‘Meeting of the Minds’
Consensus Reached on Plan for Beachwalk
By Bari Auerbach

In October of 2004, it was “east vs. west” when Sunny Isles Beach citizens residing on opposite sides of Collins Avenue expressed opposing viewpoints regarding the feasibility and desirability of plans for a proposed beachwalk. But following the Sept. 8, 2005 City Commission meeting, “east met west” when the Beachwalk Fact Finding Committee presented meeting of the minds recommendations.

“The members of our Committee came on with very passionate and diverse viewpoints and I’m very proud to say that everyone put their biases and agendas aside and really worked at looking at things,” said Beachwalk Fact Finding Committee Chair Dr. Kathy Schultz. “Everyone on the Committee has heard the report; sees what’s possible; and what makes sense…People [who didn’t previously know each other] are now friends…[We’d like to thank the Commission for forming this Committee] and bringing the community together.”

Following the presentation of the Fact Finding Committee’s report, Mayor Norman Edelcup said, “Certainly with an issue like this that was so divisive at the very beginning, it’s a wonderful feeling to be able to sit up here amongst this Commission and see the healing process and negotiations that took place among the members of your Committee were so successful…Hopefully, we have united through your efforts, the east side and the west side into ‘one city.’”

‘A Compact Option’
According to the Fact Finding Committee’s report presented by Schultz, the most feasible beachwalk concept is as follows: “An option we investigated was the possibility of using a higher level of beach maintenance activity along the center of the beach just west of the 50-foot setback – an area that’s already somewhat firm due to the transit of police, beach maintenance and ocean rescue vehicles. The increased beach maintenance activity that this scenario describes would create a more compacted walking surface by means of routine piping of an eight to ten-foot wide strip of sand along the length of the beach.

“Piping is actually accomplished by literally dragging a pipe along behind a beach maintenance vehicle and it’s currently done on the Hollywood beach with pretty good results. This possibility has numerous advantages…It entails minimal additional expense in the range of $16,000-$20,000 annually; it utilizes existing maintenance equipment and schedules; and it’s similar to something already being done and known to work.

“Criteria for compaction and when tilling might be required is also already delineated in an existing biological opinion from the last renourishment project as well as in the existing DEP beach maintenance permit guidelines. This could be allowed all year-round; and it falls within the criteria of activities that are not prohibited by any of the pertinent jurisdictional agencies. In addition, vandalism or storm events don’t really become an issue.”

‘Beachwalk Background’
When the beachwalk was originally proposed as “a ten foot wide serpentine path constructed of crushed white shells along with landscaping enhancement treatments,” many east side residents expressed opposition to the concept for reasons including alleged negative environmental impact, increased crime and unsightly refuse. Conversely, many west side residents felt the beachwalk would be a welcome addition to the city, promoting fitness as well making the beach more accessible to handicapped residents and visitors.

During a town hall meeting in October of 2004 focusing on the beachwalk issue, Oceania resident Harvey Bush addressed the City Commission noting, “There is no reason in the world there should be an issue that causes the kind of division between people who live on the beach and people who don’t…Please don’t divide the beach and please don’t divide us.”

Subsequently, in an attempt to reach a consensus on the most viable plan for a beachwalk, the Commission approved a resolution in November 2004 establishing a “Beachwalk Fact-Finding Committee.” Sunny Isles Beach residents originally appointed to serve on the Beachwalk Fact-Finding Committee included: Henry Kay, Hal Rosenstein, Dr. Kathy Schultz, Anthony LoCastro, Gloria Taft, Alexander Fusco and Casey Gabor.

Committee Report
The following transcription includes the majority of points included in the Beachwalk Fact Finding Committee’s report presented by Dr. Kathy Schultz at the Sept. 8, 2005 City Commission meeting:

“For the last eight months, I’ve been part of the beachwalk initiative fact finding committee,” Schultz said. “Under a year ago, the city revealed it was contemplating the construction of a walking path along the length of the beach…Initially, the beachwalk was envisioned by a commissioned landscape architect as a 10-foot wide serpentine path constructed of crushed white shells along with landscaping enhancements and possibly lighting.

“In response to the many questions that arose at the time, the City Commission appointed the beachwalk initiative fact finding committee and I speak to you today as chairman of that committee which has met regularly over the past eight months. Our assignment was to identify environmental issues, permitting requirements, appropriate construction materials, beneficial and detrimental lighting, alternatives for location and design as well as available funding sources.

“As a committee, we’ve done our best to explore every avenue to determine what options are available to the city…We waded through state statutes and federal regulations - and we’ve spoken to representatives of almost half a dozen jurisdictional agencies which actually regulate the beach. We’ve ridden on and walked along our beach and other beach paths - all with the clear intent of gathering unbiased information.

“As a committee, we’re very grateful to the city – not only for having given us the opportunity to research what’s possible in regards to this initiative - but for having given us the resources and support to actually complete that task. In particular, we’re grateful for [City Manger] Chris Russo’s participation and Sandra Lee, director of environmental planning at Calvin Giardano & Associates.

“State and federal constraints nearly preclude the creation of the beachwalk as it was originally intended and envisioned…Despite the name, the beach of Sunny Isles Beach doesn’t belong to the city - instead it is actually state-owned property maintained by a contract with Miami-Dade County. As such, the city neither owns or maintains it…This becomes significant when you run into permitting issues and you need to provide proof of ownership.

“The complexity inherent to creating a beachwalk rests in two designations our beach is identified by…First, is that the beach is recognized as a marine turtle nesting habitat and is thus protected from alteration under the constraints of the endangered species act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the federal entity tasked with protecting the sea turtles where they come ashore and all proposed beach activity needs to be coordinated with and approved by the Fish and Wildlife Service…Anything that adversely impacts nesting habitat including lighting changes or changes to the texture or contour of sand can be considered a taking of habitat and thus becomes a violation of the Endangered Species Act.

“Second, the beach is also designated as a critical erosion area under the Florida Beach Erosion Control Program – and thus falls under the constrains of the Department of Environmental Protection’s coastal construction control criteria. These criteria define the places and place limits where and what type of construction can occur along the seashore with the intent of actually protecting the beach dune system. Basically, anything that interferes with the free movement of sand ultimately accelerates erosion and causes hazards to uplink properties in storm events.

“Any of the sand west of the erosion control line is not available to us…By DEP criteria, no construction of any kind whatsoever is allowed east of the 50-foot setback. What’s left to work with is the space between the 50-foot setback and the erosion control line which is the private property line.

“Even within this area, the only thing that can occur is what the state would consider minor construction - and that minor construction can only occur if there is a frontal dune already existing to put the construction behind. For example, Bal Harbour’s beachwalk is behind a frontal dune. Unfortunately, Sunny Isles Beach has no dune - and the question is can we make one? The state does allow the option of building a man-made frontal dune west of the 50-foot setback - but it would need to be in place and have become self-sustaining for at least one year prior to the permitting of any construction.

“This being said, along many sections of the beach, the space isn’t available to accommodate the width of both a dune and a path. Even in those areas where it would be wide enough to have both of those, it would drastically diminish the usable beach area for beach goers. DEP criteria also delineates what types of salt-tolerant native vegetation must be placed on dunes as well as specifically preventing the planting of evasive exotics or even palm trees out on the beach.

“Noticing the narrowness of our beach particularly on the north end of town, the Committee investigated the details of our participation in the federal beach renourishment program that’s contracted through the Army Corps of Engineers and Civil Works; and supervised locally by DERM.

“As our beach has already been renourished twice in the last 25 years, it’s critical not to jeopardize our city’s ability to participate in future beach renourishment projects. Accordingly, any city undertakings would need to be approved as compatible with the existing civil works permit and the biological opinion issued under the federal beach renourishment program…This gets done through the head of DERM in consultation with the Army Corps of Engineers and Fish and Wildlife.

“Among other things, a federal project does not allow the placement of non-beach compatible materials on the beach - which they define as ‘sand of like kind’ (same color and same grain size). Also of note is that we are currently at the completion of a renourishment cycle. The project we’re part of completes this year, so no further widening of our beach is imminently on the horizon.

“Given the cumulative constraints of existing regulations that were surfaced around the building of any sort of a permanent construct on the beach, the Committee went on to explore what avenues might be afforded by more temporary construction-free options. An initial option we gathered information about was the use of temporary roll out mats of the sort generally used to assist in handicap access to water’s edge. They usually run perpendicular down to the water on the beach. Many types and styles were reviewed although we found no example of them in use for any extended distance running parallel to a shoreline.

“The advantages [of roll out mats] are they do provide a very clearly delineated surface and they’re approved for handicap use. The disadvantages are they’re pretty expensive and they’re limited to use for only three months of the year - December 1 to the end of February as per the Fish and Wildlife Service. They also need to be taken up during turtle nesting season or storm events and stored – so they’re subject to vandalism; still require state and federal permitting; and they could incur an increased liability for the city.

“Another option we evaluated was the possibility of building up a dune along the private property line. In this scenario, the dune expansion would facilitate the sand at the west- most edge of the beach becoming more compacted over time due to the seaward extension of the dune’s root structure under the sand towards the ocean.

“Haulover has very hard-packed sand along the western edge of the beach…The advantages of this are that it would provide future protection from beach erosion to upland properties; a natural hardened surface with minimal demarcation; and it would be in alignment with state and federal criteria. Disadvantages are that private property owners would need to [incur] an expense; it could diminish use from the beachfront properties; and it would take an extended period of time to put in place.

“A final option we investigated was the possibility of using a higher level of beach maintenance activity along the center of the beach just west of the 50-foot setback – an area that’s already somewhat firm due to the transit of police, beach maintenance and ocean rescue vehicles. The increased beach maintenance activity that this scenario describes would create a more compacted walking surface by means of routine piping of an eight to ten-foot wide strip of sand along the length of the beach.

“Piping is actually accomplished by literally dragging a pipe along behind a beach maintenance vehicle and it’s currently done on the Hollywood beach with pretty good results. This possibility has numerous advantages…It entails minimal additional expense in the range of $16,000-$20,000 annually; it utilizes existing maintenance equipment and schedules; and it’s similar to something already being done and known to work.

“Criteria for compaction and when tilling might be required is also already delineated in an existing biological opinion from the last renourishment project as well as in the existing DEP beach maintenance permit guidelines. This could be allowed all year-round; and it falls within the criteria of activities that are not prohibited by any of the pertinent jurisdictional agencies. In addition, vandalism or storm events don’t really become an issue.

“Even this promising scenario had disadvantages – particularly the degree of compaction and smoothness you can obtain would be variable and also it wouldn’t meet ADA criteria for handicap access.

“A final item our Committee was asked to investigate was the matter of funding of a beachwalk initiative. Currently, two city funds exist that are designated to be utilized for any manner of activity that benefits, beautifies or improves the beach: The beach enhancement fund containing around $4 million; and the beach trust fund containing around $1.3 million.

“Further, under the Florida Beach Erosion Control Program, financial assistance from the state in an amount of 50 percent of project costs is available to Florida’s county and municipal governments for shore preservation activities including the building of dunes.”

“Of the options [presented by the Fact Finding Committee], it would seem like having have our beach maintenance people compact the sand is the simplest, most feasible and immediate suggestion,” Mayor Norman Edelcup said.

Beachwalk Committee Member Comments
Henry Kay, President of the Sunny Isles Beach Citizens’ Coalition:
“[Dr. Kathy Schultz] was the one who was the major factor in our understanding and accepting what could and could not be done…We thank the Mayor and Commission for creating the Committee and thank Kathy immensely for her absolutely splendid and intelligent work…We’ve come together to see the only viable alternative is the one she [alluded to] in the report - and we have full confidence this Commission will look at it with open eyes and a view to [promote the] enjoyment of the citizens of Sunny Isles Beach.”

Alexander Fusco: “I was pleased [the Commission] chose [to create] the Committee having a balance between east and west…We came together and all got along from the beginning even though we had differences of opinions. It really shows that when you put together a Committee, it’s good to have a cross-section of the residents making decisions…We all came together for the same purpose: What was good for Sunny Isles Beach and all its residents…I’m very happy and pleased about the way it turned out because ultimately there will be a place for people to walk – a hardened surface – that’s what we all wanted.”

Before discussions regarding the beachwalk concluded at the Sept. 8 Commission meeting, Mayor Edelcup noted, “[The Beachwalk Fact Finding Committee’s] report will give [the Commission] time to study and schedule another meeting to further pursue if there is a viable option for doing something on the beach.”

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