No Restaurant for You

No Restaurant for You
Property Owner’s Zoning Request for Dining
Establishment Opposed by Neighbors

Silver Bluff residents, claiming to be tired of the movement toward commercializing their single-family neighborhood, weren’t having it.

By Tiffany Rainey

Amid the usual routine of approval and deferment during the zoning portion of last Thursday’s meeting of the Miami City Commission, Silver Bluff residents flexed their activist muscles to stop a project.

It wasn’t a towering condo building that brought residents of the small neighborhood just west of U.S. 1 together in protest.

Instead, it was an attempt to change zoning at approximately 2460 SW 16th Court from office to restricted commercial so that a local business owner, Richard Fonseca, could convert the 1924 building on his property into a restaurant.

Commissioners had approved the application on a previous first reading but, since the mention of a required SD-12 Buffer Overlay had been omitted, commissioners were once again hearing the item on a first reading basis.

“This is not a red herring to develop a huge skyscraper,” said Fonseca’s attorney, Melissa Tapanes Llahues. “We can do that right now. The C-1 [zoning] is only for parking.”

Residents, claiming to be tired of the movement toward commercializing their single-family neighborhood, weren’t having it.

“This is a longstanding residential area already feeling the impact of commercial[ization],” said Louise Caro, attorney for the Silver Bluff Homeowners Association, in reference to establishments like Casola’s on Southwest 17th Avenue, also owned by Fonseca. “Yes, there’s been commercial intrusion but they don’t want anymore. Don’t add insult to injury.”

Among the complaints were increased traffic, amplified noise levels and illegal dumping, all of which stemmed from commercial developments along the Southwest 17th Avenue corridor.

Llahues argued that though efforts had been made to work with the community, the residents refused. “By the time we had the application everyone was already in opposition,” the Bercow & Radell attorney told commissioners. “They’ve been unwilling to come to a compromise though we have pleaded.”

Llahues’ claims, including an assertion that residents were really after the closure of Southwest 16th Court and were using the zoning item as a public forum to lobby for that, only served to incite residents and their attorney as accusations flew between the opposing parties.

“You were going to defer the item and meet with us,” resident Gay-Lynne Anagnostis said to Llahues, “but at the last minute you cancelled.”

The flaring tempers soon spread to commissioners Tomas Regalado and Joe Sanchez, who added their own emotionally charged comments to the dispute. Regalado called for changes in traffic patterns, which must go through the county, to mitigate the growing traffic problems in the area. Sanchez claimed responsibility to his constituents as a motivating factor to deny the application.

“[Since] so many neighbors came in opposition and my job is to support the neighborhood, I can’t approve this right now,” Sanchez said. “At the end of the day I represent the people and some of them sitting here didn’t support me, but that’s the beauty of democracy.”

Llahues implored the commissioner and his counterparts to reconsider.

“There will be no opportunity to work with the community,” she said. “If you deny it, this is it.”

But Sanchez was adamant and with other commissioners following his lead, the application was denied, leaving Silver Bluff residents ecstatic as they exited City Hall, while Fonseca and his attorney appeared considerably less pleased.

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