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 Mr. Bell said the next steps after approval tonight, the first reading of the Ordinance will authorize them to transmit this document to the State Department of Economic Opportunity, another review agency for their review, and they will have 60 days to come back to the City with an Objections,Recommendations,and Comments Report. They will make suggestions for changes that need to be made to the proposed Amendments, we will then make any changes that are necessary to address that work, and they will bring it back to the City Commission for adoption on second reading of the Ordinance. After that the City will have a new updated Comprehensive Plan and that is implemented through Land Development Regulations and Capital Projects. Public Speakers: Jerry Bell Commissioner Aelion noted that Mr. Bell had mentioned reaching out to the DEP regarding a potential boardwalk on the beach. About eight(8)years ago the former Mayor formed a fact- finding committee and after they gathered information, we went to DEP, and after six (6) months the committee was concluded. DEP said no, and there were all kinds of reasons including the turtles,and so what changes that now? Mr. Bell said they are aware of that and their recommendation was to revisit it. It may not necessarily need to be a boardwalk per se, it could be a path,it might be on another side. We are just going to look because we received a lot of input from it. It may be that we find as the first report did that it is not feasible, and there are no other alternatives. Mayor Scholl said we are due in two (2)or three(3)years for a major beach renourishment project and it could add 50 to 100 feet of beach, then we don't have the situation of it being so narrow in spots, and so he thinks that would be the time that we could potentially revisit it. Commissioner Goldman said she wants to commend everybody that was involved from the outset in terms of public participation, the surveys, the depth of comments, and the inclusiveness. She thinks this was a very participatory,very inclusive process and beyond that there are many nuggets of good information and very visionary items that are incorporated into these Amendments. The multimodal transportation concept, the levels of service, bicycles, pedestrians, sidewalks, etc., really looks at the City in a different light in terms of being able to work within the City. That is a new and very forward thinking concept where people can shop, work,eat, live,etc. here rather than looking at this City as just a tourist stop which historically it was. More importantly about the climate change, she is really pleased to see the emphasis on addressing the climate change needs. She read a comment from the Daily Business Review "Regardless of wealth, everyone in South Florida faces the potentially dire consequences of climate change. Experts warn that if the sea rises further, flooding may become permanent turning streets into canals, endangering access to drinking water, and eroding the man-made beaches that have long drawn people to Miami." While that sounds a little doomsday, it is certainly something that every policy maker, every government personnel, every official, everybody needs to be thinking about, especially in a City such as ours where we are a coastal City. Everybody needs to be really focused on the real consequences of climate change, and has to be able to coordinate work with outside agencies to do something about it because the future is now. So she really commends the inclusion of the climate change provision into these Amendments. She is curious to see what is going to happen with the Urban Design Manual while it is true that most of our City has been developed already but certainly if there are any incremental changes or any policy that we can implement, she thinks that would be very effective moving into the future. 8