Don't be fooled by Grove Beautiful

There has been an invitation going around online about a Grove Beautiful meeting, happening on Thursday, April 12 at the Mayfair Hotel (at 4:30 pm).

If you go to their website, grovebeautiful.com, you are lead to believe that there is a new homeowners/neighborhood group. But this is Metronomic, Inc. a home/condo developer located in Coral Gables trying to court favor in the Grove.

I had seen the invitation and didn't think much of it, but after receiving calls, emails and texts from so many Grovites, I thought I would look into it. I heard from Grove Chamber members and BID members and Grove2030 group members and they are all concerned; not so much about the developer, but their set-up as a homeowners group with their Grove Beautiful neighborhood group. At first, many people thought it was the Grove2030 group, because of their statement to "Maintain the lush 'look and feel' of Coconut Grove"  and their Grove history/conservation spiel. I have a friend who wants to start a neighborhood group and I assumed it was him.

Their website says they are a non-profit community organization, but they are a builder/developer.

A chamber member said, "The GroveBeautiful website is generic. Their mission is generic with a skew towards new development. This is not a Coconut Grove community organization created by people who live in Coconut Grove, so that certainly got my attention, and I did a bit more research."

They went on to say, "My guess is that Metronomic  wants to gain  following in the Grove in support of their particular agenda, and therefore created this GroveBeautiful 'community' organization, which if you read between the lines of the 'Mission Statement' - 'The original housing stock of Coconut Grove is aged, and many of the homes are no longer suitable for living or raising children, especially due to the presence of asbestos, mold, termites, and other infestation that often cannot be remediated or may be too costly to restore.'  has to do with promoting new development."

They are developers interested in building in the Grove. I'm not sure why Metronomics needs to hide behind a made-up neighborhood homeowners group. They have a right to build. But I think they are reaching out to the wrong neighbors. It's the residents in Village West who need to be wooed.