Florida City is closer to gaining new housing units. During the June 28 meeting, the Commission approved a resolution that will allow the final plat of Sebastian Place. This is a replat of eight parcels located at the northwest corner of the intersection of East Palm Drive/Southwest 344th Street and Northeast Sixth Avenue/Southwest 172nd Avenue.
It is expected that the project will bring 108 new townhomes to the community. “This will mean more housing, but it will be market rate housing, not affordable housing,” said Jon Ward, executive director of the CRA.
Vice Mayor Walter Thompson said new housing is good for Florida City. “This is a great sign of growth. We can’t stay the same,” he said. “We have to have change.”
Mayor Otis Wallace said, “I think these projects go a long way on meeting housing needs. I am more focused on affordability than just increasing the numbers of new homes. Sebastian Place will be an affordable place to live and will be very nice,” said Wallace. “Unlike other parts of Miami-Dade County, you can come to Florida City and buy a home or rent a home for less money.”
Also, the Commission extended the closing date on the sale of the property formerly known as the Snakepit to Alphaville Developments LLC to July 15. The City required the company to put down another $100,000. Ward said the company needs more time to close on the loan.
“The requirement for affordable housing makes it tricky to develop such a project and make a profit. They are restricted on how much money they can charge for rent,” said Ward. “We could get about $5 million for this land but we are selling it for about $2.5 million so it can be developed as affordable housing. We have talked with about a dozen developers, and they could not make the numbers work. We are in a hot real estate market and we don’t want to build cheap housing. We don’t want to build another slum to replace a slum.”
The Commission approved a resolution to approve a change order in an amount not to exceed $107,406 to the contract with R&G Engineering for a water work project. This is because of an increase in the cost of PVC pipe material.
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