Letters to the editor regarding the Mercy land

Here are two letters to the Herald that may or may not make the paper:

Commissioners Sanchez, Gonzalez and Spence-Jones:

I believe your votes to approve the zoning change at Mercy Hospital on behalf of the developer showed a distinct lack of courage to do the right thing and stand by your advisory boards, and the very recent GI Ordinance protecting the communities against rapacious developers.

Ms. Spence-Jones showed herself to be clueless, Mr. Gonzalez hid behind Staff, and Mr. Sanchez, who often gets the big picture, felt the courts were probably going to decide no matter which way he voted. You COMPLETELY IGNORED the fact that your two most important advisory boards, the PAB and the Zoning Board, voted to DENY!

You insulted them with this vote, indicating that their input has no value to you.

This zoning change was needed primarily by the developer, to succeed with another of his power plays, not by Mercy Hospital which had other courses of action. The hospital has MANY ways it can raise that money, as it has done in the past. Just check their website. As their brochure stated - they had a plan B, and were prepared to go another route. You three were not.

This vote was more than shameless, it was bad government, and showed a disturbing inconsistency in your own actions relating to zoning issues. You did not voice a single good reason for voting to approve, and went with the developer for expediency only, as if denying the Related Group was too hard a test.

At least you did remain consistent in your support of developers. The residents of Natoma Manors, Bay Heights, Vizcaya, The Roads and Coconut Grove can now look forward to gazing at another monstrously over-sized group of buildings hemming us in, buildings that could easily have been built elsewhere.

This vote looked like a capitulation to big money. It looked very much like you were afraid to disappoint the developer. Now he gets to make more millions at the expense of the surrounding neighborhoods, and all you have done is undermine the effectiveness of your advisory boards, as well as minimizing the value of your own ordinances! BRAVO.

The message to developers is: "Don't worry about a thing, we'll help you build whatever, wherever you want, no matter what the other Boards think, no matter what we ruled in the past." The saddest thing is, you had many good reasons to deny - not the least of which was following the lead of your own Advisory Boards.

Thank God there is a term limit for our Commissioners, because Miami desperately needs public servants with the courage to always serve its citizens, not special interests.

A very disheartened Miami resident, Paul Mann

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Dear Editor,

What a relief to see that our City Commissioners are finally taking concrete steps to address the severe shortage of luxury high rise condos in Miami by approving the rezoning of the land behind Mercy Hospital.

They did this by simultaneously reducing the terrible glut of land zoned for public health purposes -- because everybody knows that in the future, Miami's residents will be so wealthy they will never need procedure more invasive than a pedicure. This decision marks a welcome departure from past actions benefiting well-connected business interests and instead focuses on the long-term needs of current and future residents. My confidence in my City government is restored. I will now remove my tongue from my cheek.

Wendy Stephan, MPH