Miami Cuts Deal To Take Over Brickell

By Meisha Perrin
Miami is one step closer to owning Brickell Avenue from Southwest Eighth Street south to where I-95 meets US 1.

Last week commissioners approved taking over Brickell from the Florida Department of Transportation without swapping roadways in Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones’ district, as proposed when the deal surfaced at the commission’s last May meeting.

Original negotiations between the state and Brickell’s commissioner, Marc Sarnoff, had called for a swap in which the city would have given up First Street from Southwest Second Avenue to Biscayne Boulevard, First Street from Northwest Third Avenue to Biscayne, Third Avenue from West Flagler Street to I-95, and Third Court from Northwest Eighth Street to West Flagler.

But Commissioner Spence-Jones raised a red flag, stating that she didn’t want to hand jurisdiction to the state in her district.

Since then, the need to make the road transfers from the city system to the state was deleted from the legislation, and the approved item only grants the right-of-way of Brickell to the city, which has been maintaining the roadway anyway, according to Commissioner Frank Carollo.

Ownership of the iconic roadway means the city accepts all responsibility for the right-of-way, including maintenance and operation of curbs, culverts, drainage structure, sidewalks, traffic signals, lighting, and a pump station to avert flooding that the state just built.

The agreement ends any jurisdictional and maintenance responsibility of the state transportation department when it signs off.

Officials are now researching further to determine appropriate rights-of-way to transfer, according to city Community Development Director George Mensah. Any future roadway transfer would have to go back to the commission for approval.To read the entire issue of Miami Today online, subscribe to e-MIAMI TODAY, an exact digital replica of the printed edition.