City Hall Redevelopment, etc.

Sylva G. Martin Community Center© 2016. © John Edward Smith Communications

Vol. 5, No. 9 6 October 2025

CRA PROPSAL

In order to qualify for funding and other benefits, tomorrow the Commision will be considering a proposal to declare an area of South Miami a Community Redevelopment Area.

Of the three or four projects this CRA would entail, redeveloping the City Hall property is a major one. At this point, I do not know what the architects are specifically proposing for City Hall, but I have gone through the documents that detail the CRA. The Library, City Hall, the Police Department and 670 residences are to be incorporated in the complex . The consultants propose to move Jean Willis Park, and they make absolutley no mention of the Sylva Martin Building.

On the same website where I found John Edward Smith's 2016 photo of the Sylva Martin Buildings, I read this pithy remark by one of South Miami's former Mayors:

I remember one plan that proposed that the Sylva Martin Building be moved to somewhere near or under the Metrorail. I do not know what the current proposal suggests. Besides negating its historic placement on the west side of US 1, moving it would probably mean damaging it. It is a wood-beamed, coral rock building with a spectacular fireplace and chimney.

At the Commission's Sunshine Meeting (Tuesday, October 7 at 5:00 pm), the Commission will be presented with the plans for the City Hall area. So far, all I have seen of those plans is the architect's version of what it might look like from the air:

In this picture [of Amoeba ?] there are no recognizable landmarks, so it is hard to say what might be ending up where.

The documents for creating the CRA are posted on the City's website. You can read them here and here.

I went through the 85 pages of those two documents and culled a number of statements which seemed, at first sight, quite engaging and, in the end, quite hypocritical. These snippets and my comments are more than can be reproduced here. All of them can be found here. However, here are the first two pages:

ATTENDING THE MEETINGS

The Sunshine Meeting at 5:00 pm and the Commission Meeting at 7:00 pm are open to the public. I do not think that the Sunshine Meeting has a time set aside for public remarks, but the Commission meeting does. Actually, for item G. 3, the CRA Proposal, time is specfially set aside for the public to comment.

Time is also available for public remarks on item R. 10, the up-zoning of a small triangle of property at the western end of Manor Lane. Were this long postponed item to be approved, the traffic at the intersection of 66 Avenue and 80 Street would become an even more dense snarl. Oh, yes, and some huge, old (100+ years) trees would be demolished. Who needs shade and historic trees? A former mayor once said that putting more than twice as many residences on that property would help with South Miami's infill. Right! Now there are proposals for 1500+ units at Sunset Place, 254 units at Avalon, 578 (?) at SoMi Parc, 670 units at City Hall complex, more at Med Square, thus the 3 extra town houses on that small triangle will make a telling addition to the future numbers.

Keep safe, stay healthy!

If possible, smile!