Zoning may allow hospitals to open in more neighborhoods

Written by Miami Today on December 10, 2024

Miami-Dade is at the doorstep of zoning to allow hospitals and small-scale medical facilities to take root in three types of business districts.

The Community Health Committee on Monday voted unanimously for the change proposed by county commission Chairman Anthony Rodriguez. It will take a commission vote to enact the ordinance.

“The purpose of this code amendment is to enhance community health resources by permitting hospitals” within three zoning areas, says a memo from county Chief Operating Officer Jimmy Morales. “This amendment aims to increase the availability of potential sites where residents can access specialized medical care, meeting a growing demand for health services in more convenient, accessible locations.”

Such facilities would have 24-hour emergency rooms, be limited to 50 beds, and be no taller than four stories or 70 feet. They would be limited to 10 acres on major access roads. They would need a 5-foot masonry wall along residential property lines and controlled outdoor lighting.

Each would have to renew its certificate of use annually.

The ordinance, Mr. Morales wrote, would further comprehensive development master plan policy of meeting county employment needs for the next few years. That policy seeks to emphasize health services “while simultaneously promoting the creation and development of small and medium-sized, labor intensive enterprises geared to the socio-economic needs and opportunities of specific neighborhoods and locations meant to serve a diversity of markets.”

Documents note that the zoning changes would meet state definitions of medical facilities and say “a small scale medical facility licensed by the state would fit the statutory definition of a hospital rather than an emergency care center.” County code now defines a small scale medical facility as “a hospital that provides an emergency department and has 50 or fewer in-patient beds.”