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Week of January 24, 2008 |
LAST CALL: Miami commissioners may today (1/24) decide to restrict the hours when businesses in Coconut Grove may serve alcoholic beverages, rolling the cutoff back from 5 a.m. to 3 a.m. for nightclubs, hotels, supper clubs, motels and apartments with 100 or more guestrooms. TUNNEL TROUBLE: Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff has asked Florida Department of Transportation officials to address port tunnel-related concerns raised in a Miami Herald letter to the editor last week, asserting that he and other officials could have voted against the project had they known what was in the letter. Peter Piaseckyj, who identified himself as a former tunnel project manager, told the Herald that soil conditions could lead to trouble that would ultimately burden taxpayers. "As an elected official, we act in good faith on the information that is provided to us and especially by engineers," Mr. Sarnoff wrote in an e-mail. "I am asking as a Commissioner for the City of Miami to have the engineer or geologist or geophysics' expert comment on what Mr. Piaseckyj has claimed. If what has been claimed is accurate, each elected official may very well have considered that information and taken a different position." DDA DEFENSE: The Miami City Attorney's Office is to today (1/24) ask commissioners for authority to "take all legal action necessary" to defend the Downtown Development Authority's proposed millage of .5 mills. The four officers present on the dais during September's budget vote collectively OK'd millage at the same rate as last year's, but the state Department of Revenue has contested that the absence of a commissioner — Tom·s Regalado — from the dais means the millage didn't get the unanimous vote it needed to escape a state-suggested rollback. "The Miami DDA, through the City Attorney's office, disagrees with DOR on this point and is in the process of addressing this issue with DOR, but a determination has yet to be made," Authority Executive Director Dana Nottingham said in an e-mail last month. See story on page 12. COUNTY LOBBYISTS: Former US Rep. Carrie P. Meek and former state Rep. Mike Abrams will continue to lobby for the county in Congress. County commissioners approved rehiring Ms. Meeks and Mr. Abrams on an as-needed basis and capping earnings at $75,000 each. Both worked for the county last year. The commission also approved renewing the county's Washington, DC, office lease from February 2008 through 2010, from the National Adult Education Professional Consortium. The county will pay $20,807 for the 452-square-foot space this year and $25,025 each year in 2009 and 2010, county documents show. The office is at 444 N Capitol St. NW. AIRPORT NOISE: Miami-Dade commissioners are resurrecting a noise abatement task force for Miami International Airport and are trying to settle on the panel's makeup. The Aircraft Noise Abatement Task Force for the airport created in 1998 dissolved through a sunset provision. Commissioner Rebecca Sosa proposed a new 11-member body with the mayors of Miami, Miami Beach, Virginia Gardens, Doral and Miami Springs each making an appointment and the director of the Miami-Dade Aviation Department the remaining six. At Commissioner Carlos Gimenez' urging, Ms. Sosa at last week's Airport and Tourism Committee meeting agreed to add the Village of Key Biscayne to the mayoral appointments. She also agreed to consider a request from Mr. Giminez to allow a representative from his District 7 on the panel. "I get a lot of calls from Brickell," said Mr. Gimenez, whose district includes the Brickell corridor. "The Brickell folks have had a lot of problems with noise. Those aircraft go right over those condos." The task force is to evaluate and recommend to the Aviation Department alternatives to reduce or mitigate the impact of aircraft noise. RENTAL HUB PROGRESSING: Building of the Miami Inter-Modal Center's Rent-A-Car Center is on schedule, with construction of the 3.4 million-square-foot, four-level building now at the third level, the Florida Department of Transportation's Stephen Thompson told the county's Airport and Tourism Committee last week. "It's currently on schedule," he said, and representatives of the rental car companies are to meet at Miami International Jan. 31 to discuss space allocation. The $311 million rental car hub is designed to accommodate 20 rental car companies and 6,500 vehicles. The project was in jeopardy slightly more than a year ago over a push by Commissioner Dorrin Rolle to give seven small, independent local rental car companies 25% of the counter space though they had only 1% of the local market. Mr. Rolle backed off after the national rental car companies insisted they would not be part of the project under such a plan. The center is due to open in spring 2010. SAFER TERMINALS: Crime is taking a lot of holidays at Miami International Airport. Miami-Dade police say the airport's crime fell 19% in 2007, a percentage that gives the airport a 50% crime drop over the past half dozen years. The decline also includes an 80% drop in robberies over the same period, police say. Of the seven robberies on airport property last year, police say, most occurred east of LeJeune Road. LESS WATER, MORE HOSPITALITY: Miami-Dade commissioners appear inclined to prod the county's hospitality businesses to use less water. But the commission could decide to step in with regulatory action or controls if more hotels don't agree to voluntarily drop their water use by 1,000 gallons daily. It may be necessary to see "what regulations and what things we can apply," said Bruno Barreiro, county commission chairman, during a Jan. 17 discussion before the Airport & Tourism committee. MORE GREEN LODGING: Discussion of water-use cutbacks at area hotels and restaurants grew out of suggestions by Commissioner Sally Heyman that the hospitality sector should do more to help South Florida in its water crisis. The county's Tourism Development Council could help by encouraging hotels to attain "Green Lodging" certification from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Established in 2004, the program rewards environmentally conscientious lodging facilities, according to the Department of Environmental Protection Web site. "Hopefully, they will step up voluntarily," Ms. Heyman said. "We need to do better with the hotels." The Miami-Dade Water & Sewer Department says 15 hotels in the county are applying for certification, of which a key requirement is daily water-use reduction of 1,000 gallons. She asked the Water & Sewer Department to make a presentation on Green Lodging at the next Tourism Development Council meeting. She said she wants representatives of hotel and restaurant associations on hand, as well as the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. In a subtle nudge that appeared designed to get the hospitality associations to help, Ms. Heyman noted some of their funding comes "through the county." GUBERNATORIAL ENCOURAGEMENT: Gov. Charlie Crist recently announced that state agencies and staffers will make a priority of doing business with hotels that have Green Lodging certification. "I was delighted" with Gov. Crist's action, Ms. Heyman said. CORRECTION: In last week's article about national employment figures, the Beacon's Council's figure for the number of workers employed in construction in Miami-Dade in November 2007 should have been 53,800, compared with 55,700 the previous year. CORRECTION: A Jan. 3 article misidentified the developer of Artech Residences at Aventura. The project is being co-developed by Fortune International and Shefaor Development. |
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