Project History
Comprehensive Plan
A Comprehensive Plan is a policy document that outlines a community’s vision for its future and how it will meet the needs of existing and future residents. The vision established in the plan is outlined in a series of goals, objectives and policies that address specific topics such as land use, housing, transportation, infrastructure, and others. The state requires all local governments to maintain a Comprehensive Plan and periodically evaluate it for necessary updates. The plan includes a future land use map that assigns a future land use category to all properties. The future land use categories must have accompanying policies that provide guidance on allowable uses and establish specific maximum development rights, expressed as residential dwelling units per acre or non-residential square footage in a Floor Area Ratio (FAR).
The City of Sunny Isles Beach was incorporated in 1997 and immediately conducted two years of community workshops to gather input that would establish the community’s vision. The City adopted its first Comprehensive Plan in 2000 and the plan envisioned an “Urban Village and Town Center Strategy.” The Urban Village recognized that the City has historically been developed as a system of defined neighborhoods and the plan envisioned linking the enclaves with pedestrian, bicycle and transit infrastructure. The Town Center Strategy envisioned changing the historic strip mall development pattern into a vertically mixed-use destination center with housing, business, retail, and office space. The Town Center vision included public plazas, civic facilities, access to waterfront amenities and a strong focus on pedestrian circulation.
The Sunny Isles Beach Comprehensive Plan has been amended throughout the years to reflect changes in state regulation or changes in redevelopment conditions.
Zoning Code
The City adopted the Land Development Regulations, or commonly referred to as the “Zoning Code” in 2002, which implements the Comprehensive Plan policies through regulating uses and development standards such as setbacks, height, parking, and open space. The zoning map was adopted simultaneously, which assigned a zoning district to all properties.
Town Center
The geographic area designated as the Town Center Overlay in the Comprehensive Plan was well developed at the time the City was incorporated with condominiums and strip malls. Redevelopment in the Town Center Overlay since 2000 has almost exclusively occurred on the properties fronting Sunny Isles Boulevard with projects such as Parque Towers, St. Tropez, Gateway Center, One Netanya and others.
In 2019, an inconsistency was discovered between the Town Center Overlay in the Comprehensive Plan and the Town Center zoning district regulations. The City split the Town Center Overlay into two areas, Town Center South that encompasses the properties fronting to Sunny Isles Boulevard, and Town Center North, which is bounded by Sunny Isles Boulevard and 172nd Street. Policies were adopted into the Comprehensive Plan for Town Center South that mirror the zoning code, which legalized the developments that have been constructed. However, the policies for Town Center North have not been amended in the Comprehensive Plan, which means the Comprehensive Plan and zoning code for this area remain inconsistent today.
Neighborhood Business Districts
The Neighborhood Business area runs along the westside of Collins Avenue. Similar to Town Center, the majority of these properties were developed at the time of City incorporation with strip malls and surface parking lots.
Several redevelopment projects have occurred since incorporation, such as the Aurora Condominiums, King David, Marriott, Publix, and two parking garages that support the Acqualina projects.
The City has identified an inconsistency between the Comprehensive Plan and zoning code for the Neighborhood Business area.
What are we doing now?
Before amending the Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Code to remedy the inconsistencies, the City needs to understand what the community wants to see in these areas. We are engaging the community now to assess if the vision of the City remains as described in the original Comprehensive Plan, or if the vision has changed. This is because the City has experienced an incredible amount of growth in redevelopment projects and conditions have changed since incorporation. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to participate in this visioning effort.
Link to previous Town Center North Planning Effort (2020):
20201102-TCNO-Sunny-Isles-Beach_AS_updated-12.28.2020-FINAL-ACCESSIBLE.pdf (sibfl.net)
