going to put that out to bid here shortly and we're waiting approval from Miami Day County for our third phase. So um that's a great project getting folks off of the septic the septic tanks and and having them connect to our our sewer system. So that's where we are with our septic to sewer. And if you guys have any questions, I'm here for it. I I notice in my neighborhood restruct section, you've done some sidewalk repair and replacement. Sure. And I noticed this time you're you're using concrete and not uh asphalt to fill in those blank space. And I'm very happy to see that. Is this a continuous project that that that's so far still on schedule to or you know have you you set up a particular timeline so that we can maintain this all the way throughout the entire Yes. So we're currently in a budget um budget getting ready to go on a budget season. So what we typically do is we we allocate funding every year to do uh sidewalk repairs. When you see the black asphalt, that's typically when our maybe our water and sewer guys have gone in, our staff, and just made temporary patches to the sidewalks because we don't have uh we didn't have concrete scheduled for that area yet. So, that's just a temporary thing um from a um safety standpoint, but then we'll go back and do concrete and and fill it in. I know in the past the concrete has stayed for more than just temporary. Yes. So, I've often Yes, sir. wondered about. Yes, sir. In fact, you know, glad

to hear that you are aware of that and that concrete will eventually replace that that asphalt. Um, street lights, street lights with regards to DOT, what their responsibility is along 125th Street and the cities. Um, there's always seems to be a little confusion with that, right? Um, so the street lights that aren't working, can we fix them or is that Department of Transportation? Great, great question. So, depends on where the lights are located. Uh, we actually met with FPL representatives today regarding uh just some of our concerns when it comes to repairing street lights. So, typically, a lot of folks won't don't know this, but most lights in our city, uh, most of them are owned, uh, probably predominantly by FPL. Um, if they're on a F dot right away, they'll be, um, F dot, some are county, and a few of them are cities. So, what we suggest if if you do see a street light out, most of them have tags on and and we got we have a number now. I can share it with Miss Love um from FPL and they're encouraging residents and even we have the number as well is to it's their call center to to report those um that way we can track them. But I know it's confusing sometime, but if it's a long F dot rideway, let us know. We'll reach out to the representatives at FDA to to That's a great idea. And I know that perhaps the council members and all their weekly newsletters they like to put out to talk about what they've done for the city and everything. Maybe they can include that in their little newsletter that there's a way that you can get that pesky street light in your neighborhood fixed finally or whatever. Correct. you know, they there there is a means because I I don't I I know we're aware of it, but you know, we I think we need to educate the

public that they have that means to do that. So, one way is probably just to let the council know that that's correct. Am I Am I wrong with that staff or um the boss man up here, he just said that's correct. Okay, very good. Any other questions? Uh the the street lights on 125th have been out for months from Biscane Boulevard down to uh the canal for God's sakes and even past that is sporadic. I just can't get over you know been out the majority of the lights are out. You go up to 6th Avenue and they're out or 10th Avenue. This is ridiculous. Well, that's that's probably one of the concerns that we did have that we We're glad to be able to pass it along to you. You got a safety, you know, you have a situation right at night just think security and safety and DOT has it, I believe. Yeah, we'll we'll we'll reach out to our representatives. Anyone else have any any input or anything else? All right. Well, I thank you for your uh time to come here and listen to us. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Again, I encourage you all to attend the workshop tomorrow regarding the storm water plan update. Okay. Great. Thank you. Thank you. And let's hope enough of the public also is aware of it so that they will get out. Yes, sir. And play a part in this. Thank you. Thank you very much. Have a good evening. So, um we have no continued public hearing. we can go ahead and move into our public hearing portion of the meeting. And we have three items that we need to address tonight. So, I'm going to go ahead and Mr.

uh Mr. Attorney. Um Gary, do we have any? It's just a quasi judicial, right? No, I don't believe this judicial. Nothing. Nothing that we have is quasi judicial. Thank you very much. Um, so I'm going to go ahead and start with uh PC17-107. This is a resolution of the mayor and the city council of the city of North Miami, Florida, approving and adopting the North Miami 5-year 2025 to 2029 consolidated plan in the fiscal year 2025 and 20 uh 26 annual action plan under the community development block grant which is known as a CDBG and home investment partnership program known as Hom or home. these two programs. This is writing for effective date and for all other purposes. May we have staff report please? Good evening. We have our director of housing and social services here with us. and madam. Um, good evening chairman and board members. Albert Bazil, housing and social services director. In lie of um, a staff report, do we have a PowerPoint presentation for you? again. Good afternoon, good evening. Uh Albert Brazil, I have here with me staff members that can answer question because

I'm it's a lot uh this time. Uh this is our annual meeting. uh every year I come to you for our annual action plan but this year uh per HD requirements we need to submit a five-year consolidated plan every five years so the last time I came to you was during COVID time when we did the 2020 2024 actually this year we are we are doing the last year of the five of the prior five years but you guys need to uh review and advise on this upcoming uh five-year consolidated plan. Along with the five-year consolidate plan, uh there is this coming year annual action plan as well. Uh this is a mandate from HUD. We have to do every five years a consolidated plan to tell them how the city intend to use the upcoming funding that we are going to receive from Hoy. Um it's we have two federal grant program the CDBG and home. It's required for those two. The ship you guys are familiar with it's from the state. It's not a mandate. Uh I came to you for the LHAP. The ship have something different and it's every 3 years. Um the purpose of this consolidated plan is to identify community housing and community development needs. How do we do that? Uh it's just not to identify them, we need to prioritize them. The reason we have we need to prioritize them is because of funding. What we receive from HUD is not enough to cover all the needs that the city has. So most likely um you're going to see that we're going to address all the high needs but

the low needs how to expect private funding, state funding, local funding to cover those those needs. Uh so for the annual action plan now so once we identify all those needs that the city have uh the allocation that we receive on a regular basis on an annual basis we will tell you okay those are the needs this is the funding that we receive this is how we are going to uh allocate those fundings. Uh one things that is important for the annual action plan if um economic development for instance was identified as a high needs as opposed to public facility improvement I cannot allocate funds for public uh facility improvement. We need to approve what was ident we need to allocate fund for what was identified as high needs. If for some reason we need to remove fun from the high needs to the low needs, we need to proceed to do a substantial amendment and explain why we are shifting the funding from the high priority to the low priorities. Again, as I said, low low needs identified must be covered by city funding, local funding or any other funding, but not withh funding. So uh there is a pro there is a process to get to the comp plan. We don't just tell her oh uh we think that the city got housing needs. We think the city need money for public facilities. It is required that we have citizen participation. It can take many forms and some of them are mand are mandatory but it's up to the city to manage to

have all the means to reach out to the maximum uh people possible. So what we did uh we did surveys uh that goes out to all residents, businesses, all the stakeholders, all the people that we partners with uh the grantees uh as well as um workshop for residents. So we go to the residence. We had one we had two workshop uh one on the west side at the Josein Center and we have one at the North Miami Public Library while we were running those surveys. The surveys we won the survey for 45 days to allow ample people to to respond to those surveys. uh and at the end when we close we analyze the data collected and that's where we were able to um classify the needs um uh identified in those surveys. So the purpose of the surveys of those consultation is to identify the needs and the housing needs uh and we use that assessment with all the data that host provide us. If you go I I guess you guys had an opportunity to glance through the 156 pages. It's a lot but some of the data we don't in we don't invent them. So HUD provide the data for the North Miami area. We just have to take them and put them uh in comparison to what people say in the survey. uh using the survey we prioritize uh we show the needs and uh we identify the priority as I said the f the the priorities and needs identified in the con plan uh that's what we're going to follow all along the five years every the annual plan is for us to allocate

the funds that we receive based on the needs identified in the comp plan uh again the funding must be uh allocated based on um needs and priorities but also if the activity is identified as an eligible activity. For instance, uh you they can tell me the city hall needs some repair. Unfortunately, we cannot put federal hard money in public administration. However, I can repair a roof at the alen an enchanted forest. This is a community facility where the population is going to go and use the facility. Uh once we done with the survey consultation with different department required that we have two public hearings. uh the planning commission is considered as the first one and the final approval will go through city council but in between uh the planning commission and the city council we need to have a 30-day commenting period where where this document is going to make u be made available to resident who want to commence it will be available on the city website city wall library and I think um we try our office but it's too small. So, we had to shift back to city wall. Once uh we go we done with the 30 days uh commenting period, we will take the plan to uh city council on June. I think it's going to be June the 24th. Once council approved the final version, we have to submit it um by August 15 to her. If we miss the deadline, we there is no funding for the next coming

year. So how do we get um how do we get the input? Uh I explained it earlier. We go out there. We have um workshop we conduct online. This year we received 262 responses and for the first time uh we have responses that came uh to us in two different language cre and Spanish. We also conduct consultation with uh other government uh agencies for instance uh with the public uh Miami date public housing authority uh with uh hope uh this is one of the organization who work with fair housing. We work with city department for instance uh what currently is big with access uh through internet. So we work with um city department uh the neighborhood uh services department uh we need to advertise in the paper we use social media. So whatever it takes for us to reach the maximum people because uh you will be surprised uh I know one instances where hard uh one local recipient agree to go back and do the citizen participation because they feel like they didn't put too uh that many that much effort to reach out to people. So uh right now today we are here with the planning commission. We're going to city council on June the 24th. Uh in between we're going to have the 30-day commenting period. Now, how do we set uh how do we allocate the fundings? How do how do we set the priorities? So, what we do um we gather all the data provided by HUD uh and we analyze them compared to city

data. So what we have we're going to see uh we look at population trend we look at people who are disabled um um homeless education poverty employment ho how do how does the city compare to Miami date compared to the state and compared to the whole America as a whole uh we get feedback from residents uh to identify the highs and needs this we're going to hear this one a lot because this is the whole purpose to identify the high priorities and the low uh priorities. We rank the needs and uh we need to see uh in some instances uh the data provided by h or by other agencies can go on a different direction compared to what the city reality is. So at that point we need to uh push the analysis to explain to understand why we have this discrepancy uh the demand and timing for the federal funding activity which impact timely expenditure. That's one thing. Sometimes you uh you're going to realize um some uh one item can appear as a high priority. However, we would fund it. we will fund an activity where we can spend the money because it's one thing to get the money if you cannot spend it uh the treasury will get it back. So we need to be mindful of that as well. Uh what we look at also it's what works for us in previous year. I'm going to give you an example. We are struggling to spend the money that we um allocate to economic development. In the other hand, I have uh departments for instance uh the library parks who asking for money to improve their location. So we need to be mindful. I have money sitting down in homeowner down payment assistance first-time home buyer. We cannot spend

it because people cannot afford those prices. And on in the same token I have two people waiting for me. Uh their roof is leaking. So we need to really s uh see what we did in the past, what worked in the past as opposed to where where people say we should put the money. So uh high need uh per hard city should use federal funds for activities under this priority to address unmet needs as oppo low needs. we should look at uh private sector uh other other state agencies local funds uh to address but not use HUD fund to address uh lo needs on your I'm sorry go ahead on the list that we have for instance like extended hands or uh um North Miami community housing those are the agencies all those um you solicit for their input or Yes. Yes. Because Oh, actually I needed Do they come to us and say we can help you out or how do you how do you Okay. So make that determination. This work uh though pay my respect to my staff. They did an amazing job doing the outreach campaign but we have a consultant who work with us. So he is the one sitting down sending the email contacting different department contacting different agency um some of them are local some of them are state to get us those information. So we have a a vendor contractor consultant uh working to put this uh package this plan together with us. Okay. So uh most of the time what we do uh besides local uh agencies we try to reach out to our grantee. You guys are familiar with the CBOS's. Those are

the people that we gave money u set aside from the CDBG. Those are the people who use the money who serve the community. They know more of the needs than we do. So those are the people and we supply those list of agency to our consultant so he can reach out. Okay. So circling back so for this year uh if you look at on the right side of the screen this is how the high needs were um classified. So rehabilitation of existing owner occupied housing came as the first general public services like uh the CBOS uh or where we can refer people um came number two homeless prevention came number three rental housing number four public facility improvement came as number five so uh number two general public services we are limited because uh HUD put a cap on it only 15% of uh what HUD gave us can be set aside for community based organization so regardless uh you will see that we will put 300 into RIA because there is no cap but for public services there is a cap we cannot go above the 15% uh set by her so this year for the record the number that you are looking at here those are 20 2024 numbers we expect to receive our allocation from HUD on May 15 again per regulation HUD authorize us when there is a delay in receiving the allocation from Congress we are authorized to reconduct the prior year numbers so you

might see when we go to city council the numbers here uh will be different. It can be less or more depending uh and that's the reason we're going to have a delay in our uh commenting period. Usually right after the planning commission we open it for public comments but we we're trying to do it after the 15 hoping that HUD will send the fiscal year 2025 2026 allocation so people can review the documents with um actual numbers. So uh here we got uh under CDBG we we received last year 779,123 uh for the year and usually the five year we just multiply the yearly number of the first year of the complaint by five as it's just a projection and we do the same for home. So basically the city expect to receive under those two programs uh for the next coming five years five blocks with CDBG money what we can do we can do housing rea public services improvement of public facilities economic development planning and administration home is more limited than home really focus on housing we can do rehab rental housing rental assistance Shodo uh let me say Shodo is really community housing development organization. Those are people that we gave money to build affordable housing. But uh if you look at our allocation uh our annual allocation um from home is under 300,000. So there is not much really to give uh to a developer uh to build

affordable housing and the the bulk really most of the time go to housing rehab to rental assistance and in some in some instances to firsttime home buyers but I as I explained it's very difficult right now for this population to access uh home ownership Um this is just a summary to see uh that the bulk of the money will come from CDBG a little portion from home but when you put it together it it help uh our residents for for this coming year. This is uh how we intend this is our proposition to allocate the funding. uh we are we can go up to 20% for administration of the program. Usually we try to stay in the 19%. Uh not to go above because if we go above we're in trouble we have to pay back. Uh the bulk per uh the needs identified the bulk will go to housing rehabilitation CDBG public services we cannot exceed 15%. Uh there is the elderly emergency repair. That's one. This one goes uh to the elderly mostly to replace um their HVAC system, their water heater. Really an emergency and it's a grant. There is no repayment for that. Uh we have a portion that will go to uh public facilities for improvement. I think parks and the library are doing a great job using this funding and they um they are spending it timely. As for economic development, there is no limit but there is no set aside for them because they have funding sitting down that they need to spend. Maybe in future years uh we will put something for that for them but as of

now they have funding that they need to spend. Um does the criteria on the income of the um person um does that change with the economy or does that change? No for cost of living or how how is that is it set over the 5year period? Yes, 80% or below. All right. 80% or below. Uh home that's for CDBG home is a little bit more stringent. uh for the rental housing uh for the rental assistance you need to be 60% AMI or under but for the housing rehab is still at 80% uh AMI nothing has changed. Okay. Okay. Uh under home uh we are entitled to 10% for administration. Uh the set aside for housing construction development is mandated. Uh 15% we we we have no choice. We have to set it aside. It's very difficult to find a developer will take $40,000 from us. But hey, uh we have it's mandatory. We cannot use it. Uh in order for us to move that fund to another line item, it's a process with hard. Uh home first time home buyer, as I explained earlier, we didn't allocate anything because we have money sitting here that we cannot use. uh home single family uh we have uh 80,000 and since uh rental assistance was identified as a high needs we have the bulk of the money goes to rental assistance. So after this presentation as I explained we're going to go for the 30 days commenting period from May 19 to June 18. Hopefully we will get uh our allocation from HUD by May 15 so we can get uh the general public uh real

numbers. Uh the complaint and the annual action plan will go to city council for final approval on June the 24th and we plan uh hopefully we will submit uh to her by August 8th just in case they have to send something uh us back to us. We still within the deadline with that conclude my presentation. I'm open for any question you may have. Any thank you. Any questions from anyone before I open this to the public for hearing? All right. Public hearing is now open. Anyone wishing to address the the plan, please step forward. Seeing none, I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing. Public hearing is now closed. Shall we open the I now have the couple of questions. Yes. Okay. Chair recognizes Mr. Each. Well, I I went through the This is a lot of reading here today. Oh my gosh. Um there was a couple of things that I seen in here. We're talking about uh the homeless. Yes. And basically what I was reading in here is like we don't supposedly have homeless, but we do. We we have uh they're on the boulevard. They're u sleeping between Home Depot and uh the 711. They're in the Arch Creek area and and it's becoming more and more prevalent and I I I think we should address that. Uh I thought we had a state law passed where they're not supposed to be on on the city streets, but they are. In fact, uh I I had reported it a couple of weeks ago. I'm walking down the street and this poor woman, she takes her clothes down and defecates right right there. And there's a lot of complaints coming out of the Sanushiary between the Home Depot and the 7-Eleven that that's um it's just intolerable. It's it's a health hazard

back there. So that that's one issue I wanted to bring up. And I was looking through the statistics and on page um I believe it's page 60 and we're talking about all residential properties by numbers and by units and I just wonder where we come up with mobile homes, boats, RV, vans, etc. We have 165 and by ordinance. First of all, I don't know of any uh any mobile homes in the city that you're you're not allowed to occupy them anyway. But uh RVs and boats, you cannot use them in the city as a uh as a dwelling unit. It's on page 60 in the bottom one. It says 165 has at 1%. How did we come up with that number? We don't. It's uh this is uh information provided by heart. This is what I'm sorry. If if you look at the paragraph ahead according to the two 2016 2020 a page 16 paragraph two I I lost you. I'm looking at property by type. It says all property by numbers of units. Page 16. Residential properties by unit numbers. And I'm I'm just wondering how how we came about with that number. some page and show. Yes, m I This was a This was a voluminous report. No, no, no. I My We know. No, but I'm looking at page 60. Are you looking at this uh table here? All residential properties by numbers of unit. On page 60, it's a MA10, the number of housing units, and it drops down all residential properties by numbers of units. It has property types,

one unit detached structures, 7,700, one unit attached structures, 2 to four units, 715, 5 to 19 units about 1995. 20 or more units 10,295, mobile homes, boats, RV, vans, etc. 165. And I just wonder where that how that number came about. So I'm just we I don't came about with that. Those are data provided by hard. Can you hear me? Those are data provided by hard. We don't come up with those uh data. I'm sorry but provided by Debbie who it's if I may, Mr. Chair, please. Yes. Um Debbie, thank you Miss Brazil. This is data from the American Community Survey which is from US Census. That's where HUD gets this information from and they provided this information to Miss Brazil's staff. This came from the census. Yes, sir. Yeah. I mean, that's that's erroneous. So, they've come in and actually identified that there are people obviously living in RVs and boats in the city through the census. That's news to me. Mhm. We don't have any. Uh yeah, but now that brings about the question though that they're not permanent residents. They may not be permanent residents. They in fact may be transitory in nature and and and it's not a it's like a one, you know, I I don't know why they would include that for funding because it's it's you know, they don't specify. No, no, it's not it's not included. I'm sorry. Um, chair. Uh, it's not included for funding. It's the state of the residences in North Miami. It's for you to know. Now, is it is it true we have 165 of those units? This remain

to be verified or to be determined. But that uh actually uh HUD funding cannot go to Mobile House. Okay. As we speak, right? I'm just bringing that up because I I read that. No, no, no. That's all we know. We know. Anyway, all righty. Well, thank you. That's um um to respond to your uh homeless um observation, um I will say for a minute, uh we never had we thought North Miami didn't have homeless. Uh after COVID, it was a different story. Actually, we received I think funding under the American Rescue Plan. really it was uh targeted um it was directed toward toward homeless. At some point we have some issue thinking we won't be able to spend that money because North Miami don't doesn't have homeless. It turns out it's not true. It's small you uh those are the one that you see in Susi in Ash Creek uh consider homeless. If you are sleeping on someone couch you are homeless. You don't have a home. Now, these people are sleeping in the street. They're in the bushes. Um, they're there. And, you know, we can come up with statistics and say we don't have it or this or that, but the fact of the matter is they are there. And what happens is it keeps attracting more and more and the congregation of homeless gets bigger and bigger. And what we're doing, it's a health hazard. Number one. Number two, it depreciates our property values. And number three, it's unsafe. And and I want to bring that to everybody's attention because we just can't keep saying that we don't have it and sweep it under the rug. No, I see it out there on the street. I see it on Biscane Boulevard. And it's a detraction and and it's a bad image for the city. And I don't know where we're at with the state law. There's a state law out there that I thought was passed not not too long ago that uh the city is supposed to

provide uh either remove them from the streets and you know and when you know God go God bless these people some of them are mentally disturbed others are drug addicted. Um, the fact of the matter is that when you on the main street in North Miami, when you're driving southbound and you see somebody urinating or defecating in the street, that's not supposed to be. And that's what I'm just bringing to everybody's attention that we just can't say it doesn't exist. We got to do something about it. And if that state law is there, then we should be not kicking a can down the street. That's what we're doing. Well, I do believe I do believe um the next report that we're going to receive from the American Census Survey, this one is dated we are using right now the two the 20 2016 and the 2020. Uh at that point, North Miami didn't it reflected that North Miami didn't have homeless. Actually, if you look at the section that address uh homeless in our uh comp plan, everything is being referred to my uh to the homeless trust because we thought at that time we didn't have. So, I'm looking forward to see the mo the most updated report from ACS to see how Miami would look like because as of now, if we are using those studies, it just show that North Miami really we we don't have homeless. um and all our all our language. Uh we but it's leaving the impression that we're we're we're pushing it back to the county because of the fact that the day county has a homeless trust which uh um they they have stated that they have a 17% uh reduction in unsheltered homelessness. I can't imagine that. I can't either. Uh that number being being correct from that. Yes, Michael the floor. Yeah.

Um by the way, great job on this. I you I'm sure you spent many many hours just by the size of That's a lot. But um I had a question um in reference to the homeless um and in one Hold on a second. Okay. In what I'm looking at, it says uh one year goals for the number of households to be supported. And it says homeless nine. So what nine homeless households? I I don't understand. Is this um like for instance the shelter that we have over here help or when it says we're going to help nine homeless households. Um, what's the definition of who we're going to help with that with those nine? Who are those nine homes? That's exactly what I just said. Uh, it can be the one that um, Chief identified at the corner of Biscane Boulevard. It can be someone couch surfing. If you are sleeping in someone uh, couch, you are homeless. So either or. So we have funding that can assist at least to put people nine people inside a home for at least one year. So if I had a if I I'm a homeowner and I have somebody sleeping on my couch, I can apply for assistance. This person sleeping in the couch can apply for assistance. Interesting. Okay. Yeah. I just, you know, I just I think this is a moving target. It it the statistics are constantly changing from year to year and and uh the only way that is noticeable is when you do see it

on the street and and uh the frequency of it is is kind of growing. And I suspect that it might even get worse if if we, God forbid, go into a recession or or the economy takes a turn for the worse. And um you know I it just seems like every city I'm sure we're not the only city that has to deal with this now because people are mobile and you may see the same person homeless in parts of downtown and all of a sudden he shows up in another part of Day County in our our neighborhood or in Aventura. You know they those people move around. So, it's it's hard to pinpoint and I don't know if the the homeless stress is overwhelmed or if they actually have a plan, you know, that that's workable, but but you know, we seem to be passing that off to them. There's that impression that we we're you absolutely right because uh for the longest by saying that we don't have homeless. So if you look at language in our documents, we everywhere we say we defer them to uh to Miami date county to the homeless trust. However, uh I we brought on our team uh Mr. Patuto who has some experience uh with working with this population and with like I said with the American Rescue Plan the funding that we receive uh those numbers doesn't hold uh don't hold anymore. We are North Miami is experiencing homelessness. Those numbers does don't hold anymore. So I think at some point we're gonna have the city going to have to sit down and address it. This paragraph to say all the time

that we are sending we are referring them to Miami date county. No, it's not going to hold anymore because it's becoming a it's becoming a lot. And we have some numbers here um I can share with you. I have a small uh table at the end. Uh if you if you guys just look at the last um the table at the end, we started uh do taking intake at the housing and social services department since July to date. Uh we recorded a total of 445 If you look at line number two, rapid uh rehousing moving assistance is 247. So all the calls that we are receiving, those are people who are in the street who need a place to live. If you look at the numbers reflect our situation now people are in the street. This is the mo the highest demand that we have. Look at rehab only 61 people is asking to have their roof repair and so forth. Um they're look they're asking for voucher. We cannot do that because we are not housing authority. But the majority of

of the people need rapid rehousing and moving assistance for a total of 247. Those are not hard fact. Those are not Miami facts. Those are data collected by our staff. So this is new. This is something that at some point that council will have uh to address. So it's just to confirm uh what you say chairman. But for now with limited funding remember CDBG is the biggest portion of my allocation. Rental assistance is not an eligible activity under CDBG. Uh I got less than 300,000 under home and home is the only area where I can do rental assistance. Where is center court? Where is that located? Oh lord. This is something that is coming our way right now. I'm glad you bring that. It's on um that's 6th Avenue. No, 147 and 18 a 1479 and 18th Avenue. 127 147 99 Northeast 18 Avenue. You said 147, correct? Northeast 99 Northeast. Uhhuh. 18th Avenue. Oh, Northeast 18th Avenue. Oh, that's that's behind the the Lexus dealer in that area. Yeah, I know. I know what you're talking about. So, we need to Okay. So, are they are they planning to displace these people or Well, uh they they were uh they were subsidized until uh I think it's going to expired in 2026. So, you have 588 household who won't be able to

afford the rent anymore because they're going to uh bring it to market uh value. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, this is something that we're going to have in our plea to address. One other question I wanted to ask you is um on on rental assistance. Mhm. Uh is that does that have to go through section 8 or can that go through the city? I was a little bit confused on that. Can can can an individual apply to the city and get rental assistance? Yes, they can. They they can. Okay. And that would come from the city, not from section 8? No. Okay. All right. That's good to know. I've got a couple of people I want to refer to you. Thank you. Until funds are depleted. I'm sorry. Until funds are depleted. So when we don't have money, we don't have any. We don't have any. So we we still funded or we're out of funds? Yes. We still have funds. Yeah. As of now. Yes. Okay. All right. For this fiscal year. All right. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Any other questions from the uh panel? Very very indepth and concise report, lot a lot of hard work he put into that. I can I can say it was a lot of hours and we really appreciate it very much. But thank you. Thank you too for taking the time uh to go through it and I I didn't uh told my staff uh be careful. My gentlemen over there, they read the report. So get ready for the question. Oh, it's a Mr. Chairman. Yeah. Yes. Chair recognized Mr. McGot. It's been a motion to approve of 17-107. Do I have a second? Second. Seconded by Mr. Each. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Hearing none. The resolution passes to be sent on to the city council. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you again very much for your terrific presentation and and hard

work and the rest of your your staff that's with you tonight. We thank you for coming also. All right. Um I'm sorry, chair. Um I know Vice Chair McDermade made the motion. Who seconded it? Second. It was Mr. Commission. Commissioner and it was unanimously passed. Wonderful. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. All right. Uh moving along. Uh, do we want to we want to wait for the attorney to come back? Mr. Hel Mr. Held has left the building. There you are. You're here. All right. I apologize. I didn't see you there, sir. All right. So, we're going to go ahead and move on to the next item. That next item is PC1 17-108. This is an ordinance of the mayor and the city council of the city of North Miami adopting amendments to volume one goals and objectives and policies of the city of North Miami 2045 comprehensive plan in accordance with the requirements of section 163.31 84 parenthesis 3 Florida statutes in 2024 and chapter 29 article 3 division 2 section 3-12 parenthesis Okay. And sections 3-15 through 3-11 of the city of North Miami code of ordinances specifically by amending the future land use element to create a new northwest 7th Avenue Cultural Arts and Innovation uh overlay district with related goals, objectives, and policies and amending the future land use map to reflect the boundaries of the new overlay district providing for an adoption hearing. and subsequent transmitt of the proposed amendments and supporting data and analysis to the

state land planning agency for a determination of completeness providing for repeal conflicts severability and effective date staff may proceed. Good evening chair and commission members. These the two items before you are companion items and may I I request that they be heard at the same time, sir? Yes. And so we need to read in the ordinance on the second ordinance. I have no problem. Everybody in agreement with that? That' be okay. Sure. All right. We are in agreement. Yes, sir. Would you go ahead and read then the second item then, sir? Yes. So, as a companion item, PC17-105, a resolution of the mayor and the city council of the city of North Miami, Florida, approving an application for conditional use permit. Oops, sorry. This somehow got mixed in with me here. Here we are. Okay, we'll begin again. This is PC17-109 and I apologize for that mistake. An ordinance of the mayor and the city council of North Miami, Florida providing for touch amendments to chapter 29 of the city of North Miami code of ordinances entitled land development regulations by amending article 4 zoning districts. Article 5 development standards and the official zoning map establishing the northwest 7th Avenue cultural arts and innovation overlay district providing for repeal conflicts severability correction of scriers errors and for an effective date. Now I'll be happy to go ahead and have you begin your presentation noting both here that will will address questions pertaining to both. Once again, for the record, Debbie Love,

development services director. The two items before you were requested by city administration um to implement the Northwest 7th Avenue Cultural Arts and Innovation District redesation that was completed um a couple years ago. And as noted in in the staff report, um that was the former Chinatown district for any of you who may remember. And so there's a different vision for that area now. And this it is specifically outlined the vision is specifically outlined both in the comprehensive plan amendment and the purpose as well as in the land development regulations. and I'll just go over some highlights uh of what's in the staff report uh for your consideration. The area involved is between 119th Northwest 119th Avenue and Northwest 135th. Um and this is this is an additional overlay that's specific to that area. you have underneath there all the C1 properties and it involves all the C1 properties that are in this this blocked out area. Um nothing has changed by this overlay relative to height or density. The the planned corridor development district overlay that's there already for Northwest 7th Avenue that extends all the way the length of the corridor. um it is still in place, still effective that controls the density and height. Uh and it also has uses under the underlying C1 zoning district. And as

you recall, the purpose of an overlay is to allow some additional um abilities for development in a particular zoning district. So this is involving only the C1 properties. Uh behind the C1 properties are actually um uh an RO zoning district that this does not apply to. It's a buffer between the commercial along Northwest 7th Avenue and then the residential that is behind the residential office zoning district. So that's one of the reasons why it's limited to 55 ft on that side of the corridor on the western side of the corridor. side, right? Because we don't we did not when we established this a long time ago, the city did not want to disturb that um and let the 200 ft go all the way up and so it it stays at 55 ft. So this particular thing, it doesn't as again it doesn't change the density, doesn't allow any additional units that that is not currently allowed in the PCD. But what it does do is it creates a uh an innovation district that the focus is on entertainment. It's focused on cultural arts um technology and innovation. Um this is there we're also potentially looking at this area uh as a smallcale manufacturing opportunity like um Mrs. Smith soaps that they want to manufacture. Uh so there this is a focus and this is the district vision. Currently they have uh developed the public realm design guidelines and are working this is the CRA and they are working uh on the private realm design and guidelines because they're establishing a facade

improvement program. So, um, a lot of what's happened in in here in the city is you all had mentioned it last time with that Cava bar. The code is great until it's not. And it really there's a lot of hoops to jump through to have have a bar district or a brewery district or an entertainment district, specifically as when it comes to alcoholic beverages. and there's a different focus now on this particular area. So the next steps are going to be the same for both of them. Uh we have the first reading planned for 624 before city council but this is the comprehensive plan amendment and that was necessary to establish it in a comp plan. It will then go to the state and so then once the state is okay with it comes back we'll adopt go to second reading and adopt both the final comprehensive plan amendment as well as this have the second reading for the LDRs. So let's talk a little bit about the LDR component. Again, as I said, it doesn't change the density or the height in that area, but what it does do is expands the allowable uses. And the idea is to make some of these things an easier process where it doesn't require a special exception, doesn't require going before board of adjustment. Um, and it it makes things more streamlined and allows uh, for example, if we wanted to have a brewery district, now the way the code reads in the distance separation, you can't be close to another bar, which is one of the reasons why that gentleman had to come before you before for that bar-c here in the downtown because of

the distance separation from other bars. Um, and so this will slightly modify all of that and allow it to have live work studios focusing on music and entertainment venues, outdoor recreation. And as you can see in the staff report, it's and in the ordinance itself, not only does it encourage these types of uses, but it also prohibits certain uses like secondhand stores, smoke shops, um, and child daycare centers. These were very specifically requested again by uh administration to for the vision for that area. Uh we as I mentioned we do have specialized alcohol beverage regulations only for that district. Uh and um I'll I'll touch on those just for a bit. When you go to the ordinance in your package, you can see that uh let's see, for example, section the the new section 9005 that we're creating for alcohol beverages and it's um it's exclusively again to the C1 zone properties. We are removing the because here here's here's what happens is Florida has very um al for the alcohol beverages. They allow the local jurisdiction to make the determination about distance separations if any. Uh and right now we have distance separation and you could see in the chart further on in the ordinance under section 5-908 you have distance separations from

other bars from uh you cater from residential from religious institution uh and parks. So, what we've modified is to there are going to be distance separations regardless for all properties 300 ft from schools except for nightclubs. We're not modifying the distance separation requirements for nightclubs. They still have to go through the same approval process that they have to come before board of adjustment. uh they still have to meet the same distance separation requirements. Those are rather intense and um we don't want to allow them close to religious institutions, residential or any of that. So the nightclubs are the biggest issue that we have in that area. Can you can you define nightclub? Yes, sir. as compared to a lot of a lot of what you see in the city of Miami are called enter u enter dance clubs bottle clubs we do not allow bottle clubs dance clubs music club would they have to be defined as a nightclub yes that's how we define them as a nightclub we say any restaurant dining room or other establishment which operates after there's a typo there 3:00 a.m. where alcoholic beverages are licensed to be sold and consumed on premises and where music, dance floor, floor shows or other forms of entertainment are provided. And then what we did do is we did a clarification for the definition of nightclub that says it does require board of adjustment approval and an issuance of a music and entertainment license. So we tighten that up. We

removed the issue that you had with the cobble bar by deleting food andor um so that places who don't serve alcoholic beverages even if they have music and food are not nightclubs right and that's what was happening with that cava bar that you had adult entertainment facil adult entertainment establishments how was Is that defined as not a nightclub or a nightclub? No, they're How does that fall in line with They're actually their own entity, adult um clubs. They're not included in the definition of this night club. No. No. So um adult entertainment is its own its own entity and this is not included in this? No sir. It's very clear that it is only those things that are doing the other forms of entertainment u music things like that but not adult centered kind of nightclubs. I know what you're thinking. No, it that is a different section of the code. Okay. So um what this does is it allows it says look you don't need any distance separation except for schools for things like um other types of like bars and lounges and micro breweries um restaurants and cafes uh and music and entertainment venues. You still have to be 300 ft away from a school but except for nightclubs. nightclubs are still required to meet this the all the distance separation requirements currently established in the code. Uh we did change the hours of

sale and consumption just for that area because currently the way the code reads is [Music] that we don't allow any alcohol beverages to be served between the hours of 1:00 a.m. and 7 a.m. in the city Monday through Friday and between 2 and 7. So, we made an exception to carve out this district to extend the hours of service between 2 am from 1 1:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. and between so between 2:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. and between the hours of 3:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. And then you can see that we have modified that to reflect um that while you can serve it sell it up to a certain point time of day you can't and but you can consume it for the next half hour. So it allows you to buy until 3:00 a.m. for example on a Saturday night and you you have to consume and you're done by 3:30. Is is that a local specifically to us? Is that is that something the state controls? No, the state doesn't control that. The state allows you to there's a default in there if you don't establish your own and it's much it's it's closer to what we have currently. Um but that's the default. And so we wanted to address the request of an administration to extend the hours of alcohol consumption without having to go through special approvals as you have to now if you do anything after 11 p.m. Now bear in mind there's other establishments in other districts. What are their guidelines for for hours? The

same as what it is currently. We didn't change those. No. But I mean, is that different than are are we extending those hours for just this district? Yes, sir. If they have a 2 o'clock cut off that they can't challenge that and say, "Listen, you're allowing 3:00 a.m. and this district, why can't I appeal for 3:00 a.m. closing time?" Because it's not allowed outside of this area. This is only limited to the Northwest 7th Avenue Cultural Arts and Innovation Overlay District. Otherwise, it remains the same as it is today for everywhere else in the city. And I suspect that what may happen come back to you at some point is in the downtown. um administration may seek to uh address the downtown because right now if we wanted to have bars here in the downtown there's a distance separation and they have to go through the variance and the things that we had like the gentleman had to do at our last variance at our last BOA meeting and I think that's probably going to come back to do something similar in the downtown but right now this is only going to be applicable between 119th and 35th in the C1 properties in that overlay district. So in other words, this is kind of a trial balloon. It is something for that district alone and then if the city wishes to uh look at how the downtown functions and what they're actually looking to achieve in the downtown if uh for example uh if they want to move that forward. I know there has been a couple of mentions to me that that is of interest and so that may come back, but right now it's only going to be applicable to this district. Um, real quick, I want to open up the public hearing, close it, and I want to

bring the council or the planning commission in on this because I have a couple I I need to get some questions answered from some people that might have a little bit more knowledge about this. So, if you don't mind, I'm going to go ahead and open a public hearing. Public hearing is now open. Chair recognizes that there's nobody uh coming forth to address this item. So, I'm therefore going to go ahead and close the public hearing. Madam Secretary, you did not receive any communications wishing to express interest in this. So, the public hearing is now closed. And uh so I'm going to turn my attention back to you Debbie if we can since we're just us basically and we can have a little bit more further discussion. So I know there's several on the committee that were on our commission that you know want to see this happen and and it's it's terrific. Um, and then but uh I want to get back to the the hours of operation. I want to ask u Mr. Each um from your experience with law enforcement in the past and a and a drinker at night and a drinker at night which you know I I I certainly have had my shares of closing places at 5:00 a.m. in the morning. Trust trust me. But I Again, 3:00 a.m. is, you know, how did that number come about as opposed to 2 am or 4 a.m., right? It extending it an hour. That was it. That's as an incentive or just as something that's workable or aligned with the other changes we're making. It will prevent many of the folks who have to go get special permission to operate

after 11 p.m. Mhm. It takes that out of the mix because right now anybody who as the code is currently written anybody like the Cavalar that they may not have alcohol, right? But they want to operate after 11 p.m. and they have a spoken word or poetry night or whatever. They're considered to be a nightclub and this takes that out of the mix and makes it a less ownorous process on anyone who wants to come in and participate in the entertainment overlay district. I know there's there are jazz clubs that stay open till 5:00 a.m. in the morning. Um, and I I went to those or I went to, you know, clubs that have music until late at night. And uh I can appreciate that for the something I don't do now, but I did certainly did my share of it when I was younger and and there's still an interest in that. But I I just was curious of how that 3:00 a.m. time time. Well, nothing really good happens after 3:00 a.m. in the morning. And that's why I so that was my recommendation was to extend it an hour but to fix the nightclub section so that these folks um and the fact and acknowledge that these are not going to have to go through special exceptions to operate after 11 p.m. It streamlines that process tremendously. Is that is as you know that's a big hurdle that and an expensive hurdle that has to you know be climbed. The chair recognizes Mr. L or commission chair or attorney. Yeah. I have a question on the definition of nightclub. The lessons you're adding the language I'm adding to nightclub. Let me get to that section. Sir,

that uh consolidated plan takes up a lot of my book so bear with me just a moment. Way way in the back. Okay. Yeah, way in the back. Yes, sir. About the sentence that reads, "Establishment of nightclub shall require approval by the board of adjustment and issuance of a music and entertainment license." Right. That is the current process, but it's underlined. That's adding that text to it. Yes sir. Right. So what if they satisfy all distance separation requirements? That's then they why would they need to go to the board of adjustments? Because some require special exception to do have a nightclub. Okay. And that comes through the board of adjustments. Question from Mr. McM. Yes sir. You know I I don't want something to be is not necessarily a bad word. Um, universality in it, it probably is, but the changes you're suggesting are just for the new corer. Correct. That is correct, sir. In other words, if there's somebody else that's coming in for an exception from another part of the city is still going to be under the old code. Correct. That is correct, sir. Okay. The language we added to the nightclub was a clarifying language so that people know straight up you need to go to board of adjustment and then you're going to need a music and entertainment license. Mr. Reach, I wanted to turn it over because I I wanted to direct a couple questions to you, sir. based on your experience as a former police chief of the city of North Miami, um what is your take on establishments and the security and and and incident situations that might come up with later hours.

Yeah, that depends on the establishment, the type of clients that are going in there. I remember Big Daddy's now called Flanigans. Yeah. On Biscane Boulevard and 134 132nd Street. It's still there. That's I don't ever remember a problem with it. You know that, you know, I hear again it depends on the establishment, the type of clientele. Now, I can remember places back in the day. I'm going I've been out of the job for almost 20 something years, 27 years. But I I remember some of the bars. They used to be called beer and wine places on 7th Avenue and and they were ter I mean just hell holes and I think their license closed at 2:00 in the morning and I I can remember you know knock down dragout fights in there and across the street on 7th Avenue. It depends upon the establishment and the type of clientele you have. Now once they become a nuisance you can shut them down. I mean there's no excuse for that. And one of the things that I I I find very interesting, I know we're on the board of adjustment, but having a nightclub on the west side of the street that abuts the residential area, we don't that that's kind of null and void. I think we we had a couple incidents come up on 119th Street between uh 12th to 17th Avenue. We just reach over the fence and that's the residential area there. So you really, you know, it's a mixed bag. You know, you try it. If it works, fine. If not, you pull their license. But just remember, it's currently allowed on both sides. Now, yeah. Yeah. Right. So, if you're recommending that they don't allow nightclubs to be on the west side, I I I would kind of go along with that. Uh my question to you, I was going to ask you, is sir, why are we stopping at 135th

Street on the east side? We I think this we go up to 143rd if I'm not mistaken. Not in the Yes, we do. But the chi this is the Chinatown former stopped out of Chinatown. Yes. 119 to 135th. Let me let me suggest something if I may. I mean, you did a nice job with this project in the Chinatown. I'm glad it's kind of null and void now. That's a good uh but you know we we could go right for redevelopment up there. You got the flea markets and you got some areas. I think there's a bar up in that neck of the wood. I I would extend it to 143rd Street. Well, that would require going back to city council for a resolution to modify the boundary that's already been established via resolution. So, if that is the if that is a recommendation of the planning commission, then you certainly can make that recommendation as part of your recommendation this evening. But I did want to point something out to you. I thought about these large bars or these large venues um and looking if you'll look underneath the hours of cons and consumption um it's section in the new section 5905 if you look at E operational requirements for large establishments for establishments with indoor occupancy of 300 or more persons the following plans must be submitted as part of their certificate of use and or whatever approval, but we're doing it for the certificate of use application. They have to have a security plan, a crowd management plan, and a noise control plan if within 200 ft of any residential use, right? Even though there's a distance separation beyond that, there

could be the odd house that we really believe that they need to have a sanitation plan, a noise control plan and yes and so that whole noise control plan would depend upon the um we don't want people outside. So that noise control plan is not just soundproofing because it could be a bar and not really a nightclub, but it's a very large restaurant with a you know or a large bar rather. And so you we still want to have sanitation plan, noise control plan, cow control and a security plan. So that that we don't have this now. We do not have this requirement anywhere now. And does that include parking and overflow parking? Yeah. And yeah, that's that's the other thing under your proud management. You're not going to have that much parking. You have an alleyway behind there. U you know, I came I came on the job in 70 and they had places um uh up in in the industrial area off of Biscane Boulevard called the world and a couple I I I heard about it. I I never went to it. uh you know it was closed down by the time I got here but supposedly they they were some wild places back in the day and the cops would get into a knockdown drag out up there but the reason I was suggesting going up to 143rd is because your backdrop is I 95 and that's a big separation from the residential area and you know and that area is right for redevelopment and I would just add that to your mic I would just add that I would suggest to the city council that they Your mic is not on, sir. I'm sorry. I thought I had it on. Okay. Uh I I would suggest that we add that because that area up there is right for

redevelopment. You got the flea market up there and a couple other things that would be nice to see that stuff go and uh you know have some more of a uplifting atmosphere, nightlife atmosphere up there and it wouldn't intrude on the residential area. Well, once again, this was already established. They would have to go and they would have I'm just going to, you know, put that in there and recommend it. Of course, just as long as every So, you're you would like to add a recommendation. And you'll vote on that and before we leave tonight, right? Recommended to extend on that side. Yeah. I think it's 143rd. Is it 143rd? Yes. East side. Correct. Yeah. On east side. Yeah. A question to Mr. Held um and to Debbie. Mr. Held, if you can hear me, sir. Um, I' I'd like to see if we can make a motion on on the suggestion that Mr. Each has just brought up about extending that. If we can do that now as a part of our discussion or should we finish up our discussion? I think you should finish your discussion, sir, and then we can bring all of your motions at one time. Very good. Thank you. Um, Kenny, anything else you want to No, that's it. That's uh I could see this coming to fruition. I think it's something that they want and something that could use over there. Well, I would like to thank uh this um Miss Warren for her input along with Mr. Held as and commenting on the draft document that documents that are before you in these two ordinances. Um, I appreciate their wisdom and their um, gentle touches and they didn't hit

me too hard. Um, but uh, I as always I do appreciate their feedback and input into this. Just to clarify, all of these changes your mic sir. It's it's on. So all of these changes that are affecting this new development on 7th Avenue are primarily are they on extensive on both east and west side. We don't really have a whole lot of development right now going in northwest 7th Avenue. That's the purpose for I know activating this district. Okay. But activating this district it fi it it universally affects both sides of the street. Correct. That is correct. all the C1 zone properties uh because that's what we were requested to do on both sides. Now the height is only limited to 55 on the west side the west side and again up to 200 feet on the east side which is the side along I 95. Yeah, the um there's currently an establishment on the east side of 7th Avenue and every time they have an event, I get phone calls and I live don't live on the west side, but I get phone calls about the loud music, the traffic, and just the the mess that's there. Um, I think you know which one I'm talking about, but it seems every time they have an event, they go beyond the hours, the music can be heard blocks and blocks away. So, I I'm just thinking if we allow those kind of facilities on the west side, it's going to be a nightmare for the homeowners over there. Right. So, what I'm saying to you is that you have the option, I was asked for both sides. you have the option of making a

recommendation. And I would tell you that nightclubs would are the issue and those things that are temporary use permits because they can still request a temporary use permit um from the city manager to operate to sell alcohol and consume alcohol up to 5:00 a.m. through a temporary use permit. That's the flexibility that we're allowing through the temporary use permit. Um, but in regards to that specific problem, uh, there are it's a it's it's challenging and I know code enforcement of neighborhood services has their hands full. This is actually going to codify and encourage people to be in compliance because you don't have to go you have to go through certain steps. Um unfortunately there are people who are always going to not follow the rules and they are rapidly being shut down and enforcement is um is being directed in evening sweeps through with NSD and police. So hopefully they are slowly chipping away at the problem areas. But this and I can't control that piece of it. I think it's a I think that that whole spur of creating a district that will spur development on 7th I think it's a wonderful idea and congratulations uh to you and putting this together. I'm just concerned in the nightclub venue what's going to happen to the homeowners. I mean if we get complaints all the time about something that's already on the east side putting them on the west side is just going to be a a nightmare. I hear you. Res and that is certainly something that you can recommend to city council that

they do not allow nightclubs to be on that side of um and then just go with the other bars and things like that because the nightclubs seem to be the most challenging. And with this large venue operational standards, these are things that should be do be happening now. And if they had produced those things, if we did have those requirements, we would not have had some of the issues that we've had. Um, so this requires them to produce the security plan, to produce the sanitation plan, to produce the noise plan. All of those things have to be approved by the city in order for you to operate on. Yeah. Council, can I a question? Can can we like approve the plan with the suggestion that uh the um changes in the nightclub uh bar be restricted to the east. I mean li limited to the west east side rather than universally east and west. Well, I'm not sure you you would say it exactly like that. Well, that's why I'm asking you because you know how to say no. I think what you I would definitely say what you want to say is new establishments would not be allowed. New nightclubs would not be allowed on the west side. New nightclubs for sure. Expressly stating that. Okay. Yeah. Yes. I I would like it's so confusing with the changing regulations and what's permitted now and what's not. So you you should be really upfront. how you're saying. And and also Debbie, you did mention that the some of the standards that would have to be put in place would be that soundproofing within indoor venues only. You are not they are already required to do

soundproofing. Sir, you nightclubs can only be in a soundproofed building. However, the challenge is not the necessary. the soundproofing is when they take it outside. That's what I'm asking. When they have this Yeah. So, how can we how can that be addressed and not have it be in conflict with um an outdoor cafe? Well, an outdoor cafe cannot be soundproof. So, it would never be a nightclub, right? And then uh we have a noise ordinance. So you couldn't allow outdoor restaurants to go beyond have music beyond 11 p.m. because we do have a noise ordinance. This isn't changing that. Um but nightclubs, you just said the nightclubs have to be soundproof currently. But what we've added is we've added the requirement. Now this is for 300 or more persons, which isn't a lot of people when you thinking of a nightclub. They have to add they have to now produce a security plan, the crowd management plan, the noise control plan, and a sanitation plan. Things that are not required currently. But my concern is I'm sorry. My concern is like with all the things that we passed is enforcement. Guatemal enforcement. Enforcement. We can we can anyway I know that and that's a difficult situation. I understand that. So, my amendment would be to limit the new um club the new regulations for clubs to be on the um east side as the council suggested. Well, remember it's not new regulations for nightclubs. We are not new establishments. New establishments then would prevent bars and things like that from happening. And the bars are not the issue. It's the nightclubs that are the problematic ones in the city. So, we're

not changing any requirements for nightclubs. What Mr. H what if you if you do not want to allow nightclubs on that side of Northwest 7th Avenue recommend to city council that they prohibit new nightclubs from coming into the city on the west side of that corridor. Okay, that's my recommendation. Okay. All right. Let's hear from some other people. a chance to no nightclubs on the west side. You have two amendments so far, Mr. Hull. Yes. One is to extend the district to 143rd and the second is no nightclubs. No new nightclubs on the west side. Yes. and and also that that will be reflected in the map that we are also the companion item that that the that we will have to change the language on the map. No, sir. To indicate indicate that extension if we recommend it to go 143rd. Well, you're going to have to change the map anyway for the new boundary because we don't have a a Chinatown overlay on our map. So, the map's going to change for that purpose. And then if council approves that, we would then change it to extend it up to 143rd. Yes, sir. So, you'd want to say amend the map as well to extend the boundary. Right. Um I'm sorry, Mr. Pierre. Um nothing new. Just was going to say it's a wonderful idea and u I agree with um Mr. McDermott that uh those homes are really close to that

area on the west side. So, new nightclubs or any nightclub really would be bothersome. Well, just remember the distance separation has not changed for nightclubs at all. They are still have the same distance separation from residential uh nightclub currently and still will have uh 1,500 ft from another nightclub, 2500 ft from a religious institution, 2500 feet from schools, and 20 and 1,500 from parks and residential. That has not changed. We're not proposing any change to that. You're only referring to new facilities, right? Because any existing uh you know, they're going to be non-conforming. The reason that is the fact that um if we if this becomes successful, we're going to have all kinds of people coming in and um you know the west side of North Miami has been sort of um uh I won't say forgotten, but but in in need of this kind of thing. And I think everybody agrees with that. It's just so you don't want to put something that's more encumbersome on the neighborhood. you know, it's the neighborhood's beginning to come back, people are moving in, things are good happening. Um, and some people who may want to open facilities may not have a consideration for the residents. Um, as you but anyway, so my amendment stands. Thank you. But I just wanted to clarify that the distance separation for nightclubs are not being reduced unlike bars and other types of facilities. new ones coming in. Only the new ones coming in. The the others that that are existing, they will become lawfully

non-conforming. Okay, Mr. Besson, we haven't heard from you tonight. If uh you care to address this, sir, you have one, two, three. Now it's on. Couple of questions. Uh how did this Chinatown district get its name? Many moons ago, our current mayor was the district um representative and I had the pleasure to to be the consultant for that project. That was named before I that was named way before they hired me as a consultant. So that came through city council and the the uh district representative at the time. Okay. had nothing to do with Chinese restaurants, Chinese or Asian. They were looking to create something different that was unique in and um since that time there's actually been a couple that have come about elsewhere. I think uh I want to say North Miami Beach was trying to do something like that. Um and uh and so they put a lot of time and effort into doing that research as to something to stimulate and that's why that was originally started and now we want to continue on but actually move it into a slightly different direction um that doesn't have the Asian aesthetic attached to it. Okay. Um, were there any other areas in the boundaries of North Miami that were considered as well to put in a to put in a entertainment and cultural arts district or area that could be could concentrate these types of businesses and establishments? Not

yet. I um because each area has a slightly different focus. in the downtown. Um when we did the downtown I had I again I had the pleasure of working on the downtown and major quarters master plan for the city and it was envisioned in the downtown was a slightly different um uh I guess idea that to have a big focus in the downtown and that's why they established the NRO in 2010 was to focus development into the downtown. Currently, the only thing I've heard I've been requested to work on is this district right now. And I'm sure at some point in time, as I said, they may come back and do try to do want to do something special for the downtown. Um, another question, the separation of nightclubs is set at 1500 ft. Uh, what is the total distance between 119th Street and right now 35th Street. You know, you would ask me that. I know. I'm kind of technical. Yeah, I I'm so sorry. I don't have I used to know that off the top of my head. My apologies, sir. I don't We can probably, you know, Well, to give you an idea, St. James is on 131st. So, do the math. If you want, 1500 or 2500 feet in this case because it's both a school and a church. Just so you can kind of see the blocks. Yeah, I was looking on uh just so you could slap I think there's a way of drawing pins between two points or something. And I used to know this by heart. My apologies. Well, anyway, the the point being I don't really care what the the distance is at the moment. If you want to create a district where you have drawing people, younger people specifically, because I'm not going to go out to a club at 3:00 in the morning.

used to do that when I was 18, but then you could drink at 18 in in New Jersey and New York. Um, he used to go to a club and you go to another club and sometimes you do a pub crawl, things like that. Does the 1500 ft diminish the concentration of nightife so that people won't be attracted to this area as much as they would where you can walk around Windwood and you can hit a club and they can hit another club and people get go on foot. You'll still have bars. We removed the distance separation from other bars. Mhm. So a bar is doesn't function the same as a nightclub and so the limitation to nightclubs remain and that's why we took away so we can allow a concentration of bars and an entertainment district. Uh that was the idea. If if you go down Clatus Street in Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, which is packed almost every night, it uh it's bar after bar after bar. That's right. And u so I mean I you know I I don't find that objectionable by any means. It's convenient and it it is a concentration and very well very well patrolled both by um citizens uh it's like a citizens police or or neighborhood patrol and u they're very well trained and and it can work and I think street is kind of proven that Hollywood is another Hollywood downtown is another great example there's a not nightclubs there along Hollywood Hollywood Boulevard, their bars and restaurants. And so be by removing these distance separation for bars. One of the things we had talked about early in 2018 was creating a brewery district around beginning with our anchor brewery here. And because of the way the code

was written at the time, there was just you can't accomplish that because of the distance separation. So, so this does allow a better concentration of the type of entertainment venues, music, particularly music, entertainment, and cultural arts that is being sought for in that district. And it's worked. We've I've seen it work seen it in other areas of other cities and and uh it's they've been doing it for a long time. This is new for us, but u you know Hollywood I remember a few years quite a few years back we actually took a tour. They put us on a North Miami bus took us up there to take a look at at Hollywood Boulevard and what they had done with that and Mike you were part of that. Remember what we went through on that? So you know this is not a new concept. It's something that we've never had had the opportunity to to explore and and to develop. So when you're writing codes like this, it's hard to think of every single thing, right? So that's the planning commission, um, city council, my colleagues, Mr. Hell and Miss Warren um putting a putting their brain power with my little pea brain in trying to come up with something that is going to serve well for the long term. And it and we have to just remember that these are living uh codes and as you see things are not working which is why we're going to be starting our LDR updates. I'm going to give a commercial here in a moment. Um that's why you change and you see what is happening. What are the trends? It's not static and we stayed static way too long in and in in our

code for many many years before the term nightclub scares residents to be very honest with you and that's why I wanted to explore what we were defining as a nightclub. Um because it's often misconstrued as far as that definition. In fact, I don't I to be honest with you, I haven't heard the term nightclub used mostly. It's been I go clubbing or I you know I go to a dance club or um you know a music venue or something like that. So they I think the industry itself shies away from that term nightclub because of the misconception. So, and and that neighborhood only has and that neighborhood only has one example of a quote nightclub anyway. So, yeah. And it's and and unfortunately there's others there that aren't really official and are problematic. Yeah. And the existing one um seems to be problematic as well. So once again, while I can't address the ones that are currently approved and there the one or two that is currently approved, this will assist us in having a district that has limited nightclubs still with distance separation requirements, plus more standards for what they have to produce and go by before they get approved. Mr. Mr. Mr. Bess, were you done, doctor? I'm sorry. Pretty much. I think North Miami is overdue for a project like this. I like the idea. I am in support of Mr. McDermade that if you put these clubs on the west side of the street, and I was just looking at how close they are, no matter what you do to a building, unless

you spend an inordinate amount of money, you will not You will not stop these subwarer subsonic sounds from penetrating right through the walls even into the ground. So good idea. East side. Okay. Um we've heard everybody uh Mr. McDermy, you have the floor, sir. Yes. First off, I want to say thank you to Debbie and the staff uh for working on this and doing this. I think it's an important growth uh for the 7th Avenue area. Um, but I would like to, Mr. Chairman, make a motion in PC17-108 and PC-17109 to move for approval with the two amendments. Can we do one at a time? Oh, you want to do one at a time? Yeah. And start with 107. All right. So, u, Mr. Chairman, the top plan, I guess it's 108. 108. 108 and 109, but 108 alone, right? because the 108 is you have to look at the language in 108 um in the comprehensive plan. It's not as specific as what you're looking to achieve in in the second product because here in the future land use ordinance it's just establishing it. It's providing some policies of related to you know artists and things like that and it doesn't have the specificity regarding nightclubs. So I'm not aware in anything that's written here based upon what you've told me today that would need to be amended be 109. It would be an item 109. Yes sir. Okay. All right. Mr. Chairman in PC17-108. Uh I move approval. This item has no amendments. May I ask? Okay. Well, did you want to talk about the extension of the district to the north?

That's true. That's true. So, the one amendment would be the extension of the district, right? To 143rd. Is that what it was? Yeah. With the amendment to extend the boundaries of the district to 143rd Street. Right. Yes, sir. Perfect. Okay, we have a motion on the floor. I'll call for a second. Second. Seconded by Mr. Each. We'll do a voice vote on this. Um um Okay. So, Mr. We'll start with you, Chairman East. I mean, sorry, I mean, Chairman Ernst, let's go. I'll take it last and then Oh, let's go with Mr. Besson. Okay. Chairman Bessum. Yes. Yes. For approval. Yes. Mr. Bessum. Commissioner. Yes. I said chairman Bess. I'm sorry. Commissioner. Okay. Commissioner Bob. Commissioner Bob is a yes. I'm so used to starting with chairman. Okay. Commissioner um each. Yes. Mr. Each is a yes. Mr. Commissioner um Andre. Yes. Yes. Commissioner I am Vice Chair McDermade. Yes. And finally, Chairman Erns. And I I am a yes. So it's unanimous. So the motion passes unanimously. Okay. For item for item one PC 17 PC 17108. 108. Okay. Mr. Chairman in PC17-109 move approval with the amendment um to restrict new uh nightclubs from the um west side of the district and also the same extension of the district to 143rd Street. and the extension of the district to 143rd Street. Okay, those amendments have been noted. So, there's a amendment. There's

a There's a motion. There's a motion on Yes. Vice Chair McDerm made. I need a second. Please. Second. Okay. Seconded by Commissioner each. We're going to take a roll call. So, yes, I'll take a roll call on this also. Okay. Was sector Besson. Commissioner Besson. Yes. Commissioner Pierre, yes. Commissioner Bob, yes. Commissioner each, yes. Vice Chair McDermade, yes. And Chairman Erns, yes. Again, PC17-109 passes unanimously. Thank you very much. That item is closed. Great. and we'll uh finish up the evening. Uh ask staff if we have any committee reports to make. No, sir. Okay. Uh any old business that we haven't? No, sir. Coming around to new business. New business. Yes, ma'am. Yes, LDR. Um we are scheduling the community workshops for the similar to your discussion like we had with you all. We're going to have those same discussions with the city residents and business owners and whoever would like to turn out. Um the first one is scheduled on January January January June 2nd. It will be at the Scott Galvin Center. June 11th will be at the Griffing Center and the other two will be scheduled in de July. And most likely they will be one will be at the um I'm not sure the date yet. They have not been set. The venue is one will be at the Joe Celeston Center and the other

will be at the library and we will definitely uh keep you a prize. We do have a website that I hope everyone um goes and checks it out on our department page LDR update. will have an opportunity for you to sign up uh for any notifications and that location will have draft documents. It will have a survey. It will have a lot of information and so I encourage you to share that information with um everyone you know and drag the turn out and the conversation with the community. We really would appreciate that. And with that, that is the end of staff's uh item, sir. Very good. Um, at this point I'll call for an adjournment. Motion, if so moved, second it. Second it. Anybody like to go home? Dr. B. Sir, could you just tell me the time please? We are joining uh adjouring at uh 9:04. Wonderful. Thank you.