Miami Today -- The Newspaper for the Future of Miami -- featured
PlusUrbia Design's ideas for a safer, calmer Calle Ocho in the
influential weekly's well-read transportation issue.
Which way will Calle Ocho run?
Residents and business people in East Little Havana, a historic neighborhood
at the western edge of booming Brickell, are concerned about changes that are
coming for two major streets that slice through the area.
The Florida Department of Transportation in June completed a study of
Southwest Seventh and Eighth streets from Southwest 27th to Brickell avenues.
The department’s goals for the two streets are to improve traffic operations,
safety and access to the Brickell area, to develop a pedestrian-friendly
corridor and to promote a multi-modal transportation approach, said
spokesperson Ivette Ruiz.
“This dense urban corridor has seen significant growth in the past decade
with high-density, high-rise developments and its operation is expected to be
impacted with increased traffic volumes by several new major development projects
currently proposed within the Brickell area,” Ms. Ruiz said via email.
Residents and business people in
East Little Havana, a historic neighborhood at the western edge of booming
Brickell, are concerned about changes that are coming for two major streets
that slice through the area.
The Florida Department of
Transportation in June completed a study of Southwest Seventh and Eighth
streets from Southwest 27th to Brickell avenues. The department’s goals for the
two streets are to improve traffic operations, safety and access to the
Brickell area, to develop a pedestrian-friendly corridor and to promote a
multi-modal transportation approach, said spokesperson Ivette Ruiz.
“This dense urban corridor has seen
significant growth in the past decade with high-density, high-rise developments
and its operation is expected to be impacted with increased traffic volumes by
several new major development projects currently proposed within the Brickell
area,” Ms. Ruiz said via email.
The next phase is the project development
and environmental study, set to begin in the winter of 2016 and to take two to
three years, she continued. “Then design, right-of-way acquisition and
construction will follow.” Construction is expected to begin in spring 2017.
Some neighbors are worried that the
current one-way street design – which they say encourages drivers to speed and
is not pedestrian-friendly – will remain. They are hopeful that a smaller, more
human-scale design can take its place but fear the transportation department’s
top priority is moving cars as efficiently as possible.
“This is our one chance,” said Juan
Mullerat, director of PlusUrbia, a design firm that recently completed a
redevelopment plan for Wynwood that has gained wide acceptance. Mr. Mullerat
and several of the firm’s principals live in East Little Havana. “When you live
in an area, it becomes more than a way to get to downtown and Brickell. We know
the car needs to stay, but we believe transportation means more than cars.”
East Little Havana was once a
thriving neighborhood with Southwest Eighth Street, or Calle Ocho, as its main
street, he said. PlusUrbia, working pro bono, has designed a plan that
Mr. Mullerat says will be safer and will restore that neighborhood feeling.
Currently, there are three one-way driving lanes that are 11 feet wide, two
7.5-foot parking lanes, and two 9-foot sidewalks. PlusUrbia’s plan would
replace them with two 10-foot driving lanes, heading east and west, an 11-foot
transit lane, a 4-foot bike lane, and two 8.5-foot parking lanes. The sidewalks
would stay the same width, at 9 feet.
The firm has decided not to bid on the $2 million project, though two
out-of-state potential bidders have asked PlusUrbia to join their teams. “Our
function is to raise awareness,” Mr. Mullerat said, adding that staying
independent from the project gives the firm more credibility in presenting its
ideas.
At a series of meetings the transportation department held to get public
input, Mr. Mullerat said, the company’s plans fell on deaf ears.
“The department only recently became aware of PlusUrbia’s plan,” Ms. Ruiz
responded.
“Specifically, their plan did not come up at the meetings.”
Redesigning traffic so that the area recaptures its neighborhood ambiance
“is one of the alternatives recommended for further study, but any change to
the existing traffic pattern will require public and community acceptance,” Ms.
Ruiz said. The department will continue to get input from the community and all
interested parties throughout the project development and environmental study
phase, she added.
Adopting the principles set forth in his company’s plan, Mr. Mullerat said,
might help alleviate a serious jaywalking problem that has historically plagued
the two streets.
Ms. Ruiz said the department will make a series of pedestrian improvements
over the next two to three years. “This includes the addition of 10 new
pedestrian crosswalks along Southwest Eighth Street between Southwest 27th and
Brickell avenues.”
But, Mr. Mullerat said, “I want to ask that guy with a cane jaywalking
across Calle Ocho where he wants his crosswalks.”
He is organizing a coalition of architects, planners, neighbors and business
people to present ideas to the transportation department cohesively.
“We have some of the best planners in the world in Miami,” said Mr.
Mullerat, who co-chairs the Urban Design Committee of the American Institute of
Architects’ Miami chapter. “We have real specialists who can tell us how this
should flow, how this should function.”
