Miami revives driveway amnesty, backs $5M for Ludlam Trail

Miami homeowners whose driveways were built outside the city’s zoning rules will get another year to legalize them. The Miami City Commission voted 5-0 on Oct. 8 to bring back a driveway amnesty program that expired in 2024.

At the same meeting, commissioners directed the city manager to find $5 million for the unbuilt city of Miami stretch of the Ludlam Trail. They also turned a city-owned lot in Shenandoah into parkland.

The results are in the city’s marked agenda for the Oct. 8 meeting, which the city clerk posted this month. All three items passed unanimously. The commission’s minutes have not yet been approved.

Driveway amnesty returns as a one-year pilot

The city first offered driveway amnesty in 2023, under Ordinance 14223. It let some owners of single-family homes and duplexes legalize driveways that broke the Miami 21 zoning code’s green space and setback rules. That section of the code expired one year later.

Ordinance 14493 brings it back as a pilot. The ordinance says commissioners wanted more time because not every qualifying owner, including some with open code violation cases, used the amnesty before it expired.

To qualify, an owner must show:

• they have owned the property for the past five years
• the public street next to the property was repaved within the past 10 years
• the property is a single-family home or legal duplex in a T3 or T4 zone

A qualifying driveway must still meet two lighter rules. It must sit at least three feet from the property line, and the swale or public right-of-way in front must be 34% green space, as the city’s Department of Resilience and Public Works requires.

Owners still have to submit plans, get permits and pay the city’s fees for legalizing unpermitted work. The ordinance sets no dollar amounts. Owners with an open unsafe structure case follow that case’s permitting rules, but those in good standing with the unsafe structure panel’s order can still apply.

The ordinance takes effect 30 days after its final vote unless the mayor vetoes it. The pilot then runs for one year. The commission can extend it for one more year by resolution.

All five commissioners sponsored it: Miguel Angel Gabela, Damian Pardo, Rolando Escalona, Ralph “Rafael” Rosado and Christine King.

$5 million for the Ludlam Trail, with a payback clause

The Ludlam Trail is a planned 5.6-mile shared-use path on the old Florida East Coast Railway line. It runs between Northwest Seventh Street and Southwest 80th Street, between 69th and 70th avenues, through unincorporated Miami-Dade County and the city of Miami, according to Miami-Dade County’s Ludlam Trail page. The county says it is starting the design phase and will build in phases as money allows.

Resolution R-26-0468, sponsored by Commissioner Rosado, notes that the city budget adopted Sept. 24 included no money for the trail segments inside the city. Rosado now represents every part of the trail within the city, the resolution says. City staff estimate the work at no more than $5 million.

The resolution directs the city manager to budget $5 million this fiscal year, which runs through Sept. 30, 2027. The manager is to look at whether reserve funds can legally be used. The direction is “subject to the availability of funding and budgetary approval.”

The night before the vote, the city attorney sent commissioners a substitute version. It adds a repayment clause: the money is to be reimbursed to the city at $1 million a year, starting five years after the resolution was adopted, until it is repaid. The text does not say who makes the repayments. The commission adopted the resolution “with modifications,” and the final wording has not yet been posted.

A new park lot in Shenandoah

Commissioners also approved two ordinances, numbered 14494 and 14495, for 2293 SW 17th Terrace in Shenandoah. They change the lot’s land use from single-family residential to public parks and recreation, and its zoning from T3-R to civic space.

The city bought the 0.23-acre lot in 2018, and it used to hold a single-family home, according to the planning staff analysis. It is one block west of Shenandoah Park, which the analysis puts at about nine acres. The city says the new park would offer space for passive and active recreation, with plantings, shade and seating. The Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board recommended approval 10-0 on Sept. 2.

What it means for you

• If you have an unpermitted driveway at a home or duplex in a T3 or T4 zone, the new window is your chance to legalize it with less green space than Miami 21 normally requires. Check that you meet the five-year ownership and 10-year repaving tests first. The city’s building permits and zoning page explains how permits work.
• If you live near the Ludlam Trail corridor, the vote is a direction to find money, not a construction contract. Watch for a budget amendment from the city manager.
• If you live in Shenandoah, the lot on Southwest 17th Terrace is now zoned for a park. The city has not published a design or a timeline. See our parks and trails guide for what is open now.

To ask about any of the three items, call 311 or 305-468-5900.