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...

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

Seed Money for Miami Marine Stadium Restoration

This week at a community dinner meeting at the Rusty Pelican restaurant on Virginia Key, City of Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado said there would be “good news” regarding the Miami Marine Stadium.

“There will be an announcement soon that we will have access to $3 million to be used as seed money to start restoration,” Regaldo told the audience of about 75 people. The meeting was sponsored by the Urban Environment League (www.uel.org).

Regalado’s announcement was part of a free-wheeling oral history interview conducted by the UEL’s Gregory Bush, a University of Miami history professor and longtime public parks advocate.

The interview traced Regalado’s roots to Havana and arrival as a teenager in Miami during the Pedro Pan children’s airlift in the early 1960’s. Regalado also recounted his time as a journalist covering the Haitian and Cuban migrations. The interview was recorded and will be posted to the UEL website, the group announced.

During the interview Regalado floated the idea of having a “public trust” manage the stadium and hiring promotional companies to book events and concerts, much like the Bayfront Trust manages events at Bayfront Park.

“No condos or shopping centers,” Regalado said regarding uses outside the stadium, where empty parking lots now sit. “Well, maybe a cafeteria,” he added.

Illustration: courtesy University of Miami, College of Architecture Design Studio. Rendering of a restored Miami Marine Stadium.