Well I thought I had seen everything. Apparently not. Lennar, one of America's premier homebuilders, is selling Savannah Estates: "ranchettes" on five acres a stone's throw from Everglades National Park. It is an imaginary place where landed gentry can ride polo ponies and enjoy the country life. And they can grow row crops, too.
Like other homebuilders, Lennar is bleeding cash and still it is still pushing for a Miami-Dade development of regional impact called Parkland, with the State of Florida and with Miami-Dade County.
We've written extensively on Parkland and its neighbors: all well-connected lobbyists and land speculators who were betting that nothing, no one, could stand in the way of more development to the edge of the Everglades. (Ron Bergeron did it in Broward. The Fanjuls and their rock mines are doing it in far West Palm Beach.)
Lennar wants zoning approval for 6000 new homes and retail and commercial. We are going to need this farmland: just look at what is happening in the Midwest for god's sake.
And there is another problem: suburban sprawl in the hinterlands is done. It's finished. It depended on public subsidies and, above all, cheap oil. All those Miami land speculators like Sergio Pino, Rodney Barreto and other board members at US Century Bank: they were gamblers pushing leverage on the back of the public commons until it all came undone.
Except for their lobbying on zoning changes and banking regulations, theirs was a bet they could socialize risk and privatize profit from unsustainable development. All those profits from the building boom: they are giving a lot of it back.
Someday, we are owed a true cost accounting of the misery inflicted on South Florida through the building boom now in cinders.
In the meantime, don't come to the public for bailouts or for tax breaks. We've had enough.
Type the rest of the post here
10 comments:
I've been meaning to mention this development to you all for a while.
Located on 217th avenue,this development's land used to be the winter home of a lovely migrant bird, the scissortail flycather, as well as the Western kingbird. the only other place to find this bird locally has been Flamingo in ENP or upstate in the Orlando area.
Birders from from all over the country and around the world used to cruise the surrounding blocks here in winter in hopes of seeing Oklahoma's (!!!) state bird. It is a bird that needs tall grasses and the Lennar land fit the bill until they plowed it under to build "million dollar" homes. Of further interest , I have yet to see even one of the homes with residents. There is one that sometimes has a truck parked there but I suspect it is a Lennar employee performing security duties for the empty development.
Nothing would please me more than to have this place fall fallow-perhaps then the birds will return and delight the legions of birders who seek them and spend their dollars in Miami Dade county while here.
flycather=flycatcher
Help to stop this nonsense: Community Council 11 meeting, July 8, 6:30, Arvida Middle School. Save our farm land and our farmer's livelihoods. What happens i Kendall will also affect the Redlands.
What do we know about property taxes?
Are we ALL paying our fare share?
What is "State Exempt"?
2007 Taxes
Today's Date: 06/22/2008 Last Update: 06/19/2008 Tax Year: 2007
Folio Number: 30 59110220890 UNINC. DADE CO.
Owner's Name: LAWRENCE PERCIVAL
Property Address: 11945 SW 127 CT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Value : 209054 Millage Code: 3000
Exemptions : STATE EXEMPT 21 184054
HOMESTEAD 25000
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gross Total Taxes:
Ad Valorem .00
Non Advalorem 439.00
Total Gross: 439.00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2007 Taxes are in paid status.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Payments Applied To 2007 Taxes:
Date Applied Register/Receipt Amount Paid
11/16/2007 1013/0000039 421.44
Wow, maybe Pervical will write in and tell us how he has a tax-free, fully exempted 3400 sq ft house worth 438k and assessed at 209k. He's been playing fast and loose with the reputation of the Kendall Federation ever since Dorothy Sissel died and no one seems to care. He is a shill for developers, most recently for the bogus 5 acre rock pit houses outside the UDB in west Kendall.
Maybe it pays to be up the butt of Joe Martinez.
Check out the taxes paid by Ranchos del Sol and Lennar's Savannah Ranches. Not much as the houses seem to stay off the tax rolls until they are sold and since they are not selling, oh well.
The rock pit project in west Kendall will be more of the same except the owners will get bucks for rock. Don't be fooled that this project will add to the tax rolls.
Come on good folks of Kendall, clean up the Federation!
Gimleteye writes:
There's a good story here: I hope the Miami Herald or Miami New Times is paying attention.
Alternatively, one of our commenters could submit an a blog post, with more detail about Kendall Federation of Homeowners Associations to: geniusofdespair@yahoo.com
The tax issue is quite interesting.
The best thing that could happen for Kendall Federation is for you all to join and start going to the meetings. They are defined by the sum of their parts and I think they need a few other parts these days....from the other end of the horse.
The Kendall Federation works hard to put on informative meetings.
The Homeowner Associations need to participate more... the more they are involved, the more impact they have on making GOOD government happen; and the more members who regularly attend will dilute the negative issues and help control them.
Every organization has issues of one sort or another. However, if you don't go to the meetings; then you can't make positive changes happen.
Everyone has a responsibility to make an effort to make things in an organization work for the betterment of it.
LAWRENCE PERCIVAL ... he seems crazy...all alone at those community council meetings. I wondered what he got out of it. Now I know.
Great post!!!
Come see Lawrence in action. I am thinking he doesn't make much of a lobbyist (if that is what he is trying to be). It seems he irritates people more than anything. I can't imagine anyone hiring him.
July 8, Arvida Middle 6:30 - it's going to be ugly.
Post a Comment