Meiner writes to state lawmakers urging Live Local Act changes

Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner said Monday he has sent a letter to the Florida Legislature urging changes to the Live Local Act, and copied mayors across the state. He announced it in an Instagram post linking to a city resolution. Red Sidewalks has not seen the letter itself.

In the post, Meiner said the city supports affordable and workforce housing but that the law is unlikely to deliver it. He said many proposed buildings are out of scale with the city and that its infrastructure cannot sustain the projects the law allows. “Cities know their communities best,” he wrote.

The resolution he linked, No. 2026-34516, was sponsored by Meiner and co-sponsored by Commissioners Monica Matteo-Salinas, Alex J. Fernandez and Tanya K. Bhatt. Its commission memo is dated Oct. 14. It backs the mayor’s effort to work with other city and county mayors and ask lawmakers to amend or repeal the law, and to restore the city’s power to set the scale of development. It also seeks to let residents and property owners take part in reviewing projects again and to protect water, sewer and stormwater systems. The clerk is told to send copies to every state senator and representative and to all Florida city and county mayors.

The resolution says the law, passed in 2023 and widened in 2024, 2025 and 2026, overrides the city’s rules on uses, height, floor-area ratio, density and parking. It also says qualifying projects must be approved by staff without a public hearing. A developer qualifies by setting aside 40% of a project’s units, not its floor space, as workforce housing for 30 years. The resolution argues that mainly encourages market-rate building.

Three more South Beach properties entered the city’s Live Local review last week, city records show (story).