The Miami Herald Editorial

Posted on Tue, Dec. 06, 2005

Decide now to halt more urban sprawl

OUR OPINION: COMMISSION SHOULD LET STAND MAYOR'S VETO OF UDB MOVES

The Miami-Dade Commission has a chance today to step back from the precipice that it pushed the county toward with its approval last month of a package of land-use applications that, in some instances, would move the Urban Development Boundary west. Commissioners may not see it this way, but Mayor Carlos Alvarez's veto of the package has given commissioners a reprieve from stepping closer to moving the line. Commissioners will decide whether to override the mayor's veto. It should be allowed to stand.

'All or nothing'

The package of applications contains some that would move the UDB to allow residential and commercial development while others propose developments inside the current boundary. Mayor Alvarez told the Editorial Board that he was frustrated by the ''all or nothing'' choice given him because the applications are transmitted as a single item. In order to kill UDB expansion proposals that would create more sprawl, he also had to say No to worthy applications.

There's the pity -- that the commission didn't pick through the applications with more consideration. A few proposals to expand the boundary -- such as Hialeah's -- even had the support of some opponents of moving the line westward for large residential tracts. Instead, the commission voted to transmit all but one application to the state Department of Community Affairs, including four to which it attached denial recommendations.

Commissioners say that hearings thus far were preliminary rounds in the process of amending the county land-use plan. Their intent was not to cull good from bad but to get more information from state reviews before a final vote on each application next year. Some argued that it is their duty to transmit all applications. That's only partially true. They also could have been more decisive and settled some of the requests.

Previous commissions have felt no compunction in transmitting every application that came before them. The commission's unwillingness to distinguish between the applications inside the UDB and expanding it is perceived by many residents as a signal of their final intent -- to move the line significantly.

Residents' concerns

Now commissioners are left with the same frustrating choice as the mayor had. Do they vote to transmit all applications? Do they again signal their willingness to, at least initially, overlook already gridlocked traffic, crowded schools, concerns about hurricane evacuation, the need to protect the county's water supply and conservation of two great national parks within the county's borders?

Commissioners should let the veto stand and signal that they understand residents' concerns about our future quality of life.