discuss the revenue from taxes

[whiteeclipse]

Hey guys, I'm moving to Miami and my business to Miami this year, I'm planning to buy a condo anymore from 500,000-1,500,000 in Sunny Isles Beach because I am told there are alot of Russian people live in the Sunny Isles area and also buying a condo for my mom and my sister for 350,000, I noticed there has been alot of luxury development in Miami and since I would be paying a good amount of taxes, I would like a idea where the tax money will be going, maybe to affordable housing? or does miami plan to spend the money on transportation and fix the problems that miami will have in the future with traffic.

Also I noticed that alot of development is going into poor neighborhoods, this will effect the people in the neighborhoods, they will be forced to move, same thing happened to me last year, I lived in Rhode Island and the prices were to high for me and my family and a good house was 230,000 and I moved to Kissimmee, FL and ended up buying a brand new house for $120,000 and now it worth, $175,000.

Also Miami is the poorest city in America, do you guys think all of the development will change this?

I really don't understand Florida, they are worried about wildlife and don't want to build outside the boundary line, if this is the case, why is Miami having height limits in some of the neighborhoods. It's either change the boundary line or start building all Florida up and Miami up.

I been to miami three times already and love all the development and hoping it does turn into New York City with all the tall towers because I do like New York City but it's to cold for me and I don't enjoy the snow.

Miami is turning into something different and it's seems alot of the people don't like what's happening and that's it's affecting neighborhoods near Miami downtown, it's simple if you don't like what's happenening just move somewhere else in Florida.

As long as Miami can controll the traffic, I don't think Miami should slow down on development.

[Aessotariq]

Welcome aboard... These are really good questions, and I'm going to try to answer them as best I can. I'll be back shortly with a reply.

[whiteeclipse]

Also, I live near Orlando, there is alot of retail stores around here and 4 major malls that I know of, I been in Miami and I didn't notice that much retail, will this effect Miami as it's growing? I been in Aventure Mall and I think there is another big Mall in Miami, is Miami working on this or it's not a problem?

[whiteeclipse]

Also I notice there are alot of condo development in downtown and near towntown, seems the development is more worried about housing then building office towers, will this effect Miami?

Aessotariq, thank you, I'll be looking forward for your reply

[whiteeclipse]

The 56-acre site redevelopment which was a rail yard before, which will be 3,000 condos, 343 apartments, a 600,000 square foot retail center, a hotel and a health club.

Developers have also agreed to construct 380 affordable housing units off-site.

It will have an estimated development value of $1.2 billion and will generate an estimated 1,700 permanent jobs. (good news)

From this site to downtown, seems to me there will be alot of redevelopment in the future or this happing right now.

Also what is between that site and downtown, (single family homes?)

[up+down=midtown]

right now all there is are single family homes,but in the future it will create a new skyline that will link it with downtown

[whiteeclipse]

That would be great, I would love to see this, did the developers say that is the plan?

[up+down=midtown]

Also, I live near Orlando, there is alot of retail stores around here and 4 major malls that I know of, I been in Miami and I didn't notice that much retail, will this effect Miami as it's growing?  I been in Aventure Mall and I think there is another big Mall in Miami, is Miami working on this or it's not a problem?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

well if you're buying in sunny isles you'll be close to 2 malls,aventura and bal harbour.and as you already know aventura is what i call the city of retail with the mall and alot of other retail centers.

in the city of miami you'll have the shops at midtown which will have 600,000sqft,bayview 600,000 sqft,250,000 mary brickell village,200,000 on miracle mile,80,000 everglades on the bay,island gardens 220,000sqft,metropolitan miami220,000ft

all of these are proposed or underconstruction

[up+down=midtown]

That would be great, I would love to see this, did the developers say that is the plan?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

no,but they're are about 20towers over 300ft proposed,approved,or underconstruction in this area.

[whiteeclipse]

wow great information, thank you

[Aessotariq]

Hey guys, I'm moving  to Miami and my business to Miami this year, I'm planning to buy a condo anymore from 500,000-1,500,000 in Sunny Isles Beach because I am told there are alot of Russian people live in the Sunny Isles area  and also buying a condo for my mom and my sister for 350,000, I noticed there has been alot of luxury development in Miami and since I would be paying a good amount of taxes, I would like a idea where the tax money will be going, maybe to affordable housing? or does miami plan to spend the money on transportation and fix the problems that miami will have in the future with traffic.

In Sunny Isles Beach, last year's millage (property tax rate) totaled $22.5837 for every $1000 of taxable value. Of that, there are county taxes, city taxes, water management, school board, fire-rescue, public library, and several other things. The "City of Sunny Isles Beach Operating" funds will go towards Sunny Isles matters, like maintaining streets (public works), landscaping, local zoning, police, city parks, stormwater maintenance, etc.

The "Countywide Operating" pay for health and human services, public housing authority, public hospitals, homeless trust, courts, jails, elections, transit, consumer services, museums and county-owned parks, traffic signals and signs, countywide zoning and master plans, maintaining county-owned streets (in both cities and unincorporated areas), etc.

Also I noticed that alot of development is going into poor neighborhoods, this will effect the people in the neighborhoods, they will be forced to move, same thing happened to me last year, I lived in Rhode Island and the prices were to high for me and my family and a good house was 230,000 and I moved to Kissimmee, FL and ended up buying a brand new house for $120,000 and now it worth, $175,000.

Real estate prices will continue to soar, and this will continue as land becomes more and more scarce. Miami and the metropolitan area are hemmed in by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, and the Everglades on the west. Among what needs to be done is provide a more diverse housing stock, for all incomes, and build more transit-oriented development so that it's easier to get to work and back without a car. Automobiles are a substantial part of a family's budget, especially for working class and low-income families. "TOD" is being heavily encouraged right now.

Even though real estate prices are soaring, property taxes are capped in Florida. As long as you own a property, the taxable value cannot increase by more than 3% a year, so even if your property were to double in value tomorrow, you'd only pay 3% more than what you paid last year. If you decide to sell the property, the new owner will pay that year's market rate. This doesn't make any difference to renters, who will probably be displaced as market pressures force owners to make way for new developments. It's an issue that has not been fully addressed, and it's something that's happening everywhere, not just here.

Also Miami is the poorest city in America, do you guys think all of the development will change this?

Actually, a new study came out showing that Cleveland now has that title... Not that it's something to brag about.

New development will help turn around certain neighborhoods and it might improve stats, but if people can't afford to move in to them, then it doesn't do much good. So it might make the numbers look good for a specific area, but the problem just shifts somewhere else with displaced residents. I think this is a far deeper social issue than I can really go into here.

Careful when you hear or read stuff like "poorest city" in the media. City of Miami only makes up 16% of the entire county population and it's only 2% of the total county land area (7% if you only count the area within the urban development boundary). Metro numbers are more useful: there is just as much poverty outside of the city limits as there is within. It happens to be that the impoverished neighborhoods start in the City in the lower street numbers (around 10th, 13th St) and extend far beyond the city limits(into the 160s), almost a perfect rectangle. If you drew the rectangle around those areas, the neighborhoods within the City of Miami would be a small piece of the total area of the rectangle. However because Miami itself is only 34 square miles (~500 miles of built up area inside UDB), when you look up city figures, it does take up about a third of the total area within the actual city limits. Some Census numbers:

• Persons below poverty, percent, 1999:

  Miami (city) 28.5%

  Miami-Dade County 18.0% (this include's Miami's numbers too)

  Florida 12.5%

  Nationwide 12.4%

I really don't understand Florida, they are worried about wildlife and don't want to build outside the boundary line, if this is the case, why is Miami having height limits in some of the neighborhoods.  It's either change the boundary line or start building all Florida up and Miami up.

There are a few very vocal and well-organized homeowners associations who are demanding height restrictions or a decrease in the number of housing units per building in certain neighborhoods. They are small enclave neighborhoods, mostly, some of which are in historic neighborhoods. Some homeowners fear shadows being cast on their homes, more traffic, increased crime, and here's the buzzword that everyone uses, reduced "quality of life." Local zoning boards would probably build to the clouds in some areas if they could.

Many local politicians understand the precarious situation we face with balancing growth and trying to increase the tax base yet trying to appease residents. It's a thin line, and a couple of notable figures have had the guts to go with their conscience and do what's right.

As for the urban development boundary, the truth is, there is plenty of available space to develop inside the boundary; there is not a lot of vast OPEN undeveloped land but a lot of room for infill, and greed is driving developers who want to make a quick and easy buck and pave over open tracts of wetlands and agricultural land with thousands of houses that all look the same (like they did in our neighboring county to the north, Broward, which is now built out to borderline with the Everglades).

I been to miami three times already and love all the development and hoping it does turn into New York City with all the tall towers because I do like New York City but it's to cold for me and I don't enjoy the snow.

Miami is turning into something different and it's seems alot of the people don't like what's happening and that's it's affecting neighborhoods near Miami downtown, it's simple if you don't like what's happenening just move somewhere else in Florida.

As long as Miami can controll the traffic, I don't think Miami should slow down on development.

We're trying. We are a victim of our own success... Of all the nation's largest major metropolitan areas, ours is the youngest, with the City of Miami only having incorporated in 1896. South Florida is a post-WWII, car-oriented metropolitan area, and it's going to take a while to get the infrastructure in place to decongest some of the traffic. We currently rank as the 4th most congested metropolitan area in the nation. It has become a regional problem, and it is helping that the three counties that comprise the South Florida metropolitan area are thinking more like a region and cooperating more. A lot of mass transit projects are in the works, especially ones that interconnect the region. In Dade we voted to tax ourselves to fund new transit projects, including expanded rail... The transit department has been underfunded despite increases in service, unfortunately, for many years, and it has finally caught up with us. I think there will be a major rewrites to the transit budget, since there is definitely political will to do so now.

[whiteeclipse]

Thank you for your reply, by reading your reponse it helps me understand much better and I would like to thank you for your time.

[whiteeclipse]

Aessotariq as you said "New development will help turn around certain neighborhoods and it might improve stats, but if people can't afford to move in to them, then it doesn't do much good. So it might make the numbers look good for a specific area, but the problem just shifts somewhere else with displaced residents. I think this is a far deeper social issue than I can really go into here."

I would have to say I agree, all the new development in certain neighborhoods, is good for the neighborhood but not for the people that live there because the new development is not for them because of the high prices and they would have no other choice but to move somewhere else.

For example Overtown, tell me if I'm wrong but Overtown is between downtown that major the 56 acre site redevelopment which was a rail yard. So between them is Overtown, there is a proposal for a 200million condo project and a 93million hilton hotel project, so after those projects are done, more investors will target that area for more redevelopment and before you know it, all the people that lived there, won't live there anymore.

[Aessotariq]

I would have to say I agree, all the new development in certain neighborhoods, is good for the neighborhood but not for the people that live there because the new development is not for them because of the high prices and they would have no other choice but to move somewhere else.

I'm not sure what the solution is for this... I do know what does not work -- vast housing projects that segregate and isolate income classes. That just causes poverty to fester and places those residents at the mercy of drug dealers and other criminals. Commercial establishments who move into that area should hire people within that neighborhood wherever that's feasible. It's concentrated poverty that we need to mitigate, the type that we institutionalized with our housing practices and bad zoning laws.

I think that any development that goes into these neighborhoods should have some provision for affordable housing, especially places that people can afford to own. And to keep them from becoming slumlord housing, the people who buy them should live there. People who own their own homes will take better care of them, and this sense of pride from ownership helps keep neighborhoods at their best. There has to be active participation from the community, as well as from the public and private sectors. In this sense, gentrification is inevitable because now the area will be much more appealing.

Here's something else to consider: many former residents who left their old neighborhoods might be encouraged to come back and reinvest in them.

For example Overtown, tell me if I'm wrong but Overtown is between downtown that major the 56 acre site redevelopment which was a rail yard. So between them is Overtown, there is a proposal for a 200million condo project and a 93million hilton hotel project, so after those projects are done, more investors will target that area for more redevelopment and before you know it, all the people that lived there, won't live there anymore.

The project you are referring to is Midtown Miami, which is north of Overtown in the Wynwood area... Technically the southern boundary of the Midtown project marks the edge of the Overtown area (29th Street).

This is a City of Miami map with the official neighborhoods. The Midtown project lies between the "GE" of "Edgewood."

[Aessotariq]

Also, I live near Orlando, there is alot of retail stores around here and 4 major malls that I know of, I been in Miami and I didn't notice that much retail, will this effect Miami as it's growing?  I been in Aventure Mall and I think there is another big Mall in Miami, is Miami working on this or it's not a problem?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Miami area has plenty of malls and shopping areas that serve just about every little niche you can think of, in no particular order:

• Dadeland Mall

  Aventura Mall

  Westland Mall

  Southland Mall

  Miami International Mall

  Mall of the Americas

  Florida Keys Factory Shops (in Florida City; an outlet)

  Bal Harbour Shops (upscale, anchored by a Neiman Marcus and a Saks Fifth Avenue)

  Village of Merrick Park

  Kendall Town & Country Center

  Mall at 163rd Street

  Loehmann's Fashion Island

  The Falls

  Shops at Sunset Place

  Cocowalk

  Shops at Mayfair

  Dolphin Mall (outlet mall)

  Lincoln Road (an open air shopping and entertainment area in Miami Beach)

Up in Broward you'll find:

• Sawgrass Mills (world's largest outlet mall)

  Broward Mall

  Pembroke Lakes Mall

  Galleria Mall

  Coral Square Mall

  Pompano Square Mall

  Fashion Square at Plantation

There are also several good flea markets, many of them indoors. Among the larger ones are the 79th Street Flea Market in Northside, the Hialeah/Opa-Locka flea market, and the Swap Shop in Fort Lauderdale.

[whiteeclipse]

The Hilton Hotel in Overtown 93million

http://www.kentucky.com/images/miami/miami...21468413382.jpg

Crosswinds 1,200 condo units which 200 units are affordable housing which will start at 120k 200million

http://www.floridarealtyfinder.com/images/...swindsPic-1.gif

I believe with those two projects, will push more developers in that area.

[Brickell]

Orlando can keep their malls as far as I'm concerned. Miami has great shopping districts beyond malls. Miracle Mile in Coral Gables, Downtown and Jewelery district, Fashion district, Lincoln Road and Washington Ave in South Beach, Wholesale district (20th st), Design district (one of a kind), even Coconut Grove still retains some charm that has been mostly sucked dry by Cocowalk. Many of the new developments downtown and Brickell include retail at the street. Anyway...

I'd put Miami's retail up against any in the south.

[whiteeclipse]

Great, thanks for the reply, now I have a better understanding.

[miamistreets]

Thats the attitude brickel !