The Real Deal reports that a request by developer Francisco Martinez-Celeiro to rezone a site in Miami to permit building a 24-story residential tower has been shot down by the Miami City Commission. Mayor Francis Suarez’s had already vetoed the request to transform the former Babylon Apartments into something much larger. Instead, the zoning for the site will remain as a T6-8, which only allows an eight-story building.
Russell and residents opposed to the upzoning were concerned that it would create a domino effect of “spot zoning”, which would give precedent for the city to upzone properties in the area on a case-by-case basis.
In July, the city commission voted 4-1 to grant Babylon International’s request to upzone the property to 24 stories. The company originally sought approval for 48 stories, arguing the property had been unfairly downzoned when the city adopted Miami 21 in the early 2000s.
Then a week later, Mayor Suarez vetoed the decision. One of the main reasons for his veto was to uphold the Miami 21 zoning code, which took effect in 2010. “In the ten-year history of Miami 21, there has not been one case of a upzoning of a property that violated the succession of these zoning principles,” Suarez said at the meeting on Thursday.
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