The City of Miami Springs City Council voted unanimously in favor of a change to the Gateway Overlay District that will allow the following uses downtown:
- Medical and Dental offices, along any street frontage except Curtiss Parkway and Royal Poinciana Boulevards. For purposes of this Section, a Medical or Dental Office Use shall mean a small scale office with a maximum floor area of 2,500 square feet providing medical or dental treatment where patients are offered medical services, examinations, and treatments, but are not permitted to occupy the premises overnight. This does not include medical or clinical laboratories, urgent care centers, hospitals, emergency rooms, or other similar medium to large-scale medical office uses, which are specifically prohibited.
- Personal Services (e.g., barbershops, beauty parlors, physical therapy clinics), with hours of business between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00p.m., along Hook Square frontage only.
- Veterinarian Use (which may provide short-term boarding for medical purposes only, for no more than 48 hours), along Hook Square or Canal Street frontage only, provided that no Veterinarian Use may be located within 0.30 airline miles of the front door of an existing Veterinarian Use within the Gateway District. The distance shall be measured from the front door of the proposed Veterinarian Use to the front door of the existing Veterinarian Use.
These changes came as a result of local business owners that were interested in moving to the Springs Town Center, but could not do so under the prior regulations. The changes approved above now allow those local business to move into the Springs Town Center once construction is completed.
The changes also addressed a legal concern where a Veterinarian was inappropriately approved to move into the Town Center by the former City Planner, Chris Heid. That led to the firing of Chris Heid and put the City of Miami Springs in a difficult legal position. The changes above now allow the Veterinarian to move in once the Town Center finally opens.
