Miami Beach Cracks Down On New Hotels To Curb Overdevelopment

Miami Beach is trying to scale back its hotel scene, passing a new ordinance that will require a five-sevenths vote of the mayor and six-member City Commission before any new hotel project can move forward.

The measure, which passed unanimously on its second and final reading earlier this week, requires developers looking to build a new hotel, hostel or apartment hotel to first secure a majority vote before their project can proceed. It is set to take effect within 10 days of passage.

The law is intended to slow the expansion of transient lodging and incentivize more residential development, the law’s sponsor Commissioner Joseph Magazine said at the Monday morning meeting.

“We will always be a place that welcomes our tourists, welcomes and thrives on our hospitality,” Magazine said at the meeting. “But our pendulum has swung so far in the direction that we have really gone just so far out of our way in every single usage and every single new development being a new hotel as opposed to residential. We are the only city in all of Florida that has lost full-time residents year-over-year.”

While Miami Beach has experienced healthy hotel growth, with inventory growing about 2% per year, the city lost almost 11,000 residents in the 20 to 45-year-old age group over the last decade. The city gained more than 3,000 residents in older age groups over that same period, not enough to offset the population decline.

The ordinance applies to the conversion of existing residential buildings into apartment hotels, a practice that has contributed to the loss of affordable and workforce housing in the city, Magazine told Miami Today.

Commission approval will also be required for any infill land parcel before developers can submit land use applications or obtain building permits for hotels.

The law makes exceptions for waterfront areas where hotels are already permitted and for properties fronting Washington Avenue that have an active land use board application with notices to proceed issued prior to July 1, 2024.

Two additional amendments proposed by Commissioner Laura Dominguez were approved during the meeting. 

One allows a 14-room hotel to replace a small, two-unit apartment building at 7710 Collins Ave. That application was already underway. The second grants an exemption for properties on the west side of Collins Avenue between 77th and 79th streets, where hotel use was already unanimously approved.

By shifting the focus away from transient accommodations, city leaders hope to alleviate strain on Miami Beach’s infrastructure and create more housing opportunities for long-term residents.

Magazine said older, affordable housing stock being converted into apartment hotels had pushed out the city’s workforce, making it harder for hospitality and service workers to live in the community in which they work.

“I'm not going to be comfortable with having residents who have lived here for decades being kicked out of their property,” Commissioner David Suarez said at the meeting. 

That sentiment was shared by other commissioners, who agreed that prioritizing residents over transient accommodations was a necessary shift.

“This is the type of legislation that, I think, creates legacy,” Miami Beach Commissioner Alex Fernandez said, adding the action is “addressing the most critical need of our residents, which is they’re being pushed out of their homes.”