A proposed $148 million project that would pack much-needed affordable housing into a 20-story building on the corner of Douglas Road and Day Avenue in the West Grove has won preliminary approval from the Miami-Dade County Commission.
The commission’s housing committee voted unanimously last week to greenlight Gallery in the Grove, a mixed-income housing project pitched by developer Related Urban.
The proposed highrise would replace a three-story building at Stirrup Plaza that currently has 65 subsidized apartments for seniors.
The full commission is scheduled to consider the proposed project this week at its February 19 meeting.
Altogether, the county is seeking to redevelop nine publicly-owned housing properties in the West Grove. To start the process, the county issued a request-for-proposal (RFP) in April 2023 inviting developers to compete for the right to redevelop the properties.
Two developers – Related Urban and Integral Florida – were chosen last fall to begin negotiations with Miami-Dade County for a redevelopment effort that will stretch across three blocks of Douglas Road from Oak Avenue to South Dixie Highway.
The Related Urban project, the first to come back to the county commission, would take advantage of county zoning rules that allow developers to build taller residential buildings near Metrorail stations (in this case, the Douglas Road station).
Related Urban is proposing a 20-story building with 345 housing units, including a one-for-one replacement of the existing 65 units, an additional 46 subsidized apartments for seniors, and 62 “workforce” units reserved for low- and moderate-income families.
The remaining apartments – 172 in total – will be priced to market.
Related Urban was the only developer to bid on the Stirrup Plaza site.
West Grove community leaders have previously expressed reservations about the height of the proposed building, and the fact that the lottery system typically used to find tenants for federally-subsidized housing gives no preference to local residents.
This is completely out of character and scale with the neighborhood.
Ahh, those magic words once again: “Affordable Housing.” Incant them and big developers get the green light to do big developments from City and County commissioners who rely on big campaign contributions to get re-elected. Never mind asking “Affordable for whom? For what size families? For how long?” And never mind asking about the long-term consequences on the quality of life for the larger community. Here are a few questions for this proposed 20-story “Gallery in the Grove” and its mega-developer Related Urban:
1. What is wrong with the well-maintained 3-story existing Senior facility on this site?
2. What guarantees are there that those same seniors living there now will be back in when the project is completed?
3. With 62 “workforce” units, and 172 “market rate” units being added to the new 5- and 8-story 3750/Aldi development across from it, what will be the impact on traffic at that Douglas Road/Day Avenue/US 1 intersection, already requiring up to 3 light changes to cross at peak times?
4. Have West Grove community organizations such as GRACE, the Ministerial Alliance, the Village West Homeowners and Tenants Association, the Lola B. Walker Homeowners Association, and The Thelma Gibson Health Initiative been meaningfully involved? There is already an existing federal lawsuit against the City of Miami for civil rights abuses of the zoning code in what was once known as West Grove.
5. Have respected impartial “quality of life” urban planners been consulted on the impact this development will have on Miami’s besieged Little Bahamas residents?
Will we get answers to these questions? Or will the words “Affordable Housing” do their magic once again?