I went, good meeting, here are some photos, taken by Ben Thacker, of community activists that attended. Neighbors care about the Parkland Development, proposed to go on the other side of the Urban Development Boundary, and they gathered to talk about the ramifications on the immediate neighborhood and for the County as a whole. Traffic, drinking water, flooding and the bad economy were among the items discussed.With regard to Parkland, I can't help but think of what I read in the Miami Herald this morning:
"Jorge Perez, the billionaire head of The Related Group of Florida, admits that he got caught up in South Florida's real estate hype just like everyone else: ``We kidded ourselves.''
...Perez said there's plenty of blame to go around. He pointed to overeager developers, asleep-at-the-wheel lenders and regulators, speculators and the doomsaying media."
Overeager developers and land speculators who are kidding themselves -- the mix we have with Parkland!
Next meeting date: November 3rd, Jorge Mas Canosa Middle School, Community Council meeting at 7 pm
4 comments:
Come out to Jorge Mas Canosa Middle school on November 3 to hear all about it.
nice pictures by ben thacker.
more bargains like this:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_43/b4105051868168.htm
if it goes through...
Planning Report
Developers hope to plant green community outside UDB
October 24, 2008
By: Paola Iuspa-Abbott Daily Business Review
For all its apparent strengths — green space, energy efficient homes, conservation of water — critics of a proposed Miami-Dade County development say it has one critical flaw: it’s planned to be in an area intended to protect agricultural land from urban sprawl.
Parkland is to be a community of nearly 7,000 residences in rural Miami-Dade. If the credit crisis is resolved and the housing market revives, the first home could be delivered by 2014. But its developer, an entity called Krome Groves Land Trust, wants to build it on 961 acres outside the urban development boundary, an invisible line established in the 1970s to be a buffer between the Everglades and shopping centers, tract housing and warehouses.
“They get points for being green and [proposing] to re-use water,” said Laura Reynolds, executive director of the Tropical Audubon Society. “But there is still room to build homes inside the UDB.”
Reynolds was one of the speakers at a meeting of Hold The Line, a group that opposes shifting the UDB to allow Parkland. Hold The Line says moving the line would encourage additional development close to the Everglades.
Hold The Line has some formidable opposition. Krome Groves is backed by seasoned developers Lennar, Sergio Pino and Edward Easton.
“We are creating reverse commutes and planning a self-contained community,” said Anthony Seijas, regional vice president of Lennar and the managing partner of Krome Groves.
Developers say they will transform 200 acres of agricultural land into green space, which would include a lake and promote the return of native species. About 3 million gallons of water now used each day to irrigate the agricultural land would fall to 1.4 million gallons a day when Parkland is fully built, Seijas said in a separate interview.
The new development, which is to include single-family homes, townhouses and condos, would help reduce traffic in western roads as people would be able to move there to live and work within the planned community, he said.
Krome Groves has been planning Parkland for four years and sought advice from the Florida Green Building Coalition to design an environmental sensitive project, Seijas said.
On Wednesday night, Reynolds and about 20 other activists gathered in the living room of a historic house in South Miami. The preserved home seemed an appropriate setting to discuss preserving a controversial boundary that is a continuing issue between developers and activists.
Early this year, county commissioners voted to allow two commercial projects, including a Lowe’s store, to be built outside the line in western Miami-Dade. The Florida Department of Community Affairs, which regulates growth, objected to the county’s decision and applications for each project are being appealed with a state agency in Tallahassee.
At the Hold The Line meeting, participants welcomed the news that county planners on Wednesday recommended the development line not be moved to accommodate Parkland. Planners said the county has plenty of land available inside the line for residential development until 2018. Their recommendations are meant to guide the County Commission in December when it discusses the developer’s application to move the boundary.
Before the application goes before the County Commission, it is to be reviewed by the West Kendall Community Council on Nov. 3. The county’s Planning Advisory Board plans to discuss it on Nov. 19.
As rain poured down outside, Reynolds told Hold The Line members that the county didn’t need more houses at a time when thousands of foreclosed homes are hitting the market.
From January through September, there were more than 59,000 Miami-Dade homes in various stages of foreclosure, according to Reynolds. Many of the distressed homes were in South-Miami neighborhoods built by Lennar.
“Approval of Parkland outside the UDB would be a complete disregard for the environmental and economic needs of Miami’s residents,” said Dawn Shirreffs, a Hold The Line member and a South Florida organizer of Clean Water Action.
“This project won’t be built until 2014,” said Pino in a separate interview. “The housing supply that we have now will be absorbed in the next six years.”
Parkland is to be built west of Southwest 162nd Avenue — just beyond the boundary — where development is now limited to one home per five acres. Parkland would run to 177th Avenue, also known as Krome Avenue, between 136th to 152nd streets.
Parkland would be surrounded by agricultural fields to the west, north and south.
Krome Groves is proposing more than just residences. In addition to 1,257 single-family homes, 2,436 townhouses, 3,248 condos, plans include 200,000 square feet of retail space, 100,000 square feet of medical offices, a 200-bed hospital, and 550,000 square feet of light industrial space, according to the developer’s application with the county’s Department of Planning and Zoning.
Public facilities would include two K-8 schools, a high school, a community center with a library, police and fire stations, and 67.6 acres of parks.
Many of the Hold the Line members on Wednesday worried about the impact the development would have on a flood-prone zone, whether the project would interfere with ambitious plans to restore the Everglades, or whether taxpayers would end up paying for a water re-use plant the developer wants to build to irrigate medians and other green areas.
Some attendees claimed they were fooled once and had learned a costly lesson. In 2006, the city of Hialeah successfully applied to move the boundary to accommodate an office and industrial park on 793 acres. Raul Martinez, then mayor of Hialeah and now a candidate for Congress who is trying to unseat U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, told county commissioners the city and the developer of Hialeah Heights — a company run by well-connected industry veteran Armando Codina — would build a water plant to serve the new development. After the boundary shift was approved, the county used taxpayer dollars to build the plant, now in the planning stages, said activist Nancy Lee.
Parkland also has some influential backers. Some gave generous donations to commissioner political campaigns; some donated to the campaign of Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez.
Pino and Easton, along with several of their companies, contributed more than $22,500 to County Commissioners Barbara Jordan, Audrey Edmonson and Bruno Barreiro this year. They have also contributed $6,000 to Mayor Alvarez, who strongly opposed moving the line in the past.
Krome Groves partners include members of the Herran and Guerra families, owners of Sedano’s Supermarkets. The Guerra family contributed $1,000 to Commissioner Carlos Gimenez, who also has opposed moving the development line.
Seijas said the County Commission will judge Parkland on its merits, which include $30 million worth of infrastructure and expanding Krome Avenue from two to four traffic lanes.
Pino said he is no longer a major political donor and doubts his contributions would have any weight with the commission.
“I don’t think I give commissioners enough money to vote my way,” he said.
Paola Iuspa-Abbott can be reached at (305) 347-6657.
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