Important: Message from the Mayor

(Wednesday, July 24, 2019)

Residents & Property Owners of Sunny Isles Beach,

If you watched our last Commission Meeting, you will know there was a great deal of opposition to the City’s proposed Comprehensive Plan amendment. The actual details of the proposed Comprehensive Plan amendment resulted in a tremendous amount of confusion and misinformation. To be clear, there is no plan to build 9,000 residential units in the Town Center district as has been inaccurately reported in the Community Newspaper. However, the overall issue of future development on the west side clearly struck a chord with our residents. I want you to know the Commission heard your concerns. If you viewed the meeting, perhaps you also heard some of the details and now understand the issue we were trying to correct is regarding prior approvals of existing buildings.

Here is the two-part proposal I intend to recommend to the Commission at a Special Commission Meeting in August:

1. I am going to request the imposition of a building moratorium on all new development on the west side of Collins Avenue located in the Town Center zone. This will be a stop on all zoning or new building activity in this zone for a period of up to one year while we study issues including the prior approvals, traffic, population growth and delivery of services.
2. During the moratorium, I am going to request we task our experts to find a way to fix the problem with all prior approvals in the Town Center zone. We can then schedule one or more public workshops to address the alternatives and get additional input from our residents.

Finally, the meeting on Thursday may have been a bit raucous, but as I told you during the meeting, I was happy to have so many people participating. This is your government and I urge you now to attend future commission meetings and the workshops on this subject. This is your chance to make a difference and provide us with your input. Thank you.

Mayor George “Bud” Scholl