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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-08-16 Green Advisory Board Minutes CITY OF DANIA BEACH GREEN ADVISORY BOARD - MINUTES NW CONFERENCE ROOM/CITY HALL 100 W. DANIA BEACH BLVD WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2023 – 5:15 P.M. I. ROLL CALL The meeting was called to order at approximately 5:22PM by Vice Chair Guillen and roll was called. Discussions/actions were notated but were not limited to what was typed. Board Members Staff Chair Laura Lombardo Absent Senior PZ Manager Viviana Batista Vice Chair Alexis Guillen Present Planning Associate Shannan Webb Joanna Granett Present Michael Porter Absent Charlene Hogan Present II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES a. Approval of Minutes of the Green Advisory Board (GAB) meeting from June 2023. Motion was made by Board Member Hogan and seconded by Vice Chair Guillen to approve the minutes of the June 21, 2023 regular meeting as presented. Discussion ensued and Board Member Granett said she felt she could not vote on the minutes because she was not at the June 21st Meeting. The minutes were not approved with Board Member Granett abstaining from the vote due to her absence at that June meeting causing a loss of quorum for this vote. III. DISCUSSION ITEMS a. Flooding in the southeast section of Dania Beach Board Member Hogan said that April 12, 2023 was a real rain problem day. She lives in southeast Dania Beach and it was flooded. They had 18” of rain that night. She informed that the weather people kept reporting every half hour that the rain would stop but it did not. Board Member Hogan did not know who to call and could not get out. She did not want to hear about having money for this problem next year, as they have to get through this year first. Vice Chair Guillen asked if trees were removed from her street but she did not think so. Board Member Hogan wanted to know who to call when the street starts to flood. She also wanted to know if they could be called by the City to let them know that the pumps were working. The three board members felt that the Dania app was not working properly. When you think you and your family would be floating away, there has to be a way to speak with a live person. Vice Chair Guillen suggested calling 211 (for Broward) and in Miami it is 311. Board Member Hogan said she did not know to call 211 but she did send a text message to Commissioner Marco Salvino, Sr. Green Advisory Board Meeting Minutes 2 August 16, 2023 asking if he could tell her if the pumps were working. He was out of town but he did forward her message to the City Manager. She said that the water kept rising but about two hours later, the water started to recede. Vice Chair Guillen clarified that the numbers he gave were both twenty- four hour helplines. Board Member Hogan suggested getting an alert from Dania Beach if they were about to flood. Vice Chair Guillen spoke about having 27” of rain in his area. The water was over three feet over his seawall. High tide was two hours after it finally stopped raining. He felt that no seawall fortification could have prevented that coming over the top. All of the pumps, storm drains and everything go into the canal. His house did not flood but others did. No one expected that “once in a thousand year storm”. He discussed the problem of cutting trees down and flooding. He said that the City did spend a few million dollars on storm drainage systems, pumps, etc. Senior PZ Manager Batista spoke about the Code and that there was a requirement for new construction regarding pervious (open green space) and impervious. Board Member Granett spoke about driving through another storm on July 27, 2023 and that a wave came over. Vice Chair Guillen spoke about businesses that boarded up with No Wake Signs and the problem with overbuilding. He did feel that the City was doing some good things in this regard like trying to get LEED certified and environmentally friendly building done. Board Member Hogan spoke about people whose driving caused wakes crashing up against homes. There was discussion about FEMA and Flood Insurance. Discussion ensued about even if it rains for fifteen minutes, they see pooling. It was as if the water had no place to go. Board Member Hogan spoke about drains in Dade County being messed up by litter. She wanted to know if the City checked to see if trash did not go down the drains. Discussion ensued about registering for Code Red Alerts. We should see if we could get the City to promote 211 and Code Red. There was a suggestion to block off flooded streets so that people would not stall out and/or cause wakes. Vice Chair Guillen said that the City was proactive and had a sandbag distribution a few weeks ago. Board Member Hogan asked if the pumps come on automatically and if not, could they be made to come on automatically when the water got up to a certain level. She also wanted to know how the residents could tell when the pumps were working. Board Member Hogan suggested an action plan posted on the Dania Beach Website regarding flooding and promoting things like 211, Code Red, etc. b. Trash at Linear Park Board Member Granett said Linear Park is on Fifth Avenue and it ran parallel with the mangroves. The trash there was just ridiculous. This was a natural area and she did not want to see a fence go up but the littering has got to stop. She spoke about the Dania Beach Cleanups which pick up an amazing amount of litter and there would be help again from Olsen Middle this year. She explained that a lot of the trash in the mangroves was thrown out of moving cars and trash receptacles would not help in this situation. People who walk there did not litter. Board Member Granett thought that the City should go in and clean the mangroves up. We could have a mangrove cleanup event. IV. OPEN DISCUSSION V. ADMINISTRATIVE UPDATES a. Upcoming Board Meeting – Thursday, September 21, 2023 at 5:15PM (new date). Green Advisory Board Meeting Minutes 3 August 16, 2023 Due to conflicts in scheduling, it was decided without objection to change the date of the September Meeting from Wednesday, September 20, 2023 to Thursday, September 21, 2023 at 5:15PM. VI. ADJOURNED MEETING Motion was made by Vice Chair Guillen and seconded by Board Member Hogan to adjourn the meeting at 6:08PM. Motion Passed (3-0). ATTEST: _________________________________________________________________ SHANNAN WEBB ALEXIS GUILLEN BOARD CLERK VICE CHAIR DATE:___________________ DATE:___________________