North Miami Beach Mayor Evan Scott Piper presided over his first city commission meeting Dec. 19, 2023, filling the final seat on the seven-member body that had been fractured for nearly a year.
Piper was the victor of a Dec. 5 special election, receiving 57% of the vote and beating out his opponent, former Commissioner Paule Villard. The election was held to replace former Mayor Anthony DeFillipo, who was removed from office after being charged with voter fraud and is now awaiting a February trial.
(Samantha Morell for Biscayne Times)
Mayor Evan Piper presided over his first North Miami Beach commission meeting Dec. 19, 2023.
Although DeFillipo was suspended by Gov. Ron DeSantis in June, the allegations against him date back to December 2022, which triggered a series of commission meetings without quorum as Commissioners Daniela Jean, Michael Joseph and McKenzie Fleurimond refrained from attending in boycotting the former mayor.
Before last month, the city of North Miami Beach hadn’t seen a full complement of its seven-member commission at a meeting since March 2023, when a judge ordered all commissioners to attend.
At the December 2023 meeting, members of the public and the commission welcomed the new mayor, signifying what many hope will be the continuation of city business and an end to divisions within the municipal government. Piper ran under the campaign promise of unifying the commission.
Another of Piper’s priorities, he said, would be to cut wasteful spending. Just two weeks before he was elected, the city fulfilled a public records request submitted by this publication in June which revealed that more than $360,000 in legal fees were incurred due to litigation filed between the commissioners in 2023.
Although a hearing for Commissioner Jay Chernoff’s lawsuit against Joseph regarding the latter’s consecutive absences is scheduled for Jan. 11, the commission’s business no longer seems to be immediately hindered by such litigation. It has instead turned its attention to other matters.
(City of North Miami Beach Agenda Filings)
May NMB LLC has proposed a three-tower development in North Miami Beach, which would bring 1,217 new residential units to the city.
New Housing Development
Nearly half of the six-hour meeting was occupied by a discussion on a proposed development located at 16385 NE 22nd Ave., the former site of a local food market known as Laurenzo’s.
The proposal consists of three towers which would comprise a whopping 1,217 residential units, approximately 23,300 square feet of commercial space, 1,622 parking spaces and several amenities, including two pools, a spa, a running track and green space throughout. The developer is May NMB LLC, a collaboration between New Jersey-based Accurate Builders and Kastel Development.
The development would be built in three separate phases. In concurrence with the first two phases, the developers would undertake the additional project of realigning and expanding an adjacent intersection on NE 164th Street.
(City of North Miami Beach Agenda Filings)
A new three-tower development proposed at 16385 NE 22nd Ave. would contain approximately 23,300 square feet of commercial space on its ground level.
The item included a request for 13 variances in total required for the current site plan, one of which would allow the acquisition of air rights for a large art piece to be situated above 164th Street. It was, however, ultimately deferred until the next meeting, which is scheduled for Jan. 16. A workshop will be scheduled before that meeting to further amend and clarify the details of the proposals.
It is unclear what changes, if any, will arise from the workshop, though residents are largely opposed to the project in its current form. Concerns voiced during the public comment period generally had to do with insufficient parking, traffic, overdevelopment, lack of affordable housing and an inadequate design.
The project’s units – 171 studio, 648 one-bedroom, 325 two-bedroom and 73 three-bedroom apartments – would be rented out at rates ranging from approximately $2,300 to $3,200.
(City of North Miami Beach Agenda Filings)
May NMB LLC is seeking air rights for a large art piece to be built above NE 164th Street.
Said resident and former Commissioner Barbara Kramer in response to the developer’s proposal, “This is not taking anyone’s breath away in my opinion.”
Commissioners largely reflected the same concerns, although Jean was the only one who explicitly said she would not support the project as it was proposed last month.
“My concern as a Realtor is that we’re putting a lot of units into this city,” said Chernoff to the project’s presenters, “and that’s not your developer’s problem. That’s our problem.”
(CityNMB.com)
Harvette Smith, police chief of North Miami Beach, is under federal investigation for reasons unknown.
Chernoff was referring not only to the large number of units that would be built through May NMB’s development, but also to a series of housing projects that have recently been approved in the surrounding area. Matthew Amster, an attorney representing the LLC with firm Bercow Radell Fernandez Larkin & Tapanes, pointed out, however, that this is exactly why the encompassing district was formed in 2015.
“We feel that this is a great project that will revitalize the area and make better use of it in the spirit of and meeting the purpose that this mixed-use district was created for,” said Amster.
The former Laurenzo’s site is explicitly mentioned in the city’s TOD, or transit-oriented development, master plan. It encompasses an existing trolley site and is located near a series of proposed Tri-Rail stations.
The only member of the commission who seemed to support the project was Piper himself, who used his experience and knowledge as a former chair of the city’s planning and zoning board to remind fellow commissioners of the developers’ rights and justify the project.
(Samantha Morell for Biscayne Times)
City manager Mario Diaz placed North Miami Beach’s police chief, Harvette Smith, on administrative leave in December 2023.
“If you want to see new restaurants and shops … the only way people are going to open those businesses is if there’s people that are going to come into their shops, and the way you’re going to get people into those shops are the people living in those buildings,” Piper said.
Police Chief Under Investigation
What wasn’t mentioned during December’s meeting, however, was the recent suspension of Harvette Smith, North Miami Beach’s first woman and Black police chief. She was placed on administrative leave by city manager Mario Diaz Dec. 11, 2023.
The suspension came as Smith is being investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, although the cause of that investigation is unclear. Several news outlets have since speculated that it may be related to a September 2023 court filing regarding an alleged domestic dispute between Smith and a distant relative. The protective order sought by the relative was denied by a judge and the case quickly closed.
Smith first started her career with the North Miami Beach Police Department in 1990 as a clerk typist. She later became a police communications officer and a training officer before ultimately being promoted to sergeant in the administrative division in 2018. She became chief in July 2022.
Commissioners and Smith refused to comment when pursued for a story by our sister publication, The Miami Times. Deputy Chief Nelson Camacho is heading the police department as acting chief until the investigation is concluded.