2005 0908 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes: Regular City Commission Meeting September 8, 2005 City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida matter which is getting this piece of paper saying that this restriction is removed, legally it is removed and cannot be enforced against the property but it is a cloud-on title, it comes up on a title examination on the property and we have to clean that up. Vice Mayor Thaler stated it is his understanding from our Legal Department that this is not automatic. City Attorney Ottinot said that this matter was presented to him initially six months ago and this is the first time that any argument has been raised whether the City is legally obligated to release the restriction, and disagreed with Mr. Kasdin and in fact if you were to read the Declaration of Restriction it states clearly that this restriction is for the benefit of the public. He said not only for the benefit ofthe public but also for the benefit of the Marco Polo Hotel across the street, and if Mr. Kasdin's argument was correct he wouldn't be here tonight, if it terminates by operation ofthe law he would not need a release from this Commission. He said that one resolution that Mr. Kasdin did not refer to is Resolution No. 98-Z-22 that approved the parking for the Marco Polo and it specifies clearly that the parking for the Marco Polo has to be on that site, so you have two parties who are benefiting from this Declaration of Restriction, it was imposed and it was voluntarily agreed to by Crescent Heights. Mr. Kasdin disagreed with City Attorney Ottinot and that they could go to Court to seek a quiet title action to have this removed, why are they entitled to get this, because this was a site plan approval and these conditions were agreed to in connection with a specific site plan approval and for no other reason, and that site plan approval is terminated, null and void and dead. Mayor Edelcup said that it sounds like what Mr. Kasdin is asking for is that this land be restored to its underlined zoning as it exists today and that the only reason that the covenant was ever created was an negotiation back in 1998 that if a nursing home was going to be built on this site, that it be built on a height not to exceed a certain level and if anything other than a nursing home were to be built, that restriction would not have been requested or given since that is no longer a nursing home site and it is Mr. Kasdin's argument that this should therefore come back to that land being represented by the zoning that is in place for that area. He said whenever that site is developed in the future, a site plan would have to be presented to this Commission which at that time would have to be either blessed or not blessed that particular site plan but that at this point we would be restoring the land to its original attributes based on what our zoning law has set by that particular site today, and Mr. Kasdin said that is correct. Vice Mayor Thaler asked about the parking spaces, are we dissolving that also, he has a responsibility to the hotel to keep those parking spaces, and if we resolve this we resolve the whole package. Mr. Kasdin said that the resolution before them specifically does not release the parking and that the attached release says the following, "whereas the declarant wishes to remove all non-parking related conditions that were imposed on the property." He said they recognize the existence of Resolution No. 98-Z-22 and therefore they are not seeking to void the affect of that Resolution, they understand that obligation and it is an existing obligation. He said that he is saying three things: 1) require that this site be developed in substantially in accordance with approved plans as a nursing home; we know that is not going to be done and we don't want that; 2) underground utilities; and 3) height limit that was imposed. Mayor Edelcup said that they cannot remove the parking because the parking is still related to the Marco Polo Radisson. Mr. Kasdin said that the parking is required parking for the Marco 9