Spotlight 115-250624

Good morning. What we’re covering in today’s Spotlight:

The Toxic Legacy of Old Smokey
An Appeal to Prevent Lot Splitting
A Juneteenth Event in the Grove
A New Threat to Neighborhoods

Old Smokey Gears up for Class Action Hearing

As lawyers seek to have the Old Smokey lawsuit certified as a class action, West Grove community leaders want more residents to be tested for medical conditions.

By Jenny Jacoby

As the “Old Smokey” lawsuit trudges on, community leaders are urging West Grove residents – past and present – to get screened for medical conditions that may be linked to toxins left behind by the incinerator that spewed a cloud of ash over the neighborhood for nearly 50 years.

“As we get deeper into this litigation and get an understanding of how many of us lost relatives — aunts and uncles and parents — to the same conditions, that’s when you start to realize that, disproportionately, a lot of the people in our community died from the same illness,” Carolyn Donaldson said earlier this month at a community screening of the documentary “Old Smokey: A Community History.”

Donaldson grew up in Coconut Grove when smoke and ash billowed from the City of Miami’s incinerator six days a week. Two months ago, she buried the last of her siblings. Before that she said goodbye to her parents and grandparents, all from diseases that may have been linked to exposure to the incinerator’s toxic byproduct.

Appeal Filed to Stop Lot Splitting

A neighbor is challenging PZAB’s recent decision to allow a developer to build three houses on a large single-family property on Poinciana Street in the South Grove.

By Jenny Jacoby

A homeowner on Poinciana Avenue in the South Grove is appealing a Planning Zoning and Appeals Board (PZAB) decision earlier this month to allow a developer to build three houses on a large single-family property in her neighborhood.

Dozens of residents had urged PZAB not to split the 21,000-square-foot property at 4055 Poinciana Ave. during a June 4 hearing, citing traffic concerns and the likely loss of tree canopy. The board voted 6-to-3 instead to grant the developer’s request.

The South Grove property is composed of three platted lots but had historically been united as one building site with one single-family home since 1947.

The appeal, filed by Alexandra Lumpkin, says PZAB failed to consider Neighborhood Conservation District (NCD-3) regulations when making its decision. Those regulations are intended to protect low-density neighborhoods and the city’s tree canopy.

Emancipendence Event Returns for a 2nd Year

With live performances and light bites, the 2^nd annual Emancipendence event in the West Grove is a celebration of Juneteenth and Florida Emancipation Day, marking 160 years since the abolition of slavery in the United States.

By Amanda Clegg

One hundred and sixty years ago this month, Major General Gordon Granger arrived on the island of Galveston, Texas and declared an end to slavery in the Lone Star State.

The Coconut Grove Ecumenical Network will mark that milestone – and the end of slavery in Florida in May 1865 as well – at the 2nd annual Emancipendence event on Sunday June 29 at Sanctuary of the Arts on Frow Avenue in the West Grove.

In a historically black neighborhood where change is on the march, Carolyn Donaldson, one of the event organizers, said it’s more important than ever to hold on to history.

“It’s two significant ways for us to tell our history,” Donaldson told the Spotlight. “The more we tell the story, the more it gets ingrained in history and solidified, so we don’t wake up 20 or 30 years from now and no one knows that Little Bahamas and the West Grove ever existed.”

The intent of the event is to educate – to mark the legal end of slavery as both a milestone and a reminder of the long struggle for freedom.

Opinion: Don’t Let City Officials Surrender the Upzoning Battles

Proposed changes to Miami’s zoning code – which city commissioner will vote on Thursday – could add thousands of residents, and their cars, to Coconut Grove’s increasingly crowded neighborhoods and streets.

By Andy Parrish

Buckle up your seatbelts. The neighborhood you save might just be your own.

The June 18th Planning Zoning and Appeals Board (PZAB) meeting was both enlightening and discouraging. Item 15 on the Board’s agenda — nine small-type pages long — stated “Height shall be permitted in accordance with the T6-12-O Transect” with bonus height allowed. That means buildings of 12 stories and up could be constructed within 1 mile of Metrorail Stations in 4 “nodes” ranging in density from 150 units per acre up to 500 units per acre. City staff recommended approval.

Item 15 passed on a 6-3 vote after the only five members of the public there all spoke against it. The Board recommended to the City Commission that height be limited to eight stories if the development site is farther than ½ mile from the station, and only after the issuance of an “exception” as set forth in the Miami 21 zoning code.

Letters to the Editor

Readers React: Spotlight readers are sounding the alarm over a proposed City of Miami zoning change that would allow developers to build taller buildings within one mile of Metrorail stations and major transit stops.

(Continue to Letters…)