2002 1107 City Commission Workshop

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B. Public Input: Several citizens spoke and gave their views and suggestions. Willie Aviles asked how the City can let a developer move a street almost 500 feet from where it is suppose to be without telling the people, specifically 172nd Street and North Bay Road, where they are building four new buildings. Mayor Samson said he would have the City Manager look into it. Vice Mayor Iglesias noted from the Comprehensive Plan, pages 21 & 22, the plaza becomes the most important element and by law, we must follow the Comprehensive Plan. He stated that FDOT did a traffic survey and that the traffic has increased. He stated that the Town Center area is only 17% of the west side of Collins Avenue. Mayor Samson announced that the First Reading/Public Hearing of the LDRs will be on Wednesday, November 20, 2002 at 7:00 p.m. He announced that he will allow speaking with a 3-minute limit. Second Reading/Public Hearing will be on Tuesday, December 10, 2002 at 7:00 p.m. at which time we will vote. Commissioner Goodman asked when the Citizens Planning Committee discussed the City Center, did we designate the area that was going to be the City Center at that time or was there no designated area at that particular time? Commissioner Edelcup was on the same Planning Committee we did not designate a height at any time for the Town Center, and what we are talking about today is what is too high. Bill Lone answered Commissioner Goodman's question and answered no— we only designated the concept and the benchmarks for the concept. Ms. Eichner stated that she and Jorge Vera, Zoning Director, needs guidance and consensus as to what type of criteria will be written into the B-2 Zoning in generality. The concept that was originally presented which is a request that was made at the last Workshop what we refer to as the Bull Nose where all of the zoning criteria in B-2 in the area would be the same except for the Bull Noses carved out with a different height and setback from the area in the middle. At the beginning of ,tonight's meeting, Commissioner Edelcup went one step further about keeping one zoning district, with everything at 15-stories with some additional criteria in terms of side setbacks and rear setbacks to create view corridors. What she needs right now is some type of numbers to get plugged into to fill the holes as to what we are going to do with the B-2 area along Collins Avenue. Mayor Samson likes the original idea of anchors: tall building on the north (on the Casino Property), a tall building on the south (Newport Parking Lot) to go 325 feet in height; He asked for 150-feet but will live with a 100-foot setback. In the back the developer can build anything he wants if the City approves for example a theater or recreation center, but they should have a certain amount of openings between the buildings. Also, he asked that the setback on the north end to be 35-feet if it is plausible. He also liked the plan he heard from Mr. Price, where we approve the area at 172nd Street north and put the area south of 172nd Street to 167th Street on an open area under the Summary Minutes:LDR's Workshop,Nov.7,2002 Page 3