Melissa Castro gets last laugh, appoints Kirk Menendez
Sue Kawalerski became the latest casualty of the Vince Lago Revenge Tour last week, when the Coral Gables Commission did something longtime City Hall watchers couldn’t remember ever happening before: They voted to boot a sitting member of the Planning & Zoning Board against the will of the commissioner who appointed her.
But later, right before the meeting ended, Commissioner Melissa Castro pulled a surprise replacement rabbit out of her hat, and dramatically announced that she would then appoint former Commissioner Kirk Menendez — who ran Mayor Lago this year after calling him corrupt — because she is someone she can trust who knows the city.
You could hear a pin drop in commission chambers. People thought Lago was going to spontaneously combust.
With a 3–1 vote, the commission had already yanked Kawalerski, a thorn in developers’ sides and a vocal critic of overbuilding, right out of her seat.
Read related: Coral Gables moves to ‘fire’ longtime activist from planning zoning board
The official excuse? A slick, 18-minute hit reel put together by Coral Gables TV and presented by City Manager Peter Iglesias, showing Sue arguing with staff, sparring with board members, and pressing Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado about rapid-transit zoning at a July meeting. She was “publicly berated,” Iglesias said. But that was only the proverbial last straw.
“This is not about silencing a voice or punishing a vote. This is about upholding the standards of integrity of the planning and zoning board,” Iglesias said, adding that because it is a quasi judicial body, it has to fair, impartial and defendable in court.
“Board members are expected to ask difficult questions and represent residents, but they must also conduct themselves with professionalism and respect. When the conduct falls short of these standards it jeopardizes the city’s credibility, undermines the residents ability to challenge incompatible projects and ultimately harms the community we serve.”
He read from talking points. City spokeswoman Martha Pantin would not tell Ladra who wrote the talking points for him.
“This resolution has nothing to do with how Ms. Kawalerski voted on any issue. Board members are free to interpret facts and cast their votes according to their judgement,” Iglesias read, hardly looking up from his notes. “The concern here is her conduct and comments at recent meetings, which are prejudicial, disrespectful and derogatory.”
Lago and his loyal bobblehead soldiers, Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and Commissioner Richard Lara nodded gravely, and claimed it was all about “standards.”
Standards? ¡Por favor! If Iglesias, Anderson or Lara really cared about standards, they should focus on Lago, who is constantly demeaning and insulting labor leaders, colleagues and residents from the dais. This wasn’t about Kawalerski’s “outburst” with Regalado. This was about control. About tightening the grip on the P&Z board so it won’t push back against big projects.
Lago even dragged out old grievances, accusing Kawalerski of tossing papers at him once — how dare she! — and they rehashed unfortunate comments she made years ago about Asian UM students and that may have been taken out of context. Ironically, Iglesias didn’t know if they were Japanese or Chinese students. Maybe he thinks they are the same.
The mayor presenting Sue as a racist is rich. Remember when Lago signed a letter in 2020 with other parents and alumni at the Carollton School of the Sacred Heart, where his daughters attend, against teaching any critical race theory? Los pajaros tirandole a la escopeta.
But, hey, Lago wanted Kawalerski out and he would use anything he could throw at her to paint Kawalerski as the problem — which she is, but for developers.
“It’s a pattern of behavior,” Lago told his colleagues last week, adding hat Kawalerski is “ill-prepared and an activist,” as if the latter is a bad thing. She was also the only member of the P&Z board that is not tied in one way or another to the development industry. “What we’re looking at is a lack of professionalism,” Lago said.
Exactly the point. Sue Kawalerski is not a professional on that board. Her role is of that of concerned resident — and she played it to perfection.
Iglesias and Lago and his echo chamber wanted to put the blame on Kawalerski for The Mark development, a pair of student housing towers that are slated to go up where the University Shopping Center on U.S. 1 is across from the University Metrorail station.

“Because of her actions, a developer determined they could not receive a fair hearing before the city’s planning and zoning board. As a result, the project was shifted to the Miami-Dade rapid transit zone process, bypassing the city’s review,” Iglesias said. “This decision has serious consequences. The project can become larger and more massive in scale under the RTZ process. The city lost the ability to manage the permitting process or have meaningful input. The city can no longer impose usage or signage limitations. The outcome is detrimental to the city of Coral Gables and its residents.”
Read related: Miami-Dade Commission takes over Coral Gables zoning near UM Metrorail
Iglesias said he met with her personally to tell her he was going to remove her. “I did not want to blindside her.”
How nice of him.
“This decision is not about one individual. It is about the responsibility we all share to preserve the integrity of the city’s processes and protect the interests of the coral gables residents,” he said. “Removal is a difficult but necessary step to restore credibility, fairness and the effectiveness of the board.”
It looks like Peter rehearsed.
But Ladra is pretty sure the developer would have gone to the county anyway if the city had not approved all its asks.
Commissioner Melissa Castro, who appointed Kawalerski in 2023 and reappointed her this year, was the lone “no” to remove her. She read a prepared statement from Sue, who couldn’t attend because she was at work (the commission didn’t start talking about her until 8:30 p.m., by the way). In it, Kawalerski called the move exactly what it is: a smear campaign to stifle critics of runaway development.
“During my term, many development projects have come before the board and I have always evaluated them based on two criteria: Do they comply with our zoning code and comprehensive plan? And, have the residents directly affected by the projects been effectively informed, consulted, and satisfied with the project,” Kawalerski said in her statement.
“I have voted FOR the majority of the projects that came before me based on those criteria. I voted against the projects which did not satisfy the criteria. Most if not all of those were not compatible with the neighborhood and received very negative responses from the residents” she added. “Only projects that require approval for bonuses, like the Mediterranean bonus which adds more height, or other additional requests not covered in the code, come before the board. In other words, developers come to Planning & Zoning to ask that they be allowed to build something they normally do not have a right to build.
“Far too often, I have witnessed board members showing unrestricted enthusiasm over projects, not asking critical and necessary questions, or staying silent, and then voting ‘Yes.’ I was not one of them.  Neither was fellow board member Felix Pardo,” Kawalerski said, referring to the longtime architect and activist who ran against Anderson in April and lost.
Read related: Felix Pardo nabs anti-development base from Rhonda Anderson in Coral Gables
Pardo might be axed next.
In fact, in an email response to residents who protested Kawalerski’s removal — and Castro said there were at least 70 — Lago claimed the whole thing was ”an example of the constant misinformation campaign by Castro and Fernandez.” He also wrote back that “the Bagel Emporium site is NOW NO longer under our control due to the behavior of Sue K., and Felix Pardo.”
Said Kawalersk: “First, the mayor doesn’t even have the respect to call me by my full name.  He is laying blame on the two of us, who are fighting for residents. Why isn’t he?”
A few residents agreed. “Sue Kawalerski has been fighting with us on this since before she was on the planning and zoning board,” said a woman who called on Zoom, adding that the residents had simply asked for one less floor and the developer didn’t want to give. “It had nothing to do with Sue. She did nothing wrong.
“You guys never got involved in this. I’ve never seen you at one meeting,” the woman said.
“We are sick and tired of these internal wars,” said Maria Magdalena Estupiñan. “Sue is not the problem. What you’re doing right now is making Sue as an excuse. It’s not Sue’s fault that we’re looking more and more like Brickell. Sue is not the problem.”
Lisa De Tourney, a member of the city’s Parking Advisory Board, echoed that sentiment and said she’s “seen far worse behavior, even up there on the dais.”
Amen, sister.
But Kawalerski isn’t going anywhere. She’s still president of the Coral Gables Neighbors Association and promised this is “just the beginning.” In fact, Ladra bets she’ll make more noise out here than she ever could on the board.
“She may continue to do so as loudly and as often as she wants, but not as a member of the planning and zoning board. That voice is not being silenced,” Lara said with a straight face. He shrugged — he shrugs a lot — and said Sue serves “at the pleasure of the majority” — as if that makes it any less of a power grab.
“There can be no reasonable person that can say there wasn’t berating of officials. To take a different position would be saying this is acceptable behavior — and it’s not.”
Read related: Coral Gables commission launches legal fight with Youth Center group
In the end, the commission should have been careful what they wished for. Because they got rid of Kawalerski, but now they’ll have Menendez in her spot. Whoa, whoa, whoa, Lago said after he regained his composure. He asked the city attorney, practically begging for a yes, if it had to come back to the commission, but Castro had already directed her to bring it back at the next meeting.
Technically, Lago and his lackeys could block the Menendez appointment, which has to be approved by a majority vote. Ladra doesn’t know if there’s a precedent for not accepting someone.
Would that mean that any three votes could block any board appointment? And wouldn’t that just make Lago’s personal political vendetta more obvious?
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Sheriff gets her millions; firefighters still up in the air
Budget season is usually messy, but this summer has been a full-on disaster. And Thursday night at 5 p.m., Miami-Dade residents get their first chance to sound off at the budget hearing before commissioners take their first vote.
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has been in cleanup mode for weeks, backtracking on the most controversial cuts she dropped on July 15 like a ton of bricks. Remember? Arts funding, senior services, even mowing the grass at the neighborhood park were on the chopping block. Commissioner Marleine Bastien, usually an ally, called it a “community train wreck” and a “budget without soul.” Commissioner Kionne McGhee said “working families are left out.” And they weren’t wrong.
Now, suddenly, between borrowing some funds from the future and tweaking here and there, La Alcaldesa suddenly found almost enough money to fill her $402 million hole. How does that happen?
Read related: Critics say Miami-Dade 2025-26 budget could possibly put public safety at risk
The loudest battle, of course, was with newly elected Sheriff Rosanna “Rosie” Cordero-Stutz. A change in Florida’s Constitution required Miami-Dade to spin off its police agency into an independent sheriff’s office after the November 2024 election. The Republican lawwoman cried foul earlier, saying that the mayor’s budget was “defunding the police” because she got “only” $55 million more. She wanted $94 million more than what the Miami-Dade Police Department got last year.
Last week, the mayor blinked. Levine Cava announced an extra $31 million for the Sheriff’s Office, bringing Rosie’s total to about $1.1 billion. That fight? Defused. “This is a victory for every resident, family, and neighborhood in our county,” Cordero-Stutz said in a statement. “With these resources secured, the Sheriff’s Office can continue to meet the needs of a growing community.”
So, that means the sheriff must have also done some belt-tightening. She asked for $94 million, got a total of $86 million and can still meet all her needs? So, $8 million was what? Padding?
But don’t think the drama is over. There are still plenty of hot potatoes baked into this budget:

Parks lifeguards: Gone at natural swimming holes like Matheson Hammock. That cut survived.
Charity & arts grants: Some money is back, but nonprofits are still short about $11 million.
Water rates: Levine Cava scaled back her 6% hike to 3.5% after Commissioner Raquel Regalado stepped in. But it’s still an increase.
Garbage fees: They’re expected to go up, even as the future of solid waste disposal in the county is a dumpster fire.
Senior centers: Little River stays open. South Dade? Still slated for closure.
Transit: The MetroConnect shuttle gets the axe, unless an alternative pops up. Bus and rail riders still face a 50-cent fare hike. MetroMover might start costing up to $100 a month for downtowners. Tolls on the Rickenbacker Causeway to Key Biscayne are slated to go up by 200%.
FIFA: The public and some commissioners question if now is the best time for the county to shell $46 million in cash and services to the FIFA World Cup related activities (read: parties).

The big fight now is over the mayor’s plan to dump $28 million in chopper costs onto the fire rescue department to pay for air rescue services themselves through their separate tax. Currently, the county pays out of the general fund to operate the four helicopters that fly critical patients to the hospital to get them there faster and douse brushfires from the skies.
Read related: Mayor Daniella Levine Cava wants Fire District to pay for air rescue helicopters
But here’s the rub: The choppers serve every inch of the county — even the five municipalities that don’t pay a penny into the fire district: Miami, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Hialeah and Key Biscayne. And, basically, Levine Cava’s idea is to let those people ride for free while the other municipalities and the people in the unincorporated county areas foot the bill.
Levine Cava insists she’s protecting “core county services” while keeping the property tax rate low. She says her original proposal was a “snapshot in time” before her staff nailed down more one-time surplus dollars. But her critics aren’t buying it.
Commissioner Roberto Gonzalez mocked her on social media: “It looks like, after the self-induced ‘perfect storm,’ as she calls it, the ayor followed the imaginary yellow brick road to the pot of money that was waiting right where she left it,” Gonzalez wrote Thursday on the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Enough with the games and storytelling, we’re not in Kansas anymore!”
So, now the stage is set for Thursday’s first public budget hearing at County Hall. Residents, nonprofits, cops, firefighters, seniors, and straphangers all get their turn at the mic. Two minutes, if Commission Chairman “King Anthony” Rodriguez feels generous. Otherwise, they’ll get 60 seconds. Then, the commission takes its first vote on the mayor’s ever changing proposal.
Round two comes later this month. And Gonzalez says he wants a change order by the Sept. 18 hearing that fully funds the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department’s air rescue operations. He was flanked by Commissioners Rene Garcia and Natalie Milian Orbis and Congressman Carlos Gimenez — who had to jump into the debate — at the fire union’s press conference last week where he demanded that police and fire be fully funded. The fire union has threatened legal action.
“What we have is no longer a mismanagement of funds,” Gonzalez said in a video posted on his Instagram. “What we really have is a failure to prioritize the things that are important to the residents of Miami-Dade County.
Read related: Facing $400M budget shortfall, Miami-Dade cuts senior meals, lifeguards, more
“I am sick and tired of the shell games,” said Gonzalez, who has seemed to be campaigning for higher office recently. “The mayor says that we’re in a deficit. Then she says that we’re not in a deficit. The mayor says that she lost money. Then she says that she found money. Folks, there is one thing that we cannot play with, and that is the safety and the lives of our residents.”
Some things never change on the 29th floor — and that includes finding magical drawers of money when you most need to.
Speaking of which, enter Gimenez, the former county mayor. Because, por supuesto, he shows up at press conference to wag his finger at his Democratic successor. “They need more money, more units, more firefighters,” Gimenez, a former fire captain and city manager, blasted as he stood with fire union leaders and firefighters.
Excuse Ladra while she coughs up a hairball. Because we all remember when this same Gimenez, as county mayor, proposed rolling “brownouts” at fire stations — putting one or two units out of service every shift and rotating which neighborhoods would lose coverage. That was his idea of fiscal responsibility. Now, he’s suddenly the defender of Fire Rescue’s funding?
Levine Cava’s camp wasn’t having it, either. As Gimenez spoke, her comms team blasted out a slick video of La Alcaldesa, smiling, “setting the record straight,” and praising firefighters as “heroes” while touting the raises and new trucks she’s delivered in her five years. She insists the helicopter shuffle is just an accounting move: “The services remain unchanged, and the public will not be impacted.” Her budget folks point out that Fire Rescue has actually grown 10% under her watch and say delays are about land costs and backlogged fire truck orders, not dollars.
The union isn’t buying it. “Lives hang in the balance,” union president William “Billy” McAllister warned. “When seconds count, sometimes we’re minutes away.”
So, now, we’ve got the firefighter-turned-mayor-turned-congressman tag-teaming with union leaders and Republican commissioners against the current mayor. The same guy who once pitched cutting back fire coverage is now crying wolf about a “dangerously unfair” budget.
Ladra says grab your helmets, gente. The helicopter fight is only fueling the flames as commissioners get ready to take their first budget vote Thursday night in a meeting that might look look less like a policy debate and more like a campaign commercial.
Ladra can’t help but wonder if the congressman is going to make an appearance.
The first public hearing of the Miami-Dade 2025-2026 proposed budget starts at 5:01 p.m. Thursday at County Hall, 111 NW First Street, and can also be seen online on the county’s website.
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After months of swearing up and down that they had the authority to move Coral Gables elections to November without asking anybody, a majority of the commission suddenly got religion this week and voted to let residents decide. But don’t be fooled: it’s not exactly democracy at work.
Instead of putting the question on a regular ballot where most people actually vote, the commission scheduled a special mail-only referendum for April 21, 2026 — guaranteeing that only a sliver of the electorate will weigh in on an issue that affects everybody. If this is really about turnout, why pick the one path that ensures turnout will be tiny?
Ah, because then it’s easier to affect the outcome.
Read related: Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago caves on election change; wants public vote
Mayor Vince Lago, Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson, and Commissioner Richard Lara — the same trio who passed the ordinance in May to unilaterally shift elections — spun this as giving voters “the final say.” What they really did was load up a special April 2026 ballot with a bunch of their pet charter changes, hoping to turn a political setback into a political jackpot.
Among them: setting up an Inspector General’s office, forcing the charter review committee to meet every 10 years, and requiring voter approval for commission raises. And, of course, a measure that says future election-date changes must go to the voters — which is rich, considering these very same commissioners already voted to do it themselves without asking anyone. And then defended that vote.
The whole thing was conditional, though. The referendum would only happen if Miami lost all its appeals in the parallel election-change case. And they did. If Miami had prevailed in changing their election from November in odd-numbered years to even-numbered years — effectively extending terms by an extra 12 months — Coral Gables would have stuck with the ordinance already passed and move elections to November of next year anyway, without having to get the pesky voters involved.
So, L’Ego’s sudden change of heart is less about giving the voters a “final say,” and more about giving himself a political insurance policy.
Read related: City of Miami drops legal fight to change/cancel election, takes it to voters
Commissioner Melissa Castro — who has been the only consistent voice for a real referendum — voted no. Not because she  opposes asking voters, but because she opposes doing it this way. She argued for putting the question on the April 2027 ballot, instead of rushing into a mail-only vote in 2026. She even showed a slide deck with all the extra printing and mailing costs, which adds up to almost $80,000.
“Let’s do it the right way,” she urged. “Don’t do it just to get me out of office.
“You said I wouldn’t win an election. To be honest, you don’t know if I’m going to run again. I don’t know if Im going to run again,” Castro said. “But I could guarantee you one thing: If I’m going to run, I’m going to win. There’s no fighting that.
“So, don’t be so worried. Don’t be so preoccupied,” she told the mayor. “I would never get into something I can’t win.”
Lago brushed it off, claiming long-term savings once April elections are gone. But it’s pretty obvious that the change is about making it harder for independent candidates like Castro and Commissioner Ariel Fernandez, who were elected against the mayor’s wishes in 2023, L’Ego has made it clear with statements about “special interests” not controlling the election outcome.
But while she voted against the move on principle, Castro was thrilled that the commission voted to put the election change on the ballot. “This is a complete victory but not for me,” Castro said. “For the people of Coral Gables.”
Well, maybe. But right now, it feels more like a victory for Lago and company, who get to reframe their blunder as magnanimity — while still making sure the vote happens under their terms, on their timeline, with their question on the ballot. The mayor even suggested that the city do some “educational outreach,” which he said lacked for the Little Gables annexation referendum that city voters rejected overwhelmingly (63%) last year. And Ladra suspects Lago is going to bring that annexation attempt back (more on that later).
Read related: Coral Gables voters reject annexation of Little Gables — and Mayor Vince Lago
Y por supuesto they want a mail-only referendum in April of next year. They can control the smaller turnout. But it undercuts the whole “increase turnout” excuse that LALala campaigned on. If increasing participation from 20% to 30% in odd-numbered years to 80% with state and general elections is the true goal, why not wait and do it when the most voters will actually vote?
There is a perfectly good alternative that won’t cost as much: Having the referendum on the November 2026 midterm ballot. That would guarantee a higher turnout and would also allow the city to make the change after the April 2027 election, because voters would know that the candidates they elect for mayor and commissioner will serve a term that is five months shorter. If it’s true that he’s polled Castro’s seat five times and she is “underwater,” as he said in last week’s commission meeting, then he should be confident that his candidate, whoever she may be, will beat Castro in April. No? Or would she only lose in November?
Could it be that this isn’t really about turnout or saving money at all, but about controlling the process and future elections?
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After months of legal wrangling, appeals, and behind-the-scenes maneuvering, the City of Miami is finally giving up its harebrained scheme to cancel this year’s election. It only took the governor, the state’s attorney general, a district court judge, three appellate judges, twice, and a general distaste in the public for them to get the point.
On Tuesday, Mayor Francis Suarez and Commissioner Damian Pardo admitted defeat and said they’ll now do what they should have done in the first place: ask voters if they want to change the city’s election cycle from odd- to even-numbered years. They say it will save the city about $1 million each election cycle and more than double voter turnout.
A special commission meeting is set for Friday, where at least three commissioners will have to sign off on the ballot language before it can go to the November ballot.
Read related: Third DCA says no, again; Miami loses third try to cancel November elections
The about-face comes after the Third District Court of Appeal last week smacked down the city’s last-ditch request for a rehearing in the lawsuit brought by former city manager and mayoral hopeful Emilio González. That ruling effectively ended the whirlwind legal drama that had cast a shadow over the races for mayor and two commission seats.
Remember, it was only in June that the commission voted 3-2 to move the election from 2025 to 2026, gifting themselves an extra year in office. That blew up in their faces when every single judge who looked at it said the city couldn’t just wave a wand and willy nilly override the Miami-Dade County charter, which controls municipal election dates.
“I sued the city of Miami because they cancelled our elections for this November, and I won,” Gonzalez said on a social media message posted Tuesday. “Miami insiders don’t want us to vote. Miami insiders are afraid to let the voices be heard.
“Miami insiders are even more afraid that I’m going to be the next mayor of Miami.”
Gonzalez is one of 11 announced mayoral wannabes that include Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins, former Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier Suarez — father of the current mayor and a former Miami mayor himself — and former Miami Commissioner Ken Russell. Threatening from the sidelines are Commissioner Joe Carollo, former Commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla, who was suspended in 2023 after a public corruption arrest but the 14 felonies — including bribery and money laundering — were dropped last year, and Congressman Carlos Gimenez, a former county mayor who has been rumored to have an interest in coming home.
Qualifying starts Friday and ends Sept. 20.
Pardo, who sponsored the ordinance and has been the loudest cheerleader for the switch, told the The Miami Herald that the change wouldn’t even kick in until 2032 — meaning his own 2027 reelection, and those of commissioners Miguel Angel Gabela and Ralph Rosado, would be for one-time five-year terms to sync up with even years. Candidates elected in 2029 would also get an extra year, through 2034. After that, terms would go back to four years.
Somehow, the commissioner thinks this will keep people from accusing them of extending their own terms and giving themselves an extra annual salary of about $100,000. But someone’s terms will be extended. Because the fact remains that whoever wins in 2027 and 2029 still gets that bonus year.
Read related: Miami Commissioners pass election date change — and steal an extra year
If Pardo really wanted to prove that this whole idea wasn’t self-serving, the plan would be to cut the terms by a year and not extend them. Several candidates running for mayor and commission in District 3 have already said they would be willing to serve one less year in order to get the question on the ballot. Anyone elected in 2027 could serve three years until the first even-year election in 2030 and the city can start the four year terms right there.
Ladra’s only doubt about that is if there would be a legal challenge to term limits if one of the terms were truncated. We don’t want that.
In any case, the election this November is definitely back on. Voters in Miami will get to choose their mayor and commissioners in District 3, where Joe Carollo is termed out, and District 5, where Chairwoman Christine King is up for re-election. There will also be at least three questions on the ballot: the election change, lifetime term limits (with two big exceptions) and the restoration and redevelopment of the long-abandoned and historic Miami Marine Stadium (more on that later).
Gonzalez said he was glad it was “finally” over. But the closure comes at a cost. How much taxpayer money was wasted on lawyers and legal maneuvers to keep the public from voting on the election change?
As first reported by Political Cortadito, the city paid outside attorneys up to $2,350 an hour to fight this losing battle. A contract shows that Dwayne Robinson was hired on July 25 to handle the appeal of Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Valerie Manno Schurr, the first judge to say, “Nananina, Miami.” His time is worth $750 an hour. His partners Charles Throckmorton and Brandon Sadowsky get $700 and $600 an hour, respectively, and paralegal Farola St. Remy gets $300 an hour.
It adds up to $2,350 an hour when they work together. We’re still waiting to see the final bill.
The city could also be on the hook for Gonzalez’s legal costs. And they aren’t gonna be cheap. His lead attorney is former Florida Supreme Court Justice Alan Lawson.
Whatever it adds up to, it’s going to be too much for what was always a bad idea.

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RTZ overlay is for a student housing project: The Mark
The latest chapter in the Coral Gables zoning soap opera will play out in Miami-Dade Commission Chambers this week. It started last Tuesday when County Commissioner Raquel Regalado took her Rapid Transit Zoning show on the road — to City Hall.
Regalado showed up to the Aug. 26 Coral Gables Commission meeting to advocate for her pet project: expanding the county’s Rapid Transit Zone (RTZ) to create a new University Station Subzone around the UM Metrorail stop  That overlay would pave the way for The Mark, a hulking student housing project that has some neighbors concerned.
The Miami-Dade County Commission will vote Wednesday on the a proposed RTZ expansion and University Station subzone that extends to properties within a quarter mile of the University Metrorail Station. Translation: The county will have zoning jurisdiction, not the city. And that clears the path for high-density, mixed-use projects.
Read related: Critics say Miami’s new transit zoning ordinance = loophole for developers
Developers who purchased the University Shopping Center in 2023, where the Bagel Emporium and TGI Fridays is, want to build a $70-million, sprawling mixed-use apartment complex, called The Mark, which will have 146 one-bedroom units, 99 two-bedroom units, and 151 three-bedroom units in two eight-story towers, connected by a bridge on the fifth floor. The ground floor will have restaurant and retail spaces.
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, for her part, is cheerleading the move. Her memo in support of the ordinance talks about “equitable development,” “shorter trips,” and “visual compatibility with Coral Gables” — complete with “generous height allowances” and “enhanced landscaping.” Translation: Taller buildings with more trees in front of them.
“The Subzone aims to promote high-density, mixed-use development within a quarter-mile radius of the University Station, while integrating land use and transportation planning. The ordinance addresses the CDMP’s objective of integrating land use with transportation to attract transit ridership, produce shorter trips, and minimize transfers,” Levine Cava wrote. “This code amendment will facilitate the development of additional residential density and commercial development adjacent to the mass transit system.”
La Alcaldesa also says that there will be a city representative on the Rapid Transit Developmental Impact Committee (RTDIC) and that the county will coordinate with the city “on a potential interlocal agreement to address future concerns and align regulatory processes.”
Good luck with that.
To the folks who actually live near University Station and the Bagel Emporium plaza that will be replaced with two residential towers, it sounds less like equitable development and more like a takeover. They say they’ve been blindsided by the scale of the proposal and worry that the neighborhood will be flooded with traffic and end up looking more like Brickell than the City Beautiful.
This is the same fight that’s already spilled over into Coral Gables’ Planning and Zoning Board, where longtime neighborhood activist and P&Z member Sue Kawalerski grilled Regalado so hard about the RTZ zoning superseding the city’s own code that the commissioner snapped back. Weeks after that public meeting, Kawalerski was unceremoniously bounced — another casualty of Mayor Vince Lago’s revenge tour. She has been blamed for forcing the developer to go to the county and apply RTZ criteria, which is more generous than the city’s code.
Read related: Coral Gables moves to ‘fire’ longtime activist from planning zoning board
Regalado, who doesn’t need anybody to defend her, has been one of the prime proponents of RTZ. And she says the Gables needs housing and the area around the university is perfect for it.
“I don’t agree with demonizing student housing,” she told the Gables commissioners last week, and cited the Vox 1, 2, 3 and 4 projects in South Miami as an example of a student housing project done right. It also resolved a problem with students “cutting up” rented housing, living 10 or more at a time.
“Students need a place to live,” Regalado said. “UM is a partner. They are doing their part on campus… [But] the transit corridor is the place to house students.” She noted that the location for The Mark is right where the university has their pedestrian bridge over U.S. 1.
“The concept that this is not a place for student housing, to me, is mind blowing,” she said. “I’m not saying it’s appropriate everywhere, but you might want to decide where it’s appropriate.”
Kawalerski has said it is not about student housing, per se, but the gradual changing of the neighborhood’s character.
Regalado told the Gables Commission that she would amend the item going before the county commission this week to include the lighting and open space requirements “to give everyone a little more comfort.” But both she and Lago waved the ugly specter of Live Local — the Florida law that allows even more density to promote affordable or workforce housing (which is really not that affordable for the workforce).
It’s convenient for Lago to throw the blame somewhere else for the runaway development he has ushered into the Gables.
“The city has no control,” he said, referring to RTZ and Live Local. “That train has left the station.”
But if you think that The Mark is the only stop on this route, think again. City Manager Peter Iglesias said this overlay is specific for that particular student housing project, it includes that property alone, but not another proposed development for the nearby Gables Waterway.
“We need to expand that overlay and work on something new,” Iglesias said.
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