A Little River waterfront property West of Biscayne Blvd. and South of 79th Street, temporarily called Manatee Bend, was approved for purchase -- mostly with grant funds -- by the City of Miami Commission on Thursday. It is a 1.2 acre site. This photo of 6 manatees was taken from the seawall on the property.
Good call by the City of Miami Commissioners. Special thanks go to Marc Sarnoff for putting in the extra effort to make this happen. As Barbara Falsey, President of the Urban Environment League, said in a letter to the City Commissioners:
I have visited the site on two occasions and it is clearly a wonderful opportunity for the City to acquire waterfront property adjacent to Little River. The site contains a variety of large canopy trees, provides visual access to the river and, with very little improvement, can provide the community as a whole with a unique urban oasis and access for non-motorized watercraft such as canoes and kayaks.
8 comments:
Beautiful photo!
It should be called the Little River Park. If it has some odd name no one will be able to find it. It is on Little River.
Manatee Bend Park is aptly named, name where else you can go in the city and see Manatees? It'll become a destination for many, including tourists. Plenty of great restaurants in walking distance too.
Overpaid? It's almost 300 feet of waterfront IN Miami that sold for multiples of what the city paid for it less than 10 years ago.
To be clear, 75% of the money came the Biscayne Bay/Miami River Land Acquisition Trust Fund. This Trust was started 25 years ago and this will be the first tract of land to be purchased with the funds from the Trust. Sarnoff is investigating why the head of this fund is pulling in a six figure salary for a board that hasn't met in 5 years! This park might end up SAVING the fun money!!!
The other 25% of funding will be coming from the Florida Inland Navigation District. This ensures it MUST stay a park.
Little River Park was owned by a speculator Skip Van Cel who bought the site for $230,000 and badgered Sarnoff into paying $595,000 months later.
There were 3 appraisals, FIND and trust fund monies were used. So a guy made some profit. Sarnoff is not a villain on this one -- nice try but no cigar.
What ever happened to "public service"?
Van Cel has owned the property for years now, not months, so that's just a lie. He had plans to develop it into a 'hotel' of cottages, but that was shot down I believe.
Anyway, this park land is great waterfront, appraised over the selling price and is the least of the city's worries on 'lost' money!
Also, it's a nice case against Sarnoff as an 'overdeveloper', it being a park far from his house.
Thanks for the info, I've been wondering where you can see manatees in Miami. I know they are some in the canals by doctors hospital. I think I'll take the kids there this weekend.
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