Good afternoon, everybody.

Is my mic on?

Okay.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Welcome to City Commission conference meeting this uh January 20th, 2026.

Sorry, it's a little late.

I got caught by the uh freight train.

Um anyway, thank you all for being here this afternoon.

We have a number of uh important topics to discuss and uh I want to thank you all for being here.

Um so let us begin.

Uh we have a communication to the city commission from the infrastructure technical.

Mayor pardon me.

Uh just want to highlight that at the last meeting the commission made a determination on the order of the meetings and that the CRA would begin first.

I don't recall that, but we could certainly do that.

Um we talked about it, we didn't agree to that, but I'm I'm okay with that.

Is there something on the CRA board meeting that uh we need to discuss right now?

That's controversial.

Is anyone here from the CRA board meeting?

No.

Mayor, I thought we did agree to that though.

Yes, we did we're gonna do that.

Yeah, yeah, we were in agreement just to um to eliminate the long wait.

It's usually a very short meeting.

Right.

We agreed to go forward and have that meeting first.

That's fine to keep a courtesy for our neighborhood.

So we'll suspend the conference meeting right now and we'll go into the CRA board meeting.

Um Mr.

Clerk, would you please uh call the roll?

Vice Chair Herbst, Commissioner Glossman?

Here, Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Here, Commissioner Sorensen.

Here, Chair Trentals.

Uh here.

Uh M1, this is a motion to approve the minutes for the January 6, 2026 Community Redevelopment Agency Board Meeting.

Uh someone move.

So move.

Second.

They move and second it.

All right, please call the roll.

Vice Chair Herbs.

Yes.

Commissioner Glossman?

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Yes.

Commissioner Sorensen?

Yes.

Chair Trentals.

Yes.

M1 is now approved.

R1.

Resolution approving and modifications to the Central City Community Redevelopment Area Residential Facade and Landscaping Incentive Program.

And renaming it to the Residential Enhancement Program.

Uh no one is signed up to speak.

Uh someone like to introduce the resolution.

Introduced.

Okay.

Any questions or comments?

Comments.

Yes.

Um, good afternoon.

Um I just wanted to share some concern from a neighbor.

If uh we can have CRA come forward, please.

When we were doing this project before, um, I know we're doing the name change, but before it was the facade and landscape initiative.

Um the neighbor has concerns with the timeline of um payment for those um vendors that are being used.

There was a delay, she um highlighted um we waited they did the inspection, then there was a delay in payment to that particular vendor contractor.

So if you could share with us the timeline, what that looks like as far as them being um paid in the process overall.

This is in the central city CRA.

This is for the um no, we're not Central City.

Who are we?

This is all we're talking about right now, Central City.

See resolution approving modifications of the Central City Community Redevelopment Area Residential Facade and Landscaping Incentive Program and renaming it the residential enhancement program.

Okay.

I was under the impression that this also was affecting District 3.

Is it?

Well, district three was approved back on December 2nd, 2025.

So it's uh an accompanying item, I would say.

Okay.

But but but can we answer her question though?

Sure.

So the timeline, once the application comes in, we do review the application, and from that process, we then go forward.

We inspect the property to make sure that the applicant meet meets all of those requirements.

And then the process begins from prior to the new modification, the applicant required three quotes in order to move forward.

Now we're decreasing that to up to two.

So, and then we're now implementing a process list of all of the professionals that we do receive so that when the applicant comes in, it kind of decreases the process of them having to find their own professional.

So I think that that would eliminate a lot of the delay in moving forward.

Thank you for sharing and explaining that for me.

All right, great.

Any other questions or comments with regard to R1?

Yeah.

Can I make one point of clarification?

So a couple things just to clarify what was said.

So this item refers to District 30, even though it's Central City, because there's a small portion of District 3 near Power Line Road that's included.

The CRA did make similar um improvements and changes to the program that applies to um the Northwest Progressive Flagler Heights program.

So I think that's where there's some similarities and why that question was relevant to both.

So once the person does the work, they submit reimbursement to the CRA for those funds.

So that might cause some of the delays.

So as an administrative improvement, we could look at how that timeline works out.

All right.

Thank you.

All right, great.

Um would someone like to introduce a resolution that's been introduced already, right?

Okay.

Uh please call the role.

A resolution of the Board of Commissioners of the Fort Lauderdale Community Redevelopment Agency approving modifications of the Central City Community Redevelopment Agency residential facade and landscaping program and renaming the program, delegating authority to the executive director to execute any and all agreements relating to such award under the program providing for an effective date.

Vice Chair Herbst.

Yes.

Commissioner Glossman?

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman.

Yes.

Commissioner Sorensen.

Yes.

Chair Trentals.

Yes, and R1's now approved.

R2, a resolution approving a third amendment to the interlocal agreement for the Northeast Fourth Avenue Complete Street Project between Broad County, the City of Fort Lauderdale, and the Fort Lauderdale Community Redevelopment Agency.

Anyone have any questions?

I have a question.

I drove down there uh this afternoon, and a number of the trees look a little um they look like they need some help.

We planted them, we don't seem to take care of them.

I hate to see such expensive trees die.

And so I just want to bring that to everyone's attention that we need to pay a little bit more attention to the upkeep and maintenance of those trees.

All right.

Thank you, Mayor.

Someone would like to introduce a resolution.

Introduced.

Resolution has been introduced.

Please call the roll.

A resolution board commissioners of the Fort Lauderdale Community Redevelopment Agency approving a third amendment to an interlocal agreement among Broward County, the City of Fort Lauderdale, and the Fort Lauderdale Community Redevelopment Agency to extend the term of the interlocal agreement and providing an effective date.

Vice Chair Herbst?

Yes.

Commissioner Glossman?

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman?

Yes.

Commissioner Sorensen?

Yes.

Chair Trentals.

Yes, and R2 is now approved.

Is there any further business of the CRA?

No, Mayor.

There being none, this meeting is now concluded.

We'll resume back to our conference meeting.

Our conference meeting infrastructure task force sent a uh a communication to us.

Um they sent us a lifeline.

Uh the question is uh uh do we have any uh interest in extending the life of the CRA, which excuse me, of the infrastructure task force, which uh expires in one month, February 18th.

Um what have we charged the committee to do so far?

What is the what projects have we uh sought to engage their assistance?

I'm trying to think where we are with that.

So mayor staff has been drafting an item to come to the city commission for the February 3rd meeting that would establish this board uh more officially.

Uh we have shared a communication with the chair in which we look to um define and potentially um refine the scope of this board.

Uh the board has been working on any number of uh infrastructure reviews of city assets uh to also include you know some vertical construction projects of the city.

One of the ideas that might be um appropriate uh should the city commission determine that this was um more efficient, we want to make sure that the board has enough to work on with staff at the same time.

We want to make sure that the scope isn't so broad that the board and staff are looking at every single type of project within the city.

So for example, uh one of the recommendations that we have is that the board focus on roads, sidewalks, water and wastewater treatment plants, and the like for projects such as um parks bond projects where there is a parks advisory board that's already in place.

It may be redundant for this board to work on that as well, but that's something that uh the city commission would outline and determine, just something for your consideration.

So um does it make sense then to establish this task force committee as a permanent board?

If the if the need is so great and continuous, why do we have to keep renewing its um its existence if really what you've explained to us now is something far greater than we originally anticipated this board was supposed to do.

Any thoughts on that, anybody okay?

No thoughts.

Yeah.

Go ahead.

Beasley Pittman.

Okay.

Um if you recall a couple months back, this was a request that I had um hope to have a conversation about.

So I appreciate um the direction that we're moving in today.

But I do believe that there is a place for the task force advisory um committee, uh making it a um a true um board where it is defined far as the scope where they will be um reviewing and giving us recommendation on.

But I believe that there are the expertise with those who are um currently a part of the board and then even those who will be appointed in the future, it will benefit us as a commission to have them to look in, give us a purview of what they see, and come back with a great report, given some direction.

In terms of their uh the need to can make it a permanent board?

Yes, because they're sunsetting right and the sunsetting in a month.

And uh and I'm just saying that, you know, I in response to what the city manager has just described as the necessity for continuing the work of the task force committee.

Do we want to make it a more permanent board?

Because there's we there's never a shortage of projects that we're involved with.

And if the and if the it if uh the administration relies on the task force um committee to advise it on a number of projects, is this something that we should continue long term?

Commissioner Sorensen.

Yeah, sure.

Thanks.

City Manager, were you?

I just want I just wanted to clarify.

It's not that there is uh reliance on the part of staff for the participation of this advisory board.

Uh we just want to make sure that we identify the scope uh so that the board isn't necessarily tasked with all of the projects that the city is implementing.

So we're interested in the focus being more on the traditional infrastructure projects, mostly underground as opposed to vertical construction projects such as city hall or park spawn projects or fryer stations.

Okay.

So I'm sorry, go ahead then.

No, you can go ahead.

I would just want to just to uh dovetail on that.

So city manager, uh the enabling legislation of the infrastructure task force, did it did it strictly look at just like you mentioned underground projects, whether it's our you know our fortified Lauderdale project, water, stormwater, sewer, uh, or did it did it address um all of the other items that the infrastructure task force has weighed in in over the years?

We've kept we we've asked them to weigh in on a lot of different things.

At first it was established for the fortified Lauderdale uh uh agenda, but but we have tasked it with doing more much more than that, including the City Hall.

So um question is, you know, do can see that we keep renewing it every year, is this something we really want to make more permanent because they are in fact uh become a good resource and a good sounding board for a lot of the projects that we've been involved with?

And so I just I just raised it as a point.

It's not being asked of us, but I just said thinking, is this the time to start considering the possibility of it being a more permanent board?

Well, what do you see city manager as the timeline to to bring the ordinance to us for this to become a board?

Did you say February 3rd?

We are pending some feedback from the chair, but we're eyeballing February 3rd as the opportunity to come back for initial consideration by the Commission.

And that's to change from uh a task force to a board.

Correct.

Okay.

Thank you.

So what do you want to do now?

Umor.

So one Peter Partington's from I don't know if he signed up, but uh I'd love to hear from him from Peter.

No one is signed up to speak on this.

So is Peter here?

Peter's here.

Come on up, Peter.

Come on down.

The mayor, as Peter's coming up, um punch the button at the bottom of the speaker.

One of the suggestions I'd have uh uh city manager and and mayor is as we think about fortify for Lauder L as we think about moving our infrastructure work underground as fast as possible.

We've we've had some discussions about P3 projects.

We're gonna get further analysis from City Manager about P3 underground.

And to me, Mayor, that's a great topic as well that they could be exploring in the ITF is uh P3 partnerships, fortify for Lauderdale, traditional bid and and do some of that thinking and work and analysis, I think can be good too, Mayor, just as an example of of one piece.

Peter.

So Peter Pottington, currently chair of the infrastructure house force.

Um couple of things.

Basically, um I think you already decided in principle that you were gonna move from um an advisory group that was reauthorized every couple of years to a permanent board.

And this resolution was passed before we knew the timeline for the draft ordinance creating the board.

And uh that now is has been revealed as being the first reading on the third of February and the second reading on the seventeenth.

At the time we passed that resolution, we did not know that.

So really that timeline for the ordinance obvious the need to take any action on a resolution because all being well and subject to your agreement, obviously we will become or there will be a board after the 17th.

We will have uh most likely a discussion on the draft's scope uh in the draft ordinance uh on our meeting, which actually takes place on February the second, so we will be able to give input on certainly on the second reading um as a result of our consideration of that.

And pretty much speaking only for myself, um in looks that we want the city manager said, the scope appears to me to be fine and similar.

We have only uh similar to previously, we've only involved ourselves in certain projects at your request and direction, for example, City Hall.

Personally, I see no need to be involved in that again unless you request that always.

Okay, so it's already it's already on uh on the schedule to make it more permanent.

Okay, there we go.

All right, is that so do you you need no action from us now then because the second reading is February 17th?

Correct.

And this says we're you're expiring your committee is expiring on the 18th, so we're good.

Yeah, and just to mention if and when you do create a board, then you'll have to appoint new members.

Okay, the old members will when is your term up?

Uh can't remember, but it's up February the 18th.

All right.

Well, thank you.

We appreciate it.

Okay, and just to say uh appreciate the commission's priority on infrastructure.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

I I have one question.

Um existing board members or members that are on the um the um task force.

Is there anything that prevents us from reappointing them to the permanent board?

Uh only if there don't we have a rule, you can be on a committee and a board, but not two boards.

So if there's somebody who's on the committee on this committee and also on a board, we may not be able to reappoint them.

But we can research that and see if they're if they're taking two roles.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

So city managers want to track so what what happens next?

So we would work with our public works department.

I see Neil Rodriguez, our assistant public works director here.

Uh we would work on drafting that legislation for consideration by the commission, take it to the infrastructure task force to get feedback and uh hopefully incorporate that feedback and present to the city commission for a second reading uh in February.

Okay.

Okay.

Good.

Thank you.

Very good.

Thank you.

I see, you know, when I look at the minutes of that uh task force, I see that we have a full complement of board members participating, but I also see you have a legion of staff people who attend there.

Is there some reason why why all these people were asked to come to these meetings?

I mean, that's one of the considerations for refining the scope of the task force because the inquiries may be very broad.

We want to make sure we have the staff available to answer their questions and be responsive.

All right.

Do you want to refine the scope now or at the next reading?

I I think if you would like to give the feedback now, it would help guide us in drafting for first reading.

Uh otherwise we could also wait and make the update between first and second reading.

So my feedback is underground water, sewer, storm water should be the primary focus of ITF.

Agreed.

Or unless the commission asks otherwise.

Agreed, Mayor.

All right, there you go.

And and the current draft has that provision where the commission can ask for anything.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh so first presentation.

We are honored to have as our guest today, school board chair, Sarah Leonardi and School Board Member Dr.

Jeff Holness.

Come on up.

You're going to make a presentation.

Give us some updates.

And after your presentation, I I have a couple of questions to ask.

Yeah, please come up here.

Just press the button that's below the speaker.

Good afternoon.

Did you enjoy the Martin Luther King parade?

A little chilly, right?

I especially appreciate their dancing mayor.

It was I really hope there is no video of that.

There is.

We'll actually be sharing it soon here, uh Chair Leonardi.

Thank you for your election.

Thank you.

Thank you for your eagerness.

Go ahead, Joe.

Okay, great.

Welcome.

Good afternoon, everyone.

It's an honor to be here.

And uh we're going to be providing uh academic and district updates.

And um uh Chair Leonardi will go ahead and stop.

All right.

Well, it's a pleasure to see all of you.

You have the two board members who represent all of Fort Lauderdale together.

So um thank you so much for having us.

And again, thank you for a wonderful MLK Day parade.

It's always such a joy.

Um for those of you who don't know, I'm Sarah Leonardi, I'm chair of the school board, and I represent District Three, which is a lot of uh East Fort Lauderdale, and we have Vice Chair Dr.

Holness.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So um if you could uh change the slide to slide three, that would be very helpful.

Is there's um do we have a do we use is this what we use?

Okay, and it should be working.

City clerk can help slide three.

All right, well, that's it.

This one?

Okay.

All right, great.

Um, so um thank you so much again for having us.

It's an honor for us to be here to update the city of Fort Lauderdale.

Just want to uh uh speak about some real positive things that happening in Broad County schools as well.

So for the second year in a row, Broad County Public Schools earn an A rating, and the number of C rated schools were reduced by a half from 70 in 2023-24 school year to 34 in year 24-25.

In addition to that, the district reported no D or F rated schools.

So I think, Mayor, if you don't mind, I think that deserves a round of applause.

Okay.

Um and I've been talking a lot about the new Broward schools.

Um given a lot of the the noise and the news.

Um I think it's really important to talk about how uh we are succeeding at our core core mission, which is educating students.

Um as you can see, more than half of our uh Broward traditional Broward public schools are A-rated.

We are only one of two large school districts in the in the state of Florida that have no D or F schools.

Um and we are a vast majority of our our uh schools have received A or B grades.

So when people are talking about moving to Broward, specifically moving to Fort Lauderdale, which we'll talk about later in this presentation, uh you can you can assure people that we have great traditional public schools for children to go to, and we're really really proud of all of our teachers, our families, everyone who works with students uh who deliver these excellent academic outcomes for our students.

Oh, my slide.

I'm really proud of our district three schools.

Um in the last few years since we've moved to this new accountability system for the state of Florida, we've seen a lot of improvements.

Schools that were historically C rated uh moving to B or A schools, and and we're really really proud of that accomplishment.

Um so two of the schools in district three that earned uh that went from a C to an A grade include North Side Elementary, the beautiful historic North Side here in Fort Lauderdale, as well as Cyprus Elementary, which is right um on the other side of the border in Pompanoa.

It used to be my home school until I moved to this great city two years ago.

Um, and then we can be really proud of Stranah High School, which received its first ever A rating.

Um so 93% of our district three schools are A or B rated.

Again, something really for us to brag about as a city.

Chair Leonardo, can you share with us just a little bit, maybe folks are who rates the school?

What are some of the factors in that rating and how what leads to changes from scoring from year to year?

Yeah, so this is the state's accountability measure.

Um so students now they take three assessments throughout the year.

Uh they're called fast assessments, and there's a calculation of you know proficiency, um, how much the students improve uh from the first test in the school year to the end.

So there's a multitude of different metrics that go into this, but this is the state's own accountability system that we that has has rated us um on such an excellent level.

And the state has also rated us a high performing school district.

Great.

Thank you.

Okay, so we'll look at the um the schools in in my district that's in Fort Lauderdale, and we have um uh three schools that increase by two letter grades, and we also have eleven schools that increase by one letter grade, and eighteen schools that maintain the same letter grade from 2024.

So if you look at this slide for district five, um you'll see that um uh in district five in general, rather, um we have schools that improve from a C to an A.

So if you look at the slide for district five, um you'll see that um uh in district five in general, rather, um we have schools that improve from a C to an A, and this is overall in District 5, which is Horizon Elementary, Rock Island Elementary, and Sunland Park Academy.

And in uh in District 5, we have some schools that receive A for the first time ever.

We have Oriole Elementary School, Plantation Elementary, and Board Anderson uh high school.

So there's a lot of wonderful uh academic improvement that we are observing in Broad County schools, and we are so proud of our teachers or staff or our district and and and our school board members as well who work diligently to make sure that our district continues to perform.

So again, we're kind of diving into the the data a little bit more on our schools.

But I do want to highlight so in district three as well as district five, you have some schools that have historically been high performing your your Bayviews, your VS Wise, your Harbordales, Fort Lauderdale High School, they have been able to maintain their A rating from the state.

But I think what um exciting story in addition to that is you have again some schools that have improved over the last several years.

You have Bennett Elementary, North Side, Westwood Heights, um Stephen Foster, New River, Riverland that are going from C to B to A schools.

And so again, as you're trying to attract families into the city um and talking about affordability, we have great public education options available for families that are doing a really excellent job at again our core mission educating students.

Okay, so if you notice on this slide, these are the schools that are in uh Fort Lauderdale in in District 5.

And uh prior uh Chair Leonard uh showed uh schools uh that are in Fort Lauderdale in her district as well.

So if you look at this schools um in in the chart, it shows that Dillard Elementary has uh shown outstanding improvement from a D to a B in just two years.

Uh North Fork has maintained a B rating for two consecutive years.

Rock Island and Sunland Park uh made a major leap from a C to an A.

And Thurgood Marshall and William Dandy has maintained a C rating over the past three years and was just one point percentage, one percentage point rather, shy of achieving a B rating.

Uh Walker has shown remarkable progress as well, improving from an F to a B in just two years.

And Dillard 6 through 12 has shown positive improvement, improving to a B after two years at a C.

So when we look at all of our schools in Fort Lauderdale in both uh uh Cherry Leonard's district and mine, uh most of the school except for one, either maintain the same letter grade or improve.

Uh so we're very proud of what we're achieving here in Fort Lauderdale as far as Broad County schools and our efforts to ensure maximum student learning outcome.

At this point, uh we will have Dr.

Wanza uh come up and provide some additional redefining updates for you.

And before the wonderful Dr.

Wanza speaks, I do want to acknowledge I think a huge part of the story of academic success in Fort Lauderdale is the commitment from this commission and from the city.

The amount of money you all have invested in the the parks at our schools and the playgrounds, um your your EAB and your chief education officer are very excellent partners in all of that.

So thank you for your commitment and partnership in making Fort Lauderdale schools as excellent as they are.

Good afternoon.

So I guess I'm gonna get it every two-week invitation.

Keep coming back.

Keep coming back.

Um Would you like a seat up here?

No, no, no, no, no, no.

I'm I I'm fine being appointed, not elected.

Um, so as I um told the commission and the community two weeks ago, tomorrow the board will engage um in the culmination, if you will, of the conversation this school year around redefining our schools and then in another month or so um sort of tee up for um next year's conversations.

But um as we all know, the district has been in this second year of redefining our schools because we are experiencing unprecedented um enrollment declines from year to year.

As I said, two years uh two weeks ago rather, um, from one school year we declined by 10,000 students, and what that um equates to financially is over 90 million in one year, but then over the 10-year look, it's um over 300, almost 350 million dollars.

So um the board um has been very, very um concerned about this, and we've worked with the communities over this past school year.

We actually had um approximately 13 different community meetings across the Broward County um area to discuss redefining.

And so I'm gonna click to the next slide.

Okay, and so um that right there, this slide outlines all of the um conversations that we have, but more specifically, um we did target the meetings that we had here as it relates to the city of Fort Lauderdale or schools that are located in the city of Fort Lauderdale.

So you can see we've had um community conversation in September.

We've also had it in November, and then the board has had multiple board workshops around redefining our schools.

So the next slide, Doctor, thank you.

So um, so um these are some commitments specifically as it relates to the city of Fort Lauderdale schools, but also district wide because there are opportunities.

We um know that the board has said that um definitely want to partner with the community, the city to um implement a maritime industry program at uh Stranahan High School.

The board also solidified the partnership and reaffirmed this commitment to work with the city for the K-12 Sports Academy between Bennett, Sunrise, and Fort Lauderdale, and then some opportunities that may be in feeder patterns here in the city is around um establishing some feeder patterns for for dual language as well as um gifted academy and then something new around this whole um technology emphasis around um um Broward powered by AI, and then we are looking um and working with communities around some real really some future ready type programming for students, and then uh but on tomorrow's board agenda as it relates specifically to the city is um the item as it relates to North Fork Elementary School and consolidating North Fork into the four elementary schools, Croys and Park, Dr.

Martin Luther King, Thurgood Marshall Walker, and then trans um transforming that campus for another district use, also um expanding the opportunities at Thurgood Marshall to be from birth to grade five, and then lastly, um the consolidation of um Wooden Rogers and Seagull onto the Winden campus and then working um to transition the Seagull campus for another district use.

So what um after tomorrow's board meeting and whatever action the board takes, we're certainly ready to operationalize those decisions, and then we're gonna come back to the board on March 24th, as I told the commission two weeks ago, and we're gonna have the conversation around um the the proposals that um we receive for the North Fork campus, and then at the May 12th um school board workshop, we're actually gonna start to tee up the conversation for next school year.

That's it.

Is that complete your presentation?

Okay, um, I have a couple questions.

How does how does a school or school system experience such a precipitous leap over a short period of time and accomplish this level of achievement?

Um what are I mean, it's more than just the cities, you know, adding some pickleball courts and uh you know playing field.

There's there's got to be more to it.

Is there a formula?

Was there an agenda?

Were there is there something new added to the the ingredients of fine of uh higher education that maybe Dr.

Hepburn has uh brought into the system that you can share with us today?

Yeah, I think we'd both like to speak to that.

Um I think it's no secret that we experienced a lot of chaos um over a very short period of time, about five years ago, um, where we had six superintendents in three years.

There was a lot of staff turnover.

Um, and there had been kind of some entrenched issues for some time.

And finally, um, when we were able to appoint a superintendent who has had a strong academic background, um he was a chief academic officer, uh, and bring some stability to the system.

For me, that's that's the story um that I've seen play out.

Uh I mean, obviously the accomplishments are owned by our students and our teachers and the people who are in our schools working every single day.

Um, but I think the stability that Dr.

Hepburn has brought uh to the school district is definitely a part of that that narrative.

And I don't know if Dr.

Holmes.

Uh thank you.

And and as uh Chair Leonard mentioned, um, you know, uh Brue County schools, we did experience um unfortunately uh some periods of instability, but we've actually uh done some different things.

For example, um uh I believe this started with Lakata and continued with Hepburn and Hepburn uh pretty much did a really great job.

We formed what we call the student's uh transformation office, and that office is is a department that focuses on our low performing schools, and we try to provide the right resources, uh targeted instructions, targeted resources for those schools.

So uh initially we had three regional offices.

We added a fourth, which we call the student transformation office, and that office uh focuses primarily on our low performance schools.

I believe that helped a lot.

We also had programmatic changes in many of the schools.

Um I would be remiss if I did not say uh as well that it's our teachers, our staff that you know have worked diligently to ensure that our students are learning.

So I believe with a combination of concerted effort with the school board members, the district leadership, and our teachers and staff who were able to make uh uh significant improvement in our schools, and Dr.

Wanza may have something else to add, I'm not sure.

Okay.

Any other questions?

Ben, yeah, Mayor, thank you.

Thank you both for being here.

A couple questions.

First, uh I'll start off with um city manager.

I'm gonna turn to you on this.

So uh Chair Leonardy and school member uh vice chair wholeness.

We have a education advisory board in the city.

City manager, do we have students on the education advisory board?

When I was on it years ago, I thought we did, but do you know if we do?

I'm not 100% sure.

Susan Leon, our chief education officers here.

Okay.

So my question is how can we better engage students in our government in supporting the good work that's happening in our schools?

So that was just one immediate thought I had.

Education advisors, so it's a volunteer meet once a month in the afternoon, Susan, is that right?

I think I think we meet the education advisory board meets once a month and like five o'clock or six o'clock or something like that.

So would that be a good opportunity to engage students?

Is there anything else we should be doing?

Like a years ago, I thought about a student youth council that the um city would support in some way.

Susan, go ahead.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for the question.

Yes, through parks and recreation, there is a teen youth council in place already.

I did not know that.

Yes, we have one.

How many students are on that?

Um, I would have to defer to parks and recreation to get the exact number.

It's operated through um uh Carla Hibbert and the team program.

Okay, great.

Okay, I'll find out more about that offline.

Uh um, Susan, have we thought about students being on the education advisory board?

Is that something we could contemplate or uh absolutely we could research that.

Um it's actually never come up at the board meeting.

So certainly.

Okay.

Mayor, is that could we look just look at do a little research on that?

I'll well let her do the research, yeah.

Her, yes, but I just want to make sure we're supportive of exploring that.

Okay.

I think that'd be great.

City manager, if we could do that, I think that'd be great.

Okay.

Absolutely.

So there's a couple things.

Then I'd also and um I think you all can talk about this following Sunshine Law because we're sunshine, but um, so there's two schools, uh Seagull and Win Rogers.

Sorry, Seagull and North Fork.

And so we had a good discussion at the commission uh meeting recently about uh Witten Rogers and um and Seagull and exploring the possibility of uh uh uh regional training facility for our fire and police.

Have you heard our feedback about that or yeah, yeah.

Um the your your fire chief and uh I I don't know what m what Mike Owen's official title is.

Deputy Fire Chief or Assistant Fire Chief.

Um I've spent a lot of time with Chief Golden and Mike uh discussing this, and they've been really excellent partners throughout the whole redefining effort.

I don't think there's been a redefining meeting we've had about um Fort Lauderdale schools that they haven't been at.

Um, and they've just been really great advocates for for your vision.

Um, and then I I've been very supportive of that.

We've talked about it at board workshops and board meetings on this.

Um and and I'm really excited about the opportunity for the city, but also for our students to to participate.

Um, yeah, it's been it's been really great.

And to your previous question, um, there are multiple different avenues in which we engage students for for input.

So we have a group of students organized by our student advisor to the board, um, and the uh alternate student advisor to the board.

They organize a workshop every quarter where they bring um middle school and high school students to the dais with us and they share um their feedback on different issues, and that's been really enlightening and really productive.

Um we again we have a student advisor and alternate student advisor, and then the superintendent has its own um committee of student advisors that he meets with.

Um so there's a lot of different ways that we've been able to engage that you guys can can also utilize.

Um and I know I was just with uh a group of students at Port Lauderdale High School this morning, and they are there are many who are eager to get involved in local government um and excited about that.

So uh however we can assess with getting you guys access um through the appropriate channels to to students and student feedback, we're happy to do that.

Okay, that's great.

Thank you.

City manager, where what happens next in our let's start with Seagull discussion with the school board uh exploring options there.

As mentioned, we've been advocating um over the course of the last several months, and I know that the school board uh has a meeting coming up where more determinations will be made as to the schools and how that will progress.

Once that happens, we will have another opportunity to advocate on behalf of the city for that public safety training facility.

We do need to do a little bit more due diligence on our part in terms of what it would take to make that facility what we intend for it to be in terms of fiscal resources and a timeline.

Uh, but all of that would be subject to those discussions with the school board.

Uh it is not clear at this moment as to what the consideration would be uh for the city to be able to utilize that site.

I know we've had previous conversations about various sites and whether it would be market rate or a long-term lease or uh some other mechanism.

So we are looking at this as a true partnership for the betterment of our entire community, and so uh anything market rate would be a challenge for us in terms of a rental opportunity, but we are hoping to have further discussions with the school board on that.

Okay, great.

So, Chair Leonard, I mean, what just me, just one one person here.

But I think for me, a long-term lease of part of Seagull to use that as a training facility seems to make a lot of sense for us rather or from I think for the city rather than a purchase.

Is that long-term lease something you considered or are you thinking something different or I think there's been a lot of different conversations.

We have to first the board has to take official action um tomorrow is when when we'll be voting uh to close a facility, and then it's up to staff to negotiate that.

But I'm happy to um carry the sentiments to the board tomorrow during the meeting.

Um and Dr.

Wanza is here, so she she hears the the conversation as well.

Yeah, and and great.

And I I think again, long-term lease, and again, just it it would take I think investment from the city to transform it into a training facility, so that's cost, retrofitting, all that kind of stuff and maintenance.

So I'd really love to see just a minimal yearly lease and and us operate and maintain as such.

And I think the yearly lease of like a dollar a year would be amazing.

So I just want to share that uh with you for your your consideration for they think it's amazing too, but not the same amazing as you as you may define amazing differently, but different definitely at least the same work.

Yeah, it's good.

Fantastic.

And then Commissioner Beasley Pym was leading the discussion about North Fork and our interest again in a partnership there, which we're very interested in.

That I do want to respect my colleague that is uh his school.

So I don't know, Dr.

Holness, if you want to speak to North Fork or Okay, so North Fork, in terms of the possibility of uh having uh um some sort of a lease with the city.

Well, what we've discussed at the board and prior board meeting is that um you know we we're we're looking for the the best uh option as far as proposal for that site uh being within my city, uh part of um within my district rather, part of what we discuss is that we would love to see options that will involve uh community input as well as immediate community benefit um in addition to whatever the options are that's gonna be there.

We do also had a discussion on uh a government rate as far as any leasing option.

Uh our school district has uh lost students, and um it's important that we're making fiscally responsible decisions.

So uh while it may not necessarily be a market rate, and I leave that to staff, um the the board is looking for uh a reasonable governmental type rate in terms of any leasing options that would be presented.

Great.

That sounds great.

Yep, that's good.

Commissioner Rees and Pittman is that yes, thank you for sharing and thank you for bringing that conversation back to the dice.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And then Chair Leonard, one other and and you and I had a had a chance to talk with this with city manager, but um city manager just want to share with with everyone that we all collectively uh continue to work with the school board and chair Leonardy to find options for Fort Lauder L High School, uh public schools, uh graduation venues.

So we're continuing to explore that.

Uh city manager, is that right?

Options for um uh possible graduation venues.

Thank you, Commissioner.

So just as a follow-up to the information provided to the commission last week on you know sentiments that we can share with the public staff has been doing research at the request of various members of the city commission as to venue opportunities within the city of Fort Lauderdale, uh, within our purview or via partnerships that we may have, in addition to other venues that we may not have a defined partnership.

Uh we are in communications with the superintendent and his staff as to what the needs are for each school.

Uh as you are aware, there are certain requirements that the school board has put in place that determine uh which venue a high school graduation would take place at.

We're taking the information provided in terms of class size, the amount of tickets afforded to each graduate, which is four at this time.

That's what has been shared with us, and we're looking at various venues within the city.

So we're researching uh not just War Memorial, but also the Broward Center, uh, the First Baptist Church, the convention center, uh NOVA as well.

And we plan to come back to the commission with further information on that to see uh which schools could be accommodated where there may be costs associated, and the school board would have to take that into consideration.

Uh, as far as war memorial is concerned, we do get a number of rentals through our engagement with War Memorial, our our agreement.

Uh, however, based on the class size and the number of attendees, War Memorial may not be best suited for the schools that are being discussed, uh, which are Strannihhan and Fort Lauderdale High School.

Dillard High School's graduation is intended to be held at Dillard.

I have not uh received a request for that graduation ceremony to potentially take place at another venue, but we would bring back the full um result of our research, and then the city commission can provide additional feedback so that we can either engage the school board with discussions on how we can facilitate this, or if there are any additional costs or considerations that need to be contemplated, we would have that discussion.

Great.

Thanks, City Manager.

Does that all sound good, Chair?

Yeah, yeah.

And I, you know, again, I am open to to any kind of partnership that that can provide solutions.

I do want to to share that I did meet with a group of about 30 to 40 students at Fort Lauderdale High School this morning.

Um we weren't we didn't I didn't go there to talk about graduation, but that became the topic.

Um and just anecdotally, a lot of the concerns the students had uh we were able to address.

So they were worried about ADA accessibility of the of Dillard, we were able to assure that you know any grandparent um who has a ticket is is able to physically be there.

Um the validatorian and salutatorian were both there, uh, so I was uh very overwhelmed intellectually but uh they were very worried that there wasn't that they were worried there wouldn't be reserved seating for those families, as there usually there usually is, but we were able to assure them that there will be reserved seating.

Um they were worried that they were gonna be just walking across a gym floor instead of on a stage.

We were able to assure them there there is in fact a stage at Dillard.

Um I've been to graduations there before.

It's really been incredible.

Um they were worried that there wouldn't be like a big screen because Fort Lauderdale High School usually does the beautiful slideshow of different photos and things like that.

We were able to assure them that that there will be a big screen.

So a lot of the concerns that the students had were able to be alleviated.

Um so I I say that all to say, like I'm again, we are open to any partnership that that the city is willing to bring to us, but having sat down with the students myself this morning, I feel um I felt a bit of a sense of relief with that conversation.

Okay, great.

Do you want us to continue pursuing options or not?

I mean, I think we're we're open to options, but um I I do want to assure that uh you know we do have a wonderful experience planned for our graduates.

Okay.

Dr.

Wolves.

Thanks.

And I just want to mention that as a district, as we if we um expand graduation locations um to a certain number, it does create some logistics and uh challenges as far as um uh programmatic challenges, and I have Dr.

Wan just speak to that a little bit so everyone can understand.

Um traditionally we have a few venues for graduation.

If we expand that out to many venues, it then create uh significant logistic uh challenges for the district to be able to to implement.

So, Dr.

Wanzo, you can make some auditional comments.

Thank you.

I'm back.

Yes, um, graduations also fall within my um portfolio of administrative responsibilities.

But the only thing I will add is um, you know, we were very successful um coming out of the pandemic at hosting uh graduation ceremonies, multiple ceremonies at Dillard High School, and I think that what um people may sometimes not understand is um unlike any other high school gymnasium that we have, Dillard, Blanche Ely, and Pompano Beach are arena style um facilities.

They're not the traditional bench seats that you're used to going, they're actually individual stadium seats that everyone sits in.

Dillard probably has the largest high school facility, if not the region, probably the state, with the number of people that it can just seat individual guest wise, and the students would be situated on the floor, which is very, very, very similar to the design at NOVA Southeastern University.

That is their basketball gym arena that we have graduations in.

And I'll give an example.

Okay, any other questions or comments?

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

So Sarah, could I just follow up a little bit on thought before I ask a couple of other questions?

So how is it left with your meeting this morning uh at Fort Lorel High School?

Um my office has been in touch with a lot of folks.

Obviously, it's in my district, so we've been very intuitive to what's been going on there.

Were there any next steps outlined?

Were you basically saying we're going to meet again, or how is it left?

So the the round table with the students was really about uh it was supposed to be about technology.

Obviously, um, you know, there were there were the lot of the conversation was on graduation.

Um there were some like small things that that we left with you know, uh a student was particularly concerned about her parent, her grandparent having access to the facility.

Um I told her there shouldn't be any ADA issues, uh, but you know, we will work with whoever if if uh they they need extra assistance.

Um so I mean that's how the conversation ended.

I was we were able uh along with the student advisor to the school board, we were able to answer a lot of questions and concerns.

Did you see there was a need to maybe have another meeting or were there concerns addressed in in a satisfactory way where they all said, okay, those were our concerns, and we're happy to hear these answers?

Yeah, I mean, I think it I felt good leaving today.

Um I felt like we we answered a lot of questions.

I think there's still some angst because change is hard.

Um, but I think it seemed like the students felt better uh leaving than they did coming in um talking about it.

Okay, thank you.

That's very helpful, and thank you for your work.

And by the way, so before I ask this question, I wanted to say also thank you to all of you.

Um everyone is very well aware that these have been very difficult years, a lot to navigate.

Uh congratulations on these results.

Um, you know, I I actually just uh texted the former principal at Northside because I've spent a lot of time at that school.

I know that she's no longer here, but just so thrilled to see uh what that school has achieved.

Uh amazing.

That that's such a precious place, and those kids are amazing.

And uh I I I have not had the pleasure of meeting with the new principal yet, but um I have with the former over the years and always attended functions there, and just just that is a uh it's a magical place actually, not just the historic structure, uh, but also the kids and the faculty and the commitment there has been amazing.

So congratulations on all of your incredible work.

It's really greatly appreciated.

Thank you uh for your leadership.

Um, my one question is, and this is an issue that received a lot of attention in the press, but then I haven't heard anything about it, so maybe you can help me.

Um, the whole notion of charter schools taking up space in the public schools.

Where exactly are we with that?

And do you see that even impacting some of the issues that we're looking at with some of the schools in our district that we I mean in our city that we're looking to do things with?

But where where is that issue right now with charter schools taking space in public schools?

Yeah, so we did receive a number of letters um from different charter school management companies, um, school districts all over the state did.

I think uh my hope is that through the legislative process and session, some of this is cleaned up because it would pose um really severe uh implications for um as a system, but also for the redefining effort, um, our budget.

So um I know that the Florida School Boards Association is lobbying um for some changes uh because I think there were some under an unintended consequences of that that rule that came from DOE.

Um so I I don't have any solid answers for you because I think a lot of it is up in the air during session.

So we expect to know more by the end of the session, is that what we're waiting for now?

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, thank you for that update.

I really appreciate it.

And again, thank you so much for everything you do.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

All right, I have a couple more questions.

Um this is the year of our 250th anniversary of our country.

Has the school board considered programs or uh activities that are going to allow students to uh be educated and celebrate uh the anniversary.

We haven't heard anything, and uh is there anything the city can do to be more involved to help participate and promote uh the anniversary is I guess we should have started this conversation last year, but uh uh anything that you can you can share with us to ex uh uh let us know what's going on.

I'm not I wish we had some academic people here.

I'm not aware of any specific efforts, but we're happy to I'm happy to bring it up at the meeting tomorrow.

We're not celebrating the we're not celebrating the school is not a celebrating is uh not during the instructional year, but yes, we will we'll know but it just this is a whole year, it's not just the July 4th.

July 4th is for fireworks or drones, okay.

Uh but uh but it's uh uh but you know it's a whole year celebration.

So you're saying the school board's done nothing.

I'm unaware.

So it could be that there are things going on.

I just don't know what what is going on.

Okay.

Um but we will definitely get some more information back to you on that.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Yes, Jeff.

And Mayor, um, you know, I I appreciate you bringing that up, and I I am sure that um the district uh will likely have um uh some things in place to ensure that we're celebrating.

Uh so thank you for bringing that up.

And um, you know, that's a a um district operation issue as well.

So we we're gonna um you know I appreciate you bringing that to our attention.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions?

All right, there being none.

Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Mayor, can I just uh question for Commissioner Glassman?

So based on that for you that Commissioner Glassman, um uh I just want to make sure what's your um take for four lateral high school graduation.

I mean, is it worth continuing to explore options?

I want to for wherever you think.

Well, we continue to get the emails.

I I well that's why I was trying to find out if they felt necessary.

I mean, I it almost sounds like they're okay now.

So I uh but I I know there's their issues and um I I mean I don't mind us looking for other options and then presenting those options to the school board, but um that's why I was interested to see if they decided on any follow-up necessary.

But um let I'm sure we'll hear today what happened at that meeting, um, and this way we'll be able to see what that information is.

I still don't think it's a bad idea to to continue to see what we can do.

That's uh yeah um and then present it to those folks.

That's how I feel.

So I'm gonna do the so I'll I'll keep doing the same for schools in my district.

I know you're doing with yours, and then we'll we'll just see what options city manager comes together with.

Okay.

Sounds good.

Okay.

Is that good, city manager?

Okay, thanks.

Thank you.

Well, it doesn't sound like they're really asking for our help anymore, right?

I I'm getting a lot of now.

I haven't gotten emails today about an update, but just historically, I know it sounds like Commissioner Glassman, you you probably get more than I am, but a lot of feedback, a lot of concern from students.

Okay.

How many um does anyone have a number of what the first Baptist Church can hold?

Uh is it the sanctuary or is it the uh the uh the the function hall?

I I think we're looking at the main sanctuary.

Sanctuary, okay.

I don't have that number, Mayor.

Okay.

Just curious.

I know it's big.

Yeah, I I think you know, and uh obviously emotions were really running high when this was announced, this policy.

But folks need to understand Fort Layell High School and Dillard are like arch arch rivals.

So to tell Fort Layle High School that they're going over to Dillard for the graduation, that's a part of this.

You know, it's like an emotional thing.

So we have to understand that maybe those maybe those emotions.

I thought the arrival was more between Stranahan and Fort Lauderdale.

I I maybe well, maybe everyone has to elaborate.

But but we graduated from Fort Lauderdale.

Yeah, if you have any problem with Dillard.

Yeah.

But just sharing, you know, as it was said, um, you know, everyone has a vision of what they would like their graduation to look like.

But also um Dillard is a superior um location to host a graduation.

So even with what's being shared um as a commission, you know, we do want to um you know help our neighbors reach the desires that they want, but also help them to understand that plan the plan is not a chop liver plan, it's a good plan as well.

So keep that in consideration.

No, although I love chop liver, don't get me wrong.

But I just want to say that the plan B is or the plan A right now.

Yeah, it is something to is worth entertaining and considering.

It's not a bad plan.

And I think that from what we heard today, it looks like the dialogue is is helping.

And sometimes that's really what it is.

It's you know, it's just that dialogue and sharing those ideas and but I don't I don't think it's bad to still present options, but at the end of the day, this is a school board decision.

Yes, that's the point.

Yes.

Yeah, okay.

All right, let us move on.

Um let's see.

All right, uh working on new business, uh business one, Las Olas Mobility Western Corridor, City Manager.

We have Milosh Mashtorovich, our director of transportation mobility, he's gonna lead the presentation, and I know that our consultants are here as well.

Great.

Melos.

Thank you very much, uh Madam Manager.

My name is Milos Mystorovich, and I'm uh director for Cities Transportation and Mobility Department.

Uh so today we would like to provide you with an update on Las Olas Mobility Western Corridor design that goes from uh Southeast uh South Andrews Avenue to Southeast 17th Avenue.

So in terms of the background, uh back in 2019, the City Commission uh started uh process of developing a new vision for Las Boulevard from Andrews Avenue to the beach.

Uh Las Olas Working Group was created around that time uh to support this effort and included members of the neighborhood at City Associations, uh businesses along Las Olas Boulevard and also the neighborhood.

Uh the city uh ended up uh hiring Corradino Group in 2019 in order to help with the development vision plan, and that process took about um two years.

Uh from late 2019 until adoption of the vision plan for Las Solas, uh the Corradino group attended more than 90 meetings to collect input from working group members, neighborhoods, and uh business associations.

Uh this process included in-person walks, virtual walking tours, neighborhood meetings, attendance at the business association meetings, individual stakeholder meetings, um citywide survey, and the regular working group meetings as well.

Um all this feedback was uh collected and uh ultimately considered and incorporated as part of the vision plan that the city commission adopted in June of 2021.

So in order to advance the vision plan into design plans, um in May of 2024, the City Commission uh approved agreement with the consultant, WSP, uh, in order for them to in order for them to develop uh design for the Western Corridor.

The Western Corridor goes from again uh Andrews Avenue to Southeast 17th Avenue and includes a downtown section uh from Andrews to uh tunnel top, uh shop segment that goes from tunnel top to 12th Avenue, and then Coley Hammock that goes from 12th to uh 17.

Uh so the consultant WSP is tasked with developing 60 percent engineering plans and uh pre-direction from the city commission uh WSP is to advance the cross sections uh identified in the approved version of 2021 vision plan to 60 percent design plans for the uh downtown section and collie hammock section and uh for the retail shops, uh they are tasked to develop two conceptual designs.

The first one would be one uh that was identified and adopted as part of the 2021 vision plan, which uh removes the medians along the shop segment, and the other one uh would be designed that retains the medions, modifies the parking lanes, and expands the sidewalk widths.

Um the intent was to bring back this back uh to city commission for feedback and direction as to which concept for the so shop segment to advance to 30 percent and 60 percent plan development, one without or one with with the medians.

Uh so we have worked with WSP and developed conceptual designs, and over the last few months uh we have conducted public engagement and presented the project update to downtown development authority, Las Olas Company, Brower Workshop, um Downtown uh Civic Association and Collie Hammock Homeowners Association.

We also went before Beverly Heights Civic Association and met with uh Idlewild as well.

Um public town hall meeting was also held uh uh mid-November.

And um, aside from all the groups that I've mentioned already, uh the Council of Civic Association was also uh invited, invited to that uh meeting.

So after today's presentation, uh we plan to bring this item back to city commission on February 3rd uh as part of the evening evening agenda and really seek direction from the city commissioners to advancing conceptual designs to 60 percent for the downtown and collie hammock segments, and also uh for the city commission to provide us with a direction as to which alternative for the shop segment to proceed with uh either one without a median or one with the median.

Um again, securing the city direct city commission direction uh for the design is very important in order for us to stay on the schedule and within a budget.

Um and uh once uh provided that we do receive a city commission direction in February, um the plan 60 percent of design plans would be available by winter of this year.

Um and once that is done, there would be a new solicitation that the city would need to issue in order to advance sixty percent design plans to hundred percent and also secure a firm that would be conducting design and build.

So uh consultant team is here with me today.

Um and uh they'll take us through presentation.

Feel free to answer any qu ask any questions in the meanwhile, and we also have some city stuff as well.

Okay, great, thank you.

Why don't you proceed with your presentation?

Hello.

Good afternoon, Mayor, good afternoon, Commissioners, City Manager.

My name is Catherine Prince.

I'm the project manager on the consultant side.

Um, and uh with me I have uh from Brizaga uh Alec, who's leading our engagement for the project, um Brian from Shenmore uh assisting uh with the uh Arbor side, and also Greg from WSP, he's leading the engineering side from the civil and the drainage uh components.

And uh folks who are not here in our subconsultant teams, we have surveyors, uh landscape architects, uh lighting specialists, and other engineers as well.

Since the team received our uh NTP notice to proceed, the WSP and our subconsultants, subconsultants have completed the topographical survey, subsurface utility exploration, and we've reviewed the city's latest storm water model.

With this information, we've developed the preliminary design built on the Lasolas Mobility Plan approved by the Commission in 2021.

We have met with several stakeholders ash as uh Milosh mentioned earlier, and we also held a public uh meeting on November thirteenth to provide a forum for anyone interested in the project.

Uh during this presentation, we'll go over the pre um the design improvements proposed in the three sections within the project area.

The first section is the downtown.

Um the downtown section, we advanced the adopted 2021 Las Solas mobility plan from an engineering design and a construction feasibility point of view.

We focused on increasing the uh tree canopy uh with safe uh crossings.

Um otherwise there's minimal sidewalk and uh roadway changes within this section uh of the corridor.

This is a view looking west from Southeast First Avenue, existing conditions.

And here are the proposed conditions.

The majors the major investment along this section is increasing the tree canopy.

So we are proposing or we're looking at almost three times the existing tree canopy along the entire.

So stop stop right here.

Anyone have any questions with regard to this section of Las Solas?

Looks pretty good to me.

Okay, yeah, the other questions.

This is your district.

Yeah.

Yeah, thanks, Mayor.

Um thanks for being here.

This was uh just uh feedback uh gotten before.

Um try to summarize it here.

Um they're concerned about adding six inches to the six and a half foot five sidewalk, about in Hazinga Park.

Um, and is that I guess is that worth the adjustment on that?

Say it again.

Say it again.

The Heisinger Park.

Sidewalk in front of Hazinga Park.

Right, to the left.

Yep.

Yeah.

Feedback is from Dougie and concern that it's just adding six inches to the Hazinga Park sidewalk.

I don't know.

Uh Jenny, uh, you're here.

I don't know if that makes sense.

Yeah.

So out of here, my question.

Does that make sense, Christina?

There isn't a uh it's Catherine, it's not six inches.

No worries.

Um it's we are not we are looking at between one to seven feet um in front of Heisinger Park.

Okay.

It's it's not six inches, it's one to seven feet uh plus five additional feet for landscape area.

Okay, so then he's just might be an error.

Not tracking this.

Yeah.

I think the only thing that I would add is that we did not move the curb line when we constructed Heisinger Park.

So there is a sidewalk that runs from the curb back to the landscaped area within the park.

Yeah.

And then further back is the lawn.

So you know it's a little bit different here, that's all.

Okay, great.

It seems that the it seems that most of what we're seeing here is the trees and and a median.

Is that correct?

That is correct.

And I also want to clarify all the improvements you're seeing here is within the cities right away.

Right.

Nothing is within the park.

I understand.

But that's basically what we what we're seeing here is more trees and then the addition of a median.

That is correct.

We are extending the median.

And one of the important parts of this, in my view, Mayor, is adding the trees gathered as a buffer between the street and the pedestrians.

Correct.

And why is that an important functionality in this?

One, there is sufficient space.

You know, we are in the rest of the corridor, there isn't enough room to provide this amenity.

In this particular area, there is that space to provide.

And uh in this particular area, um, it also allows for the roots to um it's it's a good space for the roots to grow.

In the rest of the corridor, we are not providing a landscape area.

What we are doing is providing structural soil, which is pro which will uh provide the same benefits, but it's not gonna look the same visually.

Okay, great.

And how many trees would be added to this portion?

Um let me go back a slide.

Thanks.

Um actually I'm gonna pull my folder.

Give me a second.

Yeah, please take your time.

Take your time.

Never trust a picture.

That's right.

I think it's 20, but something like that.

No, not for that side.

Commissioner, just on your last question, one of the important parts is right now uh, please identify yourself.

Sorry, I'm Alec Boganoff on the consultant team.

Uh right now, a lot of the sidewalks you're directly adjacent to the street.

So if you step onto the street, you're in traffic.

In this case, there's uh a focused effort on creating a landscape buffer between the sidewalk and the street, which for this was one of the biggest comments in the engagement side for parents and pedestrians, it just provides an added level of safety.

You're not just gonna step off into the street on into oncoming charges.

Right, but how many trees are designated between Andrews and the tunnel?

Total number of trees, one twenty-two.

122 trees.

122 trees of that the large canopy trees, 32, medium trees, 81, small four, and five palm trees, only five, compared to if you look at existing major majority of the trees are all palm trees, 65 existing palm trees.

Right.

Okay.

So that would be 122 total or 122 in addition.

Total.

Um total is 122.

So it's adding 60 or 40.

For me, how many being added?

57 or so added it's if I can pull up my backup slides.

Go ahead, take your time.

Take your time, take your time.

And here, use this if you need more space, Catherine, up here.

And is it just take away from our need to plant 200,000 trees over the next 10 years?

Yes.

Is this come off our column here?

200,000 minus 50.

We're on our way.

On our way.

And I think Mayor, the for example, in this section, the because there's largely not a median, that this would be a new median with additional trees in the median.

That's what it looks like.

Correct.

Right.

We we just those are all new trees.

And and what I've also understood through in talking with this is as Catherine mentioned, is these are not just small caliper trees.

And that's my uh my understanding throughout the quarter, is these are significant caliper trees.

Supposed to be sixty to seven percent, seventy percent mature.

Yeah, if according to the backup, yeah.

Okay, so so according to exhibit nine, page seven, it says three times uh increase of the tree canopy downtown, 43 shit shade trees and seventy-four flower trees.

I believe those are the additional trees that are being added to that segment.

Is that correct?

Page seven of thirty-two.

No, I'm asking you, is that correct?

Page seven of thirty-two.

You want to go to page seven?

Page seven of thirty-two is the same.

Exhibit nine, your presentation.

It's the proposed South East first accent.

43 shade trees and 74 flowering trees.

That is correct.

Okay.

So those are being, those are the ones being planted.

Is that correct?

That is correct.

Okay.

Very good.

Thank you.

And here you can see on this slide, you can see existing versus proposed.

The number of trees, the comparison with what's existing right now and what's being proposed.

Yep.

Thank you.

Thanks, Catherine.

Please proceed.

Do we want to go back to the downtown slide deck?

We're doing the Heisinger Park dedication this weekend, right?

DDA?

Yes.

Let's hope it's not cold.

I'm tired of this cold weather.

So the existing trees, since we're talking about trees, the trees were selected based on three criteria.

One is resilience to uh hotter, saltier future conditions, resilience to pets uh pests and diseases, and the ability to thrive in constrained urban environment.

Number two is placemaking.

So we have a combination, as you saw, of flowering trees as well as uh shade trees.

And um the flowering trees can provide a sense of identity to the to the corridor as they will be blooming at different times of the year.

And also what you will uh what you see is small, medium, and large canopy trees.

And lastly, we did work with our city staff to ensure that these trees, when they are planted, they can be maintained over the long term.

Um one last item I want to point out on this slide is safety improvements.

So uh we are proposing to raise the intersection of Southeast First Avenue, and um also there is a raised mid-block crossing here between um Andrews Avenue and Southeast uh First Avenue.

And the uh cost of construction um is the preliminary cost of construction is five million dollars.

This does not include uh fees um for uh CEI as well as design build contractor is the design including uh um irrigation and irrigation system?

Yes, it does.

So this five million dollars includes the trees or not include the trees?

It does.

It does.

It's all in.

Yes.

Okay, and this is between Andrews and the tunnel.

That is correct.

Okay.

So let's go now to what a few people are here to discuss the shops.

The shops.

Um in the shops area, we looked at two design alternatives.

Alternative one, the no median option advances uh the adopted 2021 Lasolas mobility plan.

The improvements include removing the existing median, increase increasing the sidewalk width, installing a sheet canopy along the sidewalk, and making uh on-street parking permanent.

Alternative two with the median option retains the median, replaces the existing trees, um, and alternate alternating parking on the north and south sides of the block and expands the sidewalk width where there is no parking.

Here's an existing view looking uh west on Southeast 9th uh and as you can see the sidewalk width uh is five feet wide within the right-of-way, and there's a varying private sidewalk width along the corridor.

This is a visual of what um it could look like in the alternative without the median.

The significant change here um obviously is removing the um median, making the on-street parking permanent.

Uh with this option, we estimate a loss of of about 12 on-street parking spaces.

Also, we propose widening the sidewalk by an additional five feet to um a total of approximately 10 feet wide.

The private setback space is where the outdoor uh seating is set up.

This section will remain as it is and will not be impacted.

So this is 10 feet on the north and south side of Las Olas.

That is correct, Mr.

Mayor.

And that eliminates the median.

Yes, Mr.

Mayor.

Okay, so that's what alternative one is about.

Correct.

Eliminating the median, ext uh making the sidewalks ten feet wide or adding ten feet, which is the it is five ten feet wide total, it's adding five feet in addition to the existing.

So wherever it's so where it's there are some areas where it's already ten feet, but to make it uniform, it would just be the same, correct?

Well, we're adding five feet all along the the road, is that correct?

We are adding five feet additional.

That is correct.

Okay, and that's on the north and the south side.

That is correct.

Okay.

Alternative two.

Uh this is a visual of alternative two, which retains the median.

Um this the significant difference here is uh we are making the on street parking permanent, and the parking is alternated um on the north and south side of the block.

Um with this option, we are able to widen the sidewalk by an additional two feet in the sections which have the per the on street parking.

So this is the visual.

So this brings uh this makes it about seven feet wide in the section that has on street parking.

So this is keeping the median, making the sidewalk up to seven feet.

Okay.

Um in some cases the sidewalk could be wider because there are some of the new construction is already accommodated the the wider sidewalk, but at maximum it'd be seven feet on each wide, correct?

Each side, correct?

Correct.

Within the right-of-way, it will be seven feet.

Now I notice in this particular photograph, there are no trees in the median.

What is the what is the what are the thoughts there?

Is it the anticipation that the black olives will uh uh soon um exhaust their useful life?

That was not the intent.

Uh definitely that was not the intent.

Um I mean I'm just curious.

Are if if for some reason the trees because the urban forester has come here and said that they probably will not last more than a decade.

And if that's the case, is it the intention of the city to plant more trees in the median?

Or just rely on the um design you have here to accommodate the canopy that we are intending to plant going forward.

Um there is an error in this visual where that there is no uh there is no uh tree in the median.

What we are proposing, uh take a step back.

What we are proposing is to put new trees in the median.

Now we were told that you cannot put trees in the median because of the root system and that it would be frustrated uh it would be frustrating for trees to grow in the median area because there isn't a sufficient area for a root system to grow.

Is that been taken in?

Is that a is that a true statement or not?

Uh well, according to the landscape architect who is designing.

Are they here now?

Unfortunately, the landscape architect who is designing the corridor, uh give me one second, was not able to join us.

He had a family emergency.

Um here is Brian from Shenmore, who is stepping in.

He's an arborist, certified arborist.

The way the landscape architect designed this corridor is proposing a structural soil.

So they are going to go in about 10 feet deep to ensure and replace that soil to allow the root system to grow uh within that soil.

So it doesn't have to fight um the existing ground to push and push the asphalt and uh and sidewalk up as it is doing right now, but rather go in, get the nutrition it needs.

So that's how we can ensure that any trees that is planted both on the sidewalk as well as in the median will thrive long term.

Uh did you want to add more?

Uh no, that was pretty good.

Can you please speak into the microphone?

Hi.

I'm Brian Volker with Chen More and Associates.

Hi Brian, how are you?

Good.

You saw good.

Can you speak into the microphone though?

We're the uh consulting arborist uh sub to WSP.

And as Catherine said, um we're not the landscape architects designing, but through the show enough about uh trees to be able to so basically uh the idea behind the engineered soils is it allows two things.

It allows you to support the the weight of the of vehicles on the roadway and also is not compact.

It's it's it's uh compaction level is such that it allows for roots to grow uh under the substrate.

So that's the idea behind this this system.

It'll it allows us to have trees that um at mature that can actually get to decent size at maturity and the roots won't won't be confined by by uh compacted soils.

So would the center with the uh median trees be able to grow to the same level of maturity and size and canopy as the ones that are anticipated for the sidewalks, given their limited root ball?

If I can take that question, um and I'm gonna show you a plan view because the way the landscape architect designed the or planned the placement of the trees, uh he did prioritize larger trees for the sidewalk.

So the canopy, large canopy trees are on the sidewalk, the smaller trees are in the median.

So if I can just pull up the plan view so you can take a look at it.

And you can speak to the vitality of the planted tree right after.

Catherine, if you go to page, wait, wait, wait, she's got to show us.

Okay, hold on.

Hold on.

Curb your enthusiasm.

No, I I just want to show you there is there is a slide with the median with the trees, that's all.

Three pages later.

Oh, is it?

Yes, page 19.

Well, that's the current status.

No.

Page 19?

Yes, it's an alternative too with the I say 19, you'll see.

Ah.

Okay.

So these are two plan views.

And in here, what you see is the larger trees are prioritized on the sidewalk.

Uh-huh.

And the smaller trees are on the median.

And he did.

And if if you want to add into uh to talk about the vitality of the trees in the median when they're planted in the structural soil.

Yeah, so basically the the nice thing about it is um we're not the the roots aren't unlike a traditional system where you have the median that's a certain width, uh and that has soil in it, and then you have uh just the compacted roadbed beyond that, the roots aren't going to be confined to the median.

So often cases you you know, if you have um we did this in the past and it sometimes still happens where you might plant like a live oak in a three-foot-wide planner, and what happens is with the compaction flanking the median, you basically have a root system that's linear.

So it doesn't do very well in storms, whereas with the engineered soils, we actually can have root growth in all directions, so you get a proper root plate or proper root zone under the that matches the canopy and better supports the tree.

All right, can I draw your attention to page 19, which the commissioner has pointed out?

Can you go to 19?

I noticed that um uh uh what is the intention here with regard to the width of the sidewalk?

Is this single lane in each direction?

Because uh all of a sudden I see the sidewalks now completely exposed to the sun, which kind of is kind of counterproductive to what the what we thought was the original design goal, which was to shade the sidewalks.

Now we have completely exposed sidewalks with shade trees on either side and a median and median trees is that is that is this the design where you're going to um have no on-street parking, just one lane in each direction?

What is the what is that?

So uh there is gonna be one travel lane on both direction, you are correct.

Right.

And this is the one with the median, so the on-street parking is alternated on the north side on the south side.

So it is eliminated, right?

It's uh alternated.

So alternative.

Um in this case, the uh parking is in front of Anne's florists, which uh it's it's hard to really um I'm just saying, did you know am I seeing this correctly?

I mean, this completely exposed to the sun.

So what do you think we've kind of uh gone too far in this direction?

Milos, what do you think?

Yes, and and Milos just added, can we add more trees?

Absolutely, there is a opportunity to add more trees.

I think there was a comment from the DDA as well.

If we can add more tree trees, one of the um one of the design principles of the landscape uh architect uh used was to add visibility uh as you're walking down the retail street to ensure there's sight lines so people someone walking down can see what's there.

I understand that, but I mean this completely exposes the whole sidewalk area.

What so I uh have we just like I said, have we taken this too far?

You know, we we've narrowed Las Oldas to such a point where not only is it impassable, but it also defeats the purpose of creating a canopy along the sidewalks.

No, absolutely if the if the priority is shade trees along the sidewalk, we can't that the priority?

We can maximize the sh uh the trees along the sidewalk.

If that is the direction we we can add more trees to the sidewalk.

Okay.

Catherine, stay on that topic that the mayor just put up for a second, because if you look at the slide before that, um 18.

Okay.

Okay.

I have uh in my backup, I have stuff on my slide that is not on this slide.

But yes.

That's it says 39 shade trees and 34 flower trees.

Yeah, can you put that back?

Okay.

39 shade trees and 34 flower trees.

39.

Right, with no median.

Now go to the next one with the median.

Why with why with the median does the number of trees increase so significantly to 67 shade trees and 39 flower trees?

In other words, the shade trees almost 30 more shade trees with the median.

It doesn't make sense to me.

Can you explain that why you would have to put them in the median?

Well.

Okay, but as you said, you're leaving the sidewalk all exposed.

Yeah, the so I I just think that the the design here is too wide.

The sidewalk is too wide, and it defeats it no sh no canopy tree can uh spread its its uh branches that far to accommodate both the street and the sidewalk.

You're saying we need a line of sight so the shoppers are not obstructed in their view as they're looking, you know, east and west.

I don't think that's an issue here.

I think that the plan here was to create a a shaded area for pedestrians and still be able to enjoy the uh the experience here on Las Olas.

Um and so I mean going forward, keep that in mind.

Absolutely, not a problem.

And uh, you know, I do want to reinforce uh emphasize that this is only a rendering.

We need we you can absolutely go back and make sure that the rendering is is updated to reflect this priority.

Well, I just want to know uh when you were charged with the assignment of working on the street, was a shaded pedestrian pathway not one of your goals?

Abs yes, it was one of the goals as was balancing you know the visual cues to be able to see what's across the street, to be able to also be able to uh wayfind, navigate the street.

So if the numr so the landscape architect balanced all these priorities.

Now, if we are saying the number one maximize the trees along the corridor, that we will go back and put more trees.

That should not be an issue whatsoever and update all the renderings to show what that could look like.

So I can I just ask a question.

I'm sorry, I don't remember in all of our conversations we ever talked about being able to see every store on the street when you were standing on the sidewalk.

Did I miss a meeting?

You missed that meeting.

You know, I I I get it.

I'm I'm just curious.

This is the first time I I I ever I mean, of all the conversations we've had, I don't remember that ever being like explicitly discussed.

You need to be able to see every store when you're standing on the sidewalk all up and down the block.

I mean, I'm not feeling like I'm walking up and down Fifth Avenue and I need to be able to see Bulgarie, you know, and and Cartier down the block.

Am I missing something?

Well, also the trees uh have what the trees are not obstructing the view because if you look at them, you know, the flo the the the foliage doesn't begin until ten feet up.

So you're not you never really obstructed.

But you're right, John.

I I just I I don't remember that having ever been a robust part of the discussion that we wanted to be able to see every storefront on the street as you're you know strolling up and down the corridor.

So this is just kind of new to me, that's all.

And I don't remember it ever being a part of the conversation when we had the working group meetings for over two years either.

I I but I do remember the consensus was, and that's why that was the plan that went forward to the commission, was that the uh the consensus was from that working group after all more than two years of meetings that they rather see the pedestrians be shaded on the sidewalk than the cars be shaded in the median.

That was the consensus at that time.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that was what was moved forward to the commission.

Right.

Yeah, agreed.

Uh city manager, do we have our city forester here or yes we do?

Great.

Okay, great.

So thank you very much.

So if I may just uh appreciate your feedback completely recognize the fact that these are just rendering, so we'll make sure that we reflect additional trees uh in the renderings.

Um as we continue with developing plans, we'll make sure that the disposition of the trees is included in here, and we'll also be mindful of uh balance between the effective weeds of the sidewalk and number of the trees.

Also it looks like the rendering reflects uh midday about where the sun is directly above the trees, uh, but there is definitely lack of the tree that of trees that we recognize in here, and we'll add additional.

So the the intent in here is to provide shade on the sidewalk.

Right, thank you, Midas.

So um to the trees.

So what type of trees would be buffering the street and the sidewalk?

Can we go to the street?

The species?

Yes, the species.

My understanding is it's oak.

I think there are sorry.

We have um several tree species.

Can you pull the microphone closer to the sorry?

We have uh several uh tree species.

Um second do you want to take a stab at this?

Do you want to take a stab at this?

Yeah, and actually, excuse me, one second.

Ben, I think there's a variety of different trees.

It's it's not just one type of tree.

Yep, so I had a I had a list say and sorry, I'm I am Brian Brian giving me chimer.

I'm trying to sub for our landscape designer.

But so on the large tree side of things, we had uh Jamaican dog wood, uh thornless uh pink saber tree, gumbo limbo, and live oak.

On the medium side, we had uh sea grape, green button wood, white mangrove, and black ironwood, and on the small side uh in small size category we had Bohemian trumpet tree, lignum vitae, bridal veil, and silver buttonwood.

Also, there's a small number of palms, I don't believe proposed for this for the um the shops section, but there were some palms including buccaneer palm, thatch palm, silver palm, and coconut palm.

If I could okay, so what will determine what size tree, which species of tree goes between the sidewalk and the road on this section of Las Olas?

So that's gonna be dictated by the width of the planting space, and again I can't speak in in detail to that, but that is the driving factor.

Okay.

So I'm just doing a little quick research.

So what I think the mayor brings up a good point about the canopy coverage of the sidewalk, right?

That's mayor, that's one of your questions.

Is a canopy coverage of the sidewalk.

Okay.

So let's just kind of go through understanding the radius of a canopy of each of the species of trees.

Right.

Okay.

So city forester, please.

This is uh uh um my limited knowledge uh of trees, but I'm looking at oak trees, live oaks, generally 30 to 40 foot radius of a canopy.

This is saying radius, not diameter, but love to hear your feedback.

We can get to that size, yes.

Okay.

Is this a radius would be from the trunk trunk to the drip line?

So diameter would be doubled, so that's I want to make sure we're clear.

So I'm talking radius.

Okay.

20 to 30 feet for uh dogwood is Jamaican dogwood, is that yes, yes.

Okay.

SIBA, SIBA, am I pronouncing that right?

SIBA?

Okay.

I'm seeing 40 to 60 feet plus for a radius.

Correct.

Okay.

Um oak, white oak, I'm seeing 35 to 40.

It seems like that's similar for live oak.

Is that okay?

Oh, wait, sorry, we're not doing white oak.

Maybe you heard white mangrove.

I just say I didn't see I'm not seeing live oak radius, but I'm assuming live oak, what would be the radius of a live oak?

They well, it can they can get enormous, but you gotta keep in mind too when you look at sorry when you look at the uh maximum sizes for the trees, often that's not based on an urban setting.

Typically in an urban environment, unfortunately, we have uh soil volume limitations, even with engineered soils where the trees are not likely to get to those sizes.

Just for example, like a live oak tree, technically can grow to be a hundred feet across almost, uh can grow to be several hundred years old, whereas the average age in an urban environment might be 30 years, so that's part of the trick there.

So we we won't quite expect the maximum sizes, but we would expect them to be you know to provide good coverage in these areas.

So what radius would you expect for these trees?

Well, we can definitely get for the large trees, we can definitely get you know, may up to say 20 feet, 20 foot radius of 40 feet, so easily covering the area.

Great.

And of course, you can you can uh control that control the spread by doing reduction cutting to kind of retain the canopy.

Great.

So Laura, is that all you agree with all that?

Yes, okay.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

So the distance, then Catherine, the distance.

So I'm looking at alternative two right now.

The distance from the bless you, from the curb to the shops, shop frontage.

Obviously, it can vary based on the shop, but what's the distance from the curb to the shop frontage approximately in in alternative two?

Alternative two, yep, with the median.

So uh we said seven feet uh with the with the on-street parking uh plus the side uh the sidewalk, a private setback, sorry.

So we're looking at um seven feet plus this looks like fifteen feet.

And the option with without the parking would be 14 feet plus with the with the private setback.

Okay.

So in other words, so what I'm hearing then is the radius of the trees, not full grown, but uh uh full and healthy uh in our urban center would well cover the drip line to the uh trunk would well cover the sidewalk.

Is that am I saying that right?

Yes, if you definitely Ben, if you look on page 18, yeah.

I think this is a more desirable schematic because it narrows the width of the sidewalk and the tree is able to cover the entire width of the sidewalk and allows for on street parking.

I just think that the other one on page 19 is just wides the sidewalk much too much, and we're we're losing the whole point of having the canopy trees.

Right, but what I'm saying, Mayor, is that's a function of the diagram, not the diagram, this visual representation is not accurate, is that what you're thinking about?

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Because on that I agree with you, it looks not what we're trying to achieve.

Um, but what I'm hearing just just now is that it would in fact cover the area the area sufficiently.

Is that am I saying that correctly?

Yeah, definitely.

So again, looking at at the uh um the landscape designer's list of large large size trees, these all get can get to a good size, and they would eat definitely give you shade over the whole area.

Shade over the entire sidewalk area, and then twenty feet north of the sidewalk, going into right the tr parking lane, the travel lane, okay, and possibly parts of the median as well.

Um if you're going twenty feet that way.

And that's true for both design features.

Again, correct me if I'm wrong.

But both design features with the median or without the median would have full coverage of the sidewalk under the drip line, right?

From drip line to trunk, and would have full coverage of on street parking if there was on street parking in that portion, the travel lane, and possibly part of the median if there was a median, or possibly part of the other lane uh of traffic as well.

Is that yes?

Saying that all right?

Okay, yeah, great.

Thank you.

That helps because for us to visualize.

I think one is one of the issues is with the render, you know, rendering is a rendering.

Right.

And you know, you you're looking at areas that appear to have no canopy cover.

But of course, that you know, it's it's a rendering.

And um putting in these large, large shade trees uh along the corridor, even the medium-sized trees, they're gonna they're gonna fill in the area pretty well.

And over time, if anything, you'd you'd want to be you know, pruning them to contain that canopy.

Great.

I have more tree questions, but Catherine, I want to defer to you if you want to keep keep speaking, because I want to talk about existing median.

I want to talk a little bit more structured soil and so forth.

So whenever you like me to ask that, Catherine.

Thanks.

If I could just jump in a little bit.

So one of the quick points I had is um I'm just kind of looking up some of these trees as we're talking about it.

So like the SIBA, for example, um, you know, as I'm just looking here, it says uh this is basically bare from December through March.

Doesn't sound like a great shade tree.

Am I missing something?

And by the way, which I thought was really funny, I was just sharing this with my colleague over here.

I just asked chat, what's the best shade trees for South Florida urban environment?

You know what it said?

Black olive.

Well, yeah I'm not trying to say we can't the black olive.

I just thought that was kind of.

You know, I'm again I'm I'm not uh I'm not selecting the tree species, but I can I guess speak to what I know about them.

But I believe the idea behind the Saber tree in particular is not that would probably be an accent tree here and there because it it's uh kind of like the tababooy is a certain time of year, it just flowers completely.

Right.

And it makes a beautiful look.

I don't think the intent is to have a bunch of saber trees, because yes, they wouldn't shade the corridor.

Right.

I mean, same thing with crepe myrtles.

I've had creat myrtles, uh I've had you know red maples.

I mean these are beautiful trees for like a short period of time.

You wouldn't that yeah, you would just use those here and there.

So obviously your oaks, your gumbos, and so on, those would be the trees that would provide better shade.

And even looking at uh let me see my sea grapes, right?

Yeah, no, even um back to back to my list.

Sorry, I'm jumping around here.

Take it on the right.

I mean, I think the problem with the sea grapes is I don't know if they're high enough, right?

They're they're not gonna be able to do that.

What you can do what you can do with the sea grape, I guess this is kind of true for for a lot of different trees, but um left on its own, it'll just grow kind of bushy.

Right, we've got those like a birch state park, right?

So out by the out by the cafe, they've got it.

Basically, you just limit up and you can grow it as as a street tree.

Uh same thing with uh the white mangrove.

So yeah, you can you can definitely uh prune for that.

Right.

So the white mangrove is I'm looking at the more of a uh of uh so that one's gonna keep uh a more narrower tree canopy from what I'm reading, right?

So it it it that one keeps a tree canopy all year long.

So I'm looking just trying to see what what keeps a tree canopy all year long.

Looking at the list of what's proposed, it'll keep like so what is truly deciduous or not much.

Exactly.

Um so you're you know, now your gumbo your gumbo could slightly seasonally defoliate, that does happen, but not you know, not completely.

Right.

So uh Jamaican dogwood, no, gumbo, no, live oak, no.

Uh sea grape doesn't uh lose its leaves.

So all now keep in mind too, your medium trees do get big.

You know, you can get a uh a sea grape, a buttonwood, a micro white mangrove with a 30 foot spread.

I'm talking diameter.

Um black ironwood's a little smaller, that's maybe in the 20-foot range, but none of these will defoliate seasonally.

I mean, a lot of stuff doesn't.

Oh, even I mean, technically our live oaks will still lose a little foliage here and there, but not completely.

Well, like light live oaks, because I've had those in my yard, and I've also had mangoes in my yard.

They tend to drop leaves continuously, but maintain an overall tree canopy.

The only problem is cleaning up after them is just brutal.

Yeah.

I mean, but luckily uh most of these, I guess the live oak you could say is semi-deciduous, but uh yeah, it does it, it'll lose foliage, but it won't defoliate.

Uh and then uh for the small trees, bridal veil doesn't defoliate.

Silver button wood is really this it's just a variety of the green buttonwood.

They're both kind of carpus erectus.

So that that'll be foliated uh keep its canopy year round.

Um vitae and Bahama the ligand vitae and Bahama Bohemian trumpet tree are smaller trees, more like in the maybe 15 foot tall range, give or take.

And especially with a lignum vitae, it's a slow grower.

Uh so it's my next question.

So that was gonna be my next question.

So out of the deciduous ones, which of these are also relatively fast growing?

Because obviously we don't want to wait 30 to 40 years to get our our tree canopy back.

So what's good, what's going to provide a reasonable tree canopy?

What can we buy?

What can we buy that's already of reasonable size that will also then grow in a reasonable amount of time?

I mean, obviously I don't expect this to be a robust tree canopy in five years, but I'm thinking a decade is probably realistic to expect.

Is that sound about right?

I'm gonna take the first stab at this, uh Commissioner.

Um the proposal is to plant the trees at 75% maturity.

So they're not gonna be um baby trees, they are going to be at 75% maturity, and we hope that they'll reach their full canopy size within five to eight years.

And then what's typically the die-off rate for a tree that's at 75% maturity when you transplant those?

Obviously, the younger it is, the more likely it is to, I'm assuming, take root.

The I'm assuming the older it is.

Well, I think I again not my area of expertise.

Yeah, that's okay.

Um we do have to keep in mind when we say at maturity, right?

We're talking about based on the lifespan in an urban setting.

So they're really not at their maximum maturity for their potential life.

So when we, you know, if we move like uh say a 10-inch oak or something, right?

That is a that's a good size tree, not something you know your average homeowner can afford to put in their yard.

But that has a very high rate of success.

It's not really for example, you can relocate 30-inch trees.

There are companies that will do or larger, and if it's if everything's done with the code.

The rain tree, for example, yes.

I said the rain tree, for example.

So we know we can do it, right?

Yeah, so really uh relatively speaking, these are an enormous uh they're not they're not at their maximum potential lifespan.

We're just talking about their size uh when we put them in relative to where we want them to be to kind of shade out the street.

But I guess my question is with these larger trees, uh presumably you've got a much larger root ball that you're trying to transplant.

How does that work?

You know, when you're putting it into a sidewalk environment.

So you you know, putting it in my front yard is easier.

You can obviously you've you've got a larger area for for it to you know be moved into.

How does that work in a more constrained confined environment with a larger, more mature tree?

Again, not being the designer, but one thing I can say is we the um the root ball size, we basically the the planting space has to fit the root ball size.

So we're not gonna we're not putting anything in the ground where we have to um you know compromise the root ball because I guess in tree relocation 101, that's huge.

Uh you know, how long you root prune, uh, 12 months now they typically recommend also watering during establishment, that's huge, and also getting the right size root ball.

So uh the lar the trees we're going in at there are decent size, they're gonna be put in places where we have the soil volume on the ground surface.

Thank you.

Yeah.

So for good, thank you.

Just going to that a little bit more.

So when you're planting trees on the sidewalk and in spaces along the sidewalk, uh how deep are you going down to put that root ball?

So basically the depth of the planting hole is is just less than the root ball depth.

So on these larger trees, you're talking about a root ball of maybe maybe it's a a couple feet.

Uh and that's it.

And actually, when you plant, you want to make sure that the top of the root ball is at or slightly above grade.

That's better than below if we if we bury the top of the root ball, the tree could die.

If we have the root ball slightly above grade, that's better, better chance for success.

Okay.

So would those trees planted along the sidewalk, then ultimately their root system go under the road and under the sidewalk.

Right, right.

So the you know, uh at initiation, the root ball is the root ball.

Right.

But then because we have the engineered soils, it allows the roots to grow under the road, and also it helps them to do it helps deflect them down.

They tend to grow down with the engineered soils.

So that's going to help uh reduce our hardscape impacts.

Okay.

Meaning uh and and the tree, the that root, those root systems would not have an impact on the newly built road and or sidewalk.

Right, right.

Right.

Okay.

Now share with me the median when tree let's talk about the existing trees that are in the median now, the black olive trees.

What talk to me about that root system, where that is, how that works, and then if additional trees were put in the median, how that uh would work, yeah.

From a root system standpoint.

Oh, sure.

Yeah, she's gonna get the backup slides and I can start talking about that.

Great.

So right now the black olives and the median, it's kind of a unique situation because they're in those planter boxes, right?

Right.

So what's happening is the root ball is partly confined by those boxes.

So we can kind of see that the roots are hitting and deflecting, obviously.

But then we know that they're not entirely confined by the boxes.

Good for the tree, bad for the hardscape.

So basically we see there are photos.

Let me see if I can scroll through here.

Here's a perfect example here.

So we have evidence when we see this, we have evidence that the roots are trying to do their thing and they are getting under the curbing and breaking up the curbing.

So um I'm kind of a little ahead in my actually.

Let me just stick with this.

Yeah, that's all right.

So um one of the issues is we talked about if we were uh even if we didn't do anything with the improvements with the corridor.

One of the problems is we have these uh root balls are confined by the boxes, partly, but then they're growing under the road.

When they do resurfacing and the working on utilities in the road, basically they're gonna be severing these roots.

And the problem is then these roots are in the critical root zone of the tree, which for for general frame of reference for every um one inch of tr trunk, you go one foot radius out.

So for example, for a 10-inch tree, you it you have a 10-foot radius around is your critical root zone.

So you can see these trees, if they're 20 something inches in diameter, they're only a foot or two from the curb.

So when you go to resurface the road, you're gonna be cutting into those roots.

So that's that's something we try to avoid.

Um at absolute worst, you try to go um say um beyond 50 percent of that critical root zone.

So if it's a 24-inch tree, you'd want to stay minimum twelve feet away before you cut roots.

Here, the root cutting would be well inside that critical root zone.

So that's something you wouldn't want to do if you were to try to retain the trees.

Okay, but if we keep the median and upgrade the street, we're gonna it sounds like there's gonna be times where we're gonna have to cut into that critical root structure.

Is that well I I think what I think the way I I'm assuming the way it would it would it would be phased out is you do all the road work, resurface, you built construct the median, you have the engineered soils underneath, then you can plant the trees and the roots will grow under the road, they won't be uh struggling for space.

Because what's happening in right now is they're generally hitting the curb and and and redef deflecting into better soil or sometimes growing under.

But if we allow if we have proper soil underneath or the the structural soils, it'll let the tree the roots grow underneath without without basically breaking up that hardscape.

Right.

But that would be for newly planted trees, right?

Yes, yes.

So what about the existing black olives there?

So yeah, the the root system.

The problem with the existing black olives is again they're they're they're semi-confined, partly by the box, but we see um pretty much as we go down the line, we see that curb break breaking up.

Right.

So we know there's structural when when the roots are that close to the tree, we call them structural roots.

They're good good diameter.

So basically cutting those is um a big no-no in terms of tree protection.

So how would we if that's the case, then how would you repave build a curb median and so forth um without impacting the black olives.

It seems like you can't do both.

I don't know.

I don't I don't know if you can, because even even milling and resurfacing, um, the problem is the roots are at the surface.

Right.

So you're gonna be cutting those and you're basically taking trees that are compromised to a degree already, and you're you're further compromising them.

Compromising them further because of the root ball being basically above surface in a way from if I'm saying that as they're existing right now.

Well, there's two things going on.

One, you have a large mass of the root ball that's above ground.

So that's that's reducing the stability of the tree for one thing.

And secondly, where you do have the roots that are making their way out to better stabilize the tree, cutting those would then basically then you're down to just you know, the your root ball is purely just the width of the median, and that's that's not good for stability.

You don't have the anchoring for the larger tree.

And it's again, just to be clear, it sounds like there's no way we can do, and Laura, I'd love to get your feedback on that, but it seems like we're limited in our ability to make street and curb median improvements without compromising to some degree the existing root system of those black olives right now.

Is that uh well uh get your feedback on that first?

Yeah, no, that that's a problem um b because let's say let's say they had put in structural soils in the past, that would be another thing.

Then as you resurface, you might not have these impacts.

But unfortunately, it's kind of hard to avoid uh when you're doing again, even just the milling and resurfacing.

What would be your what impact would that have on the black olives trees?

So uh two things happen.

Um the the minute that you do the root cutting, if you can imagine that the the stability of the tree is immediately compromised.

So you have you have um you know your anchoring system is immediately compromised, then uh long term the the vigor starts to decline because all the the trees' ability to get food and water you've just eliminated.

Now uh unlike stability, the stability occur is immediate, right?

You have not nothing anchoring you right off the bat.

With the um with a decline in vigor, trees do everything slowly.

It actually could could be several years to use till you see the decline in the canopy, but the decline is occurring the whole way through that time.

Okay, thanks.

Laura, I'd love to hear your feedback on just this this conversation or any agree, disagree, other perspectives.

Um I'm sorry, I didn't uh introduce myself earlier, Blora Thule, Irvin Forrester.

Good afternoon, Commissioners.

Um I do agree uh with Brian's assessment.

Um if you look at how the uh critical root zone is uh illustrated here, if you remove what's in the street and on either side, you're looking at removing close to 80 percent, maybe 90 percent, and only leaving that little 10 percent strip within the median, which you know you know, if you could only stand on one leg for so long before you you need that other balance.

Yeah.

And that would be my concern because you would not have that uh radial support for the uh canopy that is over the roadway.

And it is a heavily traveled roadway, and you've got cafes there, and it really increases the risk uh not only of failure of the tree but injury to pedestrians or uh vehicles.

Okay.

Thank you.

And then the concept we're talking about trees buffering the sidewalk and the roadway and having the structural soil so they are able to have a healthy root system and expansive one.

Does that make sense to you, Laura?

Do you agree, disagree concerns?

That uh increases the viability of new trees to be planted.

Um I need I would need to check with our engineers about putting it under the road itself.

But uh even if it's under the sidewalk, you're increasing the viable soil uh volume for those trees by you know 80 percent because if it's under the sidewalk, that would certainly be helpful.

Okay.

Thank you.

I'm sorry, Melora.

Do you mind if I just say a small question?

But were you with the city?

Were you involved at all um when all of the black olive trees were removed on A1A from about Oakland Park Boulevard five blocks south earlier in the decade?

Obviously, that was under the direction of um the state, because it's a state road.

But I know our parks and rec was intimately involved in that with surveys to the neighbors and explaining that whole process.

Were you here then or part of that?

I I was not part of that at that time.

Um I have heard some residents uh comment about that and that they were disappointed that they were replaced with palms rather than shade trees.

They were actually palms and other trees as well.

There was a lot of extensive work, but I was more concerned with the reason that they were removed if you had that information.

I'm sorry, I don't know.

Okay, thank you.

And if I may, I just wanted to uh go over a couple slides I have here um in regard to a risk assessment that we perform for the city for the black olive trees.

The idea was we did um Chenmore and Associates, we did an inventory of everything in the corridor, but then there was concern to get some more details on these particular trees.

So I'm gonna slide back here.

And so the idea behind hope I remember this is here.

The idea behind the risk assessment is we we want to know what is the um likelihood that a the entire tree or tree part could fail, and then what um so what's what is the issue of concern, what's the likelihood that can fail, then what's the likelihood of impacting a target, people or property, and then what is what are the uh consequences of that failure.

So oh all that together equals a risk score.

Um and then just a mention here that the idea is we we analyze the potential for this to occur, and then the city can then use that as a management tool.

And on the bottom, I just mentioned here that our final ratings were low, medium, and high for the trees, and I'll go over what that means.

So basically, for the risk for all trees, the um likelihood of impact was the same, the likelihood of impacting structures we looked at in this case.

And now this is a very abridged version of the risk assessment.

We look at every possible target from from pedestrians to buildings to car to people in cars to the cars themselves, but we're simplifying it by show showing you the most significant issues.

So we looked at uh the consequences of failure were significant if if a if a tree hit a structure.

And the way the risk scores differed, two tree uh two trees ended up in with getting a low rating because the likelihood of failure was improbable, and though that would be um associated with the trees um towards the west end of the corridor.

Basically they're smaller, less mature, less defects.

That's m uh uh simply why there.

Uh then for the Brian, just to clarify to make sure I'm tracking.

Is it a risk assessment of the trees based on what action?

Sorry, uh is it a risk assessment homeostasis right now?

Or is it a risk assessment as a result of some action?

So so the risk assessment is based on current conditions.

We can't make assumptions about what might happen in the future.

So just right now, do nothing, don't touch lots of things.

Exactly.

The trees that are the trees as they are.

So uh for the the low risk trees, the likelihood of failure was the thing that made them low.

Again, they were smaller trees towards the west end.

Uh and I just mentioned we had some moderate ratings.

That that's because they had large limbs that uh could fail.

If we remove those limbs, it goes down to low.

So those two trees would be low.

Then we had for the most part the trees ended up having a moderate rating, and that has has to do with a possible likelihood of failure.

And we had some that came up high, and this is because we had branches, you know, say large eight, ten inch branches that could potentially fail.

However, if we simply remove those branches, we can get down to a a moderate what we call uh a residual risk rating.

So if you look at a tree and you're concerned about maybe it's not the whole tree, maybe it's part failing.

You can't, it might have a high risk score because of that part.

You can possibly remove that part if it doesn't hurt the tree long term, then you lower the risk.

Then uh last and uh examples of the moderate risk trees are the uh the top left photo up there, and some of the defects here are um co-dominant leaders with included bark and signs of wood decay organisms.

Not to get very technical, but when you have a V-shaped notch with two leaders, the the bark of those two main leaders is pressing against it's pressing against each other, it's just getting wider and wider, and that creates a weak point in the tree.

So that's a that's a factor that increases the likelihood of failure more so than the younger trees.

So so you're just talking about branches blowing off during a hurricane.

Uh well, no, no.

So to clarify, the risk assessment is not based it's never based on a hurricane.

It's only based on what we call normal, and this is all perfect.

So they could just fall off.

Right.

No, it's based on normal conditions.

So and normal is defined by the BMPs as basically up to a 50 mile an hour wind.

So basically what we're saying is under conditions where it's a it's a it's a really windy you know how we get our range storage.

I understand.

So did your assessment ever cover longevity of the tree itself?

Not just the branches coming off, but the longevity of the tree itself.

So uh I would say it does in a sense.

The the um the maximum age doesn't really I guess let's put it this way.

If if it's a large tree and it's structurally sound and has the soil, then uh the age wouldn't wouldn't so much play into the risk.

The other thing is we're more interested in the opposite.

We're more interested in how long these trees are going to live.

So if you were told that all we're worried about is the branches falling off, that was the wrong assignment.

Well, no, let me I to be clear though, the when I'm when I'm looking at these risk ratings, yeah, they're all based on whole tree in the end.

Yeah, but so do you have an analysis of how what the longevity is of the current uh the trees as they currently exist on the street?

Well, I'll say this.

The average lifespan of a tree in an urban environment, it it depends on what resources you look at, but typically we'll say around 30 years.

These trees have been in the ground well past that.

And I know uh so they're on borrowed time now?

Right, unfortunately, yeah.

Um per discussion with Laura, I guess we've lost three black olives historically in the corridor, and then uh getting to my high risk tree at on the bottom.

Right.

This is a situation where you can see on the bottom left, you've got a uh a cavity, it's completely the the woods gone out and the problem is it's not so much do you have decay, but where is it in the tree?

Well shoot, it's at the bottom of the tree.

Then to add insult to injury, unfortunately, we were able to put a probe in to check for the uh decay.

It's a it's a screwdriver something fancy.

But anyway, um it went right through the tree.

So this is a case where we have high risk, meaning that it's there's a probable likelihood of failure.

Well, failure in terms of branches falling.

No, I'm sorry.

When I when I say for all of these, when I say likelihood of failure, yeah, I should say it is for the whole tree failing.

The whole tree.

And when when I mention that that the trees are low, moderate, and high risk, the only way we get there is by uh in some cases we can remove dead wood to get to those scores.

So the point is, even with the uh high risk tree, we cannot we cannot mitigate that that the likelihood is.

Are those going to be around in ten years?

Well I mean I want to cut to the point here, because we're wasting we're not wasting, we're spending a lot of time on this.

Yeah.

There were three things that really this this commission wanted to know from from the get-go.

One is what's the longevity of these trees?

How how wide we should make these sidewalks, yeah, and and what should we do with regard to the number of travel lanes?

Those are the three things we we're focused on.

And those are the things I want you to focus on.

So you've done a lot of the other stuff, and we've you've answered a lot of our questions.

Yeah.

But the question now that we seem to be dancing around the question.

We're not going to be able to do that.

We're talking about branches falling off.

We're talking about the life of the tree itself.

Yeah, I I would say they're they're heading towards the end of their lifespan.

And again, it's based on urban environment.

It's based on their their limitations.

Okay.

Yeah.

All right, yes.

Thank you.

All right.

So anyway, that's that's the risk ratings.

And I mentioned this before, the risk ratings are based on now.

We can't account for future work.

But if the uh when the roots are impacted from roadway improvements, then that would lead to uh, as I mentioned, decrease in instability immediately and a decline in vigor.

And what does that do to lifespan if you had to estimate?

So it balance of the lifespan, yeah.

It does it shortens it, it sh it ultimately shortens it.

Um well, because now uh as soon as you as soon as you cut well, as soon as you cut those those structure those uh the supporting roots, then even without a major storm, you you've you've reduced your stability.

And this is just I I get I won't go into this.

This is just saying that we followed the guidelines for the risk assessment, and um again, based on normal weather conditions, we can't do a risk assessment based on a hurricane because anything can fail in a hurricane.

Um so anyway, that's the risk assessment.

Okay, thank you.

That was helpful.

Thank you.

Please proceed.

I think we're doing colley hammock now.

Wait, would you like me to like me to take take it off?

Please proceed, yeah.

Would you like me to um wrap up the shops or uh yeah, wrap up, yeah, please.

Okay.

Um this is the uh after image uh looking um mid-block between 9th avenue, uh 9th and 10th terrace.

Um we already went through this, so two times more canopy in the shops uh shop section.

Um and the improvements proposed here, uh mid-block crossing uh with uh raised uh race mid block crossing with uh rapid flashing beacon uh and curb extension, and it's a similar detail as you saw in the downtown uh area.

And um so what you've done here is you've actually eliminated a travel lane, correct?

So uh Mayor, the outside lane as it exists right now uh functions as a parking uh after 11 o'clock.

Correct.

And then it's uh it's a travel lane for part of the day.

Right.

Uh in this uh no median option, we have made the parking permanent with curb extension at um the end of the intersection as well as in the uh mid-block crossing.

What was the purpose of that?

It does uh so one, it reduces the crossing distance and it it it it it is making the parking permanent, right?

So it the parking is available throughout the entire day.

Right, but it it also eliminates the travel lane.

It so the travel lane only function for a couple of hours during the day, correct?

Well, it's more than a couple of hours, it's like it's like 10 or 12 hours.

Well, I'm just trying all right, I just I want the commission to know what its options are because we can certainly choose alternative one and and still not have the uh the the permanent parking.

We could just keep the flexible parking system that we currently have, which seems to work.

So I'm just wondering what the what the per what was the point of making it permanent, I guess.

This was the direction from the 2021 mobility master plan that was approved by the commission, and the uh alternative one really followed what was approved by the commission.

So we approved this?

Yes, this was approved by the second yeah, Mr.

Mayor, if I may add so just before the vision plan was approved back in 2021, um on June 1st of 2021, the city commission heard the public input regarding Las Alas Vision Plan, and the City Commission deferred one of the camps and requested that the staff schedule a special commission workshop on June 15th.

And as part of that item, which is uh Commission agenda memo 210627, uh there were a couple of modifications that were made uh before the city commission adopted the vision plan.

And for the shops, which is from the tunnel top to Southeast Felth Avenue, there were modification was one vehicle uh travel lane in each direction.

So that's how we basically just advanced uh vision planning to concept plans that we see right now.

If the city commission desires to go back and and enable us to or enable for two travel lanes, we can make certain revisions and modifications in here that we have shown uh just simply not implement the curb ballbouts, right?

So those would be um implemented at intersections.

So I I I think there was some confusion perhaps because there's so many alternatives that were presented to us.

But I you know, sitting here, I don't really recall our eliminating a a travel lane permanently.

I thought when we had on-street parking, it was to maintain the status quo, but still widen the sidewalks if we needed to do so.

Um just uh so we'll we'll hear from the commission at some point and after public uh comment.

But I I I don't think that was the intention to permanently eliminate the uh the second travel lane.

Milos, can you share ballbouts?

Uh obviously there's mayor brings up a point about if you have a bulb out, then you don't have another lane of traffic, so that's definitely a a downside of the bulb out.

Um give us any other pros, cons for the ballbound.

So when it comes to the cones, it uh really reduces uh effective width of the crosswalk, so there is uh less likelihood of a conflict between vehicle and perestrium because now pedestrian crossing distance is uh much shorter, and also it can provide for for some extra space for installation uh of any landscape, including the trees.

Okay, but what you did there is you move the trees away from the building, and that way you expose more light on the sidewalk.

That's the point.

See where you have your trees now.

You have the trees in the parking spaces, whereas before they were on the sidewalk.

And that's that's the that's the difference here.

And I don't think I think that defeats one of the purposes for for for this exercise.

Anyway.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Looking at alternative two.

Um this is the after visual.

Um, and we did discuss again, it's uh two times more canopy than what is existing.

Um and uh the significant improvement uh with the canopy.

Um the other improvement is very similar to the alternative we saw before, alternative one with uh raised mid block crosswalk and the curb extension, very simple uh similar improvements here as well.

And uh the costs for the op um the two alternatives are very similar.

We are at 7.5 million uh dollars for both the alternatives, as with the downtown cost estimate.

It does not include the cost of the fees associated with CEI and the design build contractor.

And uh going into Coley Hammock, um we advanced the adopted 2021 Mobility Master Plan.

Um and we focused on increasing canopy coverage, widening the sidewalk with shared use path, and uh installing safe crossings.

Um this is the existing conditions looking from Southeast 15th Avenue looking west.

Um majority of the improvements on this are uh pavement markings and uh the proposed improvements.

Um the significant improvement here, as with the rest of the corridor uh we discussed so far is the investment in shade tree canopy.

Uh in this case, it's almost nine times what is existing right now, primarily because uh existing trees are mostly palm trees.

So we are proposing to install shade canopy trees.

Um when it comes to um the other improvement we are proposing um on street parking permanent and a shade use path.

And um sorry shade use path, and the shadiest path is between uh is uh greater than ten feet, um and uh it can go all the way up to fourteen and higher clear.

Um and a the intersection of 13th Avenue is uh proposed to be erased as well, and it is a similar detail as you saw in the previous two sections in downtown and the shops area.

And can you go back to that slide?

I noticed you make an accommodation for a bike path, and there was no accommodation for a bike path in the shops area.

So what what is the thinking about having a bike bike lane uh up to a certain point and then it ends?

What's a bicyclist supposed to do when it comes to when they come to that point where there's no bike path?

Good, good uh good question, Commissioner.

Um according to the 2021 adopted uh uh mobility master plan, the proposal was to continue the shared uh to sh uh to continue the bike path in an alternative path um in the side streets, in the shops and in the downtown area um along the uh river walk.

Along the river walk.

In the downtown section, and um sorry.

And uh it was not we did not study that as part of our design.

It is outside our our scope, but uh the alternative path was for the shop section and in the downtown section.

However, for Curly Hammock, it was included as part of the 2021 uh master.

Well the the problem is that the river walk doesn't go that far.

The w river walk ends at the tunnel, and uh and so a bicyclist is gonna come up to the canal and there's no longer a bike path.

And so it can't be along the riverwalk.

It would have to go into the neighborhood, which is fine, but one thing I caution you is do not turn it into a share on on the shops area because there'll be death because the way people drive and because it's so tight and it would be very cumbersome and awkward to include bicyclists in an area that's already congested.

So I don't understand the merit of having a bike path on this section when it's not a continuous path.

It's just it's a truncated version.

They'll come on if they come from the beach, they'll go along you know the the um the residential area.

Uh uh the bike path ends at the bridge and then the it resumes when you get to 17th Avenue, and then it'll end again when you get to the this canal.

So think that through because as a bicyclist, you know, it's very awkward and difficult to try to traverse the city when you have inconsistent um pathways for bicyclists to to follow if they want to really get anywhere.

All right, thank you.

Did you have it?

Yeah, Mr.

Mayor, if I may, uh thank you very much for your feedback.

So in the shop seg section of the project, uh as long as we get additional weed along the sidewall, we can always accommodate bikes and they would be expected to operate probably along the sidewalk.

Sidewalks on the sidewalk as well.

That's allowed.

Uh it's allowed, I know.

It it is allowed.

Now it also scooters, by the way.

Uh it also it also depends on the level of comfort of uh anyone who is operating bikes, really those who are operating uh recreational uh recreationally um uh or using the sport or enjoying the sport recreationally might be more comfortable operating and traveling, whether there is a bike lane or not, or share all those who are um using it for purposes of commuting or or the kids might be more comfortable on the sidewalk.

But as long as we get extra width of the sidewalk, I think that can work out.

In here, the intent is just to show that the wider the sidewalk we have, we can create it and uh separate it somewhat into a dedicated place for uh the bikes to operate and prescience to operate.

You just again uh just a rendering and we can uh turn this around and maybe modify it even to show um not to show uh bike marking in here, rather um put um central line in between and uh both and bikes would be able to operate.

But Milos, the point of widening the sidewalks along the shops is not to accommodate bicycles.

The point of widening the sidewalks along the shops is to accommodate outdoor dining.

And so you're gonna have bicyclists running into outdoor diners because they're now in the middle of a bike path.

Think this through because this is not making sense.

So there's no there's no there's no consistency here.

So you know um just be careful here.

I just don't I don't want us to start spending all this money to create uh design scheme for this section and then have it be frustrated by a design scheme that does not anticipate the the um the use of bicycles, and it just doesn't make any sense.

So just keep that in mind.

No, I appreciate the feedback and just going back to the to the same workshop that the that I pointed out before the downtown segment of the project, um based on 2021 adopted vision plan, and again we were asked to develop an additional concept.

Uh the intent was to look into shadows on Las Olds Boulevard and explore dedicated bike lanes on parallel streets.

So we can look at the both options how we accommodate via sheriffs, how we do uh the dedicated bike lanes or how we potentially accommodate something on the sidewalk.

But I appreciate the feedback and completely recognize it as uh polyden.

Milo, why does this section have such a significantly higher cost um when it seems like there's a lot less going on than the other sections?

It's longer, I think.

Good afternoon, Greg Corning, WSP.

Um so as we develop the cost and look at the different elements uh associated with the project.

So any time you're widening the roadway a little bit more, you're potentially increasing the footprint of the area, it's gonna overall increase your unit prices and quantities for those items.

So that's what we use to develop the uh overall cost.

And then you also have the trees that are uh in this area as well.

So it's all based on the unit prices and and cost associated with the quantities within each element.

Okay, it although it just didn't seem the scope didn't seem that much more than for instance the shop section and I I I but that's okay.

I I appreciate the answer.

Thank you.

Can I ask you to find a way to conclude this in about five or ten minutes?

Because I know we've asked a lot of questions.

You've been extremely helpful.

Absolutely.

But we need to um conclude as I have people who have signed up to speak.

Um the the cost, we talked about the cost 6.8.

Um include the fees, it says a construction cost, uh elements.

We went over this, so I won't repeat.

Um, and the elements um throughout the entire corridor.

We are looking at sidewalk, maintaining the existing look, uh concrete uh concrete sidewalks, um, pre-cast concrete seating uh with guard rails, um, and uh as far as lighting within the downtown, we want to maintain what's already there within the downtown to um and uh within the shops and colley hammock, um a gas lighting, pedestrian uh lighting, and uh as far as the vehicular lighting, we want to replace all the box lights along the corridor uh with LED lights.

And uh this is just a quick summary uh of costs and canopy and sidewalk widths through the entire corridor and the loss uh offer meeted parking spaces.

And um uh just looking at next steps and that's it.

Sorry, if you find more questions, I'm happy to answer those as well.

All right, thank you.

Uh number of people have signed up to speak.

Um I'll uh I'll call your name in the order in which they're here.

Uh Ann Hilmer.

Is Anne here?

Oh, there.

Hi, Ann.

Followed by Bill Ott, followed by Ted and Sarah.

Good afternoon.

My name is Ann Hilmer.

I live in in Idlewild.

Um, I'm speaking today on behalf of Lauderdale tomorrow and also the Idlewild Homeowners Association.

Um, as I speak, feel free to look at any one of the stickers on my chest, which we a number of us feel are um buzzwords and problem areas within the city, whether it's public lands, um public involvement in P3s, um, saving the trees, um, does narrowing the roadways really deal with traffic congestion, safety first in terms of response times, um, and where is all the green gone.

Um, let me start with Lauderdale tomorrow.

Um, you all have in front of you both copies of the of these things that I'm going to read for the record.

Um, to Mayor Dean Trantalas and City Commissioners, as you continue to refine the Los Olas Mobility Project, we urge you to consider the following.

One, do an updated traffic study as the current one is from 2019.

Circumstances have changed on both the beach and downtown since then.

Number two, do a parking study to validate that on the on-street parking is no longer needed as we believe.

We believe that no the the on-street parking is no longer needed.

Um three, keep the entire right-of-way flexible.

Where would the people park?

Just a minute.

Well, wait, wait, I let's go.

I'll stop the clock.

Where are people going to park if there's no ones?

You're talking about possibly building a parking garage.

Well, that that's not happening.

We're not it's a private, that's in a private end of that's a private project.

I'm on Las Oulas multiple days of the week, and and it's very rare when the parking lot, flat surface parking lots behind them are full.

At night they are, but not during the daytime.

Is the on-street parking full?

No, not necessarily.

You're not.

Okay.

No.

Okay.

So we don't need any on-street parking as we should say.

No, what we're saying is keep the right-of-way flexible.

There should be no permanent installations of curbs or bump outs that would preclude opening two traffic lanes in both directions for emergencies, hurricanes, and street fairs.

And um, this is signed by 11 members of Lauderdale tomorrow.

You both you this is the one that's got the color at the bottom.

Okay, and then the other one I'm reading into the record is from the Idlewild Improvement Association, the homeowners association, which was established in 1919.

Dear Mayor Trentalis, Vice Mayor Herbst, Commissioner Beasley Pittman, Commissioner Glassman, and Commissioner Sorensen.

In 1916, as the Las Olas Causeway and bridge were being built, the developers of Idlewild met to discuss an idea.

Within a few years, MA Hort, R.

E.

Dye, and Tom Stillwell began construction in our neighborhood.

They built homes for their for their families, some of which still exist, and and they live there.

Just as we depended on Las Olas Boulevard for mobility today, so did they.

Today, over 100 years later, we still love our community.

Around 2013, which is four years before the city got involved, representatives from Idlewild began meeting with representatives of other Las Olas neighborhoods to discuss growing issues with mobility.

We joined the Las Olas Mobility Group in 2018 and continued to work with our neighbors.

Over the years, we proposed many ideas, some of which were originally met with skepticism, such as the dedicated right turn on on westbound lanes on westbound Las Olas at the intersection of 15th Avenue, and the dual left turn of southbound 15th at Las Olis, both of which are now exist.

On January 15th, at the monthly meeting of the Idol Wild January 15th of this year, at the monthly meeting of the Idle Wild Improvement Association, we we reviewed the plan brought forward for your consideration.

Our primary concern as has been true for the past thirteen years, indeed for the past hundred years is safety and mobility.

To that end, the board voted unanimously to, and I'm sorry, my computer didn't get the bottom of it, but that says oppose curbing bump outs, pinch points, which will which will permanently narrow the evacuation efforts.

Number two, um street parking.

Three, support a parking study to determine the availability of parking in the area, particularly in light of the proposed parking garage on second court.

Number four, oppose removing the median, particularly with f until further studies have determined the impact on infrastructure underneath.

Number five, update the traffic study completed in 2019.

Oppose number six, oppose the designation of Southeast 15th Avenue rather than Las Olas Boulevard as the evacuation route for the Isles, beach, and other Las Olas neighborhoods.

Southeast 15th Avenue is a two-lane road in a residential neighborhood, which is backed up on a regular daily basis, causing frequent backups on Las Olas and Broward Boulevard as a result of the backups on 15th.

The Commission decided in 2021 against widening this road.

So it doesn't seem like it's a good choice for an evacuation route.

We would request the Commission complete the parking study and update the traffic study prior to removing moving forward on the plan before you.

We also request that the Commission move forward with a plan which prioritizes safety and mobility for the region while incorporating flexibility for future needs.

And this is signed by 11 members of the Las Olas uh I mean the Idle Wild Improvement Association board.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Bill Ott.

Is Bill here?

There you are.

Followed by Ted and Sarah, followed by Steve Hudson.

Sorry, Bill for you.

Miloch, uh what does designating Southeast 15th Ave rather than Las Oles as evacuation route mean?

Sorry, Bill.

I just want to Thank you, Commissioner.

So there are already available published uh routes, evacuation routes for the Brower County.

Um I did reach out to both FDOT and the Brower County Emergency Management and the route currently goes along Las Olas from the beach all the way through downtown to Third Avenue.

Um I did ask if there is any a need or desire to change that designation.

Um it is nothing other than the way that I see it and in conversations with some of the the colleagues is just basically map that was provided at some point of time, which hasn't been updated.

And uh we are even not even sure um how many people in the public are aware of the designation, right?

Our take is that with the recent improvements along uh 15th Avenue whether recent ones such as Southbound Left Turn on Las Solas and 15th Avenue or the upcoming dual northbound left turn on Broward and Las Olas will increase capacity and provide for better movement of traffic and mobility along 15 connecting Broward and Los Solas as compared to going through downtown section, which is typically congested.

Is are we advocating for the designation of 15th Ave as a evacuation route?

Not necessarily advocating.

We have uh reached out to both county and FDOT and uh as to consider and asked if it would be more appropriate to if the the the emergency evacuation routes were revised for them to consider potentially given operational challenges in downtown versus uh the context of uh Southeast Seventh 15th Avenue and the improvements that we have done or are about to do.

Okay, and so they are going to make a determination, whatever they think is the best route.

They have to provide the feedback, yes.

They provide the feedback, and again, we're not advocating or pushing for one way or another.

And I will provide additional clarification here.

So whenever evacuation is ordered, it's typically ordered in advance with current tools that we all have available in place.

I don't know that anyone will be necessarily looking at the maps and see what is emergency evacuation route.

We will be looking to use any roadway that is available to us in order to get out of the harm's way.

So I recall, and the other point is also this.

Um typically during evacuation that is related to to weather conditions or hurricane, right?

Um it is ordered in style or it should be done in staggered manner, right?

So we shouldn't be all leaving our city at the same point of time, hopefully, right?

So we should be um leaving advance of um of um well that's the whole point of the event.

What is evacuation?

It's not like Godzilla's descending upon the the barrier island and then so everyone has to suddenly leave.

People have days in advance that to know well, days will say to to know that there may be an impending hurricane and that the and that there's an evacuation an evacuation order in place.

Those are usually two, three, four days in advance.

So and and also if you were to open up Las Olas Boulevard to all four lanes, okay, where does it end?

Where does it end?

It ends it ends at an at another choke choke point.

So I don't understand the difference between 15th Avenue and Los Solas in terms of these the escape route.

And that is a great point point, Mr.

Mayor, because really our ability to evacuate it here if everyone tries to leave at the same time would be dictated by regional and traffic conditions uh along regional transportation network in South Florida.

It's important to keep appropriate level of capacity on Los O'S, but ultimately there'll be some another pinch point downstream uh which would meet their our ability to leave.

Okay, thank you.

I'm sorry, one question.

I'm sorry.

Um Bill, we'll get to you.

I'm sorry.

Did the uh did the vision plan um as conceptual as it is in many places recommend the uh designation of Southeast 15th Avenue rather than Las Olas as the evacuation route?

Not that I recall.

Okay, thanks.

Thank you.

Okay, Mr.

Ott.

Good afternoon, Commission.

Thank you uh for the time.

Uh my name is Bill Ott.

I'm representing the downtown Fort Lauderdale Civic Association.

And uh we wanted to bring up uh what our association came up with with respect to this project.

Uh we did meet with several uh members of the uh city.

Milos presented at our board meetings.

We went to some of the workshops, so we got pretty familiar with the project.

Uh I think there's also been involvement even previously when you guys met in 2021 and so forth.

So pretty familiar with what the what the plan is.

Uh we did on December 11th um have a meeting where we had a quorum present and we voted on the the two different areas, which was the the shops area and also the downtown area.

With respect to the shops area, we uh we are voted for alternative two where we'd keep the median again with trees, uh didn't define the tree type, but we we'd want the trees, we believe that's an iconic design element of the city.

Why a lot of us actually moved into that area was that look and feel of that uh that part of the city, and I believe that's one of the things that makes it stand out um around the world for its aesthetic.

Um we also wanted to um so if so if the trees were to die, you your the downstown civic association is on the uh is of the opinion that we should keep the median and then just replant trees as they as they die.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

Or I mean even in during construction, if something happens to but we need to have nice shade trees that are iconic, we can hang the lights from, make it look like it does today.

In addition to the ones on the side.

Yeah, I mean, I would prefer to have the the ones in the medium, the large ones.

I think that would be better in my opinion.

But I'm not a arborist or I'll leave it up to the resident in the middle of the year.

Yes, I'm not sure.

You know what you like.

I I love that look, and I think if they spread over the sidewalks like they do today, I think we have a great look.

And um, you know, so we we support that.

But we we like having the medium, we think it's perfect.

Uh the big thing we differ with uh the proposal uh number two is we don't believe that the parking is required.

Uh if you eliminate the parking, then you can actually extend the sidewalks out a little bit.

You can add the bike lane that I know um is an issue where it's being choked off there, or again, we even proposed the bike lane could go could run behind um the the hotel, Riverside Hotel, and actually be there, but have it where it's lined to make a continuous bike trail all the way from the beach to downtown.

Um we also believe that um uh as I said, the bike friendly, we want to maintain that.

Now the for the downtown section, again, we like a lot of the elements, we like the median again.

Ironically, we're putting a median in there.

Love that look.

Again, we would request that um there would be no parking again.

We believe there's there's adequate parking and adding a bike lane is something we would also require through that section.

So if you don't if you're not if you're not in favor of on street parking, how many how many parking spaces are there?

Ninety something?

Yes.

There isn't there's like a hundred or so along the where would they go?

They would go behind it, all the parking ramps we have everywhere.

I mean, again, I think one of the things that we also talked about is this plan is thinking about today's situation.

I I'd request the commission thinks about what it's gonna look like in 20 to 30 years from now.

What are people driving?

Autonomous vehicles, uh ride share is gonna be prevalent, okay?

Those are the things we need to plan for.

Um as you guys are approving buildings, the the setbacks are going back.

So our our sidewalks are are are getting wider naturally, and you guys are driving that.

So those are things, and those buildings are probably gonna be all replaced within the 20-30 years.

So we request that the commission really thin through what the look of this area is gonna be in 20 to 30 years.

I think that's that's our job.

I mean, it's for our future for the people there, it's not it's not about us.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Milo, did you want to say something?

Uh Mr.

Mayor, just to clarify, when it comes to number of parking spaces along Los Ola, so we have about 200 on-street parking spaces from Third Avenue to end of Western Corridor, about 16th Avenue, because between 16 and 17 we don't have much.

Uh, but uh when it comes to any other um off-street parking facilities, we have four of them.

Uh each one of them um are less than 100 spaces.

So Heron Lot, for example, where the new garage is coming up is about 106 parking spaces.

Everything else, whether we talk uh Venice Lot or Pelican lot or an auto lot are anywhere between 24 and 58 spaces.

Um outside of that, the only larger parking facility that the city owned and operated would be a Riverlo Riverwalk Center Garage, which is about 2100.

So that the that is the largest parking lot.

So you're saying there are approximately 200 parked on street parking spaces, and that the uh lots adjacent to the buildings behind uh the shops equal to about a hundred.

Uh about two hundred, I would say.

So two hundred, so it's equal.

Additional.

Okay.

That is correct.

So two hundred and all right.

And the the parking garage that people keep talking about, isn't that being done by a private uh developer?

That is correct.

There was a comprehensive agreement that was approved by the city commission a couple of years ago, uh parking which is not being built.

It is in final uh permitting uh and it should be built within 30 months based on the feedback that we are getting from the P3.

We'll have to hear from the developer.

Okay, thank you.

So we'd lose 200 spaces, but we'd have to so people expect all the shops and restaurants on Los Solas to be accommodated by 400 400 patrons.

Interesting.

So under our options, uh, we would be whether it's uh one without median or one with the median, we would be losing anywhere between 12 and uh 49 spaces, I believe.

So for the option uh without the median, we would be losing about 12 parking spaces, and the one with the medium will be losing about 49 spaces.

Okay.

Now, this is this is looking if we are to apply if we are to apply the actually if we are to apply the current engineering standards to our on-street parking on Los Solos, we will be losing additional parking.

Okay.

So this is a minimum of 12 and 49 plus.

Okay, and that that number includes bulb outs, right?

That number accounts, these numbers account for ball bouts.

Exactly.

So take away ball bouts, which is what the mayor was suggesting.

You take out ball bouts, that adds back how many any sense.

Might not necessarily bring anything back because there are some safety zones in pursuant to engineering standards and Florida statute, there is uh parking prohibition certain distance from the crosswalk, about 200 or 30 feet and signals and so forth.

So it's still about the same.

Still about the same.

Okay, thank you.

Teddy and Sarah, President of River Oaks Republic, and don't forget the big garage that's next to the Riverside Hotel, and that's in the uh cheesecake factory that is 73% empty most of the time.

Let me tell you, I am ex I got no problem with the downtown section.

I got no problem with the Cooley Hammock section.

My main problem is with the shops.

And when it comes to designing for the shops and figuring out what we can do to these trees, I'm sorry, with all due respect.

The city needs smarter people.

I mean, we need to get it.

Let me stop you there.

It's offensive when you demean city staff.

Okay, please.

Uh you know, try to try to keep it positive when you're talking about city staff.

I know is we had uh we need to call Ossie Symbol.

Let's get his uh uh arborist who moved the rain tree with a minute bulb in the bottom, which I thought would never survive, and it is surviving just fine.

So let's uh I was gonna say didn't you oppose that?

Like honestly repeatedly, I thought the way he was going about moving it would never work.

And it working fine.

It's miraculous.

Beautiful.

We need I've ever heard you say Ozzy and something positive in the same sentence in all eight years.

I usually refer to him as the man behind the curtain.

But uh but um you know, we just we just need another outlook.

Listen, I I sat next to these two guys from Tennessee last night that were here for a plant and tree international expo at the Broward Convention Center staying there, and they were watching the game, and I was sitting next to them and I found out why they were here.

I started talking to them, showed them all the pictures of Las Olas, tell them what the what the people are saying.

And he said, Very easy.

You can treat trees just like you treat your lawn, like you treat your shrubs, like you treat your dog like you treat yourself.

There are ways to lengthen the life of trees.

And let me tell you, how are they suddenly gonna get these mature trees that for once the DDA is not gonna say they're diseased, you know, because any tree that they want out is just automatically diseased.

And and we need to explore all options on these trees, and I think we need to get some other opinions.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Steve Hudson, followed by Robert Lockery, followed by Mike Weymouth.

Good afternoon.

Well, mayor commissioners, good afternoon.

Thanks for uh allowing me to speak today.

My name is Steve Hudson.

I am uh was born and raised in Florida, also a property owner on Los.

Um I think everyone shares the same goal here.

Okay, we all want Los to be safer, more attractive, and more vibrant.

The question is not whether to improve the street, it's how we do it most effectively.

Parallel parking naturally slows down cars and trucks.

There's a purpose for them beyond just parking.

Drivers instinctively reduce their speed when they're moving alongside parked vehicles.

Crosswalks further reinforce that effect.

They interrupt traffic flow, force awareness of pedestrians, and improve safety without heavy infrastructure.

And sidewalk width is fundamental to making Los Oles a pedestrian friendly first street.

Widerwalk sidewalks mean safer walking, stronger retail, more outdoor activity, and a better public realm.

That's where the real value is created here in Los Solas.

But we have to be honest about the constraints.

The right of way in this area is only 50 feet.

That is not enough space for everything that's being proposed.

Heavy traffic lanes, parking, sidewalks, medians, bike lanes, landscaping, ride share, loading, all of this in one very tight corridor.

Something has to give.

Like lanes belong on the arterial roads, not on the constrained main retail street.

Los is a destination, not a commuter corridor.

The median consumes scarce right-of-way, limits flexibility, complicates access, and delivers limited pedestrian benefit.

With the median left in place, this project becomes compromised from the start.

We are asking, we were asked if the property owners will consider funding for this project.

If we can come to an agreement, consensus on the design, the property owners would consider funding for trees, lighting, and further beautification.

Those investments directly enhance the pedestrian experience and character of the district.

We also feel that the infrastructure expenses of roadway systems, drainage, and utilities are the cost of the cities.

We support traffic calming, we support pedestrian safety, we support beautification, we support a stronger Los Oles.

But the design must reflect the physical limits of the corridor, respect how the street actually functions, and align with funding that responsibility.

If we get this right by removing the median, prioritizing sidewalks and crossings, keep parking as a safety buffer, and focus the private funding on pacemaking, we can deliver a project that truly improves Las Olas.

In closing, this is not about resisting change.

This is about getting it right and making Los Oulas the best it can be.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Robert Lockery.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners.

My name is Robert Lockery here today on behalf of the McTeague family and the Coombs family.

Have so for a long time.

They own property before the median was there.

They were involved when it was put in place, and they've certainly been involved in the last eight years as this process has evolved.

And I will tell you that when they first heard of it, when Evan McTeague and his daughter Sarah came to see me, they were very concerned about this project about seven or eight years ago, and they were skeptical as to the approach that it might take.

However, by staying engaged with the process, and you guys have certainly done a very comprehensive process in evaluating all aspects of the project and hearing out the different uh views on the subject.

Um they asked me to come today to say they stand in strong support of alternative one.

Um and really because that accomplishes three goals.

That's the alternative that removes the median, adds new shade trees, um, increases the sidewalk width, and keeps the on-street parking.

And it's for those three reasons that it achieves really the three primary goals that we think the city should be focused on.

Number one, as I said, adding more shade trees closer to the pedestrians where they walk, yet also providing shade over the over the travel lanes, but bringing it to the street.

Um, number two, by ensuring that the sidewalks are larger, anyone who walks along Los any time during a weekday, a weekend rather, knows that the sidewalks need to be widened.

This gets that accomplished.

And also importantly, I don't want this to get lost in the discussion, although I'm glad it hasn't thus far.

The on-street parking.

You know, one thing I'm gonna say about the on-street parking, as I said, the McTeague family has owned property along Los for over a hundred years.

In the 109 years, or roughly 109 years of Los Oulos' existence, there's been on-street parking by for a vast majority of the time that that street has been in existence.

There's a brief period of time when there was not on-street parking, and during that period is when Las Oulas began to fail.

I'll be very quick and wrap up.

Um it was why in 1993 the city commission came back, put on-street parking back on the street.

We can see the success of the street in the last 32 years.

Newspaper articles after the on-street parking were put on were full of comments by the public, by residents, by visitors who said how great it was to have on-street parking and the buffer it provides between the travel lane and the travel aisle.

Thank you.

Thank you, Robert.

Uh Mike Waymuth is up next, and then after that, uh Diane, and I'm having trouble reading this.

Uh G.

I'm sorry, is that A G N E?

Yep, I'm sorry.

Yeah, couldn't read it, but yes, you'll be up next.

And after that, Maggie Hunt.

All right, good afternoon.

Again, I can't read it.

Sorry.

Good afternoon, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, good to see you.

Mike Weymouth, President, CEO of the Los Solos Company.

The Los Solos Company has been in continuous operation for 91 years.

We're going to celebrate a 90-year birthday for the Riverside Hotel on December 16th this year.

So, needless to say, I'd like to think that we've been here for a very long time.

Everything we do, we operate in a first-class manner.

Whether it's the way we take care of our buildings, the way we take care of the whole boulevard, everything for me, and people have heard me say it time and time again.

This is my Disney World.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, that street's got to be done.

We're doing the yard work, we're doing the trash, we're doing everything before that.

So it's very important.

And we're very heavily vested in the shops area.

So that's why we're so adamant about it.

What's interesting to me is this has all been talk about the trees and the median.

Nobody has announced how they love the the plan with the median over the one without.

It's all about saving trees that, according to uh the uh urban forester, this is a sorry I didn't make one for everybody, pass it down.

But that that's that's a uh assessment of 18 trees a couple three years ago.

So here's a note the black olive tree is an illegal species of tree.

You cannot plant a black olive tree in the city of Fort Lauderdale today.

It's against their code.

Um so, like I said, this tree was survey was done a couple three years back.

In there, it assesses eighteen trees.

As we stand here today, two of those trees are no longer with us.

They've gone to Tree Heaven, they've had a celestial discharge.

Of the sixteen remaining, eight trees are labeled fair, and eight trees are labeled poor or very poor condition.

Hence back to the conversation that these things aren't wrong for this world either.

On a separate note, part of what I do for the company is I go out and I visit different shopping districts that are like ours.

They're high streets in the southeast part of the United States.

The takeaway that I share with you is that all these shopping streets mirror the quaint field of Los Solas with exception with one exception, they don't have a median.

Commissioner, I'll ask you to peek at those and pass them down.

What I'm giving them are pictures of Worth Avenue and Palm Beach, Clematis Street and West in West Palm Beach, Third and Fifth Avenues in Naples, Hyde Park in Tampa, and Main Street in Winter Park.

So please look at the cross section because this is kind of the charm that we're trying to create out there.

Also note that they all have tree-lined streets, sidewalks, and on-street parking.

As I said in my opening comments, the Los Solos company is here for the long game and only wants what's best for this district.

If we were here simply to get rich, the building elevations would look very different.

If we were here just to maximize profits, the new building that I built at Tommy Bahamas or Tommy Bahamas, that would be a 30-story building, because I could do that.

We embrace and invest in the charm of this old dame who deserves a facelift and a collagen injection.

I'm gonna go off script here real quick.

A couple of things we're talking about on street parking, and I haven't heard it here, and it should be something that concerns you guys.

You ought to ask the department how much money that on street parking generates for you on an annual basis.

You'll be surprised it's seven figures.

Um and the only other thing that I want to add about the on street parking, one of the things that concerns me the most and periodically it comes up and it comes up, and I happen to be in Barcelona in 2018, which was right after the time that a car ran up La Rambla and killed a bunch of people.

And then it happened again last year in 2025 in New Orleans when a car went off onto the sidewalk intentionally and hit a bunch of people.

The parking on boulevard provides that level of comfort between a booming car going 20, 25 miles an hour and somebody sitting at a restaurant or staring in a window.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Diana Gagney.

Followed by Maggie Hunt and Jerry Morgan.

Chris Nelson still here.

No, he left.

He left.

I saw him leave.

And finally with Charlie left.

Diana.

Hello, Diana Gagney.

I live at um in I live downtown uh south side of the River Walk.

You live at 520 Southeast Fifth Avenue.

I didn't know if you needed that.

It's okay.

Um okay, so did the timers start.

Um I guess I'll get going then.

I'm uh a part of the the uh downtown civic association.

Um I just wanted to also note that our civics association, I don't know if Bill said that, but we had uh a survey and eighty-eight percent of the people in the survey that responded said to keep a median in the shops section.

Eighty-eight percent is pretty significant.

Um I I guess listening to all of this uh number one, I honestly I felt a little blindsided because I thought that keeping the olive trees was an option and it sounds predetermined that it isn't an option, so I'm not sure where to go with that.

But if I'm to be honest, when I looked at the the renderings, I do really like the median, the rendering that has the median.

I'd rather have a median with different trees if we don't keep the black olive trees, is I guess what I'm trying to say than not have a median at all because I do think it makes Fort Lauderdale you know very unique.

I agree that there's lots of other places in Del Rey and um Dania Beach, you know, that outdoor plaza that have you know they're generic, and I think that when I'm on Las Olas, and again I'm one of those people that moved here because of the charm of Las Olas Boulevard.

Ben Ben knows when I he first brought it up.

I said I started singing the Joni Mitchell song, and you know you don't know what you've got till it's gone.

I do think it's charming and it's beautiful, and if we can do something with keeping the median, I hate to say the uh not keep the black olive trees.

First preference would be to do everything we could.

I didn't think that we talked about different ways to pave the road.

If there's another way that doesn't involve removing the substrate.

I also on the parking issue that we did a uh research and found 7,000 parking spots within one and a half blocks of downtown Las Olas.

Um and 60 spots around the 7,000 parking spots and I maybe Bill can speak to that.

That's not the case.

But yeah, but they're not gonna be able to do that, most of that parking is reserved for residents.

Yeah.

And also if you ever go to Amsterdam, there's lots of bikes in the downstream.

No, we're not Amsterdam.

We're not a bikes.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Maggie, followed by Jenny.

Um, I just first of all wanted to talk about safety and agree with the mayor about at least having that on-street parking flexible and not so then not having because I see on the second plan.

Oh, by the way, I support the second alternative, um, maybe with some modification.

Um, but there are some looks like there's some permanent curbs and bump outs that would prevent that from being flexible, and so I would agree with the mayor on that.

Um, but um I also want to point out I I'm disappointed that we only talked when we started talking about parking, what we had, that was only the surface lots.

We know there's the river walk parking.

Everybody up here was talking about, yeah, we're gonna have this EMS station and we're gonna have this parking garage behind El Camino, and it looks like we are.

So I'd like to know that we're not, because I've not heard one person say they didn't know until today.

So there's the river walk, I've parked behind YOLO in that garage.

I park in the riverwalk parking lot down there.

I mean, I and the here and uh north of the Heron, west of the Heron lot, I never see that lawful even at night.

Um I don't think we need the on-street parking, but I think as Lauderdel Tamar, which I'm a part of suggested, is we should do a parking study, an official parking study.

So we see where all the parking spots are and we have it on there for the public to see.

So you know one of the reasons why the the city's parking garage is not full, but the street is full, because people prefer to park on the street than to drink than to walk five blocks to go to their destination.

So I'm I'm not saying that the city parking lot's not full.

I never said that.

I said the lot west of the Heron Lot is never full.

It's that's a surface lot.

No, no, I park in the city a lot all the time, and it's never full, except for special events at Heisinger Park or you know, Fourth of July or something like that.

And that's the farthest one away.

Now though there's a there's a garage behind YOLO, and there's a very reasonably priced uh behind the Riverside Hotel garage.

Right, but in terms of convenience and look at human nature.

But that's right behind the Riverside Hotel.

How do you get closer to the Cheesecake Factory?

I don't know.

Not everybody goes to the Cheesecake Factory.

Okay, oh you're saying I mean, so then you're talking about the next block down where is not the Cheesecake Factory and they got to walk a whole block.

You got seven on street parking lots, and you need those seven?

Human nature.

You can't you can't argue with me.

Human nature, people would rather park in front of where they're going than to park at a distance.

Do you know I have never been able to park there because it's always full?

Well, right.

But I'm saying there's parking behind.

So since I can't park there, if I want to go there, I find a way, and I just go behind, or I go in the behind the cheesecake.

Because it's more popular to park on street.

Right.

Because people, but that doesn't mean we have to have it.

It's not going to be the downfall.

I don't think anyway, I think we need a parking street.

Let me let me ask you this.

So I'm already seeing the mayor give you a little more time.

So I stopped the clock.

Oh, thank you, Mayor.

So if Las Oulas had what it currently has, which is four travel lanes, right?

Your suggestion is four travel lines, no no on-street parking.

No, I'm just saying we should explore that.

I I like at least what the mayor says that it should be flexible.

Okay.

So we shouldn't have those permanent So you like on-street parking.

I'm not saying I like it.

No, I'd rather not have it.

And I think if we have these 300 spaces, but let's see what people think.

I mean, or just six months.

So you think get rid of on-street parking.

That would be my preference.

But you know what?

I'm fine with it flexible too, if that's what we need.

Okay.

Right?

Okay.

Thank you.

So but I just think it should be investigated.

If people are asking for the study, let's do it and see what we're doing.

I mean, these two guys right here initiated the mobility study for two years.

Hundreds and hundreds of people showed up over time, hundreds of things.

And disagreed because I went to some of those.

Well, that's the thing.

That's why it lasted so long.

I don't expect the commission to make a decision if they didn't make a decision.

Right.

So that but like we said, that parking study is 2018.

So this is a long time later.

All right, right.

And we got a lot more buildings on the beach.

And we've got a new hotel going on Los Solas.

So I think things are different enough.

If we're not, then we need to know because it looks like we are.

All right.

Very good.

Okay, so anyway, sidewalk.

So I I I'm I'm with you that some of those sidewalks look too wide.

I think there's only four pinch points.

And if though are those tables, that that code can they be within three feet or two feet of the sidewalk.

Should it be that way?

Or just for those pinch points, we're spending seven million to make wider sidewalks all in.

Well, I think that one side needs it more than the other side.

I think that I think the south side has more has more narrow sidewalks than the north side.

So there's one of the alternatives here is just to do one side.

Okay, that was yours, but they didn't show that today, did they?

I think it was alternative number two.

It's just where it was alternating or something, not that it was with with uh all on one side.

Yeah.

So anyway, um, where was I?

Can you conclude your comments?

Yeah, I I don't think all the and and I think it's too wide where you said, and I think before you guys vote, we need to have that elevation change so it represents the bird's eye view.

Okay.

Um the trees.

I'm not gonna repeat what I said because I agree completely 100 percent with the gentleman from downtown.

The only thing that I'll add is we had the arborists say that the lifespan of uh urban tree is 30 years, and these olive trees could stay 60, they're already 50.

So my suggestion would be if they're gonna we're gonna kill them all by taking them out, replant there with olive trees because they're denser than any oak tree except for the one by the river walk.

That one's very dense.

But if you look downtown, the density of that foliage on those live oaks is not good.

It's by far much denser on these, and they like I say lasted sixty years instead of the 30.

All right.

Um, let me see why.

Yeah, I will.

I will here we go.

Um and just the one comment that yeah, the other cities don't have this meeting.

That's what makes it different, and that's what we'd like to be uh, and that's all.

Okay.

Thank you.

Jenny Morihon, followed by Charlie Ladd.

Anyone else wish to speak on this item that is not signed up?

Okay.

So, Mayor, I did have one request from uh Dr.

Oren Sterman, who couldn't be here, he just asked me to read something that he had sent on to me.

Uh again, I'm not endorsing his position.

Doc Dr.

Sterman, you remember the gentleman.

He used to sit down there at the other end of the uh the day, so he he forwarded something to me.

Uh he couldn't be here today and asked me just to read it in.

So I I said I would do it.

Uh I'm not um for or against his position, but as a as a courtesy to our former colleague.

Okay, thank you.

Hi.

Good afternoon, Mayor Commissioners.

Uh last month the DDA did submit a letter outlining our formal positions on both the downtown and shops section.

I just want to reiterate a couple key points today.

Um we're very hopeful to see this project progress after all.

It has been studied tremendously, as you mentioned.

So in the downtown section, I think you'll notice walking around down there, probably some of the best improvements with new development in terms of wide sidewalks.

So very little change is necessary.

We recommend minor improvements um where needed.

But what you will note, because there is a lack of on street parking, primarily from Third Avenue to Andrews, cars are going very fast.

We have a permanent four-way stop.

Thank you.

We've coordinated that with the city at second avenue, and we're looking to implement that as well at first avenue next to Heisinga Park.

It's very important, and cars are going fast there because there is no on street parking.

There's four lanes and they're just flying through.

So keep that in mind.

Um additional shade trees in that section would be good.

But regarding the shop section, our preference and priority is to maintain permanent and consistent on street parking for all the reasons that were previously said, the buffer to pedestrians.

Just on Saturday, we held a pre-opening event at Heisingham Park.

Looking forward to everyone coming out next Saturday, this coming Saturday.

But I walked the whole strip, and in that section by the shops where there was not on street parking, even with side wide, wide sidewalks, groups of people visibly were uncomfortable because cars were going by fast.

Even when the sidewalk was narrow, if there was a car parked next to the st the curb, you just knew that you had a bit of a buffer.

So I think when you really walk that street and explore it, you get that sense of it.

Another point to note someone mentioned black olives.

The city's code doesn't even allow residents or business owners to plant black olives in this city.

So keep that in mind because nothing will fit if though when those trees die and you go to put something new in.

Um it's also very important for the design that gets pushed forward without a median and with permanent on street parking.

We prefer that there'd be many more trees.

There are gaps of 40 to 60 feet between many of the proposed trees.

Those can be decreased down to 30 feet, like you see in front of the main, like you see along Heisinga Park and the Hyatt centric.

So follow the downtown street scan standards and put more in.

And finally, I'll end with when we talk about funding.

The DDA has been a partner with the city for 60 years this year, and several instances over the past decades, at least in my experience, has the DDA been successful in partnering with the city on very important efforts to raise funds at the state and federal level, whether it was for the county courthouse and seeing that authorization come the federal courthouse, whether it was for the wave streetcar and figuring out how to build those relationships and secure dollars.

Uh whether it was 20 years ago when the DA worked with the city and completely rebuild second street in downtown.

So we're a stand here with consensus on the preferred option, the alternative with no meeting and on street parking to commit to helping the city with lobbying efforts and resources needed to go and get those dollars to actually bring this this iconic street to life.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Jenny, question for you.

Can you have permanent on-street parking without ballbouts?

Absolutely, you can have it, but I think the bull outs do help decrease the uh width of the pedestrian crossing, which is very important.

It also gives a visual cue to the driver that there is a crosswalk there because the pedestrians standing a little closer out.

So sure, definitely.

Can you so is the DDA comfortable with permanent no ball out?

I don't think we explored, you know, that option versus the other.

Um thanks.

Charlie Ladd.

Good afternoon, Commissioner's the Mayor.

Hopefully, my uh what I have to say is coherent.

I'm going to try to pick up pieces on all these other speakers.

Okay, I'm doing my best.

So a couple things.

As far as I know, it is not the median at six feet in width, it is not by code allowed to be replanted with canopy trees by code, period.

So when those trees are gone, if the median stays, the best you can have is palm trees or a smaller ornamental tree.

So that's that eliminates a lot of this discussion.

Um the drawings that are done, I was I was, you know, I'm a developer.

I I do drawings, I build stuff.

I've done 3,000 feet of streetscape on Federal Highway in Las Solas.

I've planted 400 lineal feet of streetscape on Los Holas at Planta and at Lululemon.

So I think I know what I'm talking about.

And looking at those drawings and the tree spacing and these ornamental trees that they call canopy trees, doesn't really work.

And if you do the simple math, I look block by block, tunnel to 8th Avenue, which is the premier block with half the the median trees.

Out of 490 lineal feet, there's 300 lineal feet of tree canopy, which is compressed of six main trees plus a tab.

And if it's replanted at 30 feet on center along the sidewalks, we would have 30 trees in that block are five times the number of trees.

The Eighth Avenue to Ninth Avenue block is 400 lineal feet.

There's 160 lineal feet of tree canopy with four trees that would be replanted with roughly 24 to 26 trees on 30 feet on center.

And then if we go farther east, it gets worse.

There's 520 lineal feet from 9th Avenue to 11th Avenue, 210 lineal feet of tree canopy, there's a clump of 140 feet and one 70 foot clump.

So those three trees would be replaced with 32 trees.

And then the last chunk from the tunnel from uh 11th Avenue of the Himershi Bridge, it's 130 feet.

There are no trees.

Um there's two trees with the minimal canopy and they would be replaced by about eight.

So the total number is 15 trees in the median that would be gone, replaced by 90 up to nine somewhere between 90 and 94 canopy trees.

Those canopy trees should be oak, so they're consistent.

The oak trees are the most powerful canopy trees we have.

Many of those other trees are deciduous, like Commissioner Herbs discuss, and there's nothing for six months a year.

And if we could somehow manage to line that street with 90 oak trees at 30 feet on center, like at Planta and Lululemon, you would have one of the prettiest streets in the world.

And when we talk about that parking and we talk about the traffic and we talk about the residents, keep in mind if on Chat GBT, the estimate of pedestrian traffic for 2025 was five million people.

There's a hundred thousand people a week that come to Las Holas.

They def that defines our city.

That with the river walk and the beach is what we are.

And we can't screw it up.

And we have a chance to really make it special.

So please, let's do it.

And also, I want to apply for a job.

There's people that are very knowledgeable about streetscape.

Hugh Johnson is a retired landscape architect.

He did a lot of the design in Flagler Village, which has some tremendous streets.

I was on the street design task force.

Whatever design group we have there needs input from people that are used to doing streetscape and not doing drawing theoretical stuff, it's really not applicable.

Okay.

Not to sound like an egomania, but I probably are.

Thank you.

Thank you.

May I want to just ask Charlie a question or two?

Thank you.

Um the reason I want to do this is for the people that don't know what you've developed.

Uh I'm very familiar with it, much of it in Flag of the Village and along Federal Highway.

And you know, it's very interesting to me because when I drive by any of your projects, uh, especially when it involves trees and oak trees like you've talked about, you know it's your project.

And and and I want to make sure that staff hears what Charlie said about making sure we're working with the right people as these designs move forward.

Because we do have good examples of this uh in our city.

What you have done on Los Solas, uh, what you are going to continue to do with the hotel in Los Solos, and also what you've done in Flagwood Village.

I'm very familiar with all of those places.

Uh so I want to make sure that people are listening to your words and and taking it very, very, very seriously.

So I want to ask your opinion, and I think I already know perhaps the answer, but let's also talk about the the the ballbout situation that Commissioner Sarenson also asked Jenny.

Tell me how you feel about that with regards to pedestrians and cars and vehicles and parking and and and uh giving people a visual heads up that it's something's coming.

What is your take on that uh uh on this on this boulevard?

The evacuation route is is a ruse.

We know that there's this adventure adventure uh invention called the weather channel.

Okay, we've all been here in hurricanes two days before a hurricane is this is you could fire a cannon down our streets.

So that let's ignore that.

It's about traffic calming, it's about pedestrian safety, and those cars act as a barrier.

The the bulb outs are powerful because they shorten the distance and at the intersections they can shorten it dramatically, and it's and it's but it's permanent.

And it and it by doing those bulb-outs, that's a that's an acknowledgement that those parallel spaces will never be a through lane.

And that's a hard pill for certain people and that the longtime residents of Fort Lauderdale to swallow.

But if you do in street design, you want those ball bots because the other benefit of those bulb-outs is you can go to some of these historic portions of Las Oulas, like the Riverside Hotel, where that portico will never be removed, and you could probably get even more room.

So there are things that can be done once you acknowledge that the parallels will be there forever.

And what part of what makes it difficult in assessing this, or are probably gets us closer to doing that, is that at the tunnel it's now permanently been narrowed to one lane.

So the idea of getting back that lane someday in the future isn't gonna happen now with the tunnel done.

You mentioned the the oaks, um, and you mentioned lining the boulevard and making it something that would be iconic.

Is there any point in time, and I I've seen this in other places, is it even feasible or is it just laughable to think that the oaks actually would grow to a point where they actually would come very close to each other from each side of the north and south side of the boulevard.

Sure.

Especially if they're taken care of.

When you plant new trees, the the state of the art and um the landscape people can talk about this, they do containerized oak trees.

And the what a containerized oak tree does is the root ball has always been contained.

It's in a box.

So when that tree is planted, it takes off and grows faster.

Whereas uh it they call them field-grown trees where they cut the root ball, and that tree goes into shock.

And that's why it's difficult to transplant, especially oak trees, because they shock, and that's like if you go along the south side of the riverwalk, those big oak trees were relocated many years ago.

They never grew after by smoker park on the tunnel.

So, like if you look at planta, we used containerized oak trees.

There were 600-gallon containerized oak.

We had to use giant front loaders to install them, and they were in boxes like this by this by this tall.

But if you go look at those trees, they're already full canopy trees.

And they're they're expensive.

They're like like I said, they're six to seven thousand dollars apiece installed.

But that's what we should be doing on Las Olas.

I asked that question because I've seen historic photos from Las Olas like a hundred years ago, where there actually was almost like an arch of trees and landscaping that line the boulevard because you had that on both sides of the street, and it created that arch.

You see that now actually if you drive on A1A up like through Hillsboro, uh you see it's magnificent, and I know what you're talking about, and you actually think that that is a possibility with the growth of those trees on both sides of Las Solas?

Yeah, it might take ten years, but it's it's ten years of that versus ten years from now that all the black owls are dead.

I mean that we're at a fork in the road, and this is a question of are we gonna be special or are we gonna fall victim to the easy way out?

And that it's we're all want the same thing.

It's just it's just it's people are not trusting that somebody can actually put in a tree canopy and have it grow because typically in South, especially in South Florida, developers and and cities half-asset.

And I think we've shown as a city we we can do it better.

You were a part of the Los Solas Mobility Working Group.

Uh Commissioner Sarensen and I convened those meetings over two years plus.

Um I want to know, because it's been brought up tonight by some others that we should take a look again at another traffic study.

Do you feel there's been anything that's changed since then that would warrant that, or is that traffic study going to pretty much still be the same as when we did that as part of uh our work a couple of years ago?

I think we're in a very similar place.

And I I do think the fact that we got 15th Avenue done with the right turn lane and with the double left southbound.

I don't think we ever did the double left northbound.

But that seemed more.

And um I don't know that the Los Oulas conditions as I see it are much different than they were three years ago.

I think it will get busier.

You know, the Mango's was an unsuccessful restaurant after Mango's left.

It's now under construction with the restaurant people.

They're gonna be a a big generator.

There's closed restaurants where uh B Square and Yamash used to be, those are gonna those restaurants are gonna be rehabitated.

So you're you're gonna be bringing in more traffic, more volume over the next year because those other restaurants reopen.

All right.

Well, thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Okay, any of the questions or comments?

All right, before we get into our discussion, I can I I need to read uh Dr.

Sturman's.

Oh, I'm sorry.

That's okay, no problem.

Okay.

The two current uh proposals are not what we agreed on in conference last year.

I know because I was the one who presented the plan to keep the median and remove all on street parking, and we all agreed to present that option as well.

Advantages of removing on-street parking are traffic safety, no abrupt stops when a parking spot opens, no more cars starting into traffic as they leave a parking spot, no need to back up on a traffic thoroughfare to get into a spot, no worry about driver doors opening abruptly into traffic.

Uh second, traffic flow, cars are no longer trolling at two miles an hour, hoping to find the perfect spot.

Traffic no longer will come to a sandstill every time a car pulls into or out of a spot.

No more U-turns to grab a spot that just open in the opposite direction.

Number three is pedestrian safety.

Crossing street will only have to deal with one direction of traffic at a time.

Pedestrians only deal with one lead at a time, so they won't have to worry about being hit by a car pulling out of a parking spot, wheelchairs and strollers, and a landing in the middle to protect them as they cross the street.

Number four, pedestrian flow with even wider sidewalks.

Removing parking will add a total of 20 feet of sidewalks as opposed to eight feet of the median is removed and creates enough room for a bike path along the Los Holly shops.

Number five is aesthetics.

The beauty and uniqueness of the tree line media median has always defined and set Las Olas apart.

Even when the current trees die, keeping the medians keeps a placeholder for future landscaping.

If the median is removed, this option will be lost forever.

There will be room for even more shade trees, both in the median and in the much wider sidewalks.

And a three-story parking garage was approved in the corridor, so on-street parking will not be needed.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Um City Manager, we have an issue.

It's five o'clock.

We haven't even had a conversation here regarding this matter and uh to allow city staff to uh be given direction by the commission on how we want to go forward.

We have another item on the agenda, which is uh uh regarding the ex FXC.

Uh and then we have a closed door session.

And then we have to conclude.

So we have a six o'clock meeting.

Uh I have I have at least 45 minutes of people who want to speak on business two.

So we can't do all this at once.

Um my suggestion is and I hate to say this, my suggestion is we defer business two because we don't have time.

I did not expect the business one matter to take over three almost three hours of time.

What do you suggest?

So, Commissioner I think Commissioner Herbst indicated to me that there were some uh members of the public here to speak on the FXC item.

No, there aren't some members.

There's 45 minutes of people who are here to speak on that.

Yeah, I I believe uh mayor that we have a number of the tenants um by a show of hands.

Who's here to speak on the FXC issue?

Yeah.

Yeah, we we've got a number of the tenants here who are impacted by what's going on up there.

So do you have a suggestion, Vice Mayor, what we should do?

My suggestion would be that we open the evening meeting and then we pause it and resume the conference meeting so we can uh again we've got a lot of folks that are here that uh have taken a lot of time out of their day.

I'm sure they probably have some legal representation with them that's probably building them by the hour.

Um I I'd like to get this heard if we could today.

I think I think this is a very important topic, and I know it's holding up some lease negotiations and discussions, and I think it's very important that we get resolve uh resolve this and and move forward so we can conclude some of this issues.

Thank you.

All right, so why don't we uh I guess we'll just pick pick up on business two at six o'clock and uh let's have our conversation and give direction to the city staff regarding Los Solas and uh and then during our meal hour we'll do the uh the closed door session.

Thank you, Mayor.

So hold on.

So I'm understanding.

So what are we talking about now?

Let's have our conversation regarding Los Alas mobility.

Okay.

Give direction to city staff as to which alternative or variation thereof we want them to move forward on.

Okay.

Then we'll conclude.

And during our dinner period, we will have the closed door session.

Okay.

And then we'll come back at uh hopefully at six.

Uh open the meeting at six, then then close it um uh so that we can have business two.

Um, so that we can have business two.

Okay.

Then we'll do business two, and then after that, we'll resume the six o'clock meeting.

Go back to the six o'clock, great, and then city commissioner comments.

We'll be at the end of the at the end of the uh evening meeting.

Okay.

So those folks, uh, I asked you to come back in about an hour or so.

We will resume on uh on business two regarding FXC.

But right now uh floor is open.

Uh suggestions.

So I was gonna say commit Commissioner Sorensen, there's your district.

I was gonna I would like to ask we could just take five minutes.

I need five minutes.

Go, go, go, go.

Five minutes.

We'll take five minutes.

Commissioner can you commissioners please uh come to the day dunno where the vice mayor oh there is good okay so um this is now the point in which the commission will discuss uh the alternatives and hopefully we can agree on a con uh some consensual way in which to direct city staff and where to go from here.

Since this isn't mostly or entirely in district four, I would I would uh ask the Commissioner Sorens and begin the discussion.

Commissioner Sorensen.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thanks for everyone's participation.

So this is uh a long has been a long running conversation, and I think we made some really good progress.

So uh wanna start off with a couple elements that I think are really important.

One is we need wider sidewalks on Las Olas.

So uh when I'm walking with my girls down Las Oulas, there's many parts of Las Olas where I can't walk holding their hands together.

We have to go single file on the sidewalk down Las Olas.

Uh it's not safe, it's not pedestrian friendly, so we've got to widen the sidewalks.

Second thing I think that's very important is we need to have on-street parking.

And I think we need to have on-street parking in at least one lane because ease of access to our businesses, uh also on-street parking actually has a slowing effect on traffic on Las Solas, which in my view is a positive.

We want people generally going slower on Las Olas, it's pedestrian-heavy area.

So we need on-street parking for ease of access for the businesses, for pedestrian safety.

Um so I I think on-street parking makes a lot of sense in addition to wider sidewalks.

So let me re let's repeat that.

So you want so your recommendation is on-street parking.

Right.

And what was the third thing?

Well, I'll get to the third thing in a moment.

But yeah, those are the two.

And I I guess is I mean obviously look forward to this conversation, but I think most of us would would like that is my sense, both wider sidewalks and having the optionality for having on-street parking.

If we want both of those elements, wider sidewalk and on-street parking, we can't have the median.

There's no way to have wider sidewalks and on-street parking.

You're you're right.

Unless we just do the widening of the sidewalk on one side of the street.

What are your thoughts about that?

In other words, and having no on-street parking on the other side.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

So absolutely fair option.

Both north side and south side of Los Solas.

I know when I'm driving down Los Solas, uh I the ease of access for me for parking on street on the street, getting off with my girls, going in somewhere, grabbing something, getting back in, is just so easy.

It's I very very much so feel safe doing that.

I have them get off on the curb side of the car, and it it's it's very seamless and works well.

And then when there are times that it's not available on street, then I just go to surface lot right near uh Los Solas.

But that's a very much an ease of access.

So the wider sidewalks on street parking is is very helpful.

Now if you want those two things, we we can't have the median.

Um then the option, then the discussion I think goes to this point, which is do we have and mayor I never frankly uh spent a lot of time thinking about the option you raised, which is this idea of having four lanes of traffic, two of which would largely be parking lanes with no ball bouts.

So I just want to which is what we have currently.

Which is what we have currently, correct, with no ball bouts, exactly.

So if we did that, just to kind of play out that option, I was just doing the um math with with Melosh.

So if we wanted two travel lanes, and then in effect two parking lanes, so flexible lanes.

Flexible lanes, let's call them flexible lanes, good.

So flexible lanes that could be used for travel.

Right.

Then here's kind of the just the the feet, how this would look feet-wise.

So you basically be able to go to a seven and a half foot sidewalk, which is about two and a half, three feet of a wider sidewalk than we currently have.

Okay.

So the sidewalk, let's start on the south side.

Sidewalk would be seven and a half feet wide.

Then you're hitting a let's call it a flexible parking travel lane.

That lane would be ten and a half feet wide.

Okay.

So seven and a half feet wide sidewalk, ten and a half foot travel lane, followed by a ten and a half foot travel lane, ten and a half foot travel lane, and then the ten and a half foot travel lane going north.

So it's four ten and a half foot lanes.

The outside, both northern and then southern lanes would be these parking or travel lanes.

Okay.

Then you'd have a seven and a half foot sidewalk.

Okay.

So I just want to do the math on what that would look like.

And that would accommodate the folks in the aisles.

If there is ever an emergency, there would be four travel lanes on Las Olas.

Correct.

That allows for four travel lanes on Las Oulas.

Right.

The other option, again, if you want on street parking, if you want wide side wider, wider sidewalks, is the ballbout option.

The ballbout option would be this in terms of feet.

The sidewalk, you could expand the sidewalk to 10 feet wide, so 10 feet wide.

Then the bulbout is eight feet, so it'd be 10 foot wide sidewalk, eight foot ballbout, then 10 and a half foot travel lane, 10 and a half foot travel lane, eight foot ball out, ten foot sidewalk.

So if you do ball out, you get two and a half feet more of sidewalk on either side.

Okay.

So that's the upside.

So that makes it ten feet.

Ten feet, exactly.

So that's ten feet of sidewalk.

Now with the bulbout, the bulb out width is narrower because it's not a lane of traffic.

So it that's why you go from ten and a half feet to eight feet.

With the bulbout, you also have the pedestrian uh improvement there, as was talked about, which is by having a bulbout, it's you're in the ball out closer to crossing two lanes of traffic than you would be if you just had two flexible lanes of traffic and two regular lanes of traffic.

So the ballbout has the pedestrian advantage.

So what you're saying is that pedestrian advantage helps to compensate for the lack of a median because the median is considered a safety zone person crossing Las Olas, and you're saying that having this um wider uh extension uh from the from the buildings would give a pedestrian more um uh would give them more of an opportunity to cross the street without uh uh without worrying about the ongoing traffic.

Right.

That's one of the upsides to a ball bat.

I forget what it's called, uh pedestrian rescue or pedestrian refuge, thank you.

I knew it started with F.

Pedestrian refuge.

Um the ballbout is in effect the pedestrian refuge allowing you.

Now, if you don't have the ballbout, Mayor, then you're going depending whether there's parking there at that moment or not, you're crossing possibly four lanes of traffic.

If there's parking, the park car in effect is to I think to some degree uh a pedestrian refuge, but then you're you're crossing, and if there's not park someone parked on the other side on the ultimate third lane on the other side, that's a significant distance.

Again, I'm just thinking about with my family crossing, that's a that's a considerable distance to cross.

So those are the two in my mind, the two options we have if we want wider sidewalks, um, and we want to have trees uh lining.

So those are the two options.

The I like the optionality of the uh having four lanes of traffic that where you can turn the that outer lanes into parking uh or travel lane, but that comes at a cost for pedestrian ease of access across without the ballbouts.

Um we c we have that now, and I think it works now.

I mean uh I think but that but that includes the that includes the median though.

That includes the median, which is uh a refuge there, right?

Which we won't have.

So it's if we have the ten and a half, if we have the ten foot sidewalk, right?

If you have the ten foot sidewalk.

So then it becomes to me, in deciding between these two options, well, what is Las Olas?

What is the street meant to be?

Is it meant to be a uh passageway for you know uh allowance for significant traffic and having four lanes as an optionality to move traffic through downtown?

Um is that one of the main focuses of what Las Olas is, or is Las Olas meant to be more of a pedestrian experience where traffic moves a little bit slower and is more pedestrian friendly and and uh pedestrian accommodating versus a little bit more uh accommodating towards vehicles.

And for me, the I think the essence of Las Olas is to be more pedestrian accommodating and pedestrian friendly.

And so thus that would mean a little bit wider sidewalks and having bulb outs that allow for a little bit more of the safe passage and refuge for pedestrians uh crossing the street.

So that's that's that would be the elimination of all the uh the black olives too.

So this would either one of these two options would remove the median.

Right.

Um and there and again, happy uh city manager to hear staff's thoughts, Miloch.

If I'm I'm missing my kind of distance analysis on this, but if we do want wider sidewalks and we do want trees lining, buffering and dramatically expanding the canopy to keeping the median is not an option.

We would just have to keep the median more or less, and we want it on-street parking, keep the on-street parking, and we just can't widen the sidewalk much at all, or not have trees as a canopy for um the pedestrians.

So for those reasons, I think the and Milish, feel free to jump in if I'm Commissioner, you are accurate, and we are in the game of interest in here and everything matters.

Um one modification that I would suggest is that uh when it comes to outside travel lane, one that is closest to the sidewalk, we can go down to 10 foot uh width for that travel lane.

And that would gain about another foot on the foot.

So you'd get about a half foot on either side.

You can't so all right.

So I so um let us let us make a decision here today.

Do we does the commission agree on a goal of widening the sidewalks?

Can we s can we uh can we agree on that?

Yes, okay.

So we're agreed on widening the sidewalks in general.

All right.

Now the question is um what what is our what are our feelings about the median?

Um do we want to keep the median or do we not?

And that question has to be answered in conjunction with the on-street parking.

Um because if we eliminate the if we eliminate the media median, we're able to provide wider sidewalks and on-street parking.

So let us so we agree uh on on a wider sidewalk.

Now the question is the median.

What are what are all your thoughts?

Any thoughts?

Yeah, go ahead, Commissioner.

Uh okay.

Well, thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Commissioner Sarensen.

Uh it was a pleasure working with you for over two years on this with the Las Olas Mobility Records.

Calm down, it's okay.

I can say thank you to my colleague.

It's okay.

It's all right, I'm gonna get to it.

Send them a text.

I'll send them a text.

So um I I want to just say that I'm pretty much um in agreement with everything that you've said, and but I want to reiterate.

Um, and you're actually Mr.

Otts said earlier in the evening that this isn't just for today, but we are really planning for the future.

Uh and I really think that if we are planning for the future, we really do need to eliminate the median.

We've been told tonight, um, I haven't heard from staff, but I have heard from Charlie that we're actually very limited in what we can plant in this median going forward when these black olives die, and they will die.

And we know we can't plant them.

It's against our code.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm being told that we uh very limited in what we can put in that median.

Um and we do need that space.

Uh Milos just explained to us that that parking lane can be a little narrower than the thorough lane, the the thoroughfare lane, which is important.

Um I think that if we are going to create an iconic boulevard uh for the future, uh we really must look at the the no medium option.