Remarks by Rachel Streitfeld
749 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 24 of 30
“I'm not sure what you're describing. It's still going to be a 54 inch pipe though, right?”
“Yeah, I would be interested. If staff could make a note when Durham comments on this T plot come out, I'd like to see them. My other question about this TPLAT is how did we miss this? And I'm talking to the village attorneys here now. How did we miss this in 2022?”
“Okay, several, this is not for you. This is for our staff. Several instances in the last couple of months where stuff that's really, really important has been missed in our review process, whether it is for public hearing site plan type of stuff or just the basic stuff that gets reviewed by staff before a building permit is issued. I lie awake at night and think about this stuff. And I really wish I didn't, I hate you for laughing. I really wish I didn't have to, but people come to me all the time and ask, how did this get approved? And I say, we have this process whereby when someone comes…”
“All right. Does anyone have any questions on the T plot?”
“Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but again, I have to think about it as if that system doesn't exist for another 10 years.”
“Look, I wish that I could believe that we're going to have a stormwater system on Harbor Island that is updated sooner than 10 years from now, but I've been on this dais since 2020, and we're going out to bid again for a new... You're an engineer. So it's just the reality that we come to accept.”
“Yeah. It's actually going to be probably cheaper. But no, I'm sorry. The public hearing is closed. If I can make an observation, there's another point I'd like to make. George, I'm so sorry. I closed the public hearing. Yeah.”
“So let's move forward. Does anyone have questions on the T-Plat or on the site plan? All right, we're on to the development agreement. If anyone has a motion on the T-Plat or the site plan and they wanna make a motion on either one of those two, you're more than welcome to do that.”
“We need one vote at a time, Commissioner. 13 C. That's the site plan.”
“Including the ones that were added tonight. Village attorneys, is that sufficient?”
“Sorry, I want to be really clear about that, because there are development agreements for island walk access that obviously have been ignored. So this island walk access, it's not shown on their site plan. I'm seeing the ground level site plan shows what looks like a paved path from the sidewalk hugging the building. Correct. Right. So are we assuming that that is the island walk connection?”
“This whole green space on the south side of the building, is that space being programmed? Is it just open space? Is there a fence there? Is it open to the public? What's going on there?”
“Are you putting stormwater features in this landscaped area, bioswales, rain gardens? Are there specific water retention features designed as part of that?”
“That's not my question. I see is in terms of the green space that you have there, are you doing anything to maximize that green space for your overall retention and drainage on the site?”
“Yeah, I'm not asking for swale. I think it would be really helpful for the overall site and for the coastal condition, generally speaking, if there were some type of green infrastructure thoughtfully designed to utilize that green space.”
“If you're going to have a pipe underground through this area, it would be helpful if you design drainage away from that easement area. And you've got a ton of green space here. And so I'm just trying to ask the civil to level up, be thoughtful about what all is happening in this space, pull the water away from the easement so that we don't have to spend as much money and work as long to maintain that pipe.”
“Does the water drain away from the easement?”
“So once, if and when this is built, your residents will have the exact same incentive not to connect the island walk as the residents of the 360.”
“No, I want to see the county review, particularly on the engineering side.”
“What happens if the development agreement is not approved tonight?”
“I actually fundamentally disagree with Commissioner Acosta, and I'm going to speak on this. It is not our fault. And frankly, it's not the residents of the 360s fault that their property cuts off the waterfront access to this property. I, for one, am sick of walking past a vacant parking lot. A vacant parking lot that's been used as construction staging, that's been used as a trash can, where the highest concentration of pollution on any given day is right around that back part of the 360 parking and this parking lot. It will be... a blessing for this village to see this parking lot…”
“Your client on that project promised me multiple times that he was building this project. And I know that your current clients are obviously different entities and totally different developers, but that promise was meaningful.”
“That he wasn't going to sell the property, that he was going to build it.”
“Yeah, let me also make a point about the village hall. In 2022, when this site was initially entitled, the cost for village hall was one thing. And in 2026, the cost to build village hall has exploded, you know, just because of what's going on in the world, right? So we are... very, very close, but we are not where we need to be. And The village hall is, we have to have village hall constructed to provide the level of service required for fire, life safety, and police responses in this village. And while we're tackling infrastructure improvements through other revenue streams, primarily the…”
“Tony, is there any on-street parking impact with this project?”