Nearly three decades have passed since the Miami Heat pitched voters a waterfront park on Biscayne Bay, only to fence in the public land year after year when the team uses it for parking spaces.
Now the team is negotiating with Miami-Dade County over a plan to convert the 3-acre parcel into a mix of recreational space and temporary parking that could keep the government-owned spot open to the public year-round.
“By making this change into a flex park, it allows the community to gain access after 27 years,” said James Torres, a downtown neighborhood organizer who has met with Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava on the issue. “And it also gives the Miami Heat what they’re needing, which is the staging and parking.”
A county proposal drafted last summer by the Parks and Recreation Department lays out the compromise for the county-owned land best known as Parcel B.
In 1996, the Heat sold residents on the idea of the land as a new downtown park when the team needed votes in the referendum to build an arena on a larger government-owned spot off of Biscayne Boulevard, then called Parcel A.
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