Harry Emilio Gottlieb's (Guest Blogger) Plea: Mercy Please No More Unnecessary Condos!

Grove Activist Glenn Terry was absolutely correct when he wrote in his Sunday Miami Herald column In My Opinion, that “Coconut Grove needs another high-rise like Johnny Winton needs another drink.” It was a most sobering observation!

What Mercy Hospital needs to do is to build a quality Assisted Living Facility and not sell off a portion of its G/I zoned property to the Related Group for them to add more luxury condos to the glut that already exists.

Selling this property to a condo developer will only be a short term fix for Mercy’s financial crisis.

What our community really requires and what will be of greatest benefit in the long run for Mercy Hospital is a very high quality Assisted Living Facility.

The demand for a good A.L.F. is very strong and getting stronger with each year that the Baby Booms continue to age.

The Mercy property is properly zoned for an A.L.F..

An A.L.F. will be a much needed and a most profitable revenue stream for Mercy Hospital.

There is no justification to rezone Mercy property from G/I to R-4 or even R-3 just to accommodate the building of more unnecessary luxury condos and provide Mercy with a temporary solution to their many years of mismanagement that have resulted in this financial crisis.

There is no reason to compromise on reducing the height and density of the three luxury condos that the Related Group insists on planting on this property that is zoned for medical and health care purposes.

The final City of Miami Commission meeting takes place April 26th, to decide the future of the Mercy Hospital property, the Pandora’s Box that may result with all other G/I zoned properties and the future of our community.

Please contact your City of Miami Mayor, Commissioner and Manager and request them to please respect our zoning codes and the Grovener Rule that our community insisted on and that they helped pass and are responsible to honor and protect for the good of us all.