Regular Council Meeting August 25, 2026

Oh, yeah. Good evening. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. The mayor has called the council meeting to order. Mayor Roscoe, present. Council member Bracken here. Council member Kaplan. Good enough. Council member. London. Vice mayor. Sardine. Council member. Stoner. Here. Council member. Vasquez. Thank you, MR. Mayor. We do have a quorum. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. To the republic for which it stands. One nation under GOD, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Stay standing for the invocation. Good evening, honorable mayor, vice mayor, esteemed members of our council. So in our society, leaders are appointed by their fellow citizens who entrust and empower them to represent us and to look out for the benefit of the community. On a deeper level, the Talmud teaches that every position of leadership is appointed from heaven, meaning when a person finds themselves in a position of responsibility, especially when it's a responsibility of service to others, they are not there by accident. We're taught that they have been placed there from heaven. And together with that responsibility comes the ability to fulfill it properly. GOD does not place us in a position where something is asked of us that we do not have the ability to accomplish. Our village is now preparing for a new fiscal year, and in the Jewish calendar, we're also preparing for a new year. In the weeks ahead, we will celebrate Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year, but the Hebrew words Rosh Hashanah translate more literally as the head of the year, just as the head gives vision and direction to the entire body these days, give vision and direction to the year ahead. And actually the Torah. The leaders of a community are also called heads for the same reason, because they are called upon to provide clarity, vision, and direction for the path ahead. If that is their responsibility, then surely they have been given the ability to fulfill it and to fulfill it with much success. With this in mind, please join me in prayer to the Almighty GOD. MAY our Council be blessed to carry the responsibility entrusted to them with confidence and with joy. MAY they guide us toward our shared vision, leading by example as good citizens, kind neighbors, and as a part of a connected community. MAY GOD bless their minds with clarity and wisdom, and bless their hearts with kindness and sensitivity to listen deeply and lead effectively. And MAY our village be blessed to become the community we all hope for. One where we live together in peace, harmony, and friendship. And MAY we all be blessed as we wish each other a Shana Tova a year filled with goodness and sweetness. A year in which our community grew stronger and more connected. And let us say Amen. Amen. Rabbi. The next item, MR. Mayor, is brief comments by Council. Okay. Anybody here? To my right. I always have something to say. Go ahead. I would just like to. Remind everyone that on AUGUST 15th, Saturday, we had our first ever sports fair at the Village Community Center and it was fantastic. It was very well attended. It was super, super fun. And I would like to recognize David Carano in particular, who put the entire day together. He coordinated everything, food, all the all the coaches. It was amazing. And I would like to thank David for all of his hard work. It was a wonderful event and it will be one that we will repeat annually, I'm sure. Thanks, David. Thank you. Oh, I see the the young ladies back there. Let's do the young ladies who are celebrating kb girls soccer team, u13 state champions. So let's let's Council let's go down. Congratulations. On your Sunday that. Was all right. You want to hold this. Who's. Coach do you want to tell us what this great team did? Thank you, everyone for being here. Thank you. Thank you Marcelo. Thank you Jimmy. Thank you Sofia, and congratulations to my girls. Good afternoon everyone. I'm very proud to be here today representing the Soccer Club Girls program. Over the last few years, our girls program has grown tremendously. Our girls have won the Commissioner's Cup, PRESIDENT Cup and now the State Cup. Something very special for our programs and for you as well. But for me, it's not only about the trophies, it's about the development of our girls, their hard work, commitment, dedication, discipline and how much they have improved. The State Cup trophy belongs to everyone or players or coaches, parents, the girls and the entire community. I'm very proud of you guys and everything we have accomplished together. We haven't finished yet. This is only the beginning. Thank you everyone and GOD bless you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Yes, ma'am. Yes. Next. Are you. Who is? Wait wait wait. Good evening. My name is Sophia Chica and I am so honored to be representing my team today. I'm incredibly proud to say that the Key Biscayne 2013 girls are Florida State champions. Our team is the first girls team in our club's history to win a Florida State championship. So this is a historic moment for our team, our club and Key Biscayne. Most of us have played together since we were little. We have grown up together, practice together, won, lost and become best friends. This was such a great season for us and it was a season that I will always remember. We learned so much not just about soccer, but also about working together, trusting each other, staying positive and not giving up when things got difficult. Every practice gave us a chance to improve and learn something new. We practice and practice, sometimes repeating the same things until we got them right. We worked on our skills, our teamwork and our communication and our confidence. There were definitely moments when things were hard, but we kept showing up and working together. We pushed each other to get better and we learned from our mistakes instead of letting them bring us down. Every game and every practice helped us become a stronger team. Looking back, I think all of those little moments throughout the season prepared us for the biggest moments. Winning the state championship wasn't just about what happened on the final day. It was a result of everything we had done throughout the season, all the practices, all the games, all the things we learned and all the time we spent together. When we finally won, it felt really special because we knew how much we were, how much work we had put in into getting there. And even though winning was amazing, I think one of the best parts of the season was getting to experience it together. We had so many fun moments, laughed together, supported each other, and made memories that we will remember for a long time. I really enjoyed being with my teammates every week and getting to see how much we improved from the beginning of the season to the end. I truly believe that friendship and teamwork helped us win. We fight for each other on the field because we care about each other off the field. We know each other's strengths, we trust each other, and we know what we can count on each other. That connection is something really special about our team. I want to thank our coaches, families, club and community for supporting us. Our coaches believed us, taught us, challenged us and helped us become better players and better teammates. Our families have supported us through all the practices, games, tournaments and everything in between, and our community has given us a place to play, grow and represent Key Biscayne. And most importantly, I want to thank my my teammates. I'm so grateful for all the memories we have made together, for the way we always support each other, and for how much we have grown together over the years. I'm really proud to be part of this team. We have been through so much together and getting to share this championship with the people I have grown up playing with makes it even more special. I know that none of this would have been the same without each other, without each and every one of them. But I also hope this championship can help create change. Girls are a smaller part of our soccer program, and historically we have not always had the same coaching, specialized training or opportunities as the boys. And still this group of girls became the first girls state championships in our club's history. That shows how much potential there is when girls are given the opportunity to work hard, develop and compete at a high level. Imagine high level. Imagine what girls could accomplish if we continue investing in them and giving them more opportunities to grow. As we get older, many girls leave Biscayne to find higher level opportunities. But why should girls have to leave Key Biscayne to find those opportunities? Why can't we build a girls program so strong that talented girls from other communities want to come to Key Biscayne to play, develop and compete. We want to stay together, keep growing, and and help make Biscayne a destination for girls soccer. We want younger girls in our community to see that there's a place for them here, and that they can dream big and work toward their goal without having to leave their community. We were excited to represent Key Biscayne at Nationals, and I was sad that journey ended, but I know we have already accomplished something really special together, and I am proud of everything that we did this season. This season taught us that hard work, patience, teamwork and enjoying the game can take you a long way. We didn't just win a championship. We learned and proved and created memories together that will carry with us. I hope this championship can be the start of even more opportunities for girls soccer in Key Biscayne. We are proud of what we have accomplished, grateful for everyone who helped us get here, and excited to keep working, growing and representing Key Biscayne. Thank you. Winning the Florida State Championship with the 2013 Girls Elite team means so much to all of us. We've been playing together for so long and through all these years. We've made so many memories that will carry with us forever. We've grown together, support each other, laugh together, and push through all the hard moments together. This championship isn't just about winning a trophy, it's about everything we've been through as a team and how far we've come. We're so thankful for every opportunity, every game, every practice and most importantly for each other. We're also super thankful for coach, for believing in us, pushing us, and helping us become the players and teams we are today. And to all of our families who have supported us throughout every game, practice, early mornings and long drives. Thank you for always being there and believing in us. I'm so proud to be part of this team and couldn't imagine sharing this moment with anyone else. We started as teammates, but along the way we became families. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Valentina Gill and I play for the u14 girls team. Winning the State Cup final was one of the best moments of my life, but getting there was not easy. A few months before, I had a huge knee surgery and I had to work hard to get back to soccer. Recovery was hard. I missed playing with my team and sometimes I felt frustrated because I just wanted to be back on the field. I had to be patient and keep working even when it was difficult. On MAY 17th, I got to play in the State Cup final. We were losing one zero and there were only ten minutes left in the game. We didn't give up. We kept fighting, scored and came back to win the game. Winning, after everything I had been through, made the moment even more special. Going. Going from having surgery and working to get back to the field and to winning a state Cup was something I will never forget. This experience taught me to never give up, even when things get hard. If you keep working and believe in yourself, you'll come back stronger. Thank you. Thank you parents. Thank you a team. It's a great victory. We we're going to do it again next year. No no no no. Are we going to do it again next year? One. Two. Three. Thank you so much. Thank you. Good job. No. Why do I smell like. I was eating? The next item? The next item, MR. Mayor, is public comments. All right. Yeah. Okay, everyone, I've got a lot of public comments here tonight, so I'll be brief and to the point and try not to repeat what what the other person has said already. So that would be great. I'm going to start with Linda. Correct? Yes, yes. Can I move this? I think you can reach you. So. You. Can you hold it? Yeah. Okay. Good evening. My name is Linda. Correct. I live at 101 Ocean Lane Drive, and I'm formerly from the uk, as you can probably hear. And now I'm a permanent resident of Paradise Island of Key Biscayne. Except it's not a Paradise island. If you are handicapped, let me give you some examples. I understand that a rolling wheelchair was purchased by the village a while ago, but where is it? I also understand that there was a request made to purchase beach mats and a floating wheelchair. It would be great if there was a floating wheelchair available in the Key Biscayne Beach Park near the paddle board site, and beach mats that extended near to the sea. So frustrating not being able to get onto the beach. Finally, in connection with the beach access paths next to the Commodore Club or the Key Biscayne Beach Park, there is no way at all for disabled people to get onto the beach at these locations. I also understand that the mayor and the manager have details and photos of the poor state of the repair of the beach paths. Access issues. Please get them repaired. Please consider what I have mentioned as a resident, I would love to be able to breathe in the fresh sea air sargassum, allowing in a wheelchair. Thank you. Thank you. Jackson. Berlin. Good evening, Council members. My name is Jackson Berlin. I live in a in a 1121 Crandon Boulevard, apartment f 1203. I'm 17 years old. I'm a senior at Ransom Everglades, and I've lived on Key Biscayne ever since I was in kindergarten. Now, according to chapter eight, article six, since 2009, this village has regulated lighting to protect sea turtles. However, the same cannot be said about birds. So let's examine why Key Biscayne is so necessary towards the migration of birds. Then understand how unregulated lighting has its effect on these birds. Before finally looking at some resolutions to this problem. First of all, Key Biscayne is uniquely situated in the lead. Key Biscayne is specifically billed. Bag parks is a critical stopover on the Atlantic fairway. The Cape Florida banding station has banded its 50,000th bird last year, representing 119 species. The Smithsonian and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Studies estimates building collisions kill 599 million birds a year. Nationally, 56% of these deaths is caused by low rise buildings. The reason for this is due to many municipal buildings keeping lights on past hours, such as 11 P.M. To dawn during migration season, and due to the fact that migration season started here AUGUST 15th, just ten days ago, these birds are currently at risk. Now, I have two resolutions to this problem. First of all, during the fall migration season, turning off village and municipal lighting past 11 P.M. To dawn during the migration season. This way, we can mitigate the deaths of birds during the migration season due to unregulated lighting. And second of all, outside the power of the village, there is the power of the residents. Which leads to my second resolution, which is supporting lights out programs in Key Biscayne. Over 30 different states in the U.S. Have adopted lights out programs such as New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and every state owned building in New York State. However, as far as I can find, there is not a single Florida municipality that has adopted this resolution. Key Biscayne could be the first. After turning off lights, worked, a 20 year study in Chicago found that having the lights in the area cut collisions 11 fold in spring, supporting. Nonprofits such as Smart Bird, a group that I run with students, will support the fact that residents should turn off lights past 11 P.M. To 6 A.M. Thank you and support this resolution. Thank you so much. Edward. Edward stone. Good evening, Mayor and council. Edward Stone, longtime resident of the key. 355 Harbor Lane. When we spoke last JUNE, I raised concerns regarding the consistency, transparency and accountability of the village's administrative process. I explained these concerns extend beyond my individual property dispute and provided an administrative summary packet with specific examples within it. I ended by asking how those concerns could be reviewed and addressed. I'm back tonight because the concerns remain unanswered. On JUNE 29th, the village manager characterized the remaining concerns as internal village operations. Consider my prior requests fulfilled and closed the matter. I asked which outstanding concerns were considered internal, operational and the basis for the determination. I did not receive an answer. I continued through the administrative process. Since then, another significant inconsistency has emerged. I was repeatedly advised in writing that code violations remained active and fines continued to run. Yet at the AUGUST 7th Special Magistrates Meeting, village staff presented MAY 13th as the compliance date. I asked the manager to review the underlying administrative record. I'm not challenging the Special Magistrate's Independent decision. I'm asking for a review of the village's administrative actions and the records that precede it. I understand section 4.02 of the Village Charter prohibits individual council members from directing village employees. I'm not asking you to do that, but section 3.01 makes the manager responsible to the Council for the village's administration and section 4.02 b expressly recognizes inquiries and investigations made in good faith. So I ask, what charter complaint process exists for reviewing documented concerns about village administration when those concerns are characterized as internal operation and closed without substantial review? I'm asking that these administrative concerns be reviewed and addressed. At minimum, I ask that this matter be placed on a future council agenda and that the appropriate review and oversight process be reviewed. Truly, thank you for your time, your consideration, and your service to our island. Thank you so much. Steve Powell. Thank you. Counsel Steve Powell, 441 Island Drive, Key Biscayne, speaking tonight about 303 Galen Avenue, Coral Reef Apartments. Initially on tonight's agenda as a first reading of a codification of 30 district. My understanding is the zoning action was pulled from the agenda in favor of a presentation of the proposed redevelopment. In short, I do not feel that this project should be pushed off for the following reasons. Zoning the clarification change would not establish a precedence. There are only five properties non waterfront properties in Key Biscayne that are zoned r, m 34 are in the the district and then the other. The fifth is up on Ocean Lane with the exception of 303. All are built to a maximum density already. They're not going to be redeveloped. All of the properties are individually owned condos, with the exception of 303. So redevelopment of the other properties is virtually impossible if not economically feasible. Pushing off 303 to allow for a larger study of the Garden District is not in the best interest of the community. Why? The district represents 30 parcels, plus or minus. All but two are individual condos without a significant increase in density, development is virtually impossible, and there's no way we're going to allow more density anywhere. In my opinion, the my opinion, stopping the study, something that will never happen. Meaning the redevelopment of the Garden District is academic at best, but in reality a waste of taxpayer money. And we don't need that. Finishing up tax revenue 303 today is assessed at approximately $9 million, with about 26,000 contributed to your budget. Redevelopment would likely add $150 million in assessed value and approximately 500,000 to your to your budget. When the state is trying to limit our revenue, you would think an additional 500,000 would be welcomed. Infrastructure improvements redevelopment would involve on and off site water stormwater improvements, which the district would seriously benefit from. And a bird in the hand is better than two. In the bush. You have a local developer which has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to study this site. The developer has invested months of due diligence and meetings with the village staff seeking guidance, and is not increasing the density. In fact, would be reducing the current use as a transient hotel, not moving forward with the request to amend the zoning code will likely not allow the developer to proceed with the contract, and the village would lose a unique opportunity to leverage this development for overall enhancement to the district. Thank you. Oh, by the way, I'm over time. Is it third time I've received this on the swales. I hope that the village will take that up. I have by far one of the largest swales. Thank GOD I spent a lot of money on it, but I keep getting notices about the compliance and I hope we will rereview that. Thank you. Okay. Next speaker Luis de la Cruz. Good afternoon. Council Luis de la Cruz, 640 Allendale. MR. Mayor, MR. Vice mayor, I think on the floor. I come to you to speak to you about three items on your agenda. The first item is nine a, which is. The roadway resurfacing. Please think about not paving over our brick pavers. We have a little bit of resilience in those brick pavers, and we can probably make them a lot more resilient. If you follow the advice of some of the people that have come to talk to you before, but certainly by putting paving or stamped concrete to replace the brick pavers, that's going backwards instead of helping resiliency, which is what we're trying to deal with here in Key Biscayne, you're making it less resilient. So please think about, you know, approve the project, but stop them from from paving over our brick, our brick paver roundabouts. Second item is ten c, which is the, the resolution to approve the site plan for storm water pump station and a backup generator. We don't need a backup generator. All we need is undergrounding our utilities, which we should have done ten years ago and which we still have not started, and which has to start as soon as possible, either with this council or for the next council for sure. So I can only tell you that this backup generators, once you underground utilities, it's only going to be turned on whenever you're testing it. So you're spending all this money, and I don't want to hear that it comes from a grant and whatever, because grant is still tax money. You know, people have to pay taxes in order for grants to become grants. Let's not waste our money. Let's use it wisely. We have a lot of things that we need to spend money on. Please don't approve a backup generator because then that sets a precedent. And then I'm going to see the projects coming up for for the git proposals with the backup generator at each at each particular. Well, that is not the way we should we should go about it. I think London knows about it as much as anybody else. My last item is ten d and that's probably the one that's dearest to my heart, because Aecom and Stantec, two companies that we have that we have had in the past, be our consultants and who have failed us in the past. And now we are proposing that they continue being our consultants. I just don't understand why our management is doing with this. And I don't know who it was that the proposed these as as proper consultants, but for sure. Stanton. I was on the council when Stantec missed, designed our village green and we had to tear it back up and. And unfortunately, you know, MR. Kaplan and I had to, you know, do everything that we didn't want to do and approve a, an artificial turf. But we they failed us before Aecom failed us. Just recently, we spent $8.5 million that we're throwing down the drain because they missed designed something they they didn't MISS Design it. They just designed something that the village keeps saying would never have approved. So thank you. Please, please look into that before you. Thank you. Mike Davey. Motion to adjourn. There you go. See? Finally getting it. Second Mike Davey, 50 Ocean Lane Drive. I'm sure this is going to be a quick meeting because we've got judge here and he never lengthens meetings. Thank you all. Now I just came here to remind everybody we're at first of all congratulations to all of you who qualified to run for council. And my condolences. You know, we do appreciate it. It's important that we continue to have good people stand up to run this village, because local government is the most important form of government, and it's where you can have the biggest impact. I'm really here to speak about the property tax amendment. I think the village needs to take a position on it. I am strongly against it. I think it's a bad idea. If we want to investigate property taxes in the state of Florida, we have the opportunity this year. There's the the tax commission or committee they're forming up in Tallahassee that can take a look at smart ways to address inequalities or inefficiencies in our property tax system. A political theater is not how you want to do things, although we do that often in the state of Florida. So I would advocate that we get out, we start educating people about what it means. And, and we do something because it's going to hurt us a little bit. But when it hurts other communities in the county and the state, that's going to come back on us. And the fact is, this property tax amendment is not intended to help the taxpayers of Florida. It's intended to help the lobbyists of Florida. And so we have to stand up for the taxpayers and get them educated so they understand what's coming at them in 70 days on NOVEMBER 3rd. Thank you all. I'm going to go home. Thank you, thank you. Brett Moss. Good evening Council Brett Moss. 152 West Mashta Drive. I'm here to speak about it or to think about it a little bit. I'm still looking at my stuff here. I'm speaking about two items similar to Luis de la Cruz's items. Ten d the cna that you guys are going to be talking about tonight. I know a lot of the firms that submitted the bids in there, and I looked over them, a lot of small and midsize local firms that are actually excellent firms that can do a lot of this work. It's not a surprise to me that many of them did not make it to the short list. What happens in these situations is that these national firms, which I'm not saying are bad and it's okay to have them on there, but the national firms have a ton of money lobbying, power marketing. They come in with big presentations and they wow everybody. The smaller firms, the local firms, don't put their money into that as much. They put it into the workers and the results of what comes out. So it's not a surprise to me that that's what happened. But it's a bit bizarre to me that we have firms that have worked with us in the past, recently, within the last few months, to others in the past, with owners who actually live in Key Biscayne, who have put their name in there and did not even make it to the short list of the top six. I think that Key Biscayne well, first, i just want to make sure you guys have a deep discussion about this tonight. And I believe that Key Biscayne should be much more inclusive to local firms. It helps our community, and it also benefits Key Biscayne as well. If you guys do that. The second one is on nine a. The proposed stamped asphalt on Harbor. I am totally against this. I don't think this meets our expectations of quality. This is cheap. It's. I can tell you right now that Brickell actually did this for every single one of their crosswalks on Brickell Avenue, and I watched all of them fail. They all broke, they got patched, they looked horrible. And three years ago, they ripped them all up. And what do you think they put in there? They put the pavers back. We've had those pavers there for 20 plus years. They don't even need to be removed. They just need to be taken out and reset with a correct base on them. And I agree as well with I just want to add one other thing is that we don't have busses traveling out there every single hour, every day as we experienced before, so we will have less use on it. But I do agree with what Luis said as well. I think all the intersections should be reset. I think we should take one of them. Maybe Wes would drive and do a pervious test of a pervious pavers and see how it does over a couple of years, and maybe if it works, we put that in our future plan to reset the other ones like that. If it doesn't work, we just have to repair one. So again, i hope that you guys can meet our expectations of quality. I do not agree with going with a cheap stamped asphalt. Thank you, thank you. Enrique Lopez. Hello, members of the council. Mayor. Vice mayor. My name is Enrique Lopez. 340 Glenridge Road. Very quickly, I'm here to propose that we go ahead with the redevelopment of 303 Ellen Drive, item seven e in the agenda, I think would be a great addition to the village. It will bring a much needed tax dollars. It's by a well-known local developer, and I think I don't see any issue with not going ahead with it. Thank you, thank you. Martin. Good evening. Good evening, 400. I'm also here to support the development of a Galen Drive. And I believe that Walter, as a developer is a is a great addition. And he will push this in the right way. I think it will bring more taxes to the city and it will help also the local community here as well. Thank you, thank you. Good evening everyone. My name is 781 Brandon Boulevard. I have been a resident for more than 25 years now. I'm here to speak about 7303 Galen Drive. My professional experience has given me a strong understanding of development and urban planning, and this proposal in particular requires no additional density, yet it would significantly increase the property's contribution to the tax base, replacing the existing units with higher quality residences help alleviate flooding on the streets and enhance surrounding property taxes or property values. Actually, the existing building holds no meaningful historical, architectural and cultural significance for the community. It belongs to a different era, actually, and by replacing a short term rental with permanent residences, the project will reduce traffic noise and bring more year round residents to Biscayne and strengthening the sense of community of the village. Overall, the project represents a positive step for the community and deserves to be evaluated on its own merits. Thank you, thank you. Looks like Lucas or Luis Capurro. Hi. Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Lucas Capurro and I am the developer of Casa on Sunrise Drive. I believe the project. Will your address please? Sorry. And your address, please? 202 Sunrise Drive. Thank you. I believe this project will be a positive addition to the village. It will improve the neighborhood, increase the value of surrounding properties and strengthen the local tax base. Thank you, thank you. Bridget. One name. Last name. Everybody knows Bridget. Oh, thank you, MR. Mayor. Good evening, MR. Mayor. Vice mayor, Council members, first of all, thank you so much for everything you do for your name and address. 931 Harbor Drive, Bridget Nachtigall. Thank you. And I've been in Key Biscayne residence since 1982. I'm here to support the project for 303 Galen. We can preserve what makes our community special. We still. Allowing it to evolve. This project is an opportunity to build something safer, stronger, and better prepared for our future. All of us. We need to think about safety and hurricane protection. We need to think about flooding and resilience. And we have to look around Miami because we're part of Miami and see how this city is growing everywhere. We need to grow. I mean, we all want to keep our Paradise Island. I don't want to live anywhere in Miami. And I think all of you know, I'm a real estate agent. I've been doing it for 37 years. I think I've sold all over Miami, and I wouldn't live anywhere but this beautiful island. But it's part of life. There's construction everywhere. There's new houses everywhere going up. And there's no reason why this developer who wants to invest in our island and is going to do a great job, wouldn't be allowed to do so. So thank you, thank you. Roberto de Leon. Hello. Robbie de Leon 101 would drive. I'm here in support for 303. Galen. I believe we should encourage new builders to knock down develop these older buildings instead of remodeling non conforming buildings. And that's it. Thank you, thank you. Alejandro Jimenez. Good evening. Alejandro Jimenez from Spain, resident here in Key Biscayne for the last 29 years, 25 Grand Bay state. I'm here to support 303 Galen development. I agree that we need to embellish our our community, our city. Miami is growing. Like we said, I think we have to keep in part with it, and certainly it will bring a lot of value to annex properties. Thank you so much. Thank you. Lucas. You're close. Very close. How are you? Good night. My name is Lucas. It's 151 Crandon Boulevard, unit 334. I'm here tonight to speak in favor of the development of 303 Gallant Drive. I live in the Sunrise Gallant area for many years, and I care deeply about what happens in that part of the island. And I care about the future of the island as a whole. I understand, I understand that change can be difficult here. Key Biscayne is a special. We all have memories from ten, 20, 30, 40 years, and naturally, we want to protect the things that made us fall in love with this island. But that nostalgia is human, and we tend to remember the past better, simpler, and more familiar by representing the character of Biscayne, we cannot be prevented from evolving. Many of the buildings in sunrise and sunrise and Galen are now decades old. They belong from another era construction, design and planning. At some point, responsible development is not a threat to our community. It's an investment for our community and for our future. 3039 represents an opportunity, an opportunity to improve this area, modernize our housing stock, enhance streetscape, and demonstrate that Key Biscayne can move forward while still protecting the character that makes this village unique. Sometimes I felt I feel that the village. In the village, we spend so much time trying to safeguard the past that we make it unnecessary, difficult to build the future. And I understand the instinct, the instinct. We may also remember that when going when going to blockbuster, it was a great. On a Friday night. But now the world has changed and we use Netflix. It doesn't mean that the memories were bad, it simply means that the communities and technologies and the way of life have evolved. Key Biscayne has to evolve to. Our responsibility should not be to stop change. It should be to make sure change is thoughtful, responsible and beneficial for the community. I believe 303 gallon drive is an opportunity for this council to demonstrate that we can respect the past without being trapped by it. We can preserve what we can preserve what makes Biscayne special, what allowing the village to enter into the next chapter. So I encourage you to, to, to take a look to the project, not simply as another development proposal, but as an opportunity for improvement, modernization, and responsible evolution of our island. Thank you, thank you. Gonzalo Fernandez del Castillo. Hello, Everyone. Gonzalo. Fernando del Castillo. I've been a resident in Key Biscayne for the last 15. Please, for the record, 345 Harbor Lane. Thank you. And this is my second property that I buy in the key. And I'm living my American dream. I'm putting all my money in this city. And I believe that all infrastructure should come to a renewal at one point. I'm in favor of 303 gallon drive as the house that I'm buying right now, and I'm building, and I'm going to bring more taxes to the city. I believe that all the infrastructure in this city should be renewed at one point, and we should support this developers. So we have new infrastructure in the city. This building, this new infrastructure will help us all. And hopefully my house in the future will be building. Bringing this new infrastructure to the city will receive more taxpayers on the value of my home in the future is going to be worth more. So we need to renew the infrastructure, and we need to support developers to do new infrastructure in this city. Thank you. Thank you. Very. Hello, Council and Mayor Maurice Ferr\, 151 Crandon Boulevard. I wanted to talk about agenda item seven e, the development on 303 Galen. A lot of people have already spoken about it and proponent of it. I wanted to give maybe a different angle from my point of view. I grew up on Key Biscayne. I was fortunate enough to be here, met my wife here. We got married, ended up leaving Key Biscayne, and lived out outside of it. We always wanted to come back to Key Biscayne and live here, but it was extremely difficult, and one of the big reasons was because of optionality. And so I am for this development on 303 Galen, because if you look down on the streets, it's pretty skewed in the sense of the type of apartment buildings of you get some high end nice ones. And then on the other side, not so nice. And so being given the optionality to move to Key Biscayne and have these choices would be greatly beneficial. And I'd love for other people that are going through a similar situation to be able to do the same. Thank you. Thank you. Walter. Fortuna. Yeah. You want to speak? All right. We can do that. I've got Cecile Sanchez. Good evening. Cecile Sanchez, 260 Cypress Drive. I'm a real estate agent with Fortune International. It is wonderful that a developer is local. Hopefully, he's going to do a good job like he's done in the others that he has built. My question and I'm the first, is what happens? Some zoning code variances. Are we enough parking? Can we all understand that that building that is. There is apparently what I've heard and I saw that it's time for it to go. It's wonderful that it could we could have a new building elevated. Maybe the developer, if there's an issue, maybe they can work on. I think there's good people here that maybe they can go to terms. If there's anything that needs to be tweaked. But we need to think about that. It's true that most of those buildings, that's where my brother and my cousins, when they got married, that's where they started living in those buildings. Maybe it's time we're all getting old. It the buildings do too. That's number one. Number two are you talking about? I told him to speak for herself. No, talking about myself. So, number two, I want you to please look at the wonderful work that Saint Agnes did on the keystone pavers that they just replaced or reset. Think about it. Think about it. For this, I saw that we have here in the middle where the Monaco fountain is. How long are we going to keep on looking at those break old, broken up imitation keystone finish. Please get the contractor that did it in Saint Agnes. Check it. I don't know, but I think it's worthwhile that. Please do me a favor. Save the trees. If you need to work on that little bumpy park. Marilyn Monroe Park, whatever you want to call it. Where are you going to put all these contraptions? Think of what? Or analyze what? Luis de la Cruz said. We don't need the equipment. And is it an emergency? There's so many things going on. We're all going crazy. Sea aquarium, you know. Please, can we slow down? There's a new mayor coming. New council. Can you wait and just take it easy? Nothing is happening. Thank goodness there's no hurricanes coming. Save the trees, please. Thank you, thank you. Brad, where are you? You're supposed to take over already. And Adriana. Adriana, 1121 Crandon Boulevard, f 205. Okay. We cannot stop the development and change of our island. MR. De Fortuna has been a resident of our island for more than 30 years. I am sure that his project will be made with respect for our community and its future. I'm sure. Let me see. Because I just wrote it and the telephone. Community and its future. I'm sure your project will be. His project will be better than any project from a developer who doesn't live in our island. Thank you, thank you. I'm. Having trouble with this one. Mark Chatburn. All right. You can read the writing. Good evening. MR. Good evening, council members, and I'm here. I'm a resident. Mark chapter 701 Crandon Boulevard. Thank you. I've been a resident for years. I also work here in the island. I'm a real estate broker and I'm here to support item seven e, the new or the proposed redevelopment for 303 gallon drive. I think it's a wonderful opportunity and a wonderful project. We work with buyers all the time and in today's environment, people buyers are looking for quality construction and safety and of course long term investment. We are advocating for the island to bring a lot of people to buy and live in this wonderful place. And sometimes we struggle, sometimes we do. I also think that well-designed redevelopments elevates the overall quality and appearance of our village, like new homes and all these beautiful commercial spaces that are being fixed. It all helps. I also think that newer and resilient buildings help support the surrounding property values. I do believe that a new building will help the entire area where the building is being redeveloped. I think this project respects the existing density while improving safety, resilience and the quality of the neighborhood. It's a thoughtful investment in the future of Key Biscayne, and I respectfully encourage the council to support it. Thank you, thank you. That's all the public comments that I have at this time. MR. Attorney, could we just jump to the presentation on the on 303, since we have so many people here and the council doesn't have a problem with that? Sure. Counsel, you're good with that. So. Okay, Jeremy, you're up first. Good evening, MR. Mayor. Members of the council. My name is Mario Garcia. Sarah, with offices at 600 Brickell Avenue and my residents at 600 Great Tree Drive here this evening, representing Galen Drive mw, llc, the contract purchaser for the property, located at 303 Galen Drive, commonly referred to as the Coral Reef Apartments. MR. Mayor, I think the anticipation was that with just. The applicant will be presenting this evening, but I'm sure staff is available for any questions or comments that you might have. We're bringing the presentation up on the screen now. While we're doing that, I introduce the rest of the project team that's there that's here. This evening. I'm joined this evening by Walter de Fortuna, the principal of Galen Drive mw llc, who is a longtime resident of Key Biscayne with a proven track record, as you've already heard this evening in a real estate development and hospitality sections. Also joined by Bernardo Ford of Arquitectonica, who is our project architect, as well as MR. Judd Kurlantzick, our planning and zoning consultant. There is a land use and zoning code text amendment component of our request, which I will present on with Judd's assistance, and then Bernardo will present the project here to orient. Everybody is the project site and we'll provide some background information on it. It's a little over one acre in size, located at the very east end of Galen Drive, the Ritz-Carlton hotel is to its east and the Ritz-Carlton Tennis Center is to its immediate north. The Galen Breakers Condominiums is to the south, on the other side of Galen Drive, the existing building on the site, the Coral Reef Apartments is a 51 unit, three story apartment building, originally constructed in 1967 with a combination of one bedroom and two bedroom apartments, it is one of the few properties in Key Biscayne, unfortunately, whose assessed value has actually gone down over the last few years. Its assessed value in 2023 was 9.5 million, and today it is 8,000,850 000. The units are presently rented out for both long term and short term rentals, and based on anecdotal evidence, it is short term rental units do not compare favorably to other short term rental units available in Key Biscayne. The entire ground floor of units in this building is below base flood elevation, and the property contributes a total of $26,000 in tax revenue to the village annually, which is about $500 in tax revenue per unit each year. As you are aware, we have single family homes in the village which contribute more in tax revenue to the village. In short, this is a site crying out for and in need of redevelopment. The first thing we looked at, of course, is the property zoning. As you can see from this map, which is a village zoning map, the property is zoned ahm 30, which is the village's high rise multifamily zoning district. Of importance to note and noted on the plan there is that there are about four ahm 30 properties, including this one, which are located in the vicinity, which are not oceanfront, not beachfront. The failure of the drafters of the village's zoning code to acknowledge this distinction led to a mistake in the code, which we are asking you to correct. On the left side of this image, you'll see the height, floor, area, and density allowed by the existing zoning. It is very important to note that the height permitted today is 150ft. That height is already permitted. The floor area which is allowed is what is bizarre. As you can see, the far of 0.4 is ridiculously small for a 150 foot high building. When one applies that current zoning to the property, the amount of floor area which could potentially be constructed in new construction today on this property is 19,800ft!S. That is less than half of what exists today. Dividing that number by the 34 units permitted today and deducting a 2,420% for common area would leave you with an average unit size of 465ft!S. That is barely a respectable studio apartment. Comparing the below summary on this slide with the upper summary makes clear why this property has never been a candidate for redevelopment, despite its unfortunate current condition. What exists today the 51 unit and the 46,290 209ft!S in three stories is considerably more than what is allowed under today's zoning. There is absolutely no incentive for redevelopment of this property, which makes absolutely no sense. When we look at the next lowest zoning district, which is rm 16, ahm 30 is what we're zoned. Ahm 16 is the next lowest zoning district. It's supposed to be the medium density, low rise zoning of the village. One realizes the internal inconsistency in this code. Ahm 16 allows an far, which is twice as high point eight as what is allowed for a non oceanfront ahm 30 property. How can the supposedly more intense zoning district have half the far of the lesser intense zoning district? The answer to what caused this mistake lies in the language right below that highlighted area. The higher f, a, r and r 30 is only achievable if an oceanfront property dedicates easements for beach access. Access. The drafters of the code just failed to acknowledge that there were none. Oceanfront ahm 30 properties such as 303 Galen. We know that this happened by investigating a little bit of history. All of the village's properties, which today are most almost all of the village's properties today, which are zoned ahm 30, were zoned either Ru four or Ru four a under Miami-Dade County. Far is regulated even until today in the county's r four and ru4 districts pursuant to the far table you see in front of you. This is the exact same far table that you see in the village's rm 30 zoning district, which are all built out and maxed out under the previous county zoning, with the exception of 303. Galen. Simply speaking, when the new village code was adopted, they cut and paste this far table. Added the language on beach access easements, and overlooked the fact that several of the 30 properties are not beach front. To sort of help support this argument, I'm bringing out somebody from our village history, which is Judd Kurlantzick, our planning and zoning consultant who many of you know, previously served as planning and zoning director for the village. Judd. Thank you. Mario Judd Kurlantzick 611 Ocean Drive and a 25 year resident of the village. When the village incorporated, we took over. We used the county's zoning code and over a series of several Zorks, which for Mayor Kaplan participated in, we began to rezone the village. We started with the single family and we moved to multi-family. And then we moved to the oceanfront. And what happened here? We looked at the Garden District, which which name came later in that time, and we said that there's something special about the Garden District. But things have changed. It's time for new construction. And when we look at the rm 30 buildings, as shown on the map, there's four of them at the end of the block that are m 30, while the rest of that zoning district is rm 16 very different in height 150ft. When I was building Zoning Planning director, we did a study. Jeremy is also updated that study that the end those buildings at the end of the blocks, the four of them all approach or have an far of 2.0. They're all maximizing the density. They were built under the county code. And as Mario said, we simply cut and paste the the county code into our code when it came time to do this, unfortunately, I made a mistake. One of the very rare ones that I made. I like to think that others would differ with me on that, but I'd like to think that somehow we put. I put in oceanfront easement and that's how you get to the 2.0. It's absolutely impossible for those four buildings, which are landlocked, to provide an oceanfront easement. It cannot happen. That was the mistake. It was recognized sometime after that. My good friend Jeremy is also recognized also. And now we're getting around to fixing this mistake. I never thought I'd be part of this process to do that, but that's where I find myself right now. So we're asking you to correct that error of several years ago, because it's impossible to provide an easement. We're entitled to get to the 2.0. That's the underlying zoning. We're entitled to the density, and we're asking you to to set to do that for us and move forward with what will be a. And you're going to see it from Arquitectonica, a magnificent transitional building. They really did a great job. And we'll get into how much better this building is going to be. Being a Bf and above taking care of all the resiliency problems. And when it comes down to negotiating with the village, I believe we're going to make a very generous proffer, which is going to improve the entire infrastructure in the Garden District. Thank you very much, mayor. Keep going. Thank you. Thank you, MR. Mayor. I'd say we probably have about another 5 or 6 minutes. Okay. Let me now touch upon the issue of density, because we are requesting a code amendment to allow arm 30 properties to keep their existing density. As I mentioned earlier, all of the arm 30 properties were developed under Miami-Dade County zoning and are more dense than what is permitted today. The Village code allows them to keep their greater density existing density when being rebuilt in the event of a natural catastrophe. Accordingly, those higher densities can be kept into perpetuity and are here to stay. It is highly unlikely that those buildings will ever be redeveloped at a lower density. We're asking you to acknowledge that reality and allow properties to keep their existing density upon redevelopment also, so as to encourage new construction, which is resilient of better quality and contributes more to the community. With regards to F.A.R, we are asking you to correct a mistake and with regards to density, we are asking you to allow us to keep what we have consistent with other policies in the village's comprehensive plan. But in both cases, we are proposing that this only be allowed in the form of bonuses or additional public benefit is provided in the form of either land easements or monetary contributions. The previous slide was a proposed amendment to the Comprehensive Plan text. This slide is the amendment to the zoning code text. In this way, we can have an rm 30 zoning district which makes sense. Treats non oceanfront properties appropriately and allows redevelopment, but a quality redevelopment which does not create increased density and create significant public benefit. With that said, I'll ask Bernardo to come up and discuss the project and then Walter will close us out. Good afternoon. I'm Bernardo, I'm a principal of Arquitectonica, 2900 Oak Avenue, Miami. I'm going to take you through some of the images and plans of the project. Oh, here. Which one? Here. Just Yarrow. Okay. Thank you. Well, that is the location is where you see it marked r in 30. That rectangle is the subject property to the north. You can see that there's a series of tennis courts and racket courts. There's no building to that side. But to the south, there's a building that you'll see how we are being respectful of, in the manner in which we straddle by moving our building to the west so that it clears, it keeps its views across the space. You can see here the massing that is permitted on the site, and how we have actually minimized it for the purpose that I just described. You can see here the ground level, and it's important to point out that we're above the b f as required. And we vetted all this plan that you see here with the civil engineers to make sure that the building is resilient and that it's protected from flooding, including all the spaces that you see here. You can see your rise to the level of the lobby, and even the mep space is properly protected at that elevation. It is the intent of is to provide a building that is self-sufficient. It drains itself, it contains its waters within, and that it's resilient to any event that MAY happen. You can see here the next level, as we go up into the garage, you can see the garage spanning across. It's a very low slung horizontal volume that goes across the space. And immediately after that we have an open space. You can see where the building is to the left, to the west to help provide the open space for the building. To the south, you see where the location of the swimming pool is. Some terraces for lounging. The amenities open and indoors are happening on this level. If we go to the next level, you see how that double height space provides natural light. Also in the afternoon into the pool deck, and also opens up and gives air space to the south, towards the street and towards the neighbors. And finally the building rises above it and you can see the simple organization of the floor plan that is fully shifted to the position that I that I described. And eventually we are enclosing the mechanical space. So it will not be evident. You can see here the building position and where it is located. You can see the companion buildings on the waterfront and to the south, to the north, to the east and and where the adjacent building is located and why we are shifted to the void space next to it. You can see here other views here in the context of the racket complex that occurs to the north and northwest of the property. And you can see here, here in the context of other buildings of similar height, because similar scale wouldn't be appropriate to say, because this is a far smaller building in terms of footprint, a fraction of any of the other buildings of its kind. And you can see how the ground level, you see the rise of the vehicles arriving to the lobby, and how we have a very low slung garage that is providing shade to the covered drop off on a rainy day and how it is fully landscaped along a berm and along the whole front edge of the street. This is a really green passage along the street, actually unusually green for that street that is of another era where greenery wasn't as dominant as what we're trying to create here. We also had greenery on that interstitial space on the pool deck that goes all the way across the frontage. You can see here the arrival and its transparency and being friendly to the street. You can see the walkways that are going by the property and and how green we're trying to make them. And you can see here the pool deck and what I meant by opening up the building on that level above the garage so that it would float and, and give openness to the next door neighbors. Here you can see the view from the swimming pool and viewing the other direction towards the waterfront. Complexes that exist towards the east. But you can see here the amount of open space that we're creating on this level to open up the airspace towards the street. And I hope this gives you the general plan. You can see that we have resiliency and rain garden strategy for the building. We have a stormwater strategy. We have a. Resilient planting palette throughout. We have a native coastal landscape that is very much part of our landscape strategy. You can see here the many elements of that landscape strategy that we are using in every way in order to make this a really green, sustainable and resilient building. And we have studied all these elements. You can see that the Florida, the native and Florida adapted species that are very much part of the, of the, of the concept that we are bringing into the property, including natural stone and mulch and textural ground covers. So hopefully this gives you a general sense of what we're anticipating to create within the building and around it. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. MR. Mayor. Council members, thank you very much for the opportunity to present this. Bernardo. Maybe not that many people know your talent, but I want to thank you very much. I know that you have put a lot of effort and a lot of time and a very small period of time to create this beautiful building. So I really want to congratulate you on it. I live on 720 Harvard Drive. My name is Walter de Fortuna. I've been a resident for over 40 years. Me and my family have lived in this island for the same time. I'm really happy and I'm proud to live in this place. For me, it's not. I'm not. I don't consider myself an extra developer to this island. I consider my family and my friends here. So I had put a lot of time and effort in this project. I had to spend a lot of time hiring consultants, following the guidelines of the members of staff, and I was presented with this opportunity a while ago. I know this family that owned this building for more than 25 years. They own this building for over 30 years. They bought it for $3.5 million. Now it's assessed at about nine. The development opportunity, you know, give us a chance to address the flooding in the street. I was the developer behind 285 and 201 sunrise, both in the Garden District. I never came in front of you to ask you for anything. I think I did the right things with those building. I'm trying to do the same thing with this building. I was put in the agenda to talk about it. You know, I thought I was hoping we were going to vote on this. I spoke to the council members before I spoke to staff deeply. I looked at every issue. I carefully analyzed these these possibilities, and I thought, this is a