Participation Needed for Important Quality of Life Issues

Dear Belle Isle Residents:

Here is a forwarded email from Frank Fiorentino, one of the South Beach residents involved with improving the quality of life for all Residents of Miami Beach.

He requests our participation in two ways.

If you have experience you wish to share concerning excessive noise, the meeting on December 6th would be important to attend.

The late afternoon meeting on December 7th (specific time to be announced) is for all residents and your attendance is important in order for the Commissioners to see we all care about this problem.

Please inform your friends and neighbors as I am sure many of them will want to participate.

Thanks, Herb

HERB FRANK

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November 30, 2005
RE: NOISE ORDINANCE AMENDMENTS

Dear Residents:

Updating my previous letters concerning proposed amendments to the Noise Ordinance of the City of Miami Beach, we are now at a critical point. Your attendance is urgently needed at the following two meetings:

(1) Tuesday, December 6 at 7 PM – meeting in the Ocean Room at 1500 Ocean Drive, led by our lawyer Kent Harrison Robbins, to prepare for the following day’s meeting of the City Commission. Those of you who have experienced unreasonable and excessive noise should come prepared to describe those episodes;

(2) Wednesday, December 7, at a time to be determined, but probably late afternoon and extending into the evening – meeting of the City Commission, on the 3rd floor of the Miami Beach City Hall, for the Commission’s consideration of amendments to the Noise Ordinance. It is essential that there be a large number of residents in the Commission chamber for this meeting, since there could well be a large number of employees and other representatives of hotels and clubs. Residents need, by their presence, to demonstrate to the Commissioners their serious interest and concern.

Here is a report on recent developments, which illustrate the importance of residents’ obtaining a fair and balanced result in the amended Noise Ordinance:

The terms of the Noise Ordinance amendments have been discussed and negotiated in a series of four-party meetings at City Hall. The four parties are: the City Administration, the residents, the clubs, and the hotels. Following that series of meetings, we do not yet know the version of the Noise Ordinance amendments which will be proposed to the Commission by the City Administration.

But, we do know the seriousness of the threat to residents’ rights to be free of unreasonable noise. One of the residents’ representatives at the last meeting of the four-party working group advised us that one of the hotels’ representatives at that meeting advocated the following three concepts for inclusion in the Noise Ordinance:

(1) A single violator could be issued a grand total of approximately 138 warnings per year! Obviously, that would substantially worsen the present problem of multiple warnings, courtesy notices, etc. being issued instead of violation citations being issued.

(2) A hotel itself would not be responsible for violations on its premises. The violations would be the responsibility of the persons holding or executing the events on the hotel’s premises.

(3) Daytime outdoor events on hotel pool decks would enjoy an absolute exemption from the Noise Ordinance.

These three radical proposals demonstrate the severity of the threat that the existing Noise Ordinance will be substantially weakened rather than strengthened.

Without a strong Noise Ordinance, residents are likely to face (A) a substantial diminution in their quality of life, and (B) a substantial reduction in the market value of their homes.

For all these reasons, I strongly encourage your presence and participation in the meetings on December 6 and 7. If residents do not play a substantial and active role, their interests may well be harmed by provisions in the new Noise Ordinance.

Sincerely,

Frank Fiorentino