HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem #28 - Discussion Itemw.
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CITYrOFnMIAMImissioners ~~,.,~ ~~~
3700 Pan American Drive
Miami, Florida 33133
Dear Mayor and Commissioners:
The Coconut Grove Civic Club wishes to express our
concerns about the Coconut Grove Traffic Study as presented at
two public meetings this month. Essentially our concerns
center around the consistent overdevelopment of the business
center, and the unrelenting growth and its effects which have
spilled over into the surrounding residential neighborhoods.
The result of this unchecked growth has been the steady
increase in traffic through what used to be called a village.
The solution to this traffic problem fs not the addition of a
new street from Grand Avenue to Main Highway; neither is it the
granting to the Miami Parking Authority the exclusive right to
regulate parking in the business center; nor is it the widening
of Bird Avenue. Outlined below are the specific problems the
Civic Club sees fn this traffic study and some possible
recommendations that may alleviate these problems.
I. McDonald Street Extension
- This will not alleviate the traffic problem in the
Grove since the three main arteries into and out of
the Grove are two lane roads. One of them cannot be
widened and the other two are not scheduled for
widening. All this proposal does fs redistribute
traffic within the Grove causing the inevitable
Grove traffic jams in different places.
- This increases the traffic burden on the residential
neighborhood behind the Playhouse. Given the past
history of planning in the Grove, this would only be
the first step to a commercial presence around the
new Playhouse parking garage-retail development.
- The role of t~e Playhouse parking garage-retail
project curre tly being proposed is also
problematic. There is no commitment from the
Parking Authority or the developer that there will
be no entrance to this project from McDonald and
Grand. The only comment from the Parking Authority
is that it deems this entrance "unnecessary". A
strict prohibition, written in the development
agreement would be a first step in guaranteeing that
this defacto street extension will not occur.
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II. Off Site Parking
- We're told that current zoning requirements that call
for on site parking or parking within a specified
distance from the site, encourage large scale
development to meet those parking requirements. Thus
the consultants' recommend that all parking
requirements be met off-site as regulated by the
Parking Authority. This is the crux of the
parking/traffic problem in the Grove. Too many
developers who can't meet their parking burden have
leased spaces off site or have received variances to
avoid meeting these requirements. Thus the increased
traffic as shoppers "futilely" look for spaces close
by the shops they frequent. This proposal will
encourage larger projects unfettered by the on-site
requirements currently in force. The requirement
that the Parking Authority will oversee this new rule
will merely encourage joint venture projects between
it and sti~ch developers. It is not tors hard to
envision the Grove being ringed by parking garages in
areas like Florida Avenue, Oak Avenue and Matilda
Street, further adding to the traffic problem and
zoning problem in Coconut Grove.
III. Bird Avenue
- While the traffic planners have backed off their
recommendations to four-lane Bird Avenue from
McDonald to 27th Avenue, they have added "2 lanes"
of parallel parking. This essentially is widening
the street. It would serve to make an already
intolerable intrusion problem on Abaco, Inagua and
Lincoln Avenues worse.
IV. Traffic Intrusion into Residential Neighborhoods
- There is little mention of specifics to protect
neighborhoods along Aviation and 27th Avenue, and
those on the periphery of the Grove center
(Virginia, Mary, Oak, Florida, William, Hibiscus,
Charles and Franklin) from traffic intrusion during
rush hour or during the cruising on Fridays,
Saturdays and Sundays little in this study deals
with solving or alleviating these problems.
The Civic Club makes the fallowing recommendations:
1. No extension of McDonald from Grand Avenue to Main
Highway.
_ 2. Instruct the Parking Authority to insist on a
guarantee from the developer of the parking garage
= that ft will not ever cut through an entrance from
Grand and McDonald.
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3. Protect the Charles Avenue,
Avenue area's historical and
creating a special public f
prohibiting any re-platting,
other such alteration of the
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William Avenue, Franklin
architectural heritage by
nterest historic district
rezoning, r-ew streets or
area.
4. Place a moratorium on all new development that does
not have a~ parking on site until a survey is made of
existing parking availability within the Grove center.
This survey should show what spaces are leased by what
businesses for the purposes of satisfying their
parking requirements. In addition, the survey should
specifically show how many parking spaces are required
for each business in the Grove business district, how
many are available for each business and how many have
been "abolished" by variance. This would be a first
step in determining what kind of traffic the Greve can
bear and how to tailor development to the particular
needs of the Grove.
5. Protect the areas around 27th Avenue, Aviation and
Tigertail by limiting access to local traffic only
during peak traffic hours (as is done in Bay Heights).
6. Protect the areas surrounding the Grove business
district including Florida and oak Avenues; Virginia,
Matilda, Hibiscus, Mundy and Elizabeth Streets;
Williams, Thomas, Charles and Franklin Avenues; and
Royal Road by limiting access to local traffic only
during "cruising" traffic hours on Fridays, Saturdays
and Sundays.
We hope you remember that the Grove is a place where many
people want to live, work and play. Let's try and keep a
balance between these goals.
Sincerely yours,
~~~~
Tucker ibbs,
President
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