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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSubmittal at 05-15-2019 PZAB Mtg - Public Comment - Eastside Ridge»Et4-Pz zi Pz 3 PZAB 2, PZAB 3 on May 15t'', 2019 City overvalued Podolsky portfolio by $26M, uncovered does show Administration used generous appraisal to justify $173M price tag April 17. 2019 06:30PM Submitted Into The Record 115- kcv Comptroller Scott Stringer and Mayor- Bill de Blasio with 710 East 2-13rd Street in the Brom- (Credit: Getty Images and Google Maps) The city's of 21 buildings from the Podolsky brothers has attracted scrutiny because of the sellers' past, their political connections and the price tag itself. A late Monday document dump is poking even more holes in the official version of events. According to 2,000 pages of documents subpoenaed by City Comptroller Scott Stringer, City Hall overvalued the buildings by S26 million using faulty rent assumptions, the New York Post reported. "It's a shame that it took a subpoena from the Comptroller's Office for the City to release what should have been public information about a multimillion dollar deal," a Stringer spokesperson told the Post. Stringer has been a prominent critic of the deal. The S173 million the city paid for the "cluster sites" was already a considerable markup from their official valuation of S 143 million. City officials say the price rose during the course of negotiations, and Mayor de Blasio has argued that the threat of a legal battle justified the increase. The newly released documents make even S 143 million look overly generous. They show that Law Department appraisers assumed that about half of the units would qualify for higher rents through a Department of Social Services program, although no such plans are actually in place. In one 25-unit Bronx building, for example, the Law Department's appraisal calculated that 13 DSS-subsidized apartments would pull in $1,637 per month in rent. The eight rent -stabilized units generate just $991 per month. The portfolio's total value, assuming that all 729 apartments are used for rent -stabilized housing, comes out to $117 million instead. The city briefly halted plans to buy the Podolsky portfolio in January, when it emerged that their firm was under federal investigation for possible financial crimes. The brothers have a reputation as slumlords, having pleaded guilty to a tenant harassment scheme in the 1980s. The deal also raised eyebrows due to the fact that the Podolskys' lawyer in the deal, Frank Carone, is a longtime de Blasio ally and fundraiser. Furthermore, the Post reported last week that 17 of the 21 buildings have "immediately hazardous" housing code violations. [NYP] — Kevin Sun (21s- S? Little Haiti Continued from page 41 a meeting at the One God in Three Persons Baptist Church, located on the bottom floor of an old apartment building at 473 NW 77th St. Attended by several dozen people, most of them Haitian, the gathering was organized by Pastor Erick Jules, the service workers union UNITE HERE Local 355, and Fanm Ayisyen Nan Miyami (also known - - as Haitian Women of Miami). Discussion at the meeting included stories of the Podolsky family's past con- troversial actions in New York, which in- volved felony convictions. Two Podolsky brothers, along with their father Zenek Podolsky (who died in 2015), pleaded guilty to 37 felonies in 1984 in connec- tion with a scheme to hire "professional vacators" to intimidate rent -control ten- ants from three buildings they owned in New York City. "We're gearing up," says FANM's executive director, Marleine Bastien. But the fight isn't just about Eastside Ridge. There were also stories of how developers and real estate investors are swooping into the Little Haiti area and forcing out small businesses and churches. In addition, speakers talked about real estate agents continuously contacting Haitian homeowners in the area, encouraging them to sell their homes. Bastien called it a plot to remove Haitian people from Little Haiti. "You can't sell your house. If you sell your house, we are going to lose Little Haiti!" Bastien shouted as the audience applauded. "You need to keep your house!" Actually, the plot has more to do with making money than simply forcing out Haitians. In July 2016, RealtyTrac rang the dinner bell for house flippers quadruple the monthly rent. Jules says he left, even though he had spent some $70,000 renovating the space. Now developers are making offers to buy the apartment building where his church relocated. "We're not okay with the way inves- tors and developers, the way they work, the way they fight with us," Jules says. Evan Philias, One God in Three Person's youth director, says they're also organizing with other churches in the area. But Philias says they don't neces- sarilyy want to stop the project outright. They want concessions that will benefit working-class people, particularly Hai- tians, who live in the surrounding area. "Right now, there's nothing to help the community, and the things that will help the community are better housing and better jobs," says Philias, who is also affiliated with UNITE HERE. "Small businesses are being displaced, and there's nothing to help them." To obtain their desired zoning, Eastside Ridge's developers are going. through a process to evaluate a special area plan, or SAP. As part of that pro- cess, developers must demonstrate com- munity benefits. Three activists at the April 9 meeting told the BT that they'd like an arrangement similar to the one that Miami Worldcenter's developers had to follow in Park West three years ago. In exchange for receiving up to $108 million in tax rebates, the develop- ers agreed to hire at least 30 percent of its workforce from within the Southeast Overtown Park West Community Re- development Area at salaries starting at $11.58 an hour for unskilled labor. The arrangement was negotiated largely by City of Miami Commission Chairman Keon Hardemon, whose district includes Park West, Overtown, HOUSING AFFORDABILITY IN THE EASTSIDE RIDGE SAP PROPOSAL MIAMi•DADE METRO AMI fOR A H005E110E0 OG GOVA ':f:e„)NA PROPOSAL I $ 118,580 TWO BEDROOM RENT LIMITS MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME $ 50,820 $ 25,410 Submitted Into The Record $77, 032 CENSUS BLOCK GROUP OF PROJECT $39,853 CITY OF MIAMI $24,800 MINIMUM WAGE $ 1 7, 597 Area Median Income and rent limit figures are based on 2019 FL Housing Finance Corporation data. Minimum wage based on 2019 rates C MMUNITY JUSTICE PROJECT 6/2.212_,A Little Haiti residents fear being pushed out and are pushing back on big developments BY JOEY FLECHAS jflechas@nziamiherald.com Pastor Erick Jules shouted into the night, one voice in a chorus of about 25 people chanting outside Miami City Hall around 1 a.m. "Little Haiti not for sale! Little Haiti not for sale!" they shouted Thursday morning, hoisting signs that said the same. They cele- brated after a late -night meeting where they had just succeeded in delaying a large-scale redevelopment of 22 acres that many see as the opening salvo in an wave of gentrification that could rapidly transform their swath of Miami and boost housing prices be- yond what they could af- ford. "Here in Little Haiti, we are sitting on some of the most precious land in the city," Jules had told the board an hour earlieg, Jules, the pastor at One God in Three Persons First Baptist Church, was one of more than a dozen local residents who spoke out against the specific project and against gentrification in general. The project at hand was Eastside Ridge, a large complex of more than 10 buildings, including towers rising about 20 stories, that would replace low -slung Design Place apartments on the corner of Northeast Second Avenue and 50th Street. Architect Kobi Karp designed the residential, hotel and commercial pro- ject for landlord SPV Realty. Some residents who at- tended the meeting were either supportive or luke- warm on the development, which is proposed to come with public benefits that would include workforce housing, jobs for people in Little Haiti and new park space. But the louder and larger part of the audience voiced strong criticism of the East - side Ridge proposal and, on a higher order, Miami's approach to redrawing neighborhoods using large- scale redevelopment. Many opponents who spoke are hospitality workers repre- sented by Unite Here Local 355, the county's only hotel union, and they insisted that Eastside Ridge can provide more benefits for the community and ensure that the development keeps Little Haiti residents from being displaced. One resident after anoth- er decried the influx of "special area plans" on the horizon. Such plans allow developers who own nine acres or more of contiguous land to ask for greater den- sity and height in exchange for public amenities, such as parks. Five of these projects are in the works for tracts of land north of Interstate 195, with Eastside Ridge furthest along in the planning pro- cess. Residents want the city to consider all the pro- posals together because they fear the identity of Little Haiti is going to be wiped out one mega devel- opment at a time. "We have five major, mammoth developments like Eastside Ridge corning to the area," said Marleine Bastien, executive director of Haitian Women of Mia- mi. "This is overdevel- opment on steroids." Besides Eastside Ridge, four other similar plans are in development: • Legions West, a 1.2 million -square -foot com- plex that would abut Legion Park. • Miami Jewish Health Systems, across Second Avenue from Design Place, which is planning an expan- sion of an existing campus. • Magic City, a 15-acre assemblage including in- dustrial buildings and a demolished trailer park straddling Little Haiti and Little River that developers Tony Cho and Bob Zangril- lo want to convert into a technology, residential and cultural center. • Archbishop Curley -Notre Dame High School site, 15 acres directly south of Design Place, where the developer wants to build apartments, condos and retail space. The devel- oper is the same team be- hind the recently approved American Dream Mall in Northwest Miami -Dade. Late Wednesday, plan- ning board members al- lowed the Eastside Ridge development team to make a brief presentation, but the hearing was mostly ded- icated to allowing the pub- lic to weigh in because people had waited hours through other unrelated votes to speak on Eastside Ridge. After the meeting stretched into Thursday morning, the board asked the Eastside Ridge team to meet with activists and negotiate further so more 1 consensus can be built before the proposal comes back in September. Among the requests from the board: that the developer include onsite affordable housing. Ric Katz, a publicist and lobbyist who is represent- ing the owner, said on Thursday that the team is open to talks with the com- munity. "I have no doubt they will talk to us," he said. "I have no doubt Marleine and her group will sit down and talk specifics. We would greatly welcome that." The board agreed to hear the proposal again Sept. 5. Submitted Into he Record fry 19. 0° V ke/ May 15th, 2019 PZAB 2 and PZAB 3 Submitted Into The Record From: Peter R. Ehrlich, Jr. — Lemon City, Industria1 59, LLC. RE: Eastside Ridge Special Area Plan (SAP) Application Deny PZAB 2 and PZAB 3 outright; do not approve this scheme "with conditions". This is this applications fourth try at PZAB. Let the developer fix the plethora of problems before bringing it back for your approval or denial. I ask this of you as a longtime shareholder in the neighborhood. Since 1998 my companies have owned property located between NE 54th Street and NE 62' Streets. I have driven through the neighborhood 20,000+ times since 1998. (4 times a day x 6,000+/- days.). I am affiliated with Lemon City, MiMo, the Urban Environment League (UEL), Scenic Miami and Bayside Historic District. We have tried to work things out with the applicants. Neighbors have expressed their concerns to Ed Martos, Vicky Leiva and other paid promoters of the up zoning. Ed Martos refused to respond to E-mails and calls since August 2017. Vicky Leiva, the newly hired lobbyist/attorney, has NOT addressed our concerns either. Specifically, regarding traffic and access to the site: A. We strongly recommend that the existing and proposed main entrance on NE 54th Street be moved west to perfectly line up with the existing City owned NE 3rd Avenue. Two lanes in and two lanes out south of 54th Street but definitely line up with the existing 3rd Avenue. B. We strongly recommend that the entrance/exit at NE 2nd Avenue at 51st Street be fixed. We recommend 2 lanes coming in and 2 lanes going out. Most importantly, there should be one NE 1 51 st Street intersection NOT two. Line up with the Jewish Home Medical Center and Hotel entrance/exit currently called NE 51 st Street. Yes, there are two NE 51st Streets now... There should be one traffic light for NE 51 st Street, NOT two. C. We recommend that a new NE 3rd Avenue be extended due south to NE 48" Street and INTO the Archbishop Curley site. NE 3rd Avenue south of NE 54th Street should be perfectly aligned with NE 3' Avenue going north to 62nd Street. This helps to provide accessibility to surrounding neighborhoods and it would help alleviate the inevitable traffic gridlock at the 54th Street and NE 2" d Avenue intersection. D. We recommend that the property owners address the horrible monster intersection at 54th Street/Biscayne Blvd./Federal Highway/NE 4' Court/FEC Railroad Tracks. There should be an entrance/exit on NE 54th Street as far west as possible to keep traffic away from the horrible monster intersection at 54th Street/Biscayne Blvd./Federal Highway/NE 4' Court/FEC Railroad Tracks. We get 32-40 Brightline trains a day now? We get freight trains. Imagine the gridlock if we get more...? Imagine if we get 32-40 Local trains a day...? E. This site is NOT in Little Haiti. Little Haiti is north of NE 54th Street. This site is south of NE 54' Street. Any references to Little Haiti and any references to funneling money to a "Little Haiti Trust" or a "Little Haiti Foundation" justifies this application being denied. F. See PZAB Fact Sheet and proposed Resolution pages 7-8, paragraph 18), Section 4. We disagree with a.c.d.e.f.g.h.i. For example, d. "Any potentially adverse effects of the development will be mitigated through compliance with the conditions of this SAP as stated herein;"... Obviously, there are a plethora of 2 adverse impacts that ARE NOT mitigated. i.e Traffic, density, a lack of a Development Agreement..., neighborhood opposition... G. See PZAB Fact Sheet and proposed Resolution page 6 of 8. Paragraph 16). Attached is a DRAFT Development Agreement. NO final Development Agreement? No Development Agreement for 90 days? Deny this application until you are shown a final Development Agreement. H. See Exhibit B. Page 11/48. Section 3.14.4 section 3. Little Haiti Trust? The site is NOT within Little Haiti. This site is south of 54th Street. I. See Exhibit B. Page 12/48. iv. 3. Donations? Foundation contribution? Cash to Little Haiti Foundation? What is a Little Haiti Foundation? Developer chooses 4 of 7 seats? Development Agreement attached to the application is only a DRAFT. J. See Exhibit B, page 14/48, Article 4, Table 2. T-5? T-5 dwelling units increasing from 65 per acre to 150 per acre? Really? Please hear PZAB 2 and PZAB 3 today and vote to deny this application. Do not approve this scheme "with conditions". Deny it and let the developer fix the plethora of problems before bringing it back. Thank you. Peter R. Ehrlich, Jr. Business: Mailing: 3' Avenue at 59th Street 720 NE 69th Street, Suite 6W Miami, Florida 33137 Miami, Florida 33138 3 TO: Mayor Suarez, City of Miami Commission Chair and Commissioners, Planning and Zoning Appeals Board Members, Francisco Garcia, Director Planning and Zoning Department May 15, 2°19 Dear Mayor Suarez, Commissioners, Director Garcia, and members of the Planning and Zoning Appeals Board, I'm writing to urge you to immediately halt all SAPs and examine all elements, and exceptions to, the zoning basis, Miami 21, that affect Little Haiti, pending an enquiry into the effects of multiple SAPs and unregulated, unmitigated development on this historic African -Caribbean neighborhood. The Design Place / `Eastside Ridge' plan on the agenda for today's PZAB meeting is only one of several simultaneous developments that are being proposed within this small area. If permitted to go ahead, they cumulatively will destroy the livelihood, cultural character, and accessibility of housing in a specific neighborhood that for decades has been home to a stable, embedded community. This community has remained against huge obstacles and odds, and it has thrived and contributed to the identity of Miami. If these several developments - Design Place / 'Eastside Ridge', Little Haiti `Magic City', Archbishop Curley High, and Miami Jewish Health System - are all permitted to go ahead and displace the mostly African -Caribbean inhabitants of Little Haiti, there is good cause to wonder whether the 14th Amendment can be invoked in the permissions and zoning process at work here. A city plan embodies the vision of a city, an idea of social organization, and a cultural ideal. The zoning basis, Miami 21, deliberately incorporates states of exception (called SAPs) available to anyone who can purchase 9 contiguous acres of land. Now we clearly see that these Little Haiti SAPs cannot be considered each in isolation, but all together. If this view is taken, it's clear that if Miami 21 is Swiss cheese, then the SAPs in and around Little Haiti make it more hole than cheese! Within the wider social and cultural context, these states of exception benefit the few and the monied. It's detrimental to the commons. The cumulative effect of these SAPs is to codify and legitimize the transfer of public goods into private hands. We saw this already at Legion Park - before the voices of the people spoke. Here, we would not lose a public park- we would lose an entire neighborhood - an important neighborhood for Miami - to the disproportionate zoning power of 3 or 4 privately -owned enclaves in close proximity to each other. The public good we need to preserve here is the right to a workable liveable city with room for all to thrive: working class, elders, people of African descent, immigrants, and yes, even poor people. It is now very clear who is included and who is purposely zoned out of the zoning. The idea of social organization that is represented by this code is one that champions and encourages the appropriation of the commons by tiny, well-favoured groups of rentiers. But what Submitted Into T e Record about the renters? The renters are the majority; the renters are those who are the workforce of this city; already cost -burdened, already threatened by displacement. The logical outcome of this SAP and the zoning process in which it is purposely embedded is the mining out of low -density residential and human -scale commercial neighborhoods, and the "Brickellization" of the Biscayne Corridor, going even further north. Ironically, these states of exception all result in the same old thing. High density and a glamourized, standardized, hipster / `haute retail', `haute condo' aesthetic supposedly diluted by incorporating superficial stylistic features of Haitian architecture. This is not only out of keeping with the wider area's norms of height and density, it is completely antithetical to the cultural ideal of a diverse city. We need Miami's planning and zoning to reflect the ideal of a just city. The cultural ideal, not of exclusivity, but of social solidarity and radical inclusion. Please deny this permission, and instead consider the cumulative effect of Miami 21 and of multiple SAPs on the integrity, density, culture, and social vision of Little Haiti and of the City of Miami as a whole. All SAPs affecting Little Haiti should be suspended, pending a review. Please do so via a Commission of Inquiry to consider and analyze the 1.4`h Amendment repercussions of multiple simultaneous SAPs, were they to be given planning permission in one small predominantly African -Caribbean area of Miami. Thank you. Yours sincerely, Danielle Goodman Submitted Into The Record 15 HISTORIC NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION To: City of Miami Planning and Zoning Board Members RE: Request for SAP, Eastside Ridge May 7, 2019 Buena Vista East Historic Neighborhood Association maintains its opposition regarding the request for an SAP and essentially an up zoning for Design Place/Eastside Ridge. Buena Vista East is a small historic neighborhood of 320 homes in a six by two block area bounded by NE 42nd Street, Miami Avenue, NE 2nd Avenue and NE 48th Street. The plans as rendered and presented to the community were opposed by almost all in attendance at two different charettes. Our objections are the same as we have raised repeatedly: 1) Current zoning would permit tripling the amount of units on the property (512 to 1460) and it is within rights that the developer does so. Approving this SAP would allow them almost 3,300 units in addition to retail and medical space. The burden of traffic and infrastructure would fall on the local community. Traffic is already rated F on Biscayne Boulevard and the street design at NE 4th Court and NE 54th Street limits the volume of traffic moving north and south, turning, and moving east/west across the railroad tracks. Adding more vehicles would bring this area to a standstill. 2) The Miami Jewish Health System on the west side of NE 54`h Street and NE 2"d Avenue also has been granted an SAP for expansion into a major health care system. Magic City is in progress another 8 blocks to the north, also accessing NE 2"d Avenue. Magic City will add 2600 residential units, 345,000 square feet of retail space, and 1.9 million square feet of office. That creates the potential of almost 6000 residential units in the midst of single family homes and low density buildings. Both projects will further overwhelm our already overburdened infrastructure, including accessing Biscayne Boulevard, NE 2"d Avenue, and NE 4`h Court/Federal Highway, all of which now experience brief but frequent closures as Brightline and cargo trains move through 25-30 trips per day. More trains are expected. 3) The sheer scale of this project is out of context with the surrounding neighborhoods, Little Haiti to the north, Morningside and the Upper East Side to the east, and Buena Vista East, Bellaire, Buena Vista Heights and the Design District to the south. Zoning greater than T-5 is generally found south of 112/1-195, as well as buildings with equivalent height and massing. The area north of I-195 to 79`h Street is predominantly single- family one and two story homes. Miami 21 requires that construction is contextual, yet the planning department continues to support massively overbuilt projects -even their recommended 20 stories is massive in comparison to the area. 4) The developers continue to float bonus heights due to location on a transit corridor, as well as plans for a train station, but there is no guarantee that trains would actually stop there. 5) The developer held two charettes, making minor cosmetic adjustments instead of addressing the major complaints of height, size and massing. The communities present at August 2017's city sponsored hearing were almost 100% opposed to the development at this scale. In December 2018 PZAB indefinitely deferred this item after it appeared that the developer had not met with community members. Nothing has changed since that December meeting. Eastside Ridge has our contact information, as we were contacted multiple times when they were instructed to meet with the community. As of today's hearing, there was no contact With surrounding communities including Buena Vista East, Buena Vista Heights, and Buena Vista Stakeholders by anyone representing Eastside Ridge, and it should not have been difficult as outreach in 2017 __was thorough -and efficient. x Granting an SAP should showcase and improve the subject property as well as surrounding areas -this does nothing more than maximize the money to be made from this site at the community's expense. Furthermore, the new plans submitted appear very similar to previous plans submitted, and the agenda packet does little to distinguish what has actually changed. The artist renderings seem to be the same, with some additional drawings showing massing from different points in the community. We strongly urge you to deny the SAP requested for Design Place/Eastside Ridge. Respectfully, Robin Porter, President Buena Vista East Neighborhood Association