2009-1106 Special City Commission Meeting

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Special City Commission Meeling November 6, 2009 City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida Commissioner Scholl said that this started two years ago when we had a public hearing on a Site Plan Approval and we wanted to close the ingress and egress to that shopping center and compromised with Mr. Katz and agreed to put the bollards up. At the beginning of the summer Mr. Katz came in with an issue and we looked at it pragmatically and Mr. Katz proposed the temporary solution and that was to take the bollards down for the summer until a week before school started and allow Mr. Katz's tenant to come into the shopping center and take occupancy. The bollards did not go up and he assumes it was a staff decision based on Mr. Katz's commercial consideration, and staff felt comfortable because of the presence oflawenforcement. He is concerned that none of the Commission is a seasoned professional in these areas, we are all trying to come up with a solution for something that none of us have the credentials to come up with. He said the Mayor was right to ask staff to come up with a memo and tell us what you think, and he had the memo from the City Manager and it said that the problem is not really a school problem, it is a 24/7 problem because this is a bad intersection. He has heard on occasion that we have three intersections like this and this one is getting singled out, and he does not agree with that, the other one does not have a left turn off Collins Avenue (175th Street), but first and foremost, this intersection is the primary feeder for our school, and so he thinks one thing that they can all agree upon, and that is safety, we are concerned about the safety of the children. It is a bad intersection, we are going to have a car accident there eventually, and the bollards solved that issue, but we are trying to come up with a commercial compromise for Mr. Katz. He falls back on the Chiefs comments at the last meeting, what will alleviate this safety issue, what he hears from the Chief is, whether it is a Police Officer or a Crossing Guard you need somebody there during those hours, and if that is the case, he will modify the position we took at the beginning of the summer by saying we need a Crossing Guard or two because ultimately what we are about is having an authority figure there. It is a health and safety issue and agrees with the City Manager that it is a bad situation no matter what, and what he can gather now is if and when we get a traffic light the bollards can go back up. He doesn't think we need a Police Officer there, as long as we have an authority figure there. Commissioner Brezin said she paid several visits to that site and realizes that yes there is definitely a problem as we indicated, there is always a chance when you have congestion that someone could be hurt but we are seeking a solution before we come to that final conclusion and her feeling is in addressing this that there has been a plan that she believes that Vice Mayor Thaler will address in further detail that seems very appealing to her. Would this definitely be the solution, she does not know, she is not an engineer and upon visiting that site it was obvious that this plan that was presented to us has that possibility of in fact being a solution, or certainly an improvement. Commissioner Goodman said it may take a long time to get the traffic light, and so when the school closes and there is no traffic guard there, what is our course of action, are we going to leave it open or are we going to close it, and this is an interesting question. If you put two traffic guards there during the day when the school is open, he may consider that, but you know that one is not enough because you have Collins A venue, and you have 183 rd Street but he is talking about other times. This to him is important, you don't only talk about the children, you talk about Publix, you talk about the public, the public crosses there. Mr. Katz gave him a map that he would like to close the southern crosswalk only cross the street on the northern side and he doesn't think that is a good idea to close the crosswalk. So there are 2