The SunPost

Mount Sinai CEO Steve Sonenreich wants to be “amenable” to his neighbors.

The Miami Beach City Commission has set the ball rolling on a fact-finding process to determine the type of redevelopment of the Miami Heart Institute residents will accept should the hospital be sold.

Despite initial objections, Mount Sinai Medical Center, Miami Heart’s current owner, jumped on the city’s bandwagon and said it will actively participate in talks with neighborhood associations.

Residents began contacting commissioners after a May 4 Miami Herald article announced that Mount Sinai had hired a firm to arrange the sale of its Miami Heart campus. Mount Sinai Chief Executive Steven Sonenreich was quoted as saying: “We will not sell the property to another health care provider.”

In response to numerous e-mails and phone calls from neighbors fearful of the type of construction that might replace the mid-Beach hospital, Commissioner Saul Gross initiated community involvement in the future zoning of the Miami Heart property by placing the topic on the agenda of last week’s City Commission meeting. At that meeting, representatives of Mount Sinai complained that it was premature for the commission to be talking about future zoning, as the hospital was also exploring the possibilities of keeping Miami Heart as a research center.

Michael Adler, vice chairman of the board of Mount Sinai, told the commission he was disappointed in the way the meeting was called and felt it was creating a conflict between neighbors and the hospital.

“We did hire somebody to explore the possibility of a sale of that property, but our board has never, never made a decision to sell that facility,” Adler, who lives near Miami Heart, said at the meeting. “We feel that it is incumbent upon us, as a nonprofit, to look at our fiduciary responsibility to know what we can do so we can serve our community. And therefore we are exploring many possibilities, and feel that it is very, very premature to have this type of discussion about this. We are not requesting any zoning change.”

Located at 4701 Meridian Ave., the Miami Heart Institute encompasses 500,000 square feet of hospital and office space on an eight-acre property that is zoned in two ways. The parking lots on the north and south sides are both zoned RM1, which is low intensity, like the single-family neighborhood that surrounds the institute. However, the lots on which the building and parking garage sit are zoned for a 3.0 Floor Area Ratio, or F.A.R. — meaning high-rise condominiums could be built in the middle of a wealthy, single-family neighborhood.

“If a buyer comes in and wants to use a 3.0 F.A.R., it’s overly intense for that neighborhood,” Gross said from the dais. At one point he alluded to the controversy surrounding Mercy Hospital in Coconut Grove, where the nonprofit medical institution is contracted to sell a portion of the land to the Related Group. Despite opposition from neighbors and fundraisers affiliated with nearby Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, the Miami City Commission recently approved zoning changes that will enable the construction of three high-rises.

Jeff Bercow, a lawyer representing Mount Sinai and Miami Heart, argued the semantics of the agenda item, which was titled “Establish Zoning for the Miami Heart Site.” He said it needed an explanation that this was only an issue if the site ceased being used for a hospital. He argued that no one knows if the site will be sold for residential use, and thus it doesn’t make sense to plan ahead.

“You are planning something in a complete vacuum and that’s why it doesn’t make sense to go ahead with this,” said Bercow, who also lives near Miami Heart.

Gross countered that what really doesn’t make sense is to wait until there is a contract and then be forced to scramble.

“No one knows exactly what you are going to do, I agree with you,” Gross said. “But I think if you were a betting man, you would say 90 percent this is going to end up as a residential project.”

Adler said that if the city predetermines what the zoning might be, it will negatively impact the value of the property, as well as Mount Sinai’s ability to negotiate with residential and nonresidential developers.

Adler conceded to the apparent will of the commission. “We are just asking for it not to be a definitive position to change the zoning so that we have the negative consequences of that action,” he said.

The commission decided to send city staff to a May 30 Nautilus Area Homeowners Association meeting to listen to residents’ feedback. It will advertise the meeting so commissioners can attend without breaking the Sunshine Law, which doesn’t allow two or more commissioners to discuss city business in private.

Sonenreich told the SunPost on Tuesday afternoon that he will attend the Nautilus Homeowners meeting to present Mount Sinai’s plans and listen to feedback.

“Certainly as we review options we want to make sure whatever we do is amenable to the residents,” Sonenreich said.

Hospital neighbors who attended last week’s discussion expressed gratitude to the city for being proactive, and a strong desire for a formalized process to help determine what they will and won’t permit to be done with the site. Roger Merrit, an attorney who lives near Miami Heart in a home his family has owned since it was built in 1948, said there are 384 homeowners to organize, a process that needs time. He implored the commission to protect the residents.

“I have lived in Miami Beach too long to see what happens with real estate development,” Merrit said. He added that he has nothing against Mount Sinai, and that it is the hospital he and his family use.

Michele Burger, president of the Lakeview Homeowners Association and former chief of staff under Mayor Seymour Gelber, continued Merrit’s sentiment. She said she gave birth to her three children at Mount Sinai, and loves the hospital. But she said the zoning issue is bigger than the hospital.

“From my point of view, the hospital really has a very limited role on where we go from here,” Burger said.

Whatever happens, it will likely be quite a while before any redevelopment occurs on the site. Commissioner Richard Steinberg summarized the steps involved in getting zoning changed as Planning Director Jorge Gomez had explained them: a public hearing at the Planning Board, public hearing at the City Commission, state review and then another public hearing in front of the commission. The whole process could take from six months to a year.

For now the city will gather information on what the community wants. Gross said he hopes the facts will be brought back to the commission at its July 11 meeting, at which time it can decide how to proceed.

The first step in gathering that feedback will be the previously mentioned meeting organized by the Nautilus Homeowners Association, scheduled for May 30 at 6:30 p.m. in the fifth-floor conference room of the Miami Heart Institute, 4701 Meridian Ave., Miami Beach.

Comments? E-mail letters@miamisunpost.com.