Historic Preservation Board - Regular Meeting

On the right bottom.

All right, this meeting is called to order. This is the April 28th, 2025 meeting of the City of South Miami Historic Preservation Board. The first order of business is to pledge allegiance to the flag.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God.

Okay, next order of business is to do roll call. Gary Casales, chair, present. Okay.

Evaluator.

Okay. That's everybody?

Chair, you have quorum.

Okay. All right, the next order of business is for any applicant or anybody who's going to speak tonight to be sworn in. So I need the applicant or their representative on camera.

Chairman, let the record show, I believe Manuel Menendez is logged in. Is that you, Mr. Menendez?

Manny, are you there? You're muted.

Yes, I'm here. Hi, guys. Sorry, I was trying to get unmuted.

Thanks. When you can, please turn on your camera so that we can have you for the record, please.

Yeah, one second. What's going on here?

Thank you, Chair.

Okay. Is the applicant or their representative who will be speaking tonight online?

Um, yes, it's Natasha. There's also another board member. I'm not sure event Latour. I'm not sure if you, um, she said she said she did. Okay.

I'm here and I got sworn in this week or last week at, uh, in the city council. I mean, in the city hall.

Excellent.

welcome i'm here natasha appear okay could you would you mind turning your camera on sure and that there's a record show natasha is also in attendance okay uh miss is it simone natasha simone yes okay miss simone i need you to raise your right hand And do you swear or affirm that the statements you're going to make tonight are the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Yes.

Okay. Ms. Cabrera?

Thank you, Mr. Costales. I'd like to welcome Yvette and Israel Rosado to the Historic Preservation Board this evening. There are two new board members joining us this evening. The first item and only item for review this evening is HPB 2025-003, applicant Dania Evanson, property owner Stanley Cohen. The location, 5891 Southwest 72nd Street, Sunset Drive. The request is for signage installation. This is for NR Hair Salon. They've been in business and now they are requesting two flat signs for their location. The historically designated building is located on the north side of Sunset Drive. The request is for two flat signs One will be located by the staircase which leads to the second floor which is the location of their building is on the second floor. I'm gonna ask Marcus or someone to please share the screen with the proposed signage and there you have what the sign will look like. They're both identical signs, they'll read the same welcome to nr hair salon for the purpose of identifying the business on the second floor we have a 16 by 20 in size is under the allowable 20% of the facade, which equates to 26.66 square feet. It is a Debbie Bond Max Metal 3MM with UV lamination. Also, the 1.5 inch screws will be used for flush mounting installation. Again, the sign will read, as you see there, Welcome to NR Hair Salon on two lines with black lettering. It will also include the address and location of the business on the second floor. And for accent, the design appears on the top and bottom sections in a golden and black graffiti pattern. For a complete design, you see them up there on the board. There's the detail on the right-hand side for the flush mounting. As per section 24.3i5, although the zoning district, this sign is being classified as a flat sign, is less than nine inches in depth. This one actually is, this was a 1.5 inch, It is flush mounted and less than nine inches. Both newly proposed sign comply with the flat sign type guidelines of the code. And with that said, staff's observations that both signs will prefer the existing contributive building's character. The staff's recommendation is for approval of both signs with any comments from the board. And you might want to see the photos of where the signs will be located. and welcome um natasha um simone to the historic preservation board this evening i know you've been anxiously waiting for this evening so welcome thank you thank you so very much chairman do you want to open it to the applicant's presentation or public comment um yeah miss simone do you have anything you want to add to that yeah well the signage is really very important the

The location is, as previously mentioned, on the second floor, which I've discovered that customers are circling, circling, circling around. Not only are they looking for parking, but they're trying to find the business itself. So it just so happens during the grand opening, I had a little poster board, same exact size, and put it up to let people know this is where the salon was located. And it was an aha moment. that this is absolutely needed in order for people to recognize that the salon is located on the second floor. So it allows customers to have a very easy experience finding the location versus being frustrated. And of course it's being, you know, there's one side, it's on both sides. So there's people parking that's towards the back. And if you're walking on the sidewalk, going to the parking lot across from the train station, you can actually see where to go up the stairs from the backside. And of course, if you're walking in the front and you're passing the ice cream place and the nail salon, you can actually walk right straight past it, but you're able to see the salon, see the signage and then going up the stairs. If you're passing by, it's really quite visible as well.

Okay.

So the purpose, of course, is to be able to grow the business and invite new guests to come and visit the location.

Sure. Yeah. The sign is really nice. I got to say it's aesthetically very pleasing and it's well designed and it's very elegant. Thank you. So at this time, are there any members of the public who wish to comment on this application? Okay, I wanna then move over to any comments or questions from any board members. Okay, I just lost the agenda. So I move that we approve the, application for that's before us tonight, and they don't have the number in front of me. I thought they did, but what is the application number? Oh, here it is. 20. 25003.

Okay, right.

Yeah, it's only the third one in the year. I move that we approve consistent with staff's recommendation, the application at 2025-003. I second. Second. Okay. All those in favor? Aye.

Yeah, aye.

Okay. And let the record reflect the vote was unanimous. Ms. Simone, thank you for your time and thank you for doing a good job on the application.

Thank you so very much. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you, Marcus.

Best of luck with your business.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Have a great evening, everyone. Thank you.

You too.

Thank you, Lourdes. Thank you. You're welcome.

Okay. And the next sort of business, I believe. Status update.

If you recall at the last meeting, we discussed grants.

Yes. And Ms. Cabrera is here, I think, to speak on that.

Yes, she is. Welcome, Ms. Surami Cabrera.

Okay.

I'll just, I'll put it online, thanks. Yeah, no, I can pull it out, thanks. Okay, I'll take it then. All right. If it's not, yeah, if you're not.

So this is the signage we just did?

Mm-hmm. That I got, yeah.

Surami, are you out there? I only see a few of the images on my screen, and I saw you earlier.

Okay.

I don't know if you're trying to call in. There's a number here, but...

Oh, she was on there before. Is she gone?

I don't see her. I don't hear her. Someone seems to be calling. I don't know what that means. Up in my screen, 305-342-2062. Not sure who that is.

I'll check her number here.

That's her. Okay, she's trying to call in.

Sudami, can you hear us?

Yeah, I was having trouble with the camera too, so it was on and off, but now apparently it's okay.

Okay, you were going to give us an update. Whenever you're ready, we're going to go ahead and get settled.

Can you hear me now?

Yes. Perfectly.

Okay. Hello?

Yes, we can hear you.

Hello? Okay, I'm sorry for all the trouble. I was actually in earlier through the Zoom, but I couldn't hear anything, so I called in and then I put it on mute, but... So, and I apologize for all that. The quick update on the grants is we discussed last time basically two grants that the city was considering. One was a grant for half a million dollars in order to renovate an existing historic structure. And we had identified the Sutley Martin building as a candidate for that grant. After looking into the grant, it turns out that the grant has a deadline of finishing the project within two years, and we would not be able to meet that deadline this year. So we would not be able to apply for that. We are looking at it for next year, or depending on what's going on with the redevelopment of the City Hall site, hopefully for next year. But if not the year after that, I've been told that it's a grant that usually is Like typically they have this grant every year available. So that was off the table for this year. The other grant was a $50,000 grant for a study to identify historic structures in the city and the city management doesn't want to move forward with that right now because we are in the middle of redoing our zoning and our future land use map and our year. So there's a lot of things going on right now with all the properties and specifically the zoning. So we don't, you know, just city management doesn't think it's a good time to hire a consultant to start looking at also perhaps designating structures in the middle of this other effort that's going on. So it doesn't look like unless you all identify something else that we have any structures, I mean, any projects right now that we could identify for historic preservation grants.

Yeah, I think that's correct. I think we need to, you know, we've been down this road before discussing other possible projects. designations and things and nothing really came of it. So I think at another meeting, we're going to have to probably in the fall discuss, you know, other candidates for historical preservation designation.

And if you all have any ideas of any other structures, I would be happy to take those back to city manager. I was really excited about the Sylvia Martin building, but unfortunately, you know, and the city manager was also excited about it. But when we looked at Erica, the grant manager for the city, when she looked at the details, we would not be able to meet the deadline. So that was unfortunate.

I'm so sorry. I know this is my first meeting, but do you guys have criteria on like sort of like what designates a historical building? Because you just said if there's any other suggestions, how does one nominate a site or building or anything?

So you can always nominate a site and there has to be a study prepared to see. They do the research and I need to look specifically into it because I haven't been involved with any of those in the city. In other cities that I have worked in, the Historic Department prepares a report of why it should or should not, it warrants designating historic. And I can get you the exact information on that, but I'm assuming that it will basically require a study prepared by somebody who is an expert on historic preservation to identify what aspects of it would warrant designating structure.

Excuse me, through the chair, was that Yvette who asked the question?

Yeah.

Yvette, I will send you and I'll go ahead and copy the rest of the board members. The process, just a quick summary from the code as to what you would require. The code does have some standards, but generally speaking, our city and every other city really looks to the Department of the Interior's guidance documents for historic preservation. So in that email, I'll make reference to those.

That's awesome. Thank you. Very helpful. Thank you so much. And then I assume after that, then the study for historical preservation is sort of like, well, I'm sure it'll be in the document you're going to send, but it comes after that step.

Yeah, so what I'll be sending you is what the code says, how the process should proceed, what notices are required, whether this board, I don't want to guess from memory, but most cases the board has to make an initial, the board can make an initial request to staff to study the criteria and whether this particular property meets the criteria or not. or staff can on their own initiate it. And then what that email will further say is what notice has to be given to the property owner, to the neighbors, et cetera, and then what the criteria for the ultimate decision will be.

Great. Thank you. That'd be very helpful. Appreciate it.

Sure. Yeah. And I'll just point out too, that if you want to look at the code that deals with that, you can go to Munich. Mr. Marto is going to send it to you, but you can look at municode.com and that's a great resource really for any municipal code. Yes. I use it all the time and I use it for city of South Miami and they have the criteria in there as well. It's free. yeah it's muni as an m-u-n-i yep yeah m-u-n-i-c-o-d-e.com and then you have to kind of navigate it's got like every almost every municipality in the nation is there, and the county and different cities and things of that nature. It's a great resource. Pragmatically speaking, an impediment to all that is money because it takes, the going rate used to be, I think, $1,000 for a designation report. I have no idea what it is now. I don't think we have a budget, so I think we have to, the first step is identifying a property. It could also be a district, I believe, Board Member Menendez had an idea about that, if I recall, a long time ago. It starts with that, and then it's always a battle to get the property owner interested. A lot of property owners don't want historical preservation. And just going back to, and this may be something that we can talk about, I had drafted a letter on behalf of the board to send to prospective, the owners of prospective properties, and then it was approved by the city attorney, And I don't know that we had anybody, identified any properties, but I can revisit that and we can maybe use that letter and maybe run it through the city attorney's office again. There's a new city attorney, or at least relatively new. There was a previous one that approved it and we can do that. But I think we all as board members have to be on the lookout for additional properties. And we should put that on the next agenda. And there may be some old ground that we go over. I've been on this board for a long time. So I have some, you know, I guess I am the institutional memory along with city staff who has a great recollection of things. But there are properties here and there that we debated in the past. Yeah, and Manny, do you want to address that? Because I know Manny, you were active with that.

Hey, hi, sorry. How are we doing? We're pretty good. Hey, sorry about that. Hey, I was going to say, since the last time that we had discussed this, there was two properties that I had briefly discussed. tried initiating contact with the owner, one of them all successful in speaking with them. And the person, you know, sadly was not interested in anything like this for their property. They had one of them, they had plans for an addition and they didn't want to encumber it, or they didn't want to create any additional work for themselves. And I don't know, sadly, the other house that I thought would be interesting, I did further research and found that the Historic Preservation Board of South Miami had already decided to not designate that house many years before I joined and I've been here for some time. So sadly, I don't have any additional properties in mind.

Okay, and I think it's also districts are also. Available for, um. Yes, that's something else to keep in mind.

Yeah, we sorry real quick and the last thing we had had, um. Maybe, like, 3 years ago, we had a resident that lived maybe on 60. Uh, maybe 63rd street. And sixty second Avenue in that neighborhood had come to us. I have my notes on it, although I don't have them here with me an older gentleman. He came and had, uh, he was maybe 1 of the reasons that we had started considering or discussing trying to. You know, to a neighborhood or to a section. Um. but yeah, to that, there's a couple of, you know, nearly a hundred year old houses in that area, you know, in that area between, you know, 58th and 60th Avenue. And in that section there of like 60 60th to 64th street, you know, there's several hundred year old homes in there, but you know, what else?

Okay.

And I swear I'm not going to ask questions. I'm just starting learning here too, but that's actually a great point. They brought many, like you would have thought they would have been interested, but they're not because they wanted to do an addition. Are there like pros and cons, or is there something I can read about, about sort of like if your house is deemed as historic, then obviously maybe you can't add an addition to it or construction, or if you're a district, is there a benefit for the district to be noted as historic? I'm just trying to absorb information.

I know there's a small tax break the homeowner gets when it's a home. That's one of the biggest pluses. There is a certain market for historical homes. I'm really impressed by every applicant that we've had that bought an historic home is really enthusiastic about keeping the integrity of the home intact, and that's why they bought the house. So I think for somebody that's really in love with the house and the historical nature of it, they're often, maybe they're gonna be enthusiastic about it. But it is an impediment to, I think we can discuss this at another meeting because people perceive there's an impediment renovations and things of that nature, and there's really not, it's really not that difficult. But we can, I think, set it on another agenda and brainstorm ideas on how to get additional properties and how to really sell it to people. Yep, so, and I, you know, Miami is, this is the Historic Preservation Board, and it's a shame that, you know, we live in a community that's changing, you know, I've been here since I was a kid, and South Miami since 2008, and we live in a community that is, I think, changes more than the norm, and based on various factors, you know, real estate value, things of that nature, so we really should preserve what we can.

Agree.

I think the next, but I think we'll have to take that up at the next meeting. And the next order of business would be the approval of minutes in 331.

Chairman, if I may interrupt for a second, because you brought up the next meeting. I just want to make sure you're aware that there won't be a meeting in May because there's a conflict with Memorial Day. And per code, June is off. Your board doesn't meet on June just to give you guys a time off. So your next meeting won't be until July 28th. Just want to make sure you're aware.

Yes. Yeah, I saw that on the agenda.

Okay, good.

And the next order of business is to approve the minutes from the March 31st meeting. Any discussion on this? Okay, hearing none, I move that we approve the minutes from March 31st, 2025. I need a 2nd.

My 2nd, okay.

All is in favor. Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. The, the minutes for March 31st are approved unanimously. That's the last item on the agenda, but, and I don't think I'm overstepping any bounds here, by welcoming two new board members, and just for their benefit, maybe we can each do an introduction. I'm Gary Costales, I'm an attorney, although I don't do real estate law, and property law, things of that nature. I practice labor and employment law, but as per the code, This board is supposed to have a lawyer on it and a couple of architects and whoever wants to go next. I've been in the city since 2008. I've been on this board longer than I remember. I don't remember what year I joined it, but I think I'm the longest serving one here tonight. And whoever would like to go next, just jump in. Julio?

Yeah, I'm Julio Guillen. I'm an architect. And I've been in the city since 2004 and in the board for the last three or four years.

Okay, Angelica. You're muted, I think.

Yeah, you're muted. I'm not in the audio.

Now we're going to hear you.

Okay. I've lived in Miami since 1995. I want to say eight or seven. So it's been quite some time. All my kids were born here. So it's been, I actually got married in the backyard of the house. So I work in real estate and actually have listed a couple of these historical homes. And so later, if you guys want to have a conversation of what the public's objections were, I definitely heard them all with some of my listings and had to overcome some of them.

Okay, Manny. Hey there, my name's Ben Wellman-Endez. I live in a historic designated property here, 5625 Southwest 62nd Avenue. I joined the board. I mean, I've lived in this property since 2013 or so. And I joined the board after seeing that there was, I don't know, that there wasn't much happening with the board and the And nothing, I'm actually in the process now of doing an addition, and I've had to go before the board myself recently after being a member now for almost 10 years, and I found it to be very painless and much less complex than dealing with the, I don't know, county Durham people. So... You know, yeah, I found it as a client, so I've been a board member for 10 years and I've been a client of the board presenting in front of the board and it's been great. So. I don't know. It's excellent. It's much needed. And we have to, we have a few properties, we have to protect them and protect the districts, you know, and. That's all that's all I have about it and go to Luca.

I've been living in Miami for 30 years, South Miami since 2018. Being in the world, this is my second year. I'm a real estate like Angelica. And like she said, there's some challenges with historic homes. But at the same time, I think it should be our duty to make the preservation of the historic houses because there are people that love them. They have, like every house, advantages and disadvantages. And the way the City of South Miami is changing, I think that preserving the historic designated home and getting other owners interested in designating their house as historical will be a really nice thing to do. So probably we can have some ideas for the meeting in July and we'll see how it goes.

Hi, this is day one being on the board. I've lived in Miami over 52 years and in South Miami specifically for 25 years. So I'm very excited to join this board and preserve South Miami for what it can be with all the changes there. And if you're an employment attorney, you're going to love me because I've been in HR for over 30 years now. So we have a lot in common.

Which company?

Warner Brothers Discovery.

Interesting. Okay.

Yeah.

Mr. Rosado?

Yes. Good evening, everybody. Israel Rosado, 14-year resident of South Miami, 30-year resident of Dade County. Yes, I'll put it. I have a big affinity over historic homes. I've always had it. I continue to obviously contribute in this fashion as part of this board. Manny, you and I apparently are a very Nearby residents of each other. So hope to see you walking around the streets of South Miami. Thank you.

Yeah, and I'll just hope to see you out there. Yeah, and I'll add on that note, because we, we deal with the sunshine laws that I think every year the city puts on an ethics seminar with sunshine laws. So we're just for the benefit of the new members. We're not supposed to talk about board business outside these board meetings that are publicly noticed, which has its problems, but okay, Ed?

That's correct.

Yes, right, and I have my criticisms of that, and of course, the people that wrote the law are exempted from the law. So state legislatures wrote the law, but they're exempted from it. But yeah, but that's cumbersome sometimes. But yeah, we're supposed to, you know, we stick to that and we have over the years. The other thing, as Mr. Bartos pointed out, our next meeting is going to be in July. Uh, I typically, I think I'm going to be out of state for then, but so I'm gonna have to be on zoom. Um, I think going forward, uh. We, we may have to come back to the. Chambers or have a mix and and, um, everybody's got a busy schedule, but, you know, for years before covered, we were all here. And I know it's, I think everybody lives pretty close by, so we can talk about that later. If any board member wants to add an item to the agenda, that could be submitted to the city clerk, I think about two weeks before the meeting. I think you told me about two weeks before the meeting.

Chairman, it's best to email that to Lourdes Cabrera.

it is okay yes all right because i did that and then i thought well maybe i should have sent it to nikki but right okay all right so so email that to lourdes and you know we can put it on the agenda and i have some uh ideas for that for the next one um anything else there's nothing else on the agenda but is there any anything else that anybody wants to add to the meeting Okay. Then I move that we adjourn the meeting. Meeting is adjourned. Okay. Thank you. I guess we'll see, we'll see each other in July.

Yeah.

Okay. Sounds good. All right. Have a good night.

Bye-bye. Bye.