Coral Gables commission OK’s compromise Miracle Mile rezone. Candidates dislike it.
Coral Gables commissioners on Tuesday easily approved a controversial zoning measure that could spur small- and mid-scale redevelopment on struggling Miracle Mile by lifting parking requirements for new buildings while enacting a strict 4-story cap on height.
By a decisive 4-1 vote and with virtually no debate, the commission officially embraced a compromise hammered out in a public workshop on March 1 following several virtual community meetings on the issue. Vice Mayor Vince Lago, who is vying with Commissioner Patricia Keon for the mayor’s seat in elections on April 13, voted no.
The commission now seems virtually certain to adopt the Miracle Mile zoning change, part of a broad update of the city’s famously stringent zoning code, when it votes on the measure a second and final time March 23.
The commission approved the wider zoning code rewrite on Feb. 8. Though mostly technical in nature, it also introduced a new mixed-use category to encourage development of mid-scaled buildings in the city’s commercial areas.
The 4-story cap, which represents a reduction of current 6-story height allowances along the Mile, may allay concerns from some residents that the zoning tweaks would effectively obliterate the street’s historic small scale and intimate feel.
But it’s also virtually certain to remain a divisive issue for a crowded field of candidates in the April 13 elections. Several say they would not have voted for the compromise.
Commissioners also approved, by a series of three 5-0 votes, a separate upzoning for an anomalous, three-block section of mostly single-family homes in the Crafts section abutting downtown Gables. Homeowners had asked for the rezoning, saying surrounding development has made the section no longer suitable for single-family homes.
The new zoning plan for the section, which also goes to a final vote in two weeks, splits it in two. The block facing the historic San Sebastian Apartments to the south, on University Drive, will be restricted to residential buildings no taller than 4 stories to respect the scale of the 1920s landmark, the original home of the University of Miami.
The zoning for the northern portion of the section, using the newly approved mixed-use, middle-scale zoning, allows buildings up to 7 stories and a combination of residential and commercial uses.
Plan would reduce building height on Mile
The Miracle Mile measure, drawn up by city planners mostly along the lines of a compromise version from Commissioner Michael Mena after the workshop earlier this month, would reduce the allowable height of new buildings on the signature shopping street to 4 stories from 6 stories, the current cap.
At the same time, it also bars parking within new buildings on the Mile to prevent street-killing decks and ramps along the pedestrian-oriented corridor. Instead, developers must provide required parking within a radius of 1,000 feet in city or private lots and garages. Street parking on the Mile is not affected.
The combination, city planners and elected officials say, will allow owners of often-obsolete 1- and 2-story buildings on small lots along the street to redevelop and add office and residential uses over shops. The hope is that “missing middle” scale and mix of uses will help revitalize the district, long plagued by vacancies and insufficient foot traffic, while averting the large-scale projects the old zoning rules encouraged.
The 4-story compromise approved by the commission majority sought to address concerns by Gables residents, activists and preservationists concerned that the easing of parking requirements would produce a uniform “concrete canyon” of 6-story buildings along the Mile.
Barring ‘air rights’ over historic buildings
Mena’s plan solved that in part by barring the use on the Mile of “air rights” — development capacity sold by owners of historic buildings to developers looking to add stories to projects downtown.
Lago produced an alternative that went further by seeking to eliminate use on the street of the city’s Mediterranean bonus program, which gives developers downtown extra floors if they adopt the city’s trademark architectural style. But that raised concerns of property-rights lawsuits.
The Miracle Mile zoning measure has become a centerpiece in the crowded races for the April municipal elections. Three seats, including the mayor’s post, are up for grabs.
Candidates first took sides on whether or not a change in zoning should happen at all, and are now split on whether they would have voted for Mena’s proposal if they were a sitting commissioner.
Group Three candidate Javier Banos, a CPA and attorney, said he would not vote for Mena’s version of the compromise, but instead agreed more with Lago’s, which would still have allowed developers to build parking garages on the Mile if they chose to.
“It will be a 4-to-1 vote,” he said in an interview with the Miami Herald’s editorial board earlier in the week, accurately predicting the result. “The writing’s on the wall.”
Group Two candidate attorney Tania Cruz-Gimenez, said the same, noting she’d vote for Lago’s proposal.
Longtime Coral Gables figure and youth sports supporter Kirk Menendez, who is also running for Group Three, said Mena’s compromise is “a step in the right direction,” and proved that the commission was willing to listen to concerned residents.
“It’s a fair compromise,” he said, but added a disclaimer that he was wary of a possible parking shortage for the retail businesses. The proposal includes what is essentially a ban on parking within the footprint of any new buildings on the Mile, but city parking administrators said there is at least a 10-year supply of parking downtown to accommodate any redevelopment on the street.
Other candidates, including attorneys Alex Bucelo and PJ Mitchell, say they would still be hesitant to vote for the proposal at all, compromise or no.
“[Residents] want the Mile to stay in the condition it is,” said Mitchell, who lives in the Crafts Section, the nearby neighborhood commissioners voted to partially upzone to allow small and middle-scale development to replace houses.
“It’s a special place ... we live here, we work here, I don’t think any of us want to see that change,” he said about the Mile.
Group Two candidate Jose Valdes-Fauli, brother of mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli, said the issue should have never been taken up by the commission at all.
“The issue on Miracle Mile is not one for the city to solve,” he said. “The city is getting involved in a matter that is personal between the landlords and figuring out how they are going to get their tenants in there.”
This story was originally published March 10, 2021 at 6:00 AM.