It started as a bold move by a newly-elected and reform-minded city commissioner to right a terrible wrong. But the ordinance to amend regulations that allow giant LED signs in Miami has been stalled over and over.
Commissioner Damian Pardo, who has also sought a temporary moratorium on any new sign permits, will try again Thursday.
The ordinance was deferred twice before it passed first reading in February, after it first failed and was reconsidered. But the second reading was deferred April 11 after a last minute floor amendment was proffered by Commission Chairwoman Christine King as a sort of compromise.
“That’s the strategy,” Pardo told Political Cortadito. “Create a lot of confusion to sway one vote to their side.”
Read related: Digital billboard rewind, moratorium in city of Miami is back for a third try
Pardo says the amendment is not necessary. “Our ordinance is the compromise,” he said, adding that the signs that have received permits may have to stay as noncompliant uses, but that gives the city a tool to have them taken down in the future.
With the Arsht Center, their city’s code doesn’t even apply, Pardo said. “They filed permits under our code knowing that the county has jurisdiction,” he told Ladra, adding that he spoke to Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and “she confirmed speaking with the people at the Arsht,” and telling them that the county-owned property was in the new rapid transit zone so RTZ zoning applies.
At that time, the ordinance expanding the signs size and height limits — passed by then commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who was suspended after a September arrest for bribery and 12 other public corruption charges — the RTZ zoning was already in place, Pardo said.
“So it’s kind of disingenuous to be playing both sides.”
Expect the lawyers and administrators and board members of the Perez Art Musuem Miami and the Adrienne Arsht Performing Arts Center to make their cases about having to rely on the revenue that these signs will bring in — and again threaten litigation. Expect residents to gripe about the light pollution on these signs that are larger than Pardo’s home and say enough is enough.
Read related: Miami repeals law allowing massive billboards despite threat of lawsuit
Dramatic photographs posted on social media over the weekend by Downtown Neighbors Alliance President James Torres have helped bring the abstract issue to life.
Torres, who endorsed Pardo after coming in fourth last year in the first round, has been extremely disappointed with the deferrals.
“Another day, same old story,” Torres posted on the platform formerly known as Twitter after the April 11 meeting. “The never-ending cycle of deferrals is a tactic designed to exhaust and disengage residents. Promises were made to end this tactic, yet here we are.”
Dejavu: Miami Commission considers amending LED sign ordinance — again added by Ladra on
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