Commission to vote on suing the state to save the Savoy and Arlington hotels on Ocean Drive
A Nov. 18 resolution would let the city attorney challenge the 2024 law that bars Miami Beach from blocking some beachfront demolitions, starting with two 1930s and '40s hotels.
The Miami Beach City Commission will vote Nov. 18 on whether to sue over the state law that keeps the city from stopping some oceanfront demolitions, with the aim of saving the Savoy and Arlington hotels on Ocean Drive.
The resolution, sponsored by Vice Mayor Alex Fernandez and on the agenda as item C7 AX, would approve a lawsuit “based on the viable legal challenges” the city attorney has identified to the Resiliency and Safe Structures Act, Section 553.8991 of the Florida Statutes. It would also let the city attorney hire specialized outside lawyers, with a budget amendment later if one is needed. The agenda memo lists no cost.
The law and the buildings
The 2024 law bars the city from putting restrictions or conditions on demolishing or rebuilding certain buildings seaward of the state’s coastal construction control line: those below current flood-elevation rules, those a building official has found unsafe, and those ordered demolished, the resolution says. The law itself exempts some historic buildings, including those individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places and contributing buildings in historic districts listed before Jan. 1, 2000. The resolution says many buildings the law still covers are on the National Register or are contributing buildings in the city’s local historic districts.
The Savoy, at 425 Ocean Drive, was built in 1937, and the Arlington, at 445 Ocean Drive, in 1941, according to the resolution. Both are contributing buildings in the Ocean Beach Local Historic District, which the city designated in 1996.
The resolution says the owner of both properties has invoked the act in an application for a new project that would demolish the two buildings. It does not name the owner or describe the project. City permit records list a Live Local Act pre-application meeting for 425-455 Ocean Drive, filed in April and under review, and a traffic study for the same addresses filed Oct. 20.
The resolution argues the law may conflict with the National Historic Preservation Act’s requirements for cities certified to run their own preservation programs, which Miami Beach has been since 2002.
What’s next
The item is on the commission’s consent agenda. The commission meets at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 18, at City Hall, 1700 Convention Center Drive.
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