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Planning Board backs school-friendly zoning changes with conditions to keep public review
Summary
The board recommended the commission approve land-use and comprehensive-plan changes that would give development incentives to educational facilities, but required that schools remain subject to conditional use review and that the floor-area-ratio bonus be limited to educational uses.
Miami Beach Planning Board on May 6 recommended favorably to the City Commission new land-development and comprehensive-plan amendments designed to incentivize expansion and new construction of educational facilities, but the board attached conditions to preserve public review.
The ordinances (LDR amendments and a companion comprehensive-plan FAR incentive) would allow certain educational facilities to be approved administratively for projects under a size threshold, permit staff review of new construction up to specified square footage without planning-board review, allow a city-commission warrant process to grant up to a 10% FAR bonus (capped at 5,000 square feet in an example in materials), and permit reductions in setbacks, open space and lot-coverage requirements through that commission warrant process. The package would also remove off-street parking minimums for educational facilities so parking need not penalize FAR calculations.
Board members broadly supported incentivizing schools but raised neighborhood concerns about allowing intense uses in low-density multifamily districts (RM-1 in particular) without public review. Several members said the easiest way to preserve neighborhood input and review of traffic and other impacts is to retain the CUP requirement. The board adopted a motion transmitting both ordinances to the City Commission with a favorable recommendation provided: (1) the CUP/public-review element remain in place for educational uses, and (2) the FAR incentives in the comprehensive-plan amendment be limited to educational facilities only.
Why it matters: the amendments remove regulatory barriers that city staff and the Land Use and Sustainability Committee said are limiting expansion of schools in commercial and multifamily districts. However, board members cautioned that removing public review entirely could allow more intense school development in residential areas without neighborhood input on traffic, hours and program impacts.
Details from the meeting: staff described the intent as to foster education facility expansion; the Land Use and Sustainability Committee had reviewed the drafts earlier this year and referred them to the planning board. Board members proposed and the board adopted recommendation language that preserves CUP review and limits the new FAR bonus to education.
Next steps: the Planning Board will transmit its recommendation to the City Commission for consideration; the Commission may accept, modify, or reject the board's recommendation.
