2015-1113 Special City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes:Special City Commission Meeting November 13,2015 City of Sunny Isles Beach,Florida beach and we will design them to mitigate the down drift effect, we have got to keep them full. So if a hurricane comes through and removes all the sands on the landward side, we have got to fill them back up because if we don't fill them back up,then it will take a while for them to naturally fill back up and they will starve the beaches to the south. With the permits, one of the conditions in a permit for structures is that you maintain them in the impounded condition. Again,that is just to protect your down drift neighbors which in this case would be yourself since the hot spots are in the north end of the City. Ms. Cutt reported that she spent her entire career dealing with permitting and funding. We have got a lot of challenges,fortunately the Dade County Beach Project that was constructed by the Corps of Engineers in the 1970's is a nice wide beach. Unfortunately it buried some of our precious reefs but it has been maintained so we can maintain the footprint of the project and the impacts that previously occurred. When our neighbors to the north in Broward and Palm Beach Counties have very narrow beaches they can't impact hard bottom as a result of any projects that they build. And so we have a nice wide construction template that we have to work within, that is a plus for the City. The Corps of Engineers,the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and the Dade County Department of Environmental Resources all need to issue permits and we would need to convince all the agencies that whatever we are proposing meets the need, and the impact are justifiable. So we understand that can be a very long process,if we are proposing structures we may need to do an environmental impact statement pursuant to NEBA to demonstrate that we identify all the potential environmental impacts associated with the project and that can be a very long costly process but it can be done. Funding is something that we need to look at closely, historically the beach in our area has been maintained with 50% Federal funds, 25% State funds, and the other 25%County and local. If the County continues to look towards foreign sources of sand,Federal funds can't be expended on those foreign sources of sand until they have demonstrated that there are no more practicable sources domestically. And so the Federal Government has taken the standpoint that the sources of sands in Federal waters off of Martin and St. Lucie Counties are viable sources to maintain Dade County. As long as that is their belief, then the Feds can't contribute to a project that uses a foreign source of sand. Similarly if anybody proposes to use Bahamian sands or a foreign source of sand they are going to have to do an environmental impact statement and nobody wants to be the first one to do that because everybody is waiting for someone else to do it so they don't have to spend the money. Palm Beach, Broward and Dade Counties are talking a little bit about doing a regional environmental impact statement to address because they are all looking very carefully at sources of sand to maintain their shorelines. And so that may be something in the foreseeable future,right now the smaller projects that are being constructed,a lot of them are using Ortona,a sand mine in Central Florida as a source of sand. It is beautiful sand,it is triple washed, it has very low fines, and it stays on the beach a little longer because it is a larger grain size, it is one of those historical natural shorelines of Florida. It has been naturally sorted by beach processes millions of years ago. Ms. Cutt said basically, the hot spots in the north end of the City are still hot spots, we still have an erosional issue there, it is less obvious when we have a nice wide beach because our neighbors to the north have built beaches and are nourishing that hot spot for us. But when there is not a source of sand coming to us, then we notice those a little bit more. We recognize the Newport Pier as suffering erosion right now,with the data available to us right 9