Miami Beach would repeal Lincoln Road's 500-key hotel incentive

Miami Beach commissioners are set Wednesday to take first reading on paired ordinances that would delete the CD-3 Lincoln Road hotel incentive program and replace it with residential entitlements. The repealed section allowed 500 hotel units via rooftop additions between Pennsylvania and Lenox avenues.

Why it matters

For anyone holding a Lincoln Road West site, the entitlement being traded away is the one the underwriting was probably built on. The swap runs from the east side of West Avenue to the west side of Drexel Avenue, between 17th Street and Lincoln Lane South, split into four sub-areas. Base CD-3 allows 2.25 FAR at or below 45,000 sq ft lots, 2.75 above, 150 units per acre and 75 ft. The north side of Lincoln Road between Alton and Drexel would go to 3.0 FAR regardless of lot size. The south side would go to 2.75 FAR, 75 ft and 150 to 175 units per acre. The two interior sub-areas reach 3.0 or 3.5 FAR with 150 ft of height, at 150 to 175 and 100 to 150 units per acre. There is no affordable or workforce set-aside. Comparable South Florida programs have carried one.

The numbers

The conditions mirror the Washington Avenue plan. An owner must vacate all transient uses and short-term-rental approvals and record a covenant barring rentals shorter than six months and a day, releasable only by a six-sevenths commission vote. Contributing structures need a certificate of appropriateness. Non-rental buildings must be residential above level one; rental buildings may keep up to 20% of that area non-residential. Units run 500 sq ft to 1,300 sq ft. Parking is capped at 50% of the Tier 1 requirement, with a micro-mobility station and a public bike or scooter share of at least 20 devices on site. South-side massing above 50 ft sets back 50 ft from Lincoln Road, waivable up to half by the Historic Preservation Board, 20 ft from Lincoln Lane South and 25 ft from side streets. The FAR, height and mobility-fee terms sunset September 1, 2032. No variances.

What’s next

Both items are sponsored solely by Commissioner David Suarez, and both are first-reading public hearings, the Comprehensive Plan amendment at 4:30 p.m. and the land development regulations immediately after. Second reading is calendared for October 14. That gap is structural: the commission recesses in August, and Wednesday is the last regular meeting before September 10. The items were continued from May 20 and then not reached on June 24.