Coconut Grove tree fight: Neighbors, builder at odds over house plans, fate of a lychee
For the love of a lychee tree, Coconut Grove homeowners are demanding that a real estate developer redesign plans for a large house to spare the statuesque beauty that has shaded generations of neighbors.
When South Grove residents found out that the city of Miami had granted a permit for the removal of 12 trees on a lot at 3834 El Prado Boulevard to accommodate a 7,070-square-foot house, they collected 68 signatures on a petition and appealed the decision.
They don’t want to be on the losing end of another fight to save the lush, leafy character of Coconut Grove. It’s a fight that is heating up as residents seek tougher building and zoning laws to supplant current ones that are easily dodged by developers tearing down old houses and building contemporary, white, concrete-and-glass boxes.
“We are shocked they want to remove so many trees rather than incorporate them into a beautiful setting for a home,” said neighbor Barbara Lange. “We see the canopy disappearing throughout the Grove, throughout Miami. We want to stop it right now. We don’t need more enormous white boxes that don’t belong here.
“Why do people love the Grove? Why do people want to live in the Grove? It’s all about the trees.”
Lange stood under a 60-foot-tall lychee with a 50-foot-wide canopy that would be chopped down to make room for a driveway. A 55-foot royal palm, 60-foot gumbo limbo, 45-foot sapodilla and 30-foot oak are also on the removal list. Nine trees are to be relocated, including a lignum vitae, a ylang-ylang and two gumbo limbos, and 23 would remain, including three oaks, three mahoganies and six gumbo limbos.
Neighbors argue there is plenty of room on the 11,000-square-foot lot to build a spacious house and save the trees.
“You want to make a big house and maximize square footage? Go for it. We can’t stop big houses,” said neighbor Neal McAliley, who grew up in the North Grove. “But we can defend the environment that makes the Grove unique and valuable. He could build within the existing footprint, which is what we did when we built our 5,000-square-foot house. My wife designed it to save all the trees, including an enormous oak.
“Keep the tree appeal and he could sell the house for an even higher price. Instead, he’s killing the golden goose of the Grove — but he gets the egg.”
Developer defends plans
Developer James Phillips bought the old ranch house on the property in 2018 for $895,000 and demolished it. He’s now listing it for $7,600,000 for a planned five-bedroom, five-and-a-half bathroom house with pool, gym, home theater, executive office and first- and second-floor terraces. He’s also offering to sell the quarter-acre lot and plans for $3,575,000.
Phillips, who lives in St. John in the Virgin Islands and in Palmetto Bay and who used to live in Coconut Grove, defended his blueprint and landscaping plan, which includes planting 41 new native trees. He said he took care to avoid the white “sugar cube” house that has proliferated along the Grove’s narrow, jungly streets where charming cottages once stood. He pointed out that he’s allowed to build an 8,500-square-foot house but chose not to.
“I understand their fear. They can’t trust me because of what other developers have done in the Grove, and I hate driving around and seeing those eyesores,” Phillips said. “The 7,000-square-foot size makes it sound like a monstrosity but a different developer would make an even larger house.
“I’m not required to build the tiniest house possible and keep all trees. That’s naive. I put a lot of sweat and tears into proposing a happy medium. If I’m being pegged as a villain developer, don’t hate me. Give me a chance. Let the new trees grow.”
Phillips and people from the neighborhood will hash it out Tuesday before the city’s Historic and Environmental Preservation Board, which can approve or reject the building department’s tree permit. At a previous hearing, the board deferred a decision and suggested Phillips revise his plans to treat trees “as assets rather than obstacles.”
Miami’s code states that one condition for determining whether a tree removal should be granted is whether it’s in the buildable area and “unreasonably restricts the permitted use of the property.”
Attorney David Winker, who is representing the homeowner who made the appeal, will argue that the stated intent of the Miami 21 zoning code is to “preserve neighborhoods, historic resources and the natural environment.”
“The trees are not restricting his use and ability to build a single-family home — they are restricting his size,” Winker said. “He’s not allowed to build the biggest single-family home possible that is out of scale with the neighborhood and destroy old trees that are part of the neighborhood because they’re inconveniently in the way.”
Winker said it’s time for the city to put the brakes on inappropriate development in the Grove that is not consistent with the architecture of the oldest section of the city and is decimating its verdant canopy.
“The developer’s job is to maximize profits, and he deserves the opportunity to build a nice project,” he said. “It’s the city’s job to hold his feet to the fire and enforce its laws to protect neighborhoods.”
Phillips said changing his design or building a smaller house is not that simple. He emphasized features that distinguish the house from the typical cube: Coral rock on the exterior rather than stark white stucco walls, and terraces that are set back to reduce the box effect.
Lychee not a native
The lychee tree is the main impediment, and he argues that it is a non-native fruit tree that belongs in a park, not a residential area.
“We chose that side for the driveway knowing that tree is less desirable as nothing is growing under it and we could make that corner more attractive. Putting the driveway on the other side would necessitate removal of oaks,” he said. “Keeping the lychee means relocating the septic tank and pushing the house 12 feet over and that carries into the interior. We already lost a hallway to save a gumbo limbo and that moved a pantry and a laundry room, and we’d probably lose a bedroom downstairs.
“The code uses a specific word: unreasonable. It would be unreasonable for me to scrap everything and flip the house to accommodate a tree.”
Phillips said he expected resistance from the neighbors but not a battle.
“If a developer like those who put up houses on Palmetto and Avocado got hold of this property it would be a different project. They’d bring in attorneys to get exactly what they wanted,” he said. “I want to be known as a guy who builds legacy homes, not one who is in and out. We’re planting a new canopy. We know how beautiful and important trees are to reduce temperatures. To dismiss me as profit hungry is insulting.”
Yet many homeowners see Phillips’ plan as part of a pattern that is changing the look and feel of the Grove.
“Developers come in, purchase older homes, get a demolition permit, then take down trees we need more than ever because of climate change,” said Katrina Morris, who lives on Lybyer Avenue and is a member of the Grove Watch citizen advocacy group. “Developers have cash and can purchase homes quickly, so there’s no chance for families who want to buy an older home with a smaller footprint. Developers have lawyers and they get waivers and exceptions for everything they ask for.”
Grove Watch found that a disproportionate number of waivers of Miami 21 guidelines — most for demolition, or tear-downs — were issued in Coconut Grove compared to the rest of the city during the first five months of 2021. Twenty-five of 41 waivers were issued for Grove properties even though the Grove’s 5.6 square miles comprises only about 10 percent of the city’s 55.8 square miles.
Morris lives in a 1,600-square-foot house on an 8,000-square-foot lot and constantly receives inquires from Realtors encouraging her to sell.
“I moved here for the trees and now I’m looking at a new house two doors down with a huge white wall,” she said. “That lowers my property value, but they get to look at my trees.”
“So it’s become incumbent on the neighbors to be vigilant because the city isn’t: ‘Who are you selling your house to? What will they build? Which trees will be removed?’” she said. “It’s not just what you can do but the intent. They are pushing the intent to its limits.”
Grove Watch is making a renewed effort to strengthen the city’s code with more restrictive language after a previous attempt failed to get to the commission, Morris said.
“Can’t we enable people to make healthy profits without destroying neighborhoods?” she said. “Does one person have to win and the others lose?”
Protecting the canopy
That trend can be halted, said Coconut Grove Village Council Chairman Marcelo Fernandes, who is running for reelection on a platform of adding muscle to the Neighborhood Conservation District building and zoning overlay for the Grove. Vague wording in the code gives developers leeway to exploit it, fines for illegal removal of trees are too low and the square footage allowed per lot size is too high, he said.
“Property owners have rights and the problem is really in the code,” said Fernandes, who has lived in different sections of the Grove for 25 years. “We need black and white parameters so ‘intent’ is not up for interpretation. Those big white cubes are legal for the most part, unfortunately. It’s not like all residents are angels and all developers are evil.
“I recently moved to another house because two new white boxes went up and I was fighting with a neighbor and it wasn’t pleasant to live there.”
Owner of Grove Properties, Fernandes is a developer who has built about three dozen houses in Coconut Grove. He said there are no trees on the lot on El Prado that would prevent building a large, appealing house. But Miami’s code allows houses that are too large, he said. He advocates reducing the percentage of lot space that can be taken up by a house from 80 to 60 percent, or switching to the floor-to-area ratio, or FAR, calculation that other cities use to measure volume and not just square footage.
Developers like Phillips can and must build around trees as required in the Neighborhood Conservation District rules, Fernandes said.
“You have to use more creative practices,” he said. “You can’t do the slapped-down box with a cheap design. I just bought a lot on Indiana Street with nine massive trees and I’m not taking one down. You have to build in harmony with the trees.”
He cited his other projects on other streets, including one on Irvington where he preserved the front of the 1912 house and built a courtyard around a huge oak tree. He’s working on a house in Coral Gables and saving a banyan tree.
“Developers cry boo-hoo,” Fernandes said. “But preserving trees isn’t just good for the Grove. It’s good for their bottom line.”
