Editors Note: The Barbara Baer Capitman archives “Historic Threads” project is partly sponsored by the Department of State, Division of Historical Resources and the State of Florida.

Comissioners in 1982 were heavily criticized for passing a weak preservation ordinance. While the district’s architectural beauty and cultural significance are widely praised by visitors and residents alike, the ordinance would require property owners’ consent before buildings could be protected, greatly limiting its effectiveness and leaving historic structures vulnerable to demolition. Incentives such as tax benefits, grants, low-cost loans, and hardship appeals could protect owners while still preserving historic buildings.

Excerpts and quotes from the article are highlighted below in blue.

As the sun set on Miami Beach’s Art Deco district Wednesday evening, the fins of the Delano and the dome of the National hotels gleamed in the last rays. From outside the commission chambers on the third-floor balcony of City Hall, the Deco district — what one resident called the “gem that adorns Miami Beach” — could be seen rising proudly in the distance beyond the concrete condos and convention center. Inside the chambers, despite the two-and-a-half-hour litany by a stream of Deco devotees, commissioners on first reading passed a ridiculously weak historic preservation ordinance.

Saying the area to be saved was too large and that property owners have the right to do whatever they please, commissioners agreed to an amendment requiring owner consent before a building can be included in the district. The ordinance would do little more than save Miami Beach’s recalcitrant property owners from Metro’s more stringent preservation ordinance — which will go into effect if Miami Beach doesn’t pass its own law. It certainly won’t save any Art Deco buildings from the wrecking ball.

It would be a shame if the sun set forever on the whimsical old buildings that help make Miami Beach unique.