25 August 2008

The Miami Herald

Officials to present Virginia Key improvement plan

Another update on the Virginia Key improvement plan will be unveiled Tuesday, but many parts aren't finalized.

BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI

aviglucci@MiamiHerald.com

(Miami, FL) Environmentally rich but much-abused Virginia Key could become a vast nature, boating and recreational hub under the latest version of an ambitious plan -- a long-delayed cornerstone of Miami Mayor Manny Diaz's administration -- that will be publicly outlined Tuesday. The tentative plan for the 1,000-acre, publicly owned island proposes new parks and conservation areas -- including athletic fields atop an old landfill -- as well as significant improvements in and expansion of existing marinas and boat facilities, city planners say.

There are also some big question marks, including the fate of the Miami Marine Stadium. The shuttered and deteriorated architectural masterwork is under consideration for designation as a historic landmark, but a new engineering study commissioned by the city has concluded it would require millions of dollars to bring the facility up to current standards.

Another unresolved issue: how to mask odors and views of Miami-Dade's huge sewage treatment plant along the island's northwest corner from planned nature and bike trails and restored beaches.

After collecting public comments, city planners and their consultants, Fort Lauderdale-based EDSA, hope to present a final plan -- which would include cost estimates and an implementation schedule -- to the City Commission by the end of the year.

''EDSA is top-notch, and we're very happy with the work,'' said Carmen Sanchez, the city's assistant planning director.

ONLY SLIGHT CHANGES

Tuesday's unveiling comes more than a year after the last public meeting on the Virginia Key plan.

The newest version does not depart drastically from the outline presented last year, but contains updates and refinements, city planners say.

A proposed public high school on the Rickenbacker Causeway has been dropped, for instance, and the plan -- which previously did away with the Marine Stadium -- now includes one alternate version that retains it.

Either way, planners say, the stadium area would remain a public, marine-oriented park -- possibly containing a new aquatic center for rowers who use the stadium's popular boat basin.

The plan, addressing concerns about the potential hazards to rowers from expanded powerboat traffic from the improved marinas to the east, also contemplates excluding powered craft from the closed, western half of the basin with a line of buoys, planners said.

The plan proposes consideration of a new boat ramp and staging area for as many as 100 boats north of Shrimper's Lagoon, an idea that has drawn concerns from environmental regulators worried about the impact on fragile sea grasses, planners said.

The long delay -- as well as the fact that Tuesday's meeting was announced with short notice last week -- has prompted questions from parks and environmental activists who have complained of scant public information and limited public input during the development of the plan. The plan has been more than three years in the making.

GETTING THEIR SAY

''It's our Central Park. This is really important,'' said parks and environment activist Blanca Mesa.

Planners emphasized that the plan is not finalized and said there will be ample opportunity for public comment, including public hearings before the city's waterfront and planning boards, before it reaches the City Commission for a vote.

''This is by no means the tail end of the process,'' said Enrique Nuñez, the city's chief of urban design.

WHERE'S THE MONEY?

Activists who have long sought a revival of Virginia Key have also raised concerns over the city's commitment to the plan, which would require millions of dollars and years of work.

Right now there is no money identified for most of the contemplated improvements, which planners say would occur over a span of years as financing becomes available.

Miami-Dade County does have money set aside for capping the old landfill at the center of the island, though not for developing the proposed athletic fields.

The county and city have also done extensive ecological restoration along the beaches on the island's eastern shore, including renovation of the historic former black-only beach, reopened to the public earlier this year. The plan for the most part limits commercial development to marine-oriented businesses and restaurants, and restricts it to the area encompassing the Rusty Pelican restaurant, the two adjacent marinas and possibly the marine stadium's large parking lot.

That would allay the fears of some environmentalists and parks activists who worried the city would open up the island to extensive development.

The hope is improvements in that zone -- including a possible parking garage -- would be privately financed, and generate income to help pay for environmental restoration and new parks on the key.

Other principal elements of the plan are:

A new park at the island's now-inaccessible North Point that would include both mountain and BMX bicycle courses, and possibly an eco-campground and nature center.
A public baywalk behind the Rusty Pelican that might require partial demolition of the existing building.
A formalized mooring field to replace the current, unregulated mooring off the stadium basin.
A conservation area and kayak/canoe launch at the site of Jimbo's, the watering hole on the shore of Shrimper's Lagoon.
Improved automobile and pedestrian circulation around the island, possibly including a trolley to transport people around the commercial marine area.