Climate Resilience Committee Meeting

Climate Resilience Committee Meeting — April 30, 2026 - 5:31 PM

city of miami climate resilience committee it is APRIL 30th 2026. Thank you for joining us. All right. We have a packed agenda today. Pretty excited. Let's start with our first item roll call from my right please. Good evening grant musser. Allison weinstock. Sarai perez. Aaron dimeo. >> silvio pupo. Miriam flores resilience, sustainability. Sonya brubaker, chief resilience officer, city of miami. All right. >> and we will let uh assistant city attorney. Can we could. So um all right we'll move to item two. Which public comment? Would anyone from the public like to make a comment. Know at this time. There's none submitted online either. All right okay. I don't know if anyone here in the public wants to make a comment but there's none online. I guess not. Okay so we'll move to item three approval of the minutes from the APRIL 6th meeting. Do I have a motion to approve those minutes. Move to approve. And a second. Second second. All in favor? Aye. >> any opposed or abstain? No I believe that was unanimous. All right so item four we have three presentations this evening and uh pretty full agenda. So we have two presentations on some incredible local examples of of parks and resilience and urban uh urban development. Very excited to see these presentations this evening. And I chose these tonight as um, kind of a precursor to our discussion on on a budget recommendations last year we approved seven items. The seventh of the of the items was about stormwater park retentions and um I'm going to request again that we all consider that same item maybe with some adjustments for this year's budget recommendation should we move to to pass something related to that. So I think it's great that we have some some awesome examples right here in our backyard and there's um, this has been a concept for for a while now and these projects will hear about the history of getting them to this point in time. But even just today I was forwarded an article about sponge cities and a couple weeks ago there was a very interesting um. Event with the king and queen of the netherlands with uh, miami-dade county talking about collaboration between uh, the two areas and the shared challenges between the two areas and one of the one of the focuses of the event was actually sponge parks. So it's a very relevant topic to to today and to also, um, if we look at the, the 2025 annual report that we passed in JANUARY, we we started that with the background of of our committee and the first couple paragraphs are all about the weather events with multiple paragraphs about the cloudbursts. So I think this is very timely and poignant kind of continuing the work that we already did last year, uh, this evening with with these great presentations. So, um, our first presentation can be parker are you ready? Yeah. okay. Great. Welcome. You guys can see if anyone can see. Oh, there we go. We got one. Well good evening everyone .My name is ben hutchens. I'm a landscape architect and principal with architectonica geo super happy to be here. Really admire what you all are doing and um yeah just happy to be a part of this. So tonight, uh, we'd like to share, uh, some of our work at canopy park. Uh, this was an interesting project. It was in fact a public private partnership with the city of miami beach and uh, our client tara group and the site, you know, they own this they own a pretty large site about five acres and as of right, they were able to build mostly mid-rise developments and you know, in exchange they worked with the city closely and in exchange for the park for the city which they own and operate today, uh, the developer developed it, paid for everything, gave up the land and then donated it to the city. Uh, and so and it became what it is today and this is this is kind of pre-development you can see in this this was laying vacant for a long time. I mean I lived on miami beach in the area and it was like constant eyesore. So it was nice to see that it got developed took took a good while. Um and as you can see here actually the majority of this of the land, the property that they owned became public park which they donated since they were able to get more efficiency out of that smaller footprint which is where the residential tower went. Um and I believe you know, they're by right allowed to develop up to 1015 stories across the board. So you would have had multiple kind of mid-rise buildings in exchange and now it's kind of in exchange for this larger tower with a smaller footprint and here's kind of an overlay of the site plan in context. You can see um you can see the macarthur here. They're still working on this pedestrian bridge. They found a lot of artifacts I would say uh underneath that they're still trying to work around. So um that's happening. It's just taken taken more time than anticipated. Um, and then I think what we really wanted to look at today was some of the more stormwater oriented moves that took place. I mean what was really cool about this site is that on the top corner you can see city lift station that was there uh, since since you know, pre-development and this was handling about 30 acre watershed in the area. So all the runoff from the right of ways were directed to this site and unfortunately a lot of the water ended up going into the bay through this system. And um, what this project really did was was capture that water before getting to the bay, making sure that that water got cleaned and there was a lot of different layers almost like a belt and suspenders approach to the stormwater here you have the city wells which do the heavy lifting because again it's 30 acres it's a ton of water but also interconnected was this uh ston which is about 25000 gallon tank and that's used for irrigation for the park and also this kind of swale that kind of wraps the whole perimeter and kind of gives it a little bit of an identity and also starts to expose some of the stormwater features for the public to see. Here on the you can actually see the the the cistern and then the the swale kind of in during construction. And this is during construction also you can see the swale coming into place. We had some large trees that we were located on site. You can see some dewatering happening for the sales center that was for the tower and also the cistern kind of in the middle there. And this is just a model kind of illustrating that how that resiliency swell and this is this is sitting kind of above a lot of those wells and and the drainage network and if anything were to back up it would it would fill up the the swale to my knowledge this swale hasn't filled up. I think those kind of intentional it was like the last line of defense for some of the stormwater and of course if the roads were to flood you could imagine they might make their way to a. To a high degree they might make their way into this swale. Here's kind of a cross section through there. So I kind of just pulled together a lot of graphics that we accrued over time and the trees I mean it's called canopy park so we really wanted to have a nice healthy tree canopy as we know that can contribute a lot to offsetting urban heat island storing water holding water, carbon sequestration. So this is kind of a layout showing you know how many trees we had but also their anticipated growth over about a ten year time frame. And we used a tool called I-tree tools to help generate some data regarding carbon and water storage. Here's kind of an aerial of the of the built park and these are just some photos and you can see the swale kind of there and we have these little bridge moments that happen as kind of gateway features into the park used a lot of native plant materials pretty biodiverse. There's a lot of different species that we used. Some more images. And we had uh I think the city the city played a major role in in making some good demands for the park, one of which was requiring specimen trees. So you can see this ficus here they had the criteria was they had to be 24in in diameter. So we have a approximately seven of these throughout. And there is an art component and a better kind of shot of the swale and some of the walkways. And there's a really cool playground too. I don't know if you guys have seen it. There's an elephant that was made by a group called monstrum uh out of europe really a fantastic playground designers and that's what we have. Any any questions or thoughts? Thoughts are it's incredible. I've been there a few times and I really enjoy it. Um so thank you so much for the great presentation and sure. Um, besides just doing stormwater management, I think also it's really important to highlight what ben was talking about of the development capacity that was on the site and how it was adjusted to allow for this park to be built. The floor area was tilted upward allowing for a tower in exchange for the stormwater benefits, which is very similar to what we passed last year with the flora proposal adjusting canopy right on a much smaller scale um as well as with the green roof uh that we did in 2024. Um again incentive based climate resilience. So also when we look at what just passed earlier this year with the resilience trust fund for edgewater, again adjusting development capacity in a specific neighborhood for contextual specific interventions. And so this park just kind of showcases a number of of unique features from development capacity to innovative infrastructure. Um, that I hope we can we can try to proffer with our budget recommendations more solutions like this. And it's great that we have this type of expertise and in our community and we get to benefit from this type of infrastructure. Um, I did have one comment, uh, not necessarily per se about this but more more in general. Um, you know, are there are there any best practices or innovative things you guys are working around the world on so many projects what's on the boards now? Like where are you going from here? What kind of innovative things are you doing? How are you pushing the envelope? And you know, as far as also like trees being on site, um, you know, the conversation around trees is is happening a lot at the moment. Um here in the city of miami. How are you you know, are there any things you're seeing as far as moving trees on site managing around trees development capacity techniques like what you showed here? Yeah, I mean there's so many there's so many ways you can you can make a positive impact. But I think it's really the layering and and really trying to overall you're really trying to reduce runoff. You're trying to reduce uh, impervious impervious, uh, areas. And I think we have a project I wish I would have brought it today. It's it's uh, it's at university of miami and it's lakeside village project and what's really cool about that is you know, you have green roof which helps, right? So like there's almost no impermeable moment on the project in a weird way like the pathways and stuff. But like you have the green roofs then you have nearly every rooftop rooftop is planted so that at least slows things down and then we slow slow it down at the green roofs and then we send it we coordinate with the plumbing engineer and they send it to ground level bioretention so we have rain gardens at ground level. So it's that is like a belt and suspenders approach from at least from a landscape architecture perspective and what we can provide. And so hardly any of that runoff that hits the roof or the or the stormwater that hits the roof makes it to the gray infrastructure or the, you know, conventional stormwater system. So I think it's just depending on the site and it's so complicated, right? Because there's so many every project is different and you have silva cells and you have all kinds of things that can help hold water. But it's really like depending on the project, depending on its opportunities ,what are the opportunities that can help alleviate pressure on the conventional systems and slow things down? That's I mean that's really what you want to do slow it down so it's not everything's not racing together and and reaching and pushing on capacity. You know. I read that it was called resist delay store discharge. It was like the the sequence. Yeah. And if you have a chance and maybe you could have some, you know, uh, documents on on that project that you could share with us. Yeah. >> yeah for sure. Any other any other things that come to mind later and you could share with miriam? Yeah. >> we can provide like a list. >> of. Everybody be happy to do that. And I just want to use this as an opportunity to to talk a little bit about the first layer in the city, the requiring the first layer to be paved all across the board. Sorry, this is just something that like really kind of I think it's really problematic particularly in our urban. Core first layer. So first layer is about ten feet in from the property line. Um we're required to pave everything up to a building and even when the building and I understand the intent is that uh, it gives it activates you have active frontage and then pedestrians can go up to a building and engage in the storefront or that sort of thing. The problem is these these storefronts are now built 4 or 5ft sometimes above street level. So there is a wall there effectively. And you know, in a city like miami, given what we're talking about with resiliency and the botanical potential for this city to, you know, look like singapore or have have that kind of green identity, I think it's just a missed opportunity a little bit and it's just something that we should we should really look at and more specifically specificity to again encourage natural percolation. It's something so simple but it's something I think we can we can improve. First layer being again a zoning term when you're designing a building the the area between the property line and the facade. Yeah, yeah. So there's a first layer there's a second layer. Um and yeah, we're just we're we're being, you know, directed to pave pretty much that whole front edge. The paving extends essentially from the curb to the property line and then property line to facade and there MAY be swale interventions right? Or just think there should be a little more. I think so I think we could I think we could do a better job. MR. Chair for that. So that is a requirement. Yes. right now there's no other option if you come in with a creative option. >> there's no planting option. There's no planting. Yeah there's no planting option. So that's part of miami 21. Yeah no I understand yeah it's it's miami now we're in 2026 so maybe we need to revisit that. That's a great idea because these little things all over the place like if everyone does a little bit these little bits accumulate to a lot. Mhm. >> you all design the streetscape standards for wynwood. Did you are there any adjustments to the question that asked related to wynwood? Wynwood is unique because it's a 50 foot right of way. There's not a whole lot to work with there. So it's and it's you know it I mean it's it's it's pretty tough to to you know, everyone wants to build to their to their limit line and then you have a very you have barely enough room for sidewalk and have street trees. So what we try to do there was have a permeable streetscape along that verge. Um so that's something that we're encouraging but it's it's just not there's not a whole lot of room there to work. Um, but certainly in a t six zone or in our area here downtown, I think we could we can improve that a little bit. It would be great maybe if you don't know like either now or if we followed up if there were if there were certain uh, specific aspects of that that code that you thought should be. I'll hit you up after this for sure. For sure. I'll get you that and then some of the bmps best management practices that we were talking about [Laughter] Before. You guys agree. We uh if you're going to speak, I gotta invite you to the to the mic but um, maybe we do it during a presentation. Is that cool? Okay. Any other questions or comments? I was just curious. Thank you so much for the presentation. But I was just curious like a little bit of the conversations and processes that had to take place so that um, the developer was able to build above the the story limit. Um. The city of miami beach was amazing. I mean they were like they worked so hard together between the developer who works his tail off and the city as well, they were in constant communication and I'm not just saying that this is a fact. Um and that was that was just witnessing that process and also the community I mean you have a very engaged community on west avenue. So they were informing the program the city was really pushing for for this stormwater piece. And then the developer understood frankly and really made it happen. So I think it was there was a lot of discussions, a lot of back and forth negotiating and and it took time but they they did a fantastic job. I mean, this is a it's a great it's a great example of what could be done. Thank you. That that developer david martin um ,he's done a lot of innovative work also for instance we saw last year I believe it was 2025 the jungle island project, um with bjarke ingels group where it had the whole jungle trail with all the different kind of recreation of different native environments, which was quite impressive. Um, and he actually just launched a documentary that I went to last week called um, uh, the the future we build I believe. Um, and during either the documentary or in the panel after he mentioned exactly what you just said of when ben said that he heard from the community what their what they were looking for, he david said that that was one of the things he did when he brings ideas that he he tries to hear what the community wants and then pivots and it seems like that worked pretty successfully here. Yeah. Okay well thanks so much. Thank you. This was amazing. Thank you. Appreciate the uh the insights on the other ideas. Thanks so much for joining us. >> my pleasure. Thank you. All right. >> we have um our second presentation is uh bayshore park, a model for climate resilient public spaces and coastal cities. Very excited for you all to be here. Thank you for coming. How do you work these things? Um, while we're setting up? Um. Yeah, we want to jump in on what what ben was talking about. Um, I'll introduce ourselves. This is adriana savino savino design studio. I'm barry miller. Is kelly hitting our parks lead? Patty, MADAME Maurice is here with us today. Just a little closer to the mic. Did you get kelly? Kelly is our parks lead. Adriana savino, barry miller, uh, with savino miller design studio and patty matamoros is our resilience lead. So we're really thrilled to be here today in front of you all to talk about our project. I do want to follow up on what ben said though if I could if I MAY, uh we've been sending in amendments to the miami 21 code to the urban design folks grant ,matthew everyone there to try to get that first layer amended. Uh, try to get building setbacks further setback by the time you have the curve and you have the required uh, pedestrian public zone which is expanding over the years I've used to be three feet now it's six and a half. By the time you do all these things you put in all the infrastructure you have no more room for street trees, street cafes, everything else. So the sacrifice in the canopy park project that the developer did by what the city did they give them a basically a trade of trade uh with tdr they let them go up higher okay to to allow for the land that's all we're doing in a very asking for in a very minuscule scale push the buildings back five feet, ten more feet and you'll completely change your streetscape. You'll allow more pervious spaces permeable area allow more street trees and you can completely change the character of a city. So we are all for that and I just wanted to get that in before we start the presentation. Undergrounding is another one. Of. >> no that doesn't show up for them no no no no. It sure big. How do we make this big? Give us one second guys. Are you guys seeing two. >> no they just. >> see the big thank you from. Let's just start thank you for inviting us again. My name is adriana savino and uh we are super excited to show us show you our work in regards to this park and in general our approach to this type of projects. As we all know, um, south florida's urban metropolitan region has historically been tied to the water due to its location between the atlantic ocean and biscayne bay. South florida's economy has depended traditionally on water for sustenance tourism, recreation and transportation. I'm kind of giving you a little bit of a background. So where we we started from and you can see this is a miami beach original ecology. It was a mangrove forest and then little by little we started carving to to and changing the ecology to um and in general we transform our land use development models have been historically neglected our natural systems impacting surrounding water bodies and aquifers and the land that we inhabit you know, of course introduction of cars and streets etc. And uh, our design approach in general today is designing cities and projects as urban ecosystems indicating complex interactions between human and natural systems, emphasizing material cycles, energy flows and feedback loops, the importance of policy and planning in shaping sustainable urban ecosystems. Barry. So um, we're miami beach residents. We've been in this fight. Uh, activism is another thing we can talk about for some time now the uh and we all know about the effects of sea level rise. Uh, we presented this to the chief engineer back about 1112 years ago. The drawings on the left I think it was from um study or fiu sea level rise over the next uh 100 years or 80 years at the time one, two, three, four feet and the resultant king tides etcetera and street flooding. Okay. We we all know about that. And this is the context of where our project was at the time and the situation that was happening. So the traditional gray infrastructure engineering approach uh, was we call it pumps and pipes gray infrastructure bringing in uh, first flush water from the streets and collecting that and dumping it into the bay or nearest canal, etc. So, uh, the that's the image on the diagram on the left on the right you have more of a best practices model collecting thing off the street off of properties and moving it into a green space. Et cetera. So that's more of the green infrastructure approach that we we uh, wanted to wanted to adopt. So, uh, shortly after we were talking with with the city, you know this in 2014 2015, you MAY remember this some of you guys, uh, uh, henry briceno at fiu, uh, came out and busted and busted the city, uh, on the plume that was coming out from the sunset harbor area. Now I'll say city of miami beach was way ahead of its time. It really deserves a lot of credit in the street raising strategy. They recognized that long ago and we've worked on a few projects for that. But there was a central issue they were doing it fast and without too much forethought and without the green infrastructure approach and it was polluting water out in biscayne bay and they they sent remember the herald? Oh yeah. The herald had these pictures of the plume going out just wiping out the seagrass beds and it was a big, big problem and these articles came out uh on the city. The city uh of course was shocked and surprised and they said well we got to change our our the way we do things we were as we asked them. So our approach on the project bayshore park was to use three thrusts of of uh, how we're going to bring this this park together. The main was to provide stormwater stormwater storage and improve the water quality both inside the the area uh, the site it