Joanne Haner
Miami Herald
(TNS)
It seems like a simple question: Where should a new fire station be built in a South Beach park?
It’s not so simple.
On the Aug. 20 ballot, county voters will be asked to weigh in on the issue, which has a controversial history that goes back to 2015.
Miami Beach Fire Station No. 1, which serves South Beach, needs to be replaced. Built in 1967, the station at 10th Street and Jefferson Avenue has electrical and mechanical issues, and a new one has been discussed for more than eight years.
But the hangup has been where to put a new station: taking up green space in a park or replacing the South Shore Community Center.
The issue is on the countywide ballot because the city’s preferred site is on park land.
On the August ballot, voters can decide “yes” or “no” on the possible construction of the new Fire Station No. 1 in Flamingo Park, at Alton Road between 11th and 12th streets.
According to Miami Beach Commissioner Tanya Katzoff Bhatt, the referendum is not a binding vote.
That means if county voters approve the referendum, Miami Beach can move forward with planning the station construction at Flamingo Park, although the city wouldn’t be legally required to do so. But if county voters reject the ballot question, Miami Beach would need to look for other options.
Here’s what to know about the issue:
Flamingo Park Construction Proposal
After Miami Beach reviewed a dozen possible sites, the city originally settled on demolishing the South Shore Community Center for a new fire station. But that hasn’t worked out.
The search for a different location led leaders to Flamingo Park, community green space off Alton Road with tennis courts, playground, football stadium and running track.
The proposed fire station in the park would sit between Alton Road and 11th Street, near the track and athletic field, an area that Bhatt said is “underutilized.”
Because the park would be used for a non-park purpose, approval for construction and planning had to go through Miami-Dade County. The County Commission placed the issue on the August primary ballot, and county voters will decide the non-binding ballot question.
Miami Beach Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez said no one would be “adversely affected” by a new fire station in the park. But some neighbors have concerns.
Matt Rosenberg Passe has led the South Beach Track Club since 2012. The group uses the track every week, as do other sports teams and schools in the area. He has started gathering signatures for a petition against the construction of the station in Flamingo Park and has already collected names from more than 100 people.
“The story is of a personal nature — you have people that live right next to the park here every day at 6 a.m.,” Rosenberg Passe said. “This is the heartbeat of the community. ”
City plans call for the track to be be shifted to make room for a new fire station, requiring relocation of field drainage and other amenities. Rosenberg Passe and other residents and officials oppose the use of Flamingo Park for the station when there is another viable site.
“It’s a park and let’s leave it that way,” he said. “The disruption would be extraordinary, and it would be for an undetermined and long amount of time.”
Money issues
Voters approved a $439 million general obligation bond in 2018 that launched a variety of public projects, including the fire station replacement.
The city originally marked $10 million for a replacement, nearly $3 million of which has already been spent, according to the GO Bonds website, largely in part for planning construction at the original South Shore site.
At a Miami Beach committee meeting last month, city leaders discussed needing more money for construction and relocation costs associated with a replacement fire station in Flamingo Park, facing a potential budget gap of $15 million to $19 million. At the same meeting, officials noted that additional funding for the project would be required between mid 2026 and late 2028.
What happened to the community center site?
The South Shore Community Center on Sixth Street serves as a daycare center and previously was a lunch center for seniors. The center, designed by Fontainebleau and Lincoln Road architect Morris Lapidus, has been featured on the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2021 “11 to Save” list.
Rosen Gonzalez has been an advocate for preserving the building.
“It’s a win-win for our community and if it passes, we will have saved an important historic resource that mistakenly went on the chopping block,” said the Miami Beach commissioner, who would like to see the building become a prominent community center again.
David McKinney, an architectural historian who has lived in the Flamingo Park area since 2015, has made the case for preserving the modernist community center from the wrecking ball.
“It speaks to the rise of the elderly as a political class,” he told the Miami Herald.
A difficult choice
In a recent opinion piece in the Miami Herald, Commissioner Bhatt urged voters to vote yes on the county referendum, but told the Miami Herald that she recognizes the drawbacks of placing the station at either location.
“It’s split, and I respect both views. I am trying to look holistically at what the right thing is for the city for the long term,” Bhatt told the Herald. “I think it sets a really dangerous precedent to say that [Miami Beach] really values our important, historic and architecturally significant buildings, but not this one.”
Miami Beach Commissioner Alex Fernandez echoed her views, expressing support for the Flamingo Park location, even at the expense of green space.
“Certainly, Flamingo Park is indeed iconic. Flamingo Park is the heart of the district. And that’s something that we’re going to have to weigh heavily as a community,” Fernandez said. “Once you lose green space, rarely do you gain it back. And that’s a policy decision that we’re going to have to make and weigh it against the merits of preserving a Morris Lapidus building, and weigh it against the public safety needs of Miami Beach residents who today are not receiving the proper response time that they should be receiving.”
If the voters reject the Flamingo Park ballot issue, then the city of Miami Beach must build the station at the South Shore Community Center or find another location.
“This is not pitting teams of people who are trying to serve the city against each other,” Bhatt said. “This is something we all work towards together in a really collaborative and supportive and transparent way.”
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