A fast-track, far-reaching plan by Miami officials to encourage development of high-rise housing clusters for a mile around transit rail stations, already set to become law, has stirred up alarm from residents worried about its potential to transform vast swaths of the city — but the impact likely won’t play out for years, if not decades.
In late July, Miami city commissioners unanimously approved the complex new zoning strategy, which goes by the unwieldy denomination of Transit Station Neighborhood Development, or TSND, barely a month after its release to a surprised and bewildered public.
The TSND designation creates new zones in a radius of up to a mile around existing and planned Metrorail and commuter rail stations,including Brightline stations, inside city boundaries. Within those zones, developers can apply to build high-rise residential and commercial projects with considerably more units and height than the old local rules allowed, a strategy intended to sharply increase housing supply and affordability while boosting transit use…