Author: Matis N. Cohen, Opinon Piece
How can increased costs, fees and restrictions concealed by-a false narrative of “incentives” ever promote revitalization, or be justified?
Building Height – Appropriate height post the infamous down Zoning in 1999 established new maximum heights across the city, specifically for the RM2 which has a 2.00 FAR to a height of 200 Feet, the RM3 with an FAR of 3.00 also 200 Feet & the OT MXE with an FAR of 2.00 to 235 feet in height. There is no justification for establishing the Town Center height at anything below 200 feet, after the voters approved the 3.5 FAR density increase.
Building Length – Nowhere in the entire City are there any limitations to the length of a building, except Town Center, now restricted to a maximum Length of 165 feet. Two very simple & important effects to this regulation are that this 1) essentially creates the largest set back standard in the city 2) forces the distribution of FAR to be stacked to height on a single tower while exponentially expanding the Air & Light effect to the street. This was the basis for the Planning Board’s recommendation to allow for the largest property assemblages to reach 220 feet in height, which has so far been ignored.
Development Standards – Only in Town Center does the City require the developer to create a 10 foot unobstructed walkway, provide lighting & a perpetual easement along with irrigated Canopy Trees in the right of way, with additional uplighting. Nowhere but Town Center does the city require the developer to “ground” the FPL infrastructure lines. These developer improvements normally are provided in return for development bonuses. Where else in the City do they extract double fees if any of the above is not possible? None of these requirements were ever implemented in Sunset Harbor or South of Fifth Street which have been successfully revitalized.
In 1994 the City established a “Special Tax district” for 71st St. of $18 million paid by the property owners for the improvement of the streetscape and planting of the trees. Where did that money go? Today the streetscape is an amalgamation of poor planning & a showcase of their inability to manage the different agencies in control of our streets; needless to say no trees. Property owners are still paying 24 years later without any results or accountability. The reason why developers are required to pay “Impact fees” for new development is to offset incremental infrastructure costs & fund improvements. Why do Town Center property owners have to pay twice?
Which brings us to the “Public Benefit”. If the appropriate height for a 3.5 FAR site is 200 feet then there is no justification for this extraction. It should be argued that if the Maximum FAR of 3.00 is 200 feet than 3.50 FAR is entitled to 235 feet in height; certainly not less. The proposed assertion that the city should take a share of the profits (whether there are any or not) upfront, from private property & then be distributed outside of Town Center is simply unconscionable, regardless of the cause.
LEED Certification – The newly adopted City Code requires that every developer deposit 5% (twice the amount of neighboring cities, not to mention the additional development bonuses they receive for certification) of total building costs as security in the event that LEED certification is not achieved. A 100% sliding scale refund is given for attaining LEED Gold down to Silver (which is the region standard) to LEED. Town Center is required to put up a 10% deposit and receives a 40% refund for Gold. Why is the cost of doing business in North Beach 250% more than any other area in the City?
The City is legally precluded from attaching any contingency to the FAR vote. This is the source of the tap dancing around the Public Benefit extraction and the false premise of appropriate height of 125 feet. Establishing a price per square foot for height without adding additional development rights is a very heavy lift, especially when it is in the City’s interest to build to height (Harvard, ULI studies & Staff analysis). The City hired a Harvard Economist to create a theoretical evaluation that could somehow justify a percentage of what might be the potential profit of the “highest & best use” of development. How can a City claim to be incentivizing development when in reality they are deliberately penalizing it?
Why was it appropriate to increase height on Washington Ave without any “Public Benefit extraction fee”, in addition to reducing unit size restrictions & parking requirements? And provided a 5 year window to take advantage of the incentive? What is different about North Beach that summons this discriminatory policy?
Some commissioners still felt that the “pricing was too low” and did not extract enough from the developers. The City Attorney cautioned them to instruct the Consultant to build a higher price point to meet their expectations & divorce the payment from the FAR vote. One Commissioner actually said “staff should look again at the public benefit fees and possibly increase them in order to further incentivize rapid development.” It is simply mind numbing that Staff would take this direction and try and substantiate it.
Adding insult to injury, the planning dept. & Commission are proffering that if a property owner doesn’t receive final approvals in 15 months and a TCO in 24 months, the height delta between 125 feet and 200 feet should expire. What efficiencies has the City enacted to give any confidence to the property owners that this will be possible? What precedence can be offered to benchmark a time frame to successfully revitalize an entire zone? What rational could possibly be offered to explain why property owners will ever develop without this height if they haven’t till now?
Once again North Beach Town Center has a thousand knifes drawn, slicing a pie that hasn’t even been prepared.
Conclusion:
1- The appropriate established development height for a 3.5 FAR site in this City is between 200 and 235 feet high, add the restriction of 165 feet maximum length of a building only increases an additional height necessity.
2- The punitive measures need to be replaced with incentives to spark investment and embrace those willing to take the risk on an un-proven and failed zone.
3- Town Center the most depressed area in Miami Beach which has seen Zero Development in 40 years is now the most expensive area to develop, all due to political misgivings. Now is the time to realign our fate as it was intended, for a North Beach we all can be proud of.
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