I) The City should address several major, unresolved issues by establishing public forums to receive input from selected, qualified professionals concerning the following:

1.     The impact on buildable/salable/revenue-producing square footage under the current code and under Miami 21. A variety of examples of different locations, sizes, uses of lots of different T-zones versus current zoning should be prepared by several professional firms with a public discussion of the differences. The goal would be to collect a variety of professionally suggested amendments to the current draft requirements of Miami 21. Clear examples of the final impact (increase or decrease of square footage) must be available for education of the neighborhoods, along with dimensioning the impact on infrastructure.

2.     The need for additional T- zones or subsets, for medium density and low density sectors of the city and also for small lots in the urban core, medium density sectors and low density/single-family sectors. Again, a variety of examples of different ideas and proposals versus the current Miami 21 draft should be prepared by several professional firms with a public discussion of the differences. The goal would be to collect a variety of professionally suggested amendments to the current draft requirements of Miami 21. The process of collecting, discussing and deciding upon appropriate solutions must be open to the public and educational materials must be prepared for public participation in final decision-making.

3.     Parking needs. Miami 21 supposedly includes a transportation plan suggesting parking facilities in the first quadrant. The fact that the parking facilities are not an integral part of Miami 21 with proposed financing and construction/development timelines has resulted in the imposition of parking requirements for every building in the proposed form-based code. The city must immediately arrange for input from additional specialists in parking and transit and in order to incorporate in Miami 21 a specific plan for public and private and public/private parking facilities and possibly adjust the parking requirements being dictated in Miami 21. A formal Transportation Plan must be incorporated as part and parcel of Miami 21 when submitted for approval to the City Commission. The process of collecting, discussing and deciding upon appropriate solutions must be open to the public and educational materials must be prepared for public participation in final decision-making.

4.     Affordable and workforce housing must also be addressed specifically in Miami 21, including a variety of solutions which must be clearly defined in conjunction with professional specialists in this field. The process of collecting, discussing and deciding upon appropriate solutions must be open to the public and educational materials must be prepared for public participation in final decision-making.

5.     Legal, financial/banking (re mortgages), insurance, code enforcement, and urban planning professionals to work out reasonable solutions to non-conforming issues.

6.     i.) Language of notice to nearby residents and neighborhood associations in regard to the applications for waivers, warrants, exceptions, variances, zoning changes, and special area plans and the decisions and recommendations thereto;

ii) Also, the zoning administrator under Miami 21 has the authority to make decisions regarding approval of a building permit, certificate of use, and an interpretation of the zoning code.  Notice should be given to nearby residents and neighborhood associations of these decisions with appeal provisions;

iii.) Provision of comprehensive standards to be applied to all of these decisions; and

iv.) Reinstatement of all or portions of Code Section 1305.

7.  Comprehensive Plan Issues. There are several issues relating to the Comprehensive Plan and FS163, such as massive Land Use changes, designation of the entire City as Urban Infill relating to Transportation Concurrency Exception Area designation, etc.

The City and the Commissioners must address ASAP ideas how to structure forums for the above major unresolved issues as well as methodology to select and invite appropriate professionals, etc. Ideally, these Unresolved Major Issues should be fleshed out, with corrective action already taken or clear examples of specific alternatives prepared to intake to the citizens during the neighborhood meetings in each quadrant.

II) Other specific amendments to Miami 21 Code include:

A.  height of single family residential structures should remain at a total of 25 feet to mid eave of pitched roof structures.

B.  Broaden the use of rescission procedures to include any administrative decision or Board/Commission resolution granting an administrative waiver, warrant, exception, variance, rezoning or special area plan if there is a finding by the PZAB of a violation of any conditions, restrictions, and limitations in the subject administrative decision, or Boart/Commission resolution.  Notice of the hearing on this issue shall be given to the nearby residents and neighborhood association in the subject property’s NET district.

C.  Modifications to applications requiring public hearings should include changes which result in failure to protect, promote and comply with character of neighborhood, of ownership, the uses of the property, the vehicular traffic flow, conflicts or amounts, including commercial vehicle intrusion, water usage, noise levels, fumes, odors, spillover effect of light or any provisions of existing section 1305.  No changes may be made after notice of the public hearing on these modifications have been given to the nearby residents and neighborhood associations in the subject property’s NET district. 

D.  The appeal period from the decisions of the planning director to the PZAB and from the PZAB decision to the City Commission shall be twenty days .

E.  Broaden the definition of “person” to include any adversely affected party pursuant to general law and the definition of aggrieved party for seeking rescission to include property owners within 500 feet and the neighborhood association for or closest to the subject property.

 F. Several other issues which are of concern to MNU are included in the attached “Items of Concern” dated May 18, 2007. They must also be addressed as soon as reasonably possible.

I.      Overview of the City of Miami’s “Miami 21 Project” and the MNU Miami 21 Outreach Project

 The City of Miami embarked, over two years ago, on a major planning exercise to prepare an urban plan for the City for the next 50 years. The internationally recognized firm of Duany Plater-Zyberk (“DPZ”) was hired as a New Urbanism planner to totally rewrite the Zoning Code of the City of Miami. The firm of Goody Clancy of Boston was hired to prepare a Parks Master Plan. Other consulting firms were hired to prepare an economic assessment and a Transportation Plan.

 The City and DPZ decided to divide the City into four Quadrants rather than tackle the whole City at one time. Work has progressed for two years, preparing the new Zoning Code and Atlas (new zoning map) for the First Quadrant. Please see www.Miami21.org for details. Miami Neighborhoods United (“MNU”) has requested for over a year that the “Code” (the text with all the definitions, rules, form-based requirements, etc.) be taken to the rest of the City for familiarization and public input. The request was denied until the City Commission meeting on June 28, 2007, at which the first reading of the new ordinance was deferred pending input from the other three quadrants and resolution of several, major unresolved issues.

 The City administration and DPZ are planning three meetings in each Commission District (five districts) to inform and engage citizens in the rest of the City. MNU contends that a.) the materials used to date for community meetings in the first quadrant assumed a high level of education and existing knowledge of zoning and related issues and that b.) the neighborhoods lacked the expertise and facilitators to assist them in properly formulating their responses and input. MNU is attempting to have the City and DPZ adjust their materials and meetings to be more effective. However, MNU has received no assurances or evidence that the City is actually doing so. 

 Therefore, MNU is organizing its own MNU Miami 21 Outreach Project to educate and assist citizens to engage in the process on a broad basis across the City and different socio-economic levels. Obviously this is a major undertaking and time is currently extremely limited (the current target date set by the City Commission is mid-September). Nevertheless, MNU feels it is imperative to make every effort to inform the citizens and assist them in formulating their issues, concerns, and desires in order to effectively participate in the planning of the future of their City.

 Ideally, MNU needs to carry out meetings with over 50 neighborhoods – probably several meetings in each. We envision ten to twenty Trainer/Facilitators will be necessary if there is to be success in reaching a significant number of neighborhoods and citizens. Since there is little knowledge of the existence of the Miami 21 project among the general public outside the first quadrant, an initial Awareness Campaign must be put in motion immediately. Many channels of communication must be utilized, with a focus on basic issues affecting the citizens and their homes/small businesses in order to generate participation in the meetings.

 For information concerning Miami Neighborhoods United, see the Mission at www.MiamiNU.org.

II.    Project Tasks

A.   Training Materials and Feedback Template Development

1.     Develop training materials focused primarily on an audience of grade 9 educational level (in process by MNU volunteers).

2.     Training materials will be largely graphic.

3.     Initial training media will be PowerPoint presentations, hopefully with voice overlays in multiple languages.

4.     Handouts and other materials/workbooks/templates for neighborhood input, ideally packaged for a.) a more-educated audience and b.) a less-educated audience.

5.     The training materials should be suitable for distribution or streaming from a website.

6.     Training materials will be tested before final use and the project will provide for subsequent adjustments to the training materials, as experience warrants.

7.     The training modules will possibly be video recorded for broader distribution.

8.     Existing templates for neighborhood/citizen input to be reviewed and refined

9.     “Train the Trainer” sessions will be prepared primarily for training Trainer/ Facilitators, but may also be used for training sessions with neighborhood leaders.

10.  Materials for additional “Train the Trainer” sessions to familiarize Trainer/Facilitators in essential details of Miami 21 Code and processes.

B.    Trainer/Facilitator Recruiting and Selection

1.     A recruiting program has been started to source prospective Trainer/ Facilitators from neighborhood groups, universities, volunteer and social program organizations, etc.

2.     Screening and selection criteria must be established.

3.     Processing of candidates and final selection must be carried out quickly and efficiently.

C.    Awareness Program

1.    Create awareness materials – flyers, circulars, notices, press releases.

2.     Prepare distribution channel planning, including identification of organizations, groups, other interested parties to assist with physical distribution and education.

3.     Coordinate with Trainer/Facilitator meeting programming (dates, venues, etc.).

4.     Manage physical distribution of media.

D.   Trainer/Facilitator Program

1.     Trainer/Facilitators will be trained initially with the training materials prepared for use with the public.

2.     Trainer/Facilitators will then be trained in more of the details of Miami 21 Code and Atlas requirements and issues.

3.     Meetings with neighborhoods and other citizen groups will be scheduled in coordination with MNU and the Awareness Program staff.

4.     Trainer/Facilitators will then meet with neighborhood associations and the public to:

a.)   present the training materials in order to educate the citizens concerning fundamentals of the current zoning code and Miami 21;

b.)   answer citizen questions concerning the current and proposed zoning codes, atlases, and processes;

c.)   assist citizens with clear expression of their concerns, issues and desires relating to Miami 21;

d.)   assists the neighborhoods and citizens with documentation of their concerns, issues and desires in a previously designed template or other form, in accordance with the needs and desires of the particular neighborhood(s);

e.)   assists the neighborhoods and citizens in presentation of their concerns, issues and desires to DPZ and the City Planning Department;

f.)    assist with negotiations with the City/DPZ as appropriate;

g.)   assist with preparation of neighborhoods and citizens to voice their support and concerns to their individual Commissioners and to the City Commission.

III.  Specific Needs

A.   Assistance finding a professional Project Manager / Coordinator and several Assistant Coordinators (possibly one for each Commission District and one for the Awareness Program) – significant part time for 60 to 120 days, some daytime and quite a bit of evening/weekend time, volunteer unless funding is located. Bi-lingual capability would be a plus.

B.    Recruiting of Trainer/Facilitators – part time, primarily nights and weekends, probably three to six days per week depending on scheduling of meetings. Will probably be assigned in teams of two or three. The Trainer/Facilitators will be trained in group “train the trainer” sessions, will have to familiarize themselves with the actual Miami 21 Code, and learn how to work with the templates for neighborhood/citizen input. Bi-lingual English/Spanish and English/Creole highly desirable.

C.    Staffing of the Awareness Program with part-time volunteers and assistance with preparation of Awareness Program materials and distribution.

D.   Assistance with preparation of training/education materials and possibly website.

E.    Financial assistance to hire a professional Project Manager / Coordinator and Assistant.Coordinators.

F.    Financial assistance to cover the cost of training materials, website, and other out-of-pocket expenses.

IV. Further Information and Contact.

A.   For general information concerning the Project and for candidates for Project Manager and Assistant Coordinator, please contact MNUoutreach@MiamiNU.org.

B.     For candidates interested in Trainer/Facilitator positions and information, please contact MNUfacilitators@MiamiNU.org.

C.    For boundaries and Commission Districts of the City of Miami and major subdivisions of the City, please refer to the following maps.