GREEN BUFFER DESTROYED FOR NOW? DOCTORS HOSPITAL

April 20, 2024 Leave a comment

DOCTORS HOSPITAL bought its valet parking lot from the City of Coral Gable for was a very good price given the inflation of real estate prices in Coral Gables. It has now eliminated most of the green barrier between the parking lot and local residents road to apparent newly designed lot. The local residents will wait many months and year for a renovated equivalent green area in the back and side of their houses.

We all thinking about future generations, public lands should not be sold except in exceptional cases. One might imagine that In the case of Doctors Hospital they would have paid any large sum to keep and use the valet parking lot indefinitely, to the benefit of the city’s general budget.

The Brazilian Pepper plant which had overgrown the canal made up a big share of the green barrier is considered a weed by Miami-Dade, while the Australian pines in the area are considered equally bad plants but were not eliminated.

The lot was sold against the protests of local residents who stated that the sale and subsequent renovation of the lot will not benefit the residents, and will cause significant costs in reducing property values, significant local environmental impacts, including increased light pollution, loss of wildlife dependent on the green barrier, the increase in noise from the hospital, among others

The many community benefits of the green area, now lost, included:

  • Provide wildlife habitat (birds, fish, reptiles, manatees…) diversity
  • Traffic calming and noise mitigation
  • Impeding views of car traffic, valet parking, buses and ambulances
  • Impeding view of Doctors Hospital buildings
  • Mitigate Doctors Hospital lighting
  • Wind and temperature mitigation in storms and hurricanes
  • CO2 capture
  • Favor canal users’ recreational boating and fishing
  • Bolster local property values

The BEFORE and AFTER pictures are, as follows:

Filed under Budget, Coral Gables, Environment, Property Values Tagged with , , , ,

STOP THE SALE–KEEP THE LEASE

July 22, 2021 Leave a comment

Neighbors and residents along Granada Blvd across the canal from Baptist Health/Doctors Hospital will lose important environmental benefits, privacy, and property values from the sale of the city parking lot 24 leased to Baptist Health for valet parking.  The lot will undergo size and capacity transformation, removal of vegetation, construction of walls and a long-term plantings plan for 15 to 25 growth. There will be a huge increase in light and noise pollution in the neighborhood.

The valet parking sale will likely lead sooner or later to the construction of a parking garage or the introduction of mechanized car lifts on the lot (per the public request of Baptist representatives favoring the lift solution).  The city can control future land use only if the parking lot continues strictly as a lease.

Contrary to the current culture of consultation in the City of Coral Gables, the affected neighbors were not consulted about the sale during a process that began in 2016 until a first small meeting on June 29, 2021,in which the agreement for landscaping and parking was presented as a fully agreed upon re-landscaping and parking expansion between the City and Baptist Hospital.  

The sale and landscaping plan was presented to the neighbors as a fait accompli and will involve denuding existing land adjacent to the canal to be replanted for slow growth and low maintenance that will take 15 to 25 years!  There are big questions about the current appraisal and negotiation of the sale of $3.0 million.   Baptist Health has financed both the appraisals and the landscaping plan agreement.

The landscaping plan will expose neighbors to the full view of the hospital building, its strong 24 hour night lighting and increased valet traffic on University Drive for the expanded and reshaped valet parking lot.

In short, the city gains $3.0 million from the sale, Baptist Health gains long-term control over the parking lot and the neighbors lose a dense green barrier, lose hospital light mitigation, lose quiet traffic and suffer decreased property values.

This land sale to Baptist Health/Doctors Hospital adds to trends for single property owners and impacts on local neighborhoods of unrestrained traffic congestion, noise, strong light contamination, loss of local green areas and associated environmental benefits and wildlife, along with the possible loss in property values, and forced spending by homeowners to mitigate the damage. 

Therefore the City and Doctors Hospital/Baptist Health appear willing to sacrifice individual owner resident environmentq  for the parking lot development.

Filed under Coral Gables, Environment, Property Values

City Parking No Notification of Residents–Coral Gables

July 22, 2021 Leave a comment

Parking in Coral Gables has long been a concern for many. The lack of parking in downtown leads many residents to avoid the area and frequent stores and restaurants outside of Coral Gables. However, the City’s parking woes are not limited to downtown. Most concerning to residents, the City is working actively to take spaces away from residential neighborhoods to accommodate the needs of developers and businesses. Additionally concerning for neighboring residents is that the City is making changes without notifying residents or resident input. The issue was brought up at the last Parking Advisory Board and most recently at the City Commission meeting on July 13th.

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These days when the City is seeking to increase transparency, the process seems like a no-brainer. To date, no such process has been created. Residents in the area have expressed their hope that the Parking Advisory Board will take a harder look at these processes and ordinances and how they are executed by staff. Continuing with the goal of transparency, staff should work in concert with City Boards made up of citizen-volunteers so that there is complete transparency and consideration for all residents. 

Street Parking: City Taking From Residents, To Help Developers And Friends, Without Notification Or Input From Residents – Gables Insider

DOCTORS HOSPITAL VALET PARKING

New valet parking at Doctors Hospital to be sold by the City will remove a dense green protective environmental barrier between the hospital and the neighbors, all to reorganize and build more parking spaces and more “efficient” parking.

The sale and the reorganized parking space will lead to the destruction in the views and quiet space of neighbors along the canal and the big loss in environmental and community benefits (by noise, lighting, traffic, unsightly view of hospital buildings, loss in property values, loss of wildlife habitat).

Filed under Coral Gables, Property Values, Transparency

Green Buffer Hides Doctors Hospital from Neighbors

September 15, 2020 Leave a comment

Green Buffer, Coral Gables Waterway

This photo shows that the Doctors Hospital buildings are completely out of view of the neighbors; and many neighbors have renovated their houses over the years to favor this natural untouched view of the canal.

It is projected that the hospital will eliminate appreciable green areas, thereby, increasing noise, light pollution, views of parked cars and traffic, buildings with lighting, street lighting, disturbing wildlife, decreasing property values….

Filed under Coral Gables, Environment, Property Values

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