Sunny Isles Beach Sun, January 12, 2009 Edition - Events, Entertainment News - Miami, Fl

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SERVING MIAMI-DADE COUNTY SINCE 1958

Community Newspapers SUN

JANUARY 12, 2009

INSIDE THIS

ISSUE WHERE IN THE WORLD IS SIB SUN

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• • • • • • • ELLEN WYNNE

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• • • • • • • SIB POLICE DEPT TOY DRIVE

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S unny I sles B each

VOL. 27, NO. 2

Making of a ‘Town Center’ BY BARI AUERBACH hen the City Commission recently passed an ordinance amending Sunny Isles Beach Land Development Regulations to designate an area in the city for adult entertainment uses – the history of the many years of visionary planning involved in the goal to create a vibrant Town Center district was revisited. The ordinance approved on second reading at the Dec. 18, 2008 City Commission meeting gives Thee Doll House (currently the only adult entertainment venue in Sunny Isles Beach) up to five years to relocate from its present location at the gateway to the city on Sunny Isles Boulevard to the newly designated area for adult uses in the city’s Land Development Regulations: Shopping centers on the west side of Collins Avenue between 168th and 170th Streets. Prior to incorporation in 1997, the zoning in Sunny Isles Beach was regulated by the Miami-Dade County Land Development Regulations. Thee Doll House was the one pre- existing adult entertainment use pre-dating incorporation. When Sunny Isles Beach adopted its own Land Development Regulations, adult entertainment uses were identified as “prohibited” uses in commercial zoning districts including the Town Center district of the city. City Attorney Hans Ottinot reported, “The city has a legal obligation to create an area in order to balance community values and the right of adult use [establishments] to operate. [This] has been extremely difficult because we are a very small city…we don’t have industrial or a lot of commercial areas. However, a lack of land does not provide the city with the right to eliminate adult use. “The law allows cities to place and replace adult use in commercial areas …Therefore, we had to look [for a loca-

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tion] in our commercial areas for an adequate site [designated to be] 168th and 170th Street [on the west side of Collins within] two shopping Avenue centers…[The sites] must be 500 feet from any school and 250 feet from a public park.” Ottinot noted, “A single owner of the sites selected may be reluctant or unwilling to sell or lease the land.” City staff also pointed out that in the near future, a landscaping buffer will be installed in front of the shopping centers to make it “extremely difficult” to see establishments within the center from the vantage point of Collins Avenue. During the Dec. 18, 2008 Commission meeting, a presentation was made by professional urban planner Jack Luft, who helped draft the Sunny isles Beach Comprehensive Plan addressing the creation of a Town Center district inclusive of the west side of Collins Avenue from 172nd Street to Sunny Isles Boulevard. “The objective of the Town Center was to create a gateway statement along Sunny Isles Boulevard to the city and also create retail centers, a village green and center for the community to gather as well as parking to serve retail and public facilities,” Luft explained. “After the Comprehensive Plan was adopted in 2000, a study of the Town Center district was done [in 2001] to identify redevelopment objectives and priorities to facilitate creation of the Town Center. This plan [included various options for the area along 163rd Street] to create a gateway to the city [such as] creating public green spaces…This was the preferred alternative for the area before any [new] properties were developed on the south side of Sunny Isles Boulevard - and before any of the [pre-existing] property owners were involved. [Plans for

the Town Center district were conceived] in conjunction with citizen workshops in order to advance our common public area and park objectives.” Luft also explained that in March of 2007, he helped prepare a major open space park development plan in response to issues including population growth. “An astounding number of condos developed along Collins Avenue, the bay front and 163rd Street add dwelling units that when fully occupied will create a population of 45,000 residents around the year 2020,” Luft said. “This poses a problem because the city’s Comprehensive Plan states that by law, there must be 2.75 acres of parkland for every 1,000 residents. This

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