No one can say that Miami 21 is not an ambitious project. Through a studied overhaul of the city's zoning code, Mayor Manny Diaz and the design firm Duany Plater-Zyberk are trying to engineer no less than a complete overhaul of the social and civic life of Miami.

• They want people's lives to be centered on neighborhoods rather than cars.

• They want those neighborhoods to offer variety in the types of services available, so that residents' day-do-day needs can be met locally.

• They want better public transportation and wide boulevards with inviting, shady sidewalks.

• They want a regular, predictable, efficient zoning code that allows Miami to grow denser in a planned, controlled way, and that doesn't change on a moment's political whim.

It is difficult to argue with these goals. Miamians have long lamented the amount of time we spend in cars and the social isolation that it breeds. And the widespread abuse of our chaotic zoning code is no secret.

But if these are the only real changes to Miami's civic and social life brought about by Miami 21, then we will be missing a huge opportunity to address some of our city's more urgent social problems.

I am thinking, in particular, about our unquenched need for affordable housing.

Miami 21 includes a portion known as the Public Benefits Program, which will allow developers in dense urban areas to build larger than they otherwise would in exchange for providing public benefits (which include building affordable housing, building park space, cleaning up a brownfield, building the project to ''green'' standards, preserving a historical site or paying into a fund that provides money for these types of projects). By serving as a catch-all for all public benefits, the fund pits the interests of all those important aspects of city life against one another.

But more important, the Public Benefits Program of Miami 21 is too modest in scope. It could encourage the construction of affordable housing in far more development projects than it already does, with obvious and vital benefit. Cities across the country have used this kind of inclusionary zoning to attract and maintain a viable, vibrant working class in the midst of escalating home prices. There's no reason Miami could not do the same.

As the proposal stands now, buildings more than 50,000 square feet would have to obtain certification from the National Green Building Council that they meet certain minimum standards of environmental sustainability. In contrast, the only time the public benefits piece comes into play is when already-large buildings want to ''buy'' the rights to build bigger than the zoning code would normally allow.

Diaz demonstrated courage and vision when he noted in his State of the City address that we are at a critical moment in the environmental history of our planet and must start taking long-term ecological sustainability into account when planning the development of Miami (which is particularly threatened by the effects of climate change).

But the need to house our swelling population is no less pressing and no less important in planning the future viability of our city and its economy. I hope that city commissioners will be equally bold and visionary when they hear the Miami 21 proposal on May 24 and strengthen the affordable-housing component.

Miamians need and deserve decent, affordable housing in addition to a livable, green city with effective planning. Miami 21 creates the opportunity to make both happen: a beautiful, efficient, green physical space supported by the diverse, inclusive society that will ensure its long-term success.

Daniella Levine is executive director of the Human Services Coalition.

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