202-2001 LTCCITY OF MIAMI BEACH
Office of the City Manager
Letter to Commission
To:
From:
Subject:
Mayor Niesen Kasdin and Members of the City Commission
Existing Vacanciesin City Development Review Boards
Date: August 30, 2001
As you may be aware, the City has vacancies on the Design Review Board and the Board of
Adjustment. These vacancies have reached a critical point as applications are being held up,
agendas can not be heard in their entirety and meetings have been cancelled. Recently, the July
meeting of the DRB was rescheduled at the last minute and the August meeting of the DRB was
cancelled because of a lack of quorum. Additionally there will only be four (4) DRB members at the
September 14, 2001 meeting, which is the bare minimum required for quorum. The September
meeting of the Board of Adjustment was also cancelled because of a lack of quorum.
These particular instances are seriously inconveniencing and impacting residents, property owners
and interested parties, as well as putting an enormous amount of undo expense and hardship on
the applicant. The vacant categories of the relevant boards are indicated hereto:
Desion Review Board (DRB)
1. One registered Landscape Architect.
The position was previously held by Mr. Charles Alden, who resigned in March.
2. One Citizen at Large.
Mr. Victor Diaz, who resigned in February, previously held the position. Ms. Linda Polansky was
appointed in July, but resigned prior to accepting the appointment.
Board of Adiustment (BOA)
One (1) member from the General Business/ArchitecfJCPA category.
The vacancy occurred when Mr. Bernie Navarro resigned this past month.
The above noted vacancies are pressing as the subject Boards are both coming perilously close
to a short board. Currently there are only five (5) members on the DRB and only four (4) members
on the BOA; a minimum of four (4) members of each Board are needed to take action on a project.
This does not leave a lot of room for absences by the existing board members; with a short board
(4 members present), all members must vote in the affirmative in order to approve development
applications.
JMG:C~.'~RM
F:\PLAN\$ALL\CM_RESP~hpdrpbappts-3.1tc.doc
C:
Christina Cuervo, Assistant City Manager
Bob Parcher, City Clerk
Jorge G. Gomez, Planning Director
Thomas R. Mooney, Design and Preservation Manager
Armando Valdes, Planning and Zoning Manager