Page 4A South Florida Sun-Times/Thursday, October 13, 2011
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Hallandale Beach experiencing economic development opportunities
‘AROUND THE CITY OF CHOICE’
HALLANDALE BEACH - Economic uncertainty throughout the state, country and globe continues to be the “Hot Button” issue. As always, traditional press and media on those levels do not necessarily reflect what is transpiring within each municipality. When cities are on the front page it is typically due to the fact they are in financial turmoil. In reality, the majority of municipalities have seen some stability this past year. Some cities have continued to experience economic development opportunities. Hallandale Beach is one of those cities. Last Commission meeting our city approved three new business applications during our public hearings. One was for a brand-new banquet facility, “Hallandale Reception”, located at 772 E. Hallandale Beach Boulevard. This is the second location for Mr. Alvaro Lopez and family. They have been in business in the City of Doral for many years. The second was for a nightclub license for Martini Bar located in the Village of Gulfstream Park and the third was for a new gourmet store that plans to open up at the Hallandale Shopping Center. This entire shopping center is slated for redevelopment. The project will include a TD Bank, new building façade, new parking lot and landscaping. Tonight, Thursday, October 13, there will be the
first community meeting for a Planned Development in over a year and a half. This is the first meeting required by our city for the developer to publicly present the application prior to formal public hearings by the Planning and Zoning Board and the City Commission. For those readers who are not familiar with our public process this informal community meeting is not required by state statute. I suggested a policy that requires these types of developments to go to the public first for input before the hearings that are time regulated, and the City Commission adopted this. We also expanded the notification distance requirement from a quarter of a mile to a half mile; double the state requirement. This meeting is conducted by the developer. Commissioners and Staff do not participate. The City Manager is able to kick off the meeting and briefly explain the process. The community meet-
ing is scheduled tonight, Thursday, October 13, at The Hallandale Beach Cultural Center, 410 SE 3rd Street and will start at 6:30 PM. The developer is applying for a mixeduse development located at 2600 E. Hallandale Beach Boulevard; the former location of Maneroʼs Restaurant. They are seeking approval for Beachwalk, a mixed-use 31 story, 305 feet, mixeduse development with 84 residential units, 216 suites with 432 keys (two bedroom hotel /condo units where bedroom can be locked out), a 1225 foot square foot restaurant and associated parking garage. There is also a keen interest on West Hallandale Beach Boulevard and other areas of our community. Larry Bluestein has been doing an excellent job covering some of the happenings in this area. With two parimutuels in our community, West Hallandale Beach Boulevard is ripe for redevelopment. Our community and city need to continue to proactively move forward; utilizing every tool in the tool box to ensure that the City Vision in place through our community master, transportation and park plans comes to fruition. As an update to some of our transportation projects and planning, I am happy to report that the first construction logistics meetings have taken place with FDOT and the contractors are to begin
construction on the A1A median improvements. The lighting upgrades on Three Islands Boulevard are almost complete except for one median. This is one project that was moved to an outside contractor to be completed faster. Regretfully, the contractor went bankrupt before the job was finished and Staff will have to insure the last part is completed. Ironically, this shows one of the pitfalls when utilizing contracted services. One other project that was approved is the new West Hallandale Beach Boulevard and Dixie Highway intersection configuration heading east. This counterintuitive plan has proven to reduce traffic delays heading east and west. FDOT was ready to move but the city requested to delay construction as to not interfere with peak seasonal traffic flows. We continue to also work on transit improvement to reduce the amount of cars and trips on our roadways. Hallandale Beach and Sunny Isles have entered into an agreement to connect our city minibus Route 1 to their “Blue Line”. This interconnect will take place twice a day at A1A and HBB. It will provide a good to solution to offering both residents and business owners a seamless interconnect with a reasonably timed city route extension. Transportation planning is not simply about road-
ways and bus systems. Transportation has to be multimodal to be successful and is a key to quality livable communities. Plans should include sidewalks and bike lanes. In a built out community like Hallandale Beach it is often difficult to accommodate these amenities within the city right-ofways without impacting property owners. For years I have been a strong proponent of sidewalks. The city embarked on a block by block plan in our Western community to add sidewalks as part of the CRA. We also have included a requirement for sidewalks on new developments. On the eastern side of our city the city had received pushback from some residents when implementing sidewalks. Over the past couple years I have pushed Staff to look at alternatives to placing sidewalks in the middle of residentsʼ front yards when there is limited front yard setback and existing hard scape and landscape materials. During our budget workshops the City Commission pressed Staff to begin looking at alternatives. Along Diplomat Parkway and Layne Boulevard the city will finally be implementing two projects to complete sidewalks that were never finished. The model is to place the sidewalk directly adjacent to the roadway at grade. Along areas of Layne Boulevard, particularly in
front of Paradise by the Sea Condominiums, there are great examples of where this concept was implemented over 40 years ago. Along Layne Boulevard the City Commission also discussed reducing the roadway to one lane and implementing either a designated or undesignated bike lane where the right-of-way will allow. Layne Boulevard was originally designed as a two lane road to connect directly through to Aventura. Since the development of the area the road was closed off and the traffic level does not necessitate two lanes. The City Commission unanimously approved both these projects. We have also directed City Staff to conduct community meetings to inform residents about the plans and design. We also set a citywide goal to prioritize implementation areas for sidewalks. The city also unanimously approved set priorities for multimodal transportation. Wherever possible, road plans should focus on the utilization of right of way in this order; roadway, transit, sidewalks and then bike lanes.
As always please feel free to contact me at any time with your questions and concerns at my office 954-457-1318 or cell/text 954-6325700 or e-mail me at www.MayorJoyCooper.com