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A BETTER 36TH STREET • MIAMI SPRINGS

Everything gets better. Same Springs.

A better 36th Street is Same Springs. Same soul. This isn’t an announcement, it’s a conversation. Not an announcement, and not a question, but a public process.

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Let's talk about 36th Street.

We didn’t move here by accident. We chose the Springs – the quiet, the street where people still say hello. But when it’s time to talk about change, we’d rather have the conversation with you than without you.
Activate Southeast Springs is a community-driven effort to make 36th Street safer, more walkable, and better for local business – without changing what makes Miami Springs Miami Springs.
Not a real estate project. Not a redevelopment plan. A commitment to improve everyday life while protecting everything residents already love.

The Initiative

What we’re doing on 36th Street, and what we’re not.
Learn more

The Pressure

What happens if nothing changes along the corridor.
See the timeline

Questions

Every question deserves a public answer. Ask yours.
Browse the FAQ

Participate

Your voice shapes what comes next. Sessions are open, notes are public.

Safer crossings

Same Springs.

More local business

Same Springs.

Your voice, first

Same Springs.

New sidewalks

Same Springs.

Recent updates

SEP 2026

Community listening sessions

Three sessions across the neighborhood, with notes published the same week.

OCt 2026

Corridor walk audit

Join us for a sidewalk-by-sidewalk look at crossings, shade, and lighting.

nov 2026

Planning update

The planning team is reviewing feedback and gathering community input.
View all updates

We're not here to announce. We're here to ask.

Better streets. Same soul. Same Springs.

THE INITIATIVE

A better 36th Street. Same Springs.

36th Street is the one part of town that’s failing behind. Facing it isn’t a threat to who we are – it’s a chance to make sure it stays as it is. This page explains what came along, and just as importantly, what we’re not.

The local businesses on 36th Street have been here for decades. They stay.

This corridor carries more traffic than the rest of the walking-and-shopping corridor combined.

what we are doing

  • Making crossings safer for families and kids walking to school.
  • Supporting the local businesses that make this corridor feel like home.
  • Improving the everyday experience of walking, parking, and gathering along 36th Street.
  • Keeping residents involved at every stage - not informed after the fact.

what we are not doing

  • No high-rises.
  • No mixed-use towers.
  • No plan to make Miami Springs feel like anywhere else.
Every proposal is measured against one question: does this protect what makes Miami Springs the Springs, or does it threaten it? If it threatens it, it doesn’t move forward.

"Safer crossings, more open shops, and it's still our town."

LOCAL RESIDENT, 36 YEARS
Better streets. Same soul. Same Springs.
See the process timeline
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PROCESS

What happens, and when.

We’re not here to announce a finished plan. We’re here to build one with you, in the open, one stage at a time.

The local businesses on 36th Street have been here for decades. They stay.

1

SPRING - SUMMER 2026

Community education & listening

Open houses, walk audits, and neighborhood sessions. This is where the corridor learns what residents actually want – before a line is drawn on a map.

2

SUMMER - FALL 2026

Vision development

A shared corridor vision is drafted from what residents said, and published so anyone can see how their feedback shaped it.

3

FALL - WINTER 2026

Public review & transparency

The draft goes to public review with public meeting notes, comment logs, and a plain-language summary of every change.

4

2027 AND BEYOND

Long-term revitalization, phased

Phased improvements to crossings, sidewalks, shade, and small-business support – measured and adjusted as the corridor changes.

This timeline will grow as the process moves. Check back for updates, or ask a question if you don’t see the answer you’re looking for.

faq

Ask Southeast Springs

Find answers to the most common questions about Southeast Springs. Don’t see yours? Ask below – every question gets a public answer.

The basics

What is Activate Southeast Springs?

An initiative to revitalize the Northwest 36th Street corridor, the stretch that runs from Curtis Parkway east to Lejeune Road. The goal is to replace the blight along the city’s main gateway with a mix of uses that work for residents: places to eat, shop and walk, and housing for people who want to live in Miami Springs long-term.

The NW 36th Street corridor between Curtis Parkway and Lejeune Road. The Abraham tract, the former Bennigan’s site, is not part of this initiative.

No. The corridor is divided into three distinct character zones, each shaped by what’s already there, parcel sizes, ownership patterns, building ages, and how each stretch relates to the neighborhoods behind it.

Old Main Street / Arts and Culture District

Curtis Parkway → Pomelo Drive

Small, shallow, fragmented parcels and the oldest buildings on the corridor. Envisioned for boutique hotels, galleries, artist live-work and maker space, bars, restaurants and bistros. The one place in the city where murals would be permitted.

Hospitality Zone

Palmetto Drive → East Drive

Currently hotel-dominated. Envisioned as a concentrated hotel district at a Miami Springs scale, with ground-floor retail and restaurants. No residential in this zone.

Urban Village

East of East Drive

Larger parcels with a real street grid. Where higher-density mixed-use, including residential, would go, with ground-floor daily needs: a supermarket, pharmacy, dry cleaner, gym.

No. There is no developer, no formal proposal, and no offer on the table.

What exists today is a vision and a set of renderings showing what the corridor could become.

Height and density — what actually gets built

The maximum height on the corridor is 120 feet, and this initiative does not raise it.

That limit already exists in the city’s zoning today.

Current zoning allows 20 units per acre. That number is a large part of why nothing has been built, projects at that density don’t pencil out, which is why the corridor has produced hotels instead of the mixed-use the city wants.

Within the 120-foot height cap and the parking that’s required, the realistic ceiling is roughly 70–75 units per acre.

Only in one narrow, technical sense, and it’s worth being precise. Structured parking, a garage would be excluded from the intensity calculation that limits buildable floor area. That’s it.

All parking requirements still apply in full, and garage height still counts against the 120-foot limit.

The purpose is to stop penalizing developers who build garages instead of surface lots.

No.

Minimum unit sizes are being recalibrated downward from current thresholds, today’s minimums are sized for three-bedroom units, around 1,200 to 1,300 square feet, which makes smaller projects financially impossible. The revised minimums are designed to allow flexibility while explicitly preventing micro-units.

Taxes and city finances

Doing nothing is a legitimate choice, and residents should understand what comes with it. Budget reductions at that scale reach services people notice: fewer police officers, reduced parks programming and staffing, slower response on street and pothole repair, and capital projects deferred.

No. This initiative does not raise property taxes.

It’s aimed at broadening where the city’s revenue comes from so that homeowners carry less of the load over time.

Public safety

Two ways. It changes who’s on the street, permanent residents and customers mean more eyes on the corridor and more people who report problems, versus a transient population passing through. And it replaces the specific properties that generate the majority of the calls.

The corridor already generates half the city’s police calls with almost nobody living on it. The pattern here isn’t driven by population density; it’s driven by a small number of properties.

Who moves in

Market-rate mixed-use housing in the Urban Village zone, aimed at people who want to live in Miami Springs long-term, with a stake in the neighborhood, the same as residents anywhere else in the city.

No.

Where “Live Local” comes up, it refers to workforce affordable housing, teachers, police officers, nurses,  not Section 8.

The corridor is meant to be walkable, and that’s by design: people walking to a restaurant or a pharmacy is what makes a commercial street function and what makes it safer at night. The alternative, an empty street after dark, is what the corridor has now.
Yes.

Residents of apartments in Miami Springs who are registered voters can vote, the same as any other resident.

Trust and process

Yes, and that’s part of the reason for acting.

County-controlled mechanisms, a Rapid Transit Zone extension, for example, can raise density and height without city input. A plan the city writes and controls is the alternative to one the city has no say in.

Myth vs. Fact

Clearing up the things we hear most often.

MYTH

Miami Springs will become a downtown Miami district.
High-rises are coming to 36th Street.
The plan is already final and residents have no say.
Local businesses will be pushed out.
Developers won’t have to provide parking.
This is Section 8 housing.
A developer already has this locked up.
This will raise my property taxes.
We’ll get tiny apartments.
Nobody asked residents.
36th Street is fine as it is.

fact

The initiative focuses on preserving low-rise character while improving safety, walkability, and shade.
No high-rises. Zoning height limits and residential building height stay unchanged.
There is no plan yet. Listening comes first, and every draft is published for public review.
Existing small businesses are the reason for the work. Support and access plans are part of every phase.
All parking requirements remain in force. Garages are excluded from one technical floor-area calculation only.
It isn’t. Workforce housing references mean teachers, officers and nurses.
There is no developer, no proposal and no offer.
It doesn’t raise taxes. It broadens the tax base so homeowners carry less of it.
Minimum unit sizes prevent micro-units.
The zone concept came from property owner, business, resident and council input.
The corridor generates about half of all police calls in the city.

Every question gets a public answer. Don't see yours?

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PARTICIPATE

Your voice shapes what comes next.

We’re not here to announce. We’re here to ask. Every question gets a public answer, and every session notes a chance to keep decide what a better 36th Street looks like.

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Answers are posted publicly, first name only.

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Your question and its answer will be published in the public question log.

Upcoming sessions

TBD

Community workshop

Open to all, no registration needed. Bring a question, leave with an answer.

TBD

Corridor walk audit

Walk 36th Street with the planning team and mark what needs fixing.

TBD

Public review meeting

Draft vision review and open comment. Notes published within a week.
View all upcoming sessions

Ways to get involved

Attend

Come to a listening session or corridor walk. No sign-up, no agenda, just neighbors and a map.

Attend

Submit a question anytime. It gets a public answer in the question log, not a private reply.

Attend

Tell a neighbor. The best outreach is a resident saying “Same Springs” to the next street over.

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