The Coral Gables City Commission gave final unanimous approval Tuesday to a sweeping 30-year agreement with the University of Miami that expands the university’s long-term development capacity, permits a future 100-bed hospital and commits nearly six acres of university land to a permanently protected public park.
All six measures making up the package passed 5-0, completing a process that received preliminary Commission approval Aug. 25. Commissioner Ariel Fernandez, who was absent from the first hearing, joined Mayor Vince Lago, Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and Commissioners Melissa Castro and Richard Lara in supporting every item Sept. 29.
The agreement replaces UM’s existing 6.8 million-square-foot campus development ceiling with a floor-area ratio of 1.0, which city staff has estimated could allow roughly 10.5 million square feet over the life of the agreement. It also permits a hospital of up to 100 beds in the campus Multi-Use Area without a separate conditional-use review for the hospital use, raises the enrollment level that triggers additional mitigation obligations from 13,000 to 17,500 students and gives UM control over certain city-metered parking spaces around campus.
In return, UM is to convey the 5.52-acre Lee Lincoln property to Coral Gables for Centennial Park and make annual payments to the city beginning at $1.025 million and increasing 4 percent each year under the new 30-year framework.
The Commission’s second-reading debate was far less about whether to approve the agreement than about defining what the city would receive and how securely the park would be protected.
Park protections tightened
The strongest new detail to emerge Tuesday was the language governing Centennial Park.
The deed says the property must be “perpetually used and maintained for public park purposes only.” The city may not sell or lease the property or use it for commercial, medical or other non-park purposes.
But Coral Gables will not receive unrestricted control over the land.
UM will retain a nonexclusive perpetual easement allowing use of the property for public park and passive-recreation purposes and temporarily as a hurricane staging area, with the university responsible for restoring the site afterward. The park must remain named Centennial Park. Signage is limited largely to the park name, wayfinding and parking, physical improvements require UM approval and special events other than city events require university consent.
Those provisions address concerns Castro raised at first reading, when she asked that the park language be made “airtight” and that the property remain essentially a passive green space. She also sought additional direct benefits for Coral Gables residents.
On Tuesday, Castro said she had since spoken with UM Board of Trustees Chairman Manny Kadre and university executive Rudy Fernandez and was satisfied with the response.
“They also went ahead and they worked on tightening the language when it came to the park, which I’m very thankful for that as well because that was one of my major concerns,” Castro said.
She said she also discussed ways UM and the city might provide additional benefits to residents and senior citizens, though those ideas were not incorporated as binding terms of the development agreement.
“Given the conversation that we had in private in the back of the room, I feel comfortable voting yes on this item,” Castro said.
City planning staff said there had been no major changes since first reading apart from minor amendments and technical edits coordinated with the city attorney’s office. Staff again recommended approval.
More development capacity, hospital authority and parking rights
The agreement significantly rewrites the rules governing UM’s Coral Gables campus.
Replacing the 6.8 million-square-foot cap with FAR 1.0 adds an estimated 3.7 million square feet of potential campus development over the long term. The package also expands the campus Multi-Use Area, increases permitted retail there from 15 percent to 20 percent and places three university-owned parcels along Ponce de Leon Boulevard and Levante Avenue into university land-use and zoning classifications.
UM also assumes management of 70 city-controlled metered parking spaces, including ADA spaces, and may improve part of Levante Avenue to install and operate additional meters.
None of those provisions approves a particular new building. Future construction remains subject to the development, design, infrastructure and permitting requirements that apply to individual projects.
The hospital provision, however, removes one significant future hurdle. A hospital with 100 beds or fewer would not require another conditional-use review simply to establish the hospital use within the Multi-Use Area. A larger hospital would.
Lago strongly endorsed the change.
“I am 110% in favor of having a hospital at the University of Miami,” he said, describing the benefit of having major medical care close to Coral Gables residents.
He also acknowledged that an actual hospital could still be many years away.
Land instead of more cash
Lago used Tuesday’s hearing to explain what he described as a conscious choice during negotiations: obtaining the park rather than seeking substantially more money from UM.
“So we took the property over taking the money every year for the next 30 years,” Lago said.
He said negotiators had discussed whether the city could have sought several million dollars more annually if UM retained the property. No independent appraisal or publicly presented fiscal analysis Tuesday quantified the relative value of those alternatives.
That tradeoff has been central to questions surrounding the deal.
UM receives greater development capacity, hospital authority, a higher enrollment-mitigation threshold and parking rights. Coral Gables receives the park, escalating annual payments and the other commitments contained in the development agreement.
At first reading, the Gazette found that the city had not publicly presented an independent valuation comparing the value of the development rights granted to UM with the value of the land, payments and other benefits received in return.
Commissioners did not revisit that valuation question in depth Tuesday.
Lara instead described the agreement as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” and urged his colleagues to support what he called a “no-brainer.”
Anderson called it a “historic day” and emphasized the value of permanently preserving the green space.
Fernandez joins the vote
Fernandez was the only commissioner who did not participate in the Aug. 25 first reading. At the start of Tuesday’s hearing, he confirmed that he had watched the earlier presentations before considering the final package.
He later explained that he had been in Rome during the first hearing for a conference on artificial intelligence involving Pope Leo XIV.
Fernandez praised the city-university relationship and suggested that UM consider holding an annual or biennial open house so Coral Gables residents could see newer parts of the campus.
He also asked whether the university would work with the city on placing public art at Centennial Park.
UM attorney Jeffrey Bass said the university would be willing to work with the city on park design and an appropriate entrance feature while preserving the emphasis on passive open space.
Bass then returned to a description he said he had used when the original city-UM development agreement was approved in 2010.
“We’re married. We’ve always been married. We’ll always be married,” Bass said. “We’re here today to renew our vows.”
Limited opposition
Three residents spoke during public comment.
Maria Cruz challenged the repeated description of the park as a “gift,” arguing that UM receives valuable development, hospital and parking rights in return and that the transaction should be understood as an exchange.
Vincent Chen, who said he owns property within the affected area, urged unanimous approval, citing medical access, jobs and other potential benefits.
A third speaker, mayoral candidate Jackson “Rip” Holmes, raised questions about Lago’s professional relationship with a construction company that has done work for UM. Later in the meeting, a separate resolution from Castro seeking an independent ethics review of Lago’s professional relationship with a UM contractor died for lack of a second. Castro said she had asked that the item be heard before the university vote. The Commission did not vote on the merits of her resolution.
Bass responded that opponents had presented no evidence showing that UM’s applications failed to comply with city requirements. He said city staff’s nearly 30-page analysis supported approval.
Six unanimous votes
Commissioners began with the amended and restated development agreement, which sets the framework for the other land-use and zoning changes.
It passed 5-0.
They then unanimously approved the related comprehensive-plan amendment, land-use changes, zoning-code amendment, zoning-map changes and revised Campus Master Plan.
The final votes convert what had been a preliminary 4-0 approval in August into the city’s new long-term framework with its largest institutional neighbor.
For the university, the agreement creates substantially more room to grow over the next three decades.
For the city, its most visible legacy may ultimately be the portion of UM land that will not be developed at all.
