Coral Gables: Last chance to stop Gables Station upzoning

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Controversial development item to be heard at 1 p.m. today

The Coral Gables Commission will give final consideration today to zoning and land use variances needed for the $160-million Gables Station mixed-use development to rise on the 200 block of South Dixie Highway, just across from the swanky Village of Merrick Park.

Developers want to build two condo towers with 460 luxury units, 60,000 square feet of retail, almost 1,000 parking spaces and a 147-room hotel where a car dealership sits now. But they need variances on height and density. In total, it is more than 600,000 square feet — or six times the size of the Aloft Hotel.

The zoning in that area is overlaid. That means there are two standards. The one passed in 1999 that limits buildings to four stories along the U.S. 1 corridor (and for good reason) and the one from before that which, as of right, allows 10 stories. But the developer wants to go further — to 14 and 16 stories for the two towers.

There is growing concern about the many large developments going up in the City Beautiful. There have been a number of town hall meetings and hundreds of residents have attended to voice their worries about the impact these developments will have on traffic, quality of life and the already short police department (more on that later). It’s bizarre how much the Gables continues to grow and develop even as Miami-Dade’s condo market shows signs of slowing, due in part to a stronger dollar. By some counts, this is the 14th new project to come on the maps in the past few years.

Activists have called on residents to show up at City Hall, 405 Biltmore Way, at 1 p.m., when the item is being heard time-certain, and urge commissioners to stick to the city’s current master plan and — despite recommendations from staff and the planning and zoning board to approve the upzoning changes — deny the variances. There is an argument that any such upzoning should wait until after the city completes a study about the future use and development of U.S. 1.

Look for Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick to be the main voice of concern on the dais — if the developers are not able to silence her. There might be a move to get Slesnick to recuse herself after she wrote about this development in a monthly newsletter.

But she wrote the piece after she had voted no on all four variances in the first reading — so we pretty much already knew where she stands. Ladra would venture to say that even before she voted, we pretty much knew where the one commissioner concerned about development, who made it a cornerstone of her campaign, stands on what could be a perfect example of overdevelopment.

By the way, as usual, she was the only commissioner to vote no. And Commissioner Vince Lago is the only other commissioner who sometimes votes no on up zoning. The other three pretty much rubber stamp it.

Today’s vote will be on second reading and could give the developer final approval. The project has been on the fast track since May, when it got onto the agenda of two back-to-back planning and zoning meetings. Seems to many that they want to get this approved over the summer, while people aren’t paying too much attention.

Guess that depends on how many people show up at 1 p.m.

  Coral Gables, Jeannett Slesnick