City Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. We're just waiting for one more. We're actually sorry. We're waiting for the mayor. He's got stuck, but he'll be on in the next five to 10 minutes, hopefully. So just want to let you know we can't start the meeting without him because of quorum.

Jessica, can you hear me?

Yes, I can hear you.

Make him co-host.

Welcome, everyone, to the South Miami City Commission, Tuesday, April 7, 2026.

Make the mayor co-host.

If you could, please silence or turn off all cell phones.

Am I on?

Madam City Clerk, I think you're working on that. But after that, if we could get the roll call, please.

Yes. Vice Mayor Corey?

Present. Present.

Commissioner Bonish? Here. Commissioner Kaye? Here. Mayor Fernandez? I need an OK from him.

We got a majority vote on that one.

I need an OK from him.

Yeah.

OK.

Mr. Vice Mayor, how are you?

Good, thank you very much. We were just calling roll if you could announce your presence.

Yes, Madam Mayor Fernandez is present.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. All right, and if we could all... NO PROBLEM AT ALL. IF WE COULD ALL PLEASE STAND FOR A BRIEF MOMENT OF SILENCE FOLLOWED BY THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE BY COMMISSIONER BENICH.

OKAY. COMMISSIONER BENICH.

THANK YOU. I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND TO THE and justice for all.

Thank you very much. And thank you, everybody, for joining tonight. If we could, we do have two presentations tonight. First one up would be legislative updates from Senator Kolodiud, if you don't mind coming up. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much, Mr. Vice Mayor. Thank you so much, commissioners, Mr. City Manager. It's a pleasure to be with you this evening. We have concluded the 60-day legislative session as of three weeks ago. And I can report on some of the good work that we've accomplished and some we have yet to do. In terms of what we have yet to do, the state legislature has yet to approve a final fiscal year budget for 26-27. And so. Actively, we are currently, myself and Representative Busada, are carrying the appropriations for South Miami. We're really excited about our opportunities to match funding with what you're investing in here at the local level. And we're going to make sure that we continue to prioritize that. In addition to very Miami-specific investments that we're going to keep pushing on, maintaining funding for Biscayne Bay, ensuring that Everglades restoration funding continues to maximize our water quality issues, and also investments in the State Apartment Incentive Loan Program and SHIP so that housing maintains a priority for our community, as well as matching funding that aligns to what the federal government has given us on transit and transportation. We want to make sure that as those issues become the most pressing for our community, they also become what our legislators are focused on. In terms of legislative issues, this legislative session I was able to work with my colleagues in the Senate to assure that the urban development boundary maintained a high voting threshold and it was not reduced or any issues mounted that ultimately would affect our drinking water or our quality of life. I was also able to work on building a package that funded a 12,000-person gap in our low-income HIV population, who for a short period of time was without medication. We had made sure to fund that and create continuity and stability within the medication for Floridians, many who call South Florida home. I also worked on legislation this session that created greater opportunities to support the men and women in our state who are dealing with domestic violence. We've created a comprehensive package and passed it unanimously in the House and the Senate that empowers both law enforcement, survivors, and is informed by survivors' experience so that we can help protect those in the most vulnerable situations. We also passed an enhancement on the Live Local Act in which we're focusing on maximizing underutilized or vacant municipal, county, and religiously owned property and creating opportunities for workforce and affordable housing in new ways that are centered and built for particularly our public servants. and hoping that more opportunities will come to house our first responders, our firefighters, our police officers, our nurses, and our teachers. That's part of the funding I mentioned before the State Department Incentive Loan Program. In addition to that, we were working diligently to make sure there's investments in education and working each year to make sure that we don't take our foot off the pedal to investing in our public education system and into the school choice ecosystem, that Miami-Dade County Public Schools is the leader, not just in the state, but in the nation. We will be working diligently for the next several months on landing the budget. And also, we anticipate within the summer period to address the property tax question. The House of Representatives proposed many different offerings. The Senate did not propose policy during the legislative session. And we're working diligently to find an option that we feel can really do think we're really good partners.

As far as appropriations, I know you guys are doing whatever you can do. Hopefully it goes through the legal process and the governor lets it go through. I appreciate everything, again, that you've done for us. I know that we've, coming up on the next legislation, and I know we're thinking a little bit forward, one of the priorities that I have as a commissioner and that we're gonna start progressing is the ability to connect the underlying The Loveland Trail. I know we spoke about maybe you can give an update to the city of South Miami about what appropriations we might have for the Loveland Trail. And hopefully we can get that ball rolling shortly. Can you give us an update on that? Because I know it's not really South Miami, but it's countywide and I know you're helping out with that.

Yes, and I've been working diligently with Commissioner Orbis to also make sure that we're in lockstep. So the county has invested $1.25 million on the design elements to begin the process of the 5.6 mile park, or rather the Ludlam Trail that will connect multiple schools, multiple parks, And our goal at the state is to be an equal matching partner. And so at this point of the legislative session, we have more than half a million dollars attributed today in the Florida budget to the Ludlum Trail design project, which would match the county. And our goal is through the end of the legislative budget conference to maximize that to a true 1.25. and to make sure that we're taking that step forward. Right outside, we have the final construction pieces for the underline. And we know that to build the global city that we're meant to be, the global community that Miami-Dade is, and the interconnectivity of what we have in South Miami, in Coral Gables, in Pinecrest, in my beautiful unincorporated Kendall to the south, All of that really takes this amount of intentionality and planning. And so I'm really excited about the Ludlam Trail project. Now that the underline has been fully funded and matched by the state, and grateful to have been a partner for $3 million of that funding, the Ludlam Trail is that next step on what we can do to increase the quality of life and the interconnectivity of our constituents down here in our South Central Dade.

and speaking of protecting the bay and what we've done uh our septic the sewer program is one of the leaders in the county thanks to our city manager and the rest of the team for doing what they do and the continued support from the state so i appreciate that thank you thank you very much and commissioner benich would you like to say something i'm really excited about the conversation we're having about the ludlam trail because we've been working with eileen boucle and her team on getting bike access

from the Metroville all the way down 64, and we are currently stopping on 67 because we don't, you know, some of what happens after 67 is a mix of unincorporated and us. And so I'm happy to hear that there continues to be forward movement there because that means that when we are done with what we are hopefully doing in the coming years, God bless you. Thank you. there will be the ability to have that final connectivity. So I'm looking forward to that. And I'm thankful for everything you've done for us. I know it's not easy sometimes to be the face of Miami-Dade County. So I thank you for doing it as graciously as you do.

It's my pleasure, and I can't shout out enough Commissioner Milan Orbis for her vision for Logan Trail. She is the fire behind it, and I just want to match that energy and make sure that our state partners fulfill our obligations. And I'm just really excited for what we're able to build out and how that will ultimately not just interconnect the community in transit and modalities, but connect people. So thank you.

Thank you, and I can only repeat what my fellow commissioners have said. I deeply respect how you go after the big issues in the state of Florida. Going and creating policy on housing is not easy. It's one of the biggest problems that we have, and I appreciate you doing that and all the other policies you do as well. A lot of people may not know this as well, but you do go to bat for us every year on appropriation. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. It's just the way it is. And then lastly, just the personal attention that you give us. You do make us feel like we're your only city, even though we know we're not. But you do make us feel that way. So thank you very much, and we appreciate it.

Thank you.

Wonderful. And next on Presentations, we have the Parks Master Plan from Kim Lee Horn.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commission, City Attorney's Manager, John Tyson, Assistant Director for Parks, Recreation, and Culture. I'd like to introduce Hadley Peterson from Kimley Horn, who has been a partner in leading the development of our Parks and Recreation Master Plan. She's overseeing the process from initial data collection and community engagement to ultimately where we are today with the Master Plan itself. She has played a key role in coordinating public involvement efforts, analyzing community priorities, and guiding the development of long-term recommendations that will shape the future of the city, and specifically our Parks and Recreation Department. She will be presenting for us today and walking us through that plan and any recommendations that come along with that plan with the intention of hopefully adopting later today. So here we are. Here's Hadley.

Hello, thank you all for having me. Is this clicker going to work with the presentation? Okay. As John mentioned, Hadley Peterson, I know we all have spoke individually over the last couple of months, just here to provide an update. There we go. Thank you. Just to provide an update of the completion of this project that we started May of last year. So it's been a real great endeavor. And for those in the room and listening online that maybe haven't been engaged yet through this process, the Parks and Recreation Master Plan is really a 10-year roadmap for guiding investments in this city. So it began with a system-wide evaluation of existing conditions, the existing facilities, programs and services and then continued through with robust community engagement to result in actionable recommendations and ultimately a set of tools that the department can use to guide decisions over the years to come. Sorry, we're having small technical difficulty. I'll talk a little bit about the process while we get the PowerPoint pulled up. But like I mentioned, we kicked off in May of last year. Last summer was really spent doing a lot of the existing conditions research, diving into what you all have, then continued through community conversation in the summer and into the fall. And then in November, we held both an all staff workshop and a public workshop to kind of continue the vision into the implementation portion. And then through the January to now, we've had individual meetings with several of you as well as with key staff to really finalize the plan that's here today. Just wanted to pause for a moment on the community engagement. I know I've shown you before kind of what the process looked like. But ultimately, at the end of it, we connected with more than 5,000 individuals, residents, visitors, staff, all included in the plan, everything from social media to attending events like 4th of July and the Safe Streets Halloween event. And so we're really just grateful for the amount of voices and fingerprints that were included in this plan. One of the big pieces of the engagement process early on was the statistically valid survey We got enough responses through that To really say that the drop of water matches the pond it was drawn in so it has a margin of error of less than 5% and a lot of really good findings from that and and is included as an appendix to the full plan. But ultimately, a lot of folks that are generally happy with the parks and recreation services and facilities today and interested in growing what they have in the future, And so as part of that, as a reminder, the needs assessment is a component of 12 both qualitative and quantitative and observational methods that we match together to really determine what priority is. Just because we hear it's a need doesn't mean that every need can be a priority. And so it's up to us to really figure out how those things weigh together. And so we look at what's continuing to rise to the top through conversation with community, through aligning with existing city efforts, through national trends and comparing us to regional benchmarks as well. And at the end of the day, what that looked like and what we presented here in November are these top 10 facility and activity needs moving us towards 10 years from now. And you'll see here everything from expanding the urban tree canopy and natural areas, a lot of those passive recreation, to providing more aquatics and more senior facilities and a lot of safety and comfort, benches, lighting, letting people linger and spend longer in the parks that they love. So ultimately, what that resulted in is the implementation plan piece of the document that has five main vision principles ranging from bold public spaces, connected parks, inclusive programs, active recreation, and resilient natural areas that are going to come together to be the vision of South Miami in the future. And each of these vision principles has guiding principles that go along with them that really drive that and match up with the actions. And these are everything from ensuring comfort and safety to programming and access and inclusivity to really just tie together how these vision components work together, don't compete against each other to create the future really bold, resilient that we want to see. As part of the implementation plan, it's split into three phases. What can be accomplished in the first three years, the medium term, which is four to seven, and anything longer than eight years, which is really where we're striving to go. And this is because what we really need to do first is focus on stabilizing our existing assets, really looking at those visible gaps, any replacement of an aging infrastructure. And there is a lot of community support for maintaining what we have first. And so this can be delivered with our currently projected capital levels and is where the department's expected to spend most of their time. But they'll also be needing to build towards years four through seven, which is when they start to address growth, really look at closing some of those gaps, connecting to schools and major redevelopment areas. This will require some additional funding as well as some staffing expansion in order to make sure that we hit the mark. And then when we look long term, these are the really transformational projects, some of the large ticket items that we're going to be needing to build towards for the next eight years to get there. Across all three phases, priorities are sequenced based on community input, access, safety, funding feasibility, and operational sustainability so that they can be consistent with the framework. As part of this, a major component, as part of a conversation that's been running separately to this process is the master joint use agreement with Miami Dade. And so we did look at three sites and the capital improvements for these three sites are included in the plan. South Miami Park, expanding that park to have some joint use of the facility north of the school, as well as Welsh Junior Park, looking at that facility and adding a kayak launch there, and then Palmer Park, redesigning what that looks like and adding both indoor and outdoor active recreation space. So these, at this point, the costs for these are included in this plan, but these are very conceptual, and there's the other process of the master joint use agreement that will be running alongside this and using this as a starting point. Additionally, in the implementation plan, there's abundant recommendations for facilities and programming, everything from updating the existing community center with some expansion towards that long term, as well as an additional indoor facility proposed at Palmer Park, the potential for an environmental education center, and expanding the aquatic center to have year-round access. With all capital improvements comes some increase in operations and maintenance and that's where the balance lies So as part of this, you know, we also look at as your system grows What are the O&M costs that are expected to grow and how can we staff to accommodate that? so there's a staffing plan included in this as well as recommendations for staff succession planning, annual training programs, as well as maintenance plans and procedures that don't exist today, but that would be great to help the department make the decisions they need to. Another tool in the plan that's there to help the department make those decisions, because in this city, there's so much happening at all times. And there's a lot of opportunities arise that aren't going to be in this plan today. But how do we enable staff to make decisions? So we have a prioritization framework in here that are priorities based off of the needs assessment, staff conversations, and public workshops that would help them prioritize any given decision against what's already in this plan. Additionally, there are All the costs in the plan are sorted into short-term, medium-term, and long-term costs, with the bulk of the projects really happening in that medium term. A lot of the large-scale capital investments are long-term, but you're building for it, acquiring the land for it, right-of-way programming in the medium term. As part of this plan, we also provide level of service recommendations. So the recommendation is to keep the level of service standard as it is today at that four acres per 1,000, but look at adding a composition framework. And our recommendation is about 65% to 75% active recreation or active population serving parkland, and the remainder being that passive natural open space to really provide the balance of enjoying nature and active recreation in the community. Additionally, we recommend adding standards for facilities per 1,000 people, and that's everything from trails, blueways, to those active recreation facilities. What you see here is a map of access to parks in the city, and as part of this plan, we also recommend working towards providing a park within a five-minute walk of every resident. So this will help you get there. Additionally, and this is pretty high level, but the plan provides additional detail around grants the bond usage sponsorships partnerships some comprehensive plan amendments or land development code updates to better work with development partners and those include recommendations for Impact fees and the public use of the public benefit trust fund if comes to fruition And so all of that is provided in the strategic plan portion of this plan and available for any questions

Did we have any questions now or maybe we hold them for when we discuss the item or? Okay, all right, great. Thank you so much for the presentation. And before we move on to the next, I just wanted to let everyone know you can sign up in the back for public comment. It's gonna be shortly after the following presentation. So if you haven't yet, please sign up for public comment. The next presentation on the agenda is the Landscape Master Plan from Miller Legg.

Good evening. Before our director, on the parks master plan, just to remind you that it's on consent. So if you're going to have some discussion over it, you would have to pull it from consent to be able to have your deliberations.

OK. Thank you very much.

I'm a government services director and before the consultant begins I just want to take a quick moment to go over what a landscaping master plan actually is because I think there was a little confusion last time This is not a document that designs every street in the city. It's a planning and policy tool So they went out there they looked at our streets our intersections our landscaping sidewalks the entire public realm. And then they categorize them. And they'll tell us these are major interiors. These are minor. These are collector streets. They look at the conditions of them. And then they give us a plan so that, for example, for Sunset, it's a major. roadway. You're not going to do it the same way you would do a road in a single family neighborhood. For that, they'll give, they map them. They show how many miles we have, where they're all located. And they'll give recommendations of what type of canopy we should have, what type of street spacing there should be, what the understory should be, what the bushes should be. So that when we do actually go and landscape these areas, there's this guide. And then there's a design that comes with it. It could be through public projects or private projects. But basically, it's a rule map that says, hey, these are the rules. So eventually, it'll be very consistent and appropriate for the type of road or intersection or the signage and their entry signs. They looked at all that. That's really what it is. So it gives us all the mapping. It identifies them all. It photographs existing conditions. And then gives recommendations on, what the future plan should be for those areas so that the city is consistent and appropriately designed.

Thank you.

All right. Good evening, everybody. Good to see you all again.

Miguel Honcal with Miller Legg and Jenny Sikowsky. Gallon Kyle and Jenny Sukowski with Miller Lake so we've gone through the master plan a few times with you guys, but we're just going to Briefly go through where we are and go through some of the updates based on the feedback. We've gotten from previous presentations as well as further coordination with the city so currently still under the final landscape master plan and And I'm going to pass it over to Jenny. She's going to go through some of the changes and then look forward to any questions or other feedback from you guys. Thank you.

All right. Good evening. So we have some repeated information here. We're just including, obviously, as Sarami mentioned, it's important to include what the existing conditions and our findings were so that if there's any questions, we can always refer back to Those were so just again. We saw this last time existing conditions that we documented in the city We categorized all of the corridors all the way from principal arterials all the way down to local streets And we essentially in the document takes a closer look Corridor by corridor block by block what those existing conditions look like and overall our findings found that there is a fragmented inconsistency with the landscaping and OK. We have some technical issues. Okay. Awesome. Thank you. Yeah, no problem. So this was a minor change that we have from our last presentation. So we've seen this map before where we're outlining basically the areas in the city that we believe could have some potential hardscape improvements, namely the intersections. Now, keep in mind that we categorize these intersections based on the fact that they have representative conditions found throughout the intersections in the city. So we further categorize them on the chart. You'll see in detail. I know it's a bit small to read. But we categorize them by type A and type B intersections. Why? Because we have intersections that fall in residential areas, and then we have intersections that fall more in commercial areas. And later on, as we'll see the conceptual costs with hardscape improvements, this matters because the conditions vary in these intersections. So some have presence of force, of different sidewalks, and with different widths at each intersection based on where it is in the city. So you'll see commercial intersections with sidewalks varying from 10 feet all the way to 15 feet in the city. And then in residential areas, it'll typically be your smaller 5 to 6 width sidewalks. And we'll cover more of why that's important as we get to the end. the improvements later on in the presentation. And then just overall key findings from our opportunities and constraints. Again, we saw some fragmented and inconsistent landscaping, but overall just lots of overhead utility conflicts, which definitely impact the recommendations. Again, we went through this information, but always good to have an update. So as we go into recommendations and design guidelines, we've consolidated our goals and objectives. These are just overall goals and objectives. The purpose is to support the implementation of the recommendations in the document. namely looking at the existing tree planting initiative that the city has that was started in 2009, and looking at how we can utilize the information in this master plan to use these programs that the city already has in place, and just remembering that we can implement these things to further increase the tree canopy and the green areas in this city. So that's really what a lot of these objectives cover. And then we also have shown this before as well. So these are just important guidelines for planting trees, DOT criteria, FPL criteria, important especially because the city does have a lot of those overhead utility constraints. And then the same goes for additional design considerations when it comes to roadways and medians. And then hardscape guidelines. Again, this is also in line with all of that that we just discussed. And then when we come into the plant species recommendations, we had a few updates here. As we updated our planting palette, we definitely consolidated the options down, but we're also making sure to include Well, the palms, we also got that memo last time. So yeah, definitely took that into consideration. But we'll further show as later in the presentation, we consolidated it down to three themes, one of them being a tropical theme. So we included the addition of more of some tropical-looking Florida-friendly species. And then, so here we're looking at, through ongoing consensus with the city, we had a directive to include standard gray concrete with blue glass aggregate as one of the hardscape approaches. So we also added a complementary green colored concrete. Introduced it could be introduced as an accent where we have this standard gray concrete and blue glass aggregate And as you'll see later we have more of this information And render an image is looking at what this could look like at the city intersections so We also have some fruit tree species recommendations. This was also in ongoing coordination with the city, just providing some species, obviously having to look at where they could be appropriately planted, and obviously species that are Florida-friendly and appropriate for right-of-ways in the city. And then on the charts to the right, these are outlining material specifications for the two recommended hardscape materials. Briefly, this is going over just the sections. We've seen this last time. We've also made updates. But I'm just going to skim through as I just walk through overall what these sections are showing. And then if there's any questions, we can definitely go back. But overall, these sections cover the focus areas depicting typical conditions across all of the corridor types in the city. Essentially, it shows the range of what the city can do realistically to increase the green space within the city, whether that's planting canopy trees or just planting shrubs. And again, that matters because, again, we have these overhead utility constraints that definitely affect what you can do in that area. So as we get into more of the renderings, which are the images of our updates, We definitely took a look at the gateway, especially the small gateway signs in the city. And through ongoing coordination throughout the planning process, we're just taking a look and illustrating at the possibility of the smaller gateway signs in the lower right corner with an updated color palette that also coincides with the existing signage. And then you can see that coinciding with that blue and black. that blue and black palette and possibly integrating it into the smaller gateway signs. It could also create more of a sense of familiarity as people come to these smaller gateway entrances and they recognize that color palette more. So again, we've showed this last time as well, just looking at implementing some green areas in the existing roundabouts and proposing different native shrubs, ground covers, we were asked to look at the possibility of extending or expanding the green space within the roundabouts. And through some research, we found that ultimately looking at doing that is going to jeopardize the ability for larger trucks to come into these areas. So that's why we could not expand the green space in the roundabouts. It would jeopardize that ability for larger trucks to come into these neighborhoods. And then as we look at some updates with these images, so this is Southwest 67th Ave, where we're showing, now we're getting into the themes that I mentioned briefly. This is an example of a Florida theme, and we have both options here. So to the left, you'll see, while it's not as big of a canopy tree as on the right, we felt that introducing native trees species, especially given that through coordination with the city, we learned that this is next to Palmer Park. And the city is doing some working on some redesigns with the school board in that area. And then further down the street to the north on 67th, you also have that Girl Scout. lot. And we were also informed that there's a native pine rockland habitat there. So just exploring at possibly introducing more of that native pine rockland species that can tie in potentially with that lot that you have further north um and exploring what that could look like and then to the right is just you know a florida theme but looking at you know having one canopy tree and then two smaller ones on the side and um it would depend obviously on the width of that of the you know the green space that it's in of the swale but where you have larger widths obviously you can do more. So now starting to look into the hardscape improvements, and we did show this last time as well with the US 1 median, just introducing low maintenance and Florida-friendly native planting, abiding by DOT criteria. So starting to look at, like I mentioned before, we had, we were, with coordination within the city, we were talking about that standard gray concrete and blue glass aggregate, and then what the green concrete is. We basically use this intersection at Sunset and Southwest 67th to show potentially what this pattern, what this proposed leaf motif pattern can, how it can accommodate sidewalks with different widths, and hence why I mentioned in the beginning you have different intersections in the city with different sidewalk widths. So it's important to have a design that can accommodate those different sidewalk widths. And with the leaf motif also drawn from and inspired from the city's logo, there is a leaf motif on the logo as well. And staying within the color palette of the city, you have the blue glass aggregate, the green leaf motif. So definitely looking back too. the city and for that inspiration of the design. And then this is just a more detailed close-up view of that intersection corner and the implementation of what this design could look like at these different intersection corners. It's not touching the ADA ramps or the crosswalks. It would just be on the sidewalks. And I know the green is sticking out a bit. It's just graphically to show potentially what that could look like. And then we're going to go back really quickly.

So something to point out here, the reason we chose this intersection is on the east side, we have very wide sidewalks. The northeast, we're at 15 feet width. On the southeast, we're at 11. And then across the street, we go back to five feet. And the example here just shows with the leaf motif how it's able to adapt to any of those widths. It's just a matter of scaling the leaf motif down and making it work with the hardscape area. And this is, again, at the corners. It doesn't go very far beyond that. And obviously, when we're incorporating this, we'd have to consider whose adjacent projects and such so we're not overlapping and making sure that's in coordination with other ongoing projects.

OK. All right. So now as we get into implementation and conceptual costs, whoops. So we broke this down. We provide conceptual costs for gateways for the fruit tree species that we are recommending, and then we get into what we were just talking about, which was the hardscape recommendations for the different intersections, and we broke this down between, like I was mentioning at the beginning, we have the Type A intersection and then the Type B intersection. But further from there, we have the Type A A2, So the difference is that the type A2 intersection, when we were looking at the different residential intersections in the city, we found that some quadrants of the intersections, meaning like the street, sorry, the corners of the intersections, they don't always have the sidewalks on them. Some have like one sidewalk that ends and then doesn't continue on the other side. So that's going to affect the overall estimates of these costs because if you can't really you can't necessarily say we're pricing this out for For however many X amount of sidewalks per intersection So the sidewalks the presence of sidewalks varies at these intersections. So in these charts it just demonstrates the type a residential intersection and You have, we use the six foot average sidewalk width for quadrants and then the type A2 intersection, same sidewalk width, same amount of quadrants except the cost varies because we looked at examples of intersections in the city that only have two quadrants with four sidewalks rather than having two sidewalks at all the quadrants. And then the type B commercial intersection, we use the 10-foot average width based on inventory and looking at the sidewalk widths at these types of intersections. So the difference between the type B and type B2 commercial intersection is that the type B2 commercial intersection occurs areas in the city where half of the intersection is not within the jurisdiction of the city so those could still be utilized for hardscape improvements because those are gateways into the city so potentially this design could be incorporated at those intersections as well and then This is nearing the end here, but looking at, we consolidated down, last time we showed this to you, we had four different habitat planting pallets inspired by native Florida habitats, and directed from the city, we consolidated that down into three themed areas. And we consolidated the planting pallet down as well so that the city can take this and essentially have this as a guide for what to implement within these 200 square foot areas that we used as an average. of what you can do in that average swale. I was just showing the Florida theme. This is the tropical theme. Again, we have two options. If you want to choose from the Florida palette, you have two options to choose from. The species are laid out for you, and you can implement that. And then for the tropical theme, it's the same. We're laying out the species for each option. We have option one and option two. And then we have the pollinator theme. And this one is more for areas that have overhead utilities and you want to put smaller trees in those areas. So that's really what the pollinator theme could be suited for. And you have a lot of that happening in the city. And then last but not least, we've updated our grants. Just from the last time, we made sure to look into any updates on that that we could provide. And we updated this chart as well with new grant information that could support these initiatives and similar initiatives to the Landscape Master Plan. And that is all. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very much. And before I forget it, because I can't see him, I wanted to see maybe if the mayor wanted to kick us off with any questions. I don't know if you would like to start, Mayor?

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. I'm happy just to listen to questions. And if something goes unasked, I'll happily follow up. Thank you.

No problem. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I guess we'll start on this side now with Commissioner Minich.

Thank you. I'm glad to see that we've arrived at having the different options for us to choose from rather than just finding a tree and putting it somewhere. So I'm thankful to you guys for bringing that to the forefront here. I'm not really sure the sidewalk conversation, so I'm not going to talk about that, just because I don't even know what that's about. But I'm really happy to see where we landed, that we can use this as a guidebook to what we want to do. Because it's great to have a conversation, but I don't like the same trees that he likes. And he likes a different tree, and probably likes a different tree. We get nowhere. Well, there you go. She likes everything, so I'm thankful. Thank you very much for landing with the final presentation, I think, where we originally thought we were going.

Thank you. Commissioner Kaye? No, all right.

i agree it's pretty pretty clear the plan is is in place there's a lot of things that we can do with it i guess what i had a little bit more questions on i guess it's more for the city manager from an implementation process i saw some really good examples of key areas where we don't have that many trees uh example uh on 64th street between 57th avenue 62nd avenue and in front of palmer park for example Just trying to understand and make sure the public understands the process. Once we implement this guideline, if we wanted to implement trees in either one of those streets, would we need to, A, then have a design put in place? Do we go out for a bid option perspective to get a design? And then maybe another bid for execution? And how does that process work, if you can remind me?

Yes, sir. There's a couple of moving parts. As Commissioner Bonnich mentioned, this is a blueprint that now sort of aligns action, right? And it's not one person's opinion or decision. It's a blueprint that we have some discipline as we embark on some of the ideas that are represented here. So twofold. We have a concurrent initiative, which is the tree planting initiative. And the vice mayor had sponsored that, initiated that. And we have opportunities for that. Some of their work provided us some guidance and influenced areas that are deficient in tree canopy. So we have some funds that were allocated for that purpose specifically that are sitting in the Tree Trust Fund. So if it's a one-off where there's opportunities for a tree, we would approach that project from that standpoint. Now, we're currently taking a look at some contracts that are out there that have been let by others, see if we can piggyback off of those contracts that have unit pricing. And if not, we may just obtain three quotes for the purpose of spending that initial amount of money, which is $85,000, We have other dollars that we could allocate to it. So that's really following some of the work that they did as it relates to canopy and the vice mayor's initiative. As it relates to something that's more involved that has a combination of plant material, then yes, this blueprint would influence that design. How are we going about that? We've initiated a conversation on designing a few of our locations, circles, and some of our what I call parkways or medians. Obviously, there's a lot of opportunities, and what this provides is the resource to have a conversation during budget time is how much do we want to allocate. We did allocate monies previously, but it was really uninformed from the standpoint of a blueprint. So we have money for this fiscal year that we're going to begin to work on. Site specific, now we use this blueprint and design site specific. So we've had a conversation about some circles. Remember that not all circles are the same. There are different circumference. They have different issues, barriers, utilities. There's civil work. Some of them have hardscape. The concrete bands are damaged. They may have pavers. It impacts the roadway. And when we talk about trucks, obviously that's a key component because sometimes these homes have to be serviced by furniture delivery, appliances. And so these trucks end up having to have access to these neighborhoods. So we are going to either piggyback in our landscape and or obtain quotes as it relates to planting single trees in different areas to increase our canopy. and we are going to design through additional work certain circles that we've provided them to start that program, if you will. I'm looking at some other opportunities to maybe have partnership with some other entities that can come and be part of this process from a design standpoint so we can kind of bring to scale. Right now we want to like I paused it. I said, can we do this? You all indulge me in this. Now I want to pedal to the metal and execute on designing and planting. So we'll give you regular reports. We'll bring an item back on the trees because we're going to have to spend some money. So I'm hoping that maybe this second meeting in April we'll have an item that can get us through the tree planting while we continue on the design aspect for some initial. I think we have about four circles and a couple of meetings that we talked about.

Good. So I mean, I'm glad that we have the guidelines in place. We now have the process and the way to execute. So I'm really excited about what the city is going to look like in the next few years. Lastly, I just wanted to apologize to everybody, my colleagues, and the rest of the city. I was looking at those pictures of the fast lab building on the corner of 62nd Avenue and Sunset Drive. And I'm sorry I had proved that when I was on the ERPB, because that is hideous. So I apologize. It looks really bad.

Yeah. You're forgiven. I had some comments. Thank you. Amazing presentation. You guys definitely did a great job taking feedback and implementing it. I was under the impression I might get some feedback from my colleagues here, because a lot of them have better design eyes than I do. But on the hardscape side, I thought we were going to mainly focus on the intersections. I didn't realize it was going to be sidewalks. I kind of worry that that could be a little more disjointed than intersections, which can be more like accents. What are your thoughts on that? Because I wanted to make sure that we could keep it consistent. Because we could just have a sidewalk that ends and starts as a normal sidewalk again.

So I was going to actually mention some of the things that really are next steps with this. And one of them is- I'm struggling, bro.

How are you?

Yes, there.

Oh, sorry. I don't think that was intended. There he is.

So next steps would be, and actually feedback that we would want today is, I mean, I just told them, look, I personally like the gray concrete with some blue aggregate. But I don't know if that's what this commission wants to adopt. Like, is this what you like? It's not what you like. You want us to look at something else. I think it goes, and the reason why I had them go in that direction is they needed some direction so that they could finalize their work. And I figured that we have these nice blue signs that This commission or previous Commission invested into it already starts setting a look for all our single-family neighborhoods or commercial Areas, so it looks like it will fit in it would be very pretty If that's a direction you want to go then I think we would actually and I spoke to them about this I would like to get like some material samples that show like a different weights of aggregates a different amount of aggregates with gray concrete so we know exactly what a mixed design would be and these are sample and materials of how it would look. This is how your sidewalk is going to look if you do a sidewalk in South Miami. And then there's also the question of do we require implementation from the adjacent property owner? Like if you're building a new home, because this affects the single family neighborhoods too, right? So if you're building a new home in the city of South Miami, do we require that you improve the right-of-way and add and put the sidewalk, even though it may not lead to anywhere, or do you pay into a fund and later the city will build the sidewalk for the entire street? That would take very long, but some people, you know, it just depends. I've been in other municipalities where there's this back and forth on how do we get the sidewalks throughout the entire city. But it would be part of, hey, you're building the city of South Miami, you either pay into this fund and you improve the right-of-way with landscaping, and this is the standards that we have. We have the pollinator type, or we have the Florida, what is it called?

Florida pollinator.

Florida theme which I absolutely love and then that third one and you would basically then as Part of your single-family home development is that you would have to improve the right-of-way And you may have to put the sidewalk and this is the standards that we have for the sidewalk It'll be this width. It'll be this mixed design Whatever it is so we need that kind of feedback really to like take this to the next step and see how we actually implement this and

This is more a question to them than to you guys. We've implemented kind of a color scheme for the downtown area. I wonder if we should extrapolate that into this sidewalk that we're seeing so we don't have disjointed things. I don't know if you guys agree with that. I can't remember. I mean, I know it's gray.

It's a fair question. I don't know that we finally landed on a final package. So I think we're maybe that's a conversation for the next meeting. Yeah, but it's a good point whether we want to have that extend to the city or have something that's different to kind of demarcates a break between the You know our so many district in the rest of the city and then second I don't like the leaves No, that to me is just like too much

I mean, it could be only at intersections, and it could be a lighter green. It's just feedback. Well, what I don't like is that it's green, or I don't want leaves at all. I just want it to be a very simple, consistent gray concrete sidewalk, which is fine.

I like the consistent. I don't mind the aggregate at all. I just think there's enough going on with the buildings to then have something else on the sidewalk in those areas that's just so busy to begin with. That's me. I would prefer just regular sidewalks.

Mr. Vice Mayor, I think you were still... Yeah, no, I think I was of the same mind. And then I did have one more question, but if anyone else wants to mention anything on hardscapes, I agree with Commissioner Benici.

Yeah, I'll just chime in. I did not love the... I appreciate the creativity. I did not love the leaves. But I would prefer to have a simpler, clean aesthetic. I do like the aggregate. I think that's a good idea. Did you have questions, or...? Did have a couple questions as I only caught it listening. I didn't get to see all of us. I was driving here again Let me start by apologizing for being late. I just had a work engagement that conflicted You mentioned there were three themes Pollinator theme I think clearly is one that you're using in a very specific condition. We've got overhead lines that limit your ability to kind of plant trees tree species But then we have, I guess, two competing themes, which is the tropical and the Florida. Florida hardwood or Florida, what was the name of the theme? Florida theme, yeah. Am I correct in understanding these are maybe competing themes that we could use one or the other in conditions where we don't have the limitations of overhead power lines? How do you see that? You can use them both. You can use them both.

Yeah, it's not one or the other. You can use both. You can alternate them. You can have one block, you know, one.

What I meant by competing is they both, we can use them in either condition where you're not limited by overhead power lines. Correct. Okay, got it. depending on what we said we want a particular location we can deploy it or not to put one or the other. Correct. The pollinator is the only one that is restricted because of the anticipated condition of the overhead power lines.

Right, the pollinator doesn't have any large overhead canopy trees, so that one would be limited.

Thank you for that clarification. A question as to, back to budgeting, I think you may have mentioned in your discussion earlier, as we think about budget and the manager we put together, our 27 budget and beyond, I'm assuming there's only so many specific locations you identified as intervention points that provide opportunities. And I didn't hear maybe like a number, are there 20 locations?

There's seven. There's seven. Focus intersections that we identified.

Okay, and the average cost for a focus intersection, I saw you went through a number of scenarios. Again, I couldn't see them, so if you can just repeat that, I apologize.

Yeah, so when it comes... So when it comes to the average costs, like I was mentioning, we categorized it by intersections that fall in commercial areas and intersections that fall in residential areas. So it ranges, just because we can't give an exact cost because the conditions do vary widely throughout the city. But we have a cost range for that. And with the seven proposed intersections, it ranges from $81,400 to $354,000. But you can look at the charts give you these are one intersection. The charts represent the typical, the conceptual cost for one intersection type.

Okay, so just what's to say on average is about $200,000 to $250,000. And this again, this is the cost for the actual physical improvements. for the sidewalks, correct, and these seven locations, right? That does not include, like I said, there was a discussion about how do we procure this and how do we do this work. That does not, does this contemplate related design fees for the execution or is it just materials and the execution of the installation of the materials? Okay, so it's the latter portion. So we should probably add... 15% on top of that number to kind of arrive at a design cost associated with it. So maybe, yes, sir.

I'm sorry, clarification, because I see a design line item embedded in there. That's what I was trying to understand. What is in this line item? Yeah, there's a 20%, so. It is included. It is. Okay.

So let's just say it's fully loaded $200,000 to $250,000. So just colleagues, as we're thinking about this for this cycle, if we wanted to do this in one grand shot over a couple of shots, we're talking about $1.5 million to kind of, you know, again, make these improvements go all in one fiscal year. So thank you for clarifying that. I appreciate it. Further questions or comments?

Sudami asked us a question that we haven't answered, and that is exactly about the sidewalks. Do we want to make it something where the residents kind of feed into it and stuff? And I'm wondering, do we want to have that conversation now, or do we want that to be a secondary conversation?

I think we should accept this plan, because I think that's what we need to do. And then I think we should have, again, to your point is the interplay. What are we selecting for the Somi district? We have an option here. I think it's a good one. I think we all have, it sounds like we have consensus about maybe not wanting

leaf accents as part of the as part of that um as part of this plan but maybe we bring back a separate conversation mr manager where we can sorry go ahead you want to say something no yeah because i think where you were headed i believe was the issue of a particular home let's say a new home is being built whether we as a city require an improvement of a sidewalk even though it's a sidewalk to nowhere right is that where you were headed Well, he hit both of you. And or paying into a fund that then later, if the city wanted to do a sidewalk. So Sudami had presented that potentially as a conversation, to your point, not necessarily to have to be addressed now. But I think it is a public policy discussion at some point.

I think it'd be smart for us to address those things together, just because then we have a cohesive conversation instead of hitting

And if you're asking whether you should ask the public about whether they want sidewalks or not?

No, no, because what she was explaining is when you're building a new house, you're responsible for the sidewalk in front of your house. So do we want to have them put the sidewalk to nowhere in front of their house while we wait 10 years for the other houses to catch up? Or do we want them to pay into a fund that then is used towards sidewalks?

I would just suggest that we may want to ask residents whether they even want the sidewalk amenity. I will tell you that the septic to sewer experience in my neighborhood was a very instructive one. I think if I asked people whether they wanted sidewalks, given that they felt very possessive of the right-of-way in front of their home, even though they didn't own it, they would probably be averse to having sidewalks installed. That's my gut opinion. my gut instinct on that issue, but people seem in strictly residential neighborhoods, not on the edges of them, very comfortable with not having sidewalks internal to their blocks. Again, certainly I can speak to my neighborhood. I wouldn't speak about any other.

I'm sorry, and doesn't, I think to your point, wouldn't impact adoption of the master plan. It would not. It's a conversation for later.

Further comments? Okay. Do you want to move to adopt the master plan? We have a motion by Commissioner Kaya. Second. Second by Vice Mayor Corey. Madam Clerk, if you can call the, do we need a formal vote or just show it as adopted?

It's just a presentation. It's just a presentation.

Okay, so show it as accepted. And do we need formal adoption, Mr. City Attorney, or we'll consider it adopted. Okay. Thank you very much for your hard work. We appreciate it.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Mr. Vice Mayor, where do we leave off? I'm not screwing up the meeting. You're running perfectly well without me.

No, no worries at all. We're at add-ons, which I don't believe we have any. So it's just the approval of minutes. OK.

City Manager's report.

City Manager's report.

Mr. Manager?

Thank you. Well, first of all, I certainly want to thank this commission. We've talked about two big efforts for this city. They're both planning efforts, Parks Master Plan, which you have an item in your consent, and certainly Landscape Master Plan. And obviously, we slowed down what we were doing just to align ourselves with some planning efforts and these blueprints. So I think it's an important exercise and milestone for the city. I'm both and thank you for indulging me and throwing things up before we speed up again from a manager's report one of the things I do want to tsunami

Get her for me.

In the meantime, while she walks back in, Commissioner Kai had asked me for an update regarding the dog park. And we had a meeting today with myself, our city attorneys, and our deputy manager, and our assistant director, Tyson. with Mr. Bill Bang from the Elks to discuss some ideas. We're putting those on paper to share with him, and he'll discuss it with the Elks leadership, all in the interest of potentially having that part remain there, but we'll see where that plays out. We're doing some analysis from a cost standpoint, but we're working towards that, and the effort is towards trying to keep it open. I'll turn back. I know, Sudami, we have one of our new employees, a key position. And Sudami wanted to introduce her, joining our SOMI team. So I was going to turn it over to Sudami.

So yes, thank you, manager. We have Shen Lin. She comes to us. She started on Monday. She comes to us from, she actually worked in Seattle, a nice big city that she brings a lot of experience. She's also been in the private sector for quite a while, had her own planning consulting firm. She's lived in South Miami or in, not South Miami City proper, but close enough for a year. And she's super excited. I'm so happy to have her here. I think she brings an incredible amount of experience on really the direction that the city could move, public transit, sidewalks, how to build a city so that it's sustainable. It's beautiful. Just say hi. She's going to be... Good evening. Welcome. She's Lourdes' old position, different skill set, much needed in the city.

Glad to be here. Good evening, everybody. I am a planner in heart... Please start.

Can you repeat your name one more time so we make sure that we get it correct?

Chenlin Hu.

Chenlin Hu. Yes. Thank you.

Okay. I have a planning and public sector for 13 years and then a private sector for real estate development, just trying to see how policy translate into development, how it look like, and then within... nonprofit for a few years, so I have experience in public policy development planning and also real estate development, both affordable and market rate development. I'm very excited to bring all this experience together and see what I can contribute, and I learned a lot the last two days, and I look forward to learning more. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Welcome. Welcome. OK, Mr.

Manager. Continuing on Manager's report, some general updates. On the capital improvement side, several projects in the Parks Department, Dante Fussell, the beach volleyball improvements, it's about 90% complete. And those elements include drainage and surfacing, the new volleyball system, some Oolite stone benches and concrete pads, ADA compliant walkways. So that project is coming to a close and it's going to be a huge improvement. Also, Murray Park Quad at Ballard Lighting, about 90% complete. We wanted to sort of enhance the look of that corner and the pool security and visibility, the aesthetics. That corner sometimes just seemed very dark at night. And I think this will include, and from a security standpoint, obviously, since we have a pool. So we're about 90% complete there. And then the tree installation project at South Miami Park, we've been tagging trees off site. Those that are going to be brought on site, probably about 45 trees is phase one. So that's forthcoming. From a program standpoint, youth summer camp open for registration. Our junior lifeguard camp, youth football and cheer are all open. So this is the season to register. From an event standpoint, this Saturday we have Second Saturday, the Somi Second Saturday event. There's a grocery distribution event on Monday, April 13th at the Children's Clinic. And we have an Arbor Day event Friday, April 24th, 10 to 12 at South Miami Park. Also, we're doing another South Miami SOMI Business Social. It'll be hosted by Avalon Bay, and it's April 16th at 6.30 p.m., where we bring some of our stakeholders in the businesses there to talk about how to leverage each other's experiences and bring more vitality to the SOMI district. We also reach out to the businesses, our new initiative, Light Up Somi initiative. Sometimes some of the storefronts, when they're closed and they're done for the day, they're just completely dark. And I think it just creates these very sort of dark cavernous walkways that are not inviting. So we're reaching out to all the business to leave lighting closer to the sidewalk to provide, A, obviously, enhanced visibility, better security, and just walkability. And it invites people to walk versus stretches that are dark. So we're getting involved in that. And our public works department, lastly, has been working on an initiative called Operation Pit Stop. You know, we have this great service for the trash pits, but they become, you know, huge craters and a safety issue. But, you know, doing the regular work sometimes get in the way of getting these done. So it was a huge effort. And there was 27 holes that were filled in that one day. And we're going to continue to do that. So that's manager's report and certainly answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. I think Commissioner Bonnice has a comment.

They're feeling them so you don't fall in love.

Yeah, exactly. There you go. I had to give you a moment.

Kimisha Kaya, are you recognized? This is where we know we met Samantha, right? You didn't even talk about the theme of Second Saturdays. What's the theme? Come on, you've got to promote it. What's the theme? You miss the deputy, don't you? We do. We all do. We all do.

You could have asked me a lot of questions, except the theme of which, and I think there's a country-western theme, I believe. There you go. There you go. There you go. That was tough.

Which means our police department is going to be going crazy.

Yeah, and certainly Public Works has We've also added some theme to some of the district from spring and Easter and some elements. Unfortunately, we've had some vandalism with some of the elements there. Really? Yeah. And John Reese takes that really to heart because he puts a lot of work into it. So we've had some interesting comments from people saying that they appreciate South Miami bringing this. And a lot of people are walking around, taking pictures. There was just feedback from this commission to maybe add some other seasons and themes. And so this is the first effort.

Well, follow up my comments. I wanted to give, we had the Easter festivities this past weekend. I got the privilege to hang out and kind of work it, mangling some kids up. But I want to give John Tyson a lot of credit. His team did a fantabulous, fantabulous job. Kids everywhere. A lot more than last year, I felt like.

it was incredible good job guys and i know it's our second year and we're continuing to get better and better but you guys did fantastic thank you so much other questions yes sir i just wanted to uh congratulate the city on that uh tree project in south miami park i think it's phenomenal and to be able to plant that many in one location is hopefully we could do more but that was great so thank you

Let's move on then. Mr. City Attorney.

Thank you, Mayor, but nothing to report at this time.

Okay. We'll move on to public remarks. So if you have not signed up already, please come forward. You can register with John here for public remarks. I've got three names on the list so far. Deborah Powell, do you want to come forward? Powell, good evening.

I would just like to say this is going to be short, sincere, and sweet. So please, you know, listen accordingly. It will be short, I promise. But I really wanted to just take this time to publicly thank our illustrious mayor, illustrious commissioners, our illustrious... city manager, and all of the different departments that really worked with us and supported us for our annual 2026 South Miami Unity Festival. And I'd like to also say I had a speech here, but I'm just going to speak from the heart. I think it was even more special this year, because I don't know if you're aware, we had a mini storm during the festival. And all of those components stood with us literally and figuratively through the storm and the rain and even the hail that came to Dade Land during that day. But we really want to just say thank you so much for your support, for working with us. We took a lot of planning and all of the different departments. I don't want to miss anyone, but code enforcement, The police department, we work together as a wonderful team, and I just want to say thank you so much for your support, and hopefully we look forward to that support continuing on next year. Thank you so much.

Most certainly. Thanks to you for all the hard work you guys put into it.

Let me put my two cents in this.

Please, Mr. McCance, you're recognized. She mentioned some departments, so I want to mention some too. The police department, you guys were great. Like always, Public Works, John Reese and his staff. Parks and Recreation were tremendous. John, appreciate you, man. He's running the ship, and he's doing a great job, in our opinion. And the city manager, he was there. He even liked some of the cars that was rolling, riding through the streets that night. It all turned out very well. The collective efforts were very well. We look forward to the future. And it was a bad storm. Terrible. Yeah.

Kent Swine and everyone pitched in to help us put everything back together. Thank you guys. Thank you.

Okay, next up, Matthew Sussman, you're recognized. Good evening.

Good evening, thank you. My name is Matthew Sussman. I am a resident of and homeowner in South Miami on 62nd and 78th Street. And I was a frequent patron of the South Miami Dog Park. I'm here to express my concern regarding the Master Park Plan, is currently out of date considering the current situation of the South Miami dog park and doesn't consider the implementation of new dog park space as we build out additional housing units in this area. I want to appreciate or recognize and appreciate all the work that you've been doing behind the scenes regarding the Elks Lodge and and the conversation that you have with the public and keeping us up to date. And I hope that as you move forward with the conversations that you keep us in mind as you adopt and vote on the plan, because our community is still active. Our community is connected. We are concerned about what's going on, and we are keeping an eye on the situation. So thank you very much.

Thank you, sir. OK, next up, Mr. Jason Lopez, you're recognized. Good evening.

Hello, Jason Lopez, 7730 Southwest 65th Place. Regarding that presentation on the landscape plan earlier, it's pretty cool. I hear you mentioning that you want to adopt it right away. I'm a little worried because there are a few plant species in there that should not be in there. Highly reliant on irrigation and fertilizers that will require homeowners and businesses to come do crazy acts of Fertilizing and pesticide applications that are unnecessary and so I would think I would say that that list is still a little bit too big I keep hearing you guys.

Jason, before you move on, can you do us the favor of just marking that up and circulating it with just Rami, please? Thank you.

Appreciate that. There's a lot of investment going on in trees and parks in South Miami now, and there's a I'm in the landscape business. I run a nursery now. So I'm going to say some things that probably get me in trouble in the business, but I care about the city. There are grades and standards set that are a bit of a scam when it comes to the people actually investing in the plants. You're spending hundreds and thousands of dollars on big material. that takes longer to get to size than if you plant small. And the city could have a much greater reach at far less cost if you plant smaller. You don't need to plant a 12-foot tree. Ultimately that 12-foot tree is going to remain at 12 feet for 12 years. Go down 62nd Avenue right now. There's the Senos or Casios, I forget what they are, yellow blooming. They've been there for long time. Never grown. Never grown following Florida grades and standards. Let's go to Bob Walsh Park. Remember all the trees Bob planted? Bob planted pot bound trees. I talk to him all the time as a Bob. You're spending a lot of energy and these trees are going to die. You go around now and the trees are dead, right? You go to his park, which is awesome. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the park, but we planted grade A plants there that are still not rooted. You can go shake those trees and you can see where the root ball is shifting. They're still attached. It's a huge waste of money and nothing is growing. And so I would just encourage you to rethink what you've been told is the right way to go about planting these things and plant smaller. You plant smaller, you get better root zones. The better root zone, you get a better tree. Anything that's been in a pot for decades or for anything that's been in a pot of any size has been in a pot this big, this big, this big, this big, and this big, and they all get root bound, and no one pays attention to the roots. Working at Fairchild for a long time, there was those hurricanes in 2005, 2006. I had the pleasure of meeting many trees that had blown over, right? And in every one of them, you could see their existing pot from the past that they never grew out of.

don't fall for needing to plant big consider planting small save some money at the same time thank you for that perspective i appreciate it okay uh anyone else would like to address this commission in public remarks you're welcome to do so at this time anyone on zoom please raise your virtual hand okay seeing no one in the chamber and oh sir mr mccants

I did sign up separately.

I wanted to speak when Debbie got up. But a community concern will be the update of the phase two related group project. We haven't heard nothing in a while. We're good friends with Marlo and the rest. But we would just like to know what's coming in the middle of the Marshall-Williamson area. We've heard different things. Last year, the year before, it was seven stories. Now we're hearing 11 or 12. And we're hearing other things that's going on. And we'd just like to get with them and work together like we did on phase one. And with Steve we're trying to get a list together for people that may want to work with the section 3 initiative to that County project and Try to get some more people working and possibly trade train Because this is going to be a bigger side than phase one I

Okay.

The next thing is we got a lot of money going into trees and canopy and landscape. I want you guys to remember, and I'm going to try to reach out to them also, Chris Wrinkler gives a lot of Christmas trees free for the whole community for like the last five years. We have the corner of 60th and 64th Street flooded with trees that we give away to anybody. He's also a licensed tree, he has a licensed tree company with arborists and everything. And he has a big crew that service a lot of cities. So just keep him in mind because he does a lot for this community. Okay, I'm getting older so I have to put things down so I can remember. The last thing I want to say is that for the CRA, I worked with the CRA for 20-something years, man. And when I hear reports about the CRA not doing anything, it bothers me a lot. CRAs have several levels of checks and balances. Our CRA, when we had it, had layers of checks and balances also. Not think that what we did was big, but with the Marshall-Williamson community and when we started in the late 1990s, the Marshall-Williamson community was not like it is now. We done a lot. And the CRA, I'm glad that you guys are doing it again. And again, it comes to checks and balances. Not only with this side, we had two levels with the CRA board and then the commission, and then we go to another board, the county, and then another board, and then the county commission. It was like five layers of oversight. So we're proud of what we have done. with 50% of the TIF back in those days. I just want to put it out there, okay?

Thank you, and James, just... Let's get together afterwards. I can give you an update on related. We can pull the plans. I know they're in for ASPR approval. So there's a record online of what they're submitting, so we can find that.

I appreciate that. And also keep in mind, every third Wednesday at 6 o'clock, we meet at the Senior Citizens Building, and we have more of the Marshall-Williamson community there, and everybody's welcome to come and attend. Okay?

Thank you.

All right.

Anyone else would like to address this commission public remarks online or in the chamber? Seeing no one online and no one in the chamber, we'll close public remarks. And colleagues, a question on this before we move on. Is it possible for us to move public remarks forward? BEFORE PRESENTATIONS? FROM A SEQUENCING PERSPECTIVE? WE'RE NOT LIMITED BY THE CODE, CORRECT? NO. IF THERE'S NO OBJECTION FROM THE NEXT MEETING, WE CAN JUST SHOW IT THAT WAY, JUST BECAUSE I KNOW THAT THERE WERE SOME COMMENTS ABOUT WHAT WAS PRESENTED. IT WOULD BE BETTER TO HEAR THEM IN ADVANCE OF THE PRESENTATIONS THAN AFTERWARDS. AND WE'LL ALSO GET PEOPLE OUT OF HERE SOONER. SO LET'S CONSIDER THAT FOR THE NEXT AGENDA. THANK YOU. WE'LL SKIP COMMISSION REPORTS FOR THE TIME BEING. WE'VE GOT TWO DISCUSSION ITEMS.

M1HB 399 redevelopment permit fees, other changes.

Thank you. Mr. State Attorney, is this yours?

Yes. Yes, sir. OK. OK. So Mayor, you had asked, you had inquired about this particular bill that became law. And it covers a few different topics. The first topic, which is, I guess, of most immediate impact to South Miami in terms of what we need to consider has to do with permit fees and whether our permit fees, specifically our application fees, development approval application fees, whether those directly relate to the work that is done on a zoning application. I am, you know, when I read it, there are some communities that are having to re-overhaul their fees. We had looked at our fees. Actually, Ms. Cabrera had done a huge job of going through our fees. maybe a year, year and a half ago. We re-overhauled our fees, and they actually relate to the work that is done. And we have, the bulk of our fee is a cost recovery fee because we have consultants that are working on these applications. So in summary, we're compliant. We are compliant. Great. Thank you. There are other provisions regarding compatibility in this. There are other things that have nothing to do with the city, including very, very specific provisions, the Fountain Blue water park issue that's in here. So there's a lot of things in here, but that was the main gist of it.

What about the supermajority preemption provisions on land development regulation changes or zoning amendments? I haven't read the bill. That's the way it was written up, I thought, in the press. Or is that another bill? No, I think that's another bill. This is not the same David Barrera bill that dealt with UDB and...

This was originally, but that was pulled, that part of it. The provisions were taken out.

The reason, the other part, beyond our fees, my other concern was we do have, outside of the town center, a heightened standard for certain approvals, and so I want to make sure that that was not adversely impacted by the legislation.

It is not. Okay.

Any further questions, colleagues? No? Let's move on to M2, please.

MS. TSDD, open space.

MR. OK. Dr. Alvarez, good evening. The floor is yours.

Good evening, Mayor and Commission. Back in February, we had a discussion item about making changes to the downtown zoning code, the TSDD. We have most of those changes on their way to the planning board scheduled for the next meeting. However, we put two aside during that discussion. One was about open space, and the other was about the streets plan. The streets plan is waiting for us to have more discussion about the Branding and streets plan for the downtown the open space we put aside so we had had discussion about Primarily about encroachment over open space another having a building over an open space that counts We've done two things the first thing is honest way to the planning board and it's a change to the bonus allocation section 20.8-8 in which there is no possibility to take any space that you're using for a bonus, any open space, and use it and encroach it with a building. You can encroach it with a brow. You can't encroach it with building, enclosed building space. We've changed the words to enclosed building space, so it's habitable space, parking lots, back of house machinery. So in other words, the idea was that we realized that to do that, you're double dipping, actually triple dipping. So if you, the way it's written is that, and this was already on its way to plan board, the way it's written is that if you have any encroachment of the building going over the open space, the base open space of 10 or 5%, 10% for larger projects, or the space that you're allocating for a bonus, you don't get the bonus. So that's simple, and we've handled that with the bonus part. I need to explain it?

Michelle, let's let... Yeah, so let's take... We were looking at one not too long ago by the Metrorail that had an open space that was... You know, it was like a hole here, and then the building was going above it. Correct. You're saying no?

If you're getting a bonus for it, no.

Okay. If you're getting a bonus for open space, it cannot have things on top of it.

Correct. So, yes, I think, Commissioner, just to clarify, make sure I understand as well, it will be counted as open space, but it's not bonusable, correct?

Well, we have to do it for the base as well. Correct. So, in other words, then somebody could differentiate between the base and the bonus space.

It does not count as open space at all. Right.

Whether for base purposes or bonus purposes right if you're getting a bonus if you are claiming no bonus and don't want a bonus That's fine.

You're claiming no open space bonus, right?

Okay, so if you want to claim an open space bonus the Sun has to be able to hit it and

From noon. Yes.

Okay. I just want to make sure I understand that.

Okay. And that's what's on its way to planning board. What we have for discussion item tonight is what we'd like to take to planning board are changes in the open space part of the TSTD, which is just about open space. And we wanted to do three things. The first is we have a public open space and a private open space definition. Private open space is what you have on top of the building, inside the building, wherever it may be. And we wanted to differentiate that very distinctly from public open space, and it's more of a clarification. So they became terms of art in that section of the code, or they would be. The second part of it, and the reason we're doing that is because, based on the discussion tonight, we would be more amenable to somebody having an encroachment on their private open space. So in other words, if there's a rooftop terrace, some of the building goes over it, we can decide that that's OK or decide that that's not OK. We want to treat it differently. When space is public open space, open to the general public and not for your residents, then that would be also treated differently. The two choices that we started discussing, we can see architecture where there are buildings with their 30 feet or 40 feet above that open space, and they function very well. it's very difficult to write code so for for every situation it's very contact sensitive so what we're suggesting is either going to planning board with the choice of we don't allow the encroachment at all or we we allow it with a waiver and we could build that into the waiver section as well so this way each one comes to commission if it works for the commission if it works for the design if it works for the context you could still encroach your open space and still count it as the base open space. Again, if you're getting a bonus, all bets are off. You don't get it.

You can, but I think I had Vice Mayor, and then I'll get back to you.

I just had a quick question. I think you answered it too, but if there's some kind of permanent shade structure or something, that would be something that we would determine could get a waiver from them? Or would it have to come to us to get a waiver?

So we're going to propose it. We've been bouncing this back and forth. about, well, there's the proportions. There's how thick the shade structure is, how big it is. And at the end of the day, it's probably better to do it on a site-by-site basis based on the context. It may work, it may not. So that's why we're considering it as a waiver. So most of these buildings come to you if they're large scale. They're over 40,000 square feet or four floors. That's most of what's happening in the TSTD. So if they wanted to encroach on the open space and it's a shade structure and it's something that functions correctly for public open space and you know, it's judgmental but looks good then it's up to the Planning Board to recommend and the Commission to To approve it.

Okay.

Thank you I'm Commissioner your recognize when you're talking about encroaching. I'm gonna give you a scenario and you tell me if I'm thinking this correctly and you've got a hole in your building, in Brickell. Remember in Miami Vice? You used to see the building with the swirl. Is that what you're considering is like a closed open space? I'm trying to see.

So more of what we're thinking is that would count too, but that gets more complicated. If you were to go down to the UM campus and you walk around the lake, and a lot of the new buildings come over the open space. They're quite a bit higher than the open space, and the building starts up there. That's what we're talking about. So this conversation started because we saw something where the encroachment, meaning vertical encroachment, was lower. And it wasn't something that was really very well liked, but we had no code to back us up on that. have some code to back us up on that. So one, bonuses, we're not going to allow it to count as a bonus. But it's up to the commission and the planning board to either decide we won't allow that at all, that all open space has to be open to the sky, or that we would Allow it under the condition that a waiver is applied for it, and we would judge each one.

So to take her example, what she's describing is private open space. And you want to understand whether we have any objections to any portion of the building encroaching over the private open space. Is that the first question you had for us?

It's two questions. One is for private open space.

Let's start with private open space. Use her example.

Yeah, so that's Atlantis Tower would be private open space. Correct.

Or the example here, Avalon Bay had a similar private open space on one of the upper roofs and then with a subsequent tower encroachment over a portion of it. Correct. Personally, I have no objection to that. Okay. I think we're all of the like mind, so I don't think we need to penalize anyone for that. okay okay now with respect to public open space certainly i had an objection to that project where we had the garage encroaching above the uh public open space on the corner you know 15 feet above above that space because that was counted both for for the base requirements and bonus and so the question is how do we want to treat that example do we want to allow it Do we want to preclude it, or do we want to allow it by waiver? Those are the three options? Correct. Try to simplify Mark's explanation, okay? I personally certainly don't want to allow it for bonuses. Would I be open to considering it for a waiver, depending on the design aesthetic? Possibly. But I mean, I don't know how, Mark, what your recommendation would be.

A waiver, so that we can judge each one on the circumstances.

So do we want to allow for some flexibility at least to consider it? I mean, they'd have to come through and ask for it. So there's creates an additional burden on the applicant.

And also we. It's easy to create ugly buildings, right? I mean, but it costs you the same to make something beautiful. I keep saying this because it seems not to sink into people. But you've got buildings all over the place that show you that public space, and they're beautiful.

Could be a wonderful volume, yes.

And so to say don't do it, I think it'd be, you know, cutting off our nose to spite our face.

I'm fine with a waiver. You know, I do not want to count it for bonus, however, but I'm happy to allow... the creative talents of good architects at least have the ability to try to come up with a good expression.

So consensus, yes sir. So Mark, let me ask you a question. In the process of requesting waiver coming to the commission, where does that happen in their presentation to the cities? What phase is that? Is that design review board? is that where does that come in the waiver for example if you're if they're going to ask for an overhead at 20 feet and we're going to be okay with it but obviously the building's being designed by them right like where is it too late to the mayor's point where they have to come here it's it's cumbersome to come too late um somebody's coming with a large project to come with their site plan approval so if they're that's not really a site plan requirement

Well, they go to DRB, and we've had projects where during the initial review, we'll pull out this needs a waiver. And if the waiver isn't asked for in the letter of intent, we don't respond to it. So they have to ask, they have to design with it, and knowing that they have to show a reasonable effort that this will work very well and there's a reason to do it. And, of course, there's a risk that you could say that it wouldn't be approved. They understand that. Which is the case in any waiver.

I think to your question, it's coming at the front of the process. It's not coming. Now, if it's a small scale building, arguably it would happen administratively, correct? They would not come before us unless they're asking for the waiver that requires commission approval. Correct.

OK.

And if I'm speaking out of turn, please correct me. No, no, no. You're right.

If it's a small scale, it will be administrative.

They would be enforcing themselves. They would be asking for this relief and requiring commission review, or otherwise it wouldn't be necessary.

A waiver can be approved administratively. If I'm not mistaken, I'm double checking that right now. That's what I'm asking. Yeah, yeah. For a small scale, but they get embedded into the large scale approval when it's a large scale building. Understood that.

I'm asking, you know, again, it's a question and comment for the board to consider. Do we want to see this condition if it's a small scale building? Again, I'm not sure it's going to be that onerous to meet the requirement, but go ahead.

Because small scale is 5%. It's hard to imagine many instances of that. But I think if you want us to look at that, we'll look at how to write it. I'm not actually sure of the answer, as the code is written right now. But if that's something that you think should be open, we'll respond.

I take it back. It is only by commission. It is approved by commission.

So again, in a large scale site plan, they can ask for the relief. We're going to see it anyways. We'll have a chance to opine on it. Not a big deal. I think if they wanted the small scale, it is additional process. That will have to weigh the benefits of asking for it or not. So I'm finally moving with this and allowing for the waiver.

I agree.

So Mark, what else do you have on your feedback? That's it for now. That's it. Thank you very much. We appreciate you jumping on it very quickly. Okay. Madam Clerk, if you can read Item 1, please.

Item 1, a resolution of the Mayor's City Commission of the City of Southern Florida approving and authorizing the purchase and installation of a new six-row aluminum bleachers for the Gibson-Belter Community Center in an amount not to exceed $121,200.75 together with a $10,000 contingency utilizing Omnia Partners' corporate purchasing contract number R240106.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Colleagues, any questions of the administration? Seeing none, is there a motion? Move it. Is there a second? Second. A motion by Commissioner Kaye, a second by Commissioner Bonnich. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Yes. Commissioner Kaye? Yes. Commissioner Bonnich? Yes. Vice Mayor Corey? Yes. Mayor Fernandez? Yes. Item passed as 4-0.

Please read Item 4, please.

Item 4. Item 4, a resolution of the Mayor's City Commission of the City of South Miami, Florida, approving denying a request by Bull Church, Inc., for adjustment of the Art in Public Places requirement pursuant to Section 7. There are 17 I of the South Miami Code of Ordinances for a View Church Redevelopment Project located at 6781 Southwest 72nd Street, South Miami, Florida, 33143.

Hi, good evening. How are you?

Good evening, commissioners. Teresa Muñiz with offices at 600 Brook Avenue on behalf of Blue Church Inc. I'm joined here tonight by my colleague James Williams. We have a presentation. Thank you.

If you can hold on the presentation. Mr. Banner, was there a modification to this item you wanted to at least share with the public? I'm sorry. I just want to make sure he gets on the record before we start.

Yes. There was a modification to the request that's submitted by Mr. Williams. And if that's what you're asking, I can describe what that modification is.

I'm thinking the modification born of the recommendation by the Arts and Public Places Board.

So they opined on how to allocate the money. They felt that $150,000 should go to Art in Public Places Trust Fund. I also had to recommend, as per the ordinance. And I took that input. And what is before you is a tweak from the original request, which states, that out of the $75,000 that are allocated to the senior and youth programming, that $40,000 of that $75,000 would be spent in art-related activities. So there's a nexus to art.

With those same cohorts of people.

Within the senior and the Marshall Williamson scholarship amount, which is $75,000 over a three, you know, 25 over a three-year period stays intact. And then the $75,000 that was allocated through different programming for seniors and youth, 40 of that $75,000 would have a nexus to art. And yeah. Great. Thank you.

That's a clarification I wanted to make sure we had on the record. Asking all of you, do you have any objections? Does your client have any objections to that modification? No. OK. Colleagues, I'm going to try and maybe truncate the conversation. We've got a lot of people waiting. So you'll remember that we've got this requirement. VU had expressed a reservation about being required to place the art in the building. We initiated a conversation myself with their pastor This is a congregation with a lot of talented people in it. I think they're going to be a fantastic stakeholder. And I wanted to make sure that their investment in the community was what they were comfortable with. And we had a conversation about what their preference was from a ministry perspective. And they felt very comfortable investing their dollars in these specified areas. Obviously, we're trying to balance that with our volunteer board that does tremendous work for us in reviewing public art requests. And this is kind of the compromise that has come forward, I think that respects the wishes of the church, allows us to kind of recoup the investment in a way that hopefully will build not just a one-off transactional engagement with the church, but hopefully will build a sustained partnership where there will be an active member and contributor as part of the city for here for years to come. So that was kind of the motivation of the arrangement that's before you. I'll let you add anything you like in the record.

No, I'm happy to forego the presentation and just answer any questions you might have.

Okay. Colleagues, any questions? Okay. Is there a motion to adopt the item as modified?

I'll move the motion, Mayor, but I wanted to say that that was a fantastic idea of doing that, the $75,000 into the scholarship fund, so I appreciate that.

Thank you. Further comments or questions?

I'm glad we found an alternative to this. I'm thankful to everybody who thought of it because if we recall when the conversation started, we were very uncomfortable with it as it stood. I think it's just the nicest way to put it.

Thank you. I'll move the motion. Is there a second? Thank you. Madam Clerk, if you can call the roll, please.

Yes. Commissioner Bonish? Yes. Commissioner Kagan? Yes. Vice Mayor Corey? Yes. Mayor Fernandez? Yes. Item passes. Thank you.

And again, thank you to the church's leadership for their assistance. Okay, I'm going to take Item 7, and then we're going to go back to our Parks Master Plan. If you can read Item 7, please.

Okay. Item 7, an ordinance of the Mayor and City Commissioner of the City of Southern Florida confirming the finding of necessity adopted by the Board of County Commissioners of Miami-Dade County pursuant to Section 163.355 Florida Statutes after public hearing that a slum or blighted area exists within the city, which is generally founded by Southwest 57th Avenue to the east, Southwest 77th 6th Street to the south, Southwest 62nd Avenue to the west, and Southwest 62nd Street to the north area, and that the rehabilitation, conservation, or redevelopment or accommodation thereof of such area, including the development of housing which residents of lower moderate income, including the elderly, can afford is necessary in the interest of the public health, safety, morals, or welfare of the residents of the city of South Miami and Miami-Dade County, Florida. Confirming the need for a community redevelopment agency, creating the South Miami Community Community Redevelopment Agency CRA and declaring the Mayor and City Commissioner of the City of Southam together with the County Commissioner or other designee appointed by the Board of County Commissioners to be the governing body of the Southam CRE pursuant to section 163.357 for the statute further designating the City Manager as the Executive Director of the Southam CRA and the City Attorney as the General Counsel for the Southam CRA.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Mr. City Attorney, do you want to add anything for the record?

No. Just very briefly, this is a second reading. This is a public hearing, and you all adopted it on first reading. And following this, if this is adopted tonight, we would be looking to hold a CRA meeting to adopt the redevelopment plan as provided in the county resolution.

Thank you for anticipating my next question. I appreciate that. Colleagues, this is a public hearing. If there's any member of the public who'd like to address this commission on item number seven, we invite you to come forward at this time. If there's anyone online who'd also like to address this commission on item seven, which is the adoption of the finding of necessity to enact a community redevelopment agency, please come forward. Madam Clerk, seeing no one online and no one in the chamber, we will close the public hearing. Colleagues, any questions, comments? Seeing none, is there a motion? Is there a second? Second. I have a motion by Commissioner Kaye and a second by Vice Mayor Corey. Madam Clerk, if you can call the roll on item seven, please.

Yes, Commissioner Kaye. Yes. Commissioner Moniz. Yes. Vice Mayor Corey. Yes. Mayor Fernandez. Yes. Item passes 4-0.

Thank you. If you can read item two, please. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I apologize. If you'll indulge me, if we can read item three, please, Madam Clerk.

Item three, okay. At resources of the Mayor's City Commission of the City of Southern Florida, selecting Jeff P.H. Kazul, PLS, Specialized Procurement Counsel for Request for Proposals Number PW2026-04-0-2026, Development and Operation of Solid Waste Facility on City Property. Authorizing the City Manager to execute the retained agreement with Jeff P.H. Cazor, P.L. for the Legal Services.

Thank you, Mr. Cazor. Nice to see you. I apologize. I missed you back there. No worries, Mayor. Colleagues, you want to just quickly introduce yourself?

Jeff Cazor. I've never done this before. Welcome to the other side of the rostrum. It's so weird to be on this side. Yeah, Jeff Cazzo, Jeff Cazzo, PL. I'm not going to give the address. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Commissioners. My colleagues, Tony and Lily, I've worked with them. I was reminded 15 years ago at White Sorota. I've been the city attorney at North Miami for 10 years. Still use their firm, so we're still family, and I was very happy to get the phone call to come and assist you all. It's kind of good to get out of NOMI and come down to SOMI and try to help you guys with what you're going on. So I look forward to working with all of you.

Great. Colleagues, any questions? OK. Is there a motion?

I'll move it.

Second. We have a motion by Commissioner Moniz and a second by Vice Mayor Corey. Madam Clerk, if you can call the roll, please.

Yes. Commissioner Bonish? Yes. Commissioner Kaye? Yes. Vice Mayor Corey? Yes. Mayor Fernandez? Yes. Item passes 4-0. Thank you.

Look forward to working with you. Thank you.

Okay, let's go back to Item 2, please.

Item 2. A resolution of the Mayor's City Commission of the City of South Miami, Florida, approving and adopting the South Miami Comprehensive Parks and Recreation Master Plan.

Mr. Manager, any presentation or what else? Oh, you already got it already? My apologies. We did the presentation during, yeah. Let's entertain a motion if there is one. Comment? Yes, you're recognized for a comment.

One of the constituents who came and presented, he had a concern with dog parks. There was nothing really in the plan with dog parks, especially given the situation that we have with the Elks Lodge. I know it's not part of the plan and this is not what we're doing. And I don't know if you wanted to quickly speak about anything in the plan for dog parks.

Yeah, I can just real brief. Sure. Thank you. So the dog park conversation came up towards the Hadley, reintroduce yourself. Hadley Peterson with Kim Lee Horne working on the comprehensive parks and recreation master plan. So the conversation with the dog parks came up towards the end of the process. And so we were thinking through A couple different ways to integrate it. So it's addressed in here in two ways. One, and obviously the conversations with Manor Lane are ongoing through community input. Nothing's been selected there. But we have provided an option in this plan that provides for the same amount of square footage as the dog park that exists today if for some reason that moves. Additionally, we've provided site selection standards for how to select the right area for a new dog park, and that's found in the plan. as maybe other properties or portions of parks are considered for use for a dog park you have a checklist of what that area would need to include to be able to Accommodate a dog park and get them ball rolling essentially Do you have certain square footage based on residents or how is it that you do calculations and spotage? So we just matched what the existing dog park is But we do have the amount of dog parks expected per thousand residents in a facilities table as part of this plan

And what is that, just for the record?

I would have to look it up. I don't have it off the top of my head, but I could look for it and say it again.

I would just tell my colleagues that as we have a natural device of US 1, that the north and the south side of US 1, we have a dog park on the south side, nothing on the north side. And I don't see people walking from the north side to the south side to walk their dog. So let's just be understanding of what, in the future, what the plan might just allocate based on that division that's all and geographic distributions one of those compatibility things for a future dog park okay and i know this is not this is just a guideline so i'm i'm okay with it it's just i just want to make sure my colleagues are well aware of what what the situation is there madam commissioner yes

I know that there's been some conversation at some point about possibly putting the dog park into the property that we're purchasing on US 1 and 80th. I just don't know that that would be a very good idea because of all the noise and the trains and stuff. I think people's dogs will go crazy. But we might want to consider when we clean up Palmer, the Girl Scouts area next to Palmer, when we clean that up a bit, maybe something fits there. Maybe. You never know. Hey, I have a dog this big.

You become such a dog mom.

What? I have more pictures of my dog than my children.

Mr. Vice Mayor, do you have any comments? No. OK, thank you. Hadley, can I ask you one quick question? I apologize. I would say that being a user and living on the south side of that park, I'd say that dog run was pretty marginal to begin with. Are there recommendations on what a good dimension or good size dog run, dog park really should be?

Yes.

I thought you would ask the number per 1,000 residents. And it's one per 25,000.

Yeah, it's one for 25,000 is what's currently actually in your comprehensive plan and we recommend retaining that because that matches the pier cities So we looked at pinecrest coral gables in some additional cities and that's also what they do the dog park site feasibility the minimum size would be 25 feet by 25 feet and then we have You know location compatibility requirements you know certain distance from residential areas certain distance from roadways and The type of topography, the required parking that would probably be necessary, and the type of soils you would want to develop on. So 625 feet? Is minimum. Oh, minimum. Yeah, minimum. Oh, okay.

I think if I may also, some consideration for future build would be separating the site from larger breeds to smaller breeds. And that's best practice. Yeah, so that could add to your square footage a little bit. Obviously, a larger breed is needing a little bit more space.

And as part of this, that's one of the amenities that we recommend, you know, potentially, and again, this is not answered in this plan but provides recommendations, but as part of working with developers, if they're putting in a dog run, what does a public access to that dog run look like and other potential answers like that in the future as well.

and colleagues i know i know one sorry i know there's the current development that's in in process that they do are allocating a dog uh area uh so i know there's more coming down the pipeline but just want to make sure you guys are well aware of the situation

My immediate thought is there's that portion of Fuchs Park that we keep talking about for different uses that kind of screams for that as a possible location. I think it would be a very good-sized area, probably would allow for segregation by size as well. And so to me, that's the most obvious first alternative to examine. But we can talk about it at a later date.

It's so funny. We've made it like four different things, and I don't think we land on any of them.

Yeah, well, I think that's the one that's the, you know, it's not a fee-generating use. It's just a community use. It's rough. It's rough. It's rough. There you go. Okay. With that, is there a motion to adopt the master plan? I'll move it. Okay. Is there a second?

I'll second.

Okay. Madam Clerk, if you can call the roll, please.

Yes. Commissioner Kaye? Yes. Commissioner Bolognese? Yes. Vice Mayor Corey? Yes. Mayor Fernandez? Yes. Item passes 4-0.

Thank you very much. And Hadley, thank you for the hard work. We appreciate it.

You were awesome, Hadley.

Thank you.

Thank you. OK. Madam Clerk, I think we've got items five and six and eight left. Is that correct? Yes. OK. Colleagues, do you want to take up five first? Madam Clerk, if you can read item five, please.

Item five, in ordinance of the Mayor and City Commission of the City of South Miami, Florida, amending section 20-3.6, supplemental regulations of Article III, zoning regulations of the Land Development Code to amend regulations related to fences and walls.

So you sure do you want to give us a quick update?

Sure. Very quickly, Mayor. So the changes from first to second reading were to clarify that this was an alternative provision that this is not in place of. So we will have both standards available. There is one suggestion that was made by our Development Services Director, Ms. Cabrera, to add for where a wall is going to be built to the six-foot height, that the footings be eccentric footings turned inward towards the property so they stay out of the landscape buffer area, which I think is probably a good suggestion.

Colleagues, any questions regarding the changes?

No, no question. Sorry, quick question. We have a guideline on how the footings are aligned.

She's making a recommendation that the code address that. Oh, it addresses it. Yeah, it does not address it currently. Correct. No, I get it. I get it.

It's fine.

So she wants to, I guess, preserve the sanctity of the buffer area.

So the recommendation would be in the court.

OK. OK. Further questions? Seeing none, is there a motion?

It's a public hearing.

Oh, it's a public hearing item. My apologies. Thank you, Madam Clerk. If there's a member of the public who would like to address this commission on the proposed modifications to the land development regulations regarding fences and walls, please go forward at this time. Seeing no one in the chamber and no one online, we will close the public hearing. Again, is there a motion?

I move the motion.

If there's a motion, is there a second? Second. A motion by Commissioner Kaye and a second by Vice Mayor Corey. Madam Clerk, if you could call the roll, please.

Yes, Commissioner Kaye. Yes. Commissioner Bonniche. Yes. Vice Mayor Corey. Yes. Mayor Fernandez. Yes. Item passes 4-0. Thank you.

If you can read item 6, please.

Item 6. An ordinance of the Mayor and City Commission of the City of South Carolina, creating section... 15-75 work prohibited on Sundays and holidays of Article 1 in general of Chapter 15 offenses and miscellaneous provisions of the City Code of Ordinances to protect certain activities on Sundays and legal holidays.

Thank you. Mr. City Attorney, any modifications between first and second reading? There were none. There were none. Colleagues, any questions of the City Attorney or the administration regarding this item? Again, like the rule, I just want to see more code enforcement, but we'll talk about that in the budget. This is a public hearing item. I think we all agree. I know, yeah. This is a public hearing item. If there's a member of the public who would like to address this commission on the proposed modifications to Section 15-75, prohibiting work on Sundays and holidays, please come forward at this time. Helen, please come forward. How are you? Good. Good. I'm sorry, I would have called this up sooner if I knew you were here for it.

Well, it's okay. Colleen Valentine, 7300 Southwest 68th Court, and I would just like to say I support this. It's very important that we have the ability to contact code enforcement if at any time when the city's closed to be able to at least get information, maybe report, maybe not, whatever, but just have that ability. So I think it's a great idea, and I support it.

Mr. Manager, can a resident contact the police department in the absence of a code enforcement on the weekends to just make sure that, okay.

Yeah, and what would happen there maybe is more of a stopgap measure to intervene and then followed up by code enforcement when they're back in. We've always discussed, I mean, sometimes people have left a message on a recorded line and so forth, but something immediate police can handle, and then we follow up with court enforcement.

And again, just to call the non-emergency line for the complaint.

Yes, we have done that multiple times, and we do have the non-emergency call number, and They do come when, of course, they have another purpose is to provide safety for us. But when they come, they do listen, and it has worked. But we would prefer going straight to code.

We will hopefully get there this next part of the year. Thank you.

Mayor, just from an update standpoint, we're currently meeting with the director and looking to modify how we operate to provide some Saturday visibility. So we're currently working on that. And she's done some restructuring internally as it relates to some of that. So we'll be seeing some presence on Saturdays. Obviously, it's been a topic of conversation whether we add another person. That'll definitely be a budget conversation. But we'll be able to accommodate through this fiscal period more presence on Saturday.

A lot of those lines, because I know there is a cost and a nexus, but I don't recall if our fee study on building fees contemplated some of this enforcement work being done on weekends funded by that special revenue fund. Could we allocate costs for enforcement, code enforcement?

Yeah, so it wasn't contemplated during the fee study, but there will be enough in permit fees, I would venture to guess, if we've done this correctly, that we've discussed already with the manager about if we move forward with adding a position, that it will be dedicated to enforcement of the building codes for work without permits and all that, and it will become out of permit revenue.

Okay. I just, again, to the extent we needed, again, belt and suspenders out with some additional scope of work for Mr. Duyos or anyone else, I just want to make sure that we give ourselves the flexibility to use other than

general fund revenues for that purpose so yes sir so going back to rami so permanent revenue are we starting to isolate and building revenue and permanent revenue separately are we creating are we is that going back to general fund or is that are we going to start putting silos in place yeah in in our study we talked about that as a recommendation for the next fiscal year okay um and and so it wouldn't be implemented until then I would just be careful with recurring expenses like a set person. And we have fluctuations in permits where we might not be able to cover that. So I would just be careful.

No, I understand. Part of the idea is to kind of build this into the baseline. Yeah. I get it.

I didn't know we were looking at that.

OK. OK. Any further questions, comments on item six? Madam Clerk, did we have the public hearing? Yes. We did. Okay. Is there a motion? I'll move it. Is there a second? Second. So a motion by Commissioner Bonich and a second by Commissioner Kaye. Madam Clerk, if you can call the roll on item six, please.

Yes. Commissioner Bonich? Yes. Commissioner Kaye? Yes. Vice Mayor Corey? Yes. Mayor Fernandez? Yes. Item passes 4-0.

Thank you. Can you read item eight, please?

Item 8, in ordinance of the Mayor and City Commission of the City of South Florida, creating a new section 20-4.13, sustainable development in Article 4 of the regulations of the Land Development Code to provide incentives to promote energy efficient home design, sustainable construction practices, increased climate resilience, and conservation of natural resources.

Thank you, colleagues. Do we need a presentation, all of us?

Well, I think that we should. Sorry, Mayor. Go ahead. I think we should just review over the tiers. OK. If that's OK.

So what were you going to present to us?

Yeah, please. Are there any changes, substantive changes?

No. We went to planning and zoning after you all saw the presentation. Pretty much the same presentation was given at planning and zoning. They basically had two concerns. And I actually was planning on skipping on most of this. I had it just in case you wanted to see it. But I've added two slides that basically address what happened at planning and zoning, their concerns. One was that they felt that maybe it was Difficult to implement So I wanted to give an idea. This is a sample form and while I thought it would be bigger than that But I basically will be a checklist so it will have a checklist for each category whether the orientation of the home on the side the operable windows all that and the applicant will basically go through and just check off which ones they meet It has the points next to it. And then staff, as part of a zoning review, would have this form and would verify it against the document. It's not a big deal. It's really very simple. It tallies it up. And depending on where you end up, how many points you have, whether it's, you know, 10 to 19 or 20 to 29, whatever it is, that's the tier you're in, and then it gives you what incentives you have if you get a discount on your permit fees or what we discussed last time. And then the other form was basically to address the second comment, which was very valid. It's why don't we just implement LEED? I mean, there's a reason why LEED is not used in single-family homes. It's really a nationwide program. It's complicated to use. I actually went in and tried to, after that comment that I got from in zoning, I said, let me go in and see what I think of it. Very complicated. The tables are very complicated. There are prerequisites that you have to meet. It's just not something that people do. I think the fact that nobody uses it is indicative of itself that maybe it's a great idea, but it's a little complicated for single family homes. So what we have is a simple checklist.

What's the certification cost on a single family home for LEED?

I don't know what it is, but when I was looking at it, it could be $600 to over $1,000. But I don't really know how accurate that is because nobody does it. This is all like me trying to find research, but nobody uses it. There are other systems out there, the net zero and all that, but it really doesn't meet our goals. It allows you to just buy like carbon credits and things like that. So you could be really inefficient in your home and you could buy the credits and then you get the certification. So there are other certifications out there, but they really don't meet our local, what our goals were, right? Ours is tailored to us. It's simple. It's a checklist. And it's part of our zoning review. I think it's very simple. I think it's a great first attempt. Obviously, I'm biased because I'm very passionate about it, as I was told, in planning and zoning. It may work. It may not. But the idea is that we implement it. We monitor it. We report back. And we fix it as we need to every six months, every year. We could follow it for three years. We have the ability to do that now with the reporting. So that's really the only two things that I added were just the responses to what we got in planning and zoning.

Colleagues, questions?

I actually think this is really nice.

Yeah. I just want to raise this one issue, because I, again, love the scheme. I think it is simple. I think it will help with reducing energy consumption, which I think should be the number one goal, period. If we can go back to the presentation really quickly, I would like to discuss the tiering, because the one thing I'm uncomfortable with is that we don't have a mandate of any kind. And so unless my state attorney tells me that we are prohibited from having a mandate, I would love to see us pick at least a minimum tier where we make a statement about having to do something to address these kind of issues as opposed to just allowing people to elect it. And again, our incentive suite is pretty limited in terms of what we can offer. I don't know that a 15% discount or whatever the first tier was, I can't remember off the top when I looked at it. You know, some design professionals may just don't want to be bothered. They don't want to engage the client, right? Because we're talking here, typically, you're building someone a home. The incentive suite may not be strong enough that they even want to bother to have the conversation with the client and waste their time. I think we do need to have the mandate to kind of force the conversation. and see if people can actually be willing to do more once they realize it really doesn't require that much, but it can have a significantly profound impact in aggregate on these energy reduction goals. I would love to at least see us adopt Tier 1 and see how it goes. If we see that everyone's doing it, maybe we can raise the standard over time. as the market builds some acceptance and realizes these are things that are not, one, costly and pay a huge return over a very short term. Yes?

Yeah, can we show the tiers, please?

So it's 10 points.

10 points, and you would get, let me see what the credit is, 15% permit fee reduction. The review times, that's tough. We can monitor it. What would basically happen is that you'll go to the front of the queue. You won't be by when you arrive. You'll just be the next one in the queue. I think last time I presented here. I may have or maybe it was a planning and zoning We actually went through and I went through and looked at I think it was three or four homes That were recently permitted none of them met a tier one But it would be very easy for them to tier one and in fact they may actually be tier one once we get the like the pavers that they're using and I know exactly what windows there will be installing and It's hard to tell sometimes from the plan some of these things until they don't come back with the shop drawing and whatever it is that they're going to. put on the project, but it would be pretty simple to get those 10 points, is from what I'm looking at.

Ms. Cabrera, again, this is what you must do. You don't have to do all 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 items. You can do a combination of those things, again. Exactly.

It's just like a sample. Hey, look, this is how you can get 10 points.

Again, what I love about, you know, we've had a standard here. I applaud the standard that we've had historically, but again, we've struggled with is it's a one-size-fits-all solution. I think the virtue of this as an alternative is that it basically gives people optionality. We're advancing these goals, but we are giving people an option where they want to invest their marginal dollars to make an impact and maximize their value for their home. I just want to clarify, because the slide says what you must do, and I didn't understand it to be that you had to do all those six or seven things.

Yeah, you must earn 10 points, and this is how you can more or less earn 10 points.

So we go back to the checklist. You go back to the checklist. You go back to the checklist. If we can go there, John. If you can take us to the checklist.

It's just a sample checklist. So here's four.

Is this not a complete checklist, correct?

No, I have a complete checklist that I've created. I just didn't put them all on the slides. I just gave the first two pages.

Yeah, so just by way of an example so we all understand what I'm suggesting. Of all the categories, you can pick any number of interventions, and as long as you get to the 10 points, you'd be satisfying the minimum. That's what I'm suggesting as an alternative to just the incentive for Tier 1.

Go ahead.

Yes, sir.

Can you give us a scenario of the easiest way to do this? To earn the 10 points?

Yeah.

Yeah. So one thing that all the houses that I looked at, and they were all more or less the modern looking homes, is that they all had the cool roofs, the white reflective type roofs. Operable windows is another one that is easy. And really, the biggest bang for your buck, because you get the most points for it, is keeping existing canopy on the property. So if you have existing canopy, I think you get halfway there, if I remember correctly, on the points. I mean, it's really not an overhang if you have an extra I think it's like the standard overhangs are what like 24 inches I don't know Commissioner Kai if you But I think it's like 30 inch can't overhang you would get If you have a front porch, I mean there's ways of getting there the easiest so is the permeable pavers Having the swale the bio swale, which is something we should be doing anyway, because you have to retain the water You have to do something with your water. So you have to grade the site and the reflective cool roofs. Those are easy points.

Yeah, I'm just wondering if we were going to make it a mandate, especially with how people have approached these maybe I would guess just say unusual policies that we have. It'd be great if they could either fall into that category or very easily adapt their project for that category at a limited cost. Because right now, the challenge is people The solar is very expensive, and sometimes they figure it out after they purchase the property, and then they're stuck with it. So that's all I was thinking. Because even the roof, if they end up just not having that type of roof, now they're back whatever points that is and have to make it up on the back end.

yeah so this is before you for first reading i could actually go through and like dive deeper into these homes reach out to the architects or the developers and see what they're thinking about the paving then and then give you a true point system and maybe show you that they're at eight points already and for second reading you could decide if you have more data from me if you want to make it mandatory

Let's move it as is with that as the direction again. I'm comfortable with that. Again, I think we just need to make a statement and tie people to a minimum standard. Because if not, it's a suggestion and people will do business the way they've always done it. It's my expectation. And not really have the conversation or really advance what I think is our collective desire to enhance canopy and do something affirmative. So with that, I'll move the item as presented.

I'll second.

Okay. Any further conversation?

Well, I'm just going to make a quick comment, Mayor, that maybe it's not the 10 points. Maybe it's something like mandatory 7 points, 8 points, mandatory, and then everything else that, you know, you get more point systems. I'll leave it up to you on what you recommend, but I agree with the Mayor. I think that's a great idea.

I'll get you more specific on where the houses are today without anything in place so that you can make a more informed decision on what you want to do. I get it.

Okay.

Okay, so we've got a motion and a second. I'm sorry, who moved it? I moved it? You moved it, I seconded it. You seconded it, okay. So, Madam Clerk, did you get that?

Yes.

Okay, thank you. If you can call the roll, please.

Yes, Commissioner Bonnige? Yes. Commissioner Kaye? Yes. Vice Mayor Corey? Yes. Mayor Fernandez? Yes. And I pass first reading.

Thank you. Anything else for the good of the order, colleagues? Okay, with that, we stand adjourned. Thank you.