2015-0716 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes:Regular City Commission Meeting July 16.2015 City of Sunnvdsles Beach.Florida there and people are going to come into the office in the morning, and,probably walk to lunch. The fact is that Commissioner Aelion brought up a very good point that retail brings a lot more intensity in terms of the number of turns, and so he is not as concerned about this corner as Vice Mayor Gatto is for that reason, and he is glad that Commissioner Aelion pointed that out. Mayor Scholl said the one thing we did here as a new Commission is that we sent a message to the development community that we understand east-side development,:and he has talked about it many times. East-side of Collins Avenue development is very unique in that we get these multi-buildings worth $500-$600 Million and very few people live in them. He thinks the Pinnacle is an older building, and most people do live there as well as Sands Point, but for most of the new development you probably only have on average a 20% occupancy rate, and so we get the benefit of this huge tax base. He knows that appears like it generates a lot of traffic but the truth is that all our studies indicate it doesn't. Most of the traffic comes from out of the City, and the last study he saw was that 72% of the traffic on Collins Avenue is not generated by the City, and so we are only generating about 28% of the traffic on Collins Avenue. Again, common sense would tell you that',you build up these buildings and it doesn't generate a lot of traffic but it doesn't always hold true. He thinks with this Commission and this Mayor we are looking for quantitative analysis. Right now we have three (3) studies going on, Beach Erosion, Traffic, and Comp Plan. We are also talking about a study for our Cultural Events because we want to look at them as a Cultural Master Plan. We are trying to get a little bit more scientific these days and maybe less emotional about some of these decisions that we have to make. Mayor Scholl said that the developer's attorney had said that their response sets them apart from other developers and he has to agree with that because we really handed these guys a very tough bill of goods and they came back and responded on every;isue. When they dropped the restaurant, then he basically ran with it because clearly eye were concerned about the restaurant as they would have to have valet parking, the cars could back up on Collins Avenue, and that is off the table now. Very few people have come in here and made such vast changes relative to the concerns of the public and this Commission. Planning and Zoning Administrator Hasbun said for the record, one of the conditions is that we are requesting a new staging plan prior to any construction. We did not have that in the Code before and so we have an Ordinance tonight for first reading requiring a staging plan for demolition and construction of the development project as part of the Site Plan Application Process. They will be required to submit a staging plan that will involve lane closures, parking issues, etc. We have it as a condition here because it is not in the Code. Mayor Scholl explained that a staging plan is when you are going to construct a building on say a small lot, you have less room to move around than you would on:a larger lot. For instance, the Chateau next to Samson Oceanfront Park, we leased then a part of the Park because they needed to use it as part of their staging area when they were'building because they have a narrow lot. What Ms. Hasbun is saying is that now we are making staging plans as a condition of our Site Plan approval. Ms. Hasbun said that would include the Medjool Palm Trees in the front and so they would have to be relocated, and one of the conditions for them is to also bring the Medjool Palm Trees back to the front. Commissioner Levin said one of the reasons she is for the project, other than the fact that the developer has done everything that we have asked, is because we'are stuck with the 8