Tonight is the City of Miami Planning Advisory Board Meeting to approve the fast-tracked Virginia Key Plan, fondly called Paving Over Paradise. I took a quick look at the plan and found 4 parking garages with 4,520 spaces. That is not counting all the surface parking. That sounds like an AUTO park to me. Activists are counting 12 garages. Hmmm. Didn’t see that but I looked quickly, have a look and you count garages.I think that the planning meetings, where they asked people what they wanted, were a sham. Why gather people to waste time putting blue dots on amenities (no one put a blue dot on a parking garage) when you aren’t going to listen to them?
Do you really need 4,520 spaces (plus) and massive 5 story parking garages for a passive park? That is what people wanted: a passive park. Granted, much of the parking is in the more commercial basin area, but still it seems excessive. The over-the-top wellness center on the former landfill calls for 2,666 spaces. In comparison Bill Baggs, a 400 acre State Park has 1,200 spaces. BTW, Baggs is passive:
23 comments:
I'm guessing they're planning to move Parrot Jungle to Key Biscayne to handle the overflow crowds on Watson Island. this is probably an idea from the Rasco Revolutionary Guards.
LOVED the Pink Paradise video! Thanks for the link. The Joni Mitchell tune says it all!
I simply don't get it...are that many people currently crowding the existing Virginia Key and KB facilities?
Dots are are so much fun.
They may as well as allowed the people to put them directly on the their foreheads and wear them as art.
I guess the dots are an exercise in futility...kinda like being an activist in county and city issues.
Miami Herald said today: 11 garages.
What's the fuss? So get the planning board to ding a couple parking garages.
The key doesn't have any residential areas, so anyone who wants to use the area, even the KB people, would have to drive to get there.
Bill Baggs is surface lot. How much more open land did that eat up versus a garage?
I'm sure the plan isn't perfect, but wasn't this originally conceptualized by the City to be a "eco" resort with a hotel and RV campground or some craziness? This plan seems eminently better.
The active recreation is nearly entirely confined to the old landfill. The commercial is forced along that sliver adjacent to the causeway where it already exists.
In the range of things to get our backs up about in this city, this one just doesn't register for me.
How is this plan better? The ECO Campground was much less concrete intensive than this plan.
What we are seeing here is the entering wedge for much more intensive development. Haven't you people seen how the city operates? They are generally liars trying to get bids for their developer friends - under the mantle of so called objective consultants. Baloney. So why involve the public at all? This plan is a recipe for future disaster on this island.
Active Recreation & Wellness:
1. Baseball Fields
2. Softball Fields
3. Batting Cages
4. Soccer Fields
5. Tennis Courts
6. Competition Stadium, Track
and Field, and Football
7. Active Recreation and
Wellness Campus and
Dormitories
8. Central Green
9. Entry at Arthur J. Lamb
Road (and connection to
multi-use trail)
10. Internal Pathway System
(for Pedestrians, Bicycles
and limited golf carts)
11. Surface Parking (with
pervious pavement and rain
gardens /natural stormwater
runoff filtration systems)
12. Parking Garages (1-2 Story
with Green Roofs where
feasible)
Total Parking: 2,660 spaces
13. Open Recreation Space
1. Central Pavilion (i.e. restrooms, snack bar,
etc)
2. Softball Fields
3. Soccer Fields
4. Pedestrian Walkway and Biking Trails System
5. Baseball Fields
6. Entry Area
7. Parking (with bio-swales and pervious
pavement)
8. Stadium Grand Stand
9. Track and Field and Football Competition Field
10. Children’s Outdoor Recreation and Playground
Area
11. Interactive Water Feature
12. Passive Outdoor Gardens and Gathering Spaces
13. Public Plaza and Central Green
Campus Building Program:
14. Group Exercise Rooms, Day Care and
Infirmary/Clinic
15. Dormitories (Overnight Lodging), Dining Facilities,
and Community Meeting Center
16. Wellness and Fitness Institute
17. Administration and Reception
18. Gymnasium (i.e. YMCA) with Training and Locker
Rooms
19. Indoor Courts (i.e. Racquetball, Squash, etc)
20. Offices and Training Facilitie1
Why do you need dormitories at wellness and fitness institute. Is it a Pritkin type thing or is an acceptable name for hotel rooms? What is the intent? Is one better than the other.
If it is regional it for the region. Why Overnight stuff?
If the dorms are for a DESTINATION park -- which this sounds like -- let the teams stay at hotels so we can get bed tax for the Marlins. Think people think!!
Public meetings for public spaces are usually a waste of time. The government can build quick parking garages and drag their feet on the rest of the stuff. Claim they are in the planning stages for the next 10 years. Look at Miami Beach as an example.
What is the cost?
How much are all the consultants being paid?
How much would it cost to complete every phase of the consulatants recommendations?
How will the City find the money to pay for any of the recommendations if the City's excess money will all be going to the privately owned Marlins organization?
Consultants got paid $900,000....for a power point presentation....we are all clearly in the wrong business...
Are they getting ready to go after an Olympics or some such international event? I believe they were looking for those kinds of things. If they are, they would need stadiums and other sports arenas if they did something like a summer O.
I don't think it is an accident that it is all clustered together.
Just a parting thought: Can you imagine the traffic if you are living on Key Biscayne? Maybe the dorms are for the folks who cannot get back to the mainland.
It's probably for soccer team/national training. A place to put up the Brazilian U-21.
There are 8 parking garages in the "Wellness Center" aka Wide World of Sports on the landfill. They are marked as "12" on the maps and they ring the sports complex along a road separating the complex from the Bill Sadowski Critical Wilife Area. Plus substantial surface parking lot Total parking marked for this area: 7,300 spaces.
The sports complex is a lighted facility for nighttime play next to sea turtle nesting beaches.
Amazing.
It appears the consultants and the City totally missed what the people really wanted.
Sending the Virginia Key Master Plan back to EDSA design group is just another political stalling tactic for more time. It is also a way of later coming back to the bargaining table with the public and say that changes have been made on your behalf. It is reminiscent of a rug merchant asking a high price at first and then finally agreeing to settle for a lower price that he was planning to get anyway. At the Planning Board meeting representatives of the city called the Historic and Iconic Miami Marine Stadium and its surrounding area blighted. But they failed to admit that the City is responcible for allowing it to become blighted due to their years of neglect. The fact that this land is just e few feet above sea level means that most any hurricane will develop a tied surge that will wash over the islands and damage or destroy all manmade structures. The present Master Plan is so massive and abominable that it would be more well suited in Kissimmee, Panama City or Vegas. This administration has conducted plenty of public meetings. Many concerned citizens have expressed their concerns and and environmentally sound suggestions for this island. But as the warden said in Cool Hand "It looks like we have a failure to communicate." Even the Chairperson of the Planning Board indicated that there seems to be a "Disconnect" between what the public wants and what the city and their not so busy at this time developer pals desire. This administration has no credibility in developing projects and less in maintaining projects, parks, pools or buildings. The best thing this administration can do is to do no more damage to Miami for the next six month. They should just let the next administration actually listen to our citizens and figure out what is really best for our community. I am sure that soon this administration will have EDSA present a revised plan to the Commissioners. The previous rejections by the Waterfront Board and Planning Board will be ignored. I bet the next Commissioners Meeting will once again see the first three rows of seats at City Hall filled with Yellow Shirted folks bussed in and preventing real concerned citizens from being seated and once again expressing their grave concerns. Some Commissioners will once again insist that this project is about jobs, the poor, disadvantaged kids and to help make Miami a world-class city. They will not admit that they have more often then not failed to provide many more jobs and improvements in their own districts. Miami deserves better. We can only hope that this November the citizens will elect a Mayor that really cares about our community, budgets and our people. This Virginia Key Master Plan is not good for Miami and even more detrimental to the quality of life to those that live work and visit Key Biscayne. Perhaps Virginia Key should be improved to resemble Cape Florida State Park. More nature trails, nice beaches, a few discreet restaurants some outdoor grills, a few benches and shelters and lots of natural beauty. Harry Emilio Gottlieb
The failure of the Virginia Key Master Plan to follow the wishes of dozens of citizen groups is another failure of Manny Diaz. Manny Diaz always does what causes the most pain to the residents while providing the most profit to his close friends.
When did this become a sports center?? A sports center can be put on any land, any where -- not our last relatively undeveloped piece of coastal / barrier island.
True.
The natural habitats and the natural envirnment should be preserved. Oh, isn't that what all the residents requested?
And today (July 1 letter to the editor in the Miami Herald) the City Manager tries to save face for Manny Diaz by saying they are changing the plan to reflect public's wishes. Please. LIke they didn't know before the public didn't want to concrete the island over with shopping centers and a dry dock storage facility that is seven football fields wide and five stories tall, blocking the waterfront access and eliminating a public boat ramp in the process.
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