opinion: the case for the north beach conservation overlay district

The community has spoken. It is their desire to have well-planned neighborhoods with compatible new development. Their message is loud and clear. They want to maintain the identity of what exists, while guiding new development within the existing scale and density. 
 
Miami Beach is a beautiful city that has proudly protected its important architectural styles throughout its history and will guide new development within the existing scale and density to complement the Mediterranean, Art Deco, MiMo, the new "starchitecture", even the earliest coral rock structures. 
 
When the challenge finally arrived to revive North Beach, the preservationists’ point of view was for the entire National Register of Historic Places to become a local MiMo historic district. North Beach had already been branded as the Miami Modern District (MiMo). However, that idea caused a great debate, and a call for "balance" became tangled in the problems related to Sea Rise, Economics, Over-development, and even outrageous suggestions to demolish historic properties and rebuild as a "new modern city".
 
The City of Miami Beach hired a professional team to help plan the redevelopment of North Beach. After two years of community meetings to find a "balance", a compromise was reached, thanks to the guidance of the award-winning team of Dover Kohl and Partners. Dover Kohl and Partners was hired by the Commission to bring the community together, focusing on their trademark known as "revitalizing traditional towns".
 
Although the compromise was not an ideal solution for saving a great MiMo section of Miami Beach that has been said to contain the largest collection of post-war Miami Modern architecture, the most important result was that the two year work product brought the community together to formally accept a combination of local historic districts and a Conservation District with the appropriate guidelines that will upgrade, jump-start, restore, add development, demolish the worthless, replace with sensitive new structures, and incentivize the North Beach National Register District. It is the guidelines that are key for mastering the community's vision to maintain a low-scale neighborhood with "balance".
 
A wonderful visionary friend of mine, who is an architect/land planner, summed up the controversy of "balance" as "don't change the language of the place. It is okay to change the accent of the place.” 
 
The guidelines are the key to solidifying the community vision. However, some things need to happen:
 
1.  The city codes must change. Many of the archaic codes prevent good planning, creativity of allowing for realistic incentives. 
 
2.  The Commission must commit to doing what is best for the community rather than the highly motivated opportunists.
 
3.  The plan is clear. It will go to the Planning Board on June 27th, then on to Commission after that. No need for more delaying tactics or calls for economic studies. The Art Deco District did not need economic studies to incentivize South Beach. A brilliant team from Boston, the planning firm of Anderson, Notter and Feingold, did a Master Plan to inspire new developers. The visionary developers realized if they cleaned up the neighborhood and awakened the street, economic success would follow - and it did. The Dover Kohl Master Plan will do the same. 
 
Finally, let's not be distracted by short-term solutions for Sea Rise. Rather, we should support, encourage and delve into the work of global geniuses who can present guidelines that will "keep the language" of our place and just "change the accents".
 
Nancy Liebman is a former Miami Beach Commissioner; former executive, Miami Design Preservation League; Advisor Emeritus, National Trust for Historic Preservation; Founder and former president of Miami Beach United; and the former president of the MiMo Biscayne Association.