To the Editor:
Ransom Everglades School on Main Highway has a City of Miami permit to use vacant land on nearby Charles Avenue in Little Bahamas.
At Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board (PZAB) on Wednesday October 21, Appellant Preserve the West Grove will be asking:
What specific Miami Code provision allows a school in one residential neighborhood to lease vacant land in a different residential neighborhood for use as a temporary parking lot by construction workers working back at the school?
We know Codes usually can’t be that specific, but all laws must be both understandable and applied evenly without bias.
Here, the permit was not issued where you’d normally look. Sec. 62-543. Temporary Permit Required, says: “There shall be five types of interim parking.” Only one of the five listed types could be possible here, and that’s “Interim special use parking.”
But because this vacant land “abuts” lots that are zoned T3-R, no permit could be issued under Sec. 62-543.
Instead, the permit here was issued as a “Temporary Occupancy” permit. Under Sec. 62-527: “A temporary permit system is hereby established, to be administered by the city manager or designee, in order to provide special examination and review of temporary uses and occupancies by the appropriate departments of the city or related agencies.”
This is followed by Sec. 62-529 that provides: “Applications for temporary occupancies shall be submitted and reviewed pursuant to the criteria and guidelines established in section 62-522 of this chapter.”
But there is no section 62-522. It’s been repealed. Instead, an “Editor’s note” directs you to Code Chapter 52. Special Events, which has a list of six examples that qualify. Goombay Festival is such a Special Event. Sec. 52-8 provides: “Approvals of special event permits for special events by the city manager, or designee, shall be based on the criteria utilized by the different departments or other governmental agencies upon which referrals were made.”
What does language like this mean when the question for PZAB to decide is: What specific Miami Code provision allows a school in one residential neighborhood to lease vacant land in a different residential neighborhood for use as a temporary parking lot by construction workers working back at the school?
The answer doesn’t require a perfect fit, but, at the very least, should allow interested citizens to be able to verify that the law is being administered uniformly and impartially.
Andy Parrish
Coconut Grove
