Following a public groundbreaking ceremony in September, construction promptly began on a new neighborhood park near Mary Brickell Village on South Miami Avenue and S.E 11th street. The project – dubbed ‘Triangle Park’ due to the shape of the parcel – is a partnership between a private developer and the City of Miami to build a publicly accessible park on undeveloped privately-owned land. As a private development, the property will remain a park for the ‘foreseeable future’ until the owner is ready to build upon it.
After a flurry of construction activity through the end of 2011, work stalled shortly after the new year. The site is gradually turning into a muddy pit strewn with plastic bags and other garbage. Construction equipment is gone. A ‘Marc Sarnoff for Commissioner’ campaign sign lies crumbled against the chain link fence, which is peeled back in some places. Anything stronger than a gentle breeze kicks up dust from the site onto pedestrians and parked vehicles.
Site as of February 7th, over four months after the groundbreaking. Photo by @BrickellGreen via Twitter.
According to the owner and developer Mallory Kauderer, the primary reason for the work stoppage is due to a delay in securing a necessary water supply for the planned shrubs and trees. Florida Power and Light agreed to provide the site with a water hookup for a sprinkler, but have been unresponsive in repeated requests to install it, according to Kauderer.
Kauderer said that if the city permits for the project were provided in the timeline he originally expected, the water hook-up would not be necessary because the natural rainfall during the summer months would be sufficient. The required permits took longer than expected to secure and construction was delayed until the late fall, when rainfall is less frequent. When asked if construction could resume sometime this spring or summer without the FPL water hookup, Kauderer confirmed it could.
An architectural rendering of the park.
Ron Nelson, Chief of Staff for City of Miami District 2 Commissioner Marc Sarnoff urged residents to be patient. “Please remember that this is a temporary park offered by a private landowner. Our goal is to make better use of empty land throughout the city and encourage landowners to be better stewards. We moved forward based on his commitments and it appears that he has run into some issues that we the city have no control over. He has assured us that the problems are being worked out,” said Nelson in an e-mail to Transit Miami.
In the meantime, Transit Miami calls on Kauderer to keep the site clean and becoming of one of Miami’s signature neighborhoods as well as maintaining communication with local officials to keep residents and business up to date with it’s progress.
7 Responses to Construction Stalled on ‘Triangle Park’ in Brickell
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I’m bothered by the temporary parks that keep popping up around town. Is there no way to make them permanent? I just worry that we will grow to love and use these spaces and have them taken away in a few years when a developer wants to build another condo tower.
Totally agree with M’s comment above.
These is no reason at all why these temp parks should not beoce permanent parks……
Steve Hagen, Have you signed this informal online petition? http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/MoreParksForMiamiNOW/
Please do your part for more parks. You do not have to be a voter in Miami.
Simply copy and paste the address below, read the petition, sign it and leave your comments.
Use the IPetitions site to send to five friends or copy and use this email to send to all your friends.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/MoreParksForMiamiNOW/
Your petition will be delivered in groups of 50-100 to Miami Mayor Regaldo and the Miami Commissioners
in time for the March 2012 vote.
Read the petition to find out how Miami will lose an opportunity to collect close to 100 million dollars from developers over the next five years for new parks if our leaders fail to adjust Impact Fees for
new parks by March of 2012!!!
Time is critical as is your signature!!!!
I suppose they’re better than no parks. I’d love to see more empty fields turned into parks. Maybe the city/county could offer a tax-reduction for massive tree planting on empty lots. Anything is better than blighted fields. Plant fruit trees so the neighbors can at least get regular harvests (the residents will eventually have to pay more in taxes for the property owners’ tax reduction, so at least they can get some fruit back).
[...] are some improvements on the way – Triangle Park, if ever completed, will be a nice, albeit small, neighborhood plaza. There are plans to overhaul [...]
[...] a large new tree was planted and today’s picture shows more on the way. We reported on the suspended progress on the park back in February. Thankfully, all signs point to full-steam-ahead and Brickellans will [...]
The proposed park is still under construction (November 2012) but now we hear the developer wants to build on the site. He wants to leave a tiny unbuildable triangle at the south end for a park and build over the rest. Maybe another Taco Bell?