Sunny Isles Beach commissioners deadlock on future-land-use text amendment after debate over "bonuses"

The City Commission of the City of Sunny Isles Beach voted 2–2 on first reading on an ordinance to amend the Future Land Use Element of the city's comprehensive plan, leaving the measure without the majority needed to advance.

The ordinance would clarify upper maximums for density and intensity in several land-use categories, including the mixed-use resort category for the East Side; it also updates statutory references and ties the plan text to the city's land development regulations (LDRs). "This is an ordinance to amend the future land use element of the comprehensive plan," consultant Caitlin Forbes said during the presentation.

Why it matters: Commissioners debated whether adding language now would create a perception that developers are entitled to bonuses above as-of-right entitlements. That dispute cut to the core of how the comprehensive plan and the LDRs interact: the consultants and city attorney said the comp plan establishes upper maximums while the LDRs define how bonuses are earned and awarded.

Commissioner Joseph pushed for explicit language that bonuses are discretionary, saying, "I want to be absolutely clear in the definitions that bonuses are not a given, that they're not to be taken as a given, and I need that defined clearly in order for me to move this forward." The city attorney replied that "the comp plan doesn't confer any right to bonus. It doesn't give them anything. That's the nature of comp plans."

Consultants with Complete Cities Planning Group described the amendment as largely a cleanup to align the comp plan with current LDR practice and to set predictable maximums for intensity and density, including clarifying "maximum as of right" levels such as a 2.0 FAR and 50 units per acre for the mixed-use resort category. Consultants also warned that a long-standing "zoning in progress" moratorium that has been renewed periodically could raise legal risk if the process drags on; staff said the zoning in progress renews every three months and has been in place for roughly 18 months.

Commissioners expressed differing priorities. Some urged moving the ordinance forward and refining bonus rules later in the LDR update; others insisted the commission receive explicit, concurrent LDR language defining how bonuses are awarded before approving comp-plan text. The debate included discussion of sequencing (whether to approve the non-mixed-use elements now and defer the mixed-use resort language) and the legal relationship between comp plan maxima and implementing ordinances.

After votes were recorded (Commissioner Viscaro and Mayor Sviatchen voting to advance, Commissioners Stuyvesant and Joseph voting against), the motion resulted in a 2' tie and did not carry. Commissioners and staff agreed to continue discussions and return with clarifications before a future hearing.

The record and next steps: staff and consultants said they will prepare revised language and consider additional workshops; consultants noted that defining bonuses in the LDRs will take additional time and, if the commission requests that the bonus program be rewritten now, the process could add months to the timeline.