Residents suing city over proposed trolley facility
A complaint was filed Thursday afternoon against the City of Miami regarding the proposed City of Coral Gables Trolley maintenance facility, that is being planned for the Village West neighborhood.
Plainfiffs are Sandra Ward, Dorothy Henry, Coconut Grove Church of Christ and Evelyn Prophet.
The project is to be located on Douglas Road, between Oak and Frow Avenues. The plaintiffs, including the church, are all property owners adjacent to the subject property. The suit is asking the City of Miami to stop the Coral Gables project because the property in question is not zoned for the commercial use contained in "Miami 21."
Simply put the City of Coral Gables and the trolley terminal developer, Astor Development Holdings, LLc, made a very lucrative deal with the City of Miami, according to the lawsuit, which is fitting with the recent pattern of damaging the Village West neighborhood.
According to City of Miami Zoning, "Government vehicle maintenance facilities are, as per the City of Miami Zoning Code, only allowed in industrial zoning districts." The proposed facility now backs up against private homes and a church.
Attorneys for the Plaintiffs are Philip Freidin, Lowell J. Kuvin. and Ralf Brookes.
Plainfiffs are Sandra Ward, Dorothy Henry, Coconut Grove Church of Christ and Evelyn Prophet.
The project is to be located on Douglas Road, between Oak and Frow Avenues. The plaintiffs, including the church, are all property owners adjacent to the subject property. The suit is asking the City of Miami to stop the Coral Gables project because the property in question is not zoned for the commercial use contained in "Miami 21."
Simply put the City of Coral Gables and the trolley terminal developer, Astor Development Holdings, LLc, made a very lucrative deal with the City of Miami, according to the lawsuit, which is fitting with the recent pattern of damaging the Village West neighborhood.
According to City of Miami Zoning, "Government vehicle maintenance facilities are, as per the City of Miami Zoning Code, only allowed in industrial zoning districts." The proposed facility now backs up against private homes and a church.
Attorneys for the Plaintiffs are Philip Freidin, Lowell J. Kuvin. and Ralf Brookes.
posted by Tom Falco at 4:36 PM
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8 Comments:
Warrants are approved by planning department. Residents have 15 days to appeal to the planning advisory board and if rejected, they need to appeal to the City Commission. Since the residents did not request the appealing on time, the city commission did not vote in favor or against this warrant. Planning department issued this warrant by error because the property in question is not zoned for the commercial use contained in "Miami 21."
It would be good if Spielberg could give the lead role to Marc Sarnoff for his next movie "Hood-Robin", in which he would take money from the poor to give it to the richest.
Let's see. West Grove gets a maintenance facility that will destroy the property values and affect the daily lives of all those who live there while at the same time Sarnoff's personal dog park is getting a (yet another) complete makeover at taxpayers expense. Yup! Sounds like Grove politics to me. Personal profit outweighs the rights and needs of those who live here. Meanwhile at Peacock park where we have thousands of visitors and locals using the park every week for walking, jogging, flying kites, baseball and kickball games, children playing in the playground, basketball players, kids using the skate park and all the dog walkers and after some thirty years now the powers that be still don't think that there is any reason to install bathrooms.
Install bathrooms at a much needed park? Sarnoff wouldn't here of it, instead his plan to build a cafe in Peacock and tear down the only kids activity - the skate dome is in the works.
And as for the Warrants are approved by planning department & Residents have 15 days to appeal to the planning advisory board - YES THEY CAN HAD THEY HAD PRIOR NOTICE OF IT. NO ONE even heard of this planning. It was NOT made Public until it was too late!
We have to place blame where BLAME IS DUE. SARNOFF DOES NOT HAVE THE INTEREST OF THE TRUE GROVITES AT HEART. WE SHOULD CONSIDER IMPEACHING HIM. HE IS NOT WHAT THE GROVE NEEDS AT ALL!
THE SOLUTION IS EASY: "RECALL SARNOFF"
Mr. Sarnoff, lately has been involved in several cases that are not worthy of a public official, such as becoming a lobbyist for a private project and try to convince the residents the benefits of something without any goodness. Also the case of a trip to Brazil with his family paid by the taxpayers of Miami. Mr Reid Welch claims that Sarnoff Assaulted him this past Oct. 29 2012, and this is supported by two witnesses. According to police documents. What occurred at the DDA is not only Something That Should have been expected, but it is Something That warrants a criminal investigation.
Commissioner Sarnoff, in an ideal world, Should be dismissed and a corruption charge against him Should be Brought. I think he has ruined his political career in Miami with some things that have been exposed .. but still, who knows how many other things we will never know about him,
I believe that Marc Sarnoff is not benefiting the communities he represent. Even though he forgot to mention a year ago that he tried to take the funds that belong to the Coconut Grove Parking Authority for the Business Improvement District (BID), to be used for other purposes outside Coconut Grove BID ... (public document Matter-ID # 11-2415). Justice said that was not possible. Is that supporting Coconut Grove?
Why didn't they try to put this in the light-industrial zoned neighborhood that is adjacent to bird and 37th avenue. behind the metrorail station and that whole warehouse district. They already do auto-repair in that area, why not trolleys?
Astor lied on his application to the City of Miami to get the warrant, and hidden detail that would be a warehouse that would serve as a depot, and ease of maintenance and repairs facility to serve trolley of a government Agency like Coral Gables, which is prohibited in one
commercial area. For this reason the Coral Gables trolley is currently located in an industrial area and should only be relocated in an industrial zone and not in a commercial-residential zone in the middle of a neighborhood as they are trying to do..
So, it is very good that people from Coconut Grove will be defended through their attorney, to put in place these criminals and their political friends like Marc Sarnoff, who support this type of zone code violations to Miami21 Code and does not give any kind of help to the residents of Coconut Grove. It’s been to the point that the City has paid with the money from our taxes, an environmental study for this development, and highlighting the beauty of this project, that the buses’ emissions were healthy and that noises between 80-95dB (which will be what this facility will make) are harmless for our health. It also stated that the buses will only operate from Monday thru Friday from 5 AM to 8 PM – even though in their website it says they operate from Mon-Sat and Sundays when there’s special events. Moreover, the hours for the trolleys are up to 11 PM. Why so many lies and coverings in a supposedly professional independent environmental report? There are still politicians that believe they are wiser than the rest of the world. At some point, it almost appeared to me that I was looking at a promotion for a Disney World theme park. It is unbelievable that our politic representatives are behind the interest of these corporations. Astor development and City of Coral Gables does not care at all about environmental impacts that this Depot and Government maintenance facility could cause to this neighborhood, besides always ignoring the neighbors that say they don’t want the construction of an industrial building next to their homes, in an area where it is completely prohibited any kind of industrial activity.
The audience that was present (during the emergency meeting in city hall), many times jeer at Sarnoff for his lack of respect in reference to not allowing residents to respond, since he might not have liked what they said to him in first place.
The good thing about this is that in its meeting at City Hall, Mr. Sarnoff tried to defend this project at any cost, and was totally ridiculed with each of the people’s testimony given there, and showed all the effort he’s undertaking to support this corporation. Sarnoff also presented a slide show about all the good he had done during his function as representative, trying to clean up his image, but this had no effect on the attendees, because he could not show any achievements from his own.
Please, to the rest of the politicians who still have ethics, help with your support to those people, since apparently their claim is valid and legitimate.
If the city of Miami and Coral Gables wouldn’t had ignored their own zone codes before approving that project before, and wouldn’t had underestimated the ability of the poor people of West Coconut Grove to fight for their rights, it would have never had to come this far.
The outlook is dark for Mr. Sarnoff, I wish you luck and I suggest you start sending your resume to every company lobbyists, for their consideration before your mandate expires and please Mr Sarnoff, stop spending Miami taxpayers' money in pseudo presentations and environmental studies that "Astor" should do, as they are the real interested party in the project and should use their own money for that purpose.
NO TROLLEY DEPOT AND MAINTENANCE REPAIR FACILITY IN A RESIDENTIAL AREA OF COCONUT GROVE.
Stop construction of Coral Gables Trolley Garage in historic Coconut Grove residential neighborhood.
Support the Coconut Grove Residents petition
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