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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-04-28 CRA workshop city commission meeting minutes MINUTES OF CRA WORKSHOP DANIA BEACH CITY COMMISSION THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2005 - 4:00-6:00 P.M. 1. Call to Order Vice-Mayor Flury called the workshop to order at 4:07 p.m. Present: Mayor: Anne Castro arrived at 4:09 p.m. Vice-Mayor: Patricia Flury Commissioners: Bob Anton John Bertino City Manager: Ivan Pato City Attorney: Thomas Ansbro City Clerk: Louise Stilson Absent: Commissioner: C.K. McElyea City Manager Pato introduced Michael Moskowitz and Bill Salim of the law firm Moskowitz, ® Mandell, Salim & Simowitz, P.A., the City's CRA Consultants. He advised Cynthia Chambers, of Broward County, was in the audience. He remarked at least one of the two projects submitted to the County is almost done; this is the acquisition of property. There is an infrastructure project that is complicated to get though the approval process, but it is moving forward as well. Mayor Castro apologized for arriving late; there was a small fire in her work building. 2. Discussion of CRA Applications Laurence Leeds, Director of Community Development, advised we have two applications pending; one for the acquisition of property including the Dania Beach Hotel and some of the surrounding parcels; the second is an infrastructure application dealing with replacing the water system within the boundaries of the CRA. The acquisition application is in the County and complete, the next step is to have Mr. Moskowitz take that application and proceed to contact the various property owners who are affected. We will continue to complete the infrastructure loan application with Fred Bloetscher, and hopefully it will be submitted to the County within thirty days. Mr. Moskowitz remarked they have met with the City Manager and Mr. Leeds and the next step is to meet with County staff to assist the process with the applications, to find out the timetable for processing and approval, and report back to the Commission. They will also start contacting the property owners to determine whether it will be a voluntary or involuntary process. ® Mayor Castro asked if it were an involuntary process if the ruling would be as in Kelo v New London. Mr. Salim commented in his opinion a decision would be made before it becomes germane to the actual property acquisitions in that the case is clearly distinguishable from the situation that is presented here in Dania Beach. The case in Connecticut involved a situation where the property was being taken solely for private economic development purposes. He indicated the U.S. Supreme Court ruled decades ago that eminent domain could be used to take private property to correct slums and blighted areas. The case pending before the Supreme Court does not involve the issues of slums and blighted areas, which is the foundation of our CRA and the creation of the CRA map. Personally, he does not believe this decision will adversely implicate what the City is trying to do. Vice-Mayor Flury asked for clarification on the application for the Dania Beach Hotel site. Mr. Leeds responded the application has been at the County for approximately two months. Vice-Mayor Flury questioned if we were going to the property owners before getting approval. Mr. Moskowitz recommended meeting with the County as the first step, to determine the status of the application, and pass that information to Mr. Leeds before contacting the property owners. He indicated we may contact the property owners the next week. ® Mr. Leeds responded the County has approved the application, but they are waiting for us to contact the property owners and the acquisition process. He indicated the County is ready, willing and able when we are. Mr. Moskowitz indicated the County wants a report back on what the initial contact with the property owners has indicated in willingness to sell and price. We already have the first appraisal done, and we would need a second appraisal. Commissioner Bertino would like to hear what the County has to say. Cynthia Chambers, Director of the County's Department of Urban Planning and Redevelopment, advised they have been discussing the various projects and programs for the City of Dania Beach. The first project they will be processing is the request for land acquisition. We have been discussing a loan for the property at zero interest for a five year period. The next step is for another appraisal and for the City to approach the property owners and negotiate an offer. The County has asked the City to follow their purchasing procedures and procurement process so there would be no problem. She indicated the County would be issuing a check upon completion of those procedures in accordance with County rules and regulations. Mr. Leeds commented that two appraisals are required before the County will loan money. One appraisal has been prepared and Mr. Moskowitz will procure the second appraiser and move forward. He noted one appraisal was required with the application, the second appraisal before acquisition. Minutes of CRA Workshop 2 Dania Beach City Commission Thursday,April 28,2005—4:00-6:00 p.m. Vice-Mayor Flury did not think they were meeting as the City Commission today, she indicated they were meeting as the CRA Board of Directors. Mr. Moskowitz advised the Board of procedural items they need to consider as the CRA Board. First, the CRA Board needs to select a Chair and Vice-Chair at their next meeting, not at a workshop, as well as retaining consultants, counsel, etc. City Attorney Ansbro commented at the May 101h meeting we could have the first five minutes as a CRA meeting to make these elections. We cannot do it today because the meeting was advertised as a City Commission Workshop. Mayor Castro clarified the meeting was discussed as a workshop and advertised as a workshop. Mr. Moskowitz urged the Board to consider scheduling regular meetings for the CRA Board, at least once per quarter. He suggested the Board consider an Executive Director which would be a full-time position once the CRA is up and running. He indicated there were companies that could be hired in this capacity. Vice-Mayor Flury directed the consultants to move forward with acquisition of the Dania Beach Hotel and the surrounding properties. City Attorney Ansbro suggested waiting until the May I01h City Commission meeting because he ® does not want a procedural defect. He noted the next step is to obtain the second appraisal. Mayor Castro questioned if the acquisition included all of the properties. Mr. Leeds responded our objective is to acquire all the parcels because it makes for a suitably sized development parcel and meets the objective of the CRA plan. We have not considered the possibility of not having all the parcels, otherwise we will have an irregularly shaped piece of land which will be harder to market and develop. He noted the second application requires additional engineering information regarding rebuilding the waterline infrastructure within the CRA. It is estimated to be at least $7M, possibly more. The County wants a lot of information relative to our existing infrastructure, and costs involved with the CRA improvements relative to the improvements taking place outside the CRA. He indicated our objective is to borrow the money from SRF funds. Mayor Castro questioned if the County would grant us the money. Ms. Chambers commented the County is willing to invest in municipal redevelopment projects provided there is a return on investment. She noted Dania Beach does not have any projects in line that are waiting for construction, so there is no way to evaluate the benefit that would accrue from the utility improvements requested. Minutes of CRA Workshop 3 Dania Beach City Commission Thursday,April 28,2005—4:00-6:00 p.m. ® 3. Creation of Punch List—Time Line Mayor Castro commented we are trying to put everything in a row to create an environment to let the developers come in and we can pick the development projects. Vice-Mayor Flury commented the most important thing is that Mr. Moskowitz proceeds with the acquisition of property. Commissioner Bertino asked about the process to sell property to a developer. He remarked there are a lot of realtors in the City that would be interested. Mr. Moskowitz responded normally you advertise for proposals. City Manager Pato responded he thinks the City has to go out and find the developer to bring the proper project, and not end up in MLS. He indicated we would probably be approached by a variety of developers who would want to build on the site. Vice-Mayor Flury responded the Commission would decide, but she would like no realtors to be involved. In her opinion, the City should develop a concept of what they would like to see there, and the City should get the developer. Ms. Chambers offered the County's assistance in that process; they are currently going through ® that with the Governmental Center Downtown Campus. They put together a letter of interest and sent it to the development community that expressed the vision they had for the property. She indicated staff or a consultant would review and make recommendations, then we would go out for an RFP or RFQ and proceed. Mr. Moskowitz commented that Section 163.380 Florida Statutes specifically calls for advertising for letters of interest. 4. US 1 Median Proposal from FDOT Mr. Leeds advised FDOT has told the City they are going to do a resurfacing and reconstruction project on US 1. They have submitted a draft plan for locating landscape medians on Federal Highway similar to Hallandale and portions of South Hollywood. Fred Bloetscher commented his major issue in looking at roadways, especially major arterial roadways, is to keep traffic on those roads and not on neighborhood roads. He indicated many medians restrict left hand turns to businesses and roads, and the stacking lanes for Sheridan Street and Dania Beach Boulevard are really short, which means the stacking lane will end up being one of the southbound lanes. He noted we need a bigger traffic study, especially once we know what will happen with Slot Machines. For the short term, we can probably get a small traffic study to look at trip generation and the potential that would occur there. • Minutes of CRA Workshop 4 Dania Beach City Commission Thursday, April 28,2005—4:00-6:00 p.m. • Mr. Leeds remarked FDOT is willing to install medians, but they are also willing if we don't want them installed, not to install them. The option is ours. Mr. Bloetscher suggested we tell FDOT we do not want most of the medians. Mr. Leeds noted if it is the wish of the Commission, Mr. Bloetscher will prepare a recommendation. Commissioner Bertino wants as many beautified vegetation areas as safely possible. He asked about a planting area on Stirling Road. Mr. Bloetscher responded we just received plans on the proposal for Stirling Road. He commented we need to balance capacity to get traffic that wants to go through Dania Beach, and to look at the way the islands are stacking up. Business owners in downtown will complain that people cannot get into their businesses because the medians are four blocks long. Commissioner Bertino suggested getting with the Chamber of Commerce and having a workshop with business people so they have ample opportunity for input. Commissioner Anton remarked that Dania Beach Boulevard has the worst stacking lane problem. He indicated we clearly could not have any median through the main downtown area without it having an adverse affect on the southbound traffic. He remarked we need a • professional consultant to help us make decisions. Mr. Leeds agreed we should have a workshop or public hearing and expose people to this situation. 5. Creation of CRA Zoning Codes Mr. Leeds commented our current zoning does not match our CRA plan. Our CRA Plan calls for up to eight stories in the downtown, however, the Commission has conceptually approved ten stories. Our Zoning Code allows for a three story height in the downtown area. He advised Oakland Park hired a consultant that developed a zoning ordinance for the CRA downtown district. Currently, we do not have any design guidelines for the downtown area; we have a design guidebook from the County. The City has no Architect on staff, and the City is too small for a design review committee. Our CRA plan says Spanish Mediterranean design only, but does not go into detail about the design. Design guidelines would tell a developer exactly what the rules are. The cost of hiring a consultant would be $200,0004300,000 for the plan. Commissioner Bertino commented we need to master plan the whole City. He indicated developers will not come to Dania Beach because they do not know what is going on, so we have to let everyone know what the rules are. Mr. Leeds advised we may be eligible for funding for this project from the County. • Minutes of CRA Workshop 5 Dania Beach City Commission Thursday,April 28,2005—4:00-6:00 p.m. • 6. New London v Kelo This was discussed at the beginning of the meeting. 7. Other Resources that may be needed Mr. Bloetscher indicated the City was in good shape for sewer; we also have looked at stormwater and work orders should be coming soon. He noted we would need to talk to FP&L about electric. Commissioner Bertino questioned the FDOT drainage system in the southeast section of the City. He indicated we need to address all of FDOT's drainage system and tell them to run their drainage system into the wetlands. Mr. Bloetscher responded about two years ago a study was put together by CGA. There was a proposal from FDOT to put in twenty one drainage wells on SE 2° Avenue to address this issue. They had asked the City to budget $100,000, which we did. FDOT has since abandoned that project and are proposing to install an infiltration trench the entire length of US 1, right down the middle of US 1. He noted the biggest problem area is near Olsen Middle School. He indicated SRF funding was available for some improvement projects. • 8. Traffic Study—Immediate need for NE and SE areas affected by Jai Alai Mayor Castro is concerned that a comprehensive traffic study will take a while if we do not talk about this in reference to the CRA and whether Dania Beach Boulevard goes from six lanes to four lanes. City Manager Pato remarked we have an opportunity to begin the study quickly by retaining the services of the University of Miami, which provides the service for a lot less than the customary process of requesting quotes and bids. He asked the Commission for consensus to go ahead; the cost would be approximately $25,000. Mr. Bloetscher advised the professor does trip counting and traffic studies. This would project the number of trips on Dania Beach Boulevard, and we can run different scenarios. The study would include ideas for how to alleviate traffic issues. He thinks there would be a bypass scenario, and a recommendation on number of lanes. Commissioner Anton commented we had problems with Jai Alai when it was popular, but we had less traffic. He wants community input in this. Mr. Leeds remarked we have a time compression issue; we could have Slots on July Is`. He envisions this report to identify each scenario but also include a solution, such as: rearrangement of access to Jai Alai, or no access on 2nd Street; it may include street closures. Because of the compression, it will be difficult to build street closures overnight. We need to protect the Minutes of CRA Workshop 6 Dania Beach City Commission Thursday, April 28,2005—4:00-6:00 p.m. community. His fear is that July 2nd he has 150 people outside his door asking how he allowed this to happen. He indicated we may have to close off entire streets temporarily; we may have to set up barriers; we may have to tell Jai Alai they have to rearrange their driveways. He commented in order to protect the neighborhood we need to do something quickly. City Manager Pato commented we are all looking at the same things, but because of the sense of urgency some things are getting distorted. This plan is to include recommendations to help us identify the first steps to take prior to July 1st. This is the fastest way to move forward with a study that gives us some options. A more comprehensive study will take longer, but we need to take these first steps; there is no perfect short-term answer other than this proposal. He indicated the Commission would probably not like any of the options presented because there are no easy answers to this. Someone will be inconvenienced; there is no getting out of it. Vice-Mayor Flury wants a clear understanding of what they will be doing; she does not want any traffic counts. She wants them to get information from other casinos. In her opinion, the greatest amount of time needs to be spent meeting with the community. If the community is not involved, we do not need consultants. Commissioner Anton concurred with Vice-Mayor Flury. City Manager Pato responded that is what we will bring forward. We are working as fast as we can. He would like an element of credibility to give the Commission the ammunition needed to • deal with the issues. Commissioner Bertino commented we need public meetings and public input into what is going on. We need to start doing this now. 9. Adjournment Mayor Castro adjourned the workshop at 6:00 p.m. CITY OF DANIA BEACH ATTEST: ANNE CASTRO -�--�—�t1 jZJ MAYOR-COMMISSIONER LOUISE-STILSON CITY CLERK Approved: May 24, 2005 • Minutes of CRA Workshop 7 Dania Beach City Commission Thursday, April 28,2005—4:00-6:00 p.m.