By Coral Gables Gazette staff
The University of Miami’s proposed 30-year campus development agreement heads a City Commission agenda packed with consequential votes when elected officials convene Tuesday, Aug. 25, at 9 a.m.
Also before the commission: final legislative votes on the Crystal Residences project, another $6.85 million for the downtown Mobility Hub and a five-year sanitary sewer rate schedule that would raise every component of a typical residential bill.
UM’s campus agreement reaches its first commission vote
Five UM-specific ordinances, time-certain at 2 p.m., bring the university’s proposed 30-year development framework before the commission for the first time since the Planning and Zoning Board recommended approval Aug. 12.
The package would replace the campus’s current fixed square-footage cap with a floor area ratio of 1.0, which the city has confirmed would permit roughly 10.5 million square feet of development campuswide. It would designate a hospital of up to 100 beds as a permitted use requiring no separate conditional-use hearing, raise permitted retail in the campus Multi-Use Zone, reclassify three university-owned parcels along Levante Avenue and Ponce de Leon Boulevard from commercial to university use, and establish a 17,500-student enrollment mitigation threshold rather than a hard cap.
It would also expand the Multi-Use Area to include the campus Central Energy Plant, extending the boundary southwest to Red Road and northeast to the Mahoney-Pearson Parking Garage.
The Planning and Zoning Board recommended approval of each of the five UM-specific ordinances 6-1, with board member Felix Pardo dissenting each time.
A separate ordinance on Tuesday’s agenda would amend the citywide zoning code governing the maximum duration of development agreements to conform with state law. That measure passed the board unanimously, 6-0. It does not name UM specifically, although Florida law allows development agreements of up to 30 years — the term the university is seeking.
Tuesday’s UM votes are first readings. A second reading and public hearing would still be required before the measures take effect. A related Campus Master Plan conditional-use review is expressly not up for consideration Tuesday and would return with the ordinances on second reading if they advance.
Separately, on Tuesday’s consent agenda, commissioners are being asked to renew an existing lease allowing UM to use city-owned Parking Lots 42 and 43 for another year at $76,282 annually. That arrangement is distinct from the parking provisions contained in the broader development agreement.
Crystal Residences returns for final legislative votes
Four related items, time-certain at 11 a.m., bring the proposed Crystal Residences development at 110 Phoenetia Ave. back before the commission for final land-use and zoning votes after nearly five years of neighborhood opposition, preservation appeals and litigation.
The proposed nine-story project would include 184 residential units, 16 live/work units and a new facility for Crystal Academy, a school serving children with developmental disabilities that has operated on the property for 17 years. The approvals would reclassify the 1.47-acre site from Religious/Institutional to Commercial Mid-Rise Intensity, rezone it from Special Use to Mixed Use 2 and grant Planned Area Development approval.
Much of the controversy centers on the Garden of Our Lord, a walled meditation garden designed by architect Robert Fitch Smith and completed in 1951. Preservation advocates have fought to save the garden and mature trees since the former St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church property was sold in 2021, while opponents also contend that a nine-story building is incompatible with the surrounding North Ponce neighborhood. The developer says the project would add housing while providing Crystal Academy a new facility rent-free for 99 years.
An effort to have the garden designated historic failed before the city’s Historic Preservation Board and in subsequent court appeals. A separate legal challenge remains pending over the project’s architectural approval, alleging due-process and zoning violations. That case does not prevent Tuesday’s land-use votes.
Earlier this summer, the Planning and Zoning Board recommended the land-use amendment 4-3 and rezoning 5-2, while the development and site-plan requests advanced 6-1 with conditions.
On first reading July 7, the three ordinances passed 3-2, with Mayor Vince Lago, Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and Commissioner Richard Lara supporting them and Commissioners Melissa Castro and Ariel Fernandez opposed. Fernandez asked the developer to consider moving a proposed children’s park to the garden’s footprint before the measures returned for second reading Tuesday.
Sewer rates would rise every year for five years
Commissioners will also consider a sanitary sewer rate schedule covering fiscal years 2027 through 2031, with increases across every component of a residential bill.
The county billing charge would more than double, from $2.50 to $5.32 a month. The fixed monthly capital improvement charge for a standard residential meter would rise from $8 to $11.75, while the system maintenance charge would increase from $9 to $12.50.
Consumption charges would rise as well, although unevenly. For most of the five-year schedule, the highest-usage tier would carry a lower per-unit charge than the middle tier — meaning the marginal rate falls at the highest consumption level. The schedule does not reverse that relationship until fiscal 2031.
Using a standard 5/8-inch residential meter and 6 CCF of monthly water use, a Gazette calculation based on the proposed rates puts the monthly bill at about $52.58 in fiscal 2027 and $68.51 by fiscal 2031 — an increase of roughly 30 percent. The 6 CCF usage figure is a Gazette estimate used for illustration.
The proposed increases come as Miami-Dade County, which supplies the city’s wholesale sewer service, raises its own rate 6.24 percent beginning this October and bills Coral Gables an additional $1,360,096 as a true-up for prior service costs.
The resolution states that the new schedule would generate $4.2 million in additional revenue. It would also authorize future administrative adjustments if Miami-Dade’s wholesale charges change again, without requiring another commission vote.
Another $6.85 million for the Mobility Hub
The commission will consider transferring $6.85 million from Parking Fund reserves toward the downtown Mobility Hub, one of the largest individual funding actions on Tuesday’s agenda.
The transfer comes as the city continues moving the long-planned parking and mobility project toward construction.
On second reading, commissioners will also vote on the city’s $24 million purchase of the office building at 475-495 Biltmore Way. A separate resolution would waive the competitive process and authorize a one-year contract with Medicus Asset Management to manage the property once the acquisition closes.
Development conditions could change at two projects
At the 301-341 Madeira development, commissioners will consider allowing the developer to pay the city $300,000 instead of complying with an earlier requirement to place utilities underground.
A separate pair of items involving a development on Catalonia and Malaga avenues would allow a promised public park to be completed after, rather than before, the issuance of a certificate of occupancy.
The developer would have to post a performance bond for the unfinished work, and the park would still be dedicated to the city, with its deed executed and held in escrow.
Together, the items ask commissioners to modify conditions previously imposed on two separate development projects.
Youth Center construction could move ahead despite unresolved deed issue
Commissioner Melissa Castro is sponsoring a resolution that would clear the way for major capital improvements at the Coral Gables War Memorial Youth Center even though questions remain over a reverter clause in the property’s deed.
In June, the commission directed the city manager not to undertake major improvements that would require temporarily closing the Youth Center until the deed language was modified to address concerns about how the reverter clause could be interpreted. The same resolution paused litigation efforts until Dec. 1.
Tuesday’s proposal would remove the restriction on capital improvements, allowing the city to proceed without first resolving the deed issue. The pause on litigation would remain in effect until Dec. 1, when the commission is scheduled to provide further direction.
Dog park feedback returns to the Commission
City staff will present the results of community input on the proposed concept design for a dog park at 520 University Drive.
The presentation comes as the zoning changes allowing the dog park remain under a pending legal challenge. A group of residents filed a petition earlier this month seeking to overturn the ordinance that removed a decades-old use restriction on the property, a case the Gazette has previously reported.
Parks, streetscape and garage spending
Commissioners will consider three construction contracts totaling roughly $2.8 million: about $1.12 million for the Biltmore Way Streetscape Improvement Project, $933,000 for Cooper Park improvements and $786,985 for Rotary Park renovations.
A separate resolution would waive competitive bidding and authorize up to approximately $789,741 in structural repairs at Parking Garage 4.
Another budget amendment would reallocate existing general capital funding from the Fire House Four project to Parking Garage Four and City Hall renovations.
Also on Tuesday’s agenda
A proposed five-year joint-use agreement, with an option for another five-year term, would allow Coral Gables Preparatory Academy non-exclusive use of Phillips Park during specified periods. That item is time-certain at 9:30 a.m.
Other items include a permit-expediting incentive program for living seawalls, an update on the Green Corridor septic-to-sewer cooperative program, acceptance of a $558,625 grant supporting safety and security operations associated with the FIFA World Cup, and updated requirements for securing and removing roll-off dumpsters during tropical storms and hurricanes.
How to follow it
The City Commission meets Tuesday, Aug. 25, at 9 a.m. at the Police and Fire Headquarters Community Meeting Room.
The meeting is also accessible by Zoom and phone and will be broadcast live on the city’s website and Comcast Channel 77. Public comment may be submitted through the city’s e-comment system or by email to cityclerk@coralgables.com before the meeting begins.
