Latest news shared about proposed visitor's center

Most of last night's Village Council meeting was about the waterfront visitor's center proposed by the National Parks Service, which was sort of apropos since the council was relegated to the outside picnic tables beside the water since the usual meeting room upstairs at the Sailing Club was already spoken for. Above, council chair, Michelle Niemeyer, points out the plans to everyone as they sat around the tables out behind the Sailing Club.

It actually ended up being nice, sitting feet from the full moon over the bay and discussing the very land proposed in the visitor's center plans.

It's interesting to note that those in favor of the visitor's center are very aggressive and sort of rude to those who questioned them. Case in point was when two residents spoke up at the meeting asking why the whole thing was needed. They were treated as if they were out of line for simply questioning the center.

It might be a good idea for those in favor of the visitor's center to keep their enthusiasm and rudeness to themselves because it raises big red flags when they get that aggressive with a few simple questions from the public. Are they hiding something? If not, why not let people talk?

It turns out that the plans shown here the other day were just a fast proposal drawn up by the park service over the Waterfront Master Plan but nothing is final. "There has been no discussion of money or space," said Ron Nelson, Commissioner Marc Sarnoff's chief of staff, at last night's meeting. He says the National Park Service showed an interest in our waterfront area, but that is it. One idea is to use the Cultural Center building, which is part of the Waterfront Master Plan and have the visitor's center there. It's near enough to the water, but does not have to be on top of it. The image is in the center below, where the red arrow is pointing.


It seems to me that only a select few are jumping on the idea, they feel that 100,000 or more visitors to Coconut Grove (many felt it would be much more) is a good thing. The residents present felt they didn't want bus and carloads of people descending on our sleepy little village. There is a visitor's center south of here, on SW 328 Street in Homestead, and the Parks Service would like a "northern outpost," as it was phrased last night.

Andy Buys, a Coconut Grove resident, was quite verbal. He said he wanted open space, he did not want more buildings built on the waterfront. He said it, "minimizes the enjoyment of the space," when buildings are built. He figured a minimum of six busloads of people would be coming through a day, which isn't quite bad when you think about it, it is the extra cars in the area that may be a problem. Yet, if say 150,000 people a year is average, that is only 411 people per day, some days of course may have 5 and some may have 2000, but I think that is doable.

Grove resident Seth Sklarey asked, "What is the benefit to the Grove?" And therein lies the question. Will a few people benefit from the commercialism of this or will it benefit the neighbors? Will all these thousands of people leave the waterfront and come up into the village and spend money? And will this be the salvation of the Center Grove business district? What about the rest of the residents? Do they like this idea of a National Park Service visitor's center set up right here on the Coconut Grove waterfront? There will be teaching facilities and boat rentals and scuba and snorkling trips eminating from here and it will be a big water feature for locals and visitors alike.

To be honest, this sounds like something for Virginia Key, but for some reason that was looked at by the Park Service and rejected.

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