South Miami: Is Sunset Place Failing (Again)? ... by gimleteye

This is my neighborhood. I've followed the development of South Miami since the early days of the Bakery Center, in the late 1980s. One of the most important reasons used by developers to approve Sunset Place, and later, the design charrette approving the zoning plan for South Miami, was the prohibition against large-scale development. Put another way, the incentive for taxpayers/voters/citizens is now being dissolved twenty years later. This is how it goes in Florida: no measure to build sustainable growth into the landscape is ever secure. It's a constant battle against shifting baselines, moving goal posts, and greed. Decision makers and elected officials count on the public losing track, inattention and apathy. Judged by current results who can argue their success? The following, from a concerned citizen:

The City of South Miami is fast-tracking a 16 story development where the Shops at Sunset are located on the corners of Red Road (57th Avenue) and Sunset (72 Street) and South Dixie Highway (U.S. 1). A develop company owns the land and has already taken the plan before the South Miami City Planning Board. Forty people from the company were there in force with their “Yes”� buttons, their slicked down regalia, power point presentations, etc., etc.....the color of money was everywhere. The complex will be the usual: shops, a hotel, condos and office space. It is obvious what such a complex will do to traffic at Red and Sunset, not to mention Red and Dixie, a choke point, as it is now. In Coral Gables I observed two buildings--one looming behind the other. Now the 9 story building (I counted) was high enough, but to see the 16 story building towering over it was like looking at some dark image of Gotham. 16 stories really is high. In South Miami's 2 and 3 story environment, it will appear even higher, like some priapic shaft reaching towards the heavens. In short, it will look ridiculous.

There will be a few more hearings before the South Miami Commission votes. But one has only to look at Coral Gables, Brickell, the Condo Canyons in Sunrise or inch down any road during rush hour to know that things have a way of happening in South Florida. I don't know what the solution is. There is a gathering for Mayor Stoddard in Pinecrest this coming Wednesday (see below), a good venue to let him know that not every one agrees with this vision of South Miami. I will eventually be in New Zealand where the traffic runs at a sane pace and the word “zoning”� still means something. But being someone who is not of a sadistic nature, I still wish the best for South Miami.