City Commission Conference Meeting and CRA Meeting on 2026-01-20 1:35 PM - Jan 20, 2026

Good afternoon, everybody. Is my mic on? Okay. Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the City Commission conference meeting this January 20th, 2026. Sorry, I was a little late. I got caught by the freight train. Anyway, thank you all for being here this afternoon. We have a number of important topics to discuss, and I want to thank you all for being here. So let us begin. We have a communication to the City Commission from the Infrastructure... Mayor, pardon me, I just want to highlight that at the last meeting, the Commission made a determination on the order of the meetings and that the CRA would begin first. I don't recall that, but we can certainly do that. We talked about it. We didn't agree to that, but I'm okay with that. Is there something on the CRA board meeting that we need to discuss right now that's controversial? Is anyone here from the CRA board meeting? No. Mayor, I thought we did agree to that, though. Yes. Did we? Yeah, we were in agreement just to eliminate the long wait. It's usually a very short meeting. Right. And we agreed to go forward and have that meeting first. That's fine. To keep a courtesy for our neighbors. All right, so we'll suspend the conference meeting right now, and we'll go into the CRA board meeting. Mr. Clerk, would you please call the roll? Vice Chair Herbst. Commissioner Glassman. Here. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman. Here. Commissioner Sorensen. Here. Chair Trent-Hiles. Here. M1, this is a motion to approve the minutes for the January 6th, 2026 Community Redevelopment Agency Board meeting. Someone move? So moved. Second. Been moved and seconded. All right, please call the roll. Vice Chair Herbst. Yes. Commissioner Glossman. Yes. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman. Yes. Commissioner Sorensen. Yes. Chair Trent-Hiles. M1 is now approved, R1, Resolution Approving of Modifications to the Central City Community Redevelopment Area Residential Facade and Landscaping Incentive Program, and renaming it to the Residential Enhancement Program. No one has signed up to speak. Would someone like to introduce a resolution? Introduced. Okay. Any questions or comments? Comments. Yes. Yes. Good afternoon. I just wanted to share some concern from a neighbor. If we can have CRA come forward, please. When we were doing this project before, I know we're doing the name change, but before it was the Facade and Landscape Initiative, the neighbor has concerns with the timeline of payment for those vendors that are being used. There was a delay. She highlighted we waited. They did the inspection. Then there was a delay in payment to that particular vendor contractor. So if you could share with us the timeline, what that looks like as far as them being paid and the process overall. This is in the Central City CRA? This is for the, no, we're not Central City. Who are we? This is all we're talking about right now is Central City. See, Resolution Approving Modifications to the Central City Community Redevelopment Area Residential Facade and Landscaping Incentive Program and renaming it the Residential Enhancement Program. Okay. I was under the impression that this also was affecting District 3. Is it? District 3 was approved back on December 2nd, 2025. So it's an accompanying item, I would say. Okay. But can we answer her question? Sure. So the timeline, once the application comes in, we do review the application. And from that process, we then go forward. We inspect the property to make sure that the applicant meets all of those requirements. And then the process begins from prior to the new modification, the applicant required three quotes in order to move forward. Now we're decreasing that to up to two. So, and we're now implementing a process list of all of the professionals that we do receive so that when the applicant comes in, it kind of decreases the process of them having to find their own professional. So I think that that would eliminate a lot of the delay in moving forward. Thank you for sharing and explaining that for me. All right. Great. Any other questions or comments with regard to R1? Can I make one point of clarification? So a couple things just to clarify what was said. So this item refers to District 3, even though it's Central City, because there's a small portion of District 3 near Powerline Road that's included. The CRA did make similar improvements and changes to the program that applies to the Northwest Progressive Flagler Heights program. So I think that's where there's some similarities and why that question was relevant to both. It's also a reimbursement program. So once the person does the work, they submit reimbursement to the CRA for those funds. So that might cause some of the delays. So as an administrative improvement, we could look at how that timeline works out. All right. I think the neighbors will appreciate that review. Thank you. All right. Great. Would someone like to introduce the resolution? It's been introduced already, right? Okay. Please call the roll. A resolution of the Board of Commissioners of the Fort Lauderdale Community Redevelopment Agency approving modifications to the Central City Community Redevelopment Agency Residential Facade and Landscaping Program and renaming the program, delegating authority to the executive director to execute any and all agreements relating to such award. Under the program, providing for an effective date. Vice Chair Herbst? Yes. Commissioner Glassman? Yes. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman? Yes. Commissioner Sorensen? Yes. Chair Trantals? Yes. And R1 is now approved. R2, resolution approving a third amendment to the interlocal agreement for the Northeast 4th Avenue Complete Street Project between Broward County, the City of Fort Lauderdale, and the Fort Lauderdale Community Redevelopment Agency. No one has signed up to speak. Anyone have any questions? I have a question. I drove down there this afternoon, and a number of the trees look a little, they look like they need some help. We planted them. We don't seem to take care of them. I hate to see such expensive trees die, and so I just want to bring that to everyone's attention, that we need to pay a little bit more attention to the upkeep and maintenance of those trees, all right? Thank you, Mayor. Someone would like to introduce a resolution? Introduced. The resolution has been introduced. Please call the roll. A resolution of the Board of Commissioners of the Fort Lauderdale Community Redevelopment Agency approving a third amendment to an interlocal agreement among Broward County, the City of Fort Lauderdale, and the Fort Lauderdale Community Redevelopment Agency to extend the term of the interlocal agreement and providing an effective date. Vice Chair Herbst? Commissioner Glassman? Yes. Commissioner Beasley-Pittman? Yes. Commissioner Sorensen? Yes. Chair Trentals? Yes. And R2 is now approved. Is there any further business of the CRA? No, Mayor. There being none, this meeting is now concluded. We'll resume back to our conference meeting. Our conference meeting infrastructure task force sent a communication to us. They sent us a lifeline. The question is, do we have any interest in extending the life of the CRA, which, excuse me, of the infrastructure task force, which expires in one month, February 18th? What have we charged the committee to do so far? What projects have we sought to engage their assistance? I'm trying to think where we are with that. So, Mayor, staff has been drafting an item to come to the City Commission for the February 3rd meeting that would establish this board more officially. We have shared a communication with the chair in which we look to define and potentially refine the scope of this board. The board has been working on any number of infrastructure reviews of city assets to also include, you know, some vertical construction projects of the city. One of the ideas that might be appropriate should the City Commission determine that this was more efficient, we want to make sure that the board has enough to work on with staff. At the same time, we want to make sure that the scope isn't so broad that the board and staff are looking at every single type of project within the city. So, for example, one of the recommendations that we have is that the board focus on roads, sidewalks, water and wastewater treatment, plants, and the like. For projects such as parks bond projects where there is a parks advisory board that's already in place, it may be redundant for this board to work on that as well. But that's something that the City Commission would outline and determine, just something for your consideration. So, does it make sense then to establish this task force committee as a permanent board? If the need is so great and continuous, why do we have to keep renewing its existence if really what you've explained to us now is something far greater than we originally anticipated this board was supposed to do? Any thoughts on that, anybody? Okay, no thoughts. Thoughts? Yeah. Go ahead. Beasley Pittman. Okay. If you recall, a couple months back, this was a request that I had hoped to have a conversation about, so I appreciate the direction that we're moving in today. But I do believe that there is a place for the task force advisory committee, making it a true board where it is defined as far as the scope, where they will be reviewing and giving us recommendation on. But I believe that the expertise for those who are currently a part of the board, and then even those who will be appointed in the future, it will benefit us as a commission to have them to look in, give us a purview of what they see, and come back with a great report, giving some direction. In terms of the need to make it a permanent board? Yes, because they're sun setting, right? Yeah, they're sun setting in a month, and I'm just saying that, you know, in response to what the city manager has just described as the necessity for continuing the work of the task force committee, do we want to make it a more permanent board because there's never a shortage of projects that we're involved with? And if the administration relies on the task force committee to advise it on a number of projects, is this something that we should continue long-term? Can I share, Sorensen? Yeah, sure. Thanks. City manager, were you? I just wanted to clarify, it's not that there's a reliance on the part of staff for the participation of this advisory board. We just want to make sure that we identify the scope so that the board isn't necessarily tasked with all of the projects that the city is implementing. So we're interested in the focus being more on the traditional infrastructure projects, mostly underground, as opposed to vertical construction projects, such as city hall or Parks Bond projects or Friar stations. Okay. I'm sorry, go ahead, Ben. No, you can go ahead. I would just want, just to ducktail on that. So city manager, the enabling legislation of the infrastructure task force, did it strictly look at, just like you mentioned, underground projects, whether it's our, you know, our Fortify Lauderdale projects, water, stormwater, sewer, or did it address all of the other items that the infrastructure task force has weighed in in over the years? We've kept, we've asked them to weigh in on a lot of different things. At first, it was established for the Fortify Lauderdale agenda, but we have tasked it with doing much more than that, including the city hall. So the question is, you know, seeing that we keep renewing it every year, is this something we really want to make more permanent? Because they are, in fact, become a good resource and a good sounding board for a lot of the projects that we've been involved with. And so I just raise it as a point. It's not being asked of us, but I just said, thinking, is this the time to start considering the possibility of it being a more permanent board? Well, what do you see, city manager, as the timeline to bring the ordinance to us for this to become a board? Did you say February 3rd? We are pending some feedback from the chair, but we're eyeballing February 3rd as the opportunity to come back for initial consideration by the commission. And that's to change from a task force to a board? Correct. Okay. Thank you. So what do you want to do now? Yeah. Go ahead. Yeah. Thanks, Mayor. So one, Peter Partington's from, I don't know if he signed up, but I'd love to hear from him, from Peter. No one has signed up to speak on this. So is Peter here? Peter's here. Come on up, Peter. Come on down. The mayor, is Peter's coming up? You could watch the button at the bottom of the speaker. One of the suggestions I'd have, city manager and mayor, is as we think about Fortify Fort Lauderdale, as we think about moving our infrastructure work underground as fast as possible. We've had some discussions about P3 projects. We're going to get further analysis from city manager about P3 underground. To me, Mayor, that's a great topic as well that they could be exploring in the ITF is P3 partnerships, Fortify Fort Lauderdale, traditional bid, and do some of that thinking and work and analysis, I think, could be good, too. Mayor, just as an example of one piece. Peter. So Peter Partington, currently chair of the infrastructure task force. A couple of things. Basically, I think you already decided in principle that you were going to move from an advisory group that was reauthorized every couple of years to a permanent board. And this resolution was passed before we knew the timeline for the draft ordinance creating the board. And that now has been revealed as being the first reading on the 3rd of February and the second reading on the 17th. At the time we passed that resolution, we did not know that. So really, that timeline for the ordinance obviates the need to take any action on a resolution because all being well and subject to your agreement, obviously, we will become or there will be a board after the 17th. We will have most likely a discussion on the draft scope in the draft ordinance on our meeting, which actually takes place on February the 2nd. So we will be able to give input on certainly on the second reading as a result of our consideration of that. And pretty much speaking only for myself, I'm in lockstep with what the city manager said. The scope appears to me to be fine and similar. We have only, similar to previously, we've only involved ourselves in certain projects at your request and direction. For example, City Hall. Personally, I see no need to be involved in that again unless you request that of us. Okay, so it's already on the schedule to make it more permanent. Okay, there we go. So you need no action from us now then because the second reading is February 17th. Correct. And this says you're expiring, your committee is expiring on the 18th, so we're good. Yeah, and just to mention, if and when you do create a board, then you'll have to appoint new members. Okay. Because the old members will... When is your term up? I can't remember, but it's up February the 18th. No. All right. Well, thank you. We appreciate it. Okay, and just to say, appreciate the commission's priority on infrastructure. Thank you very much. Okay. I have one question. Go ahead. Existing board members or members that are on the task force, is there anything that prevents us from reappointing them to the permanent board? Only if they're... Don't we have a rule you can be on a committee and a board, but not two boards? So if there's somebody who's on this committee and also on a board, we may not be able to reappoint them. But we can research that and see if they're taking two roles. All right. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Peter. So city managers want to track, so what happens next? So we would work with our public works department. I see O'Neill Rodriguez, our assistant public works director here. We would work on drafting that legislation for consideration by the commission, take it to the infrastructure task force to get feedback, and hopefully incorporate that feedback and present to the city commission for a second reading in February. Okay. Okay. Okay. Good. All set? Thank you. All right. Very good. Thank you. I see, you know, when I look at the minutes of that task force, I see that we have a full complement of board members participating, but I also see you have a legion of staff people who attend there. Is there some reason why all these people were asked to come to these meetings? I mean, that's one of the considerations for refining the scope of the task force, because the inquiries may be very broad. We want to make sure we have the staff available to answer their questions and be responsive. All right. Do you want to refine the scope now or at the next reading? I think if you would like to give the feedback now, it would help guide us in drafting for first reading. Otherwise, we could also wait and make the update between first and second reading. So my feedback is underground, water, sewer, stormwater should be the primary focus of ITF. Agreed. Or unless the commission asks otherwise. Agreed, Mayor. All right. There you go. And the current draft has that provision where the commission can ask for anything. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So, first presentation, we are honored to have as our guest today, School Board Chair Sarah Leonardi and School Board Member Dr. Jeff Holness. Come on up. You're going to make a presentation. Give us some updates. And after your presentation, I have a couple of questions to ask. Yeah, please come up here. Just press the button that's below the speaker. Good afternoon. Did you enjoy the Martin Luther King Parade? A little chilly, right? I especially appreciate their dancing, Mayor. It was... I really hope there is no video of that. There is. We'll actually be sharing it soon here, Chair Leonardi. Thank you for your... With your election opponents. Thank you. Thank you for your eagerness. Welcome. Good afternoon, everyone. It's an honor to be here. And we're going to be providing academic and district updates. And Chair Leonardi will go ahead and start. All right. Well, it's a pleasure to see all of you. You have the two board members who represent all of Fort Lauderdale together. So thank you so much for having us. And again, thank you for a wonderful MLK Day parade. It's always such a joy. For those of you who don't know, I'm Sarah Leonardi. I'm Chair of the School Board, and I represent District 3, which is a lot of East Fort Lauderdale. And we have Vice Chair, Dr. Holness. Thank you. Thank you. So if you could change the slide to slide 3, that would be very helpful. Is this what we use? Okay. That should be working. But City Clerk can help. Slide 3. Oh, that's it? This one? Okay. All right. Great. Okay. So thank you so much again for having us. It's an honor for us to be here to update the City of Fort Lauderdale. Just want to speak about some real positive things that are happening in Broad County schools as well. So for the second year in a row, Broad County Public Schools earned an A rating, and the number of C-rated schools were reduced by a half from 70 in 2023-24 school year to 34 in year 24-25. In addition to that, the district reported no D- or F-rated schools. So I think, Mayor, if you don't mind, I think that deserves a round of applause. And I've been talking a lot about the new Broward schools, given a lot of the noise and the news. I think it's really important to talk about how we are succeeding at our core mission, which is educating students. As you can see, more than half of our traditional Broward public schools are A-rated. We are only one of two large school districts in the state of Florida that have no D- or F- schools. And we are a vast majority of our schools have received A- or B- grades. So when people are talking about moving to Broward, specifically moving to Fort Lauderdale, which we'll talk about later in this presentation, you can assure people that we have great traditional public schools for children to go to. And we're really, really proud of all of our teachers, our families, everyone who works with students who deliver these excellent academic outcomes for our students. That was my slide. I'm really proud of our District 3 schools. In the last few years since we've moved to this new accountability system for the state of Florida, we've seen a lot of improvements. Schools that were historically C-rated moving to B or A schools. And we're really, really proud of that accomplishment. So two of the schools in District 3 that went from a C to an A grade include Northside Elementary, the beautiful, historic Northside here in Fort Lauderdale, as well as Cypress Elementary, which is right on the other side of the border in Pompano. It used to be my home school until I moved to this great city two years ago. And then we can be really proud of Stranahan High School, which received its first ever A rating. So 93% of our District 3 schools are A or B rated. Again, something really for us to brag about as a city. Chair, Leonardo, can you share with us just a little bit, maybe folks start, who rates the school? What are some of the factors in that rating? And what leads to changes from scoring from year to year? Yeah, so this is the state's accountability measure. So students now, they take three assessments throughout the year. They're called FAST assessments. And there's a calculation of, you know, proficiency, how much the students improve from the first test in the school year to the end. So there's a multitude of different metrics that go into this. But this is the state's own accountability system that has rated us on such an excellent level. And the state has also rated us a high-performing school district. Great. Thank you. Okay, so we'll look at the schools in my district that's in Fort Lauderdale. And we have three schools that increase by two-letter grades. And we also have 11 schools that increase by one-letter grade. And 18 schools that maintain the same-letter grade from 2024. So if you look at the slide for District 5, you'll see that in District 5 in general, rather, we have schools that improve from a C to an A. And this is overall in District 5, which is Horizon Elementary, Rock Island Elementary, and Sunland Park Academy. And in District 5, we have some schools that receive A for the first time ever. We have Oriel Elementary School, Plantation Elementary, and Board Anderson High School. So there's a lot of wonderful academic improvement that we are observing in Broad County schools. And we are so proud of our teachers, our staff, our district, and our school board members as well, who work diligently to make sure that our district continues to perform. So, again, we're kind of diving into the data a little bit more on our schools. But I do want to highlight, so in District 3 as well as District 5, you have some schools that have historically been high-performing. Your Bayviews, your VSYs, your Harbordales, Fort Lauderdale High School, they have been able to maintain their A rating from the state. But I think what an exciting story in addition to that is you have, again, some schools that have improved over the last several years. You have Bennett Elementary, Northside, Westwood Heights, Stephen Foster, New River, Riverland, that are going from C to B to A schools. And so, again, as you're trying to attract families into the city and talking about affordability, we have great public education options available for families that are doing a really excellent job at, again, our core mission, educating students. Okay, so if you notice on this slide, these are the schools that are in Fort Lauderdale in District 5. And prior, Chair Leonardi showed schools that are in Fort Lauderdale in her district as well. So if you look at the schools in the chart, it shows that Dillard Elementary has shown outstanding improvement from a D to a B in just two years. North Fork has maintained a B rating for two consecutive years. Rock Island and Sunland Park made a major leap from a C to an A. And Thurgood Marshall and William Dandy has maintained a C rating over the past three years and was just one percentage point, rather, shy of achieving a B rating. Walker has shown remarkable progress as well, improving from an F to a B in just two years. And Dillard 6 through 12 has shown positive improvement, improving to a B after two years at a C. So when we look at all of our schools in Fort Lauderdale, in both Chair Leonardi's district and mine, most of the school, except for one, either maintain the same letter grade or improve. So we're very proud of what we're achieving here in Fort Lauderdale as far as Broad County Schools and our efforts to ensure maximum student learning outcome. At this point, we will have Dr. Wanza come up and provide some additional redefining updates for you. And before the wonderful Dr. Wanza speaks, I do want to acknowledge, I think a huge part of the story of academic success in Fort Lauderdale is the commitment from this commission and from the city. The amount of money you all have invested in the parks at our schools and the playgrounds, your EAB and your chief education officer are very excellent partners in all of that. So thank you for your commitment and partnership in making Fort Lauderdale schools as excellent as they are. Good afternoon. So I guess I'm going to get an every two-week invitation. Keep coming back. Keep coming back. Would you like a seat up here? No, no, no, no. I'm fine being appointed, not elected. So as I told the commission and the community two weeks ago, tomorrow the board will engage in the culmination, if you will, of the conversation this school year around redefining our schools and then in another month or so sort of tee up for next year's conversations. But as we all know, the district has been in this second year of redefining our schools because we are experiencing unprecedented enrollment declines from year to year. As I said two weeks ago, rather, from one school year, we declined by 10,000 students. And what that equates to financially is over $90 million in one year. But then over the 10-year look, it's over $300, almost $350 million. So the board has been very, very concerned about this. And we've worked with the communities over this past school year. We actually had approximately 13 different community meetings across the Broward County area to discuss redefining. And so I'm going to click to the next slide. Okay. And so that right there, this slide outlines all of the conversations that we have. But more specifically, we did target the meetings that we had here as it relates to the city of Fort Lauderdale or schools that are located in the city of Fort Lauderdale. So you can see we've had community conversation in September. We've also had it in November. And then the board has had multiple board workshops around redefining our schools. So the next slide, Doctor. Thank you. So these are some commitments specifically as it relates to the city of Fort Lauderdale schools, but also district-wide because there are opportunities. We know that the board has said that definitely want to partner with the community, the city, to implement a maritime industry program at Stranahan High School. The board also solidified the partnership and reaffirmed this commitment to work with the city for the K-12 Sports Academy between Bennett, Sunrise, and Fort Lauderdale. And then some opportunities that may be in feeder patterns here in the city is around establishing some feeder patterns for dual language as well as gifted academy. And then something new around this whole technology emphasis around Broward powered by AI. And then we are looking and working with communities around really some future-ready type programming for students. But on tomorrow's board agenda as it relates specifically to the city is the item as it relates to North Fork Elementary School and consolidating North Fork into the four elementary schools. Of course, in part, Dr. Martin Luther King, Thurgood Marshall, Walker, and then transforming that campus for another district use. Also, expanding the opportunities at Thurgood Marshall to be from birth to grade five. And then lastly, the consolidation of Wooden Rogers and Seagull onto the Wooden campus and then working to transition the Seagull campus for another district use. So after tomorrow's board meeting and whatever action the board takes, we're certainly ready to operationalize those decisions. And then we're going to come back to the board on March 24th, as I told the commission two weeks ago, and we're going to have the conversation around the proposals that we receive for the North Fork campus. And then at the May 12th school board workshop, we're actually going to start to tee up the conversation for next school year. That's it. As I complete your presentation. Okay. I have a couple questions. How does a school or a school system experience such a precipitous leap over a short period of time and accomplish this level of achievement? I mean, it's more than just the cities adding some pickleball courts and a playing field. There's got to be more to it. Is there a formula? Was there an agenda? Is there something new added to the ingredients of higher education that maybe Dr. Hepburn has brought into the system that you can share with us today? Yeah, I think we'd both like to speak to that. But I think it's no secret that we experienced a lot of chaos over a very short period of time, about five years ago, where we had six superintendents in three years. There was a lot of staff turnover. And there had been kind of some entrenched issues for some time. And finally, when we were able to appoint a superintendent who had a strong academic background, he was a chief academic officer, and bring some stability to the system, for me, that's the story that I've seen play out. I mean, obviously, the accomplishments are owned by our students and our teachers and the people who are in our schools working every single day. But I think the stability that Dr. Hepburn has brought to the school district is definitely a part of that narrative. And I don't know if Dr. Holness. Thank you. And as Chair Leonardi mentioned, you know, Broad County Schools, we did experience, unfortunately, some periods of instability. But we've actually done some different things. For example, I believe this started with La Cotta and continued with Hepburn. And Hepburn pretty much did a really great job. We formed what we call the Student Transformation Office, and that office is a department that focuses on our low-performance schools. And we try to provide the right resources, targeted instructions, targeted resources for those schools. So initially, we had three regional offices. We added a fourth, which we called the Student Transformation Office, and that office focuses primarily on our low-performance schools. I believe that helped a lot. We also had programmatic changes in many of the schools. I would be remiss if I did not say as well that it's our teachers, our staff, that, you know, have worked diligently to ensure that our students are learning. So I believe with a combination of concerted effort with the school board members, the district leadership, and our teachers and staff, we were able to make a significant improvement in our schools. And Dr. Wanzer may have something else to add. I'm not sure. Okay. Any other questions? Ben? Yeah, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you both for being here. A couple questions. First, I'll start off with City Manager. I'm going to turn to you on this. So, Chair Leonardi and School Vice Chair Holness, we have an Education Advisory Board in the city. City Manager, do we have students on the Education Advisory Board? When I was on it years ago, I thought we did, but do you know if we do? I'm not 100% sure. Susan Leone, our chief education officer, is here. Okay. So my question is, how can we better engage students in our government in supporting the good work that's happening in our schools? So that was just one immediate thought I had. Education Advisory, so it's a volunteer, meet once a month in the afternoon. Susan, is that right? I think we meet, the Education Advisory Board meets once a month at, like, 5 o'clock or 6 o'clock or something like that. So would that be a good opportunity to engage students? Is there anything else we should be doing? Like, years ago, I thought about a student youth council that the city would support in some way. Susan, go ahead. Good afternoon. Thank you for the question. Yes, through Parks and Recreation, there is a teen youth council in place already. Oh, we do. I did not know that. Yes, we have one. How many students are on that? I would have to defer to Parks and Recreation to get the exact number. It's operated through Carla Hibbert and the teen program. Okay, great. Okay, I'll find out more about that offline. Susan, have we thought about students being on the Education Advisory Board? Is that something we could contemplate? Absolutely, we could research that. It's actually never come up at the board meetings, so certainly. Okay. Mayor, could we just look at, do a little research on that? Well, let her do the research, yeah. Her, yes. I just want to make sure we're supportive of exploring that. Okay. I think that'd be great. City Manager, if we could do that, I think that'd be great. Okay. Absolutely. So there's a couple things. Then, I'd also, and I think you all can talk about this following Sunshine Law because we're sunshine, but, so there's two schools, Seagull and Wynn Rogers, sorry, Seagull and North Fork. And so we had a good discussion at the commission meeting recently about Wynn Rogers and Seagull and exploring the possibility of a regional training facility for our fire and police. Have you heard our feedback about that or? Yeah, yeah. Go ahead. I think that you're fire chief and I don't know what Mike Owen's official title is. Deputy fire chief or assistant fire chief. I've spent a lot of time with Chief Golan and Mike discussing this, and they've been really excellent partners throughout the whole redefining effort. I don't think there's been a redefining meeting we've had about Fort Lauderdale schools that they haven't been at, and they've just been really great advocates for your vision. And then I've been very supportive of that. We've talked about it at board workshops and board meetings on this. And I'm really excited about the opportunity for the city, but also for our students to participate. So, yeah, it's been really great. And to your previous question, there are multiple different avenues in which we engage students for input. So we have a group of students organized by our student advisor to the board and the alternate student advisor to the board. They organize a workshop every quarter where they bring middle school and high school students to the dais with us, and they share their feedback on different issues. And that's been really enlightening and really productive. Again, we have a student advisor, an alternate student advisor, and then the superintendent has his own committee of student advisors that he meets with. So there's a lot of different ways that we've been able to engage that you guys can also utilize. And I know I was just with a group of students at Fort Lauderdale High School this morning, and there are many who are eager to get involved in local government and excited about that. So however we can assist with getting you guys access through the appropriate channels to students and student feedback, we're happy to do that. Okay, that's great. Thank you. City manager, what happens next in our, let's start with Seagull discussion with the school board, exploring options there? As mentioned, we've been advocating over the course of the last several months, and I know that the school board has a meeting coming up where more determinations will be made as to the schools and how that will progress. Once that happens, we will have another opportunity to advocate on behalf of the city for that public safety training facility. We do need to do a little bit more due diligence on our part in terms of what it would take to make that facility what we intend for it to be in terms of fiscal resources and a timeline. But all of that would be subject to those discussions with the school board. It is not clear at this moment as to what the consideration would be for the city to be able to utilize that site. I know we've had previous conversations about various sites and whether it would be market rate or a long-term lease or some other mechanism. So we are looking at this as a true partnership for the betterment of our entire community. And so anything market rate would be a challenge for us in terms of a rental opportunity, but we are hoping to have further discussions with the school board on that. Okay, great. So, Chair Leonor, I mean, just me, just one person here, but I think for me, a long-term lease of part of Seagull to use that as a training facility seems to make a lot of sense for us rather than, I think, for the city rather than a purchase. Is that long-term lease something you consider or are you thinking something different? I think there's been a lot of different conversations. We have to, first, the board has to take official action tomorrow is when we'll be voting to close a facility. And then it's up to staff to negotiate that. But I'm happy to carry the sentiments to the board tomorrow during the meeting. And Dr. Wanda is here, so she hears the conversation as well. Yeah, and great. And I think, again, long-term lease. And again, just it would take, I think, investment from the city to transform it into a training facility, so that's cost, retrofitting, all that kind of stuff, and maintenance. So I'd really love to see just a minimal yearly lease and us operate and maintain as such. And I think the yearly lease of, like, a dollar a year would be amazing, so I just want to share that with you for your consideration for bringing back to your colleagues. They think it's amazing, too, but not the same amazing as you. They may define amazing differently, but we're at least for sure the same word. Yeah, it's good. Fantastic. And then Commissioner Beasley-Pimm was leading the discussion about North Fork and our interest, again, in a partnership there, which we're very interested in. And I do want to respect my colleague. That is his school. So I don't know, Dr. Holness, if you want to speak to North Fork or... Okay, so North Fork, in terms of the possibility of having some sort of a lease with the city, well, what we've discussed at the board and prior board meeting is that, you know, we're looking for the best option as far as proposal for that site, being within my city, part of, within my district, rather, part of what we discuss is that we would love to see options that will involve community input as well as immediate community benefit, in addition to whatever the options are that's going to be there. We do also have a discussion on government rate as far as any leasing option. Our school district has lost students, and it's important that we're making fiscally responsible decisions. So while it may not necessarily be a market rate, and I leave that to staff, the board is looking for a reasonable governmental type rate in terms of any leasing options that would be presented. Great. That sounds great. Yep. Commissioner Reeves and Pittman, is that... Yes, thank you for sharing, and thank you for bringing that conversation back to the dais. Thank you. Thank you. And then, Chair Leonardi, one other, and you and I had a chance to talk with this with City Manager, but City Manager, I just want to share with everyone that we all collectively continue to work with the school board and Chair Leonardi to find options for Fort Lauderdale High School, public schools, graduation venues. So we're continuing to explore that. City Manager, is that right? Options for possible graduation venues. Thank you, Commissioner. So just as a follow-up to the information provided to the Commission last week on, you know, sentiments that we can share with the public, staff has been doing research at the request of various members of the City Commission as to venue opportunities within the City of Fort Lauderdale, within our purview or via partnerships that we may have, in addition to other venues that we may not have a defined partnership. We are in communications with the superintendent and his staff as to what the needs are for each school. As you are aware, there are certain requirements that the school board has put in place that determine which venue a high school graduation would take place at. We're taking the information provided in terms of class size, the amount of tickets afforded to each graduate, which is four at this time. That's what has been shared with us. And we're looking at various venues within the city. So we're researching not just War Memorial, but also the Broward Center, the First Baptist Church, the Convention Center, NOVA as well. And we plan to come back to the commission with further information on that to see which schools could be accommodated where. There may be costs associated, and the school board would have to take that into consideration. As far as War Memorial is concerned, we do get a number of rentals through our engagement with War Memorial, our agreement. However, based on the class size and the number of attendees, War Memorial may not be best suited for the schools that are being discussed, which are Stranahan and Fort Lauderdale High School. Dillard High School's graduation is intended to be held at Dillard. I have not received a request for that graduation ceremony to potentially take place at another venue, but we would bring back the full result of our research, and then the city commission can provide additional feedback so that we can either engage the school board with discussions on how we can facilitate this, or if there are any additional costs or considerations that need to be contemplated, we would have that discussion. Great. Thanks, city manager. Does that all sound good? Sure. Yeah, yeah, and I, you know, again, I am open to any kind of partnership that can provide solutions. I do want to share that I did meet with a group of about 30 to 40 students at Fort Lauderdale High School this morning. We weren't, I didn't go there to talk about graduation, but that became the topic. And just anecdotally, a lot of the concerns the students had, we were able to address. So they were worried about ADA accessibility of Dillard. We were able to assure that, you know, any grandparent who has a ticket is able to physically be there. The validatorian and salutatorian were both there. So I was very overwhelmed intellectually. But they were very worried that there wasn't. I don't know about that. They were worried there wouldn't be reserved seating for those families, as there usually is. But we were able to assure them that there will be reserved seating. They were worried that they were going to be just walking across a gym floor instead of on a stage. We were able to assure them that there is, in fact, a stage at Dillard. I've been to graduations there before. It's really been incredible. They were worried that there wouldn't be, like, a big screen because Fort Lauderdale High School usually does a beautiful slideshow of different photos and things like that. We were able to assure them that there will be a big screen. So a lot of the concerns that the students had were able to be alleviated. So I say that all to say, like, again, we are open to any partnership that the city is willing to bring to us. But having sat down with the students, myself, this morning, I felt a bit of a sense of relief with that conversation. Okay, great. Do you want us to continue pursuing options or not? I mean, I think we're open to options. But I do want to assure that, you know, we do have a wonderful experience planned for our graduates. Okay. All right, Dr. Holmes. Thanks. And I just want to mention that as a district, if we expand graduation locations to a certain number, it does create some logistics and challenges as far as programmatic challenges. And I'll have Dr. Wanda speak to that a little bit so everyone can understand. Traditionally, we have a few venues for graduation. And if we expand that out to many venues, it then creates significant logistic challenges for the district to be able to implement. So, Dr. Wanda, you can make some additional comments. I'm back. Yes. Graduations also fall within my portfolio of administrative responsibilities. But the only thing I will add is, you know, we were very successful coming out of the pandemic at hosting graduation ceremonies, multiple ceremonies at Dillard High School. And I think that what people may sometimes not understand is, unlike any other high school gymnasium that we have, Dillard, Blanche Ely, and Pompano Beach are arena-style facilities. They're not the traditional bench seats that you're used to go in. They're actually individual stadium seats that everyone sits in. Dillard probably has the largest high school facility, if not the region, probably the state, with the number of people that it can just seat individual guest-wise. And the students will be situated on the floor, which is very, very, very similar to the design at Nova Southeastern University. That is their basketball gym arena that we have graduations in. We certainly respect the sentiments that we have heard from the community. But the last thing I'll say is, when we start to add the number of venues, we start to stretch already-strained resources. And I'll give an example. We live-stream all of our graduation ceremonies because we know that many graduates have families outside of the state, outside of the country. They're not able to get here. So when you start to take us out of our traditional four or five places, and now different municipalities want to add, we may not have the resources to then provide certain services. So it does become a logistical challenge. But as our board chair and vice chair said, we will work at the behest of their direction, and we are happy to serve. Okay. Any other questions or comments? Yes. Thank you, Mayor. So, Sarah, could I just follow up a little bit before I ask a couple of other questions? So how has it left with your meeting this morning at Fort L'Oreal High School? My office has been in touch with a lot of folks. Obviously, it's in my district, so we've been very into what's been going on there. Were there any next steps outlined? Were you basically saying, we're going to meet again? Or how has it left? So the roundtable with the students was really about, it was supposed to be about technology. Obviously, you know, there were, a lot of the conversation was on graduation. There were some, like, small things that we left with. You know, a student was particularly concerned about her parent, her grandparent having access to the facility. I told her there shouldn't be any ADA issues, but, you know, we will work with whoever if they need extra assistance. So, I mean, that's how the conversation ended. We were able, along with the student advisor to the school board, we were able to answer a lot of questions and concerns. Did you see there was a need to maybe have another meeting, or were there concerns addressed in a satisfactory way where they all said, okay, those were our concerns, and we're happy to hear these answers? Yeah, I mean, I think I felt good leaving today. I felt like we answered a lot of questions. I think there's still some angst because change is hard. But I think it seemed like the students felt better leaving than they did coming in, talking about it. Okay, thank you. That's very helpful, and thank you for your work. And, by the way, so before I ask this question, I wanted to say also thank you to all of you. Everyone is very well aware that these have been very difficult years, a lot to navigate. Congratulations on these results. You know, I actually just texted the former principal at Northside because I've spent a lot of time at that school. I know that she's no longer here, but just so thrilled to see what that school has achieved. Amazing. That's such a precious place, and those kids are amazing. And I have not had the pleasure of meeting with the new principal yet, but I have with the former over the years and always attended functions there. And just that is a magical place, actually, not just the historic structure, but also the kids and the faculty and the commitment there has been amazing. So congratulations on all of your incredible work. It's really greatly appreciated. Thank you for your leadership. My one question is, and this is an issue that received a lot of attention in the press, but then I haven't heard anything about it, so maybe you can help me. The whole notion of charter schools taking up space in the public schools, where exactly are we with that? And do you see that even impacting some of the issues that we're looking at with some of the schools in our district that we, I mean, in our city that we're looking to do things with? But where is that issue right now with charter schools taking space in public schools? Yeah, so we did receive a number of letters from different charter school management companies, school districts all over the state did. I think my hope is that through the legislative process in session, some of this is cleaned up because it would pose really severe implications for us as a system, but also for the redefining effort, our budget. So I know that the Florida School Boards Association is lobbying for some changes because I think there were some unintended consequences of that rule that came from DOE. So I don't have any solid answers for you because I think a lot of it is up in the air during session. So we expect to know more by the end of session. Is that what we're waiting for now? That's my hope, yeah. Okay, well, thank you for that update. I really appreciate it. And again, thank you so much for everything you do. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? All right, I have a couple more questions. This is the year of our 250th anniversary of our country. Has the school board considered programs or activities that are going to allow students to be educated and celebrate the anniversary? We haven't heard anything, and is there anything the city can do to be more involved? To help participate and promote the anniversary is, I guess we should have started this conversation last year. But anything that you can share with us to let us know what's going on? I'm not. I wish we had some academics people here. I'm not aware of any specific efforts, but we're happy to. I'm happy to bring it up at the meeting tomorrow. So we're not celebrating the anniversary? Well, July 4th is not during the instructional year, but yes, we will. No, but this is a whole year. It's not just July 4th. July 4th is for fireworks or drones, okay. But, you know, it's a whole year celebration. So you're saying the school board has done nothing? I'm unaware. So it could be that there are things going on. I just don't know what is going on. Okay. But we will definitely get some more information back to you on that. Okay. All right. Thank you. Yes, Jeff. And, Mayor, you know, I appreciate you bringing that up. And I am sure that the district will likely have some things in place to ensure that we're celebrating. So thank you for bringing that up. And, you know, that's a district operation issue as well. So we're going to, you know, I appreciate you bringing that to our attention. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. There being none. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you all. Thanks for your work. We really appreciate it. Thank you. Mayor, can I just have a question for Commissioner Glassman? Go ahead. So based on that for you, Commissioner Glassman, I just want to make sure, what's your take for Fort Lauderdale High School graduation? I mean, is it worth continuing to explore options? I want to defer to wherever you think. Well, we continue to get the e-mails. Well, that's why I was trying to find out if they felt necessary. I mean, it almost sounds like they're okay now. So I know there's issues. And I mean, I don't mind us looking for other options and then presenting those options to the school board. But that's why I was interested to see if they decided on any of follow-up necessary. But I'm sure we'll hear today what happened at that meeting, and this way we'll be able to see what that information is. I still don't think it's a bad idea to continue to see what we can do and then present it to those folks. That's how I feel. So I'm going to do the – so I'll keep doing the same for schools in my district. I know you're doing with yours. And then we'll just see what options the city manager comes together with. Okay. Sounds good. Okay. Is that good, city manager? Thank you. Okay, thanks. Yes, thank you. Well, it doesn't sound like they're really asking for our help anymore, right? I'm getting a lot of – now, I haven't gotten emails today about an update, but just historically – I know it sounds like Commissioner Glassman, you're probably getting more than I am – but a lot of feedback, a lot of concern from students. Okay. How many – does anyone have a number of what the First Baptist Church can hold? Is it the sanctuary or is it the function hall? I think we're looking at the main sanctuary. Okay. I don't have that number yet, Mayor. Okay. Just curious. I know it's big. I think, you know, and obviously emotions were really running high when this was announced, this policy. But folks need to understand, Fort Lauderdale High School and Dillard are like arch rivals. So to tell Fort Lauderdale High School that they're going over to Dillard for their graduation, that's a part of this. You know, it's like an emotional thing. So we have to understand that maybe those emotions – I thought the rivalry was more between Stranahan and Fort Lauderdale. I don't know. Well, maybe everyone has a rivalry. But just sharing, you know, as it was said, you know, everyone has a vision of what they would like their graduation to look like. But also Dillard is a superior location to host a graduation. So even with what's being shared, as a commission, you know, we do want to, you know, help our neighbors reach the desires that they want, but also help them to understand that the plan is not a chopped liver plan. It's a good plan as well. So keep that in consideration. Although I love chopped liver, don't get me wrong, but I just want to say – Okay. Suggest that the plan B is – or the plan A right now. Yeah. It is something to – it's worth entertaining and considering. It's not a bad plan. And I think that from what we heard today, it looks like the dialogue is helping. And sometimes that's really what it is. It's, you know, it's just that dialogue and sharing those ideas. But I don't think it's bad to still present options. But at the end of the day, this is a school board decision. Yes, that's the point. Yes. Yeah. Okay. All right. Let us move on. Let's see. All right. Working on new business. Business one, Las Olas Mobility Western Corridor. City manager. We have Milos Mastorovic, our director of transportation and mobility. He's going to lead the presentation. And I know that our consultants are here as well. Great. Milos. Thank you very much, Madam Manager. My name is Milos Mastorovic, and I'm director for city's transportation and mobility department. So today we would like to provide you with an update on Las Olas Mobility Western Corridor design that goes from South Andres Avenue to South East 17th Avenue. So in terms of the background, back in 2019, the city commission started a process of developing a new vision for Las Olas Boulevard from Andres Avenue to the beach. Las Olas Working Group was created around that time to support this effort and included members of the neighborhood at city associations, businesses along Las Olas Boulevard, and also the neighborhood. The city ended up hiring Corradino Group in 2019 in order to help with the developing vision plan. And that process took about two years. From late 2019 until adoption of the vision plan for Las Olas, the Corradino Group attended more than 90 meetings to collect input from working group members, neighborhoods, and business associations. This process included in-person walks, virtual walking tours, neighborhood meetings, attendance at the business association meetings, individual stakeholder meetings, citywide survey, and regular working group meetings as well. All this feedback was collected and ultimately considered and incorporated as part of the vision plan that the city commission adopted in June of 2021. So, in order to advance the vision plan into design plans, in May of 2024, the city commission approved agreement with a consultant, WSP, in order for them to develop a design for the Western Corridor. The Western Corridor goes from, again, Andres Avenue to Southeast 17th Avenue and includes a downtown section from Andres to Tunnel Top, a shop segment that goes from Tunnel Top to 12th Avenue, and then Koli Hammock that goes from 12th to 17th Avenue. So, the consultant, WSP, is tasked with developing 60% engineering plans, and per direction from the city commission, WSP is to advance the cross-sections identified in the approved version of 2021 vision plan to 60% design plans for the downtown section and Koli Hammock section, and for the retail shops, they are tasked to develop two conceptual designs. The first one would be one that was identified and adopted as part of the 2021 vision plan, which removes the medians along the shop segment, and the other one would be designed that retains the medians, modifies the parking lanes, and expands the sidewalk widths. So, the intent was to bring these back to city commission for feedback and direction as to which concept for the shop segment to advance a 30% and 60% plan development, one without or one with the medians. So, we have worked with WSP and developed conceptual designs, and over the last few months, we have conducted public engagement and presented the project update to Downtown Development Authority, Las Solas Company, Broward Workshop, Downtown Civic Association, and Koli Hammock's Homeowners Association. We also went before Beverly Heights Civic Association and met with Idlewild as well. Public town hall meeting was also held mid-November, and aside from all the groups that I have mentioned already, the Council of Civic Association was also invited to that meeting. So, after today's presentation, we plan to bring this item back to city commission on February 3rd as part of the evening agenda, and really seek direction from the city commissioners to advance in conceptual designs to 60% for the downtown and Koli Hammock segments, and also for the city commission to provide us with a direction as to which alternative for the shop segment to proceed with, either one without a median or one with a median. Again, securing city commission direction for the design is very important in order for us to stay on a schedule and within a budget, and once provided that we do receive a city commission direction in February, the plan, 60% design plans, will be available by winter of this year. And once that is done, there would be a new solicitation that the city would need to issue in order to advance 60% design plans to 100%, and also secure a firm that would be conducting design and build. So, consultant team is here with me today, and they'll take us through presentation. Feel free to ask any questions in the meanwhile, and we also have some city staff as well available. Okay, great. Thank you. Why don't you proceed with your presentation? Hello. Good afternoon, Mayor. Good afternoon, Commissioners, City Manager. My name is Catherine Prince. I'm the project manager on the consultant side. And with me, I have from Brzaga, Alec, who's leading our engagement for the project, Brian from Shenmore, assisting with the Arborist side, and also Greg from WSP. He's leading the engineering side from the civil and the drainage components. And folks who are not here in our subconsultant teams, we have surveyors, landscape architects, lighting specialists, and other engineers as well. Since the team received our NTP notice to proceed, the WSP and our subconsultants have completed the topographical survey, subsurface utility exploration, and we've reviewed the city's latest stormwater model. With this information, we've developed the preliminary design built on the La Sola's mobility plan approved by the commission in 2021. We've met with several stakeholders, as Milos mentioned earlier, and we also held a public meeting on November 13th to provide a forum for anyone interested in the project. During this presentation, we'll go over the design improvements proposed in the three sections within the project area. The first section is the downtown. In the downtown section, we advanced the adopted 2021 La Sola's mobility plan from an engineering design and a construction feasibility point of view. We focused on increasing the tree canopy of safe crossings. Otherwise, there's minimal sidewalk and roadway changes within this section of the corridor. This is a view looking west from southeast First Avenue, existing conditions, and here are the proposed conditions. The major investment along this section is increasing the tree canopy. So we are proposing or we're looking at almost three times the existing tree canopy along the entire downtown. All right, so stop right here. Yes. Anyone have any questions with regard to this section of La Sola's? Looks pretty good to me. Okay. All right. You have any questions? This is your district. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks, Mayor. Thanks for being here and sharing. This was just feedback gotten before. Let me try to summarize it here. They're concerned about adding six inches to the six-and-a-half-foot sidewalk abutting Huizinga Park. And is that, I guess, is that worth the adjustment, if that makes sense? Say it again. Say it again. The Huizinga Park. Sidewalk in front of Huizinga Park. Right, to the left. Yep. Feedback from Doug Egan's concern that it's just adding six inches to the Huizinga Park sidewalk. Jenny, you're here. I don't know if that makes sense. Six inches? Yeah. So I don't know if you heard my question. Does that make sense, Christina? There isn't a – it's Catherine. It's not six inches. No worries. It's – we are not – we are looking at between one to seven feet in front of Huizinga Park. Okay. It's not six inches. It's one to seven feet plus five additional feet for landscape area. Okay. So then he's just – Might be an error. Not tracking this. Yeah. I think the only thing that I would add is that we did not move the curb line when we constructed Huizinga Park. So there is a sidewalk that runs from the curb back to the landscaped area within the park. Yeah. And then further back is the lawn. So, you know, it's a little bit different here. That's all. Okay. Great. Thank you. It seems that most of what we're seeing here is the trees and the median. Is that correct? That is correct. And I also want to clarify, all the improvements you're seeing here is within the cities right away. Right. Nothing is within the park. I understand. But that's basically what we're seeing here is more trees and then the addition of a median. That is correct. Okay. We are extending the median. And one of the important parts of this, in my view, Mayor, is adding the trees as a buffer between the street and the pedestrians. Correct. And why is that an important functionality in this? One, there is sufficient space. You know, in the rest of the corridor, there isn't enough room to provide this amenity. In this particular area, there is that space to provide. And in this particular area, it also allows for the roots to, it's a good space for the roots to grow. In the rest of the corridor, we are not providing a landscape area. What we are doing is providing structural soil, which will provide the same benefits, but it's not going to look the same visually. Okay. Great. And how many trees would be added to this portion? Um, so let me go back a slide. Thanks. Actually, I'm going to pull my folder. Give me a second. Yeah, please. Take your time. Take your time. Never trust a picture. That's right. I think it's 20, but something like that. No, not for that. Just on your last question, one of the important parts is right now. Please identify yourself. I'm sorry. I'm Alec Bogdanoff. Right now, a lot of the sidewalks are directly adjacent to the street. So if you step onto the street, you're in traffic. In this case, there's a focused effort on creating a landscape buffer between the sidewalk and the street, which, this was one of the biggest comments in the engagement side, for parents and pedestrians. It just provides an added level of safety. You're not just going to step off into the street, into oncoming traffic. Right, but how many trees are designated between Andrews and the tunnel? Total number of trees, 122. 122 trees? 122 trees. Of that, the large canopy trees, 32. Medium trees, 81. Small four and five palm trees, only five, compared to, if you look at existing, majority of the trees are all palm trees, 65 existing palm trees. Right, okay. So that would be 122 total or 122 in addition? Total. Total is 122. So it's adding 60 or 50? How many are being added? 57 or so added. If I can pull up my backup slides. Go ahead. Take your time. Take your time. And here, use this if you need more space. Turn up here. And does this take away from our need to plant 200,000 trees over the next 10 years? Is this it? Yes. Does this come off our column here? 200,000 minus 50. We're on our way. Making progress. We're trying to start somewhere, I tell you. On our way. And I think, Mayor, for example, in this section, because there's largely not a median, this would be a new median with additional trees in the median. That's what it looks like. Those are all new trees. And what I've also understood through in talking with this is, as Catherine mentioned, is these are not just small caliper trees. And that's my understanding throughout the quarter, is these are significant caliper trees. It's supposed to be 60 to 70% mature, according to the backup. Yeah. Okay. So according to Exhibit 9, page 7, it says three times increase of the tree canopy downtown, 43 shit shade trees, and 74 flower trees. I believe those are the additional trees that are being added to that segment. Is that correct? That's page 7 of 32. No, I'm asking you. Is that correct? Page 7 of 32. You want to go to page 7? Page 7 of 32. Exhibit 9, your presentation? It's the proposed Southeast First Avenue. 43 shade trees and 74 flowering trees. That is correct. Okay. So those are the ones being planted. Is that correct? That is correct, yes. Okay. Very good. Thank you. And here you can see on this slide, you can see existing was as proposed, the number of trees, the comparison with what's existing right now and what's being proposed. Thank you. Got it. Thanks, Catherine. Please proceed. Do we want to go back to the downtown slide deck? We're doing the Heisinger Park dedication this weekend, right? DDA? Yes. Let's hope it's not cold. Tired of this cold weather. So the existing trees, since we're talking about trees, the trees were selected based on three criteria. One is resilience to hotter, saltier future conditions, resilience to pests and diseases, and the ability to thrive in constrained urban environment. Number two is placemaking. So we have a combination, as you saw, of flowering trees as well as shade trees. And the flowering trees can provide a sense of identity to the corridor as they will be blooming at different times of the year. And also what you see is small, medium, and large canopy trees. And lastly, we did work with our city staff to ensure that these trees, when they are planted, they can be maintained over the long term. And one last item I want to point out on this slide is safety improvements. So we are proposing to raise the intersection of Southeast First Avenue. And also there is a raised mid-block crossing here between Andrews Avenue and Southeast First Avenue. And the cost of construction is – the preliminary cost of construction is $5 million. This does not include fees for CEI as well as design-build contractor. Is the design including an irrigation system? Yes. It does. So this $5 million includes the trees or not includes the trees? It does. It does. It's all in? Yes. Okay. And this is between Andrews and the tunnel? That is correct. Okay. So let's go now to what a few people are here to discuss, the shops. The shops. In the shops area, we looked at two design alternatives. Alternative one, the no median option advances the adopted 2021 La Sola's mobility plan. The improvements include removing the existing median, increasing the sidewalk width, installing a sheet canopy along the sidewalk, and making on-street parking permanent. Alternative two, with the median option, retains the median, replaces the existing trees, and alternating parking on the north and south sides of the block, and expands the sidewalk width where there is no parking. Here is an existing view looking west on southeast 9th Avenue. And as you can see, the sidewalk width is five feet wide within the right-of-way, and there's a varying private sidewalk width along the corridor. This is a visual of what it could look like in the alternative without the median. The significant change here, obviously, is removing the median, making the on-street parking permanent. With this option, we estimate a loss of about 12 on-street parking spaces. Also, we propose widening the sidewalk by an additional five feet to a total of approximately 10 feet wide. The private setback space is where the outdoor seating is set up. This section will remain as it is, and will not be impacted. So this is 10 feet on the north and south side of Las Olas? That is correct, Mr. Mayor. And that eliminates the median? Yes, Mr. Mayor. Okay. So that's what alternative one is about. Correct. Eliminating the median, making the sidewalks 10 feet wide, or adding 10 feet, which is there? It is 10 feet wide total. It's adding five feet in addition to the existing. So wherever it's, so where it's, there are some areas where it's already 10 feet, but to make it uniform, it would just be the same, correct? Well. We're adding five feet all along the road. Is that correct? We are adding five feet additional. That is correct. Okay. And that's on the north and the south side? That is correct. Okay. Alternative two, this is a visual of alternative two, which retains the median. The significant difference here is we are making the on-street parking permanent, and the parking is alternated on the north and south side of the block. With this option, we are able to widen the sidewalk by an additional two feet in the sections which have the on-street parking. So this is the visual. So this brings, this makes it about seven feet wide in the section that has on-street parking. So this is keeping the median, making the sidewalk up to seven feet. Okay. In some cases, the sidewalk could be wider because some of the new construction has already accommodated the wider sidewalk. But at maximum, it would be seven feet on each side, correct? Correct. Within the right of way, it will be seven feet. Now, I notice in this particular photograph, there are no trees in the median. What are the thoughts there? Is it the anticipation that the black olives will soon exhaust their useful life? That was not the intent. Definitely, that was not the intent. So I'm just curious. I mean, I'm just curious. If for some reason the trees, because the urban forester has come here and said that they probably will not last more than a decade. And if that's the case, is it the intention of the city to plant more trees in the median? Or just rely on the design you have here to accommodate the canopy that we are intending to plant going forward? There is an error in this visual where there is no tree in the median. What we are proposing, I'll take a step back. What we are proposing is to put new trees in the median. Now, we were told that you cannot put trees in the median because of the root system and that it would be frustrating for trees to grow in the median area because there isn't a sufficient area for a root system to grow. Is that a true statement or not? Well, according to the landscape architect who is designing... Are they here now? Unfortunately, the landscape architect who is designing the corridor... Give me one second. ...was not able to join us. He had a family emergency. Here is Brian from Shenmore who is stepping in. He's an arborist, certified arborist. The way the landscape architect designed this corridor is proposing a structural soil. So they are going to go in about 10 feet deep to ensure and replace that soil to allow the root system to grow within that soil. So it doesn't have to fight the existing ground to push and push the asphalt and sidewalk up as it is doing right now. Rather go in, get the nutrition it needs. So that's how we can ensure that any trees that is planted both on the sidewalk as well as in the median will thrive long term. Did you want to add more? No, that was pretty well... Can you please speak into the microphone? Yeah. Hi. I'm Brian Volker with Chen Warren Associates. Hi, Brian. How are you? Good. Yourself? Good. Can you speak into the microphone, though? We're the consulting arborist, sub to WSP. And as Catherine said, we're not the landscape architects designing, but through discussions... But you know enough about trees to be able to... So basically, the idea behind the engineered soils is it allows two things. It allows you to support the weight of vehicles on the roadway. And also, its compaction level is such that it allows for roots to grow under the substrate. So that's the idea behind this system. It allows us to have trees that can actually get to decent size at maturity and their roots won't be confined by compacted soils. So would the center, would the median trees be able to grow to the same level of maturity and size and canopy as the ones that are anticipated for the sidewalks, given their limited root ball? So if I can take that question, and I'm going to show you a plan view, because the way the landscape architect designed the... ...planned the placement of the trees, he did prioritize larger trees for the sidewalk. So the canopy, large canopy trees are on the sidewalk. The smaller trees are in the median. So if I can just pull up the plan view so you can take a look at it. And you can speak to the vitality of the planted tree right after. Catherine, if you go to page... Wait, wait, wait. She's got to show us. Okay, hold on. Curb your enthusiasm. No, I just want to show you, there is a slide with the median with the trees, that's all. Three pages later. Oh, is it? Yes, page 19. Well, that's the current status. No. Page 19? Yes, it's an alternative to with the proposed. Oh, I see. Page 19, you'll see. Ah, okay. So these are two plan views. And in here, what you see is the larger trees are prioritized on the sidewalk. Uh-huh. And the smaller trees are on the median. And he did, and if you want to add into, to talk about the vitality of the trees in the median when they're planted in the structural soil. Yeah, so basically the nice thing about it is we're not, the roots aren't, unlike a traditional system where you have the median that's a certain width and that has soil in it, and then you have just the compacted roadbed beyond that, the roots aren't going to be confined to the median. So often cases, you know, if you have, we did this in the past, and it sometimes still happens where you might plant like a live oak in a three-foot wide planter, and what happens is with the compaction flanking the median, you basically have a root system that's linear. So it doesn't do very well in storms, whereas with the engineered soils, we actually can have root growth in all directions. So you get a proper root plate, a proper root zone that matches the canopy and better supports the tree. All right. Can I draw your attention to page 19, which the commissioner has pointed out? Can you go to 19? I noticed that, what is the intention here with regard to the width of the sidewalk? Is this single lane in each direction? Because all of a sudden, I see the sidewalks now completely exposed to the sun, which is kind of counterproductive to what we thought was the original design goal, which was to shade the sidewalks. Now we have completely exposed sidewalks with shade trees on either side and median trees. Is this the design where you're going to have no on-street parking, just one lane in each direction? What is that? So there is going to be one travel lane on both directions. You are correct. Right. And this is the one with the median. So the on-street parking is alternated on the north side, on the south side. It's eliminated, right? It's alternated. So here, in this case, the parking is in front of Ann's Florist, which it's hard to really Well, I'm just saying, did you know, am I seeing this correctly? I mean, this is completely exposed to the sun. So do you think we've kind of gone too far in this direction? Milos, what do you think? Yes. And Milos just added, can we add more trees? Absolutely. There is an opportunity to add more trees. I think there was a comment from the DDA as well. If we can add more trees. One of the design principles that the landscape architect used was to add visibility as you're walking down the retail street to ensure there's sight lines. So people, someone walking down can see what's there. I understand that. Yes. But I mean, this completely exposes the whole sidewalk area. So have we just, like I said, have we taken this too far? You know, we've narrowed Las Olas to such a point where not only is it impassable, but it also defeats the purpose of creating a canopy along the sidewalks? No, absolutely. If the priority is shade trees along the sidewalk, we can maximize the trees along the sidewalk. If that is the direction, we can add more trees to the sidewalk. Okay. Catherine, stay on that topic that the mayor just put up for a second, because if you look at the slide before that, um, 18. Okay. Okay. I have, in my backup, I have stuff on my slide that is not on this slide, but it says 39 shade trees and 34 flower trees. Yeah. Can you put that back? Okay. 39 shade trees and 34 flower trees. Right. With no median. Now go to the next one with the median. Why with, why with the median does the number of trees increase so significantly to 67 shade trees and 39 flower trees? In other words, the shade trees, almost 30 more shade trees with the median. It doesn't make sense to me. Can you explain that? Why you would have all the, put them in the median. Well, okay. But as you said, you're leaving the sidewalk all exposed. Yeah. So I just think that the, the, the design here is too wide. If the sidewalk's too wide and it defeats it, you know, no canopy tree can, can spread its, its, uh, branches that far to accommodate both the street and the sidewalk. You're saying we need a line of sight so that shoppers are not obstructed in their view as they're looking, you know, east and west. I don't think that's an issue here. I think that the, the plan here was to create a shaded area for pedestrians and still be able to enjoy the, uh, the experience here on Las Olas. Um, and, and so, I mean, going forward, keep that in mind. Absolutely not a problem. And, uh, you know, I do want to reemphasize that this is only a rendering we need. We can absolutely go back and make sure that the rendering is, is updated to reflect this priority. Well, I just want to know when you were charged with the assignment of working on the street was a shaded pedestrian pathway, not one of your goals. Yes, it was one of the goals as was balancing, you know, the visual cues to be able to see what's across the street, to be able to also be able to, uh, way find, navigate the street. So if the, so the landscape architect balanced all these priorities. Now, if we are saying the number one, maximize the trees along the corridor that we will go back and put more trees, that should not be an issue whatsoever. And update all the renderings to show what that could look like. So, could I, could I just ask a question? I'm sorry. I don't remember in all of our conversations we ever talked about being able to see every store on the street when you were standing on the sidewalk. Did I miss a meeting? You missed that meeting. It happens. You know, I, I get it. I'm, I'm just curious. This is the first time I, I ever, I mean, of all the conversations we've had, I don't remember that ever being like explicitly discussed. You need to be able to see every store when you're standing on the sidewalk all up and down the block. I mean, I'm not feeling like I'm walking up and down Fifth Avenue and I need to be able to see Bulgari, you know, and, and Cartier down the block. Am I missing something? Well, also the trees, the trees are not obstructing the view because if you look at them, you know, the, the, the, the foliage doesn't begin until 10 feet up. So you're not, you never really, your view is never really obstructed, but you're right, John. No, I just, I don't remember that having ever been a robust part of the discussion that we wanted to be able to see every storefront on the street as you're, you know, strolling up and down the corridor. So this is just kind of new to me. That's all. And I don't remember it ever being a part of the conversation when we had the working group meetings for over two years either. I, I, but I do remember the consensus was, and that's why that was the plan that went forward to the commission was that the, uh, the consensus was from that working group after more than two years of meetings that they rather see the pedestrians be shaded on the sidewalk than the cars be shaded in the median. That was the consensus at that time. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that was what was moved forward to the commission. Right. Yeah. Agreed. Uh, city manager, do we have our city forester here? Yes, we do. Great. Okay. Great. So, hold on. If I, may I go ahead. Thank you very much. So if I may just, uh, appreciate your feedback, completely recognize the, the fact that these are just rendering. So we'll make sure that we reflect additional trees, uh, in the renderings, um, as we continue with developing plans, we'll make sure that, uh, disposition of the trees is included in here and we'll also be mindful of, uh, balance between the effective width of the sidewalk and number of the trees. Also, it looks like the rendering reflects a midday about where the sun is directly above the trees. Uh, but there is definitely lack of the tree that, of trees that we recognize in here and we'll add additional. So the, the intent in here is to provide shade on the sidewalk. Great. Thank you, Minesh. So, um, going to the trees. So what type of trees would be buffering the street and the sidewalk? The species? Yes, the species. My understanding is it's oak. I think there are. We have, um, several tree species. Can you, can you pull the microphone closer to you? Sorry. We have, uh, several, uh, tree species. Um, one second. Do you want to take a stab at this? Yeah, and actually, excuse me, one second. Uh, Ben, I think there's a variety of different trees. It's, it's not just one type of tree. Yep. I had a list saved. And sorry, I'm, I am Brian, Brian, I'm trying to sub for our landscape. But, so, on the large tree side of things, we had, uh, Jamaican dogwood, uh, thornless, uh, pink saba tree, gumbo limbo, and live oak. On the medium side, we had, uh, sea grape, green buttonwood, white mangrove, and black ironwood. And on the small size, uh, small size category, we had a bohemian trumpet tree, lignum vitae, bridal veil, and silver buttonwood. Also, there's a small number of palms I don't believe proposed for this, for the, um, the shops section. But there were some palms, including buccaneer palm, thatch palm, silver palm, and coconut palm. So, quick question about the mangrove. So, hold on, hold on. If I, if I could. I'm sorry. Sorry. Thanks. I apologize. Okay. So, what, what will determine what size tree, which species of tree, goes between the sidewalk and the road on this section of Las Olas? So, that's going to be dictated by the width of the planting space. And again, I can't speak in detail to that, but that is the driving factor. Okay. So, I'm just doing a little quick research. So, what, I think the mayor brings up a good point about the canopy coverage of the sidewalk. Right? That's, mayor, that's one of your questions. Is it canopy coverage of the sidewalk? Okay. So, let's just kind of go through understanding the radius of a canopy of each of the species of trees. Right. Okay. So, city forester, please, this is my limited knowledge of trees, but I'm looking at oak trees, live oaks, generally 30 to 40 foot radius of a canopy. This is saying radius, not diameter, but love to hear your feedback. They can get to that size, yes. Okay. Jamaican dogwood, I'm seeing canopy radius 20 to 30 feet. Is this? A radius would be from the trunk? Trunk to the drip line. Drip line. Yep. So, diameter would be doubled. So, that's, I want to make sure we're clear. So, I'm talking radius. Okay. 20 to 30 feet for a dogwood? Is it Jamaican dogwood? Is that? Yes. Am I? Yes. Okay. Seba, Seba, am I pronouncing that right? Seba? Okay. I'm seeing 40 to 60 feet plus for a radius. Correct. Okay. Oak, white oak, I'm seeing 35 to 40. It seems like that's similar for live oak. Okay. Oh, wait. Sorry, we're not doing white oak. Maybe you heard white mangrove. I just, I didn't see, I'm not seeing live oak radius, but I'm assuming live oak, what would be the radius of a live oak? Well, they can get enormous, but you got to keep in mind, too, when you look at, sorry, when you look at the maximum sizes for the trees, often that's not based on an urban setting, typically in an urban environment, unfortunately, we have soil volume limitations, even with engineered soils, where the trees are not likely to get to those sizes. Just for example, like a live oak tree technically can grow to be 100 feet across almost, can grow to be several hundred years old, whereas the average age in an urban environment might be 30 years, so that's part of the trick there. So we won't quite expect the maximum sizes, but we would expect them to be, you know, to provide good coverage. So what radius would you expect for these trees? Well, we can definitely get, for the large trees, we can definitely get, you know, up to, say, 20 feet, 20 foot radius of 40 feet, so easily covering the area. Great. And of course, you can control that, control the spread by doing reduction cutting to kind of retain the canopy. Great. So, Laura, is that all, do you agree with all that? Yes. Okay. Okay. Great. Thank you. So, the distance, then, Catherine, the distance, so I'm looking at alternative two right now, the distance from the, bless you, from the curb to the shops, shop frontage, obviously, it can vary based on the shop, but what's the distance from the curb to the shop frontage, approximately? In alternative two? Alternative two, yep, with the median. So, we said seven feet with the on-street parking plus the sidewalk, a private setback, sorry. So, we're looking at seven feet plus between the curb. This looks like 15 feet. And the option without the parking would be 14 feet plus with the private setback. Okay. So, in other words, so, what I'm hearing, then, is the radius of the trees, not full-grown, but full and healthy in our urban center, would well cover, the drip line to the trunk would well cover the sidewalk. Am I saying that right? Yes. Definitely. Ben, if you look on page 18, I think this is a more desirable schematic because it narrows the width of the sidewalk and the tree is able to cover the entire width of the sidewalk and allows for on-street parking. I just think that the other one on page 19 just widens the sidewalk much too much and we're losing the whole point of having the canopy trees. Right. But what I'm saying, Mayor, is that's a function of the diagram, not the diagram, this visual representation is not accurate. Is that what you're saying? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Because on that, I agree with you, it looks not what we're trying to achieve, but what I'm hearing just now is that it would, in fact, cover the area sufficiently. Am I saying that correctly? Yeah, definitely. So, again, looking at the landscape designer's list of large-sized trees, these all can get to a good size and they would definitely give you shade over the whole... Shade over the entire sidewalk area and then 20 feet north of the sidewalk going into the parking lane, the travel lane, and possibly parts of the median as well if you're going 20 feet that way. And that's true for both design features. Again, correct me if I'm wrong, but both design features with the median or without the median would have full coverage of the sidewalk under the drip line, right, from drip line to trunk, and would have full coverage of on-street parking if there was on-street parking in that portion, the travel lane, and possibly part of the median if there was a median, or possibly part of the other lane of traffic as well. Is that saying that all right? Okay. Yeah, great. That helps for us to visualize this. If I might add, I think one of the issues is with the rendering, you know, rendering is a rendering. Right. And, you know, you're looking at areas that appear to have no canopy cover. But, of course, that, you know, it's a rendering. And putting in these large shade trees along the corridor, even the medium-sized trees, they're going to fill in the area pretty well. And over time, if anything, you'd want to be, you know, pruning them to contain that canopy. Great. I have more tree questions, but, Catherine, I want to defer to you if you want to keep speaking, because I want to talk about existing median. I want to talk a little bit more about structured soil and so forth. So whenever you'd like me to ask that, Catherine. Thanks. If I could just jump in a little bit. So one of the questions I had is I'm just kind of looking up some of these trees as we're talking about it. So, like, the SEBA, for example, you know, as I'm just looking here, it says that this is basically bare from December through March. It doesn't sound like a great shade tree. Am I missing something? And, by the way, which I thought was really funny, I was just sharing this with my colleague over here. I just asked, Chad, what's the best shade trees for a South Florida urban environment? You know what it said? Black olive. Well, yeah. I'm not trying to say we keep the black olive. I just thought that was kind of funny. You know, again, I'm not selecting the tree species, but I can, I guess, speak to what I know about them. But I believe the idea behind the SEBA tree in particular is not that would probably be an accent tree here and there because it's kind of like the tababoui is a certain time of year. It just flowers completely. Right. And it makes a beautiful look. I don't think the intent is to have a bunch of SEBA trees because, yes, they wouldn't shade the corridor. Right. I mean, same thing with crape myrtles. I've had crape myrtles. I've had, you know, red naples. I mean, these are beautiful trees for like a short period of time. No, you wouldn't, that, yeah, you would just use those here and there. So, obviously, your oaks, your gumbos, and so on, those would be the trees that would provide better shade. And even looking at, let me see, my. Sea grapes, right? Yeah. No, back to my list. Sorry, I'm jumping around here. Take it, Tom. I mean, I think the problem with the sea grapes is I don't know if they're high enough, right? They're not a tall tree. What you can do with a sea grape, I guess this is kind of true for a lot of different trees, but left on its own, it'll just grow kind of bushy. Right. We've got those like at Birch State Park, right? Yeah, yeah, you can have them in the thickets, but you can grow it as what they call a standard. Basically, you just limb it up, and you can grow it as a street tree. Got it. Same thing with the white mangrove. Right. So, yeah, you can definitely prune for that. Right, so the white mangrove, as I'm looking at, the more of a, so that one's going to keep a more narrower tree canopy from what I'm reading, right? So that one keeps a tree canopy all year long. So I'm looking, just trying to see what keeps its tree canopy all year long. Yeah, looking at the list of what's proposed, it'll keep, like, so what is truly deciduous? Right, the deciduous ones. Exactly. So, you know, now your gumbo could slightly seasonally defoliate. That does happen, but not, you know, not completely. Right. So, Jamaican dogwood, no. Gumbo, no. Live oak, no. Sea grape doesn't lose its leaves. Now, keep in mind, too, your medium trees do get big. You know, you can get a sea grape, a buttonwood, a white mangrove with a 30-foot spread. I'm talking diameter. Black ironwood's a little smaller. That's maybe in the 20-foot range, but none of these will defoliate seasonally. I mean, a lot of stuff doesn't. I mean, technically, our live oaks will still lose a little foliage here and there, but not completely. Well, like live oaks, because I've had those in my yard, and I've also had mangoes in my yard. They tend to drop leaves continuously, but maintain an overall tree canopy. The only problem is cleaning up after them is just brutal. Yeah. But luckily, most of these, I guess the live oak, you could say, is semi-deciduous. Right. But, yeah, it'll lose foliage, but it won't defoliate. And then for the small trees, bridal veil doesn't defoliate. Silver buttonwood is really just a variety of the green buttonwood. They're both conucarpus erectus, so that'll be foliated, keep its canopy year-round. Lignum vitae and Bahama bohemian trumpet tree are smaller trees, more like in the maybe 15-foot-tall range, give or take. And especially with a lignum vitae, it's a slow grower. That was going to be my next question. So out of the deciduous ones, which of these are also relatively fast-growing? Because obviously we don't want to wait 30 to 40 years to get our tree canopy back. So what's going to provide a reasonable tree canopy? What can we buy that's already of reasonable size that will also then grow in a reasonable amount of time? I mean, obviously, I don't expect this to be a robust tree canopy in five years, but I'm thinking a decade is probably realistic to expect. Does that sound about right? I'm going to take the first stab at this, Commissioner. The proposal is to plant the trees at 75% maturity, so they're not going to be baby trees. They are going to be at 75% maturity. And we hope that they'll reach their full canopy size within five to eight years. And then what's typically the die-off rate for a tree that's at 75% maturity when you transplant those? Obviously, the younger it is, the more likely it is to, I'm assuming, take root. I'm assuming the older it is. Well, I would say... Again, not my area of expertise. Yeah, and that's okay. We do have to keep in mind when we say at maturity, right, we're talking about based on the lifespan in an urban setting. So they're really not at their maximum maturity for their potential life. So when we, you know, if we move like, say, a 10-inch oak or something, right, that is a good-sized tree, not something, you know, your average homeowner can afford to put in their yard. But that has a very high rate of success. It's not really... For example, you can relocate 30-inch trees. There are companies that will do ore larger. And if everything's done well... The rain tree, for example, yes. I said the rain tree, for example. Right, right. So we know we can do it, right? Yeah. So really, relatively speaking, these aren't enormous. They're not at their maximum potential lifespan. We're just talking about their size when we put them in relative to where we want them to be to kind of shade out the street. But I guess my question is, with these larger trees, presumably you've got a much larger root ball that you're trying to transplant. How does that work, you know, when you're putting it into a sidewalk environment? So, you know, putting it in my front yard is easier. You can, obviously, you've got a larger area for it to, you know, be moved into. How does that work in a more constrained, confined environment with a larger, more mature tree? Again, not being the designer, but one thing I can say is we, the root ball size, we, basically, the planting space has to fit the root ball size. So we're not going to, we're not putting anything in the ground where we have to, you know, compromise the root ball. Because, like, I guess in tree relocation 101, that's huge. You know, how long you root prune, 12 months now, they typically recommend. Also watering during establishment, that's huge. And also getting the right size root ball. So the trees we're going in, they're a decent size. They're going to be put in places where we have the soil on the ground surface. So if we could, thank you, just go into that a little bit more. So when you're planting trees on the sidewalk and spaces along the sidewalk, how deep are you going down to put that root ball? So basically the depth of the planting hole is just less than the root ball depth. So on these larger trees, you're talking about a root ball of maybe, maybe it's a couple feet. And that's it. And actually when you plant, you want to make sure that the top of the root ball is at or slightly above grade. That's better than below. If we, if we bury the top of the root ball, the tree could die. If we have the root ball slightly above grade, that's better, better chance for success. Okay. So with those trees planted along the sidewalk, then ultimately their root system go under the road and under the sidewalk? Right, right. So the, you know, at initiation, the root ball is the root ball. Right. But then because we have the engineered soils, it allows the roots to grow under the road. And also it helps them to, it helps deflect them down. They tend to grow down with the engineered soils. So that's going to help reduce our hardscape impacts. Okay. Meaning, and, and the tree, that, that root, those root systems would not have an impact on the newly built road and or sidewalk. Right, right. Right. Okay. Now share with me the median when tree, let's talk about the existing trees that are in the median. Now the black olive trees, what, talk to me about that root system, where that is, how that works. And then if additional trees were put in the median, how that would work, yeah. From a root system standpoint. Oh, sure. Yeah, she's going to get the backup slides and I can start talking about that. Great. So right now the black olives and the median, it's kind of a unique situation because they're in those planter boxes, right? Right. So what's happening is the root ball is partly confined by those boxes. So we can kind of see that the roots are hitting and deflecting, obviously. But then we know that they're not entirely confined by the boxes. Good for the tree, bad for the hardscape. So basically we see there are photos. Let me see if I can scroll through here. Here's a perfect example here. So we have evidence when we see this, we have evidence that the roots are trying to do their thing and they are getting under the curbing and breaking up the curbing. So I'm kind of a little ahead in my – actually, let me – yeah, I'll just stick with this. Yeah, that's all right. Go ahead. So one of the issues is we talked about if we were – even if we didn't do anything with improvements with the corridor, one of the problems is we have these root balls that are confined by the boxes partly, but then they're growing under the road. When they do resurfacing and working on utilities in the road, basically they're going to be severing these roots. And the problem is then these roots are in the critical root zone of the tree, which for general frame of reference, for every one inch of trunk, you go one foot radius out. So, for example, for a 10-inch tree, you have a 10-foot radius around as your critical root zone. So you can see these trees, if they're 20-something inches in diameter, they're only a foot or two from the curb. So when you go to resurface the road, you're going to be cutting into those roots. So that's something we try to avoid. At absolute worst, you try to go, say, beyond 50% of that critical root zone. So if it's a 24-inch tree, you'd want to stay minimum 12 feet away before you cut roots. Here, the root cutting would be well inside that critical root zone. So that's something you wouldn't want to do if you were to try to retain the trees. Okay, but if we keep the median and upgrade the street, it sounds like there's going to be times where we're going to have to cut into that critical root structure. Is that right? Well, I'm assuming the way it would be phased out is you do all the road work, resurface, you construct the median, you have the engineered soils underneath. Then you can plant the trees and the roots will grow under the road. They won't be struggling for space. Because what's happening right now is they're generally hitting the curb and deflecting into better soil or sometimes growing under. But if we have proper soil underneath or the structural soils, it'll let the roots grow underneath without basically breaking up that hardscape. Right. But that would be for newly planted trees, right? Yes, yes. So what about the existing black olives, their root system? The problem with the existing black olives is, again, they're semi-confined, partly by the box. But we see pretty much as we go down the line, we see that curb breaking up. Right. So we know when the roots are that close to the tree, we call them structural roots. They're good diameter. So basically cutting those is a big no-no in terms of tree protection. So how would we, if that's the case, then how would you repave, build a curb median and so forth without impacting the black olives? It seems like you can't do both. I don't know if you can't, because even milling and resurfacing, the problem is the roots are at the surface. Right. So you're going to be cutting those, and you're basically taking trees that are compromised to a degree already, and you're further compromising them. Compromising them further because of the root ball being basically above surface, in a way, from saying that, as they're existing right now. Well, there's two things going on. One, you have a large mass of the root ball that's above ground, so that's reducing the stability of the tree, for one thing. And secondly, where you do have the roots that are making their way out to better stabilize the tree, cutting those would then basically, then you're down to just, you know, your root ball is purely just the width of the median, and that's not good for stability. You don't have the anchoring for the larger tree. And it's, again, just to be clear, it sounds like there's no way we can do, and Laura, I'd love to get your feedback on that, but it seems like we're limited in our ability to make street and curb median improvements without compromising to some degree the existing root system of those black olives right now. Is that, well, get your feedback on that first. Yeah, no, that's a problem, because let's say they had put in structural soils in the past. That would be another thing. Then as you resurface, you might not have these impacts. But unfortunately, it's kind of hard to avoid when you're doing, again, even just the milling and resurfacing. What would be your, what impact would that have on the black olives trees? So two things happen. The minute that you do the root cutting, if you can imagine, the stability of the tree is immediately compromised. So you have, you know, your anchoring system is immediately compromised. Then long term, the vigor starts to decline, because all the tree's ability to get food and water, you've just eliminated. Now, unlike stability, the stability is immediate, right? You have nothing anchoring you right off the bat. With the decline in vigor, trees do everything slowly. It actually could be several years till you see the decline in the canopy. But the decline is occurring the whole way through that time. All right, thanks. Laura, I'd love to get your feedback on just this conversation or any agree, disagree, other perspectives. I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier. Laura Tooley, Irvin Forrester, good afternoon, commissioners. Yeah, I do agree with Brian's assessment. If you look at how the critical root zone is illustrated here, if you remove what's in the street and on either side, you're looking at removing close to 80 percent, maybe 90 percent, and only leaving that little 10 percent strip within the median. Which, you know, if you can only stand on one leg for so long before you need that other balance. Yeah. And that would be my concern, because you would not have that radial support for the canopy that is over the roadway. And it is a heavily traveled roadway, and you've got cafes there. And it really increases the risk, not only of failure of the tree, but injury to pedestrians or vehicles. Okay. Thank you. And then the concept we're talking about, trees buffering the sidewalk and the roadway and having the structural soil so they are able to have a healthy root system, an expansive one. Does that make sense to you, Lord? Do you agree, disagree, concerns? That increases the viability of new trees to be planted. I would need to check with our engineers about putting it under the road itself. But even if it's under the sidewalk, you're increasing the viable soil volume for those trees by, you know, 80 percent. Because if it's under the sidewalk, that would certainly be helpful. Okay. Thank you. I'm sorry. Laura, do you mind if I just ask one question? But were you with the city, were you involved at all when all of the black olive trees were removed on A1A from about Oakland Park Boulevard, five blocks south earlier in the decade? No. Obviously, that was under the direction of the state because it's a state road. But I know our Parks and Rec was intimately involved in that with surveys to the neighbors and explaining that whole process. Were you here then or part of that? I was not part of that at that time. I have heard some residents comment about that and that they were disappointed that they were replaced with palms rather than shade trees. There are actually palms and other trees as well. There was a lot of extensive work, but I was more concerned with the reason that they were removed if you had that information. I'm sorry, I don't. Okay, thank you. And if I may, I just wanted to go over a couple slides I have here in regard to a risk assessment that we performed for the city for the black olive trees. The idea was we did, Chenmore and Associates, we did an inventory of everything in the corridor, but then there was concern to get some more details on these particular trees. So I'm going to slide back here. And so the idea behind, I hope I remember this is here, the idea behind the risk assessment is we want to know what is the likelihood that an entire tree or tree part could fail. And then what is the issue of concern, what's the likelihood that can fail, then what's the likelihood of impacting a target, people or property, and then what are the consequences of that failure. So all that together equals a risk score. And then just a mention here that the idea is we analyze the potential for this to occur, and then the city can then use that as a management tool. And on the bottom, I just mentioned here that our final ratings were low, medium, and high for the trees, and I'll go over what that means. So basically for the risk for all trees, the likelihood of impact was the same, the likelihood of impacting structures we looked at in this case. And now this is a very abridged version of the risk assessment. We look at every possible target from pedestrians to buildings to car, to people in cars, to the cars themselves. But we're simplifying it by showing you the most significant issues. So we looked at the consequences of failure were significant if a tree hit a structure. And the way the risk scores differed, two trees ended up getting a low rating because the likelihood of failure was improbable. And that would be associated with the trees towards the west end of the corridor. Basically, they're smaller, less mature, less defects. That's simply why there. Right, just to clarify, to make sure I'm tracking, is there a risk assessment of the trees based on what action? Sorry. Is it a risk assessment homeostasis right now? Oh, gotcha. Or is it a risk assessment as a result of some action? So the risk assessment is based on current conditions. We can't make assumptions about what might happen in the future. Just right now, do nothing, don't touch lost all this. Exactly. The trees as they are. So for the low-risk trees, the likelihood of failure was the thing that made them low. Again, they were smaller trees towards the west end. And I just mentioned we had some moderate ratings. That's because they had large limbs that could fail. If we remove those limbs, it goes down to low. So those two trees would be low. Then we had, for the most part, the trees ended up having a moderate rating. And that has to do with a possible likelihood of failure. And we had some that came up high. And this is because we had branches, you know, say large, 8, 10-inch branches that could potentially fail. However, if we simply remove those branches, we can get down to a moderate, what we call a residual risk rating. So if you look at a tree and you're concerned about maybe it's not the whole tree, maybe it's part failing, it might have a high risk score because of that part. You can possibly remove that part if it doesn't hurt the tree long term, then you lower the risk. Then, last, and examples of the moderate risk trees are the top left photo up there. And some of the defects here are co-dominant leaders with included bark and signs of wood decay organisms. Not to get very technical, but when you have a V-shaped notch with two leaders, the bark of those two main leaders is pressing against each other. It's just getting wider and wider, and that creates a weak point in the tree. So that's a factor that increases the likelihood of failure more so than the younger trees. So you're just talking about branches blowing off during a hurricane. Well, no, no. So to clarify, the risk assessment is not based – it's never based on a hurricane. It's only based on what we call normal, and this is all per the – So they can just fall off. Right. It's based on normal conditions. And normal is defined by the BMPs as basically up to a 50-mile-an-hour wind. So basically what we're saying is under conditions where it's a really windy – you know how we get our rainstorms. I understand. I understand. So did your assessment ever cover longevity of the tree itself, not just the branches coming off, but the longevity of the tree itself? So I would say it does in a sense. The maximum age doesn't really – I guess let's put it this way. If it's a large tree and it's structurally sound and has the soil, then the age wouldn't so much play into the risk. The other thing is – Well, we're more interested in the opposite. We're more interested in how long these trees are going to live. So if you were told that all we're worried about is branches falling off, that was the wrong assignment. Well, no, to be clear, though, when I'm looking at these risk ratings, they're all based on a whole tree in the end. Yeah, but so do you have an analysis of what the longevity is of the trees as they currently exist on the street? Well, I'll say this. The average lifespan of a tree in an urban environment, it depends on what resources you look at, but typically we'll say around 30 years. These trees have been in the ground well past that. And I know – So they're in borrowed time now? Right, unfortunately, yeah. Per discussion with Laura, I guess we've lost three black olives historically in the corridor. And then getting to my high-risk tree on the bottom, this is a situation where you can see on the bottom left, you've got a cavity. It's completely – the wood's gone. And the problem is it's not so much do you have decay, but where is it in the tree? Well, shoot, it's at the bottom of the tree. Then, to add insult to injury, unfortunately, we were able to put a probe in to check for the decay. It's a screwdriver or something fancy. But anyway, it went right through the tree. So this is a case where we have high-risk, meaning that it's – there's a probable likelihood of failure. Well, failure in terms of branches falling off. No, I'm sorry. When I say for all of these, when I say likelihood of failure, I should say it is for the whole tree failing, the whole tree. And when I mention that the trees are low, moderate, and high risk, the only way we get there is by – in some cases, we can remove dead wood to get to those scores. So the point is even with the high-risk tree, we cannot mitigate that – the likelihood of that tree falling. We're looking at the moderate risk and the low risk. Are those going to be around in 10 years? Well – I mean, I want to cut to the point here because we're wasting – we're not wasting – we're spending a lot of time on this. Yeah. There were three things that really this commission wanted to know from the get-go. One is what's the longevity of these trees, how wide we should make these sidewalks, and what should we do with regard to the number of travel lanes? Those are the three things we're focused on, and those are the things I want you to focus on. So you've done a lot of the other stuff, and you've answered a lot of our questions. But the question now that – we seem to be dancing around the question. We're not – I hear you. We're talking about branches falling off. We're talking about the life of the tree itself. Yeah. I would say they're heading towards the end of their lifespan. And again, it's based on urban environment. It's based on their limitations. Okay. Yeah. All right. So, yes. Thank you. All right. So, anyway, that's the risk rating. And I mentioned this before. The risk ratings are based on now. We can't account for future work. But if the – when the roots are impacted from roadway improvements, then that would lead to, as I mentioned, decrease in instability immediately and a decline in vigor. And what does that do to the lifespan, if you had to estimate? So it – The balance of the lifespan? Yeah. It does – it shortens it. It ultimately shortens it. Well, because now as soon as you – as soon as you – well, as soon as you cut those supporting roots, then even without a major storm, you've reduced your stability. And this is just – I won't go into this. This is just saying that we followed the guidelines for the risk assessment. And, again, based on normal weather conditions, we can't do a risk assessment based on a hurricane because anything can fail in a hurricane. So, anyway, that's the risk assessment. Okay. Thank you. That was helpful. Thank you. Please proceed. I think we're doing Coley Hammock now. Would you like me to – wait, would you like me to take it off? Please proceed, yeah. Would you like me to wrap up the shops or – Yeah, wrap up – yeah, please. This is the after image, locating mid-block between 9th Avenue – 9th and 10th Terrace. We already went through this, so two times more canopy in the shop section. And the improvements proposed here, mid-block crossing with – raised mid-block crossing with rapid flashing beacon and curb extension. And it's a similar detail, as you saw in the downtown area. So, what you've done here is you've actually eliminated a travel lane, correct? So, Mayor, the outside lane as it exists right now functions as a parking. After 11 o'clock. Correct. And then it's a travel lane for part of the day. Right. In this no median option, we have made the parking permanent with curb extension at the end of the intersection as well as in the mid-block crossing. What was the purpose of that? It does – so, one, it reduces the crossing distance, and it is making the parking permanent, right? So, the parking is available throughout the entire day. Right. But it also eliminates the travel lane. So, the travel lane only functioned for a couple of hours during the day, correct? Well, it's more than a couple of hours. It's like 10 or 12 hours. Correct. But I'm just trying – all right. I just – I want the commission to know what its options are. Absolutely. Because we can certainly choose alternative one and still not have the permanent parking. We can just keep the flexible parking system that we currently have, which seems to work. So, I'm just wondering what the – what was the point of making it permanent, I guess, is the question. This was the direction from the 2021 Mobility Master Plan that was approved by the commission, and the alternative one really followed what was approved by the commission. So – We approved this? Yes. This was approved by the – Yeah, Mr. Mayor, if I may add. So, just before the vision plan was approved back in 2021, on June 1st of 2021, the city commission heard public input regarding Las Olas vision plan, and the city commission deferred one of the camps and requested that the staff schedule a special commission workshop on June 15th. And as part of that item, which is commission agenda memo 210627, there were a couple of modifications that were made before the city commission adopted the vision plan. And for the shops, which is from the tunnel top to southeast 12th Avenue, the modification was one vehicle traveling in each direction. So, that's how we basically just advanced vision plan into concept plans that we see right now. If the city commission desires to go back and enable us to or enable for two travel lanes, we can make certain revisions and modifications in here that we have shown, just simply not implement curb bulb outs, right? So, those would be implemented at intersections. I think there was some confusion, perhaps, because there were so many alternatives that were presented to us. But I, you know, sitting here, I don't really recall our eliminating a travel lane permanently. I thought when we had on-street parking, it was to maintain the status quo, but still widen the sidewalks if we needed to do so. I'm just – so, we'll hear from the commission at some point after public comment. But I don't think that was the intention to permanently eliminate the second travel lane. Milos, can you share bulb outs? Obviously, there's – you know, Mayor brings up a point about if you have a bulb out, then you don't have another lane of traffic. So, that's definitely a downside of the bulb out. Give us any other pros, cons for the bulb out. So, when it comes to the cons, it really reduces effective width of the crosswalk. So, there is less likelihood of a conflict between vehicle and pedestrian because now pedestrian crossing distance is much shorter. And also, it can provide for some extra space for installation of any landscape, including the trees. But what you did there is you moved the trees away from the building, and that way you exposed more light on the sidewalk. That's the point. See where you have your trees now? You have the trees in the parking spaces, whereas before they were on the sidewalk. And that's the difference here. And I don't think – I think that defeats one of the purposes for this exercise. Anyway. Mr. Mayor, we can work around the placement of the trees. That's absolutely something that can be done through design development. Now, I think the more important decision would be, and the direction would be, do we open up the second lane all throughout and leave it the way it is today so that we can use it as a secondary travel lane whenever it's needed and also convert it to parking during certain times of the day? Or in case we choose a no median option, we basically eliminate that second lane and keep it as a permanent parking. Okay. Thank you. Looking at alternative two, this is the after visual. And we did discuss, again, it's two times more canopy than what is existing. And the significant improvement with the canopy, the other improvement is very similar to the alternative we saw before, one with raised mid-block crosswalk and the curb extension, very similar improvements here as well. And the costs for the two alternatives are very similar. We are at $7.5 million for both the alternatives. As for the downtown cost estimate, it does not include the cost of the fees associated with CEI and the design-build contractor. And going into Coley Hammock, we advanced the adopted 2021 mobility master plan. And we focused on increasing canopy coverage, widening the sidewalk with shared use path, and installing safe crossings. This is the existing conditions looking from southeast 15th Avenue, looking west. Majority of the improvements on this are pavement markings and the proposed improvements. Once the significant improvement here, as with the rest of the corridor we discussed so far, is the investment in shade tree canopy. In this case, it's almost nine times what is existing right now, primarily because existing trees are mostly palm trees. So we are proposing to install shade canopy trees. And when it comes to the other improvement, we are proposing on-street parking permanent and a shade-use path. Sorry, shade-use path. And the shade-use path is greater than 10 feet. And it can go all the way up to 14 and higher, clear. And the intersection of 13th Avenue is proposed to be raised as well. And it is a similar detail as you saw in the previous two sections in downtown in the shops area. Can you go back to that slide? I noticed you make an accommodation for a bike path, and there was no accommodation for a bike path in the shops area. So what is the thinking about having a bike lane up to a certain point and then it ends? What's a bicyclist supposed to do when they come to that point where there's no bike path? Good question, Commissioner. According to the 2021 adopted mobility master plan, The proposal was to continue the bike path in an alternative path in the side streets, in the shops, in the downtown area, along the river walk. Along the river walk? In the downtown section. And we did not study that as part of our design. It is outside our scope. But the alternative path was for the shops section and in the downtown section. However, for Curley Hammock, it was included as part of the 2021 master plan. Well, the problem is that the river walk doesn't go that far. The river walk ends at the tunnel. And so a bicyclist is going to come up to the canal, and there's no longer a bike path. And so it can't be along the river walk. It would have to go into the neighborhood, which is fine. But one thing I caution you is do not turn it into a sharrow on the shops area because there'll be death because of the way people drive and because it's so tight. And it would be very cumbersome and awkward to include bicyclists in an area that's already congested. So I don't understand the merit of having a bike path on this section when it's not a continuous path. It's just it's a truncated version. If they come from the beach, they'll go along, you know, the residential area, the bike path ends at the bridge, and then it resumes when you get to 17th Avenue, and then it'll end again when you get to this canal. So think that through, because as a bicyclist, you know, it's very awkward and difficult to try to traverse the city when you have inconsistent pathways for bicyclists to follow if they want to really get anywhere. All right. Thank you. Did you have anything? Yeah, Mr. May, if I may, thank you very much for your feedback. So in the shop section of the project, as long as we get additional weight along the sidewall, we can always accommodate bikes, and they would be expected to operate probably along the sidewalks. On the sidewalks? On the sidewalk as well. That's allowed. It's allowed, I know. It is allowed. So are scooters, by the way. It also depends on the level of comfort of anyone who is operating bikes, really, those who are operating recreationally or using the sport or enjoying the sport recreationally might be more comfortable operating and traveling, whether there is a bike lane or not, or a share of those who are using it for the purpose of commuting or the kids might be more comfortable on the sidewalk. But as long as we get extra width of the sidewalk, I think that can work out. In here, the intent is just to show that the wider the sidewalk we have, we can create it and separate it somewhat into a dedicated place for the bikes to operate and parashions to operate. It's just, again, just a rendering, and we can turn this around and maybe modify it even to show, not to show bike marking in here, rather put a central line in between, and both parashions and bikes will be able to operate. Right. But, Milos, the point of widening the sidewalks along the shops is not to accommodate bicycles. The point of widening the sidewalks along the shops is to accommodate outdoor dining. And so you're going to have bicyclists running into outdoor diners because they're now in the middle of a bike path. Think this through because this is not making sense. So there's no consistency here. So, you know, just be careful here. I just don't want us to start spending all this money to create a design scheme for this section and then have it be frustrated by a design scheme that does not anticipate the use of bicycles. And it just doesn't make any sense. So just keep that in mind. No, I appreciate the feedback. And just going back to the same workshop that I pointed out before, for the downtown segment of the project, based on 2021 adopted vision plan, and again, we were asked to develop an additional concept, the intent was to look into chariots on Las Olas Boulevard and explore dedicated bike lanes on parallel streets. So we can look at the both options, how we accommodate via chariots, how we do the dedicated bike lanes, or how we potentially accommodate something on a sidewalk. But I appreciate the feedback and completely recognize it as a valid input. Milos, why does this section have such a significantly higher cost when it seems like there's a lot less going on than the other sections? I will bring our engineer. That's longer, I think. Good afternoon. Greg Corning, WSP. So as we develop the cost and look at the different elements associated with the project, so any time you're widening the roadway a little bit more, you're potentially increasing the footprint of the area, it's going to overall increase your unit prices and quantities for those items. So that's what we use to develop the overall cost. And then you also have the trees that are in this area as well. So it's all based on the unit prices and costs associated with the quantities within each element. Okay. Although it just didn't seem, the scope didn't seem that much more than, for instance, the shop section. But that's okay. I appreciate the answer. Thank you. Can I ask you to find a way to conclude this in about five or ten minutes? Yes. I know we've asked a lot of questions. You've been extremely helpful. Absolutely. But we need to conclude this. I have people who have signed up to speak. The cost, we talked about the cost, 6.8. Again, it doesn't include the fees. It's just a construction cost. Elements, we went over this, so I won't repeat. And the elements throughout the entire corridor, we are looking at sidewalk, maintaining the existing look, concrete sidewalks, precast concrete seating with guardrails. And as far as lighting within the downtown, we want to maintain what's already there within the downtown and within the shops and Coley Hammock, gas lighting, pedestrian lighting. And as far as the vehicular lighting, we want to replace all the box lights along the corridor with LED lights. And this is just a quick summary of costs and canopy and sidewalk widths through the entire corridor and the loss of immediate parking spaces. And just looking at next steps, that's it. Is that it? If there are more questions, I'm happy to answer those as well. All right. Thank you. A number of people signed up to speak. I'll call your name in the order in which they're here. Ann Hilmer. Is Ann here? Oh, there. Hi, Ann. Followed by Bill Ott, followed by Ted and Sarah. Good afternoon. My name is Ann Hilmer. I live in Idlewild. I'm speaking today on behalf of Lauderdale Tomorrow and also the Idlewild Homeowners Association. As I speak, feel free to look at any one of the stickers on my chest, which a number of us feel are buzzwords and problem areas within the city, whether it's public lands, public involvement in P3s, saving the trees, does narrowing the roadways really deal with traffic congestion, safety first in terms of response times, and where's all the green gone? Okay, let me start with Lauderdale tomorrow. You all have in front of you both copies of these things that I'm going to read for the record. To Mayor Dean Trantalis and City Commissioners, as you continue to refine the Los Olos Mobility Project, we urge you to consider the following. One, do an updated traffic study, as the current one is from 2019. Circumstances have changed on both the beach and downtown since then. Number two, do a parking study to validate that on-the-on-street parking is no longer needed, as we believe. We believe that the on-street parking is no longer needed. And three, keep the entire right-of-way flexible. Where would the people park? Just a minute. Well, wait. Let's go. I'll stop the clock. Where are people going to park if there's no on-street parking? Well, you're talking about possibly building a parking garage. Well, that's not happening. We're not, it's a private, that's in a private, that's a private project? I'm on Los Olos multiple days of the week, and it's very rare when the parking lot, flat-surface parking lots behind them are full. At night, they are, but not during the daytime. Is the on-street parking full? No, not necessarily. Oh, you're not? No. Okay. So we don't need any on-street parking, is what you're saying? What we're saying is keep the right-of-way flexible. There should be no permanent installations of curbs or bump-outs that would preclude opening two traffic lanes in both directions for emergencies, hurricanes, and street fairs. And this is signed by 11 members of Lauderdale tomorrow. This is the one that's got the color at the bottom. Okay, and then the other one I'm reading into the record is from the Idlewild Improvement Association, the Homeowners Association, which was established in 1926. Dear Mayor Trantalis, Vice Mayor Herbst, Commissioner Beasley-Pittman, Commissioner Glassman, and Commissioner Sorensen, In 1916, as the Las Olas Causeway and Bridge were being built, the developers of Idlewild met to discuss an idea. Within a few years, M.A. Hort, R.E. Dye, and Tom Stilwell began construction on our neighborhood. They built homes for their families, some of which still exist, and they lived there. Just as we depended on Las Olas Boulevard for mobility today, so did they. Today, over 100 years later, we still love our community. Around 2013, which is four years before the city got involved, representatives from Idlewild began meeting with representatives of other Las Olas neighborhoods to discuss growing issues with mobility. We joined the Las Olas Mobility Group in 2018 and continued to work with our neighbors. Over the years, we proposed many ideas, some of which were originally met with skepticism, such as the dedicated right turn on westbound lanes, on westbound Las Olas. At the intersection of 15th Avenue, and the dual left turn of southbound 15th at Las Olas, both of which now exist. On January 15th, at the monthly meeting of the Idlewild, January 15th of this year, at the monthly meeting of the Idlewild Improvement Association, we reviewed the plan brought forward for your consideration. Our primary concern, as has been true for the past 13 years, indeed for the past 100 years, is safety and mobility. To that end, the board voted unanimously to, and I'm sorry my computer didn't get the bottom of it, but that says oppose curbing, bump outs, pinch points, which will permanently narrow the evacuation efforts. Number two, oppose on-street parking. Three, support a parking study to determine the availability of parking in the area, particularly in light of the proposed parking garage on Second Court. Number four, oppose removing the median, particularly until further studies have determined the impact on infrastructure underneath. Number five, update the traffic study completed in 2019. Oppose, number six, oppose the designation of Southeast 15th Avenue rather than Las Olas Boulevard as the evacuation route for the Isles Beach and other Las Olas neighborhoods. Southeast 15th Avenue is a two-lane road in a residential neighborhood, which is backed up on a regular daily basis, causing frequent backups on Las Olas and Broward Boulevard as a result of the backups on 15th. The commission decided in 2021 against widening this road, so it doesn't seem like it's a good choice for an evacuation route. We would request the commission complete the parking study and update the traffic study prior to moving forward on the plan before you. We also request that the commission move forward with a plan which prioritizes safety and mobility for the region while incorporating flexibility for future needs. And this is signed by 11 members of the Las Olas, I mean the Idlewild Improvement Association Board. Okay, thank you so much. Thank you. Bill Ott, is Bill here? There you are. Followed by Ted and Sarah, followed by Steve Hudson. Sorry, Bill, for you. Milos, what does designating Southeast 15th Avenue rather than Las Olas' evacuation route mean? Sorry, Bill, I just want to... Thank you, Commissioner. So, there are readily available published routes, evacuation routes for the Broward County. I did reach out to both FDOT and the Broward County Emergency Management, and the route currently goes along Las Olas from the beach all the way through downtown to Third Avenue. I did ask if there is any need or desire to change that designation. It is nothing other than the way that I see it in conversations with some of the colleagues. It's just basically a map that was provided at some point of time, which hasn't been updated, and we are not even sure how many people in the public are aware of the designation, right? Our take is that with the recent improvements along 15th Avenue, where the recent ones such as southbound left turn on Las Olas and 15th Avenue or the upcoming dual northbound left turn on Broward and Las Olas will increase capacity and provide for better movement of traffic and mobility along 15 connecting Broward and Las Olas as compared to going through downtown section, which is typically congested. Are we advocating for the designation of 15th Avenue as an evacuation route? Not necessarily advocating. We have reached out to both county and FDOT and asked to consider and asked if it would be more appropriate to, if the emergency evacuation routes were revised, for them to consider potentially given operational challenges in downtown versus the context of the context of South East 15th Avenue and the improvements that we have done or are about to do. Okay. And so they're going to make a determination, whatever they think is the best route. They're yet to provide the feedback, yes. They provide the feedback. And again, we're not advocating or pushing for one way or another. And I will provide additional clarification in here. So whenever evacuation is ordered, it's typically ordered in advance with current tools that we all have available in place. I don't know that anyone will be necessarily looking at the maps and see what is emergency evacuation route. We will be looking to use any roadway that is available to us in order to get out of the harm's way. So I recall – and the other point is also this. Typically during evacuation that is related to weather conditions or hurricane, right, it is ordered in – or it should be done in a staggered manner, right? So we shouldn't be all leaving our city at the same point of time, hopefully, right? So we should be leaving in advance of – Well, that's the whole point. Of the event. What is evacuation? It's not like Godzilla is descending upon the barrier island and then someone has to suddenly leave. People have days in advance to know – Well, days, we'll say, to know that there may be an impending hurricane and that there's an evacuation order in place. Those are usually two, three, four days in advance. So – and also, if you were to open up Las Olas Boulevard to all four lanes, okay, where does it end? Where does it end? It ends at another choke point. So I don't understand the difference between 15th Avenue and Las Olas in terms of the escape route. And that is a great point, Mr. Mayor, because really our ability to evacuate here, if everyone tries to leave at the same time, would be dictated by regional and traffic conditions along regional transportation network in South Florida. It's important to keep appropriate level of capacity on Las Olas, but ultimately there will be some other pinch point downstream which would meter our ability to leave. Okay. Thank you. Milos, I'm sorry. One question. I'm sorry. Bill, we'll get to you. I'm sorry. Did the vision plan, as conceptual as it is in many places, recommend the designation of Southeast 15th Avenue rather than Las Olas as the evacuation route? Not that I recall. Okay. Thanks. Thank you. Okay. Mr. Ott. Good afternoon, Commission. Thank you for the time. My name is Bill Ott. I'm representing the Downtown Fort Lauderdale Civic Association, and we wanted to bring up what our association came up with with respect to this project. We did meet with several members of the city. Milos presented at our board meetings. We went to some of the workshops, so we got pretty familiar with the project. I think there's also been involvement even previously when you guys met in 2021 and so forth, so pretty familiar with what the plan is. We did, on December 11th, have a meeting where we had a quorum present, and we voted on the two different areas, which was the shops area and also the downtown area. With respect to the shops area, we voted for alternative two, where we'd keep the median. Again, with trees, didn't define the tree type, but we'd want the trees. We believe that's an iconic design element of the city. Why a lot of us actually moved into that area was that look and feel of that part of the city, and I believe that's one of the things that makes it stand out around the world for its aesthetic. We also wanted to— So if the trees were to die, the Downtown Civic Association is of the opinion that we should keep the median and then just replant trees as they die? Yeah. Okay. All right. Or, I mean, even during construction, if something happens to them. Yeah, I understand. But we need to have nice shade trees that are iconic we can hang the lights from, make it look like it does today. In addition to the ones on the side. Yeah, I mean, I would prefer to have the ones in the median, the large ones. I think that would be better, in my opinion, but I'm not an arborist, or I'll leave it up to the earth. Yeah, but you're a resident. Yes, I'm a resident. You know what you like. I love that look, and I think if they spread over the sidewalks like they do today, I think we have a great look. And, you know, so we support that. But we like having the median. We think it's perfect. The big thing we differ with the proposal, number two, is we don't believe that the parking is required. If you eliminate the parking, then you can actually extend the sidewalks out a little bit. You can add the bike lane that I know is an issue where it's being choked off there. Or, again, we even propose the bike lane could run behind the hotel, Riverside Hotel, and actually be there. But have it where it's lined to make a continuous bike trail all the way from the beach to downtown. We also believe that, as I said, the bike friendly, we want to maintain that. Now, for the downtown section, again, we like a lot of the elements. We like the median. Again, ironically, we're putting a median in there. Love that look. Again, we would request that there would be no parking. Again, we believe there's adequate parking. And adding a bike lane is something we would also require through that section. So if you're not in favor of on-street parking, how many parking spaces are there? About 90-something? Yes. There's like 100 or so along the whole. Where would they go? They would go behind in all the parking ramps we have everywhere. I mean, again, I think one of the things that we also talked about is this plan is thinking about today's situation. I'd request the commission thinks about what it's going to look like in 20 to 30 years from now. What are people driving? Autonomous vehicles. Rideshare is going to be prevalent. Okay? Those are the things we need to plan for. As you guys are approving buildings, the setbacks are going back. So our sidewalks are getting wider naturally, and you guys are driving that. So those are things, and those buildings are probably going to be all replaced within 20, 30 years. So we request that the commission really thinks through what the look of this area is going to be in 20 to 30 years. I think that's our job. I mean, it's for our future, for the people there. It's not about us. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Milos, did you want to say something? Mr. Mayor, just to clarify, when it comes to number of parking spaces along La Sola, so we have about 200 on-street parking spaces from 3rd Avenue to end of Western Corridor, about 16th Avenue, because between 16th and 17th, we don't have much. But when it comes to any other off-street parking facilities, we have four of them. Each one of them are less than 100 spaces. So Heron Lutt, for example, where the new garage is coming up, is about 106 parking spaces. Everything else, whether we talk Venice lot or Pelican lot or Nautical lot, are anywhere between 24 and 58 spaces. Outside of that, the only larger parking facility that the city owned and operated would be a Riverwalk Center garage, which is about 2100. So that is the largest parking facility. So you're saying there are approximately 200 on-street parking spaces and that the lots adjacent to the buildings behind the shops equal to about 100? About 200, I would say. So 200, so it's equal. Additional. Okay. That is correct. So 200, all right. And the parking garage that people keep talking about, isn't that being done by a private developer? That is correct. There was a comprehensive agreement that was approved by the City Commission a couple of years ago, parking. Which is not being built. It is in final permitting, and it should be built within 30 months based on the feedback that we are getting from the P3. We'll have to hear from the developer. Okay. Thank you. So we'd lose 200 spaces, but we'd have to. So people expect all the shops and restaurants on Las Olas to be accommodated by 400 patrons. Interesting. So under our options, whether it's one without median or one with the median, we would be losing anywhere between 12 and 49 spaces, I believe. So for the option without the median, we would be losing about 12 parking spaces, and the one with the median would be losing about 49 spaces. Okay. Now, this is looking if we are to apply, if we are to apply the, actually, if we are to apply the current engineering standards to our own street parking on Las Olas, we will be losing additional parking. Okay. So this is a minimum of 12 and 49 plus. Okay. And that number includes bulb outs, right? That number accounts, these numbers account for bulb outs. Exactly. So you take away bulb outs, which is what the mayor was suggesting. You take out bulb outs. That adds back how many, any sense? Might not necessarily bring anything back because there are some safety zones in pursuant to engineering standards and Florida statute. There is a parking prohibition, certain distance from the crosswalk, about under 30 feet, and signals and so forth. So it's still about the same? Still about the same. Okay. Thank you. Ted and Sarah, President of River Oaks Republic. And don't forget the big garage that's next to the Riverside Hotel, and that's in the Cheesecake Factory. That is 73% empty most of the time. Let me tell you, I got no problem with the downtown section. I got no problem with the Cooley Hammock section. My main problem is with the shops. And when it comes to designing for the shops and figuring out what we can do to these trees, I'm sorry, with all due respect, the city needs smarter people. I mean, we need to get to. Ted, let me stop you there. It's offensive when you demean city staff. Okay. So please, you know, try to keep it positive when you're talking about city staff. All I know is we need to call Ossie Cymbal. Let's get his arborist who moved the rain tree with a minute bulb in the bottom, which I thought would never survive. And it is surviving just fine. So let's. I was going to say, didn't you oppose that? Like, wildly, vociferously, repeatedly? I thought the way he was going about moving it would never work. And it working fine. It's very healthy. Keep quiet, John. It's miraculous. Beautiful. It's not trying to contradict the. We need to get that guy. I don't think I've ever heard you say Ossie and something positive in the same sentence in the last eight years. I usually refer to him as the man behind the curtain. But, you know, we just need another outlook. Listen, I sat next to these two guys from Tennessee last night that were here for a plant and tree international expo at the Broward Convention Center, staying there. And they were watching the game. And I was sitting next to them. And I found out why they were here. I started talking to them, showed them all the pictures of Las Olas, tell them what the people are saying. And he said, very easy. You can treat trees just like you treat your lawn, like you treat your shrubs, like you treat your dog, like you treat yourself. There are ways to lengthen the life of trees. And let me tell you, how are they suddenly going to get these mature trees that for once the DDA is not going to say they're diseased, you know, because any tree that they want out is just automatically diseased. And we need to explore all options on these trees. And I think we need to get some other opinions. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Steve Hudson, followed by Robert Lockery, followed by Mike Weymouth. Hello, Mayor and Commissioner. Good afternoon. Thanks for allowing me to speak today. My name is Steve Hudson. I was born and raised in Florida, also a property owner on Las Olas. So, I think everyone shares the same goal here, okay? We all want Las Olas to be safer, more attractive, and more vibrant. The question is not whether to improve the street. It's how we do it most effectively. Parallel parking naturally slows down cars and trucks. There's a purpose for them beyond just parking. Drivers instinctively reduce their speed when they're moving alongside parked vehicles. Crosswalks further reinforce that effect. They interrupt traffic flow, force awareness of pedestrians, and improve safety without heavy infrastructure. And sidewalk width is fundamental to making Las Olas a pedestrian-friendly first street. Wider sidewalks mean safer walking, stronger retail, more outdoor activity, and a better public realm. That's where the real value is created here in Las Olas. But we have to be honest about the constraints. The right-of-way in this area is only 50 feet. That is not enough space for everything that's being proposed. Heavy traffic lanes, parking, sidewalks, medians, bike lanes, landscaping, rideshare, loading. All of this in one very tight corridor. Something has to give. Bike lanes belong on the arterial roads, not on the constrained main retail street. Las Olas is a destination, not a commuter corridor. The median consumes scarce right-of-way, limits flexibility, complicates access, and delivers limited pedestrian benefit. With the median left in place, this project becomes compromised from the start. We were asked if the property owners will consider funding for this project. If we can come to an agreement consensus on the design, the property owners would consider funding for trees, lighting, and further beautification. Those investments directly enhance the pedestrian experience and character of the district. We also feel that the infrastructure expenses of roadway systems, drainage, and utilities are the cost of the cities. We support traffic calming. We support pedestrian safety. We support beautification. We support a stronger Las Olas. But design must reflect the physical limits of the corridor, respect how the street actually functions, and align with funding that responsibility. If we get this right by removing the median, prioritizing sidewalks and crossings, keep parking as a safety buffer, and focus the private funding on placemaking, we can deliver a project that truly improves Las Olas. In closing, this is not about resisting change. This is about getting it right and making Las Olas the best it can be. Thank you. Thank you. Robert Lockery. Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners. My name is Robert Lockery, here today on behalf of the McTeague family and the Coombs family, both of whom own properties along Las Olas, have so for a long time. As many of you know, the McTeague family have owned property on Las Olas for generations, well over 100 years. They owned property before the median was there. They were involved when it was put in place, and they've certainly been involved in the last eight years as this process has evolved. And I will tell you that when they first heard of it, when Emma McTeague and his daughter Sarah came to see me, they were very concerned about this project about seven or eight years ago, and they were skeptical as to the approach that it might take. However, by staying engaged with the process, and you guys have certainly done a very comprehensive process in evaluating all aspects of the project and hearing out the different views on the subject, they asked me to come today to say they stand in strong support of Alternative 1, and really because that accomplishes three goals. That's the alternative that removes the median, adds new shade trees, increases the sidewalk width, and keeps the on-street parking. And it's for those three reasons that it achieves really the three primary goals that we think the city should be focused on. Number one, as I said, adding more shade trees closer to the pedestrians where they walk, yet also providing shade over the travel lanes, but bringing it to the street. Number two, by ensuring that the sidewalks are larger, anyone who walks along Las Olas any night, any time during a weekend, rather, knows that the sidewalks need to be widened. This gets that accomplished. And also, importantly, I don't want this to get lost in the discussion, although I'm glad it hasn't thus far, the on-street parking. You know, one thing I'm going to say about the on-street parking, as I said, the McTeague family has owned property along Las Olas for over 100 years. In the 109 years, or roughly 109 years of Las Olas' existence, there has been on-street parking for a vast majority of the time that that street has been in existence. There was a brief period of time when there was not on-street parking, and during that period is when Las Olas began to fail. I'll be very quick and wrap up. And it was why, in 1993, the City Commission came back, put on-street parking back on the street. We can see the success of the street in the last 32 years. Newspaper articles after the on-street parking were put on were full of comments by the public, by residents, by visitors, who said how great it was to have on-street parking and the buffer it provides between the travel lane and the travel out. Thank you. Thank you, Robert. Mike Weymouth is up next. And then after that, Diane, and I'm having trouble reading this, G, I'm sorry, is that A-G-N-E? Yep, I'm sorry. Couldn't read it, but you'll be up next. And after that, Maggie Hunt. All right, good afternoon. Again, I can't read it. Sorry. Good afternoon, Vice Mayor, Commissioners. Good to see you. Mike Weymouth, President and CEO of the Las Olas Company. The Las Olas Company has been in continuous operation for 91 years. We're going to celebrate a 90-year birthday for the Riverside Hotel on December 16th this year. So, needless to say, I'd like to think that we've been here for a very long time. Everything we do, we operate in a first-class manner, whether it's the way we take care of our buildings, the way we take care of the whole boulevard, everything for me, and people have heard me say it time and time again, this is my Disney World. At 10 o'clock in the morning, that street's got to be done. We're doing the yard work. We're doing the trash. We're doing everything before that. So, it's very important. And we're very heavily vested in the shops area. So, that's why we're so adamant about it. What's interesting to me is this has all been talked about the trees and the median. Nobody has announced how they love the plan with the median over the one without. It's all about saving trees that, according to the Urban Forester, this is a – sorry, I didn't make one for everybody. You can pass it down. But that's an assessment of 18 trees a couple, three years ago. So, here's a note. The black olive tree is an illegal species of tree. You cannot plant a black olive tree in the city of Fort Lauderdale today. It's against their code. So, like I said, this tree survey was done a couple, three years back. In there, it assesses 18 trees. As we stand here today, two of those trees are no longer with us. They've gone to tree heaven. They've had a celestial discharge. Of the 16 remaining, eight trees are labeled fair, and eight trees are labeled poor or very poor condition. Hence, back to the conversation that these things aren't wrong for this world either. On a separate note, part of what I do for the company is I go out and I visit different shopping districts that are like ours. There are high streets in the southeast part of the United States. The takeaway that I share with you is that all these shopping streets mirror the quaint feel of Las Olas with one exception. They don't have a median. Commissioner, I'll ask you to peek at those and pass them down. What I'm giving them are pictures of Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, Clematis Street in West Palm Beach, 3rd and 5th Avenues in Naples, Hyde Park in Tampa, and Main Street in Winter Park. So, please look at the cross section because this is kind of the charm that we're trying to create out there. Also note that they all have tree-lined streets, sidewalks, and on-street parking. As I said in my opening comments, the Las Olas Company is here for the long game and only wants what's best for this district. If we were here simply to get rich, the building elevations would look very different. If we were here just to maximize profits, the new building that I built at Tommy Bahamas, where Tommy Bahamas is at, would be a 30-story building because I could do that. So, we embrace and invest in the charm of this old dame who deserves a facelift and a collagen injection. I'm going to go off script here real quick. A couple things. We're talking about on-street parking, and I haven't heard it here, and it should be something that concerns you guys. You ought to ask the department how much money that on-street parking generates for you on an annual basis. You'll be surprised. It's seven figures. And the only other thing that I want to add about the on-street parking, one of the things that concerns me the most, and periodically it comes up and it comes up, and I happened to be in Barcelona in 2018, which was right after the time that a car ran up La Rambla and killed a bunch of people. And then it happened again last year in 2025 in New Orleans when a car went off onto the sidewalk intentionally and hit a bunch of people. The parking on this boulevard provides that level of comfort between a moving car going 20, 25 miles an hour and somebody sitting at a restaurant or staring in a window. So, thank you. Thank you. Diana Gagne, followed by Maggie Hunt and Jerry Morihone. Is Chris Nelson still here? He left. I saw him leave. And finally, with Charlie left. Diana. Hello. Diana Gagne. I live downtown, south side of the Riverwalk. You live at 520 Southeast 5th Avenue. Yeah. I didn't know if you needed that. It's okay. Okay. So, to the timer start, I guess I'll get going then. I'm a part of the Downtown Civic Association. I just wanted to also note that our Civic Association, I don't know if Bill said that, but we had a survey and 88% of the people in the survey that responded said to keep a median in the shops section. 88% is pretty significant. I guess listening to all of this, number one, honestly, I felt a little blindsided because I thought that keeping the olive trees was an option. And it sounds predetermined that it isn't an option, so I'm not sure where to go with that. But if I'm to be honest, when I looked at the renderings, I do really like the median, the rendering that has the median. And I'd rather have a median with different trees if we don't keep the black olive trees is, I guess, what I'm trying to say, than not have a median at all because I do think it makes Fort Lauderdale, you know, very unique. I agree that there's lots of other places in Delray and Dania Beach, you know, the outdoor plaza that have, you know, they're generic. And I think that when I'm on Las Olas, and again, I'm one of those people that moved here because of the charm of Las Olas Boulevard. Ben knows when he first brought it up, I said, I started singing the Joni Mitchell song, and you don't know what you've got till it's gone. I do think it's charming and it's beautiful. And if we can do something with keeping the median, I hate to say, lose the, not keep the black olive trees. First preference would be to do everything we could. I didn't think that we talked about different ways to pave the road if there's another way that doesn't involve removing the substrate. I also, on the parking issue, that we did a research and found 7,000 parking spots within one and a half blocks of downtown Las Olas, and 60 spots are on the street. 7,000 parking spots? I know, and maybe Bill can speak to that. That's not the case. But, yeah. And most of that parking is reserved for residents. And also, if you ever go to Amsterdam, there's lots of bikes in the downtown areas. No, we're not Amsterdam. We're not a bicycle city. All right, thank you. Maggie, followed by Jenny. I just, first of all, wanted to talk about safety and agree with the mayor about at least having that on-street parking flexible, and not, so then not having, because I see on the second plan, oh, by the way, I support the second alternative, maybe with some modification. But there are some, looks like there's some permanent curbs and bump-outs that would prevent that from being flexible, and so I would agree with the mayor on that. But I also want to point out, I'm disappointed that we only talked, when we started talking about parking, what we had, that was only the surface lots. We know there's the Riverwalk parking. Everybody up here was talking about, yeah, we're going to have this EMS station, and we're going to have this parking garage behind El Camino, and it looks like we are. So I'd like to know that we're not, because I've not heard one person say they didn't know until today. So there's the Riverwalk, I've parked behind Yolo in that garage, I parked in the Riverwalk parking lot down there. I mean, and north of the Heron, west of the Heron lot, I never see that lot full, even at night. I don't think we need the on-street parking. But I think, as Lauderdale tomorrow, which I'm a part of suggested, is we should do a parking study, an official parking study, so we see where all the parking spots are, and we have it on there for the public to see. So you know one of the reasons why the city's parking garage is not full, but the street is full? Because people prefer to park on the street than to walk five blocks to go to their destination. So I'm not saying that the city parking lot is not full. I never said that. I said the lot west of the Heron lot is never full. That's a surface lot. No, no, I park in the city a lot all the time, and it's never full, except for special events at Heisinger Park or, you know, Fourth of July or something like that. Right, and that's the farthest one away. Now, there's a garage behind Yolo, and there's a very reasonably priced behind the Riverside Hotel garage. Right, but in terms of convenience, and look at human nature. But that's right behind the Riverside Hotel. How do you get closer to the Cheesecake Factory? I don't know. Not everybody goes to the Cheesecake Factory. Okay, a block. So you're saying, I mean, so then you're talking about the next block down where it's not the Cheesecake Factory, and they've got to walk a whole block. You've got seven on-street parking lots, and you need those seven? Human nature, you can't argue with me. Human nature, people would rather park in front of where they're going than to park at a distance and have to walk. Do you know I have never been able to park there because it's always full? Right, right, right. But I'm saying there's parking behind. So since I can't park there, if I want to go there, I find a way, and I just go behind or I go behind the Cheesecake Factory. Because it's more popular to park on the street. Right, but that doesn't mean we have to have it. It's not going to be the downfall. Anyway, I think we need a parking study. Hey, let me ask you this. I've got a little more time already. All right, you go. We'll see you, Mayor. I'll give you a little more time. I stopped the clock. Oh, thank you, Mayor. So if La Sola's had what it currently has, which is four travel lanes, right? Your suggestion is four travel lanes, no on-street parking. No, I'm just saying we should explore that. I like at least what the mayor says that it should be flexible. Okay. So we shouldn't have those permanent. So you like on-street parking? I'm not saying I like it. No, I'd rather not have it. And I think if we have these 300 spaces, but let's see what people think. I mean, are just six of us going to decide? So you think get rid of on-street parking? That would be my preference. But you know what? I'm fine with it flexible, too, if that's what we need. Okay. Right? Okay. Thank you. So, but I just think it should be investigated. If people are asking for the study, let's do it and see what people think. Well, the problem is it's been studied to death. I mean, these two guys right here initiated the mobility study for two years. Hundreds and hundreds of people showed up over time. Hundreds of hours. And disagreed because I went to some of those. Well, that's the whole point. That's why it lasted so long. I'd expect the commission to make a decision if they didn't make a decision. Right. So that, but like we said, that parking study is 2018. So this is a long time later. All right. And we got a lot more buildings on the beach. And we've got a new hotel going on, La Sola. So I think things are different enough. If we're not, then we need to know because it looks like we are. All right. Very good. Okay. So anyway, sidewalks. So I'm with you that some of those sidewalks look too wide. I think there's only four pinch points. And are those tables, that code, can they be within three feet or two feet of the sidewalk? Should it be that way? Or just for those pinch points, we're spending $7 million to make wider sidewalks all. Well, I think that one side needs it more than the other side. I think that, I think the south side has more, has more narrow sidewalks than the north side. So there's one of the alternatives here is just to do one side. Okay. That was yours, but they didn't show that today, did they? I think it was alternative number two. It's just, yeah. Okay. Well, I thought that one was where it was alternating or something. Not that it was. It says with. All on one side. Yeah. So anyway, where was I? Can you conclude your comments? Yeah. I don't think all the, and I think it's too wide where you said. And I think before you guys vote, we need to have that elevation change so it represents the bird's eye view. Okay. The trees. I'm not going to repeat what I said because I agree completely 100% with a gentleman from downtown. The only thing that I'll add is we had the arborists say that the lifespan of a urban tree is 30 years. And these olive trees could stay 60. They're already 50. So my suggestion would be if they're going to, we're going to kill them all by taking them out, replant there with olive trees. Because they're denser than any oak tree except for the one by the river walk. That one's very dense. But if you look downtown, the density of that foliage on those live oaks is not good. But it's by far much denser on these, and they, like I say, lasted 60 years instead of the 30. All right. All right. Let me see one more thing. I have to conclude your remarks because we're way over time. Yeah, I will. I will. Here we go. And just the one comment that, yeah, the other cities don't have this median. That's what makes it different, and that's what we'd like to be, and that's all. Okay. Thank you. Jenny Morihone followed by Charlie Ladd. Anyone else wish to speak on this item that is not signed up? So, Mayor, I did have one request from Dr. Warren Sturman, who couldn't be here. He just asked me to read something that he had sent on to me. Again, I'm not endorsing his position. Dr. Sturman, you remember that gentleman. He used to sit down there at the other end of the dais. So he forwarded something to me. He couldn't be here today and asked me just to read it in. And so I said I would do it. I'm not for or against this position, but as a courtesy to our former colleague. Okay. Thank you. Hi. Good afternoon, Mayor, Commissioners. Last month, the DDA did submit a letter outlining our formal positions on both the downtown and shop section. I just want to reiterate a couple key points today. We're very hopeful to see this project progress. After all, it has been studied tremendously, as you mentioned. So in the downtown section, I think you'll notice walking around down there, probably some of the best improvements with new development in terms of wide sidewalks. So very little change is necessary. We recommend minor improvements where needed. But what you will note, because there is a lack of on-street parking, primarily from 3rd Avenue to Andrews, cars are going very fast. We have a permanent four-way stop. Thank you. We've coordinated that with the city at 2nd Avenue, and we're looking to implement that as well at 1st Avenue next to Huizinga Park. It's very important. And cars are going fast there because there is no on-street parking. There's four lanes, and they're just flying through. So keep that in mind. Additional shade trees in that section would be good. But regarding the shop section, our preference and priority is to maintain permanent and consistent on-street parking for all the reasons that were previously said, the buffer to pedestrians. Just on Saturday, we held a pre-opening event at Huizinga Park, looking forward to everyone coming out next Saturday, this coming Saturday. But I walked the whole strip, and in that section by the shops where there was not on-street parking, even with wide, wide sidewalks, groups of people visibly were uncomfortable because cars were going by fast. Even when the sidewalk was narrow, if there was a car parked next to the curb, you just knew that you had a bit of a buffer. So I think when you really walk that street and explore it, you get that sense of it. Another point to note, someone mentioned black olives. The city's code doesn't even allow residents or business owners to plant black olives in this city. So keep that in mind because nothing will fit when those trees die and you go to put something new in. It's also very important for the design that gets pushed forward without a median, and with permanent on-street parking, we prefer, that there be many more trees. There are gaps of 40 to 60 feet between many of the proposed trees. Those can be decreased down to 30 feet like you see in front of the main, like you see along Huizinga Park and the Hyatt-centric. So follow the downtown street standards and put more in. And finally, I'll end with, when we talk about funding, the DDA has been a partner with the city for 60 years this year, and several instances over the past decades, at least in my experience, has the DDA been successful in partnering with the city on very important efforts to raise funds at the state and federal level, whether it was for the county courthouse and seeing that authorization come, the federal courthouse, whether it was for the wave streetcar and figuring out how to build those relationships and secure dollars, whether it was 20 years ago when the DDA worked with the city and completely rebuilt 2nd Street in downtown. So we're a stand here with consensus on the preferred option, the alternative with no median and on-street parking, to commit to helping the city with lobbying efforts and resources needed to go and get those dollars to actually bring this iconic street to life. Thank you. Thank you so much. Jenny, question for you. Can you have permanent on-street parking without bulb outs? Absolutely, you can have it, but I think the bulb outs do help decrease the width of the pedestrian crossing, which is very important. It also gives a visual cue to the driver that there is a crosswalk there because the pedestrian is standing a little closer out. So, sure, definitely. Can you – so is the DDA comfortable with permanent no bulb out? I don't think we explored, you know, that option versus the other. Okay, thanks. Charlie Ladd. Good afternoon, Commissioners and Mayor. Hopefully my – what I have to say is coherent. I'm going to try to pick up pieces on all these other speakers. I'll start now, Charlie. Okay, I'm doing my best. So a couple things. As far as I know, it is not – the median at 6 feet in width is not by code allowed to be replanted with canopy trees by code, period. So when those trees are gone, if the median stays, the best you can have is palm trees or a smaller ornamental tree. So that eliminates a lot of this discussion. Also, the drawings that are done – I was – I was – you know, I'm a developer. I do drawings. I build stuff. I've done 3,000 feet of streetscape on Federal Highway in Las Olas. I've planted 400 lineal feet of streetscape on Las Olas at Planta and at Lululemon. And so I think I know what I'm talking about. And looking at those drawings and the tree spacing and these ornamental trees that they call canopy trees doesn't really work. And if you do the simple math, I look block by block. Tunnel to 8th Avenue, which is the premier block with half the median trees. Out of 490 lineal feet, there's 300 lineal feet of tree canopy, which is compressed of six main trees plus a tab. And if it's replanted at 30 feet on center along the sidewalks, we would have 30 trees in that block or five times the number of trees. The 8th Avenue to 9th Avenue block is 400 lineal feet. There's 160 lineal feet of tree canopy with four trees that would be replanted with roughly 24 to 26 trees on 30 feet on center. And then if we go farther east, it gets worse. There's 520 lineal feet from 9th Avenue to 11th Avenue, 210 lineal feet of tree canopy. There's a clump of 140 feet and one 70-foot clump. So those three trees would be replaced with 32 trees. And then the last chunk from 11th Avenue to the Himishi Bridge, it's 130 feet. There are no trees. I'm sorry, there's two trees with the minimal canopy, and they'd be replaced by about eight. So the total number is 15 trees in the median that would be gone, replaced by somewhere between 90 and 94 canopy trees. Those canopy trees should be oak, so they're consistent. The oak trees are the most powerful canopy trees we have. Many of those other trees are deciduous, like Commissioner Herbst discussed, and there's nothing for six months a year. And if we could somehow manage to line that street with 90 oak trees at 30 feet on center, like at Planta and Lululemon, you would have one of the prettiest streets in the world. And when we talk about that parking and we talk about the traffic and we talk about the residents, keep in mind, on ChatGBT, the estimate of pedestrian traffic for 2025 was 5 million people. There's 100,000 people a week that come to Las Solas. That defines our city. That, with the Riverwalk and the beach, is what we are. And we can't screw it up, and we have a chance to really make it special. So please, let's do it. And also, I want to apply for a job. There's people that are very knowledgeable about streetscape. Hugh Johnson's a retired landscape architect. He did a lot of the design in Flagler Village, which has some tremendous streets. I was on the street design task force. Whatever design group we have there needs input from people that are used to doing streetscape and not doing drawing theoretical stuff. It's really not applicable. Not to sound like an egomaniac, but they're probably not. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Mayor, I want to just ask Charlie a question or two. Thank you. And the reason I want to do this is for the people that don't know what you've developed, I'm very familiar with it, much of it in Flagler Village and along Federal Highway. And, you know, it's very interesting to me because when I drive by any of your projects, especially when it involves trees and oak trees like you've talked about, you know it's your project. And I want to make sure that staff hears what Charlie said about making sure we're working with the right people as these designs move forward. Because we do have good examples of this in our city. What you've done on Las Olas, what you're going to continue to do with the hotel on Las Olas, and also what you've done in Flagler Village. And I'm very familiar with all of those places. So I want to make sure that people are listening to your words and taking it very, very, very seriously. So I want to ask your opinion, and I think I already know perhaps the answer. But let's also talk about the bulb out situation that Commissioner Sorensen also asked Jenny. Tell me how you feel about that with regards to pedestrians and cars and vehicles and parking and giving people a visual heads up that something's coming. What is your take on that, on this boulevard? The evacuation route is a ruse. We know that. There's this invention called the Weather Channel. Okay? We've all been here in hurricanes. Two days before a hurricane, you could fire a cannon down our streets. So let's ignore that. It's about traffic calming. It's about pedestrian safety. And those cars act as a barrier. The bulb outs are powerful because they shorten the distance, and at the intersections they can shorten it dramatically, but it's permanent. And by doing those bulb outs, that's an acknowledgment that those parallel spaces will never be a through lane. And that's a hard pill for certain people and the longtime residents of Fort Lauderdale to swallow. But if you're doing street design, you want those bulb outs because the other benefit of those bulb outs is you can go to some of these historic portions of Las Olas, like the Riverside Hotel, where that portico will never be removed, and you could probably get even more room. So there are things that can be done once you acknowledge that the parallels will be there forever. And part of what makes it difficult in assessing this, or it probably gets us closer to doing that, is that at the tunnel, it's now permanently been narrowed to one lane. So the idea of getting back that lane someday in the future isn't going to happen now with the tunnel done. You mentioned the oaks, and you mentioned lining the boulevard and making it something that would be iconic. Is there any point in time, and I've seen this in other places, is it even feasible or is it just laughable to think that the oaks actually would grow to a point where they actually would come very close to each other from each side of the north and south side of the boulevard? Sure, especially if they're taken care of. When you plant new trees, the state-of-the-art, and the landscape people can talk about this, they do containerized oak trees. And what a containerized oak tree does is the root ball has always been contained. It's in a box. So when that tree is planted, it takes off and grows faster, whereas they call them field-grown trees where they cut the root ball, and that tree goes into shock. And that's why it's difficult to transplant, especially oak trees, because they shock. And that's like if you go along the south side of the Riverwalk, those big oak trees were relocated many years ago. They never grew after by Smoker Park on the tunnel. So, like, if you look at planta, we used containerized oak trees. They were 600-gallon containerized oak. We had to use giant front loaders to install them, and they were in boxes like this by this tall. But if you go look at those trees, they're already full canopy trees, and they're expensive. Like I said, they're $6,000, $7,000 a piece installed. But that's what we should be doing on Las Olas. I ask that question because I've seen historic photos from Las Olas like 100 years ago where there actually was almost like an arch of trees and landscaping that lined the boulevard because you had that on both sides of the street, and it created that arch. You see that now, actually, if you drive on A1A up like through Hillsboro. So, you see it's magnificent, and I know what you're talking about, and you actually think that that is a possibility with the growth of those trees on both sides of Las Olas? Yeah, it might take 10 years, but it's 10 years of that versus 10 years from now that all the black olives are dead. I mean, we're at a fork in the road, and this is a question of are we going to be special or are we going to fall victim to the easy way out? And we all want the same thing. It's just people are not trusting that somebody can actually put in a tree canopy and have it grow because typically, especially in South Florida, developers and cities have acid. And I think we've shown as a city we can do it better. You were a part of the Las Olas Mobility Working Group. Commissioner Sorensen and I convened those meetings over two years plus. And I want to know, because it's been brought up tonight by some others, that we should take a look again at another traffic study. Do you feel there's been anything that's changed since then that would warrant that? Or is that traffic study going to pretty much still be the same as when we did that as part of our work a couple of years ago? I think we're in a very similar place. And I do think the fact that we got 15th Avenue done with the right turn lane and with the double left southbound, I don't think we ever did the double left northbound. But that seemed... It's coming. Yeah, it's coming. And that's had a very, very big impact. And I don't know that the Las Olas conditions, as I see it, are much different than they were three years ago. I think it will get busier. You know, the Mangoes was an unsuccessful restaurant after Mangoes left. It's now under construction with the restaurant people. They're going to be a big generator. There's closed restaurants where B Square and Yamash used to be. Those restaurants are going to be rehabilitated. So you're going to be bringing in more traffic, more volume over the next year as those other restaurants reopen. All right. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you very much, Commissioner. Okay. Any other questions or comments? All right. Before we get into our discussion... Hold on. I need to read Dr. Sturman's. Oh, I'm sorry. That's okay. No problem. Okay. The two current proposals are not what we agreed on in conference last year. I know because I was the one who presented the plan to keep the median and remove all on-street parking, and we all agreed to present that option as well. Advantages of removing on-street parking are traffic safety, no abrupt stops when a parking spot opens, no more cars starting into traffic as they leave a parking spot, no need to back up on a traffic thoroughfare to get into a spot, no worry about driver doors opening abruptly into traffic. Second, traffic flow. Cars are no longer trolling at two miles an hour, hoping to find the perfect spot. Traffic no longer will come to a sand still every time a car pulls into or out of a spot. No more U-turns to grab a spot. That just opened in the opposite direction. Number three is pedestrian safety. Crossing street will only have to deal with one direction of traffic at a time. Pedestrians only deal with one lane at a time, so they won't have to worry about being hit by a car pulling out of a parking spot. But wheelchairs and strollers and a landing in the middle to protect them as they cross the street. Number four, pedestrian flow with even wider sidewalks. Removing parking will add a total of 20 feet of sidewalks as opposed to 8 feet if the median is removed and creates enough room for a bike path along the Las Olas shops. Number five is aesthetics. The beauty and uniqueness of the tree-lined median has always defined and set Las Olas apart. Even when the current trees die, keeping the medians keeps a placeholder for future landscaping. If the median is removed, this option will be lost forever. There will be room for even more shade trees, both in the median and in the much wider sidewalks. And a three-story parking garage was approved in the corridor, so on-street parking will not be needed. Thank you. All right. Thank you. City Manager, we have an issue. It's 5 o'clock. We haven't even had a conversation here regarding this matter and to allow city staff to be given direction by the commission on how we want to go forward. We have another item on the agenda, which is regarding the FXE, and then we have a closed-door session. And then we have to conclude, so we have a 6 o'clock meeting. I have at least 45 minutes of people who want to speak on Business 2, so we can't do all this at once. My suggestion is, and I hate to say this, my suggestion is we defer Business 2 because we don't have time. I did not expect the Business 1 matter to take almost three hours of time. What do you suggest? So, Commissioner, I think Commissioner Herbst indicated to me that there were some members of the public here to speak on the FXE item. No, there aren't some members. There's 45 minutes of people who are here to speak on that. Yeah, I believe, Mayor, that we have a number of the tenants. By a show of hands, who's here to speak on the FXE issue? Yeah. Yeah, we've got a number of the tenants here who are impacted by what's going on up there. So do you have a suggestion, Vice Mayor, what we should do? My suggestion would be that we open the evening meeting, and then we pause it and resume the conference meeting so we can – again, we've got a lot of folks that are here that have taken a lot of time out of their day. I'm sure they probably have some legal representation with them. It's probably billing them by the hour. I'd like to get this heard, if we could, today. I think this is a very important topic, and I know it's holding up some lease negotiations and discussions, and I think it's very important that we resolve this and move forward so we can conclude some of these issues. Thank you. All right. So why don't we – I guess we'll just pick up on Business 2 at 6 o'clock, and let's have our conversation and give direction to the city staff regarding Las Olas. And then during our meal hour, we'll do the closed-door session. Thank you, Mayor. So hold on, just so I'm understanding. So what are we talking about now? Let's have our conversation regarding Las Olas mobility, give direction to city staff as to which alternative or variation thereof we want them to move forward on. Okay. Then we'll conclude, and during our dinner period, we will have the closed-door session. Okay. And then we'll come back, hopefully, at 6. I'll open the meeting at 6, then close it so that we can have Business 2. Okay. And then we'll do Business 2, and then after that, we'll resume the 6 o'clock meeting. Go back to the 6 o'clock, great. And then city commissioner comments? We'll be at the end of the evening meeting. Evening meeting. Okay. That sounds right. So those folks, I asked you to come back in about an hour or so. We'll resume on Business 2 regarding FXE. But right now, the floor is open. Suggestions? Well, I was going to say, Commissioner Sorensen, there's your district. I would like to ask if we could just take five minutes. I need five minutes. Go, go, go, go. Five minutes. We'll take five minutes. Commissioners, please come to the dais. I don't know where the vice mayor is. Oh, there he is. Good. Okay. So this is now the point in which the commissioner will discuss the alternatives, and hopefully we can agree on some consensual way in which to direct city staff on where to go from here. Since this isn't mostly or entirely in District 4, I would ask that Commissioner Sorensen to begin the discussion. Commissioner Sorensen. Thank you, Mayor. Thanks for everyone's participation. So this has been a long-running conversation, and I think we made some really good progress. So I want to start off with a couple elements that I think are really important. One is we need wider sidewalks on Las Olas. So when I'm walking with my girls down Las Olas, there's many parts of Las Olas where I can't walk holding their hands together. We have to go single file on the sidewalk down Las Olas. It's not safe. It's not pedestrian-friendly. So we've got to widen the sidewalks. Second thing I think that's very important is we need to have on-street parking. And I think we need to have on-street parking in at least one lane because ease of access to our businesses. Also, on-street parking actually has a slowing effect on traffic on Las Olas, which in my view is a positive. We want people generally going slower on Las Olas. It's a pedestrian-heavy area. So we need on-street parking for ease of access for the businesses, for pedestrian safety. So I think on-street parking makes a lot of sense in addition to wider sidewalks. So let's repeat that. So your recommendation is on-street parking, widen sidewalks, and what was the third thing? I'll get to the third thing in a moment. But yeah, those are the two. And my guess is, I mean, obviously we look forward to this conversation, but I think most of us would like that as my sense, both wider sidewalks and having the optionality for having on-street parking. If we want both of those elements, wider sidewalk and on-street parking, we can't have the median. There's no way to have wider sidewalks and on-street parking. You're right. Unless we just do the widening of the sidewalk on one side of the street. What are your thoughts about that? In other words, and having no on-street parking on the other side, Mayor, is that what you're... Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And that's where, so absolutely fair option. I'd really like to see on-street parking on both sides, both north side and south side of Las Olas. I know when I'm driving down Las Olas, the ease of access for me, for parking on the street, getting off with my girls, going in somewhere, grabbing something, getting back in, is just so easy. It's... I very much so feel safe doing that. I have them get off on the curb side of the car, and it's very seamless and works well. And then when there are times that it's not available on-street, then I just go to a surface lot right near a Las Olas. But that's very much an ease of access. So the wider sidewalks, on-street parking is very helpful. Now, if you want those two things, we can't have the median. Now, then the option, then the discussion, I think, goes to this point, which is, do we have in, Mayor... I never, frankly, spent a lot of time thinking about the option you raised, which is this idea of having four lanes of traffic, two of which would largely be parking lanes with no ball bouts. So I just wanted... Which is what we have currently. Which is what we have currently, correct, with no ball bouts. Exactly. So if we did that, just to kind of play out that option, I was just doing the math with Milos. So if we wanted two travel lanes, and then, in effect, two parking lanes, so... Flexible lanes. Flexible lanes. Let's call them flexible lanes. Good. Right. So flexible lanes that could be used for travel. Right. Then here's kind of the, just the feet, how this would look feet-wise. So you'd basically be able to go to a seven and a half foot sidewalk, which is about two and a half, three feet of a wider sidewalk than we currently have. Okay. So the sidewalk, let's start on the south side. Sidewalk would be seven and a half feet wide. Then you're hitting a, let's call it a flexible parking travel lane. That lane would be ten and a half feet wide. Okay. So seven and a half feet wide sidewalk, ten and a half foot travel lane, followed by a ten and a half foot travel lane, ten and a half foot travel lane, and then the ten and a half foot travel lane going north. So it's four ten and a half foot lanes, the outside, both northern and then southern lanes would be these parking or travel lanes. Okay. Then you'd have a seven and a half foot sidewalk. Okay. So I just want to do the math on what that would look like. And that would accommodate the folks in the aisles. If there is ever an emergency, there would be four travel lanes on Las Olas. Correct. That allows for four travel lanes on Las Olas. Right. The other option, again, if you want on-street parking, if you want wider sidewalks, is the bulb out option. The bulb out option would be this in terms of feet. The sidewalk, you could expand the sidewalk to ten feet wide, so ten feet wide. Then the bulb out is eight feet. So it would be ten foot wide sidewalk, eight foot bulb out. Then ten and a half foot travel lane, ten and a half foot travel lane, eight foot bulb out, ten foot sidewalk. So if you do bulb out, you get two and a half feet more of sidewalk on either side. Okay. So that's the upside. So that makes it ten feet. Ten feet. Exactly. Ten feet of sidewalk on either side. So that's ten feet of sidewalk. Now with the bulb out, the bulb out width is narrower because it's not a lane of traffic. So that's why you go from ten and a half feet to eight feet. With the bulb out, you also have the pedestrian improvement there, as was talked about, which is by having a bulb out, you're in the bulb out closer to crossing two lanes of traffic than you would be if you just had two flexible lanes of traffic and two regular lanes of traffic. So the bulb out has the pedestrian advantage. So what you're saying is that pedestrian advantage helps to compensate for the lack of a median because the median is considered a safety zone, a person crossing Los Olos, and you're saying that having this wider extension from the buildings would give a pedestrian more, would give them more of an opportunity to cross the street without worrying about the ongoing traffic. Right. That's one of the upsides to a bulb out. I forget what it's called, a pedestrian rescue or pedestrian refuge. Thank you. I knew I started with F. Pedestrian refuge. The bulb out is, in effect, a pedestrian refuge allowing you. Now, if you don't have the bulb out, Mayor, then you're going, depending whether there's parking there at that moment or not, you're crossing possibly four lanes of traffic. If there's parking, the parked car, in effect, is, I think, to some degree a pedestrian refuge. But then you're crossing. And if there's not someone parked on the ultimate third lane on the other side, that's a significant distance. Again, I'm just thinking about with my family crossing, that's a considerable distance to cross. So those are the two, in my mind, the two options we have if we want wider sidewalks and we want to have trees lining. So those are the two options. I like the optionality of having four lanes of traffic where you can turn that outer lanes into parking or travel lane. But that comes at a cost for pedestrian ease of access across without the bulb outs. We have that now. Yeah. I think it works now. I mean, I think, but that, but that includes the, that includes the median, though. That includes the median, which is a refuge there, right? Which we won't have. So if we have the 10 and a half, if we have the 10 foot sidewalk, right? If you have the 10 foot sidewalk. So then it becomes to me in deciding between these two options, well, what is Las Olas? What is the street meant to be? Is it meant to be a passageway for, you know, allowance for significant traffic and having four lanes as an optionality to move traffic through downtown? Is that one of the main focuses of what Las Olas is? Or is Las Olas meant to be more of a pedestrian experience where traffic moves a little bit slower and is more pedestrian friendly and pedestrian accommodating versus a little bit more accommodating towards vehicles? And for me, the, I think the essence of Las Olas is to be more pedestrian accommodating and pedestrian friendly. And so thus that would mean a little bit wider sidewalks and having bulb outs that allow for a little bit more of the safe passage and refuge for pedestrians crossing the street. So that's, that's, that would be the elimination of all the, uh, the black olives too. So this would either one of these two options would remove the median. Um, and there, and again, happy city manager to hear staff's thoughts. Milo, if I'm, I'm missing my kind of distance analysis on this, but if we do want wider sidewalks and we do want trees lining, buffering, and dramatically expanding the canopy, keeping the median is not an option. And we would just have to keep the median more or less. And we wanted on street parking, keep the on street parking. And we just can't widen the sidewalk much at all, or not have trees as a canopy for, um, the pedestrians. So, um, for those reasons, I think the, and Milo, feel free to jump in if I'm commissioner, you are accurate. And we are in the game of inches in here and everything matters. Um, one modification that I would suggest is that, uh, when it comes to outside travel lane, one that is closest to the sidewalk, we can go down to 10 foot, uh, width for that travel lane. And that would gain about another foot on foot. So you'd get about a half foot on either side. So we're still, it's, it doesn't matter that still, it's still one or the other. You can't, so, all right. So, so, so I, so, um, let us, let us make a decision here today. Do we, does the commission agree on a goal of widening the sidewalks? Can we, can we, can we agree on that? Yes. Okay. So we're agreeing on widening the sidewalks in general. All right. Now the question is, um, what, what is our, what are our feelings about the median? Um, do we, do we want to keep the median or do we not? And that question has to be answered in conjunction with the on-street parking. Um, because if we eliminate the, if we eliminate the median, median, we're able to provide wider sidewalks and on-street parking. So let us, so we agree, uh, on, on a wider sidewalk. Now the question is the median. What are, what are, what are all your thoughts? Any thoughts? Yeah. Go ahead, commissioner. Okay. Well, thank you, mayor. Thank you, commissioner Sorensen. Uh, it was a pleasure working with you for over two years on this. It was. All right, come on. We got to get this thing. Calm down. It's okay. I can say thank you to my colleague. It's okay. It's all right. I'm going to get to it. Send him a text. I'll send him a text. So, um, I, I wanted to say that I'm pretty much, um, in agreement with everything that you've said. And, but I want to reiterate, um, and you're actually, Mr. Ott said earlier in the evening that this isn't just for today, but we are really planning for the future. Uh, and I really think that if we are planning for the future, we really do need to eliminate the median. We've been told tonight, um, I haven't heard from Steph, but I have heard from Charlie that we're actually very limited in what we can plant in this median going forward when these black olives die and they will die. And we know we can't plant them. It's against our code. Uh, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm being told that we are very limited in what we can put in that median. Um, and we do need that space. Uh, Milos just explained to us that that parking lane can be a little narrower than the thorough lane, the thoroughfare lane, which is important. Um, I think that if we are going to create an iconic boulevard, uh, for the future, uh, we really must look at the, the no medium option. It offers the most beneficial balance of mobility, pedestrian safety, business access, long-term functionality. And it actually was the consensus of the Las Olas Mobility Working Group after more than two years of, of work. We only opened it up later, uh, uh, a subsequent commission to look at possibly including the median and giving us that option. Um, but I, so with regard to the on street parking issue, then how would you envision, um, how would you envision fashioning that on the street? Would it be with bulb outs or without bulb outs? With, with the bulb outs, because that, that adds a lot more protection, um, for the pedestrian. And I think that that's, that's really, really, really important. Um, again, I, I just think that without the median is what the, what the mobility group did. Um, this is our defining economic corridor. This is the corridor that is really what everyone thinks of when they think of Fort Lauderdale. Um, and we have to plan for its economic health, um, and that no median option is what strikes that balance between mobility and that business vitality and the safety with the bulb outs and, and the flexibility for, so for me, looking at what our future is, uh, and what we have to plan for, I, I think we have to just continue to move the path that was defined by the Las Olas Mobility Working Group. Um, what was just defined by the district commissioner, uh, and I'm in agreement with all of those elements. Thank you, mayor. Uh, John, Pam, what are your thoughts? Um, if I may, uh, one of the things that I'd really like to talk about that hasn't really been much discussed is if I can get the, uh, fire chief up here, I'd like to talk a little bit about how our fire trucks access, access the corridor. Uh, I just want to know what, what the perspective is for fire response, medians, no medians, things of that nature. Push the button. Thank you, chief. At the bottom. There you got it there. Uh, good evening, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners. Um, Stephen Golan, your fire chief. So, uh, thank you for the opportunity. Um, when we look at Las Olas, you know, one of the challenges that we have is our ability to respond, uh, especially in the shops area there, uh, anything from the tunnel east, uh, down. And so we would be in favor of no median. Uh, it would allow us to navigate a lot better. Uh, should we also have to respond to a call where we have to stop mid block? It also allows us from completely shutting down the boulevard. It would allow vehicles to then go around our apparatus. Right. Cause I think about that. You can't obviously go over the median right now, or if it, if you do, it's gotta be very difficult. If you need to, in an emergency, kind of navigate that, wouldn't it? So what happens currently is we go to a complete shutdown. Uh, so anytime where we have to respond down there on the boulevard, uh, and we have to stop mid block, you know, if it's towards the end of the block, we're going to try and pull in on one of the off streets and then navigate down. Um, but depending on what the call is, you know, if it's a cardiac arrest or choking, they're going to go directly to where the call is and then immediately stop the truck. Uh, and that, that creates a complete shutdown. We have had over the years, a couple of fires down there. Uh, last one was a big city tavern about three years ago. Uh, and then having the, the, to be able to raise the ladder truck and to access the front, uh, venues of the building, uh, we need that extra space out front. So having that open like that allows us the ability to set up and, and handle that. Okay. So that to me, you know, we have a lot of discussion about trees and, and, and, you know, the iconic look of it. And, and, and I also, I think all that's important. I generally do, uh, you know, it's a unique street. I think there's very little in South Florida that looks like, thank you, Chief. You can, you can sit down. I appreciate it. There's very little in South Florida that looks anything like Las Olas. You know, I think of like Espanola way down in South beach. Um, there, there's really only a handful of streets that I can think of that, that look like that. Um, so I think, I think maintaining a tree canopy on Las Olas is, is critical for the look, the feel of, of what makes it, uh, what makes it unique, um, in, in South Florida. Um, but whether that's in a median or whether that's on the sidewalk, I don't think is the, is the driving force. I think, you know, if we've got an extensive tree canopy that's on the sidewalk, I think that could work just as well. I think having the wider sidewalks is important. I know whenever I try and walk along there and we've got the tables that are out onto the sidewalk and I think that's an important aspect of what makes, again, that street so attractive and desirable as the outdoor dining. But it is very difficult to sort of navigate that. It's very narrow in certain spots. And if you've got people trying to come at you in both directions, it's virtually impossible to do that without having to step out into the street. It's, it's, it's not pedestrian friendly. Um, I know after my motorcycle accident, I spent a lot of time in a wheelchair and on crutches and it's certainly not handicap accessible, that's for sure. So I think the wider sidewalk is, is an imperative. All right. So you agree with the wider sidewalk, no median. What about the configuration of the on-street parking? So I, I would love people to use the parking lots that are behind the businesses. Um, but as I think we've discussed, um, getting people to change their behavior is very difficult. You know, the ability to drive down the street, see the stores that they want to go to is what I think drives people to those businesses. One of the things I don't want to see is empty storefronts on Las Olas. It wasn't that many years ago when we were looking at a lot of empty storefronts on there. Uh, in fact, I, I remember, you know, one or, one or two, uh, um, city commissions ago working with, uh, a former assistant city manager, Stephen Scott, on a program that was started up in New York city about putting art in vacant storefronts just to try and make them look activated. And that wasn't all that long ago. Zero empty spaces, uh, even before that though. So, you know, these are things that we've done to try and create a sense of activity, uh, along the corridor. And I think we're fortunate right now that we're seeing that happen organically. Um, but I think it's important to maintain that momentum. So I want to maintain that, uh, that parking on the street, um, the wider sidewalk. And, and again, the, the trees out there that'll create a true tree canopy, uh, more deciduous trees so that we don't have bare trees, but also again, I think this public safety access of having the ability for our fire apparatus to be able to go around a car stuck in the street so that they can get to somebody in need. I think it's critical. I think that is for me, the, the driving force in taking out the medians. So with regard to the configuration of the parking, uh, do you agree with, uh, commissioners Glassman and Sorenson about creating bulb outs or do you want just an open, uh, open lane? I, you know, I think the bulb outs work, you know, it's interesting. I, I, I park occasionally on the side street over here instead of in the parking lot behind the performing arts center and they've got the bulb outs and they seem to work just fine. Um, I don't think that's problematic if, if, and this is where I'll sort of defer to our traffic engineers. If they think that that is the safer pedestrian experience and it also creates a, a, a better opportunity for people to cross the street because they can now go one lane across, um, in, in a safer manner on the bulb out, then I think that's probably the more desirable option. Okay. Commissioner Beasley Pittman. Yes. Thank you. Wait, before you begin folks, those of you who are here for the evening meeting, as you can see, we're really delayed in our conference meeting. Um, what we'd like to do, we're going to take a break after the conference meeting and resume 30 minutes later. I anticipate we'll be here until six o'clock and then we're going to have to, um, uh, come back. I will do the presentations and the pledge at the beginning. We'll take care of all that at the beginning. And then we've got to revert back to the conference meeting. So we appreciate your patience, but things went a little bit long. And, uh, if you all want to go, you know, go for a break or whatever for 45 minutes to an hour, you know, you have, you know, that you're, you're welcome to do that. Yeah. Right. Um, but, but, and a free drink. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we won't be, we won't begin the, uh, the, uh, evening meeting until about six 30 or so. So I'm just letting you know that right now, but you're all welcome to sit and continue to hear our, our debate on La Solis mobility. Right. I know Commissioner Beasley Pittman. Yes. Thank you, mayor. Um, yes, um, really a lot of information given today. Again, you know, this is a conversation we've had, um, a couple of times and each time we go a little deeper and, um, I, I believe we're ready to, um, do you agree on all these three points? I do agree on three points. Um, I do believe that we should go ahead and remove the median. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I, I support the wider sidewalks. Also even the, um, bulb outs. So I'm all in agreement with that and, um, excited about the opportunity for the increase in the number of trees that are being proposed in this, um, these options. So I'm, I agree with the commissioners, those district commissioners that this is immediately affecting, um, also being that born and raised Fort Lauderdale, you know, La Solis, as we all said, means so much to, um, everyone, everyone knows about La Solis, but when you bring it home, born and raised, you understand the opportunity to elevate and this is a time to elevate and make some changes. So I agree. Okay. Um, Milos. Where are you mayor? I'm sorry. I just wanted to share some information. Just moments ago, we were notified through our intergovernmental affairs team. Uh, we got a notice of a federal earmark for $1.2 million for this project through the HUD community development fund. So this would add to the budget for the project. Uh, we already had 1 million in the CIP. We had another million from the state, and this would make $1.2 million from the federal federal government for the shops section in particular. For the what section? Shops. Ah. More trees. Um, Milos, can you push the button? So let me ask you this. Um, is it possible to keep the median while we are, um, while we are reconstructing the sidewalk areas and building the, uh, the, the landscape corridor on each side doing planting the trees? Is it, is it possible to keep the, keep the median, uh, until such time as those sections have been completed and allow some of the, and allow some of the, um, the black olive trees to continue to grow until such time as we realize that they're no longer safe, uh, they're no longer safe to keep there? So, Mr. Mayor, I think that, uh, the, the concern would be harmonization, right? So once we start touching the roadway and the pavement and start improvements on one side. You're going to cut it to the root system. That, that is correct. That is correct. And, uh, maybe one point of clarification also is that, um, in terms of construction timeline, right? So the outcome of this effort that we're talking about right now would be 60% design plans by winter of this year. At that point, we would have to issue a new solicitation for someone to advance this to a hundred percent and also build the construction improvements. So realistically speaking, we're looking at probably two to three years in a best case scenario before we can, and we can start any construction activities. So the very least is going to be two or three years before we even get to that point. That is, that is correct. All right. All right. Uh, so you heard the majority of the commission. So there you go. Thank you. So, ma'am, we will prepare an item to come to the commission for, uh, an official action for the next meeting. Okay, great. All right. So, uh, we will suspend the conference meeting and we'll take a break and go into, and let me, I have this to read. At this time, the city commission shall meet privately to conduct discussions between the city manager, the city attorney, and the city commission relative to pending litigation pursuant to section 286.011, parentheses eight of the Florida statutes in connection with, uh, Jada's servants versus, excuse me, the city of Fort Lauderdale present was peanuts present at the attorney client session will be myself, vice mayor, commissioner, John Herbst, commissioner, Steve Glassman, commissioner, Pam Beasley Pittman, commissioner, Ben Sorenson, city manager, Raquel Williams, city attorney, Sherry McCartney, assistant city attorney, Robert Oldershaw and outside counsel, Scott Alexander from Johnson and Selmo and court certified, uh, certified court reporter from Bailey Enten court reporting. The estimated length of the session will be approximately 30 minutes. So we grab our food and then go into.