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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC 2020-10-14 MinutesCity of Miami City Hall 3500 Pan American Drive Miami, FL 33133 www.miamigov.com �YOp r 1 ' 'Parr +� v * INCORP ORATEO * 1896 Meeting Minutes Wednesday, October 14, 2020 11:00 AM Special Meeting City Hall City Commission Francis X. Suarez, Mayor Keon Hardemon, Chair, District Five Ken Russell, Vice Chair, District Two Alex Diaz de la Portilla, Commissioner, District One Joe Carollo, Commissioner, District Three Manolo Reyes, Commissioner, District Four Arthur Noriega, V, City Manager Victoria Mendez, City Attorney Todd B. Hannon, City Clerk City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 10:30 AM INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Present: Chair Hardemon, Vice Chair Russell, Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla, Commissioner Carollo and Commissioner Reyes. On the 14th day of October, 2020, the City Commission of the City of Miami, Florida, conducted and broadcasted a virtual meeting from its regular meeting place in City Hall, 3500 Pan American Drive, Miami, Florida, in special session. The Commission Meeting was called to order by Chair Hardemon at 11:11 a.m., and adjourned at 4:52 p.m. Note for the Record: Commissioner Carollo joined the virtual meeting at 11:49 a.m. ALSO PRESENT: Arthur Noriega, V, City Manager Victoria Mendez, City Attorney Todd B. Hannon, City Clerk ORDER OF THE DAY Chair Hardemon: Welcome to the Special City Commission Meeting dated October 14, 2020. Pursuant to Executive Order Number 20-246 issued by the Office of Governor Ron DeSantis on September 30, 2020, municipalities may conduct meetings of their governing boards without having a quorum of its members present physically, or at any specific location, and utilizing communication media technology such as telephonic or video conferencing as provided by Section 120.545(b)(2) Florida Statute. Today, our special meeting has been called for the purpose of discussing and taking any and all action related to affordable housing, included but not limited to adopting a resolution of the Miami City Commission with attachments amending supplementing Resolution Number R-19-0111 adopted by the City of Miami Commission on March 14, 2019, which authorizes the City Manager, the City Attorney, and the Bond Counsel to take any and all steps necessary to validate the approved and expected future expenditures not to exceed $100 million of the aggregate principal total amount of the Affordable Housing and Economic Development Bonds portion of the Miami Forever bonds, in order to reflect the changes to the following four program -type standard operating procedures for affordable home ownership strategy, affordable new construction rental strategy, affordable workforce new rental strategy, and home ownership preservation strategy. Procedures for the public comment will be explained by the City Attorney shortly. The members of the City Commission appearing remotely for this special meeting are Alex Diaz de la Portilla, Joe Carollo, Manolo Reyes, Ken Russell, the Vice Chair, and me Keon Hardemon, the Chair. Also appearing remotely are City Manager Art Noriega, City Attorney Victoria Mendez, and City Clerk Todd Hannon. Madam City Attorney, please state the procedures to be followed during this meeting. Barnaby Min (Deputy City Attorney): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Any person who is a lobbyist pursuant to Chapter 2, Article 6 of the City Code, must register with the City Clerk and comply with the related City requirements for lobbyists before appearing before the City Commission. Any person may not lobby a City official, board member, or staff member until registering. A copy of the Code section about lobbyists is available in the City Clerk's Office or online at municode.com. Any person making a presentation, formal request, or petition to the City Commission concerning real property must make the disclosures required by the City Code in writing. Copy of the City Code section is available at the Office of the City Clerk or online at municode.com. Pursuant to Section 2-33(f) and (g) of the City Code, the agenda and the material for each item on the agenda is available during business hours at the City Clerk's Office and online 24 hours a day at miamigov.com. Any person may be heard by the City City of Miami Page 1 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commission through the Chair and upon registering pursuant to the published notice for not more than two minutes on any proposition before the City Commission unless modified by the Chair. Because this is a virtual special meeting as authorized by the Governor of the State of Florida, members of the public wishing to address the body may do so by visiting miamigov.com/virtualmeeting to upload their 2-minute video comments to be played during the Virtual Commission Meeting or to submit their written comments via the online comment form. The comments submitted through the comment form have been distributed to the elected officials and City administration throughout the day so that the elected official can consider the comments prior to taking any action. Additionally, the online comment form will remain open during the meeting to accept comments and distribute to the elected officials up until the time the Chairperson closes the public comment period. Members of the public may also call 305-250-5353 to provide comments via the dedicated City of Miami public comment voicemail, where individuals will be able to leave a two -minute message that will be played during the Virtual Commission Meeting. Members of the public may also pre -register to provide live public comment by phone during the meeting. You may pre -register by phone by calling 305- 250-5350 or online at miamigov.com/government/live-public-comment. All comments submitted will be included as part of the public record for this virtual meeting and will be considered by the City Commission prior to taking any action. The City will accommodate any speakers desiring to appear in person, subject to all applicable emergency measures in place to prevent the further spread of COVID-19. The City has set up a terminal in the event members of the public travel to City Hall to provide public comment. Speakers who appear in person will be subject to screening for symptoms of COVID-19. Any persons exhibiting any symptoms of CO VID-19 will not be permitted to enter City Hall. All interested parties are required to abide by all state, county, and local emergency orders and are urged to remain at home and practice social distancing. If the proposition is being continued or rescheduled, the opportunity to be heard may be at such later date before the City Commission takes action on such a proposition. When addressing the City Commission, the member of the public must first state his or her name, his or her address, and what item will be spoken about. Any person with a disability requiring assistance, auxiliary aids, and services to this meeting may not the City Clerk. Section 286.014(4)(c) of the Florida Statutes authorizes the City to prescribe procedures or forms for an individual to use in order to inform the board or Commission of a desire to be heard, to indicate his or her support, opposition, or neutrality on a proposition. The City, through its multiple comment options, has provided five different methods to indicate, among other things, the public's support, opposition, or neutrality on the items and topics to be discussed at today's City Commission meeting. The public has been given the opportunity to provide public comment during the special meeting and within reasonable proximity and time before the meeting. These public comment options established and provided for this Special Commission Meeting comply with Section 286.0114 and Section 120.54 of Florida Statutes. The City has also created a simple set of instructions explaining how the public may submit their comments with either option. Those instructions are provided in the notice to the public via the City's social media channels and published online at miamigov.com/virtualmeeting. Please note Commissioners have generally been briefed by the City staff and the City Attorney on items on the agenda today. Staff will briefly present each item to be heard. The City of Miami is using Zoom to hold its October 14, 2020 Special City Commission Meeting. Zoom is a cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, collaboration, chat, and webinars across mobile devices, desktops, telephones, and room systems. In order to ensure that the public has the ability to view the meeting, the City's communications department will broadcast the meeting through all usual avenues that are provided when a City Commission meeting is held fully in Commission Chambers. The special meeting can be viewed live on Miami TV at miamigov.com/TV, through the City's Facebookpage, on the City's Periscope channel, on the City's YouTube channel, and on Comcast Channel 77. The broadcast will also have closed captioning. Additionally, the City has not selected a virtual platform that requires the public to purchase or download any additional software or equipment to watch this meeting. Aside from the Zoom platform, and that the participants will be appearing remotely; the public will have no discernible difference in their ability to watch the meeting. Commissioners, please confirm you are comfortable with all the notice provisions that are set forth in these uniform rules and procedure we have established for this virtual meeting. City of Miami Page 2 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I am. Chair Hardemon: Yes. PUBLIC COMMENTS FOR SP ITEM(S) Chair Hardemon: Okay, at this time what I'd like to do is move to public comment because I know we don't have any mayoral vetoes or anything of that nature. So let's go to our public comment. Is there anyone present at City Hall that needs to speak? Unidentified Speaker: Yes, we have one live call take. Chair Hardemon: Okay. So for the benefit of the public, you have two minutes to address this body. State your first name, your last name, you may state your address, and then just let us know what item it is that you're speaking about. Floor's open for the public comment. Unidentified Speaker: Caller you may speak now. Truly Burton: Thank you. Good morning, City Commissioners and Mr. Chairman. This is Truly Burton. I represent the Builders Association of South Florida, with offices at 111 Northwest 183rd Street in Miami Gardens, Florida. We really appreciate the Commission's time and willingness to listen to the latest information about how to more productively and more, you know, reasonably priced, produce affordable housing. It is a real trick; I will tell you. You're going to be hearing today from the three top BASF (Builders Association of South Florida) members who are either past, present, Mr. Milo, or both of whom sit on the executive committee, that's Alex Baena and Nelson Stabile. These folks are doing current projects as of today, in the mid -rise, low to mid -rise buildings today. That's the most important thing. They're giving you current information. It is an unfortunately simple issue. It's really a math problem. Building affordable -- affordably priced housing is, you know, we'll probably all have to deal with, because it's just how much it costs to build per square foot, which you will hear from Mr. Baena and Mr. Stabile, land cost, labor, and how much it costs to lend or lending costs or financing costs. And in addition to make it even a bit more confounding, the smaller the size of the unit, the more expensive it is to build. But 1 assure you between Mr. Milo, Mr. Stabile, and Mr. Baena, they'll be happy to help clarify these issues and help you all understand more in a bit more depth how the challenges are to all builders and developers, and how we'd love to keep building, but, you know, build more, but these issues are impediments. And we are happy to help continue working with you all to set better policy so that, you know, we can move forward. Finally, if at the end of your special meeting you think it appropriate to put together a working group or a task group in a collaborative forum to work on how to improve these policies that you hear about today, BASF stands ready to do that with you all. And thank you very much. Chair Hardemon: We're moving on now to our recorded comments. Nina Esuela: Hello, my name is Nina Esuela. I live at 495 Brickell Avenue, and I would like to comment on the Dade Heritage Trust. Please allow Dade Heritage Trust to extend its lease. It is a beautiful historic property that reminds the public of Miami's history. To quote Winston Churchill, "A nation that forgets its past has no future." Please let Miami and Dade Heritage Trust to have a future and let it extend its lease. Thank you very much. Bye bye. Dinamara Ferronato: Hi, good morning. My name is Dinamara Ferronato. 11 -- my address is 1155 Brickell Bay Drive, Apartment 801, Miami, Florida, 331 -- 33131. I'm calling regarding the historic building located on Brickell Bay Drive. And my comment is that it's incredible. This city is just about apartments, apartments, and buildings and buildings. You don't see the historic building. It's no longer, uh, someone no longer wants it to be there. And this is -- this is City of Miami Page 3 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 going to look terrible. We have to -- to have historic places, places that we can go back and discuss and admire. It's incredible that, you know, Miami is becoming a city like that. Especially this building is there. It's beautiful. We have some tourists coming over here and seeing it. Please, I vote for not, um, uh, destroying this building. Thank you. Arnold St. Claire: My name is Arnold St. Claire. I be down at 1181 Northwest 8th Street Road, Apartment 18, phone number is 910-600-4462. Well, then ifyou receive this message can you please give me a call? Thank you. Unidentified Speaker: You may continue. Chair Hardemon: Alright, so with that being said, I'll close the public comment regarding this meeting as it appears that we do not have any other person that wants to speakfor public comment. I'm going to recognize the senator. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Thank you, Mr. Chair. First, I want to address the issue of the public comments were not related to anything we're discussing today. We had this conversation, Mr. Chair, at the last meeting. And Mr. Manager, ifyou could, at my request, can we have staff your staff check the public comments before they put them in the meeting because they're just wasting our time when we're not discussing the matter today. And I think the Chair would agree that this is not what we need to do. We need to be professional, listen to -- accept all public comment, but when it's related to the matters we're dealing with in a particular commission meeting. Now, and 1 think that if we're going to talk about affordable housing, I'm shocked. I'm shocked, Chair and members, that no one -- Commissioner Reyes: No one. Not a single one. Not a single comment. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: No one, probably the biggest issue that faces our city right now is affordable and attainable housing and no one took the time out to make public comment and give us any input into what we're talking about today. And to me that's shocking. Maybe perhaps we notice it better next time, maybe -- it's just, I'm really surprised. I was expecting, you know, real input from the community today instead of just -- Commissioner Reyes: Well, it could be because -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: -- side comment, I'll leave it at that. Commissioner Reyes: Yes, I agree with you, and I mean it is really perplexing that we don't -- I was expecting since there is such a dire need for affordable housing, that we will get -- we would be bombarded with different comments and people that have given us different suggestions. I don't know if it is because the people that need affordable housing, at this time they're working, you see. Or that they were not properly informed or that they don't know how to, I mean, leave a tape or a comment. But it is perplexing that we don't -- we didn't receive anyone, I mean any. Not even from the people that needs it, people that are concerned about it, you see. Even people from the industry. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: And Mr. Chair, I think it's a great argument for us to get back to live meetings. Commissioner Reyes: Yes. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: So, I don't want you to go to the County Commission without having at least one more live meeting with us. That's number one. And number two, I think we get back to live meetings, I think people are more used to participating with their local government in a public setting. They haven't gotten used to the Zoom platform and these virtual meetings that we're having. So, I think the Manager was talking maybe about his thinking that we would do public meetings in November, in November 19th, but you won't be City of Miami Page 4 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 here. 1 don't know --1 don't know, maybe, if that's the day that you're setting, Mr. Manager, to get back to our public hearings. Arthur Noriega (City Manager): Well we have a special meeting -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: A special meeting where we select your replacement. Mr. Noriega: I think we'd have to have a meeting in November, whatever meetings in November would have to be in -person meetings. We have a special meeting called before that November 19th meeting. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: We have two, right? We have a regular meeting and we have a special meeting? Commissioner Reyes: Special meeting. Mr. Noriega: A special meeting call. Correct. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I think we have three meetings called. Mr. Noriega: We might have three. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: We have one to name, unfortunately, we have to name a replacement for our chair. We have one called for the Rickenbacker Marina issue and we have our regular November 19th meeting. So we have three meetings. Are those three going to be live meetings? Mr. Noriega: Yep. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay. Mr. Noriega: As of right now they are. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Good. SP - SPECIAL MEETING SP.1 DISCUSSION ITEM 7994 Commissioners and Mayor A DISCUSSION REGARDING TAKING ANY AND ALL ACTIONS RELATING TO AFFORDABLE HOUSING INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ADOPTING A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION. RESULT: DISCUSSED Chair Hardemon: Okay, so what I like to do is, I have a proposed order of how this thing should go. And what I would like to do is get some of the participants to say what they need to say first. And so just we can hear from them and then possibly go into, for instance, what our bond strategies are today and then any proposed amendments to those bond strategies. Like you know, we (INAUDIBLE) the exhibits (INAUDIBLE) those different strategies. I know that there are components of those strategies that we want to make amendments to. We discussed that at our last meeting. And we'll probably make some amendments today. But there's a number of different City of Miami Page 5 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 people that are here to speak. And so what I'd like to do is to look at a number of different things first. So do we have with us Dr. Ed Murray? Dr. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Murray, is he present? Yeah, 1 see he's raised his hand. Is there anyone that could elevate him to speaker? Manuel Otero (Web Administrator, Innovation and Technology Department): He's being promoted now. Chair Hardemon: Okay. So gentlemen, he's going to speak on the effect of the pandemic on housing affordability in Miami. He's an associate director of the FIU (Florida International University) George Perez Metropolitan Center. And I'm sure he can give us a bit more of his credentials. So basically, the way I'm going to do this is that I'm going to allow him to speak. And then next, we're going to talk about the transit housing construction costs. So, we'll hear from someone from Integral Investments, Mr. Nelson or Mr. Alex from the Director of Asset Management, AHS Residential. We'll also hear about the effect of the pandemic on general housing development costs from Mr. Albert Milo Jr., the President of Related Urban Development Group. We'll have some discussion from the commissioners about everything that's been presented before us. Maybe then we'll get into our bond strategies, and we'll have some discussion about the bond strategies, and -- and then zoning incentives and income limits, et cetera. So we'll have -- I'm going to kind of put it in that kind of perspective so that we have some information that's out there, and then we can get into the discussion about how we go about making changes for (INAUDIBLE). Mr. Murray, welcome back. I know you've been before the city commission before at our last discussion on public housing and housing affordability and economic development. And so the floor is yours, sir. Edward Murray: City Manager, staff. Everybody hear me okay? Commissioner Reyes: Now, yes. Mr. Murray: Okay. I thought, as the lead off speaker, I could provide the economic landscape that we're dealing with post-COVID, and also how those economic impacts are relating to the affordable housing issue that was just mentioned previously. First off let me say this, when we last all came together to discuss the City of Miami's Affordable Housing Master Plan, we now know how -- how important that discussion was because with your foresight and your support, the City has laid the foundation for addressing its affordable housing issues in terms of a master plan. But also, as you know, it had all the components of a strategic plan because it had the policy and management recommendations that could take place short-term, that could take place right away, over the first two to three years. So even though it was a 10 year master plan, it had all the components, and it still does, of a strategic plan is what we need right now, of course, given the impacts of COVID on the community. I should also mention that the -- the affordable housing issue, because of COVID, we now all recognize is not a standalone issue. Affordable housing ties very closely to health, to jobs, to safety, all the issues that need to come together, and I don't think we'll ever look at affordable housing again through -- through that singular prism, because we now know how it's all related. It's hit us all in the face and certainly there are many many families and households in Miami, and of course elsewhere, who are struggling right now, starting with the job loss, certainly if they've been impacted by the health of the COVID pandemic, and certainly other issues. So that's an important understanding, and I think we made that case pretty strongly, and you did as well when we talked about the Affordable Housing Master Plan, that it had to be more than just housing. It had to be about jobs, had to be about the economy, and it has to be about living conditions in our neighborhoods. So, it's a great opportunity to take that discussion to another level. The third point I'd like to make is relative to the economic impacts, which is so critical to the understanding of how we move forward City of Miami Page 6 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 from an affordable housing perspective. Obviously, we had a very, difficult situation you were trying to deal with, previous to COVID, that issue now obviously has been exacerbated, certainly has been magnified, and I think we're all aware of it. And 1 think the thing to understand here is, number one, we see employment numbers every week, every month, coming out of the State or the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The most important one from our perspective are the job claimants, the unemployment claimants. And I know you all have been tracking this. Right now, Miami -Dade County has 420,000 initial job claimants since March. That's by far and away the most of any county in the state of Florida. Obviously, we have a little larger employment base than other counties, Broward being the closest, but Broward's at 290, 290,000 claimants. We're at 420. We calculated that of that 420, the city of Miami is between 75 and 80,000. And this is really an important thing because what - - as we dig down a little bit deeper, we want to know why -- why does Miami have such a disproportionate amount of claimants and also job loss, as you get into the actual job loss figures itself Well, we all know that Miami -Dade has a disproportionate number ofself=employed. And the self-employed were really, really hurt by the pandemic. We know what happened, obviously, to leisure, hospitality and retail, not some of these other industries, but that sector, and I guess we can't even really call it a sector in some ways, because it is, you know, the self-employed are made up of contract workers, temp workers, the so-called gig economy. So, much -- so many of our workers are involved with that. And a lot of them didn't benefit from the unemployment claims that they submitted. If they did, by the time they did get them processed, the programs were over. So, that's a difficult situation, and I think that number has been severely undercounted. And that's an important number to think about, an important consideration to have, as we begin to think about how has the affordability issue become more exacerbated since March. Well, we've done some calculations, not only for Miami, Miami -Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach, but we've also looked at districts, and neighborhoods, to get a better understanding of what your renters -- what occupations your renters are in. Are they part of the gig economy? Are they temp workers? And once we get a better sense of that and we know that they're renters, and we have a really good sense of what their incomes are, we know -- we can have a better handle on the level of distress. So, let me just run this number by you because this is really important going forward. When we came to see you and we all talked about the Affordable Housing Master Plan, before the pandemic hit, the City of Miami had 73,000 cost burden renters. 73,000 cost burden renters of which 40,600 were severely cost burdened, meaning that they're paying in excess of 50 percent of their income on housing costs. And we know once you get to that level of distress, it creates all types of other problems in terms of food security, obviously other financial issues, health, you know, paying prescriptions, things like that. Well, based upon the COVID impact, we have some new numbers that are really quite daunting. That 40, 000 figure of distressed renters, severely distressed renters, has added another 22,000. 22,000, so now you have 62,000 renters' who are severely distressed, paying in excess of 50 percent of their income. And think about that in terms of you know, making that -- trying to make that rent payment the first of the month, and what else is left to cover, food and medicine and things like that. Now the question then is obviously, if we added 22,000 to the 40,000 that were already in place, what about those 40,000? Well you can imagine, if you were already severely distressed in that 40,000 group, you are in a really vulnerable situation in terns of homelessness or whatever you have to do to survive. And that's another really important aspect of the 420, 000 figure that 1 gave you in terms of claimants and the actual job loss numbers by industry sector and of course the self-employed. We all know that in Miami, if you live in Little Havana or Little Haiti or some of these neighborhoods, you probably have family in Hialeah, West Miami, North Miami. So those numbers, the economy as we all know is more regional, certainly countywide. So whatever impacts Miami is having is also being felt by families in neighboring communities and vice versa. Not only the families and the workers, but the businesses, because we know that if :you're living in a West Miami or Hialeah or North Miami, City of Miami Page 7 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 good chance you're coming in to take jobs in the city of Miami. So, obviously that's hurting businesses as well. So this is a very, complex issue, but the numbers are quite staggering. When you think about almost a half a million workers have filed for unemployment in just the first six months of this pandemic, and how it's impacting a workforce that's very specific to Miami, relative to self -- to self-employed and of course the major sectors, whether it be leisure and hospitality and retail and social assistance, education. These are all the industry sectors that have been hit the hardest. So, we're still seeing the job shedding continue. We had 17 another 17,000 claimants, first-time claimants, it's just this past month. We know with the loss of PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) and the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act, these numbers are just going to get worse. So, we have to brace ourselves, but fortunately we do have the mechanism in place. We have the tool now that -- because ofyour foresight is to have a plan that's much more strategic in nature and will allow us to at least have some rational discourse in terms of how we move forward on the short term as well as the longer term. Thank you very much. Chair Hardemon: Thank you very much. Do we have any questions for him right now? Any other questions or should we move on? Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I do. Chair Hardemon: You do? You're recognized sir. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Thank you, Mr. Chair. He closed off -- thank you, Mr. Murray, for being here today. Mr. Murray: My pleasure. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: You closed off with saying we have the tools in place. Can you walk me through those tools that we have in place? Mr. Murray: Well, I meant the plan. The plan, as I stated earlier, has -- even though it was structured or called a master plan, everything that we had discussed in terms of its components, its management components, and the policy components, the program components, were much more geared in terms of strategic planning to be able to move quickly. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Among those tools, ifI remember correctly, when you came before us, was a philanthropic contribution component. Can you walk me through that one? Mr. Murray: Well, that would be -- that would be one of the capital layers to the investment, fund that we talked about. We still think that's very viable for Miami. Obviously, we'd have to be very aggressive about that. In this day and age, and I think even more so, because of COVID, we know what's going to happen with the state coffers, right? We know Washington is going to have to deal with this in a much larger sense. So, from a housing standpoint, if we can't capitalize, if we can't create an investment And locally, we're going to have difficulty attracting money from more traditional sources. But we think because of who Miami is, we can attract philanthropic dollars into that capital fund. Now obviously there would have to be money coming from other sources, additional sources. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: So the -- so, can you tell me, remind me, refresh my memory, what that amount was? Mr. Murray: The total amount of the philanthropic contribution? City of Miami Page 8 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Yes. Mr. Murray: 1 think we were looking --1 think the goal was somewhere between, 1 want to say, 300 to 500 thousand towards, into the fund -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Million. Million. Commissioner Reyes: Million. Million. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Million. Million. Mr. Murray: Yes. Yes, million. Commissioner Reyes: That's right. Okay. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: So, in your plan, pre-COVID, you think it's realistic for Miami to attract between 300 and 500 million dollars in philanthropic contribution to this plan that you have in mind? Mr. Murray: Well, I think we have -- we have to go for it. And I think there's only a few cities in the country that could do it. San Francisco has been fairly successful. You know, New York has done similar things. I think Miami has -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Well, how much has San Francisco done? Mr. Murray: In terms of housing units? Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: In philanthropic contributions to housing -- to a housing plan. How much has San Francisco done? Like in actual dollars -- Mr. Murray: I don't have the numbers. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Well, you mentioned San Francisco, so I figured you knew the numbers. Mr. Murray: Yeah. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: New York? You mentioned New York? Mr. Murray: Yeah. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: So what would those numbers be? Mr. Murray: All I'm saying is they've used this capital layer approach that we're talking about. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: But you don't know the -- you're coming before us today and you did a study that cost $110,000 and you don't have those numbers? Mr. Murray: Excuse me, I'm sorry. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay. You're coming before us today, you're talking about a significant philanthropic contribution to your housing plan that we paid for you to do, and you don't have the numbers of other cities, the actual dollars that other cities receive in philanthropic contributions to a housing plan. And you throw out a very large number, a 300 to 500 million dollar number, and you think City of Miami Page 9 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 that's realistic. And what do you base that realism, that assessment on? Where has it happened before? Mr. Murray: I -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Wait, wait, wait, let me finish the question, please. Where has it happened before, and how do you think we're going to make that happen here? Mr. Murray: 1 don't think we have a choice, Commissioner. And let me first say -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: It's not about making a choice -- no, no, no, it's not about a choice. It's a very specific question. It's about, you made an assessment, and you drew a conclusion. It's got to be -- you didn't pull it from the air right, you based, I hope, right? You based on something. On what did you base it on? Mr. Murray: Well, first of all, the plan is your plan. We did this for you. This is your plan. It is not FIU's plan. We worked with the community, we worked with the commissioners, we worked with the staff. This plan needs to be your plan. Now that's an aggressive goal, I will say that, that's an aggressive goal, but it's absolutely critical -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: This is not my -- Mr. Murray: -- that you be aggressive about this. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Mr. Murray, I'm sorry, this is not our plan. We contracted you and your metropolitan center to do it for us, to give us a plan. Otherwise we wouldn't have paid you $110,000, right, or whatever the amount was. So we contracted you to come up with a plan. We expected -- I didn't, I wasn't around at the time, but the Commission, and the body, and the City did it. I probably would have done the same thing. I mean, I was -- I would expect a good plan. We need to have a plan. We -- you're a respected institute and you know, I'm not saying I wouldn't have done the same thing, but I don't like the result that I'm getting. Because if you're telling me that you have a 300 to 500-million dollar component, a philanthropic component, and I'm not going to talk about the rest of the plan, which I think is fatally flawed. That's not -- we're not going to have that debate today, because it's not you know FIUMetropolitan bashing day. But 1 do want to talk about this part of it, because that's the part that sticks out, like a sore thumb. It's kind of like so unrealistic from a commonsense perspective. And if it's not, and I'm wrong, I could be wrong, tell me why I'm wrong. Tell me what other city has done it. Tell me where you came up with that, how, and where you came up with that number, and how you plan, your plan, it's your plan that you sold to us, how that plan is feasible and realistic, as you said. Because maybe I'm wrong, maybe you did do the research and you went to other cities and you found that San Francisco did this and you don't have the numbers, but maybe you can look them up. Somehow you came up with this number. Where did that number come from? You think that's a fair question? Mr. Murray: Well it's a fair question, but we have to understand that it was understood certainly in our knowledge of how we approach affordable housing these days with the lack of state and federal money that we have to figure out innovative ways to create affordable housing funds. And philanthropic capital into affordable housing and other social issues has been increasing exponentially over the last decade or so. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Tell me, tell me where, but tell me where -- City of Miami Page 10 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Mr. Murray: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) about it. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Give nre, tell me when. Mr. Murray: It's an aggressive goal, it's an aggressive -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: No, no, Mr. Murray, Mr. Murray, tell me where, give me a number and give me the city or the county or the state and tell me where and how much so we know we're talking about realistic numbers. Mr. Murray: 1 can certainly do -- can certainly provide that. But what I'm saying is, and I think it was always the intent of the plan, was we had a sense of the level of capital that we would need. And we set a goal like any other -- any other fund that gets set up, you set a goal and you go after it. But that's, you know at that point, it's up to the City to try to market it. And I think you can be successful. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I believe that. But so basically, you said we need a billion. This is what we can really get. And then the other 500 million, well, it's going to fall from the sky. Because if you can't give me a realistic plan of how other municipalities or counties or parishes have done throughout the country to reach that goal, what methodologies they've used, what institutions, what non profits, what foundations they've reached out to. Because it's not only what we need to get to the 500 million dollars, it's how do we get to the 500 million dollars. And that's what the plan should provide to the City. Hey, by the way, the Rockefeller Foundation does this, you know, this guy does that, that company does that, and that's what -- Microsoft does that, Bill Gates Foundation does that, and we get there. But I haven't seen it, and I went through your plan when it was initially proposed, I haven't seen, except mentioning of some names, I haven't seen specific numbers of what they've done in other places. Because ifI know, if our City Manager knows, if our commissioners know, if our Mayor knows that, hey, the Rockefeller Foundation did this in Detroit and the Gates Foundation did this in Seattle, we know that at least we can reach out to them and have a realistic expectation. But to say it costs a billion, I'm just throwing out a number, it costs a billion to get there, these are the realistic mechanisms to get to 400 million or 500 million, and the other 500 million is going to come from the sky. That's not a plan. That's a fairytale. It's a fairytale. Commissioner Carollo: It's a plan in Haiti. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: It's a fairytale. Commissioner Carollo: A plan that the Clinton administration had in Haiti. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: So -- Commissioner Carollo: Are you familiar with that -- Commissioner? Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: -- to answer your question -- I want to hear an answer to the question. Where did you come up with that number and is there a plan to get -- to reach out to these organizations to get there? Mr. Murray: Well, the plan starts with -- this plan starts with -- any plan would do, you first determine your need, your capital need, right? And then you come up with a capital layer plan which has been used in multiple cities, capital layers have been around for decades. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Where? City of Miami Page 11 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Mr. Murray: All we're saying is that the philanthropic contribution to this investment fund could he considerable because of where philanthropic capital is going these days. Now -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Do you have an example? Mr. Murray: -- actually -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Do you have an example? Mr. Murray: -- ifI had gone and said the Ford Foundation or the Rockefeller Foundation, then 1 would be, I think, where did you come up with those numbers? No, no. The point is you have the most unaffordable city in the United States. The numbers -- the numbers that we're talking about are -- there's no other numbers like that in the country in terms of unaffordability. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: We know that. We know the problem. Mr. Murray: We have to be aggressive. We have to be aggressive. We have to set goals that are very aggressive. We have to have a vision. The whole idea of the plan was to create a vision for the city and then to aggressively market the plan. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Mr. Chair, I'm going to close with this. I'm not going to belabor the point. If you'll allow me. We know the problem. We went to you for the solution. So, outlining -- to have to have a keen eye for the obvious. We know what the problem is. We know the problem. I've asked you three different ways. Mr. Murray: But if you know the problem, if you know the problem Commissioner -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I'm not finished. Mr. Murray: No, no, if you have -- Chair Hardemon: Mr. Murray, you have to allow him to finish the statement, okay. Mr. Murray, you're muted, so no one can hear you. I'm going to have the Senator finish his statement, and then I'm going to unmute you. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: It's a statement, and I'm going to ask -- it's a statement with the question asked a fourth time. Chair Hardman: Okay. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: On what did you base,, what city, what foundation, did you base the conclusion that we can get the 300 to 500 million dollars in philanthropic contributions' to help our housing crisis in Miami? You have to have gotten it from somewhere. I hope you got it from somewhere. Where did you get it from? I've asked you the question four times. And four different ways. Mr. Murray: Well, I didn't know that we were debating the plan. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: It's not a debate. It's a question. Mr. Murray: Well, it sounds like -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: How about an answer? City of Miami Page 12 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Mr. Murray: -- you are debating it, Commissioner. With all due respect, you're debating the plan. A plan that has -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I'm not debating the plan. I'm asking you a question. What's the answer? Mr. Murray: -- a valuable plan for the city. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I'll be quiet and let you answer. What did you base it on? Mr. Murray: If you would like some hard data on the -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Yes. It would be nice. Mr. Murray: -- philanthropic contribution, we can provide that. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Anytime soon? Because we've been talking about it for eight months. I thought you were going to provide that today in your presentation. Mr. Murray: No, we were never asked to provide that. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Alright, well, I'm asking you now. Can you give me a timeline when you can provide that data for us? Mr. Murray: We can get that for you in the next week -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: So we can know -- Mr. Murray: Sure, in the next week. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay. Thank you, sir. Mr. Murray: You're welcome. Commissioner Reyes: Through the chair. Chair Hardemon: You're recognized sir. Commissioner Reyes: If I don't remember wrong, Mr. Murray, I think that that plan that you were, which rightfully so, Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla is asking, what you suggested is that we use the 100 million dollars and then create an investment fund, right? Housing investment, fund. And for using that as a base, that we could go and request more funds from other areas. But Diaz de la Portilla, it is right, we don't have a roadmap. We don't have a plan that says, okay, you do this, and that's what I would like to see. Just like I would like to see it. I would say -- roadmap (UNINTELLIGIBLE) this is the steps that you have to take. Use this amount of money and this amount of money and then you will build on it by asking from a philanthropic institution, such as blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, as it was done in other areas. But we don't know any other areas that have been done. And that's what Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla has been asking, and we haven't gotten any answer. I mean, how can we copy and follow the actions taken by some other cities and raise money for affordable housing? It is very simple, you see, how if that has been done before, you see, we need to know how to do it. Because I don't know how to do it because I haven't researched it. I mean, probably I should have, but I haven't researched it. And -- but we don't know -- any one of the commissioners, and that's a very valid question. How do we get there? I mean, who do -- which door do we have to knock, and what -- I mean, what is City of Miami Page 13 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 the requirement for those doors to open? 1 mean, it is a very valid question, and we haven't -- with all due respect, we haven't gotten the answer. And that's what I would like to hear, just think that every single commissioner will want to get some directions or some suggestions of what to do if we need to raise 500 million dollars. Well, how do we do it? I mean, who has done it before? And what was the initial step to it? Maybe we will agree on following that methodology, that's fine, or not, we will say, no, we won't be able to do it or I don't know. Because right now, if we are all -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla, Carollo, Hardemon, and the Mayor, will pick up the phone and we call the Gates Foundation and we tell them, listen, we need 500 million dollars. I mean, what do you have in place? 1 mean, it is not as easy as that, you see. It needs -- it needs methodology, it needs --1 mean, we have to create the institution that those funds are going to come and how do we create those institutions? That is basically, I don't know if I'm wrong, Mr. Diaz de la Portilla, but basically 1 think that's what you're asking, you see. That is -- and it's a very valid question. Mr. Murray: Yeah, I think we start with the -- and thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. I think we start with the understanding of establishing an investment fund to begin with. And investment funds have been around for a long, long time. Some are more successful than others. So, I think we start with that concept. Do we need an investment fund? Can we leverage that with what we have? And what are the sources of capital to layer that, to capitalise that fund? That -- those are the -- those are the questions that we had as we were -- as we were doing the plan. And obviously there was, I think, real consensus that we need an investment fund because we don't have enough money, even with the 100 million dollar bond issue, that would never be enough. So, you know, your questions are fine. I think it's just an understanding of how you capitalize that fund. Once the -- you've got to remember the plan also called for a management component to this, because someone's going to have to actually manage the fund and market it. And that's going to take some work. And we talked about that. That's not going to be FIU, certainly. That's going to be the City or some quasi -city agency. But as far as the specifics of other investment funds that have capital layers, yes, we can provide that data. Vice Chair Russell: Mr. Chairman. Commissioner Carollo: Can I? Chair Hardemon: I'll recognize Commissioner Carollo and then our Vice Chair Russell. Commissioner Carollo: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You know, with all due respect, I'm up to here with all these workshops. And was going to say something, butt want to be politically nice and correct. I haven't heard anything in the first workshop, in the one before that, and so far in this one, that I cannot have told you guys and not have charged you a penny. If you really want to see what we could do, and the magic we could create, give me an hour. I'll give you a workshop that's going to lay it out to you exactly where we need to go without all the BS of all these bureaucrats and failed plans that we're taking from San Francisco or, you know, wherever we're getting them from. The one thing that we have to learn is that we cannot keep creating and building ghettos. And for the most part rental units with the amount of buildings that we need to -- apartments that we need to create, is what it does. And people, it's been proven time and time again, will not take care of a rental unit like they would if they owned it. What happens with 500 million dollars if you're going to create a rental units? Well, I'm going to tell you what's going to happen with it. If we go at it the right way, you could build, at the very least, 5,000 units with it. If you go at it the way that it's been traditionally done here, you might get 300 units that are going to be built, excuse me, 3,000 units that are going to be built. The problem that we have in Miami is one of City of Miami Page 14 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 greed. Developers have created all these cheap units. Just look at most of the units that have been built in Downtown Miami. They're cheap units. All you have to do is step into Coral Gables, and you see a difference in the architect and everything else. And that's right next door to us. These units don't cost much more than the units that we could build. They cost more because they're much higher, so the higher you go, the minute you go over 8, 10 stories, it increases the cost tremendously more. And, you know, they have the marble, they have the fancy wood and everything else. But the actual shells, you know, it's the same cost for sheetrock, for plain doors, for plain kitchen cabinets. It's the same cost. Now, my estimates are that we can build, without a doubt, for a $125 a square foot, and probably less. I'm throwing another $25 a square foot if we have to buy land, which in some of our district it'll be cheaper than that, in some it'll be about right, but frankly in all of our districts with the exception of maybe District 2, 25 would be more than enough per square foot for land that we could buy. So, I'm looking at the highest amount of $150 a square foot land and to build. The difference is if you go so that people could be the owners of their own condos, their own apartments, every couple of years, once you put those mortgages out, we get our money back and we start again. If you built to rent outside of all the problems and more that the rental philosophy has created, we're going to be sitting and waiting for a long, long time to get additional money back. Creating a fund, it could be a fund in many different ways. In fact, right now, we could go to different hedge funds that could raise money for us. That's one route that we could go. It's not hard. In today's market, with a lot of the types of people that have money and the mentality that some of them have to do good, you give them a 3 percent, 3.5 percent, which is good money in today's market interest rate, we'll have them line up to invest in our fund. And then if we do some additional events, you know, we would have all the money that we need, much more than 500 million dollars. My biggest problem right now is that I've had a previous manager that didn't do crap during the time that he was here except come in late and leave very early. So, I wasted two years since he was here and we didn't accomplish anything in housing. And I'm sorry again, Commissioner Reyes, when you wanted to ring his head in one meeting, that 1 intervened, trying to give the man an opportunity to come up with a real plan. Nothing ever came. Just workshops and workshops. Now I understand the present manager, the minute that he came on board he faced a tremendous crisis, but I've given him locations that we own the land already, that we could begin, that we could have shovels in the ground before the end of this year, and I really would like this manager to move and get the things done that we need to. If I'm given the opportunity, I will deliver on the 12,000 units that the Mayor promised, the I don't know how many thousands that Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla promised, and the original 10 that 1 talked about when I ran. But this bureaucratic system that we have in this city, nobody gives a crap about the residents and truly finding housing for them. The bureaucrats that we have, all they care about is getting their paycheck and going home and waiting for the next commissioner that gets elected or gets termed out. But they're still going to be here collecting that paycheck and still going to be talking about the housing crisis that we have, and please, Mr. Clerk, put this for history, because these kind of workshops are the same ones we're going to be getting time and time again, people telling us about the problem that everybody knows that we have. So what -- what I want to do is move forward. I know what needs to be done I don't need anybody else telling me what the big plan is. I know what the plan is. But none of you that sit in these wonderful executive office have any idea what it's like, because none of you live in the middle, point zero, like I do, like some of us do, and see how people are suffering day to day, and the needs that they have. In order for a portion of our population to get mortgages, they really don't need much of our help because they could go through conventional loans, they could go to different programs for first- time homebuyers. We could even bring in for a percentage of that, HUD (Housing and Urban Development), but there's a big chunk of our population that would not qualify, will not qualify for a traditional loan. And those are the ones that we need to help through investors coming in and putting money into our fund for the mortgages. City of Miami Page 15 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Because then we create whatever criteria we want for them to qualify. And basically, as long as we know that someone has a sufficient income, we could give the opportunity for 90 plus percent of our population to be able to own their own home at rates that are going to be more or less the same, maybe even less than what they're paying in rent, in living in rat -infested, roach -infested, broken-down apartments today. So, gentlemen, if any ofyou see fit, anytime soon to give me an hour, an hour and a half 171 run you through the plan, 1'll run you with numbers, 171 show you where in my district we can begin. Maybe some of you would identify lands that we have already in each of your districts, and we can spread it out in the city. And I guarantee you it will work. But 1 need the Administration, through the Manager, to help me begin with the first 500, at least, units, first 1,000 units, that we have identified land that we own already. 1 don't want to be here and my first term expired and we're still talking about all these wonderful ideas and the needs that we have. Well this is why I ran because I knew the needs that we had, and I had a plan on how to fix it and I didn't need a 110 thousand dollars to create it. If not, gentlemen, frankly I'm better off going to Shangri-La I guarantee you I can build a lot more houses there real quick fbr people that need it. And the difference there is that while I'm helping them, I'll also make money for myself. Here, I only will be doing it for the people of Miami. But it's very frustrating to see that the Administration, no matter who comes in, who goes out the revolving door, it's the same thing. It's always the bureaucratic red tape, the big plans, the needs, and the only way that we put money out is to developers that want 50 percent more units to be built, and they're going to promise us workforce housing. BS they're going to promise us workforce housing. What they're going to be doing is gentrifying all of our neighborhoods. The people that live in the city of Miami are going to get another kick in the butt, so they have no place to live, or they're going to die in the crap hole that they've been living in, and nobody cares about. Like Ijust recently had one person, with his wife, that 1 was told that died in the last year and we're still going to he talking about all this and doing nothing about it. Mr. Chair, if you would see fit to ask the manager maybe to give me an hour sometime before my first term expires so that 1 can give you guys a real plan. I'd be happy to resolve this quickly and it won't cost you a penny. Arthur Noriega (City Manager): Can I respond to something real quick? If I may, Mr. Chair? So, I know it may seem like this is more bureaucracy, Commissioner, and I -- and I don't want you to look at it through that prism, but when I've talked to each of the commissioners specifically, about how to address affordable housing and the philosophical perspectives, there are a lot of differences amongst the elected officials. From AMI (Area Median Income) allocations, to homeownership versus rental, everybody sees it a little different. So, unless we get everybody on the same page or with a somewhat of a common thread, it puts our ability to move a plan in place forward. So the purpose of this wasn't to have a workshop and to ident fy, you know, to have more conversation. It was actually to get some direction, right? So the -- the absolute truth to this is that we allocated 100 million dollars as per a bond issue, we've spent a portion of it already. There's a remaining portion of it, and there needs to be a plan in terms of how we're going to spend it. And whether it's true affordable, whether it's workforce housing, whatever the priorities are, the ones that dictate that are the five elected officials that are in this meeting, not me, right? And so I need some direction from this group, but there has, right now, there are a lot of different perspectives on how to address that. And unless we get some consensus, right, we're going to be stuck in neutral for the foreseeable future. So that was the purpose of having this meeting in particular, was to actually get some guidance from the elected body, because absent that, and if there's five different perspectives on how to handle this, we're not going to make any progress. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Mr. Chair, after Commissioner Russell, I'd like to say a few things additional. I don't want to belabor the point, but I'll let, I know Commissioner Russell has his hand up. City of Miami Page 16 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Chair Hardemon: Commissioner Russell, you're recognized. And then remember we have -- we do have more speakers that need to speak. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I'll keep it short, I promise. Vice Chair Russell: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And Mr. Murray, you can hear the frustration within all the Commissioners' voices. This crisis is palpable to us because we've been put in place, we've been elected to help solve this crisis, and we're just not seeing the forward motion that we need to. The bond was passed years ago already. We fought to get that bond passed. I have a couple of questions, and that may help us here, because 1 think, and 1 can't speakfor the other commissioners, but it felt like this concept of a fund was on a track, and then at some point, we got off that track. And 1 think these commissioners are worried that if we create this fund, one, we cede control on decision -making, we take ourselves out of the equation to where we can help influence our district in the way we know best. And it's not just about development philosophy for affordable housing, it's how we know our neighborhoods as well and what they need. And so I'd like to know if there's a way to create that fund where the Commission can still retain and say so on the project list. And the reason I want to say this is because it would be a shame to only deal with 100 million dollars divided amongst the commissioners and we could get a couple projects done each and it'll be gone, it'll be gone tomorrow. It would be so much better if we could leverage that money and stack it. But I don't -- I think if we are given the binary choice of a long-term plan with no control that stacks to a greater number that we don't see the fruits offor a while versus taking what we can now burden the hand and implementing it, we're going to go with the latter. So 1'd love to hear if there's a way that we can create this fund that has the flexibility to keep the commission in the driver's seat of the decision -making process at the end of the day. They can make recommendations, they can manage the money, they can attract the investors and the banks, but at the end of the day, that project list has to come back to this commission. Is there a way to do that? Mr. Murray: Yeah, I think you raise a very, good point, Commissioner. We really have two time periods here. We have a pre-COVID housing crisis, now we have a post- COVID one that's even more so. If we were having this discussion that we had some months ago, post-COVID, we'd be talking about the investment fund in a different way. I mean, you're onto something there. We thought we had some flexibility, even back then, to create the fund and capitalize it over a 10 year period. And we thought that some leveraging could take place fairly quickly. Not saying 3 to 500 million from philanthropy right away, but over time as well as corporations, all the other layers that we would be aggressively going after to help capitalize it. And we're very confident in that. I thinkpost-COVID, given the numbers that we're looking at, I think we absolutely have to have flexibility. The investment, creating the investment fund is one thing. And that's why I brought that up again. I don't think we have a choice not to do that, because we know that, as we've said many, times, the money's just not going to be there from the federal government or the state, and if we don't create our own investment fund with whatever resources -- financial resources we can bring to the table, then that's great. But we have an emergency situation right now. We have an emergency situation going on in all your districts. So we have to be able to address that. And I think we can. I think we need, based upon the data that you have for your districts, based on more information that we've been able to put together since we last talked, relative to which neighborhoods have the highest concentrations of job loss in certain occupations, also renters, we can begin to really think about, you know, a more flexible and rapid response to the situation that's out there right now. We don't have time to wait, I totally agree with that. But that's not to say we don't create the fund. Maybe it's a lot lesser amount, or maybe we put off that City contribution for a City of Miami Page 17 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 while. But just creating a fund, capitalizing, getting it going, because this is a long- term deal, this is a 10-year deal. I hope that answers your question. Vice Chair Russell: So, your answer is we can create a fund where the commission still has decision -making control over projects. Mr. Murray: That's right. Vice Chair Russell: If that's the case, then I would still be in favor of creating this fund and just not letting it slow down our ability to move forward, but hopefully to track something that we leverage. It won't be maybe the five times over that we're hoping for, but it's better than nothing and it's better than seeing our money get spent too quickly and not getting the end result we really need. Thank you. That does answer my question. Mr. Murray: Very welcome. Chair Hardemon: Senator, you're recognized. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: It's a very quick point because I looked it up when the other commissioner was speaking. So, the San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund is a 200 million dollar endeavor that promises to build 1,500 units over a five- year period. 200 million dollars, 1,500 units, five years. The San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund, build or rehab, that's $133,000 per unit. That's the kind of numbers we're talking about. 100 million dollars is the tip of the iceberg where we need to solve our problems, which is what Commissioner Carollo spoke about during his campaign and what he promises to do. And it's a good goal, it's a realistic goal, but we have to figure out how we get to 10,000 units over a period of time. We talked about it during our campaign, and also, Mayor Suarez spoke about it during his campaign. Every commissioner here has spoken about this issue because it's the number one issue in the city of Miami. But to see the magnitude of the problem, you cited San Francisco. That's why Pm using that example of San Francisco, Mr. Murray. A 200-million-dollar fund, an investment fund, I don't want to go into the details of how they're funding it, it's a different conversation. To build 1,500 units, we're talking in Miami about building 12,000 to 15,000 units, 10 times as many units almost. And so that's the magnitude. The fact that this, two points to Commissioner Russell's point, yes, an investment fund makes sense to me as long as the commission controls it so that we can do what he hates and I say this, but the redistribution of wealth throughout the city of Miami that we need to do to build it in the right places for the people that really need it so they can be close to the services they need. The challenge, and I agree with Commissioner Carollo, the workshops are important because we have conversations. I agree with him that there's' a time to stop the workshops and to take action. So what we expect from these workshops, what I expect, not we, what I expect from these workshops is that the manager comes to us and says this is what I propose, this is the way we're going to get there. This is what we think, how I think we should do it. After consulting with all the experts, our FIU Metropolitan Center, we contracted with Gibson, your opinion, our journal of experts, and you come to us, Mr. Manager, you tell us this is what I think we should do. So we can have a real debate. And we can then put all of it. You're right. Every commissioner has a different perspective. We're right in some cases, we're wrong in other cases. But we can put all that together, we can only put that together when we have a plan. And then we can say, let's amend the plan, let's add this, let's take this away from it. What's the total actual numbers, realistic numbers? There's no realism whatsoever in 300 million to 500 million, or philanthropic contributions, to this effort. That's not going to happen. 100 million is probably not going to happen either, right. So, we have to figure out if it's going to happen, if we want to strive for that, and you make that part of your plan, Mr. Manager, then you tell us, hey, they did it this way in City of Miami Page 18 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Detroit, they did it this way in Seattle, they did it this way in New York, they did it this way in Austin, Texas. And that's how 1 propose that we do it here. So a realistic step- by-step process, how we get from A to B to C all the way to the end, right? How we do it, not what all the ideas are. We all have great ideas. Everyone here -- everyone I think agrees that home ownership is better than rental. Everyone agrees on the number of units we need to build. Everyone agrees that it's the number one crisis facing our city. So we know what the problem is. We're all very clear on the problem. But no one's come before us like what happened when I was in the Senate. This is what we're proposing. Either the governor had a proposal, or the Senate President had a proposal, and then we will go back and forth on that specific proposal. We have a piece of paper that has everything, and this one we agree on, and we don't agree on. We amend, we don't amend, and we move forward. But the workshops don't lead to that. The last workshop, this workshop, will this one lead to a proposal, another meeting that says -- what the manager comes before us and he says, this is what 1 have before you, take it or leave it or amend it. That's the way, to do it. And that's -- Mr. Noriega: So can I ask a question? Can I ask a question just because I -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Yeah but let me just -- you have, Mr. Manager, you've had individual meetings with every single commissioner on this issue. I've spoken to you about it. I know you've told me other commissioners have spoken to you about it. Everyone has an idea how to do this, their own idea, right? It's your job to bring those ideas together in consultation with our mayor and say, all right these are all the ideas this is how 1 can mesh them and present them to you as one comprehensive, well thought out plan. That's what I'm striving to get to, and I don't get there that we don't get there. But we can't solve it with everybody having a different idea. And I agree with Commissioner Carollo, if he has ideas, I'll give him the hour and a half today for him to give us his ideas for his next meeting. And Commissioner Reyes, I know has ideas here. During my campaign we spoke about many of them. And you know, I haven't had many, conversations with you, Commissioner Russell, but you know, I've heard you make public statements about what your ideas are. And so if we can put all that together into one plan and the manager comes before us, then we have something to really vote on and move forward. And really move the needle, instead ofjust talking about how we move the needle, and talking about the fact that we need to move the needle. Chair Hardemon: Mr. Manager. Mr. Noriega: So you made a statement which was everybody would prefer home ownership to rental. That's never been communicated to me, not once. So that's the point I'm trying to make. You just made a statement, right? Aside from one specific commissioner, Commissioner Carollo, that has never been -- been discussed at a public forum like this and agreed to by the body. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: That's not true. That's not true, Commissioner [sic]. That's not true. Commissioner Carollo -- maybe you don't remember, or maybe you hadn't gotten here yet, but I think it was the second meeting maybe it was my second or maybe third meeting, Commissioner Carollo has spoken about home ownership at least twice that I remember. Commissioner Reyes: And I have also. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: And I heard him in a commission meeting. Mr. Noriega: But I'm not saying he hasn't spoken about it. It's been his priority from the very beginning. What I said is that as a group, as the elected body, there has never been a directive to say that is the priority, develop a plan around it. City of Miami Page 19 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Carollo: Excuse me. Excuse me. Mr. Noriega: That was the purpose of -- that was the purpose of having this discussion today, is to create a prioritization for where you want that focus to be and then let us come up -- and then let us execute that plan, put that plan together, but I need direction. I need a consensus amongst the elected body. Commissioner Carollo: Chairman. Chair Hardemon: Yes, sir. Commissioner Carollo: If1 can address the Manager. Chair Hardemon: Please. Commissioner Carollo: In what Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla stated. There was a meeting before this manager came, as the Commissioner stated, where in essence we took a vote of what we wanted, and that vote was for 250 million dollars that the City of Miami, and I'm talking 250, if I remember -- Commissioner Reyes: Yep. Commissioner Carollo: -- was the amount for construction loans to build for housing and we spoke about housing that would get mortgages, and we would get our money back. So in essence, when that vote was taken, it was an approval to move forward on home ownership once we brought what plans we had to the Commission, and they would approve that. And how was it supposed to work? Once we identified where we were going to build, and we brought the plan back to the Commission, the Commission would approve the amount for that particular project, out of those 250 million, so that we could borrow the construction funds from the institution that would give us the best rates. Once it would be built, we brought in the tenants from within the city of Miami. This is one of the things we talked about. Miami for Miamians. Then we would get our money back. And whatever interest rates during the construction time the City would have paid, that would be incorporated into the final price of the unit. So, that's there, and we have $250 million for construction loans that the Commission approved. Commissioner Reyes: Mr. Chair? Chair Hardemon: Yes, sir. Commissioner Reyes: I also want to state that the home ownership and rentals, they are not mutually exclusive. We need rentals, and we need to provide home ownership. And we have talked about home ownership since day one and rentals since day one. I -- I've been hearing all of this and all the discussion that we are going through and I have here -- I have here a document from the local institute, I mean Institute for Local Government, in which it very clearly describes what a home trustfund -- a housing trust fund, really how can it be implemented, and what it does, you see. I know, and I am one that believes that if we divide whatever millions of dollars that we have, it might be -- I mean, it won't be as useful as we do a trust fund, and use those funds as gap financing of certain developers that we can loan it or we can grant it, according to whatever, I mean, what we consider better. And also, maybe we can attract some of that philanthropic contributions. I'm reading, the Amazon for example contributed 300 million dollars someplace. And also other -- Bill Gates contributed, also. Maybe we can go that route. I think what is important in this workshop is define what are we going to do, you see. It doesn't matter how much we ask and how much we discuss City of Miami Page 20 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 about the need. We all know the need. We all know what it is needed. Now, how are we going to hest use that 100 million dollars, or whatever is left, in the city of Miami? Are we're going to --1 heard yesterday when I was being briefed by the Housing Department, that it was stated before the -- the question, I mean, was placed on the ballot, that -- I mean, there's this position that we have to divide this according to -- I mean, by district, according to the allocation of community development funds. I don't know if that's true or that's the way that it is. Butt think that the most important thing here is we have to determine, we have to determine how are we going to best use those funds. Are we going to -- everybody is going to get their piece of the pie and use them according to how they see fit, or are we going to keep it together, form a housing trust fund, start leveraging that fund, and also we have to dictate, we have to analyze and identify the uses that it could be, I mean, those funds are going to be, I mean, how are we going to allocate this to developers or if we are going to build it ourselves, which 1 think it would be totally inefficient? But that is what 1 think it is, the purpose of this. And the only fruitful, I would sav, outcome will be getting out ()there with a directive to the administration on what do we want to do. You see, what do we want to do. I know that we're going to hear about everybody, I mean a lot of experts and the cost of land, how are we going to -- I mean the cost of construction and all that. I know, Mr. Carollo, that you have stated long, I mean, since day one, that you have knowledge of building at a rate, I mean, at a cost that -- which is substantially lower what some people are charging here. And I believe you, I believe you. But what are we going to do? Are we going to create a housing trust fund, are we going to -- and also 1 will suggest if we create a housing trust fiord, we need a revenue source, a revenue source that will, you see, will keep funds coming. And that is -- that is our challenge. Are we going to build a trust fund and at the same time, we are going to identify certain, I mean, what type of revenues, I mean, source of revenues they're going to be earmarked for that fund, that that find is going to be used in affordable housing development by -- I mean, gap financing, financing the gap of certain people with the restrictions that we can place on it. Maybe we can build it ourself, if we have it -- I mean, we have the land and all that. I mean, there's a lot of things that we can do. But we can go and ask for philanthropists that -- to come and donate money. And more important, it is determine a source of fund that will, or funds, that will nourish this trust fund. And I think that will be better than us dividing the pie and me getting, let's say, 18 million dollars and then taking them to District 5, you see, I might be able to do one or two projects if I do it myself, you see, if I do it myself, and the same goes for the other commissioners. But if we create a trust fund, and that's my honest opinion, if we create a trust find, maybe we can do it. And this is what we have to decide. We have, in my opinion, what we have to do is give directive to the manager to see how do we best use this and come up with different alternatives. And that's it. Chair Hardemon: I'll sav this, right. That day that we made that -- that I made the motion, well, Ken Russell actually might have made the motion, I might have requested it because I probably was chairing at the time. And so there's two of us that are here today that voted for it. That's Commissioner Russell and myself Commissioner Carollo, your brother at that time, he voted against it; our mayor, Francis Suarez, he voted against it. And then we had your predecessor, Senator, that voted for it, which was Commissioner Willy Gort. And at the time, when I increased the bond from 20 million dollars to 100 million dollars in affordable housing, part of - - and the minutes reflect it, part of the deal in doing this was that each of the commissioners would have the ability to decide how they want to spend the affordable housing dollars according to their district, what made best for them. That was part of the sell. That was part of the reason why we understood that we wanted to go together. And I'm telling you that to say this, Commissioner Reyes, Commissioner Carollo, Commissioner Russell, and even Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla, if you all want to prioritize things, put all your money together and create a housing trust fund, you can do that. You can do that. And then you can .find ways to put housing within all of your districts as one plan. I mean, you're all free to do that. As the commissioner City of Miami Page 21 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 that represents District 5,1 had other plans, and that was part of the reason why we wanted to -- that's why we made the allocation according to the CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) guidelines. So that one, we knew that where there was need, that need was filled according to that. And then two, so that each commissioner could have the ability to Jill their need as they saw fit. So, if Commissioner Carollo would have been on the dais at that time, he would have most definitely spoke about homeownership and creating a housing trust fund to provide ownership for families and then get the money back as we sold each property so that we can continue to build more things. I mean, that makes a lot of good sense. All of your ideas make a lot of good sense. What I want to steer away from, at least for now, and then I want to get into the rest of the meeting, too, because remember, we have people that are waiting on us in the private sector to give us some of their words. But I want --1 want to remind everyone, rather, that if there is agreeance between two districts, three districts, or four districts, about how they want to combine their funds to create something, to create a product for their communities. And I mean, they're all well in their right to do that. What would hate to see is for someone to create a policy for a district necessarily that they don't represent, where their needs may be a little different. And I think that kind of steps on the toes of each of us. And that's all that I'm saying. So I understand where everyone is going. I think we can all get what we want out of this if fwe just befriends with each other. I want to recognize Commissioner Russell, you had something to say first, Commissioner Reyes, you're next. Commissioner Reyes: Sure, no, I just wanted to answer, sir. 1 wanted to answer because 1 think you misunderstood me. What I'm saying is that what we have to decide in this meeting is how are we going to move forward. How are we going to move forward? If we are going to follow the intent of this, 1 mean, a bond issue, as it was placed on the ballot, that every single, every commissioner is going to get a share gill or if we are going to put it -- leave it together in a trust fund. I think that is -- that is logically what we have to -- I mean, we have to decide the amount that everybody is going to receive. Because it doesn't matter how much we hear about the cost of construction and all of that, and the -- I mean the end of the matter is that are we going to -- what are we going to do with those money, you see. And then, according from what I'm hearing, what it's going to give us, it's going to give you the ability or the power for you to use the funds in District 5 at creating the housing that you think they are needed and using it as you see fit. And the same thing could happen in District 4, and District 3, or District 2, or District 1. And that is basically what I'm seeing that we are going into that direction. And as you said it, I mean, if commissioners are free to put their -- their allocation together and create a trust fund, that is up to us. But what I'm saying is that we are just going around and basically what we have to decide is that, you see? Basically -- and we have a lot of people, we are discussing something that we don't have no control over, you see. I mean, let's just get -- I didn't -- I'm not trying to set a rule that we create this trust fund because that's my opinion, but my opinion has no bearing on that decision the we are going to make because that decision was made before, you see. That -- that it was made before. So this is it. I mean, what I think that Commissioner Carollo, Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla, and myself what we want to see is action. How are we going to use it? When are we going to receive it? And what are the conditions for us to be able to either bring developers into our district and tell them, listen, how much money do you need that we can gap finance. I have 2 million dollars here that we are going to finance your gap in exchange for whatever it is, you see? That's -- I mean, excuse me, my fellow commissioners, butl think that is the main reason that we're here. Chair Hardemon: Commissioner Russell? You're muted, sir. Mr. Noriega: You're muted. City of Miami Page 22 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Vice Chair Russell: Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You're in your last couple of meetings here now and you bringing up that moment reminds me of one of my favorite memories of working with you was that moment when we made that vote because we had failed to put the bond forward on the ballot the year before. And in that very meeting, I had thought Commissioner Gort was going to be the swing vote. But when you actually made your vote conditional to basically quadrupling the -- more than quadrupling the -- quintupling the allocated amount for affordable housing, I just smiled because I knew you could do it because we had the bonding capacity, and I was absolutely with you and here we are. So, I really believe this is going to be your legacy, this bond and it's being administered and spent properly is in great part because of your actions that day. I believe there is a hybrid possibility here for this find and the allocation of the monies. And I think we can make a decision on that today, because we're thinking in this binary either or, we can set these rules. And just like we can make that fund come and answer to us with regard to project allocation, we can also create a fund without saying that we're ceding our ability to focus a specific amount on our district. I do believe we can still divide the fund by the CDBG amount, and those percentages are available to all of you. As you know, I'm the smallest percentage of that. But my district has the highest right now demolition, eviction, and gentrification displacement pressures because it's in -- surrounded by market rate wealth. So, I have a big task to try to preserve neighborhoods in my district as well. We're not thinking about philosophies here. Any one of the five of us are thinking about specific neighborhoods, specific streets, specific churches, CDCs (Community Development Cooperations), affordable housing developers, landowners who have perspective plans and projects. So, I don't think that creating a fund that just spends all the money in one lump in one place or another on a couple projects is the right way to go. But 1 don't believe we should not create the fund. Commissioner Reyes: (INAUDIBLE). Vice Chair Russell: I would like -- I would like to create the fund, and that's going to be my recommendation today, that we create the fund, retain decision -making ability as commissioners, put all the money into that fund. Well, it stays in the general fund, and it's simply a seed to attract investment from banks and their CRA (Community Redevelopment Agency) funds and things like that, create the stack, whatever's possible, but as each ofus has a project to move forward on, there's a running tally what's taken out of that find and goes to a project. And once we hit that limit of whatever that CDBG amount is, we're going to have to come back to this commission if we think we've got an idea that we want more, because most likely the other commissioners have ideas for theirs too. So that would be my recommendation, that we create the fund, we retain decision -making control, we keep a running tally of the division funds by district, and we move forward giving direction for action on projects. RFPs, whatever is necessary as quickly as possible. I'd love to hear what the others think about that. Chair Hardemon: Let's hear from Commissioner Carollo and then I'll refer to you, Mr. Manager. Commissioner Carollo: Look, whether we divide up the dollars into each of our districts, or we put it into a pot, one thing doesn't have to go with the other, or it could. You could create a fund without having to put all the money in there, or you could create a fund with putting all the money in there. My biggest -- how can I put it politely, I do want to be very, polite today. What amazes me is that we keep hearing about this fund that we're going to bring all this money, but all I'm hearing is about the motor. The motor of a vehicle is what consider the cash to build homes, but you can't do anything with a motor unless you have the chassis of the car, the seats, the brakes, the steering wheel, the tires, and you can't begin in trying to create any kind of fund, whether you call it a trust fund in many of its versions, or you call it a City of Miami Page 23 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 housing authority in many of its versions, or any other type of organization that you might want to create, and there are many others that you can use as samples out there. You can't do it without creating what structure you're going to have ahead of time. That's the first thing that would have to be done before you try to go out there and get money. Now, I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do. If the manager would be so kind and you know even if he wants to keep me egging me on and not do anything, you know humor me. I'll do it on my own. In going to bring before you a plan and if the City can't do it for me, I'll get people in the private sector calculate for me how many units I could build with some of the properties we have, I'm going to give you drawings of what it might look like and if no meetings want to be made with others that we're supposed to have, I'll try to create it myself, if not I'll bring it before you. And then I'm going to ask you for dollars, not from the bond money, and I'm going to tell you why I'm not going to ask you for dollars in the bond money, because no matter what we do here today or next day or the following day, by the time we get those bonds out and we have them in hand it might be at least a year or more. So, I can't do anything today with it and I don't want to wait until the end of next year so we could put the shovels in the ground. I want to do it this year. So, I'm going to bring you a plan so that you guys can vote it up and down, and based on the resolution that this Commission approved for up to 250 million dollars, that we could go out and borrow from lending institutions for construction loans. Commissioner Reyes: That's good. Mr. Chair -- Commissioner Carollo: And in all due respect, I will be following the charter because 1'll be bringing you something that 1, as the Commissioner, someone elected can do. If the manager wants to jump on board and be helpful, he can do it. If he doesn't want to jump on board, be helpful, then he could get out of the -- get the heck out of the way and let me bring it to you. And then if all of or part of you don't want to approve anything like this, that's fine. I did all that could to get real housing here in a way that's going to be meaningful, and that we could have a revolving door with that money to our community. I did all that I could, but I can't do more. Commissioner Reyes: Mr. Chair, I'm just going to make a little history here. When we first got here, we, Commissioner Carollo and myself, we proposed a housing authority, you see. Remember, housing authority? And one of the suggestions that I made at the time was that we have this inclusionary type of -- this program that we, in exchange for additional density or additional height or more -- additional building, that we were going to receive an X percentage of units, and which the majority are 140 percent of AMI. And I said in lieu of that, in lieu of that, we -- we should receive - - we should receive a cash contribution to the housing authority that Commissioner Carrillo and I would propose. As a matter of fact, I think we voted on it, Commissioner Carollo, correct me if I'm wrong. Okay, and that will be a stream of income to any trust or you can call it the trust fund, or you can call it whatever, but that housing authority is the one that is -- I mean the coffers are going to be replenished by that stream of income and we can find all the type of revenues, I mean, that are related to construction that it will come to that housing authority and from there, any one of us, if we have a project that it is -- I mean, we can use those funds to, as you said, Commissioner Carollo, you can go in a partnership with the private sector and we'd be able to also to demand the type of housing and -- and to serve which percentage of -- I mean, what part of the population, those are at 30 percent below AMI, or 80 percent, or 100 percent, or 110, you see, and we can use those funds you see. And that was proposed by us, I remember that, and -- what we did, and I still think that's a good idea. I don't know about the rest of you. But we need -- and I mean this hundred million dollars, it is going to be, I mean I don't think that we're going to be doing much unless we keep on refurbishing the coffers, you see. And one thing that I'm going to propose, maybe I am. -- that the city manager and Mr. George Mensah and everybody, I mean all of us, all of us, provide our input and how can we City of Miami Page 24 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 create, it is a revolving fund, you see, that we don't only have this $100 million, hut we can keep on drawing from it --1 mean, getting funds into it and keep on drawing. And not only for us, as commissioners, that we're going to be here for a few years, but this can remain with the City of Miami. Those that come behind us, they can draw on it and keep this -- I mean, the construction of affordable housing. Chair Hardemon: Once again, Commissioner, I just want to make it, you know, plain that we can do it all. We can do all the things that everyone wants to do. Commissioner Reyes: That's what 1 want to do. Chair Hardemon: Except I don't -- except I just don't want you to spend the money that I promised people -- Commissioner Reyes: No, I'm not saying -- I'm not saying that. Now, I'm not saying -- I'm saying that, I mean, in addition. Chair Hardemon: Right, right -- Commissioner Reyes: In -- in addition, we have to start creating that trust And. Chair Hardemon: The cities, they have these -- you have in here composite Exhibit A, they have about seven different strategies that came about from all of our discussions regarding the bond. One is the affordable workforce new rental strategy, another is the home ownership preservation strategy, which was a big thing in my district. That's how 1 went out and I sold that bond. Commissioner Reyes: Okay. Chair Hardemon: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the people who have owned homes in their community for a very long time, they still have jalousie windows, that they're not storm resistant, you know, aging properties with aging homeowners who don't have the ability to make those improvements and make their investment safe. And so, we have that for them, City acquisition of land, we have affordable home ownership strategy, which encompasses what Commissioner Carollo was speaking of right now, affordable rental housing preservation strategy, affordable new construction rental strategy. So -- and affordable housing long-term lease, so a build -manage strategy. So we have the tools that are there. And today, especially, there were amendments to these strategies that we want to make in order to make these products more available to the people who need them. And for instance, if there's a $50,000 limit per house on a home ownership renovation strategy, we can increase it to 75. Commissioner Reyes: Absolutely. Chair Hardemon: So that's -- I want to get through the meeting, but also remind you that besides the things that you're talking about, we have to make these changes so that these programs can work for us, the way that we see best fit for us. Commissioner Reyes: Absolutely. Chair Hardemon: And so, I just want to kind of put that out there, and then I'm going to recognize the manager, and then after the manager speaks, I really want to get to the next section that we have, which is the transitional housing costs, because we have one, two, three speakers that are waiting for us right now. Commissioner Reyes: I already spoke my mind. City of Miami Page 25 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Chair Hardemon: Okay. Mr. Manager, you had something you wanted to add? Mr. Noriega: Yeah, yeah. So, 1 want to --1 want to go back to that resolution that was passed in December, which Commissioner Carollo referenced, and say that if it is absolutely, still the intent of the commission to move forward with that, since we've made zero progress on it today -- to date and it's already October, so it's been almost a year, and we haven't moved on any of the aspects of that reso. If it's still the interest of everybody to move that fbrward, I will immediately take action and get that affordable housing loan program and the task force behind it in place in the next couple of weeks so that we can actually come forward with a -- with an actual plan and a set of criteria and guidelines for how to raise that money and then distribute it. I just need some affirmation of that because I think it's 10 months --10 months overdue, clearly. Commissioner Carollo: Mr. Manager, I hope you don't think that we were trying to hoodwink the public when we voted for that resolution. I think this commission was very serious when we approved that. Now, what has to be done is what you stated. You have to come back with a real proposal to the Commission. This is what we want in this location, these units. We estimate that we could build them at this amount, and that's very important, the amount. And then you would have shopped already so the Commission could see what interest rates we could get from from different lending institutions that can offer the City, 1 would hope, their lowest and best rates. And then it's up to this commission then to give you the green light to go forward or not. But I don't see what else we need to do. 1 haven't heard anyone come up with a resolution now that wants to undo what we did 10 months ago, or whatever the time it was that we did it in. Mr. Noriega: So what I -- so what I need from you then, Commissioner Carollo, Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla, and Commissioner Hardemon, is I need appointees to the taskforce. Because those are three openings, open seats that we don't have appointments for. So if you -- Commissioner Carollo: I could give you appointments. I could give you whatever you need, but that has nothing to do with what we're discussing right now. Mr. Noriega: I have -- Commissioner Carollo: You know, locations that we own that in part of it we can start right tomorrow. The other part, we just have to have a conversation with certain people that have our City owned land and work it out with them with a pretty face or a sad face. But we're going to work it out with them. And then -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: So, if I may -- Commissioner Carollo: -- just figuring out how many units we could build, how many would be two bedroom versus one bedroom, and so on. Bring it to the Commission. Mr. Noriega: It's in the reso Commissioner, I'm just trying to move forward something. You brought it up. I'm trying to move something that was approved in December. So there's a taskforce that is to be appointed, right? There are -- there's specific targets in terms of the number of units to be built. It was 1, 9001 bedrooms, and another 600 2 bedrooms. It's in the reso. So if you want me to move forward with the reso, what I'm saying is I'm going to take immediate action on it, right? I wasn't aware that this reso was in place. So, I'm going to take immediate action on it, right? I just need you to give me task force names so that I can move forward. City of Miami Page 26 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Carollo: The only thing thatl will say is that maybe that's what you got to look at. Why did no one in your staff ever inform you that their resolution was in place? Mr. Noriega: 111 deal with that. That's not the purpose of the conversation now. I'll deal with that. Commissioner Carollo: But it is important. You should have been made aware of that. You weren't here then. I understand that. But many of your staff were. Mr. Noriega: Yeah. Commissioner Carollo: And they have an obligation to keep you abreast on what we have. Chair Hardemon: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) what's the name of the taskforce? Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: This is -- Mr. Chair. Chair Hardemon: What's the name of the taskforce that you need appointed? Mr. Noriega: The Affordable Homeownership Loan Program Task Force. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay, that's the task force. Mr. Chair, ifI may. Chair Hardemon: Yes, you're recognized. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Commissioner Carollo is correct, Mr. Manager. Everybody that was here then is here now. They're all around you, they work in the same office space that you do. This resolution passed by a previous commission and the biggest crisis that we have in our city is a housing crisis. The first thing you should have been told when you became manager, hey look, this was passed, that's what it says, and give it to so you can read it. The fact that leading up to this particular meeting, a meeting called specifically to address the housing crisis, the first document they should have given you is, hey, this is what passed, this is what the commission directed back then, the first document, before anything else. All kinds of documents I have in front of me. This housing and commercial loan committee has two vacancies. Who named these people? I think it was a previous manager. There's two vacancies right now. Are you going to name new people to that? They vet these applications, so before it even gets to us, we have -- it goes through them. So, we don't get the whole picture. We get what they think is the whole, the picture they want to present us, right? Who are these members' that went through -- Pm not going to mention names, but you know who they are. You should have it in front of you. If you don't have it, ask your staff to give it to you, because you should. The parameters of what the resolution said, who recommends who best to come before us, the conversations that were had, the actual video of that meeting that took place, especially to talk about housing when FIU, the Metropolitan Jorge Perez Center came before us and presented their study, if —we want to call it that. Every conversation has taken place since then about this issue, privately with you, and publicly in that meeting and in other meetings that have been brought back and forth, that Commissioner Carollo has mentioned things such as ownership, everybody's spoken about this issue. It is without a doubt, other than COVID-19, obviously, which is not our doing, the number one issue facing this government. Without a doubt. The affordability -- housing affordability in our community. Commissioner Russell, Commissioner Reyes, Commissioner Carollo, Commissioner -- Chairman Hardemon and I all agree that this is the number one issue. How we divvy up the money, the formula, all that. That's what you have to come to us prepared. Your staff has to come City of Miami Page 27 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 before us prepared and say, these are all different components. I'm not saying that you're not prepared. I'm saying that they maybe didn't give you all the information that they should have given you because this meeting was taking place. It's not a meeting about 20 different things. I understand if you have a meeting that we have a regular agenda, you talk about 20 different things that maybe you don't have a particular document in front of you or whatever. But that's not the case here. That's the only issue we're talking about today. You should have had that information before you. What that commission, which I wasn't a member of what that commission voted for, the conversation I've had before I was a member, of the reso itself let me clarify the statement, but the conversations I had before 1 got here, the questions have been going on for four years now. So, all these components are, in detail, should be presented before us, what Commissioner Russell is talking about, he's partially right. There should be an investment fund, 1 think. I don't agree with the CDBG formula. We can have that conversation. So, I won't accept the existing formula. We can talk about that but it's a longer conversation later on today why I don't agree with it, I think 1 know where the poverty areas are in the city as he does. But I'm also not completely committed to the idea that we have to build attainable housing in particular districts. I think it's a citywide issue, so I understand that also, I understand it doesn't have to be built in Allapattah or in Little Havana or you know in, off Douglas Park. They could be built in different parts where the real need is and where people are willing to live and and where it can enhance the community in certain parts and they have some kind of mixed use in that area, not two, we have to spread it around. 1 get that. But the CDBG allocation is not fair for the poor districts in this community. And we had that discussion yesterday in particular with our staff 1 had it. So where are we going to get today? I don't think that we can make any sort of decision at the end of the day without having a real plan before us. We can talk about everything and at the end of the day, maybe we can direct you, Mr. Manager, every commissioner, say I want this, I want that, I want that, and then you write it down and you go through all that and you come before us with a plan that encompasses all that and then we can vote it up or down and take things out and amend it. But to do it piecemeal is a major mistake, and Commissioner Russell is 100 percent correct. To divvy up the 100 million dollars will not address our issue. That's not even the tip of the iceberg to solve a housing crisis. Chair Hardemon: Commissioner, you've got to remember this as well, is that the 20 million dollars that we initially had was for affordable housing. It was increased by 80 million to 100 million and became affordable housing and economic development. So when we -- when we split it, even if you agree or disagree with the CDBG guidelines, it was with the idea that there were housing issues that we needed to tackle, but then also economic development issues that we needed to tackle. And those are specific to certain areas, those are specific to districts. And that's why to get the bond passed, you have to remember at the time that we passed this there wasn't -- we didn't present the people an actual plan that said, okay. well this address, this folio number, et cetera. So it was a matter of ensuring that the communities understood that they were going to get a portion of these dollars to service their community. And that's why the split occurred. Now, how we go and leverage those dollars and agree to all these different things, yes. But I just want to make sure that the promises that I made to the community that I represent gets delivered. So I cannot have MLK (Martin Luther King), for instance, Boulevard. Right now, I think the City of Miami, part of the funds that were available for the district that 1 represent have already been allocated to some projects that are in the ground right now on MLK Boulevard. I want to ensure that not only do you have the housing that's coming in, but also economic development that's supposed to be going to these commercial corridors. And so, I just don't want to get away from that, that this is not just about housing, this is also about economic development, which means -- City of Miami Page 28 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Yes, sir. 1 agree with you. 1 agree with you, Mr. Chair, and I'm not talking about the dollars that were already allocated. I know -- and I know, I got a list of those projects yesterday, and I fully intend to respect that and not touch that. And I also agree with you, the economic development is a big key component. What comes up around the peripheral development around those areas. That's also important. I get all that. I'rn talking moving forward, what we do, what kind of formula we put in place to address, because we are going to leverage this money. I think Commissioner Russell is correct. We need to leverage the money. We can't get away with this -- these -- it's not enough. So how do we figure out, how do we get there? And then the formula for moving forward, not what's been approved already, and not even what you're thinking before you leave to do, because 1 think your area, your district, is the one that has the most needs. 1 think I'm second, but l think your district is first. And so I'd fight -- I've always, from day one, 1 fought for the poor areas of this community. That's what I care about. Not only because it's my district, because I care about the -- they cannot fend for themselves. They need to have a stronger voice in this commission. Some people in Commissioner Russell's District, they don't need that voice. They have their own voice. We see them every time we have public comments. They dominate the public comments on issues that, frankly, are not as important as the dire poverty we have in our district, frankly, to be honest with you, because a call to the school is not as important as people living with rats, as Commissioner Carollo talked about. But people have priorities. So they come and they testify. They dominate the majority of the debate before this commission in the public comment section of it. And so I fight for the poor people in this community, in this city, in any district, in Carollo's District -- Commissioner Reyes: We all do. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: -- in Carollo's District, in your district, Mr. Chair, and Commissioner Reyes' District, and even in Russell's District, he has poor areas also, right? But that's what my priority is. So to me, the district boundaries, are artificial boundaries, which we're going to change now anyway, it doesn't matter if it's 16th Street or 19th Street or 37th Avenue or 27th Avenue. The poverty -- where the poverty is, is where it is. We draw lines -- Unidentified Speaker: (INAUDIBLE). Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: -- we draw lines, but it doesn't mean that we, you know, that people -- that poor people are not everywhere. I get that too. I'm sensitive to all the different commissioners advocating for their communities, but we're all, I think, collectively advocating for the people that really need to have a voice, that don't have the ability. Chair Hardemon: I'll tell you, I don't have an issue with CDBG or API (Anti -Poverty Initiative). I mean, both of them reflect that I have great need in my community, so, you know, I'm there. I want to call on the Vice Chairman and then Commissioner Reyes, and then if we could please get to those who are waiting to speak. I know that they're in the private sector, and you know, time is money. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Sorry. Vice Chair Russell: I'll bring my section to a head then. I'd just like to give direction to the manager to come back to this commission with a resolution to create the fund and I'd say between now and the November meeting, you should have the time to create what that framework of that fiind would be. What would be the rules of that fund based on the direction or based on our discussion today about the controls and divisions we'd like within that fitnd. But as -- I can't remember which commissioner mentioned it, there's other parameters in that fund that need to be decided. So, rather City of Miami Page 29 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 than an actual resolution creating the fund today, I'd like to direct the manager to come back to this commission in about a month's time with the resolution to create the fund so that we can really study all those parameters and vote and either make it happen or not. How's that sound, guys? Commissioner Carollo: It doesn't sound well, let me tell you why, because the manager is not going to be able to do an adequate job in a month's time. Remember what I said, it's more than the motor. You're talking about the motor. I'm talking about the whole chassis, tires, horn, wheel, and the motor. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Sports package, don't forget sports package. Commissioner Reyes: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Commissioner Carollo: You have to create, first of all, you have to find the adequate - Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Commissioner Carollo: Yeah, the adequate vehicle that's the best one to use here. Is it a housing authority? Is it a trust? Is it another form? Do we want even the -- create a separate unit within the housing department that we're on top of that are going to handle this? I mean, there's different ways we could go at it. So that once that's established, and that's the first thing that really the manager needs to bring to us, that he needs to have discussions with us, that he needs to do adequate research on, so that we can establish. Then we can start talking about how we're going to raise the bucks. Secondly of all, all the conversations we're having here and how to do it and which way to go with whatever money we got left, and that's going to be my next question to the manager, how much do we actually have left? This is not 100 million dollars. Commissioner Reyes: It is not. Vice Chair Russell: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Commissioner Carollo:- By the time that we put the bonds out and actually get any money, it's going to be at least a year or more. So, you know, that's why I think the resolution, Commissioner, needs to be expanded into everything that included and give the manager enough time to come back to us. Because if we're going to do this we have to do this the right way. Otherwise we're going to, you know, be stepping into foot sand the first step we take. Commissioner Reyes: Mr. Manager -- I mean, Mr. Chair, let me add to what was said by Commissioner Russell about our next step in the process. We all know that, and I've said it from the get -go, that 100 million dollars is just a drop in the bucket, you see. We have to leverage and get as much as we can. However, if we have a fund, a trust fund, and from what I understand what Commissioner Russell is saying, let's put it all together and everybody be drawing on it, until what your allotment it's -- it is the (UNINTELLIGIBLE). I mean, if you get 118 million dollars, would you only be able to draw 18 million dollars out of this? But want to go beyond that. I want the manager -- I want the manager to be able to, discussing it with us, prepare, prepare the methodology for us to, I mean, maximize the use of these funds. And also, I want to include that the manager that -- identify additional funds that could be earmarked for affordable housing and that this fund that is going to be created, if it is created, and I think that it's important to create that fimd, that it will be replenished and we will have, always, always, we will have a housing, fund that we can use to promote and develop affordable housing. And that was my intention when I first got in, that I said, City of Miami Page 30 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 why don't we, in lieu of offering so many apartments, so much density for exchanging it for two or three apartments that most of them are out of reach from the people that really needs it, the ones that Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla was referring to, which by the way, we all fight for them. That what we will receive from them is a contribution in cash in lieu of the additional units that they will have to proffer to us. And that, in my opinion, would create and -- and also will keep a fund, a housing fund, that could be extremely beneficial, and it is a pot of money that when any one of us, or anybody that comes to the city of Miami, and has the need to -- because it has a gap in its financing, that we can go and -- and work with them, only in affordable housing, you see, and then try to make it more, 1 would say, profitable, no, 1 would say more feasible for any developer to develop the units that we need. And that. I think that our City Manager, and I'm asking that please try to develop a program and identify a potential sources of fund -- of revenues that could be directed, be it fees or licenses or whatever, to be directed to this find in order to have a perpetual find that it would be used for affordable housing. Commissioner Carollo: This is a question that has nothing to do with housing. For some of us commissioners that are old and feeble that do need to have our lunch, what time are you looking at that we can break for lunch? Mr. Noriega: You're muted, Mr. Chair. Commissioner Carollo: That mean now? Mr. Noriega: Mr. Chair, you're muted? Chair Hardemon: I'm sorry. I didn't have a plan for breaking for lunch. I thought that we could push through as much as we could, but if we could get through at least the speakers, that would be wonderful. Commissioner Carollo: How many speakers do we have? Chair Hardemon: We have -- up next we have Nelson, Alex and Albert. And then zoning incentives we have Isaac Simmon and Natalie Duran. So, yeah. Commissioner Carollo: It's a couple -- it's two minutes per speaker, right? Chair Hardemon: I'm sure they won't be long-winded. Commissioner Carollo: Okay, well, if we only got five, you want to give them three, it's fine. Chair Hardemon: Let's give -- Commissioner Carollo: But, you know, if we could, you know, even if it's only 30, 45 minute break, you know, my stomach and body is telling me that I need to put something in it, especially since I haven't had breakfast. And -- Chair Hardemon: Okay. So let me -- Commissioner Carollo: I'm not as polite or nice if I don't have food in my stomach. Chair Hardemon: I've been there. Let me tell you -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: You've been there. Chair Hardemon: So, I'm going to call Mr. -- City of Miami Page 31 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Reyes: He's been noticing it. Chair Hardemon: -- (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Nelson from Integra Investments so we can have him speak. Nelson Stabile: Hello, good afternoon. Chair Hardemon: How you doing? Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Afternoon. Mr. Stabile: Hi. Hi, Nelson Stabile from Integra Investments. We are a developer builder here in the city ofMiami, Miami -Dade County, and the South Florida market. Mr. Chair, it's my understanding that you would like for me to proceed with the presentation that I have today prior to taking a break. Chair Hardemon: That is correct. Mr. Stabile: Okay, so I'll do my best to be brief As we went through a lot of discussions around the affordability crisis that we are experiencing here in our city, it's evident that 1 feel as though the next steps for this process would be for there to be sort of a, you know, city management staff level discussion as to ideas that then can be brought to the table and presented for the commission to vote on, approve on, give their feedback. So, basically the scope of my presentation today is really limited to sharing with you some of the experiences that we are having as far as construction cost is concerned in some of the developments that we are in the progress of either building or delivering to the market, you know, currently'. Today, and the figures that I'm pulling are from real case scenario projects that we have two projects, one in Miami -Dade County and one in the city ofMiami, which both total 400 affordable housing units. So, I'm using some of that as the data sets to be shared here with the Commission today, as well as a three-story garden product that we are in the process of delivering in Broward County, but I also feel it's pretty relevant because whether we're building in Broward or in Miami -Dade or city of Miami, to the extent that it's a three-story garden -style product, I feel that we are, you know, there's not a huge degree of cost variation, you know, because we're so close as far as the region is concerned. So, I think as we move forward with the discussion of how to solve the affordability crisis we have in our city, I believe that's probably a point that we're all in agreement with, right? And I think from a developer's perspective or from any stakeholder analyzing the development process, it's probably, you know, breaking down so that we can dissect the cost components of real estate development is probably a relevant step for us to have a good understanding of the variables we're dealing with so that in turn, we can then try to articulate ideas, strategies to be deployed to hopefully solve or mitigate the crisis or issue that we have at hand. So in essence, taking a look at -- I'm going to give you numbers that come from averages of historical projects. We have here today also after my presentation, Alex Ballina from AHS (AHS Residential), which does a lot of work in the workforce housing space, as well as Mr. Albert Milo, who heads the related urban, and they also do a ton of affordable housing projects. So I'd also like for them to give their perspective on these figures that we're going to share here. But basically, if we were to dissect, we typically look at construction costs in four buckets. Land costs, of course, is one of those components. Construction costs, which, as we all know, is the largest of those components. Soft costs is a combination of a bunch of different items such as architecture fees, engineering fees, permit fees, impact fees, all of those things that are associated with the development of a real estate project. And then last but not least, financing, which is, you know, interest rates and the cost of structuring financing for the capitalization of a development. So basically on average, again, this City of Miami Page 32 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 could vary, right? But I think it's relevant for the -- moving forward with the discussion. We are experiencing here, in this market, an average between 10 to 15 percent of expenditure in land costs. Again, this could vary if you are in Edgewater, Omni area, you know, some of those markets, Midtown as an example, and you're truing to build multifamily, those numbers are probably going to exceed those percentages. But as a whole, we have seen 10 to 15 percent of the cost structure of a development be basically spent in land, right. So again, component to that's important because as some of the members today of the commission have shared, to the extent that there's public lands that could be contributed to the development of affordable housing, whether that be for ownership or for rent, then you know that that's about as much as you can shave off of your overall development program, right. Next, which is the largest category, comes construction costs. Construction costs, we have seen, depending on the efficiency of the building and the building type, anywhere between 55 to 65 percent of the overall development program.1 think 60 is probably a good average. So again, in order to tackle the problem, that would be the -- the biggest piece of the pie. However, to a great extent, a lot of these things are -- a lot of the factors that drive construction costs, unfortunately are uncontrollable, right? We're dealing with material costs; we are dealing with labor costs in our markets. Depending on the product type, there's also a lot of requirements that actually force you to build a certain construction type and that could impact overall construction costs. As we all know, the lower, from a vertical perspective, the lower the product, and if we can surface park as an example, right, the lower our overall construction cost will be. Now, in order to surface park, one needs a large track of land usually, and that's, you know, pretty challenging to find nowadays in our city. But just to keep things in perspective. So, you have 10 to 15 percent in land costs, 55 to 65, I use 60 as the average for construction costs. Soft costs are ranging between 20 to 25 percent on any one particular project. What we have seen in the past is affordable housing projects have a tendency to have a higher, even though, for example, right, you have the waiver of impact fees, which is a large component of soft costs. Affordable housing usually ends up with a larger soft cost component of its overall development program, just because by the nature offinancing, we don't end up being able to build typically the same number of units in any one particular project. So you lose a lot in economies of scale, so while an architect may charge X to you know design 300 units, he charges just a small portion below that X to do a 100 unit project, right? So we lose a lot in economies of scale when you're going from the typical size of a multifamily project being between 3 to 400 units, to the affordable housing units, which usually because of the financing mechanisms that exists, we end up being capped at around, you know, anywhere between 100 to 140 units. So, but soft costs will range between 20 to 25 percent. And last but not least financing costs, which are also to some extent uncontrollable because of market reasons. And I feel like right now we're in a great environment with interest rates being lower than usual, but, you know, that usually will range about 5 percent of your entire development cost goes to financing. So, from a big picture perspective, I just wanted to give you all that insight and breakdown from what we are experiencing because I feel it's probably irrelevant as we get deeper into the discussions ofprograms, strategies, of how to mitigate costs and be able to deliver more attainable, affordable housing units to our markets, those figures could come into play. So, in essence, you know, what the big picture summary here is that the economies of scale on market rate usually will allow us to deliver, you know, a more cost competitive product than affordable housing, unfortunately. That's why a lot of the affordable housing developers have actually moved to decrease the unit sizes so that we can cut on some of the construction costs and still be able to be competitive, right? And deliver cost-effective product. But in essence, economies of scale is a big driver. So to the extent that ultimately we can work on policies and programs and also the location of land parcels that allow for a larger volume, or more units being developed at any given project, I feel as though we'll be able to deliver cheaper product. In our, again, in our experience on average, if we're comparing three-story garden apartments, which are the most cost-effective way to City of Miami Page 33 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 build these days, given the fact that you're parking on the surface, and you don't usually have to have elevators and some of the other characteristics of buildings that drive up construction costs, we're seeing overall development costs for the three-story product range around -- between 200 to 225, 230 thousand dollars per unit, the overall development program. If you take that same sort of analysis into the world of affordable housing, we are experiencing anywhere between 275 to 300 thousand dollars per unit of affordable housing being built, again, for those reasons, economies of scale primarily being one of them and some of the other requirements that end up driving the costs, a lot to do with the financing mechanisms that are in place for affordable housing, they end up driving up the cost of construction. Some of those -- some of those costs or requirements, for example, are the features and amenities that you have to have, you know in some of these projects, such as libraries, social rooms, gyms, et cetera. And then you also have UFAS (Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards) requirements, which are for the Accessibility Act compliance. Also, very often in projects, in order for them to get financing on the affordable housing side, you have Davis -Bacon wages, which drives up your labor costs. And ultimately, you know, the overall product ends up costing more as you compare to market rate. Before -- before I get into the specifics of per building type, what sort of averages we are seeing for the construction cost, I just wanted to, I guess, piggyback on a discussion that Commissioner Carollo was having as to the differences between building a product, for ownership versus rental, and if there is a cost disparity between such, you know, product. l guess from our perspective, and Mr. Albert Milo and I had the chance of actually debating on this a little bit yesterday just to make sure that we're looking at it from the proper lens. And to the extent that you're comparing similar product types. So if you were to take three-story garden against three-story garden, or a mid -rise product against a mid -rise product,l think we're of the opinion that there's not a huge discrepancy unless you're also changing amenities and marketing the project as a higher -end product. We feel like there's probably not, you know, a very good reason as to where there would be a big price discrepancy between the market rate rental product and a ownership type product in our market. So, I just wanted to bring that up. Now, and apologies if I'm moving fast, I just want to be respectful to everyone's time and also the other speakers that come after me. So, now diving into a little bit deeper, as far as what sort of construction costs alone are we experiencing in our markets for the different product types. In essence, as we all know, the most competitive product type to be built today is three-story garden -style products. Those are typically with the open corridors and the stairways that lead you up to those open corridor settings. And again, normally they will benefit from surface parking. And we are seeing, depending on the amount of amenities or civil infrastructure that's required to service the site in being developed, we're seeing ranges between 125 dollars a foot to 150 dollars of net rentable square feet for the market rate product. Again, it varies a little bit depending if you have to bring utilities, right, to the site or if the site is in a very urban setting, which again, it's also very challenging for you to find sites which have the size that allow you to build three- story garden style here in the city of Miami that have the utilities up to it already, right? So, we have to take that into account. But were you to find yourself in a position to develop three-story product, we figured, you know, based on our historical track record, that 125 to 150 dollars a foot for market rate is adequate. We're just delivering now, we're in the last phases of TCO (Temporary Certificate of Occupancy) in a project in Broward County with 315 three-story garden apartment units, and we're delivering that for 128 dollars a foot, right? Now it had a lot of the infrastructure already brought to the site and limited amenities. So just for context. On the affordable side, because you typically have some of the additional requirements, both from a programming perspective, as well as, you know Davis - Bacon, and some other accessibility characteristics that you have to implement into the project, we're seeing that number be a little bit higher by about 25, in some occasions, 50 dollars. And really because you lose a lot in efficiency, right. Typically affordable housing projects are of smaller quantity of units, so you lose a lot. And City of Miami Page 34 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 basically we're seeing somewhere anywhere between 150 to 175 dollars a net, you know, rentable square foot for the hard cost of affordable housing units in the three- story product. Moving up now, any product between four stories underneath 75 feet, which there is a very clean break on the construction building codes, where you know once you exceed that, then there's a life safety requirements that really take your cost to another level. Anything between four stories and 75 feet, which you can usually fit in eight stories, for a market rate product, again, typically those sites will require you to have a podium parking or a parking garage associated to the development program. And we're experiencing anywhere between 185 to 200, 225 dollars a foot, depending again on the amenities, et cetera. So, 1'm giving you all ranges because it's very site specific and project specific unfortunately. But on the low range you're dealing with 185 to 200 dollars a foot for that market rate type product where you have structured parking as a component of your development program. Now if you move from that to the affordable housing side, you're basically taking a jump to probably 250 to 275. We're building a project right now in Brownsville with 120 units where we literally, three months ago, closed on a GNP (Gross National Product) budget for about 269 dollars a foot in range. So again, losses due to economies of scale, as well as the verticality or vertical component and the parking structure being part of the project. And then last but not least, once you jump above the 75 floors, then you're dealing with a different nature of building code requirements, a much - enhanced fire suppression system, life safety systems, et cetera, you know, usually more elevators, et cetera, et cetera. And there we are seeing for market rate product about 225 to 250 dollars a square foot, all the way up to, call it, 12 to 15 stories, right? Once you keep going, then you're really at high-rise cost ranges, and the numbers shoot sky high. And on the affordable side, we are basically looking at, again, a 25 to 50 dollar delta for all of the reasons previously stated, where we're noticing projects coming in at 275 to 300 dollars a foot. So again, on average, we're seeing a three-story product be built all in for 200 to 225 thousand dollars per door, per unit. And on the affordable housing side, that number is much higher at 275 to 300 thousand dollars per unit. So basically, that is the overall, some of the information and backgrounds that 1 wanted to share with you today. And my colleagues have more to talk about. So that, you know -- and as Trudy in her opening remarks has mentioned, us members of the BASF (Builders Association of South Florida) are always with our doors open, willing and able to join forces with the public sector, the City of Miami especially, which is dear to our hearts and in coming up with collaborative ways and into how to attack this problem. I mean, we all really, you know, we share the pains that we go through with the house affordability, even for all of our residents, all of our employees, right? And it's a challenge that I think if the private sector and the public sector don't work together on it, it's going to be very challenging for us to resolve. So with that, if anybody has any questions, I'm open to it, but we can also pass the words on to Mr. Alex Ballina from AHS. Chair Hardemon: If there aren't any questions from any commissioners, I'll recognize Alex from AHS. You're recognized, sir. Alex Ballina: Sorry about that. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and fellow commissioners, and thank you for taking the time out of your day to have us here. Alex Ballina with AHS Residential, 12895 Southwest 132nd Street, Miami, Florida, 33186. So I'm here, I guess, the middle act between Nelson, who obviously gave you very detailed information, and waiting for the main act here of Mr. Albert Milo that he could give you a lot of more detailed information. We are a -- we focus on a workforce housing product and we have 2,700 units that we've developed. We develop, build, and manage within Miami -Dade County. We have another thousand that we're delivering within the next six months here in unincorporated Miami -Dade and in the South Florida market up to Palm Beach. Aside from everything that we've discussed, making apartments more affordable starts with understanding what it costs to build them, right? And part of the cost to build them, which I think is very important and I think City of Miami Page 35 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 why it's very relative, is that the City, or municipalities, or government also has to he a partner in this to get us there, right? Because there are a lot of costs that are associated with development that I think we need to challenge ourselves, right, as a community because we are in a situation that our community needs us to build more affordable housing, especially for the next generation to reside here when they graduate, and they want to build their families. And there's' a lot of costs, as Nelson mentioned, right? We got the hard construction costs between the different types of properties, low rise, midrise, and high-rise. But we also have the X factor costs, right, which are impact fees, which are taxes, which are the time that it takes for us to get into the development cycle of a product, right? Within the city of Miami, as we all know, aside from, you know, maybe larger parcels of land that are owned by the City or in agreement with somebody that's holding them, you're going to have to go in there and you're going to either have to rezone, right, to get to build what you want to build, and or you're going to have to demolish what may be there, right, City of Miami has a very old housing stock, right, which costs additional monies for what we need to do. So, there's a lot of challenges that we need to really focus on outside of you know, the bricks and mortars of things that we have to think of I think creatively, on how we could help, not monetarily subsidize housing, but to make it more efficient, right? And that could start, you know, as I mentioned earlier, with the impact fees, reduction of property taxes, reduction of the time that it takes to the permitting phase. And I'll put something out there and that it's nothing against the administration that's there right now, but we built something in Palm Beach, which is you know 240 units, which took us 14 months to build. It's taking us almost the same amount of time to build a fourplex within the city of Miami from the bureaucracy that we've gotten stuck in within the internal building department and permitting phase, and due to some older infrastructure was there, but those are some of the challenges that I want to make the commissioners and the administration aware of right, so that we could focus on that because in the development world, time is money, right. And when you start -- when something gets delayed for reasons outside of what you have control of it really magnifies and increases the cost of what you're doing with the regulatory requirements that are needed. You have to pass that cost on to somewhere, right? And unfortunately, that becomes our residents of the community. So, I know that we've had a long morning and I think everybody's in the same trajectory, here for public policy of where we need to go to, but I think as we keep the discussions moving, that the commissioners or the bodies that be to make these decisions, you know, they start thinking a little bit outside of the box in terms of what we could control within the development cycle that add cost to us that, you know, are within those confines of what I aforementioned before. And with that being said, I think I want to obviously thank everybody for bringing very forward thinking and understanding and acknowledging, you know, that we have a crisis. I'm born and raised in Miami -Dade County. I would love my children to stay here, right. And I also want my families and my mom and those that be to be able to age in place, right, without being kicked out of where they need to be. So, with that being said, I commend everybody, what they're doing here. I want to be a part of it, part of the solution to the problem that we have. And I look forward to addressing any questions that you may have, or any comments, and I look forward to it. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Mr. Chair. Chair Hardemon: Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I have a quick question for Mr. Ballina. Mr. Ballina: Yes, sir. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Mr. Ballina, you spoke a little bit about the City properties that need to be rezoned or upzoned. I have asked our manager, I had a City of Miami Page 36 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 discussion with our manager about, CBRE (Global Commercial Real Estate Services) is a real estate consulting firm that the City uses. And I asked them to identify how many properties the City owns, and they told me 130 properties. So, that's a process that, it ties with the permitting process, but also the rezoning process. It's a process that has to start sooner rather than later. Mr. Ballina: Absolutely. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: So you think that there's, based on your knowledge, do you think that there's an opportunity to use some of these City properties for development? Mr. Ballina: Yeah, absolutely, right? Our biggest scarcity that we have, and the only bad thing about living in paradise is that we don't have enough land, right? We have the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the urban development boundary line to the west, right? So that is the biggest challenge, right? And that's what creates -- the scarcity of land is what creates a high real estate costfor us, right? So yes, absolutely. Anything that could be transitioned, that, you know, once you're going in, it's shovel ready, because remember the entitlement process can take from a year to two years, depending on where you are in this cycle and where you fall. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Right. And to bring that cost down that Commissioner Carollo talked about, which I wholeheartedly agree with him, per unit cost down, the government, right, any government, city government in this case, needs to begin to work to rezone that and get that ready to go for you guys to come in and do it, right, or whoever's going to do it, right? Not Put you through that process of you having to go through a regular, tedious, you know, long-winded process of getting it rezoned or replated in some cases, and then the permitting and all that, that expedited process. I was fascinated by your comparison to, I think you said Fort Lauderdale, the comparison to what you were doing at Fort Lauderdale vis-a-vis what you did in Miami and how long it took to get it done in Miami. Mr. Ballina: West Palm Beach. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I'm sorry, West Palm Beach, I'm sorry, that's correct, West Palm Beach. To me, you know, when I was campaigning, it's fascinating, we had the two things when I was campaigning. I knocked on doors and I raised money. Those were my days. I didn't go to Disney World, that's all I did. Raise money and knock on doors, right? And I would get the same kind of complaints from developers, big time developers, the biggest of the biggest, and low level developers, right? People that are doing six units and eight units. Mr. Ballina: Yep. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: The permitting process stinks. It's horrible. It's 16 months, it's 18 months. We're putting cash every month and we can't live like this. It's impossible. We go anywhere else. We go to other cities inside our county and it's easier to do it. We go to Coral Gables, it's easier. We go to Miami Beach, it's easier. But Miami's a disaster when it comes to that. One of the reasons why I think I really pushed for our city manager to be our city manager was because I wanted to reform that process. During the campaign, when I knocked on doors, the other part of my day, I knocked on doors, I also ran into, you know, the average Joe and said, I want to put a window but I can't because I can't go to downtown and Igo, I have to wait six hours and I want to change my window, I want to get an impact window or whatever it was, or my door, I want to do an extension to my house. So from the average person to the developers who use expediters, it's the same problem in the city, right? So if we're going to begin to address this issue, I think that we need to make it easier not City of Miami Page 37 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 only the rezoning, faster, so you guys can come in and do it but the permitting process. There's got to be a way for people to buy into this affordable housing program that we're doing that have some kind of expedited system that's done through ordinance and put in place that's different than normal zoning process, the normal permitting process that we have in the City of Miami. I don't know how much we can do because of our City Charter but I do know that it can be better than what it is now. So, I'd like to direct the Manager to look into that process to what zoning changes, the number of properties that we are, to please consult with the company that we use as a real estate asset management company. Ask them what they think we can do, what can be developed, what's good for the affordable housing, the attainable housing component that we want to address, and then the zoning in each of those properties and how we can begin to change that. So that when we hit the ground, we hit the ground running. And we already have some things in place. We already have some identified properties. We already have -- so not completely shovel ready, but as shovel ready as it can be to get it built quicker. Because I don't want to be here. I mean, I have a lot of time ahead of me. I think Commissioner Reyes does too. But I think I have more than he does. But we're all term limited. So we're going to be gone, right? We're going to be gone. We're all going to live long, healthy lives, but we're not going to be here. I'd like to see the fruits of some of the things that we do. I would like to see that in some of our poor neighbors in particular, I would like to see the fruits of what we do. And to begin a conversation today -- a year later, right, 10 months after we had the first conversation, we're still nowhere near the beginning of the process. You know we need to -- we need to expedite this. We really do. And whatever we can do to get there, and you know when you come back to us, Mr. Manager, you come back to us with something that's -- we're addressing the zoning issue, the permitting process, the funding mechanisms, all that, so it's a comprehensive package. It's not only part of it, and then we say, oh, the problem is that now we don't have -- and the land issue, as Mr. Ballina said, is correct. That's the most valuable asset we have in our city, but we lack the availability of land. That could really lower that per unit cost that you talked about, Commissioner Carollo, I think. And I think we need to be very, very broad in our thinking and how we approach every component that can lower the cost, not only the micro units that we can build, the size of the units, but also the city land and -- and you know -- and how the amenities of the all the things that you guys are developers do, but the city can also help lower some of your costs by cost by making a limiting process more streamlined and by providing the land to make you -- you know, to make it cheaper for you. And that's kind of my thinking. Maybe Mr. Milo could address some of these issues. I know he's going to be the -- the big star of the show. Mr. Ballina: He's the main event. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Everybody's really hyped -- Commissioner Reyes: No, we're all waiting for Milo. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: It's like the Titanic. Everybody's -- Commissioner Reyes: That's right. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: -- (UNINTELLIGIBLE). This is like, you know, a blockbuster corning our way. Don't disappoint, Mr. Milo, please. Commissioner Reyes: Commissioner, Commissioner, ifI could add to that, to what you were saying. I just -- Chair Hardemon: Commissioner Reyes, Commissioner Carollo had his hand up first, and then I'll come to you. City of Miami Page 38 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Reyes: Okay. And adding to what you were just saying, and you're absolutely, right. If we are going to proffer the land, we have to proffer the land already zoned, and 1 mean, we don't -- we have the land (UNINTELLIGIBLE) this is how much you can build, this is what you're going to build. And ifyou -- I mean, you don't have to go through the process. The permitting has to be expedited when -- I mean, probably red -tag it, that it is going to be affordable housing. In other cities, they have that, you see, and it could be expedited. And I think that is a great idea, and using the same numbers, if we proffer the land, we are reducing about 15 percent of the total project cost, you see. And we should start -- and that is the starting point, our land. Let's develop our land, because we have a lot of land that's being unused, see. And that's a great idea, excellent idea. And I think that if we offer our land already ready to -- for development, it is fantastic. Mr. Ballina: And I would say very conservatively thinking, right, that by doing that, 1 think you could -- you could lower your overall expenses anywhere from 20 to 25 percent by doing that, that part of it very easily. Commissioner Reyes: More to our favor. More to our favor. Mr. Ballina: Yes sir. Absolutely. Commissioner Reyes: 1 mean, we could provide a better product and maybe a product that is a real affordable to all the people that they are in that 30 percent, 40 percent, 50 and 60 percent ofAM1. That those are the people that are making 9,000 -- I mean 20,000 dollars a year. You see -- I mean I think that that's an excellent idea and we should start, that's our starting point Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla. That's our starting point, okay. I'm going to ask a question, I don't know if -- and I was, I asked this yesterday. I think that also, we have to -- we have to investigate and try to find out if all those projects that are used as our bonds, they are -- they qualify to the 4 percent tax credit, you see, the federal 4 percent federal tax credit that -- if that is possible, we would further reduce the cost. I mean, your cost, because it is for 15 years, the tax credit. And we have to really find out which product or project we can use it and some projects that we cannot use. And I think that Milo could be -- he's an expert in those tax credits and I want him to address that position. Mr. Ballina: Yeah. And even -- and even by starting to have that mindset, that, you know, treating housing as an infrastructure, right? Because it's just as important as water and electricity, right? And by doing that, I think it opens up a lot of different avenues of your funding sources that you have -- Commissioner Reyes: That's right. Mr. Ballina: -- city to use. Commissioner Reyes: Okay. Chair Hardemon: Commissioner Carollo. Commissioner Carollo: Wonderful. Everything's taken care of. We got all the answers here with all these wonderfid people. Commissioner Reyes: You still hungry? Commissioner Carollo: What -- I'm very hungry. Chair Hardemon: You can eat the -- City of Miami Page 39 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Carollo: You're going at your own risk. Mr. Ballina: Want to take a 15 minute break here? Commissioner Carollo: No. Number one, number one -- Commissioner Reyes: He's going to get some food now. Commissioner Carollo: -- it's not going to be the kind of deals that go on in the County, where you had the distinguished former commissioner, chairman of the board, Brutico [sic] Barrero that would decide to give wonderful amounts without putting it up to bid, to see who would give you the best low-income prices. And then you read that projects were built that cost twice as much as projects that at the same time were being built by the County in square footage. I don't know what that was all about, I wasn't around then, but this is what we can't do if we're really going to give low-income housing. And I'm not talking about affordable, I'm not talking about workforce, I'm talking about real low-income housing, that we're going to give it at 50 percent below the real market rate that these guys charge for the most part. What I want everybody to understand that -- and talking about some of the things that have been mentioned already, in my district, we don't have for the most part in the areas that we need the low-income housing, that major problem with the land prices. We've been able to buy tracts of land in the heart of the district that are as large as 25,000 square foot for under 100 dollars a square foot, under and well under 100, just about 90. Now those prices have stayed the same. They haven't gone up. Maybe they've even gone down a little bit. I see people in my district that bought a few years ago with different firms, parcels for three plus million, and they sell them for a year ago or so, what I think -- foreign corporations, for two million. I even see a Laundromat that was bought for 1.7 million and then it got sold to a wonderful individual for 700,000 dollars 5 months later. So I think prices are dropping, at least in the areas in my district that I'm looking at, not going up. So, I think all these gentlemen would have to be in agreement that if you could buy property at 100 dollars or less a square foot, those are excellent prices. We've established that in the market already. Secondly, I want everyone to understand that what I'm looking at is for the city, when we put something out to bid, everything's going to be ready to go. All that you guys need to do is reply to the bid, if you're going to do it at the best price, then you get it and you start rushing through. You don't need any zoning, you don't need any of these other things that you're concerned about because it's going to have everything. In my district, at least, I'm not looking for these huge skyscrapers that will bring the cost up more. I'm -- you know, at the most that would look at would 12 stories, but most would be in the 5 to 8 story range of what we would do. The City has the ability that we could establish that fbr certain types of housing, and I would say that that's one of the things we'll need to do in low-income housing that the City is going to be behind in building, that we give a special zoning for that that nobody could get but us. So that we can build what we need to and keep the prices even lower than what I envision that would be the highest that they could be. There is a point that was made, however, that it's very key. And it's a point that affects not just them in their building, affects the owner of a single resident family. It will affect us when we go forward in this. Just this whole bloated process that we have, in building and planning, that everything takes years for people to get anything done. And that's where prices go sky high, because if you have individuals like we would, and what I'm envisioning, that you get a mortgage and you're paying interest on it and you plan that you're going to finish your project in X amount of time and because of the Building Department, either incompetency or some other not nice reasons keep you dragging along, then it's going to cost you a lot more money that wasn't in the budget and the square foot price is going to go up. So that's a problem that we've got to fix, not just jbr what we're trying to accomplish in building new low-income housing. for the city side, but for everybody, little and big, that needs anything done in the City of Miami. Now, there are some that City of Miami Page 40 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 establish a business plan, and their business plan is that they become buddies with people in Building, Planning, other places and they don't get permits for anything and they'll put in 500 thousand, hundreds of thousands of dollars in each project and they don't take out any permits. Maybe once in a while they might you know have the urge to get a little 5,000 dollar permit so that just in case someone that's new and they weren't with the program and fall upon what's going on with their permits, then they could claim, no, this is what 1 was doing. And hundreds of thousands of dollars are built without permits. But 1 think none of these gentlemen fall into that category because what they're building are brand new buildings. So, it's kind of hard to hide that they don't have permits for what they're doing. But we need to, for the sake of the city, from the individual homeowners to the big builders, mid -size builder, reform the Building Department that we have where people don't have to wait forever to get anything approved or they have to go through living hell to finalize permits that they're doing. And 1 hope the Manager is listening. That's a major, major problem that I don't care who you speak to, across the board, you hear the complaints from everybody on the time that everything takes in the Building Department. And certainly, we're going to have to be on top of that in any future contract for low- income housing that we award, because if our own building department is going to force people to spend undue amounts of times before they can finish a project and the price is going to go up, and the ones that are going to have to pay it in the additional price on the mortgage are going to be the people that we're trying to help in the city. So -- but from across the board, that's an area that we have to change because you can't have a building department that sometimes the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing, people don't answer phones, conies 4 o'clock, 4:30, 5:00, you can't find a soul anywhere to help out anybody, and then only if you're a very gracious individual do things get accomplished for only a few? I see the manager is making notes. That's good. Now, gentlemen, the part that I think you would want to answer would be the part on the building department. Do you think that you get finished up quickly in the City of Miami, or not? Albert Milo: Commissioner, and the -- Albert Milo offices at 444 Brickell Avenue, Suite 301, and again, first of all, thank you for convening this meeting. And what one thing is shows for sure is that we all, and you all on the dais and as the elected officials of the City of Miami, acknowledge that we have an issue and we have a real crisis on our hands and those -- Commissioner Carollo: Everybody, knows that. That's the worst kept secret in Miami. Mr. Milo: Exactly but the good part is that even through this debate, it shows that you guys are, you know, in tune with that, and we're trying to find solutions to a difficult problem. So I'll tackle, I mean, just the latest two things. And originally I was going to focus on the challenges of COVID, but I think you guys have brought up some very good, good points here, you know, from Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla, to yourself now and Commissioner Reyes, of some of the things you're articulating. As it relates to your specific point on the building department, it's no secret that it is a very arduous process to get from point A to point B, which is from the time that you are designing and trying to permit a project to the time that you obtain a permit in the City of Miami. That's also not a well -- it's not a secret you know. Now, how -- what does that mean? What it means in effect is, everybody knows the old adage of time is money, right? That's true. So if you have a project and you were contemplating that project, doing it in three months or six months to your point, that you say, I want to identify a parcel of land, and I want to start building quickly, and if your permits take a very, very, long time to -- to get, that's going to have a direct impact on cost, and it's not a downward impact on cost, it's an upward impact on cost. So, you've already hurt the affordability of any project that you're doing. I mean, it's simple math. Number two, one of the other most challenging aspects of any investment that is, and what is the private sector and the investment community always looking for? They're looking City of Miami Page 41 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 for certainty. They're looking for certainty in what? Certainty in the process, certainty in the timelines, certainty in what they're investing in. And unfortunately, that's a very uncertain process. You know when you start, you don't know when you finish. So there's no doubt that we need to have a -- but that will be a topic in and of itself, probably Commissioner, that will take a meeting or workshop like you talked about previously, or a task force, whatever you want to call it. That's ahnost -- that's almost a topic in and of itself, you know, to tackle because there are a lot of things that take a lot of time. And I was talking to Joe Milton earlier today, too, because I know he wanted to attend, but he didn't get a chance to. He had some scheduling conflicts. And we all talk about this. It's not a secret. It's a very arduous process, you know, on the permitting side and the closeout side. It just is, you know. And to -- jumping now to Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla's point, is it beneficial to have land as an asset that you -- that the City would proffer to start some of these affordable housing developments or workforce housing and have it zoned? Absolutely, absolutely, because the City, number one, that's an integral part of the cost of the overall development, number one. Number two, it's what actually starts the development, right? You can't start a project or development without an identified piece of land. Commissioner Carollo says, look, I've identified some land in the district that presume is City owned, and let's -- let's move forward on that. Now, again, if you have to get that land and you have to take it from T4 to T5, just as an example, and you have to go through the normal process that a private developer would have to go through, that's a lengthy process. Now the City has things within their power that they can do to expedite that. And even when you have to, as an example, ifyou have to jump two zoning categories, for instance, maybe you want to go from four to six, right? That is something that you can do that the private sector can't do. And if they did, they have to do it one cycle, I think wait six months, do it again, so you could be 18 months in just trying to do the zoning. Commissioner Carollo: Well, that's exactly whatl wanted you all to understand, just what you've described now that we could do, and then we have something else that's called eminent domain. Mr. Milo: Yes. Commissioner Carollo: That you guys don't have. Mr. Milo: Correct. Commissioner Reyes: That's an additional power. Mr. Milo: That's a -- you know, so -- so yes, look, there's no -- you have a lot of tools in your toolbox that we don't have accessible to us. Commissioner Carollo: For me to be clear, this is the only thing that I want from you guys or anybody else that if we ever get this off the ground and we want a bid, will be my requirements. One, the lowest price per square foot within the realms of what we're going to accept. Commissioner Reyes: Certain parameters. Commissioner Carollo: It's going to be low; it can't be with what a lot of what you guys do today, the markups that you put. Two, you're going to bring it to us in a certain time -- finish it in a certain time. I understand though what you've described that it's going to be out of your hands if we got guys in building or some other department that they think they have better than banking hours here. They got a part- time job at full-time pay. So, that falls on us to.fix so that whoever wins the bid based on price and timing, we keep you on the time schedule that you gave us. City of Miami Page 42 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Mr. Milo: Right. Commissioner Carollo: But as I said before, I anticipated before we gave you anything, you would have the zoning for it. Because the last thing that I would want any of you to go through is the living hell of getting a rezoning on your own. Mr. Milo: I mean, I have the benefit of having projects in all five of your districts, right? So, you know, I -- that also gives me the opportunity to have, you know, dialogue and understand that, you know, everyone in the district has different priorities. But when it comes to permitting, when it comes to zoning, when it comes to those issues of bureaucracy, those are universal. There's -- Commissioner Carollo: That's correct. That is absolutely correct. Mr. Milo: You know, the process is -- it's not a friendly process. And it's not the first time I have to chime in on that. And -- and it is -- it hurts affordability, because again, it's time which translates to uncertainty, which translates into money. Commissioner Carollo: It brings -- it brings the prices up if you got a mortgage and you're paying on it. Mr. Milo: Yeah. Commissioner Carollo: That's obvious. Mr. Milo: Yeah, and I mean, let's take it -- let's take it to a real life scenario now commissioners like let's talk about COVID. So, if you were in the process of doing a development and you started this last October, last November, and you had your financing lined up, you got a little bit of money from the City on the bonds, you got a little bit of money from the County, you got your State money, you got your financing going. Now we all know obviously you need your financing, but you need a permit too to do it, right? If you were in that process and you thought, hey, I'm going to close in February because I think I can get my permits and this part of the stuff done, and you couldn't. And here comes March. And -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Mr. Milo: -- now you, it just didn't happen because you can't close without a permit and you can't close without your financing. What impact is that? Because now COVID comes around, now your project might be -- it's probably halted and potentially halted with a -- with no time frame of how you can reestablish to do that. Why? Because now other things affected, you know, that project. And no one obviously knew about COVID, no one thought something like COVID could happen, but that's the danger of projects taking so long because it could be anything that could derail this project. So now, you've got all this time, money, and effort invested, and your project is going to get derailed by an outside thing. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Chair? Mr. Milo: Those are the bad things about, time is not your friend in development. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Mr. Chair, ifI may, just a quick question of our manager, because I think what Mr. Milo said is, you know, time is not your friend in development. It's really a very telling statement. Is there a -- maybe it's a revolutionary idea, maybe pie -in -the -sky thinking on my part, is there a realistic possibility, Mr. Manager, that we can in fact have a permitting process, an expedited City of Miami Page 43 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 permitting process in place for this -- at least for this part of what we're trying to do in the City of Miami? A zoning process in place that allows -- because government, and you know Commissioner Carollo mentioned eminent domain, Commissioner Reyes said the powers of government. Government has a lot of powers to do a lot of good. It could do harm, but it could also do a lot of good. And these powers can be used to expedite these developments, whether it's rezoning or upzoning of the area, skip a zoning category like Mr. Milo referred to, that we can do, whether it's an expedited permitting process. Is there -- is this realistic? Am I just dreaming here, Mr. Noriega? Is it possible that this government, the culture of this government can change for this particular aspect, or the bureaucracy can change here, say for this affordable housing program that these commissioners, this government, this manager wants to put into place, once we get going, that these things could be, maybe it's unique to us, and maybe we could take that as a model for the rest of the city government and the rest of the permitting process, not affordable housing world, but at least in the affordable housing world, could there be special people assigned to people signed to it, special, you know, counters people go to, a deadline set to your staff say hey, this has to be done by 30 days, 15 days, whatever the heck it is. Is that possible? Can that plan be developed? Does anybody do that anywhere else in the country, the world? And do you see that as a realistic proposal? We can't hear you; you're muted. Mr. Noriega: Sorry, 1 wasn't, I was talking to somebody else. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay, good. Mr. Noriega: So as far as --15n going to touch on a couple things. There's things that we do have control over, there's things that we don't. The issue of zoning and skipping a category, that's mandated by state statute, not something that we have direct control over. So you can't just skip a zoning process, and even for city -owned land, we're following the same regulations, because it's a state requirement. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay, so let me ask you to that. Cause we also have, hopefully we'll have a beefed up lobbying team up there, but forget that part, it's going to take long too. So you up zone one category in one meeting, you go through that process. Can you quickly then up zone again, or do you have to wait a certain time? Mr. Noriega: 'You have to wait a certain period of time. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: What's that time period? Mr. Noriega: I don't know off the top of my head. I want to say it's -- I don't know if Francisco -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Six months. Mr. Ballina there is saying six months with his fingers. Okay. Mr. Noriega: Yeah. I don't know the exact timeframe in terms of the -- the pause, but Francisco if he's on, he can jump in and speak to that. As far as the expedited permit process, we're already working, we've been working since COVID actually, on creating more efficiencies to the actual process by which a permit is --flows through the system. Instead of it being consecutive disciplines reviewing, they're being done on a parallel track. So that's expediting the process quite a bit. We're also -- we also already have in place, from an affordability standpoint, any City -sponsored or affordable project already moves to the front of the line as it relates to the permitting process in terms of the queue, but we could certainly devote a bigger, stronger effort towards, you know, facilitating affordable, in terms of the timeline, especially if we City of Miami Page 44 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 establish a fund of some sort that is actually directly contributing and financing projects, we could create a separate segregated process just for those if we wanted. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay, a totally, separate office, or without creating too much government, you know, not hiring anybody, else, obviously, just the people you have there now, just a separate once for this program, right, that understands the nature of what they're doing? Mr. Noriega: Yeah, I mean the logistics -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Something like that. Mr. Noriega: -- the mechanics of it are, you know, I don't know that we'd set up a separate office. 1 think we'd probably -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: By separate office, I mean it's a separate division, a separate -- not a separate building, just a separate concept of why this is more important than the regular -- Mr. Noriega: Correct, and particularly based on the volume, right? Particularly based on the volume, it would all be volume -specific in terms of the number of projects we'd be processing. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay. And Mr. Garcia, 1 think 1 saw him corning in. There he is. The six-month statute requirement, so hypothetically, somebody would come in on January 2nd and get it upzoned one category, and then on June 1st, do the same thing, right, and go to the second category, and then on December 31 st, go to the third category, like that? That's the way it would have to happen? You have to wait six months, Mr. Garcia. Francisco Garcia: Understood. I understand the question, sir. Thank you. Let me first correct. The separation in time is 18 months. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: 18 months. Mr. Garcia: However, that is a City regulation. That part of it -- others are, but that part of it is not a state mandated component, that is simply in our zoning ordinance. However, what the Commission has the ability to do is to waive that 18-month period of time and hear two rezoning proposals consecutively. There is precedent for that, and it has been done here in the City of Miami. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: So there is no 6-month or 18-month. We have the ability by commission action to go three categories, four categories up, or only two categories? Mr. Garcia: In principle, yes, but the rezoning process is one that requires a series of findings, concurrence analysis, et cetera. And those are typically not available or would yield clearly a negative recommendation for a zoning change that skips too many transect zones, right? So the most that has been done and the most that would be advisable in certain circumstances is to take it up two transect zones. That has happened and can be recommended for safety. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay. But if you think outside the box a moment and not talk to me about what has happened, talk to me about what can happen, right? Because a lot of things that have happened have not been, from my perspective, are good things, for our city. So, what can happen legally, what powers does this commission have to do and understand the whole process, but to expedite that City of Miami Page 45 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 process. Of course, we're confined to the parameters set by state law or to the obligations, it's a different conversation. What you're telling me now is that there is no, no -- really, we can, we don't have to abide, there's no state law that says that. We can actually go transact to different zones, right? Categories, sorry. Mr. Garcia: In principle, yes. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: And in principle, we could also go forward if we wanted to, right? Hypothetically. Mr. Garcia: Hypothetically, yes. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Legally, we could do it. Mr. Garcia: Legally, it depends on the case -by -case analysis, and that's the realm of it, right? So it has to be supported by evidence. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay, who does the findings of evidence? Mr. Garcia: We do pursuant to state statutes. We define it. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay, so you give us the evidence, right? And we do what we need to do to provide housing for our residents, right? So, this thinking outside the box concept is something that I would really like for us to try to embrace. I'm getting old, guys, I don't want to be here that long. You know, I really want to try to move these things forward. So we think within the same parameters that we're thinking about from the past, then none of this is going to happen. It's just pie in the sky for us. It's a waste of conversation. Chair Hardemon: One of the things that 1'll add to the conversation is that remember that part of the reason that we have the timing between moving from one category to the next is about one, notice to the people who reside in the area, and also to really -- to have an understanding of not using zoning tools that could have a tremendous effect on adjacent property owners that are deleterious. So for instance, I mean, there's some areas that we know offor instance in like the Spring -- in Spring Garden area I know particularly where you look at a building that rises, I mean it could go up 10 stories, and is next to a single family home. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: No, of course. Chair Hardemon: And those types of things. And so it gives all of us an opportunity. Although we can accelerate the process, we can jump more than one transect or more than one -- I forget the name of the thing, I'm sorry. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Categories. Chair Hardemon: Yeah, the categories, yeah. And certainly, I mean, we've done it, we've probably done it this year, I'm sure we'll do it soon. I mean, it will happen, but they're always in a case -by -case scenario. So, I know, for instance, Senator, you were talking about a case -by -case scenario. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Yes sir. Chair Hardemon: I shouldn't give anyone the wrong impression, so that's why I'm just going to bring it up and elevate it to our conversation. That's all. City of Miami Page 46 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Yes, sir. Without a doubt, there's gentrification issues, there are neighborhoods, you know, protecting our neighborhoods, you know, I get all that. I think that we hope --1 hope and I know that we have the wisdom collectively to not do that kind of stuff: But we also have a need to kind of balance those needs with affordable -- to provide attainment of affordable housing to our residents. So, obviously we'll find those City properties that we can put the affordable housing in, we wouldn't put it -- we wouldn't change the character of a neighborhood. I agree with you 100 percent. So, it was obviously always a case -by -case basis. I was only asking if we had a legal authority to do it. That's all. I wasn't asking -- I wasn't thinking of a broad policy to do it, but rather on a case -by -case basis, whether we could do it. And there was some clarification that Mr. Garcia gave me on whether it was, in fact, a state law or not. That's the only thing 1 was doing. I don't believe in wholescale rezoning of anything. I believe it's a case -by -case basis to try to build affordable housing in a more cost-effective way for the city and obviously for the people that live there as a result. Chair Hardemon: Commissioner Reyes and then I'll see if Mr. Milo, if you're finished with your statements then I can move on to the next speaker. But I recognize you first, Mr. Reyes. Commissioner Reyes: -- summary, I want to -- the City Manager, you see, to provide us with -- not to provide us -- to make sure that we expedite every single application that comes before the Building Department, the Zoning Department, and that deals with affordable housing. And Mr. Garcia, I know that Planning is one of the ones that really holds a lot of projects back. I want to ask ftom you that please try to expedite them and give them priority. And -- and if Mr. City Manager, if you have to assign certain people in the Building Department or certain people in the Planning Department in order to be the ones that are responsible for expediting those permits, I think that -- I request that you do it -- that you do that. And it is very important, it's very important that we provide any developer that is going to come and partner with us and start building, that they do it as fast as we can. Because if-- also there is a cost factor here. If we are providing the land and the developers are doing the construction, they do it through a construction loan. And the longer it takes, the more interest they have to pay on it. And what we have to do is to minimize the time that they are going to be paying interest by expediting all those permits and everything that entails to erect a building, right? And there are other departments also that they are a part of building -- building a structure, such as Public Works, you see. And all of those components that are required to erect a building has to be expedited. That's what I would like for the City Manager to make sure that it happens. Okay. Chair Hardemon: Okay, and then Mr. Milo, are you finished with your statement? Mr. Milo: I have a couple of points because actually I wanted to make sure that I brought up, but just to finalize this specific, you know, topic as it relates to permits and approvals and stuff, I think the way to do it, commissioners, is you've had a program in place for a long, long time as it relates to expediting permits. But that I think is more of a requirement because the state ship program require local municipalities that were going to receive funds from the state to adopt that as part of their local housing plan. What I think would be beneficial is no different than you guys have done, you know, and you've codified some of your requests in your Zoning Code on -- on how you can get some of these benefits for affordable and workforce housing. There are numerous municipalities around the state that have codified the permitting process for affordable housing. And unless that happens, you know, I don't want to be the bearer of bad news -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay. Mr. Milo, Mr. Milo, walk us -- walk me -- continue your statement, sorry to interrupt you, but as you continue it, walk me City of Miami Page 47 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 through how we codify that in your opinion. Okay. So we use the ship program, Florida Housing Finance Corporation and all these entities that have different -- they have different programs that they use. How do we -- how do we codify it into our Code? Because that's the first -- that's the easiest step we can take. And we, you know, Hey, let's do get this into our books, right? To begin that process. Mr. Milo: Yeah. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: So how would you recommend, as you finish your comments or continue with your comments, tell me, walk me through that, or walk us through that. Mr. Milo: So 1 think -- I think you put a section in your 3.15 or 3.16 in your code that talks about affordable housing and in there you codify the response times that you as an admin -- that you, as the elected body of the City say, look, we must respond within this time frame. And we're doing projects throughout the state of Florida. So, we can give you the parameters and they are, in the majority -- in certain of these other -- these are large counties also, and large cities, they have in their code that an affordable housing project must get a response from their -- from the multiple departments within the city that need to approve these projects within a 30 day timeline. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Give me an example. Is Duval County one of those counties? Mr. Milo: City of Tampa is one that I can tell you. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Tampa. Mr. Milo: A very large one there. So. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Who else? Mr. Milo: Orlando, Orange County has. I can give you a whole list. You know -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay. Mr. Milo: -- like, if you wantl'll call you can go through that. But, you know, if it's codified, then it's law. Commissioner Reyes: Absolutely. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Sure. Of course. You force them to do it. Mr. Milo: So -- so if it's codified, then -- and then you work towards that law, right? Its part of the -- your elected officials say, look, this is the way we're going to operate. Because again, time is not your friend. So, it starts with that. Obviously, somebody identifies land, they got to get a permit, they got to get it financed, they got to get it closed, and then they start construction. So my suggestion is, yes, it should be codified, number one. Number two, eventually, that would give the Administration and the Manager the ability to study how he implements that from a staffing perspective, whether that looks like, hey, you have an assigned planner, you have an assigned zoning person, you have an assigned plumbing inspector, you have an assigned building department -- Commissioner Reyes: Yeah, that's what I was saying. City of Miami Page 48 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Mr. Milo: -- you have an assigned department in -- within the department -- the broader department that focuses on affordable housing projects. You know, so it -- it's got to start with that. If not, 1 guarantee you I've been on this,l didn't have gray hair when I started having these discussions. We will be having these same type of discussions for a lengthy, long time. So, that is one way to really make a real dent in the time factor of it. Chair Hardemon: Mr. Ballina. Mr. Ballina: Yeah, and he has gray hair, 'just put a little gel on mine, but I'm going bald also. But (MULTIPLE PARTIES SPEAKING IN UNISON) Commissioner Reyes: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Mr. Ballina: -- so I think also a very good -- Commissioner Carollo: Just because you haven't made as much money as he had. Mr. Ballina: So, so -- Commissioner Carollo: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) were worried more about counting it. Mr. Ballina: So -- so one of my -- one of my recommendations as well, as we're thinking here, even that zoning could help out, you know, City of Miami has a lot of lots that are the same size, 10,000 square feet, 15,000 square feet, that you only have a plan in place. So, hey, ifyou build this type of single-family home you get expedited super quick, you already know what your easements are, you already know what your boundaries are, you already know where your connections are for your water, and your electricity the same for 15,000 square foot lots, and you can have something already, in place if you're going to build for this program and you're going to build a single family, you're going to build a two-story, and you meet these requirements, it's done, it's plug and play, right? And you're able just to get through the process a lot quicker without having to have 43 inspections on a water pipe, right? That a water pipe is a water pipe, and it just -- because you already have it in place. So something to think about as what Milo said, as you put it into this code, that maybe you have a preset of zoning rules for this program, ifyou build this type of product, it'll help you get through there quicker. Just an idea. Mr. Stabile: That's a good idea. Commissioner Carollo: Chairman. Chair Hardemon: Let's go to Nelson. I think Nelson wants to add. Mr. Stabile: Yeah, Mr. Chair, very quickly, just to add to Albert's point, one very -- and I71 be brief and 171 start by saying that if there has been a positive consequence of COVID is that both at the city level and at the county level, at least for our organization, we did experience an improvement actually on service level when things went digital, okay? Again, I echo both Alex's and Albert's perspectives on the fact that Tye still have a whole lot of progress to make, right, to really operate more efficiently and time is very critical, but there have been some improvements, which tells us that if we, you know, once we're faced with real hard adversities, if we put our minds to it, we can improve the process and hopefully, you know, cut off a lot of the time that it takes for us to get projects with the shovel in the ground and up and going. Two things that I think are very critical as we evaluate ideas to -- on how do we improve City of Miami Page 49 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 the entitlement process and the approval and permitting process. Number one, I think we have to work in very close collaboration with the County because we are not operating in a silo, in a vacuum, right. We depend on RER (Regulatory and Economic Resources) and we depend on WASA (Water and Sewage Authority) for water utility, for environmental approvals, for a lot of things that, you know, we will have to have some sort of a collaborative task force to by to expedite the back and forth between the County and the City as well to be able to truly effectively cut time, point number one. Point number two, I also think that the City probably has a much better, I hope, relationship with the utility companies, FP&L (Florida Power and Light). That is a huge, huge, has a huge impact into our day-to-day. 1mean, we're sitting on a property right now that we can't put our crane in place because we need utilities removed. And for nine months, we're working on designing and getting those utilities removed, and FP&L doesn't show up, right? So if we have some sort of collaborative effort with the utility companies to also embrace this initiative of expediting the process for affordable development, I think then we're starting to close all of the potential loopholes that we'll have once we improve on the processes of the City in itself. Last but not least, what also we very much suffer from, and again, I say this very respectfully and carefully, but what happens oftentimes is in the review process, and Albert, if we implemented a deadline, right, of 30 days to get all of the reviews, that's amazing. But we also have to make sure that, you know, the reviewers can only do maybe a second round of reviews and thoroughly review the entire set of plans, right? Because we're very often faced with four or five times of reviews where new comments keep coming backup and back up and back up and it becomes you know an endless cycle, so it may not take 30 days to -- Unidentified Speaker: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Commissioner Reyes: Can I -- excuse me, can I add to that -- that -- of -- one problem that I have witnessed it is that a reviewer I mean sends you some notes you fix the notes -- Mr. Stabile: Yes. Commissioner Reyes: -- and then a different reviewer will get it. And -- and one thing that I want to propose is that the same reviewer starts with the plans and ends with the plans. Because it has been very, I would say, I mean, every person that is reviewing the plan has different ideas, you see? And any comments that was placed by the first reviewer, the second one might not even address that and then place additional comments on the plans. And that -- what it does, it delays the process. Mr. Milo: I think a couple of those things, again, if there's assigned reviewers, that solves it, you know, because again -- Commissioner Reyes: That's right. Mr. Milo: -- if there's a, let's call it a mini department within the department to review, it should be the same reviewers to get it. And the City has made -- again, I would agree with Nelson that one only -- one of the few positive things of COVID is the fact that, you know, by force, everything online or the digital review had to -- was forced upon us. And therefore it's better in the fact that, you know -- than the paper version. So I think that's a positive, a step in the right direction. But I also think that's something that could be solved easily. It's solved easily if it's codified and the first round of reviews come in within that 30-day window and then round two of that review happens to be a joint review where we have the ability to sit with all of the disciplines in one meeting and go through all of the comments collectively so when we walk out, we say, as the reviewer, is this what you need? With our professionals, our architects and our engineers, and I think we can get through that. So there's simple City of Miami Page 50 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 ways to solve that. I don't think it's that difficult. You kick it out in the first time, and the second review is a joint review where everybody sits around the table. We've had that in certain instances, it always works well because everybody is collaborating, and they come out with all the comments at one time. Commissioner Reyes: Well, could you -- all of those suggestions, could you please pass it on to our city manager? Mr. Stabile: Yes, we'll combine them and share with vou. Commissioner Carollo: Here's the problem, we kind've gotten away from the meeting. Chair Hardemon: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Commissioner Carollo: All that we're discussing on right now in the Building Department is really something that affects everything, every construction in the City, from the littlest, tiniest home to the biggest and tallest building. And it's a very important discussion, but I think that in itself requires a separate meeting, because this is something that has to be fixed for the whole city. The problem lies is that I don't believe that you could fix something that's broken with the same people that have been there and have seen that its broken for so many years and haven't cared to fix it. I guess what I'm saying is that the problem is the people that are there that have broken the system. It's fine with them the way that it is. Maybe they can't say that because then they feel that boy, now instead of waiting two years to get something done, now it'll be three years. But the -- we need to do what the manager promised us that he was going to be doing. 1 know he got sidetracked with COVID, but we need an analysis of all our top positions within the City and beginning of the building. Are the people that we have in some of the top areas there, can they handle this job or not to fix this department, that the complaints are from the smallest, tiniest homeowner to the people that build the biggest buildings across the board. And we need to manage to do that. And if he's got to fire people, his hands can't shake, or he can't transfer them somewhere else, with the same pay scale, like it's happened before with the previous manager. Maybe, I don't know if it's happened now or not again. I will tell you as a former manager what I ran into and what I did in Doral when I got hired there. We had a mess in the building department. People were complaining everywhere, the lines were huge, the wait period was tremendous. I went and sat with the HR (Human Resources) Director, explained to her some observations, because I physically went there and spent several days looking at the operation, talking to people afterwards, and hearing the complaints that they had from the regular citizens to, you know, sizeable developers. And as you all know Doral, it's not Miami, but there was certainly, especially in that time that I was there, a lot of development that was going on. So I sat down with the HR Director, that there were some problems already, to try to get some guidance. She wanted to increase the bureaucracy. And then with that and some other matters, I decided that, you know what, the first person that I got to fire is not in the building, it's the HR Director. So I got rid of the HR Director. Then from there, I had a heart-to-heart with the Building Director. He decided that he wanted to resign. So I, you know, wasn't going to let the man resign if he wanted to, and, you know, try to hold on to him. So, he resigned. And then I brought in somebody new, and we started making changes. Some other people, you know, had to go. New positions were created to be able to expedite the process that Tye had, but we made changes. If those changes hadn't been made, they still would have had the problems that they had when I first came on board. And I don't understand that no matter what managers come in, what managers go, we still have the same problem in the Building Department. And I've come to the conclusion that it's because we got the same people that we have there. Otherwise, why are we hearing from them what we heard today, from three prominent developers in our city, from different size projects and what each and every one of us hears on a daily if not City of Miami Page 51 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 a weekly basis from our residents with the craziness that they have to go through in the Building Department. It's not a place that you could get anything done quickly and there was talk a little while ago about Commissioner Reyes was mentioning people opining and I think one of you mentioned how an inspector will opine and then you send it back to him with what he wanted, then they look it over and they want more stuff' they opine more. Well, I've heard that from so many people, from so many people. And why are they doing that? Why can't they get it right the first time? I don't know if it's that you got too many hands in it. Maybe what Commissioner Reyes said might be the right way of going. I don't know, keeping just one person on it. I don't know if that's the right way or not, but I do know this, that the Building Department is one of the departments that generates the most money for us, if not the most money in the City of Miami. And it's broken, it's got to be fixed, where things can move at a faster pace, that doesn't mean that we're not going to be conscientious and really look at plans and so on. We have to, we have a responsibility to the life and safety of our residents and visitors alike. But that doesn't mean that you have to be stuck in a project for months and months and months and months and months and there's no ending. So, I would hope that when the manager decides that he wants to start doing his evaluations, that's one department that he begins with first, because we need to get to the bottom line of what's broken there, and particularly how to fix it. Chair Hardemon: What I'd like to do is, Mr. Milo, are you finished with your statements? Mr. Milo: Yeah, we got a little bit -- certainly that wasn't part of the track that I was, you know, asked to discuss a little bit. But just in closing, I want to just touch two things because again, that wasn't the focus of what 1 wanted to talk about, but, you know, two things that I think are important and this will probably require a subsequent conversation which, you know, we're certainly willing to do. Another thing that I've always said is that in order to tackle some of your affordable housing issues, you're going to need to do some income averaging, right? That it's getting more and more difficult to do projects that are all at one spectrum of the income spectrum, regardless of what level you want to talk about on affordable. So, income averaging is something that you're going to have to look at. And I've always also said that you want to tie the City program and whatever investments the City wants to make to other existing financing programs. And when some of these other zoning code changes were proffered, you know, three, four years ago, five years ago, there's been some new laws that have come into place specifically at the federal level as part of you know, of the tax cuts that were passed. There's another law, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018. And that law, which is now in the books, allows a good diversity of income and projects. And again, this discussion has gone on for a long time today. I think everybody is a little bit -- maybe a little tired for this, but just as a whole. I will tell you that now, because of this law at the federal level, you're allowed to do units up to 80 percent of area median income and still receive low-income housing tax credits. I can tell you that it is a very beneficial law. It helps you spread that income diversity in projects, and it will help you tackle a lot of people in need in the city of Miami. So we've now availed ourselves to it in a couple ofprojects, including, you know, one in your district, Commissioner Carollo, one in your district, you know, Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla. So at a later date, I'd love to have this opportunity to go, and we can get into more nuts and bolts, but I will tell you, it is a very good law. It's a now a law on the books, and it's something that I think can have a big impact in producing income diversity for affordable housing development. Commissioner Reyes: However, if may, that's what was referring when I said the -- the tax credits that are allowed, I don't know if our housing department is aware of it. I would like to incorporate that in all the projects that we have because that will be also an additional incentive to the developers if we can qualify them for that tax -- I mean, granted, I know that in order to be, I mean, be able to obtain that, you must City of Miami Page 52 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 have what is a rule, you know, that you have to average -- the income average has to he a certain 60 percent, 1 think it is. That has to he the income average for the whole project, but we can very well obtain that by a good mix of incomes from 30 percent to 80 percent, and mixing them in that way, we can reach that 60 percent, and that 60 percent -- by -- will provide the tax credit and that's another -- that's an additional incentive for developers to come and develop in our area. Mr. Milo: Yeah, and the beauty of it is that you can combine 30 percent ofAMI units, which I think all of you want in the district, but because of income averaging, now you can average an 80 percent ofAMI unit, which you couldn't do before -- Commissioner Reyes: Absolutely. Mr. Milo: -- and you're still -- your average comes to below 60. So it's a very beneficial program that can have a big impact in trying to produce housing affordability in the city of Miami. Commissioner Reyes: I would love for our housing department to master that program, because it will be very beneficial for us. Chair Hardemon: Okay. Do we have -- thank you very much, Mr. Milo. Mr. Milo: You're welcome. Chair Hardemon: I'm going to move us to the zoning incentives and income limits. I think that's a nice segue into it. And so we have a homeownership development discussion that needs to be led by Mr. Isaac Simhon (INAUDIBLE) -- Commissioner Carollo: Chairman, you're breaking up where we can't listen to you well. Commissioner Reyes: He hasn't -- he hasn't had lunch yet. Commissioner Carollo: Well, one of you was kind enough to send me a nice sandwich. Commissioner Reyes: You're welcome. Commissioner Carollo: So that that will keep it for another hour and a half or so. Commissioner Reyes: That's good, you're welcome, and I was offering everybody that -- but nobody was here, you see, only you. Commissioner Carollo: Thank you, Commissioner Reyes. Commissioner Reyes: Well, I know -- I know -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: He offered me -- he offered me a pan con lechon, that's what you had Commissioner, I know what you had. Commissioner Reyes: That's right. That's right. Commissioner Carollo: No, he only eats lobster these days, he's on a diet. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Who, Commissioner Reyes? Commissioner Reyes: No, you. City of Miami Page 53 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: No, no, no, no, no, I'm having some --1 showed him a picture, I sent him a picture, of what I had, 1 had sashimi, I had four pieces of sashimi, salmon sashimi and an egg roll. Tin eating healthy these days. Commissioner Reyes: That's right, it doesn't taste that good. Commissioner Carollo: I wish more people would listen to you. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: By the way, Commissioner Carollo, I would recommend you go to that diet too, it would help you a little bit. Commissioner Carollo: Yeah, I do. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) sashimi, pan con lechon is not going to get you there. Commissioner Carollo: The -- every time you come here you bring sushi. This man -- sashimi is what you should bring -- Commissioner Reyes: I mean he is more Japanese now than Russell, you know? Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Please let's not talk about that. 1 don 't want to talk about that, please. Commissioner Reyes: Okay. I don't want to risk that. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: But I got the good news this morning. We're going to live meetings in November. Commissioner Reyes: In November, yes. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: So we're going to have food. I know Commissioner Russell only came once by the office, but he never came back. But we're going to have food. We're going to have all kinds offood. We're going to go expand the menu beyond sushi. We have to have some Cuban food, some pan con lechon, things like that. Commissioner Reyes: Please, please, please do. Please do. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Yeah. Yeah, I know Commissioner Reyes hates sushi. I know, you don't like sushi. Commissioner Reyes: No, I don't eat sushi. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I know. Chair Hardemon: Sushi is (INAUDIBLE). So, what I was saying (INAUDIBLE) zoning, this is an income limit discussion, so I thought that was a perfect segue. We want to have -- I want to reverse it. I want to have B go first instead of A, because A is the Planning Department, B is our -- the question of what zoning incentive works -- what zoning incentives workfor or will workfor. So, let's have Isaac from the Housing Programs Team speak on home ownership development. I know that he's signed on. And then after that, we'll have Natalie Duran of Upturn Group. Commissioner Carollo: Didn't we approve something for her not long ago? City of Miami Page 54 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Reyes: Yeah. Commissioner Carollo: CRA? Omni? Commissioner Reyes: That was Alex. Natalie Duran: Play nice, Commissioner Carollo. Commissioner Carollo: See, I remember Natalie. Chair Hardemon: Right Natalie's the go to. Commissioner Carollo: How are you? Ms. Duran: Good. How are you? Commissioner Carollo: Good, thank you. Chair Hardemon: Isaac, are you available? Isaac Simhon: Yes, I am. I just don't understand why you cannot see me. Can you? Chair Hardemon: No we cannot see you. Looks like your video is off You have to -- let me help you. Mr. Simhon: Yeah, okay. Okay. Okay. Mr. Chair, Commissioner, thank you very much for having me in that meeting. My name is Isaac Simhon. I'm with Housing Program Inc. (Incorporated), a not -for -profit organization providing for close to 20 years single-family home in the city of Miami. You don't hear me? I'll -- volume. Okay, I hope now it's better. Chair Hardemon: We can hear you fine. Mr. Simhon: Okay. Okay, so I was sitting, listening patiently for everybody and I just want to mention that I'm facing most of the problem that everybody, else face, and of course regarding the permitting and the length of permitting, even though that I built the same house for the last close to 20 years with a cookie cutter, I was not able to cut the time of permitting, but I understand the commissioners want to handle that issue in another day so 171 skip that. As a single family home, I'm providing homeownership with the infill program. The main problem that I'm facing today, it's inventory. I have a list of customer who's waiting for patiently to get into their house but I don't have one to sell them. I try to buy property in the city, hut today what I was purchasing for $35,000 a lot, today it's over $100,000. And with a cost of 110 to 115 a square, foot, there is no way that today I can provide affordable housing. Unless we can find a way to provide to the developer vacant land or any property so we can work and provide affordable housing. This is my main issue now because the inventory is very low. Until now, I was getting all my property from Dade County, and I choose all the property in the city because I love working with the City. I think the City have an excellent affordable home program. The City also improved the system, even though that it did not cut the timing ofpermitting, but at least it cut my time, sitting hours and hours in the Building Department to see any plan reviewer or any issue that I have. Today, it's much easier, it's all done online, and I'm getting a very good response from all the staff of the City. Of course, there are some issue in each and every department that I can suggest how to fix, butt don't know if this is the time. But if anybody have any question regarding the single family home or home ownership, I'm here for that. City of Miami Page 55 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Chair Hardemon: Okay does anyone have any questions for him? Seeing none, thank you very, much sir. Natalie, I'm going to raise you again. Ms. Duran: Hi everyone. Hello, can you hear me? Chair Hardemon: Yeah, we can hear you. Ms. Duran: Okay. Chair Hardemon: You have the floor. Ms. Duran: Okay. So, 1 also wanted to, I guess, talk about the infill development costs that I face, you know, because I was listening in since 11 o'clock on the costs that the larger developers have. So, 1 was surprised to see that their costs were a bit higher than mine on a per square foot basis as well as, you know, land versus construction. So I'm averaging out all in about $175, 000 a unit. So that's, I think, pretty good. It's making it feasible for me to keep my rents at around 80 percent to 100 percent AMI, which I know we'll have more flexibility with the workforce component and the attainable mixed income. But 1 did want to bring it to your attention. I actually was sitting with my general contractor yesterday and the cost for construction due to COVID and the materials has gone up about 25 percent, which means that the lower AMIs that 1 was aiming for, for my workforce component is now going to have to go higher. It makes me a bit uncomfortable because I know that I want to keep the rents at the current, you know, Little Havana rents for a two -bedroom around $1,500 to $1,600, and the studios around $1,000. I'm going to have to start increasing those rents because now my construction costs have significantly raised. So 1 just wanted to bring that up because it is something that we all have to be aware of and I don't get subsidies for the most part except for that one project that Carollo -- Commissioner Carollo had mentioned with the CRA. So some incentives -- oh, sorry, I have to ask Vicky a question. Hi, Ms. Mendez, how are you? Ms. Mendez: Hello. Ms. Duran: I wanted to know if it was okay if I can speak on this because I spoke to Mr. Eisenberg prior to this meeting, and he said I should discuss with you about the Miami 21 Task Force and if this is a conflict of interest. Ms. Mendez.: How about we talk about that -- I'm not sure right now with regard -- are you on that task force? Ms. Duran: I was and then it was, you know, dissolved. So, I'm not sure how it's going to work in the future if I'm allowed to speak on zoning issues. Ms. Mendez: As in, you wanted to speak on a zoning issue right now? Ms. Duran: No, nothing in specific. I just wanted to speak generally about some incentives with the City of Miami zoning. Ms. Mendez: You can always make recommendations. Ms. Duran: Okay. Ms. Mendez: If you want to make recommendations right now with regard to your position on the task force, maybe we talk offline. Commissioner Carollo: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). City of Miami Page 56 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Ms. Duran: No, I won't bring anything up. It's, just he - Commissioner Carollo: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Ms. Duran: Okay, so some of the biggest issues that 1 think we can start working with is, if you guys know, most of my projects are in Little Havana, and about 80 percent of the lots in Little Havana are smaller than 7,500 square feet. Okay, so for us to build on these lots, anything, as you know, if we're in a transit corridor, we can get our parking waived, right, So we can go down to zero parking. That typically works in a T4 zoning because you have a lower density, but the higher that the density gets, it's harder for me to cramp quality units in a 10,000 square foot plate, you know. So, I think that it would help us ifwe base the, you know, the zero parking ordinance based more on either the zoning and the size of the infill lot. Typically, a efficient lot needs 125 feet by 125 feet to have a proper parking lot. Otherwise, your cost is going to go extremely high because you're trying to maneuver around a very small area. Let me see. Some of it I can get into the details of each lot if you want me to, like how many units per lot size per zoning, or we can just make it as quickly as possible. I don't know how hungry you guys are. So if you want me to get into detail about -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I think we all ate already, Natalie. I think we all ate. Ms. Duran: You ate? Okay. 1 had a bowl of cereal while you guys were talking so. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Some ate more than others, you know, but I think we all ate already. Ms. Duran: Okay. Okay. So, I'll give you some examples. I'll use a 5,000 square foot lot just to -- because I have plenty of those that I'm working on. A 5,000 square foot lot using the attainable mixed income ordinance would allow me in a T4 to build eight units. I can build that easily under 10,000 square feet with no issue. And with a T5, I have 14 units. These are now going to be a smaller size. Typically, they're going to be either studios, one bedrooms, and a couple of two bedrooms. And when you put me at a 5,000 square foot lot for a T6, that puts me at 34 units. So right here, I have an issue with the 5,000 square foot lots in higher density areas because either you're going to lose your density or you're not going to build affordable housing in these areas. We also are forced to lose design flexibility. We are forced to do smaller units because we are truing to now pack it in. And I pushed the no parking because it raises the cost of construction significantly, about 20 to 30 dollars a foot. Because these lots are so small, we have to do podium style construction. We're going to have to go to a third or fburth story building, which as you heard before, the cost goes up significantly. Some of the -- I had a couple of ideas for the affordable housing in these higher transit zones, one of them being a kind of like a TDD (Transfer of Development Density) Program where we can sell that density that we're not building to another site or perhaps selling it back to the City of Miami at a discounted rate, and then they can sell it at market rates. So, I thought this would be a good idea where we can create money for the City, selling these units and creating a -- perhaps proceeds from this, so that we can use it for either gap funding or from connection fees to water and sewer. So we would keep that money from those sales of those densities that are sold, put money in our pocket and put money back into the City's pocket. I'm just flowing through this. Another thing is I think the covenants on these smaller projects are too long. We have the 30 plus 10 plus 10 years. I know it sounds great on paper, but in reality, we need flexibility. Once we have to do the 40-year recertification, we need more funds. And these buildings will naturally become affordable housing at a point. You know, after 20 years, this has become old stock. We're not going to be renting it at the higher rates that we once were when we. first built it. So I do think that we need to reconsider the length of the covenants. Also transportation plays a huge -- a huge, I City of Miami Page 57 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 guess, impediment in creating these affordable housing because we have pockets within our city where the transportation isn't there. So if we could either extend or create an additional buffer when creating affordable housing or if we can, you know, increase the transportation in certain areas, I think that would create more affordable housing as well because I've looked at properties that are in these pockets and I can't build there. I don't get any benefits; I don't get any incentives to build in these areas. So there is plenty of pockets in the city of Miami where they don't actually qualify. We have the zoning, but we don't get any of the breaks. Release of liens. Some of these releases of liens are only -- so I buy properties that are usually discounted because they come with a huge burden. 1 bought one that had close to a million dollars in liens that I had to mitigate. Now, for me to get financing on this property, 1 had to release myself of that lien. That doesn't happen until the very end of getting my covenant and my permits. So 1 had to now mitigate this to get money out of this land and I ended up having to pay money out of pocket when usually the City of Miami waives these liens when you're doing affordable housing, but it happens at the end. So I think this is something that we can move towards the beginning, you know, and tie it to the property actually creating, if not, it starts again, something because I -- most of the properties we're purchasing are cash. So, I'm buying these cash, but I need to refinance them. And when they have an unsafe structure lien, if they have a vacant lot from like 10 years ago and I have to go pay X amount of money or go mitigate it, it's too much. Let me see. Nonconforming lots. This one, I'm kind of issue -- it's an issue that I'm facing right now. So I'm losing -- I think that we should at least maybe look at it in an affordable housing way where if we had a higher density prior to, let me see how to word this -- I'll give you an example. I have a 3,500 square foot lot that 1 once could build X amount of units. When you demolish it, you lose that density, right? And you go to whatever that lot site calculation will give you. So 1 once had -- I had a property now that had a duplex on it. It was demolished, and now I can only build a single family residence. So that already is raising the cost for my construction and the type of unit that I'm going to provide in these properties. So if we can maybe do a change where substandard lots can keep their once density, I think that that would help also keep costs for affordable housing low. And we can make this a conversation, or I can keep talking all day guys. So, I don't know if you have any comments or questions about some of the things that I mentioned. Chair Hardemon: Are you finished with your presentation? Ms. Duran: Well, it's not really a presentation. Ijust wrote some notes and was hoping we can have a dialogue. Wasn't sure how we were going to do this. Chair Hardemon: Commissioners, do you have any questions? No? Seeing none, thank you very much, Ms. Duran. What I'm going to do now is ask for the Zoning Department to come in (UNINTELLIGIBLE) section for current affordable housing zoning incentives. And then once that happens, we'll, uh -- Commissioners, we can finish our discussion. The discussion should be -- one was first on the zoning and income limits after this section. But then there's also a continued discussion about bond strategies. And so I know the Administration has a list of improvements to make to the current seven strategies that we have that make housing more affordable and gives more incentives or more benefits to those who are either renting or homeowners or who are trying to have a big benefit of this bond issue that we have. So I want to at least get to the Administration so they can make that presentation so we can move that and make that -- make that law. So right now, first I'll hear from the Planning Department regarding current affordable housing zoning incentives. Mr. Garcia: Thankyou, Mr. Chair. Thankyou, Commissioners. What I'd like to ask, I had prepared for this component of the workshop a PowerPoint presentation that I'm going to share in a moment. I think you will find that many of the slides or much of the information that I was going to share has already been covered in one way or City of Miami Page 58 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 another. So 1 will he able to essentially speed through it. That said, if anyone wants to stop at any point in time to ask questions or discuss further, I'm certainly happy to do that. With that and in an effort to move forward quickly. May 1 ask if the presentation can he seen? Commissioner Carollo: Yes. Mr. Garcia: Very well. So again, the intent is to basically cover our present policy and regulatory landscape at a very high level, admittedly, and to invite your feedback and input as appropriate. 1 certainly won't dwell on the many negative indicators that support the dire situation that Miami is in, that has been spoken about, but to me, one of the key indicators happens to be the affordability challenge posed by the affordability gap in Miami, which has been measured recently at 6.1. The meaning of that figure, 6.1, is that it is estimated that the gap between the median income of the Miamian, which multiplied times three would give one a good measure of what kind of housing they will be able to afford. That price point is multiplied times six to get to the average median price of a unit available in the Miami market. So that disparity is certainly significant, and I think is a good indicator of where we stand. It is actually a little bit lower in Miami -Dade County as a whole, a little bit higher in Miami as you might imagine that disparity. I certainly don't have to dwell on the high land costs in the city of Miami. The inflationary -- the inflationary pressures experienced by the Miami market respond in large part to the fact that it is a global market, which responds not only to local residents seeking housing opportunities, but everyone in the world who has an opportunity to invest, seeking to have or find a second, third, tenth home in Miami as the case may be. And it is certainly not helped at all by the short- term rental phenomenon that has blossomed or exploded more accurately in the last number of years. To this extent, and should you be interested in discussing it further, there are state preemptions that really prevent us from regulating it any further at this time. The other issue I want to bring to your attention that to me is of the highest order of magnitude is a zoning legacy, and others have spoken about this in the city of Miami, of fairly low density zoning. Not the case of course in the downtown area, the central business district, which you see at the top of the image, but elsewhere throughout the city, the densities allowed are comparatively low. I'd like to show you to illustrate that issue, the zoning map of the city of Miami. Of course, in red, you see the Miami city boundaries. And every, time you see a yellow area, that is indicative of a T3 zoning designation, which accounts for depending on how you measure it, 65 percent or 70 percent of the developable area of the city of Miami. That 65 to 70 percent of the developable area of the city of Miami is limited to densities of 9 to 18 units per acre. These are suburban densities. They clearly begin to have inflationary pressures on the price of land, as you might imagine. Derelict housing, I don't need to tell you any of this because you mentioned it frequently, is also a significant challenge. This is what we would otherwise treat as naturally occurring affordable housing. but the poor maintenance and management of these properties over the years have created code compliance issues and now really stand as a formidable obstacle for the refurbishment of these properties and reinsertion of many of these properties into the proper affordable housing markets. In terms of legislation that has been put forward, I'll shift now over to some of the comparative successes that we've had recently. We have in Miami one of the best legislations for ancillary dwelling units. I'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment. Density bonuses are available in the city of Miami, as I think you know. Those admittedly have to be calibrated to yield better results. We can speak about that further. Inclusionary zoning exists as a tool in the City of Miami Zoning Ordinance that too admittedly has to be calibrated and that is another topic that is ripe for conversation in the City of Miami. There are reduced parking requirements available for affordable housing development and that is both something that is welcome, I think, by many in the development industry as something to reduce those costs of construction that we've heard about in some of the presentations earlier, but I also understand, and it has been communicated to me City of Miami Page 59 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 directly, that it can be a cause for concerns in terms of impact on surrounding residential areas. That again is a balance that has to be addressed and established (UNINTELLIGIBLE) satisfaction. I'll speak very briefly about what we regard as a community density trust, which I think goes to some of the issues that we've discussed earlier in this workshop today. And as pertains to preservation of naturally occurring affordable housing, we also introduced -- or actually are about to introduce, I should say, legislation soon that will begin to address some of that. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Francisco, I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. I'm having difficulty hearing you. Can you speak up a little bit or get closer to the microphone? I don't know if it's me, but I've been hearing everybody fine. 1 can't hear you. Commissioner Reyes: (FOREIGN LANGUAGE). Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: (FOREIGN LANGUAGE). Commissioner Reyes: I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding. I'm messing around with him. I tell him -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: He's speaking very slow. He's speaking very slow - - very low. Commissioner Reyes: Yeah, he is, he is. Mr. Garcia: My apologies. I'll speak louder. Is this better? Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Yes, thank you. Commissioner Reyes: Yes, it's clearer too. Mr. Garcia: I'm going to speak louder and clearer, sir, thank you. Work in progress, and these are (UNINTELLIGIBLE) issues. Linkage fees, seasonable occupancy assessments, and short-term rentals. Short-term rental regulations are of course on hold, pending active litigation. In terms of linkage fees, I'll share with you quickly that elsewhere in the United States, there are fees established whenever there is an upzoning, a change in zoning that will yield high density or higher development capacity, there are statutory or regulatory fees attached to those changes that would inure to the City's Affordable Housing Trust. And in addition to try to combat to some extent the inflationary forces created by the global market for units in Miami, seasonal occupancy assessments are also established elsewhere in the country. And what those are essentially is for properties that serve as second, third, fifth residences for people living elsewhere with their homestead elsewhere, those units would themselves have to be assessed for a fee, and that fee too could be contributing to the affordable housing program of the City. Commissioner Reyes: Francisco. Mr. Garcia: Sir. Commissioner Reyes: So, one thing that wanted to add, what -- and your information about the poverty level in the city of Miami. I just want to add that according to the standard that measures income inequality, which is called the Gini coefficient, Miami is only second to New York in income inequality. It is -- it is equivalent to Colombia, Panama in income inequality. That is why I've been fighting so long since I got here on the income limits, see, when we use the -- the, formula that we use in order to provide apartments at different income levels and at different monthly rates. And that is why, because it is proven that Miami is second in the nation City of Miami Page 60 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 in income inequality. The areas that Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, Commissioner Hardemon, Commissioner Carollo, and myself, the areas of our district, it is, the income inequality, it is equal to any country in Latin America. You see, people are making from $9 an hour, $8 an hour, $19, 000 a year. And that is something that we have to address. And I've been trying to address this. If we build apartments that they are, most of the apartments that have been built in Brickell and Biscayne Boulevard, they have been sold to people that they are not even from Miami, you see. They are not even from -- I mean, we are not building and providing housing fir the people that live in Miami. And that has been my fight all along. I just wanted to interject this because of future discussion and so people realize that it is our duty, our duty to realize that we are serving a very, very poor population. That's all. Okay. Mr. Garcia: Thank you, sir. I agree, the indicators are very negative throughout, but that certainly is a poignant one as well. Again, to resume and to finish quickly and then certainly make myself available to answer questions, I wanted to highlight that the City of Miami has a public benefits program whereby developers seeking to develop their properties to the highest and best use, as it is said, need to, to get to the higher heights and the highest density, need to contribute to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, and those monies are deposited into the trust fund -- Commissioner Reyes: Yeah, that's what I want. Okay, and I'm glad, thank you for, I mean, realizing that those -- the income limits and all of that has to be recalibrated in order to really, really serve the people that we are representing. And we had that conversation and 1 really thank you. Mr. Garcia: No, of course, 1 agree, sir, and I'm going to get to that in a slightly greater level of detail in just a moment. Commissioner Reyes: Sure. Mr. Garcia: That -- what Commissioner Reyes just stated pertains to the attainable mixed -income program, which well address in, again, just a moment. It was mentioned earlier, micro units are available in the city of Miami, but only in transportation -oriented development areas so that those who live in these units and have no car, perhaps, as a means of transportation can avail themselves of the public transportation infrastructure. And there really what we've done is we've reduced the minimum square footage for these units from 400 to 275. Commissioner Reyes: Yep, so (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Mr. Garcia: And then just to caption the other incentives, some of them have been addressed already. There are fee reductions for permitting for affordable housing projects. There are impact fee deferrals available, of course, parking reductions, some design flexibility in terms of setbacks, in terms of height allotment, et cetera, and also development bonuses available in terms of density and also intensity. Quickly, to introduce the topic of the ADUs, or ancillary dwelling units, this is really a best practice nationwide and what this allows is for especially in those low density residential areas that are zoned T3, it allows for a comparatively smaller unit at a maximum of 450 square feet to be introduced into the backyard, right? And the requirement there though is that the property owner must live on site. It has to be a homestead property and that additional unit then can be rented. Commissioner Reyes: Is that the granny flat? Mr. Garcia: Yes sir, it's called also a granny flat. Chair Hardemon: (FOREIGN LANGUAGE). City of Miami Page 61 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Reyes: (FOREIGN LANGUAGE). ChairHardemon: (FOREIGN LANGUAGE). Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Francisco, ifI may, tell me -- give me some, from a national perspective on micro units. What's happening in other cities? Commissioner Reyes: Yes, that's a good question. Mr. Garcia: The standard practice for those, Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla, is fairly straightforward. It's fairly commonplace. They are made available typically only in TODs, transportation -oriented development areas, and they are typically exempt from parking. In Miami, we allow for parking to be provided, but we don't require it. That really is the only difference. The reason why they are available only in TODs is because typically they are intended to serve a population that will avail itself of mass transit. Unfortunately, however, in the city ofMiami, and this was mentioned earlier by another speaker, our mass transit network is -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Stinks. Mr. Garcia: -- not really outstanding, and so the opportunities for these is fairly limited. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: These TODs are also where bus lanes exist, right? It's not only -- or is it only Metro and Metro -Mover? Does it also include the adjacent bus lanes and bus connections to it? How are TODs -- educate me, how are TODs defined? Mr. Garcia: Thank you, sir. We have two standards. For TODs, transportation - oriented development, we really base those on the fixed infrastructures. So that would be Metro Rail and Metro Mover, right? And so they are basically with the pedestrian Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: That's by County Code, right? Mr. Garcia: Sony, sir? Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Is that by County Code? Mr. Garcia: The County Code sets that fbrth. Yes, we the City have the ability to regulate differently, but that is the most defensible standard. What we've done -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay, so hold on, hold on. So the City has, Ijust want to make sure because we've had a couple of issues with the County lately, I don't know if you've noticed, but -- so I want to make sure that we can -- do we have the ability to define them differently? Mr. Garcia: We do, sir. And inflict, what we've done in the City is instead of simply making them what 1 call typically dumb circles, because it's basically just extending a radius outside of the Metro Rail Station or the Metro Mover Station. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: It's 1, 000 feet, right? Mr. Garcia: Correct. So instead of doing that and drawing that radius in that fashion, what we've done is we have done a careful analysis of every single transportation - oriented development site, Metro Rail Station, Metro Mover Station, and extended City of Miami Page 62 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 them so that they can reflect the accessibility on the ground. So if, for instance, the river happens to cross that shed that is 1, 000 feet in radius, then clearly that's stopped because it shouldn't go to the other side of the river because one wouldn't be within 1,000 walkable feet of the Metro Rail Station. However, if that 1,000 foot walkable area extends beyond the 1,000 foot straight radius, we'd make those adjustments. As a result, in the city of Miami, we have not the dumb circles, but really well-informed sheds, as we call them, that make that TOD area available to development that goes, in some instances, further than 1,000 feet. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay. Mr. Garcia: So that's one setting, Commissioner, and the other setting -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay. Mr. Garcia: -- is what we call the transportation corridors. And the transportation corridors begin to reflect the availability, of mass transit other than the fixed guideways, Metro Rail, Metro Mover. And for those, we require only, it's a fairly low threshold, that there be 10-minute headways between transportation routes. If that's the case, then we term those areas transportation corridors, and there are some benefits attached to those as well. However, micro units, to answer your question directly, are only available presently in TODs, not in transportation corridors. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: But the City has the ability to make them available in transportation corridors? Mr. Garcia: We do, sir, yes. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay. One more, I'm sorry, Mr. Chair, through you. The -- what's the definition of a micro unit? ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit) says 450 square feet, I'm looking at the screen here, but what's a micro unit? What's the most it could be? Mr. Garcia: 275 square feet. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: 275. And what's the difference between an ADU and a micro unit? Except the square footage, that's it? Mr. Garcia: Well, the ADU is a program available only presently in the city in T3-L. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay. Mr. Garcia: And the reason that is the case, and this is a thing I think of interest, and I think it demonstrates how, in a sense, progressive pioneering we've been in the City, what we were able to do working with DEO (Department of Economic Opportunity) and the State of Florida and Tallahassee, of course, is to exempt the ADU, granny flat, so to speak, from density counts. So that helps in two ways. A, it doesn't require the property owner to change the zoning to allow for the additional units and B, it doesn't necessarily count against the appraised value of the properties as it retains its own zoning designation. Commissioner Reyes: Excuse me, what are -- I mean in order for a resident, a T3 resident that wants to build an ADU, what requirements do they have in a backyard? I mean how big has to be, how many feet they have, what are the setbacks and all of that. How much land it is required for a property owner, a homeowner, to be able to build one of this? Very well, there is no requirement of minimum lot size or anything of the sort, the standard lot in the city of Miami, as has been mentioned previously, is City of Miami Page 63 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 5,000 square feet. So, long as one complies with the 5,000 square feet, that is typically the minimum planning standard, that qualifies the property. The unit itself has a maximum, not a minimum, but a maximum of 450 square feet, right. And it has some flexibility in terms of setbacks. It only needs to be set back five feet from the abiding property. So, it's not just sort of peer over it, but at least allow for some flexibility and that'd be built right up to the property line. Commissioner Reyes: In other words, if it fits, you can build. Mr. Garcia: Essentially, yes. Commissioner Reyes: Okay. Any special permits or anything to build this? Mr. Garcia: Well, yes, a building permit, of course. Commissioner Reyes: Okay. As -- that you know, have there been some of this that have been built already or people are taking advantage of it or this is something new? Mr. Garcia: It's not new. It's been around for about -- I would say for about 10 years now. Not many instances of it and the reason for that, Commissioner, is that these are only available presently in T3-L. I have to share with you that there were -- when they were first introduced, again, about 10 years ago, there were significant concerns expressed by single-family area residents that they may have a negative impact and cause overcrowding or a change in sort of the characters of the neighborhood. And as a result, only a few neighborhoods throughout the city, and really you can count them in the fingers of one hand, about five neighborhoods accepted the T3-L zoning designation that would allow for them to take place. However, this is, I think, something that we could explore further, because I think there are areas in the city that are very much ready to accept this kind of additional units. Chair Hardemon: Francisco -- Commissioner Reyes: This will be a concern -- just to finish, this will be, I mean, have the same effect of those people that they have an efficiency at their home, that they're renting. Mr. Garcia: Yes, sir. And in many cases, as I think you know, those efficiencies may not be up to code, which these -- Commissioner Reyes: They're not. Most of them are not, but okay. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: What's the, iif may, through you Mr. Chair, what was the rationale behind only allowing it in T3-L? Mr. Garcia: We had to -- we wanted to make them available originally. It was introduced as a measure that would be available in every zoning, in every T3 zoning designation. T3-R, which is single family residential, and T3-O, which is duplex residential. They, again, there was enough reluctance on the part of many neighborhoods in the city of Miami that we had to tie them to a specific zoning designation, and once again, Commissioner, only five neighborhoods in the city of Miami accepted for the change to take place to allow for these to come in. Commissioner Reyes: Would you educate me on a difference between a T3-L and a T3-O? I mean the T3 -- Mr. Garcia: The only -- City of Miami Page 64 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Reyes: -- the designation. Mr. Garcia: The only difference between T3-R and T3-L is that the T3-L allows for these ADUs -- Commissioner Reyes: Okay. Mr. Garcia: -- but they retain the same density. It's a nine unit per acre density. The difference is that the nine unit per acre, you can have the single family residence and (INAUDIBLE) site, then have the additional unit. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: But if you allowed it, you allowed in certain neighborhoods, you said that there was opposition from neighborhoods not to do it in other parts. How was that opposition manifested by? Were there, you know, town meetings? Was it one neighbor that said, I don't want it? You know, because there's always a negative nanny out there that wants to, you know, say I don't like something here. Or was it a real deliberative effort from your department's side to really get what the neighborhood felt about these hearings? Mr. Garcia: Absolutely, sir. And this dates back to 10 years ago, so maybe worth doing again. But at the time, there were many neighborhood organizations and (INAUDIBLE) certainly many individual neighbors in a vast number of community meetings. Because we thought it was a great idea, right? But they really expressed reservations. And the comments were typically, you know, additional cars, intrusion into other neighbors' backyards, excessive crowding, things of that nature. Commissioner Reyes: Okay. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: So have you done any analysis, and this is the last question, have you done any analysis on how many illegal units we have that -- because 1'll tell you, in every neighborhood that we have, every neighborhood that we have, the cars are -- there's six, five, six cars parked in front of the house that has three bedrooms or two bedrooms or whatever, that are renting a room out. Commissioner Reyes: And they are -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: There may, be -- yeah, exactly. Commissioner Reyes: -- efficiency galore, you know what I mean? Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Yeah, well, yeah. When you walk through the door, and you see the voter list it says seven people live here -- Commissioner Reyes: Absolutely. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: -- you find out there's seven places out in the backyard, like some of the little sheds in the backyard, you have to knock on every door. So, we know that happens, right? Let's not blind ourselves to that. And maybe down the line, maybe not for today's conversation, butt think we may need to talk about some sort of forgiveness policy -- Commissioner Reyes: We've got to revisit that. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: -- Citywide forgiveness policy for residential only, for people, you know, clearly, you know, they can be brought into compliance and not have to.face some of these difficulties in providing -- City of Miami Page 65 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Reyes: Homesteaded, homesteaded properties. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Especially what's happening now, obviously very targeted, some sort of amnesty for people on residential properties that have done this, but you see it all over the city, it's a reality we keep on turning our eyes to and actually assist. But the -- but that's a different conversation. I think that's a -- Commissioner Reyes: That's right. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: -- there are wholesale violators and breakers of the law, and there are people that just have a shed in the back of their house or an efficiency that they closed off a garage 10 years ago or 30 years ago or whatever and they may be still suffering consequences as a result. But that's not my question. That's a different conversation though. Commissioner Reyes: Yes. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: It's a different conversation. Commissioner Reyes: I know, butt just want to add to that point that we've been talking about that is that that's the way that it's an avenue for people to legalize it and make it safe. You see, as long -- and 1 think that's a different conversation. We should have that conversation. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Absolutely. Commissioner Reyes: And we should play the parameters and the limits. And who can -- I mean, who is -- who qualified for some, I mean, I would say pardon. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Or an amnesty. I hate to use the word amnesty. Or an amnesty, you know -- Commissioner Reyes: -- amnesty -- within a period of time. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Yeah, within a period of time. And, you know, we use amnesty, then maybe Commissioner Russell comes on board, we don't know, we'll have to go through that. But, you know, some sort of a forgiveness policy. Commissioner Reyes: That's right, that's right. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: For people, residential, you know, efficiencies of that nature. We all have them in our districts. We know they exist. Commissioner Reyes: And with certain requirements, like right here, you have to live on the side. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: You have to live on site, the owner has to live on site. You know, all these things. Commissioner Reyes: Homesteaded property. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Right, like this requirement -- Commissioner Reyes: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: These TODs -- City of Miami Page 66 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Reyes: It's a good idea. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Yeah, these ADUs, the owner has to live on site, right? So the same thing, the owner would have to live on site, all those requirements. That's a different issue. I think it's an important conversation to have down the line. Commissioner Reyes: Yes, yes. We will have that. We should have that. Chair Hardemon: Listen commissioners -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: But this -- for this purpose -- but my question -- but nay question for this is, and 1 don't know if you have or you haven't, but you said it was 10 years ago, right, Mr. Garcia? The -- do you think it's worthwhile exploring this again to see if maybe some other neighborhoods will allow this kind of these ADUs, obviously with community input and obviously commissioner input from every respective district, the respective districts. Would you think that's something that needs to be explored? Mr. Garcia: Most definitely, Commissioner. We really honestly thought at the very beginning when we introduced this legislation that it would begin to address many of the deficiencies that we have in Miami, and we were surprised when it didn't really catch on very well. Happy to try that again. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Yes, because as we address affordability --1'm almost done, Commissioner Carollo, I'm sorry, as we address affordability, this may be a way to get there quickly, right? Much faster than building and doing the whole program that we're going to do anyway, but that's going to take some time to do. This may be a more -- a quicker way to get there, and it will begin to address some of those affordability issues that this meeting was called for. So that's just a thought there. Commissioner Carollo: The problem that I see with this is that you can only put one person basically in this, unless it's a couple, it's too small to really make the impact that we're looking at. You would need something in the neighborhood of 700 plus to 800 square feet to -- for it to really make the impact that we're looking at. But let me ask Francisco this. These are very pretty pictures. Are any of those in the city of Miami? Commissioner Reyes: No. Mr. Garcia: Likely not. Commissioner Carollo: Francisco. Mr. Garcia: Likely not, sir. Commissioner Carollo: I didn't think so. Do you know how many were ever built? Mr. Garcia: Commissioner, I have no reason to believe that that number exceeds five. Commissioner Carollo: Okay. Chair Hardemon: Wait, wait, wait, excuse me. You say you have no reason to believe that that number exceeds five? Mr. Garcia: That is correct. I'm aware of only five. Commissioner Carollo: That's what he said. City of Miami Page 67 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Chair Hardemon: Well, I know some illegals have been built because 1 live in a T3-R, which is the most restrictive part of the Miami community that you can live in, where we fight to preserve existing properties the way that they are. And I've seen some of these things go up over the weekend. And then, of course, we have to go through our process to get them removed. Because obviously you're not supposed to have another living dwelling unit on your single family T3-R zoned property. But Francisco you said that there aren't a lot of spaces for T3-L, but, you know, when I look at the properties that, for instance, that surround the T3-Rs, I'm looking at duplex areas in T3-Ls. And wouldn't duplex properties, duplex zone areas allow ADUs as well? Mr. Garcia: They would, Commissioner, but typically they opt to have two units instead of just one and the ADU, which is the highest and best use for those. Chair Hardemon: Right. So, what I'm saying though, they're duplex zoned areas that have single family homes on them. They could also either build an ADU or they could build the entire property and have a duplex, correct? Mr. Garcia: Correct. Chair Hardemon: Okay. Commissioner Carollo: Francisco. Are these portable units? Are they permanent? Do they have to meet the hurricane standard? You know? Mr. Garcia: Absolutely, sir. Ultimately, these are proper dwelling units. They have to be -- to be permitted. However, these days, with pre -constructed, pre fabricated units, that has been -- that bar has been lowered significantly. They would still have to obtain a building permit and have of course electricity, water, et cetera. Commissioner Carollo: Yeah but hold on, let's go back to that. You said the bar has been lowered significantly. Mr. Garcia: In terms of their cost, right? So -- Commissioner Carollo: I know in terms of their cost, but I'm not asking about that now. I'll get to that in a minute. In terms of the requirements to put these up, if these are not permanent units, do they have to meet every single bit of the South Florida Building Code as to wind, impact, everything else? Mr. Garcia: No, these are intended to be permanent units, or permanent dwelling units. Commissioner Carollo: So then they would have to meet the South Florida Building Code in full? Mr. Garcia: The Building Code, yes sir. Commissioner Carollo: I don't know how, maybe that's why only five or less have been built -- Commissioner Reyes: The cost. Commissioner Carollo: -- how, you know, they could have qualified for it. I'm not saying that they can't, but it's just the cost to get them to qualify brings the cost up significantly, unless you're building quite a few of them. To bring in a unit here of 450 square, feet and then have to pay the cost to get it qualified here in South Florida, the City of Miami Page 68 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 cost, it just doesn't make sense at all. And what are the prices that you have seen in these five or less units? Or do you have any idea what they cost? Mr. Garcia: I don't, unfortunately, sir. But when I spoke about cost earlier, what I meant to say is that there are pre fabricated units of this sort. They are very popular elsewhere in the country, and I'm sure they can be implemented with, you know, a reasonable amount, especially vis-a-vis, the income generating possibilities that they bring, right. Because so long as the property owner lives on the property, there's nothing preventing them from renting these out. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: They're very -- you're right, they're very popular in other parts of the country, that's why 1 asked you. So if you know the size of the unit, 1 guess you just have to Google how much it will cost. They're prefabbed, right? So it's just how much would it cost. This has to do -- I think Commissioner Carollo is talking about affordability. We want to know, you know, what the cost is so we can compare apples to apples, right? Commissioner Carollo: That's correct. Because I know a way that we can open this up that people could afford it. It might be a game -changer, but the problem is if you're so limited where you can put it at. Now again, a T3-L, what is what usually is the max you could build in a T3-L? Walk me through that again. Mr. Garcia: Certainly. By rights, a property owner of a T3-L property can build a single-family residential unit, as you would in any other single-family residential property, and in addition, an ADU, an ancillary dwelling unit, as you're seeing here. Commissioner Carollo: Go over that again. I didn't quite hear you. Single-family residential unit, and what else? Mr. Garcia: Right. A single-family residence and one of these, an ADU. Commissioner Carollo: A what? A one of these? Okay, so you could have single family and one of these. Mr. Garcia: Yes, sir. Commissioner Carollo: How about in duplexes that would have enough room in the back for one of these? Would that make sense or not? Mr. Garcia: In duplex, you can have either two dwelling units, or a duplex, or a single family unit and one of these. Commissioner Carollo: Okay, well, what size lots, minimum, would you think that these can fit in? Mr. Garcia: These are configured to fit in a 5,000 square foot lot, which is a typical lot size in the city of Miami. Commissioner Carollo: Right. Well, so to build an 800 square foot one, in a lot that's 50 by 125 foot long, that's an average sized lot in the city. But let's even go with a 50 by 100 which you don't have too many that small Most are, you know, anywhere from 105 to 125, 130. You could build one that's 40 foot wide or 40 foot long by 20 foot that will make it 800 square feet. You still have plenty of room for your single family residence and green area for barbecuing, kids running around, a little playground. For those who want to reproduce, for those that don't, you know, they can do the dog park. The -- how can we expand this into more areas? Areas that would make sense in? City of Miami Page 69 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Mr. Garcia: 1 think the suggestion is we'll begin to engage different neighborhoods to possibly consider them. And again, all it takes is a rezoning from T3-R to T3-L. If a given neighborhood were interested in having this program put in place, then it would be a wholesale rezoning either for the neighborhood or for part of the neighborhood as appropriate. Commissioner Carollo: Well, give you an example. Little Havana, the single-family residence areas that are left, most are investor -owned properties. At best, you'll find a neighborhood that maybe 50 percent, maybe, might be owner -occupied. And they -- in many of these places, like was mentioned here before, you got all kinds of people living, 1 don't know where they're living, you know, 1 don't want to get any more people mad at me or upset with me, so I, you know, don't ask don't tell is what I'in trying to do now. But areas like this, this would make sense in. Maybe some other areas in Allapattah, in Flagami, but there has to be some criteria so they just can't throw any old container down. And my only concern is with something this small is you're basically attracting the single person or two single guys in the construction field that you know have been living here for a while and they're just looking for an inexpensive place to live and then that might not be so hot for the neighborhood that's residential. But if you got a young married couple starting or a young couple is starting out you know if you got something a little larger now, they can move in. It's a little different. And you're creating space that's going to help bring the rental cost down. Because the reason we have such a high rental cost, too, is that we have so many people and only so many units. So they ask what they want. Once we start constructing and create more units, those prices are automatically going to go down because there's not going to be that high demand. We're creating more units for people. But this is a novel concept. Tin sorry that 1 didn't know about that we had anything like this before. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I think it's fascinating. I think, in fact, you can actually buy some of these houses on Amazon. You know that? Mr. Garcia? Mr. Garcia: Yes, sir. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: You know you can buy them on Amazon? Mr. Garcia: Yes, I do. Commissioner Carollo: You can buy them all over the place. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: This size. You can buy them on Amazon. Mr. Garcia: I was just checking, and to answer your previous question, they go for about 10,000. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: 12,000 on Amazon, I just checked it. Mr. Garcia: Right. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: So, I can't -- Commissioner Carollo: Well, gentlemen, let me be honest with you. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Let's double the size and say it's 25,000, or 29,000, 30,000, right? If we double -- we talk about what Commissioner Carollo is talking about, 900, 800 square feet. City of Miami Page 70 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Reyes: How about (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Chair Hardemon: That's a single-family unit. That's a house. Commissioner Carollo: That's the point that I'm trying to make. You can't buy these just anywhere because who's going to qualify them for the wind, (UNINTELLIGIBLE), and impact. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: No, the State ofFlorida -- the State ofFlorida -- no, no, the South Florida Building Code, they're certified as complying with the South Florida Building Code. Commissioner Carollo: No, no, you need more than that just to get those qualified. It's not like that. Believe me. It's not just like that. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: There are companies that sell this in Florida, outside Miami, that's outside Miami -Dade, and other parts of the state that I've seen that abide by the building code. Commissioner Reyes: Dade County -- Dade County building code is (INAUDIBLE). Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: But -- but -- Chair Hardemon: Right. And the South Florida Building Code is the minimum standard. But you know, Ballina has his hand up. I'm going to recognize him really quick. And he has (INAUDIBLE), you're recognized sir. Commissioner Carollo: So you can understand, you might be right that they'll tell you that they comply with the building code, but we have a very unique code here that nobody else in the country has. It's the hurricane code on wind and impact. None of those, I guarantee you, qualify for that. And then you get another problem, the R factors. On the roof on the walls, who knows what they'll tell you they're qualified and then when you get down here and they're asking you for the R factors and to prove it, you can't prove it and you've got a problem. And so believe me that $12,000 price might be good if you're going to go up in Georgia, Tennessee, and throw a cabin where no one's going to come over and check it out, but it's not all that practical for any urban area, because once you start checking them out and then the cost that you're going to have to put it up yourself, that price changes drastically and I mean drastically. This is an area that I know a little bit about because before I made the mistake of coming back thinking that could make a major difference and seeing how much Miami had changed since I had left it. I was going to Shangri-La, and I was negotiating with three different major governmental entities in three different Shangri-las on putting up about 20,000 units. And I -- in fact, I think I might have mentioned that I invented something that could be put up like this and has so many other factors involved that nothing in the market had it. But so, 12, 000 for 450. They'll tell you that, but who knows what you get when you arrive it -- when it arrives rather. And you know, it's -- you could build it for that, but again it's the same thing with the developers we have with the high-rise. You could build for afjbrdable low-income prices, but they want to sell it fir twice as much, at least, and these people aren't going to sell you any of these prefab homes at their cost or close to their cost, they want to make a lot of money on it. But regardless of that, this is a novel idea because even here, you could build for a fairly low price. You could probably get a 800 square foot built so that someone builds it for you, does everything, and you might be able to get it for 30,000 dollars, or something to that nature, which is a real game changer. By the way, something of that level, it should probably cost to build no more than 15,000. The changes are how fancy you want to get inside, you know, all the other factors like we all know. City of Miami Page 71 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay. Mr. Chair? Chair Hardemon: Yes. You 're recognized. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I agree with Commissioner Carollo. This is truly a game changer. I'm shocked that since I've been here, I haven't had a conversation with anyone about these ADUs. I find out about them today. Commissioner Carollo: So did 1. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Maybe because they're -- maybe because they're not that prevalent throughout the city, or as Mr. Garcia said they didn't catch on fire, but in today's environment in today's COVID world and in our affordable housing crisis that we're facing right now, to me, this could be really be a game -changer to be put in different parts of the city and I agree Commissioner I defer to Commissioner Carollo's expertise in the area, but let's say it's 30,000. Commissioner Reyes: (INAUDIBLE). Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I agree. Let's say it's that. I mean, we were talking about, we talked earlier about the San Francisco Housing Accelerator Program. They were doing these dwellings for 133, 000, right? And when we talk about these buildings, these affordable housing buildings that we're constantly talking about, they're in that range too, right, Commissioner Carollo, something like that? So $30,000 is a game changer. People have the property, the backyard, and they can generate additional revenues for themselves. A lot of people are retired, older, they have a faxed income, but they own property. But the only thing that they have in value is their home. And they have all this yard space that if we allow it in more neighborhoods, obviously with proper community meetings and everything else, but not to be tempered or afraid to explore things that are innovative in nature to address our affordable housing crisis. And I think -- I agree with Commissioner Carollo, if the dollars work, you know, the South Florida building standards and all things that have to be adhered to, if all that works, because I know that in South Florida, you can go buy a shed for your backyard and it complies with South Florida building standards. It has to, they won't sell it to you. And you have to get a certificate from them. So, I'm sure that there'll be companies, if they don't exist already in South Florida, that will -- the market will be created if this law becomes law, right? If this initiative becomes law, believe me, there are going to be pioneers or people out there that are going to go build these homes that abide by the South Florida Building Code at the square footage that we will allow. And then all of a sudden we have a game changer, as Commissioner Carollo called it. So I think it's something that I want to put on our list, Mr. Manager, I think we should put it on our list of options to explore. Expansion of these -- this ADU program that exists right now in the city of Miami, beyond the T3-L designated areas. And what neighborhoods you think will be amenable. We're not going to waste your time either. You know there's going to be neighborhoods that are going to have major opposition that we don't waste our time. But I think in the Allapattah area, the area that I represent, I think that you'll find a lot of neighbors that will like this idea. Commissioner Carollo: Sure. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: They'll see it as a way to earn some additional income for themselves perhaps, and provide housing and the people that need it, like Commissioner Carollo said, a young couple starting, that they maybe want to live in what they call a tiny house now, right, that's the terminology, it's now an 800 square foot or 750 square foot home, it's enough space for them. And for those of us that like City of Miami Page 72 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 dogs, we'll build a doggy park and a house for the dog too. I mean, it depends. At the end of the day, it gives people -- it gives us an additional tool, additional weapon to address the crisis that we face. So, I want you, Mr. Garcia, through our manager, of course, to look at that option. What neighborhoods you would recommend? And think outside the box again. What neighborhoods do you recommend? What areas do you think that this will work in? Commissioner Carollo: So you could understand, if I may, but in 750 to 800 square feet, you could build two nice size bedrooms, a double full bathroom. You could put a fitll kitchen and a good size dining/living room combined. And in fact, if you got to put a guest bed, you could have it in there outside. So, for a couple starting, even with a couple with a baby, it's perfect. I mean, it's fantastic. Plenty of room. So, this I consider a game changer. I'm extremely surprised. I don't know why Francisco kept it a secret. Maybe it's -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: For like 10 years -- Commissioner Carollo: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: For like 10 years he kept it a secret. Commissioner Carollo: Yeah, well, it's obvious, there had to be a reason. But I think we need to explore this. If you could find out for me, Francisco, where the addresses where any of these were built in and 1'd like to see some of these. Chair Hardemon: You have some that exist as well, I don't want you all to think that they don't exist. Five might have been built legally, but like I said, a lot of them that were pre-existing and a lot of them are renovated. Those that were pre-existing and then have been renovated, for instance, I have one two doors down for me that was renovated. And it's a nice -- from the outside, I mean, it doesn't look like this. It's a wood -laden like this, but it's nice. It's a very nice high -impact windows type property. It's small. It does the job. So they exist. So, Francisco, you know, it might be good if you can -- I don't know how much resources it would take for you to ident4 all of the casitas that exist throughout the city. That might help us get a better example of -- an idea of how they are playing a role in affordable housing. Mr. Ballina: If I may. So, I'm a housing guy, so I love housing. I think this is a great idea for elderly people, right? Those people in our community, right, that are aging in place. Somebody has a backyard space, an older couple can live there, they can get community support because somebody can watch out after the older people, right? And it builds that sense of community and people will say, hey, you know, I could rent it out to somebody that just sold their house in Westchester. I don't know, I'm just making -- and they could move into a place and they stay in a family surrounding where you could have somebody watching the older person, maintain it. I think there's a very, good market for this, especially in what we're trying to accomplish here as a team and for the affordability for the elderly. I think this is a home run and you could get the whole community, you could build a whole PR (Public Relations) thing around it. People want to put it because it could help somebody in their community, an older person. Something to think about, right. Just my two cents while thinking here. Chair Hardemon: Thank you, Alex. Okay, Francisco, do you want to finish your presentation. Mr. Garcia: Yes, sir, I'm happy to I'll be quick about it, butt can, I can certainly share with you that I am nothing shy of ecstatic how well this has been received and the prospect of actually implementing it citywide. As to why this has not been brought up more frequently before, I can only tell you that I still have the scars to show from City of Miami Page 73 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 the last time 1 proposed this at a public meeting. But I'm certainly happy to take that on again. 1 think sometimes the time is right to explore it, and I think this may be the time for it. Commissioner Carollo: Yeah, but see, Francisco, this is the problem that we have in Miami with public meetings. Public meetings are dominated by a handful of people from a handful of neighborhoods. Basically because those are the ones that speak English well, understand the system, are more well-to-do. The rest of the city you never hear from, because they're too busy working, truing to see how they can pay their mortgage or pay their rent, and they don't participate. So, I think we need to explore this further, look at it more, and this could be a game changer. And not all these have to look like what you see here. There could be difference made, but I think what you do need is we have to establish certain criteria that it has to be approved so that someone just doesn't throw anything that they want in the backyard. There has to be criteria, unlike most things that we do in the city. At least if we're going to expand this, this is going to do something. Commissioner Reyes: (FOREIGN LANGUAGE). Commissioner Carollo: What's that? Did you say food. Okay, but I think this is a very novel idea. Mr. Garcia: Thank you, sir, look fonvard to exploring it further with all of you, of course. Alright, two more,1 think two more programs to cover very quickly. One has to do with the development of what we call a community density trust. The City of Miami is comparatively land poor, but it may be that some of the properties that the City of Miami owns can be exporters of density. And if that density is put into a bank, so to speak, that can be then made available for affordable housing in other sites that are being developed by either affordable housing developers or even market rate developers. And we see some potential in that. Again, not making land available, that's another idea, but making density, surplus density that the city may have in some of its land available for other developers for -- exclusively for affordable housing. And now I want to spend maybe the last couple of minutes talking about the -- I'm sorry, I'll cover briefly the inclusionary zoning designation that I believe you know the city has. This is in the Omni area, and it hasn't been fully implemented yet because we still need to have the conversation at the commission level regarding what the appropriate calibration for the attainable housing program should be, what the AMI is and what the number of units might be. So, that is hopefully corning up soon, but we think there's also significant potential given the land that is available for this at present. And last but not least -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Mr. Garcia, I'm sorry, go back there. How, if I may, Mr. Chair, through you. Chair Hardemon: Please. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: How does this play into that result -- that massive rezoning they want to do in this area with a T6-24B proposal? Mr. Garcia: Right, that's exactly it, Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla. The zoning designation exists. A number of properties have already availed themselves of the zoning designation and therefore have been able to develop pursuant to it. It certainly increases significantly the development capacity for the properties and requires, in exchange, some level of affordability to be built on site. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Right, but it's not 10 percent, it's 14 percent. So, you're talking -- the Melo properties have been developed in that area, for example, City of Miami Page 74 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 right? He availed himself of that new ordinance that was created before I was here, 10 T6-24B, right? But this is not the same percentage. So this is a proposal that's coming out from the administration, vis-a-vis that proposal. Mr. Garcia: Thank you jbr the question, Commissioner. The way the ordinance is calibrated right now, it reflects 10 percent of units at affordable housing and 30 percent at workforce, right, as options. The reason why some projects have provided additional units is because at the time at which they came to rezone the properties and make themselves, or avail themselves of this process, there were covenants proffered by the developers to address the commissioners' concerns that increased somewhat the level of affordability. However, the calibration, which is what 1 wanted to bring to your attention, is this (INAUDIBLE) right now, and we certainly need to workfirrther to get consensus behind the new calibration. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Clearly, clearly. Now -- clearly we need to work further. Because it also has 140 percent AMI component to it, right? Mr. Garcia: That is correct, sir. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Because you didn't put that here in your chart. Commissioner Reyes: And that's not counting -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Before you jump on it, Commissioner Reyes, I knew you would. I knew you would. Before you jump on it, let me just finish my thought, one second here. Commissioner Reyes: Okay, no, no. I just want to bring you on board. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: No, no, no, no, no, but I'm almost with you here so we're going to get there. Commissioner Reyes: Yeah, I know well get there. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Yeah, the 140 percent is above market rate in this area right now. Above market rate. So if you wanted to find this workforce, it's not really a workforce, it's like -- actually now, it may be because it's restricted for a number of years. It may be that in 10 years from now, or in 20 years from now, it's not -- it really is, you know, restricted to that 140 percent, and the AMI here is higher at that point. But that's not the case right now. Is that correct, Mr. Garcia? Mr. Garcia: That's correct, sir. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay, and so before I got here, if something was proposed, I don't know who spearheaded it, I don't know where it came from, but it's pretty much an important, I think, rezoning that needs to happen because we're supposed to redevelop the area. But the administration, the past administration, didn't really negotiate the best deal for the city and really for our need for workforce housing for our citizens, not jbr the city, but lbr our citizens. Because they really gave the developers a little bit too much, I think. But the politicians, that'd be us, we can tie it in and make that really a workforce housing environment. Because that's really what we need in this area. This area is very unique. And I know Commissioner Russell is familiar with it. It's his district, obviously. But the way I see it, it's everybody's district because it is the urban core, the last urban core area left in Miami that could be developed the right way. Cause everything south of 395 is unaffordable. No one can live there. No one entering the workforce, or the labor, force right now can live there. Nobody can pay $3, 000 for an apartment. No one can do that. So the only area City of Miami Page 75 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 that's left where real people can live. You know, I had a friend of mine whose daughter graduated from law school and -- and she got a job immediately at a big law firm in downtown. And she told her dad, dad, I'm going back to college. He was, what do you mean going back to college? I have two roommates now. Again, I had two roommates in college in law school. And now I graduated from the University of Florida, your school, Commissioner Reyes, and now I'm a lawyer in Miami. I work for a big law firm, but I work for a big law firm. I'm not going to mention the name, but it's a big law firm. And I know they pay their employees a good amount of starting money, not their employees, their attorneys. And she has to room with two other people because she needs to be close to her downtown office, to the courthouse and everything else, but she can't afford to live there. So, 1 look at this urban core area north of 395, where the Omni area, and I look at it as the real downtown, the future downtown for real Miamians, where real people can live and work and play and do things at an affordable rate. And we are going to have a beautiful park, probably will become Miami's Central Park with the Underdeck in between, under the 395 with the signature bridge going there. So 10 years froin now, ifwemake the right decisions now in urban planning, in zoning, in community benefits, and we're bold about it. Even some of the micro units that we talk about, if we're bold about it and visionary about it, 10 years from now, when we all get out of here, we're going to say -- we're going to drive by there, including Commissioner Reyes, who'll be a young 85. We'll drive by there, you know, we'll drive by there, and say, wow, we left our fbotprint here. We did something that really mattered for the future of Miami. So this one, unlike Wynwood and other areas that no one was responsible, the market drove all those developments. Even Coconut Grove to a certain extent, market driven in other areas of Miami. This one, we have an opportunity to do something that's a little bit non -Republican, not a master plan, but a master vision of what can happen here. So we have the right roads and the right parks and the right density and the right mixture of retail and residential. That combination of workforce and some affordable and a little bit of market, that combination where everything comes together is probably the only place in Miami, and at least in the downtown area of Miami, maybe Allapattah has some areas like that, but it's still not the same thing. And this that has highways by it, that's by the water, that has a lot of the amenities that the other part of downtown, the rich part of downtown has, that we can actually turn it into a working - - into a neighborhood where all kinds of Miamians can live in, so to me, and if I'm not here in three years and somebody else takes over, at least we can begin the vision of doing something that works for this area. And I think it's a great legacy for all of us to do something nice here, something that's really well thought out. So, we have to be bold, we have to be careful, we have to be deliberative, we have to be analytical the way we do it. We can't be knee jerking, right? But we have to do something here. This is the last area we can do something like this, that we can do a master vision that works for all Miamians, for Miamians of average income, not the rich part of Miami. And I think it's an exciting challenge for me and I think it will be an exciting challenge for this commission. By the way, Commissioner Hardemon, you'll be gone, but you're going to the upper body, but you'll be representing some of these areas too, right? Commissioner Reyes: Absolutely. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Right? So you're going to be part of this too, because south of 395 is the area you represent -- that you're going to represent, in all that area. And so you're connecting two neighborhoods, as you will know, Commissioner Hardemon, that were a neighborhood that was destroyed when that expressway was put there. And now we're reconnecting those neighborhoods. And I think it's exciting. And I think it's a great challenge for all of us, of all ethnicities, of all races, to bring -- to create that urban core of Miami that works for all Miamians, at all economic levels, not only at the highest economic level. Commissioner Reyes: Commissioner, I am so happy -- through the Chair. City of Miami Page 76 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Chair Hardemon: Yes. Commissioner Reyes: Tin so happy to hear you realize, you know, that the income level has to be -- the amount of rent that is going to be charged has to be calibrated because that's what I've been saying all along, and 140 is over market rate. And if we are going to provide, I mean, what is workforce housing, it has to be for the workforce people that work. You see, there is -- I can assure you because I have seen the statistics, that more than 80 percent of the population in Miami, they make less than $60,000 and 140 is for people now that makes $83,000. And that is only one person, and Francisco can -- I mean, agrees with me that the income table if it is more than one person, the amount that they could charge for that apartment increases according to the number of people in the house, you see. And 1 am all for calibrating and trying to find a happy medium. You -- once, you told me, you know, 1 don't want to go so low, but not as high. And I think that we should work in it, work together because I am just as you are -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: We will. Commissioner Reyes: -- I am very concerned about the people that work in Miami and that we are building and all this inclusionary zoning. It is to benefit the people that live in Miami. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Yes sir. Commissioner Reyes: There's enough of people that live in Broward that they want to move to Miami because they are working in a company that is paying them $100,000. No. That's not what it is. And I'm glad -- and I'd be more than glad to sit with you, and I mean, maybe you sit with Francisco, and through Francisco, we can work together and reach consensus and present a unified front. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: And we will. And we will. I have no doubt in my mind. Commissioner Reyes: Okay. Very good. Vice Chair Russell: Mr. Chairman. Chair Hardemon: Yes. Please. Vice Chair Russell: Thank you. And I'm really happy to see this. This is -- the Omni area is in District 2 currently and it is exactly as Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla said, it is the greatest opportunity we have to address our economic affordable housing issue. Inclusionaiy zoning fits perfectly there. It doesn't fit everywhere, but it fits perfectly there. It was overly generous to the development side. And that's part of - - A, that's part of why it passed, but B, it's very important to note that under the new state legislation, we are preempted from enacting inclusionary zoning that puts any of the affordability on the shoulders of the developer. So we have to give them as much as we're asking of them or more. So there's a very delicate balance that needs to be calibrated, otherwise we are preempted from enacting inclusionary zoning. But the way it's currently, it favors -- the balance is more in favor of the developer than it is of the affordability. So Commissioner Reyes -- Commissioner Reyes: Hallelujah. Vice Chair Russell: -- you're absolutely right, Commissioner Reyes. And this is where we bumped heads. This is where we bumped heads a year ago -- City of Miami Page 77 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Reyes: Yes sir, yes sir. Vice Chair Russell: -- and we didn't get past it. And I really believe that Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla could be not the tiebreaker, but the consensus finder here. And I really think that if we do compromise on this AMI portion of it, it's going to cause consternation amongst the development side. But I believe that that's where the carrot and stick of the CRA can come in. And with a -- like a boilerplate, almost hand in glove legislation/incentive process, if there is a shortfall created by the requirements of the affordability, that we can have like either a TIF (Tax Increment Financing) deal or a grant process, that as these new developments get built, we're making sure they're made whole. That they're --1 mean, we want them to be more than whole, because we want to incentivize the development. That's why these popped up so fast. None of those four towers were there five years ago, and all of them carry the inclusionary zoning concept. Commissioner Reyes: And there is a demand also jroit. Vice Chair Russell: And there is a demand. So I look fbrward to working with you -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: And that's really the point, right? There's a demand for it. 1 guarantee you, Commissioner Russell, I agree with you, by the way. We're going to all work together through our mayor and all -- and the commission, and Francisco, and our Manager, to find common ground because this is too important. It's your district and I show great deference to the commissioners and their district, but it's also our downtown, right? It's our downtown. It's Miami's Downtown. Commissioner Reyes: It's our city. It's our city. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: So its all of our districts in that sense. But because you're the commissioner of the district, obviously you have a lot of weight in what you say through our mayor and what your opinion matters. And your opinion matters to me. And I say that with all seriousness. It does, because you do represent them. They elect you to represent them. I don't know if after redistricting you'll still represent them, but at least, you know, you do for now. So, the important thing is that we work together to get there, but Commissioner Reyes's point is not lost on me. And it shouldn't be lost on anyone. There's a demand. These developers are going to build there. We don't need to be overly generous to them. Trust me. They are dying to pass legislation that benefits them now because they know that there's a new commission, a new manager, and a different perspective on this. And there's a majority in this commission to be -- to focus more on what's necessary for the residents and not be so generous to developers. I'm not saying you were. I think what you did back then you had to do because there was nothing there. And you had to figure out a way to spur development, some kind of development. Had those buildings not gone up, what was happening now, the buying of the land and the aggressiveness that these developers are showing now would not have happened. It would have been another 20 years. So, I think the work that you did -- or another 10 years at least, the work that you did at that CRA to get those buildings built, you know which ones I'm talking about, was important because all of a sudden around the people (UNINTELLIGIBLE) let me start buying land because now I can do something around this too. Obviously, the Adrienne Arsht Center helped. By the way, that's another conversation on a side note, without going off on a tangent, we have a lot of opposition from some former leaders of Miami that are no longer current leaders, right, that don't want to have some of this development occur around the Adrienne Arsht Center because they don't want to ruin the sightline of the Adrienne Arsht Center. That's their perspective. So they don't care about housing for our neediest citizens,. for our elderly, for people entering the workforce, whether it's affordable or workforce housing, but they want to preserve the City of Miami Page 78 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 surrounding area around the Adrienne Arsht Center, a County building, that makes the things more about the cultural arts and more important than housing. So there's going to be -- and you know who I'm talking about, that's going to be certain opposition that will exist there, but we have to be bold and courageous and just say, look, we need to build housing in the urban core, the only urban core left is this area. So, the district commissioner, you, Commissioner Russell, the new commissioner on this dais, our new city manager, our mayor who's innovative in many of these ways and wants to leave a legacy in Miami where he rebuilds our downtown, we have the Underdeck coming, all the things I spoke about. It's important for all of us, collectively, to make this area thrive and to get it right. We don't want to do a Wynwood here. We want to get it right here. It's our last swath of land that we have to get it right. So, I think it'll be all of our legacies, including our mayor, to get this right. And everybody's input is going to matter. Everybody's opinion is going to matter. And we're going to work together. l promise all of you that we're going to do what we can to find that common ground and get everybody, will be on board for what we're going to do here. I think it's going to be exciting work we have for the next couple of years. Commissioner Reyes: I think so too. And I'm glad to hear it after being knocking myself against the wall (UNINTELLIGIBLE) against the wall. Commissioner Carollo: Can 1 find a little more common ground? Commissioner Reyes: Finally. Commissioner Carollo: Can 1 find a little more common ground? 1 never thought this meeting was going to go this long. Commissioner Reyes: Me either. Commissioner Carollo: And I have to do, that I promised, a quick interview for someone. I need to step out maybe 10 minutes, no more than 15, and I just want to make sure that there's going to be any voting (UNINTELLIGIBLE) happen until I come back. Chair Hardemon: There has to be a hard stop of the meeting at 4:45. You know that the Clerk -- Commissioner Carollo: Excuse me? Chair Hardemon: Okay. As I understand, there has to be a hard stop of the meeting at 4:45 because there's a, there are -- what's it called? What's it called? Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Board meeting. Mr. Hannon: (INAUDIBLE). Commissioner Reyes: It says board meeting here. Mr. Noriega: Code Enforcement. Chair Hardemon: Right, Code Enforcement Board Meeting. We know it's very important. Code Enforcement is having their first, I think one of their first major meetings they've had in a very long time since COVID-19 has struck. So if we're going to get this done, we should get the business done now. I know there's some recommendations that the Administration wanted to make. Can we get to that now? City of Miami Page 79 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Reyes: Yes. Let's vote on whatever we have to vote on the recommendations if we agree with it. So we'll be here -- out of here by 4:45. [Later...] Todd Hannon (City Clerk): Just briefly, Commissioner Russell at 1:10 p.m. you were in the process of proposing a direction to the City Manager regarding bringing back a resolution, creating a trustfund between now and the November meeting that outline the controls and divisions within this fund. Did you still want to move forward with that direction, sir? Commissioner Carollo: What? Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: You're muted. Commissioner Carollo: What was that? I'm sorry. Vice Chair Russell: Thank you. I don't think it needs a vote, but I'll work with the manager offline on that. It is not competitive to Commissioner Carollo's concept with the homeownership loan fund and the taskforce, but it's a potential to leverage our bond dollars without tying our hands so. Commissioner Carollo: Commissioner, 1'd be happy to have a Sunshine meeting and see if we could work it out and you know something that would help you and will be acceptable. I have no problem doing that if you like. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Me too. Vice Chair Russell: Great. I think 1 think Art could probably shop it around. Commissioner Carollo: Okay. Vice Chair Russell: I think we've all talked about it quite a bit today. And so I don't -- I don't look to be the sole sponsor of this. I only want this sort of thing to come if there's a consensus amongst the group. Commissioner Reyes: There's a consensus. Everybody thinks about that. Commissioner Carollo: Thank you. Vice Chair Russell: Yeah. Commissioner Reyes: Okay. Chair Hardemon: Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much, it was a productive day. Commissioner Carollo: Thank you. Chair Hardemon: If all hearts and minds are clear, this meeting is adjourned. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Sir. Commissioner Carollo: Okay. Thank you. Take care. Vice Chair Russell: Take care, everyone. City of Miami Page 80 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 SP.2 RESOLUTION 7993 Department of Housing and Community Development A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH ATTACHMENT(S), AMENDING AND SUPPLEMENTING RESOLUTION NO. R-19-0111 ADOPTED BY THE CITY COMMISSION ON MARCH 14, 2019, WHICH AUTHORIZED THE CITY MANAGER, THE CITY ATTORNEY, AND BOND COUNSEL TO TAKE ANY AND ALL STEPS NECESSARY TO VALIDATE THE APPROVED AND EXPECTED FUTURE EXPENDITURES NOT TO EXCEED ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS ($100,000,000.00) OF THE AGGREGATE PRINCIPAL TOTAL AMOUNT OF THE AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PORTION OF THE MIAMI FOREVER BONDS IN ORDER TO REFLECT THE CHANGES TO FOUR (4) OF THE PROGRAM TYPE STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES FOR THE AFFORDABLE HOMEOWNERSHIP STRATEGY, AFFORDABLE NEW CONSTRUCTION RENTAL STRATEGY, AFFORDABLE WORKFORCE NEW RENTAL STRATEGY, AND HOMEOWNERSHIP PRESERVATION STRATEGY, ALL AS SET FORTH IN COMPOSITE EXHIBIT "A," ATTACHED AN INCORPORATED. ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-20-0337 MOTION TO: Adopt with Modification(s) RESULT: ADOPTED WITH MODIFICATION(S) MOVER: Manolo Reyes, Commissioner SECONDER: Alex Diaz de Ia Portilla, Commissioner AYES: Hardemon, Russell, Diaz de Ia Portilla, Carollo, Reyes Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Mr. Chair, are we voting on anything? Commissioner Reyes: There is -- Chair Hardemon: Yeah, we'll have some recommendations that they're about to present to us right now -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay. Chair Hardemon: -- regarding the strategies. The strategies are already in existence, remember some of them were increasing, so just make sure you note on the record, Administration, what change you're making so that we can adopt those changes. Alfredo Duran: Yes, good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, and Commissioners, this is Alfredo Duran with the Department of Housing and Community Development. The discussion that we have on the agenda for bond strategies is really connected to the one resolution you have today in front of you for consideration. And that resolution is pertaining to the modification of four of the seven strategies that were approved during the bond validation process. The strategies, which were described earlier by the Chairman, really provide the City with a toolkit filled with every potential way that you can address affordable housing. And 171 read them out real quick so that you get an idea of what they consist of And they are an affordable workforce rental strategy, there's a home ownership preservation strategy, the City acquisition of land, affordable home ownership strategy, an affordable rental housing preservation strategy, an affordable new construction rental strategy, and finally, a City of Miami affordable long-term lease and build and management strategy. Now, the resolution that we have in front of us today is to amend or to modify the home ownership strategy, the affordable new construction rental strategy, the affordable workforce rental strategy, and the home ownership preservation strategy. These four strategies are designed in a way that we believe that these modifications will allow the City City of Miami Page 81 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 more latitude, more options to be able to engage in projects that are worthwhile in getting bond financing too. The affordable home ownership strategy, for instance, the Commission -- that the Chairman spoke about, the preservation strategy is one where the City -- the bond -- we reserve 4 million dollars citywide to address our single family, homes that are in need of hurricane preparation. The program, what it does, it provides impact windows, roofs, and doors to seal the envelope of the -- of the homes. Originally it was approved -- Commissioner Carollo: Could I put you on hold for a moment there if I can? I'm sorry Alfredo, but I'm confused, and I'd rather do it now than later, and again I apologize Jrointerrupting you, but you're talking about 4 million dollars that you have for hurricane preparation. Mr. Duran: Right. Commissioner Carollo: Is that out of the 15 that was taken already or is that taking it out of the remaining 85? Mr. Duran: No, that's part of the 15, sir. Commissioner Reyes: Part of the 15. Commissioner Carollo: Okay, that was part of the 15. Mr. Duran: Correct. Commissioner Carollo: Okay, so we still have 4 million that hadn't been taken out of the 15. Mr. Duran: That is correct sir. Commissioner Carollo: Okay. That's good news. That's good news. Thank you. I'm sorry. Mr. Duran: Yes. So the modification proposed here would increase the 50,000 per home allocation to 70,000. And the reason being that the majority of the housing stock in the city of Miami is not -- a lot of it is not ready for impact windows. It doesn't have the support structure system to do that. In order for us to be able to accommodate these homes in a better way, to make them a lot more sustainable to the elements, impact windows would be the best way to do it. If not, there will be homes that definitely, will not be able to absorb that type of improvement we'll add hurricane shutters but increasing it to 70, 000 would enable us to help these residents in a better way. Commissioner Carollo: But hurricane shutters is less expensive -- Mr. Duran: It is, it is. Commissioner Carollo: -- than the impact windows. So why do you need more money? Mr. Duran: Well, no, because some of the homes that do not have -- homes that were built recently do have the structure capacity to be able to hold, withstand impact windows. Impact windows need to have the structural elements to be able to absorb it. Putting an impact window on a wood frame home is not going to do anything for that home. City of Miami Page 82 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Carollo: 1 understand that. 1 understand that, but why do you need to increase it if now you're talking about shutters? Mr. Duran: No, there will be homes that are in no shape that we can do that, and shutters will be the only way to do it. But if not, I'm saying if we don't have the increase, we would have to resort to shutters is what I'm saying. Okay? The other strategy that also is being considered here is the multi -family rental new construction. Right now that particular strategy limits the City's ability to finance larger scale developments. And by that 1 mean properties that are bringing two and three hundred units to the city. We're limited at two million dollars. What this strategy would be modified to allow is the city to go up to 20 percent of the project's cost -- not to exceed 20 percent of the project's cost. We typically don't go anywhere near that. If we look at our first tranche of the projects that we approved during the first tranche, we're really around 4 or 5 percent of total project development costs. But this will allow us the flexibility to be able to provide these larger projects a little bit more money. The other two strategies is the homeowner -- workforce strategy, which is a typical request that we're making here at the 20 percent of cost. And finally, there's a homeownership construction strategy. For a project that is a vertical construction project, similar to the ones that we've talked about this morning, we would -- the original strategy only allows the City to provide up to $50, 000 per unit. We're requesting that we give up to $75, 000 per unit. What this does is that those $75,000 are provided to this project in a construction permanent manner. It goes into the construction and then it's rolled into a permanent loan to the affordable unit for that low-income individual or family. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Mr. Duran, Mr. Duran. Mr. Duran: Yes. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. Go back, if you may, just for a minute, you mentioned about the loan -to -cost of 20 percent. Mr. Duran: Yes. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: But if it's a smaller unit, right? If it's less than 20 units, it's really a 40 percent loan to cost, right? Mr. Duran: Yes, yes, it's up to a million dollars. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: You didn't mention that. Mr. Duran: That stays the same, it's up to a million dollars maximum. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Right, the lesser. Mr. Duran: Right, so anything below, the smaller units is up to a million dollars, and that's up to a million dollars. That doesn't mean it's a million dollars. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Of course, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, but my question is why the 40 percent loan to cost? Mr. Duran: Because smaller units, smaller developments tend to need a little bit more financing. I mean a five or six -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: That's a lot more financing, right? Mr. Duran: A lot, yeah. City of Miami Page 83 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: It's a double, yeah. Mr. Duran: Yes, they don't have the ability to have a wide range of leveraging. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay, all right, I'm sorry, continue. Mr. Duran: Okay. And so, going back to the homeownership and that's the last strategy that we're modifying is the homeownership strategy, raising it to 75,000, allowing us to be able to help with the $75,000 that is rolled into a permanent loan, a lower income family in a homeownership situation, similar to what Commissioner Carollo has been talking about today. And that is the amendment that we are requesting. Commissioner Carollo: Well, from 50 to 70,000, that's a whole bunch of moolah, which means a much smaller group is going to benefit. Chair Hardemon: For those that are eligible, Commissioner, you know, not everyone Commissioner Carollo: I understand, but there's a lot of people that should be eligible. And I really wonder if impact windows is the way we should be going instead of the shutters, and I don't mean the shutters that you got to put up their aluminum and take down. That's too much for most people, let alone elderly people. Chair Hardemon: So I'll describe -- Mr. Duran: Right. And our rehabilitation program -- Commissioner Carollo: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that the sliding ones, you're probably better off with those. Chair Hardemon: Commissioner Carollo. Mr. Duran: Those are the ones we put in our regular rehabilitation program. We use accordion. We have a lot of elderly homeowners, and those panels are not practical for them. So we put - Commissioner Carollo: They're not, and I agree with you wholeheartedly. Even aluminum is not practical. Mr. Duran: No, they're not. So we put the accordion ones. Commissioner Carollo: And the accordions are, that's different. Mr. Duran: Exactly. Chair Hardemon: Commissioner Carollo let me make a point about that, though. The safety is a major concern fbr a lot of homeowners. Right? And so, if people today, if you look around all of our communities, you're going to find that you have glass windows, regular single pane windows, and bars. And mostly everyone who has bars is supposed to have a key to allow them to be able to exit those bars in case offire or something of that nature. That just doesn't exist. No one has these keys. The bars are - Commissioner Carollo: I agree. I would agree with you on that. City of Miami Page 84 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Chair Hardemon: But what happens there is that they get the bars because they don't feel safe because the single pane windows are easily broken. And so you have to remove the bars then to put these shutters on. So then people don't feel safe. So then what happens is they close those shutters and leave them permanently closed and locked. Commissioner Reyes: Absolutely right. Chair Hardemon: For the entirety of the time that they're in the house. Which is probably a code violation. I would dare to say that it is to continuously to have closed shutters. But then also you don't bring any light, it doesn't lead to the beautification of the area, it doesn't increase the property value as much. So the high impact windows does a tremendous thing for property values, for look of the neighborhoods, for safety, for energy. Commissioner Reyes: And overhead. Chair Hardemon: Energy, yeah. So now you're saving money on (UNINTELLIGIBLE) like this. So, you know, although it's an increase, Commissioner, and I understand why you would be concerned about that, I think that it's well worth it lbr something like this. Commissioner Reyes: I agree with you, Commissioner Hardemon. And also improves the neighborhood, because as you improve the look of all those homes, and it brings the property value up in the neighborhood. Mr. Duran: And it serves a dual purpose. It's a safety issue, because it also protects from intruders, as well as energy efficiency and hurricane preparedness. Commissioner Reyes: And noise. It is also -- Mr. Duran: And noise. Commissioner Reyes: -- noise. That's right. Commissioner Carollo: Say how much money do we have put away for that? Mr. Duran: We don't have -- for which one sir? Commissioner Carollo: For, you said 4 million dollars for this kind ofproject? Commissioner Reyes: Total. Mr. Duran: Correct, 4 million dollars for the preservation project. Initially, yes. Commissioner Carollo: Let me check something up here. In other words, if we go with 70,000 per home, we're only going to be able to do 57 homes. Mr. Duran: That's correct. That's if we go up to 70, that's correct. Chair Hardemon: You're talking about on the first tranche. Mr. Duran: First tranche. Chair Hardemon: And that's if you -- it all depends on -- it all depends on the number of windows that you have at a property. City of Miami Page 85 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Carollo: Well, maybe what we need to do is throw the 4 million into the 85 that's left, plus anything that's left, throw it into there, and f we're going to be dividing by district, then we divide it out of that. Chair Hardemon: I think the thing about it is that for instance -- Commissioner Carollo: Cause right now, you're getting an extra 4 million taken away. Chair Hardemon: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) I'm not getting anything extra. There shouldn't be anything extra. Mr. Duran: No, that's citywide. Citywide program. Commissioner Reyes: Citywide. Mr. Duran: Yeah, so it would be reduced from -- if a home in Little Havana is assisted, or District 5, or 4, that's how it works. Chair Hardemon: They just made the money available for people to make -- Commissioner Carollo: Well, we're going to be able to help so few homes, 57. Mr. Duran: To start with. Commissioner Carollo: How are we choosing these people? Mr. Duran: It'll be on a first come first serve. Commissioner Carollo: A lottery? How is it? Mr. Duran: Open application, it's an open application. The resident has to be a homeowner, it has to be living in the home as its principle -- Commissioner Carollo: That we all understand, open application. But from then on, how does it work is the first come Commissioner Reyes: First come, first serve. Mr. Duran: First come, first ready, yes. Commissioner Carollo: No, no, I don't like that because some might get there first by being given a big push. If you want my vote on that, anybody could apply, and then you take it out of a lottery. We'll get that nice lady that goes on TV and gets a little ball, you know, we'll buv her lunch, and she could come and pick the (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Mr. Duran: We could do a lottery. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I also have a concern about that, and I have another question later on, Mr. Chair, through you, ifI may. Chair Hardemon: Please. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: If I may. Chair Hardemon: Please. City of Miami Page 86 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: So you said, Mr. Duran, it's first come first serve. Really? Mr. Duran: Yeah, typically our rehab program is first come first serve. We have a waitlist, we work with different contractors and we get to, to people as we go along. We you know, we give everybody their fair shake their fair -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Well, not really because if a project comes an hour later that has more merit than the first one. Mr. Duran: No, no. It's not it's not more merit. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: First come first serve is never everybody gets a fair shake. It's who gets there first. Commissioner Carollo: I agree with the shake. I don't know about fair. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Yeah, because somebody's -- Chair Hardemon: I think the way you describe it is a good resolution to that. You can have a deadline, turn it in for certain drawings. You turn it in, you're in that drawing. You turn it in for the next drawing, and everyone can just participate in each. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Right. Mr. Duran: That's fine. We're not opposed to that. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: But I would think, well, -- I would think, well, that's a more random process, which I wouldn't object to at the end of the day, but I think a better process may be that it's based on merit and on need, right? I mean, shouldn't this be merit -based? It shouldn't be because what if, you know -- definitely not first come, first serve. That doesn't work. Mr. Duran: Obviously, yes, the house needs, the resident will have to have a certain need for this improvement to be made. So we look at that as well. The house, the homes -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Who's we? Who's we? Mr. Duran: The department, the department who, us, the professionals that are dealing in this program. Commissioner Reyes: Housing Department. Mr. Duran: The Housing Department. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Right, so the housing department. So does it go to the housing and commercial loan committee, right? Mr. Duran: No, this is not. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: It goes to you guys. Mr. Duran: Yes. Commissioner Reyes: Straight to them. City of Miami Page 87 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Straight to you. Mr. Duran: That's how our first time home buyer program works. That's how our single-family -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Right. I know. Mr. Duran: That's how our rehab programs work. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay, so we eliminate -- I think we agree, we kind of agree, 1 know we have to take a vote on it, 1 guess, but we agree that it shouldn't be first come first serve. I agree with Commissioner Carollo, that's absurd. Mr. Duran: We can do a lottery. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Of course. Mr. Duran: We can do a lottery. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: It's fair. Commissioner Reyes: It might be more random, but as a matter of fact, all the different assistance programs that we have, including the assistance for rent eviction and all of that, is first come, first serve until the funds last. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Yeah, but that's a problem. Commissioner Reyes: Yes, but let me ask Alfredo. Alfredo, I mean, because Carollo -- Commissioner Carollo, he has a point. And at 70,000 dollars we can only provide this windows to 70, how many? 70 -- 70 some. Mr. Duran: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Commissioner Carollo: No, no, 53. Commissioner Reyes: 53. 53 homes. And let me -- how many applications, how many requests you had last year for this home improvement? Mr. Duran: For home improvement, we typically have like 40 or 50 a year. Commissioner Reyes: 40 or 50? Normal time, normal years. Mr. Duran: Yes, normal times. Commissioner Reyes: And that includes, I mean, getting windows, impact windows and getting the whole credit. Mr. Duran: That's a more involved -- that's includes the interior of the house, electrical plumbing, you know, fixtures. Commissioner Reyes: But 70,000 dollars, they are not for including nothing inside the house. Mr. Duran: No, no. Commissioner Reyes: That is a different fund. City of Miami Page 88 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Mr. Duran: We're only hardening the -- Commissioner Reyes: But is that a differentfiind? Mr. Duran: Yes. So through CDBG -- Commissioner Reyes: You have two different funds. This one is -- this one is for hardening the home for -- I mean to prepare it for an eventual hurricane. Mr. Duran: Yes. Commissioner Reyes: Okay and the other one is that it -- any improvement inside the house because it is there's danger or -- Mr. Duran: Correct. Life and safety. Exactly. Commissioner Reyes: It's safety -- life and safety. So, I mean, I don't care, if we are going to get a lottery, I think it's fine, but every single home, every single applicant has to show need, right? And the house, they have to -- you have to, I mean, they have to prove that the house or the whatever, I mean, or the windows, they are vulnerable for --1 mean, wind, 1 mean, hurricane wind and all of that, right? Mr. Duran: Correct. Commissioner Reyes: So that's the need right there. Mr. Duran: Exactly. Commissioner Reyes: But they have to prove it. Mr. Duran: Yes, we do, we have two inspections. Commissioner Reyes: Well have to inspect. Mr. Duran: Yes. Commissioner Reyes: Okay. Let's do it in a lottery base and that's it. Commissioner Carollo: I want to make sure. Commissioner Reyes: I mean, but the lottery -- the lottery -- another question, the lottery -- we cannot -- you have to have a lottery periodically, because this month there are 30 people that -- I mean, you cannot have a lottery every six months or something, because it won't happen. Mr. Duran: What happens is if we have a lottery, we typically would have one like for the rental programs, all of the projects that we provide financing to, the multifamily projects, we require that they have lotteries also. So, they obviously are going to get more lottery participants than there are units available. So in this particular case, like Commissioner Carollo noted, 57 people will be held. If we get 150 people coming in the lottery, we pick them from 1 to 150, we'll help the first 57. If we get refunded, if the bond provides more additional funds or from any other -- Commissioner Reyes: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) lottery -- Mr. Duran: -- then we go back to that waitlist, and we go back to that. City of Miami Page 89 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Reyes: And you do another lottery. Mr. Duran: Or we just continue with that waitlist that was waiting. We could do that as well. Until we run out of that, then we do another one. Commissioner Carollo: I just want to confirm. Out of that 70,000, does that include marble countertops or not? Mr. Duran: No sir, no, we're not going in the house. Commissioner Reyes: Onyx, onyx. Commissioner Carollo: Want to make sure. Commissioner Reyes: There's no marble. Onyx. Mr. Duran: We're just trying to help people withstand hurricanes, not anything. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: It's granite, it's granite, it's not marble. Commissioner Reyes: It's granite, okay. Commissioner Carollo: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Commissioner Reyes on something that he asked that had merit. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Granite was the 1970s, now we're in 2020, now it's granite and you know. Commissioner Reyes: And now it's onyx and -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Onyx and -- Commissioner Carollo: The -- Commissioner Reyes: The 60s and the 70s. Commissioner Carollo: Commissioner Reyes, the reason I didn't make a big deal out of doing lottery, which I think we should in all these stuff and do it in City Hall so that the public can see that everything is transparent. Commissioner Reyes: I would agree with that. Commissioner Carollo: The reason I didn't make a big deal out of the amounts that we were giving for rental assistance because there are a relatively small amounts, they weren't large. But when you're talking about 70 thousand dollars a pop for each residence, you know. Commissioner Reyes: Hey listen, I think it's already -- Commissioner Carollo: I trust, but very. Commissioner Reyes: That's right, trust but verify. But it is agreed that we're going to do a lottery, that's it. Commissioner Carollo: Yeah, but do the lottery here, we will run a City Hall where we're all invited. Whoever wants to come can come. City of Miami Page 90 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Reyes: You bring the lady. Commissioner Carollo: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: We bring one of those things that we roll in and you can pick it out. Mr. Duran: We want you to be totally comfortable with the process. Commissioner Reyes: With a blindfold, you got a blindfold, so you don't pick. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: You pick it out. Chair Hardemon: Do we have a motion to approve? Commissioner Reyes: I'm making a motion. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: But I'll second it, but before I use one more question, I want to make sure. Nothing in this language has anything to do with CDBG dollar allocations for any particular district. Mr. Duran: No. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Zero here. Mr. Duran: Zero. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Just the four issues that we discussed. Commissioner Carollo: Okay. Can you go over again what the rest of the resolution -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Mr. Duran, is that the case here? Mr. Duran: That is correct. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I'm sorry. Mr. Duran is that the case here? Mr. Duran: There is no money associated with any -- Commissioner Reyes: No CDBG allocation. Mr. Duran: -- particularly for a project or for CDBG anything. These are just strategies. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I understand. I want to double check again. I come from a very jaded world. I come from a Tallahassee world. Commissioner Reyes: I know, I know, I know. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: People get tired, they do (UNINTELLIGIBLE) things, I know they're (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Commissioner Carollo: You know guys, if we make it a hundred thousand, we could almost build them a new home instead of you know refurbishing. Commissioner Reyes: Total remodeling. City of Miami Page 91 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Carollo: Yeah. Mr. Duran: Ahnost. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Well 70K -- 70K is a lot of money for a rehab really, you know? Commissioner Reyes: It is -- that's -- how much does it cost to change all the windows, because 1 mean, I got all nay impact windows and it was not even 30,000, not even 20,000 dollars. Mr. Duran: Right, so it depends on the -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Are they gold plated? Commissioner Reyes: No, I mean, it wasn't. They -- this one, I mean, that is my question -- Commissioner Carollo: Wait, wait, wait, wait. Commissioner Reyes: -- why, why, why? Let's say a house that has 10, 12 windows. You see, you are going to change that window from one that is a regular one to an impact window. Why $70, 000? Mr. Duran: Okay, so an impact window, depending on the style of window, obviously every house is different, every style of window is different. These are sometimes custom made. They also need the support structures; some houses need the support structures to be able to withstand that. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: They cost $800 max. Commissioner Reyes: Absolutely. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okav? Mr. Duran: 800? Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: 800. Mr. Duran: 800 per window? Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Custom made. I'll give you the name of the company, Impact Windows in Fort Lauderdale, I'll give you the name of the company. You go check it out. Call them tomorrow and ask them. Mr. Duran: Alright. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: So (UNINTELLIGIBLE) how much it costs. Commissioner Reyes: We have one here in Miami, Echo Window. Mr. Duran: But let's be -- (MULTIPLE PARTIES SPEAKING IN UNISON) City of Miami Page 92 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Mr. Duran: -- we're not saying that we're going to cut a check for $70,000 and give it to each one of these homeowners. No, it's up to $70,000. And it's dependent. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: But why would you up it though? Why would you take it from 50,000 -- Mr. Duran: Because we have found that in some cases, the $50,000 is not enough. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: What cases? What cases? Mr. Duran: Some of the cases that we, we took three models -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Give me an example. Mr. Duran: Well, we took three test cases, and we had three contractors price them independently. And they were all very near or above the 50,000 dollar mark. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I don't know -- I'm going to vote for this. I may reconsider the vote the next time I'm here. Commissioner Reyes: Yeah, but -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: But I want the three contractors. 1 want to see how they price. I want to see those invoices. I want to see their names. And 1 want to see how they priced it out. Mr. Duran: Okay. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: And if I see that they're not charging market rate for those windows, I'm going to reconsider this vote and bring it back to this commission. Commissioner Reyes: That's going to be two of us. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: And vote it down. And I want to see -- I want to see what contractors putting impact windows for 70K. Commissioner Carollo: Well -- Mr. Duran: It wasn't for 70. No, no, no, no. It wasn't for 70. It was a little bit above 50. We just want to have the -- we want to have the scale of -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I want to see -- Commissioner Carollo: You want to have the flexibility so they can charge more. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Of course. Mr. Duran: No, no -- Commissioner Reyes: But 1. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: We have two minutes left, Commissioner. Commissioner Reyes: Yes, another thing that I want. I want to see those contractors, but I want to see somebody that asks for prices and doesn't identify themselves as coming from the city of Miami, you see. Because any time that you ask for any price City of Miami Page 93 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 for anything that cones from the City of Miami, I don't know the prices increase. So any one of you, I mean I'm asking whoever. Let's ask for -- Chair Hardemon: So, we're running short on time, butt want to remind you all that it's not just windows, it's windows and doors. And when you talk about how the support system, windows, that's a different world -- Mr. Noriega: It also has to do with roofing, it also has to do with the actual foundation reinforcements. There's a lot more work involved than just putting in the windows. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I still want to see the -- (MULTIPLE PARTIES SPEAKING IN UNISON) Commissioner Carollo: Wait a minute, do you want to be an architect, or you want to be city manager? You can't be both. Mr. Noriega: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) I'm just telling you how it is. Commissioner Carollo: Are you a construction expert? Mr. Noriega: 1 have a development background, so I have a pretty good foundation and a basis for it, yeah. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: And I'm pretty good with math -- Commissioner Carollo: That's fine, then let's get into it. No, no, no, I want to get into it more. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) I want to see the -- Chair Hardemon: We don't have time, gentlemen. We don't have time. We have the current. Commissioner Carollo: Yeah, we do have time because 70,000 are popping. I thought before this included a lot more. But if you're telling me it includes only windows and doors? Mr. Duran: And roofs. And roofs. Mr. Noriega: And roofs. And foundation. Commissioner Carollo: The whole roof? Mr. Duran: Yes. Mr. Noriega: It's actually the hardening of the structure. Mr. Duran: It's completely -- Commissioner Reyes: Okay, now you're talking. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Well, no, no, no -- Commissioner Carollo: Because you're saying to do it -- doing the whole roof? City of Miami Page 94 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Mr. Duran: Yes. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: No, no, no. Well, okay, let me ask you this, very quickly, in a different way. Of the three people that were over 50K did it include roof repairs? Mr. Duran: Yes, sir. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: All three? Mr. Duran: Yes. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: All three? Mr. Duran: Yes. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: And what was the amount of roof repair? Mr. Duran: I don't remember, but it's over 50. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Well, you should. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) asking to increase -- Mr. Duran: No, no -- they were over 50. They were over 50. Mr. Noriega: If you like -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I want to see them. I want to see them. Mr. Noriega: Yeah, we'll get you the information. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) reconsider -- Chair Hardemon: We got a motion. Commissioner Carollo: Look, I'm having a hard, difficult time to believe that if we're looking at residential homes that are average in the city of Miami and people in need, that those homes are going to be much greater than 1,200, 1,300 square feet or so. Even with a new roof with impact windows, with new doors on the outside, usually they'll have two, maybe three at most, that, this goes beyond 50,000 dollars. Chair Hardemon: If those two or three occur, they can't get the benefit if there's no upper limit to 75, that's the point that the Administration is trying to make. Mr. Duran: You'd be surprised, Commissioner. There are some very nice big houses owned by very low-income individuals in the city of Miami that were purchased years ago, and they can't afford to buy them today. Commissioner Carollo: You know, taxes that we got to charge so you guys get your salaries, I understand. You know, it's a -- Commissioner Reyes: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Listen, we got to get out of here. Commissioner Carollo: People are not retiring in Miami anymore. But -- look to help 57 people at that amount -- Chair Hardemon: That's the worst case scenario, Commissioner. City of Miami Page 95 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Commissioner Reyes: Absolutely (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Commissioner Carollo: And then everybody else is going to be paying for this ,for the next 30 years in the bonds. Commissioner Reyes: No, that's a loan to them. Mr. Duran: That is a deferred loan. So they have to live in the property, they can't sell it, they can't rent it, they have to maintain it as their principle residence. Commissioner Reyes: My problem is with what the City of Miami is charged by those people that are doing the job. And that is nay problem. That is my problem. That we get in the estimates -- are we getting a real estimate like if anybody else can get an estimate or we are being taken advantage? Just like when you have a historic house, because of being historic, you ask jbr an estimate to replace anything and the cost doubles. And I believe and I have talked to you about this, that we've been overcharged by builders. You know, we've been overcharged, you see. And that's what I want to see, if we are being overcharged or not. See, if we are getting the same price, if we're getting the market rate, you see. That's what I want to know. Commissioner Carollo: 1 will vote for it with the condition, and no monies be spent until we could get some samples of what they're charging us for these three homes that you claim. Bring them to us, see what they're charging us, break it down window by window roof by roof tile by tile -- Commissioner Reyes: (INAUDIBLE). Commissioner Carollo: -- and we can compare it with others from the same field. Commissioner Reyes: Yes, I agree with that. Okay. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I agree too. So let's call the question. Commissioner Carollo: Okay, so it's a resolution to approve with a condition that no monies will be spent until we get to -- Commissioner Reyes: We can confirm prices. Commissioner Carollo: -- with others Chair Hardemon: They're far, from -- Commissioner Carollo: -- the price that he's got in these three that he claimed that he had. Commissioner Reyes: Okay. Chair Hardemon: It's been properly moved and seconded. Victoria Mendez (City Attorney): And the lottery. I'm sorry. Commissioner Carollo: The lottery is part of it. I mean -- Commissioner Reyes: The lottery. City of Miami Page 96 Printed on 10/02/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020 Ms. Mendez: Well, right, but it's not, it's not drafted that way. So we have to amend that portion as well, that it's a lottery and not -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) lottery -- Commissioner Carollo: A lottery in City Hall -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Mr. Chair? Commissioner Carollo: -- is fully transparent and we're all invited. Commissioner Reyes: Yeah, that's right. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Absolutely. Mr. Chair, I've called the question, sir. It's up to you now. Bring it home. Bring it home. Chair Hardemon: All in favor of the motion say aye. The Commission (Collectively): Aye. Chair Hardemon: Motion carries Commissioner Reyes: Okay, guys, pleasure doing business with you. END OF SPECIAL MEETING ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 4: 52 p.m. City of Miami Page 97 Printed on 10/02/2024