C4L-Ref- Planning Board - Remove Existing Sunset Provision For Parking DistrictE MIAMI BEACH
Ciiy of Miomi Beoch, 1700 Convention Center Drive, Miomi Beoch, Florido 33139, www.miomibeochfl.gov
COMMISSION MEMORANDUM
TO: Mayor Philip Levine and Members
FROM: Jimmy L. Morales, City Manager
DATE: July 23,2014
SUBJECT: REFERRAL TO THE PLANNING
PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE LAND DEVELOPMENT REGULATIONS
TO REMOVE THE EXISTING 'SUNSET' PROVISION FOR PARKING DISTRICT
NO. 5 (SUNSET HARBOR) AND TO CLARTFY THE CONDITTONAL USE
REQUIREMENTS IN THE CD.2 DISTRICT.
ADMINISTRATION RECOMMENDATION
Refer an Ordinance Amendment to the Planning Board for consideration and recommendation.
BACKGROUND
On December 12, 2012, the City Commission adopted an amendment to the Land Development
Regulations, establishing Parking District No. 5 in the Sunset Harbor area, which reduced or
eliminated required parking for small commercial businesses. The subject ordinance also set a
lower threshold for Neighborhood lmpact Establishments (NlE), requiring Planning Board review of
restaurants over 100 seats and/or 125 persons occupancy (the current review threshold city wide
is for 300 persons or more occupancy). On June 5, 2013, the Commission adopted an
amendment to Parking District No. 5, which provided for parking reductions in certain types of 'live-
work' and residential parking uses.
At the time of adoption in 2012, the Commission made a referral to the Land Use and Development
Committee (LUDC) to review the impact of the ordinance within eleven (11) months of its adoption.
This progress report was presented to the LUDC on January 22,2014, at which time a status
report was provided. The LUDC scheduled another progress report in six (6) months specifically
pertaining to the sunset provision of the code.
On July 9,2014, the LUDC addressed the issue of the sunset provision and recommended that it
be terminated.
ANALYSIS
The reduction of parking requirements in the Sunset Harbor area was necessitated by the extreme
difficulty of actually providing parking on-site within this constrained neighborhood. The policy of
reducing parking requirements for small businesses was warranted given that the Sunset Harbor
garage is operational, which has provided adequate infrastructure parking to support the
surrounding neighborhood's burgeoning growth of small, resident-oriented businesses.
The development of slightly larger projects is still required to provide parking; however, these
particular projects are permitted to pay a fee-in-lieu of providing parking on site. Large
developments in excess of 15,000 square feet are required to provide parking on-site or within 500
feet. The cutoff for the parking reduction is 3,500 square feet per business, with a maximum
aggregate of not more than 10,000 square feet of total area for one building. Similar thresholds
apply to restaurants. Agenda atem C/L
Date 7-234/290
Commission Memorandum
Refenal to Planning Board - Amendments to Parking Distict No. 5
Julv 23, 2014 Page 2 ol 2
The adopted ordinance included a 'sunset' provision, which would apply to any new application
submitted after December 22,2014. Specifically, Section 130-33(bX5) states that: "The parking
requirements in this subsection (b) shall only apply to projects that have obtained a building permit
or land use board approval by December 22,2014".
Since the adoption of the ordinance, five (5) new development projects have been approved by the
Design Review Board, and one (1) project is pending Board approval, in the Sunset Harbor area
that would be affected by the new regulations. These projects include a new retail store at the
triangular corner of Dade Boulevard, 18th Street and Alton Road and several restauranUretail infill
projects in the 1700 and 1800 blocks of Bay Road. All of these projects are still in the review and
development stage. As such, without data on the ultimate tenant usage and seat counts, staff
does not yet have firm data on the total number of spaces that may eventually be exempted. But
at a minimum, if all the projects were to become retail or personal service establishments, such as
yoga studios or fitness clubs, dividing the projects by 1 parking space per 300 square teet, 112
parking spaces would be exempt and 24 spaces would qualify to pay into the annual parking-in-lieu
program. Currently the parking-in-lieu fee is two (2) percent of the one-time fee of $35,000 ($ZOO
per year for each space).
Staff has also researched all permits and licenses issued within the Sunset Harbor area since the
adoption of the Ordinance and there have been several applications for restaurant conversions
within existing warehouse or industrial spaces on Purdy Avenue, Bay Road, and the south-west
corner of 18ft Street and West Avenue. However, none of these applications has generated a
parking requirement based on the current requirements of Parking District No. 5. Additionally, the
amount of revenue generated by the Sunset Harbor garage has increased each year, with a total
revenue amount to date of $762,019.29. This figure far exceeds the amount of lost parking impact
fee revenue of $106,400.00 ($53,200.00 x 2 years) since the adoption of the ordinance.
ln light of the fact that the Parking District is functioning as intended, the Land Use Committee
concluded that the sunset provision is no longer needed.
Finally, when the original ordinance was adopted, the conditional use section for the CD-2 zoning
district was updated to include lower thresholds for Neighborhood lmpact Establishments (NlE) in
the Sunset Harbor area. During the Land Use Committee review process, it was determined that
this text amendment inadvertently eliminated the conditional uses for the rest of CD-2 zoning
districts that are outside of the Sunset Harbor area. As such, the Land Use Committee has
recommended correcting this error, in addition to removing the sunset provision.
CONCLUSION
!n accordance with the July 9, 2014 recommendation of the Land Use and Development
Committee, the Administration recommends that the Mayor and the City Commission refer an
Ordinance Amendment to the Planning Board to remove the existing 'sunset' provision for Parking
District No. 5 (Sunset Harbor) and to clarify the Conditional Use Requirements in the CD-2 District.
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