July 9 2019 Commission Meeting

I'm going to try make this brief.  

Tuesday night at the commission meeting.  

The main points:

Dog Park:  The money for the dog park planning was approved.  It will cost about $35,000 to create the plans, then another $120,000 to $200,000 to build a dog park.  The commission voted to move ahead. 

My view:  Just put up a fence, call it an open space and let the damn dogs run.  Also, the dog park proponents mostly weren't there.  

Treasure Island Community Park:   Mayor Brent Latham discussed the progress made so far in planning the green space use of the Treasure Island Elementary field in non-school hours.  The planning is well underway and should cost about $1,000,000 once it's ready.  

My view:  This is huge and opens up new space all around us.  

For Profit Prisons for Children in Homestead:  The commission voted 4-0 to express their concern about the inherent contradiction of for profit prisons in this government space.  One commissioner was in the ladies room for the vote.  

My view:  Prisons should never be for profit.  Ever.   

Discussion Item:  Advisory Board Interactions with the Commission.  The Mayor led a discussion about what the commission should expect from the boards and vice versa.  The boards are very active and bright, and were suppressed under the previous regime, and the commissioners spoke about what they would like to see.   

My view:  The commission should hold one joint session per year with each board to lay out the annual goals.   

Operational stuff - New Auditor, FPL Vault removal at the Sakura Lot, Parking Study for Harbor Island.    These were commission approval for doing what the village needs to do.  

Animal Control Advisory Board Feeding Registry:  The Animal Control Board has created a detailed and well crafted program to register and control the feeding of the feral cats, bearing in mind the needs of the cats, the sensibilities of the property owners, the control of the population.   

It was tabled.  

My view:  Seriously?  A group of intelligent concerned citizens under the government aegis does their job and the commission lets it slide again because a scuttle bug lobbyist now believes he's a cat expert.  Big failure.  

Scooter Rentals:  Never even made it to a vote.  Nobody wanted to own it.  

My view:  It's a stupid idea.  We are less than one square mile and we don't need people scooting aimlessly about.  

Unified Land Development Code:  Fixes the fencing rules so that 5 foot is the height limit for corner lots and temporary fences can be used in dog parks if we ever make one.  

My view:  How was this not part of our code already?  

Unified Land Development Code #2:  Allows administrative approval of dock variances within certain parameters rather than commission approval.  

My view:  Yeah, sure, why not?

Unified Land Development Code #3:  This is a change that as initially proposed would have changed the due dates on bonus height payments from approval time to building permit time, would have made the payments refundable if the developer did not develop, and approving mechanical parking lifts for fancy people with valets.  

It got whittled down and the refundability portion was removed but the two other parts stayed in.  

My view:  The refundable fees were always a flipper's delight so I'm glad they pulled it.  I'm sick of developers whining that they can't make money building in North Bay Village.  That's true but the people who sold them the lots made money.   They knew the rules.   The only developers with skin in the game are the Best Western.  The rest of them need to shut up and build.  And our Village Attorney and Planning Contractor should show up with some support for their claims that North Bay Village is somehow out of step with the cooler towns.  You got to qualify to signify and these guys are not giving the commission even the basic information.   Step up or step aside.  

Florida Friendly Fertilizer:  A carefully crafted proposal by Vice Mayor Marvin Wilmoth to stop people pouring polluting fertilizer into the bay while not harming the economic activity of landscapers was derailed by one lawn festishist and two commissioners who had clearly not read the ordinance.  The whole thing was cuckolded when the main provision, stop pouring pollutants on your lawn during the rainy season, was removed just because.  

My view:  Wilmoth did his homework, found the sweet spot, and for some reason having nothing to do with the ordinance, it was rendered useless.  A real low point.  

Ordinance Banning Single Use Plastics in the Village:  This was a straightforward ordinance banning the sale of single use plastic in North Bay Village.  After some discussion it was passed.  

My view:  Wilmoth again was reasonable, detailed and focused.  While there was a half hearted attempt to derail this one, the  other commissioners got bored and let it pass.  This was super unprofessional of them but lucky for us.  

7700 Miami View Drive:  The tenant, not the landlord, at 7700 Miami View Drive showed up to say his Short Term Vacation Rental License should be reinstated because he didn't know, he was putting in noise meters, and then used the Shaggy Defense on advertisements for the property  (Uh Uh, wasn't me.)  He was denied.  

My View:  Wow!

Kevin Vericker

July 11, 2019