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.
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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
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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.
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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
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