Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava now supports a plan to put two large digital billboards outside the Adrienne Arsht Center in downtown Miami, reversing a position she shared with Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins, according to the Miami Herald. Higgins, who has long fought oversized electronic signs, still opposes the project.
The proposed signs would each measure 1,800 square feet and sit 120 feet above Biscayne Boulevard near Interstate 395. County documents estimate they could bring in at least $1 million a year for the nonprofit center. Levine Cava says the money would help diversify the center’s funding. Higgins has cited light pollution as her main concern.
The county owns the Arsht Center property, and that ownership is the crux of the fight. The center first sought approval through the city’s zoning process, the same route the Pérez Art Museum Miami used for its own billboard. Miami-Dade has since moved the proposal through its own approval process, which could allow county commissioners to approve the signs without city sign-off.
A county commission hearing set for Oct. 6 was canceled, and the county did not publicly say why. County commission approval is still required. Under the proposed rules, ads would rotate no more than every eight seconds, and the screens would switch to a static logo after midnight.
The dispute follows a 2024 settlement with PAMM, which keeps its billboard in place but must pay the city at least $500,000 a year and turn the display off after 11 p.m. Arsht CEO Johann Zietsman says the revenue would support free programming that reaches about 80,000 students a year. Neither mayor’s office responded to requests for comment.
