Miami: Damian Pardo has a developers’ dream in density-for-dollars deal

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Builders get a BOGO special and Miami gets… flooded

Miami commissioners are set to vote Thursday on yet another Damian Pardo special. The Miami commissioners has proposed a shiny new ordinance that would let developers double the allowable density in some of the most flood-prone, overdeveloped corners of the city — as long as they drop a little something into a new “Resilience Trust Fund.”

Because nothing says climate adaptation like building twice as much in an area already underwater.

The plan, which the Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board already waved through in October, would let developers buy their way into supersized projects by paying into a city-managed fund for pump stations, seawalls, raised roads and other resiliency window dressing. Think of it as Miami’s first-ever Build-and-Flood™ program — the more you build, the more we promise to spend trying to keep it from flooding.

And of course, the first two “Resilience Fund Areas” just happen to be… both in Edgewater. You know, the neighborhood where a regular afternoon rain can stall your BMW for the day.We need more condo towers there.

Oh, and Watson Island, too. Because why stop at Edgewater when you can add incentives right where two mega-developments just happen to be waiting? It’s like playing a game of follow the bouncing bulldozers.

The proposal claims to be targeted at “high-demand areas,” but as usual, Miami’s definition of “targeted” is suspiciously specific. Both RFAs slice through Edgewater from the Julia Tuttle to NE 8th Street — an area already plastered with cranes and high-rise renderings.

Read related: Miami’s Watson Island liquidation sale to developers for lowball $25 million

Just last month, the Urban Development Review Board stamped its approval on a 47-story tower with nearly 500 apartments on Biscayne Boulevard. And Sam Nazarian’s crew is cooking up a branded condo tower down on 29th Street. Miami’s Edgewater is undergoing significant development with numerous residential, mixed-use, and commercial high-rise projects. Major developments include a large-scale Edgewater Collective project, the Braman Motors mixed use campus, the ELLE Residences and Edge House Miami — a 57-story monolith (rendering right) — all contributing already to the area’s transformation into a denser neighborhood. 

Now the city wants to sweeten the deal even more, with a zoning BOGO: Buy one density, get a second one free when you help pay for the pumps.

Developers can even get a 15% discount if they tug on their green cap and offer to do some of the infrastructure work themselves. What could possibly go wrong?

Even the chair of the city’s Climate Resilience Committee, Aaron DeMayo, couldn’t help pointing out the obvious last month. “Somewhat ironic that we’re incentivizing additional development capacity in an area that is already flooding significantly,” he is quoted as saying in the Coconut Grove Spotlight.

Somewhat ironic? It’s Miami. It’s perfectly on brand.

Still, the committee voted to support it. Because of course it did.

Neighbors and urbanists are warning that doubling density — especially in neighborhoods already bursting at the seams — will overwhelm Miami’s already-limping infrastructure and speed up gentrification. If history is a guide: sí, claro.

The ordinance also allows new RFAs to be created at any time by, you guessed it, another ordinance. In Miami language, that’s a standing invitation: If developers want a new hotspot, we’ll draw them a new map.

As usual, Pardo declined to talk about it. But a canned statement in his District 2 newsletter insisted the ordinance will “only apply to a portion of Edgewater.”

Sure. Today. But like every other “only here, for now” zoning gift, it can grow legs at any future meeting when nobody’s watching — or when the right lobbyist is. Las malas lenguas say city staffers have already said they plan to expand to the Transit Oriented Development overlays commissioners approved earlier this year that already jack up building heights and densities around rail corridors. Layer this onto that, and Miami’s development map is starting to look like SimCity played by a teenager with unlimited cheat codes.

Read related: Miami approves TSND zones to bring ‘affordable’ housing to transit hubs

Naturally, neighbors are concerned. A flurry of emails to the commissioner’s office was answered by his community liaison for Edgewater and Morningside, Bradley Mills, who sounded more like a lobbyist than a public servant.

“The proposed legislation…involves the creation of an Edgewater Resilience Trust Fund with the use of density bonuses. This legislation is the culmination of several meetings over many months and comes as a direct response to the request from Edgewater property owners and resident groups,” Mills wrote in an email Wednesday, adding that the climate resilience committee and the planning and zoning board both support the measure.

“The legislation does not double the density in the City of Miami. The double density is already in the city’s comprehensive plan and was adopted in 2017. Applicants can already achieve density increases through the City’s TDR and TDD programs and through our Public Benefits Program. Density can already be increased in certain transects across the city to the same threshold; this program merely offers an additional way to achieve the same density increases allowed in the Comprehensive Plan.”

So, nothing new to see here, folks. Just a little something extra.

Mills says the ordinance simply “unlocks a tool under the Miami 21 Zoning Code for the Edgewater area that builds infrastructure, provides home ownership opportunities, and funds public benefits important to the neighborhood.” There’s that lobbyist speak. He also raised the Live Local Act boogeyman saying it negates “these public benefit opportunities.

“In short, this legislation offers options for the Edgewater community that are important to the area and no other area.”

Not yet.

The commission will likely pass this on first reading — because they almost always do — and kick it to a second reading where developers will show up with glossy renderings and commissioners will congratulate themselves for “addressing climate resilience.”

Meanwhile Edgewater will still flood if someone sneezes on Biscayne Boulevard.

And Miamians will be left wondering: Are we really building resilience? Or are we building the problem faster than the pumps can catch up?

Ladra knows the answer. So do you. So does Pardo.

The city commission meeting starts at 9 a.m. Thursday at City Hall, 3500 Pan American Drive, and can also be seen online on the city’s website and its YouTube channel. The full agenda can be viewed here.

You can help get more independent, watchdog government reporting of our local government and political campaigns to our community with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Ladra thanks you for your support.

  Damian Pardo, development