Bal Harbour approves 3 ordinances to counter Florida's Live Local Act
MIAMI - Bal Harbour Village leaders pushed forward new laws to counter Florida's Live Local Act.
The council unanimously approved three ordinances on first reading.
One bans so-called "poor door" housing developments where rich and working-class renters use separate entrances.
Other laws tighten oceanfront zoning and crack down on weekend construction noise.
Village leaders say it's all to shield the village from the side effects of the live local act.
It allows developers to skip public hearings if their project includes affordable housing.
Bal Barbour Shops used the act to propose high-rise towers that homeowners do not want. That developer is suing the village.
On Wednesday, attorney John Shubin, Legal Counsel for Bal Harbour Shops said in a statment:
"The Village of Bal Harbour is going to great lengths to keep working class residents on the outside looking in. Miami-Dade is wrestling with a housing affordability crisis and the teachers, first-responders, and healthcare and hospitality workers who form the backbone of Bal Harbour's economy are bearing the burden."
"Bal Harbour Shops has proposed a privately funded project in the Village's commercial district that will deliver hundreds of workforce housing units within a luxurious development designed by one of the world's top architecture firms. Bal Harbour Shops is the only property in Bal Harbour that can accommodate this development, and yet Village leadership is doing everything in its power to derail the project and maintain long-held exclusionary zoning policies that fly in the face of the Federal Fair Housing Act and Florida's Live Local Act."
"The Village's actions are a shameful attempt to preserve Bal Harbour's exclusivity while forcing everyday workers to commute long hours to and from work. In passing a zoning ordinance which labels teachers and first responders as 'poor' and therefore unworthy of calling Bal Harbour home, the Village's elected officials are doing a disservice to the very people who are sustaining quality of life in the community."