BACKGROUND
The City-owned property known as the "West Lots" consists of 8 city blocks of land located on the West side of Collins Avenue, directly across the street from North Shore Open Space Park. Each of the 8 blocks measures 175 feet by 300 feet or 1.2 acres. Four of the blocks are developed as off-street parking lots (total 307 spaces), two blocks are vacant land, one block is used for a temporary Ocean Rescue headquarters, and one block is currently being utilized by the Parking Department on a temporary basis.
It is believed that development of these lots has potential to add additional recreational/civic opportunities for the neighborhood, add retail and dining opportunities to the area, increase parking capacity for the immediate area as well as for a soon-to-be-improved North Shore Open Space Park, and provide lease payments and property taxes that would assist in providing for other area and City-wide needs. The land that currently encompasses the West Lots as well as North Shore Open Space Park was assembled by the City of Miami Beach over a period of time spanning three decades between the 1950's and 1980's. In 1989, the City deeded all of the West Lots and North Shore Open Space Park to the State of Florida with a deed restriction "that the above described property shall be used and maintained for public recreational purposes for which it was conveyed in perpetuity." In November 2000, the State of Florida deeded the land back to the City of Miami Beach without any specific language about the use of the land.
ANALYSIS
THE NORTH BEACH MASTER PLAN
During public input sessions held during the creation of the Plan NoBe – North Beach Master Plan, the public expressed a number of suggestions for the use of these properties. Suggestions included leaving the properties “as is;” creating a public park space; selling the properties for development; and several other options. Two potential scenarios were included in the final plan: 1) Mid-rise and residential development on four of the eight lots to be considered for public/private partnerships, with the remaining four lots to remain available for civic uses; 2) Primarily public uses such as a hotel, various active public uses, civic space, and parking structures. While both scenarios were included in the adopted plan, it was the general consensus that scenario one (1) was a good compromise.
In scenario one (1), it was contemplated that the four public/private lots could include the development such as mixed use buildings with retail and residential uses or potentially, a hotel facility. The plan further recommends that these lots not be sold, but that the land be leased to private entities for these purposes (the City Charter requires any such lease of more than 10 years will require a citywide referendum). The recommendations for the remaining four civic-use lots included the placement of parking structures (possibly with ground floor retail or other civic related offices or uses) on two of the four lots as parking remains necessary for other uses on the lots and for users of the North Shore Open Space Park directly across Collins Avenue. Uses for the other lots included more direct public uses such as a teen center or active uses such as a swimming pool or soccer fields.
Scenario two (2) included limited public/private development of a hotel with the remainder of the lots to include various civic uses such as a pool, community gardens, all-wheels skate track, and a teen center. This scenario was not the compromise as the Steering Committee recognized that significant resources would be required to maintain all of these uses while uses in Scenario one (1) had potential to be paid for/built/maintained by the private parties utilizing non-civic land.
Certainly other possibilities can be reviewed, however, if development of the lots is desired, there are a number items that must be contemplated in advance. The City would need to determine if all the lots should be developed together or if a single lot or groups of lots should be released. It could couple development of a private lot with development of a civic lot by the private developer. A determination would also need to be made as to whether the City wants to specifically proscribe what can be built on the lots or request broad responses from the development community as to what the market might best absorb.