HomeMy WebLinkAboutSubmittal-Excerpt from the July 9, 2007 Planning & Zoning Board MeetingEXCERPT FROM:
CITY OF MIAMI
PLANNING & ZONING BOARD MEETING
FREDDY LEEN
RON CORDON
MIGUEL GAVELA
CHARGE GADAVALIA
JUEVENAR PENA
CORNELIO CHAVO
ANGELO URQIOLA
JULY 9, 2007
SUBMTTED INTO THE
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1 (Whereupon the requested portion of the transcript
2 commenced.)
3 THE CLERK: Item 10, a resolution of the Miami
4 Zoning Board for a special exception as listed in
5 Ordinance 1100 as amended, the Zoning Ordinance of the
6 City of Miami, Article 6, section 602.4, permitted
7 principal uses and structures to allow as per C-1 subject
8 to all applicable criteria for the property located at
9 approximately 3015 Grand Avenue, number 320 and number
10 410, Miami, Florida.
11 CHAIRMAN PENA: Staff.
12 "ROBERTO": For the record, Roberto (inaudible),
13 the proposed bar use at an existing restaurant located
14 within an existing retail specialty center known as
15 Cocowalk and it is therefore compatible with the area.
16 The proposed use is appropriate for the existing space
17 within the Cocowalk structure. The required parking has
18 been provided as part of the Cocowalk complex. The
19 subject proposal being that it's a component of an already
20 approved retail specialty center has been reviewed and
21 found in compliance with the following factor: Ingress
22 and egress of street parking and loading, refuse and
23 service area, signs and lighting, utilities and drainage.
24 Regarding control of potential adverse effect generally,
25 the proposal for club use due to the late hours of
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1 operations permitted in conjunction with the liquor sales
2 may have an adverse impact on nearby residential areas for
3 the later part of its nightly operation, more specifically
4 for any operational time after 2:00 a.m. Specific concern
5 are related to security and off -site parking within the
6 adjacent neighborhood at such a late hour. This analysis
7 is based on the proposed (inaudible) Vision Night Club /
8 Apples Martini Bars and Lounge only and should not apply
9 to any future supper club proposal for the same location.
10 Upon compliance with conditions set forth the law, this
11 project will not have any adverse impact on the
12 surrounding area. The planning department is recommending
13 approval with four conditions: Number one, approval of
14 this special exception shall run with this operator only.
15 Any change to a different operator shall require a
16 separate special exception. Number two, the proposed
17 facility shall provide security during operating hours
18 between 2:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. The applicant shall
19 submit a security plan which specify the number of
20 security personnel and location for said personnel to be
21 posted for review and approval by the Planning and the
22 Police Departments prior to the issuance of a certificate
23 of use as a supper club. Number 3, the applicant shall
24 promote on -site parking for the hours 2:00 a.m. through
25 5:00 a.m. by providing some kind of parking voucher system
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1 with reduced on -site parking rates for those hours, and
2 Number 4, in order to discourage enforcement problem with
3 underage patrons during night club hours, no one under the
4 age of 21 shall be permitted in the club between the hours
5 of 2:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. Thank you.
6 CHAIRMAN PENA: Okay, applicant, please.
7 MR. TERMINELLO: Hi. Good evening, Louis J.
8 Terminello of the law firm of Terminello & Terminello,
9 P.A., here on behalf of Club Management Group, LLC that
10 operates this venue at Cocowalk. As you can see from the
11 staff recommendations and the staff analysis, this is a
12 somewhat of a unique venue and that encompasses two
13 floors, the third floor and the fourth floor; hence, you
14 have two suite numbers in the resolution. Visions
15 occupies the fourth floor and the third floor is a venue
16 called Apple Martini. They are connected from inside and
17 are operated by one and the same operator and are subject
18 to one and the same licensure. This premises has operated
19 at this venue now almost 33 years, approximately two
20 and -a -half years in its current state, and it's here today
21 seeking the special exception to extend its hours of sale
22 of alcohol simply from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. -- 3:00 to 5:00
23 a.m. and be licensed as a supper club. I've had passed
24 to you a supplemental packet of additional information for
25 your consideration. We apologize for not having it had
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1 previously, but we just received the sound study the other
2 day. Just to put this in perspective, this venue as I
3 said has been there at least two and -a -half years and
4 under its current ownership and previous to that the prior
5 owner started operating in 2003 and there's been an
6 operator in this venue since Cocowalk was first developed
7 some 15, 16 years ago now. This particular premises, its
8 immediate predecessor as you may recall was a lounge night
9 club operation named Banana Joe's Margarita Mama's. As a
10 matter of fact, one of the exhibits in the supplemental
11 package that you have in front of you is this board passed
12 a resolution allowing for the 3:00 to 5:00 extended sales,
13 a special exception at that venue when it first opened up.
14 We're the successor to that venue. There's also a special
15 exception and it's in your package that was granted by
16 this board not too long ago for a lounge night club just
17 underneath the third floor, almost directly underneath it,
18 Coyote Ugly. You may be familiar with that venue. I
19 believe the vote on your approval on that vote was six to
20 1 in favor of a motion to grant the special exception.
21 This is as staff has conceded in the staff analysis in
22 Cocowalk, which as you know is a retail specialty center
23 and conceived for the purpose of having a specialty night
24 club end entertainment type of venue, and that's what this
25 is. We're proud to say that in the two and -a -half years
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1 that we have been operating in this venue, we have not had
2 one complaint, one code violation, we have not had one
3 citation issued of any kind to the best of our knowledge,
4 and I could proffer some testimony that we would come
5 forth with if needed. We have the off -duty police
6 department there on the weekends and we haven't had any
7 issues whatsoever with complaints or code violations. All
8 we're simply seeking to do now -- as you know, the supper
9 club is extending the hours from 3:00 to 5:00 consistent
10 with other venues in the immediate area. Virtually
11 everybody in that immediate area this board has granted a
12 special exception to over the years; Oxygen, Flavor,
13 Coyote Ugly, Banana Joe's; they all operate until 5:00
14 a.m. We've included in the package a few items which I
15 would like you to just take a look at, if I may. The
16 first item -- and there's an index -- is a resume of the
17 principal owner of this particular venue. I included the
18 resume in this package because Mr. Shenazzi's (sic) resume
19 in the entertainment nightlife hospitality industry is
20 fairly impressive. Mr. Shenazzi currently operates not
21 only this venue, but operates a 24-hour night club venue
22 in the 24-hour district of the City of Miami, and I should
23 point out we're one of the clubs in that area that have
24 had no issues with the City regarding noise or issues of
25 that sort. And he also operates a fairly high -end Fusion
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1 Asian restaurant in Coral Gables by the name of Kharma and
2 he's been the sole operator of Visions since he purchased
3 this business from the prior owners, the Banana Joe's
4 people, about two and -a -half years ago. Prior to his
5 involvement in the three venues that he currently operates
6 and for a five year period of time Mr. Shenazzi is Hyatt
7 trained, having been the food and beverage manager of
8 Hyatt Regency in the Gables for approximately a five-year
9 period and prior to that at Charcoals and for those of
10 you old enough to remember, Mr. Shenazzi also worked at
11 Suzanne's in The Grove back when Suzanne's was a very
12 popular venue? So almost from the time that he was 18,
13 Mr. Shenazzi has been involved in the night club
14 entertainment business and we're proud to say he's
15 operated these three venues with no issues whatsoever over
16 the course of their operation. The other item that is in
17 the supplemental package that you have are some pictures
18 and I'll go through that with you in a moment but I'd like
19 you to zero in on the sound study that's also included in
20 the package. Cocowalk is an interesting venue. There are
21 a number of open-air venues in Cocowalk and a number of
22 venues with outdoor speakers, and we have some pictures in
23 your package to show that we're neither one of those two
24 items. We're neither open air and we don't have any
25 outdoor speakers. There are a number of venues in the
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1 Cocowalk area that do. There are -- one of the venues, as
2 you'll see in the pictures, has I think up to six or seven
3 outdoor speakers. We're none of that. What the sound
4 study succinctly tells you is that any noise that emanates
5 from Cocowalk emanates -- he goes on to say that the
6 biggest culprits are the open air or the outdoor speaker
7 venues, and we are neither one of those. That may account
8 for the fact that the entire time Banana Joe's was there
9 and the entire time we've been there we haven't had one
10 noise violation or one code violation of any sorts,
11 whereas some of our neighbors in Cocowalk have not been so
12 lucky. I don't know how much you're aware of the issues
13 that some of the outdoor venues in Cocowalk have had, but
14 there have been disk jockeys arrested and issues with
15 outdoor speakers an violations of code. We're none of
16 that, and I don't want to tangle all of that up with our
17 simple application. We're up in the corner. We're on the
18 third and fourth floor. Our staircase that leads up to
19 the fourth floor is as far in the corner of Cocowalk as
20 you can get. You can't get any further deep in the center
21 of Cocowalk, and we again, just -- and I hate to beat a
22 dead horse, but we have no outdoor speakers. We have no
23 open-air venues. Everything that we have is behind closed
24 doors, and what the sound study indicates to you is that
25 any noise emanating from Cocowalk, the culprits are the
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1 open air and the outdoor speakers and not us. The sound
2 engineer does make one point of asking us to keep the
3 doors closed when people come in and out rather than
4 keeping them open. We've adopted that recommendation and
5 our door people and our door personnel supervisors are
6 here tonight to tell you about that. The -- now the
7 pictures, okay. There's one of the portions in that
8 supplemental package that you have -- I think it's
9 important for those of you who are unfamiliar with this
10 venue to get an idea of exactly where we're located so you
11 understand the point that we're trying to make about being
12 up and in the corner. One of the pictures shows Visions
13 Night Club and Apple Martini Bar as the two-story third
14 and fourth floor venue in the corner.
15 CHAIRMAN PENA: Wait a minute. Has anybody here
16 not been to Cocowalk? We -- we get it.
17 MR. TERMINELLO: Okay. Well, let me go through
18 just one or two of the pictures with you, then, just to
19 emphasize and zero in on the outdoor speaker issue.
20 There's one picture of one OF the venues directly
21 underneath that you granted the special exception to most
22 recently and you can see clearly in this picture here
23 there's six outdoor speakers. And they all face out, by
24 the way, so these are the culprits of the noise that
25 emanates from Cocowalk and not our venue.
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1 CHAIRMAN PENA: Let me just remind you that every
2 application stands on its own merit.
3 MR. TERMINELLO: That's -- it's true, but the
4 point is that if you are -- if there's any opposition
5 having to do with sound or noise emanating from Cocowalk,
6 it's important that we draw a distinction between the
7 open-air venues and the outdoor speaker venues and our
8 closed facility. The other picture that I'd like to point
9 out to you is one of the other venues in which you can see
10 in the picture the outdoor seating area in which there are
11 seven speakers, most of them pointing outward. The
12 pictures speak for themselves. Our location inside of
13 Cocowalk speaks for itself, and the sound study most
14 importantly speaks for itself. It clearly indicates that
15 if you're looking for a culprit for noise emanating from
16 Cocowalk, it's not us. There are for example if you go
17 south on McFarland from Cocowalk, even outside of Cocowalk
18 itself, there are venues that have outdoor speakers and
19 outdoor entertainment components right on McFarland
20 itself. For example, there's Flavor, there's Oasis,
21 there's even outdoor speakers attached to the place, so
22 the whole street has noise emanating from it, and that's
23 what may or may not be the subject of some of the issues
24 involving the noise that emanates from there. There's
25 even -- when I was there this weekend, even the spray
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1 paint guy that does the pictures on the floor sets up a
2 speaker and a radio when he's doing his work in Cocowalk,
3 and Cocowalk itself of course has a band that's there
4 until midnight each night; so it's an entertainment
5 complex. That's what it was built for, that's what it is
6 and that's what it does and we're part of that
7 entertainment complex. I would like to reserve whatever
8 other time that you graciously grant me for rebuttal in
9 the event that there's any questions that the board may
10 have. The owner is here, Mr. Shenazzi, to answer any of
11 your questions that you may have and if I didn't say it
12 earlier, the applicant accepts all four conditions which
13 are by the way standard conditions that have been attached
14 to these type of resolutions for all of the other special
15 exceptions that were issued.
16 CHAIRMAN PENA: Thank you. Is there anyone in
17 the public that would like to speak on this item?
18 MR. BERLIN: Before they speak, can I just ask
19 him one question --
20 CHAIRMAN PENA: Sure.
21 MR. BERLIN: -- to address in his presentation?
22 MR. TERMINELLO: Sure.
23 MR. BERLIN: When you were before this Board in
24 our last meeting when you were asking a continuance, one
25 of the main reasons you suggested for the continuance was
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1 that you wanted to have an --
2 MR. TERMINELLO: A different item. See, that's
3 part of the problem that we have is that people have us
4 mixed with somebody else. That's a completely different
5 client.
6 CHAIRMAN PENA: Yeah, another item this is
7 another application.
8 MR. TERMINELLO: Completely different venue,
9 completely different location.
10 CHAIRMAN PENA: Whoever would like to speak, get
11 on the mike. Please don't be repetitious. Name and
12 address for the record?
13 MR. BUHULTZER: Good evening. My name is Izzy
14 Buhultzer (sic). I live on 3150 Florida Avenue. I'm a
15 realtor and I'm also running the Citizens on Patrol
16 program here in Coconut Grove, so I am a little bit aware
17 of the issues and problems that we have sometimes in
18 Coconut Grove, especially with the patrons leaving the
19 premises after they have enjoyed an evening of music and
20 intoxication. The biggest problem that we're facing in
21 Coconut Grove is when the patrons are leaving the premises
22 and a lot of the clubs that are open until 3:00 or 5:00 in
23 the morning do unfortunately attract a certain element
24 that we do not necessarily desire to have in Coconut
25 Grove. I've lived there for 15 years and I have to say
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1 lately the level of lewd behavior, urinating even
2 excrementing on the streets between the hours of 2:00 to
3 4:00 in the morning has increasingly or alarmingly
4 increased during the last couple of years. I would like
5 to ask this Board to consider this when they extend the
6 hours from 2:00 to 5:00. Actually, I would even encourage
7 to extend them to 7:00 when the sunlight is back out and
8 the police force has more time to dedicate to the patrons
9 leaving the premises. Thank you.
10 CHAIRMAN PENA: What time, sir, did you say?
11 MR. BUHULTZER: Pardon me.
12 CHAIRMAN PENA: What time did you say?
13 MR. BUHULTZER: 7:00.
14 CHAIRMAN PENA: Okay.
15 MR. BUHULTZER: Since we are converting more and
16 more into a party sort of environment -- I don't know if
17 you're aware of other places like Ibiza. They have the
18 same problem. They start at midnight and they close at
19 6:30 in the morning to avoid the problem that the patrons
20 leaving under the cover of the night.
21 CHAIRMAN PENA: Okay, thank you.
22 MR. BUHULTZER: Thank you.
23 CHAIRMAN PENA: Next, please?
24 MS. COMIS: Hi. My name is Catherine Comis
25 (sic). I live at 3304 Virginia Street in the Center Grove
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1 right behind Cocowalk and I appeared before this board
2 before regarding this issue when Club Life was next door
3 to me and I came here with stories about Club Life that
4 were very, very difficult to live with, and that was a
5 club that was open until 5:00 in the morning, and again
6 it's the sound in that case because it was not within the
7 confines of Cocowalk but more importantly what people have
8 to understand is while people may come one car at a time,
9 they all leave at one time at 5:00 a.m. they're drunk,
10 they're fired up, they fight. We've had fights in the
11 middle of the street. We had a gentleman who pulled a
12 cooker cooking meet onto Virginia Street and sold
13 sandwiches at 5:00 a.m. We have had urination, defecation
14 and we had a couple "making love" as you might call it on
15 our sidewalk three nights ago. We have had the screaming.
16 The language outside of our building is unbelievable, and
17 here's -- here's -- I don't want to be repetitious because
18 I think everybody's said this, and that is the club's
19 responsibilities while people are inside are one thing but
20 who's responsible for when their patrons leave in the
21 condition that they are in? It's -- it's remarkable that
22 these people can be that loaded and get in cars. They are
23 -- they are very, very loaded, but let me just say one
24 other thing that may be not be repetitious, and that is
25 I'm not sure if everybody -- I know most of you are
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1 probably from The Grove and you've been here longer than I
2 have but let me just run this down to you. I live in a
3 27-unit building and I have a feeling that the people that
4 live in this building are a good indication of who now
5 lives in the Center Grove. It's not cheap to live here
6 anymore, and my building is not one of the most expensive
7 but let me just run this down to you as you think of
8 making a decision about The Grove, and I'll be brief. In
9 our building of 27 people, four babies have been born
10 since October, two families have two -year -olds, two
11 families have mothers who live with them, we have two
12 young doctors who are doing their residency at Jackson
13 Memorial, we have one pilot who's in Iraq, we have two
14 teachers, we have bankers and other financial people, we
15 have a local merchant, we have a fireman, a social worker,
16 we have an attorney studying for the bar and a person
17 entering medical school. These are not the people that
18 these clubs are open for. These 5:00 a.m. clubs are not
19 about people who live in The Grove. It's about people who
20 come from without The Grove into The Grove who do not do
21 business with our merchants, they don't eat in our
22 restaurants, they don't -- they have no respect for our
23 property, they destroy our peace, they destroy our
24 property and our sense of well being. I urge you please
25 to think of the people who live in The Grove before -- as
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1 you make this decision. Thank you.
2 CHAIRMAN PENA: Thank you.
3 MR. ENGELS: And before you sit down, may I ask
4 you a question? Why did you choose -- why did you choose
5 to reside in the Center Grove?
6 MS. COMIS: You know -- and that's a real good
7 question. I moved here from out of town. I made that
8 decision and I went to the unit that I bought all hours of
9 the day and night except not because I'm not awake
10 from 1:00 to 5:00 a.m. and I was sold this unit without
11 the knowledge that there was a night club right behind me.
12 Believe that or not, it is true and it was -- it was a
13 shocking realization the first weekend that Club Life was
14 was there for me and, you know, I won't -- I won't go
15 in -- but other than this issue of people leaving clubs at
16 that hour of the morning, I chose it because it's urban.
17 I love it. I walk to movies, I'm ten minutes from my
18 work, et cetera. You know, I love it for every other
19 reason. I was not aware, first of all, how young The
20 Grove has become and how late night it is. I teach at the
21 University of Miami and even my students are concerned
22 about coming into The Grove these days.
23 CHAIRMAN PENA: Thank you. Next, please.
24 MR. TERMINELLO: But before you let her go, may I
25 just ask one question?
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1 CHAIRMAN PENA: No, let's just finish with the
2 public and I'll ask you -- give you time for rebuttal.
3 MR. TERMINELLO: Okay.
4 MS. TORRES: Hi. Liliana Torres (sic), 2901
5 South Bayshore Drive. The building is Yacht Harbor. I
6 have lived there since 1997. When I moved to Yacht
7 Harbor, there were police on the street at all times. In
8 fact, I remember set -- them constantly setting up at Mary
9 Street and Grand and having breathalyzer tests. This was
10 done routinely; at least, you know, every few weeks or
11 once a month. I never see that anymore. I'm all -- I was
12 young once. I'm all for having fun and for, you know,
13 having night clubs. It is a downtown district. I have
14 been a resident in New York City, so I'm used to this kind
15 of noise; however, I question having to stay open until
16 5:00 a.m. I can't imagine that any -- even in New York
17 City they don't have bars that stay open until 5:00 a.m.
18 unless they're in districts that are far away. I lived in
19 Toronto. They sensibly close every bar in that city at
20 1:00 in the morning. If you want to drink after 1:00 in
21 the morning, you go home or you go to an afterhours club
22 which is located in a warehouse district where there are
23 no residents, no hotels, no people who -- to stay up. The
24 other thing that I want to discuss is these: I got this
25 on -- this is my opinion card. I got it on Tuesday
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1 afternoon. As you recall, Wednesday was a holiday. These
2 come later and later and later. Last month it was the
3 same thing. It gives -- this particular week was a week
4 when people go away on vacation. We need to receive these
5 at least three weeks before something like this because
6 there would be a lot more people in my building here to
7 protest this if we got these on time, which we do not, so
8 primarily I want to talk about this. I ditto pretty much
9 everything that has been said by these other patrons. The
10 noise is intolerable and even though there are security
11 and policemen that are hired privately, these stay on the
12 premises or right outside. They do not follow these
13 people a block and it's out of their jurisdiction because
14 I have been out on the street coming back from the movies
15 late where I have seen incidences of the people that drop
16 and scatter the debris all over the floor known as post
17 cards and I've actually gone after a policemen and asked
18 them to do something about it only for them to say, well,
19 we're being privately hired by that place across the
20 street and we have to stay exactly where we are. So
21 having security is good for the club inside the club but
22 not outside. Thank you.
23 CHAIRMAN PENA: Thank you.
24 MR. URQIOLA: Lady, lady, you say you have to
25 receive this three week before this. It's impossible for
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1 the City to notify you three week before he coming over
2 here possibly. The City can't do that.
3 MS. TORRES: Why?
4 MR. URQIOLA: Because too much time they present
5 three week before they coming over here.
6 MS. TORRES: Then they need to schedule these
7 CHAIRMAN PENA: Vanessa, you want to address
8 that?
9 UNIDENTIFIED STAFF MEMBER: The issue of the
10 notice, I've -- we're looking for the notice section right
11 now so we can tell you specifically but it is our belief
12 that the notice section says that the notices shall be
13 mailed by the City ten days prior to the hearing, and that
14 is what is in the code. As to the vagaries of the mail
15 and whether something gets a little late or before, I
16 think hearing boards just goes by the practice that they
17 mail it. You know, the code can't say received because,
18 you know, we can't be guarantors of the U.S. Mail.
19 MR. URQIOLA: This is what I mean. This
20 impossible request.
21 UNIDENTIFIED STAFF MEMBER: Yeah, it comes out
22 ten days before the hearing as well.
23 CHAIRMAN PENA: Next, please?
24 MS. LANG: My name is Barbara Lang (sic). I live
25 3495 Main Highway and I'm also here to oppose another late
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1 night -- a 5:00 a.m. bar. I live on Main Highway across
2 from a bar that opened up and people come in and urinate
3 on our property and drop garbage and you can sometimes
4 hear the cars and people screaming, you know, in the
5 middle of the night and you're woken up and I just don't
6 think we need any more of these 5:00 a.m. bars and I have
7 an article here that says, "Condo Fights Bid to Open
8 Supper Club," and I'd just like to remind you of some of
9 the things you voted against this. I believe a member
10 of the condo says they she remembers nights when loud
11 music blasting beneath her unit would shake the walls and
12 the floors. Ova de Roma (sic), the beauty salon, says he
13 found the storefront glass splattered with blood; remains
14 from a brawl. I mean, people that are drinking at 5:00
15 a.m. just don't re belong in a mixed -use neighborhood
16 where we have stores and residents. The residents are
17 just too close for this kind of thing to go on. We also
18 have schools. We have two elementary schools; one's a
19 private elementary school and one's Coconut Grove
20 Elementary School. I mean, what is a 5:00 a.m. bar doing
21 opening so close to schools? We also have a church, and
22 something that the attorney said; they'll keep their doors
23 closed. Well, who's going to make sure that they keep
24 their doors closed? And then they'll say we have extra
25 security. They'll hire the police. Sometimes I think the
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1 police work for the people and they don't ever enforce the
2 laws that they're breaking, and of course the one I'm
3 speaking is the noise ordinance. And the sound study, I'm
4 always interested that there's a sound study. I mean, how
5 do all these people get away with putting outside speakers
6 pointed at the residential area if everybody has to have a
7 sound study? I'd like somebody -- can somebody answer
8 that to me; if all these bars open up with outside --
9 nobody can answer that?
10 CHAIRMAN PENA: Staff would have to answer that.
11 MS. LANG: How do you open up with -- with
12 speakers and amplifiers, and he's saying he has to have a
13 sound study? How does this happen? I mean, and it's hard
14 to get anybody to come out when there's a real crime to
15 enforce the noise ordinance. No answer?
16 "ROBERTO": Hold on. We'll get an answer for you.
17 This particular club have no outside area with speakers.
18 If you're asking about other businesses that have speaker
19 outside I imagine that those business have a certificate
20 of use and a building permit to do that. I cannot have --
21 what business are those? Maybe if you send a list of
22 those business, we can find out if they are legally
23 operating.
24 MS. LANG: So if all of us here that are being
25 bothered by the outside noise, can we give -- who do we
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1 give the list to, to say these people have outside
2 speakers and they're pointing in our direction and are
3 they legal? Who can we give that to?
4 "ROBERTO": To the Net Office.
5 MS. LANG: The Net Office?
6 "ROBERTO": Yes, ma'am.
7 MS. LANG: And sometime in this century, do you
8 think we'll get an answer?
9 "ROBERTO": I cannot speak for the Net Office, but
10 certainly I can help Net --
11 CHAIRMAN PENA: Who's the Net -- the person in
12 charge of Net in that area?
13 MS. LANG: Haiti, and --
14 "ROBERTO": Haiti.
15 MS. LANG: -- she's very good, but I believe we
16 have to get some --
17 CHAIRMAN PENA: And she has no comments for this
18 particular --
19 MS. LANG: I believe we have to get an answer
20 from the Planning & Zoning Department.
21 "ROBERTO": Well, if there's certificate of use
22 for that, the Zoning Department will be
23 MS. LANG: Code enforcement?
24 "ROBERTO": Code enforcement is if there's any
25 violation. First we have to find out if there's a legal
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1 issue.
2 UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBE: I want you to know that Ne
3 comments either for or against this. I'm not really
4 pleased with the effectiveness of the Net Office in The
5 Grove.
6 MS. LANG: Maybe I could make -- you could help
7 some of us in The Grove, some of our residents that are
8 dealing with the noise issue. Maybe you could instruct
9 the Zoning Department to list our -- all these outside
10 speakers; are they permitted.
11 "ROBERTO": We cannot do that.
12 CHAIRMAN PENA: I tell you, let's wait until the
13 hearing is over and maybe we can get some thoughts on
14 that.
15 MS. LANG: Thank you very much.
16 UNIDENTIFIED STAFF MEMBER: Remember you also
17 have a Commission. That Commission that represents your
18 area, so --
19 CHAIRMAN PENA: Okay. Next, please.
20 MS. GROSS: My name's Phyllis Gross. I live at
21 Yacht Harbor, 2901 South Bayshore Drive. I've been living
22 at that address for 30 years and every time we have a club
23 that's open late at night it's really scary to come home
24 if I have -- I'm ever out in the street. I've watched the
25 police do nothing. They're supposed to protect us, but
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1 they are hired privately by the buildings, by the clubs,
2 and I've been caught in traffic problems and scared to go
3 into my own home leaving from Cocowalk or the building
4 behind it and trying to come back to Yacht Harbor and I
5 beg you please not to let anymore all night clubs come
6 into The Grove. Thank you.
7 CHAIRMAN PENA: Next, please.
8 UNIDENTIFIED RESIDENT: (Inaudible.)
9 CHAIRMAN PENA: Give me one second please.
10 Vanessa, how come this wasn't in our -- it was given to
11 you this afternoon? It was given to you this morning but
12 maybe we should have had it before the meeting started.
13 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Inaudible.)
14 CHAIRMAN PENA: Did you hear me, Vanessa? We
15 should have had this before the meeting started. It was
16 given this morning.
17 "VANESSA": (Inaudible.)
18 CHAIRMAN PENA: Excuse me? Thank you. No, go
19 ahead, sir.
20 UNIDENTIFIED RESIDENT: Well, sir, may we know
21 the content of that?
22 UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBE: Yeah, we have a memorandum
23 Office that was forwarded to us but not distributed to us
24 in our package this evening which was a negative report
25 from an Officer Tom Bragga (sic) about problems that have
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1 occurred with late night openings in The Grove and the
2 fact that a lot of clubs are opening until 5:00 a.m.
3 without the proper licensing.
4 UNIDENTIFIED RESIDENT: I just wanted to say that
5 Grove Towers and Yacht Harbor together contribute over $25
6 million in taxes a year in that city block and we are
7 really, really fed up with the people -- quality of people
8 -- that go to these clubs, the quality of people that exit
9 these clubs, the condition they exit these clubs in. I'm
10 sure these gentleman, for three extra hours they'll make a
11 lot of money but it's not about money. It's about the
12 quality of life for the residents, for the long-time
13 residents, the involved residents that live in Coconut
14 Grove. We do not want this in our community. Thank you.
15 CHAIRMAN PENA: Thank you. Anyone else? Please
16 --
17 MR. URQIOLA: Wait a minute.
18 MR. LEVY: Patrick Levy.
19 MR. URQIOLA: Excuse me. Lady, why we don't have
20 it? Why we don't have it in this, in the package? Why?
21 "VANESSA": (Inaudible.)
22 CHAIRMAN PENA: I already asked her. Okay.
23 MR. URQIOLA: Thank you.
24 MR. LEVY: Patrick Levy, 2801 Florida Avenue,
25 Coconut Grove. I want to make one quick point. You have
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1 a number of these that have been coming up for you.
2 There's -- there's another special exception request
3 coming up on I guess the 30th now, the meeting. That one
4 happens to be right next door to my business and right
5 underneath my residence. If these all go through, we are
6 going to be fundamentally changing the character of The
7 Grove and fundamentally changing the character of an SD-2
8 area, and let me read from the Intent of District for an
9 SD-2, and that is, "To create opportunities for combining
10 residential and non-residential uses in a pattern
11 minimizing potential adverse effects of such
12 combinations." Putting 5:00 a.m. clubs right next to
13 dense residential areas does not minimize those adverse
14 effects; it maximizes them. The -- if you look at -- if
15 you -- I have a map here if you're interested, but I'm
16 sure you're all familiar with the area. A great number of
17 people park over at Coconut Grove Bank and they use
18 Florida Avenue as a thoroughfare to get over to these
19 clubs. Between 2:00 and 5:00 in the morning, Florida
20 Avenue just becomes a highway of litter, broken glass,
21 fights, urination, defecation, every kind of lewd, gross
22 behavior you can think of, and I'm tired of tripping over
23 broken bottles in the morning. I don't want to see it
24 next to my business. Please stop this. Please stop it
25 now before we ruin this area. Thank you.
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1 CHAIRMAN PENA: All right. Please hold the
2 applause because we won't get out of here tonight. Next,
3 please?
4 MR. HOZONAS: Good evening. My name is George
5 Hozonas (sic) and I am a vice president and general
6 manager of the Sonesta Hotel an Suites located on 2889
7 McFarland in the Center Grove. I would like to thank the
8 Board for allowing me the opportunity to speak and I will
9 be brief. The Sonesta is a 211-unit condominium and
10 hotel. I'm here to speak on behalf of approximately 200
11 condominium unit owners and 20,000 to 30,000 guests who
12 stay at our hotel every year. We respectfully express
13 deep concern over the prospect of two additional
14 establishments being allowed to operate until 5:00 a.m.
15 We fear that this would create the potential for
16 additional loud noise disturbing our guests as well as
17 additional late night activity and its consequences and
18 aftermath. We are actually excited to be operating a
19 hotel and a condominium in the midst of a district that
20 offers our guests and residents a multitude of options for
21 their entertainment such as restaurants, bars, coffee
22 shops, night clubs, et cetera. However, we believe in
23 offering first and foremost the most basic that a hotel
24 guest or resident needs, and that is a good night's sleep.
25 That we are unfortunately not always able to provide,
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1 especially on certain nights, namely Fridays -- Thursdays,
2 Fridays and Saturdays, especially to guests and residents
3 whose units face the center grove. I believe that as a
4 community Coconut Grove must keep a balance between the
5 venues and activities that it offers; one of night life,
6 wild and rowdy night life, daytime activities, the arts,
7 commerce, et cetera. At the present time it seems to me
8 that Coconut Grove is off balance in that respect. Wild
9 and rowdy night life gets more than its fair share of our
10 neighborhood. Adding two more establishments that can
11 operate until 5:00 a.m. in a very central and public
12 location would mean more loud music in the early morning
13 hours, more traffic, more cars playing their loud stereos
14 in the streets, more motorcycles revving up their engines
15 and more trash left behind, and therefore I would
16 respectfully request that the Board take this issue of
17 balance into account as it considers this application.
18 Thank you.
19 CHAIRMAN PENA: Thank you. Next.
20 MR. HECHT: Mr. Chairman, Board, I'm Gary Hecht
21 (sic). I live at 2910 Emathel Street in The Grove and I'm
22 chairman of the Coconut Grove Village Council. Very
23 quickly I'd like to read to you section 602.SD-2. SD-2
24 Coconut Grove Central Commercial District. Within the
25 commercial center of Coconut Grove is a special and
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1 substantial public interest to strengthen unique historic
2 and cultural character by regulations encouraging retail
3 and service development within strong pedestrian
4 orientation. It's further intended to encourage
5 innovative site planning and architectural design and
6 importantly and to create opportunities for combining
7 residential and non-residential uses in a pattern
8 minimizing potential adverse affects of such combinations
9 Thank you.
10 CHAIRMAN PENA: Next. Okay, Mr. Terminello, I'll
11 give you time for rebuttal.
12 MR. TERMINELLO: Thank you. Just a few short
13 items, and I'd like to call one witness; Mr. Shenazzi.
14 CHAIRMAN PENA: Un-huh.
15 MR. TERMINELLO: You know, we've heard a lot
16 about the noise emanating from Cocowalk and we don't doubt
17 that the good people have an issue, but it's not with us,
18 and gentleman I can't emphasize that any stronger. We
19 have no outdoor speakers, we have no outdoor components.
20 The sound study was very, very clear in that. From
21 Sonesta, for example, you can't hear noise coming from
22 Cocowalk, okay. The decibel level readings that were
23 taken, when you extrapolate it down eight -- 750 feet to
24 Sonesta, even on the condominium side, on the city side,
25 it's not us that they hear. Flavor, which is a 5:00 a.m.
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1 night club next door to Sonesta, okay, or some of the open
2 air venues that are in Cocowalk may be better to look at
3 as the cause of the noise. You didn't hear one person
4 testify that there's any noise intrusion coming from this
5 venue, nor has there been in the four years that this
6 venue has been operating under this licensure. Everybody
7 has an issue. Cocowalk and the analysis of the SD-2
8 district is wonderful, but we left out a big, giant chunk;
9 that this is in the entertainment realty specialty center
10 inside of Cocowalk. Okay, this is not on the street in
11 the SD-2 district. You know, in the next couple of weeks
12 you have other venues that are on the street in the SD-2
13 district. That may be an argument, but not here. We're
14 on the third and fourth floor inside of Cocowalk. There
15 are numerous venues between us and -- the Sonesta is one
16 example. The lady that lived at Yacht Harbor, the two
17 witnesses from Yacht Harbor, Yacht Harbor can't possibly
18 hear any noise from Cocowalk, certainly can't possibly --
19 CHAIRMAN PENA: Excuse me, ma'am. Don't
20 interrupt. Excuse me. Please don't interrupt.
21 MR. TERMINELLO: Just visualize where Yacht
22 Harbor is and where this venue in the middle of Cocowalk
23 is, and if it's -- if there's scientific empirical data in
24 front of you to indicate that it's not noise emanating
25 from this venue that can be heard at Sonesta, I don't know
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1 how you hear it another half a mile away. Yes, they have
2 legitimate issues, but not with this venue. If all of
3 these venues were closed then maybe we wouldn't have that
4 problem. I can't speak to that. I'm not here dealing
5 with the issues of whether outdoor speakers are permitted
6 or not and outdoor venues and open-air venues are
7 permitted. That's another issue for another day that you
8 good people have to deal with, but not -- don't take it
9 out on this venue who has been operating like this all
10 these years with not one code violation. I'd like to call
11 two short witnesses, if I may.
12 CHAIRMAN PENA: Take that speaker over there.
13 MR. TERMINELLO: Can you give us your name and
14 your occupation, sir?
15 MR. LIU: My name is Edward Liu (sic). I'm an
16 officer of the City of Miami.
17 MR. TERMINELLO: You're a City of Miami police
18 officer?
19 MR. LIU: Yes.
20 MR. TERMINELLO: Okay. Do you deal with the
21 off -duty jobs at Cocowalk in this particular this venue
22 that's the subject of this hearing?
23 MR. LIU: Yes.
24 MR. TERMINELLO: And how long have you been
25 involved in the coordination of the off -duty work here at
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1 this venue?
2 MR. LIU: I've been there for approximately four
3 years.
4 MR. TERMINELLO: You even predate this particular
5 owner of that venue, correct?
6 MR. LIU: Yes, I do.
7 MR. TERMINELLO: Okay, can you tell us, in the
8 four years that you've been familiar with this venue
9 whether or not you're aware of any issues surrounding
10 noise emanating from this particular venue?
11 MR. LIU: There hasn't been any noise complaints
12 that have been brought to my attention.
13 MR. TERMINELLO: Okay. Do you know of any
14 complaints that have been filed with the City or the
15 police department regarding this particular venue?
16 MR. LIU: For noise, none that I know of.
17 MR. TERMINELLO: Are you aware of the fact that
18 there are open-air and premises in the immediate vicinity
19 that have had issues with noise?
20 MR. LIU: I have heard calls go out in other
21 venues in the area.
22 MR. TERMINELLO: Are you aware of the fact that a
23 disk jockey from one of our neighboring locations in
24 Cocowalk was arrested because of the noise venue -- noise
25 ordinance?
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1 MR. LIU: I heard something about that.
2 MR. TERMINELLO: Thank you. I don't have
3 anything further.
4 UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBER: (Inaudible.)
5 CHAIRMAN PENA: Through the chair, please,
6 through the chair.
7 UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBER: Let Mr. Terminello --
8 let Mr. Terminello --
9 CHAIRMAN PENA: Let him finish and then we'll
10 open it up to the Board. Go ahead, sir.
11 MR. TERMINELLO: Thank you. I have one last
12 witness I'd like to call; Mr. Shenazzi.
13 Okay, Mr. Shenazzi, are you the owner of the venue
14 that is the subject of this hearing?
15 MR. SHENAZZI: Yes, I am.
16 MR. TERMINELLO: Have you owned it from the day
17 that -- did you acquire it from a prior operator?
18 MR. SHENAZZI: Yes, I purchased the business on
19 February of 2005.
20 MR. TERMINELLO: Okay, and at the time that you
21 -- that you purchased this business, it had a special
22 exception for extended hours to 5:00 a.m., correct?
23 MR. SHENAZZI: Yeah. It was a operating night
24 club until 5:00 a.m.
25 MR. TERMINELLO: Okay, and you believed -- you
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1 understood that you had that right, also?
2 MR. SHENAZZI: Yes.
3 MR. TERMINELLO: Do you have any outdoor
4 entertainment components to your business?
5 MR. SHENAZZI: No. I have 19,000 square feet of
6 interior space with no outdoor speakers in any way, shape
7 or form.
8 MR. TERMINELLO: And you encompass two floors at
9 Cocowalk, correct?
10 MR. SHENAZZI: Yes.
11 MR. TERMINELLO: And do you have an outdoor
12 component at either of those two floors?
13 MR. SHENAZZI: No. None, zero.
14 MR. TERMINELLO: Do you have -- do you utilize
15 any outdoor speakers in the business currently?
16 MR. SHENAZZI: No, we have -- we don't our
17 patio outdoor is extremely small. It is used for smoking,
18 basically.
19 MR. TERMINELLO: Okay. You have security
20 personnel there, correct?
21 MR. SHENAZZI: From the first day I bought it, I
22 have 17 security including door staffs and four off -duty
23 police officers working every Friday, Saturday night,
24 which I'm only required to have two. I have extra one
25 just for security of them all; to walk around the area and
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1 everything else, from the first day we opened.
2 MR. TERMINELLO: Are you aware of the fact that
3 open-air venues and premises with outdoor speakers have
4 been problematic to the area residents?
5 MR. SHENAZZI: Yes.
6 MR. TERMINELLO: Okay. Has anybody ever come to
7 you either from the City of Miami, the police department,
8 the administration or any residents and ever complained
9 about your music levels?
10 MR. SHENAZZI: Not concerning us, no. I was
11 asked to help out with other tenants to make suggestions.
12 Since we've never had a problem ourself, I was asked by
13 the last commander, you know, to talk to the other people
14 in order -- what do we do that they can do, but other than
15 that we have never had any -- had one single problem,
16 citation, violation in any form in my own establishment.
17 MR. TERMINELLO: Do you intend if the special
18 exception is granted to continue the exemplary conduct
19 that you've expressed so far?
20 MR. SHENAZZI: Yeah, I just want to continue
21 doing the business the way I bought the business as
22 the way I bought the business, as I bought the business of
23 being open until 5:00 a.m. --
24 CHAIRMAN PENA: Sorry, it's getting late.
25 MR. TERMINELLO: Okay, okay. Did you have any
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1 other comments that you wanted to make to the board?
2 MR. SHENAZZI: If I may, I also live in Coconut
3 Grove and I've lived here for 20 years. I worked for
4 Monte Trainer (sic). I lived in the same location that
5 I've just purchased as a bartender in 1991 when it opened.
6 I understand a lot of the residents' concerns, as the lady
7 that lived behind Club Life. Club Life closed 18 months
8 ago, okay. I don't want to pay the price for the mistakes
9 Club Life made. A lot of people, I understood they
10 thought I'm -- I'm the owner of Club Quench, the -- what
11 you mentioned earlier. I bought this business as it is.
12 I paid a lot of money for this business. I've never had a
13 single violation, I've had a great relationship with the
14 commander of the police department, the code enforcement,
15 every one of them. I've been an active neighbor in order
16 to make it better. My crowd are not the younger crowd.
17 Apple Martini caters to 35 to 45 years old. We play
18 seventies and eighties disco. For the people that said
19 the wrong element, that is not the element I'm bringing
20 in. I pay for -- I reimburse parking because the people
21 that come there, again, are couples. They don't want to
22 pay $9 to park. So my people park in Cocowalk. They are
23 not wandering around the streets. That's not what we
24 cater to. I work with Cheesecake Factory, with Cafe
25 Med in order to make reservations for our crowd. Now, we
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1 have a club upstairs. Again, does it play hip hop music?
2 Yes, but Coconut Grove has six or seven clubs that are
3 open. A lot of these problems come from other tenants,
4 people that live in Florida Avenue. That doesn't come
5 from us. The chances are it comes from the club that
6 locates Oxygen, that's right in Mayfair. Wet Willy's
7 is in May fair. A lot of the noise that go to the yacht
8 club comes Wet Willy's, which is an outdoor event with
9 outdoor speakers and everything else. I've done my best
10 and I'm not telling you we are a club and there are no
11 problems but we've done the best I can to operate it as it
12 is and I think my record -- the fact that I've never had a
13 violation; like the letter that you said, has never been
14 addressed to me. I filed this application for this
15 special exception back in 2005 and the Department of
16 Zoning can -- I have an e-mail from them. My application
17 has been lost twice. Two times since 2005. I should have
18 been this -- at your presence back in 2005 when I bought
19 the business, but our application was lost. First time I
20 paid for every fee; architectural fee, zoning fee,
21 everything else to be submitted again. Again, it was lost
22 again in the end of 2006. Apparently when they went to
23 the cafeteria some files got mishandled and everything
24 else. I did not even know about this 5:00 exception
25 hearing until two, three months ago when it showed up
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1 that, listen, you know what? Your application was never
2 processed. Your application was never approved. Because
3 I expect that I bought a business that was open until 5:00
4 a.m., they had all the licenses and since I bought
5 everything I had all my licenses; I had occupation
6 license, certificate, everything else, that I'm up to par,
7 and for the last three months that I got the notice from
8 the City we ceased to sell alcohol by 3:00 a.m. and by
9 doing so that's cost me a lot of -- a great deal of -- not
10 just profit. It's not about profit, it's actually money
11 that I'm losing every week because I have a staff of 40
12 people, okay, so -- but nevertheless we did the right
13 thing. I did not -- you know, they lost the application,
14 a mistake happens once, twice. You know what I mean? So
15 I said okay, no problem. Every mistake happens, and I've
16 done my part. What I want to say, and I told my attorney
17 -- to be honest with you, against his advice I'm talking
18 because I don't want to pay the price for other people's
19 mistakes. If I made a mistake, okay, I'll pay for my
20 mistake. We were not required to get a sound company,
21 okay, but I was advised if I do so and invest $3,000, it
22 will clarify anybody else that I am not them, okay. I
23 have never been cited by any police department. Commander
24 Martin, Commander Witer (sic) (inaudible) will tell you I
25 had a weekly relationship with them. You know, when I
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1 bought the business, that is -- that exact space used to
2 promote, you know, they had a urban party they used to do
3 every Sunday night. Nothing against it. Okay, I was told
4 you know, it brings the wrong element, the right crowd. I
5 went ahead and cancelled my best night. As a new business
6 owner, I cancelled in order to be a better neighbor, in
7 order to have a better relationship with Cocowalk. Okay,
8 I went ahead and hired four off -duty police officer. I
9 hired a off -duty fireman. My guy that works the door is
10 not a regular guy that I hired for $10 an hour. It's a
11 Metro -Dade fireman that I hired in order again to make
12 sure that my -- it's a professional staff, it's adults and
13 then they won't be trying to get in the place. So to be
14 honest with you, that's all I have to say.
15 MR. TERMINELLO: Mr. Chair, thank you.
16 CHAIRMAN PENA: Thank you. One moment please.
17 Yep, you have a question --
18 MR. CORDON: Yes, I do.
19 CHAIRMAN PENA: -- for either gentleman?
20 MR. CORDON: Yeah. I think I'm convinced as far
21 as the sound, but I think the complaint's twofold. I
22 think what I was hearing most is that afterhours when
23 people are leaving -- and this is basically asking that it
24 be added to -- like in other words, your club would become
25 another member of the afterhour crowd.
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1 MR. SHENAZZI: If I may.
2 MR. CORDON: Well, what can you do or what can
3 you envision doing to alleviate that problem? Because I
4 think the sound thing, he's been convinced us that, you
5 know, the sound problem is not coming from you but --
6 MR. SHENAZZI: Okay.
7 MR. CORDON: -- you are asking to contribute to
8 the massive crowd that's leaving at 5:00.
9 MR. SHENAZZI: Let me clear that up. Please keep
10 in mind this venue's been operating like this for four
11 years. It's not a new -- it's not going to be added
12 crowd. It has been operating every night until 5:00 a.m.
13 even though now that I was told by the City that my
14 application was lost and is never processed, we're still
15 open until 5:00 a.m. We cease to sell -- stop selling
16 alcohol at 3:00 a.m. It's not like a crowd goes home at
17 three a.m. They're not going anywhere, okay. This place
18 has been a night club, like I said, for 17 years and we're
19 not the one -- the cause of people coming to the street.
20 To be honest with you, to be honest with you, our crowd,
21 the majority of our crowd due to the fact that we validate
22 parking in Cocowalk, we do not park in Florida Street.
23 Nobody walks there. The people that park needs to be the
24 clubs that are closest to them. Our clientele parks in
25 Cocowalk. Our clientele leaves Cocowalk. If there's any
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1 issues technically for us, like the other tenants in
2 Cocowalk, it's within the Cocowalk confinement. That's
3 the reason why I've taken the extra step of hiring extra
4 officers. My officers do not stand at the door of the
5 club and my coordinator is here to verify that once the
6 club close at 4:00 a.m., my officers begin to go outside
7 of Cocowalk when people leave so nobody's honking the horn
8 when they're paying the parking fee, when they easily --
9 you know, discretely and as peacefully as possible exit
10 the area. So we have done that. I mean, that's what I
11 want to clarify because it seems like we are a new
12 business and I'm going to bring extra crowd or extra
13 people that is undesirable crowd. It's been there and we
14 have -- we've done extra step actually to rectify the
15 problems that were there even prior to me.
16 MR. CORDON: And I think you probably are making
17 a good faith effort, but the question is you saying well
18 all your clients -- you have 19,000 square feet. How do
19 you tell with such confidence that they all park in one
20 place? I mean, you would have to give me something that
21 --
22 MR. SHENAZZI: Again --
23 MR. CORDON: -- tells me that, you know, you have
24 shepherds guiding them.
25 MR. SHENAZZI: If I may, again, first of all, let
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1 me say -- let me take back by saying 100 percent. I can
2 tell you my majority of my crowd. Why do I say that?
3 That's why; because we reimburse parking. I can know how
4 many parkings I reimburse. I understand when a club that
5 both floor together you got about 800 capacities, a club
6 that brings 600 or 700 people and I validate almost 200
7 tickets, that tells me majority -- nobody comes to a club
8 by themselves, so a majority of my people are parking in
9 Cocowalk.
10 MR. CORDON: Okay, well --
11 MR. SHENAZZI: In order to prevent that is when I
12 asked my off duties to go downstairs and there you can
13 testify when it comes 4:00 we close at 5:00. At 4:00,
14 two of my officers begin to go to the entrance of Cocowalk
15 parking lot only again because there is a hotel across
16 from me. I have a hotel background. I have a good
17 relationship with the general manager of Mayfair. I
18 understand when people left before he used to have a
19 problem with Club Life and Club Quench. When him and I
20 had a meeting, I said listen, I have a hotel background,
21 I understand how it works. I have my officers out there
22 in order for people not to get lost, not to hang out. To
23 get in their cars and go home. You know, we do that -- I
24 did that extra step myself. I have extra officers out I
25 hired for Cocowalk, not even part of my four in order to
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maintain the peace in general in Cocowalk. You know, so
-- and if there's any other extra steps that I could take,
I would do it. When they recommended the four
recommendations, you know, what meaning security, I don't
think they were
and I told them
validation, due
aware that I already have extra security
again, I'll do that, no problem. The
the fact that I validate parking already
obviously I said I agree because I already go above and
beyond that, and if I have to hire -- to be honest with
you, if the City requires -- the new commander himself
requires me to get two more officers in order to go even
past the surrounding area, I will. I'd be more than glad
to do so.
MR. CORDON: Have you ever reached the residents
who seem to have the complaints to --
MR. SHENAZZI: To be honest -
MR. CORDON: Maybe they may have the imagination
and what might can be done.
MR. SHENAZZI: If I may, I never knew any of them
before. Only one I knew.
CHAIRMAN PENA: Okay, let's finish with Mr.
Terminello and then we'll get to the board.
MR. SHENAZZI: The only one if I may add, the
only one I spoke to is the general manager of Sonesta
today.
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1 CHAIRMAN PENA: Okay.
2 MR. SHENAZZI: I spoke to him today and I told
3 him that, honestly, being in this business for 20 years,
4 the majority of he was telling me is from outside, but I
5 -- very small suggestion; again, being in the business, I
6 told him if you just approach Cocowalk and ask the people
7 that are outdoor in order if you see the pictures,
8 their speakers face outside. Simply by relocating the
9 speaker, make them come in, you're going to eliminate
10 50-percent of the sounds because the sound will not
11 travel, so
12 CHAIRMAN PENA: Mr. Terminello?
13 MR. SHENAZZI: So --
14 MR. TERMINELLO: Okay. Just I want to address
15 something Mr. Cordon brought up. If you look, city staff
16 obviously has the same concern that you did and somewhat
17 the residents did, and that's why there's a condition that
18 we've accepted in its entirety to give an inducement to be
19 parking in Cocowalk as opposed to outside of Cocowalk. So
20 we're we're -- a monetary inducement to park inside of
21 Cocowalk. This same condition was on a number of the
22 other venues and it usually takes the form of a credit off
23 their bill if they show a parking ticket at Cocowalk.
24 The other item that I wanted to bring up was I wanted to
25 proffer the testimony of the other witness, who would
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1 testify -- but I'm trying to save us a little time -- who
2 would testify that they do in fact walk around under Mr.
3 Shenazzi's direction as Mr. Shenazzi has indicated; so we
4 try to control the immediate area as best as we can during
5 the period of times that people are leaving and we think
6 that the parking inducement plan that the City is
7 mandating as a condition to this will go a lot further in
8 helping that out. My final point that I'd like to make is
9 that during the period of time that Mr. Shenazzi acquired
10 this venue and was operating it peacefully with no outdoor
11 speakers, no open-air venues and no complaints, this very
12 Board granted a conditional -- a special exception to
13 Coyote Ugly outside with pictures of seven speakers
14 pointed outdoors, so it's -- when he acquired this place,
15 he acquired an indoor venue with no outdoor speakers, has
16 never changed that from day one, and that's the point --
17 final point.
18 CHAIRMAN PENA: Okay, we got you. All right, at
19 this time I'll close it up to the public, open it up to
20 the board members. Let me just say something. I don't
21 think it's one venue. I think it's a combination of all
22 the venues, and I don't think we should penalize one
23 operator. I do think that The Grove has a problem with
24 regards to the Cocowalk nightlife, and you're not going to
25 get rid of Cocowalk. It's going to exist, so there's got
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1 to be a solution. Throughout the years when you have an
2 officer, when the major comes as far as or lieutenant
3 or the police chief and they come here and they state
4 concerns, that really raises eyebrows. When I requested
5 the comments from Net --- we didn't have it, we finally
6 got one. That was produced to us, and it comes from an
7 Officer Tom Bragga and basically stating excessive
8 disorderly intoxication, assaults, fights, robberies, and
9 he goes at the end to say that if we would consider that
10 this decision be tabled in the best interests of the
11 residents and as an experienced Net police can attend and
12 speak directly to this matter, and he also states that he
13 wasn't able to be here and that his partner is out of town
14 and Commander Martin is at the FBI academy until September
15 17th. So we're not going to get rid of Cocowalk. We need
16 a solution, and we can't penalize one operator.
17 MR. CORDON: Mr. Chair.
18 CHAIRMAN PENA: Yes, sir.
19 MR. CORDON: By definition a special exception is
20 a special permit for a use that would not be appropriate
21 generally unless it's controlled and it would eliminate or
22 mitigate the adverse impacts, and I think we've narrowed
23 down the adverse impacts to at least the noise and I guess
24 the behavior that some -- some people just don't think is
25 becoming of citizens of Miami. I think the conditions
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1 address the noise very well. Let's talk about the
2 conduct. It's hard for me to believe and you've heard
3 how long I've been in The Grove and I'm not going to
4 repeat it -- it's hard for me to believe that one club
5 could cause so many problems that you all speak of. You
6 have to have some reason. This is the business commercial
7 district. I'm one who loved the fact that Coconut Grove
8 has a nut in it. You have to understand that I was
9 recently on South Beach and I was wondering, The Grove
10 being such a high rental district, how are we going to
11 actually compete for the tourism dollars. How are we
12 actually going to actually compete for the jobs? I mean,
13 I know places on Grand Avenue on the Goombay side of
14 Coconut Grove that stay open 4:00 or 5:00 that causes more
15 trouble and problems than this place. Let's be
16 reasonable. So let me close out in saying that I love The
17 Grove. I love the fact that The Grove has a partying type
18 environment. Surely we can't be -- can't allow people to
19 run around the street uncontrollable, but that's a police
20 matter. Clearly the citizens must take back our
21 community, but to sit up here and say that it is not
22 appropriate to have a night club at Cocowalk is just not
23 reasonable and just inconsistent with the history and the
24 commercial -- the commercial zoning of that area, so I
25 mean the conditions are very important and the last thing
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1 I'm going to say is I've stayed at the Sonesta, at that
2 hotel and suite, and when I was on the balcony I did hear
3 music coming from Cocowalk. When I closed the door I
4 didn't hear music. I heard music from Flavor, the club
5 Flavor. I was -- so it is a problem, but if they -- if
6 the applicant is saying that he will mitigate the noise by
7 keeping the speakers in, I think that issue has been
8 resolved. How can you get the applicant to say, well, we
9 don't want drunk individuals on the streets after a
10 certain hour? Well, the University of Miami sends a bus
11 through every 30 or 40 minutes. There's a Coconut Grove
12 circulator. My people walk down there, and you know what
13 I mean when I say my people walk down there. Let's be
14 real. So I'm going to support this application with the
15 conditions in place and as far as urine being in your
16 street, that's something that Bragga should be dealing
17 with.
18 MR. ENGELS: Yeah, Mr. Chairman, I'm sorry.
19 CHAIRMAN PENA: Mr. Engels (sic).
20 MR. ENGELS: Yeah, I think Cocowalk just
21 celebrated its 25th anniversary and you know, it may not
22 be on as big a scale, but like it or not the Central Grove
23 is our Times Square, our strip if you will, our Bourbon
24 Street. It's where people come to party and you know, I
25 -- I hear everything Mr. Schreiber --
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1 MR. SCHEIBER: Scheiber (sic).
2 MR. ENGELS: I'm sorry, Scheiber. It's late.
3 I'm sorry. And I'm also hearing, you know, that really
4 what we've got here is a failure on the part of law
5 enforcement and a failure on the part of code enforcement
6 to enforce the noise ordinance, and I really do believe
7 that this gentleman is a responsible club operator -- and
8 that's Mr. Shenazzi, correct? But I have to tell you that
9 I would be hard pressed to make the situation on your
10 streets worse than they are, and I appreciate what you're
11 saying. I -- you know, there's a concept and a law called
12 coming to the nuisance, and if you buy a home on Florida
13 Avenue or Virginia Street or even Yacht Harbor, you know,
14 you were lookin' for the party in some way, and that --
15 that having been said, I still think that, you know, you
16 have a right to have clean streets and safe streets and
17 the -- the ability to walk down the street on a Sunday
18 morning and not get cut by broken glass, so I just don't
19 feel that I could responsibly vote in favor of this and
20 make the problem for the neighborhood worse, but I do
21 think that you folks do have to have a level of tolerance
22 for the neighborhood in which you live in.
23 CHAIRMAN PENA: Mr. Shenazzi, let me ask you a
24 question, because the officer states here, "In the time we
25 have enforced the 3:00 a.m. cessation of alcohol sales, we
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1 have seen a drop in the assaults and robberies in and
2 around these locations. It is too soon to actually
3 attribute this to having this particular club close
4 earlier." They are talking about another club. Mr.
5 Scheiber, You seem to be hanging around this area. Is
6 3:00 a.m. a solution or it just doesn't make a difference?
7 MR. SCHEIBER: At my age, you know, I mean --
8 CHAIRMAN PENA: And particularly the gentleman
9 said this was an older crowd.
10 MR. SCHEIBER: I don't think that -- well, if
11 they're not -- we're not talking noise, if we're just
12 talking individuals on the street at 3:00, 4:00, 5:00 a.m.
13 in the morning, then I think that's a police matter. I
14 don't think that's a zoning matter. I think that's a
15 police enforcement matter more, so then we do not allow a
16 businessman to make a business investment in this area to
17 bring jobs in this area because the police are not doing
18 their jobs? If you can show me where this proprietor has
19 failed to do something, if you can show me where this
20 proprietor has contributed to the glass on the streets --
21 you can't even prove that his patrons are doing it. It is
22 my belief that -- being a lifetime "Groveite" that the
23 individuals that cause the most problems are the ones who
24 do not spend money, who do not frequent clubs but just
25 ride around in their cars, get high, drink and throw the
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1 bottles on the side of the street where they riding. The
2 individuals that pay the cover charge to go in these clubs
3 act more reasonable than the individuals who just ride up
4 and down Grand Avenue with the loud music, smoking weed,
5 drinking liquor and acting a fool. So we have to
6 distinguish between who do we really want to control and
7 who do we want to invite into our community, and I'm
8 telling you as a businessman, as a proprietor, I cannot
9 point the finger and show that this individual or this
10 application is a cause to any things that we do not want
11 in this community.
12 CHAIRMAN PENA: Mr. Urgiola -- has spoken. Only
13 one of the board members asks you a question.
14 MR. BERLIN: Mr. Chairman.
15 CHAIRMAN PENA: Mr. Berlin, you are -- you are --
16 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Inaudible.)
17 CHAIRMAN PENA: Sir, one of the board members is
18 speaking.
19 MR. URQIOLA: It's a lady -- it's a lady in the
20 neighbor who said Coco Grove look like Times Square. I
21 think she make a mistake. I live in New York for ten
22 years and I live in Times Square. Lady, I moved to Long
23 Island. In Times Square, the noise is 24-hour a day. And
24 thousands, thousands people live in Times Square. In
25 Times Square the most favorite square in the world. I
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1 remember in Coconut Grove in the area, it was dead.
2 Somebody really smart in Coconut Grove would start open
3 for business and start open for entertainment and start
4 open for a tourist over there and now Coconut Grove is
5 people talking anywhere in any country. You go to
6 England, they talk about Coconut Grove. You go to France
7 (inaudible) everybody know Coconut Grove. I don't see
8 nothing wrong with this club be open. I don't like a
9 5:00, all right. The more time I give it to you for
10 myself is 4:00 in the morning, but this is good business
11 I see the gentleman, they are -- they look responsible and
12 I think -- and I expect they continuing the same way they
13 are -- they acting today. Be honest, respect the
14 neighbor, and don't let a drunk people in the street. You
15 got these problem, call the police or arrest it. You have
16 police, they arrest it right away. Letting know the
17 neighbor you are responsible businessman. I would like to
18 respect and I am in favor and I'm ready to make a motion.
19 CHAIRMAN PENA: Go ahead, Mr. (inaudible) and
20 then Mr. Gadavalia.
21 UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBER: Did we have a
22 representative from the police here? Was that gentleman a
23 representative of the police?
24 MR. TERMINELLO: You mean our witness?
25 UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBER: Yes, I don't remember
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1 how you proffered him as.
2 MR. TERMINELLO: Yes, he's a police officer.
3 Yes, he testified --
4 UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBER: All right, so -- but
5 I'd like if you can comment on some of the board members'
6 comments about the failure of policing in that area and
7 what your opinion is and what you think.
8 MR. LIU: I'm not a patrol unit.
9 UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBER: Sorry?
10 MR. LIU: I'm not a patrol unit in the area.
11 UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBER: I'm sorry, so what
12 are you?
13 MR. TERMINELLO: It's off duty.
14 UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBER: So do you work for
15 the City of Miami Police Department?
16 MR. LIU: Yes, I do.
17 UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBER: Are you representing
18 the City of Miami Police Department?
19 MR. TERMINELLO: No, he's only here -- he is an
20 employee.
21 UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBER: So you work --
22 MR. LIU: I work for the City of Miami. I work
23 off duty for the --
24 MR. TERMINELLO: Please don't --
25 UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBER: I just don't
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1 understand --
2 CHAIRMAN PENA: Okay, you can't speak out loud.
3 When the public was speaking and everybody was courteous
4 enough, you can't be doing that.
5 UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBER: So you are paid by
6 the --
7 MR. LIU: The establishment.
8 UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBER: The establishment to
9 do what?
10 MR. LIU: Security.
11 UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBE: So you -- when the owner t
12 that he polices the street and he does all that, you can
13 attest that the City of Miami is doing that?
14 MR. LIU: The ones that he pays. We -- we are
15 outside the club and we also take care of the mall area,
16 which is Cocowalk. We don't go outside of Cocowalk.
17 UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBE: All right, because I thoug
18 represented that he did look at the street not just the
19 door.
20 MR. TERMINELLO: No, we were talking about the
21 Cocowalk venue and the parking area downstairs at the time
22 that the club closes.
23 UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBE: Right. Is this gentleman
24 tonight's appearance?
25 MR. LIU: No, sir.
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1 UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBE: All right.
2 MR. TERMINELLO: If I may, he is our off -duty
3 coordinator. We have four officers that work. When they
4 are at the club, we pay the City.
5 UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBE: But is he a police officer
6 MR. TERMINELLO: Yes, he is a City of Miami
7 police officer. We actually have four City of Miami
8 police officers that work off duty.
9 UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBE: But he is not representing
10 Miami?
11 MR. URQIOLA: They working overtime.
12 MR. SHENAZZI: If I may, if I may answer your
13 question about Commander Martin. Commander Martin, I just
14 as recently of Monday met especially with Tom, his
15 officer. They didn't have no problem with us. The
16 problem that they had originally was with, again, another
17 club; Quench. We opened -- we still open until 5:00 a.m.
18 and him and I have literally a weekly conversation.
19 That's why when he requested three, I went to four. When
20 he requested listen, Sean, with the mall a extra one,
21 so him and I, if -- I think if he wasn't in FBI training
22 he would tell you that our problem, me -- and I am not
23 talking rest of the world, just us. I have a very good
24 relationship with the City of Miami Police Department, and
25 I've gone above and beyond in order securing Cocowalk.
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1 When I was telling -- explaining to you earlier, two of
2 them leave to go to Cocowalk entrance parking lot entrance
3 which is on Florida Avenue, just -- that's just in order
4 for them to peacefully exit the parking lot without
5 beeping their horns and everything else and make sure
6 nobody stands around the area and just actually evacuate
7 Coconut Grove.
8 CHAIRMAN PENA: Okay.
9 MR. CORDON: A resolution, maybe. Maybe some of
10 you guys who operate these clubs after hours; you know,
11 you are the beneficiaries, you got to pull some money
12 together so the City would have money to pay police
13 officers, some extra police officers for those evenings
14 MR. SHENAZZI: To be honest, if it would help --
15 if it would help this process anywhere for the neighbors,
16 I don't have a problem paying another off duty to work
17 Florida Avenue.
18 MR. CORDON: No, but I'm saying you need more
19 than one --
20 MR. SHENAZZI: I understand, but to be honest
21 with you --
22 MR. CORDON: Club owners get together a club, get
23 a after -hour club organization --
24 MR. SHENAZZI: You know --
25 MR. CORDON: -- and work with the City so people
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1 can have some peace.
2 MR. SHENAZZI: Most club owners are not that
3 responsible. I can only speak for myself. As for me
4 personally, if I have to hire another unit, another off
5 duty that works all night long down by the yacht club,
6 another one by Florida Avenue at our cost, which is you
7 know, talking about a $400 weekly cost, okay, I am willing
8 to do that because again, I have thirteen years left on my
9 lease. I'm not -- I live in Coconut Grove. I'm not going
10 anywhere and this is where I'm going to live, so I'm
11 willing to do the extra work, and even if the cost is
12 $20,000, but I've never been approached by anybody
13 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Inaudible) the gentlemen
14 have (inaudible) Coconut Grove, they want a more peaceful
15 neighborhood.
16 CHAIRMAN PENA: Okay, sir, the hearing is closed
17 to the public. Okay, Mr. Berlin. Sir, the hearing is
18 closed to the public. It's not that I don't want to let
19 you speak, but we've closed it already. Mr. Berlin.
20 MR. BERLIN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a
21 lot of comments to make but I am going to try to not make
22 them because I know it's a late hour and I know that
23 people are here of their own time. I did have a question
24 first for you. It says here -- I'm looking at the
25 conditions. The two issues that I think are at hand that
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1 Mr. Scheiber pointed out is one the noise, and two is
2 where the patrons go when they leave the club. One, let
3 me address the noise. I don't think the noise issue is
4 even addressed in these four. Would you have a problem
5 agreeing to adding an additional condition saying that for
6 the duration of this -- thank you special exception
7 there will be no outdoor speakers and you --
8 MR. TERMINELLO: We have no problem with that.
9 MR. BERLIN: Can you maintain --
10 MR. TERMINELLO: We have -- we don't have any
11 now, so --
12 MR. BERLIN: I know you don't, but I want to make
13 sure that that condition --
14 MR. TERMINELLO: We have no problem with that.
15 MR. BERLIN: I didn't think you had a problem
16 with that, but I think that that satisfied -- and I
17 appreciate the sound study that you've done and I think
18 that satisfies the concern that I have --
19 MR. TERMINELLO: Okay.
20 MR. BERLIN: -- about sound.
21 MR. URQIOLA: (Inaudible.)
22 MR. BERLIN: If you'll excuse me.
23 CHAIRMAN PENA: Mr. Urgiola, let Mr. Berlin
24 MR. BERLIN: Thank you. The second issue has to
25 do with people leaving at 5:00. Now, I don't know what
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1 30-something year old people go out to a club until 5:0 in
2 the morning. Being in that category, I certainly don't
3 find myself in that position, and having said that I am
4 -- I understand that there are other clubs in this
5 district that are open until that hour and don't think
6 that any leaseholder should be burdened by additional
7 conditions and pay the price of other people who are less
8 responsible, but there's still a concern of people leaving
9 because I live in Coconut Grove too and I don't want
10 people walking out of a club at 5:00 a.m. or 3:00 a.m. for
11 that matter and wandering the streets to do whatever it is
12 drunk people choose to do in the streets. One of the
13 things you did proffer here is that you have some kind of
14 parking voucher system. Could you please explain what
15 that is and how that works?
16 MR. TERMINELLO: Yes, sir. There is a standard
17 condition on many other special exceptions, even my own
18 clients, and we've always accepted that --
19 MR. BERLIN: It's late. Could you just please
20 describe --
21 MR. TERMINELLO: Yes. We're going to offer a
22 monetary consideration to anybody who shows us --
23 MR. BERLIN: Specifically what does that mean;
24 how much?
25 MR. TERMINELLO: Two, three dollars. It -- the
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1 parking is only what, $9? The parking on weekends is $9
2 and during the week is $6, so we're going to offer a
3 monetary consideration if you park at Cocowalk. It's a
4 credit off --
5 MR. BERLIN: I understand that. To me, that's
6 not sufficient because to me in order to satisfy this
7 concern that I have that I've perceived to be a real
8 concern, I want to see every patron parking in the garage
9 and not on the streets and wandering the streets of
10 Coconut Grove.
11 MR. TERMINELLO: If you can tell us how we can
12 enforce that, we'd be more than happy to do that.
13 MR. BERLIN: You can't enforce that, but what you
14 can do to encourage it is to offer free parking for all of
15 your patrons and to advertise it at your front door, and
16 if that's something that you're willing to do I'd like to
17 talk to -- I think the person here that actually
18 represents the largest number of people, I'd like to talk
19 to Mr. Hecht to see if that's something -- to get some
20 comments on what the Coconut Grove Village Council would
21 perceive as to that proposal.
22 MR. SHENAZZI: If I may answer to that, to be
23 honest with you, that would put me at a really bad
24 advantage as a business owner. It's a $9 parking there.
25 There's a private company that rents Cocowalk. They set
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1 the price. It used to be 6, they just went up to 9. At
2 $9, the amount of patrons, to be honest with you, it would
3 not be beneficial. I would be losing $3,000 to $4,000 in
4 extra revenues. That would be 20 to 30 percent of my
5 overall sales. The reimbursement that I already make I
6 think is more than everybody else makes, and what I'm
7 trying --
8 MR. BERLIN: And if I could understand the
9 reimbursement that you make now, it's about $2, right?
10 MR. SHENAZZI: Actually, no. We reimburse $3 now
11 for the patrons that -- $3 for the patrons that go
12 upstairs, and for the patrons that go to Apple Martini,
13 which is usually -- again, is older clientele that come in
14 and all. They don't like to pay parking. I reimburse $6
15 out of the $9 that already exists for downstairs.
16 MR. BERLIN: Sure.
17 MR. SHENAZZI: You know, I try to -- again, like
18 I said, that's how many tickets I vouch, so I know my
19 clientele, the majority, park in Cocowalk. The reality is
20 when there's 2,000 parking spaces in Cocowalk and there's
21 only three businesses open after 2:00 a.m., our clients
22 are not parking down the street. It just doesn't make
23 sense for them because the other parking lot is $9 also
24 It's not like, you know, they're not -- they're saving
25 money for free and they're willing to walk four blocks.
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1 MR. BERLIN: I understand, but it's that four
2 blocks of walk --
3 MR. SHENAZZI: I understand.
4 MR. BERLIN: -- that I have a concern about.
5 MR. SHENAZZI: I understand.
6 MR. BERLIN: So if I can make sure I understand
7 what you're saying. What you're saying is for the patrons
8 that are downstairs there's a difference -- since you're
9 already reimbursing them $6, there's difference of $3.
10 For the patrons that are upstairs, you're reimbursing them
11 3 so there's a difference of $6. I don't know. I'm
12 embarrassed to say I've never -- I'm not one of your
13 patrons.
14 MR. SHENAZZI: I understand.
15 MR. BERLIN: I wish I were cooler but sadly I'm
16 not. They're going to -- you're going to get additional
17 business revenue from letting them stay that time
18 MR. SHENAZZI: Unfortunately there's not it's
19 not, because you got to mention there are literally four
20 to five other businesses. There is no way for us to track
21 down who comes to our bar, who doesn't go to Coyote Ugly,
22 who doesn't go to the movies, who doesn't go to Cheesecake
23 Factory. They going to bring the parking, I validate it,
24 they're going to walk right through and exit the other
25 day. So what I'm going to do is -- the system will be
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1 broken. There's no way for us to monitor it. The way we
2 do it, when a guy comes up -- to be honest with you, I
3 lose some money. I do it just for literally getting
4 customers to come to Coconut Grove. A lot of people don't
5 want to pay parking. When they go to Coral Gables and I
6 have a restaurant at, it's $4. You know, in Coconut Grove
7 it's already difficult enough to park, so I do that
8 honestly for a way of to entice customers to come in,
9 okay. I do that as a way of just literally making
10 Cocowalk happy as well.
11 MR. BERLIN: I understand. If we could come up
12 with a way to create a bigger incentive for people to park
13 -- for patrons of this particular establishment to park on
14 premises, would that satisfy in your opinion the concerns
15 of Coconut Grove residents with respect to people
16 wandering the streets after hours?
17 MR. HECHT: Not -- not necessarily. I think, you
18 know, the Village Council, you know, stands for quality of
19 life and it's hard to measure quality of life in a dollar
20 or two or three dollar rebate for parking. As far as I'm
21 concerned, when I testified earlier I was talking about
22 what's really essential here and that's what SD-2 talks
23 about in terms of what is the intent of this district, and
24 it's very simple; is to create an opportunity where
25 residential and non-residential usage can combine and be
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1 rather seamless and pleasant. I think that we've created
2 our problem a long time ago when we allowed openings until
3 5:00. Maybe nothing should be open in this -- listen,
4 sir; this is not Times Square, this is called the Village
5 of Coconut Grove and I think we ought to support ourselves
6 both as a village and also as a business district. I'm
7 not saying that we shouldn't have businesses. I think
8 that possibly a 3:00 closing would have been an ideal
9 situation. But nevertheless, like we do in so many things
10 in Miami, we create a monster by just slowly eroding the
11 quality of life in our community. We've now eroded it to
12 the extent where we have businesses that are open until
13 5:00, and a reasonable person would say why shouldn't this
14 gentleman then too be open until 5:00 if others are open
15 until 5:00, and my answer to that is unfortunately for
16 you, sir, it's time to put the plug back in. It's time to
17 say that's enough, it's over.
18 MR. BERLIN: Thank you, Mr. Hecht.
19 MR. HECHT: Okay.
20 MR. URQIOLA: Why do you prefer
21 MR. BERLIN: Excuse me.
22 CHAIRMAN PENA: Mr. Berlin has the floor.
23 MR. BERLIN: Just to conclude, I am inclined to
24 be in favor of this special exception if there's a way
25 that I can be satisfied that the sound issue is taken care
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1 of, which you've satisfied, and the parking issue can be
2 taken care of, which honestly I'm really not satisfied.
3 MR. TERMINELLO: Okay.
4 MR. BERLIN: And that was just a comment, not a
5 question.
6 CHAIRMAN PENA: Mr. Gavela.
7 MR. GAVELA: Okay, maybe I have a solution here.
8 What if there's a parking situation and your problem is
9 that you're a business owner and of course you want to
10 minimize your costs, okay. What if you put -- if you in
11 good faith offered one more police officer so he can
12 monitor the parking situation and that would reduce your
13 cost but it might take care of their problem?
14 MR. SHENAZZI: As I said earlier, I have no
15 problem with that.
16 MR. GAVELA: Would you be willing to --.
17 MR. TERMINELLO: There's a condition that
18 requires us, Mr. Gavela, to propose a security plan. I
19 think it's condition number two that deals with the
20 security and the police. We would be more than happy to
21 agree to propose in that security plan an extra police
22 officer to do whatever he can to encourage the people to
23 park in the lot.
24 MR. GAVELA: How many now in the plan?
25 MR. TERMINELLO: I'm sorry?
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1 MR. GAVELA: How many now are designated for that
2 plan now?
3 MR. TERMINELLO: There's four police officers
4 and --
5 MR. SHENAZZI: 17.
6 MR. TERMINELLO: 17 employees, not police
7 officers.
8 MR. GAVELA: Is that in writing in the package?
9 MR. TERMINELLO: No, no. The way that the
10 special exception is written is we file that afterwards.
11 I could proffer to you now, yes, file that afterwards and
12 Planning & Zoning have to approve it, but I could proffer
13 to you now that's going to be 17 -- 15 to 17 of our
14 employees and at least four as we stand here now police
15 officers. We don't mind adding a fifth if the City of
16 Miami will give us a fifth. We'll add a fifth with
17 specific instructions to do whatever he could do to funnel
18 the traffic into the parking lot. We don't have a problem
19 with that.
20 MR. GAVELA: Well, the original suggestion was
21 four and what you're proposing -- what you're in good
22 faith you're offering these the neighbors is put a fifth
23 guy --
24 MR. TERMINELLO: Yes.
25 MR. GAVELA: And I'm going to take your word that
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1 the original proposition was four.
2 MR. TERMINELLO: Correct.
3 MR. GAVELA: And so therefore you're adding one
4 more.
5 MR. TERMINELLO: Yes, we are agreeing. Our
6 security plan will include the five police officers with
7 one designated specifically to deal with the surrounding
8 area, the parking, the funneling into the parking to the
9 extent that the city police will follow those directions.
10 I mean, that we'll hire him for that reason --
11 MR. GAVELA: That fifth policeman can be assigned
12 that specific task of monitoring?
13 MR. SHENAZZI: If I may, yeah, you can designate
14 him to be in a patrol car and basically patrol from around
15 the Mayfair and the Cocowalk area. That would be his
16 basically designated job for six hours; just to go from
17 Florida Avenue -- I mean -- I'm sorry, I think it's Main
18 Highway, go by the yacht club, make a left, go around
19 Mayfair, keep coming around in order to clear the area.
20 That's fine.
21 MR. TERMINELLO: According to the off -duty
22 coordinator, we're not sure what we can ask the policeman
23 to do, but we're certainly going to try. We also have our
24 17 employees, our security personnel, and we will
25 designate a portion of those three or four of them or
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1 whatever, whatever is reasonable to try to funnel the --
2 UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBER: If I could add to Mr.
3 Gavela, just for comment on this.
4 MR. GAVELA: I used my time, go ahead.
5 UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBER: Because if this fifth
6 officer -- because I guess it's the testimony of the
7 residents that the current City officers have elected not
8 to patrol the area and have turned the area over to the
9 -- I don't know, the element that's causing the issue, so
10 could that fifth officer be placed not in a patrol car
11 with the car running and the doors -- the windows up and
12 the air conditioning on but have them placed on Florida
13 Avenue and Rice Street?
14 MR. SHENAZZI: If I may, I'll be more than glad
15 to meet Commander Martin. This is Commander Martin'S
16 district --
17 UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBER: For that fifth
18 officer?
19 MR. SHENAZZI: and if you will make exception I
20 will sit down with him and I'll be more than glad to do
21 it. I don't see why not. They've done it in the past.
22 Just please keep in mind that the entire Coconut Grove
23 district has only four police officers that are paid by
24 the City to work for the entire area. That's why you
25 don't see a lot of police presence.
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1 UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBER: But you're offering
2 to --
3 MR. SHENAZZI: We're offering to -- at our cost,
4 I would bring an extra one just for that two, three block
5 radius to work from the time we're open to the time I'm
6 closed. I mean, that's even above and beyond 2:00 a.m.,
7 that's to satisfy --
8 UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBER: I would be
9 comfortable with just the 3:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m.
10 CHAIRMAN PENA: Okay.
11 MR. LOPEZ: Mr. Chairman, let me
12 CHAIRMAN PENA: Mr. Lopez, go ahead.
13 MR. LOPEZ: Is everyone done?
14 CHAIRMAN PENA: No. I'm ready to say something
15 here, and it will be very brief. I think the gentleman
16 from the Village Council hit it on the nose. Once you
17 opened it to 5:00 in the morning, basically you opened the
18 flood gates and we might see one application; for example,
19 this gentleman, and we might not see another application
20 for four or five years, so you're going to penalize this
21 gentleman, and the other individuals that are there
22 operating might not operate in the fashion that he is.
23 He's willing to go beyond and clearly that would be the
24 difference in something like this. But apparently -- and
25 this goes obviously stated on the record and the Board,
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1 I'll let the board members decide however they want to
2 decide, but my personal continue opinion is that if we do
3 start seeing these applications we have to go ahead and
4 treat them with the same stick that we treated this one
5 for the private citizens -- the private operators to go
6 and put extra enforcement, because the combination of all
7 of these might make the difference because closing one guy
8 at 3:00 and having 20 open until 5:00, that's not going to
9 change anything, so if we run them with the same stick and
10 the combination of all of these might make the difference.
11 MR. URQIOLA: I'd like to making a motion.
12 (Inaudible) good.
13 CHAIRMAN PENA: Mr. Urqiola, make the motion.
14 MR. URQIOLA: I want to make a motion. I move
15 that the request for Agenda Item Number 10 be granted for
16 12 months with (inaudible) permit other than demolition
17 landscape permit (inaudible) shall recommend the required
18 section 1305 were satisfied the record the public hearing
19 with all the City condition plus what a neighbors said
20 about the extra police.
21 CHAIRMAN PENA: Can you -- Mr. City Attorney, can
22 you read that into the record how it would state?
23 CITY ATTORNEY: The additional condition as I
24 noted it was that an extra police officer, that is a fit
25 police officer, will be proposed in the security plan
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1 subject to review and approval by Planning & Zoning and
2 this officer will be assigned to monitor and funnel
3 traffic from Grand Avenue to the yacht club.
4 MR. URQIOLA: And close -- and close to 4:00 in
5 the morning, no 5:00.
6 CHAIRMAN PENA: What?
7 MR. CORDON: No, that wasn't a condition.
8 MR. URQIOLA: Close it 4:00, no 5:00.
9 CHAIRMAN PENA: No, 5:00.
10 MR. CORDON: No, the other condition that I think
11 you need to read was no speakers or noise on the outside.
12 CITY ATTORNEY: Excuse me, I stand corrected,
13 then. The other additional condition was no external
14 speakers whatsoever, no outside speakers.
15 "ROBERTO": That condition is not included in our
16 analysis because this is for plans on file and on their
17 plans everything is inside; there's nothing outside. In
18 order to make any change to that set of plans, they have
19 to go come in front of you again.
20 MR. CORDON: So that condition is implied, then.
21 CHAIRMAN PENA: Motion by Mr. Urgiola, second by
22 Mr. Scheiber. Roll call, please.
23 THE CLERK: Mr. Urgiola.
24 MR. URQIOLA: That's the problem.
25 THE CLERK: Mr. Scheiber.
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1 MR. SHEIBER: Yes.
2 THE CLERK: Mr. Berlin.
3 MR. BERLIN: No.
4 THE CLERK: Mr. Cordon.
5 MR. CORDON: Yes.
6 THE CLERK: Mr. Gavela.
7 MR. GAVELA: Yes. With the fifth condition of
8 the fifth police officer.
9 THE CLERK: Mr. Gangu (sic).
10 MR. GANGU: I don't think that this adds to the
11 quality of life in The Grove and even though I think
12 you're a responsible operator, I have to vote no.
13 THE CLERK: Mr. Gadavalia.
14 MR. GADAVELIA: No, due to the condition of the
15 fifth officer.
16 THE CLERK: Mr. Lopez.
17 MR. LOPEZ: But it's ironic, because I think
18 we're of like mind. First of all we're adding a condition
19 that there's no substantial independent expert to validate
20 that that's going to solve any problem. On the contrary,
21 it's going to create a -- possibly a difficult for you to
22 implement and more importantly for us to rely on than
23 we're actually going to make a difference in this
24 community and in the neighboring areas. I don't pass
25 judgement on the quality of your operation. On the
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1 contrary, I think you've done an excellent job and will
2 continue to do so, but at this time especially with part
3 of our record being a communication directly to us asking
4 for additional time for law enforcement professionals to
5 give us the background necessary for -- maybe for us to
6 have worked through this, I'm sorry we weren't able to
7 defer this and maybe come back for additional
8 conversations or more time, but at this time my vote is no.
9 THE CLERK: And Mr. Pena.
10 CHAIRMAN PENA: My initial thought on this was to
11 continue the item because we would have the officer here,
12 but we've taken a vote on it tonight. If the 5:00 was not
13 in place by the City, and it is, we've got to work with
14 it; the 5:00 a.m. ordinance. So the only way that we can
15 try to implement is like I said earlier, try to cREATE
16 some combination of these different clubs to provide more
17 of these officers, so yes.
18 THE CLERK: I'm sorry, your vote is yes?
19 MR. URQIOLA: Yes.
20 CHAIRMAN PENA: Yes.
21 THE CLERK: Motion passes five to four. This
22 decision is final and is appealed in hearing boards within
23 15 days.
24 MR. TERMINELLO: Thank you.
25 (Whereupon the requested excerpt concluded.)
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STATE OF FLORIDA )
COUNTY OF MIAMI-DADE
I, MICHELLE RUBIN, Shorthand Reporter and
Notary Public in and for the State of Florida at
Large, do hereby certify that the foregoing
transcript, Pages 1 to and including Page 73, is a
true and correct transcript of a video taped City of
Miami Planning & Zoning Board Meeting held July 9, 2007.
The video tape was provided to me by the offices of
Terminello & Terminello, P.A. and the requested excerpt
was transcribed to the best of my ability.
Dated this 4th day of September, 2007.
MICHELLE RUBIN, SHORTHAND REPORTER