Amid outcry, Coral Gables OKs zoning update, tables controversial Miracle Mile piece
Coral Gables commissioners approved an extensive, long-running and mostly technical update of its famously stringent zoning code, but postponed a vote on the most controversial piece — a tweak that could ease the way for redevelopment on struggling Miracle Mile — amid an outcry from some city residents and a looming election.
Separately, the commission also approved an upzoning requested by the majority of property owners in an anomalous, two-and-a-half block section of single-family homes abutting the city’s downtown in the so-called Crafts Section. The new zoning, which drew some opposition from people outside the neighborhood, would allow small and middle-scale mixed-use development to replace the houses, which abut LeJeune Road, several blocks south of Miracle Mile.
But the Miracle Mile change — an amendment that aims to promote new mid-scale development on the street by easing some parking rules for new buildings — has been caught up in widespread confusion over its potential impact, election-year politics and simmering anger by some residents over an ongoing large-scale development boom in and around downtown they contend is eroding the city’s historic scale and feel.
At least some of that confusion stems from an apparent misunderstanding of current rules on the Mile, which already allow six stories of new construction, although little has been built in two decades.
The revision proposed by city planners would not alter that height limit, but would for the first time allow small property owners to redevelop while providing required parking somewhere else nearby. The planners say the measure, and a companion change that would require a building stepback at 30 feet, could promote revitalization while effectively capping heights at six or fewer stories and preserving the street’s intimate scale. The measure would also effectively bar construction of street-killing parking garages on the retail street, supporters note.
Fearing the Mile will be ‘another Brickell’
But some critics, including candidates running for city commission in an April election, have made the change a centerpiece of their campaigns in a city where development is one of the few local issues that can fire up voters. Some opponents contend the change would lead to a “concrete canyon” or “another Brickell” along the signature retail street.
“The concern is that it will eliminate the smaller scale buildings on Miracle Mile,” group three commission candidate Javier Baños wrote in a text message Tuesday night as the meeting proceeded. “Residents believe the Mile should stay as it is.”
Some commissioners, meanwhile, are calling for additional controls to further limit heights on the Mile if the remote parking measure is approved. Most of the street consists of one- or two-story buildings. The measure as proposed, as well as any alternatives, will be reconsidered at a commission hearing March 9.
The 4-1 vote in favor of the broad zoning revision came amid an often-contentious, four-and-a-half-hour hearing at which public comment was carried remotely while commissioners sat in chambers at City Hall. Some activists and residents angrily accused commissioners of having a hidden, pro-developer agenda while Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli, sometimes with caustic comments, cut off numerous speakers if they went beyond the allotted two minutes.
“You should have your blood pressure checked,” Valdes-Fauli told one commenter demanding the zoning rewrite be scrapped, Commission group two candidate Myra Joli, who shouted angrily at commissioners for a full two minutes before he had her muted.
When another commenter complained the city has not held enough public meetings on the code revisions, Valdes-Fauli shot back: “This has been going on for three years, sir, where have you been?” The city lists more than 20 meetings it’s held as it developed the zoning rewrite.
Some commenters complained about the mayor’s posture and what a few felt was a general lack of decorum by commissioners and other participants during the hearing.
Gables leaders are ‘haranguing’ residents, critics charge
“We don’t like how you’ve been treating us,” said attorney David Winker, who is representing a Gables neighborhood association opposing the Crafts Section upzoning, as he accused commissioners of “haranguing” residents and called the city’s handling of the matter “shameful.”
Some commissioners defended the zoning update, in the works for three years, saying it mostly clarifies, streamlines and reorganizes what has been a hard-to-follow code as it’s been amended over the years. They also noted repeatedly that the current code encourages developers to assemble land and build the kind of big projects many residents object to.
Some of the revisions approved on Tuesday instead seek to foster development of smaller-scale, mixed-use buildings in commercial areas while curbing some impacts of large-scale construction, in part by requiring larger setbacks along LeJeune Road and South Dixie Highway.
“When you look at the larger buildings we hear the most complaints about, that is the direct result of the zoning code as it is today,” Commissioner Jorge Fors said. “What I do know is, not revising and tweaking will result in more of the same.”
Fors responded to complaints from some residents who said they could not understand the code by noting that such rules are by nature dry and complex, and often not easy to grasp.
“You won’t ever create the first non-confusing zoning code ever in the City of Coral Gables in 2021,” Fors said.
Miracle Mile issue postponed to March
Only Commissioner Vince Lago, who is vying with Commissioner Patricia Keon for the mayor’s seat Valdes-Fauli is vacating in April, voted against the broader revised zoning code. Lago has also introduced an alternative for the Miracle Mile revision that would allow remote parking but scale back the allowed height of new construction.
The commission unanimously agreed to put off the vote and schedule another community meeting on the Miracle Mile question before a final vote in March.
The backdrop of the fight against the upzoning vote is a biennial election on April 13, where two commission seats and the mayor’s title are up for grabs.
Noon protest at City Hall
Tuesday’s 4 p.m. meeting, pushed back from the usual 9 a.m. starting time to give residents more opportunity to speak, was preceded by an unusual noon demonstration outside Gables City Hall organized by a preservation group, the Historic Preservation Association of Coral Gables. As many as 50 placard-bearing protesters and several commission candidates called on the city to table or kill the zoning rewrite.
The zoning issue has become a flashpoint in the crowded races, which feature figures like Valdes-Fauli’s brother, Jose Valdes-Fauli, U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez’s daughter-in-law Tania Cruz Gimenez, as well as Joli, a lawyer who made national news last year for nodding enthusiastically behind former President Donald Trump at a Miami town hall in October.
At the demonstration, Gimenez, Joli and Baños mingled with residents, sporting campaign-branded face masks and yard signs, and were followed by camera crews shooting campaign video footage. They took selfies with residents and passers-by and gave speeches into a microphone set up under a tree across from city hall.
Karelia Martinez Carbonell, president of the Historic Preservation Association of Coral Gables, said in an interview Tuesday that her members and many other city residents are concerned that the revised zoning would promote more intrusive construction while the Miracle Mile change could obliterate the street’s historic charm by opening the door to wholesale redevelopment.
“The comments, the op-eds, the social media posts ... the pulse of the city is really just in solidarity to stop this,” she said.
This story was originally published February 9, 2021 at 9:32 PM.