Some TransitMiami readers have expressed a desire to see ‘mixed’ use mapped out. Well, here it is:

Yes; the results are drastic. At this scale, one almost needs a magnifying glass to even locate the ‘mixed use’ sites.

Removing the street network helps a bit, but it only makes the disappointing results that much clearer.

Mind you, I’ve kept the recent series of Miami-Dade County land-use maps at a relatively small cartographic scale to show the relatively large geographic scale area of the entire county.

You can find the related Miami-Dade land-use maps at the links below:

• Residential Land-Use in Miami-Dade
• Commercial Land-Use in Miami-Dade
• Industrial Land-Use in Miami-Dade
• Agricultural Land-Use in Miami-Dade
• Park Land-Use in Miami-Dade

‘Mixed’ land-use was defined as those subsets of commercial use categories with the following descriptions:

• “Office/Business/Hotel/Residential. Substantial components of each use present,    Treated as any combination of the mentioned uses with a hotel as part of development.”
• “Office and/or Business and other services (ground level) / Residential (upper levels). Low-density < 15 dwellings per acre or 4 floors.”
• “Residential predominantly (condominium/ rental apartments with lower floors Office and/or Retail.  High density > 15 dwelling units per ac, multi-story buildings  (Generally more than 5 stories).”

Now, one must consider the difference between ‘mixed’ land-use, and the general land-use mix of an area. The latter concept can also be referred to as the diversity of land-use in a given area.

So, while there is obviously very little ‘mixed’ use throughout Miami-Dade County, there are significant areas where there is a healthy land-use mix, or diversity of land-uses.

One must also consider the difference between use and zoning, or the difference between the current economic function of the land versus the future or intended purpose of the land.

We’ll get into these issues later . . .