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ULI Releases Report for Downtown Miami Waterfront Resilience
November 11, 2019
ULI panel provides strategic recommendations on design guidelines, funding opportunities, policy approaches, and an implementation plan to bolster the resilience of Miami’s urban waterfront.
Through a partnership between the City of Miami and the Miami Downtown Development Authority (DDA), Miami convened a panel of 10 experts from the Urban Land Institute in June to study climate-related threats and potential solutions within the city’s urban core.
The panel focused on strengthening the Biscayne Bay waterfront as Downtown Miami’s first line of defense against rising seas, transforming the Miami River into a mixed-use district that bridges the gap between the water and surrounding neighborhoods such as Little Havana and Allapattah, and incentivizing responsible development along an inland ridge of high-lying ground.
“The Urban Land Institute’s preliminary findings provide us with a roadmap for enacting design, infrastructure, zoning and financing strategies that will ensure Miami sustains its growth as a world-class city – not for years, not for generations, but forever,” said City of Miami Commission Chairman Ken Russel, who also chairs the Miami DDA.
Learn more about: Miami Panel for Waterfront Resilience
In June 2019, ULI was asked by the City of Miami and the Miami Downtown Development Authority to provide recommendations for addressing waterfront resilience and mitigating the effects of sea level rise in Downtown Miami – primarily along Biscayne Bay and the Miami River. The panel was tasked with focusing on four key areas: design, finance, policy, and implementation.
The panel came up with strategic recommendations that take a holistic approach to resilience for the urban waterfront with specific recommendations around waterfront design guidelines, infrastructure finance, community engagement, and leveraging past plans and studies into actions moving forward.
Following is a summary of the panel’s recommendations:
- Embrace the legacy of the waterfront through design to protect the water, live with water, and create value from water
- Refine and adopt proposed design guidelines for the Miami Baywalk and Riverwalk
- Promote the use of living shorelines across key regulatory agencies at all levels of government – Federal, State, County, and City, and design and implement a Living Shoreline demonstration project
- Extend and apply these guidelines to the Riverwalk, the Baywalk, and riverfront
- Track and actively engage in the USACE Back Bay Study to support the installation of an iconic tidal gate for the river
- Embrace transit-oriented development along the ridge for future growth
- Update the Downtown Miami Master Plan to bring existing plans and visions together
- Pursue a portfolio of financial strategies to become the world leader in resilient finance, investment, and construction
- Use an expanded Transfer of Development Density (TDD / TDR) policy to encourage development in less flood-prone areas
- Strengthen community awareness, knowledge, and preparedness in vulnerable locations through a proactive community engagement strategy and communication network and local partnerships
The final recommendations report is now available to download or read online
A video recording of the panel’s presentation at Miami City Hall on June 7, 2019 is available online.