- The Herald continues to report on the downward spiral that our transit plans have taken over the past few months years. We have been silent on the issue here at TM mostly because the whole debacle is just sickening. There isn’t much more to say other than our leaders have really dropped the ball on this issue. I don’t know what the solution is, but I know that plenty of other cities in this country are currently embarking on ambitious transit plans. Most cities have been slowly, but consistently, adding rail transit lines over the years. We have not, and are suffering now because of it. I have said it many times on TM: our leaders need to prioritize transit. It is a part of our public infrastructure that needs to be funded. It is as unacceptable to say we cannot afford to pay for our schools as for our transit. That is how important this needs to be. Somehow, other cities find creative ways to finance and build the projects they promise to voters. It’s a question of political will and it is non-existent here.
- The zoning around Metrozoo was officially changed to accommodate the new water park and hotel complex approved by voters in 2006. I’m not really a fan of this project because I don’t support giving public land to private developers, and less on this last stretch of contiguous pine rockland, but at least our zoo will benefit. This is an instance of a ‘megaplan’ that was conceived and approved by public referendum. I think that makes all the difference.
- The Sun Sentinel reports on declining funds available to road building projects. “From 2008 to 2012, the county estimates, gas tax revenue and impact fees, the major funding for Palm Beach County road building, will drop 48 percent. Road impact fees, which come from new construction, will drop to $7 million in 2012 from $42.8 million this year. As people drive less, gas tax revenue will fall to $33.3 million in 2012 from $35.3 million this year, planners say. Adding salt to the wound, Palm Beach County commissioners decided in June to supplement mass transit with $8 million of gas tax money designated for roads. They gave $1 million to Palm Tran to save weekend routes that were in danger of being cut and to keep fares low for low-income and disabled riders. For the first time, the county used gas tax money to pay its annual Tri-Rail subsidy, about $7 million. Palm Beach County Commissioner Jeff Koons said that after 20 years of putting money into building roads, more money now needs to be invested in alternative transportation. Alternative forms of transportation are going to have to be a priority because people can’t afford to drive long distances in their cars,” he said. Duh! Its nice to see that they are finally waking up in Palm Beach. Now we need our leaders to start doing the same. Raid road building funding for transit, and stop letting local municipalities use their 20% of PTP funds for road related improvements. Again, it’s a question of priority. We have long ignored our mass transit system, and it’s time to play catchup.
Archive for the 'Zoning' Category
I know we have already mentioned this topic this week, but considering the Herald continues its negative spin campaign against the zoning rewrite I thought a healthy counterpoint was in order. Herald columnist Ana Mendez writes in her column today that she thinks that the code is a little too complicated for a layperson to understand.
She writes, “Its true zoning codes are difficult to write. And no one wants to minimize the important role that government plays in assessing the public’s needs and translating them into hopelessly complicated, impenetrable legal gobbledygook. But there has to be a better way.”
Now, as an urban planner and architect I agree that the language can be difficult at times, but the fact is that anyone with a high school education can figure it out (not to mention that all of the terms used are defined in the first chapter). Part of the problem is that we have to translate good urban design (which is a field that lends itself to drawing more than writing) into legal ‘gobbledygook’ so that land-use attorneys and developers don’t find loopholes in otherwise straightforward regulations.
Codes (Miami 21 or any other land use code) have to be written in language that is not simplistic, and that will hold up to scrutiny in court. Menendez quotes from the code:
Lots facing streets on more than one (1) side shall have designated Principal Frontage(s) and may have Secondary Frontage(s). Unless otherwise designated by a Special Area Plan, a Principal Frontage shall be that facing the street of higher pedestrian importance or intensity (i.e., traffic volume, number of lanes, etc.)Which is another way of saying that you define the front of a corner lot as the one that faces the busiest street, but you can’t say that in a legal document because if you did then you would have all sorts of follow-up questions like:
- How do you define which street is most important?
- What do you call the other less important front?
Unfortunately, I think that this criticism of Miami 21, along most others, is less about the code than about blaming it for things that are beyond its control.
Here are a few of the arguments against Miami 21 that I have read both on the Miami 21 website and in various articles over the past two years:
–> “Miami 21 is the first urban application of a smart code in the US. It is an experiment that has never been tested.”Actually, Miami 21 is not the first form based code to be applied to a major urban center, Philadelphia is in the process of passing a form based code, and I think we would all agree that as far as successful urbanism is concerned Miami pales in comparison. Form based codes have actually been around for a long time. Think of any good city (Chicago, New York, Philly, Boston) and their downtowns were developed with codes that were form based (as opposed to use based).
–> “Miami 21 is hated by architects and urban planners.”
Actually, having been written by urban planners and architects this one is not really true. The Herald loves to point out that architects dislike the plan, but really only a vocal minority of self-crowned celebrity architects dislike the code as a matter of ego than of substance. One architect in particular (whose name will remain anonymous except to say that it begins with Z and ends with h) says that the code infringes on his creativity by imposing height restrictions. Without going into some lengthy discussion on aesthetics and philosophy, lets just say that where this designer is concerned, creativity is overrated. Miami 21 holds faithful to some pretty basic premises (active street fronts, eyes on the street, etc.) and allows a lot of latitude after that. If you need your building to stand out like a huge phallic symbol, go to Dubai. Never mind that the the latest draft of the code has all but relaxed the height restrictions in certain T-Zones to be what they are in the existing code.
–> “Miami 21 will not allow me to rebuild my house if it gets destroyed.”
First of all, as with any zoning rewrite there will be nonconformities. The whole point of the code is that the existing code is allowing some pretty awful stuff to get built, and the new code will make some of that illegal. That’s the nature of any zoning code. I live in a 1940’s med style house that is illegal by today’s code because its too close to the sidewalk. Go figure. At any rate, the new draft of the code explicitly states that nonconformities in R1 zones will be grandfathered in. Period.
–> “Developers hate Miami 21.”
This one is my favorite. Developers love Miami 21 because it gives them greater development rights than they had before. The code was drafted using the existing regulations as a base. That means that all of the development rights have been preserved or augmented. All the code does is say that you have to meet the street in a way that will promote healthy urbanism. It’s not complicated.
–> “Miami 21 will allow tall buildings next to single family residences along Biscayne in the NE part of town.”
This one is true much to the chagrin of community activists such as Elvis Cruz who have long protected the area. Unfortunately they aren’t entirely using their thinking caps as to what they get in return for this extra height. Along parts of Biscayne you can build a 3 story building that would reach a height of 50′+ that would be adjacent to 30′ homes.There are two parts to this that people need to understand.
1) We are trying to encourage pedestrian friendly development along in this part of Biscayne and part of that involves defining the street as a public space. With a street as large as Biscayne is, you need something more than two stories to make that happen. I don’t think that 50′ is all that egregious a transition to a single family neighborhood (especially in comparison to what is allowed now).
2) We need to start thinking of our eastern edge as the place where more intense development needs to happen. We cannnot hold the UDB line and be NIMBY’s at the same time. Saving the Everglades means that growth has to be in someone’s backyard. Biscayne Boulevard deserves buildings that are more than 3 stories.
Remember this: Miami 21 is a lot better than the existing code, and if we let this opportunity pass we are the ones who suffer. This is not some abstract concept in a book, this is about the kind of city in which we want to live and raise our families. I for one will not give up.
There’s movement on the horizon for Miami 21. You’ll remember that the last we heard about Miami 21 (way back in June of last summer) the City Commissioners sent DPZ back to do more work refining the code, & holding more public meetings. Among some of the criticisms the Commissioners had was that the plan was divided into quadrants (a request they made when DPZ first started the project) and would required concurrent zoning codes, and that there were several parts of the code that were not very clear (ironically the parts that came from the existing code regarding non-conformities).
DPZ spent the remainder of last summer holding 14 public meetings in the remaining 3 quadrants to educate the rest of the city on what Miami 21 is and what it is trying to accomplish (as if they didn’t already know). They reissued a new and improved code (addressing some of the concerns regarding height and development rights) and revamped the Miami 21 website. The City of Miami seemed to be ready once again to move forward with with the code by scheduling an April 8th special City Commission meeting. Unfortunately, that meeting was postponed so that DPZ could finish the atlas of the entire city.
The new website is helpful and will hopefully do away with the notion that the city and DPZ have tried coming up with this code in a smoke filled room with no public involvement. They have published several previous versions of the code as requested in the Question/Answer section of the website, and have provided readers with a thorough education on the idea of the form-based code. I would urge any interested party (developer, lawyer and citizen alike) to read through the code to really understand it. It is user friendly and streamlines the zoning process.
We urge the City Commission to recognize Miami 21 as the visionary code that it is, and hope that the work can move forward as quickly as possible so that new development can start to shape the city in a positive way.
After more than two years of work, it seemed that Miami 21 was finally set to arrive late last year. However, some officials and many residents were upset and confused by the way Miami 21 was to be implemented, one quadrant at a time instead of the entire city at once. According to the Miami Today News, though, Miami 21 authors Duany Plater-Zyberk (DPZ) have now decided to unveil the zoning code for the entire city at once.According to the Miami Today News piece,
City Manager Pete Hernandez told commissioners last week in their first public update since the summer that city staff and the consultants “have had an extensive number of meetings” and will be ready to post the latest draft of the code on the Web early next month.
This is good news overall, as I believe this makes Miami 21 even stronger while appeasing residents and officials concerned over the original quadrant-by-quadrant implementation plan. The downside? It looks like we’ll have to wait at least another eight months before the new code can be implemented. This will make Miami 21 a three-year process, but if that’s what it takes to get it implemented, and done right, then so be it; this is too critical for the city’s future to let another eight months get us down.
Originally, Miami 21 was scheduled to go before the Commission tomorrow, September 27th, for its final hearing. However, due to a scheduling conflict on the Planning and Zoning agenda, this will no longer be the case. From the Miami21.org website:
The City of Miami City Manager is working on establishing a date in October, possibly for a special meeting to hear the item. The final date has not been established, but will be posted as soon as it is scheduled.
I’ve been looking for a mainstream media announcement of the date change, but I have yet to find anything. We’ll post any updates as we receive them.
In the meantime, if you haven’t seen DPZ’s latest Miami 21 presentation, I recommend checking it out here.
Miami 21’s first reading before the Commission yesterday turned out to be rather disappointing. After nearly nine hours of discussion, Commissioners chose to defer an official vote on the proposed new zoning code for another 90 days. This is largely due to the “confusion” still permeating citizens and Commissioners alike.
Now I understand a lot of people are spewing hate at Elizabeth and DPZ, but I say give her a break. I’m guessing the reason she made the quote to “pass as is” was not meant as an arrogant gesture, but as a sign of frustration. And you know what? I’d be frustrated, too, if I were her.
Yes, the Miami 21 project is both large and complex, but there have been more than 100 public meetings over the course of nearly two years to clear things up. When it comes to public input, this number definitely verges on the high end, yet somehow people are still confused. There has even been ample information and supporting documentation available at Miami21.org for which to help clear things up.
Look, I know for a fact that if I had any real concerns about a project like this I would do whatever it takes to get answers (before it goes to the commission!). Yet people (and Commissioners) still don’t even understand basic tenets, such as whether or not existing buildings would be grandfathered-in under the new code. We’re adults, people - at some point we need to take the initiative to figure things out instead of waiting to be force-fed information.
Thus, I think we could interpret her “pass as is” quote another way. It goes something like this:
“If after 100+ public meetings and forums, plus an easily accessible website with ample supporting documentation, people still are clueless about the proposed code, then how much of an affect will additional meetings really have? Once you reach a certain threshold of meetings, offering any additional meeting should have little appreciable benefit - if any at all. Thus, after 100+ meetings, you begin to wonder one of two things: (1) Are the people who claim they still ‘don’t get it’ really confused, or are they just opponents of the new code (and subsequently opponents of change) acting to create doubt in the minds of commissioners and about the work of DPZ? or (2) Is this symptomatic of Miami’s anemic citizen involvement in public affairs?”
As for the Commissioners, there is no excuse. This is arguably the most significant vote of these Commissioners lives, and they’ve known it was coming for two years now. Given their tremendous access to the city’s planners, DPZ, and pretty much any information they need to help them understand Miami 21, it is inexcusable and irresponsible that they still don’t understand the proposed code.
While I have mentioned that Miami 21 is not a perfect code, it is so much better than the current one. It begs the question, would you rather continue under the anachronistic, byzantine code we currently have, that allows hodge-podge development and is completely and utterly hostile to pedestrians and cyclists?
It is critical that people understand this, because to continue under the old code would have devastating consequences for Miami’s future. So, if you are one of those people who has gone to meetings and taken the initiative to understand Miami 21 but is still genuinely confused, I implore you to do whatever it takes to educate yourself during the next 90 days - Miami’s future hinges on this code.
Don’t forget - the first reading of Miami 21 is today! Check it out live on channel 77.
It’s hard to believe, but Miami 21 (east quadrant) is finally scheduled to go before the City Commission tomorrow for its first reading. It’s been a long two years waiting, but I think the final product will be well worth the wait. While it isn’t perfect, it’s still a monumental improvement over the current code. It will give Miami a fighting chance at becoming a more livable, sustainable, pedestrian-oriented city, which would’ve been highly unlikely under the current code.We must understand, however, that these positive changes will not happen overnight. Most of Miami suffers from legacies of planning incompetence, and it will take years for the new code to manifest large-scale positive change.
As for the hearing tomorrow, there is still some controversy surrounding Miami 21. Some officials and citizens are still concerned about affordable housing, which you can’t blame them for after the disgusting, embarrassing revelations of the past year regarding the Miami-Dade Housing Agency and City of Miami Department of Community Development. It should be interesting to see how the City Commission reacts to these concerns tomorrow morning.
To see the final draft of the code, click on the Miami 21 link above. Also, I recommend checking out the supporting links on the sidebar, which contain a lot of pictures and maps that help illustrate what Miami 21 is all about.
Photo courtesy of Miami21.org
Miami-Dade County is advertising for a new Director of Planning and Zoning.
Let’s hope a true visionary is hired to fill the position, because county planning efforts have been misguided for decades. We need a leader who isn’t afraid to take risks and make unpopular decisions. We need someone who is very knowledgeable about smart growth and planning, especially with cutting edge research. We need someone who will plant the seeds for a cultural revolution here in Miami-Dade that will forever change the way we live and build cities.
This is truly a pivotal moment in our history, and it is critical that our next planning and zoning director steers Miami-Dade County along a sustainable growth paradigm that sets a generational precedent for smart growth.
Urban Planners and Medical Doctors are building a united front to tackle the link between sprawl and obesity.
Miami…it’s time to admit that you have a problem, and you need to get some help.
In my opinion, a recent Zoning Board meeting exemplified a) just how obsessed the City is with parking requirements; and b) how the City just flat out does not understand the connection between parking requirements, urban land use, induced vehicular demand, or how these elements factor into building a sustainable city.
This last Monday, the Miami Zoning Board oversaw a resolution on its agenda calling for a reduction in parking requirements for a proposed affordable housing building in the Lummus Park/South Overtown area. The resolution sought a special exemption from an already excessive parking requirement to allow 58 spaces instead of 103 for a building to be located on NW 4th Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues. So, what’s the big deal, other than the fact that this building is located a block outside of downtown and is a 6-7 minute walk from Government Center Station? It’s a “very” affordable housing project courtesy of Camillus House designed to house the ex-homeless.
So in review, this proposed building will be 1) located one block from downtown; 2) short walk to City’s transit hub; 3) very affordable housing for the recently-homeless. Despite these characteristics, there was still substantial deliberation over whether or not to exempt this project from already excessive parking requirements. Never mind the fact that recently homeless folks likely will not (and shouldn’t feel obliged to) own a car, given their financial situations.
In particular, one Board member Ron Cordon, questioned the likelihood of recent homeless folks getting executive office jobs downtown, saying “Jobs in downtown are not typically offered to these people…instead, they will seek out small shops to gain employment…and for that, they will need a car because the transportation is inadequate”. In fairness, one Board member, Brett Berlin, did state that this location is “perfect for someone without a car”.
With the first statement above, I’m guessing Mr. Cordon drives from his house to a parking garage, rarely setting foot on the downtown streets. If he did, he would notice that downtown actually has a high concentration of “small shops”. Also, there are countless job opportunities all along the Metrorail line, which residents of this building would have easy access to without a car. Moreover, this location is just blocks from Little Havana, which may have the highest concentration of “small shops” in the whole metropolitan area. This is easily accessible by multiple Metrobus lines. Also, what about all of the low-skilled service jobs offered by hotels and restaurants, which are highly concentrated nearby in downtown, Brickell, and South Beach? This sounds to me like another example of City Board/Commission members using gut instinct and intuition rather than supporting facts and research. Sadly, these are the same people who make critical decisions that will affect our quality of life now and for the distant future.
Bottom line: Even with multiple reasons to justify a reduction in required parking spaces, the resolution only passed by a 5-4 vote.
Perhaps it’s time to bring in parking guru Donald Shoup to lead an intervention.
Anyone interested in learning about Miami 21, especially residents living in the East Quadrant, should attend the open house this weekend being put on by planning consultant firm DPZ. The open house is meant to discuss and provide details about recently updated documents of the Miami 21 code.The open house will be held from 8:00am to noon this Saturday, March 24th, at Archbishop Curley Notre Dame High School located at 4949 NE 2nd Avenue.
Alright, I couldn’t allow such a monumental city resolution to pass by unnoticed any longer. The city commissioners of Hialeah should be commended (yeah, I never thought I’d say that either) for their recent decision to reurbanize and re-zone five key districts, incorporating denser mixed-use development while keeping in line with better urban design principles. The plan calls for the establishment of five key business districts which would require mixed-use buildings (commercial on the ground floor with residential above) in higher density format and up to 7 stories in height. I have not been able to dig up any more information on the plan to find out if greenspace, parking, transit, sidewalks, building heights, etc. will be incorporated into the plan. The city website (mainly in Spanish) hasn’t been updated since September 2006 and the Herald article digressed to cover some of the more amusing aspects of politics in Hialeah
Business owner Robert Morell called for Spanish-speaking residents to learn English — and was booed by the crowd.
”I am a little bit appalled because if you travel to any other city it looks like they’re going into the future. Some of us still want to live in the past,” Morell said. “I speak Spanish, even though my whole family is American. I don’t understand why everyone else doesn’t learn the [English] language.”
Tomas Martinez, a regular at council meetings, where he addresses members in Spanish, approached Morell as he left the podium and an argument ensued.
As the men stared each other down, Robaina and City Council President Esteban ”Steve” Bovo threatened ejection from the meeting or arrest for anyone causing a major disturbance.
Ignoring Morell’s suggestion, resident Randy Carter said he would address the council in Spanish.
”I am going to speak in Spanish because when you do your political campaigns you do them in Spanish,” Carter told council members in Spanish.
Members of the audience laughed and applauded.
Despite the fact that this plan is perhaps the best thing that could happen to the zonal mess of
Some residents said they feared being displaced from their trailer homes or that historic landmarks would be dwarfed by seven-story buildings.
I find it amusing that the largely Cuban audience (who typically spends time lamenting over how great a city Havana was) would try to defeat a plan which could potentially bring some of Old Havana’s urban planning charm (by charm I clearly mean the old Spanish, walkable, non-autocentric, dense, ground floor commercial with residences above, covered walkways, etc.) to the city of Hialeah… Like the photo above/below, minus the decay of the past sixty years…
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