Protest: Height and Intensity
- Sally B. Philips
- Jun 29, 2022
- 3 min read
Vol. 3, No. 14 29 June 2022
TWO PUBLIC HEARINGS
On July 13, two public hearings are scheduled in front of Miami-Dade County councils at the Steven P. Clark Center: 111 NE 1st Street. This building is next to the Government Center MetroRail stop. The lobby entry is off of NE 2 Street. The opinions of both these groups are likely to have an influential effect on the decisions of the Miami Dade County Commission.
Messages about resident reactions to these proposals can be sent to the members of each council as well as the 13 County Commissioners. Please plan to speak at each of these hearings, also.
The details of the proposals, the council members and the meeting locations follow.
July 13 at 10:00 am: in front of the Executive Council Meeting of the Developmental Impact Committee at 10:00 am. The Council will be hearing an application to raise the height and intensity of student housing that is planned on the South Miami MetroRail site. As requested, there will be 160 apartments that could house 482 students if there is only one student per bedroom. The application number is: Z2021000210. Click here to see the notice. Click here to see a whole page of back-up documents under More Info.
On February 22 and April 10, I wrote two letters protesting this application. They are in three documents: 2/22 pp 1&2, 2/22 p 3, and here 4/10. My main points are:
- South Miami's zoning at this site is for 8 stories
- The tallest building near this site is 8 stories
- There is a need for affordable housing
- The students who would be housed here are most likely to be students at a private university, not at a county or state educational institution
- The building would be an eye-sore, especially since its proposed color is out of keeping with the surrounding pastel colors.
What I have not written yet is that I do not believe this project should go forward until there is (1a) sound (not crumbling) and (1b) adequate sewage disposal for all of Miami-Dade county, (2) until there is guaranteed water supply given the coming sea level rise, and (3) unless there is enough required park space.
I am hopeful that the South Miami Commission will pass a resolution protesting that this proposed development disregards an agreement between the County and the City about this piece of county-owned property. Here is a draft of the proposed resolution.
The Executive Council members are:
Nathan Kogon (Zoning):
Christine Velazquez (DERM):
James Ferguson (WASD):
Alejandro Zizold (PROS):
Lisa Colmenares (DTPW):
Darren Williams (MDFR):
Kevin Walford (TPO):
and there will be two members from the City of South Miami.
The meeting room at 111 NW 1 Street is 18-2. Anyone wishing to speak is required to sign-in in the lobby before being admitted to the room.
July 13 at 2:00 pm: in front of the Chairman's Council of Policy. The Council will be hearing an ordinance to drastically increase the density along the rapid transit corridors. For South Miami that includes about a square mile along the MetroRail. The ordinance is titled: RTZ EXPANSION ZONE. Please refer to my post of June 22 here for more details.
Names of the members of this Council.
Jose Diaz (Chair) 12, Oliver Gilbert (Vice-Chair) 1, Keon Hardeman 3,
Sally Heyman 4, Eileen Higgins 5, Kionne McGhee 9, Jean Monestime 2,
Raquel Regalado 7, Rebeca Sosa 6, and Javier Souto 10.
All of them have the same format for their emails: districtX@miamidade.gov
where X is the number of the district each represents. The district is the
number behind each Commissioner's name.
Thus, Jose Diaz's email address is: district12@miamidade.gov.
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