IN THE NEWS, APRIL 12, 2024
WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF THE CITY OF HOMESTEAD DOWNTOWN AREA?
sEPTEMBER 18, 2023
READ ABOUT THE NEW PLANS AND DESIGNS TALKED ABOUT IN THE RECENT CITY OF HOMESTEAD VISIONING CHARRETTE
HOMESTEAD, Florida
The City of Homestead Commission recognized the need to prepare for change, as the three Rapid Transit Stations along the Busway are getting to completion, and the recent implementation on of the 40-mile Biscayne to Everglades Bike Trail highlighted the city's potential. While the Historic Downtown Krome area has seen progress with the Cybrarium, Movie Theater, and Seminole Theatre, the lack of entertainment and dining options has been a persistent issue, hindering the area's appeal to visitors.
Historically, the City of Homestead, established 111 years ago, was a city that provided all its residents with all their daily needs with a 15-minute walk, bike ride, or short transit ride. This urban lifestyle also offered places to educate, worship, and parks to play. However, with the major employment coming from farming and greater opportunities for growth elsewhere in the county, the city's downtown area has stood still in time.
Now that growth has continued and land has become scarce, it is on the fringes that it is looking for places that can provide its ever-growing population with communities that can reorganize urban space around work, home, community, and amenities. The fringes no longer matter now that the workplace has become a different place today; after COVID, 22% work exclusively at home. Despite its geographical location on the fringes, the City of Homestead has always been a complete city, with a vibrant downtown center at its heart. However, the next complete downtown is a 45-minute ride away in Coral Gables.
The city has experienced significant growth over the past two decades, but it has been in the form of single-use gated dormitory communities. This has led to a reliance on cars for daily needs and a lack of outdoor dining options, which are only available after a 45-minute journey to places like South Miami, Coral Gables, Doral, and Miami Beach.
Last week, the city held a public forum, for the residents, to provide their vision for the heart of the city. The internationally famous Town Planning firm of Valle Valle and Partners, out of Coral Gables, Florida, was hired to help interpret the community's vision. Over four days, residents, stakeholders, developers, and property owners were asked to draw on paper their ideas and/or speak their desires. Then, a wish list was created for each of the four districts encompassing the city's heart.
The four districts are the “Civic Center District,” which includes City Hall, Miami Dade College, and perimeter surroundings blocks, the “East Civic District,” which includes a grided neighborhood to the east of City Hall with a majority of manicured empty blocks, the “Campbell Drive District,” includes the former Old City hall site and Homestead Plaza, and Downtown Krome Avenue. The wish list was then given to the design team of Valle Valle and Partners, which included experts in various fields from around the world who understood the city's needs.
Over the four-day period, as designers interpreted the list, their designs were presented to staff to see what needed to happen to make them a reality. The City of Homestead department directors and staff collaborated with the design team to produce the vision for the future of the heart of Homestead. At the end of the day, a pinup and public presentation were held to review each district as the collaboration continued.
At the end of the fourth day, a public presentation was made summarizing the collaboration's findings. The slideshow showed the public that there is Hope for the Downtown district, the area shows lots of Opportunity for the citizens to participate in future growth, and finally, the design solutions were used to Motivation of the public and leadership. The charrette produced a vision that embraced a pattern of development that encourages a mix of uses at various scales, all interconnected along pedestrian-friendly streets and paseos.
Through this, people will be able to access diversely rich public spaces with sidewalk cafes, entertainment, and places to live, work, worship, educate, and play, which will once again revive the historic 15 minute city of Homestead. What is coming to Downtown Homestead is places for people to enjoy outdoor living, sidewalk cafes, entertainment districts, more art-in-public places, and a year-long list of activities at the civic center for wine and food festivals, car shows, boat shows, even as it should be farm-to-chef-to-table events.
RELATED ARTICLES
-
![]()
BLUE ZONE IDEALS
INCORPORATING BLUE ZONE PRACTICES
-
![]()
FONTAINBLEAU I (2/2)
MODULAR ROOM TYPES
-
![]()
HOMESTEAD VISIONING
MAKING HOMESTEAD URBAN
