By Coral Gables Gazette staff

The University of Miami is asking Coral Gables for substantially more room to grow: greater development capacity, permission for enrollment to rise to 17,500 students and the ability to put a hospital of up to 100 beds in part of its campus without a separate conditional-use review.

On Wednesday, the city’s Planning and Zoning Board will cast the first public recommendation vote on that six-part request, beginning a formal review that will ultimately require two votes by the City Commission. The package includes changes to the Comprehensive Plan and zoning code, expansion of the university’s Multi-Use Area, amendments to its campus master plan and a rewrite of its development agreement with the city.

The Gazette first reported on the scope of the proposal in June when the university’s filing reached the city’s Development Review Committee. That reporting detailed UM’s request to introduce hospital use on the Coral Gables campus, replace the 6.8 million-square-foot development cap with FAR 1.0, expand the Multi-Use Area and reclassify three university-owned parcels along Ponce de Leon Boulevard and Levante Avenue. Wednesday’s hearing moves that same package from technical review into its first public recommendation vote.

Together, the changes would establish the framework governing how much UM can build, where higher-intensity uses can go and how the university can grow over the coming decades.

City planning staff is recommending approval of the full package.

What UM is asking for

The most significant numerical change is to the amount of development permitted on the Coral Gables campus.

UM wants to raise the maximum floor area ratio, or FAR, from 0.7 to 1.0. FAR measures the amount of building floor space permitted in relation to the size of the property.

The change would eliminate the campus’s current fixed ceiling of 6.8 million square feet. The city previously told the Gazette that a FAR of 1.0 would permit approximately 10.5 million square feet of total campus development — about 3.7 million square feet more than the existing limit.

The proposed development agreement also would increase maximum permitted student enrollment from 13,000 to 17,500, a 4,500-student increase.

The amendments would permit hospital use within the campus Multi-Use Zone for the first time. A hospital containing more than 100 beds would require a separate conditional-use review; one with 100 beds or fewer would not face that additional use review. City staff describes the change as creating the potential for a community-serving hospital serving students, faculty, staff and surrounding residents.

Retail permitted within the Multi-Use Zone also would increase from 15 percent to 20 percent.

None of those changes approves a particular future building. Individual projects would remain subject to the applicable development, design, infrastructure and permitting reviews.

A larger footprint along Ponce de Leon

The proposal also would expand the university’s Multi-Use Area by nearly 14 acres along Ponce de Leon Boulevard.

The expanded designation would include the existing Central Energy Plant and extend southwest to Red Road and northeast to the Mahoney-Pearson Parking Garage, while excluding properties not owned by the university. City staff describes the Ponce de Leon and U.S. 1 corridor as the campus edge intended to absorb ancillary and potentially higher-intensity university uses while limiting those activities near established residential neighborhoods.

Three university-owned properties that do not currently carry campus land-use and zoning designations also would be brought into the university framework.

The parcels at 1530 Levante Ave., 5827 Ponce de Leon Blvd. and 5855 Ponce de Leon Blvd. would change from Commercial Low-Rise Intensity to University Use on the city’s Future Land Use Map and from Mixed-Use 1 to University Campus District zoning. City staff notes that UM already owns all three properties.

The university’s existing Campus Transition and Buffer areas along surrounding residential neighborhoods would remain unchanged.

Rewriting the city’s agreement with UM

The package also would amend and restate the development agreement between Coral Gables and the university, first adopted in 2010.

In addition to increasing permitted enrollment and replacing the square-footage ceiling with FAR 1.0, the agreement would require UM to convey the Lee Lincoln Parcel to the city for development as a public park.

The university’s annual payments to the city under the agreement would increase by 4 percent each year. UM also would take over management of 70 metered parking spaces, including ADA spaces, on campus streets and improve the western portion of Levante Avenue to install and operate additional parking meters.

City staff describes the park conveyance as recognition of the proposed increase in development intensity and enrollment, saying the property would provide public open space and an additional buffer between campus activity and an established residential neighborhood.

City staff recommends approval

Planning staff reviewed the package against the standards in the Coral Gables Comprehensive Plan and zoning code and concluded that the applications meet those requirements.

The staff report argues that the additional development capacity would support UM’s long-term growth in academics, research, student housing, healthcare and related institutional uses while continuing to direct higher-intensity construction toward the campus core and away from surrounding residential neighborhoods.

Staff also concluded that the amendments are not expected to reduce adopted levels of service for roads, utilities or other public infrastructure, although future projects would undergo project-specific reviews of transportation, water, sewer, stormwater, emergency services and other capacity.

The report’s formal recommendation is approval.

A separate citywide change would allow 30-year agreements

A seventh item on Wednesday’s agenda is listed separately from the six UM applications.

Proposed by the city rather than the university, the zoning-code amendment would increase the maximum initial term of development agreements throughout Coral Gables from 20 years to 30 years, bringing the city’s code into line with Florida law.

The city describes that change as procedural and administrative. By itself, it would not approve a development, authorize a new use or change permitted density, intensity or building height.

The timing nevertheless places the citywide amendment before the Planning and Zoning Board on the same night that UM’s long-term development agreement is being considered.

What happens Wednesday

The Planning and Zoning Board is not the final decision-maker.

For each of the six university items, the board will hear presentations from city staff and the applicant, take public comment, deliberate and vote on a recommendation. The applications then go to the City Commission for two public hearings. Dates for those hearings have not yet been set.

The university held a neighborhood meeting on the proposal Feb. 4. For Wednesday’s hearing, the city mailed 2,327 notices to property owners, including nine sent internationally.

The hearing marks the first public vote on a package that would govern far more than any single UM building. It would establish the development capacity, land-use rules, enrollment level and hospital authority under which future projects could proceed.

How to weigh in

The Planning and Zoning Board meets Wednesday, Aug. 12, beginning at 6 p.m. in the Community Meeting Room at Police and Fire Headquarters, 2151 Salzedo St.

Residents may attend in person or participate through Zoom. Those unable to use Zoom may listen and participate by telephone at 305-461-6769 using meeting ID 837 8870 9513.

Written comments may be submitted through the city’s e-comment system at coralgables.com/pzb or by email to planning@coralgables.com. The deadline for written comments is the close of business Tuesday, Aug. 11.