Coral Gables gives $500K for Underline as it prepares to make tough choices ahead

As they head into a potentially difficult financial year, Coral Gables commissioners on Tuesday agreed to redirect $500,000 meant for city projects to help support the operations and maintenance of The Underline, a 10-mile linear park underneath the Metrorail.

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Negotiations ran right up until the deal was unanimously approved during Tuesday’s marathon City Commission meeting and budget hearing, with Underline leaders agreeing to the city’s various asks. That included giving the city a seat on the Underline Conservancy board that oversees the park’s operation, with the City Commission having the power to select its own appointee.

The funding is half of the $1 million that Underline Conservancy Chair Meg Daly and Friends of the Underline CEO Eulois Cleckley wanted for fiscal year 2027 and will require supporters to come before the Gables commission again for future funding. The city will also be giving the Underline its requested $180,000 for fiscal year 2026.

The Underline’s construction is expected to wrap up by December, years early thanks to a substantial federal grant. Even though supporters ramped-up fundraising as the project progressed, they didn’t anticipate the full bill for operation of the trail to arrive so soon.

Annual operating costs are expected to come in at a total of around $9.5 million once the entire trail is finished.

Cleckley and Daly say Friends of the Underline, the nonprofit’s fundraising arm, has a goal of meeting 60% of estimated operating costs through private donors and sponsorships next year. Miami-Dade County has agreed to provide several million dollars to the Underline Conservancy in ongoing operational funding for three years, with the amount tapering down annually and no guarantee of continued support beyond that.

That’s where the new Gables money, along with funding from neighboring Miami and South Miami, will kick in, though Daly said she hopes the substantial support from the three cities will be necessary only temporarily. Coral Gables City Manager Peter Iglesias and his staff will now need to figure out which projects to cut funding from, or delay, in order to support the Underline.

Here’s what to know:

Key terms of the Gables-Underline deal

City leaders continue to say they were blindsided by the Underline’s funding request for nearly $4.5 million over five years. Commissioners insist they were promised by Miami-Dade County that maintenance costs would not fall on the cities the linear park runs through.

County and Underline leaders dispute the claim and said they can’t find record of that promise. It’s become an agree-to-disagree situation that led commissioners to scrutinize the Underline’s request more closely.

The amount the Conservancy sought from the three cities represents about 30% of the total cost of operating, programming and maintaining the lushly landscaped and heavily amenitized trail and park, which runs from the Dadeland South Metrorail station to the Miami River in Brickell.

And Gables officials played hardball, including during Tuesday’s final stretch of negotiations. Underline supporters needed to get a deal before commissioners finalized the 2027 budget that night.

Some of the city’s nonnegotiable terms included more financial transparency, audited financials, an annual meeting between city and Underline leaders to negotiate terms for a new deal, and voting power on the Underline’s board.

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Under the agreement, which still needs to be signed, Friends of the Underline will give the Gables one of its seats on the nine-person Conservancy board, with the City Commission having the authority to decide the appointee. The board currently consists of five representatives from Friends of the Underline and four members appointed by Miami-Dade County.

“The approximately three miles of The Underline that run through Coral Gables need to be maintained, and I want that investment to succeed. At the same time, we have many other critically important projects and services competing for taxpayer dollars,” Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago told the Miami Herald in a statement Friday. Lago is a longtime Underline supporter who crafted the initial deal years ago that gave the county millions in Gables funds to help construct the linear park.

“The funding approved this week reflects the need to address maintenance while balancing those responsibilities,” he added, noting that it was important to secure a seat on the Underline’s governing board to give “our community a voice in decisions affecting this investment.”

What the Underline wanted, what the Gables gave

The Underline’s full request was for $4.49 million over five years.

Gables commissioners had already agreed to pay up for this year. On Tuesday, the commission also voted to give the Underline $500,000 for fiscal year 2027. Commissioner Melissa Castro was the sole no vote, stating she wanted to give the Underline more money.

The mayor, vice mayor and other commissioners said they wanted to give more money too, but felt there wasn’t any more wiggle room as the city prepares for a possible future with millions less in property tax revenue if Florida voters approve Amendment 3.

Lago, Anderson and Lara said they would have voted for more Underline funding if they hadn’t made a last-minute deal with Fernandez to secure enough votes to maintain the city’s current property tax rate for fiscal year 2027. In return, they agreed to Fernandez’s ask to reduce garbage fees by $75 and to continue funding relief programs for seniors and veterans.

The deal is estimated to take about $800,000 from the city’s expected surplus, which Lago and the others said could have gone to the Underline. Castro argued they could have given the Underline more money, and avoided affecting city projects, by reducing the city’s additional payments toward its employee pension fund. Lago says the city’s extra payments are part of a strategy to pay off debt faster and have more money available in the future.

It’s too soon to say which Gables projects might receive a funding cut in order to support the Underline and accommodate other changes to the budget made Tuesday. However, during the discussions, Coral Gables Finance Director Diana Gomez pinpointed some possible projects the city could decrease funding for in order to accommodate the Underline funding.

Some of those projects include new sidewalk and crosswalk installations, citywide traffic-calming measures and sidewalk extensions. Commissioners noted that many of those projects were meant to address residents’ concerns.

It will now be up to city staff to figure out which projects to reduce funding for, delay or even potentially cut.

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