Sunny Isles Beach staff ask to reallocate $1 million from playground surfacing to design a multigenerational Heritage Park; commissioners ask for more resident‑

City Parks & Recreation staff asked the commission for permission to reallocate approximately $1,000,000 that had been budgeted to replace deteriorating playground safety surfacing at Heritage Park and instead go out to bid for an architect to design a new multigenerational facility on the site.

The requested design scope listed possible elements including basketball and volleyball courts, multipurpose rooms, a walking track and expanded fields. Staff said the proposal is pulled directly from the adopted Parks & Recreation master plan and is intended to respond to long waiting lists for youth and adult programming and limited indoor space across the city.

“Heritage Park has been in need of new safety surfacing for about two years,” staff said, adding the city had patched the playground while master‑plan work and demand analysis continued. Staff recommended design now rather than spending $1,000,000 on a one‑time resurfacing project that would not address the city’s space constraints.

Several commissioners supported the goal of expanding facilities but pushed for more clarity and resident engagement before approving design funding. Commissioner Stuyvesant strongly urged the commission to avoid another long consultant process that delays tangible results, saying residents already know what they want and questioned whether the project would displace existing playground or lawn space.

Staff pledged the design request would fund an architect to develop programming and drawings — not another master study — and said council members would see the scope before an RFP for design services went out. The city manager cautioned commissioners against informal polling or participating in day‑to‑day design work, noting that feedback and staff responses must occur in public to avoid ex parte discussions.

Commissioners suggested intermediate steps: staff agreed to return at the May workshop with a programming scope derived from the master plan and resident feedback, and to hold public workshops or design‑review sessions so commissioners and residents can monitor progress without creating impermissible private polling.

Next steps: staff will prepare a detailed scope of services for architecture/design, publish an RFP if the commission affirms reallocation in the budget process, and present preliminary concepts to the commission in a public forum prior to final contract award.