Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-01-31 - City Commission Special Workshop Meeting Minutes CITY OF TAMARAC SPECIAL CITY COMMISSION WORKSHOP THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2019 CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Michelle J. Gomez called the Special Workshop of the City Commission to order at 9:41 a.m. on Thursday, January 31, 2019 in the Mango Room at the Tamarac Recreation Center, 7501 N. University Drive, Tamarac, FL, 33321. ROLL CALL: Mayor Michelle J. Gomez, Vice Mayor Debra Placko, Commissioner Marlon Bolton, Commissioner Mike Gelin and Commissioner Julie Fishman were in attendance. Also in attendance were City Manager Michael Cernech, Assistant City Manager Kathleen Gunn, Assistant City Attorney Julie Klahr, City Clerk Patricia Teufel, Chief Building Official Claudio Grande, Financial Services Director Mark Mason, Assistant Community Development Director Frank Zickar, Economic Development Director Lori Funderwhite, Assistant to the City Manager Laura Karparviciute, Community Development Director Maxine Calloway, Associate Planner Ann Johnson, Marketing Specialist Greg Rosenberg, Parks & Recreation Director Greg Warner, Planner Rob Johnson, Information Technology Director Levent Sucuoglu, Public Information & Media Specialist Elise Boston, Planning Board Chair Pamela LaMelle- Gray, Planning Board Member James Franko, Ken Stapleton & Assoc. President Ken Stapleton, Colliers International Executive Managing Director & Market Leader Ken Krasnow, S2 Development President Marc Schmulian, Plusurbia Design Principal, Juan Mullerat, Former Delray Beach Mayor Jeff Perlman and JKM Development Partner John Markey. City Commission Members and Staff introduced themselves to the ULI presenters. ULI members then introduced themselves to the City Commission and Staff members. City Manager Cernech went over the goals of the Workshop, talked about the City's redevelopment vision, encouraging redevelopment while protecting traditional and well- established single-family neighborhoods, redevelopment sites, the new land use designations, new zoning districts and the new Land Development Code. City Manager Cernech said we have to be responsible with redevelopment as we know it will touch everyone in the City. City Manager Cernech said we need to have a plan, know what that plan will look like and how we will handle the new plan. We need to have buy-in on all levels, engage the community and the vision/plan has to be successfully managed in order to reaffirm what we have adopted. Mr. Stapleton gave a presentation, a copy of which is on file in the City Clerk's Office. Mr. Stapleton gave an overview of the Urban Land Institute and the presenters that were here today. Mr. Stapleton talked about the format for today's workshop and said Tamarac is not done yet as suburbs are getting older and going through the growth process they need to re- invent themselves. Mr. Krasnow talked about the Market Perspective and how Tamarac is positioned in the South Florida market. Mr. Krasnow talked about South Florida's surging population growth and trends; robust employment growth; job growth trends; transformative retail developments in So. Florida and Broward County; emerging retail trends; retail market perspective; retail market demand drivers; emerging office trends; office market perspective and demand drivers; emerging industrial trends; industrial market perspective and demand drivers and how to get density right. Page 1 of 4 COMMISSION WORKSHOP MEETING January 31, 2019 Mr. Schmuilian talked about the developer's perspective and about the impact of policy on marketability. Mr. Schmulian talked about who a developer is and what they do; Tamarac's new Land Development Plan and processes and how critical it is to not deviate from the plan. Mr. Schmulian said a shared vision is necessary and Tamarac needs to establish its identity and be consistent. Mr. Schmulian showed several slides of projects they have recently done in South Florida. Mr. Mullerat talked about density by design and said adaptability is important to the reality of the market. Mr. Mullerat talked about Tamarac's identity and the ability to capture people going through the City. Mr. Mullerat said we should be looking at our vision and how we get the information to the residents in order to engage the community. Mr. Mullerat talked about zoning and planning tools and balancing the public and private realms. Mr. Mullerat talked about density, the height of buildings, building coverage, building efficiency and went over several slides with examples. Commissioner Gelin left the meeting at 10:37 a.m. Mr. Perlman talked about a shared vision and how good leadership matters. Mr. Perlman said the Mayor and Commission should not get lost in the weeds and we need to engage all the stakeholders to create a unified vision. Mr. Perlman said the Commission should find shared goals, celebrate the successes and to stick to a clear vision to make sure they get the best outcome. Mr. Perlman said the Mayor and Commission are the architects of their City but having a community based vision makes the Commission's job easier. Mr. Perlman noted that it takes 10 to 20 years to build something and only 1 to 2 years to undo it. Mr. Stapleton said they are here because the Commission wants to understand how to get the private sector to invest in their vision. Mr. Stapleton said the City has good talent and it is important to retain that talent, the brand, the vision and the culture of how the Commission conducts themselves. Mr. Stapleton said Tamarac's vision has to be bold enough to attract attention. Mayor Gomez recessed the meeting at 10: 54 a.m. and reconvened the meeting at 11:13 a.m. with all present as before, except for Commissioner Gelin. Mayor Gomez thanked the ULI group for the presentation and asked how can the Commission explain to people that development/re-development is not a negative thing. Mr. Schmulian said you should ask the person where their favorite place on earth is to vacation and then tell them it was done by a developer. People need to understand that everything they see is a product of development. Vice Mayor Placko said that when you talk about redevelopment you always have the issue of traffic as Tamarac has changed drastically and we have a balancing act between the different age groups. Vice Mayor Placko noted that we are now talking about apartment complexes instead of private homes and she is concerned that Tamarac is gearing toward the millenniums and apartments. Mr. Stapleton said the question is not about apartments; you need to ask yourself what you want Tamarac to look like and find a consensus. Commissioner Fishman said a lot of developers are leaning towards apartments for older people. We must have diversity in housing in Tamarac. City Manager Cernech said 71% of residential units are owner occupied. When you talk about rentals in Tamarac people question the need for rentals. Tamarac was named #2 for the Page 2 of 4 COMMISSION WORKSHOP MEETING January 31, 2019 hottest rental market in the Miami Metro Area and we rank 40th nationally. City Manager Cernech said the 2008 recession really changed people's perspective about home ownership. Mr. Stapleton said there has to be a balance and diverse product as people are not running from homeownership and you don't have to build your vision around the millennials. There was a discussion about brick and mortar shopping and online shopping. Mr. Markey said if you want people to get out of cars there has to be visibility and walkability which is critical for smart growth. Vice Mayor Placko said we truly need to find out who we want to be as the images that were shown when you do a search for Tamarac are shocking. We need to do better getting information out about Tamarac to the community and keep them informed about changes. City Manager Cernech said we need to figure out how to elevate the discussion from talking about development/re-development and talk about community building. Mr. Perlman talked about Delray Beach's development/re-development and the issues they had getting the community buy-in and how they approached getting the community involved. Mr. Mullerat said the community needs to be involved in the vision so it is also their vision. Mr. Mullerat said community engagement has a lot to do with community building and is the #1 priority. Mr. Stapleton said in order to accomplish the dreams of the community you have to have a conversation about feasibility and marketability as well as educate the public about the restraints on financing. Mr. Mullerat said your meetings need to be development driven and oriented in order to educate people. Mr. Markey talked about Boyton Beach building a new city hall, fire station and police station and said that is community building. Commissioner Bolton talked about last year's strategic planning session where the facilitator noted that Tamarac did not have an identity. Commissioner Bolton said Tamarac needs an identity and we need to figure that out quickly. Commissioner Bolton talked about a recent meeting about a neighborhood park and some people did not want a park. Commissioner Bolton said he subsequently walked door to door to talk about issues and was finally able to get a consensus to build the park. Commissioner Bolton said the Commission needs to work together to find out what people have in common and what they want. Commissioner Bolton talked about the people out east feeling disconnected and said we have to find out how to think about the city as a whole. Mr. Schmulian said he lives in Highland Lakes next to Adventura but when people ask where he lives he says Aventura because people have not heard of Highland Lakes. Mr. Schmulian said you have to start with a vision that everyone will work towards and you have to create a really bold statement on where you want to be and an identity for Tamarac. You will have to come together and prioritize and make the best decisions based on this vision. As you do something on one side of town it will trickle to the other areas and people will feel better about their town. Mr. Mullerat said do not look at this vision depending on the market today as it has to be a long-term vision and what Tamarac could be in 100 years. Mr. Mullerat said Tamarac has a lot of potential and you have to put some regulations in place to reinvigorate and incentivize people to redo the strip malls. Mr. Mullerat said Miami has flexibility to work with a developer to make a project work and Tamarac needs this flexibility in order to work with developers. Commissioner Bolton reiterated that people out east feel disconnected from the rest of the City and said he can boast about Tamarac Village and Colony West but people on the east side do not want to hear about it. Tamarac needs to be developed but we need to develop the disconnected area as well. Page 3 of 4 COMMISSION WORKSHOP MEETING January 31, 2019 Mr. Perlman said they had the same thing in Delray and they had to strategize to achieve cohesiveness between the east and west sides. Mr. Stapleton said you need to lay out the strategic vision and you need to make people understand it won't happen all at once. Mr. Stapleton said Tamarac needs to celebrate its successes. Mr. Stapleton also said you need to strategically pick an area of the City to invest in and then move on to the next area. Mr. Stapleton talked about the turn around of South Beach which was a big benefit to Miami. Mr. Perlman said Delray had to take some risks and if you make a mistake you learn from it. Commissioner Fishman said when she was elected she asked how the City was getting our message out to other cities and businesses. Commissioner Fishman said she has worked with HOA's and COA's to update their amenities as what was good in the 60's is not good now. Planning Board Chair LeMelle-Gray said she was very impressed with the presentation and is proud of what the City has accomplished in the last 12 — 15 years. Ms. Lemelle-Gray said we have become a City with an average age of 47; however, we still need to meet the needs of the older and younger members of the City. Ms. LeMelle-Gray said she also wants a vision to address better schools for the City of Tamarac. Mr. Stapleton said Tamarac's message has to be brought out to the market in a pro-active way, so we stand out from other cities because it is a very competitive market out there. Mr. Schmulian added that Tamarac is not stagnant and once people see things coming together people will come. Mayor Gomez said we don't own the vacant strip malls, so developers need to get landowners to work with Tamarac to redevelop those areas. Mayor Gomez said schools are an issue and we are working with the School Board; we have 16 schools in 7 different cities serving Tamarac children and we cannot control what other cities that border us do. Mayor Gomez thanked everyone for their expertise and time. There being no further business to come before the City Commission, Mayor Gomez adjourned the meetin at 12:42 p.m. Pa ricia Teufel CMC "` TAA City Clerk ` ` U S 7. :E 965 : r_ se :•®, : O•• ( ilI1IIIIIPo\\ Page 4 of 4 COMMISSION WORKSHOP MEETING January 31, 2019