New restaurant approved by South Miami commission
The South Miami city commission met at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 1.
The main item
The South Miami commission unanimously agreed to special-use approval for a general restaurant at 5894 Sunset Dr.
The former location of Trattoria Sole Italian Cuisine had operated under an approved special use, before the approval expired and the business was closed for more than six months. The building is within the Specialty Retail Hometown District Overlay.
Spiritco, LLC., is the applicant for the 2,640-square-foot space, now known as IL Vaporetto Italian Restaurant. Carlos Silva, who also owns Old Lisbon restaurants, will also operate the new restaurant.
“This is a very important location in our downtown,” Mayor Philip Stoddard said from the dais. “Trattoria Sole held down that corner for many years. It was almost the signature restaurant for the city. It was sort of the preferred place for date night for my wife and I.”
“I was very disappointed when they went out of business. They couldn’t hang on there. I’m extremely grateful for Mr. Silva for taking this on. I’m hoping the next application I see from him is for outdoor dining.”
Other business
▪ Deferred development: A resolution to approve a special exception to construct a five-story, large-scale development at 6201 Sunset Dr. was unanimously deferred by the commission. The development is within Transit Oriented Development District Mixed Use 5 zoning district. The 65,739-square-foot mixed-use building can contain retail, offices, or medical offices and has a parking garage.
▪ Abandon and vacate: 1,763 square feet of the unimproved right-of-way portion of Southwest 44th Street and Southwest 64th Avenue could be abandoned and vacated after the city commission voted 4-0 on the first reading of an ordinance.
▪ Bus shelters: The commission consented to authorize City Manager Steven Alexander to negotiate and enter into a contract with Canyon Construction for construction of bus shelters on Southwest 59th Place and Southwest 62nd Avenue.
▪ Calming traffic: The commission consented to authorize Alexander to negotiate and enter into a contract with Coreland Construct Corp. for the construction of the Mango Terrace neighborhood traffic calming improvements.
They said it
“At 10 a.m. Sept. 22, the police department will be doing active shooter training near the CRA office,” Alexander said in his report. “We’ve done these things before, where it is sort of acting for the cops understanding what they are suppose to do in certain environments and situations. We have gotten calls about these things in the past because it looks pretty real. We have some big signs we are putting out so that people are on notice and I’m making the announcement now so that people are on notice that this is going to happen.”
The next meeting
▪ When: 8 a.m. Sept. 15
▪ Where: City Hall, 6130 Sunset Dr., South Miami
This story was originally published September 3, 2015 at 6:54 PM with the headline "New restaurant approved by South Miami commission."