Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board

Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board — April 15, 2026 - 5:42 PM

[Music] When I asked the city attorney to start. >> reading some of the preamble rules so we can get started. Good evening everyone. Any person who is a lobbyist pursuant to chapter two article six of the city code must register with the city clerk and comply with related city requirements for lobbyists before appearing before the planning, zoning and appeals board. Any person MAY not lobby a city. Official. >> board member or staff member until. Registering a copy of the code section about lobbyists is available in the city clerk's office and online@municode.Com. Any person making a. Presentation. >> formal request or petition to the board concerning real. Property must make the disclosures required by the city code in writing. A copy of the city code section is available at the office of the city clerk and online@municode.Com. Please silence all cell phones and other noise making devices. Any person with a disability requiring assistance, auxiliary aids or services for this meeting MAY notify the hearing board's liaison. The agenda and the materials for each item on the agenda for this meeting was published and made available to the board in advance of the meeting. The materials are also available during business hours at the city clerk's office and online 24 hours a day@miami.Com. Any person MAY be heard by the board through the chair and pursuant to the published notice for not more than two minutes on any proposition before the board unless modified by the chair. When addressing the board, the member of the public must first state their name, address and what item will be spoken about. Anyone wishing to appeal any decision made by this board for any matter considered at this meeting MAY need a verbatim record of the item. A video of this meeting MAY be requested at the office of. Communications or viewed online@miami.Com. Items shall proceed according to section. 7.1.4 of the miami 21 zoning ordinance. The members of the board shall disclose any ex parte. Communications to remove the presumption of. Prejudice pursuant to florida statute section. 286.0115. And section. 7.1.4.5 of the miami 21 zoning ordinance. Staff will briefly present each item to be heard. For applications. Requiring board approval or. Recommendation. >> the applicant will then present its application or request to the board. If the applicant agrees with the staff. Recommendation. >> the board MAY proceed to its deliberation and decision. The applicant MAY also waive the right to an evidentiary hearing on the record. The city requires anyone requesting action by the board to disclose before the hearing. Anything provided to anyone for agreement to support or withhold. Objection to the requested action pursuant to city code section 2-8. The communications department will broadcast the meeting through all the usual channels and avenues. The meeting can be viewed live on miami. Tv@miami.Com and on comcast channel. 77 within the city. The broadcast will have closed captioning. A member of the public MAY submit comments via the city's online comment form. The comments submitted through the comment form if any, were distributed to the board members and city. Administration throughout the day so that the board can consider them prior to taking any action. Additionally. >> the online comment form will remain open during the meeting to accept comments and distribute to the board members up until the chair closes. Public comment. All comments received will be included in the public record and will be considered by the board prior to taking any action. Um the public comment options established and provided for this meeting comply with section 286.011. For the florida statutes. As there are options for members of the public to indicate their support, opposition or neutrality on a proposition. The city publish an agenda as well as included in the notice of the public the items and topics that we discuss at this meeting. The public has been given the opportunity to provide public. >> comment during the meeting and. >> within reasonable proximity and time before the meeting. Board members, are you comfortable with all the notice provisions set. >> forth and. >> those uniform. >> rules of procedure we've established for this meeting? Yes. >> thank you. Okay. >> MAY we all stand for the pledge of allegiance? [Laughter] [Applause] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the [Applause] United states of to the republic for which it stands one nation. >> under GOD. Indivisible with liberty and justice for all. If you intend to testify in this. >> proceeding, please remain standing and. >> raise your right hand. If you intend to testify in this proceeding, remain standing and please raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you will give will be the truth and nothing but the truth? Thank you. You MAY be seated. I'll go ahead and call for attendance. Calling chair adam gerstein. Present calling vice chair. >> andres. >> lopez present. Thank you. Calling member mario. >> bailey present. Thank you. Calling member lynette. Cardoza present. Thank you. Calling member chris. >> collins here. Thank you calling member joseph carroll. >> thank you. Calling member maria. >> paula. >> de carolis calling. >> member. >> paul mann here calling member ellen montoya present. Thank you. Calling member joshua. Patinkin thank you. calling member arthur. Passoff thank you. >> and calling member manuel vadillo. Was he here? Manuel vadillo okay thank you. We do have quorum also. Member maria . >> paula de. >> carolis. >> requested an absence waiver. Is there a motion? Move for approval second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. >> thank you. And has everyone .Reviewed the minutes? Motion to approve. Move to approve. DECEMBER 17th of last year. FEBRUARY 18th and. >> MARCH 18th. Is there a second? And for the clarity of the record that was seconded by vice chair. >> um it looks like maybe. >> member passoff I don't know. Yeah. Member borissov thank you so much. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay we'd like to acknowledge, uh, alternate member [Laughter] Borissov as. >> a full board member today. And. >> I'd like to announce the. Arrival of member manuel [Applause] Vadillo. Thank you. And also, um, I have sent out the online public comments. Um ,are we. >> able to close. >> the online. >> public comment please? I'm sorry. Thank you. Yes. Okay. >> so. Are there deferrals? Yes there are deferrals. Let's hear it. Um the. First there are three items that are requesting to be deferred to MAY 6th. The first item is. Pz2. >> the applicant is. Requesting to be deferred until MAY 6th. This is the for the. Exception at. 3100 monroe. Um item z four uh this is being requested to be moved to MAY 6th to um to fix and noticing issue. Um and uh the whole entire everything will be noticed for it. >> as well. Um, this is the coconut grove playhouse item and then um p z ten is being. Requested to be continued to um . >> MAY 6th by the applicant. Okay. >> and then I do have one more deferral. The last deferral is for item. Pz7 the. >> applicant is. >> requesting it to be deferred until JUNE 3rd um. Go ahead no I'm here on behalf of. Pz7 of 4000 north miami avenue. Uh we asked to be deferred to. JUNE 3rd to allow us a little bit more time to. >> clean that up and come back before the board. Okay. Uh, how many. >> people are here for the playhouse? Show of hands. How many people are here for the playhouse item show of hands. Okay. Um. You know between, uh, last meeting and and this meeting. I just would like to point out that I, I think, um, this, uh, hits home the need for us to just try to improve our, uh, communication with the public a little more on the items that that are of great significance and importance to when we know and I think one of the ways which I already brought up is to um, you know, probably try to have some sort of, uh, social media channel that just gives basic information and updates and let people determine whether they want to spend the time to come down here or not. Um, just because of these back to back situations, I think it's not a heavy lift and it's not a big ask. So let's, um, you know, I, I don't know how the rest of the board feels, but I think this hammers home the need for that. So just making a note um are we able to defer. >> all of. These. Uh at the same time because they. >> have different dates? Yes. Okay. Um is there a motion. MR. Chair I'm sorry. Yeah. I should have. >> asked if anybody. >> wanted to talk about it. Item number. >> seven is a different date. I'm sorry. Item seven was a different date. Yeah. I asked. >> if we could, uh, do them all at the same time we can, MR. Chair. The previous meeting when we had a lot of participants coming forth, we were allowed them to like make. >> some comments in the records. I don't know if you possibly entertain that. No actually we we didn't because we said that it would force us to have to do it twice and so we were kind of um. So I think I think we got a do the same thing again. And be consistent. So. Um, we have. >> a pretty big agenda. So I'd like to keep everything moving quickly is is there a motion I'll move to defer. Pz24 ten to. MAY 6th. >> and pc7 JUNE 3rd is there a second second um should we. Roll call it. Or voice yeah roll call. >> calling vice chair andre lopez yes calling member ellen. Montoya yes thank you calling i'm. >> sorry. >> calling member mario bailey yes calling. >> member. >> lynette cardoza. Yes calling member chris collins yes. >> calling. >> member joseph corral calling. >> member. >> paul mann yes. Calling member joshua patinkin calling . >> member. >> arthur. Passoff calling member manuel. Vadillo okay. >> this passes by a vote of 11 to 0. Thank you. Um, I'm going to do one more thing out of order. Uh, it's my understanding that I saw that the mayor here earlier and you're there. Hello MADAM Mayor, I understand you have some some comments. Well, yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um, glad to be here. Thank you. Lynette, um, I helped fill out one of your appointments. So pleased to work with you at the county and happy to see you now helping out in the city you live in. Um, I'm here tonight. One of the items that is on the agenda is an item of mine item number five. It addresses. Something that I was confronting as a county. Commissioner in little havana. Uh, commissioner escalona and I have worked on this together. When you have t five zoning right it's supposed to be a little denser. Um, but often in older neighborhoods like little havana you have very tiny lots and when you try to apply the t4 t5 zoning it's just unworkable. Um, the. requirements mean if you want to build let's say a little you can't build. Townhouses because you're required to put a big driveway and you've got to pave all kinds of asphalt around it. And I had an infill lot at the county and I thought, well I'm just going to build what the city wants me to build so that I'll have an example of how bad it is. Um you're building a kind of larger building standards when someone just really wants to put two. Townhouses and what this item does is it allows lower density. It allows single. Family or. Townhouse build that we might have in at3, it allows it in t4 and t5. And so when you have a tiny lot where it's literally. Impossible to build something larger, you're no longer would be required to have this huge parking lot in the back and take up a third of the lot with a driveway to get in and out we'd be able to have a little garage. We'd be able to have a little backyard. The cost of the units that I built there are two stacked um condos .Uh, you know when we see all these square boxes everywhere that you know, people like to build but most of us hate to look at, um that's because it's. Required the cost of these units because there's so much concrete and outdoor. Stairwells was about. $200,000 more than if we just. Allowed the the townhouse type of. Structure to be in. We were doing this for affordable. Housing so you could build them more quickly less concrete, less steel, less asphalt, more grass, more. Gardens and less density. This is one of a number of initiatives that I'm really proud of the whole um planning and zoning team that you're going to start to see to make our. Streetscapes in some of our older neighborhoods like little havana look less boxy. >> and look more. So I hope you consider supporting it. Thank you very much. Thank you. I'll go ahead and read the item into record. This is ab5. We're. >> doing. Ab1. >> first oh we are yes oh we. >> can yes okay. There's nothing currently on the screen because there's. >> nothing playing right now. Pzab1 file id. 18901a resolution of the miami planning zoning and appeals board with attachments recommending approval with conditions to the city. Commission a major use special permit must pursuant to appendix c section. 627.2 and um I'm sorry and associated class two special. Permit class two pursuant to section. 627.1.15 of ordinance number. 13114 the zoning code of the city of miami, florida as amended for a mixed mixed use. Development within the sd. 27.2 midtown west overlay located. Approximately at. 3055 north miami avenue. 2997 north miami. Avenue 2905. North miami avenue. 3000 north east first avenue and three five north east 29th street, miami, florida as more. Particularly described. In the attached and incorporated exhibit a such approval of the must will allow up to. 924 residential dwelling units, office and retail. Uses and associated parking and. Approval of the class two will allow maneuvering of trucks in the public right of way for off street loading, making findings containing a. >> severability clause and providing for an effective date. Are you ready? Good afternoon. My name is nunez and with the planning department. The application before you is for a special use permit. The project is located at. 3055 north miami avenue and. 33,000 northeast first avenue. 3535 north east 29th street and. 2997 north miami avenue along with. 2905 north miami avenue. The request is for a special major, a major use special. >> permit and a class two. >> special permit staff is recommending approval with conditions. The project. >> site consists of approximately. 5.344 acres. The property is zoned t. 624 a and it is surrounded by t 620. 4ao to the north and to the east and. T68o to the. >> south and to the west along with um t5l. These are. >> existing. >> um images of the adjacent properties surrounding the subject site. And these are. >> the. >> adjacent. Buildings surrounding the. Existing site. The project is located. Within the midtown. District within the sd 27. Um just a little background on the property with the adoption of miami. 21 nearly all the provisions of the zoning ordinance under 11,000 were dispensed with. However, in this particular case under the miami midtown overlay district, those provisions of. 11,000 were retained and incorporated into the miami 21 code and the code reads as follows this code replaces the zoning ordinance of the city of miami also known as ordinance. 11,000 except that section. 627 also known as sd 27 midtown special district is hereby retained and incorporated as appendix c hereto and the provisions of ordinance. 11,000 referenced in section. 627 shall be applied to midtown special district providing. However, within the sd. 27. >> special district, the planning zoning and appeals board and procedures related to appeals therefore set out in miami 21 shall be replaced by the zoning board and procedures related to appeals there too in ordinance 11,000. Therefore within the sd 27 is governed by. >> appendix. >> c of miami. 21 and the applicable provisions of the. 11,000 sd 27 mandates that all buildings with more than. 400 units obtain a major special use permit which is the subject of this request. It's also important to note that if this project was not in the sd 27, this would be a by right project and it would be approved under miami 21 but because of the overlay and because they're. >> building over some over 400. Units, it requires a special use permit. So as you can see in these images the project is located within the sd 27. The sd 27 overlay is divided into two sections two. Districts sd 27 two and sd 27 one. It's important to note that within the sd. 27 two there is a cap in the number of. >> density. >> units that have been allocated. So the overall density cap is allocated at 1379. This particular site consists of parcels f, g and h with a combined request of. 924 dwelling units. That leaves a remaining density for the overall site of. 121 remaining density dwelling units. This is the last. >> parcel to be developed within the. Sd 27 two. A project summary of the project site this is a two phase project. The maximum height is being proposed two towers at 28 stories with an overall height of. 318ft two stories which are the smaller towers which would be located towards the western side of the site at 18 stories with. 218ft overall height four towers. Combined 924. Dwelling units with. 48,991ft2 of approximate office space. Approximate retail space at. 106,651ft2 1118. An on site parking. Spaces 200 via via easement off site and a class two special permit to allow. Maneuvering. >> of trucks within the public right of way. >> for loading for the subject site. Again this. The site is. Located within the the south east southwestern portion of the midtown district. As you can see here. Here's the overall. The subject site and the rendering from above giving you a. >> view along northeast first avenue towards. >> northeast 29th street. Um here you have the elevations. These are the tallest towers that are being proposed on the site which are also adjacent to the the taller. >> towers already. >> located within the sd east portion of the site. Again. >> overall height is listed here. And these would be the smaller towers directly to the west of the site um with the view looking directly off of north miami avenue as you can have the little chart with the. >> red arrow indicating what portion. >> of the site this is the view is from. And this is a view from the southern portion of the site. The area identified in the turquoise um area is is not part of the scope of this site. It's a different it's. >> a separate property that's has that's not incorporated. >> into the into the block. Um here's a view. >> of the site. This is a view looking north along north miami avenue. And this is a project this is a cross section of the interior portion of the site. This creates a small park park like. Environment and towards the center of the site providing needed green space for. Midtown. With lower scale buildings in the center of the site. And here you can get a. >> view of the cross section of the amenity community space that's. >> being provided. Here is a rendering view. This is a view looking west. >> along. >> north northeast first avenue in the middle of the site. As you can see here we have the smaller scale. >> buildings in the center of the site with the taller. >> buildings on the edges. So when reviewing this project staff finds that the proposed development to be contextual appropriate in terms of its mixed uses, intensity and overall scale and it demonstrates functional internal relationships consistent with the intent of the ordinance. The project has been designed to comply with sd. 27.2. >> which prescribes specific uses and facade treatments along designated rights of way activate and appropriate uses are provided along the required frontage, supporting pedestrian activity and reinforcing the urban fabric. Here's another cross section of the center courtyard space. Again this is a rendering of the the center of the site. These are the. Elevations and. >> renderings of the initial phase. >> this is looking at towards phase one of the site. So as discussed this is a two phase. Project so phase one consists of the the north. Northeastern. Tower which would be in the. >> part of the. The initial phase. Here's a rendering of the. >> first phase. Um and as a result staff is. Recommending approval with the following. Conditions um that the projects will be developed substantially in accordance with the plans prepared by. Arquitectonica dated by the city on february 5th six. 2026 under file id pc 18. 772 prior to the issuance of the first building permit, the applicant shall submit to fully dimensioned architectural cross sections one in each principal direction for review and approval by the planning director. The cross section shall demonstrate consistency with the approved design development plans including building height, massing and relationship to the adjacent public rights of way and the applicant should comply with the requirements of all. Applicable departments. Agencies as part of the city of miami's building permitting process, um staff remains available to address any questions that might be pertaining to the specific. >> criteria as outlined in the staff report. And. >> that concludes our presentation. Thank you. Thank you board. Good evening brian brown and iris escarra on. >> behalf of the applicant efren thank you for that very comprehensive um brian you gotta get in the mic there. Hello closer. Is this better? Yeah. >> is this better yes. All right brian dabrowski and I are here on behalf of the applicant um we are asking for a major use special permit. It's probably not something that you guys have seen previously. This is an. Antiquated zoning ordinance. 11,000 carryover that's in appendix c of miami 21. We're here before you today because we are proposing a project in excess of 400 residential dwelling units. If this was a typical miami 21 project this would never be before you. This would be. Exclusively approved at the administrative level we would go straight to building permit. I want to start to talk about midtown in general. Um this site within midtown has been a vacant piece of property since the walmart failed there a decade plus ago. Um midtown is thriving towards the north of this site. You have new buildings that have come in midtown is one of the best live work play neighborhoods in all of miami. Um, and this project coming in is really going to bridge that gap to connect wynwood to the remainder of wynwood. I'm sorry with midtown the midtown park project is providing active frontages on all four street. Frontages 924. Residential units. 49,000ft2 of office. 106,000ft2 of retail and sufficient parking on site and we also have 200 additional sites within the public parking garage. This project is intentionally oriented towards midtown boulevard, which functions as the main spine of the neighborhood of midtown. It then steps down as you get closer to north miami avenue, and we really took a lot of time with some thoughtful planning and I think staff's report kind of reflects that as well. They found that the site the project is contextually. Appropriate in terms of the mix of uses, intensity and scale. We're also within the density cap for midtown west. So this project works legally. It works. Numerically and it works from a planning standpoint. It also comes to you with a strong approval record. Drb recommended approval planning staff has recommended approval. We also have an independent economic study that was prepared by the city that's equally compelling. The independent economic and fiscal impact study reflects. Approximately 7678. Jobs during construction, resulting in. $408 million in labor income. 2200 ongoing annual jobs at. Stabilization 374 million. >> in recurring annual economic output output and 1.4 billion in total economic output. It also results in a net annual fiscal impact to the city of approximately $9 million. We're not asking for a rezoning. We're not asking for a comp plan change. The zoning is in place. The comp plan is in place. We're just here because of that one procedural qu