By Coral Gables Gazette staff

The Coral Gables City Commission deferred a proposal at its June 2 meeting to fund a pedestrian safety study at Ponce de León Boulevard and Miracle Mile, asking city engineers and staff to first convene with the Transportation Advisory Board’s chair before deciding whether to authorize study funding.

The discussion moved well beyond the narrow proposal — expanding to include failing pavers, ADA signals, signage, no-right-turn controls, and other Miracle Mile improvements — and it unfolded less than a month after Gazette reporting identified 11 active lawsuits alleging dangerous conditions on city-maintained sidewalks, crosswalks, and pedestrian infrastructure, including one case involving a Miracle Mile paver crosswalk that court filings say had been flagged for repair years before a 74-year-old woman fell.

The commission did not reject the study. Commissioner Melissa Castro withdrew her motion to approve it, Commissioner Richard Lara withdrew his second, and the item was deferred by consensus to August.

What the commission considered

Roland Rodriguez, chair of the city’s Transportation Advisory Board and a civil engineer, presented a resolution requesting authorization to fund a feasibility study for a scramble crosswalk at Ponce de León and Miracle Mile. A scramble crosswalk — also called a diagonal or Barnes Dance crossing — stops all vehicle traffic simultaneously and gives pedestrians a dedicated phase to cross in any direction, including diagonally, eliminating the hazard of turning vehicles conflicting with pedestrians mid-crossing.

Rodriguez noted that the infrastructure for such a crossing is largely in place at the intersection. Implementation, if a study found it feasible, would require restriping, signage updates, and signal retiming rather than major construction. A comparable installation at SW 8th Street and Brickell Avenue cost approximately $120,000, he said, though that project involved more infrastructure work than what the Ponce and Miracle Mile location would require. Public Works Director Hermes Diaz estimated the feasibility study itself would cost between $50,000 and $75,000.

City Manager Peter Iglesias raised concerns without opposing the study outright. Mayor Vince Lago — careful to distinguish the manager’s position from outright opposition — asked that Rodriguez meet with Iglesias, Diaz, and Assistant Transportation Director Melissa De Zayas before any vote, allowing the city’s engineering leadership and the TAB’s expertise to develop a broader set of recommendations together. The item will return to the commission in August.

Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson, arriving during the discussion, said she supported the meeting approach, noting that having experienced engineers at the table — including Rodriguez and city staff — was an opportunity to examine options the commission might not otherwise identify.

A narrow study becomes a corridor review

What began as a focused resolution quickly became a wider infrastructure discussion. Lago raised the condition of the Brazilian stone pavers at Miracle Mile’s crosswalks — decorative elements that have repeatedly failed under the weight of delivery and service trucks despite numerous remedies including different concrete mixes and rebar reinforcement. The city budgets $200,000 annually for paver maintenance, Lago said. Lago said he favored exploring lower-maintenance alternatives including stamped asphalt or stamped concrete, and noted the annual cost was increasingly difficult to justify given fiscal pressures from anticipated Tallahassee property tax changes.

He also cited a section of sidewalk in front of Regions Bank where three different paving treatments meet and the tile is lifting and creating a tripping hazard, describing it as an “absolute disaster.” A memo had been drafted to address several such locations along the corridor.

Anderson raised the need for ADA-compliant audible pedestrian signals at the intersection. Rodriguez noted that lit no-right-turn signs, like those installed through Miami-Dade County District 6 at other locations, would improve pedestrian safety at Ponce and Miracle Mile. The discussion also touched on expanding the scramble crosswalk concept to all three signalized intersections along Miracle Mile — a change Lara said could help draw pedestrian traffic to the corridor’s underperforming western block, where businesses have struggled to sustain foot traffic.

Lago asked that the planned engineering meeting consider the entire Miracle Mile corridor, not just the Ponce intersection.

Prior lawsuits put the discussion in sharper relief

The June 2 discussion unfolded against a backdrop the commission did not directly address: The 11 pending cases alleging dangerous conditions on city-maintained sidewalks, crosswalks, or pedestrian infrastructure.

Among those cases is Zubillaga v. City of Coral Gables, which involves Miracle Mile’s paver crosswalks directly. Marisol Linares Zubillaga, 74, alleges she fell on broken and uneven brick pavers at a mid-block Miracle Mile crosswalk on November 23, 2024, sustaining bilateral rotator cuff tears requiring right shoulder replacement surgery, with possible left shoulder replacement still ahead. Court filings reviewed by the Gazette cite city records showing a licensed contractor submitted a formal repair proposal to the Public Works Department in July 2020 identifying that crosswalk as requiring repair, and that a city internal survey in October 2021 documented the same location as needing repair in both eastbound and westbound lanes. The city issued a purchase order for Miracle Mile paver restoration in April 2025 — five months after the fall.

The city has not answered Gazette questions asking why the crosswalk was not repaired between 2020 and 2024 or what prompted the April 2025 purchase order. Those questions were among 36 submitted to City Attorney Cristina Suárez in April. The city’s response last month stated it would not provide commentary on litigation strategy and did not address the infrastructure maintenance questions.

The $200,000 annual paver-maintenance figure Lago cited at the meeting refers to the same category of Miracle Mile infrastructure involved in the Zubillaga case.

What comes next

Rodriguez will meet with Iglesias, Diaz, De Zayas, and city staff before the August commission meeting to evaluate the full range of pedestrian safety and infrastructure improvements along Miracle Mile — including but not limited to the scramble crosswalk proposal. The scope will encompass signal technology, ADA infrastructure, paver alternatives, signage, and potentially all three signalized intersections along the corridor.

The feasibility study remains unfunded. Whether it returns in August as a standalone item or as part of a broader infrastructure plan will depend on what the engineering meeting produces.