Cutler Bay's growth management plan

Cutler Bay's growth management plan outlines goals for the next 20 years for capital improvements, housing and transportation. Community activists are against high-rise development in a 50-acre area (Southland Mall area) nestled between U.S. 1 and Florida's Turnpike, also known as downtown Cutler Bay.

The plan, which municipalities must adopt within three years of incorporation, would allow 25-story buildings, gradually decreasing to 11 stories and then six stories, to create a transportation hub -- or a cluster of housing near a major roadway or transit stop, such as U.S. 1 and the South Miami-Dade Busway. It's one of nine such urban centers designated by the county in the 1970s, including others at downtown Kendall, Town & Country Mall and the Dolphin Mall area.

Downtown Cutler Bay was planned as an urban center because of its proximity to major roadways and its geographic location, a midway point between Kendall and Homestead, mostly sheltered from single-family homes by U.S. 1 and the turnpike. The plans for the area include mixed-use office and residential buildings, a performing arts magnet middle school and high school and the South Miami-Dade Cultural Center.

This height allowance was unanimously approved by the Cutler Bay council, shortly after incorporation in 2005.Before this officials argue that anybody had the ability to come in and build unlimited heights in that area.

Officials also say that trying to lower that height would put the town at risk for lawsuits by property owners wanting to preserve their rights to construct taller buildings. Residents opposed to the plan argue that these types of projects have been challenged in the past and have been successfully challenged throughout the State of Florida. The City of Miami and Miami Beach local governments and homeowners have successfully challenged building heights in their municipalities.

An email originally written by Elvis Cruz of the Morningside Civic Association titled Morningside vs Condos: A landmark lawsuit reveals the truth and dated June 17, 2005 is being circulated this week. Read the original email here
A developer (Morningside Development LLC) proposed building two 100 foot tall condos next to the single family homes of Morningside at 5301 and 5501 Biscayne Boulevard.  The city issued a class 2 special permit to do so.  The Morningside Civic Association appealed that permit to the Zoning Board.  The Zoning Board ruled in favor of the developer, as they usually do.  The Morningside Civic Association then appealed to the Miami City Commission.

The Morningside Civic Association has argued for the past year and a half that all the competent, substantial evidence shows the proper scale for a building on a commercial corridor is 35 feet, or 3 stories.

On March 10, 2005, the City Commission ruled in favor of the Morningside Civic Association, denying the permit!

Shortly afterwards, the developer filed a lawsuit against the city (with the Morningside Civic Association named as a co-respondent), asking the court to overturn the Commission's decision.

However there have been more developments since that email was written, according to city documents, "the circuit court ruled to quash the city commission's decision" and sent the case back to the city and in January 2006, during a planning and zoning meeting, city commissioners sent the issue back to the zoning board for modifications to its December 2004 decision denying the appeal. Morningside residents once again lost the battle after the zoning board voted 6-2 to deny the appeal and grant the permit.

The Morningside Civic Association filed an appeal seeking denial of the permit, arguing that two towers next to single-family homes along Biscayne Boulevard would not bein character for the neighborhood.

City commissioners declined to grant the appeal by Morningside residents but asked developers to scale the project down to 35 feet high.
 
In July 2006 the developers were not sure when they would take the case back to the appellate court. Evan Goldenberg, attorney representing Morningside Development, argued that commissioners should have conducted the hearing as an appellate court and not second-guessed the evidence heard before the zoning board. "The commissioners' role was to review the zoning board's decision, but they decided not to and voted to change it." The developers "are still seeking the Class II permit that was approved by the city's planning director and the city's zoning board," said Mr. Goldenberg.

''There are development rights -- we can't bury our heads in the sand and ignore that,'' May Paul Vrooman told the Miami Herald, Paul Vrooman was on the steering committee for the charrette that proposed the 25-story height limit. ``How far that goes is debatable. But you can regulate it so the way that happens is the most beneficial.''

Vrooman also told the Miami Herald that the council had unanimously approved a maximum of 25 stories in 2005 but that it was an alternative to having no height limits.

''I knew what was in there, but I also knew what was there before,'' said Vrooman, who, as marketing director for Chamber South, also pushed for a charrette in downtown Kendall in the late 1990s to design and regulate high-rise development.