Activist David Villano and Village Council member Javier Gonzalez ran the meeting. District 2 Commissioner Ken Russell was present as was Jerry Marquez, Chief Project Manager of Capital Improvements for the City of Miami.
And lots and lots of neighbors - standing room only.
There are a lot of fast changes coming to the Grove. Our little village will be changed for good, but Commissioner Russell said, "The Grove has always changed over the years." And maybe he is right, but just the fact that this major village meeting took place at the Sailing Club sort of defines the quaintness of Coconut Grove. One day, who knows, maybe there will be a big meeting hall to meet in. That won't be a good day.
Roadway projects
Bird Avenue, from US1 to SW 27th Avenue, major renovation will happen
McDonald & Day Ave. traffic circle
South Bayshore Drive drainage and roadway improvements from Mercy Hospital to Aviation
Main Highway Roadway Improvements from Franklin to McFarlane
Grand Avenue sidewalk improvements from Mary to McDonald
Private developments
Three Grove Bank buildings, those huge towers going up, three in all
Oak Street Garage, turning into an office building
Grove Harbour on the water (mall on the water at Scotty's location).
Parking Garage at that same area
27@Lincoln the project on 27th Avenue
Arbor Residences on Oak Ave. condos
CocoWalk - office building and renovations to retail
Boutique Hotel behind and over Engle Building
Optimum office project on Main Hwy, next to Greenstreets
Playhouse garage/condo
GlassHaus on Center Street (see it here)
Florentine Plaza - nothing planned yet, but permits applied for in November
Link at Douglas 37 Avenue - large project at Metrorail
Grove Station at 27 Avenue Metrorail
Platform 3750 Frankie Shannon Rolle Building
Here are a PDF Presentation and a PowerPoint Presentation (same thing, two formats) of the projects in more detail in the DROPBOX HERE. They did an excellent job of breaking them down and there is contact info for each project so you can reach out yourself if you have questions.
Great more noise and traffic this sucks
ReplyDeleteAll I see is developers making money at the expense of the true community of Coconut Grove. May be we might be lucky and all the condos stay empty like they usually do for investors and over sea investors that need to move money around. SO I ask if we have all these new units the city and county is now going to be collecting more taxes per lot size why doe our taxes do not drop.
ReplyDeleteTaxes actually will be going up dramatically.thats the part they don't tell you.home prices will go down but rent will go up.so will everyones hoa fees
ReplyDeleteThere is a big difference between a real Town Hall Meeting to discuss what the public wants and expects for its government and that of a presentation that only informs folks of what is in the Pipeline and they better get ready.
ReplyDeleteThe Grove already has hotels that include Mayfair, Sonesta, Hamilton (rooms are less expensive than the Broadway tickets) and the former Double Tree. Do we really need another one at the Engel Building? Too bad there was no discussion about the dangerous broken sidewalks, proliferation of Peafawl, traffic congestion at schools, split zoning, low fine for cutting of trees, crime and the annoying leaf blowers. These are issues that need to be addressed to help maintain the quality of life that we desire.
Concerned Grovite
I, for one, welcome our new development projects.
ReplyDeleteSorry I got the name of the hotel off of SW 27 Terr. incorrect. Its not Hamilton its actually Hampton Inn.
ReplyDeleteThe point is that we have more than enough hotel and Airbnb rooms to satisfy any demand. Our village used to have affordable shops and affordable family owned and operated restaurants. We used to be special, but now we are morphing into an office community, with luxury condos for millionaires to park their money.
Gone are the charming buildings that are being replaced by modern glass and steel. This is our last chance to save the Playhouse. Lemon City reluctantly had to change its name to Little Haiti to appeal to those recent arrivals. Won’t be too long before Coconut Grove is also made to appeal to the recently arrived developers by renaming us Brickell South.
Concerned Grovite