The Miami Herald

GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Posted on, Feb. 22, 2006

Watershed Study Day

BY MICHAEL PUTNEY
mputney@local0.com

Tomorrow will be a watershed day in Miami. Or more accurately, a Watershed Study day.

The 29 members of the South Miami-Dade Watershed Study Advisory Committee (SMDWSAC) will meet and reach consensus on their ''preferred scenarios'' for growth and development of 371 square miles of land stretching from Southwest Eighth Street all the way south to Florida City.

What's riding on these scenarios? Merely everything having to do with housing, transportation, schools, commerce, the environment and, of course, water use and conservation in the area till the year 2050.

By that time, upwards of 600,000 new residents will have moved into the area, which includes virtually all of the agricultural land in Miami-Dade as well as non-ag tracts that developers are just itching to build on. ''The people are going to come,'' says Roger Carlton, chairman of the SMDWSAC. "It's a question of how to accommodate them and mitigate the damage.''

The preferred scenarios coming out tomorrow will provide some answers. They're the result of nearly four years of study (at a cost of $3.3 million) and 42 meetings by Carlton's committee, aided by staff from the South Florida Regional Planning Council, South Florida Water Management District and Miami-Dade County. The results are aimed at ensuring the area is developed (or not) in the most sensible and environmentally-sensitive way possible. Just so the terminology doesn't throw you, ''watershed'' means ``the entire area that water flows across, under and through on its way to a receiving body of water (e.g., Biscayne Bay).''

The area under study is bordered on the east by Biscayne National Park and on the west by Everglades National Park. The preferred scenarios are critical to the future of both parks. The scenarios will provide a framework to guide growth and development near them over the next half century. And, one hopes, preserve the beauty of the wild places that brought many of us here in the first place.

''Developers are thinking three to four years ahead,'' says Carlton, a veteran public administrator who has donated countless hours to the watershed study. ``Politicians are thinking about the next election cycle. We're trying to think 50 years from now.''

I'm glad someone is. Most politicians I know are not thinking much beyond the issue du jour and their next big campaign checks, most of which come from developers, their lawyers and consultants. Those developers, of course, are giving money to politicians not because they want good government, but government that's good for them.

Which is where the SMDWSAC comes in. Its members run the gamut from the most zealous tree-hugging enviros to rabid property-rights nuts ready to brandish their deeds and scream, ''From my cold dead hands.'' But these 29 diverse Miami-Dade residents have, over the course of 42 meetings, managed to reach consensus on the most contentious issues of growth and development. Carlton says that when it came time to vote on recommendations -- with one finger for ''hate it'' and five for ''love it'' -- every committee member had to show at least three fingers for approval. So the scenarios they'll finalize tomorrow have passed some very tough muster.

My concern is what happens when these recommendations come before the County Commission, where muster is often less than rigorous. Commissioners certainly didn't show much courage when they sent nine applications for projects beyond the Urban Development Boundary to Tallahassee for study by the state Department of Community Affairs. [Yesterday, DCA issued recommendations that the county deny all applications.] Several should have been killed outright and the others, if sent at all, only with a recommendation for denial. Four were, but only as a sop to opponents.

In previous discussions about the UDB, several Miami-Dade commissioners said they'd be able to make an informed decision on moving the line only after the South Miami-Dade Watershed Study and Plan were ready. Well, tomorrow's the day. The preferred scenarios won't include specific recommendations on the nine pending UDB applications, to be voted on in April, but they will lay out philosophical principles providing strong guidance.

Can Miami-Dade commissioners, especially those disposed to give developers what they want and damn the consequences, lift their eyes from the pettiness and minutiae of the moment and take a serious look at this watershed study, which is all about consequences? Can they envision south Miami-Dade in 2050 and act to make it a place worthy of their grandchildren? I pray they can. We live daily with the consequences of such decisions made by politicians who couldn't.