Miami poised to approve sweeping zoning overhaul
By David Villano | Coconut Grove Spotlight
July 24, 2025 at 9:42 AM EDT
The Miami City Commission will vote Thursday on a far-reaching package of zoning amendments that promote taller buildings and far greater housing densities in neighborhoods surrounding transit hubs and the roadways that connect to them.
City officials say the changes — in the form of three separate legislative items — are a calculated bet that encouraging high-population clusters near fixed-rail lines, such as Metrorail stations, will encourage transit use – and reduce automobile reliance.
Roughly half of the City of Miami will be impacted by the new rules.
READ MORE: Miami eyes major zoning changes to tackle housing crunch
Thursday’s votes would authorize city planners to apply a new land-use designation — Transit Oriented Nodes — to properties up to a mile from fixed-rail lines; and would approve a comprehensive program of development incentives — known as Transit Station Neighborhood Development — which would, in some instances, more than double both the allowable building height and housing densities.
<i>The shaded areas of this 2024 map show where proximity to transit stations and transit corridors will allow taller buildings and higher housing densities under proposed changes to the City of Miami’s zoning laws. </i> (968x535, AR: 1.8093457943925233)
The commission will also consider a separate proposal for these so-called “transit zones” that would incentivize workforce housing construction by allowing developers to build taller, denser buildings with far fewer parking requirements.
City planners say the goal is to transform Miami into a “15-minute city” — a place where anyone can reach all of their basic needs — work, shop, play — within 15 minutes, without an automobile.
“This is an idea that has been cooking around the nation for the past couple of decades,” City of Miami Planning Director David Snow assured residents last week during an online presentation on the proposed changes, describing a vision of densely populated neighborhoods throughout the city sewn together by a fabric of bike lanes, pedestrian infrastructure and greenspace. “It’s the compact walkability — walkable development that we’re looking for.”
The new rules — and the broader vision — come on the heels of both state and county laws enacted in recent years that allow developers to sidestep Miami’s more restrictive zoning codes. Snow calls the city’s proposed rules “competitive” with the county’s Rapid Transit Zoning ordinance.
But not everyone is sold on the vision, or the rollout, arguing that land-use and zoning changes as potentially transformative as those up for vote on Thursday should come with far greater scrutiny and resident input. Indeed, the proposed legislation, while years in the making, according to planning staff, had been under wraps until its mandatory review, in May, by the city’s Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board (PZAB).
City staff have acknowledged that the long-term impact of the proposed legislation is unclear. When a skeptical PZAB board member asked if the city had conducted modeling to predict population growth spurred by the changes — and its impact on traffic and infrastructure — Assistant Planning Director Sevanne Steiner shrugged.
“Right now, I have no tools to be able to do that,” Steiner told the board. “There’s nothing really within our comprehensive plan, other than a few pieces of goals, policies, and objectives, and there’s nothing really in the Miami 21 [zoning code] that allows me to do that type of analysis.”
Such uncertainty has not been lost on residents and civic groups, which have been pressing city officials to delay Thursday’s votes.
“Rushing through dense legislation of this magnitude — without true public participation — is simply wrong,” Coconut Grove Park Homeowners Association president and One Grove Alliance board member Marlene Erven wrote to Miami District 2 Commissioner Damian Pardo last week. “I urge you to support a deferral and to help implement a more deliberate and transparent process.”
Erven said she received no response. Through a spokesperson, Pardo declined to comment for this article.
But the pressure campaign has had some success. During an initial hearing on the Transit Station Neighborhood Development ordinance — the most far-reaching of the changes — commissioners agreed to exempt Coconut Grove and the nearby Coral Gate neighborhood from its provisions.
No such exemptions have been proposed for the separate workforce housing ordinance, which could apply to properties within a quarter mile of Coconut Grove’s principal arteries such as Grand Avenue, Bird Avenue, SW 27th Avenue and Douglas Road.
And while commissioners had also agreed to exempt locally designated historic properties and districts, that blanket exemption has been replaced with a requirement that redevelopment under the law’s high-density provisions could occur, but only with commission approval.
Thursday’s vote on the Transit Station Neighborhood Development ordinance includes one other significant alteration from the draft legislation presented to residents, and commissioners, last month.
The law’s enhanced zoning allowances will apply to properties up to a full mile from Metrorail stations or other transit hubs, rather than the originally proposed half mile.
Steiner, the assistant planning director, argues that only by expanding the transit-related development zone to a full mile — along with the sidewalks, bike lanes and other supporting mobility infrastructure – will Miami residents choose transit over their automobile.
This story was originally published in the Coconut Grove Spotlight, a WLRN News partner.
City officials say the changes — in the form of three separate legislative items — are a calculated bet that encouraging high-population clusters near fixed-rail lines, such as Metrorail stations, will encourage transit use – and reduce automobile reliance.
Roughly half of the City of Miami will be impacted by the new rules.
READ MORE: Miami eyes major zoning changes to tackle housing crunch
Thursday’s votes would authorize city planners to apply a new land-use designation — Transit Oriented Nodes — to properties up to a mile from fixed-rail lines; and would approve a comprehensive program of development incentives — known as Transit Station Neighborhood Development — which would, in some instances, more than double both the allowable building height and housing densities.
<i>The shaded areas of this 2024 map show where proximity to transit stations and transit corridors will allow taller buildings and higher housing densities under proposed changes to the City of Miami’s zoning laws. </i> (968x535, AR: 1.8093457943925233)
The commission will also consider a separate proposal for these so-called “transit zones” that would incentivize workforce housing construction by allowing developers to build taller, denser buildings with far fewer parking requirements.
City planners say the goal is to transform Miami into a “15-minute city” — a place where anyone can reach all of their basic needs — work, shop, play — within 15 minutes, without an automobile.
“This is an idea that has been cooking around the nation for the past couple of decades,” City of Miami Planning Director David Snow assured residents last week during an online presentation on the proposed changes, describing a vision of densely populated neighborhoods throughout the city sewn together by a fabric of bike lanes, pedestrian infrastructure and greenspace. “It’s the compact walkability — walkable development that we’re looking for.”
The new rules — and the broader vision — come on the heels of both state and county laws enacted in recent years that allow developers to sidestep Miami’s more restrictive zoning codes. Snow calls the city’s proposed rules “competitive” with the county’s Rapid Transit Zoning ordinance.
But not everyone is sold on the vision, or the rollout, arguing that land-use and zoning changes as potentially transformative as those up for vote on Thursday should come with far greater scrutiny and resident input. Indeed, the proposed legislation, while years in the making, according to planning staff, had been under wraps until its mandatory review, in May, by the city’s Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board (PZAB).
City staff have acknowledged that the long-term impact of the proposed legislation is unclear. When a skeptical PZAB board member asked if the city had conducted modeling to predict population growth spurred by the changes — and its impact on traffic and infrastructure — Assistant Planning Director Sevanne Steiner shrugged.
“Right now, I have no tools to be able to do that,” Steiner told the board. “There’s nothing really within our comprehensive plan, other than a few pieces of goals, policies, and objectives, and there’s nothing really in the Miami 21 [zoning code] that allows me to do that type of analysis.”
Such uncertainty has not been lost on residents and civic groups, which have been pressing city officials to delay Thursday’s votes.
“Rushing through dense legislation of this magnitude — without true public participation — is simply wrong,” Coconut Grove Park Homeowners Association president and One Grove Alliance board member Marlene Erven wrote to Miami District 2 Commissioner Damian Pardo last week. “I urge you to support a deferral and to help implement a more deliberate and transparent process.”
Erven said she received no response. Through a spokesperson, Pardo declined to comment for this article.
But the pressure campaign has had some success. During an initial hearing on the Transit Station Neighborhood Development ordinance — the most far-reaching of the changes — commissioners agreed to exempt Coconut Grove and the nearby Coral Gate neighborhood from its provisions.
No such exemptions have been proposed for the separate workforce housing ordinance, which could apply to properties within a quarter mile of Coconut Grove’s principal arteries such as Grand Avenue, Bird Avenue, SW 27th Avenue and Douglas Road.
And while commissioners had also agreed to exempt locally designated historic properties and districts, that blanket exemption has been replaced with a requirement that redevelopment under the law’s high-density provisions could occur, but only with commission approval.
Thursday’s vote on the Transit Station Neighborhood Development ordinance includes one other significant alteration from the draft legislation presented to residents, and commissioners, last month.
The law’s enhanced zoning allowances will apply to properties up to a full mile from Metrorail stations or other transit hubs, rather than the originally proposed half mile.
Steiner, the assistant planning director, argues that only by expanding the transit-related development zone to a full mile — along with the sidewalks, bike lanes and other supporting mobility infrastructure – will Miami residents choose transit over their automobile.
This story was originally published in the Coconut Grove Spotlight, a WLRN News partner.