Palmetto Bay, of all places, may have a more vibrant downtown over the next two years than South Miami. http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2017/03/16/mixed-use-project-proposed-in-new-miami-dade-urban.html
Downtown Doral is already more vibrant – and don’t forget about Merrick Park. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/doral/article138773703.html
All three of these areas are new and their cities are smart enough to have zoning codes and administrations that encourage height, density, and a mix of uses because they truly realize the days of the “mom and pop” one-story, free standing retail cannot survive without density, office, and especially residential. Additionally, we need clean, well-manicured sidewalks of ample width, gathering places and beautiful landscaping on all streets.
Other than Sunset Drive, the rest of Downtown South Miami looks and feels like a rural downtown from the 70’s and is nowhere near having the vision that so many other cities in South Florida have, even though it is blessed with one of the best locations in all of South Florida. Why is this? Is it the fault of the retailers, restaurants or the property owners? The answer is maybe. If other municipalities left it up to their merchants or property owners, you would have exactly what South Miami has. Almost every urban district in South Florida creates community with their street signage, sidewalks, and landscape improvements, along with their pro-development attitudes.
And why are these cities doing everything possible to have such vibrant mixed use neighborhoods? It’s because they realize these areas are the heart and soul of their city. Clearly the voters want a place to call their own versus having to drive to someone else’s city, which is different than what is taking place in South Miami. But more than that, these areas create a tax base that can pay for all of the services and improvements needed and desired throughout the city (parks, roads, sidewalks, police, etc.) as it does now. The downtown contributes 65 percent the real-estate tax income in the city.
Downtown South Miami is hurting – and something needs to be done fast. The one thing that historically set downtown South Miami apart from other places was its local-neighborhood feel with local property and merchant owners. Today, those same owners and merchants that believed and invested in the city, some for over 35 years, are suffering, closed or closing.
The million-dollar question to all is, how do we right this ship sooner than later? In my opinion, this will be an impossible task without the city of South Miami changing the way it does business. If the city continues to sit on its proverbial hands by failing to be active, positive, and doing whatever it takes to truly have that “we’re-the-best-city-in-the-world” attitude, then it will continue to be painful for all and the city will continue to be that “underachieving hole in the donut” while other areas benefit from their can-do approach.
If they are willing to change their way of doing business, there are ways to make an immediate difference to put our downtown back on the map:
• Look into adding to the BID budget a one-time improvement amount for the items outlined within the Hometown Plan Area #1 for such things as signage, road, sidewalks, and landscaping improvement throughout the downtown – and get matching funds from the city or other government. This can be accomplished now with the willingness of 51 percent of the downtown owners voting for it and the city doing all it takes to get it done. This method, with the help of the respective city, is what most have done around us (Coral Gables and Coconut Grove to). As a whole, this approach makes the most sense, when you have some owners who don’t want to spend a dime unless they have to. The other beauty with this method, which will make it less burdensome on the property owners, is that because you can lien for non-payment of the tax, you can finance the improvements over the term of the BID (the longer the BID term the lower the payment).
• An alternative to the BID would be to create a special taxing district which is similar to the BID but would not include items such as marketing or administration. It is administered through the county and requires 51 percent of the vote.
• Yet another alternative would be to ask the city to petition the county to add the downtown into the existing CRA area. By doing this, the improvements can be paid for by the increase off property taxes. For example, every $1 created in the downtown in increased taxes would go to pay off the improvements, and considering the fact that the tax base is going down because the property values are going down, this is no loss to the city. This is a much more difficult to accomplish in the long term because you need other governments to approve it and CRAs are primarily used to help blighted residential areas.
• Approve the Shops of Sunset application in some form immediately.
• More long term solutions: Change the LDC and zoning rules to allow for taller buildings and give height incentives if developers pull permits for construction within the next two years.
Brandon Lurie
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