On Tuesday, July 7, the Coral Gables City Commission will make a decision that should be simple. The Fifield Companies project in the North Ponce area deserves approval. It will bring nearly 200 much-needed rental apartments to Coral Gables while providing Crystal Academy, the city’s only school serving children on the autism spectrum, with a brand-new, purpose-built campus and a 99-year rent-free lease. Those are real public benefits that will serve this community for generations.
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Instead, this project has spent years tied up in delays and appeals. The objections have been heard repeatedly and rejected repeatedly. The Coral Gables Historic Preservation Board, the Board of Architects, the Planning and Zoning Board, the City Commission, a Special Master panel, the Miami-Dade Circuit Court and the Third District Court of Appeal have all ruled against the challenges. Even so, the developer agreed to preserve the tree at the center of the dispute by relocating it only a few hundred feet from its current location. At some point, enough is enough.
This is exactly the kind of project Coral Gables should be encouraging. The surrounding area already contains office buildings, hotels, condominiums and apartment buildings. This is not a quiet single-family neighborhood. It is an established mixed-use corridor where additional rental housing makes sense. Every elected official talks about the housing shortage facing Miami-Dade County, but solving that problem requires approving projects that fit the community. This one does.
Crystal Academy is just as important. For years, the school has provided life-changing opportunities for children with autism and support for hundreds of families. This project secures the academy’s future with a permanent home designed specifically for its students. Opportunities like this do not come along often, and Coral Gables should embrace it instead of allowing endless delays to stand in the way.
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More than 500 residents support this project because they understand what is at stake. Coral Gables gains needed rental housing, additional parking, private investment and a permanent home for one of the community’s most important educational institutions. That is good planning. That is good public policy. Most importantly, it is the right decision.
Mayor Vince Lago and the City Commission now have the opportunity to move this project forward once and for all. The courts have spoken. The boards have spoken. The facts are clear. Now it is time for the commission to lead. Vote yes for Crystal Academy. Vote yes for needed housing. Vote yes for the future of Coral Gables.
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