2007 0920 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes: Regular City Commission Meeting September 20, 2007 City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida of a Building Permit, they would not utilize that lot for parking purposes, and they would agree to maintain that property in a good condition prior to issuance of the Building Permit and then transfer it to the City. He said they wrote this out and he distributed it to the Commission. Mr. Schulman said the only change in the building, and he presented a before and an after rendering, is two additional floors of parking. They have also added shielding which will make it better blocked. Mayor Edelcup noted on Mr. Schulman's comment on TDRs, it is always a pleasure for the City to acquire park land, and so that would be a favorable plus for the City. He said that Mr. Schulman is asking for six years when normally our TDR life is five years, but given the current economic state of conditions particularly here in South Florida, and our TDR Code had the provision in there that ifthere was any economic problems we can extend the life of TDRs, so he believes the six years is not an unreasonable request. Vice Mayor Thaler thanked Mr. Schulman for listening to both the Commission and the people of Sunny Isles Beach in adjusting that building to what we could live with. He said one thing that they did leave out was that they increased the tandem parking, not that it is above what complies, but they did increase the tandem parking to its maximum which gave them the ability to have only two floors, and Mr. Schulman said that they were 20% when they were here before, but they were using the other lot double tandem, what they did is they are still at 20% but they are using it inside the garage for either mechanical parking or back to back parking so it is the same 20% as it was before which is within Code. Commissioner Brezin also thanked Mr. Schulman, and asked about the facing ofthe enclosed parking, ifit isjust a plain concrete slab that goes across there, and Architect Robert Warwick explained that it is a screen, an architectural metal grille work that would be applied to the outside phase of the garage, to let air go through and block light from coming out at night. Commissioner Goodman said he was concerned about the Beach Club, the last time they were there he had asked how many members are there in the Club and he did not get a response. Mr. Schulman said there are 371 members in the Beach Club, during the peak season they normally have 30 members per day on the low days, during the peak season they average 90- 100 people, on the summer season, their low is about 20 people per day, and their average is about 70 people per day. He said this facility's parking is based upon the utilization ofthe site as required by Code, whether it be a Beach Club member, a hotel member, etc., for example, if the Commission Chambers were in that building, they would calculate the parking based upon occupancy. Commissioner Goodman asked ifthey would restrict the membership of the Club as several years ago there were 1,000 members, and Mr. Schulman said no, they will not restrict membership. Bud Scholl asked if we would be setting a precedent by extending the TDR life to six years, he understands the economic impact of it and the current environment but he is concerned where someone may ask us in the future and try to hold us to that standard. Mayor Edelcup said he was assured by the City Attorney that we are not creating a precedent that this being what it is today, an economic hardship, that it would probably take longer for a building to come out of the ground based on economics of today and our TDR Ordinance when we created it years ago, took into account that situations like today could occur and that the 4