Advertisement
The Miami Beach City Commission unanimously amended its capital budget to buy a single-family home on Collins Avenue as it struggled to find a real use for the property.
The problem was finding a need by a city department that had money available.
“This is the fourth amendment to the capital budget,” said Budget Director Tameka Otto Stewart. “It contains one item, and it recommends an appropriation of $5.88 million for the purchase of the building at 7605 Collins Ave.”
In January, commissioners talked of buying the house for $6.5 million. They directed administrators to work on the deal and send a contract and agreement to the Finance and Economic Resiliency Committee (FERC) to find the money.
The fourth amendment reflects an overall increase of $5,880,000 for the purchase. “The purpose of this project is to purchase a building in the North Beach area for the Building Department, with a goal of providing a dedicated space/hub for North Beach residents and other stakeholders,” a county memo says.
In February, the finance committee recommended “utilizing reserves from the Building Department Fund to acquire the property. While the property’s main purpose would be for Building Department activities, other departments could utilize portions of the building for ancillary purposes, with the costs covered by rental payments.”
Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez asked why the funding was pulled from the Building Department.
Chief Financial Officer Jason Greene explained what the finance committee discussed.
“What we had unanimously approved was that we were using the Building Department reserves,” said Mr. Greene. “They have that ability to fund that; there is already a project in our capital program. We funded $650,000 in the 2024 budget to purchase a building in North Beach to have an ancillary facility up there. I believe the Building Department already has one as a rented storefront. It was an opportunity to find we had a problem, we have a solution, we wrote to marry those two together and there is the ability … for other uses at that facility.”
The primary use, more than likely, would be for the Building Department to license permits, said Mr. Greene. “Commissioner [David] Suarez has an item at Neighborhoods, I think, to talk about usages there to see if there were any other ancillary uses that could be there, and what we would do is that department or fund would then rent from the building department effectively if there is an interest in that as we go forward.”
Ms. Rosen Gonzalez asked if it had been discussed as a group for the Building Department to be on the site. Mr. Greene replied that it had been discussed at the finance committee.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen it,” she said. “I guess I missed that discussion at FERC, but I would like us to have a discussion about: maybe there’s something else that we’re going to use that building for. It’s in the center of a park. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have like Parks and Rec?”
The site is also adjacent to a large parking lot, said Mr. Greene. “It was already the will of the commission when we started that through the 2024 budget process to purchase a building, so that was really just that opportunity. If there’s another use that’s determined, to have an office or something else there, there’s that opportunity to fund back.”
The commission gets frequent calls regarding bathrooms in the park and different issues that are being faced, said Ms. Rosen Gonzalez. “While I’m not opposed to having the Building Department there, is us using the funds from the Building Department … going to be a problem if we want to make it like a Parks and Rec facility or if we want to do something else with the programming afterward? Public safety?”
If the Building Department was to not use the site at all, said Mr. Greene, that would perhaps require a discussion with the city attorney. However, the primary use of the Building Department being at the site was the intention and vote of the finance committee. “That’s our reason to fund, and the reason also was to not use, let’s say, our PayGo dollars, which we have [and] are so limited and so finite.”
The decision was a win-win, said Mr. Greene. “It still meets the need that this commission has determined, which was the building fund to purchase a site in North Beach.”
Commissioner Alex Fernandez expressed support.
“I do think that this is a good use because, not that we’re going to put the Building Department there, but there is a North Beach satellite office,” he said. “Right now, I would imagine we’re using the building department enterprise dollars to rent space. So we’re using taxpayers’ dollars, we’re giving it to a private entity to house a department that now we can house in the taxpayers’ property upon the purchase of this property.”
Commissioner Fernandez followed this by asking if, hypothetically, there could be police use if the enterprise funds are used to buy the property. Mr. Greene told him that would be allowed.
“Let’s say we want to do a parks use there, let’s say we want to do a child care center there,” said Mr. Fernandez. “Could we do the same thing? Could we pay rent to the building enterprise fund for the purpose of using that type of programming?”
“It should be do-able,” said Mr. Greene. “It would only get a little questionable … if 95% of it was non-building department. We would have to take a look at that. But yes, I believe that all those uses should be able to be there as long as I think the Building Department is getting the ability for people to go in and file permits, pay permit fees, talk to someone from the building department. As long as that use is there, there can be charged backs from other funds and departments that would make use of it.”
Janetssy Lugo
Source link
