Palming Off
Activist Fighting to Bring Palm Trees Back to Biscayne Boulevard

FDOT’s plan is a sad example of landscaping by bureaucracy.

So far these trees still stand in Miami’s Omni district area. But soon they may be replaced with oaks and other shaded forms of vegetation. Photo provided by Sean-Paul Melito

By Ryan Brown

Dendrology (the study of trees and shrubs) and public conflict aren’t usually synonymous. However, the long-standing Biscayne Boulevard revitalization project is generating quite a fight, specifically over a Miami icon: the royal palm tree.

Since 1995, Upper Eastside locals have been pushing the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to clean up Biscayne Boulevard.

“We have in mind roads like Coral Way, Bird Road and Brickell Avenue for a model,” says Robert Flanders, co-founder and president of the Upper Eastside Miami Council, who has been involved in the revitalization efforts since 1995.

Biscayne Boulevard and 50^th Street before the arrival of FDOT renovation project. Since then these palms have been uprooted, according to neighborhood activist Sean-Paul Melito. Photos provided by Sean-Paul Melito.

Reconstruction of the roadway is already underway, but in 2008 the landscaping will begin. Meanwhile, what kind of trees to place along the street will have to be decided.

According to Flanders, “Royal palm fronds can weigh up to 75 pounds, and present serious road hazards, causing accidents when they fall, striking a moving vehicle or puncturing tires.”

Flanders and many other Upper Eastside residents are pushing for the current FDOT revitalization plan, which includes oak trees. They claim it will look better and provide more shade for pedestrians on the sidewalks.

These trees have been uprooted to make way for the Biscayne Boulevard renovation project. Will the shaded variety of vegetation replace them?

Sean-Paul Melito, who used to live in the area of the proposed renovation, has set up a website, www.savepalms.com, to, well, save the palms. Already more than 80 trees have been removed from the Upper Eastside area during the course of the construction, Melito says.

Melito says 75-pound fronds will never fall off a royal palm because fronds only fall when they have dried up and died, at which point they usually weigh as little as five pounds.

“And they fall straight down,” Melito says. “They won’t jump into the street and hit a car.”

Melito also notes that “there are important historical reasons for keeping the royal palms.”

The palms were planted in 1926, and Biscayne Boulevard was ceremoniously dedicated to veterans of war by then-Mayor Edward Romfh and City Manager Frank H. Wharton, according to Melito.

Posted on Melito’s Web site is a poll he conducted in which 12 random people on Biscayne and NE 69^th Street were asked whether or not they favored removing the royal palms. According to Melito, nine of the participants said no.

Melito also quotes, on his Web site, SD-9 from the City of Miami Zoning Ordinance 11000:

“Sec. 609.3.2 (1) Along Biscayne Boulevard, the pedestrian open space and the ground floor frontage shall be so designed, improved and located to provide an attractively landscaped appearance using royal palms and other types of tropical plants suitable to its gateway role.”

Melito then posted a response he claims to have gotten from the city: “The current zoning regulation is outdated and includes a patchwork of amendments that are no longer appropriate for Miami's growth. Through the vision and leadership of Mayor Diaz, Miami 21 will represent the Miami of the 21st century.”

If that wasn’t enough, Melito also has a screenshot of the Upper Eastside’s Neighborhood Enhancement Team Web site, in which he highlighted the following paragraph:

“A true Miami landmark, this beautiful and nationally famous highway is a grand avenue of stately royal palms. …”

Kelly Penton, director of communications for the city of Miami, says the city supports a “mixed use” project that will include shade trees, existing palms and shrubs.

According to Elvis Cruz, Morningside Civic Association leader, “FDOT’s plan is a sad example of landscaping by bureaucracy. I’ve analyzed it aesthetically, historically, economically, botanically and socially. It doesn’t work.”  

Cruz argues that the city’s claim that oak trees will provide more shade “isn’t going to happen.”

According to Cruz, the plans are restricted by FDOT design regulations as to where they can plant, “so on some blocks they’ve taken out six full-grown royals and plan to replace them with only one oak sapling.”

Cruz also notes that the growth of an oak takes time. 

“These oaks will be planted in a five-foot-square cut-out in the concrete sidewalk with no continuing irrigation, with underground root guards and root shields,” Cruz said. “Oaks are already among the slowest-growing trees under the best conditions, and these other restrictions will make them grow even slower…

 “They tried taking out all the banyan trees along Coral Way some years ago, and the uproar against that proposal resulted in Coral Way being designated a Scenic Transportation Corridor. That’s what we should do to save Biscayne Boulevard’s historic royal palms, which [are] a memorial to America’s veterans.”

Marc Sarnoff, commissioner of District 2, which includes the Upper Eastside’s Biscayne Boulevard corridor, said, “I want to see a compromise … a mix of shade trees and royal palms … that way you can have the best of both worlds.”

Comments? E-mail ryan@miamisunpost.com.