The Administration recommends that the City Commission accept the recommendation of the Neighborhood/Community Affairs Committee (NCAC) and set a public hearing to co-name 75th Street between Dickens Avenue and Harding Avenue as "Rabbi Abramowitz Way".

BACKGROUND

Rabbi Mayer Abramowitz was the spiritual leader of Temple Menorah for 45 years. In recognition of his positive impact in the community and pursuant to Commissioner Michael Gongora’s request, an item was referred to the NCAC at the April 11, 2018 City Commission meeting.  The item concerned the potential co-naming of a street in North Beach for Rabbi Mayer Abramowitz. The referral to NCAC included a discussion of amendments to Section 82-503(c) of the City Code which was required in order to allow for this potential co-naming of a City street. At the May 22, 2018 NCAC meeting, the Committee recommended that the City Code be amended to allow for the co-naming of streets for spiritual leaders.  Pursuant to the recommendation from the NCAC, an Ordinance was drafted amending the City Code to allow City streets to be co-named for a deceased person who served as the spiritual leader of a prominent religious institution in the City of Miami Beach for 35 or more years and resided in the City of Miami Beach.

The First Reading of the proposed Ordinance occurred at the June 6, 2018 City Commission meeting.   At the meeting, the City Commission requested that an amendment be made to the proposed Ordinance to include a sunset provision of July 1, 2019.  The Ordinance was approved unanimously on Second Reading at the July 25, 2018 City Commission Meeting and Ordinance No. 2018-4209 was adopted. Following the adoption of Ordinance No. 2018-4209, a discussion item, to consider and review the proposed co-naming, was referred to NCAC at the September 12, 2018 City Commission meeting.

The co-naming of 75th Street between Dickens Avenue and Harding Avenue was discussed at the September 26, 2018 NCAC meeting. At the meeting, following a discussion by members of the Committee and testimonials from the public supporting the co-naming, the proposed co-naming was approved by unanimous vote of  the Committee.

Pursuant to Section 82-503 of the City code, in order for the proposed co-naming to be approved, following approval by the NCAC, the City Commission must accept the recommendation of the NCAC and set a date for a public hearing.  Following a public hearing, the City Commission must approve the co-naming by resolution of the Mayor and City Commission by 5/7th vote.  Subsequently, the resolution by the City Commission must be sponsored by a Miami-Dade County Commissioner and approved by the Board of County Commissioners (BCC).

For previous co-naming of streets, once the request has been approved by the BCC, the City has worked with the Miami-Dade County Department of Transportation and Public Works to implement the signage. The manufacturing and installation cost for ground mounted signs is approximately $200 per sign and $75 for presentation plates. The County does not typically install or replace internally illuminated street name signs at signalized intersections as a result of street co-naming.  If the City wishes to pursue the installation of these enhanced signs, the work would need to be performed by a contractor via a construction permit.  The manufacturing and installation cost of internally illuminated street name signs at signalized intersections would be approximately $3,000 per signalized intersection. 

Following approval by the BCC, the City's Transportation Department staff will work with the Miami-Dade County Department of Transportation and Public Works to manufacture and install the selected type of signs.

The proposed co-naming of 75th Street would impact two (2) signalized intersections (75th Street/Dickens Avenue and 75th Street/Harding Avenue).  The cost of manufacturing and installing the ground-mounted signs at both intersections would be approximately $550.  Should the City Commission desire to install internally illuminated street name signs at both signalized intersections, the manufacturing and installation cost would be approximately $6,000.