Coral Gables to get a new park as UM seeks to expand under new deal. What we know

The University of Miami and the city of Coral Gables are one step closer to finalizing a deal that would give the private university the ability to plan for more students, new housing and other buildings on its growing campus — including, potentially, a new hospital.

In return, UM would give the city nearly six acres of grassy land across from Henry S. West Laboratory School, 5300 Carillo St., to transform into a new park. The park, bounded by Ponce de Leon Boulevard, Carillo Street and Granada Boulevard, would become the largest city-owned green space. The deal also secures the continuation of several programs and services, including a limited amount of free tickets to certain UM sports games for city residents.

“This is a property that I’ve chased for years with the University of Miami,” Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago told the Miami Herald, explaining that he’s spent the past decade trying to find a way to bring the land — estimated to be worth about $50 million — into the city’s hands for preservation.

“A portion of it, I would like to bring it back into its original state,” with trees and plants “reminiscent of old Florida,” Lago said, recalling how he got his “first real taste of wilderness” in a nearby pine rockland area as a child with his grandfather.

The proposed deal still needs to get the OK from the city’s Planning & Zoning Board before making its way to city commissioners.

UM-Coral Gables deal: How it would affect campus growth

UM needs the deal to create a blueprint for its future growth over the next 30 years. The current deal the university has with the city allows it to have up to about 13,000 students. Under the new deal, the university can have up to 17,500 full-time undergraduate students on the Gables campus before it needs to seek approval by the city for traffic mitigation and student housing plans.

The deal, which gives the university more “development square footage” to build on, would also rezone several university-owned properties that are on the same strip as the popular Titanic Brewery and Restaurant. UM wants the properties — 1530 Levante Ave., 5827 Ponce de Leon Blvd. and 5855 Ponce de Leon Blvd., to be rezoned from commercial low-rise intensity to university campus purposes.

The rezoning is part of UM’s plan to expand the boundaries of the “University Campus Multi-Use Area” directly across the street from the Metrorail University Station and along the major thoroughfare of Ponce De Leon Boulevard. The university would still need to abide by permitting and regulatory requirements for developments.

The changes would make it possible for UM to open, if it wants to, a new medical facility in the area, according to the proposal. The U already has the Lennar Foundation Medical Center on its Gables campus.

But, for the moment, there are no hospital plans in the works, UM told the Miami Herald. At least for now.

The university’s proposal says that the rezoning and boundary changes will lead to more jobs in the future, “will not impact the residential neighborhoods that border the campus along San Amaro and Campo Sano” and is “likewise compatible with the surrounding development patterns.”

“We wish to emphasize that the expansion will have no negative impact on the availability of housing affordable to people who live and work within the City,” reads the 217-page proposal.

It also notes that the addition of a hospital use to the university’s “Multi-Use Area” will “further the mission of the University to provide world-class, convenient health care to residents” and that the area is “ideally situated for a Hospital use located along the Ponce de Leon corridor with easy access to public transit.”

What will the Gables get as part of new UM deal?

For the city, the deal gets it a new “passive” 5.5-acre park, which the mayor and city manager said will give people a place to walk, run and get fresh air.

The future park will be named Centennial Park to commemorate the 100th anniversaries of the City Beautiful and UM. The university will still have the ability to use the park for recreational activities and, like the city, will also be able to use it as a debris site for post-hurricane recovery efforts.

Both the city and UM would need to agree before any events can be held at the park, according to City Manager Peter Iglesias.

Iglesias, who has spearheaded efforts alongside Lago and UM Board of Trustees Chair Manny Kadre to get the park included in the new development agreement, described the proposal as one that provides “mutual benefit” for both the city and the expanding university, which will pay just over $1 million a year to the city as part of the new 30-year deal, with the payment increasing by 4% annually.

The deal, if ultimately approved by city commissioners, would replace a similar soon-to-expire development agreement the city and UM made a decade ago.

The new 30-year agreement also secures UM’s commitment to offer up to 80 hours per year of free consulting services to the city for architecture and other areas. The university will also continue to offer various programs to city residents, including:

Buy-one-get-one-free tickets for city residents to one home Hurricanes football game during the regular season, excluding suites and club seating. The tickets will be valid for one game that will be designated as “Coral Gables Day” by UM. The university will also give away up to 1,000 free general admission tickets on a first-come, first-serve basis to city residents for men’s basketball, women’s basketball and men’s baseball games.
Four annual concerts that feature students and faculty performers, along with two cultural programs. UM’s annual lecture series, which hosts six lectures and panel presentations featuring UM faculty and other distinguished speakers, as well as the university’s “Meet the Docs” program that lets residents hear from and talk with UM’s leading medical experts. All of those programs are free for city residents.
The continuation of the annual Gables Fellow Student Internship Program for students interested in public service, local government, planning, architecture and economic development.

What comes next?

On Tuesday morning, as he walked through the soon-to-be Centennial Park, Lago said he was worried the land would one day be developed, that one day the large trees that circle the park would be razed to make way for new buildings.

Now, the grassy area “will always be a park,” he said. And Lago wants to take it further.

Lago, who has pushed to bring more parks into the city, wants to ask commissioners — and then later, voters in the upcoming November election — to support a law that would require the city to seek voter approval before selling city-owned parks and open spaces, including golf courses and recreational facilities.

The law, if passed, would protect the city’s many parks, including the future 20,000-square-foot tree-lined park that will be behind the future home of Publix on LeJeune, part of a deal Lago worked on with the supermarket giant. He said it would also give additional protection to the popular Granada Golf Course and Coral Gables War Memorial Youth Center, which has been in the crossfire of an ongoing dispute between the city and the private civic organization tied to it.

“We need to continue to grow in a positive way, but when you have an opportunity to save a property of this magnitude, sometimes — not sometimes — it’s always better to select a green space over money,” Lago said.

“You can never go wrong with having more green space,” he added.