2012-0119 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes: Regular City Commission Meeting January 19,2012 City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida Cliff Schulman said what they need tonight is, under their Design/Build Agreement they are due to submit for final site plan approval by the end of this month. On the site plan we don't know what we are doing yet, it gives you a number of options and it is going to take the Commission to reach whatever consensus they can to send us in the direction to start creating those site plan documents. Rather than having a date certain, he suggested once the Commission approves a concept plan, that they would be given 90 days to submit for final site plan approval and then bring it back. Mayor Edelcup suggested 60 days, he is trying to keep us on schedule. Joe Milton asked for 90 days because he needs approval from FDOT, DERM, etc., it is out of his control. He still needs traffic reports which will take three or four weeks and he can't do that until he has a final design. Mayor Edelcup said to try to force things along, we have had a wonderful discussion tonight about lots of ideas that need to be digested and put down on paper with cost estimates, and whether or not that can all be done on Phase I or whether it is a Phase I and Phase II approach, we are in the middle of January. Ifwe took 30 days to try to gel on our ideas, he would hope that 30 days from now, or certainly by March 1,2012, we should be in a position to have pretty well finalized what we want to do and when we want to do it and how much it is going to cost. He would hope that we can have a meeting scheduled no later than the March 15,2012 meeting of what it is that we are going to build for site plan review. Mr. Schulman said he thinks a lot of that may depend on a workshop, and Mayor Edelcup said yes, in between the meetings but he is trying to keep this on track. Commissioner Scholl said he thinks we have an 85% start right now if we don't change it. Mayor Edelcup said we need to get it by March or April at the latest to the point where we are approving some sort of a site plan. How long it takes to get approvals thereafter is going to be dependent upon how fast the permitting agencies are going to work with you. Joe Milton said that the City requires FDOT approval prior to being submitted, he can submit to FDOT what he has right now if the Commission is satisfied with the parking garage, that is going to be the real critical item, and Mayor Edelcup said that it is the consensus of the Commission to go forward with the garage the way it was presented tonight with the extra footing and the pad that would allow for a bridge to be connected to it, that makes the whole west side of the Park pretty much in concrete. We are pretty much gelled even on what the great lawn looks like, he thinks what we may be hung up on in making some variations is what we do on top of the garage and when we do it, and whether or not we put the bridge in across to connect to the Plaza of Americas area at the time that we are doing the park initially or if we are going to do it at some future phase, and so he doesn't think either of those things will slow you down from getting the permits that you need. Commissioner Scholl said he wouldn't want to hold up the construction for the park or garage waiting for the permitting agencies on the bridge. Even if we wanted to do the bridge we would have to break it up into two separate projects because we are going to get hung up on it. Vice Mayor Thaler said they can get started on the garage today, and Mayor Edelcup said definitely, and that we are just saying that probably the delayed items are going to be the connecting bridge and the possibility of a fourth floor banquet hall or whatever we want to call it. That would keep us on the schedule and he noted that we are still planning on doing the demolition on that site in March 2012, and hopefully being able to turn that site over to 9