Miami officials, developer reach compromise to save part of key prehistoric Brickell site

Miami’s historic preservation board late Tuesday set the wheels in motion towards designation of a big piece of a major prehistoric archaeological site in Brickell as a protected landmark, but in a compromise with the property owners, the Related Group, held back on action on a portion where the prominent developer plans to build a pair of skyscrapers. The two 8-0 votes by the preservation board came after a confusing and sometimes heated five-hour hearing that one archaeologist who helped city staff draw up a proposal for historic designation of the Related property, University of Miami professor William Pestle, described as “chaos.” The votes appeared to provide the city preservation board something that residents, activists and independent experts had been clamoring for: greater and more direct authority over what Related does at the site of what’s quickly come to be considered the most significant local archaeological discovery since the Miami Circle in 1998. The votes also remove, at least for now, the suggested threat from Related founder and Chairman Jorge Perez of what one preservation board member, Luis Prieto y Munoz, called “protracted litigation” against the city had it effectively delayed the company’s development plans by moving ahead with a proposal to designate the entire property. The discoveries at the site have prompted intensive public interest, with more than 50 people lining up to speak at the hearing, most of them in support of historically significant designation.

An overflow crowd filled the commission chambers at Miami City Hall and a tent set up outside the building entrance. Related and Perez also had supporters at the hearing, including several other developers and building industry officials who touted the developers’ sense of responsibility and quality of work. One archaeologist said the ongoing excavation at the site, which has uncovered extensive evidence of indigenous occupation going back thousands of years, is the largest in Florida history. Independent experts say stone projectile points found at the site that are around 7,000 years old suggest the site has seen human occupation for that long, although Related’s chief consulting archaeologist, Robert Carr, disputed that conclusion at Tuesday’s hearing. Carr speculated the stone artifacts were collected by people who occupied the spot much later. What every expert agreed on is that most of the thousands of artifacts and animal and human remains on the site represent an unusually rich and well-preserved trove dating to the peak of occupation by a substantial Tequesta indigenous town some 2,500 years ago.

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