Charles Corda explains his garage math

Local architect, Charles Corda has made a name for himself in the wake of the new waterfront project. He is featured in today's Miami Herald and of course, I have been featuring him here and so has Al Crespo and a number of other blogs and publications. Charles has made it is mission to be the watchdog of the Coconut Grove waterfront and I don't see a thing wrong with that.

Charles is entitled to his opinion and entitled to do the long, dirty legwork that he has done in order to get the story out. I know many people like to leave comments here, saying that he and I for that matter, are juggling the facts around, but what would we have to gain from this? We or I should say, he, is trying to clarify what is going on at the water's edge. 

Here is the Miami Herald story.

Below is a letter I received today, regarding a recent letter that Art Noriega, head of the Miami Parking Authority, sent out regarding the new parking garage for the waterfront project. Charles Corda and Al Crespo have been quite busy: I do have to admit, I was wondering how so few parking spaces would accommodate just the mall workers alone. BUT HERE IS THE LETTER FROM CHARLES CORDA:

Good Morning Mr. Falco;

Attached is a Letter and Drawings from Art Noriega re the Parking Garage to be built along with the Grove "Harbour" Project. Al Crespo obtained these drawings as part of a public records request.

Mr. Noriega states in his letter below to Mr. Crespo  "Here is the original, conceptual layout, that was put together back in January". Mr. Noriega also mentions this "conceptual layout we did months ago" in the letter from him to you published in the Grapevine.

Unfortunately there are a few inconsistencies here. In the Grapevine Letter Mr. Noriega states the number of spaces to be "671" .Yet in the actual conceptual drawings attached below the Total number is 1,167.

Click on this image for a much larger version.

Those are not my numbers. Those are Mr. Noriega's numbers. This is not my "misunderstanding". This is Mr. Noriega throwing out widely varying and misleading numbers. You don't have to take my word for it. Anyone can look at these drawings themselves. I am not calculating. I am not assuming. I am not misunderstanding.

Mr. Noriega's Drawings speak for themselves.

One Thousand, One Hundred and Sixty Seven.- 1,167 PARKING SPACES! NOT "671" as Mr. Noriega states in his letter. NOT 476 as stated in the "lease"

Also Note that these "Conceptual Drawings " show a building 6 stories in Height NOT 4 stores as Mr. Noriega states in his letter to the Grapevine.

In all fairness to Mr. Noriega he has stated that this is not what he intends to build. BUT Mr.Noriega is clearly contradicting himself in these two letters.

If Mr. Noriega himself has no idea what will be built on this site, how can I know? How can the voters know? The Problem as I see it with the Garage is that no one knows what is going to be built including Mr. Noriega!

Mr. Noriega has "promised" to develop a final Garage plan for this site. Hopefully we will get a look at it before the referendum. As of today the "conceptual plan" indicates that a Garage for as many as 1,167 Spaces may be built.

It is also painfully obvious that Commissioner Sarnoff, Ron Nelson, Joyce Nelson and others who ardently support this ill-conceived development have either no understanding of what has been "conceptualized" or simply could care less. it is they who are deliberately misleading the public. Not I. 

Charles Corda
Coconut Grove