Miami 21 is in the Herald today with news that is not very uplifting. Commissioner Regalado, a longtime critic of the plan, has decided that the residents of his district do not yet fully understand the code and that he will not let the plan move forward until they do. Judging from turnout at meetings in his district, it’s no wonder that people still don’t understand the plan, but whose fault is that? (Maybe they should show up, or at least read through the code once). Are we going to continue to stall this plan and delay its implementation because of his own political agenda against Mayor Diaz and Commish Joe Sanchez. All too often lately, it seems that his decisions are based on where ideas came from rather than what is best for his constituents or the city. Think about the Ballpark deal: if that had come solely from Mayor Diaz’s office he would surely have tried to kill it.
Lets not even mention the fact that he expects DPZ to do any work from this point on for FREE!! What boggles my mind is that he originally suggested the quadrant system, only to change his mind later to city-wide implementation. In my business that’s called a change order, and there is no reason that DPZ should not be compensated for it. It all boils down to a cheap political trick: rather than force a vote against the plan (which he would be responsible for) he is going to try to force them to stop working on the plan (by not paying them), and later blaming the administration and DPZ for not following through.
The fact is that this plan works, and it works a lot better than what we have now. Period. Any other arguments he or any other commissioner makes is small potatoes. It serves the public good, will create a walkable city, and provides for the transitions from high density areas to low density areas that are non-existent in the current code.
This Miami 21 delay, delay, delay
is starting to remind me of the Metrorail car rehab fiasco…..
Regalado is an idiot who should not be in office.
Neighborhood activists hate Miami 21. Investors hate Miami 21. Professional urban planners hate Miami 21. Architects hate Miami 21. Renovators hate Miami 21. People on fixed incomes hate Miami 21. Land Use Attorneys hate Miami 21. It appears everyone hates Miami 21 except people getting paid to like Miami 21.
I nominate the above comment for baseless fallacy of the year.
Do you want me to play along and write it out the same way so that it appears everyone loves Miami 21?
Wow. Thanks for posting commissioner Regalado!
Something like this:
Neighborhood activists LOVE Miami 21. Investors LOVE Miami 21. Professional urban planners LOVE Miami 21. Architects LOVE Miami 21. Renovators LOVE Miami 21. People on fixed incomes LOVE Miami 21. Land Use Attorneys LOVE Miami 21. It appears everyone LOVE Miami 21 except people getting paid to NOT like Miami 21.
Actually neighborhood activitists would hate Miami21 because what could be build as of right on each property would be set with no need for hearings for each individual project. They would lose their hobby of showing up at every meeting demanding that nothing ever be built anywhere.
Actually Dave, under the current code, anything done as-of-right does not require a public hearing. Anytime you have a public hearing it’s because the person is requesting a variance or it’s a project of a certain size (more than 250,000 sf or something like that). Miami 21 is the same as the current regulations with regard to as-of-right development: no need for a public hearing.