Kendall Developers Bank Density on a Bus Line FDOT Paused

Four apartment rezonings totaling 261 units on single-family lots near Baptist Hospital’s Kendall campus all lean on the same justification, that the sites sit inside Miami-Dade’s Kendall Drive rapid-transit corridor and qualify for a density bonus reserved for transit-oriented development. The transit project that designation is built on, a bus rapid transit study FDOT has run since the county’s 2019 SMART Plan, is now on hold with no construction funding or start date.

Why it matters

Continental Flats and the Galloway Expansion, both controlled by Bob Liu and Walter Lista through 8445 Galloway LLC, plus Cape Summit 69 Holdings’ filing and the Serralta Family Trust’s application, are all EU-M-to-RMD rezonings that cite proximity to the corridor’s transit tier as the basis for building above single-family density. FDOT’s own SR 94/Kendall Drive/SW 88 Street Rapid Transit PD&E study page confirms the agency’s recommended alternative for that corridor, chosen in November 2019, is curbside Business Access Transit lanes for buses, not rail, and the study itself is paused while the state and county test a similar bus-lane concept on Flagler Street first. For any developer elsewhere in South Florida underwriting a site on the strength of a mapped transit corridor, this is the entitlement-risk lesson: a density bonus tied to future transit can outlive the transit project it depends on. We covered the ownership overlap and traffic-study denials on these same four filings on August 10 and August 11.

The numbers

Miami-Dade’s Comprehensive Development Master Plan allows up to 36 units per acre within a half mile of the designated corridor, plus a 25 percent bonus for projects with at least 10 percent workforce housing. The four pending filings total 261 units combined. FDOT’s PD&E study, project number 437784-1-22-01, originally targeted completion around 2029, a date the agency’s own page says may change now that the study is on hold.

What’s next

None of the four cases has a scheduled hearing before Miami-Dade’s Community Zoning Appeals Board for Community Council Area 12. Neighbors tracking the filings through Miami advocacy site Protect Continental Park argue that surface-parking, interior-lot buildings do not match the transit-oriented intent the applications claim, a case that gets harder for the county to wave through while the transit project itself sits paused.