Design Review Board - Regular Meeting

MR. CHAIRMAN, I ONLY HAVE ONE QUESTION, AND THAT IS WHO'S GOING TO READ THE MINUTES INTO THE RECORD THIS MORNING? FROM STAFF.

NEW SPEAKER, CAN YOU GIVE ME FIVE MINUTES ON THE TRANSCRIPTION COMPUTER THAT IS BOOTING UP NOW? THAT'S OUR CLOSED CAPTIONING? GIVE ME A MINUTE SO I CAN GET THAT STARTED.

Okay, we'll take a two minute recess.

Sure.

Can we do introductions? Is that it's all allowable?

I think they want to do the ADA for everything.

Thank you.

Good morning. We are now ready to present. We may start the meeting.

Excellent. Thank you very much. With that said, if we could do a roll call, starting with staff.

Marcus Lightfoot and Mark Alvarez are the coordinator group here in the chambers.

Alex Uribe from the city attorney's office.

Thank you very much. And then roll call with the board members.

Mariano Corral.

Rick Urban.

Christian Rodriguez.

I think we have Angel Lopez here as well.

He's muted.

And myself, Daniel Guerra. I'm here. Okay. If we could have Serena. There you go. Angel, you're here? Yep. Excellent. And then if we could have our experience.

So good morning, everybody. I need anybody who's going to be presenting and speaking on behalf of the applications, one application that we have today. I need you to please turn on your cameras and unmute your microphones. And if you could please raise your right hand.

Alex, sorry to interrupt. Jennifer is texting me that she's muted and her video's locked out. She can't do it from her end.

I'll give her access. Give me one second.

And it looks like Brandon Howard as well. And I need you all to please also turn on your cameras. Thank you.

It's disabled. Oh, there we go. Good morning.

Good morning.

Please raise your right hands. Do you swear from the testimony you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Yes. Thank you very much. Please proceed, Mr. Chair. Vice Chair.

Excellent.

Then if we could read the first item into the record. So the first item is DRB-2026-010. The applicant is Alex Garcia for the property located at 5901 Southwest 82nd Street. The request is new construction for a two-story single-family home. The report will be given by Mr. Mark Alvarez of the Cordino Group. Thank you.

Good morning. This is Mark Alvarez with the Cordino Group. We have reviewed the project, and the report is with your package. This is a brief summary of the report. This is an application for new construction of a two-story home at 5901 Southwest 82nd Street. I believe the applicant that's with us right now is the architect, Jennifer Salmon. The owner is Primo Investment Group, Alejandro Garcia. The project is located on the corner lot. It's on the southwest corner of Southwest 82nd Street and Southwest 59th Avenue. It is zoned RS3, and it is surrounded by RS3 properties. It is typical of the neighborhood that it's in. It's a .32-acre property, 14,143 square feet of land. Right now there is one lot of record and right now there is a one-story single-family home on the property. The site plan for the property, it is intended to demolish the single-family home entirely and replace it with a two-story home. It's essentially an H format. The one with the green is the actual site plan and the pink diagrams were provided and they show the the building coverage for the first floor on the left and the second floor on the right. There is an adjacent or an accessory structure, excuse me, it's a barbecue cabana towards the back and there's a pool to the left of that. Going forward before we get into landscape, on 59th there is, this is served by sanitary sewer, there's a 15-inch sewer line on that street. We've checked it for zoning consistency with the RS3 requirements. It is consistent with all the requirements. The only requirement that it does not, actually it meets the requirements, however, the architect did not provide the height to the mid-roof height of the cabana. It's just we'll condition it. It's not something that we would recommend against the project for. Everything else does comply with the regulations. The landscape plan is also in your package. We have checked it. It does meet all the requirements for landscape. There are the correct number of cheese. There are four cheese that will remain that are existing, which are the ones that have the blue labels on them, the live oaks and one tamarind. Those will remain, and when we get to the next slide, we'll go over the tree disposition. And again, we don't expect to see a drainage field here or any issues with that because this is served by sanitary sewer. There is a power line, and it's actually shown on the diagram. There's a power line that runs along Southwest 59th Avenue. It's a low-tension power line, so it's also low in height. and what is what is planned on the landscape plan is for silver button woods which would be the appropriate tree that we've seen many times before because they don't grow high enough to interfere with that line the tree disposition plan there are there are quite a number of trees on the property however all of them are being three four trees are being removed so that they total about four thousand six hundred and thirty two square feet of canopy mitigation has been proposed as required and There are three specimen trees. So there are four specimen trees that you saw on the landscape plan. They're remaining where they are. There are three more, the Royal Pansiana on the front of the property towards the bottom of the diagram, the Shaving Bush on the 59th Avenue side, and the Gumbo Limbo on the interior lot lines of the property. They have been noted to be in very poor condition. The Royal Ponciana is noted to be a hazard. And the, not the shaving bush, Royal Ponciana is also noted to be in poor condition. We do not have a arborist report to help us clarify these issues about why they're in poor condition to verify that they are and verify that there is no other way to treat these trees except to remove them. We do need the arborist report to allow the removal of these trees. Sorry?

Arborist report should be included in the package.

Mark has just told me it is in the package, in fact. OK, so strike that comment. I didn't see it. Excuse me. So yes, please strike that comment. We do have the arborist report.

Mark, are you referring to the arborist report from the client, or are you referring it from the city?

From the client.

Different animals. Yeah.

I'm stuck. It's not moving. Okay, so the design of the house, it's a two-story house. It's very symmetrical, typical of many of the houses we've seen. It's somewhat lighter and warmer colors. Again, staff comments are that we know that the windows are are evenly spaced on the front and the back. There's a lot of symmetry in this home, and the materials are appropriate for the climate. It does face 82nd Street, so it actually faces the smaller side of the lot, but it is addressed to face that street already. The existing home, by the way, it's actually at an angle and faces the intersection. The rear of the home is the same. Of course, the glazing is much more extensive. It faces the pool, and again, we think it's an appropriate design for South Florida, and it's fairly typical of what we've been seeing in the past. Again, typically on the sides of the house, the arrangement, the fenestration is a little more focused on the functionality, where the windows and the doors are placed as they need to be for the interior arrangement. Noting, of course, that the east side, which will be the top diagram, does face the street, so it faces 59th Avenue. So our recommendations are to approve with conditions for plant sufficiency. We do need the correct height of the cabana roof. One of the things I forgot, it's a very small item, was that there's the width of the pool deck is actually shown as 12 inches and we have a minimum of 18 inches required. So we would include that as a condition. We don't think it's enough to to disapprove the project It the arborist report is here, and I apologize I didn't see it so you can strike Condition number three and the usual procedural conditions any comments and suggestions by the board and of course it will Comply with Florida bill in the code. Thank you that concludes my presentation

Thank you very much. Would the applicant like to make a presentation?

Unless you guys have any questions, I think it's pretty straightforward. Just a single family new construction. Happy to answer any questions you guys might have or with Jennifer or Benna.

sure i would i would add excuse me one second um that the mean roof height is shown on the drawings on the elevation you'll see that the top on each elevation it says uh mean roof height tag um of mean mean roof height uh 26 6. it's a minor detail but i just I wanted to make sure everyone knew the information was there. Thank you. We'll add the cabana as well and comply with the 18 inches. Just in terms of design, you know, we've done a few houses in South Miami. We try to be sensitive to the street. We kept the sides at one story. We haven't overbuilt here. We've still got quite a bit of FAR left on the table. Alex and the Primo Group wanted to, you know, try to balance the house. So what you see is a house design that's sensitive to the neighborhood and to the street. The corner lots allow for a nice opportunity to put the garage on the side so the front elevation can be very nicely detailed and the garage is tucked away on the side street.

Thank you. Does that conclude your presentation? Okay, if that concludes the applicant's presentation, we'll go ahead and open it to public comment. Is there anybody in chambers or on Zoom that wishes to comment on this item?

There's nobody in the chambers but staff.

And seeing no one raising their hand or online, we'll go ahead and close public comment and go to the board. Mr. Basud, would you like to start? I'm okay with this. I don't have any comments right now. Thank you very much. Board Member Corral?

Yes, a couple of comments on the landscape. Brandon, double check. We have this code that anything over 18 inches in diameter is a specimen tree, and then you have to double the canopy from that aspect. So your square footage on your tree canopy is incorrect. You're going to have more trees. that you're going to have to replace or place on the site. Number two, when even a tree is hazard, you still have to mitigate for it. Everything else is fine. I'm glad you took all the trees that said poor and you took them out because that's the right thing to do. I've had too many clients, too many Africans come in here and keep the tree even though it's poor because they didn't want to mitigate for it. Congrats to you for doing that. I've never had a problem with your plants. But the biggest issue I have is really with civil. And once again, I'll go back, and if you guys can go back to civil drawings. And the issue I have is, take a look at the edges where you have approximately three feet of depth of a soil area, so close to the property. Number two, look at the height elevation. And when you deduct the height elevation from the one closest to the property line, it's a 16% slope. Now, on top of that, in my opinion, but I don't know how to grade, I would say that that swale area that is only three feet wide is not going to be sufficient to hold off a tremendous amount of water during a rainstorm. It should be wider from one perspective, but I'll leave that to Sybil. I'm bringing this up. All I can do is bring it up. It's for you guys to check it, make sure it's correct and that it's on the record in case something happens in the future. But you also have to notice what Brandon has designed or the landscape architect has designed around the property, how that is also affected by that soil. So my question would be, is the soil at three feet wide sufficient to be able to hold back the amount of water based on the roof size, based on the impervious areas to be able to collect the water? And then take a look in the front on the driveway at the height at 957, the berm is at 789, so we don't see or I'm assuming That the water is supposed to go into that berm, hold off from going outside into our property. Those are the issues that should be looked at. And that's all. Otherwise, Jennifer, the house is beautiful. You always design beautiful homes. So congrats on that.

Thank you.

Excuse me through the chair, just for clarification that the city for requires $1,000 payment. There's a tree trust fund for specimen tree. We don't do double mitigation.

Well, I think you and I have had that conversation, and you know what happened before, that I had to go to the commission on another project. And basically what is happening is that you're cheating yourself. I'm not trying to cause more problems for the applicant, but I have to follow what I've known. And so if that's the case, then you do what you got to do.

Thank you, Board Member Crowell. Board Member Urban.

Good morning, everyone. Sorry about that. A couple questions. Again, also, second meeting, so still learning some of this. First question, though. I noticed that I believe in the code, unless something has changed, the maximum roof height is 25 feet. In the package, it lists 30 feet and says complies. However, this, this building has a roof height of 26 and a half feet. So I would just ask for clarification on that. Let's see, we covered the trees, the trees, another question in the application and notes in our package that there is only 1 driveway entrance on. What Avenue? On 58th Avenue, however, on 82nd Street, there's also a second driveway entrance. So there are two curb cuts. I'm not sure that that had been analyzed. And if that front motor courtyard area was also taken into consideration for green space in the calculations on that and the FAR. so i had a question on that one um as well i think those were my two uh my two big uh open questions i think the rest again addressed thank you for that uh board of urban i believe those uh questions are directed to the city

Yes. Mark Alvarez. Here, the height, we have an ordinance that was approved about three months ago. It's not yet in meaning code, but we do allow a 30-foot high building height, and it's measured from the finished floor. I'm sorry. It's basically two feet above the highest elevation of the adjacent street becomes our datum point and then it's 30 feet above that. So it's more or less 32 feet above the highest elevation on the adjacent streets. And we don't use FAR anymore. Part of that ordinance was we changed the regulations on how the second story is measured so that we've completely gotten rid of FAR. which is where you saw the diagrams of building coverage. That's actually what we're using now to measure how it works. So those metrics are gone. Apologies. It takes a while to get into muni code. If you want, we can send you a copy of the ordinance.

Yes, please do.

Thank you. Okay.

I believe you had one more question, which was in reference to the curb cuts and the two driveways. And we also had modified that ordinance not long ago. I don't know if you want to expand on that from a city perspective.

Yeah, I mean I I'm a little less familiar with that but um, but yeah, I mean we those are okay at this point I noticed that again the location of the property we never like curb cuts too close to a corner But in this case they are sufficiently distant from the corner we typically do measure the distance from the adjacent property for the setback and we look at the visibility triangles and In the past, we've made comments and asked applicants to move driveways if they're very close to an intersection that's not a local intersection. Otherwise, we don't bother with that too much.

Thank you very much, Mr. Alvarez. Board Member Arbor, does that conclude your questions? That concludes my questions. Thank you for the clarification. Thank you. Board Member Rodriguez.

I think the house coincides with what's happening in that corridor, so I have no further comment.

Thank you very much. Board Member Lopez.

Um, I had the same comments that board member urban and the, uh, you know, those questions have been answered. So, uh, no further questions on my side. Um, congrats on the home, Jennifer. It's a beautifully designed home. Um, that's, uh, that's all I say. You've taken scale and context into account. Um, uh, I've got no further comments.

Thank you. Uh, Okay, and I too have nothing to add. Thank you very much. It's a beautiful home. Can we have a motion?

Board members, before we do that, I just wanted to, just for clarification, I did notice in the package that there's, I think, a lot size discrepancy between the landscape plan and the zoning data that was analyzed. I just want to make sure that staff looks at that and make sure that we know exactly what uh you know what all the the lot coverage and and and landscape requirements um what number we're using in the and that that is consistent that's just wanted to put that on there thank you good catch

We do always note that the lot areas have some variations, small variations. We always use the survey as our base, our strongest information for the lot area. But we do often see in many of the houses that have come before you, there will be small differences between the property appraiser and the survey. But we use the survey and make sure that the site plan matches the survey. Right.

I saw one that was $14,000 versus $16,000 or something like that. I just want to make sure that everybody's using that and so that there's no issues processing this down the line that we're very clear what we've seen and what's getting approved.

Right. When we check, we use the surveys lot area for our numbers. Thank you.

May I ask one question quickly to staff? Question. When you're relocating trees that are over 18 inches, especially if the two of them, one is 30 inches in diameter, the other is 22, and they die, is there, what do they do? They just go ahead and pay $1,000 to the tree trust fund?

I believe then they have to mitigate it. Can you confirm that? Yes, if they die when they're moved.

Yeah. So if a tree is relocated and it dies, they have to replace the canopy by whatever? Whatever their square footage or in this case now the DBH of the tree If it's a specimen that thousand dollars is paid at the time the tree removal permit is issued So if they die they have to pay additionally I know the thousand dollars for that tree that died, correct? Well, that's their choice.

You have to mitigate the loss of the canopy No, I understand it and I just need to know because there's something here on this code that I'm gonna make a recommendation to the Commission and because the code is absolutely ridiculous, the way it's set up. So that's all. That's why I wanted to... Thank you.

Remember, Carl, maybe we should leave that for a sidebar that's focused on the current application.

Well, I understand that, but it has to be mentioned. That's all. That's all. That's it.

Okay. With that said, can I have a motion?

Motion to approve.

I second. I'm sorry. Who was the first?

It was me.

Oh. Okay. Remember, Rodriguez first, and second was... Here you go. Lopez.

I beat you to a punch right now.

All right, excellent. And let's go ahead and do a call. Basur, how do you roll? Yes, yes. Board Member Perrault. Yes. Board Member Urban. Yes. Board Member Rodriguez.

Yes.

Board Member Lopez. Yes. And I do vote yes. Thank you very much. We look forward to your successful project.

Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you all. Thank you, Mr. Garcia. Thank you. Thank you very much.

If we can move on to the approval of the meeting minutes from meeting on May 19. Does everyone have a chance to review? And if so, can we have a motion? Yes, I have a motion to approve. Second?

I'll second.

Okay, we have a first and second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Hearing none, the motion passes. Our next meeting is for, when is that? Tuesday, June 16th, same time, same station. With that said, if there's no new business, we'll go ahead and adjourn this meeting.

Good.

Thank you, everybody. Have a great day.

Take care, everybody.