The Miami Herald

Posted on Tue, Jan. 10, 2006

URBAN DEVELOPMENT

Regional panel: Hold the line in Dade

Regional planners opposed most proposals to allow new housing, office and industrial projects outside Miami-Dade's urban development boundary.

BY CURTIS MORGAN
cmorgan@MiamiHerald.com

In December, the Miami-Dade County Commission sidestepped politically touchy yes-or-no votes on nine applications to build outside the county's urban development line, sending them to the state for feedback.

They got plenty on Monday from the South Florida Regional Planning Council.
In a blunt review, council members pronounced seven of nine proposals bad ideas that would likely further clog already jammed roads and schools, and threaten drinking water supplies, as well as the health of the Everglades and Biscayne Bay.
They initially deadlocked on two others before later approving them, but only as a legal maneuver to have a say on them in the future.

The council serves as an advisory panel to the Florida Department of Community Affairs, which is reviewing the county's proposals to change land use to accommodate more people and businesses -- everything from new homes and offices in West Kendall to a new Loew's home store off Tamiami Trail in far west Dade.

SENDS A MESSAGE

But members of the Hold The Line campaign, comprised of environmental and other activist groups, said they believe recommendations from influential regional planners will send a strong message to the DCA and governor.

''Absolutely,'' said Cynthia Guerra, executive director of Tropical Audubon. "This is a powerful indication of the problems with moving the line.''

Attorneys representing landowners downplayed the votes during a council meeting in Hollywood and noted the final decisions will ultimately circle back to the Miami-Dade commissioners, probably sometime in April.

''This is an extremely complicated issue,'' said zoning attorney Jeffrey Bercow. ''It's important to address it in ways that can't be done in a three-minute sound bite,'' a reference to the time limit the council imposed on each speaker.

The UDB, which runs along the southern and western edges of the county, was created in 1975 to help manage growth. It restricts any development outside the line to one house on five acres.

Preservationists say maintaining the line is critical to keep urban sprawl from choking roads and schools and encroaching on the Everglades.

Developers and their allies argue that the booming population and demand for housing requires the line be moved.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez vetoed the land-use changes, but commissioners overturned that in December in a 12-1 vote.

The nine projects reviewed didn't include any controversial ''mega-developments'' with thousands of new homes.

But several council members, including County Commissioner Katy Sorenson, who cast the lone vote in support of Alvarez's veto, made it clear they worried that moving the line for even a small-scale two-acre warehouse near the Beacon Lakes industrial area west of Dolphin Mall could set a precedent for larger ones down the road.

RECOMMENDATION

The 19-member council, comprised of elected officials and citizens appointed by the governor, can't reject a project. But the members can decide whether a proposal is ''consistent'' or ''inconsistent'' with city, county and regional development plans and policies, urge changes and issue recommendations to local and state government.

REJECTED OTHER PLANS

Besides the projects outside the UDB, the council also rebuffed a handful of proposals inside the line, citing similar transportation and environmental concerns.
The council also voted against a proposal pushed by the Latin Builders Association and the Builders Association of Florida to create a large supply of open land for single-family homes, a move that critics complained would make it easier to move the line in the future and encroach more swiftly on farm land and the Everglades.
The council's reluctance to move the line was so strong that it temporarily deadlocked on two proposals where developers had agreed to clean up toxic underground pollution. In the end, council chairwoman Ilene Lieberman, a Broward County commissioner, changed her votes to approve them -- but only to retain the council's right to review it again in the future.

DEVELOPERS' VIEWS

Other developers argued that their individual projects would have little negative impacts on communities and, in the case of two West Kendall proposals, would help existing homeowners by opening access to a closed section of North Kendall Drive.
Council member Kristin Jacobs, a Broward County commissioner, rolled her eyes at that comment. ''I've been on this panel for eight years,'' she said. "This is the most novel approach by a developer that I have ever heard -- that you solve your traffic problems by adding more traffic.''