2006 1116 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes: Regular City Commission Meeting November 16,2006 City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida Commissioner Thaler asked if the wall came down could the foliage around the wall stay, and Mr. Solera said that is correct based on the landscape, but they would have to come in for an application as to landscape and to be accepted by the City. Commissioner Goodman said if we vote it down, the City is prepared to reimburse them, and City Manager said that is his suggestion because the City made a mistake in issuing the permit. Arnold Shevlin representing R.K. Associates presented a board with photographs of the Porterhouse Restaurant and other walls in the City, and briefly went through its history. He said Porterhouse Restaurant had been a tenant of theirs for over ten years, first at 183 rd and Collins A venue, and then they opened years ago in this location, taking over an existing restaurant that they upgraded. He said the problem they had in this location is that they are at the end of an alleyway and parking is very difficult. He said the principal and owner of the restaurant, Dave Bubock and his associates are here and they have struggled trying to make a good business here. He said two and a half years ago they came to the City with Mr. Dubock, noting many years ago this restaurant got approval when Dade County ruled the City for an outdoor bar, and he said he wanted to build an outdoor bar and make a nice outdoor entertainment place, and he spent money on an architect and submitted plans to the City, and to Dade County Fire Department and DERM, and they sat in DERM for a while as there were some fire issues that went back and forth. Mr. Shevlin said each week their staff met with City staff to discuss any outstanding issues on their commercial properties, so they have an agenda of outstanding building permits that are pending, and this has been on the outstanding building permit issues for almost three years now to talk about the bar which would be built outside in the setback and a wall surrounding the bar for safety and aesthetics built in the setback. He said at each meeting the building officials, the zoning officials, the code enforcement officials never once mentioned that the tenant and the owner ofthe property shouldn't contemplate building an outdoor bar and an outdoor wall because it was in a setback. So it was a little bit of an issue that it wasn't raised, so this tenant kept coming back week after week revising his plans to try and get a permit not knowing that the City Code stated that you couldn't build a wall or a bar in the setback. He said the plans he has with him were approved by Dade County Fire and Dade County DERM and they went to the Building Department for a bar and a wall, and after many years of trying to get it approved the tenant became more and more frustrated and losing more and more business because the economy was very tough and with the understanding that the wall would be approved very shortly started construction on the wall without the permit thinking that the permit would be issued any day, and Code Enforcement cited them saying that the wall was not built properly and so they went to the Building Department and said forget about the bar just give them a permit for the wall. Mr. Shevlin said the wall was built and then there was an issue in the City that the wall was built in the setback, so it is a Code violation, and legally the wall should be removed but they are not arguing the legal issue. He said they are arguing two issues here tonight: 1) What is the intent of the Code; and 2) what overall look do we want for this City. He briefly went through pictures of other walls in the City including Starbucks, Tony Romas, Crystal Cafe, and La Terrazzo. He said he would like the City to consider, even though it is not within the Code, to see how something can be done to accommodate what has been built there. He said 14