After narrow 2017 victory, can Coral Gables Mayor Valdés-Fauli hold off familiar foe Slesnick?
Fewer than 200 votes separated Coral Gables Mayor Raúl Valdés-Fauli and former city commissioner Jeannett Slesnick when they last faced off in the city’s 2017 mayoral race.
Then and now, Slesnick, a longtime real estate agent who has been active in the city for decades, made her enmity toward “mega development” in the City Beautiful a key plank of her campaign.
This time around, as a chunk of the city has soured on crane-filled skylines, traffic-clogged streets and a high-rise building boom, Slesnick said she feels like the political winds are at her back as the April 9 election approaches.
About a dozen big projects will add thousands of condos and apartments, hundreds of hotel rooms and stories and stories of retail and office space in the city over the next few years.
The biggest project: Agave Ponce’s $600 million The Plaza Coral Gables, the largest development in the city’s history. The project, just off the Ponce Circle, a few blocks south of Miracle Mile, will encompass 242 hotel rooms, 164 apartments and lofts, 160,000 square feet of retail, 445,000 square feet of office space and 2,000 parking spaces.
“The people are so angry,” said Slesnick, 71. “I’ve never seen this much, that they are calling me and saying what can we do?”
But challenging Valdés-Fauli, a two-time mayor of Coral Gables who was first elected commissioner in 1985, will be an uphill climb for Slesnick, first elected to the commission in 2015. She is the wife of Don Slesnick, the former mayor who defeated Valdés-Fauli in 2001. I
In 2017, halfway through her four-year term, she ran for mayor against Valdés-Fauli, who defeated her by 187 votes of more than 8,000 cast.
Valdés-Fauli, 75, has denounced Slesnick’s opposition to the city’s high-density development as “scare tactics.” While he empathizes with residents’ concerns about the boxy look of certain real estate projects approved while he was out of office, he argues that his administration hasn’t granted variances to developers and that a thriving downtown is needed for a healthy tax base.
“We would have to raise taxes 75 percent if it were not for the downtown contribution,” he said. “I think it’s very important to have a vibrant downtown. Look at our tax rate comparing with South Miami, comparing to other cities. Our downtown makes our services possible.”
Valdés-Fauli and Slesnick discussed their competing visions on Thursday with the Miami Herald Editorial Board. The four candidates running for the Group IV commission seat — Ralph Cabrera, Jorge Fors Jr., Jackson Rip Holmes and Carmen Olazabal — also met with the board. Commissioner Mike Mena is running in the Group V seat unopposed.
In addition to the city’s development, the candidates discussed speed limits and affordable housing.
Slesnick has raised $132,413 as of March 14, including a $100,000 loan she made to her campaign. She said she is hoping to enforce speed limits — especially for cut-through traffic — create a more open government and make infrastructure fixes.
“I think we would make inroads,” she said.
Valdés-Fauli, who has raised $121,425 as of March 14, said he was interested in attracting young professionals to the city.
“I want to encourage developers to build affordable housing in the sense that more units per acre than what is allowed today, which means more bedrooms per acre,” he said. “Two-bedroom apartments, one-bedroom apartments, efficiencies as opposed to having four-bedroom units that are unaffordable to the common person.”
Both candidates are in favor of the proposed annexation of the Little Gables, High Pines and Ponce Davis neighborhoods in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, which could displace dozens of elderly residents from Gables Trailer Park in the Little Gables. Both candidates support finding alternative housing for the trailer park’s residents.
While the annexation would cause a deficit in the short term, the candidates agreed that the city would make its money back as property values rise.
Valdés-Fauli, who returned to the commission in 2017 after a 16-year absence, said the Miami-Dade County Planning and Advisory Board had approved the Gables’ proposal, after the city received petitions for annexation from more than 20 percent of area residents. The city voted in February 2018 to submit the proposals to the county.
Following a vote before the full county commission, final approval would come from a simple majority of registered voters in the unincorporated areas.
Slesnick said many of the trailer homes in Little Gables have been modified over the years and may be considered “unsafe structures.” Under the Gables stringent building codes, the city could hypothetically evict “95 percent” of residents there.
“I think we need to work with those people and maybe we could find a developer, and this is quality development, to build some other housing over in that area that those people could afford to live in, and have maybe the same space that they have in a trailer and have it new,” Slesnick said.
“Maybe we could work with the federal government or the state of Florida to get some benefits to these people that are being moved from that location.”
The issue of the city’s development has also spilled over to the commission IV race. Commissioner Frank Quesada, vice mayor, is not running, prompting the open seat.
The candidates for the Group IV commission seat are: former Coral Gables commissioner Cabrera; former assistant city manager Olazabal; attorney and first-time candidate Fors Jr.; and real estate agent Holmes.
Information on when and how to vote can be found on the Coral Gables website.
Fors, an attorney who is the former president of the Coral Gables Bar Association and a first-time candidate, said he decided to run for office after the birth of his daughter. He blames overdevelopment for the “slipping” quality of life in Coral Gables.
“Over the last few years, we’ve had what appears to be free reign for developers in terms of building outside of our current zoning plan,” he said. “What I wanted to do was get off the sidelines and ensure that this situation, which has felt like the fix was in, in terms of overdevelopment, comes to an end.”
Olazabal, a former assistant manager with the city and an engineer, said the city needed a change in leadership to reach its potential. She was the only candidate to mention adapting to sea-level rise as a facet of her platform.
“I think we need a leadership that builds on consensus and works with fellow commissioners to solve problems,” she said. “We need leadership that’s independent, that’s not funded by developers and lobbyists.”
Holmes, who said he supports Slesnick, decried the “rampant growth” in the city.
“We need to slow the development train,” he said. “We no longer have a suburb.”
Cabrera, who served on the commission from 2001 to 2013 and is president of an insurance consulting business, said the next commissioner needs to stand up to developers.
“It really all boils down to one thing: political will and political courage,” he said. “What needs to happen now is we need to stop building on U.S. 1 until we can develop a master plan that really addresses a comprehensive approach to how we’re going to deal with that corridor.”
Gables Station, a 15-story mixed-use project near the Douglas Road Metrorail station, is under construction off U. S. 1.
After Fors mentioned the influence he said developers had on the commission, Cabrera said he had received campaign donations from developers and will use those funds for “the betterment of this campaign.” Cabrera did not disclose how much money he had received, but his campaign has received $103,820 as of March 14, the most money among commission candidates.
“He’s referring to me, but the funny thing is I have a track record and he doesn’t,” Cabrera said. “I was a commissioner. I was never persuaded by developers.”
Fors has raised $97,850 as of his latest financial disclosure. Olazabal has raised $33,966, and Holmes has raised $2,295.
On development, Olazabal said the city shouldn’t encroach into neighborhoods.
“This community is going to be doing well if we keep to a plan, if we do it systematically and if we execute it well. And that’s what I bring on as an engineer. I’m not the best public speaker, but I am committed to doing things right, to using facts to bring solutions to the table.”
Olazabal said she would support annexation efforts if the measure would not raise taxes or hinder city services. Fors has argued against annexation, pointing to the projected cost and residents opposed to annexation.
Cabrera is for it, arguing that it won’t raise taxes and that the Gables Police chief supports the measure. The annexation of High Pines and Ponce Davis — two affluent areas — would be profitable, he said.
Holmes said he was “sympathetic” to annexation.
The winner of the mayoral race will be elected to a two-year term. Commissioner seats are for a four-year term.
This story was originally published March 29, 2019 at 5:02 PM.