It was no surprise to read in the Miami Herald that according to red light camera statistics, I live a stone's throw from the "worst overall intersection" in South Florida: Coral Gables’ northbound South Dixie Highway and Jefferson Street.
Drivers get ticketed there, on average, 30 times a day. There is a reason. Drivers heading north have just fumed at even more clogged traffic intersections at LeJeune and Ponce. These intersections were already over-congested a decade ago, when the City of Coral Gables permitted the "Village" of Merrick Park over the objection of nimbys. I was among a handful of residents who objected to the Rouse Project because, I was already an expert in these over-saturated intersections.
But what is the complaint of commuters next to the imperative to build more and more and more? I'm guessing, notwithstanding the Great Recession, that lobbyists and politicians are itching to do it all over again. Isn't that where tax base comes from: more development? Increased tax base covers municipal infrastructure costs. But wait, if development paid its own way, how come we have staggering municipal deficits? Perhaps we hired too many traffic counters who were paid not to count. Anyhow, here is who wins.
Rouse Company won. So did its phalanx of lobbyists, local yo-yo's, and politicians including former Mayor Raul Valdez Fauli. Get a traffic ticket at US 1 and Jefferson: you might try sending it to Valdez Fauli. Here's who else won: the flippers at General Growth Properties who purchased Merrick Park then took the whole company through bankruptcy in 2009. There were a lot of losers. Stockholders, for one. But the biggest losers are the commuters who use US 1, or at least, the most aggravated.
It is useful to go back and review the historical record. It doesn't do much good to point out that "we told you so", not when the red traffic camera lights are flashing on your license plate. Here is an excerpt from a 1999 editorial of mine, published on the topic, in the Miami Herald:
Editorial, Published Wednesday, September 1, 1999, in the Miami Herald
Alan Farago is a Coral Gables resident and chair of the Sierra Club Miami Group.
Just more congestion
The Rouse Company recently offered the public a view of the Village of Merrick Park and an opportunity to discuss traffic concerns. The development, which may break ground early next year, was the focus of a considerable investment by Coral Gables Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli, the Latin Builders Association and Rouse but opposed by many residents who mounted a referendum [but failed] to block the project that ended up, last year, as the most costly per vote election in Florida history.
The meeting to view plans was filled with anger, although that anger was spent needlessly as approvals are in hand and construction awaits only the final design. Then a project twice the size of Dadeland on approximately half the space will begin, creating a traffic nightmare that will dwarf the additional delays caused by Shops of Sunset at Red Road.
Details now emerge
Several interesting details emerged: First, the architect for the project has changed. Spillis Candela & Partners, which used to sing the praises of the Village of Merrick Park in the glossy, pre-approval presentations, is no longer involved. Architectural details are ``up in the air.''
The fancy multimedia presentation vanished, and instead Rouse offered maps of traffic patterns and flows that were unreadable from the audience. David Plummer -- the project's traffic consultant who frequently works for local governments -- began his presentation, describing a ``series of meetings held by Coral Gables,'' to which none of the objectors in the audience had received invitations.
Traffic is the Achilles' heel of the Rouse mall, but city commissioners last year ignored the ramifications as the developer and Mayor Valdes-Fauli proceeded with approvals. Now points raised by opponents are acknowledged to be true: There is no hope for improving traffic because the scale of the development absolutely will worsen traffic in adjacent neighborhoods and U.S. 1 intersections.
Le Jeune Road, Ponce de Leon and Bird Road intersections already have level-of-service ratings of F. This is the designation awarded by the Florida Department of Transportation for roadways that are, essentially, hopeless. Common sense would dictate that state law should provide for no additional development approvals that would increase traffic. But that is not the case. The law allows Coral Gables and the Rouse Company to ``mitigate'' additional traffic load from this massive project. The company's plan to mitigate includes planting trees in the median along Le Jeune, between Ponce and Bird to ``calm'' traffic and putting a four-way stop sign at Hardee Road and Granada, miles away, to slow commuters using the ``back way'' home.
Miami-Dade commuters, all of them, who use U.S. 1 to get to and from work will have significant, additional time added to their commutes to downtown Miami or any points south, east, north and west of the completed development. Earlier sewer hookups for the mall will involve major road-blocking construction.
If Mayor Valdes-Fauli, the plan's chief supporter, and the Rouse Company had offered the public its conclusions, prior to the City Commission approvals, the mall might have been re-sized to a scale appropriate to the area's capacity to absorb major new commercial development. But a smaller mall might not have been economically feasible, or, as palatable to those who will benefit from the project's stream of contracts and work..."
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