New Virginia Key Plan Goes Greener With Shades of Gray

The Miami Herald editorial board, which last year panned the City of Miami's proposals for Virginia Key , sees the latest proposal as more favorable to residents and less so to developers.

Generally speaking, this is so.

Though after delving into the details, you can see there is still considerable commercial and marine-related development in the Marine Stadium area, in particular.

In other words, greater shades of green (open space next to Miami Marine Stadium) mixed in with some gray (a multi-story parking garage, four, multi-story boat storage buildings, a marine exhibition center of 35,000 to up to 135,000 square feet).

View the "conceptual" plan developed by University of Miami students in a semester long design workshop on the City of Miami's website.

http://ci.miami.fl.us/planning/pages/master_plans/VKey.asp

(The 69 page plan takes awhile to download so be patient.)

This plan was developed as part of a semester-long design workshop at the University of Miami architecture school this spring. The students and their professors invited representatives of civic and environmental groups to speak to them and offer suggestions, some of which made their way into the revised plan.

The Planning Advisory Board takes up the issue tonight, Wednesday, July 21 and the City Commission takes it up Thursday, July 22, time to be determined.

These are both public hearings, so come on down to City Hall and participate.
If you have questions or don't like some elements, speak up at the public hearings. If you do like parts, also speak up.

If you can't attend,consider sending an email to City of Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado: tregalado@miami.gov

After all, this is your island. And it is supposed to be your plan.

Virginia Key's Wheel of (Mis)fortune

Spin the wheel and land on yet another development proposal for Virginia Key.

Airport. Freight port. Blimp base. World’s Fair. Hotel. Sports stadium. Trade-mart. And shopping centers - marine-themed or otherwise. Lots of marine industrial stuff, from mega boat-storage stacks to marinas.

A lot of things didn’t happen over the years because of public outcry. Some things happened in spite of it.

Here’s the story so far: two public beach parks, marinas, restaurants, a sewage station, a garbage dump, a historic Marine Stadium and a whole lot of wilderness. In fact, 700 of the roughly 1000-acre island is comprised of the Bill Sadowski Critical Wildlife Area, which contains the island’s largest amount of unaltered, submerged land and unaltered mangrove forest. It is also the cradle of wildlife seen in the area by air or sea- from rare hawks to manatees.

What’s next for Virginia Key?

On Saturday, March 27, the Urban Environment League will host a Public Design Workshop on Virginia Key from 8:30 am. to 11:30 a.m. at the Rusty Pelican restaurant, 3201 Rickenbacker Causeway, Virginia Key. Hopefully the public will get a say on the island’s future.

Up for grabs: the historic Miami Marine Stadium and surrounding public lands and commercial areas, the lagoon, the City of Miami landfill site, Northpoint, Jimbo's,  and all natural areas, including the Bill Sadowski Critical Wildlife Area and the Tropical Hammock and restored dunes.  

University of Miami architecture students, who have been working for months under the guidance of UM Professor and Friends of Marine Stadium Co-Founder Jorge Hernandez, and Hilario Candela, architect of the Stadium, and the watchful eyes of City of Miami planning department officials, will present their plans, too.

The public will have an opportunity to provide feedback on the proposals presented and offer up their own ideas. There will also be information on a recently released biological evaluation of the island and a proposal for a Biscayne National Park Visitor’s Center on Virginia Key. 

Those who can’t attend the UEL Virginia Key Design Workshop and still want to offer feedback can send comments to the Urban Environment League at www.urbanenvironmentleague.blogspot.com or uel@bellsouth.net.

And the big wheel keeps on spinning...

UM Architecture Students "Re-Imagine" Virginia Key

Taking their inspiration from great waterfront sites throughout the world, students in the Design Studio class at the University of Miami School of Architecture are re-imagining the previously proposed Virginia Key Master Plan.

Out are the massive parking garages - replaced by “green parking rooms." In are piazzas, reflecting pools, sculpture gardens and even a small amphitheater, along with picnic areas and a waterfront promenade that runs the length of the Marine Stadium basin. And a restored Miami Marine Stadium.

So as not to appear impractical or too idealistic, the student designs intersperse these public amenities among revenue-producing commercial and marine industry buildings, including a 150,000-square-foot Marine Center of the Americas exhibition hall, dry dock storage facilities, a new marina and room for retail and restaurants.

“We want the students to maintain credibility,” said Jorge Hernandez, a UM professor of architecture who is leading the semester design studio.

City of Miami planners have become a fixture at the design studio, too - perhaps in case things get too fanciful. Or too public. (There was talk of an “Aquatic Urban Theater.” And one presentation showed a “mesh-covered” dry dock storage facility - quite beautiful in its green and blue translucence).

But that may change.

A few weeks ago members of civic and environmental groups spoke to the students about Virginia Key’s fragile environment and deed restrictions on the land intended to protect public uses. As a result, Hernandez said the students would consider developing yet another alternate plan - one that would be more in line with a state or national park vision - a Visitor’s Center, public boat house for canoe and kayak rentals, open space and public gardens in the marine stadium basin..

The final student designs will be displayed at a public charrette co-sponsored by the University of Miami and the Urban Environment League to be held 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., March 27 at the Rusty Pelican restaurant on Virginia Key. The charrette is part of Dade Heritage Days. Details on the charrette at www.dadeheritagetrust.org or call (305) 358-9572.


Resources:
http://www.miami.edu/index.php/news/releases/a_lifeline_for_miami_marine_stadium/

Does Virginia Key Need Guiding Principles?

Alternatives to the 2009 proposed master plan for Virginia Key are now being mulled over by community groups, public officials, editorial writers and even University of Miami Architecture School students in a special design workshop on Virginia Key. The City of Miami Commission is set to reconsider the Virginia Key Master Plan in May 2010.

What will guide decisions about what, where and how the island should be used? Should public land be redeveloped using the same principles as private property? Do private sector rules of highest and best use apply? Does public access trump revenue generation by a cash-strapped city? Should short term goals override sound, long-term planning? Is the fragile environment of Virginia Key going to survive?

Perhaps a lesson from the recent past can help. In 1999, the City of Miami was in the throes of a financial crisis, much like today, and Virginia Key public land was seen as an opportunity to increase revenues, much like today. Sensing a need for some kind of order amid the chaos of competing interests, University of Miami Professor Greg Bush, then president of the Urban Environment League, came up with these guiding “Principles for the Future of Virginia Key.” Here is his memo in its entirety:

Memorandum
From: Gregory Bush, President, Urban Environment League
To: Virginia Key Advisory Group
Date: February 3, 1999

Subject: Principles for the Future of Virginia Key

-Open all public parkland for use by the public within three months in order to folly insure the rights of all residents.
All existing deed restrictions should be adhered to in order to avoid further erosion of the public’s historic right to their park land.

-Free and clear public access to the beach and all public property should be maintained.

-Public participation should be insured throughout the process of re-designing the use of public land with due public notice given in major newspapers. The need for public charrettes, paid for by the city and other sources of funds is paramount. All city and county reports should be completed on schedule and issued in writing.

-Those Virginia Key Advisory Board or Waterfront Board members with personal interest of their own, or by members of their family or close personal friends in future economic benefit from the and in question should consider that this might constitute a conflict of interest and should consider removing themselves from their respective Committees.

-Public bathroom facilities should be made available to all and adequate security should be maintained in all public parks.
-Public access to public land should not be inhibited by parking restrictions or inadequate public transportation.

-Public parkland should be used to enhance the appreciation of nature through walking trails, public campgrounds. It should also provide places of contemplation and relaxation as well as be redesigned for active recreational uses and as entertainment venues. There is a paramount value to keep all activity small scale.

-Public parkland on Virginia Key should be used to memorialize the civil rights struggle of African Americans. A memorial structure should be constructed modeled after the FDR memorial in Washington D.D. that will be a place of contemplation and tell the history of the struggle. It should be developed in cooperation with the Black Archives. The site should be a non-commercial service to the community, act as a tourist destination. All proceeds should benefit underprivileged youth.

-A suitable memorial should be created for all those from Cuba and Haiti who arrived on the shores of Virginia Key in their flight from oppression.

-Commercial eating facilities should be strictly limited to small scale operations.

-Educational programs for youth should be a major objective in redesigning the public parkland - done in conjunction with the Biscayne Nature Center.

-This Committee should be retained during the entire process of the planning for Virginia Key not merely to help with Specification for RFP’s so that there be continuity of knowledge.

-A Wilderness Campground should be created for inner city children, children at risk, and others, similar to the youth camp at Biscayne National Park.

-Any designs should be completed only after full and active consultation with local experts in the fields of environmental science and local history and with due deference to the ecological and historical nature of this island.

To see the proposed October 2009 Virginia Key Master Plan that was deferred by the City of Miami Commission, as well as earlier presentations created by the consultant, go to http://www.virginiakeymasterplan.com/

Illustration: EDSA, Rendering of proposed master plan for Marine Stadium Basin properties, Oct. 2009.

@All Rights Reserved
on Facebook: Friends of Virginia Key

Will public have a say in Marine Stadium Basin's future?

Does the land around the Marine Stadium belong to the public? And will it have a say in what happens there in the future?

The Friends of Miami Marine Stadium announced this week that University of Miami students in Town Planning, Finance and Land Use Planning classes will be looking at alternative plans and designs for the Marine Stadium and the land around it. That is, an alternative to the Oct. 2009 proposed master plan, which was deferred by City officials until May 2010.

A showing of the students' work will go on display in late March to be followed by a planning charrette where members of the public can provide their feedback. The exhibition is part of Dade Heritage Days. *

Will the students treat the publicly owned waterfront land as a private development? If so, the highest and best uses for valuable waterfront land might very well be a hotels, shopping centers and “signature” restaurants.

But this is not a private development. The land is owned by the community. And it was given to the City of Miami for the use of “a Marine Stadium and allied purposes only,” according the 1963 Deed.

The County Deed states that if that purpose was “abandoned,” the County retained the right to take the land back.

Perhaps someone in 1963 foresaw the day when the land where the Marine Stadium sits would be coveted by private developers or be steered away from community purposes.

As early as 1967, there was a movement to introduce pari-mutual boat racing, according to news reports.

A Miami News Editorial responded: “Keep the Gamblers Out of Marine Stadium.”

“(T)he stadium, an attractive one-of-a-kind structure, is designed for the enjoyment of the community....It seems more logical to turn the Marine stadium into a public park, with picnic tables, barbeque pits, and swimming areas to accommodate the public. Perhaps a combination park-stadium would enable the city to recover some of its finances...Open the doors, just keep the bettors out.”

And keep the hotels, shopping centers and and entertainment strips out, too.

It’s not South Beach. Or Bayside. Or Las Vegas. But does it have to be?
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*Miami Marine Stadium/Virginia Key Planning Charrette
Saturday, March 27, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Rusty Pelican Restaurant, 3201 Rickenbacker Causeway, Key Biscayne For more info, call Dade Heritage Trust, 305-358-9572
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Photo: Marine Stadium and basin land as it appears today.

@All rights reserved.
On Facebook: Friends of Virginia Key