The newest members of the Miami Shores Village Council promised during their campaigns to prioritize a low-density comprehensive plan while in office, and so far they’re holding up to that commitment.
The council met six times in June, an unusual occurrence for a governing body that typically only meets twice a month. Half of those meetings were called specifically to discuss the comprehensive plan, particularly its future land use elements.
(Samantha Morell for Biscayne Times)
This building, located at the corner of NE 97th Street and NE Second Avenue, was built in 1926 as a commercial storefront with residential units above.
Already residents are seeing some of their asks being fulfilled by the council, whose new members include Mayor George Burch, Vice Mayor Jesse Valinksy and Councilmember Jerome Charles. The new majority wishes to restore the multifamily designation at NE 105th Street and Biscayne Boulevard, cap height in the village at around 40 to 50 feet, and minimize allowed density at a property owned by and adjacent to Barry University.
Finally free from any so-called threats by the previous council, the village nevertheless has a new antagonist: Senate Bill 102.
A Kink in the Works
The bill, which took effect this month, allows developers to usurp local land use and zoning restrictions on any commercial, industrial or mixed-use property if they agree to designate at least 40% of its units to affordable housing for a period of 30 years. If that promise is fulfilled, a developer can build at the highest density allowed anywhere in that municipality, even if said density doesn’t apply to the specific property in question.
For that reason, the council has discussed limiting mixed-use designations which could ultimately fall outside of the village’s hands and into those of the new state law. The council also wishes to limit density throughout the village as much as possible so that a zone’s relatively generous height or floor-area-ratio caps aren’t taken advantage of elsewhere.
As such, it has discussed attributing a density cap of 20 units per acre to multifamily designations, 13 units per acre for the multifamily component of mixed-use properties and a height limit of 40 feet for restricted commercial uses.
(Miami Shores Village)
Miami Shores Village Mayor George Burch
The 13-unit density cap for multifamily properties in the mixed-use zones is said to accommodate a new plan proposed for the Barry University property, which will be sold to and developed by Lennar Homes. The Barry-Lennar plan originally was to build apartments and townhomes at a density of more than 25 units per acre, but the duo has since compromised to appease the village’s wishes.
In any case, Councilmembers Sandra Harris and Daniel Marinberg, the only remaining seats from the previous council, say those numbers are too low.
“We also want to encourage development,” said Harris at a June 8 meeting. “It seems like most of this just looked at how we can just make sure nothing is ever developed. The whole plan looks that way to me.”
Preservation vs. Progress
In an effort to preserve the single-family residential character of the neighborhood, opponents w
(Samantha Morell for Biscayne Times)
An empty lot at 10500 Biscayne Blvd. will likely be designated as multifamily residential under the new Miami Shores Village Council.
onder if Miami Shores is gatekeeping itself too strictly. Indeed, Claudia Hasbun, the villages planning, zoning and resiliency director, has said that the council’s proposed restrictions may not allow the village to fulfill future housing requirements imposed by Miami-Dade County on each municipality.
Marinberg’s primary concern is that some properties may be rendered nonconforming to the new plan’s guidelines, or that the municipality is opening itself up to legal challenges by taking away existing landowners’ property rights. Some of those risks can be taken care of through a vested rights element in the comprehensive plan, which grandfathers in existing conditions, but protection will never be as secure as it is for conforming properties.
The council’s new big three have nevertheless assured both the public and their dissenters that the June discussions were solely in the spirit of transparency and compromise. A comprehensive plan that incorporates the results of those conversations is currently being drafted by village staff, and is expected to be ready for initial review at the next planning and zoning board meeting July 27.
Consensus is not seemingly on the horizon, however, as key philosophies among village residents and staff still seem to be in conflict even beyond a legal framework. Some, for instance, are hoping SB 102 won’t scare the village into being too conservative with its future land use decisions.
Planning and zoning board member Michael O’Hara suggested that the village incorporate a residential component to the downtown commercial area on its own terms, so that developers are less inclined to refer to the state’s rules. Board member John Bolton insisted the village incentivize development in some manner because, he said, “if we’re not moving forwards, we’re moving backwards.”
Miami Shores’ downtown corridor already has a few commercial storefronts situated underneath residential units, including those of a 1920s building at the corner of NE 97th Street and NE Second Avenue, which Burch says was built before the area was subject to the village’s zoning laws.
But resident Erin Halloran says that building, as unobtrusive as it is, is what Miami Shores is all about.
Defining What’s Possible
(Samantha Morell for Biscayne Times)
Miami Shores is a primarily single-family residential village with a small downtown corridor that some feel is homey, yet others say is prone to blight.
“Mixed-use buildings are a staple of the traditional American mainstream and lead to a long-term sustainable downtown where businesses are able to thrive,” Halloran wrote in an e-comment at the June 20 council meeting. “The long-term vibrancy of Miami Shores and preserving its unique, historic character and charm are not mutually exclusive objectives. Both can be accomplished. We hope that the council will not allow Senate Bill 102 to dictate the vision we plan for our community.”
Indeed, SB 102 can put a damper in any municipality’s plans to manifest its own destiny, and Burch expects legal challenges in the future over whether the bill is guided by a municipality’s restrictions at the time the bill took effect or at the time that a developer submits a site plan. While these are valid concerns, the village isn’t rendered completely powerless by the bill, either.
“The scope of this preemption is not complete in the sense that it’s very specific to height and to density and only for this kind of housing,” said attorney Susan Trevarthen. “It then goes on to say specifically that these projects … have to comply with everything else, and so everything else is everything else, whether it's wetlands, whether it’s some FDOT thing, whether it’s your local setbacks, whether it’s your parking requirements. All those things come together in a real-world sense to determine what actually can be built.”
The comprehensive plan, once drafted and OK’d by the planning and zoning board, must come to the village council for a first reading. The council does not meet in August and will therefore have its earliest opportunity to review the document at its first meeting in September. Once approved, it will be sent to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity and then returned to the council for final revisions and approval.
In the meantime, the moratorium on all site plans and zoning changes for any property excluding single-family residential was restored last month after being lifted by the previous council.
“What the current council since the election in April is trying to do, is trying to come up with basically what the people want,” Burch told the Biscayne Times. “Abraham Lincoln said ‘government of the people, by the people and for the people.’ It’s something I believe in, and it’s something the last council did not. We are trying to change our comprehensive plan so that it reflects what the citizens of Miami Shores really want.”