New school proposed for South Bayshore Drive
There is a proposal for a new school to be built in a North Grove residential neighborhood. The school plans to ask the Planning and Zoning Board for an exception on the zoning to allow a pre-school and elementary school to be built at the property located at 1621 S. Bayshore Drive, on the historic Silver Bluff. This is near the emergency entrance to Mercy Hospital. It's across the street near Bay Heights.
It will sort of have the same effect as building on the Mercy Hospital site. The ramifications include an increase in traffic, noise, excess people and opening up the tract for more development -- a sort of domino effect in the shady, quiet neighborhood, which is a spectacular entrance into Coconut Grove from the north.
But even worse would be if they used the back entrance, which they probably will. Micanopy would be to this school what Tigertail has become to Ransom -- a total traffic mess.
Residents feel that it will impact the area strongly, it is an incompatible use for the area and would overtax the existing infrastructure. The school would have just as dramatic an affect as the proposed Mercy Condos that were planned a few years back. That was thrown out for many reasons including the idea of "spot zoning," which is the same thing with the proposed school.
Many fear that this construction project could open the door for other development along S. Bayshore Drive in the North Grove, turning it from residential to another Brickell. The same old houses that you see there now, were the norm on Brickell Avenue at one time, too. Now they are high rises and offices.
The proposed school would totally contradict the special character of the existing zoning of NCD-3, Natural Conservation District, which was established to preserve the historic single-family residential character of the Grove and its significant natural flora and fauna.
A lady who is interested in the property, owns a Montessori school on Coral Way now, she feels that her kids need some green pasture -- right in the center of a quaint Grove neighborhood!
There is a petition and a meeting at the Zoning Board on Wednesday, June 6, at City Hall (3500 Pan American Drive), at 6:30 pm, to discuss the issue. Neighbors will be out in force to stand up for their quiet, scenic neighborhoods. This will affect everyone, not just the North Grove neighborhoods.
And guys (and gals), there is no Heat game that night! No excuse for you not to come out and defend your neighborhood.
To get more involved, please contact Lisa Treister at Lisa@lisatreister.com.
NOTE: The comments section has been closed due to abuse by anonymous posters. Please feel free to email your comments and they'll be posted as a Letter to the Editor, with your name posted as a signature. Thanks.
To get more involved, please contact Lisa Treister at Lisa@lisatreister.com.
NOTE: The comments section has been closed due to abuse by anonymous posters. Please feel free to email your comments and they'll be posted as a Letter to the Editor, with your name posted as a signature. Thanks.
posted by Tom Falco at 11:11 AM
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11 Comments:
can you say traffic nightmare
I think this is a great use for the land! S Bayshore is already a noisy road so who cares.
Peter, where do you live? I'd like to send a request to move Mercy Hospital and a freakin' school to your street..
Seriously now, are these people on drugs or just insane?
South bayshore Drive is already a mess, and a permanent traffic jam at peak hors as it is. They can't find a better place for a new school?
I wonder who is behind all this, ,,, money interests, as ALWAYS,,,, and who would benefit from such aberrant and utterly absurd project.
Carlos Iglesia.
1. If this goes through, you watch, they will try to buy adjacent properties and expand. Or someone else will come along and want to build god knows what.
2. Traffic is out of control as it is. These parents will come zooming down neighborhood streets, as drivers already do to get downtown, to the two private high schools on the bay, and to Mercy and doctor offices. Enough already!
3. Emergency vehicles to Mercy Hospital already get stuck in the existing gridlock.
4. This is a single family neighborhood. They can stay on Coral Way or take over an empty storefront in Coconut Grove. Or move into the Miami Science Museum when it becomes empty in a few years. Recycle commercial buildings, not houses in the neighborhood.
5.
I agree with Peter. Specially since it is about opening a school. Any investment in education should be welcomed and not pushed away.
You all sound like old men complaining about a little bit more noise when in reality it won't be that big of a deal. I have to drive through two schools to get to work. I just leave home a little bit earlier. No big deal.
This is the big problem with the Grove, people see a problem with everything and don't think of the big picture.
Sounds like F is either the parent of a student at this school or is the owner. Or just someone who likes to complain. A resident of the South Grove who drives downtown to work already has four school zones to cross. This would add a fifth.
As a parent living in central Grove, I can't afford to live in the immediate vicinity of this property nor likely ever afford to send my child to an expensive private school like this. However, the arguments here suffer from the same short-sightedness of the usual NIMBY opposition to development. Namely, the opponents are all people who live next door to the school and therefore have interests diametrically opposed to the rest of the community. This school likely wants to move to this spot because most of its parents live in the Grove. Therefore, moving the school to the Grove from Coral Way would likely result in less net traffic: less people driving from the Grove all the way to Coral Way, clogging all of the arterials on their way. Instead, these parents would just do the shorter drive within their neighborhood to the school. Maybe some will use the neighborhood streets, taking congestion off the arterials (hell, maybe some will even walk, but it seems unlikely that upper class Miamians will ... that would be like asking them to obey the driving laws). Second, more school zones on S. Bayshore is a GOOD thing: people drive way too fast on the street already, and they shouldn't be exceeding 15mph to 20mph as it is. There is too much pedestrian and cyclist traffic to navigate that road at a safer speed. There are too many cross streets hidden behind shrubbery and blind corners. Furthermore, school zones give cops an incentive to increase policing of the speed limit (higher tickets and easier to catch violators) which gives people more incentive to obey the speed limit. But making these arguments is a lost cause. The NIMBYs are organized: they have already organized to rezone the neighborhood to prevent the natural development of a sustainable community (and then have the audacity to accuse someone else as being the one seeking 'spot-zoning.') And despite the comments of Carlos Iglesia, they are the moneyed interests not a single small business owner (just ask our friends to the west of 32nd ave. why the pleas to save their community fall on much deafer ears than the North Grove).
Coconut Grove needs to offer a full time gifted program, not add another school. Why should we have to drive an hour a day out of the Grove to the Gables or South Miami to give our kids what they deserve? Tell Raquel Regalado that Grove kids deserve a better home school with a full time gifted program that includes environmentalism, Dell technical standards to help kids cross the digital divide, and financial literacy.
The NIMBYS have gotten wise. Look what happend to Bird Road and Brickell Avenue. If you want an urban environment, move to Brickell.
Lisa,
How come its ok for you and your husband to run an Architectural office and a Comunications office and for an allowed used of a school not to be allowed.
The neighborhood needs this I'm sorry that it is literally in your Back yard.
Try to be kind, this is a better use than 3 monster mansions that would destroy the trees instead of preserve them.
I live in North Grove just blocks from this site. I moved to this neighborhood for its urban feel. This is not a quiet neighborhood. If I wanted to live somewhere like that I'd move to Pinecrest. Sounds like this lady is going to take care of this property unlike most people around here. Why don't we focus on cracking down on people overbuilding on their property or splitting up their homes to fit multiple families for rentals.
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