On December 17, 2014, per Resolution No. 2014-28879, the City Commission adopted the 2014 North Beach Revitalization Plan, which proposed a CRA or other special taxing district as the funding mechanism for North Beach revitalization strategies recommended by the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Revitalization.  

On October 19, 2016, per Resolution No. 2016-29608, the City Commission accepted the recommendation of the North Beach Master Plan Steering Committee and adopted Dover Kohl’s 2016 Plan NoBe – North Beach Master Plan, and further authorized the Administration to expedite implementation of the Plan's projects, programs, and policies. In the Plan, Dover Kohl explicitly proposes a CRA as a funding tool for implementation.

On February 14, 2018, the City Commission adopted Resolution No. 2018-30170, accepting the January 19, 2018 recommendation of the FCWPC, and authorizing the Administration to discuss creation of a North Beach CRA with Miami-Dade County, and further authorizing engagement of a community redevelopment consultant.

On February 14, 2018, the City Commission also adopted Resolution 20108-30171, accepting the January 24, 2018 recommendation of the NCAC, and authorizing development of a “quality of life plan” consistent with the North Beach Master Plan, with such projects to be funded by a dedicated funding stream such as a CRA.

On July 25, 2018, the City Commission adopted Resolution 2018-30432, accepting the June 20, 2018 recommendation of the NCAC to commence CRA discussions with Miami-Dade County, in order to fund projects contained in the quality of life plan and originating from the North Beach Master Plan.

Adoption of Original Boundary

On July 17, 2019, the City Commission adopted Resolution No. 2019-30892, accepting a preliminary report concerning a finding of necessity for the redevelopment of a certain area of North Beach (the "Finding report"), and requesting that Miami-Dade County delegate redevelopment powers to the City. A map of the geographic area contained in the Finding report (the "Original Boundary") is contained in Attachment A  and the July 17, 2019 resolution is contained in Attachment B. County Commissioner Sally Heyman, whose District 4 includes North Beach, agreed to sponsor the item before the Board of County Commissioners. Prior to a vote of the County Commission, the proposal is presented before two County committees.

On October 31, 2019, the City presented the Finding report to the County TIF Committee, composed of County staff from Planning, Housing, Budget, and the Property Appraiser. The committee (1) accepted the declaration of necessity contained in the Finding report and (2) made a motion to recommend that the City consider extending the boundary to include Crespi and North Shore. The TIF Committee indicated that the expanded boundaries would help retain existing housing stock and create opportunities to leverage City and County programs and services for attainable housing, and thereby strengthen the purpose of the CRA.

Alternative Boundary

Pursuant to County staff’s recommendation at the October TIF Committee, the City considered revising the Finding report to include Crespi and North Shore within the proposed boundary and emphasize the role of housing solutions in the redevelopment plan. 

On January 15, 2020, the City Commission deferred consideration of a boundary expansion and directed the Administration to continue community engagement.  Thereafter, staff employed multiple methods of public education, including sharing multilingual collateral on social media and a new website (www.miamibeachfl.gov/CRA); attendance at numerous meetings of North Beach neighborhood associations, community groups and events; office hours at the Building Department’s North Beach office; and a February 18^th community meeting attended by 200 at the North Shore Youth Center.

The community engagement allowed the Administration to better understand concerns from the public, much of which originated from unfamiliarity with CRA function and misconceptions about the limited powers that Florida law delegates to CRAs:

• Public Use of Funds: pursuant to a redevelopment plan developed with public input and adopted at City and County Commission public hearings, the CRA will fund public benefits like: improved streetscapes and landscaping; parking facilities; parks and beaches; environmental resiliency programs; historic preservation and life safety/code compliance upgrades; and workforce housing.
• Tax Benefit (Not Tax Increase): the CRA does not levy any new taxes, but it allows for more of the property tax revenue paid by property owners to be retained for public benefit within the CRA district, rather than distributed elsewhere throughout the County.

• CRA Governance: unlike other CRAs, the governing board administering CRAs in Miami Beach, called the Miami Beach Redevelopment Agency, or “RDA”, is composed of the City Commission and a County Commissioner—without any private citizen appointees. This Miami Beach CRA model was recognized by the State Attorney’s Office as the statewide exemplar for CRA administration because the presence of elected officials ensures accountability to voters for any CRA actions. (The 2015 Miami-Dade County Grand Jury Report on CRAs highlighted Miami Beach for transparent and accountable CRA administration. Available at: http://www.miamisao.com/publications/grand_jury/2000s/gj2015s.pdf)

• No Land Use or Regulatory Powers: per statute, a CRA does not have any regulatory, zoning, or “super” powers. In 2006, the Florida Legislature prohibited eminent domain or the condemnation of private property by CRAs.

Despite increased efforts to educate and engage the public about the benefits of an enlarged boundary size, members of the community still expressed concerns with the basis for expanding the geographic size of the CRA's boundaries beyond what the City Commission approved in July 2019.

As a result of the current pandemic, there are significant hurdles  to obtaining community buy-in to proceed with the larger geographic boundary that had greater significance for the residential areas of Crespi and North Shore. The Original Boundary will still have tremendous impact on North Beach, but it includes smaller amounts of the RM-1 zoning district and local historic district overlays.

Pursuant to Resolution No. 2019-30892, the City Commission has already unanimously adopted the Finding report dated April 2019. The City Commission has not taken any action since that time, therefore, no further City Commission action is required by statute for the County to proceed with consideration of the Original Boundary.  It is the recommendation of the Administration to move forward with the existing approved boundaries at this time and if the opportunity presents itself in the future we could revisit the expanded boundary.