Carrollton’s plan for boys’ school needs more neighborhood support, Miami commissioners say
Carrollton School’s plan to build a Catholic elementary school for boys on the historic Villa Woodbine property was delayed again by Miami commissioners, who debated whether the project would be destructive to Coconut Grove’s environment and quality of life and deferred any decision until Sept. 10.
After three hours of public comment Thursday morning that was heavily opposed to the project and another three hours of presentations and discussion late Thursday night, four commissioners were faced with a 1:30 a.m. vote Friday.
The question was whether to dismiss or grant Carrollton’s appeal of the Historic and Environmental Board’s December rejection of the school’s proposal to build 55,000 square feet of classrooms, offices, an auditorium, a swimming pool, a faculty residence, gatehouse and covered walkways on the wooded 3.7-acre site that sits atop the Grove’s Silver Bluff at 2167 South Bayshore Drive.
Commissioner Joe Carollo recused himself because he owns property nearby. Commissioner Ken Russell couldn’t get a second on his motion to deny the appeal. Commissioner Alex de la Portilla couldn’t get a second on his motion to grant the appeal. Declaring a stalemate, they postponed a decision.
Carrollton’s lawyer, Ryan Bailine, pleaded for a vote.
“That’s not going to happen,” Diaz de la Portilla said. “You need situational awareness. You’re going around in circles. You have a lot of work to do. The best you can do is a deferral to fight another day.”
The next time they convene, Carrollton needs to present a better plan that more neighbors support, Commissioner Manolo Reyes said.
“The only person I have not met is the pope,” Reyes said, encouraging Bailine to seek the same level of input from the community that Reyes and his fellow commissioners have received.
Diaz de la Portilla said he wanted to give Carrollton “another shot” to make changes and devise a less controversial plan because “it’s a condition of Miami’s Cuban culture to go to Belen or Columbus or Lourdes or Carrollton, and I went to Belen and I dated girls from Lourdes and Carrollton.”
Commissioners declined to grant intervenor status to neighbors of the Woodbine property, then allowed Carrollton to present its landscape and restoration plan for the 90-year-old Walter De Garmo-designed villa, which has been the headquarters of Bill Hansen’s catering company and a popular site for weddings and private events.
The city’s preservation board was critical of Carrollton’s plans to build a pool and deck on the bluff and remove more than 100 trees. Russell zeroed in on preservation of the bluff and large specimen and fruit trees.
“Is this the right project for this property if you have to remove so many trees? We won’t be able to recreate in our lifetime what’s lost,” Russell said. “A 42-inch diameter mango tree is being removed to make a parking lot. We’re removing 25 mango trees because kids might be allergic? I didn’t know that was an issue. There are two 50-foot tamarind trees in the way of the building footprint. It’s concerning the plan didn’t build around them.”
Carrollton purchased the property for $8.375 million in December. Since then, a grass-roots organization called Bayshore In The Grove has rallied opposition to the school, and Grove residents have complained that it will cause more traffic on Tigertail Avenue and South Bayshore Drive, decimate the property’s tree canopy and add to flooding problems.
“It doesn’t belong here,” said Bill Harvey, a Grove resident since 1991. “It’s the wrong place to put a school.”
Echoed neighbor Adrienne Peters: “I’m totally against expansion of private schools in Coconut Grove. It’s not fair to have all these wealthy people drive their kids in here and create more traffic disruptions.”
Carrollton counters that it would be the best possible steward of Villa Woodbine, given its track record preserving the more than 100-year-old El Jardin estate on its bayfront all-girls’ campus on Main Highway.
This story was originally published July 25, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
