Virginia Key Beach Advisory Board

Virginia Key Beach Advisory Board — April 27, 2026 - 6:34 PM

were there any requests for absence waivers? No. So we don't have a quorum. We're going to jump right into some discussion items and everybody will get out early tonight. The first item um gary mentioned we've we've had an item on legislative item that's we sent to the city a while ago regarding to reduce the size of our quorum, I know it was in front of the city commission and it wasn't heard 4 or 5 months ago. Can we get an update on where that stands? It was submitted to the manager's office for approval but I haven't heard anything back in regards to it being added to the agenda. Can you can you follow up with on that? Yes. Or would the city attorney follow up? Yeah, I'll follow. >> up follow up. Thank you very much. We'd like it back on the agenda. >> we can follow up but we can confirm they do have it. Um so I don't know when they're going to place it on the agenda but I know they have it so we'll follow up with them. Wasn't it it was previously approved and it was on the city of miami commission agenda since it's already been approved and was on the city of miami commission agenda, can't you just send it to the agenda office and have them put it on the next commission agenda? That's what we did. Um but it has to be approved through the city manager's office before it goes on the agenda. And I submitted it back to the city manager's office but I haven't heard back. Well it was approved. It was approved the first time and submitted and put on the agenda. >> yeah. Last year correct. But this year we had to resubmit since the item. Every time you submit an item to the agenda it does have to go through the city manager's office. So even though it was placed on the agenda before the item was withdrawn so that was last year. So every time you want to put something on the agenda it does have to be approved. You do you have a you know somebody on the city manager's staff that would help with that. >> it was sent directly to the chief of staff for the city manager. So that's anybody who wants to submit anything to the agenda office. It has to be submitted to the chief of staff and then they they're the ones that proceed with moving it forward. Is he new to the city? So the city manager is new and his chief of staff is new too. Yeah. >> so no background, no experience, no institutional knowledge. [Applause] He's just showing up cold to the position if if you don't mind can you can you maybe educate him and get get it on the agenda again as soon as possible? >> I mean I requested it for it to be submitted. I submitted and I requested it for it to be placed but it's once I do that it's beyond my. Well you can follow up. No no. >> correct. And I said I will. All right. It's yeah it's. Um gary do you have any comments on that item? Um the next item discussion on events at marine stadium parking lot area. Has anybody seen anything lately or any comments on traffic or events at the on the marine stadium parking lot or our residents from key biscayne have any feedback or. If everybody could please speak into the microphone so we can hear it in the recording. Nothing nothing unusual? No. >> your mic is off. Peter sorry I'm sorry. It's okay. How's that. Um, discussion on the rickenbacker marina? As we all know, there was an rfp a number of years ago and there was a winning bidder um with with the the process was withdrawn by the former city manager. Does anybody have an update on what the status is with the rickenbacker marina and who will be managing the rickenbacker marina? Hector maybe anybody anybody heard anything pertinent? We can ask andrew for him to provide an update in the next meeting in JUNE MAY JUNE yep. In JUNE. Okay. >> thank you very much. That's certainly important to virginia and virginia key historically the basin. Next item will be discussion on the proposed museum of the historic virginia key beach park. Is everybody familiar with that proposal for the museum? Anybody have any heard anything about the status of that lately? I haven't heard anything or seen anything in the media about that lately either. I guess it's in the works. I think it's there's 20 million coming from miami dade county. Is that right? City attorney rafa was it in a 20 million was in a bond issue. I don't know I don't have that information. Yeah I don't either but adding this to the agenda was the first I heard of it. Oh might have been um there might have been 20 million allocated in the homeland bond fund like 1512 or 15 years ago the city of miami. Hector do you remember the the funding for the museum? Yeah, I believe it's uh there's 15.5 from miami dade county gop and a $5 million grant from community [Laughter] Development tax. And where is that? Where are we at in the process? I believe we're under the silence now for the selection of a architect for the museum. The trust is handling that. So so those plans would be developed and put into some sort of request for proposal. No it's for the selection of an architect for the museum. So there's no design it's the selection to start for. That would be put into a request for proposal. For a bid. Yes. Yeah that's something that we feel pretty confident that pablo will be. One that design is completed. Yeah that's a normal process once you complete design and permitting we go out to bid. Yeah. Um do you do you recall the approximate square footage that might be the architect might be bidding on. Uh for. >> that I couldn't tell you to be honest with you. I know it's changed from the original design but I couldn't tell you right now. The director was here presented to us for 4 or 5 months ago of the of the trust and I think based on the budget and money that needs to be set aside for operating expenses, the maximum size of the museum would be approximately 11,000ft2. I think she spoke about that if anybody was here, recalls steve. Okay. Thank you very much hector. Thanks for your help. Any other questions? I was going to say chair, what I remember is the the commission the city of miami commission approved the I think it was 5 million for operating. So they so money I think that was what was holding the the process up they needed to a commitment for operating funds. Yes. >> I remember the item first came up almost 20 years ago and it kept getting vetoed by the city manager whoever was the city manager of the city of miami who wouldn't let it go forward because no, there was no operating funds available from the city or any other source and that put it like a 15 or 20 year delay on the process. So maybe it's it's been rectified. Yes. >> um so the next discussion item discussion item about the civitas plan for the parking lot areas is I think we all heard several presentations from civitas regarding their proposed plan for the parking lot area. Gary was here. Nicholas nick did you ever hear one as. >> far as what they have planned for the parking lot? I mean I know what they do with the parking lot now that's where the base of all the events are. So I think it'll I think once the stadium gets built it'll take the the stress of that and that'll be I don't know if it's going to be compliant with what's actually in the it's in the plan for for virginia key but um it'll become less event oriented and more parking area parks and. Sorry if everybody can speak into the microphone. I'm sorry. Sorry about that. Um I don't have any any individual insight beyond what we've been presented. So speak into the mic. Um for a little bit of background, the city of miami did a request for proposals for a landscape architect designer for the 15 approximately 15 acres adjacent to marine stadium and they hired a firm out of colorado called civitas and civitas came up with a plan after being paid I believe a $900,000 fee and they came up with a plan for the parking lot area and the estimate to to pay for that plan. The proposed plan I think was originally 115 $120 million. It was elevated features and covered parking and things for children and it was you know for $115 million it would have been huge. And yes, I suppose the visitors would have greatly impacted the causeway and we saw a few presentations. The architects were here presented to us three or 4 or 5 years ago. David snow, the director of planning was in charge charge of this and he managed this this process with civitas. But we haven't heard much about it in the last 18 months. And I believe the winning bidder for marine stadium is not only getting permission to manage marine stadium, but they've been given the 15 acres to use as they desire, decide to make as much money as they can. And I think the civitas plan has seemingly been thrown thrown out but the city is still out the $900,000 fee to the to the firm. Is anybody else heard anything about the proposed civitas plan for the parking lot area? I just remember it kept getting scaled back. It became a one story. I mean originally it was like a gaudi esque like you said a two story really I thought magnificent uh proposal but in the end I think it just is kind of a grassy area some some some um cement, some asphalt and uh, to accommodate actually the parking as well for the for the boat ramp dual purpose. Yeah. >> I'm not sure the management company is going to have the ability to change the design of what actually goes in there. They're I think they're they're more event management company as opposed to the actual design of the facility. Um, maybe like I said, I do know the one company that one one specific areas for vip parties and holding areas and stuff like that, but I don't I don't think it reached out into what the civitas part of this was so but I I'd like a little more information on it because you're right we haven't heard anything about that in a long time. Peter if you'd like I can add it to the upcoming agenda and ask andrew to see if he has any updates that he can share in the upcoming meeting. That would be great. Or or david snow who was quarterbacking it originally. Thank you. Either one would be great. I'll reach out to both. All right. Um and then. We're I'd like to talk about as a suggestion from gary milano, the former aquarium site now sea aquarium and that's in miami-dade county owned by miami-dade county. But it's pertinent to all of us because it's adjacent to virginia key park and it's on the causeway. Gary, can you you want to just bring it up? Rafael I was just wondering if we could have someone from the city um, ask the miami-dade county representatives. Sorry, gary if you can talk in the microphone just so who's watching can hear. >> if we could have somebody come to the next meeting to discuss plans for the old aquarium site. Um, because it's under new lease agreement with miami-dade county. Even even better would be somebody from the county who's handling the relationship between terra and. Whatever works county. Yes that's right. Yeah. Whoever's got substantial knowledge. About david martin. Yes. >> andre have you heard anything new about the [Laughter] Proposed aquarium site? No I haven't I haven't. Okay. >> um and. The other thing while I've I just wanted to ask the city attorney but I see her talking. Go ahead. I want to wait until she's. Oh I have a question for the city attorney. Hi. Um, I was wondering if there's you know, it's very frustrating and I want to thank all the members that did come tonight. I mean we've got 123456 people here which is plenty as far as volunteerism you know providing free time to the city. Could you please engage and enforce the minimum attendance requirement in the bylaws because it's not being done. There's people that consistently don't come to these meetings. There's no challenge to the people that submitted them to be a member of this board. So we need to go back to the people that basically designated this person that's not showing up to ask them to designate another person. This has been very frustrating because this has been going on for a year now and we even got to the point where we tried to reduce the number of people for a quorum and you can see the government tie up that we're in here. So the bottom line is we should have enough representation right now here at this table to be able to vote. I mean good golly the city commission only has five members. So I don't understand this bylaw stuff that keeps getting bogged down in the legal sort of you know, not nothing is being there's no activity there's no legal sort of let's do something guys. So could you look into that please? I know you're new and I'm not I know you're just a messenger and I'm not this is not heat for you. I'm just frustrated in that we have all these people here that made an extra effort that are not getting paid to come here and it's frustrating that there's no as far as minimum attendance requirement being enforced, right? Absolutely. >> so we can certainly enforce the minimum requirements by contacting the various boards that are appointed and hopefully you know but we rely on them to appoint people to the board as well. So if the organizations are not cooperating when we try to enforce by appointing folks to the board, then it's also difficult for you guys to meet quorum and you know and have the necessary people here. So we can certainly enforce it. But we also need cooperation from the organization so they can appoint the you know, the members to the board. It's not the organization's it's mostly city board of commissioners. It's city sort of managers. It's city representatives that are not following through to present. I am presented by tropical audubon steve is sierra club and so in you know peter is. You so your people these are not for profits out there as far as you know. But they're the ones that it's my understanding that those various organizations are the ones that have to appoint the members to the board. But we're we're here we're the bottom line, right? >> I'm saying I'm saying if we're going to enforce right the members that are not coming and are not attending and we're kicking them out of the board as pursuant to the bylaws, then we need to contact the various organizations that appoint those members and let them know you need to appoint new members because you know, x, y, z members not showing up to the board. But that's not something that has to do with the city that has something to do with the with each board. So we we can enforce the rule, but we do need to reach out to the boards and say, hey, you know, this person is no longer on the board. He's not showing up or she's not showing up to the meetings, who is your next appointment? And then we'll put it on the city commission to be confirmed. But that would be the process. The the city commissioners are not the ones appointing people to these chairs is what I'm trying to say. I don't want to make a big deal about this. Could you just pay attention to that? I mean this is frustrating for us. So if you could just we take attendance each time the people that aren't here you can identify clearly because we have a list of people that are on this board, the people that don't put an x by their name and then call that representative tonight, tomorrow the next day but do something right. Don't let's not just leave it for another meeting and another two months, another four months, another six [Laughter] Months. It's very frustrating. Andre, you want to add? Yeah, I have a couple of questions. How is the quorum determined? Is that by uh some kind of legislation or rule passed by the city by the committee? How is it determined. That was established in ordinance? It's codified in the code and that was done when the board was created. And so is it an absolute number or how do you get to the number? Yes it's a 50% plus one of the members sitting on the [Laughter] Board. >> so let me ask you I'm just looking at I'm new. This is. >> my right right right. But this is my third meeting. There hasn't been a quorum once right? Just you know it is what it is but in the um if I'm reading this right, I think we have eight members who are not at large or ex-officio so there are nine board members. So what how do you do you count the ex-officio in. In quorum but not for voting purposes. So you do count them for for quorum purposes right. But they cannot vote on an item. So voting on an item is by majority vote okay. And these and so one of my fellow board members has handed me the thing the ex officio or by also by ordinance. Yes by ordinance all is codified in the code. Okay but it's 50%. Plus one. Plus one so that would be seven. >> that would be 850% plus one because it's 7.5 and then that would be your eight. No wait there's 15 members. There's 13 okay. Thank you yeah excellent. Um well as board members have been stating that it's a tough threshold to meet quorum particularly when you've got two city employees who are both directors of their department that don't show up. MR. CHAIRMAN, I just want to go back. I count 11 not 13. I cut off the agenda so it's missing jackie and I have to see but yeah, there's a total of 13 um okay I can give you a specific list but I think what the format that I used the program to coordinate the agenda and get cut off. Yeah I apologize you. Um so looking on the same on the same point looking at the board members um none I think only one is appointed by a city commissioner is that right? The district two commissioner appoints one board member of our board. Then the mayor has an appointment. And the mayor? Yes. Okay. So one is by a city commissioner from district two and then another one from the mayor and the rest are appointed by different organizations. All right. I mean as as gary brought up, I'd like to point out that the attendance from you know, the volunteer organizations has been very, very high on this board. Sierra club, um dade heritage trust has been very high. Um tropical audubon ewell so yes, I guess there should be a phone call to some board members that have don't show up very often and see if they'd like to resign because they're busy and other things. Thank thank you very much. Any other comments? Um and there's I have I have a last item on the agenda is this discussion about the history of virginia key park. I'd like to hear from each of the board members for a minute or two on something that comes to mind related to virginia key park, something you recall either recently or from years ago that's pertinent pertinent to you to your thoughts on virginia key park? Anybody like to start? Yeah I'll start. Um jerry. >> thank you. It's been neglected that part I feel really bad and we're talking about the historic beach, right? No, the entire park. Oh. >> all 800 acres. Virginia key. Virginia key park. Well, I think portions of it have been neglected. The old beach park site is you know that we're talking about the museum. Um, I worked at that site and did a lot of restoration work there and it's just not being kept up. I mean you go there today and it's just sad. It's very sad and parks supposedly is supposed to be overseeing it and we don't have our parks representative here tonight to talk to them about it. But um and it seems like there's a high turnover in the parks department head. You know, we probably had 3 or 4 since this board was first put together. But it's very frustrating to see the neglect that's going on. Um not only there but some of the other areas that there's really no funds being provided to whether it be a naturalist, you know, that's trying to take care and preserve of the natural areas on virginia key. So anyway, that's my $0.02. Thank you louis, any thoughts on. Well junior key park. >> I'll just share you know my memories as growing up you know we used to go to the beach as a family and then also um in the marine stadium, uh, you know, watching MISS Budweiser race when I was a kid also jimmy buffett uh, in concert. So you know, I have very fond memories, you know, living in on the key for a very long time and and you know, driving through and enjoying also in high school, you know, we'd all hang out in high school, uh, late nights maybe I shouldn't say that because sometimes we weren't allowed to be there, but, uh, it was a lot of fun to go by there as well. And I remember too when when jet skiing was allowed in on the park there, uh, being able to jet ski and it was just very fond memories of of um, growing up up and around that area. Every part of it, you know, in the marina too. Uh, I actually had a boat in the marina and rickenbacker marina for a while as well. So you know, I have everything in fond memories throughout there. I would ride bike as well in the in the uh in the mountain bike area too, which is you know, I've seen the evolution I've smelled the the the smell coming out of there too throughout those years. Uh, but I have very fond memories and I'm really excited about the future of it. So great. Thank you so much for your thoughts. Absolutely. >> nicholas. >> well, I mean I actually to piggyback on what lewis says, I, I have some very fond memories from my youth but they're starting to fade to be honest with you driving I've lived in key biscayne now give or take about 25 years and driving by that stadium every day it's an embarrassment. It really is. It's an embarrassment to our community. Um the fact that I know it was it was you know, there's been some great intentions and you know the potential that's there. I probably brought this story up before but it reminds me of the what happened with the biltmore all those years the biltmore was closed and now even the thought of the bill were being closed and fenced in. As beautiful as a place it is now and the fact that we haven't been able to get something going and I know it's not incumbent on this board to do that. It's obviously there's there's powers beyond this, but I want new memories of just something really, you know, impactful and so that other people. I've got a six year old and a and soon to be eight year old and I love them to have those same memories that are really, like I said sadly starting to fade for me because you know there's such potential there and you know, so hopefully we'll get something done sometime soon. Thank you very much steven. Okay. >> so my certainly as a native miamian I certainly went to marine stadium for concerts but I really got involved when the a contractor took down a strand of mangroves in preparation for the for the first boat show and that might have been about ten years ago and that incensed me and I mobilized as many organizations and people as I could. Uh, we we managed a protest but the protest was a day after I don't remember the hurricane's name. Um, so we maybe got 100 people to MARCH on rickenbacker causeway. Um and we continue to object to the boat show moving forward on virginia key but the city had already was already moving forward investing like $22 million on infrastructure. And so I've been engaged ever since. Thank you so much, andres. Well, it's interesting to hear other native miamians and people who enjoyed virginia key and I have very fond memories of many of the things you guys are saying. I remember going not just to the buffett concert and to boat races but to political events when I was a kid. We this was a place that was really a. I'm talking about the marine stadium of course, but also as a child going to seaquarium which you know, there's a commercial aspect that things have changed but this was like a very vibrant place windsurfing. I wasn't a jet skier but I've jet skied there but I also windsurfed [Laughter] There uh and jimbo's it later in life. So this is a place that is really unique. I was talking to the CHAIRMAN About this the other day and I would tell you what I think. I think it's really been neglected. I've been watching since hurricane andrew and I looked into the sort of history of in particular the marine stadium, uh, property and what I learned was that that property was granted by the matheson family many