Coral Gables planning board backs city overlay to limit county rapid-transit rules near University Station

The Coral Gables Planning and Zoning Board voted 5–1 on July 2 to recommend that the City Commission adopt a comprehensive-plan amendment and a zoning-overlay creating a University Station Rapid-transit District for four properties near the University Station Metrorail stop.

The measure, presented by Jennifer Garcia, Planning and Zoning Director, would change the city future land-use designation on targeted parcels from commercial low-rise intensity (MX‑1) to commercial high-rise (MX‑3) for the properties bounded by South Dixie (US‑1), Caballero Boulevard, Madruga Avenue and Turin Street, add an overlay to the comprehensive plan and amend zoning text to create a University Station Rapid Transit District in city code.

The board’s recommendation limits the changes to a narrowly defined footprint, preserves a 20‑foot setback along US‑1, adds a 25‑foot landscape buffer at the rear of the deeper lots, sets a maximum base height of 120 feet in the overlay (with additional limited bonus height provisions described in staff materials), retains a maximum density of 125 units per acre, and proposes a two-tier stepback (a standard 10‑foot setback above 45 feet and an additional stepback at higher elevations on the rear of the lots so massing faces US‑1 rather than the adjacent residential blocks). Garcia said the city’s draft would not increase FAR beyond the zoning district’s governing limits and that the overlay was prepared in direct response to Miami‑Dade County’s Rapid Transit Zone (RTZ) regulations.

Why it matters: County RTZ…