2012-0216 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes: Regular City Commission Meeting February 16,2012 City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida City Attorney Ottinot said in answer to Commissioner Scholl, at the time when the original request was made to have a marina in that area, the basis of that decision was that area had an existing marina, and based on that, staff had given a permanent use to continue that marina, and so that is why the site plan most likely did not come before the Commission, it was based on the fact that the property had an existing marina which was demolished by Hurricane Wilma. With respect to this application and at the time he believes that it was somewhat conveyed to the applicant that the marina use would be temporary because the owner would eventually come before the Commission, ifthe market picked up, and file an appropriate site plan to build a building on the site. This application will reaffirm the marina use and also affirm that the one rack does exist on the site and to add a new rack, and that is the purpose of this application. Commissioner Scholl said his issue is that there is no aesthetic value to what we are doing, this is a tack-on, he completely agrees with staff that it was approved but it had aesthetics to it, it sheltered the view of the boats from the public, it came in and went through a process and was approved. So what we are doing here is that we are curing an old ill which he understands is not the current administration's fault but we are allowing a tack-on for something that was not conceived that way in the first place. Commissioner Aelion said the _ -issue-that-he-has-with-what-Commissioner-ScholLjustsaidjsthat apermiLwas_granted and a structure was built, if we are voting no tonight then it will affect the existing structure also, and Mayor Edelcup said yes it will because the first one is temporary. Ifwe vote no today on this project, the first three-level structure would now be illegal because we have not approved it, and the temporary status comes to an end. City Manager Cohen said the terminology temporary and permanent is actually defined in the State Building Code and this structure conforms to what is considered a permanent structure, and so it is only permanent within the definition of the Statute. It doesn't speak to the permanence of the structure on the site, and how long it will be there, and what uses will be there. Vice Mayor Thaler said if we vote no, we would hurt the applicant, and City Manager Cohen said if you vote no tonight, the first structure that was granted administrative approval as a temporary structure and is not technically valid as a temporary structure and needs to be approved as a permanent structure, would have to be removed. Mayor Edelcup said he believes we should consider it the way it is presented to us, if we are going to approve the first structure that is already three levels high that is limited to the bridge, then what is wrong with the second structure being too high that is still limited by the bridge, we are taking away the opportunity for a man to conduct his business possibly, and we are also taking away the opportunity for residents or people that live in the area that want to do boating, and there is insufficient boating here, we know it is a semi-temporary situation until a developer comes along in the future to develop the property. Mike Meyers, owner of Sunny Isles Marina, said the footprint is about 20% or less of what was originally there. The original structure consisted of two enclosed barns, outdoor racks, and the Commissioner's question on the site plan, he did submit a site plan to the previous staff. They had many back and forth on how many trees should be planted and they came up with a number of four palm trees and he had gone ahead and planted 60 palm trees, and there is a grassy area at the marina. There are over 1,000 bush hedges, he did enclose the marina with a fence all the way around. He has met with many of the neighbors on Poinciana Island as well as Oceania, and he did have several complaints on the lights for example, interfering with people's peace and quiet of the surrounding area and the bay. FPL has been out to 4