South Miami planning board transmits comprehensive‑plan amendments to state review

The Local Planning Agency for the City of South Miami unanimously approved LPA‑2025‑004, transmitting evaluation-and-appraisal amendments to the city's comprehensive plan to state agencies for coordinated review after a presentation by planning consultant Mark Alvarez of the Corradino Group.

Mark Alvarez told the board the comprehensive plan is the city’s long‑range guiding document for land use and related codes and that state law requires a periodic update. "I'm Mark Alvarez of the Corradino Group acting as the planning consultant for the City of South Miami planning and development department," he said before summarizing the evaluation and appraisal report and the accompanying policy amendments the staff recommended for transmittal.

The amendments update multiple plan elements to reflect recent state legislation and local changes since the city’s 2018 plan. Key items Alvarez highlighted include policies to broaden the transportation element to multimodal modes — bicycles, pedestrians and micromobility — and language committing the city to study whether an impact fee for multimodal improvements is appropriate. He said the city will "explore" the option rather than immediately adopt an impact fee.

Alvarez also described changes in housing and economic‑development responsibilities after the city's Community Redevelopment Agency expired. Policies that previously named the CRA have been revised so the city assumes responsibilities for redevelopment activities in what Alvarez referred to as the Marshall Williamson area. He stated the transmittal primarily records prior decisions and policy adjustments rather than proposing new map changes in this packet.

On the data side, Alvarez told the board the plan's data-and-analysis chapter (Part 2) must incorporate recently transmitted downtown future‑land‑use amendments (the TSDD) to produce accurate population and housing projections. He said those downtown amendments remain transmitted but not adopted, creating a timing problem that complicates preparing the numeric projections; Alvarez said the downtown TSDD could potentially regulate about 15,000 development units and that excluding those amendments would make accurate projections ‘‘impossible.’’

Alvarez walked the board through the submittal materials: Attachment A (the evaluation and appraisal report), Attachment B (policy changes highlighted where action is required) and Attachment C (the future land‑use map, which records prior map amendments such as a 2023 change for the CVS parcel on Sunset Place and a recent designation change on the west side of 62nd Avenue). He said the city will transmit the package for a coordinated state review to multiple agencies and Miami‑Dade County; the review period is expected to take 60 days, after which the city would proceed toward adoption steps.

City counsel framed the vote as procedural, saying the transmittal moves the item through the required state process. "I think this is something we've already seen multiple times and we're just a formality if I understand it," the City attorney said prior to making the motion to approve the transmittal. The City attorney moved to approve LPA‑2025‑004 "as presented;" the Chair seconded. A roll call vote was taken and the motion passed unanimously.

Separately, the board moved to approve the previous meeting minutes as presented; that motion also carried on the recorded voice votes.

Next steps: the city will transmit the evaluation-and-appraisal report and policy amendments to state agencies and Miami‑Dade County for a coordinated review (scheduled for about 60 days), then return to the city for subsequent adoption hearings. The board set its next meeting for Tuesday, August 12, and adjourned.