Surfside is now facing a Live Local development that could permanently alter the character of our town, and the Town Commission has chosen silence over leadership.​

On November 26, Florida Postal Holdings, LLC submitted a letter of intent and site plans for a Live Local project at the former post office site on 95th Street, between Collins Avenue and Harding Avenue. The Live Local Act, SB 102, enacted by the State of Florida in March 2023, allows developers to override local zoning under the pretense of providing affordable workforce housing. In practice, these projects are neither affordable nor intended for the local workforce. Instead, Live Local has become a loophole that enables developers to bypass height, density, and zoning protections that residents rely on to preserve their communities.​

The dangers of Live Local became impossible to ignore after the Whitman family proposed a massive Live Local project atop the Bal Harbour Shops in January 2024. Residents and officials in Bal Harbour raised alarms about strained infrastructure, limited resources, and unchecked overdevelopment. The Village of Bal Harbour has since been forced into a prolonged and expensive legal battle, one that is still ongoing and has even required tax increases to fund what officials called the “BHS Defense Fund.”

And yet, six weeks have passed since developers submitted plans for a twelve story Harding Avenue project in Surfside, and there has not been a single public statement or action from the Surfside Commission. This is the same Commission that campaigned on promises to protect Surfside from overdevelopment. Instead, as previously reported, this Commission opened Collins Avenue and residential streets to developers and even handed Kushner Development a $1.5 million home purchased by the Town to use as their corporate offices. These are not the actions of a government committed to protecting Surfside. Their silence on Live Local is not surprising. It is revealing.​

The reality is that this Commission lacks both the will and the competence to confront a challenge of this magnitude. Once again, it was former Surfside Mayor Shlomo Danzinger who sounded the alarm. He raised awareness of Live Local while it was still being debated in Tallahassee and alerted residents to the Bal Harbour Shops proposal. Now, once again, in a recent Nextdoor post, he has been the first to warn the community about a project that threatens Surfside’s future.

​With municipal elections only months away, the future of Surfside is quite literally on the ballot. As of this writing, only Tina Paul and recently fired Town Manager Mark Blumstein have filed to run for mayor. Both have played central roles in the mismanagement and deterioration of town governance over the past two years. If no serious alternative with the experience, resolve, and expertise to navigate this crisis emerges, this project will mark the end of Surfside as the small town residents know and cherish.​
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Silence is a choice. And in this case, it is a dangerous one.

Sources:

​Florida Postal Holdings LLC Live Local Submission​

​Mayor Danzinger NextDoor Post​

​Mayor Danzinger State Affairs Committee Testimony​