Heading into a summer showdown at City Hall over the fate of the Coconut Grove Playhouse, Miami-Dade County officials are signaling their willingness to compromise on key elements of their playhouse plan to address neighborhood concerns.<\/p>\n
The county lost a critical vote last month before the city\u2019s Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board (PZAB), and is now appealing that decision to the Miami City Commission. The commission is expected to hear the county\u2019s appeal on July 9.<\/p>\n
Ashlee Thomas, the interim director of the county\u2019s Department of Cultural Affairs, said many of the concerns raised by playhouse neighbors are \u201cquite reasonable,\u201d and that she intends to engage the community this month to address them.<\/p>\n
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The playhouse redevelopment site, as seen from behind, with a large banyan tree that was planted last month at the back of the property, where the county plans to create a pocket park.<\/p>\n
(Don Finefrock for the Spotlight)<\/p>\n
Playhouse neighbors want the county to commit to a five-point plan to prevent traffic and commercial activity from overwhelming their neighborhood; to provide jobs, business opportunities and programming for residents; and to highlight the history of the Charles Avenue corridor and historically Black community in the West Grove.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are working on those five points,\u201d Thomas told the Spotlight last week. \u201cI don\u2019t know if there will be different ones, or more, later on, but we are working with our county attorney\u2026 to understand the county\u2019s legal and financial capacity to accommodate the requests.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas said she intends to meet with Preserve the West Grove \u2013 a group representing residents who live within 500 feet of the playhouse \u2013 and other West Grove community groups to discuss the county\u2019s plan ahead of any vote by the City Commission. Four community organizations are backing the five-point plan.<\/p>\n
That meeting, which could happen this Friday, is likely to be facilitated by Miami City Commissioner Damian Pardo, who told residents last week he will seek to broker a compromise. \u201cOur role, in our office, is to bring everybody in alignment,\u201d Pardo said.<\/p>\n
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An aerial view of the playhouse redevelopment site at the corner of Main Highway and Charles Avenue. The property backs up to two quiet residential streets in the West Grove \u2013 Thomas and William Avenues.<\/p>\n
(Miami-Dade County)<\/p>\n
The county\u2019s willingness to compromise remains to be seen, however.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During an interview at County Hall, Thomas defended the county\u2019s $59-million playhouse plan \u2013 critics call it a \u201cmini-mall\u201d \u2013 and said the project already addresses some of the neighbors\u2019 major concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The county is seeking to reopen the playhouse, at least partially, for its 100-year anniversary in 2027. The playhouse closed abruptly amid a financial freefall in 2006.<\/p>\n
The county\u2019s revival plan calls for a new 310-seat theater, a 287-space parking garage, retail shops, a restaurant and office space, with plazas, pedestrian paseos and a new mini-park that would open onto the quiet residential streets behind the playhouse.<\/p>\n
Residents fear the project will push traffic and commercial activity into their historic neighborhood, and they have been asking the county to respond to their concerns without success since a key church meeting last September.<\/p>\n
That dynamic changed on May 6, when a minority of the city\u2019s planning board members blocked approval of the project, based in part on neighborhood concerns. That gave residents additional time and leverage, pending a vote by the City Commission.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope the city will hold the county to the same level of accountability as they would with any other developer,\u201d said Anthony Vinciguerra of Preserve the West Grove.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen developers are working on a project, developers are held to a standard of community engagement. Could we have something like that for Village West (West Grove) and the playhouse?\u201d Vinciguerra asked in an interview.<\/p>\n
Thomas says the county has been listening all along.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019ve done in the past is, we\u2019ve had community meetings, we\u2019ve gone back and informed ourselves, we\u2019ve made adjustments within the parameters that we have, and so the plan continues to work like that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She cited one example: The county eliminated two stories of office space on the back of the parking garage that would have faced William and Thomas Avenues, reducing the space to one story, to be used for theater education programming.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis same group, when we (met) at the church, specifically talked about office space facing their community. So, we heard that and adjusted that,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n
One of the neighbors who organized that church meeting last year is not convinced.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey treat us as Public Enemy No. 1,\u201d said Courtney Berrien, also of Preserve the West Grove. \u201cIt\u2019s being conflated into \u2018everybody is trying to stop the playhouse.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
But, she added, \u201cWe have always been very clear that we are asking for dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n
To be fair, Berrien and Vinciguerra were named plaintiffs in a lawsuit that sought to do just that \u2013 stop the playhouse \u2013 but they say that chapter is now over. \u201cThat other stuff ended, as far as Courtney and I are concerned,\u201d Vinciguerra said.<\/p>\n
Thomas said the litigation made it difficult for county officials to sit down with neighbors (\u201cWhen you are in any active litigation,\u201d she said, \u201cyou just want to be prudent and protect yourself\u201d). But, she added, the county didn\u2019t ignore neighborhood concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cMuch of the plan contemplates many of the requests that are there,\u201d she said. \u201cTraffic, we have mitigated that. We have looked at those things. We will go over that in the meeting again, to show where there\u2019s no commercial intrusion. All those sorts of questions. Is this a mall? No, it is not.\u201d<\/p>\n
If county officials and Preserve the West Grove do sit down this week, two major sticking points are likely to be the neighbors\u2019 request for a \u201cclear traffic mitigation plan\u201d and a wall of some sort to prevent commercial activity from spilling into the West Grove.<\/p>\n
Thomas said the county is updating its previous traffic study, but neighbors insist that all construction and loading zone traffic should access the playhouse property via Main Highway, not Charles, Thomas or William Avenues. The current plan routes that traffic onto Charles Avenue. It\u2019s not clear whether the county could \u2013 or would \u2013 change that.<\/p>\n
As for the wall, Thomas says the county is open to suggestions but will insist that the new playhouse be open and accessible to the historically Black neighborhoods behind it, to redress the past sin of segregation when Black residents were barred from attending playhouse performances.<\/p>\n
County Commissioner Raquel Regalado, a champion of the county\u2019s plan, has been adamant. No wall, she says. But Thomas said there may be a way to thread that needle \u2013 to limit access but not seal the neighborhood off from the new playhouse.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about no commercial intrusion, so making sure that people can\u2019t go in and out of the community, maybe at certain times of the day, maybe that kind of intervention could allow for that. Maybe someone else would still call that a wall, but it\u2019s different, a little different, because there\u2019s access,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n
Thomas called that a compromise. \u201cIt meets very closely to what the community, or that particular group of community members, are looking for. It meets and accommodates that, while also ensuring that we don\u2019t repeat the history of creating a wall that segregates that community.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it comes to the commercial components of the new playhouse \u2013 the 2,600 square feet of retail space, the 3,800 square feet of restaurant space and the 30,600 square feet of office space \u2013 the county has less flexibility, Thomas suggested.<\/p>\n
Under the county\u2019s plan, each of those components, plus the parking garage, will generate revenue to support theater operations, retire the construction debt and pay for ongoing maintenance and future capital improvements.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are required by the state to make sure the project can sustain itself,\u201d Thomas said. (The playhouse property is owned by the State of Florida and leased to Miami-Dade County.)<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to say, it is very difficult to do this plan without the revenue which we have contemplated. Almost impossible, if not impossible,\u201d Thomas added.<\/p>\n
Despite those hurdles, and before sitting down, all three parties \u2013 Thomas for the county, Vinciguerra for Preserve the West Grove and Pardo for the city \u2013 say they are optimistic about finding a way forward for a project beset by controversy and delay.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think we all have to come to the table and iron it out. I think we will,\u201d Pardo said.<\/p>\n
Our hope, as we have outlined multiple times, is that the city will support us in establishing a legally binding community benefits agreement (CBA) with the county that would make concrete the county\u2019s commitment to addressing our concerns,\u201d Vinciguerra said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think Commissioner Pardo could be a huge winner in this process,\u201d he added. \u201cI think this could be a real win for the county, too.\u201d<\/p>\n