2016-0121 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes:Regular City Commission Meeting January 21,2016 City of Sunny Isles Beach,Florida Mayor Scholl said we have not found a use for this property yet but our attitude is that we have a very densely populated City in terms of high-rise development,and the more land that we can acquire before it gets too expensive we should acquire it. He knows that this Commission in the past year, as we talked about in the State of the City Address,acquired a piece down in the south end of the City, we acquired the piece next door for public purpose, and now he would recommend to the Commission that we acquire this piece in the north end of the City. Ironically, when we looked at our Comprehensive Plan as was stated earlier about the Amendment,our Comprehensive Plan says that if we are really doing our job every resident in the City should be within a quarter of a mile of a park,or within walking distance but the fact is the location of this lot, if we do the quarter mile radius between all our existing parks,this was an area that was neglected in accordance with our Comprehensive Plan and so it serves a dual purpose and he didn't even know that until we started to really look at it. He was just happy to see that we might be able to acquire another piece of land for TDRs, or accept the donation of another piece of land that ultimately can form some more green space. Public Speakers: None Commissioner Aelion said also this creates a buffer zone for the contrast of the east side of Collins Avenue to the west side. The more the City acquires land for parks that is complemented with 85%of the retail space along the same west side of Collins Avenue,will be minimal. After this we really don't see development lining the west side of Collins Avenue to come before us, there may be one or two exceptions. To make the residents who live on the west side of Collins Avenue happier but also more accepting of what has happened in recent years in light of all the building on the east side of Collins Avenue. Commissioner Levin said she is really glad that a solution was found so that we were able to do this because she believes that the rest of the Commission all agree that even though the building that was proffered was a nice building it was completely out of character for the neighborhood. She knows the residents of Golden Shores are all happy, it is a good solution. Mayor Scholl said we have is an agreement with the owner of the property, staff has some clean up to do, there is one more approval that is complicated and there is a fund involved where the TDRs are going. We have all the formal approvals in place but we are waiting for one more informal approval. If we don't get it in the next two weeks it is going to die but he is very comfortable that we have got the approvals that we need. City Attorney Ottinot said based on this which authorized the City Manager and City Attorney to finalize the documents to clarify these transactions and go to the Escrow Agreement to release certain documents. Commissioner Levin said then that everything that we approve tonight is going to be held in escrow and if final approval on the developers side is not obtained within 20 business days then everything becomes null and void,and Mayor Scholl said that is correct. City Attorney Ottinot said the Escrow Agreement needs to be a separate resolution and vote. Mayor Scholl said there was a large fund involved in New York that had to go before their Investment Committee to approve their receipt of the TDRs. It didn't have to do with the land itself but the Donor of the land has to be able to use the TDRs the way that they had anticipated. And so they got a formal approval from that fund but that fund had a second Investment Committee and so they wanted an additional informal approval. 2t