GOOD BYE, TREE CITY USA

Tropical Flowering Tree Society Caring for Jean Willis Park

Vol. 6, No. 2 13 September 2026

Once upon a time, as long ago as 2016, the City of South Miami was awarded the designation of Tree City USA for the sixth time in a row. Since then, I have not been able to discover whether the City continued to garner this award, or even if it applied for it.

Currently the Director of Development Services wrote to me that her department is struggling with a work overload:

"As evidenced by the significant loss of tree canopy in the City over the last decade, it is clear that the City's previous tree preservation policies and processes have not been sufficiently effective.

This administration is working to change that. We are currently undertaking a comprehensive review of the Tree Protection Ordinance, correcting deficiencies in the existing regulations, and implementing new procedures intended to actually preserve existing tree canopy, particularly on private property.

At the same time, the City continues to receive a significant volume of development applications involving proposed tree removals. Those applications require timely review because they involve trees that are presently at risk of removal and active development applications that must continue through the review process. Accordingly, those matters necessarily take priority."

I do not know what her department had to say about the current proposal to redevelop City Hall. In that proposal, the developer designed a layout that "relocated" Jean Willis Park from where it has been for longer than 45 years. It was named for Jean Willis in 1979, but it was a South Miami City park long before then.

There are 61 mature trees in Jean Willis Park. The developers' current plans do not show that these trees will be relocated when the designation is placed somewhere else. The layout plans of the redevelopment places the designation of Jean Willis Park next to the MetroRail where it will share a boundary with the Underline. It will also share noise and US1 fumes. If the developer intends to relocate the trees, the cost could be any where from $610,000 to $1,525,000 and at least a year's worth of time and attention.

Unless the Commission insists that the developers redesign their plans, the City of South Miami will lose a beautiful, tranquil spot with some of the most rare tropical flowering trees around. [Oh, I suppose one can go to Fairchild Garden to see such trees, but that is a over three miles from South Miami City Hall.] And more of that canopy that the Director of Development Services mourns will be lost.

I suspect that, despite words to the contrary, the current Mayor and Commissioners are quite sympathetic to the developers' arguments for destroying the current park. After all, one is a lawyer who "has served as land use counsel for some of the largest retail, mixed-use, and transit-oriented projects in Miami-Dade County."(click here). Two others are owners of development construction companies. (click here and here). Another owns an advertising "company that focuses on creating solutions for business owners in the vast and complicated world of internet marketing." (click here)

South Miami's Mayor may still want to run for a political position either, again, in South Miami, or, again, in the Florida government. [It does seem to me that many of the successful political campaigns in the USA are funded by and for real estate entities.]

I have seen this Commission allow the originally-approved plans for the Winn-Dixie property be changed so that the height and density of the building was increased and the open, public space was severely limited. They have approved a tall apartment building with no street-level public space across from City Hall.

All the tenants in that apartment building and all the tenants in the buildings to be built on the City Hall property would have much easier access to Jean Willis Park where it is currently. In addition, for those living in the City Hall apartment buildings, some of the noise of the MetroRail will be buffered by the building the garage next to the Underline.

At the next Commission meeting - September 22 - unless the Commission insists that the developers redesign their plans, they will approve the destruction of Jean Willis Park (and probably the Sylva Martin building). Once they approve those unaltered plans, at this first reading, they will approve them at the second and final reading.

I do not know how to draw plans for buildings. However, this is a sketch of what I think could be done, IF the Commission insisted. It is a crudely laid out suggestion of how the current ground-level plans might be altered so that the park could be left where it is.

To get a clearer diagram click here.

If you care about preserving mature trees, saving Jean Willis Park, and the pleasant quality of life for eventual South Miami residents, PLEASE:

1. Write to the Mayor and Commissioners, send them emails.

2. Encourage others to do so.

3. Come to the September 22 Commission meeting, sign up to speak, carry a sign, be a witness to the Commission's caring more for its residents and trees than it does for developers.

THANKS FOR YOUR INTEREST and YOUR HELP!

Keep safe, stay healthy!