It may be two years away, but newly-minted Coral Gables Vice Mayor Mike Mena just lost any chance he had to be re-elected in 2023.

No, it’s not just because of the condescending matter in which he dismissed resident-driven ideas from newly-elected Commissioner Rhonda Anderson, who proposed amending the zoning code to require approval and notice for “as of right” commercial developments. The Gables Insider correctly called Mena’s arguments mansplaining. It was also pathetic.

Read Full Story

Newly-elected Coral Gables Commissioner Rhonda Anderson is already delivering on her campaign promises, proposing sweeping changes to the zoning code at her first commission meeting Tuesday.

Anderson sent Mayor Vince Lago and her colleagues a memo on May 4, just over a week after winning the April 27 runoff, detailing a bunch of suggestions that include making certain zoning changes go before the commission, as well as a moratorium of sorts on the Mediterranean bonus that allows developers more intensity for Mediterranean designed projects.

Read Full Story

Not much more than a month after Coral Gables commissioners approved an upzoning of Miracle Mile — and before the election runoffs and a new commission is installed — the first building is being demolished.

The corner of LeJeune and Miracle Mile, where Randazzo’s Little Italy once was, has been turned into a pile of rubble. The sight sent Gables residents into a tizzy as they envisioned a six story building take its place.

Read Full Story

A group of parents and Gables residents suing the city to stop the construction of a Wawa on Grand Avenue had their first hearing Friday — and got their first victory of sorts.

Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Michael Hanzman didn’t dismiss the case, as the city’s attorneys wanted. Both City Attorney Miriam Ramos and their outside counsel, Holland and Knight attorney Annie Gamez, were there.

Read Full Story

There is likely to be a runoff in the Coral Gables commission race after Tuesday, where none of the four candidates are likely to pull away with more than 50% of the vote.
And when former Commissioner Ralph Cabrera is headed for round 2, as expected, he may be better prepared than whoever the other candidate is: Cabrera would head into Tuesday’s election with more cash on hand than any of the other three hopefuls.
The latest campaign finance reports filed Friday show that Cabrera and attorney Jorge L. Fors are practically neck and neck on the bankroll, with $129,470 for the former commissioner and $122,250 for the Jorgie-Come-Lately with the illegal homestead exemptions.
Read related: Development interests fund campaign for Raul Valdes-Fauli
Both have some development money in their latest reports. Cabrera got $7,000 from Armando Codina, who is building a 16-story luxury condo on Salzedo Street and $5,000 from Agave, developers of The Plaza on Ponce de Leon Boulevard (the old Spanish Village). Earlier, he reported $3,000 from a group of developers on South Bayshore Drive.
There is a huge difference between the fraction of development dollars in Cabrera’s bank and mayoral incumbent Raul Valdes-Fauli, who has tens of thousands in sneaky bundles from developers and development interests. Only a small percentage of Cabrera’s campaign funds are tied to development.
The developers came to him, Cabrera said, because they respect his position and vision for the city. “It’s about the fact that I’m accessible. I may not always agree with them, but I’m always going to tell them the truth,” he told Ladra.
And the former commissioner has far more contributions from non developers, including, notably, $1,000 from the political action committee of Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier Suarez, $500 from former Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas and $300 from Gonzalo Sanabria, a Gables rabblerouser (and failed commission candidate) who was originally supporting another Carmen Olazabal in this race.
Fors has some development money, too, but fewer bundles. He has several maximum $1,000 gifts from seemingly separate real estate development and construction interests, including $2,000 from Allen Morris. He also got $1,000 check from former Commissioner Wayne “Chip” Withers, who lost his own commission race two years ago and is still licking his wounds.
But Fors also has more money from outside of Coral Gables, including contributions from Miami Lakes Councilman Josh Dieguez and former Miami Lakes Councilman Nelson Hernandez, who lost his bid for mayor. Most of Fors’ outside money is from lawyers in Miami, which might be expected of the past president of the Coral Gables Bar Association.
Read related: Ralph Cabrera’s commission race advantage — others are unelectable
Former interim city manager and compulsive liar Carmen Olazabal doesn’t have much development or attorney money because, well, she doesn’t have much financial support at all. Olazabal is a distant third with a total of $42,098 collected, much of it from relatives in Puerto Rico.
But both Olazabal and Fors are burning through their cash faster — spending $111,330 and $40,222, respectively — than Cabrera, who has spent less than $70K as of April 4.
That means that Olazabal has about $2,000 to spend between now and Tuesday. Fors has $11,000 or so and Cabrera has about $60,000.
If he keeps the trend, Ralph might have a nice nut to hit the ground running on April 10.

Read Full Story

Laughable traffic study should be thrown out

Anti-development activists against recent upzoning in Coral Gables lost in last month’s elections when every single one of their candidates got beat in their respective races, including former Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick who lost the mayoral bid to former Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli by 187 votes.

Now, they may lose again on Tuesday, when commissioners are set to take the final vote on a controversial development near the historic Coral Gables Elementary School that wants variances to more than double the allowed density.

It will be the first real test for the new commission on the issue that defined the election. 

Read related story: Mike Mena (read: developers) win Gables race, as expected

The 33 Alhambra project will raze a number of two-story apartment buildings along Navarre and Minorca avenues, Galian Street and Alhambra Circle and replace them with a mixed-use complex with retail and residential rental units in 10 floors. It got approved 4-1 at first reading in December. Want to guess who was the sole dissenter? The answer is Slesnick, who isn’t there anymore. That might be why the lawyer for the developer asked to table the second hearing last January, after more than 60 people showed up to speak against it. Attorney Zeke Guilford asked for time to see if the developer could make some compromises to address community concerns, but it’s obvious they were just stalling until after the election. It’s not a coincidence it’s coming up at the second meeting since. Because the compromise they’ve come back with is hardly really a compromise.

Maybe it’s even a bait and switch. Maybe the plan was always for 146 units, which is still more than twice the 56 allowed under current zoning guidelines. By giving the inflated 184 originally in the plans, this may seem like a relief to some. But not to all. 

Residents have signed a petition saying it’s still too big. They are expected to show up. And that’s why the city is having this item at 5 p.m. time certain instead of during the day, to facilitate the working class families that live around there who are upset about the disingenuous “compromise” and who want to balk publicly at the traffic study that says the project will only bring 58 new car trips during the morning. Laughable.

Read related story: In Coral Gables election, only a sweep will change the course

Ladra suspects that this new commission — what? With a land use attorney on it and all — is poised to approve this project, even thought it will dwarf the two story historic elementary school and cast a shadow as well as a traffic nightmare on that whole neighborhood and even though they will hear from dozens of residents who will beg them to reconsider.

But let’s give them the benefit of the doubt. They did the right thing by moving this discussion to 5 p.m. Perhaps they will do the right thing and force the developer to downsize even further. Certainly twice the number of units normallly allowed should still be a win, no? Instead of trying to maximize their profits with efficiencies and one bedrooms, maybe they could increase the number of two-bedroom units in what is a desireable neighborhood for young families and bring the size down? 

At the very least Coral Gables Commissioners should demand a valid traffic study that might give them more gravitas when they approve this, as well as grounds for some impact fees to pay for more police officers, since there’s such a shortage.

Because taking this traffic study at face value will show us that developers really did win in last month’s elections.