North Miami Beach rescinds approval of Intracoastal Mall project, schedules new vote
A day after North Miami Beach commissioners voted to approve Uptown Harbour, a massive mixed-use redevelopment of the Intracoastal Mall, Mayor Anthony DeFillipo announced he was scrapping the results and scheduling another vote to be held at a later date.
The motion to reschedule was approved 7-0.
Tuesday’s virtual meeting, which began at 6 p.m. and stretched on until 2:30 a.m., was a contentious affair that included a screaming match, a commissioner who logged off before the final vote was taken and another commissioner who fell asleep at her desk.
One fell asleep. Another logged off. But commissioners approved Intracoastal Mall project.
“I have serious concerns I’ve heard from our community,” DeFillipo said in a text message to the Herald. “They need more addressing because it was a quasi-judicial meeting. We had one commissioner dropped off due to communication and another fell asleep. These are serious concerns and these forums must be done properly.
“Our city has had issues with this process in the past for not following it correctly,” DeFillipo said, explaining why he was bringing the project back for reconsideration.
DeFillipo was elected in 2018 and is facing a challenger in the Nov. 3 election. His opponent, Bruce Kusens, is running solely out of concern over the project’s impact on the nearby Eastern Shores neighborhood.
A massive development
Uptown Harbour is a $1.5 billion project that would bring more than 3,000 condos and apartments, 575,000 square feet of office and retail space, and a 100-foot-wide canal to the outdoor mall site at 3861 NE 163rd St., on the Sunny Isles Causeway.
Dezer Development bought the Intracoastal Mall in 2013 for $63.5 million. The developer took advantage of changes in North Miami Beach’s zoning ordinance made in 2015 to increase the density of the project. Some of the proposed buildings could rise as high as 40 stories.
But in exchange for the increased density, the project is required to provide ingress and egress access to and from the property directly from Northeast 163rd Street. The current plan only allows for a widening of Northeast 35th Avenue, the sole road in and out of Eastern Shores, and a left-hand turn signal to direct traffic onto Northeast 36th Avenue.
Tuesday’s hearing included two ordinances: approval of the project’s master plan and the grant of the land to developer Gil Dezer for 30 years to complete the project.
The first ordinance was passed by a vote of 4-3. The second passed by a vote of 3-2, after two of the commissioners had dropped off.
“I appreciate that some of my fellow commissioners will now have the opportunity to review the master plan and development deal and realize that it is not to the benefit of the residents of Eastern Shores and more importantly, it does not meet the traffic requirements.” said Commissioner Fortuna Smukler, who voted against both ordinances.
Other commissioners were annoyed by the idea of having to start the entire process of reviewing the project from the beginning.
“We have to go through this all over again, but the votes are not going to change,” said Commissioner Barbara Kramer, who also voted no.
“To be clear, the City of North Miami Beach did not rescind their approval but made a motion to reconsider given that two of the commissioners fell asleep or became unavailable,” said Gil Dezer, president of Dezer Development. “We’ll make sure they have coffee at the next hearing.”
