Part of the Florida Community Studies Consortium this site is designed to facilitate public input into the future land uses of Virginia Key. We encourage students and all residents to learn about the island – its curious history and strange land uses - so that we can all have more input into its future. It’s fate should not just be up to the powerful interest groups.
Planning for the uses of this island is a major challenge to make our local politics reflect democratic values. We can shape the island's future if we are well organized, do our research, present documentaries and images of possible future land uses, and build a viable public constituency.
The City of Miami is engaged in a Master Plan process for Virginia Key (led by the firm EDSA of Fort Lauderdale) that will have great importance in the shape it takes in the coming years. We can help persuade them to plan for future public uses of this public land.
Other waterfront planning efforts are taking place in relation to Bicentennial Park and the Coconut Grove Waterfront. (See the separate links page) We should all be concerned about the fate of OUR Waterfront and our other public spaces.
There should be a multi-jurisdictional waterfront planning commission so that knee jerk individual decisions about land use are not made but that a broad effort be well coordinated with principles of public access, wide use, and security maximized.
The bottom line for our time: our open spaces need to be thoughtfully protected and redesigned or they will go away.