LTC 170-2004 Design Review Board Decision- DRB File 17666 (7100 Fisher Island-Palazzo Del Mar)
CITY OF MIAMI BEACH
Office of the City Manager
Letter to Commission No. 170-2004
m
To:
From:
Mayor David Dermer and
Members of the City Commission
Jorge M. Gonzalez ~. ~ e-/
City Manager I V"'" 0
DESIGN REVIEW ARD DECISION - ORB FILE 17666 (7100 Fisher
Island - Palazzo Del Mar)
Date: July 8, 2004
Subject:
At the July 7th, 2004, Commission Meeting Resolution No. 2004-25603 was passed setting
a public hearing pursuant to City Code Section 118-262, to review a DRB decision
requested by the Oceanside At Fisher Island Condominium Association No.5, Inc. The
public hearing is scheduled for the July 28, 2004 Commission Meeting.
City Code Section 118-262 further states that "A full verbatim transcript of all proceedings
which are the subject of the appeal shall be provided by the party filing the petition; the
verbatim transcript shall be filed no later than two weeks prior to the first scheduled public
hearing to consider the appeal."
The verbatim transcript was received in the City Clerk's office within the required time
frame.
Attached is a copy of the transcript from the Design Review Board meeting of May 18,
2004 regarding DRB File No. 17666 0
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F:\CLER\$ALL\PAULA\Commission Meetings\2004\070704\DRB-7100 Fisher Island Drive.doc
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1 MEETING OF THE CITY OF MIAMI BEACH
2 DESIGN REVIEW BOARD
ORIGINAL
3 RE: DRB File No. 17666, 7100 Fisher Island Drive
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The above meeting was held at the City of
Miami Beach, City Commission Chambers, 1700 Convention
Center Drive, 3rd Floor, Miami Beach, FL 33139, on
Tuesday, May 18, 2004 commencing at 8:30 a.m.
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16 APPEARANCES:
17 CLIFFORD A. SCHILMAN, ESQ.
18 JEFFREY S. BASS, ESQ.
19 CHAIRMAN: GREGORY NEVILLE
20 BOARD MEMBERS: STEVE LEFTON, LUIS MARTINEZ,
21 JANET GRAND HYMAN, PETER CHEVALIER, GARY
22 KNIGHT, MIKE STEFFENS, WILLIAM CARY, THOMAS
23 R. MOONEY, GARY M. HELD, ESQ.
24 MIKE AGNOLIA - architect
25 SUZANNE MARTINSON - architect
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Thereupon the following proceedings were had:
MR. MOONEY: Next item on the agenda is DRB
File No. 17666. This applicant is requesting
Design Review Approval for the construction of an
11 story multi-family residential building. This
application carne before the board on April 20th
of this past year and was reserved for today, May
18, 2004. The applicant has made some
modifications to the exterior elevations to
address the concerns specified by the Board.
Staff recommendation has remained unchanged.
We've recommended that the application be
approved subject to the conditions enumerated in
the staff record.
MR. SCHULMAN: Good morning. My name is
Cliff Schulman, an attorney at 1221 Brickell
Avenue. Since last month, there have been some
changes made not only to plans, but to landscape.
I will remind the Board that this matter was
before the Board in 2002 and the building was
approved for this particular site, which was the
subject of some extensive litigation. Since the
time of the last board meeting, that litigation
has not been resolved, but since then, the 3rd
District Court of Appeals in a case entitled
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Oceanside at Fisher Island versus City of Miami
Beach, which is case number 303-2805, decided by
the Court on April 21, 2004, the opinion has been
released. It is not yet final, but it has been
released and the mandate has issued on that and
so for purposes of the record, I would like to
introduce a copy of the opinion of the 3rd
District Court of Appeals which basically
appealed this board's'decision to approve the
previous building that was discussed with you at
some length last time and that mandate was issued
on May 7, 2004, so with your permission, I'd like
to hand this to the non-existing clerk.
MR. SCHULMAN: I'll make sure that the clerk
gets it.
MR. NEVILLE: Mr. Schulman, does that mean
you're able to go forward with that building?
MR. SCHULMAN: There is a 30-day potential
appeal period if the discretionary review by the
Florida Supreme Court and they still have until
June 7th to make that decision. Until that time,
we are unable to go forward. We wish to go
forward with the application before you today as
well as maintaining that particular approval
which staff indicating could be done
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1 simultaneously and so we do want to go forward
2 with that. I just want to reiterate a couple
3 things and note that the board has a good
4 memeory, but the last time we told you the
5 building, which had previously been approved in
6 2002, at 46 units in the building, which you are
7 reviewing today and did last month as only 34
8 units which is 26 percent reduction in the number
9 of units in the structure. The former building
10 was 250,000 square feet. The present building is
11 197,000 square feet, a reduction of 21,000 square
12 feet.
13 We compared the last time the floor !
14 plate of the building which you're going to see
15 again today with the building of the Villa Del
16 Mar, which is the building next door represented
17 by Mr. Bass. Their floor plate is 35,000 square
18 feet. The floor plate, which we presented to you
19 was 19,000 square feet or 45 percent less floor
20 plate. The tower separation between our building
21 and the Villa Del Mar building is 166 feet while
22 that largest separation between any of the towers
23 on Fisher Island is 75 feet with the majority of
24 the buildings being in the 50-foot range of
25 separation. So those buildings were basically
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substantially separated and that separation still
remains.
The board did ask for certain changes to
be made for the architect to relook at some of
the aspects of the building and Mike Agnolie is
here. He will tell you the changes that have
been made. Mike?
MR. AGNOLIE:
I want to walk you through the
changes we've made in response to the Board's
comments at the previous meeting. I'm going to
start with the north elevation on the side facing
Government Cut here and starting with the ground
levels, the poolside cabanas, that was done here
is enhancment of the common area from previous
design. Here we have precut columns. You can
see the elevation moving up to the lobby level.
We've expanded the terraces here, creating a
larger covered area and the roofline you will see
here, and at the same time, we've basically
pulled the entire base of the building forward,
which you can see here on the plan. You can see
the expanded terrace on the corner here. We've
pulled this entire base forward to create a
variety of roof lines and break up the single
planing. So as we move along, you can see this
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terrace and the second level, we've increased the
trail of the opening.
So everything's
proportioned with the scale of the building and
as we get up to level 3, this piece now drops
back, creating a roof line here.
I think you
have these renderings in the packet. We've also
articulated the piece of balcony here with the
triple arches and row columns, which comes
forward at this point and moving futher up, this
piece of balcony here, which comes forward drops
back on level 6 here, creating, at this point, no
roof lines.
Levels 7 and 8 here, the French
balconies, which project forward at this point
and up at the penthouse with windows at the top
and some extended balconies here. At the roof,
we've taken some of the roof, which was kind of
massive before, we incorporated two gable ends
and we brought this piece of roof up to
potentially cornered out this as you see here.
We've added some chimney elements and basically
wrapped the roof over here and created a little
more articulation on the roof.
The side of the building on the side
here, what we've done is we wrapped this terrace
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1 around the lower levels and created this roofline
2 here.
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MR. SCHULMAN:
Can you put that board up so
4 that the Board can see it?
5
MR. AGNOLIE: As you come around the front,
6 you can see the terrace wrap around here which
7 articulates this differently from what's above,
8 creating a little more mass and then we've
9 altered some of the window treatments and added
10 some large windows at the top of the building and
11 also the gables on the front side. So you can
12 see here in this rendering, you can see the
13 rooflines that were added to the facade.
14 The french balconies, the addition of
15 these here, and again, it's in keeping with some
16 of the details that existed and you can see here
17 elements like this.
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MR. MOONEY: So that was opposite the
19 existing Villa Del Mar building?
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MR. AGNOLIA: Yes, we've brought some
21 balconies forward creating a roofline which is
22 essentially what we were building and creating,
23 some variations on the sides. What we had
24 presented originally was essentially a lobby, 7
25 typical floors and 2 penthouse floors. Now
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basically we have a lobby and basically different
footprints for each level to the building. I
think those are the changes that we've gone
through.
MR. SCHULMAN: The building is different from
every other building on Fisher Island, yet
comparable. I think it is consistent with the
architecture on Fisher Island and we talked about
that last time. That is the architecture that
basically the mediterranean style architecture
which is mandated. I won't go over that again,
but what we attempted to do is create a building
that is different in overall footprint, but still
have some of the other elements of the other
buildings to be more compatible with those
buildings and more compatible with the
mediteranean revival style of the building. I
can answer any questions you may have.
MR. NEVILLE: Do you want to ask the
applicant any questions right now? Is anybody
here in the public? I don't see anybody here.
AUDIENCE SPEAKER: Hi my name is (inaudible)
and I live at 1000 South Point Drive and I saw a
little bit of this presentation last month and by
the time I hopped in my car and got down here, I
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missed some, but I missed the part where I could
get up and speak. My concern here is, and I live
across Government Cut in the Mirano and I realize
it's sort of the pot calling the kettle black,
but my concern with this building is actually the
angle and my concern is really because I don't
know if a lot of you drive down Alton Road and
can you see the icon from Alton Road. It's
really horrendous looking. Instead of two
buildings, it looks like one enormous building
sort of. mashed together and when you come over
the causeway, it doesn't look like that, but my
concern is I know that they're planning to --
well, I think they're planning -- I'm assuming
because I've watched each piece of green space
get sort of built on over the dry land and so I'm
assuming that there will be a series of these
buildings sort of angled and my worry is that,
not from my personal point of view, but from the
development of South Point Park. When they
finally spend the 5 or 6 million dollars that
they've already spent on it, supporting and input
so it can really truly be a jewel of Miami Beach
and my concern is that if there's a series of
angled buildings across Government Cut, that
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1 you'll have that same effect, that it will kind
2 of look like a mash of buildings that are all
3 glommed(phonetic) together and I don't know that
4 also as a gateway out of Miami Beach for the
S cruise ships, if it will have that same effect,
6 but the angle seems to be quite a problem in
7 terms of what you would see and what hopefully
8 will become a park that's really a designation,
9 once you're done with Ocean Drive and Lincoln
10 Road, for the beach or tourists. Thanks.
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MR. NEVILLE: Thank you, ma'am. Right now
12 we're only reviewing one building, so we don't
13 know what they'll do in the future, but for now
14 the application is one building.
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AUDIENCE SPEAKER: I know it's one building,
16 but it's also one opportunity and it just seems a
17 shame that you wouldn't think of it more.
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MR. NEVILLE: Okay.
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MR. BASS: Jeffrey Bass, 46 Southwest 1st
20 Street is my address and I'm here representing
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the same people that I represented last time.
I
22 just can't resist the opportunity to
23 fundamentally disagree with Mr. Schulman right
24 out of the box. The opinion decided by the 3rd
2S District Court of Appeals did not approve
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everything that was done by the city of Miami
Beach. Rather, it said clerk, accept this
petition as a complaint and let's have a new
lawsuit to determine whether or not what Miami
Beach's approval process did was in fact correct.
So there's nothing in the 4 four corners in that
decision that says everything was right.
It's
just the opposite. It just says certiori was an
inappropriate procedural mechanism and it
actually ordered the clerk of the court to accept
the petition as a new lawsuit. That's all I'm
going to say playing lawyer.
Well now let me focus my remarks.
I'll
be very brief.
I want to start with a staff
report and I think the most powerful component of
staff report is what the staff report doesn't
say. What the staff report does say is that the
applicant has submitted a revised set of plans in
an attempt to address the previous concerns of
the Board. It doesn't say that it has addressed
them.
It doesn't say that it has addressed them
in a satisfactory or substantive way and my
response to that would be what a little
difference a week makes.
We were here on April 24th. There were
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1 significant comments made about the idea behind
2 this building. What is it trying to accomplish
3 and the applicant rushed to get before you again
4 on the very next available agenda, giving the
5 applicant about one week to consider the Board's
6 comments and what you see in the revised revision
7 . reflects just about that; one week of tinkering
8 with the facade.
9 We would submit to you, and I'll have
10 Ms. Suzanne and get further into the design
11 issues, that the prior concerns of the Board were
12 not addressed in any meaningful and everything
13 that the Board said last time applies with equal
14 force this time and if we need to come back month
15 after month until they do the best building they
16 can, we're prepared to do so. We've learned that
17 they aren't going to come back and do a better
18 job unitl you make them. The concerns expressed
19 by the prior speaker are real and I understand
20 the fact they're only showing you one building,
21 but they're only showing you one building for a
22 reason. They're only showing you one building
23
for the following reason.
If you saw this site
24 developed with this building prototype, one after
25 another after another, you would say no, because
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1 this building cannot be viewed in isolation, but
2 what they've attempted to do is have you view it
3 In isolation.
4
Design review is comprehensive. As I
5 said before, this is a lO-acre parcel of land.
6 There's no dispute that it's the most prominent,
7 undeveloped land of Miami Beach, perhaps within
8 the State of Florida, perhaps on the Eastern
9 Seaboard and it deserves the best earnest attempt
10 to come forward with some architecture that has
11 an idea other than replicating the same idea in
12 the past.
13 The photo that I put up was taken at
14 Deering Bay. I took it on Sunday myself and what
15 you see there is what happens when you get two
16 similar buildings placed very close to each
17 other. I've previously provided the Board, and
18 I'll hand out some more copies of pictures of the
19 as-built character of Fisher Island as it exists
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20 today; not pictures taken from a helicopter like
21 the applicant proposed, but pictures taken from a
22 pedestrian experience.
23 I represent the residents of the City of
24 Miami Beach. These are the residents who desire
25 or are in fact entitled to have this board review
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this submission with the same zealous commitment
to architecture that you displayed on Les
Valence (phonetic) beautiful project and that was
a beautiful project and it came back and got
better each time. Still, this project needs to
get better and the Board's job is to make it get
better because the developer is not going to do
it by himself. We would ask you this, presume
that every next building submitted will look
exactly like that building. Then take a step
back and ask, how will that read from the water
and how will that read from the land.
The reason that I ask you to assume that
is because the developer has given you no reason
to dispute that premises other than to say we
have no idea what we're going to do tomorrow.
Well, the weather tomorrow is most likely going
to be the same as the weather today and to expect
that they're going to corne back with some
radically new and innovative approach to
'"
mediteranean revival architecture, and the
balances of that lO-acre site is to ignore
everything that has happened up until now.
Recall the last time they started with 4
buildings, substantially similar to this. The
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Board's comments were, it's monotonous.
It's
2
static. There's no movement.
There's no idea.
3 When they constricted their submittal to 3
4 buildings, same responses and they've constricted
5 their submittal now to one buildingj not to
6 address in a fundamental or meaningful way the
7 architecture that provokes the response, but
8 rather to constrict the scope of your review.
9 Your ordinance charges you with the obligation to
10 review and ensure that it's the best possible
11 layout of the buildings on a site and that they
12 work individually, contexturally, both in terms
13 of the site and in terms of the city of Miami
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Beach.
15
We will submit that it would be error to
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approve this one building here.
I will wait and
17 see apropos to what comes forward and it would be
18 a departure from the requirements of your
19 ordinance and in fact, error as a matter of law
20 for you to do so.
21 I would incorporate everything else that
22 I said before and I'm going to hand out some
23 things that I handed out before. They're just
24 photos, both of the building types on Fisher
25 Island and then some of the Mediteranean
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attributes of architecture that are wonderful and
are desparately lacking in this submission. With
that I'd like to ask Suzanne Martinson to address
you briefly and I'm available to answer any
questi~ns that you might have.
MS. MARTINSON: Good morning. My name is
Suzanne Martinson, I live at 7910 SW 54th Court,
Miami, Florida 33143 and I'm a registered
architect in the state of Florida. This new
submittal has some minor revisions that are
superficial at best. They do not address a
fundamental idea about the building and ideas
concerning architectural concepts. There's no
soul for this building and that's neither great
nor good. Great or good architecture has a soul
which translates into a sustainable idea and
emanating idea for the character of the building.
From a design standpoint, what is the main idea?
There's no meaningful architectural idea, no
organizational principal. The only one I see is
one of economy, stacking similar floor plates.
What are they trying to achieve? I don't care
that they are using Mediterranean Revival, but
this large scale is working against that
particular style. For some clarity of an idea,
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maybe combining Mediterranean revival with
another overlay of some other stylistic
architectural vocabulary, for example, in New
York City and Chicago, the majority of design
occurs in a 9 inch to 12 inch depth of the facade
of a building. Brilliant manipulation of
horizontal stratification, control of scale of
the buildings. You have to have great
opportunities with horizontal stratification and
control .of depth that they achieve very well in
the urban context because they don't -- there are
a lot lines and you're right at the street and so
your design has to seem like another layer from
the side of the building.
Fisher Island presents itself with a
great opportunity because you have balconies to
play with. Solid versus boyant relationships,
you have roofs that can perceived from different
levels, Government Cut to the Fisher Island side.
You have surface area versus glass area, so you
have an enormous amount of opportunity with
architectural vocabulary to create jumps in scale
and control the scale of the building.
This building has limited horizontal
demarcation. No organizing principals and no
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1 movement horizontally and vertical create an
2 organizational idea, making the two ends of the
3 building different, recognizing the Government
4 Cut entry and the channel end and recognizing the
5 view from Miami Beach. Recognize the view from
6 the Atlantic Ocean; the view back to Fisher
7 Island. This would be easier in quotation marks,
8 if this were a modern building. The parte could
9 be about layering the building architecturally as
10 well as spacially and representing that layering
11 in the facade with material changes, jumps in
12 scale and variations in the material.
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Again, if this were a deco inspired
14 building, the building could be nautically
15 inspired, create a landbound ocean liner at the
16 entry as it relates to Miami Beach as the culture
17 of sun and fun. This gives you opportunity for
18 different spacial developments within a building;
19 horizontal movement created by horizontal banding
20 of the building create a head and tail for the
21 building.
22 There are endless ideas and acceptable
23 ideas about controlling scale with an endless
24 vocabulary used in architecture to create a great
25 building that has a soul or emanating idea. The
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challenge for this designer is to create a
meaningful piece of architecture that is
Mediterranean and Revival, a younger chosen
style. The problem is that Mediterranean Revival
does not lend itself to a highrise building
structure well because of all the items. It has
an incredible, deep, rich, classical vocabulary
that we discussed last month and the opportunity
for space making devices, but when you choose to
go higher, it turns into more of a highrise
building and the crux of the matter is a scale
and how do you extrude this vocabulary that's
been developed for a smaller scale into a
highrise building?
So I think the designer has to go back
to the schematic design and develop how to
incorporate Mediterranean Revival with another
design idea to create a meaningful building;
Maybe they have to combine Med-Revival with some
modernistic organization ideas and turn those
ideas into the design of the facade. The site,
once again, deserves some real design efforts.
Lastly, this is a grand site that
deserves a grand idea; not a piecemeal ad hock
approch to it's development~ Please refuse to
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1 submit.
2
MR. HELD:
I'm sorry. This has been in court
3 so we probably should have sworn everybody in.
4 So if we can take a moment to do that, then I
5 have a couple of comments.
6
MR. NEVILLE: Go ahead please.
7
MR. HELD: If anyone that will be speaking in
8 these proceedings raise your hand. Do you swear
9 to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing
10 but the truth to these proceedings?
11 (Simultaneous audience response.)
12
MR. HELD:
I know you probably have some
13 things to say, but I'd like to make a couple
14 comments. First as to the lawsuit, my
15 understanding of what the 3rd District Court of
16 Appeals did is that it decided that case that was
17 specifically for it, which was an appeal of a
18 specific judicial decision of this Board's appeal
19 to the City Commission and it denied certiori on
20 that appeal. Now part of that appeal included
21 challenges to the constitutionality of the DRB
22 Ordinance and that part of the appeal was
23 remanded to Circuit Court because it's improper
24 to include the kind of challenge in an appeal.
25 So if the objectors are going forward on that, it
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1 would be treated as a separate action. However,
2 my recollecton of the appeal was that there are
3 also specific challenges to the specific decision
4 made by the Board which are only properly
5 appealable through the vehicle that was chosen
6 and while the opinion might not have been
7 expressed as stated, the effect of the denial of
8 certiori was inclusively decided that the appeal
9 was rejected and the decision of the Board
10 withstands anything else that happens with regard
11 to the ordinance in a separate proceeding. So
12 the decision, first decision of this court as to
13 the first building would be a valid decision and
14 the property owner couldn't go forward without an
15 alternate application they are reviewing and
16 staff has previously told you that they could
17 proceed on the second while maintaining the
18 validity of the first.
19 Now just on the merits on what's before
20 you, you know, people talk design, but you don't
21 really know what their motivation is and I don't
22 really know what's happening on Fisher Island.
23 My understanding is that there are two buildings
24 south of the building where the objectors reside
25 that were recently built and not challenged at
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MR. BASS: Were there buildings built in
Miami Beach?
MR. HELD: No there were not.
MR. BASS: Then how how would they be
challenged?
MR. HELD: Through proceedings through Dade
County.
MR. BASS: I would suggest that we're getting
astray here.
MR. HELD: You can keep your comments on
that. We're not dealing with that. I'm just
saying that this building sits at the corner of
Fisher Island and to the west of it is the
subject property. To the south of it was some
vacant land and it was in Dade County
jurisdiction and identical buildings like the
rest of Fisher Island were built recently on
those empty parcels and they were not challenged
by these same property owners that have been in
litigation against the parcel, so I'm not really
sure what's at play here. People are talking
design. I've seen substantial progress by this
applicant.
MR. BASS: I have to object to any question
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1 to what the attorney's motivation is. This is a
2 public hearing. We have an absolute right.
3 MR. HELD: I'm entitled to make some comments
4 too.
5
MR. NEVILLE: Mr. Bass, can we let him speak?
6 Gary, continue please.
7
MR. HELD: I think it's entirely appropriate
8 for the Board to know that there are other
9 developments going on in Fisher Island that are
10 not being objected to that are substantially
11 identical to the, number one, building that the
12 objectors are residing in and number two, even
13 though they're outside the jurisdiction, they're
14 within sufficient proximity that the same issues
15 that they're objecting to here could have been
16 part of that process as well.
17
MR. BASS: They're not up for design review.
18 This is outrageous. This is like is it ture, do
19 you still beat your wife? This is the
20 quintessence of the prejudicial presentation
21 because there's no design review and we didn't
22 challenge through the design review approval
23 board or Dade County, we must have an agenda why
24 we're here, that is absolutely outrageous.
25
MR. HELD: Okay, anyway. Thank you for your
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1 comments, sir. I just wanted to bring that to
2 the Board's attention to explain the Court's
3 opinion from our point of view and you know, you
4 sat through these hearings. You can evaluate for
5 yourself the merits of the application and
6 obviously there's an infinite number of ways to
7 design buildings. There is a certain series of
8 designs that are part of the Fisher Island Design
9 Program and ultimately it's up to you whether
10 their buildings fall within that design program
11 or not.
12
MR. NEVILLE: Okay, thank you Gary. I think
13 the board may share my sentiments that I don't
14 really care about the politics; that I'm hear to
15 review the design of the building. That's why
16
we're here.
I'm not a politician or an attorney
17 and I'd be way in over my head if I attempted to
18 get into the sort of thing, so my own personal
19 feeling is that we're here to review the design
20 and that's how we should stick to it.
21 Okay, so anyway, we're still open to the
22 public. I don't know if anyone else would like
23 to speak. If not, Mr. Schulman, the applicant is
24 standing at the podium. Just come up to the
25 podium. Did you get sworn in?
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SPEAKER: No, I didn't.
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MR. HELD: Do you swear to tell the truth,
3 the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
4
AUDIENCE SPEAKER: I do.
5
MR. NEVILLE: Introduce yourself.
6
SPEAKER: Marietta Nesco(phonetic) , I live on
7 Fisher Island and I would just like to say that I
8 think that one of the things about Fisher Island
9 is that you can't see it and so many times when
10 people corne to Fisher Island, they're surprised
11
at the beauty of Fisher Island.
I think that now
12 you're going to be able to see Fisher Island and
13 I think that the first impression that you get of
14 it will be of the buildings that are along
15 Government Cut, which is really only part of it.
16 You would be able to see it from the highway or
17 cruise ships or from South Beach and I think it's
18 really important that as long as that entire
19 parcel is going to be developed, that it has some
-
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design validity to that.
It just gives a good
21 first impression and it's not only important for
22 people who live on Fisher Island, but it's
23 important to Miami Beach, which is part of, you
24 know, where we live and where we pay taxes and I
25 think it's just important from an asthetic
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1 standpoint and as a resident, I'm surprised that
2 the full plan doesn't have to be submitted and
3 that you can just approve one tiny part of it
4 which from the way the building is angled, makes
5 it obvious where the other buildings are going to
6 be and if it looks like low-income housing, I
7 think it doesn't serve anyone's purpose, not even
8 the developer, because you can't really sell
9 things that look that way and when you stack up
10 four identical buildings in a row, that is what
11
it looks like.
So no matter what the elements
12 are on the outside of it and I had seen something
13 early on that was much more -- that had to me a
14 very beautiful asthetic to it. I'm just
15 surprised that it has evolved to what we're
16 looking at today. That's all. Thank you.
17
MR. NEVILLE:
I think as far as that we're
18 not ignorant. As it was pointed out, there were
19 buildings planned earlier and earlier
20 applications. We know that there could be
21 buildings in the future there whether this is
22 Fisher Island or somewhere else. There's a lot
23 of land on Miami Beach and they decided not to
24 tap all FAR and you know, chose to just build one
25
building at this time.
I don't think we could
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anticipate, since there is only one building n
this application, that there's going to be more.
I mean, we're here to determine the merits of
this application, not some future application and
I guess I can leave it at that. So Cliff, you
have some more to add?
MR. SCHULMAN: Yes, members of the board, let
me address the last comment because it has to do
with what the residents on Fisher Island think of
the proposed building and I will proffer that 40
percent of the units of the building are already
under contracts. All of them are Fisher Island
residents. In other words, the contracts were
first offered to other people on Fisher Island.
They have not been offered to the general public.
There are no firm contracts. These are
reservation agreements. 19 of the 46 units are
under contract, including a 6 million dollar unit
on the top floor where the purchaser put down
$650,000 for the building. That, we believe,
meets the character of Fisher Island because
right now, it is very possible that all of the
units in the building may very well be bought by
people who already live on Fisher Island. 40
percent of the people have already signed
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contracts. We think that's very good. We also
think it's pretty good evidence that it'll sell.
That it's a saleable product architecturally as
well as the unit layout because 40 percent have
already basically put their money down where it
is. It is tremendously ironic, and I'm just
going to basically give you my opinion. I
understand why Mr. Bass says that to just keep
going back. You know, send them back again and
again and again because the delay can very well
be the name of the game. Delay litigation. Keep
it going as long as possible. I believe a good
faith attempt has been made to articulate the
building in a way that differs from the other
buildings. It still is the height of ludicrous
in my opinion for people living in buildings
there in that picture to your left to criticize,
as Suzanne did in words that I truly don't
understand, that you can't do high Mediterranean
when they sit in their high Mediterranean
building on the most prominent point of
Government Cut. The building, Villa del Mar, is
the most prominent building in this particular
site.
It was approved separately, but Mr. Bass
tells you there's no evidence that there will not
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1 be identical buildings just like the one we're
2
giving you today.
The evidence is a picture that
3 stands before you because the building on the
4 point is different than the building we are
5 suggesting today. Moreover, the building we are
6 suggesting today is different than the building
7 this board approved two years ago. It's changed
8 because of market conditions and so there is no
9 degree of certainty that next building will be
10 identical to the one we have today. I will point
11 out today the angle that the board approved
12 previously is the same angle which we basically
13
..:=:::::::=:=
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have on the building today.
So the angle was
there in all honesty, not only to maximize the
views of the unit, to the most prominent views of
land and the ocean, but also to minimize any
visual impact on villa Del Mar, to give Villa del
Mar the thinnest part of the building in order to
look at and what does it do to the views of
20 people coming over to Miami Beach? Nothing. The
21 building is tucked in here and this is basically
22 the view of the building from the side. Now if
23 you are at South Point Park, I will say you may
24 see a portion of the building that's wider, but
25 thiner than villa Del Mar. Villa Del Mar is a 35
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1 thousand square foot floor plan, 40 percent more
,.-
2 blockage than our particular project, so in legal
3 terms we even went to law school to have a term
4 that we basically use for arguments that are made
5 like that today and that's foospa(phonetic).
6 The epitome of foospa, to live in a
7 building that blocks these views and essentially
8 claim we are the ones that are going to be
9 creating this monster and what Mr. Bass said,
10 it's easy, if the weather is nice today, then you
11 can predict that's going to be a weather
12 tomorrow. How long has he lived in Florida, but
13 that's not true. Our weather changes everyday.
t----
14
The market here has changed from the time villa
15 Del Mar was built to the time we got those first
16 bills approved and the time that this building
17 was approved and we believe this is evidence of
18 that fact right before you.
19 Let me deal with some of Suzanne's
20 comments and again, it's hard for me to grasp
21 some of the things because I'm not an architect.
22 Let me see if I got it. You guys tell me if I
23 got it because you guys are trained. She said
24
you can't do a high Mediterranean building.
So
25 here are your choices, do a low building and make
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it Mediterranean or do a building where you mlx
architectural styles, some Mediterranean, make it
look like a ship which is an interesting
Mediterranean design. I don't know how you do
that. Make it like something else or what I
would call early Mediterranean architecture. Mix
and match Mediterranean with some other stuff.
So, that's what she was saying. Then I wanted to
just remind the board that in the record is the
following guaranteed agreement that we have with
the owners of all properties on Fisher Island.
Any future residential units developed by the
developer partnership at Fisher Island shall be
of Mediterranean architecture to that which has
been constructed today by partnerships on Fisher
Island and that is our contractual
obligation.Now, it's not binding on you. We
understand that, but if I went and I did a Carlos
Hock (phonetic) ship, smoking or churning it's way
on Government Cut, unless I name it the Achille
Laura, it would not be Mediterranean design.
I've got to do Mediterranean in a building
compatible with other higher buildings on Fisher
Island. That's my contractual obligation.
Putting contractual obligations aside, putting
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1 another architectural style next to their
2 building could be absolutely stupid in our humble
3 opinion and would devalue what the young lady
4 said who was last speaking, to residents of
5 Fisher Island because while even staff at one
6 point did not want Mediterranean, they recognized
7 one very essential fact. It's Fisher Island.
8 It's not on South Beach. It's not on Ocean
9 Drive. It's architectural style for the most
10 part has been predetermined by the County through
11 their processing and their zoning and it is what
12 it is.
13 This building is different which 1S what
\._~
14
was demanded years ago, two years ago, by the
15 application of their building and any other
16
building on Fisher Island.
It's smaller. It has
17
different architectural features.
It mimics some
18 of the other elements of their building, so that
19 it can consist of the same Mediterranean style,
20 but there is no way they can say this is a boring
21 monotonous building because it's like all the
22
others on Fisher Island.
It is not. It is a
23 totally different product from the inside lobby
24 activity center, internal elevators, which don't
25 exist anywhere else on Fisher Island, to it's
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design, to it's footprints, to it's separation
from it's neighbors because it's a more than
twice the distance away from it's neighbors than
any other building on Fisher island.
We would respectfully request that we be
allowed to move forward. We believe we've in
good faith with a qualified architectural firm
made architectural changes to the building which
do differentiate it from the one that was before
you the last time and we respectfully request
that you allow us to move forward so Mr. Bass can
continue his battles with this building as
opposed to other buildings.
MR. NEVILLE: Is anyone else here in the
public would like to speak before we colse it up
to the public? Okay, it's closed. Would anyone
like to be the first to articulate their
comments? Okay, Janet.
MS. HYMAN: Our concern is that these
renderings that were offered up to us, we found
them reduced in scale to the point that you
couldn't read it. We were trying to look over
some of those things, but some of it is so tiny
that we gave up and it's amazing because it's the
only point of content that's not been addressed
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1 among some of the issues and there is that the
2
ratio, height
we can't ell from this what it
3 is. So that was unacceptable to us.
4
MR. NEVILLE: Peter, are you moving forward
5 to talk?
6
MR. CHEVALIER: No, I just felt it was
7 important to clarify that it was with respect to
8 the Barry Fried (phonetic) review as opposed to
9 the particular design.
10
MR. SCHULMAN: Well if anybody wants to jump
11 right in, go right ahead.
12
MR. CHEVALIER: I don't have a prolem with
13 the building. I just propose it's current form
14
right now.
I see that the things in the context
15 of the building surroundings and the architecture
16 has been mandated by their association. This is
17 the direction that they've chosen for some sort
18 of consistency. No, I don't see any reason to,
19 aside from the political jabbing, to get
20 particularly upset about the architecture and I'm
21 going to be supportive of the project.
22
MR. MOONEY: Thank you Peter. Gary?
23
MR. KNIGHT: I think they responded to my
24 comments from last time regarding the facade
25 which was, they broke it up to my satisfaction.
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1 Fisher Island is a special place. Not all of us
2 would want to live in that special place. It has
3 all the characteristics of a new Rolls Royce and
4 it sort of looks like a Rolls Royce should look,
5 but it's the size of a Hummer and some people
6 like Hummers. Some people like new Rolls Royces,
7 so I'm supportive of this project. At 'this point
8 I don't think it's out of character for the
9 Island.
10
MR. MOONEY: No, it's definitely not out of
11 character for the Island. It's architectural for
12 Fisher Island. I personally would never be
13 satisfied with Mediterranean architecture because
'\--
,
14
eve though I live in Miami and I'm an architect,
15 it's really not the type of work that I would do.
16 I don't care if it's in Coral Gables, which has a
17 rich traditional Mediterranean architecture of
18 Fisher Island which also has a traditional
19
Mediterranean architecture.
It does belong to
20 Fisher Island. There are some things I sort of
21 like about the building. To me, at first I
22 didn't like, and I started looking at the
23 elevation here and studying it and it's almost
24 like there's a modern building inside a shell of
25 a Mediterranean building and the modern building
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has a shell of openings and other types of
articulation and it started back a little bit
more appealing to me, but in any event, it
complies with the zoning codes. As far as I can
tell, as far as staff's comments, it is part of
Fisher Island and therefore the architecture
should be that way. So I am in support of the
project. Particulary telling is that plan that
was put there that shows that the floor plan or
the floor plate of the new building is far
reduced from the existing buildings there. It
doesn't seem like it's going to have that much of
an impact, so I am in support of the project as
well.
MR. STEFFENS: First I'd like to say nothing
about that is Mediterranean except maybe the tile
on the roof. That being said, we also need to
mention that the term Mediterranean or new
Mediterranean or Revival has been so abused in
South Florida and probably in Southern California
and it's meaningless and I think that sort of
complicates the business like this and the
Herring Bay project that Mr. Bass had put up. I
think a lot of what Suzanne has said is true. I
think that Mediterranean architecture is a play
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1 of a lot of elements, especially solid and void.
2 I think the building is mostly void. There's
3 very little solids at all in the building.
4 There's nothing to hold this thing to the ground
5 and in that definition, maybe what you're saying
6 is true, Greg, that there is really a very modern
7 building. There is no solid in the building. I
8 think that the changes that they made are surface
9 at best. There's only one small area of the
10 building that was not just pulled out two or
11 three or four feet. That was actually changed a
12 little bit that you could tell that they had
13 actually pulled it out and changed it. I think
14 that another point that Suzanne had said about
15 the changes of the articulation of the building,
16 in a building, the way this is sited, one end of
17 the building is much closer to the water than the
18
other end of the building.
I would assume that
19 the units that are closer to the water are going
20 to be sold for more than the units that are
21 . further from the water. It would also be a means
22 of articulating, the building differently. This
23 building is articulated symmetrically as if it
24 were on some sort of assymetrical site. If It
25 was on a very unsymmetrical site with different
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1 conditions on different sides of the building and
2 the building could be masked and articulated to
3
express those things.
I think that the Fisher
4 Island rules that say these buildings must be
5 compatible doesn't necessarily mean they have to
6 be compatible and I think that also the fact that
7 this building is put twice as far away as the
8 other buildings, from existing buildings as other
9 Fisher Island buildings are already placed,
10 brings to mind why did they put it farther away?
11 Because they don't want to offend their neighbors
12 as much as the other buildings offending their
13 neighbors? That being said, I don't find this
14 building any different than any of the other
15 buildings on Fisher Island, so in that way, I
16 find that it is compatible with everything there.
17 From my point of view, I don't know how to
18 address this issue. Are we all of a sudden going
19 to start demanding Mediterranean architecture
20 occur on this site, appropriate Mediterranean
21 architecture or something that addresses some of
22 those issues? Are we going to say, okay, as long
23 as it's compatible with what's there because I
24 don't find the buildings necessarily any
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different than anything that's there.
I mean, is
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it then acceptable? So that is my dilemma right
now.
MR. MOONEY: Thank you Mike. Steve?
MR. LEFTON: For the most part, I tend to
agree with Mike. My real problem is not is the
style or the architecture compatible. I mean,
it's with the actual volume itself. The fact
that it's in Miami Beach, we are faced with so
many angular sites and I actually like the
response of approving the project better. It
seems to be more in keeping with breaking down
the volumes rather than what seems like, as you
said, a very modern building where it's a very
simple structure grid and then just this kind of
engine element to maybe it looks Mediterranean
and I don't know if it's that than some of the
other pictures that I'm looking at from page
number 7. I see a row of 3 buildings, volume 3
in opposition, 3 buildings that are kind of
rectangular and they all look the same and so
this whole, you know, I'm not real interested in
not in my backyard argument, but more about, you
know, what's your responsibility to heighten the
quality of design on Fisher Island and
everywhere. Some are better. Some are worse.
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MR. NEVILLE: Okay, thank you Steve.
MR. MARTINEZ: As a whole, I think that the
2
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revisions are consistent with Fisher Island.
I'm
4 not taking into any consideration any of the
5 comments by what occurred in the past and
6 Mr. Bass, you are absolutely right to object to
7 anything that was presented, so my consideration
8 is based solely on th~ presentation by the
9 applicant, by the questions presented by staff
10 and my understanding of the ordinances. I
11 believe they conformed. I believe it's
12 consistent with what the Fisher Island
13 requirements are and it's encouraging that 40
14 percent of the units are already sold. It shows
15 that there's an interest in the building, so as
16 the project is, I support it. It would be nice
17 if there was some more variance done on there,
18 but, like Steve said, it's consistent with what's
19 there and I think it would devalue the property
20 if you suddenly stuck some type of modern
21 building in the middle of these buildings.
22
MR. NEVILLE: If there's any other debate
23 here, if not, I think everybody made some good
24 points.
25
MR. STEFFENS: I just want to let Mr. Bass
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1 know that what I brought up, that it's not
2 something that the Board heard before and that we
3 don't know about what these buildings were built
4 subsequent to this building on the corner.
5
MR. BASS: In fact, that's correct.
The
6 inference however, I believe was outrageous, but
7 the position was that because they weren't
8 challenged, there was some ulterior motivation to
9 this challenge, but these buildings are not
10 subject to design review, so that's the problem
11 with bringing it up in that context.
12
MR. NEVILLE: I understand. Okay, anybody
13 like to draft a motion of one kind or another?
14
MR. CHEVALIER: I make a motion to approve
15 the application project.
16
MR. NEVILLE: Is there a second?
17
MR. CHEVALIER: I'll second it.
18
MR. NEVILLE: All in favor, say aye.
19
(Several board member vote in favor.)
I--
20
MR. NEVILLE: All opposed?
21
(One board member opposes.)
22
MR. NEVILLE: One opposed.
23 MR. SCHULMAN: Just for purposes of the
24 record, can we have the clerk mark all exnibits?
25
MR. BASS: Certainly.
H. Allen Benowitz - Jessica R. Berman - Peggy Ann Cook - Matz, Traktrnan, Feldman & Wildner - Ivy Court Reporting
19 West Flagler Street A Veritext Company (305) 376-8800
42
1 MR. MARTINEZ: Can you just go ahead and
2 submit all of those. We won't mark them.
3 MR. SCHULMAN: And we'll send copies to
4 Mr. Bass as the same time.
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;,',
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H. Allen Benowitz - Jessica R. Berman - Peggy Ann Cook - Matz, Traktrnan, Feldman & Wildner - Ivy Court Reporting
19 West Flagler Street A Veri text Company (305) 376-8800
43
1
HEARING CERTIFICATE
2
3 STATE OF FLORIDA
SS:
4 COUNTY OF MIAMI-DADE
5
6 I, TRACIE STEVENS, Shorthand Reporter
7 and Notary Public, certify that I was authorized and
8 did stenographically report the foregoing proceedings
9 and that this transcript is a true record of the
10 proceedings before the Board.
11
12 I further certify that I am not a
13 relative, employee, attorney, or counsel for any of
14 the parties nor am I a relative of employee of any of
15 the parties; attorney of counsel connected with the
16 'action, nor am I financially interested in the action.
17
18
Dated this 20th day of May 2004.
19
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22
\kJ~
23
TRACIE STEVENS
24
25
H. Allen Benowitz - Jessica R. Berman - Peggy Ann Cook - Matz, Traktman, Feldman & Wildner - Ivy Court Reporting
19 West Flagler Street A Veritext Company (305) 376-8800