2016-0121 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes:Regular City Commission Meeting January 21,2016 City of Sunny Isles Beath,Florida This past year we have been expanding our parks,educational and civic spaces as well. We completed the acquisition of additional land on the south end of our City to continue the Intracoastal Park system in front of the Arlen House. Also acquired was the parcel adjacent to City Hall with which we are in the final planning stages for an expanded school, senior meeting center and civic auditorium. The Gateway Park is nearing completion. This facility will house a professional stage, playground with a water feature, parking garage and a new restaurant concept. We also have an agreement in principal to acquire the lot at the entrance to Golden Shores on 186'h Street which would fulfill our Comprehensive Plan's goal of having a park within walking distance of every resident in the City. We recently received a commitment from Miami-Dade County Parks Department to permit us to move the Skate Park to the County operated Haulover Park. This initiative is also where the alliance of Mayors have been helpful as some of our neighboring communities have indicated they will provide support to the reestablishment of the Skate Park at Haulover Park for use of their residents and children as well. A mandatory update of our Comprehensive Plan is nearing completion. This update is focused primarily on pedestrian safety and traffic mitigation. It includes provisions for pedestrian bridges over our major roadways as well as better traffic signalization technology to improve traffic during peak hours. With the encouragement of the Florida Department of Transportation,this past year we have begun the process of acquiring land and easements to accommodate the future construction of pedestrian bridges.Our studies have determined this is one of the important initiatives we can work on for pedestrian safety and traffic mitigation. The Comprehensive Plan amendments are also to reinforce and create policies that will support a path to address our built environment, improve our resilience to changing conditions, and improve coordination with external agencies. We have been making strides in creating more opportunities for feedback from our citizens as well. The level of public participation in this process was unprecedented. We hosted three(3) Town Hall meetings, received approximately 400 survey responses, had several meetings of the Manager's fact- finding group,and acquired several public comments and observations. This compilation of information formed the foundation for the newly proposed amendments to our Comprehensive Plan, and so we truly had public input in creating these amendments. Over this past year our community school has continued to grow and become more overcrowded. As Mayor, he has taken a very tough position with our County School Board when it comes to the number of students in our school who do not live within the legal boundaries to attend. These District Jumpers are a significant contributing factor to the school's overcrowding. And he happens to have the President of the School Student Body [Angel Aguilar] sitting right next to him, but he knows he is not a District Jumper. The school expansion project is being pursued in conjunction with the Miami-Dade County Public School system. However, our City's participation is contingent upon a concerted effort by the school system to deal with the District Jumpers to ensure that every student who lives within our City and has a right to attend this school, will be able to do so. One of the busiest interior streets in the City, 174'h Street, is getting a needed makeover with new storm and flood drainage,new sidewalks, improved lighting and new landscaping. This 3