Belle Meade is at a turning point in its long-winding history, but as is the case with most evolutions, it’s being preceded by a war.
There are two camps developing in the Upper East Side neighborhood: those who want to preserve the eclectic character of the community, and those who want to preserve their rights as property owners to remodel and rebuild as they wish.
Surely, there is some overlap between the two competing parties; not all residents believe that either goal is mutually exclusive. The real battleground lies within the debate on whether Belle Meade should become a neighborhood conservation district.
(Biscayne Times)
▶ Known as the “Grande Dame” of its Belle Made neighborhood before it was torn down by new owners, this home had terrazzo floors, a hand-welded wrought iron staircase, art deco ornamental plaster and coffered ceilings
A neighborhood conservation district, NCD for short, allows an area with a defined boundary to impose certain restrictions on what can be built and what should be conserved. What those restrictions are is up to the residents to decide.
“Essentially, the NCD’s mechanism is to preserve certain characteristics of a neighborhood that are important to that area,” said David Snow, interim director of the city of Miami’s planning department. “The residents need to come to the table. They need to agree on essentially the guidelines that would be put forth for staff to even proceed with an NCD.”
Getting residents to agree on certain guidelines could prove to be a daunting task, especially when there are some who aren’t up for negotiations in the first place. For some, the NCD ship has sailed. For others, now is the neighborhood’s last chance.
A Changing Face
Belle Meade, the build-out of which began in 1934, has seen an upward trajectory in recent years as far as value goes. It’s gated, well-located and, for wealthy homeowners or New York transplants, one of the few locations in Miami where waterfront property is still readily available.
Referred to by residents as an “undiscovered gem” and an “oasis in the middle of the city,” the formerly crime-ridden neighborhood is finally getting the attention some believe it deserves – though that doesn’t mean they want it.
Belle Meade and its various resident group chats began to buzz when a celebrated, late-1930s, two-story corner house was bulldozed around mid-March. Called the “Grande Dame” by residents, it was described as one of the neighborhood’s “most stylish” homes, “a majestic masterpiece,” an “art deco treasure” and “a landmark for the community.”
“When the construction sort of happened – I mean everybody knew the lot had been sold and that a developer was going to put houses up – but the day that it was coming down, a lot of people in our chat were saying, ‘What a shame’ and ‘Look how sad this is,’” said Belle Meade resident Karen Tedesco.
Ellen Marchman, another neighborhood resident, explained what the Grande Dame consisted of, describing a teardrop pool, vine-covered gazebo, century-old trees, terrazzo floors, mid-century glass block windows, a hand-welded wrought iron staircase, art deco ornamental plaster and coffered ceilings.
All of that is gone now as none of it was preserved, not even for keepsakes. In its place will stand what many residents refer to as nothing but “big, white boxes.”
But the Grande Dame, built in 1939 at 801 NE 74th St., is only the most recent old home to be torn down in Belle Meade. Residents, both those who support the NCD and those who don’t, will readily admit that new developments are creeping in throughout the neighborhood, especially on waterfront properties between Little River and NE 77th Street.
“It’s just been so much, so fast,” said Sean Latterner, a 13-year resident. “People are just seeing how bad the neighborhood could be.”
In comes the idea for an NCD.
(X@deborah_stander)
Debby Stander
“I’m concerned that if homes keep getting torn down at the rate we’re seeing now, Belle Meade with its vintage homes and pretty gardens is simply going to become unrecognizable in a few years,” said resident Debby Stander. “Upper East Side residential neighborhoods on the bay are among the oldest in Miami. They have a very special, unique character. If they aren’t conserved, they and the Miami history and lifestyle they represent will be lost forever, and that would be a terrible and unnecessary shame.”
Pushing Back
Not all agree that the older homes should be preserved, however, especially if it impedes upon the rights of property owners. Adam Wolfson, a resident and former member of the Belle Meade Homeowners Association, is among the opposing lot.
“I have zero vested interest in what happens, other than to my home,” said Wolfson, who is the CEO of his own development firm. “But I can tell you having gone through the process of renovating my home with permits, just going through the city directly, it was an absolute nightmare.”
To Wolfson, adding a neighborhood conservation district to the mix is “just adding insult to injury.”
“It’s just adding another level of bureaucracy to an already flawed, bureaucratic, terrible process,” he said.
Wolfson is among the group of residents who aren’t interested in discussing what an NCD would look like for Belle Meade – he simply doesn’t want one. He believes imposing new restrictions on what could be built will lower property values and take away owners’ rights, which he says is unfair and anti-democratic.
Although Snow said the city has not conducted an analysis on how NCDs affect property values, Wolfson also points out that, in his view, the idea was put to bed years ago.
(Courtesy of Adam Wolfson)
Belle Meade resident Adam Wolfson believes a neighborhood conservation district will trample owners’ rights.
Indeed, it isn’t Belle Meade’s first preservation rodeo, though many disagree on how many times, if at all, an official vote on an NCD has taken place. The neighborhood rejected a proposal in 2004 to become fully historic, which is a far stricter designation. The city also toyed around with the idea of creating an NCD for the entire Upper East Side in 2011, which was also dismissed. Some say Belle Meade has rejected an NCD again since then, but others beg to differ.
Wolfson further believes that neighborhood preservationists are trying to skirt involvement from the HOA, which he says would be the proper venue for an official vote. The HOA, however, is currently transitioning to a new board and has not met in recent months.
Getting the Vote Out
Last month, following an informational meeting about NCDs presented by the city, Stander led an effort to send a survey to all 360 homeowners in Belle Meade, asking them to respond if they’re interested in becoming an NCD or learning more about what it is. She acquired a complete mailing list, generated by the city of Miami’s online zoning atlas tool, and mailed a copy of the survey with an enclosed stamped return envelope to each home that lies within the proposed NCD boundary.
“We should be able to use the responses to the poll to determine whether we have enough unconditional support to pursue an actual application or, failing that, have enough interest to warrant holding additional community meetings with the city of Miami, or had best drop the issue for falling hopelessly short of the majority support needed to pursue an application,” wrote Stander in an email to the Biscayne Times.
Filing for an NCD application requires verifiable support from 50% of the residents living within the proposed boundary before heading to the city commission, though the city does not specify exactly how that survey should be conducted. Stander sent her survey to the city before mailing it to residents.
(Biscayne Times)
It’s common in Belle Meade to see modest homes built in the early half of the 20th century alongside newly constructed and multistory modern homes.
Still, it didn’t sit right with some NCD opponents, including Wolfson, because the survey did not include an option to say “no.” The only options included read “fully support it” or “not sure – would like to learn more.”
“If you really believed in your cause and you believed that your neighbors had rights, you would give them the option to say no,” said Wolfson, who later emailed Stander and the city and threatened to find legal counsel if the survey was not redone with an option to fully oppose.
Stander has denied any wrongdoing, insisting that, just like a petition, residents are encouraged to respond if they are in support and ignore if they oppose. The percentage of favorable responses would be calculated according to the 360 surveys originally sent out.
Rising Seas
Despite an ongoing campaign, in the eyes of 19-year resident Frank Rollason, “th
e horse has left the barn for Belle Meade.” He says the new developments are already here, and there’s no point in stopping them.
Rollason didn’t support an NCD in the past, either. This time around, however, he attributes his lack of support to a changing climate. Rollason himself has had to cough up some serious dough to harden his 1938 home against hurricanes and rising seas, which included adding a metal roof, installing steel beams to the foundation and remediating his mildew-infested crawl space – which was formerly bone dry.
“There’s no doubt that the sea level is rising and it’s having an impact on these older homes,” he said, adding that not every homeowner can afford these type of repairs. “There doesn’t seem to be a balance between the historic side of what we’re trying to maintain and what the fiscal reality is for the people that have these homes and are trying to make improvements. It’s always a tough sell.”
(Biscayne Times)
Many new Belle Meade homebuyers are tearing down old houses and building new ones in contemporary, box-style architecture.
Indeed, Nancy Batchelor, a real-estate agent who has done business in the Upper East Side, notes how climate change and rising insurance rates are altering homeowners’ decisions.
She notes that if a historic home is below the base flood elevation, has cast-iron plumbing and old roofs, and lacks impact glass and rated shutters, insurance premiums become significantly pricier. Sometimes, she said, “it’ll cost more to remodel it than to tear it down.”
“A lot of the historic homes don’t have those (necessary modifications), and as much as you love [your home], it ends up being very expensive (to maintain),” Batchelor said.
What to Protect
But Belle Meade residents in support of an NCD have already said that they intend to be flexible with potential guidelines. The message isn’t “don’t build.”
“The boxes that are going up – and they’re literally boxes – they kind of don’t fit into the landscape, but there are newer homes that have been put up in the past 10 years that are really gracefully designed and they do fit into the neighborhood,” said Tedesco.
There are currently three NCDs in the city of Miami, each with their own individual guidelines. In Coconut Grove, for instance, there are two NCDs: one for West Grove, and another for the rest of it. The West Grove NCD’s intent is to preserve Bahamian aesthetics, while the remaining area is concerned with, among other things, conserving the existing tree canopy. Coral Gate also has its own NCD guidelines.
(Biscayne Times)
Belle Meade residents interested in forming a neighborhood conservation district want to stop the proliferation of modern home construction that they believe will forever alter the character of the neighborhood.
Latterner said he himself has friends who want to redo their homes, and he doesn’t intend t
o restrict that. Just as in the Grove, his concerns lie primarily with the preservation of existing tree canopies and architectural aesthetics.
He’s seen firsthand how some of the newer homes have changed the face of the neighborhood and disrupted livability. Directly adjacent to his 1940s art deco home is a small Mediterranean-style 1930s home and, next to that, again, “huge boxes.”
“It’s just changing the whole character of the neighborhood,” Latterner said. “It’s not going to be a pretty neighborhood anymore if this keeps up. It’s going to be an ugly, barren, giant, concrete-covered neighborhood.”