HomeMy WebLinkAboutSubmittal-Jose I. Perez-Memorandum of Opposition to NCD-3To: City of Miami Commissioners:
Joe Carollo
Wilfredo (Willy) Gort
Keon Hardemon
Manolo Reyes
Ken Russell
From: Jose I. Perez
2770 Kirk Street
Miami, Florida 33133
(305)-301-9750 ; jiprpt123@gmail.com
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MEMORANDUM OF OPPOSTION TO NCD-3
Topics addressed: Property values, Canopy, Lush landscape, massing,
compatibilities, different neighborhoods within the NCD, and others.
NCD-3 IMPACT:
NCD-3 devastates the value of single-family homes in lots of 5,000 square feet. This is a fact
that the advocates of NCD-3 do not want to consider. This affects all homeowners in the City
of Miami. Any economic impact study will show that. They posit that only "charm" and "lush
canopy" add value to Coconut Grove. They posit that the homes they have labeled "sugar
cubes", and "mcmansions" possess no charm or lush canopy. They are wrong.
The bottom line is the following:
In a lot of 5000 square feet in North Grove, that presently sells for $500,000+, under the
proposed NCD-3, which would limit home size to no more than 2500 square feet, the same
5000 square foot lot would sell for $300,000. This simple fact of cratering of equity and net
worth has not been made clear to the significant majority of Coconut Grove homeowners that
in fact own homes in such lot sizes.
Very few homeowners are even aware of this taking, or of the magnitude of its impact in
reduction of property value. When they find out the gratuitous drubbing their property values
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and net worth have taken, for no good reason, due to idiotic decisions from the city
government, they will be outraged.
Why the rush to ordinance, when an economic impact study will reveal the financial
devastation this ordinance will bring to the homeowners of Coconut Grove? And to the
entire City of Miami.
The advocates of this taking of rights and diminution of property value always show photos of
construction sites or box models in paper without construction. The never show a completed
home or "sugar cube" or "McMansion". This is clearly misleading, as the landscaping and
mitigation trees come after the construction is finished and prior to the CO at the end of the
development.
Neighborhood Conservation District: NCD Observations:
First: each lot is different from every other lot.
Each block is different from every other block.
NCD-3 is not helpful to the homeowners because each block is different and each house within
each block is different. Many blocks already contain sugar cubes and some blocks have majority
sugar cubes. Some half blocks are all sugar cubes or close to it. So, doing a freeze frame on
Coconut Grove now would only be a nostalgia -based vanity project to placate a vocal
minority, and would trash the residential property values and equity of all. An NCD cannot
be created at the behest of a vocal minority.
Because each block is different and each lot within each block is different a neighborhood
conservation district does not suit Coconut Grove, or any other neighborhood in the City.
Coconut Grove is not a PUD and cannot now be retrofitted as one. Parts of North Coconut
Grove were not even in Coconut Grove in the past, but were considered part of Silver Bluff.
The concept of an NCD for Coconut Grove is not prudent. It will only bring financial pain to its
homeowners.
Neither the Planning Department nor the Planning and Zoning Appeals Board considers the
economic interests of the single-family homeowner in their decision making.
Size
Limiting a 5,000 square foot lot in the city to a house no greater than 2,500 square feet in 2019
is going to surprise the vast majority of owners of these lots. And they will be shocked at their
newly impoverished status. And they won't like it.
Economic Impact
The economic impact of these drastic changes has not been analyzed. This diminution on
property value does not only negatively impact the Grove, but the City of Miami as a whole.
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Attractiveness of Coconut Grove
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Coconut Grove has charm and it has lush canopy. But by no means are those the only favorable
attributes it has. Coconut Grove is the closest single-family home neighborhood to
down town Miami east of US1. It is walking distance to the Metro Rail, and from that to
Amtrak. Coconut Grove is walking distance to the coming Underline. From Metro Rail a walker
can access Brightline and Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and Orlando. From Amtrak you can
access Union Station in DC and Penn Central in New York. You can walk from Peacock Park in
the Grove to Greenwich Village in the NYC. I think that has a lot to do with why Coconut Grove
is so attractive. Metrorail will get you to the airport MIA. So, the Grove is centrally located in a
world class city. A global city.
Coconut Grove is also walking, biking or a very short UBER ride from world class doctors,
hospitals, professional services of all kinds, restaurants, world class museums, galleries, and
mural district, the bay and beaches, parks, open air gyms, colleges, universities, the best
schools, marinas and boating facilities, movies including the Tower Theater, and
entertainment. All these factors are fundamental to why the Grove is attractive and
charming.
Please note that just about each and every "sugar cube" or "McMansion" is sold and occupied
by the owner who bought it. Further note that:
There is absolutely no way to sell a new 2,500 square foot single family house
including garage in Coconut Grove. That is why they make them bigger.
Why do people buy these sugar cubes or macmansions?
Could it be that it is what people who- actually want to buy... want to buy? Could it be that is
what people with families want?
And finally note that lush tree canopies can and do coexist with the sugar cubes and the
mcmansions. Just look at them, particularly in the North Grove, after they are occupied. Just
drive around and look at them. Really...just drive around, stop, look in detail, and drive
around some more. The critical, emergency, out of control growth, that the advocates of
NCD-3 say requires a rush to taking a meat cleaver to our property values in our city is simply
not taking place. I see new planted slow growth shade trees all over the place.
A particular group's opinion of what charm is ... cannot be legislated or forced upon a
neighborhood or city by its self-appointed charm judges.
Charm is intangible and can mean many things... A sugar cube can be charming in the eye of its
buyer. Architecture magazines routinely feature 4,000 square foot homes characterized as
charming.
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The people buying these homes are not monsters...and the taxes they are paying can help
propel the Grove forward with needed improvements ...like having live theater like it always
did...walking distance, and park maintenance, and year-round swimming pools.
Work with the Code, and don't keep the Grove down.
The code has to be enforced. Mitigation vegetation and slow growth trees top quality trees
planted. The proponents of this NCD-3 diminution of value to the small property owners of the
Grove warn: Sugar cubes are proceeding fast...that the City Commission has to quickly act to
stop it. (A "sugar cube" is a derisive term for a contemporary style house with a flat roof.)
Note however, whole half blocks of North Grove have already gone full sugar cube. Where
there were four matchboxes in a row...now are found four sugar cubes in a row. And this has
proceeded without diminution of the tree canopy. All these fine lushly landscaped homes are
occupied and paying beaucoup dollars in property taxes into the city coffers.
In addition to the demolition of property owner's property values...this change would create
certain odd situations that make no sense... asymmetric distortions and juxtapositions...a
matchbox would be forced to exist between two sugar cubes...or a sugar cube would be forced
to stand between two match boxes. Odd idea of neighborhood conservation. More descriptive
would be crazy freeze frame produced by stubborn equity -smashing nostalgia -driven policy
making.
Finally, Save our Grove...
Whose Grove and what Grove?
The Grove of the early Grove pioneers?
I seriously doubt the early Grove pioneers waxed poetic about butterflies and the canopy. We
all tip our hats to Marjorie Stoneman Douglas and David Fairchild. However, most Grove
pioneers were busy building their homes. They were busy cutting down original Dade county
pines to build their homes. Urban legend has it that termites cannot bite through original Dade
county pine. These pioneers were also busy building rooftop terraces a/k/a viewing platforms
to look out for storms in the pre -radar days.
With regards to the what Grove? The South Grove? The North Grove? Central Grove? West
Grove? All of these sections have their own sub sections. Originally "the Grove" was
the South Grove...and the Black (now West) Grove which were divided by a structure called the
Berlin wall.
The Central Grove and the North Grove started to be brought into the mix. But, as everyone
knows, the North Grove was always significantly different from the South Grove. In fact, now
we throw into the North Grove the neighborhood of Silver Bluff east of US1. This sub-
division is the closest to downtown and mass transit. This neighborh •.od will be
hammered hardest by this expansive and ill-conceived NCD-3 because it has
vastly more small lots compared to the South Grove.
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The point is that the entire urban area that nowadays goes by the name of great
cachet "the Grove" is not, and cannot p •.ssibly be considered, sne
neighborhood, for purposes of creating a neighborhood conservation district.
CLOSING OBSERVATIONS
NCD-3
The Purpose and Intent Clause 2.1 of this Ordinance is ill conceived, arbitrary in its
presumptions, lacking in understanding and too broad.
It posits in its very title- Neighborhood Conservation District- that Coconut Grove is a
neighborhood. It goes on to do an across the board freeze frame on Coconut Grove as it exists
now while arbitrarily shrinking future home sizes in Coconut Grove. Then- it references the
"architectural variety within the unique residential neighborhoods of Coconut Grove". This
is an inconsistency —treat Coconut Grove as one neighborhood- to shrink future home sizes,
while at the same time, referring to the architectural variety within the unique residential
neighborhoods of Coconut Grove. This is ill conceived at every level and constitutes an
arbitrary taking without compensation of homeowner's property values.
MASSING
The urge to shrink the size of future homes is "massing". The issue always was canopy
protection and lush landscaping. We are in the city. We have massing. We will continue to have
massing, and we can use lush landscaping and canopy to cover the massing. Such as
surrounding with lush landscaping and canopy and rendering barely visible from the street a
large Palladian villa or large modern architectural gem. This has happened, and is happening
all over the "unique residential neighborhoods of Coconut Grove".
CONCLUSION
The City of Miami is not Miami Beach or Coral Gables. The City of Miami is the County Seat. The
City Beautiful has something that passes for a downtown. But it is not. Miami Beach is the sun
and fun capital of the world. It's a resort town with a couple of neighborhoods. Miami is the
Magic City. We are the global city. When Dade County was finally able to change its name, it did
not call itself Gables -Dade or Miami Beach -Dade. It called itself Miami -Dade. So that Dade
County would enjoy the world-wide recognition it never had, and its mayor be able to claim in
some way that he or she was the mayor of Miami.
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OUR CANOPY
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One can view the canopy of Coconut Grove by walking, biking or driving around all of its
streets. You can get a view of it by using google maps on your smart phone. Zoom it down as
far as you like and scroll all over. There is ample canopy and new slow growth canopy trees
such as live oak, gumbo limbo, lignum vitae, original Dade county pine, mahogany, poinciana,
jacaranda are planted all the time. Let's plant more. The City has it within its power to
require new homes to have 4 slow growth canopy trees planted in its lot or adjoining swale.
Not just little ones. At least 15 feet tall as measured from the ground. With a good-sized hole
for the root ball. The City can stop developers from going cheap on the landscaping by
withholding the CO until the landscape is in properly, and a sensible addition to the future
canopy made. We all live here. We all want things done right. Let's also develop a
comprehensive long-term agreement to work with FPL and others to bring power lines to run
underground or better yet as a parapet along sidewalks. That would do a great service to the
long-term success of our canopy.
NCD-3 would takes a meat cleaver approach where a scalpel is better. A 5,000 square foot lot
can hold a 4,000 square foot two story home with a rooftop terrace and contemporary style,
and charm, surrounded by lush canopy... just as well as a 5,000 square foot lot can hold a
2,500 square foot home in a denuded lot totally lacking charm, canopy or style.
There is no need to demolish the equity in our lots. Neither the Circuit Court, nor the District
Court of Appeals or the Florida Supreme Court would approve. And they shouldn't. The
current code- enforced, with common sense requirements does the job in a sensible way.
Good results can be achieved without trashing the net worth of middle -income residents of
the greater Coconut Grove, and the City of Miami.
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