HPB approves generator at 2660 Collins Avenue with landscaping and bike facilities to screen equipment

The Historic Preservation Board approved a certificate of appropriateness for the installation of an emergency generator at 2660 Collins Avenue — a city‑owned municipal parking lot — to provide auxiliary power to the Indian Creek pump station used in flooding mitigation efforts.

City staff and the Capital Improvement Projects division told the board the generator location had been chosen after review of many alternatives and public input; planners said locating the generator on the west side of Indian Creek or within high‑rise parcels on the east side had been rejected because those options either conflicted with a planned greenway or were not available. Staff said the chosen site at the northwest corner of the municipal lot is the closest feasible location that minimizes neighborhood visibility and maximizes operational efficiency.

At the board’s suggestion, the city refined the design by removing six parking spaces to make room for the generator and surrounding layered, tall landscaping intended to screen the equipment from neighbors rather than installing a hard concrete screen. Staff said neighbors had expressed a preference for a softer, vegetated buffer, and that approach would also avoid a large, tall masonry screen that would increase project cost and could complicate access for maintenance.

The applicant also agreed to install bicycle facilities adjacent to the generator — initially a bicycle rental/rack facility for approximately 14 bikes — and to coordinate future parking‑lot and greenway improvements planned as part of the Indian Creek Greenway project. City and neighborhood speakers told the board they supported the selected generator location and the landscaping approach. Alicia Casanova of the Mid‑Beach Neighborhood Association told the board: “We fully support this plan and this location as we have been for the past couple of years.”

After discussion the HPB voted to approve the generator installation subject to the conditions in the staff draft: preservation of the reduced curb footprint, approval of the layered landscape screening plan (to be coordinated with parking operations and public works), installation of the bicycle facility, and the understanding that the generator is situated on city property and may be relocated in the future if the city pursues redevelopment of the parking lot.

Votes at a glance: board approved the project (majority vote).