Battle for White House Inn Reaches Compromise
Reduced height and other concessions fail to appease neighbors
Related Group is one step closer to snagging the 1.1-acre waterfront property just south of Keystone Point and at the entrance of Shepard Broad Causeway in North Miami.
The big-time development brand scored a win last month when it secured the votes necessary for a zoning and comprehensive plan change on a plot of land at 2305 NE 123rd St., currently inhabited by the dilapidated White House Inn motel propped two stories high.
The North Miami City Council supported the changes that will nearly triple the height limit of the property and allow Related to build a 54-unit luxury high-rise known as Icon Residencies in its place – but it isn’t a done deal yet. Now pending site plan approval, there still lies a long road ahead for an uphill battle already months in the making.
Compromise Reached
Residents of the single-family homes and duplexes just west and north of the property have long been protesting Related’s plans for their beloved coastline. After months of pushback from neighboring homeowners, frenzied community meetings and a heated, two-hour discussion that ultimately led to a deferral of the first vote, Related finally succumbed to many of the community’s wishes.
At a Sept. 13 council meeting, Pedro Gassant, a Holland & Knight partner leading the battle on behalf of Related, surprised the audience with a list of compromises sought by Vice Mayor Alix Desulme. The most notable of the restrictive covenants proffered by Gassant is a 110-foot height limitation on the building, which would make it 59 feet shorter than the original proposal that residents mocked and guffawed at.
Related also agreed not to include balconies with the units at the north and northwest ends of the property, which otherwise would have overlooked the backyards of existing residents along NE 123rd Street and N Bayshore Drive. The declaration of restrictions further includes a commitment to keep the roof free of intrusive LED lighting and to keep construction traffic out of Keystone.
In addition, Related will contribute $500,000 to affordable housing efforts elsewhere in the city.
Those restrictions satisfied all but one councilmember, Scott Galvin, who remained silent during discussion except to cast his lone dissenting vote during both first and second readings.
Galvin, whose district houses White House Inn and the neighboring Keystone, stood strong in his opposition to the project from the beginning – a pledge he made early on to the dozens of residents who remain unconvinced by Related’s promises.
Lingering Concerns
Tucker Gibbs, an attorney with his own law firm representing the Keystone Homeowners Association, argued against the 110-foot height restriction at a council meeting Sept. 27. According to city code, he explained, that limit is made into 143 feet when accounting for allowable height bonuses to accommodate roof structures and flood elevation.
Gibbs advocated to no avail for an 80-foot cap instead, which would still allow for an additional 27 feet of non-habitable height.
Prior to that meeting, Karen DeLeon, president of the Keystone Homeowners Association, cautioned against having a 143-foot-high building next to single-family homes less than 35 feet tall.
“We already see all around us that this area is undergoing a renaissance, and as owners of single-family homes in a beautiful neighborhood – a beautiful, relatively peaceful neighborhood – at the end of the day, we’re asking to be able to maintain the mental health that comes with being able to look up and see sky,” DeLeon told the Biscayne Times.
Development Spread
That fear has less to do with Icon Residencies itself, and more with what the change could mean for the future of the neighborhood.
Livia Cleary, a nearby homeowner who has been living in the city for approximately 10 years, fears being pushed out by developers who may wish to turn NE 123rd Street into the focal point for a newly renovated sky-rise metropolis.
“Rich people are buying everything now, and this is the perfect spot,” she said. “You know how it works. The investors come, build and then leave.”
Mirroring that concern, DeLeon drew a parallel to Causeway Square, a 94-foot-tall building constructed in 2009 on the other end of the block, adjacent to Biscayne Boulevard. At 94 feet, the high-rise occupied by an LA Fitness and retail stores created a precedent for the area that DeLeon says is only being reinforced and inflamed with the new zoning change.
She pointed to North Miami’s height restrictions on the blocks just north of the city’s southern boundary with Biscayne Park, an incorporated community of one- and two-story single-family homes. DeLeon is asking her city to enforce similar requirements within its own borders, creating for its taxpayers the same kind of buffer – and, in her view, respect – already granted to its neighboring non-residents.
To DeLeon and many others, the optics of a block less than a mile long anchored on each end by two high-rises with old-town residential units in between is, at best, unsightly and – at worst – unsustainable.