Miami commission pushes climate fix by doubling development density

Resilience trust fund’ scheme still needs final vote
If you blinked at the last Miami City Commission meeting, you might have missed the moment the city basically admitted it has lost control of its own skyline. But don’t worry — it’s on video.
Commissioners advanced yet another density-doubling bonanza, this time wrapped in a shiny “climate resilience” bow, even as they all — except Commissioner Damian Pardo, who sponsored it — sounded increasingly like they’re sick and tired of watching developers run the place like it’s an open bar where taxpayers are picking up the tab.
The supposed trade-off? Developers get to build twice as dense in certain neighborhoods if they kick in some cash for things like pump stations, seawalls, rain gardens and — I kid you not — native tree plantings. Because if Miami is going to drown, at least we’ll have a gumbo limbo to hold onto.
Nevermind that these are things that should be required regardless.
Read related: Miami: Damian Pardo has a developers’ dream in density-for-dollars deal
Commission Chair Christine King, whose District 5 is ground zero for displacement, gentrification and speculative towers, delivered the line of the day: “You can plop down a 55-story building anywhere you want.”
She wasn’t exaggerating. Thanks to the county’s Rapid Transit Zone (RTZ) takeover and Tallahassee’s Live Local Act, the city is basically a landlord renting out its authority to the state. King is so fed up she floated suing the state, like the county is doing now, to claw back some local control.
Miami suing Tallahassee? Ahora sí que estamos en Disney World.
But the part that had Ladra choking on her cortadito was the core irony of this whole “resilience trust fund” scheme: You fix flooding by… wait for it… building more in flood zones?
Even the chair of the city’s own Climate Resilience Committee said the quiet part out loud: “I find it somewhat ironic that we’re incentivizing additional development capacity in an area that already is flooding significantly,” said Aaron DeMayo.
Edgewater, the Venetian Causeway, Watson Island — all areas that turn into Atlantis after a good summer storm — will now be ground zero for bonus density if developers simply pay a fee. Mira qué cute.
Pardo insists this is all very responsible planning and that “some developers really care about the character of the neighborhood.”
Ladra will give you all a moment to stop laughing.
King wasn’t buying it. “If this makes sense for his district, that’s fine, but I don’t want it in District 5,” she said. Translation: Build your resilience-for-rent towers in Edgewater — not on my side of town. That should tell us something.
Read related: Miami blinks on Watson Island deal — kicks can, saves face, still smells fishy
Then came the affordability farce. Planning Director David Snow — oh to be a fly on his wall — tried to pitch the ordinance just another one of the city’s many giveaway plans for developers who promise “public benefits.” There’s increased density for preservation, there’s increased density for affordable housing. “This is an opportunity to establish a new program for resiliency.”
Pardo stressed that the opportunity for increased density is already there, but that this “tool” would let the city get $35,000 “per door” to use exclusively in resiliency efforts.
Finally, when commissioners asked if any of this even mattered — since developers can ditch the whole program and just build taller under state and county rules — Pardo insisted they’d still choose the city’s more restrictive option because, well, they care.
In Miami? Where? Name one.
We’ll wait.
Meanwhile, the skyline keeps growing and the ground keeps sinking.  And that’s the story here: Miami’s elected officials are starting to say out loud that they’ve been boxed out of their own zoning code. Yet at the same time — in the very same meeting — they’re still approving new incentives that grease the wheels for more height, more density and more displacement.
Because in Miami, even the pushback comes with a developer-friendly asterisk.
The “resilience trust fund” still needs a second commission vote later this month. But unless commissioners grow a backbone between now and then, get ready for more density, more flooding, and more City Hall double-talk about how it’s all going to save us in the end.
Ladra’s not holding her breath — except maybe when walking through Edgewater during high tide.

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