City Board Clears Plan to Restore Protected Silver Bluff

Developer David Martin will not face administrative fines over widespread damage to the Silver Bluff at his Coconut Grove property.

Miami’s historic preservation board has approved prominent developer David Martin’s plan to restore an iconic limestone formation partially demolished by workers during a botched construction job outside his Coconut Grove mansion.

Martin’s proposal to rebuild a stretch of the Silver Bluff at his 3001 Brickell Avenue property received a green light from Miami’s Historic and Environmental Preservation (HEP) Board this week, during a meeting that featured a lengthy apology from Martin and a rebuke from one board member who called the damage to the bluff “insane.”

Though the ire was palpable, the board noted it lacked the authority to issue fines against Martin in the matter.

In contrast to penalties for unpermitted tree removal, Miami’s city code does not lay out administrative fines for removal of protected environmental features such as the Silver Bluff. The resulting gap in the board’s authority has prompted calls for reform from preservation advocates as the restoration work moves forward.

Martin, whose Coconut Grove-based Terra Group has been a leading player in the Grove’s high-end makeover in recent years, publicly addressed the damage for the first time during the meeting.

“I know the importance of what the bluff means to Coconut Grove. It was really disheartening what occurred. We want to develop things that weave into the existing fabric and want to preserve that,” Martin said. “There’s really no excuse for this construction impact. My wife and I take full responsibility.”

Martin did not respond to the Spotlight’s request for comment.

Formed some 125,000 years ago, the Silver Bluff is a distinctive limestone outcropping that fronts Biscayne Bay in Coconut Grove.

According to Martin’s attorney Iris Escarra, workers at the site of the newly constructed mansion mistakenly demolished a stretch of the bluff while completing a project to reduce the height of a nearby retaining wall.

The damage was identified in late 2023 by the Archaeological and Historical Conservancy, a nonprofit consulting group, which found that the top two-and-a-half feet of the limestone formation had been “reduced and scarified.”

Hugh Ryan – a HEP board member and Miami contractor – said the demolition likely was an extended project and that construction managers accordingly should have noticed that workers were grinding away a protected natural rock formation.

“The oversight was inexcusable. This is insane,” Ryan proclaimed. “You can put it together, make it look nice, but you can’t redo it.”

Martin previously ran into problems with the city in 2023 over the unpermitted removal of 71 trees on the property to make way for construction of a new 21,000-square-foot mansion adjacent to Alice C. Wainwright Park. He was cited for the violations, and ordered to plant 59 new trees and pay $117,000 into the Tree Trust Fund.

Escarra, his attorney, has not responded to a request for information about the contractor who damaged the bluff, or for an update on the tree-removal citation.

Martin’s architect overseeing construction on the property, Jackie Gonzalez Touzet, told the board that her office was “very much aware of how important the bluff is.”

“It was never intended to be cut. It was protected in our drawings and was labeled as such to be preserved,” Gonzalez Touzet said.

Christine Rupp, executive director at the Dade Heritage Trust, says she was taken aback by the absence of fines in response to the destruction.

“If a landowner, whether knowingly or unknowingly, allows something like this to happen, where is the punishment? The way the city rules are now, the owner can say, ‘I’m sorry, I certainly didn’t mean for this to happen,’ and there’s no fine.” Rupp says. “What’s the point?”

The code does include a provision to bring a civil action against property owners if they damage an “environmentally significant feature” in a protected area, with a fine of up to $5,000. However, the penalty must be adjudicated in court (unlike tree removal fines issued administratively).

Rupp went a step further by calling for a more robust monitoring system to help ensure that damage to environmental gems in the city is prevented rather than addressed after-the-fact.

“We need to have a strong monitoring component for when there is construction in a zone with historic, environmental or archaeological assets. I think there’s something lacking there,” Rupp adds.

City of Miami Historic and Environmental Preservation Division chief Kenneth Kalmis has not responded to the Spotlight’s request for comment.

Board member Denise Galvez Turros tells the Spotlight she supports broadening the city’s – and the HEP Board’s –  fine-issuing authority, saying she’s seen little effort to enforce violations of the environmental preservation code through legal action, if necessary, in court.

“The Historic and Environmental Preservation Board and staff should have way more say. But our current commission is not going to allow that. They’ve actually moved in the last few years to take away power from the board,” Galvez Turros says.

During the meeting, the attending board members unanimously approved a “special certificate of approval” to restore the Silver Bluff using limestone to match its color and texture.

Approval was contingent on keeping the intact sections of the Silver Bluff in their original state and installing a thin layer of differently colored rock to distinguish between the new and old stone. Martin also agreed to a provision that “all ground disturbing activity” at his property require a dig certificate and monitoring by an archaeologist.

While discussing with the board how to protect the Silver Bluff from construction damage going forward, Galvez Turros suggested adding a reference to the geological formation in the city’s “Historic Design Guidelines” package for owners and developers.

Though Martin’s architect was aware of the bluff’s protected status, many homeowners and contractors are not, Galvez Turros says. She said the guidelines have become outdated and don’t identify which environmental features are covered under city code.

Updating the document would not be cheap: One outside vendor who specializes in such work gave a rough estimate of $100,000 to oversee the updates, according to Galvez Turros. At the hearing, Martin’s lawyer Escarra volunteered to work with the city to aid in revising the guidelines free of charge. In lieu of fines, the board appeared to welcome the offer.