Deed Restrictions: Historic Virginia Key Beach Park

In 1945, it was known as the beach created for blacks only.

By 1982, it was simply known as the "Old County Park," every vestige of its past obliterated in the official deed dated April 5, 1982 when Miami Dade County conveyed the 82-acre park to the City of Miami.

The deed states:

The COUNTY grants all the real property noted in this Deed to the City as long as the City utilizes the said property for public park purposes only. The City agrees to keep the property open to the public, provide maintenance and a level of service equal to or exceeding that which was provided by the County.

....In the event the City does not use the property as a public park, or conveys or attempts to convey all or a portion of the property, then the property described herein will revert back to the County or its successors or assigns at the option of the County....”

After getting the park, the City of Miami promptly closed it. More than a decade later, the City floated the idea of developing a private resort on the land.

Thanks in part to an intrepid community activist who dug up the 1982 deed, those particular development plans began to unravel.

Thanks to the efforts of hundreds of more activists, a public park reopened on the site.

Today, it is known as the historic Virginia Key Beach and Civil Rights Park. And it definitely exceeds what the county had originally provided.

2010 Copyright. @All Rights Reserved
On Facebook: Friends of Virginia Key

Deed Restrictions: Marine Stadium and Basin lands

What has kept Virginia Key’s vast open spaces and waterfront lands from being turned into hotel rows or Bayside Marketplaces?

The answer may lie in the deed restrictions set when the lands were conveyed to the City of Miami from the State of Florida or Miami-Dade County. Consider it a kind of people’s bill of public property rights.

Three key parcels - the Marine Stadium and surrounding basin, the historic Virginia Key Beach Park (“Old County Park”) and the secluded North Point -- come with restrictions that limit uses.

Let's take a look at the Marine Stadium Basin first.

A deed dated March 12, 1963 between “Dade County”  and the “City of Miami” states:

This deed of conveyance is made upon the express condition that the land hereby conveyed shall be perpetually used and maintained for the operation of a Marine Stadium and allied purposes only, and in the event the use of said land for such purposes shall be abandoned, then in such event the title to said land shall revert to the grantor herein.”

The “grantor” in this case is Miami-Dade County, which theoretically could demand all the land back. Afterall, it could be argued the City of Miami “abandoned” the operation of the Marine Stadium when it shuttered it after Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

But with the Miami-Dade County Commission voting April 6 to provide $3 million in seed money towards restoration of the stadium, maybe all the intervening years of neglect will be forgiven and forgotten when the stadium hosts its first comeback concert.

As to the surrounding land, what constitutes “allied purposes” is apparently still up for discussion, as the City of Miami’s previously proposed master plan called for shopping areas, expanded marina and boat storage operations and new restaurants.

Some city officials are hoping that as long as it has the name "marine" appended to it, it fits the bill, as in a "marine-themed" shopping center. Who knows, maybe there's even a "marine-themed" dog park proposal out there.

2010 Copyright. @All Rights Reserved
On Facebook: Friends of Virginia Key