Miami officials are targeting 30 acres in the historically Black neighborhood of Overtown for looser development regulations.
The push marks at least the second area the city is targeting for a zoning overhaul amid the wealth influx that promises to seed more residential demand and construction activity. Elsewhere, Miami is shepherding a much bigger upzoning in the Little Havana neighborhood.
The Overtown proposal comes on the heels of Carnegie Mellon University’s announcement it will build and open a satellite campus in Wynwood, which is just north of the neighborhood. Billionaire Ken Griffin bought the Mana Wynwood complex, where the campus will open, for a record $1.1 billion.
The Overtown upzoning would allow buildings up to three stories and 36 residential units per acre, as opposed to the current cap of two stories and 18 units per acre, on 220 parcels, according to commission agenda documents. It takes aim at 220 lots between Northwest 15th and 20th streets, west of Northwest First Avenue.
Commissioners are expected to vote at their Nov. 19 meeting on the measure, which would rezone the properties as “T4-R general urban transect zone restricted” from their current “T3-O suburban transect zone open.”
The denser designation allows multifamily and for-sale residential development by-right, while other types of construction such as schools, child care centers and churches would require either a warrant or a waiver from the city, the agenda documents show. The area now is populated by duplexes and single-family homes.
Opposition against the Overtown measure has so far been quiet, although buzz on Reddit raised a concern that permeated with the Little Havana upzoning as well: Where is the mandate for affordable housing?
“One way to do this is to allow increased number of units on the condition that a portion of the units be affordable. They could let them go even higher, like T5, as long as they actually guarantee 20 percent of the units are affordable or something similar,” one user wrote.
Another commenter said more housing supply is needed, especially near the planned campus.
Many others echoed each other: The upzoning spells “gentrification,” they wrote. “This will all become fake luxury apartments where a studio goes for [$]4k but at least the gym has Pelotons and there’s free coffee in the lobby,” another user wrote.
Miami officials will hold a town hall on the measure at 5 p.m. on Thursday at the Overtown Performing Arts Center at 1074 Northwest Third Avenue, according to a social media post by Commissioner Christine King, whose district includes the neighborhood.
The city’s own planning administrator recommended approval of the measure.
Overtown has a long history in Miami, with the neighborhood experiencing its heyday in the early to mid-20th century as a self-sustaining economic, arts and culture hub known for a flourishing jazz scene hosting Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald, among others.
The area’s economic decline traces to the 1960s with the construction of interstates that cut through the neighborhood.
“At present day, Overtown has seen some efforts to preserve what was left of its history as an entertainment and commercial enclave for Black Miamians,” city officials wrote in the upzoning item. “However, it has not fully recovered from the decades of displacement and economic disinvestment.”
In one of the most recent marquee projects in Overtown, developer Michael Swerdlow and his partners, SJM and Alben Duffie, about two years ago completed the Sawyer’s Walk development with 578 senior affordable housing apartments and a 251,000-square-foot office and retail center anchored by Target and Aldi stores.
Housing Trust Group will wrap up construction of a seven-story building next year, as part of plans for a larger roughly 1,000-unit project in the north edge of Overtown, where it bleeds into Wynwood.
The Little Havana zoning, which commissioners preliminarily approved last month, touched off a firestorm. The sweeping measure targets 661 lots on 136 acres for upzoning, and 349 properties on 72 acres for a land-use change. Some of the properties overlap and a few are in the Miami River District. Generally, this would allow for buildings up to eight stories and up to 150 units per acre on lots where 36 to 65 units are now allowed.
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