On Sept 17th the City of Miami Beach Commission directed the Inspector General to hire an independent expert to review the legality of the building permits issued for these “apartment hotels”.

The Key Findings of the Inspector General Report:

1) Failure of the Planning Department to Utilize a Separate Application for a COA was NOT in compliance with the LDRs

2) Failure of the Planning Director to Issue and Publish a Written Decision of the Administrative Approval of the COA for the Property was in Contravention of the LDRs

“For the aforementioned reasons, the Planning Departments failure to issue a written decision as Subsection 118-563(d)(3) and publish said decision with respect to the Property’s COA was not in compliance with the City’s LDRs

3) The Building Permit Valuation for the Value of the work for the property did NOT COMPLY with the Florida Building Code.

4) The Automatic Building Permit Extensions Authorized by the Building Official Failed to Comply with the Florida Building Code or Florida Statues.

It is clear that the recent Inspector General Report indicated significant errors in Both the Planning and Building Departments. Serious actions must be taken immediately to correct these past errors that will result in a deterioration of the neighborhood and a reduction in the quality of life of its residents.

The Issues:

ISSUE ONE:

Short Term Rentals / Hotels

Our Children’s Safety Is At Risk

Imagine having 600 transients in our neighborhood every day. These new apartment hotels our city officials have approved will have over 60 units to house 400-600 people at any given time. Our residential community was not built for tourists. A resident has a vested interest in our community – but, as we already know, these transient renters do not. There are two elementary schools here that children walk and ride their bikes to everyday. We have several parks with playgrounds. Our children’s once-safe neighborhood is soon to become full of strangers they need to be protected from. A full-time resident goes through background checks before moving into a building -It’s impossible to monitor what kind of individual is renting a short-term unit. There’s no way to know if they’re on a predator list. Our children will no longer be safe in SoFi if we allow these apartment hotels to open.

Why Is The City Allowing This To Happen?

Short-term rentals are prohibited in SoFi, so why did our city officials grant permits to open several of these properties in SoFi? The City of Miami Beach wrongfully waived the Certificate of Appropriateness required and granted permit BC1704920 for the property on 310 Meridian Ave.

Short Term Rental / “Airbnb style” hotels

Ever since the creation of "Casa Sofi", an "airbnb style" hotel 735 2nd St, there has been a noticeable change to the chemistry of our neighborhood. A constant smell of drugs in the air, speeding cars slingshot-ing down Meridian - going at least 60 mph from one stop sign to the next, often ignoring the stop signs altogether, increased graffiti on our cherished historic buildings and trash littering our landscaping. Our neighborhood has experienced violent gang-related shootings at restaurants, constant theft, and tourists stopping traffic to twerk on main roads. We have skid marks at every intersection from transients doing wheelies and donuts in the middle of intersections. These issues directly stem from cheap, unsupervised and unmanageable short-term rentals.

Three new projects already been “Permitted”

Three projects currently have permits for opening up "airbnb/hotels." 310 Meridian, 226 and 333 Jefferson. Furthermore, there are at least 2-3 others contemplated/publicized that are also in the pipeline. At 15 units each that is 75 new “airbnb” units with 6-8 persons per unit; that will be 450-600 transient renters in our neighborhood on a daily basis. These airbnb/ hotel units will certainly be at a lower cost than any nearby full-service hotels, which is going to attract more of the careless tourists we already witness on Washington/Collins ave. The previous owner of "Club Space" is planning to open up an airbnb hotel in our neighborhood at 333 Jefferson.

Why is this being allowed to happen?

Lack of accountability and due-diligence from the Building Department, the Planning Department, and the City Administration as a whole As a Prime example, the 310 Meridian Developer somehow managed to bypass the historic board, and 3 critical zoning requirements when they originally applied for their building permit. This is why no one received that familiar perforated “zoning notice” about these developments.This is why we never saw the familiar “red sign” posted out front of the building notifying the neighboring residents of the proposed changes.

Click below and read details on how the building department missed three critical zoning requirements for 310 Meridian.These same kind of “mistakes” by the building and planning departments are apparent at the other developments.

Click to read full page report above

ISSUE TWO:

Traffic Safety and Parking

Over the last year, there has been a proliferation of fraudulent handicap abuse in SoFi. How did it get to this point - The City of Miami Beach as a long standing policy that allows handicap placards to park in residential parking spaces at any time indefinitely. Valet operators, restaurant workers, door men, bouncers etc have been abusing this policy with their own, fraudulently issued or borrowed placards to park for free during their work shifts. A policy meant to protect disabled people has now been abused so bad that it now negatively impacts disabled people from ever finding a parking spot in a residential zone. Federal and state law does not allow handicap placards to park within residential zones, only designated handicap spaces and metered spaces.

ISSUE THREE:

Illegal Business Establishments

THE ISSUES:

Our goal is to preserve and protect the residential quality of life and safety south of fifth.

The SoFi Community does not want “Airbnb” style hotels in the neighborhood.