Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Sunset Drive topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Commission weighs restoring 4‑story minimum on Sunset Drive, seeks economic analysis
Summary
City staff and commissioners debated restoring a 4‑story envelope for the Sunset Drive buffer and creating a transfer-of-development-rights (TDR) mechanism to compensate property owners; staff will provide an appraisal-driven analysis before the next reading.
The South Miami City Commission spent much of a Sept. 26 workshop focusing on how to treat Sunset Drive in the proposed TSCD zoning ordinance and how to compensate property owners if a lower by‑right envelope is adopted. Mark Elvis of the Corradino Group reviewed options for setting the edge of the commercial core and for allowing owners to sell additional building rights into the district.
“Elvis said the staff analysis showed there is capacity in the district — roughly 15,000,000 square feet of bonus capacity under the scheme excluding Sunset Drive — and about 1,000,000.5 square feet of sellable TDRs on just the frontage on Sunset Drive,” the consultant told commissioners. Mayor Fernandez said he would circulate a separate analysis he prepared and asked staff to validate it.
Why it matters: Commissioners said they want to preserve Sunset Drive’s scale while ensuring property owners are treated equitably if the code locks them into a smaller envelope. Vice mayoral politics were raised — one commissioner noted a previous straw poll at the prior meeting showed a 4–1 posture — and several public commenters representing property owners urged more flexibility and a revenue-sharing plan tied to TDR sales.
Key details: Staff described a potential program that would let owners sell up to two bonus stories and proposed that a share of the proceeds be reinvested in Sunset Drive improvements. Attorney Nick Noto told the commission his clients would accept a structure that requires 50% of any bonus sale proceeds be used for capital improvements on the Sunset Drive properties themselves.
What’s next: Commissioners asked staff to coordinate with the city appraiser and return with a calibrated economics analysis of the proposed TDR/pay‑in‑lieu program before the ordinance’s second reading. The commission tentatively discussed a second reading advertising target of Oct. 15 and a potential final vote timeline in November.
