March 2023

Start of 2023 marked by OKs

for new police station, water plant

The first part of 2023 has been marked by significant progress on some major initiatives at the city, including a new police station, new water treatment plant, plans for a park at DRV PNK Stadium and upgrades to Las Olas Boulevard.

Earlier this month, the City Commission approved the construction of a new police station. This has been in the works since voters approved a bond issue for the project in the spring of 2019.

The current police station was built 60 years ago. It has grown out of date given the needs of modern law enforcement and is too small to accommodate the size of the city’s current police force.

Voters understood the need when they made their decision on the bond issue.

As stated at the time, the building’s structural integrity had weakened over time. The police station cannot withstand the impact of a major hurricane. It even had to be evacuated during Hurricane Irma, putting our officers and our community at risk.

Personnel are squeezed into insufficient space. The Bureau of Investigations, a key part of the Police Department, is located two miles away because there is not enough space on site.

Elevators and restrooms do not meet current code. Some restrooms even lack hot water. There is no fire sprinkler system in the building. Water and sewer leaks in the basement raise the possibility of mold and mildew. The air conditioning is so decrepit that condensed water must be manually emptied daily because there is no drainage to accommodate it.

Shortly after the bond issue was approved, the city retained AECOM to design the new station. The police station will be three stories and will include a parking garage and indoor firearms range. It will be built on the existing site with the current building demolished at the end of construction.

We have hired Moss & Associates to undertake the work. The plan is to break ground soon and move in by late 2024. 

A month before the police station decision, the commission finalized plans to build a new water treatment plant — a decision that will be important to our residents for generations to come.

Like our police station, the existing Fiveash water treatment plant has reached the end of its lifespan after 70 years of use. It needed extensive upgrades, would not withstand the impact of a major hurricane and could not provide our community with clear drinking water.

The city spent the last several years researching our options of continuing to repair Fiveash or pursuing new construction. We also investigated what type of treatment system would make the most sense.

We landed on a public-private partnership for a new plant as the best option to pursue.

We are harnessing the talent of world-renown experts to build and operate a top-of-line plant that will produce crystal clear water that exceeds current drinking water standards. The new plant will be located next to our existing well fields at the executive airport.

The water plant is part of our continued commitment to improve the city’s aging infrastructure. Over the last several years, we have made great strides in replacing brittle, old underground utility pipes and expanding our ability to address flooding caused by high tides and heavy rains.

The new water plant should take about 42 months to design and build, with operations beginning in late 2026.   

There has been a lot of buzz recently around the final pieces of the city agreement with David Beckham’s Inter Miami soccer team. The agreement signed in 2019 resulted in the construction of DRV PNK Stadium as well as the location of the team’s training facilities and corporate headquarters next to our executive airport.

It has been a real boon for Fort Lauderdale.

DRV PNK has become a great spectator sports-entertainment opportunity for our citizens, attracting thousands of fans regularly to home games and bringing international attention to our community. Inter Miami will continue to play games here for at least another four years.

Even after Inter Miami completes its permanent stadium in Miami, they will keep their training and corporate operations here and locate their minor-league team here.

They also started a program on site to train and recruit the best young players from throughout South Florida. This is an exciting opportunity for local families as soccer grows as an increasingly popular sport for our youth.

The deal came at no cost to our taxpayers. Rather, Inter Miami invested some $165 million to build the facilities.

They even went above and beyond the written agreement.

They built a second stadium to accommodate local and regional high school athletic events and championships. Fort Lauderdale and Stranahan Highs both lacked home stadiums and now have a place to play -- thanks to Inter Miami. They also have been faithful community allies, allowing us to operate a COVID-19 vaccination site on the campus at the height of the pandemic.

Still, there are a couple final details to iron out. We are prepared to work as partners in this undertaking.

First, there are issues of some outstanding expenses — whether the city or the team agreed to cover the cost of demolishing the old stadiums that were on the property and whether the city or team agreed to pay for the necessary building permits. This not only comes down to what is stated in the written agreements, but whether verbal promises may have been made.

The team and city have now agreed to mediation. Former Mayor Jack Seiler has agreed to serve as mediator, and it is our hope we can resolve these questions in the next 60 days.

The second outstanding matter is Inter Miami’s pledge to create a public park on part of the site. 

This has taken longer than anyone wanted. COVID caused some delays, and there were other delays as the community explored a wide variety of ideas of what should be included in a park.

The City Commission reached consensus at our first meeting in March to design and price out the concept created in a series of meetings between city officials, nearby neighborhoods and our park consultants.

This will include athletic fields for public use, a dog park, playground and walking trails. Inter Miami will pay for items specifically listed in our agreement with them, while the city will pay for any other items that we want such as a community center.  

Las Olas Boulevard is also the center of some tremendous developments -- both in the shopping district as well as the residential areas.

The construction of Tunnel Top Park is nearing completion. The Florida Department of Transportation has been constructing the park as part of its renovation work to Federal Highway’s Kinney Tunnel under the New River.

We expect the portion of the park on the south side of Las Olas to be completed by the end of this month, with the northern portion finished by the end of May. We continue to work with FDOT on plans to create an iconic sculpture garden in the park.

As part of the recent Las Olas Mobility Study, the city committed to adding crosswalks in the residential area of Las Olas Isles.

Design work has been completed, and we shortly will be seeking bids for the work. The crosswalks will be midblock between South Gordon Road and Bontona Avenue and midblock between Fiesta Way and Nurmi Drive.

The city also committed to installing dual left turn lanes for traffic going from Southeast 15^th Avenue to Las Olas. Design work has also been completed on this, and we are now procuring a contractor. We hope this will help relieve some of the congestion experienced heading toward the barrier island from downtown.

The city is also in process of addressing the impact of rising sea levels on the Las Olas area with plans to replace five seawalls.

Work on the Hendricks Isle seawall is underway, while construction will start this spring on seawalls on Lido Drive, San Marco Drive and Coral Way as well as one in Merle Fogg Park. This represents an investment of almost $4 million in seawall resiliency and follows on the heels of other seawall projects, particularly that along Cordova Road. 

In closing, I wanted to update everyone about an idea that was raised recently concerning the problems that many neighborhoods face regarding short-term rentals.

The city’s ability to address rentals was curtailed years ago by the state Legislature when it prohibited us from imposing regulations on the length and duration that someone could rent a residential property. Our efforts have been limited to addressing concerns about noise, traffic, parking and garbage, but this is a difficult task considering the number of rentals and the size of the staff we can dedicate.

Some neighborhoods asked if they could incorporate as a mandatory homeowners association under the state’s condominium regulations and then impose limits on rentals.

I asked our city attorney to research this matter. Unfortunately, the answer is not very positive.

It’s exceedingly difficult to create an HOA after an area is developed. Every single property owner in the area must agree to join the HOA, pay its fees and abide by its rules. It would be unlikely that owners of properties that are rented on a short-term basis would agree to be part of an HOA created to limit their ability to continue to rent out the home.

Our best bet remains that the lawmakers in Tallahassee eventually realize the negative impact that their actions have had on communities like Fort Lauderdale by allowing short-term rentals to run amok. 

Sincerely,

Dean