A three-hour debate, then Coral Gables rejects another proposal to add bicycle lanes

On the same day Coral Gables City Commission declared a climate emergency, it unanimously voted to kill controversial plans to add bike lanes to Alhambra Circle — a project that would have removed at least some of the city’s beloved tree canopy.

The irony did not go unnoticed by residents. At least a handful of speakers at the commission meeting noted that cars are the number one source of carbon emissions in the city, and the world. And the added lanes would have provided safer streets for bicyclists along a 2.3-mile stretch of Alhambra Circle from Coral Way to the University of Miami.

Residents packed the city’s chambers for three tension-filled hours, with the bicyclists pitted against the homeowners. The main point of contention: The bike lanes also would have wiped out some of the city’s 38,000 trees.

While city officials weren’t sure how many trees would be taken out, the city manager has said that at least three dead trees would have to be removed. And Mayor Raúl Valdés-Fauli interjected multiples times to say he counted 22 trees that would be removed.

However the plan is developed, argued Marvin Ross Friedman, a resident of Alhambra Circle and prominent lawyer, it’s impossible to go around the trees.

“We have no clear information on how many trees will be lost,” he argued.

The bicycle lanes would be built at least partly on swales where the trees are located, though a detailed plan was not released.

As Friedman spoke, audience members held up tree canopy photos, forming a living representation of what might be lost.

Valdés-Fauli put forth a resolution calling for the commission to direct the city manager and city staff to “cease further consideration of bike lanes on Alhambra Circle when designing the Alhambra Complete Streets Project.” The unanimous vote did that, ending the latest city push to put bike lanes along Coral Gables streets. The city approved its first bicycle master plan in 2004, but the city hasn’t produced any new protected lanes for bicyclists.

A decade later, the city in 2014 again tried to amp up its roadways, passing a proposal calling for 27 miles of new bike lanes, sidewalks and crosswalks. But residents vehemently challenged the plan.

The last push in 2018 to add bike lanes on Riviera Drive was quashed by the commission after residents protested.

Those opposed to the Alhambra bike lanes said the street is too busy and already dangerous for pedestrians. Speakers argued that bicyclists would be safer using what sidewalks are there, rather than adding an additional lane to an already busy street.

But the trees were the biggest reason the residents blocked the bike paths. Many told stories of their ties to the trees. Among them was Henry Bell, a lawyer, who has lived on the street for years.

Four big trees stand outside Bell’s front yard. Every year his family decorates the trees at Christmas with strings of lights.

The tradition is special to the community, he said. In fact, one year a young man asked if he could propose to his girlfriend under the trees’ lights.

“I think it adds to the charm of the neighborhood,” he said. And if the bike lanes were added, he said, “I don’t have any confidence that our trees would not be at risk.”

Multiple bicyclists showed up to protest the resolution, wearing stickers the size of saucers proclaiming, “Protect pedestrians and cyclists in the Gables.”

This is about safety, said Robert Ruano, of Bike Walk Coral Gables.

“Our neighbors claim to be concerned about safety, but the point of this project is safety. People who choose to walk or cycle deserve a reasonable amount of safety. For me, this is personal. It’s my life that we’re talking about.

“Don’t kill the bike lanes because of fear mongering,” he said. “All we’re trying to do is make a city that’s more walkable. If this item is approved, bike lanes will be dead,” he promised.

Now the city will give up the $597,000 grant it received in 2015 from the Florida Department of Transportation for the Alhambra Circle bike lanes. City administrators say the road is a key link between residential neighborhoods, the city’s downtown, the University of Miami, and the Underline, a 10-mile-long park for walkers and bikers in its first phase of construction beneath the elevated Metrorail tracks.

But the grant was contingent on community support for the project, said Silvia Pinera-Vazquez, an attorney who lives on Alhambra Circle, and it didn’t actually have that support.

The move, Friedman said, “would take a historic route and turn it into a recreational area.”

City commissioners agreed that a traffic study needs to be done to evaluate other roads that might be better for bike lanes. But homeowners encouraged the city to keep the survey about a bike lane on Alhambra Circle just to those who live along the street.

Commissioner Vince Lago voted for the resolution, but said that the safety of the area does need to be improved. Residents need a safe way to walk and bike to local parks.

“I’ve heard mothers say it’s hard to get to the park because there’s no sidewalk,” he said.

Lago explained that a traffic study will likely find that the area needs upgrades like sidewalks and other safety features.

And those who are anti-bike lane are probably anti-sidewalk as well, Lago said. Either way, the trees in the swale would have to go.

“We’re going to be back here in six months having a conversation about sidewalks. And to me, that’s not ideal.”

He laughed, “This is going to be ‘Groundhog Day’ and we’re going to do this all over again.”

This story was originally published January 30, 2020 at 7:00 AM with the headline "A three-hour debate, then Coral Gables rejects another proposal to add bicycle lanes."