This rendering shows part of the $35 million Town Center Monceau Realty and Pointe Development Co. wanted to build in Surfside.

The plan for a new Surfside town hall, police station and garage has been scrapped after running into opposition from residents.

Pointe Development Co. and Monceau Realty Group, both based in Miami, wanted to jointly develop a $35 million Surfside Civic Center comprising a 17,705-square-foot, three-story town hall on the current site at 9293 Harding Ave., a 14,035-square-foot police station on a town-owned lot to the north at 269 93rd St. and a public garage with more than 400 spaces.

The unsolicited, public-private partnership plan called for the commission chamber to be on the first floor, administration on the second, and a gym and other amenities for residents on the third, said Maurice Egozi, co-founder and principal of Pointe Development. Retail and office space also were planned on the first floor.

The developers would have financed the construction and rented the town's land for 99 years for $250,000 annually and would have generated revenue from the stores, offices and parking, Egozi said.

But the developers pulled the proposal Nov. 8 after Town Commissioner Michael Karukin put an item on Tuesday's agenda calling for the town to nix negotiations on the proposal. The commission voted to end talks.

The project received a mixed reception from residents, some of whom questioned the deal and its impact on the affluent oceanfront town of 5,800.

“We don't need this development. This construction design in my opinion is an insult to Surfside's environment. Two huge glass buildings looking like Midtown office blocks are not in keeping” with the town's character, Pamela Salem-O'Hagan, who lives the project site, said at a meeting Sept. 26. That's when the commission voted 3-2 to evaluate the proposal.

“Any sort of glass would raise the temperature of the sidewalks,” she said. “They totally detract from the beach feel of Surfside, the reason most of us chose to live in this gem of a little town.”

Salem-O'Hagan also said the plan gave the developers prime beachfront property for nominal rent and there's no need for another gym as many condominiums have their own.

The developers balked after Karukin scheduled the vote.

“In the end, we didn't feel we would have had enough commission votes to move it forward,” Egozi said.

He noted a petition for the developers' plan received more than 450 signatures, and the companies were willing to take the plan to a referendum.

On Sept. 26, the commission voted 3-2 to start talks with the developers with Commissioners Karukin and Tina Paul dissenting. But by Tuesday, opponents had four votes on the five-member commission.

Mayor Daniel Dietch said he changed his mind because the developers didn't hold promised community meetings to discuss the project, and the proposal was “degrading the fabric of the community” by creating friction.

“The public meetings hosted by the developer did not occur, and I thought that that was a problem because if the proposal is not well understood it's very difficult to get public support,” Dietch said. “Over that time there was a lot of concern expressed by residents of our community. I took that to heart.”

Egozi said he and the rest of the development team submitted their proposal after meeting months ago with town officials, some of whom had said the town administration has outgrown its facilities.

Dietch, however, said the issue really is more about parking then town offices. The configuration of the building and walls that are difficult to tear down make it difficult to reconfigure offices, he said. The town will turn its attention to parking.

A 2013 study by Michigan-based Rich & Associates Inc. found the town has a parking deficit in downtown and along Collins Avenue where older condos are located, according to town records.

The town plans to assess the parking deficiency, identify areas where additional parking can be provided and explore other options like leasing private parking, Dietch said.

“The idea is to capture that information and share with the community before any decisions are made.”