BACKGROUND
The City is the owner of the property located at 300-344 Alton Road, the location of the Miami Beach Marina (folios # 02-4203-000-0010, 02-4203-009-9210 and 02-4203-009-9250). Miami Beach Marina Associates, Ltd., the current lessee of the Miami Beach Marina (“Lessee”), and Alton Road Mixed Use Investments, LLC (“ARMUI”), are proposing a public-private partnership with the City of Miami Beach to enter into a new lease of the Miami Beach Marina, for the purpose of developing and constructing:

(1) a private luxury residential tower that would include approximately 60 residential units and approximately 275,000 gross square feet. To maximize design flexibility as this process proceeds, ARMUI seeks the ability to develop a tower with a maximum height of up to 385 feet; and

(2) a new Marina building and enhanced neighborhood ground floor retail on the site of the current Marina building, with a total of approximately 45,000 gross square feet of accessory commercial, retail and office space, to upgrade the existing condition of the Marina facilities, which are dated and unattractive; and

(3) substantial green space, including an at-grade “Marina Park” of approximately 1 acre which will be open to the general public, as well as other improvements, including resiliency enhancements and improvements to the public baywalk along the Miami Beach Marina (collectively, (1) – (3) above, the “Project”).

The proposal would provide the City with a rare opportunity to negotiate a new lease with improved lease terms and deliver additional public benefits to the City.

The proposed transaction is complex, as it will involve the negotiation, drafting and approval of various interrelated agreements to implement the Project and its various components, including the following:

(1) A new lease agreement for the Miami Beach Marina, with a term of 99 years proposed by Lessee and improved financial and other terms; and

(2) A purchase and sale agreement for the sale, by the City, of air rights for the private residential portion of the Project, with the purchaser, an affiliate of ARMUI (“Air Rights Purchaser”), paying to the City fair market value for the to-be-defined air space; and

(3) A development agreement governing the development, design and construction of the entire Project, including the (1) residential, (2) ground floor retail, and (3) green space and resiliency components. The Development Agreement will provide the developer with the right to use all of the available development rights for the underlying City-owned property that is the subject of the transaction, and the additional floor area associated with the vacation of a portion of the Alton Road ROW, as described in (4) immediately below; and

(4) The vacation of the western half of the Alton Road right-of-way abutting the City-owned parcels along 300-344 Alton Road, consisting of approximately 25,500 square feet (“Alton ROW”). Upon the vacation, fee ownership of the Alton ROW would revert to the City, with the associated development rights to be incorporated for use as part of the Project to permit the Project to be realized as contemplated above.

Currently, as to the Alton ROW, the City holds a right-of-way dedication, which confers on the public an exclusive right of use, so long as the Alton ROW is used for the purpose of the dedication (namely, for pedestrian and vehicular access). By operation of law, once the City vacates the right-of-way, the underlying fee interest in the Alton ROW reverts to the current abutting property owner (which in this case, is the City, as owner of a portion of Lot 1 and all of Lots 22-31, as described in Exhibit 1). Accordingly, the proposed vacation of the Alton ROW differs from prior vacations approved by the City, because the City would be vacating a right-of-way in favor of itself, and the vacated Alton ROW would remain under the City’s complete control.

(5) Amendments to the City’s Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Regulations, which are summarized as follows:

a. Amendments to the PF future land use regulations in the Comprehensive Plan, to permit public-private marina redevelopments (requiring significant publicly accessible green open space; and permitting retail sales and service establishments, commercial uses including business and professional offices, eating and drinking establishments, apartment residential uses, and recreational uses); and

b. Amendments to the CPS-4 district regulations in the Land Development Regulations that would only apply to public-private marina mixed-use redevelopments, including an increase to the maximum height; increase to the height for allowable height exceptions; amendments to minimum setbacks; and a text amendment to permit non-use screening of parking floors (including landscape buffering and physical design elements, as opposed to commercial and residential uses) on all frontages except the Alton Road frontage.

The new lease agreement and sale of air rights will each require approval by a majority of the voters voting in a Citywide referendum pursuant to Section 1.03(b)(1) of the City Charter.

PLANNING ANALYSIS
The attached Ordinance amends the Land Development Regulations for the CPS-4 district, as further detailed below. A companion item is on the LUSC agenda to consider a corresponding Comprehensive Plan amendment. Specifically, the Miami Beach Marina site at 300 Alton Road (the “Marina Site”) has a future land use designation of “Public Facilities (PF) Governmental Use.” The Comprehensive Plan amendment would modify the PF Future Land Use regulations to allow for “public-private marina redevelopments.”

Pursuant to the Land Development Regulations, the Marina Site has a zoning designation of “GU, Government Use.” City Code Section 142-425 provides that the development regulations for the GU district are an average of the development regulations (setbacks, floor area ratio, signs, parking, etc.) of the surrounding zoning districts. The sites immediately abutting the Marina Site have a designation of “CPS-4, Intensive Mixed-Use Phased Bayside Commercial.” As such, the CPS-4 zoning district regulations apply to the adjacent GU district, in which the Marina Site is located.

The attached draft Ordinance amends the Land Development Regulations to create regulations for sites with a public-private marina mixed-use redevelopment and a PF Future Land Use designation. A summary of the proposed new regulations is as follows:

1) Increase the height limit from 150 feet to a potential maximum of 385 feet.

2) Increase the height for allowable height exceptions from 25 feet to 30 feet.

3) Modify setbacks as follows:
• Increase the front setback from 0 feet to 5 feet.
• Increase the interior side setback from 7.5 feet to 20 feet.
• Maintain the 5-foot rear setback.

4) Allow non-use screening (as opposed to commercial and residential uses) along floors containing parking, on all frontages except the Alton Road frontage.

As the subject property is owned by the City, and the zoning designation of the site is GU, any development would require City Commission approval. Additionally, as the Project qualifies as a private or joint government/private use within the meaning of City Code Section 142-423, Planning Board review is also required.1 Ultimately, if the various Project components are approved by the City Commission and the voters in a Citywide referendum, the design of the Project will require Design Review Board approval.

The most significant part of the CPS-4 amendments proposed is the increase in height. However, the massing and scale of the Project will depend on (1) the maximum height in the attached Ordinance, and (2) the aggregation of development rights resulting from the sale of air rights and vacation of the Alton ROW. Staff would like to emphasize that these components are interrelated, and the developer continues to study numerous options regarding the dimensions of both the tower and pedestal portions of the proposed new structure.

Building Height
The average height for waterfront buildings along the Alton Road corridor to the south of 5th Street is 301 feet. The following are the building heights of adjacent structures:

1) Icon at South Beach – 450 Alton Road: 423 feet

2) Murano Grande – 400 Alton Road: 407 feet

3) Rebecca Tower North – 200 Alton Road: 115 feet

4) Rebecca Tower South – 150 Alton Road: 115 feet

5) The Yacht Club – 90 Alton Road: 341 feet

6) Murano – 1000 South Pointe Drive: 402 feet

As such, Staff believes that the proposed maximum allowable height of 385 feet being contemplated is compatible with existing, surrounding buildings, given the existing context of taller residential structures along the east side of Alton Road / South Pointe Drive. Planning staff firmly believes that, conceptually, a taller tower that has a substantially reduced width would be a better design direction than a shorter but broader building with a height of 225 feet. In this regard, the proposed maximum height of 385 feet is well below most of the existing residential structures along the east side of Alton Road / South Pointe Drive. The developer’s team is studying various design options with different dimensions for the pedestal and the tower.

Additionally, the current site, although composed of an uninspired array of surface parking and an awkward commercial building (Monty’s), does allow for a significant light, air and view corridor. This view corridor is experienced both from the water side, as well as from most of the South Pointe area to the immediate east of the site. A taller, slender structure would allow for a much more substantial light and air corridor on the site. Further, a narrower tower and a smaller building footprint creates more opportunities for ground level open space. The modified setbacks and frontage requirements proposed also provide greater opportunities for open space.

Floor Area Ratio (FAR)
The developer is proposing a residential tower with accessory commercial space, comprised of approximately 60 units and 320,000 square feet of development on the site. Ongoing study of the Marina Site and its adjacent parcels may impact the total available floor area on the site.

The FAR calculations for this site are complicated by an apparent transfer of +/-174,000 square feet of floor area to the Murano Grande and Icon projects from the Marina Site as part of the Development Agreement executed in 1986 by and between the City, the Miami Beach Redevelopment Agency, and South Shore Developers, Inc. (the “SSDI DA”). At or about the same time, the evidence suggests that an additional 105,000 square feet of floor area from Lots 30 and 31 were transferred to the parcels to the north in connection with the development of the Murano Grande and Icon projects. The SSDI DA -- together with a series of City development actions throughout the 1980s – combined to form links resulting in the successful transformation of the South of Fifth neighborhood. By operation of the transfer, all information reviewed to date indicates that the available FAR on the Marina Site is less than the maximum zoned FAR of 2.5 permitted at present under the City’s Land Development Regulations. Consequently, the developer has proposed the vacation of the Alton ROW to provide for additional development rights, in order to accommodate the proposed Project, and to account for, and offset, the previous transfers of FAR.

Without the vacation of the Alton ROW, the remaining available floor area on the Marina Site would not be sufficient to accommodate the Project as proposed. Planning staff and the City Attorney’s Office have advised the developer that, if the developer does not proceed with the proposed vacation (which requires City Commission approval), the Land Development Regulations could be amended to increase the maximum zoned FAR for public-private marina mixed-use redevelopments. Such an increase would require the approval of the City’s voters in a Citywide referendum pursuant to City Charter Section 1.03(c).2 Based on information reviewed to date, the Land Development Regulations would need to be amended to increase the maximum permitted FAR by approximately 0.5 FAR.

Staff would like to emphasize that the overall square footage proposed is modest and suitably scaled when measured against the existing, as-built neighborhood context established by Murano, The Yacht Club Portofino, Murano Grande, and Icon. Staff and the developer are continuing to review a number of factors related to the calculation of available floor area on the site, including the lengthy and complex entitlement history, ownership patterns, past rezoning, building permit records, transfer of development rights, and other land use issues that have arisen over the last thirty-five (35) years.

NOTES:

1. City Code Section 142-423 provides, in pertinent part, as follows: “[p]rivate or joint government/private uses in the GU government use district, including air rights, shall be reviewed by the planning board prior to approval by the city commission.”

2. City Charter Section 1.03(c) provides that “[t]he floor area ratio of any property or street end within the City of Miami Beach shall not be increased by zoning, transfer, or any other means from its current zoned floor area ratio . . . , unless any such increase in zoned floor area ratio for any such property shall first be approved by a vote of the electors of the City of Miami Beach.”