Miami Beach flip-flops — again — on controversial relocation of fire station
Miami Beach officials voted Wednesday to build a new fire station at the South Shore Community Center site on Sixth Street, abandoning plans to put it in Flamingo Park and returning to the original location that was first picked years ago.
The vote was ultimately unanimous, but only after a lengthy, heated discussion. Miami Beach Fire Department officials urged the City Commission to approve the community center proposal and not delay the station’s construction any longer.
Firefighters have long been clamoring for a new building to replace a deteriorating, nearly 60-year-old station serving South Beach on Jefferson Avenue.
“I ask for a little political bravery today,” said Adonis Garcia, president of the city’s firefighters union.
Mayor Steven Meiner said debates over the project had become a “political hot potato” but that it was finally time to take action.
“Unfortunately, the process takes some time, but I know we landed in the right place,” Meiner said after the vote.
Garcia said Wednesday that firefighters at the existing station are forced to sleep in conditions that “we wouldn’t even have prisoners sleeping in.”
Discussion of what to do about it has gone on for a decade.
In 2021, Miami Beach leaders thought they had their answer when they moved to demolish the South Shore Community Center and build a fire station in its place.
But a group led by Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez pushed back, calling to save a building that, though not formally designated as historic, was designed by architect Morris Lapidus and houses a community daycare center. (Rosen Gonzalez is no longer in office after being term-limited as a commissioner and losing an election to Meiner last month.)
The city scrapped the community center plan and picked an alternative location in Flamingo Park, at the edge of a running track at 11th Street and Alton Road. The proposal required the backing of voters countywide, who overwhelmingly approved it in August 2024.
That, too, was met with backlash. Runners and nearby residents railed against the taking of park space. In July, the City Commission voted unanimously to exclude both Flamingo Park and the South Shore Community Center from consideration.
Miami Beach officials went back to the drawing board. After considering various alternatives, they concluded that only one — a parking lot on Commerce Street owned by Joe’s Stone Crab — was feasible for the planned station with minimal design changes, according to a memo from City Manager Eric Carpenter.
Residents in the South of Fifth neighborhood strongly opposed that option.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Commissioner David Suarez introduced an item directing the city administration to move ahead at the South Shore Community Center site.
At first, some of his colleagues raised concerns.
Commissioner Alex Fernandez said he wished Carpenter had issued a firm recommendation, rather than simply saying the Flamingo Park and community center options were both “viable with pros and cons.”
“This needs to be a professional decision, not a political decision,” Fernandez said.
Other commissioners said it felt like residents who rely on the community center were being overlooked. The building serves as a daycare center and previously was a lunch center for seniors.
“It’s shameful that we are [prioritizing] this little edge of Flamingo Park over the well-being of an underrepresented community in South Beach,” said Commissioner Tanya Katzoff Bhatt.
After Suarez’s item passed 7-0, Meiner stressed that the city must now find a new location for the community center.
Bhatt, who was elected in November 2023, called it a “travesty” that the city spent two years exploring alternatives to the community center site, only to reverse course.
“We could’ve been in construction now, but my colleagues supported this,” she said.
It’s time to stop “delaying and delaying and delaying” the new station, Miami Beach Fire Chief Digna Abello told the City Commission.
“Look past history,” she said, “and look forward to serving our residents.”
