A referendum question awaits voters in Miami-Dade County on Tuesday’s primary election ballot: Should Miami Beach build a new fire station on the western edge of the Flamingo Park racetrack?

Although the issue affects South Beach residents, the county’s parking regulations make it available to all voters in the county, regardless of party affiliation.

The park proposed for the planned fire station is located between 11th and 12th streets along Alton Road, a major thoroughfare in Miami Beach.

The city wants firefighters to respond to emergency services more quickly, as they also serve the southernmost point of the city as well as the more isolated islands of Star, Palm and Hibiscus.

Currently located at 1051 Jefferson Avenue, Fire Station #1 is the busiest station in Miami Beach. The department has outgrown this 57-year-old building designed by famed architect Morris Lapidus.

“Most of our trucks don’t fit in the garage because the trucks we need now to serve the area are too large,” Colette Satchell, senior project manager in the city’s Capital Improvements Office, told members of the city’s Historic Preservation Committee in 2022.

She said the truck’s tires had to be deflated to fit in the old parking bays. For nearly 10 years, Miami Beach has been working on a new station that would accommodate the different truck sizes and provide a modern facility for staff.

This building is also vulnerable to flooding as the ground is below the base flood level. In addition is not big enough. The fire department said they need at least three quarters of a hectare, so demolition and reconstruction there is not an option.

READ MORE: A battle for the soul of Miami Beach: Will developers destroy or save Art Deco?

The property on 6th Street is large enough at about one acre.

“It’s city-owned land. Some of the private lots we looked at weren’t even ¾ of an acre,” Satchell said, arguing for building on the new lot at 833 6th Street, which is owned by the city. She said the private lots they looked at were too expensive.

The money for this building originally came from $439 million in general obligation bonds approved by voters in 2018. Of that money, $10 million was set aside for the new fire station.

Monument preservation

Preservationists have long opposed the 6th Street location because the surrounding streets are narrower and have stop signs instead of traffic lights, making the area unsuitable for fire trucks.

“We will also fundamentally transform one of Miami Beach’s most historic neighborhoods by taking an acre, a third of a city block, and completely transforming it,” said David McKinney, a retired architectural historian who lives behind the fire station on Jefferson Avenue and has opposed the use of the 6th Street site for years.

And here’s the rub: There’s already a building on that site, the South Shore Community Center. It was also designed by Morris Lapidus, the same architect who designed the glamorous Eden Roc and Fontainebleau hotels in Miami Beach. He also designed a commercial pedestrian mall called Lincoln Road Mall.

When he was entrusted with designing the community center, Lapidus had a different target in mind: the retirees who dominated South Beach in those years.

“Architectural history is not just about the buildings of the rich and famous or the big resorts. It’s also about the people who make up and shape the city,” he told WLRN. “And seniors redesigned Miami Beach in the 1960s, and this building was built and designed to meet their needs.”

MORE ELECTION REPORTS

The Florida Trust for Historic Preservation has added the South Shore Center to a list of buildings to save in 2021.

Today, the center is used as a daycare for around 40 children whose parents live and work on the beach. A lunch program for seniors was discontinued in 2019.

Needs of the fire brigade

Former Miami Beach Fire Chief Virgil Fernandez repeatedly stressed the importance of agreeing on a location for his employees.

“I have to speak up for the men and women who are running out of this firehouse, and it’s really not fair to them either,” Fernandez said at the Historic Preservation Board’s 2022 meeting.

“I can tell you that from the beginning we tried to find a location that would be the least impactful, but at the same time meet the needs and future needs of our city, as well as the current needs of the firefighters – the men and women who work out of this fire station.”

Fernandez stressed that they must be prepared to serve all the new condominium and hotel projects throughout the city. He retired earlier this summer.

To avoid demolition of the community center, city councilors recently proposed the western edge of the running track in Flamingo Park as a location.

Disagreements about Flamingo Park

“The main reason people want to see it here is because it saves the community center on 6th Street,” said Scott Needelman, who was born and raised in Miami Beach and has lived here forever. He moderates meetings of the Flamingo Park Neighborhood Association and has served on the Historic Preservation Board in the past.

He said the association is made up of members who live in the area and are divided on whether the fire station should be built in the park or on 6th Street.

“It’s not that I don’t want to save the community center, but I just can’t imagine putting a huge building in a park,” Needelman said. “If you look at it now, you can see Alton Road and the people playing there in that area, and I just imagine a pretty big building taking out all those trees and all that green space while people are looking at the wall of the fire station or the side of the huge ramps.”

The ramps are part of the design of the new station for the fire engines.

Officials estimate that building the station in the park will cost about $20 million more over time than originally planned. The track, soccer field, gymnasium, bleachers and scoreboard would have to be moved east to make room.

Needelman says if the city is willing to spend millions to build the facility in the park, he suggests they reconsider purchasing private property.

“Because 6th Street is not ideal. The park is certainly not an ideal location, so maybe they should take the $20 million and try to buy some private property in a perfect location for the fire station and do that,” he said.

If voters do not approve the park for the time being, the city will likely turn to the South Shore Community Center.

Commissioner Tanya Bhatt led the multi-site search that led to the Flamingo Park proposal.

“It only takes 3% of the park out of its current use, but it’s park space that is currently underused,” Bhatt said. “It’s not in the middle of the park. There’s no playground there.”

She said the location has the approval of the city’s former and current fire chief.

Bhatt said: “We can give the fire department the facilities it needs, we can give the citizens the response times they need and demand – and rightly so – and we can protect our heritage. And that is exactly what I am asking you to do.”

Although voters have a say, this is a test vote, meaning the question is not binding.

Commissioners said they will give more weight to the voice of Miami Beach residents than voters in the rest of the county because the park is owned by the city. They plan to discuss next steps at their September meeting.