STREETSCAPE-SECTION VI VENETIAN ISLANDS NEIGHBORHOOD No
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STREETSCAPE-SECTION VI VENETIAN ISLANDS NEIGHBORHOOD No. 13 RIVO ALTO DI LIDO SAN MARINO Prepared by: BASIS OF DESIGN REPORT Venetian Islands Bid Package C STREETSCAPE A. OVERVIEW The voters of The City of Miami Beach approved a major bond issue on November 2, 1999 for the amount of $ 92 million in General Obligation (GO) Bonds, of which $ 57 million were specifically allocated for the right-of-way infrastructure improvement program. The purpose of the Venetian Islands (Rivo Alto, Di Lido and San Marino Islands) streetscape improvements is to provide the restoration and the enhancements of each island’s streets to meet the community needs. The Rivo Alto, Di Lido and San Marino Islands are primarily developed with single-family residences. However, each island has been addressed separately to address the unique needs of each. The planning stages concluded that there were several types of improvements applicable to The Venetian Islands Package C. Among these improvements are streets narrowing, landscaping improvements, milling and resurfacing and new decorative street lighting. The City’s GO Bond Program will fund all of these improvements, since GO Bonds are derived exclusively from property taxes to implement non-revenue producing projects, such as street improvements, streetscape and landscaping, parks, public safety and beaches. Vehicle circulation and pedestrian circulation enhancements will also be addressed, including the repair of broken sidewalks, pavement markings and traffic signage, pedestrian and handicap access ramps consistent with the Venetian Islands Master Plan and community preferences. Additionally, the scope of the project will incorporate traffic calming features consistent with the Venetian Islands Master Plan and community preferences, as well as sidewalk and driveway repairs. Residents of Di Lido and San Marino Islands are considering a special assessment district for burying electric, cable and telephone services to convert the existing overhead services to underground facilities. The residents of the islands will need to approve the special assessment before the necessary coordination of proposed infrastructure can be done to accommodate the burial of overhead facilities within the ROW/ utility easement. Residents have agreed to allow the ROW construction to proceed and that the underground utilities concerns would be addressed after this project is completed. The consultant will attempt to accommodate a possible future underground utility project. Broken Sidewalk Figure SS-1: Broken Sidewalk Example Page SS-1 9/22/2003 BASIS OF DESIGN REPORT Venetian Islands Bid Package C Wide lanes and mixed dense vegetation are the typical street characteristics in all three islands. Enhanced landscaping will be provided in the form of swale plantings and infill landscaping, consistent with community preferences. The existing landscape palette of orchid, black olive, royal poinciana, live oak, coconut palm, mahogany and other types of vegetation will be enhanced by kapok tree, shot leaf, white frangipani and other types of native vegetation. The planning effort has identified streetscape enhancement priorities throughout the Venetian Islands project area, including street narrowing, landscaping, street lighting, and street paving. As a result, a recommended funded approach was developed and subsequently consensus was achieved with the residents attending the Community Workshop. TABLE SS-1 VENETIAN ISLANDS PACKAGE C - FUNDED AND FUTURE (UNFUNDED) IMPROVEMENTS DECORATIVE SIDEWALK STREET ENHANCED TRAFFIC ENTRY CROSSWALK STREET AREA EXTENSION RESURFACING LANDSCAPING CALMING FEATURES TREATMENT LIGHTING Rivo Alto Island Funded Funded Funded Funded Unfunded Unfunded Funded Di Lido Island Funded Funded Funded Funded Unfunded Unfunded Funded San Marino Island Funded Funded Funded Funded Unfunded Unfunded Funded B. EXISTING & PROPOSED CONDITION The Venetian Islands Neighborhood No. 13 Bid Package B consists of the Rivo Alto, Di Lido, and San Marino Islands respectively located east-to-west along the Venetian Causeway. The islands are man-made “fill” created in the 1920’s for development of single-family residences. Rivo Alto Island was developed first to showcase the islands, and is unique for it’s underground utilities and pedestrian scale street lighting. Both Di Lido and San Marino Islands have aboveground utilities and cobra-head style lighting. Each of the islands’ street layout is configured by a perimeter road which extends north and south from the causeway, intersected by cross-streets. All the residences along the outside of the loop road are waterfront homes. There are several existing easements that extend from the public street to the waterfront. These easements are not included within the project scope. Through observations during the planning process it was established that the islands lack identity and character in terms of the existing streetscape and landscape features. Page SS-2 9/22/2003 BASIS OF DESIGN REPORT Venetian Islands Bid Package C Existing Parking: Cars parked in the residential driveways and some parking along the grass swales characterizes the current parking condition at the Venetian Islands. Existing Lighting: Two types of lighting currently exist in the Venetian Islands Neighborhood. Di Lido Island and San Marino Island have cobra-head style lights, generally mounted on wood utility poles at a height of approximately 20’ (Figure SS-2), which are operated and maintained by FPL as an overhead utility system. Rivo Alto Island has acorn style lights (Figure SS-3) operated and maintained by FPL from underground utilities. Acorn style lights are the preferred decorative lighting treatment and can be found in select locations throughout the neighborhood and Miami Beach. Acorn style lights are typically mounted on decorative fiberglass poles, at a Figure SS-2: Typical cobra-head light height of approximately 12’-14’ and are operated and maintained by the City of Miami Beach. Overhead utilities can be found on Di Lido Island and San Marino Island. In addition to overhead lines running parallel to the street, there are also residential service lines that cross perpendicular to the street and into residential lots. Underground utilities are found on Rivo Alto Island. Planning efforts for future improvements along the underground utility easement need to carefully evaluate the location and depth of these utilities. In some instances large shade trees have grown in close proximity to streetlights. Where this occurs, the amount of ambient light that is reflected into the street is greatly reduced. Future tree and palm selection and new installation, shall consider existing utilities and light locations, to reduce long- term maintenance issues and maximize street light Figure SS-3: Typical acorn light efficiency. Existing Landscape: A mix of various plantings defines the overall landscape character in the neighborhood that the residents have planted over the years – both within their property and on the public swale - creating an informal, often haphazard, landscape. There are trees and palms planted randomly throughout the neighborhood, but no consistent landscape theme exists, resulting in a weak streetscape identity. There are however, numerous large trees and palms that will be preserved. During the Planning and subsequent Design Phase, various encroachments on City right-of-way will be identified. Some of these include paved swale areas, built-up swales, fixtures, etc. It is Page SS-3 9/22/2003 BASIS OF DESIGN REPORT Venetian Islands Bid Package C the intent of this program to reclaim public right-of-way were necessary as improvements are implemented. During the design process, encroachments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis using the following criteria: 1) Does the encroachment interfere with the planned improvements? 2) Is the encroachment properly permitted through the City’s Building and Zoning Department? 3) Does the encroachment need to be removed to meet current design standards? The Consultant team will provide detailed documentation during the Design Phase. Each property owner will be properly notified through the City’s Community Information Program. Each Island has different characteristics, and for that reason some of the existing conditions and proposed improvements will be addressed by island, on a cross streets and perimeter streets approach to avoid generalizing, which will help focus during the design phase. A legend is provided (Figure SS-4) to help understand the figures shown below. Figure SS-4: Legend Rivo Alto Island The perimeter street road around the island is 24-feet wide with no median and swale on both sides of approximately 8 feet wide each. In some scattered sections of the road a concrete curb can be found, but most of it is not in acceptable conditions. The cross streets roads have an entire width of 41-feet, composed by two 14-feet wide lanes divided by a 13-feet wide raised median. The existing median has trees and vegetation, surrounded by a concrete curb. The swale on both sides of the cross street are approximately 9-feet wide. Existing sidewalks with a standard width of 4 to 5 feet are located on both sides of the perimeter and cross streets. Around 350-feet of the existing sidewalk is not in acceptable Figure SS-5: Rivo Alto 3rd Terrace Plan conditions. Rivo Alto Island has underground utilities and acorn style lighting is found along the roadway. Mixed planting with landscape encroachments can be found throughout the island. It is premature to quantify