Behind the South Miami Branch library, past the back lot of City Hall at 6130 Sunset Drive, there is now a playground with no plastic in it. The Nikki Spoelstra Play Forest has log balance beams, stepping logs, musical chimes and a sensory trail, and it connects directly to the Underline's bike and pedestrian path. The Miami Herald's coverage of the opening adds an outdoor reading room and covered seating for parents.
Most of the Underline's 10 miles are built around transit. The path runs under the Metrorail tracks, and its stops tend to line up with stations. South Miami's mile is organized differently. Its main feature sits beside the library and the City Commission chambers, the city is paying to maintain it, and for the next couple of months it connects much better to the south than to the north. The way to use it right now is as a civic backyard with a long trail running south from it, rather than as a commuter route.
What actually opened, and when
According to a July 21, 2026 budget memo from City Manager Genaro "Chip" Iglesias, the South Miami segment was finished that month. The construction fences came down early in the summer, and people were on the path before the ribbon cutting on Saturday, August 15. The city's piece runs about a mile, from Red Road to Southwest 80th Street. The section dedicated on August 15 was described as 1.17 miles running from Dadeland to South Miami's edge with Coral Gables at Red Road.
With that opening, seven of the Underline's 10 miles were finished. That number matters because of where the remaining three miles sit.
The mile, walked from north to south
Starting at the Red Road end and heading toward Dadeland, these are the named stops along South Miami's stretch and just past it:
- The Baptist Health meditation garden. Baptist Health South Florida created this garden with Friends of The Underline near the Underline at Southwest 62nd Avenue, beside South Miami Hospital's East Tower, and dedicated it in December 2018. Underline founder Meg Daly told the Herald that the garden had stayed locked for years while it waited for this section of trail to be finished. The path now leads straight into it.
- The Nikki Spoelstra Play Forest. It sits beside City Hall and directly behind the library, and it opened with a kids' concert by Jam with Jamie as part of the Levitt BLOC Miami Music Series. It is the Underline's first designated playground amenity in South Miami, paid for by a $500,000 gift from Nikki Spoelstra to Friends of The Underline. At the opening, visitors planted trees and shrubs in the microforest next to the playground.
- The canal bridge. Just north of Southwest 80th Street, the project replaced a bridge over a canal. The old one dated to when this corridor carried Henry Flagler's railroad.
- SW 80th Street and SOMI Bike Shop. An Underline repair stand with tools and a tire pump is at Southwest 80th Street. SOMI Bike Shop employees told the Herald that trail users have been stopping in for repairs, gear, snacks and drinks.
- Mariposa Gardens and the birdhouse village. A butterfly garden and a group of Underline-green birdhouses mark the entrance to the trail's southernmost segment, and microforests of native trees and shrubs grow nearby and again just past Southwest 70th Avenue.
All of these are places to stop and stay a while. They are spaced so a stroller, a bike with a child seat or a dog on a leash can get from the library to the butterfly garden without the trip feeling like a workout.
"This space is really about play, nature, curiosity, belonging and togetherness."
Spoelstra said this in Friends of The Underline's opening announcement. She is a third-generation Miamian, and she credits childhood visits to Fairchild Tropical Garden with her grandmother as her inspiration.
Why the mile leads south for now
North of Red Road, the Underline goes into the one section still being built, a stretch through Coral Gables along the University of Miami. The Herald reported in mid-September that this three-mile piece was close to finished. It is expected by the end of the year, and Daly has promised "a 10-mile-long party" when it opens. Miami-Dade County's Phase 3 project page gives 2026 as the completion year but no specific date.
The middle section includes Pineland Courts, planned near Carillo Street and Stanford Drive, with four pickleball courts, a regulation basketball court, seating, drinking fountains, bike parking and plantings inspired by pine rockland. Past that, the trail is already open from LeJeune Road through Coral Gables, where it passes the Chewy Bark Park, and on to Southwest 27th Avenue, Coconut Grove and the Miami River.
Until the middle section opens, a South Miami resident who wants a long, continuous ride or run on the Underline will head south. That direction comes with its own caveats. When the Herald walked the southern leg in July, the Dadeland North station was under renovation and its trail connection was blocked off. Cyclists had to get off and walk a tenth of a mile through the station. The last stretch before Dadeland South went through a narrow alley between fences and around traffic cones. The same report described the path between the two Dadeland stations as landscaped but mostly utilitarian, without the gardens found farther north. Station construction changes week to week, so that account describes conditions in July and may not hold today.
For now, the best part of the southern route for South Miami residents is the start: City Hall, the canal bridge, SW 80th Street and the gardens just past it.
South Miami pays for the mile
The city's financial commitment shows how much it is betting on the trail. In 2025, the City Commission agreed to help fund operations, programming, maintenance and management of the Underline. The segment was finished in July 2026, late in the fiscal year, so the city budgeted $75,000 for fiscal 2026, roughly a quarter of the yearly cost. The fiscal 2027 budget is the first to cover a full year, at $300,000. Under the agreement the Herald reviewed, the city's yearly payment climbs to $364,652 by fiscal 2030.
Mayor Javier Fernandez told the Herald that the commitment was financially difficult but necessary, and that about 30% of the city's projected surplus for the coming budget would go to the Underline. Coral Gables has not yet agreed to a similar arrangement. The Underline Conservancy asked it for $4.49 million over five years, and city leaders have pushed back, saying the county assured them years ago that maintenance would not fall on the cities.
Seen from Sunset Drive, the money explains why South Miami's mile feels like an extension of City Hall. The city paid for its share of the path, and its own playground, library and commission building sit along it.
Using it this fall
Safe Streets Halloween fills Sunset Drive from US-1 to 57th Avenue on Saturday, October 31, from 4:00 to 7:00 PM, with trick-or-treating, games, music, haunted houses, prizes and an allergy-friendly candy station. The Play Forest is right behind City Hall, a short walk from the festival.
In November, the city calendar lists a Veterans Day Tribute on November 11 from 11:00 AM to noon, and the SoMi Second Saturdays Night Market on November 14 from 5:30 to 9:30 PM at Southwest 73rd Street and Southwest 58th Avenue. Both are close to downtown, so you can walk the trail before or after.
Restaurants on Sunset Drive are part of the trip too. Flight West opened this summer at 5984 Sunset Drive. It cooks over live fire in a Mibrasa charcoal oven and carries more than 350 spirits.
Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado, who lives near the trail, told the Herald before the August opening that many of her neighbors were talking about the Underline and meeting to walk it. Once the Coral Gables section opens, a ride that starts at the Play Forest behind City Hall will be able to continue all the way to the Miami River.
If you live along the Underline, or you're wondering what a connected 10-mile trail could mean for a home near Sunset Drive, the Carole Smith Team knows this stretch block by block. Request a private consultation and we'll talk through what's changing near you.