Pinecrest E-News

PINECREST E-NEWS | JULY 2012

In This Issue From the Desk of the Mayor Mayor's Updates US 1 Corridor Visioning Plan Quick Links The Village of Pinecrest is creating a Pinecrest Agendas/Minutes Parkway (US 1) Corridor Vision Plan in an effort to enhance the sense of pride in our "Main Street." Streaming Video As a way to obtain input from local citizens, the Village sponsored the US 1 Corridor Visioning Pinecrest Gardens Session on June 9, 2012 at Evelyn Greer Park. Mayor Members of the US 1 Visioning Steering Cindy Community Center Committee, residents, community leaders, and Lerner business owners gathered together to help plan and guide future growth along the commercial Village Council corridor, thus enabling the Village to achieve its maximum potential. Throughout the day, attendees worked in small groups Meet Your Staff with a volunteer facilitator. The facilitator's only responsibility was Staff Directory to help the groups create responses and identify recommendations for the improvement of the US 1 corridor. Near the end of the day, everyone gathered in a large group meeting, where all participants carefully listened to each group's recommendations.

Following the June 9th visioning session, the planning consultant met throughout the following week in the Council Chamber with residents and business owners who were unable to attend the Dennis Smith has visioning session. Additionally, a citizens' survey was available been a permit clerk in online to gather input from stakeholders who could not participate the Building and in the public meetings. If you have still not had an opportunity to Planning Department learn more about this plan and to have input, there is still time to since March 2012. do so. You can visit www.pinecrest-fl.gov/US1 or contact the Previously, he worked Planning Division who can make all reports available to you. You as a Park Service Aide can also plan to attend the Steering Committee meeting which in the Parks and will be held at the end of the summer, on August 29th. Recreation Department for four years. He is During the upcoming weeks, the planning consultant will work on studying construction the completion of the draft Vision Plan to be submitted to Village management and will Council for review and consideration later this fall. The tentative be graduating from FIU schedule is as follows: next spring. He is planning to continue Pinecrest E-News

7/18 - Consultant submits draft of Vision Plan to Village Manager for his studies by pursuing staff review a master's degree in public 7/27 - Village staff submits comments to consultant administration. 8/10 - Consultant submits revised Vision Plan to staff and Steering Committee

PINECREST 8/29 - Steering Committee meets to review the draftVision Plan BUSINESSES 9/4 - Consultant submits final draft Vision Plan to the Village Manager Support Our Businesses! The Village Council will meet in the fall to review and discuss the proposed draft Vision Plan and provide additional direction and For information about input relative to plan recommendations. Public hearings for further Pinecrest area businesses, please visit community review and formal plan consideration will then be www.pinecrestbusiness.com scheduled. or www.chambersouth.com. Restaurant in the Gardens

You may be wondering what happened to the effort to bring a restaurant to the gardens. We are finally moving forward with plans for food service at Pinecrest Gardens. Over the past year, there was a temporary lull in activity as we transitioned to a new Village Manager and then until we hired a new Assistant Manager, in order to have staff who would be able to devote the time Pinecrest PD necessary to do the research and engage the experts that could pinecrest-fl.gov/police help us move this project forward. The past four months have seen the manager and assistant manager working with marketing Underage Drinking consultants to do the surveys of neighboring communities and and restaurants, and identify the industry models that could be Teen Parties successful here. A report and discussion was held during a special meeting on June 18th - the video is available online According to the U.S. at www.pinecrest-fl.gov/live. The Adelphi Group, a Miami based Surgeon General, about tourism and hospitality consulting firm, performed the assessment 5,000 persons under 21 and marketing analysis for the best food service options for the die every year as a result of underage drinking; Cypress Hall space at the gardens. They provided the Village from vehicle crashes, Council with advantages and disadvantages of each option, the homicides and suicides. estimated revenues and provided a recommendation taking into Teenagers that drink also account the Village's resident responses to surveys back in 1998 are at risk of brain and recently in 2010. After hearing the report and damage, increased sexual recommendations, the Village Council agreed that the manager activity, poor academic should go forward with the drafting of a Request for Proposals to performance, and life- long alcohol abuse. be released sometime in August. Reducing underage drinking will reduce One of the issues that will have to be addressed is to make a various drinking-related change to our Village Charter to allow for a restaurant lease for problems and as parents more than five years - this will need voter approval. Why do we there are many things need to negotiate a lease for more than five years? We are that can be done to asking the restaurant who comes in to invest heavily in improving prevent such problems. the space for the restaurant, up to $1 million in improvements. When your teen is Any business owner who invests that amount of capital will want attending a party: assurances that they will be able to see a return on their investment for more than five years. Typically, it is a ten year Know where your lease they will want to sign. The Village Charter precludes a lease teenager will be for any park space for more than five years without taking the (obtain an address matter to a vote by all voters in Pinecrest. That would be and phone impossible for us to do, as we could not publicize a request for number). Personally contact proposals and negotiate with anyone unless the voters approved, the parents of the and what would we be able to ask them to approve if we would party giver and not have a firm deal with any restaurateur. So instead, at the make sure they recommendation of the citizen appointed Charter Review Pinecrest E-News

will be present. Commission, on the ballot in November we will be asking the Be certain that voters to amend this specific section of the Village Charter to alcohol, tobacco allow the Village Council to approve a lease longer than five years and drugs will not be permitted. by a super majority vote (4 out of the 5 councilmembers must vote to approve). This will only apply to Cypress Hall at Pinecrest When hosting a teen Gardens and not to any other park space in the Village. There will party: be further information about this proposed charter revision along with the other revisions recommended by the Charter Revision The responsible Commission in their final report. That report is available at this adult at a teen link. party is liable in both criminal and Summer Route for the Pinecrest People Mover civil court if they furnish alcohol and other drugs to The initial Pinecrest People Mover route, minors. which was created for the middle and Set definite limits, high school students, is in hiatus for the such as invited summer and an entirely new route is guests only now being offered to all of our residents and certain rooms during the summer months. We have in the house are off-limits been asked to provide transportation for Do not allow our senior population to local shopping drugs, alcohol or areas, so our newest summertime route will include Publix at The tobacco. Falls, The Falls Mall, Suniland Shopping Center, and the Dadeland Anyone leaving the and Datran Metrorail stations. Of course, the people mover is free party should not and available to anyone in Pinecrest. If you have other be allowed back. suggestions for the route, please contact Angela Gasca at 305- This discourages teens from leaving 234-2121. I have included the new summer route below: to use drugs or alcohol and Stop Location Stop Time Stop Time Stop Time Stop Time returning to the SW 60 Ave @11500 8:00 am 9:05 am 10:10 am 11:15 am party. Moss Ranch Rd @ 6195 8:03 am 9:08 am 10:13 am 11:18 am SW 118 ST @ 7505 8:07 am 9:12 am 10:17 am 11:22 am When out of town: SW 117 ST @ 7640 8:08 am 9:13 am 10:18 am 11:23 am Inform your SW 127 ST @ 7221 8:12 am 9:17 am 10:22 am 11:27 am teenager of their SW 131 ST @ 7320 8:14 am 9:19 am 10:24 am 11:29 am responsibilities and SW 132 ST @ 7250 & 7231 8:15 am 9:20 am 10:25 am 11:30 am the consequences SW 136 ST @ 84 AVE 8:18 am 9:23 am 10:28 am 11:33 am of their actions. Inform your The Falls Mall 8:22 am 9:27 am 10:32 am 11:37 am Publix - Briar Bay neighbors of your 8:25 am 9:30 am 10:35 am 11:40 am absence. 13005 SW 89th Pl YMCA - South Dade Request that 8:28 am 9:33 am 10:38 am 11:43 am neighbors contact 9355 SW 134 Street you or the police if Whole Foods 8:33 am 9:38 am 10:43 am 11:48 am a party occurs in 11701 South Dixie Hwy your absence. Suniland Shopping Ctr 8:35 am 9:40 am 10:45 am 11:50 am If a party is held S Dixie HWY without your Pinecrest Community Ctr 8:43 am 9:48 am 10:53 am 11:58 am approval, find out 5855 SW 111 ST who attended and Villas of Pinecrest contact their 8:50 am 9:55 am 11:00 am 12:05 pm Kendall Drive @ 67 Ave parents. Dadeland Mall 8:53 am 9:58 am 11:03 am 12:08 pm For additional information Metrorail-Dadeland North 8:56 am 10:01 am 11:06 am 12:11 pm regarding this or other topics, please call the FPL is Asking for a Rate Increase Crime Prevention Unit at 305-234-2100, Ext. 383. Last month, the Village Council voted to intervene in the FPL Request for a Rate Increase. We had previously passed a resolution which opposed the rate hike and, after calculating how much more the proposed increase would cost our residents, businesses and the Village itself, it was clear we should join the Pinecrest E-News

litigation and fight to protect our residents from the overreaching and greed by this investor owned utility. Our finance director calculated the impact of the proposed rate increase to us as being $2.9 million additional a year! So it is certainly worthwhile to step up on behalf of our community and oppose their efforts. There are several other cities that will likely join us in the intervention; South Miami already did, and Cutler Bay, Coral Gables and Miami are considering it.

The Public Service Commission is traveling the state to hear from the public on the proposed rate increase, and at every hearing the response is the same,people are angry that FPL collects the number of subsidies it does, including the nuclear cost recovery, they are seeing record profits (Florida power company says earnings up 39%) and they still want their stock holders to have the ability to see an even higher rate of return. The Public Service Commission had been scheduled to hold two hearings in the Miami area on June 26 but they were cancelled due to Tropical Storm Debbie. We will definitely appear at the hearings which are now scheduled for August 7th and hope that the community will show up and speak up as well.

Budget Workshop

The Village Council met on June 26th to review proposals for possible inclusion in the upcoming budget. This is the first year we as a Village Council have had the opportunity to have input into potential capital improvements and other needs before the manager completes the proposed budget. It allowed the manager to determine whether there was consensus on moving forward with possible projects that have been delayed the past few years. There will be a Budget Town Hall scheduled in July for any who have questions or concerns. At the July 10th Village Council meeting, the manager will submit the proposed 2012-13 budget and a proposed millage rate. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, you can contact me at [email protected].

Are You a Student Interested in Serving on the Youth Advisory Council?

The Village Council is accepting applications from middle and high school students interested in serving on the Youth Advisory Council. The application deadline is August 31st. If you are interested, please download the application, available at this link, and return prior to the deadline.

Senior Focus Newsletter

The new Senior Focus newsletter is now available - visit www.pinecrest-fl.gov/seniors and download a copy. The newsletters have great information for senior citizens in our community.

Going Green = Silver

Pinecrest has a new silver luster - thanks to being green. The Village of Pinecrest has received the prestigious Silver Certification from the Florida Green Building Coalition (FGBC) as a result of the Village's Going Green Initiative. The FGBC Green Local Government Standard designates Green Cities and Green Counties Pinecrest E-News

for outstanding environmental stewardship. Pinecrest did this by achieving a specific percentage of points for initiatives to help the environment and to save taxpayer dollars. Pinecrest officials will be officially presented with the certification at an upcoming Village Council meeting. For additional information, please visit www.floridagreenbuilding.org/local-governments.

Green Tip Alexandria, Virginia is taking steps towards "Walkability" - read the interesting article at this link.

The Pinecrest Village Council wishes everyone a safe and happy 4th of July!

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Be Prepared!

Hurricane Season begins today and ends on November 30th. The Village has prepared a special web page with links to important information from several sources including FEMA and the National Hurricane Center. Please visit www.pinecrest-fl.gov/hurricane to read the materials and take the necessary steps to be prepared.

Community Calendar

Parks and Recreation Program Calendar

Pinecrest Gardens Program Calendar

Pinecrest Branch Library Program Calendar

Senior Citizen Program Calendar

View the Complete Calendar of Village Activities

PUBLIC MEETINGS

Village Council July 10th, 7:00 p.m. Pinecrest Municipal Center - 12645 Pinecrest Parkway

If you are a non-profit or civic organization holding meetings or events in Pinecrest and wish to be included in this listing, Pinecrest E-News

please send a request with complete event information such as name of organization, date, time, place, and contact information to [email protected].

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VILLAGE OF PINECREST

Village Council Cindy Lerner, Mayor Nancy L. Harter, Vice Mayor Joseph M. Corradino Jeff Cutler Bob Ross

Yocelyn Galiano Gomez, ICMA-CM, Village Manager Guido H. Inguanzo, Jr. CMC, Village Clerk Cynthia A. Everett, Village Attorney

12645 Pinecrest Parkway Pinecrest, Florida 33156

t 305-234-2121 f 305-234-2131

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