|
Dear Neighbors,
I wanted to close the loop with many of you who worked so hard over the past several weeks regarding the legislation affecting the Fontainebleau water park proposal.
Despite the extraordinary advocacy from our community, the Florida Legislature ultimately passed HB 399, which includes the “Large Destination Resort” provision allowing the Fontainebleau’s proposed water park to bypass the standard historic preservation review process and worse yet, silencing your voice.
This language was inserted late in the legislative process and effectively allows a massive commercial water park attraction to move forward immediately adjacent to residential buildings, next to where people live, and outside their balconies and bedroom windows.
The Legislature inserted itself in the middle of a controversial local zoning decision for a special interest sponsored by a senator from Ocala — hundreds of miles away from the people who will actually have to live with the consequences. This provision now allows the Fontainebleau Hotel to silence overwhelming resident opposition and force a water park attraction right next to where people live.
The irony during the debate was hearing legislators express legitimate concerns about overdevelopment when discussing language affecting the Urban Development Boundary that protects the Everglades. But if responsible development is truly the concern, one has to question how the Legislature can turn around and authorize an out-of-scale commercial water theme park immediately outside people’s homes and bedroom windows.
The traffic impacts alone will be disastrous for an already congested Collins Avenue corridor. Anyone who lives here knows that traffic on Collins can already be gridlocked at times. We often see even ambulances struggling to move through the corridor during peak congestion. Authorizing a high-intensity attraction of this scale directly next to residential buildings is reckless policy making driven by a special interest.
And let me say something that should be obvious: Miami Beach is not Disney World. We are not Orlando with acres of buffers separating theme parks from neighborhoods. Ours is a dense, built-out city where residential buildings and hotels exist side by side. In this case, Tallahassee has effectively dictated a zoning decision that would allow a commercial waterslide attraction to operate directly outside nearby people’s homes.
Throughout this process, hundreds of Miami Beach residents stepped forward — making calls, sending emails, and engaging directly with legislators. Your voices were powerful and impossible to ignore.
I want to especially recognize Senator Shevrin Jones, who showed extraordinary leadership and courage in this fight. Senator Jones sponsored an amendment on the Senate floor to remove the Fontainebleau provision and restore local protections for Miami Beach residents. His amendment nearly succeeded — falling short by just three votes (20-17) after a passionate debate. His advocacy on behalf of our community will not be forgotten.
I am also grateful to Mayor Steven Meiner, Vice Mayor Monica Matteo Salinas, Commissioner Laura Domínguez, and Commissioner Tanya K. Bhatt who showed up for the press conference I called last week.
Resident worked tirelessly to activate against this bill, specially Alicia Casanova and Ana Marie Ferreira Melo of the Mid-Beach Neighborhood Association as well as the StopTheFlags movement organized by the the Weiss family — Miriam, Mordechai, and Mark — whose leadership mobilized so many neighbors.
Representative Fabian Basabe voted against the house bill, which is appreciated. However, I am not aware of any amendment being offered in the Florida House to remove the Fontainebleau language from the bill during that process.
It can be very discouraging and demoralizing to fight so hard but to lose at the last second as you’re about to have a victory for the good of the community… and so I want to share the following reflecting with you.
Yesterday I was at shul, and Miriam happened to be there too. The congregation finished reading the book of Exodus. Over the past several weeks, the Torah portions have focused on God’s instructions to Moses to build the Tabernacle and to ask the people to bring contributions so it could be constructed.
One of the observations scholars make about this story is that while the people rushed forward with their contributions, the leaders actually held back. They assumed the people might fall short and that they would step in later to close the gap. But the opposite happened — the people came forward with overwhelming generosity and there ended up being more than enough to build the Tabernacle. Because the leaders waited instead of leading, the commentators note that their name is written slightly differently in the Torah — a quiet reminder that leadership means stepping forward first.
Sitting there in shul yesterday, I couldn’t help but think about all of you.
In this fight, many of us hoped certain leaders would step forward more forcefully and sooner the way Senator Jones bravely did. But what truly stood out was something else entirely — it was the people who stepped forward with overwhelming strength, passion, and conviction. The hundreds of calls, emails, meetings, and voices raised on behalf of this neighborhood were inspiring to witness.
And at the end of every book in the Torah, the congregation recites a phrase that I felt I needed to hear yesterday: “Be strong, be strong, and may we be strengthened.”
This chapter of this fight in the Legislature may not have ended the way we hoped, and I know many of you are understandably discouraged. But just as in the Torah, when one book closes another begins immediately after. The story continues.
This moment is not the end — it is simply the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next.
So I ask you to hold on to those words I learned yesterday at shul — be strong — because our fight continues forward.
Sincerely,
Alex J. Fernandez
Miami Beach City Commissioner
PS: I also want to express a big thank you to our Tallahassee lobbying team for working so hard with us throughout this fight. Diana Ferguson, Jared Rosenstein, and Erika Chanti worked tirelessly and so professionally on behalf of our residents during a very challenging legislative process. I am truly so grateful.
| 
