City to narrow two streets to preserve historic buildings

To help preserve historic structures in downtown Miami, the city is shrinking two streets.

City commissioners have approved an ordinance amendment to reduce the zoned street right-of-way width of Southeast First and Second avenues, which were set at to 75 feet wide and 70 feet wide, respectively, according to Miami Today.

However, historic buildings, including City National Bank, Royalton, Olympia, Ingraham and Walgreen Drug were all built when street widths were set at 50 feet. The city will now return portions of those streets to that original width to preserve the character of those buildings.

“It’s a win-win,” said Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, referring to the benefit the reduced widths will have from planning standpoint. [Miami Today] – Christopher Cameron