In 2009, the Miami 21 plan created a new zoning provision to encourage development in areas that had suffered from decades of disinvestment and job loss. Special Area Plans (SAPs) permit new uses, such as housing and retail, on land that was previously zoned for industrial or other bygone uses. The SAP designation sparked some of the city’s most successful developments, but has lately been the target of vigorous opposition, culminating in a January vote by the Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board to recommend its repeal. Neisen Kasdin, managing partner of Akerman LLP’s Miami office, has extensive experience both as a leader in urban development – he was formerly mayor of Miami Beach – and in representing complex, large-scale, multi-use development projects. In what follows, Kasdin examines the controversy surrounding SAPs.
You have argued that the SAP process has fostered several highly successful developments. Which projects would you point to, and what made them successful?
The first two SAPs in the City of Miami – the Miami Design District and Brickell City Centre – are nationally acclaimed projects that represent billions of dollars in investment. Not only did these projects catalyze tremendous investments in surrounding properties and create thousands of jobs, but they are highly regarded for their architecture and design. As land use counsel on both, I saw this firsthand.
Two other more recently approved developments are the Miami Jewish Health System’s campus, a major healthcare facility; and the Ransom Everglades School, a leading private school in Miami-Dade County. Given the unique purposes and requirements of these projects – be they large-scale retail, educational, or healthcare related – they could not have been achieved without an SAP.
Why are SAPs necessary for projects like these?
SAPs are a wonderful planning tool. They allow for the master planning of parcels greater than nine abutting acres and promote flexibility and creativity in urban design, including creating public spaces and improvements and accommodating a variety of architectural styles. They also enable unique land uses – such as large retail centers, hospitals, schools and technology districts – that can’t be accommodated under existing zoning regulations.
In addition, many SAPs have been adopted in areas that were formerly vacant, undeveloped or economically depressed. The SAP process allows for the development of large-scale projects that can catalyze neighborhood revitalization in those areas.
The Miami Design District, for example, is an area that was originally developed in the 1950s and ‘60s around interior design and home furnishing businesses. When urban decline hit in the 1970s and ‘80s, this trade largely moved to the suburbs. The Design District went into precipitous decline, leaving it largely abandoned.
The developer Craig Robins began buying up properties in the area in the 1990s. In the 2000s, he re-established it as a destination for retail design and home furnishing businesses, as well as art galleries and showrooms. In 2010, he partnered with LVMH to create this incredible retail and art district that was only achievable because of SAPs.
As another example, Magic City Innovation District in Little Haiti – which I also represented – was developed in an area filled with an abandoned trailer park and vacant warehouses. The neighborhood had experienced 30 years of economic and population decline as light manufacturing and other businesses closed and people previously employed there, and the entrepreneurial immigrants moved out to the suburbs. That left only the poor residents in the neighborhood, with very few jobs and no investment coming in.
Magic City Innovation District is transforming an almost 18-acre parcel which has been re-planned through the SAP process, as a tech-oriented, mixed-use district. Even though major construction has not begun, new businesses are already moving to the neighborhood and the first major new building, the headquarters of Motorsports.com, is soon to break ground. Magic City Innovation District will drive investment and create thousands of new jobs as well as support the creation of many local businesses that will revive Little Haiti’s cultural and economic life and reverse the 30-year decline.
The alternative to projects like these is piecemeal development, which can’t deliver the public benefits to the neighborhood that SAPs can. For instance, Magic City Innovation District has created a $31 million fund that provides housing, job training and other services for the Little Haiti community.
And yet there has been a lot of opposition lately, including calls to abolish the SAP designation. What do you believe is fueling that opposition?
It’s largely driven by community activists who oppose change because they like things the way they are and want to preserve their positions of power in the community. They generate opposition by preying upon people’s fear of progress, often without regard to the true long-term interests of the community.
On the other hand, the opposition has also been fueled by a few proposed – but not yet approved – SAPs that were pure entitlement grabs. These proposals were not seeking to create something of greater value or benefit to the community, but merely seeking to increase the amount of residential housing on their already developed properties. That would involve, among other things, displacing existing residents, which hasn’t been the case with any of the SAPs that have passed. The SAP rules have been changed as a result of some of these attempted entitlement grabs.
What was that change, and what other changes have been made since SAPs were first created?
One of the failed applications included more than three acres of city property in order to meet the nine-acre requirement for an SAP. That application was ultimately withdrawn. As a result, the code was amended to prohibit the inclusion of city-owned property to reach the nine acres.
The rule has also been changed to prohibit SAPs in areas that are zoned for single-family and duplex residential. The developments have to be located in areas that allow commercial and multifamily development.
Are there further changes you’d like to see to improve the SAP process, or to help quell opposition?
If an SAP resulted in a significant increase in housing density, it would be reasonable to require either that a certain portion be set aside for workforce housing, or that a contribution be made to a fund for workforce and/or affordable housing.
What can developers do to build community support for SAPs?
You have to start with a project that’s well-planned and that clearly serves broader community needs and purposes. Whether it’s redeveloping an abandoned area, creating jobs, adding services that weren’t previously available, forging a link to transit – a great project will deliver benefits like these to its community.
And you have to engage in meaningful community outreach. That means sitting down with neighborhood associations, relevant civic groups, residents and any other appropriate stakeholders. Show them your project, get their input – and listen carefully to their concerns.
Magic City Innovation District did a fantastic job of community outreach and got most of the important groups in the community behind it. Craig Robins, the developer of the Design District, created a self-imposed rule that he won’t proceed with any major SAP modifications unless the neighborhood associations around him support what he’s proposing.