A plan to revitalize the Miami River has put the marine industry
on a collision course with developers.

From the mouth of the Miami River, where rows of condo towers are rising fast on both banks, it doesn’t take long to reach the gritty industrial core of the city’s marine industry. Fishing boats unload their catches, recreational boaters tie up for fuel and repairs, and tugs maneuver rickety cargo vessels loaded with used bicycles, mattresses and other second-hand goods bound for the Caribbean.

For decades Miami’s marine industry flourished quietly in the growing shadow of the city’s skyline. The river ranks as the state’s fourth-largest port, moving about $4 billion in goods a year and generating 6,700 jobs and an annual economic impact of $805 million.

But high demand for waterfront property and local growth policies that promote development in the city’s urban areas are pushing fishermen, cargo haulers and other marine users farther upstream. Some say their businesses are threatened. Since 2000, according to marine industry officials, roughly half of the land zoned for marine-industrial use along Miami’s portion of the river — Miami-Dade County controls a small portion — has been lost to residential development. Surrounding property values are skyrocketing.

“We’re losing out to condo mania,” says Fran Bohnsack, executive director of the Miami River Marine Group, a cooperative of cargo haulers and related industries on the Miami River. The group has three lawsuits pending against the city, alleging the city violated its own land-use regulations when it approved zoning changes allowing high-density residential projects on land once reserved for marine use.

Since 2004, more than 7,600 condo units along the river have been built or are under construction, mostly in the lower portion near downtown Miami’s Brickell Avenue financial district. Another 7,500 are in various stages of permitting, officials say. Restaurants are popping up along the river’s edge. New pollution controls are in force. The city and county, in conjunction with the non-profit Trust for Public Land, are constructing a landscaped walking path along both banks of the 5.5-mile river, transforming a long-blighted urban corridor into a destination spot for residents and tourists.

The changing landscape is attracting young professionals eager to trade suburban gridlock for the rough edges of a working waterfront. “The view is spectacular,” says Raymond Jungles, a landscape architect whose office is perched on the river’s south bank next to a trendy new open-air restaurant. “The draw for me is seeing the life on the river — tugboats, manatees, kids swimming and fishing.”

Marine industry leaders say there is plenty of room for urban pioneers like Jungles. That’s the premise of a comprehensive blueprint for development along the Miami River compiled by the Miami River Commission, a clearinghouse for river policy that was created and funded by the state Legislature in 1998. The commission’s 5-year-old Miami River Corridor Urban Infill Plan calls for a mix of uses — recreational, residential and marine industrial.

Under the plan, the river is carved into thirds: The lower portion near downtown deferring to residential and commercial development; the upper portion, near the airport, serving the cargo haulers and other heavy industrial users; and the middle portion — where much of the battle is being waged — supporting a combination of uses.

Miami River Commission officials say nearly three-quarters of the Infill Plan’s 80 implementation steps — everything from bridge repair to landscaping to security protocols — have been completed. The plan has garnered awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects and the growth-management advocacy group 1000 Friends of Florida. But Miami has refused to endorse the plan’s most far-reaching recommendations — land-use guidelines for future development along the river’s edge. Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, a river commission member, declined to say why, as did planning director Ana Gelabert-Sanchez, but other members of the commission say the city views the Infill Plan’s zoning guidelines as too restrictive. The City Commission, in a number of high-profile cases, has ignored recommendations from the Miami River Commission by approving proposals to rezone marine properties, paving the way for high-density residential development.

That worries people like Capt. Beau Payne of P&L Towing, a tugboat operator and 27-year veteran of the river’s marine industry. “Things are changing fast. People are selling out, going out of business. What’s wrong with preserving land solely for marine interests?”

Payne and others recognize the challenge: A regionwide shortage of waterfront property coupled with an unapologetic mindset in City Hall to promote high-density residential development throughout the urban center. “The development interests are really pining after this land,” says Ernest Martin, a former executive director of the Miami-Dade County Department of Community and Economic Development who serves on the Miami River Commission. “People want to live by the water. Who can blame them?”

Adding urgency to the debate is the five-year, $86-million river-dredging project, due for completion as early mid-2008. Federal funds for the project are arriving piecemeal, in response to repeated assurances from local officials that a deeper, cleaner river will stimulate growth in the marine industry. That assurance is tempered by skyrocketing land values. For now, a highly touted $55-million expansion of Merrill Stevens Dry Dock’s midriver facility, which includes a proposed marine vocational school, remain in place — pending completion of the dredging. The expansion would pump $195 million annually into the economy while spawning nearby marine-related investment, predicts a River Commission study.

The dredging also will be a boon to cargo haulers and the private shipping terminals that serve them. Today the shallow riverbed — about 11 feet on average — restricts the size of ships that call; others must limit their loads to avoid grounding. And free trade agreements such as DR-CAFTA (Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement) are expected to boost demand greatly for shallow-draft ports, including the Miami River’s, which accommodate the smaller vessels that supply the Caribbean basin.

For now, a sluggish housing market has calmed the waters, with fewer properties changing hands and building permit applications dropping, says real estate analyst Michael Y. Cannon. But the lull will not last, he predicts, with more residents fleeing the road-clogged suburbs. “Not all of these proposed (residential) projects on the river will be built. Some just don’t make sense.” he says. “But the pressure to develop there will remain.”