New Lawsuit Targets Grove Bonus-Height Developments

The legal challenge — like a similar lawsuit focused on The WELL — centers on whether Miami officials unlawfully allowed developers to lock in three extra stories under a repealed zoning provision, as well as a separate claim that one of the projects is barred from any bonus-height allowance because of existing restrictions under the city’s Miami 21 zoning code.

A second lawsuit challenging Coconut Grove’s controversial “bonus height” ordinance is now targeting two nearby eight-story residential projects planned along Southwest 27th Avenue, with one of the developments also facing a claim that it was never eligible for the added height anyway because it abuts a single-family neighborhood. 

The lawsuit, filed in March by a group calling itself NCG Rightway Inc., expands the legal fight over a short-lived 2023 zoning provision that temporarily allowed some properties near transit hubs to rise from five stories to eight.

A separate challenge, filed last fall, targets similar bonus-height allowances tied to The WELL, a proposed eight-story luxury condominium project on Tigertail Avenue in Center Grove.

At the center of the new complaint are The Lincoln and The Lennox, twin projects by Miami-based Lore Development Group on either side of Southwest 27^th Avenue just north of Tigertail Avenue.

The plaintiffs argue that both projects improperly claim rights to the three-story “bonus height” under the repealed ordinance, and that The Lincoln separately violates the city’s underlying zoning code because properties in T5 zoning districts that abut T3 single-family areas are limited to five stories. 

That argument closely mirrors concerns first raised publicly last year by Center Grove resident Chris Lunding, who believes that city officials improperly approved the project despite clear restrictions in the zoning code. 

Most damning, Lunding insists, is a June 2025 email in which Assistant Zoning Director Paul Brown acknowledged that The Lincoln’s proposed eight-story height “is not consistent” with Miami 21 because the property abuts a single-family district, adding that the project reviewer “is aware that the maximum allowable height is five (5) stories and will apprise the applicant of the findings.”

Read more: Center Grove Tower’s Bonus Height Claim Under Scrutiny

But despite that acknowledgment, the plaintiffs say, city officials later continued treating the project as vested for the additional height, and The Lincoln’s developers have continued advancing plans for an eight-story, 182,000-square-foot building topped by a partially covered rooftop deck. 

The March lawsuit asks a judge to declare that The Lincoln is not entitled to the bonus floors and to block the city from issuing permits allowing buildings taller than five stories under the disputed ordinance. 

The city’s Building Department has issued permits for preliminary site work at The Lincoln property but has yet to authorize a vertical building permit. City officials also recently approved plans to remove 44 trees from the site, pending any appeals of that decision before Friday.

The lawsuit also revives a broader legal argument already before the court in an earlier case filed by Grove Opposing Out-of-Control Development Inc., another neighborhood group challenging the same ordinance. The earlier suit focuses primarily on The WELL, the eight-story luxury development planned for Tigertail Avenue by Coconut Grove-based Terra Group. 

A hearing on an emergency injunction seeking to block the city from issuing building permits tied to the disputed bonus-height ordinance is set for May 26.

Read more: Judge Asked to Halt Permits for The WELL in Height Dispute

In both cases, plaintiffs argue the 2023 “bonus height” ordinance was unlawfully adopted because the final version approved by commissioners materially differed from the version publicly advertised ahead of the vote — potentially violating Florida public notice requirements. 

The disputed legislation was repealed last June after Spotlight reporting revealed that Coconut Grove originally had been exempted from the height increase until a last-minute amendment quietly removed much of that protection. 

According to the March complaint, a July 2023 memorandum from City Attorney Victoria Mendez stated that properties within Neighborhood Conservation Districts, which include all of Coconut Grove, would be excluded from the bonus-height program. 

But a subsequent substitution ordinance issued just moments before final approval narrowed the exclusion language, opening portions of Coconut Grove to the additional height. 

Read more: The WELL: How 5 Became 8

The plaintiffs argue that because those revisions were never properly noticed to the public, the ordinance was “invalid, void ab initio and of no force or effect.” 

In addition to The WELL Coconut Grove, The Lincoln and The Lennox, bonus height under the repealed ordinance was also granted to a portion of the Ritz-Carlton Coconut Grove property at Southwest 27th Avenue and Tigertail Avenue.

Neither the Miami City Attorney’s Office nor David Winker, the attorney representing plaintiffs in both lawsuits, responded to requests for comment.

Center Grove resident Keith Lynch, who says he is among roughly 10 neighbors backing the new lawsuit, said the case was filed only after months of unsuccessful attempts to resolve the dispute outside court.

“We would have much rather reached an agreement,” Lynch said. “They had every opportunity, but we just hit a wall with the developer.”