Planning & Zoning Board - Regular Meeting

Good Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We're going to call the 05/08/2025 Planning and Zoning Board meeting to order at 06:33PM. As you can see, we have a quorum here, but it's very small. That means that every item is going to have to pass with a positive vote from everyone. Let me call the roll.

Member Alloy? Alloy here. Doris Gonzalez? Member Labate.

Present.

Vice Chairman Goldich. Chairwoman Gonzalez. Alternate member Taylor. Alternate member Zacharias.

We

do have a quorum.

Madam? First order of business tonight, because we do not have the chair and the vice chair here tonight, is the election of a chair. So if you guys would like

to So we would require a motion to permit me, Rosalie Labate, to serve as interim chairman and acting chairman tonight. I will make the motion. Is there a second? Motion made by member of Alayo. Aloyo and seconded by member Zakarias.

All in

favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Thank you very much.

Congratulations, Cher.

Thank you. We indicate that I will be serving as interim chair tonight. I would ask if there are any members who have any lobbying disclosure issues. Anybody? No? Okay. I ask for the approval of the minutes that were submitted to us. We need a motion.

I'll make the motion to approve.

Is there a second?

I second.

Motion by Member Aloy. Aloy, seconded by Member Zakarias. All in favor? GREGORY Opposed? Minutes are approved. Just a reminder that there are only three of us on the panel tonight. If member Taylor appears, then there will be the four of us, of course. And any votes would then be four to one. If there are just the three of us three to one, I'm sorry. If there are just the three of us, it must be a unanimous decision on all motions. So Joe, is there an option for the individuals that are here?

So knowing this, you will always have the option to defer if you wish to tonight. If don't you wish to, you can certainly move forward. And the judgment here is a three-zero vote. We're just making you guys aware of that.

Yes. Does anyone wish to defer? Okay. Thank you. Okay, let's go to the first items on the agenda, the consent agenda. Does anyone wish to pull any of the consent agenda items? Hearing not, I would then say we need a motion to approve the consent agenda items. We need a motion Can you to approve the consent agenda items.

I'll make the motion to approve the consent agenda items.

Is there a second?

I second.

Okay. Motion by a member Alloy. Alloy. I'm going to get it right eventually. Seconded by members Zakarias. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. The consent agenda is removed. If you're here on the consent agenda, you may leave. Do you need me to read it out, Joe?

Just for clarification, that's Bank of America, Firestone, Agave Bandido, SL Blake, and Morella Apartments.

Okay. Thank you very much.

You've been approved. Have a

nice night.

Okay. We now go to the faze public hearings. Do we have to have everyone sworn in, Joe? Is that

Madam Chair, there was a request tonight to have the variances taken out of order.

Okay. Yes, I'm sorry. Yes. So are we going to take the two variances out of order? That is let me just get the

right page. Joe, were they doing Culver's first?

JULIET Yes. We're going to do Culver's drive thru first. That's ZV2025007, Culver's drive thru stacking variance. Which item number? That's item 11. 11.

Good afternoon. Anyone wishing to provide testimony on the variance applications today may you please stand and raise your right hand. And this is for the present application, Culver's, and the other variants application as well. Any

members of the public that are going to speak on the two variants request, Towngate or Culver's, you will need to stand up and be sworn in.

Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Let the record show that all have responded in the affirmative.

Good evening, Madam Chair. Good evening, gentlemen. Good evening to our neighbors. My name is Manny Snolowski. We're delighted to be here. My colleague, Michelle Diaz Mendez, our civil engineer, is here with me this evening. We are asking for variants for a new quick service restaurant that's coming to the community, Culver's. Some of you may know of Culver's. It's a concept that's originally from the Midwest Of The United States, and it's working its way throughout the nation. A few of them on the West Coast Of Florida, a few of them further north on the East Coast.

And about a year and a half ago, they opened a very successful location in the city of Cooper City. The reason for our request for variance is well, let me tell you first where we're located. Thank you, Michelle. We're at the corner of Pembroke Road, which runs east west with the intersection of Hiatus Road. There currently is a Wawa's station and gas station and convenience store in that corner.

And immediately to the left is where the new Culver's is proposed. There is existing commercial and office uses to the North of us. And there is a significant amount of commercial uses to the East of us. There are residential uses to the Northwest of us. But between the Culbers and the residential community, there is a proposed self storage facility that will come in front of you later for site plan approval.

I think what we could do is look at the site plan first, and then we'll come here. Yeah, thank you. So your code requires that five vehicles get parked starting at the, let's say, ordering menu board at a minimum in order to satisfy a drive through requirement. Your code doesn't specifically speak to how many of those lanes you could have, but it does say that if you have a drive thru lane, you must have at least the length of five vehicles. We and I'm going to let you use the arrow, if you would.

As opposed to one lane, we decided to provide two separate lanes. And each lane actually has a total of four vehicles starting at the ordering board, if you will, queuing to the back. In addition to the total of eight vehicles, when you, in effect, add both of those lanes, we have ahead of those order boards, we have at least five vehicles to the pay window right there. And then what's unique about this solution, or for that matter, very successfully used by Culver's, is that ahead of that window, there is at least three more vehicles that can wait for their order on one side of a true through lane. And on the other side, there's actually a total of five vehicles that can wait for their order.

The goal is really to reduce the length of those that are queuing behind the order menu. And in many cases, we have the ability to receive patrons that have pre ordered either by calling in, or for that matter, by texting or by emailing in their order. And they go straight literally to the stations where they can wait for their meals. We're very comfortable, when I say we Culver's, and us as designers, with this solution because it actually, we believe, is significantly efficient in how we're going to move vehicles in and out of the site. If I go to the previous image, I will reiterate what I just showed you on the plan, that we're looking to reduce from five to four the inbound vehicle spaces.

But again, when you add both lanes, which for us it was important to end up with two as opposed to one long one, we actually have eight total inbound spaces. That takes care of the first bullet. The second bullet is we have seven vehicle spaces beyond the order boards where once you order, you can literally get out of the waiting line, if you will, and wait for your food to be brought to you. There's a sticker that's actually placed at your window. And it's easy for staff inside to come out and deliver foods to you.

Altogether, we have a total of eight outbound vehicles. And we added another unique component which has been tested and is working very well. And that is a POD, a personal ordering dispenser. And we're going to go back to the previous there you go. And Michele, if you can show us where that is.

And what that is is a miniature window literally right at the drive through lane so that you don't have to wait to get to the window at the building. We can get you in and out of literally the queue and waiting for your food. If you ever visited a Culver's, you'll be impressed with the amount of staff that's actually working both in front of the kitchen, and for that matter, in the kitchen. It's a different concept. It promotes a significant effort or level of hospitality where they really want to cater to the patron.

That being said, that's the end of our presentation. We did have one member of the neighborhood, if you will, submit a concern. We've actually met with this neighbor. We met him at the Culbers in Cooper City. He was delighted to see how that operated, delighted to see the benefits and the cleanliness and the healthy menu that they carry, and actually wrote us a very nice email telling us that he can't wait to, in effect, enjoy the menu once we open in Pembroke Pines.

We haven't received any other communication from any other neighbor, but we're happy to answer any questions that you may have or any of our neighbors may have this evening relative to this proposal. Thank you, Madam Chair.

You're welcome. Are there any questions from members of the committee?

Do. The committee or from

the You.

I do have a question. So what the statutes state is that instead of having two lanes, you must have one lane with five vehicles. And you're eliminating that by making it two lanes with four vehicles, thus making it eight instead of five.

Yeah, yeah. That's basically the math. The code says if you have a drive through lane and I don't know it verbatim, but I'm kind of paraphrasing If you have a drive through lane, you must have a total of five vehicles in the queue. We decided instead of one lane to provide two. And instead of five in each, we have four and four for a total of eight. It's just that your code doesn't speak to multiple lanes. It speaks to a single lane. Yes,

sir. Any other questions? Sir, any questions? No. Are there any questions from the public? Okay. I have a question on Yes, ma'am. And I know that this is just a variance request. But what is the access availability? How do you get into Colvin?

Okay. For sure, we're going to address that when we present our site plan. And we hopefully, God willing, we'll be here on June 26 to do that. But I'm going to show you that right now there is a right in turn on Pembroke Road that takes you into the property. In addition to that, further to the west, there is a right in to the property, also from Pembroke Road.

That happens to be both in and out. So when you leave, you can leave that way. There's also a drive that travels diagonally from the Southwest to the Northeast above us between us and the future self storage. And that you can see it. Do the drive first, Michelle, the one that goes diagonally across between that drive, which actually connects the entrance from Hiatus onto the site with the entrance on Pembroke Road.

So we have access from both sides. And in addition to that, we have access, a third access, which is an immediate write in only from Pembroke Road. So candidly, the traffic is very efficient in terms of how it comes in and how it leaves and how it moves through the site.

And you have to go through the Wawa? You're actually going through the Wawa parking area?

No, not You're

just coming directly and Yes.

Don't have to interfere with Wawa whatsoever. And interestingly enough, the self storage that's going to be to the north of us has a very, very, very low traffic count. It generates an insignificant amount of trips, candidly. So we feel super comfortable that the operations and the traffic movement are going to be very successful.

Madam Chair, just a point of matter here. Is the site plan still being reviewed by the I appreciate that. So again, if we can keep our comments to the stacking.

Yeah, thank you. I was just anxious to figure out how are you going to do this.

Thank you

very much. Ahead. If we can go back to the last slide that shows the drive thru. Okay, so real quick. So the entrance, I guess it would go from there. So we're going east on Pembroke Road. If you're going west, and you go into the end of the property. Just give you a movie right there. You go in. Where would the entrance to the drive thru be? At the end over here? At the top?

Yes, right there.

So when you've got eight vehicles here, you have a big line. This roadway right there that's inside the shopping center is going to get backed up?

Well, you actually have multiple ways to get in. Can I ask Michelle to go to the actual aerial? Because I want to you're show you seeing just a piece

of road.

Michelle, I'm going to use this for a moment. There you go. So if I'm coming down Pembroke Road, I can come in this way, right? And look at the length of that drive from that entrance to here. That whole length literally is giving access to the drive through lane. That's one option. The other option is you come through here and you go straight up without going into Wawa. You go straight up.

And

then you go into the drive through. The other choice is you come in on this side. You go diagonally to here. You turn and come in. So you have the ability really to split the traffic from three directions and adjoin there.

But according to this, there's only one entry point into the drive thru.

Yes.

So that drive thru being as popular as the Culver is, is that going to cause a delay, a backup on that main thoroughfare in the shopping center similar to what's experienced with Chick fil A and some shopping centers?

Yeah. We don't believe that it will. We don't believe that it will because, number one, there's virtually no traffic in the self storage that's going be north of us, none whatsoever on a day to day. Okay? And also, I erred because I should have told you that this here is actually one way. Right? I gave you the impression that you can come in and out this way. That's not the case. This is for out only.

So vehicles are going to struggle to get out of here if you have traffic. Trying to get into a drive thru.

So this is what we're going to do. And we don't have the directional signs. But you come in this way, you go in like this, you go in like that, and you go in like this.

So that's how the drive thru is going to be? So it's going to go inside the first?

Yes.

The first lane here that's closest to Pembroke Road and it's going to wrap around?

Yes.

That's going to be the entrance?

Yes. This And in that's effect is not

going to be that thoroughfare that's on?

This is two way, Mr.

What's going around?

But at the end, it's only one way out.

Okay.

It's two way in, but

it's It's trapped one

in the back up inside the parking lot?

Yes. On

the thoroughfare? Yes. Okay.

We're going to contain, like you're suggesting, any queue within our parking field and not affect the neighbor's parking field.

One more point again. The site plan is not necessarily in front of you. They're giving this it has not been DRC reviewed to its fullest extent. And we will, site plan, require them to provide us the information that you're asking.

Sorry I raised it, Joe, but I was concerned. Okay.

Again, it's tied to

So we need a motion to approve the variance.

I make a motion.

Make a motion? Yeah. Is there a second?

I'll second the motion.

A motion made by Mr. Zakarias, seconded by Mr. To approve the variance. All in favor? Aye. Oh, what letter? What letter would you take it on? A, B, or C? B.

Under B, A? C.

Didn't get that one.

Yeah, it's on the approval under the circumstances. It's not the

last B. C. Under

C, Cheryl. All in favor say? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you.

Thank you all. Have a

great day. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Again, for clarification, you guys passed this. They can now move forward the four stacking spaces. They will have to come back. Again, the site plan may not look the same as it was before, as you've seen it tonight or it may. Okay.

Okay. The next one we have is Towngate Seed Away sidewalk variance, ZV2024008.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Hi, my name is Jamie

Use the bank, please, Mr. Cole. I'm sorry. My name is Jamie Cole. Cole.

I'm an attorney with Weisserota. And along with me are the president and two members of the board from Towngate, as well as our landscape expert, Mr. Ogg. We are here on an issue that's going to come down to a question, which is more important, 52 healthy trees or a second redundant sidewalk.

Mr. Kroll, I apologize Do for a you want to waive your quasi rights?

No. We're not going to waive

your quasi rights. You are not waiving your quasi judicial hearing. Thank you.

Madam Chair. Yes, sir. Good afternoon. The petitioner has conveyed that the petitioner will not be waiving their quasi judicial rights. So I would like to read the rules of the road as we embark on this quasi judicial proceeding Thank you. For the board and the petitioner and everyone in the audience's benefit. Proceed. Thank you. These are the rules of the road for this quasi judicial hearing. The objective is to provide fundamental due process, both procedural and substantive, to the petitioner and affected parties pursuant to section 155.304 of the City Of Pembroke Pines Code of Ordinances.

Quasi judicial proceedings are applicable to a number of matters that may be considered by this board, but as it pertains to the present application, are being invoked by the request for a variance that the petitioner has filed with the city. During the proceeding, the board shall consider testimony and other supporting evidence that may be submitted by the petitioner and any affected person who has provided notice that it intends to appear at the proceeding. Each affected party providing testimony shall have the right to call and examine witnesses, introduce exhibits, cross examine witnesses and parties providing testimony on any relevant matter, and rebut evidence. Any decision rendered by this board when considering a quasi judicial matter must be supported by substantial competent evidence in the record pertinent to the proceedings. The board chair shall call the proceedings to order, and a majority of the board must be present during the proceeding.

The board chair shall then determine the order of presentation of the parties in order to expedite the proceeding. City personnel in attendance shall provide responses to any party to the proceeding. The following entities may present testimony and all individuals providing testimony may introduce exhibits and witnesses. The petitioner, parties in support of the application, parties who oppose the application. Parties presenting testimony shall be able to speak in favor of or against the application.

Each speaker shall be sworn in to testify and their name and address shall be entered into the record. Speakers may not be repetitive, acrimonious, disruptive, or threatening. Proper decorum shall be controlled by the chair. The board shall maintain a queue of speakers, and the transition from speaker to speaker shall be done in a timely, efficient manner. There shall be no applause, hoots, or hollers from the audience during public comment, and no questions to the commission.

Irrelevant or immaterial testimony shall not be admissible or tolerated. After each witness testified testifies, a party shall be permitted to question the witness. The questioning party is not permitted to make any statements but only to ask questions which are directly related to the testimony presented. Petitioner may then present its final presentation in response to any testimony from other parties. Upon conclusion of the presentation of testimony, the board chair shall close the public hearing and the board shall begin its deliberations and consideration of all the testimony and evidence received at the hearing.

Members of the commission shall disclose on the record whether they have had any ex parte communications with any parties to the matters to the matter under consideration. The board shall deliberate and vote on on the item being considered. All relevant relevant documents shall be made a part of the record. City staff shall read into the record the results of the board's vote. Now, madam chair, if you could call this hearing to order.

I shall. The meeting is called the town gate say this town gate Cedar Way sidewalk variance, ZV200002408. Okay? Thank you again, Mr. Cole.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Then just pursuant to the rules of the road, I would like to go over the rules regarding the admissibility of evidence. And thank you, madam chair, for also reading this item into the record. So it's this and pursuant to the quasi judicial proceeding section of the code. It's it's an informal process, but we do have some rules regarding admissibility of evidence I'd like to read into the record.

All persons testifying before a border city commission must be sworn in. The petitioner of a board and any affected person who has provided notice that it intends to appear at the proceeding shall be given the opportunity to present evidence. Bring forth witnesses and cross examine witnesses. I had mentioned that earlier, but now all evidence relied upon by reasonably prudent persons in the conduct of their business shall be admissible, whether or not such evidence would be admissible in a court of law. However, immaterial or unduly repetitious evidence shall be excluded.

Hearsay evidence may be used for the purpose of supplementing or explaining other evidence, but it shall not be sufficient by itself to support a finding. Documentary evidence may be presented in the form of a copy or the original if available. Upon request, parties shall be given an opportunity to compare the copy with the original. A party shall be entitled to conduct cross examination when testimony is provided or documents are made a part of the record. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

I think we all understand what we have to do now, I hope. Yes, sir.

Thank you, Madam Chair and gentlemen. As I mentioned before, my name is Jamie Cole, and I'm an attorney with Weiss Roda. And I'm here on behalf of the Towngate Master Association. And the issue before you is really going to come down to which is more important, preserving 52 large trees or keeping a secondary sidewalk. We're not talking about the only sidewalk on a street.

There's a sidewalk on both sides. This would be the removal of one sidewalk. If you look at the map before and this is from the Broward County property appraiser. At the top, this piece of property is owned by the Towngate Master Association. Right above this is Sheridan Street, and to the right is I-seventy 5.

And along this whole strip, there's a sidewalk on both sides of the street. This is a blow up of just the left side of it. Now what is marked is property that's owned by the sub association, the Cedar Way Association. So up top, it was owned by the Master Association. And then just under it is the property owned by the Cedar Way Association.

The sidewalk that is master owned by association. It's right above the red line. And if you look closely to the left, you can see the sidewalk. It's a little hard to see because of the trees. The trees are owned by the sub association.

So if you look, this is just looking at a different angle. You can see that there's a sidewalk to the right. The sidewalk and to the right is owned by the master association. That little strip where you can see trees are planted, that's owned by the sub association. And then the street is owned by the sub association.

And across the street is a second sidewalk. Now the problem is that the developer of this town gate, Minto, planted those trees. They planted 52 trees that were planted in that small four foot strip of land. And they were planted about one or two feet away from the sidewalk. At the time, there were little trees, and it was not a problem.

Now we're twenty five to thirty years later, those trees have grown. And as those trees have grown, the roots, as tree roots do, have moved underneath the sidewalk and are pushing it up. This situation cannot continue. And I'm going to show you some pictures of what this situation looks like. But because the tree's roots have lifted the sidewalk up, it's caused cracks and inclines, etcetera, and has a significant risk of injury.

People are going to get hurt if it stays like this. It's also not usable by people who are disabled. So it violates the ADA. And the city issued a code citation and is currently imposing fines every day because of the situation. So this is what the sidewalk looks like. And I'm going go through a whole bunch of pictures. And I'm going to introduce this all into evidence at the end. But this is what the sidewalk looks like. And I'm just going to go through these. I'll leave each one for about ten seconds so you can just see what they look like.

As you could see, this is a very bad situation. These trees were just planted too close to the sidewalk. And you can't really fix it. Because if you repair or replace the current sidewalk, it's only a temporary solution. Those routes are just going to knock it right back up. So one's going to have to go. Either the sidewalks have to be removed or the trees have to be removed. At this point, before I finish my presentation, I'm going to call up our landscape person, our arborist, to talk about the situation. I'm going to ask him some questions. So can you please come up? Please state your name. David Og. And please, are you with the company?

And you will also need to fill out a form before you leave. Please print your name neatly so that I spell it correctly in the minutes.

David, may I have your last name again, please?

It's Ogg, spelled O G G. And what company are

you with? I own DEO Enterprises. And have you examined oh, are you what is your licensing or background?

Broward County tree trimmers, and we have ISA arborists.

And have you and the arborists in your company reviewed the situation at Cedar Way? Yes. Can you describe the situation of the trees and the sidewalks on Northwest 24th Street in Cedar Way?

Sure. The trees are large canopy trees, which are impacting the sidewalks in the pictures you've seen. So to replace that sidewalk, you will simply have the same problem again. So I called in one of our guys, Lewis, who took a look at it as well. And his opinion was, you either have to remove the sidewalk or move the sidewalk, get it out of there away from the trees.

And what would happen if you just did temporary repairs of the sidewalk?

It would still continue to have the same problem.

And what is your recommendation as to what should be done?

Well, it's always the best to preserve trees. And seeing how we have been working with a number of communities and removing trees that there is no option in front of homes where that's similar situation. This has got green space, which is very nice. And there's no houses there. So to have that sidewalk be an issue to the trees is really not something that we feel is the right thing. We feel that it's always better to preserve a large canopy tree than to try to continue to fix a problem that's

going to keep happening. Have you been involved with any trees any other trees in the Cedar Way community? We have. And can you tell me what that situation was?

The swales in the sidewalks had trees that were large canopy that had to be removed because there was no other option. They had to reserve those sidewalks because they're in front of the home. So those trees were removed and are currently being replaced with smaller species canopy trees.

And how many of those trees were removed?

Approximately 125, I believe. And when was that? It started about a year ago, year and a half ago.

And have they all those 125 trees have already been removed? They have been. And how has that affected the canopy of trees in Cedar Way?

Well, currently there's no canopy because the new trees haven't been installed. But the new trees that are going are smaller species trees. Even if it's a little

bit smaller. Okay. So even after they're installed, will there still be a lower tree canopy in Cedar Way? Yes. Thank you.

So you've heard the importance that we have tree in that neighborhood, you've already had 125 trees removed. These were 125 year old trees with big canopies. They're gone. We have 52 that are left on Northwest 24th. So either those trees have to be removed or this extra sidewalk has to be removed.

Because unlike in most other neighborhoods in Pembroke Pines, there's sidewalks on both sides of the street. The city code does not require sidewalks on both sides of the street. And if you look in other communities, there's a lot of communities where there's only sidewalk on one side. Because obviously, you need one on one side of the street so people can walk. But having a second sidewalk is kind of a I'll call it a luxury.

It's nice to have a sidewalk on both sides. But it's not something you have to have in order to walk. So pedestrians, even if the sidewalk would be removed near the trees, pedestrians will still have the other sidewalk to walk on. And they'll be able to walk on the grass where this current sidewalk is as well. In the city of Pembroke Pines, there's a very strong public policy that should guide you in your decision as to which is more important, trees or a secondary sidewalk.

The city's comprehensive plan dealing with error for objective one says that the city should continue to protect, maintain, or improve air quality in the city through 2030 in accordance with Broward County standards. And policy 1.2 says that you should continue to implement the city's street tree planting program, which aids in the maintenance of air quality. The city code, section 155.656, talks about proper landscaping, promoting the general welfare, public safety, and public health through trees and other plant materials by creating aesthetically pleasing, sustainable residential and nonresidential environments that promote improved air quality, an urban canopy, and many other benefits. The city's website says the following three things. First, for the past twenty nine years, the city has been recognized as a Tree City USA by the Arbor Day Foundation.

The city is committed to maintaining and increasing the overall aesthetic and environmental quality of our public, commercial, and nonresidential properties. Landscaping provides tremendous value to our community, providing more than just aesthetic value. Landscape increases the value of the built environment by providing oxygen, improving air quality, conserving water, providing shade, reducing pollution, and supporting wildlife. The Pembroke Pines City Commission supports increasing the tree canopy throughout the city and is proud to be certified as Tree City USA. In 2009, in accordance with the Broward League of Cities, Pembroke Pines passed a resolution to increase tree canopy by 30% by the year 2030.

So I went through these because I just want to stress the importance of trees. You're supposed to try to implement the city's comprehensive plan and the city's code and the city's policies. And that would mean you should do everything you can to preserve trees. Now, sometimes it's not possible. But this is a situation where it is possible. So what options are available? What could be done? Well, option one is you could just remove the trees and then fix a sidewalk. That is one thing that could be done. Now the trees, as I mentioned, belongs to the Cedar Way Association, not the Towngate Master Association.

So they're the ones who would have to remove the trees. But that is one way this could be fixed. But that would be a very expensive thing to do. It would cost about $300,000 And I'm going to admit into evidence at the end all of these estimates. But there's an estimate for removing and replacing the tree costs about $90,000 Repairing the sidewalk costs 193,000 Putting in the new sod is almost 12,000.

Irrigation is about 7,500. So it's about $300,000 if you wanted to remove the trees and fix the sidewalk. Now what's the problem with that option, other than it being really prohibitively expensive, is it would be a major aesthetic loss. It would lose your noise barrier, because trees prevent noise. And remember, these are between the neighborhood and I-seventy 5 and between the neighborhood and Sheridan Street.

So you'd lose that whole noise barrier, and it would hurt the environment. The second option would be to keep the trees, but fix the sidewalks. That would cost about $200,000 And there's an estimate that will be in the backup from three d paving that's $193,000 But it would be even more according to the estimate because you'd have to repair it in the same place with the trees remaining because of the increased time it would take to cut, grind, and remove the roots. So it would be more than $200,000 And that is really just not a workable solution because it's temporary. These routes will keep damaging the sidewalk and will need to be redone every single year.

And the sidewalks, even if you did that, would still be uneven because the sidewalks are up. So even if you put something to make it smooth so people won't trip, they're still going be going up. So there's still ADA problems with that option. So that option really does not work. The third option is you keep the trees and just build the side work somewhere else.

That would also cost over $200,000 And one of the problems with that is not beyond the expense is in the west portion, you really can't do it because there's no space between there's the street. There's a little strip in the sidewalk. And then there's a very small space that's inclined up. So it would be really impossible to even build a sidewalk in that spot. So that's not really an option either, which really leaves the only feasible option, which is option four, which is to keep the trees and remove the sidewalk.

It's the most cost effective option. It's only going to cost about $40,000 And we've got the estimates to remove the sidewalks, about 23,000. Putting in new sods, about 12,000. Irrigation is about 7,500. This is a permanent solution, takes care of the problem, maintains the entire tree canopy, and it still maintains one pedestrian sidewalk on Northwest 24th Street.

So this is the option that the Towngate Master Association would like to move forward with. The reason they haven't been able to is because they need a variance in order to do it. Now, is not the normal type of variance that you see like you saw right before us, where you're getting a variance from a city code provision. That's pretty much the types of variance I'm sure you see all the time. The city code does not require there to be a sidewalk on both sides.

But when the developer Minto made this town gate, there was a PUD guideline that was part of the approval. And so when the site plan was approved by the city commission, the PUD guideline was also accepted. And that says that all roadways shall be constructed with four foot sidewalks on both sides of the roadway for a 40 foot private roadway. Because of that, that's why we're here. Now, Towngate does not need a variance from the city code.

But the city has advised that they need a variance from the PUD, from these PUD guidelines. Now, it is Towngate Association that don't really even need it, because under the PUD guidelines, it specifically says that they can be amended by the board. However, the city says, since it was approved by the commission as part of the site plan, they feel that it can't be amended without the city, and therefore a variance is necessary. So that's why we're here. We're here because in order to remove the sidewalk, that would result in having only a sidewalk on one side.

And the PUD guideline would be violated. That's why we need the variant. So we meet all the variance criteria. This was not self imposed. It was imposed by the developer by planting sidewalks in this small little strip and by having this two sidewalk requirement that's really not anywhere else. It's unique to this property. Other properties in the cities don't have this two sidewalk requirement. So we're a very unique situation. So this really is appropriate for variance. A survey was done in the community of All 1st, all of town it was in Cedar Way and all of Towngate, just to see how people feel.

The Cedarway survey, 52 out of 110 there's 110 units 52 responded. 91 supported keeping the trees and removing the sidewalks. When it was done throughout all of Towngate, 82% felt that we should keep the trees or remove the sidewalks. Now there's members of the Cedarway community here that feel I guess they were not part of the 91%. They feel differently.

Now the problem is we're in a situation here where the city is imposing daily spines. The association is willing to spend the $42,000 to remove the sidewalk. And that resolves the problem. In order to do something different, it's going to take a lot of money. It would have to be done by them.

The master association is not willing to spend that kind of money on just one sub association. So they would have to do a special assessment. They'd have to do something. That is not something that the master association would do. So at this point, really the decision is they've already eliminated they did a special assessment for $3,000 per unit to get rid of all those other trees, the 125 trees.

Now it's a year later. Got to deal with this sidewalk in this other area. So we are here asking you to grant this variance, allow the master association to remove the extra sidewalk, and preserve the trees. It's a permanent and cost effective solution. It's recommended by the certified arborist.

And it's aligned with the city's tree preservation goals, which are obviously very important to the city. So at this point, I would like to just admit into evidence this package of materials. What this contains is, first, the Broward County property appraiser aerial photos that I showed you. Then under the second tab are photos that I showed you of the trees and the sidewalk damage. Then all the estimates that I talked about. So that will be as part of the record. Then the arborist's opinion and the results of the survey. So that's what's in here. If I may approach the clerk to Sure. Have a copy for each of you and even all the

people that aren't here. Okay. Thank you.

So that is all I have for the initial presentation.

Thank you. Are there any questions from the members of the panel?

I do have several questions, but are we going to allow the community to speak first?

Well, if you have particular questions about this, and then I thought we would Okay. Is appropriate? Either way, would you prefer that we hear the other side first? It's up to you.

I have a lot of questions. But it's up to you if you would like the community to speak first, or I'm good either way.

Do you have an opinion, sir?

Just one question. How many trees approximately we are trying to save here? 52 trees. 52 trees, yeah.

52 full grown trees. All

right, okay.

Let's hear from the other side first, and then we'll hold off questions.

Sounds good to me. HARRIS Good evening, everybody. My name is Harris HARRIS Katz. I represent the sub association Cedar Way. And lawyers, I had very little to say. But as I was listening to the presentation, now I have more things to say. They say we get paid by the word. But not to belabor anything.

I just

want to talk about what you all just heard, which I believe is a lot of misdirection as to what the real issue is. A lot of talk was about getting rid of trees, and people want to get rid of trees in favor of a sidewalk. That's not the case. I think it's important to look at the history of the property and what we have here. We have a community, Cedar Way, sub association.

It's about 26 years old, give or take. And it was developed and designed with these sidewalks in mind. I think counsel even brought up the fact that, yeah, that's the reason they're looking for a variance because this was constructed with a sidewalk, with the two sidewalk system that circles the community. But what's happened here over the years, the twenty six years, is that the master association has taken on a responsibility. And the responsibility they took upon themselves was to maintain the trees.

They pruned the trees. They did preventative maintenance on the trees for twenty years. This doesn't happen overnight that sidewalks break from roots. You don't eat one doughnut in 1999 and wake up in 2025, and you're 50. It's something that happens over time. And they shirk their responsibility in a lot of ways. They took upon a duty that maybe it's questionable about whether the trees were the subs or the masters. But either way, it was something that they undertook. And now what they want to do is they want to say, you know what? This is going to cost us too much money.

Therefore, we just want to get rid of the sidewalks, which is relied upon by the sub association for a lot of reasons, including safety. It's an area for kids to go onto the grassy area, around with their bikes. Granted, there's a lot of damage. Not caused by the sub, caused by the master's lack of maintenance and lack of taking care of the responsibility that they had. This was relied upon by the sub association, designed and built, again, back in, I think, 1998 or 1999.

The sidewalk can be repaired. And there are things that can be done to prevent tree roots from later damaging the sidewalk down the road. But think about this. If they remove the sidewalks and they put grass there, it's a tripping hazard on its own because the roots will continue to be there. This is a misdirection, what you just heard here, because the whole presentation was about tree removal and how the city wants to have beautiful trees and they want to have shade and this and that.

That is not what's going on here. The issue is what did the Master Association do or not do? I was here in this room probably three or four years ago when the master association received their violation for not taking care of the sidewalks. And they were told, you have to fix it or you will be fined. Well, you know what? It's been a lot of years, and they continue to be fined. And guess what they're not doing? They're not paying the fines. They have no intention of paying the fines. And they continue to allow the problem to degrade further. And they should not be rewarded for bad behavior. The cost is not an issue here. This is between a master association and a sub association. This isn't for the city to determine. This is between the associations.

This is association property. This is private property. And what you have is a dispute between a master and a sub about responsibility and cost. The city shouldn't be getting involved in that issue. So here's what the master does. When the sub association wants to work it out and they agree, hey, we'll take care of the trees. And with your help, we'll work through the sidewalk issue, The board president for the master turns it down and says, no, we love our trees. Don't touch our trees. Well, whose trees are they? And whose responsibility are they?

Well, apparently, the master association wants to have it both ways. So they let the sidewalk fall into disrepair over years and years and years. And now their plan is, well, we don't want to pay for it, so we're going to ask for a variance? Well, that's not fair to anybody involved here. They want it's like, again, your kid wants a cookie, and you say, no cookie, and then you give him the cookie anyway. It's an inequitable position they've taken. It's unfair to the sub association. It has nothing to do with the city. It has nothing to with variances. What it has to do with the master association shirking responsibility.

And if you grant the variance, what you're doing is rewarding that bad behavior. I still go back to the point this is between the master and the sub. The cost issues is between them. That has nothing to do that shouldn't be swaying the city decision or your decision today because, again, it's something that they have to take care of and something that would be taken care of between the sub and the master. So I have with me a lot of people from the sub association who want to talk about the sidewalks, why they're important. Again, they don't want to hurt the trees. I think there's been a lot of talk about trees and arborists. That's not the issue here. The issue is, can we have both? And I think you can.

The master just needs to do what they were supposed to be doing the whole time and take care of the problem. So that's all I have for you right now. And I think a lot of people are going have things to say.

Thank you very much. You.

Madam Chair, we heard both these items. Just for the city's purposes and your purposes, we do not make recommendations on these items. But I did want to point out a couple of things. This variance would be for Cedar Away only. It does not apply to the rest

of

Towngate. The Towngate guidelines were adopted by ordinance, not through site plan. So the ordinance is just like we adopt an ordinance in the city when it becomes a city code. And then the last one, the removal of trees and I think Mr. Cole spoke to it, that if they remove these trees, there would have to be a replacement. Now, would not be the same trees, and they would be trees that would work with our arborist and whatever. But in this particular case, there would have to be a replacement of trees on that.

Okay, with questions from the board. And then we'll listen to anybody who wants to speak.

Well, the portion let me get to my questions here. I've heard a lot of talk about sidewalks. When I looked at the photographs, I saw one side of the street is residential. It has homes. It has driveways. Across from that is like a walking trail. Was that built as a walking trail or a running trail? Is that a common area for the community? Whichever attorney would like to answer that.

It's a sidewalk. You can call it a walking trail, but it's actually a sidewalk on It's Jamie Cole. If you look closely at the picture, can

Yeah, but it looks like it could be used as a running trail, as a walking trail, walking dogs. It's not in front of other homes. So by removing it, now you displace the safety of the residents to the other side of the street, where they would have to walk on the street.

No. That's my

question, sir. Sorry.

Please. You look over it, there is a sidewalk on this side. So people can walk on this side.

GREGORY DELL: Correct. It's on the residential side.

On the residential side. Or they can right now, there's a sidewalk that they can't walk on because it's dangerous on this side. So if this sidewalk was removed, there could still be a walking trail. People could still walk on it, but it's on a sidewalk. A sidewalk is concrete. It's supposed to

be smooth and

safe. I appreciate

your explanation. But this is my question. Was that designed as a walking trail?

Mr. Minto is not Because

that appears that way through your photographs. That's why I'm asking that question.

GREGORY You call it a walking trail. The PUD guidelines say you have to have a sidewalk on both sides. So technically, was a sidewalk. What the intent was Mr. Minto is not here. So I don't know what his intent was.

I have another question. You say that it's dangerous because these we know oak trees create a lot of damage. They get big roots. If you remove the sidewalk, won't those roots continue to grow and travel onto the pavement of the street? Won't that present another danger?

No. Well, what's interesting, when you look now at the pictures let me try to find the right one. Hold on one second. On the street side, there is no damage. The only damage has been on the sidewalk side. Because a street is built differently. A street is much thicker. And there's concrete over here, like at an angle from the strip of land. So the roots are only going one way. They're only going towards the sidewalk.

They're not going to the street. If you move the sidewalk, they're going to continue going that way. Now, if you took the sidewalk and put a root barrier in between the trees and the sidewalk, then the roots could not go to the sidewalk. And they also couldn't go to the tree, to the street side. And that's one of the reasons the arborist said you can't put a root barrier there. Because then the roots couldn't go either direction.

So you can't put a root barrier preventing it from getting to the sidewalk?

That's what the arborist opinion. If you look at the arborist opinion, there's a sentence in there that specifically says, you can't put a root barrier that would be dangerous. Because then the roots can't go either way. So they'd only be going up and down instead of to the sides, and the tree would become unstable.

Now there has been a discussion for alternative trees, correct?

If these trees were removed, the city would require trees to be put in. The other 125 trees that were removed are supposed to be. They haven't been yet, but they're supposed to be replaced by small little category two and category three trees, which will never be anything like these. You're never going have this kind of great big canopy. But you could have small little trees planted that don't have all the root systems. Yes.

Okay. And how many homes are

in Cedar Way? 110. One thirteen. 100

And your survey said there were 52 responses. Yes. So it was 91% of 52 homeowners that responded, correct? Yes. So that was 50% of the community that responded.

Yes. On a survey, that's generally a Yes. Pretty big

Okay. Thank you, sir.

Any questions? Any other questions?

You know, in Pembroke Pines, community has this type of problem, this root problem, but they have their own way of dealing with that. So why don't we make some plan to move the sidewalk to the site if possible or think some

alternative? Well, as far as moving the sidewalk let me show you one picture. Hold on one second. If you look at this picture, you can see there's really no room to make us if you want it, we're going to move it to the left. There's nowhere to move it.

In other portions, you could move it. In this portion, you can't. But moving it also costs a tremendous amount of money. And someone would have to pay for it. And here, the only reason this is really a problem is because the trees are owned by the sub association and the sidewalk is owned by the master association. So it causes a problem. In the rest of the community, trees and the sidewalk were both owned by the sub association. And they decided what they wanted to do. Here, the master association owns the sidewalk. So the master association has to decide what to do with the sidewalk.

But the city said we can't. I mean, they've decided what they want to do. They want to remove the sidewalk, but the city won't let them

I unless you're don't here. Mean to interrupt you, but Mr. Katz, I believe, indicated that the trees were owned by the master association.

That's not correct.

I believe you said you gave them the responsibility for maintenance of the trees. What happened? These You have to get to the mic and you have to identify yourself.

Harris Katz. I apologize. Harris Katz on behalf of the sub association. The master association took upon the duty, whether or not the response to the trees are owned by the master sub, they for twenty plus years maintained, pruned, and took care of preventative maintenance of the trees. This is about the trees and the lack of maintenance that was done by the master. At some point, the master said, hey, we're having a problem, so we want to give it back to you and you take care of it moving forward. They got fined, so they said, you take care of the sidewalks. They created the problem. And now the sub association shouldn't be punished for what they did or what they

failed And to that was the argument. I understand what you said, but you can't you have to indicate. You say that they took the responsibility for maintaining the trees. Do you have documentation to show that, that that was the responsibility of the master association and that they were maintaining these trees?

What we have is the former board president and current board president who are going to be able to testify as to what the master was doing or not doing during

the And is it not part of the declaration of the associations?

GREGORY If I may, the documents say the exact opposite. If they have documents that say that I mean, someone testifying is nice, but it's not legally binding. If the master was helping the sub by helping them do maintenance, that does not transfer legal obligations. These

are owned But that's by beyond the scope of this committee. I just raised the issue because you know, it just the issue was raised, but it is beyond the scope of us to determine who is responsible and who is responsible for the maintenance and or operation. But it seems to me that that's the crux of your problem. And the variance is the issue involved here with us. Okay. Do you have other people who wish to testify? Go ahead. Just a minute. Counsel, just a second.

I guess I will go to both of you. Is this in the documents, in your bylaws, is this considered a common area?

The sidewalk is master common area, so it's part of the master association. The trees on the street is Cedar Way association property, so it's common area of the sub association.

So the matter here in question is the sidewalk. So the question is, is the sidewalk a common area for the Cedar Way community?

No. It's a master

common area. So it's owned by the master The

That is correct.

And the bylaws have any verbiage pertaining to changing common areas, the requirement of votes?

We're changing what?

Some documents in some communities, in order to change the common areas or change anything in the community, it has to have a certain percentage of votes for the homeowners, for the members of that community.

That's to change like?

Architectural structures.

Well, have those bylaws here. Don't believe there's

any Right. Beyond the association board, I think that they have the authority

for maintenance purposes, not to remove common area property and that kind

of thing.

That would be a separate legal issue. I mean, here we're just here for the variance. The question is, the master association would like to remove the sidewalk that's owned on the master association's property,

but they need a variance.

I have one more question on that area. What is the length of the area that is in question?

It's long. It goes from pretty much a little bit east of Dykes all the way to the end of the community.

So it's the whole thing that was pictured in the photo? Everything that's outlined in red?

Yeah, the sidewalk goes all the way from the left all the way to the right.

And that whole area is the area that's impacted by the roots of the trees?

That's correct.

That's where the

52 trees are planted. I

just want to add one more thing. It's Harris Katz again. Again, we're talking about master and sub association. Keep in mind the sub association, the people that live there, are also part of the master association. So I don't want that to be lost that they're two separate entities. The people that are impacted are also part of the master and pay toward maintenance of master

association contracts. That goes without saying. Okay. Now do we have any members of the public that wish to come up and speak?

We asked if anyone who wanted to speak or provide testimony as an affected party during this judicial proceeding, we asked them to please be sworn in. There may be additional people. Just for the record, wanted to state that. There may be additional people who have arrived. If anyone is going to be speaking now as a witness or an affected party and has not been sworn in, would you please rise?

If there's anyone who wishes to come up and speak that hasn't been sworn in, please stand up and be sworn in. So when you come up to speak, if you've already stood up and been sworn by counsel, that would be acceptable.

Let the record reflect that no one has to.

Thank you. Okay. Is there anyone who wishes to come up and speak? Yes,

ma'am. Everyone wants to be sworn in, stand up.

Anyone who wishes to speak has to be sworn in. And you have not been sworn before? Okay.

Madam Chair, there were so in this proceeding, there's a petitioner, and then there's affected parties. Affected parties pursuant to the city code have to provide notice prior to the meeting that they are affected parties and they wish to speak. There was an affected party who referenced that their intent to bring forth witnesses, is proper under our rules, that party can bring forth witnesses. But again, you have your petitioner and you have affected parties. And an affected party is defined as someone who provided proper notice prior to the commencement of this hearing.

So we have received some notices. Cheryl, is that correct? For individuals who wish to We have some notices. We have some notices. Do you want to those who have already submitted notices to us to wish to speak, can you step up?

Please step up to the mic and state your name and your address.

Name is Rami Abadi.

Just one second. Ronnie? Ronnie, sorry. You kept the last name. Your last name?

Abadi. Can you spell it for us, please? R as in Romeo, a as in alpha, m as in Mike, I as in India, R A M I.

Madam chair, I'm sorry. Those are the rules. If as the chair, your discretion, I want

to hear

additional comments, I'm just providing you with the Well,

believe that he has submitted a

It's a general comment. I was just making sure that you were aware of the rules. As chair, you do have the discretion to hear

Okay. Thank you. You. Can you state your address, please, Mr. Obadi?

15662 Northwest 24th Street.

You're speaking to the microphone. Thank you.

156622033028.

Okay. Move or You speak.

Oh, speak. Yes. So again, my name is Rami. I'm a resident of Cedar Way. I'm basically I'm one of the residents here.

You're speaking to the bank.

I'm a resident who paid their association fees for both associations, Cedar Way and the master association. And one of our dues, actually, is to maintain the sidewalks and to trim the trees. And unfortunately, our fund, it seems, is not being suspended properly, which is causing the problem now. The sidewalk is not the way it was described. It's not really a normal sidewalk.

You can't really just come and shovel it and remove it. This sidewalk, we use it actually to walk with our kids, young kids, who cannot really walk in the street. And you cannot give them the option to go walk in the opposite sidewalk for a safety reason. All the sidewalks in the opposite streets, they have an apron where people pull in into their garage or to back up from their garage. I have two kids, three years old and six years old.

And often you know kids, nature, either they walk in front of their parents and sometimes behind their parents. I have two. So I keep an eye on one, sometimes the other one behind me. And they panic. Sometimes one of the neighbors is pulling to their driveway so fast, and my son in his scooter is trying to run behind us and vice versa.

And some senior people sometimes as well, You see them trying to go in between the sidewalks because someone is blocking that sidewalk because they are parking their car on it. Sometimes, for any reason, like often the sidewalk in the inside is not available. Plus, you have to cross the street. Then you go to another island, then you cross, then you cross, then you cross. Versus the 24th Street sidewalk is a continuous sidewalk.

It's like a boulevard. All of us, we go jog, exercise, walk on it, and enjoy the trees over there. But unfortunately, it's being not maintained for a very extended period for multiple years. I have been sending numerous of emails, calls to the master association, to the sub association, asking them, could you please fix it? This is a trip hazard.

This is a safety issue, and it was ignored. There was a dispute between both associations while, again, as a resident, we were paying them to maintain the common elements, and the sidewalk is part of that common element. As a resident, I don't feel that to be a fair request, to request removing that sidewalk, neither to be assisted for fixing that sidewalk because that sidewalk was damaged many years before we purchased our houses there. And after collecting all that fees and not investing that fees in the proper areas to maintain these common elements to come and special assist us now, it's not really a good option.

If I may, sir, understand your rationale for it. But we, as a committee here, are not involved in the integral part of the assessments and stuff. What we are particularly interested in is the viability and the use of the sidewalk. The internal operations of who is going to pay for it and all that is really beyond the scope of our variance request.

No, I agree. But this is one of the things, one of the techniques for us used during the survey. When they send the survey, they say, listen, if you want to keep the sidewalk, we're going to slam you with a special assessment. So some people decided to back up, say, I don't want that sidewalk. I want be responsible financially. So that is not accurate information what you receive.

Again, I understand. But the purpose of the variance and that is the only area that we can assist you in.

Yes. Go on to the next point, what our arborist, David, mentioned here that the trees, all of them are healthy. David and I, two weeks ago, walked the sidewalk, and I got a proposal from David to remove 13 trees. So not the 52 trees are healthy. There are 13 trees they have to go, because David can confirm to you there are some trees are sick and breaking down. Is that correct, David?

Is Yes.

Okay. Okay. That's fine. And there are some trees are bended to the side. And there are three trees are covering the light pole.

Again, the issue before us the sidewalk presence and your position on the need or not need for Okay?

So again, just wanted to clarify a couple points about the sidewalk and the trees. But again, removing that sidewalk will force us as residents and kids and senior people to walk on the street, which is really not an area for us to walk. We have tried to walk on the street the past few weeks after we received the survey, and we found it to be dangerous for us and our kids. There are some senior people in our neighborhood. They walk in the evening and in the morning, and they try that as well. Some of them, they're going to come and speak now to you and tell you how that is really not safe area for them to walk and that the other side is not an alternative option for us. So please reserve that sidewalk. Please save us. Please keep it for us. I really appreciate that.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Good evening. I've got some notes. My name is Wayne Katz. I reside at 2137 Northwest 158 Lane in the community Cedar Way, Towngate, where I've been an original homeowner since June 1999. After residing in Cedar Way for a few years, I was approached by several HOA members as well as some residents who asked if I'd be interested in running for the board of directors.

After much contemplation, I was initially reluctant to run as there are so many stories of power hungry HOA boards that exist. But I knew I could bring a different approach to advocate for my neighbors and be a voice for the community, where at a time I was just starting my family. In my opinion, all if not most HOA board members have jobs, family, and many other obligations, but volunteer their time to give back while doing sometimes a thankless position. We rely on the advice of our property management companies, as well as our association attorneys. I can speak personally for me that as a board member of Cedarway for twenty three years and as president for the last twenty one years up until this past January where I didn't run again, If a project was proposed and change were to be made, I was like the captain of the ship, the last one to get off.

But in my role as board president, I was the last one to receive any new benefit or change before the rest of the community. I was never on this board for self benefit but to ensure that our community maintained its highest value and everyone followed the same rules. As the years passed, we were not blind to the tree issue developing throughout Cedar Way, as the black olive trees began to create damage to not only the sidewalks, but to the swells themselves. These trees, were planted by the builder almost twenty six years ago, all throughout Towngate, and I believe many of the communities in Western power plants should have never been selected as swell trees as they as we are all witnessing the damage they created. For as many years as I can remember, the master board always maintained the trees and sidewalks, which include pruning and crowning the trees and pressure washing the sidewalks.

But at some point, the master board stopped their preventive maintenance, and again, I can't remember when that occurred. When the problem could no longer be ignored, we had our management company, who at the time was FirstService, reached out to the master board property manager, who was also working for the same management company, FirstService, to address our concerns. After many conversations and negotiations over a long period of time, two separate but previous master board presidents both agreed with our association attorneys on both sides that we'd work together to come up with an equitable and fair solution, that we would mitigate the tree roots, and if necessary, remove entire trees if they could be saved, while the master board agreed to repair and replace any damaged sidewalks. In fact, the contract we contracted with several vendors to start the work. But when the current master board was elected, the current president Rui Dang basically ripped up the agreement and refused to work with us.

In fact, during one of the master board zone meetings, I was attempting to speak specifically about sidewalks and trees and false and misleading information that the master board was putting out to all the other sub associations, a total of 15 in Cedar Way I mean, I'm sorry, in Tallgate. About Cedar Way's intentional neglect, but it was muted by the board press I was muted by the board president. I could tell you that we recently had a special assessment with which passed a year and a half ago, and we spent close to $300,000 to remove any and all affected trees and remove and replace any damaged sidewalks within the roadways owned and maintained by Cedar Way, which has now basically been completed. Additionally, in an unseen benefit and cost savings to the masterboards, the sidewalk company inadvertently mitigated several areas of the sidewalk owned by the masterboard, and we were not charged for that error, saving them some money. I'd also like to add that the community was originally developed as a PUD community, as a planned unit development in its zoning plans.

The master board's goal is to remove all sidewalks and replace the area with grass or sod, which is a completely unacceptable solution. I also wanted to mention that I'm very passionate and determined to keep our sidewalks on 24th Street. I want to provide a safe walkway or path for our residents who want to enjoy a nice evening walk with their children and pets, and not to endanger themselves by having to weave and navigate around parked vehicles on our driveways adjacent to the affected sidewalks. In conclusion, I spent the last thirty one years in law enforcement, specifically the city of Perimeter Pines, and have seen too many unfortunate accidents due to what the master board is attempting to do, which is abdicate their responsibility and go back on their word. I am respectfully requesting you to deny the Master Board's attempt for a variance which will devalue our homes and place our residents harm way in harm's way.

Thank you, and have a nice evening.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

My name is Keith Massey. Address, 2264 Northwest 1 57th Avenue. I was a former vice president of the board of the electors of. And the purpose that I'm here today is because I am retired, and I walk my dogs along the sidewalk every day, my wife and I do. And we would love to have the sidewalk replaced.

The trees will be replaced as an ordinance. We have to replace the trees. So we do depending on getting our awareness done the correct way so that we continue to have our sidewalk so they could access. Then what has happened in Cedar Bay also is the fact that we now have an influx of young people like we never had before. So there are a lot of mothers with their strollers that have to go would have to go into the street.

As a matter of fact, right now, they have to put up cones because people speed in the in our development. We have signs that say 50 miles an hour, but that's that's just not working. So some of the mothers have to go in the street, and they have to put signs up there and cones to stop the the flow of traffic. So us not using the sidewalk and have to walk on the street is very dangerous. I've tried it since we were told not to use the sidewalk. I walked in the street, and it's it's very unsafe because I had to stop on a lot of times, I have two dogs, two little puppies. I have to keep moving over to the sidewalk or the side of the street so the traffic can flow. Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir.

Evening. My name is Hunaid Ismail. I am also a resident at Cedar Way, address 2224 Northwest 157 Avenue, Pembroke Pines, Florida 33028. I have a few points that I'd like to bring up. A lot of them echo some of the points that my fellow residents have brought up. One, the value of the sidewalk itself. I think these points have been made. But safety is one of the biggest values that we get out of that sidewalk. I know there's another sidewalk on the other side of the road, but that does intertwine with the driveways, the front driveways of different homes. Plus sometimes there are breaks in just the way that trail is made.

So you do have to cross the actual street if you want to continue forward. That's pretty apparent in the map itself. Plus also there's cars that are parked in the driveway. So if you are walking on that sidewalk, you eventually have to come onto the road to avoid those cars and then make your way back into that sidewalk. So realistically, it's not really a usable option as a walking path, as you always mentioned earlier. We currently are advised not to use the existing sidewalk. That's already causing so many issues. Children are forced to play or walk on the streets. Families are forced to walk on the streets. I'll share a short story.

Just this past Friday, I was outside and I witnessed this myself where there was a car backing out of their driveway. And they checked behind them. There was nobody behind them. But as they started backing out, one of the children were playing with their parents. And they were on a tricycle or bicycle. And probably four years, five years old, and they suddenly started darting and writing down the street, passing that house where the car was backing up. Thankfully, no one got hurt. But that child was probably two feet away from getting hit by that car because that car was backing up. We didn't see him. So thankfully, we avoided the scare.

But that just goes to point to the value of that sidewalk. Families, children can walk on that instead of having to be forced to walk on the street. So that's one point. The other point that I want to bring up is there were three options that were presented. I think that was unfair. I think there are plenty of other options. It's not just black and white where we have to remove the sidewalk or not. I've gone through with our president, Rami, going through additional options to repair the sidewalk. The sidewalk is pretty long. Not all of it is damaged.

There's 52 trees. Out of the 52 trees or how many trees there are, only some of the trees' roots are actually impeding the sidewalk. So we've gone through estimates with multiple different vendors where we can just repair the sidewalk and keep the trees. Now the trees need to be, of course, maintained. You need to do root mitigation. That's something that should be ongoing maintenance. But I just want to point out that there is that there are other options of repairing the parts of the sidewalk that are damaged. You saw the trees I'm sorry. You saw the pictures of the sidewalk. We can easily repair those pieces of the sidewalk.

Some can be some need to be replaced. Some pieces of the concrete needs to be replaced. Some can be grinded down once the roots are taken out. So there are other options, and those options had not been considered. I think it would be unfair to provide a variance to remove a sidewalk when all options are not considered.

I'll also bring some attention to the survey. I think the survey there is some negligence in the survey because the way the survey was presented is the option to remove the sidewalk came essentially as an option that was an alternative to having to pay a huge assessment fee. So the option was, if you don't want to pay an assessment, then you have to get rid of the sidewalk, which I think was really, really unfair. There's other options. We've gone through other estimates with, again, multiple vendors.

I think what was presented in the presentation was just with one vendor, which I don't think is fair either. The cost to repair the sidewalk is a fraction of that 300,000 number that was presented. So I'm personally a CPA. I'm not on the board. I took a look at our numbers. I think the sidewalk can be repaired without having to do an assessment. Obviously, that's just an opinion that was formed of myself.

JOSEPH Unfortunately, that's not part of our aspect of it. I don't to. Just want you to be aware of it. That's not what we're here. We're here to determine whether there's a variant whether we should grant you the grant of variance or not. And the actual fiscal aspects of it are not something that we are going to have to deal with, Okay?

Totally fair. I'll just bring back the attention to the survey being unfair and not being a good representation of the residents

Yeah, of

those are my points. Again, I'd just like to respectfully ask for us to be able to keep that sidewalk. A lot of emphasis was placed on the trees, which I think is very, very relevant. I'd like us to place some emphasis on the safety of the residents as well. So we'd just like you all to consider that before making a decision.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Nick Anselmo. I am a resident of Cedar Way.

What is your name? I'm sorry.

Nick Anselmo. Nicholas, I think, I put on the paper. The address is 2191 Northwest 159th Avenue.

Just give me a second. We have a list of names here. I'm just trying to find Yeah,

you got it. Nicholas Anselmo.

If you're on it.

It was in blue ink.

I'm sorry, the last one? Okay.

There you go.

Thank you.

Press for last.

Nicholas Anselmo? Yes. GREGORY you. Sorry. Sorry for

the delay on that. No, It's Okay. The address? Address is 200191 Northwest 159000 Yep.

Got you.

So I just have a couple pointers I just wanted to add. First of all, I just appreciate your time today. It's 08:00 on a Thursday. And you shouldn't be here right now listening to all this. I do want to say from lawyers and hearing it from people who are colder, it's very different to actually walk in our community versus seeing it on a map.

This sidewalk specifically is the main vein. When you come to Cedar Way, it's the main like, you actually walk down our streets, you'll see it actually winds down every single road. It's just when you naturally go into our community, it's what you follow. So I just wanted to mention that it's our main vein. Second of all, the value and use of the sidewalk.

I purchased this home five years ago coming down from New Jersey, actually. And the main reason why I purchased this home was how it flowed. This sidewalk specifically was one of those reasons. I taught my daughter five years ago how to ride her bike on this sidewalk, right? And now I can't teach my son how to ride on the sidewalk because of you know, ill regard of the master.

Keith mentioned we can't really go on the street, and there are cones that are placed. I'm the one who does the cones. So it's something that has been repeated before that it's a safety thing to actually have this sidewalk. I would love to use it more, but I actually cannot. And I walk it every single day. The other point that I wanted to make is it's just pure deception that you're hearing today, unfortunately, from the master. It's been they said it. It's been here for twenty six years. They knew the type of tree. They know that the sidewalk was there.

Nothing's changed. They just didn't prepare for repairing it. So it's just they haven't done their diligence. They didn't accrue the money to repair it. And now, because they have to for ADA reasons, and they don't want to pay for it. So that's why we're all here. That's why you're wasting your time. And I apologize for that. So I just want to say, like, the variance should have never been submitted. And we should have just figured it out ourselves. Thank you, Harris, for saying that. But it should have just been between us and our master. And I apologize. And I just thank you for hearing us.

Thank you very much. Sure.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Good evening.

I'm a resident at

And your name, sir.

Oh, sorry. Daniel Hernandez.

GREGORY Daniel Hernandez.

GREGORY GREGORY I'm a resident at 100 Just 571

second. Have a list of names that were submitted. We're just trying to I don't see him on here.

It should be under Dahlia Hernandez. I'm representing my mother. She's in the

back. Your mother? What is her name?

Dahlia Oliver.

What is the address?

15764 Northwest 24th Street.

I don't see him on the list here. And I believe you said that we can are you the last speaker? There's one more behind you. Well, if I could ask you to just step aside, let's just take somebody else who has spoken, then I'll come back to you, Okay? Have you signed up, sir? Is your name please come up.

Your

name? Kellner, K E L N E R.

Was your name submitted as one of the individuals to speak?

It should have been. It was provided prior to the Friday when the attorney was submitting David those

Keller? Okay. Yeah, we have you. Okay. Okay. Thank you. David Keller. You have him, Cheryl? Okay.

My address is 2124 Northwest 157th Avenue, Pembroke Pines, Cedar Way resident. I appreciate y'all's time. And I just wanted to give my personal opinion on the matter. I've got young children. One rides his little tricycle. The other two are not even 10 old, so they're not there yet. However, recently moved to the association. Would love to see my kids grow up there and would certainly love to give them the opportunity to be able to enjoy the sidewalk. That's on the opposite side of the actual residential buildings. Reason being is that the parking on the street as well as in the driveways is not particularly great.

In addition to that, the Master Association actually recently has started to permit individuals to actually park there because previously it was not even permitted. So it's only going to get worse. So removing that sidewalk is going to be extremely detrimental.

Again, I just want to reiterate to you that our purpose here is only with dealing with the variants and not any of the other issues that you may have and not have.

GREGORY Absolutely correct, which is why I was just bringing it to the attention that approving the variants would be a detriment to the overall association to the members. As such, I would greatly appreciate if it was denied.

Thank you very much.

Oh, and one last thing. With the survey that was showing up, I mean, I've seen, I don't know, at least probably 10 to 15 different units are here within it, that if there is a 9% from the survey that wanted to keep the sidewalks, it doesn't even add up because we've got more than 9% of the community actually here today. So that survey is extremely flawed. Thank you.

Okay.

And we I'm

sorry?

Okay. We don't have your name listed. Joe, counsel, what is the recommendation with respect to this?

Madam chair, again, we have our rules. The rules require that you have your petitioner who's allowed to speak and bring witnesses. You have your affected parties who's allowed to speak and bring witnesses. That affected party becomes an effective party upon providing notice pursuant to the code. Those are your rules for this close judicial proceeding. However, you do have discretion, Madam Chair, except that you'd want to hear additional testifiers.

We don't object to him.

You don't object? Okay. Thank you. Carefully give me your name and spell it carefully for us, Okay?

Sure. So my name is Daniel Hernandez. I'm a resident

DANIEL Daniel Hernandez? HERNANDEZ?

Hernandez, correct.

DANIEL With a z or a

Z.

DANIEL With a z. Okay. And your address? Your address?

My address is 15764 Northwest 24th Street.

Okay. Thank you.

So I want to address more what you guys asked us to address, the usability of the sidewalk, much is it used. I live right in front of it. Like dead center, I can see all the way to the left, all the way to the right. It's used a lot, a lot more than the sidewalk close to our house just because a lot of people on that street have dogs. It's just better, safer, more convenient.

And I would just think that I don't think it's a redundant sidewalk or anything like that, especially since it's an integral part of our community. And like I said, I don't want to make it too long. But I just believe if we lose that sidewalk, we're going to lose much more than just the sidewalk itself. We'll be losing safety and just overall a part of our community that's very important.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate it. Thank you.

Oh, we got more people online, sir. Thought we were almost at the end there, but I guess not. Okay. Your name, sir?

Good afternoon. Good evening. Oscar Mora, M O R A.

Oscar, did you fill out one of

those? I did. It's in red pen,

GREGORY

have a separate one?

Gave it to you, I believe. Address is 15854 Northwest 16th Street, Pembroke Pines. I'm on the master board vice president, but I'm also a resident of Canary Bay, which is the neighboring subdivision to Cedar Way. And I'd like to speak on the fact that mitigation is what we're trying to do, mitigate the problem from the sidewalk keeping from tearing up and breaking up and not being usable. We at Canary Bay had that problem.

And we attempted several different ways of mitigating, pruning the trees. We took over the pruning for a couple of years. We did several things. We talked about the root barrier. It didn't seem to work. Or the idea of it didn't seem to work. The board was told, no, not really a viable idea. So we went through all that. And we kept having to grind every couple of years, grind down or even replace chunks of sidewalk. And year after year, we kept having to fix either chunks, bigger chunks, or grind down. It was just a never ending process. So finally, the board decided we have to get rid of the trees. We permitted the first round. We got rid of the trees. We had a different situation.

Ours were between the home, the sidewalk, and the street, not over in a corridor that they have now. But we're just going to be chasing good money after bad money or whatever the saying is. Trying to fix and repair sidewalk with active roots on big oak trees, I believe is what they are, it's not a feasible plan in the long run. We've tried it. It didn't work. The trees had to come down. So I understand they're talking about the safety of the sidewalk. Right now, the sidewalk is not safe. You saw pictures. So if anybody tries to walk on that sidewalk, especially the areas that are damaged, I don't know why they wouldn't even attempt to do that.

Secondly, moving the sidewalk further away, it's going to cost more money, not just for Cedarway, but also if it were supposedly to be paid by the master, then master association is having to pay for something that eventually will still need repair. So the fact is the point I'm trying to make is you can try to mitigate all you want. You can only grind down the roots a certain amount. Mean, any arbors will tell you you can't grind down roots down to below ground. It just can't be done.

So I think the most logical, cost effective, safe would be to have the sidewalk removed. You can still walk on grass. Parks exist. Parks have trees. People walk on the grass on the parks all the time. Kids ride their bikes. Dogs are walked in parks. There's grass. There are trees. It seems to work. So I think that's just the most logical, cost effective, long term solution. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good

evening. I'm Dina St. Amore, 2002 And 33 Northwest 159 Lane.

GREGORY Just one second, Dina. Are you on our list here? I should be. I'm sorry? GREGORY A separate Okay. Thank you.

GREGORY Okay.

I want to speak against the variance requested. GREGORY Please speak into the mic. I want to speak against the variance requested. The master recommends the removal of the sidewalk because it's the most cost effective option. The gentleman that spoke before me is the first time I'm hearing that other options have been tried by different subdivisions.

That would have been a good thing to know for Cedar Way to know what has been tried before and how successful they were. But what I have done, I have driven around Towngate. I've driven around Pembroke Pines in general, where those trees, they're pretty abundant around Pembroke Pines. And I have not noticed a problem that we're having Cedarway. So I don't know if it's a problem with letting it go for so long.

Now it's at this point that we have to make these decisions because I have not noticed other communities having the same problem with their concrete or their sidewalks. The reason I'm speaking against the variance is because I don't feel all options have been visited, reviewed, and put forward to the homeowners. And I think that should be done before we just rip up the sidewalk. Yes. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Hello. Hi,

how are you? Thanks for hearing us. Veronica Flores, 2395 Northwest, 158000.

Are you on our list, or have you submitted? I did. You submitted a sheet?

Okay. Yes. I've been in Cedar Way for twenty six years now. I live on the corner right in front of where the sidewalk starts. The sidewalk is not the main road going into the subdivision, as was said here. It is an integral part of the community, yes. I myself raise my kids. It's across the street from my house. I get it. The state of the sidewalk right now is in complete disrepair.

And to be honest, to keep it the way it is, it is a detriment to the community, to the kids, and to older people walking on it right now. To continue the argument and extending this, I think, is ridiculous. I think that we need to come to common ground. And my question for you is, if the variance was granted, would the community be in nonconformance of city code? I think that's what we need to determine here.

Not who's going to pay for replacing the sidewalks, not who's going to I don't think that's the question here. Are they or are they not in conformance? And if you do grant the variance, then I believe that the master and the sub need to come together and figure out if they want the sidewalk back in, then how it's going to be done. If they work it out together, then great, because it's obviously a very emotional part of the community. But I don't think that your job here is to determine who pays and what does. But your job is to understand whether or not the community is in compliance.

I agree with you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Is that it? Are there any other speakers? Anyone else wishing to address this issue?

Madam chair?

Yes, sir.

Just following our rules now, it would be appropriate if the petitioner has any final comments in response to any testimony from other parties. Then if the city has any other comments, and then you may close public hearing and go to board deliberations.

Okay. Thank you. Mr. Cole?

Thank you. I think Ms. Flores was the most wise person who's spoken today in what she said. And basically what she said is similar to something that Mr. Katz said, which was this should just be between the master and the sub. The city should not be involved. And what Ms. Flores said is if you grant the variance, then you're no longer involved. And the sub and the master will have to figure out what to do. See, normally this is not an issue.

Normally, in the other part of Cedar Way, they took care of it because it was their issue. In other developments, the city isn't involved. So why are you wasting your evening on this? And the reason is the city is involved because of that old PUD guideline that says you need a sidewalk on both sides. If you want the city not to be involved, you should just grant the variance.

And then the sub association, the master association, are going to have to figure out what has to happen. I I can get into the legal arguments about these trees belong to the sub association. And they're responsible. There's been no evidence presented. There's no bin documents saying that the master was responsible for maintaining. I don't need to get into all that. The simple fact is you should get the city out of this. Leave this to the master and the sub, and they'll work it out however it works out. It's kind of a democracy in these associations. And they're going to have to follow their rules and figure out what has to happen.

The problem is the city has kind of been thrust into the middle of this. But you can get yourself out of it very easily by granting the variance, which is why we're here. Now another one comment that was made and that I just wanted to respond to. One second. Let me just get a picture.

And in a deal oh, sorry. And the comment was that the sidewalk, the second sidewalk, the one on this side can't be used because there's streets in between and there's cars coming out, etcetera. But all the sidewalks in Cedar Way are like that. Now, if you're walking down Northwest 158th Lane on one of the sidewalks, there's cuts for all the driveways also. I mean, that's normal.

So to have the sidewalk having that, that's true. It does have that. But all the other sidewalks do as well. The other comment was that this sidewalk goes all the way through the whole community. Well, the truth is it doesn't. I mean, it goes here. The sidewalk does not continue here. So you can't walk the sidewalk all the way through to the end because it is broken up as well. So I just did want to make sure I pointed that out.

There

was a comment made by Wayne Katz, I think it was the prior president, that also was a very good comment. And he said, and I quote I wrote it down these trees should never have been planted. And he's absolutely right. These types of trees should not have been planted in an isle of grass, which is the size of this little podium. It just doesn't matter how you maintain. You can maintain these as you can keep trimming them, keep maintaining them. They're still going to grow roots. And if you have this type of tree a foot away from a sidewalk, you're going to have this problem. So all this talk about the trees not being maintained properly over all the years, whether it's the sub or the main, it doesn't really matter. Because you would have this problem anyway.

I mean, this problem was created by the developer when they planted a tree a foot away from the sidewalk. And it's a tree that grows and grows and grows.

I think we're all in agreement on that aspect of it, So sir.

Just to conclude, what have you heard today? I mean, is a quasi judicial hearing. You've got to do things based on evidence, not just based on emotion and based on number of people who speak. Well, only one expert arborist has spoken. And the expert arborist gave the opinion that the sidewalk should be removed. And that's the only expert evidence you have in front of you. Second, there's a strong tree policy in Pembroke Pines. I read from the comprehensive plan, the city code, the city website. Pembroke Pines is encouraging trees. In fact, if you look behind you at the seal of Pembroke Pines, there's a tree

on it.

I mean, trees are very important in Pembroke Pines. And that is not disputed. Those things are not disputed. So what we ask you to do is get the city out of this, grant the variance, let the sub and the master come up with a resolution, whatever that is. I mean, these trees are owned by the sub, and the sidewalk is owned by the master. And we've got to deal with that. And we'll figure out how to deal with that and who's going to pay for it. That's beyond your scope. As the chair, I think you've accurately said your scope is very limited. And the question is whether the variance should be granted based on the criteria. The evidence is clear. The only evidence that's what I've been presented is that it should be. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Mr. Katz, do you wish to speak?

Madam Chair, that's not part of

the rules of

the road.

I thought it was completed. Thank you. Thank you very much. We appreciate everybody. Members of the committee, do you have any questions that you I do have

one Madam more Chair, I'm sorry. Just one more step in between. If the city has anything that they want to state, If not, then we'll close public

We'll close the public hearing.

And then if I may, Madam Chair, just to read for the board's benefit and this is from the city code. The board shall deliberate on the petition. No further testimony shall be taken, and members of the board or the city commission shall not ask further questions of persons presenting testimony. The board shall discuss the evidence that was presented at the proceeding and vote on the petition.

Okay. I believe you have a question. I had a question, but that's fine. You're Okay. Okay. So I hereby close the public hearing. And we will now go into more discussion. Okay? Anybody? What do you have? Anything you wish to comment? Well, I would like to

go first. I do have a few comments.

I'm sorry. Do we need a motion? We need a motion to close the public hearing? We need a motion to no? No?

You may close public hearing.

Okay. Okay. Thank you.

There was a comment that was made just now that those trees should never have been planted. So I think it's obvious that the problem here is the trees because they never should have been planted. So with that being said, I think the sidewalks are more of a safety issue than removing the trees. My opinion is to keep the sidewalks. So that's how I feel about it.

So, Okay. I have the same opinion.

I'm sorry?

I have the same opinion.

To keep the sidewalks.

To keep the sidewalks. Not to remove the sidewalks. Not to grant the variance.

So Okay, we would then have to have a motion to grant the variance or not. And am I correct in that, Mr. Attorney?

Madam Chair, generally, we don't do dispositive motions if there's a willingness from the board to pass a motion or either make a motion for approval and then deny it or if there is a but if a board member wishes to make a motion to deny the application, may be appropriate

as well.

So we would need a motion to approve the variance and have a second and then vote on the motion. Is that correct?

That is correct. But also if there is no motion on the item, then the item dies as well.

If no one wishes to make a motion, then the matter would be completed. Okay. All right. So having heard all of the information that we had, and we thank everybody for participating and for presenting their viewpoints, I now call for a motion to approve this. I know. I call for a motion to be made to approve this variance. I forget the number. One second.

Number

10.

ZV2024008. Is there a motion submitted? I hear no motion being submitted. So Mr. Attorney?

I know that board a member had a motion. If you would like to make that motion, that would be appropriate as well. Would you

like to Well, motion is to approve the variance. And I'm not making a motion to approve the variance. Can Well, Okay. Not approving the variance.

Understood. You also have if you'd want to make a

I can make a motion not to approve the variance.

Yes.

So I'll make a motion to deny the variance. Is that the proper not to remove the sidewalk?

Is there a second?

I make a motion DELL: against the variance.

Do you second?

GREGORY Yes.

You second his Okay. Okay. There is a motion made by Member Aloyo, seconded by Member Zaes, to deny the variance. All those in favor, say aye. Aye.

Mr. Zia, do you say aye?

Yeah, I said aye.

Yes, Okay. Sorry. I abstain. Cannot

Madam Chair, you you have

I should I'll say support the motion.

Okay. So let's call a roll, please.

Call a roll.

So just to be clear, Mr. Attorney, we're making the motion to keep the sidewalk, correct?

No, no. Yes, to keep the sidewalk. To deny the variance.

To deny the variance and not to remove the sidewalk.

GREGORY Correct. Okay. Go to call the roll, Cheryl, please. No. Yes. I vote yes to deny the variance.

Member Lloyd? Yes. Member Zacharias?

I vote yes. Yes. Okay.

So the variance has been denied.

Thank you, everyone.

Thank you, everyone.

Thank you. Okay.

Now we have Okay, the next item on the agenda is please, folks, please, folks, we have other matters to consider. Thank you. Under new business, at ZC2024002, shops at Pembroke Gardens. Here we go. Duane, I'm sorry.

I didn't see you sitting there. I'm standing there. Thank you, sir.

Good evening. Duane Dickerson on behalf of the applicant, attorney with the law firm, Ms. Kobachman, offices at 14 Southeast 4th Street in Boca Raton. Now we can have some fun. That was no fun. So it's time to have a little fun here. So Madam Chair, I have items number six, seven, eight, and nine. And they're all tied to the same project. So with your pleasure, I have a comprehensive presentation that I'll give for all four items. And I'm sure Mr. City Attorney will advise you to vote separately on the items. But I think a comprehensive presentation is probably most appropriate with your blessing. May I proceed that way?

Please,

sir. Okay, perfect. Thank you. So we're here this evening to request a rezoning variance regarding the property located on the Southwest Corner of, or actually the Southeast Corner of Pines Boulevard and I 75, also referred to as Shops at Pembroke Gardens. It's commercial land use and has an existing zoning designation of planned commercial development, PCD.

And we're proposing to rezone it to MXD, which is your mixed use zoning district. The subject property, as you can see there in red, it's two parcels, but it totals approximately 40.89 acres in size. So it's the master parcel at the top. And you see that little piece of slice at the bottom, which is our access parcel to get to the shopping center. This is zoomed in a little bit.

It's Shops at Pembroke Gardens, which is approximately 389,313 square feet of commercial, retail, and restaurant use. What we're asking for is to redevelop approximately 2.7 acres of the shopping center, which is currently a parking lot. And we're going to redevelop it with a multifamily residential development consisting of three zero eight dwelling units. So as part of that, what we have to do is first amend or rezone the map and the map on your zoning map to go from PCD to MXD. We also then have to amend the text because it's a planned development district.

There's specific text that we write to support the development. And so we're creating those MXD guidelines and that's part of the application process as well. And then ancillary applications or components of the application are the allocation of 44 flex units. And then we're also proposing to utilize a Broward County policy which is two sixteen three. And as part of it, we because they are affordable units, you have to deed restrict them for certain time periods.

So our affordable housing declaration restrictive covenants is part of this application package. And then in working with your staff, we did voluntarily make commitments with respect to affordable housing and mitigation of traffic impacts and to allow for future traffic improvements. So those are all components of this application this evening. So this is kind of showing all of the applications total for the project. So we have the rezoning, the map amendment, the text amendment, the allocation of the 44 flex units, the declaration of restrictive covenants, and the voluntary commitments.

That's all before you this evening. What will come before you in the near future is a site plan. So we're just kinda setting the foundation tonight with the rezoning. It will also have to go to city commission for two readings as as rezonings are approved via ordinance. But then the site plan will come back to you.

And in that case, you'll make a recommendation as well. As you know, typically, site plans are finally approved at the Planning and Zoning Board. But because we're in a planned development in the MXD, you would serve as a recommending body similar to tonight and then it goes on to city commission for final review and approval. But so you will see the site plan. I know we're all anxious to talk about the site plan components, but we have to temper ourselves tonight and just focus on the rezoning.

But I promise you, you will see the site plan very soon and we'll be able to discuss the details of the development. And then lastly, we also have to amend the note on the plat. So platting is just a very general guideline for what you can do with property. And essentially, this plat has a certain square footage allocated for commercial, right? And to add the residential component now, we have to amend the note on the plat so we'll not only have the square footage for the commercial, but then we'll also add the residential units that we'll need.

And then you get down into details with the site plan again, which will come before you shortly. So this is the parcel. It's kind of turned sideways. So 75 is on top or to the west. And to the right or to the north is Pines Boulevard.

So you can kind of see there on that Southeast Corner where the proposed residential development will go. And like I said, that's currently an underutilized parking area that's behind the shopping center. So you can just kind of see where the development will be going. And very briefly, I kind of want to just walk you through kind of what we're doing and what the different components that we're talking about, the flex unit, the policy, the county, stuff like that. So first of all, it's the flex units.

Broward County allocates a pool of flexibility units to each municipality, right? And the city, in this case, can use those units to allow for residential development on commercial land use property without making a property owner or developer go through a land use plan amendment. Now, the key components of that was, as you know, land use plan amendments can take a year and a half to two years. And in this case, this is a great project and we're looking forward to moving forward as quickly as possible. So this is a mechanism that the county and your city have in place to allocate units to expedite process and make sure that we can continue to move forward without having to amend the future land use to residential.

It can remain commercial. And so and in this case, because it's now a mixed use development with the commercial components and the residential components, your MXD guidelines are the only really mixed use zoning district in your city. So that's the most appropriate and compatible zoning district to go. And I'm sure you've seen I know some of you are fairly new, but this board has seen over the last several years in this area properties being rezoned in MXD and doing similar components of office, residential, and retail commercial, of course. And so the flex then allows for us to do that in this commercial district but to add the residential component.

And so we need the flex to then build on a bonus structure where you can get additional units to get to your total number, and that's the county policy. So that's policy two sixteen-three. So it allows for every affordable unit that you actually build, you get a bonus of market rate units. So in this case, we're proposing to build 44 moderate income level units which is 120 of median annual income or area median income in Broward County. And so with the one for six ratio for every one moderate rate affordable, you get six market rates.

The math is 44 moderate level affordable units plus then the two sixty four market rate units, which gets us a total of three zero eight dwelling units that supports the project. And the moderate affordable units, the 44, must be deed restricted for thirty years, meaning that they have to remain affordable for thirty years. So we have another legal document that's part of the backup tonight that does secure that those units will remain affordable for the thirty year period as required by the county and your city. And then also, I just wanted to really briefly show you the parking. So as part of the MXD, remember I said we are essentially creating our own development guidelines.

And the parking guidelines are in the MXD. And so what we and these numbers are based on facts. You know, a lot of times I come before you in theory because it hasn't been built yet. So I don't know what the actual demands are. In this case, we did have the opportunity to study the shopping center and now so we know what the real demands are and so that's why we were able to come up with these ratios.