Joanne Haner
Miami Herald
(TNS)
Miami-Dade County voters on Tuesday gave their approval for construction of a new fire station in Miami Beach’s Flamingo Park. The countywide referendum had support from roughly 75% of voters as of 9:30 p.m., with nearly all precincts reporting.
Miami Beach City Commission officials had previously found Flamingo Park to be a top site contender for Fire Station No. 1, a station that has been in reconstruction conversations since 2015.
For years, there has been a back-and-forth debate between two main sites: one at Flamingo Park and one replacing the South Shore Community Center. South Shore Community Center was the original site chosen for the station, but Miami Beach Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez spearheaded the movement to save the building, which was designed by architect Morris Lapidus and houses a community daycare center.
A station in Flamingo Park, however, brings financial issues and prolonged construction. The city general obligations bond committee approved $10 million for the project back in 2018, $3 million of which has already been spent. The proposed Flamingo Park fire station would create a budget gap of $15 million to $19 million. The location of the station within the park would require drainage systems and the existing track to be moved, a process that concerns many community members.
The current station sits at 10th Street and Jefferson Avenue, while the proposed fire station in the park would sit between Alton Road and 11th Street, an area that Miami Beach Commissioner Tanya Katzoff Bhatt said is “underutilized.”
Because the park would be used for a non-park purpose, approval for construction had to go on the countywide ballot. The newly passed referendum does not guarantee construction of the fire station in Flamingo Park but allows Miami Beach to continue planning on the site.
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