This is suburban Miami Florida, how would you run public transport and make it more walkable in this area?
However, the county has completely ignored its role in directing density and quality of neighborhoods county-wide, allowing dense housing developments as far west as 167th Ave. Large impact fees incentivize the county to continue to allow unchecked growth, however, some of the areas hit hardest by recessions are the very same that should never have been allowed to be built in the first place.
Miami-Dade County is in charge of transit, and most of the surface roads in the city, however, its zoning code shows a lack of active planning. This has created a lot of the traffic and congestion we see, as well as awkward, unsustainable growth. Dense housing far from the urban center is good in creating cheaper housing stock, but there are other ways to create value. Upzoning areas closer to the city and allowing for estate zoning far from urban centers would have been a better way to create a more steady development. In addition, the creation of a form-based zoning code in the county would help to incentivize street focused design. Driving down Sunset, Kendall, or Bird Road, you can see just how needed that is.
The invisible lines that separate our city should not have a massive impact on quality of life, but that is exactly what disparate zoning codes do. City of Miami’s zoning code (Miami 21) is not perfect. The T4 and T5 designations are difficult to make meaningful development out of, Special Area Plans are hit and miss, and affordable housing is not incentivized enough, but the use of the form-based code has helped areas of Miami flourish as a more livable city. Street facing buildings, mixed-use developments, and more inviting building fronts are no-brainers, and the county and many other municipalities need to catch up, or we will continue to live in a zoning scrambled city.
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Sources:
https://archpaper.com/2016/10/miami-21-growth-zoning/
http://www.governing.com/topics/urban/gov-miami-zoning-laws.html
https://www.miamidade.gov/zoning/districts.asp
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/real-estate-news/article150249652.html
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article219455130.html