Bruno Barreiro, the UDB, and the Art of War, by gimleteye

Since Bruno Barreiro, the chair of the Miami-Dade County Commission, only reads from a script provided by the developer lobby, it is worth considering the bizarre suggestion on the Urban Development Boundary reported in The Miami Herald, "Barreiro proposes permanent line."

I know that Barreiro has never read Sun Tzu's, "The Art of War". Someone at a higher pay grade, has. "If an enemy has alliances, the problem is grave and the enemy's position strong; if he has no alliances, the problem is is minor and the enemy's position weak."

The alliance the growth lobby fears is an alignment of interests between a popular governor, Charlie Crist, a savvy Department of Community Affairs, and citizens who support substantive reform of growth management in Florida.

Crist was embraced by the same pro-development interests as Bush, but not necessarily in MIami where the Latin Builders Association, like Bush, brooks no diversity except the hard-line orthodoxy of an entitled, political elite. That elite was perfectly amenable to the hostility cultivated by Bush with his critics. And, until the water supply shortage reared its ugly head, the elite clearly expected that it would be able to build out Miami-Dade straight to the edge of the Everglades.

The animosity between Crist and House Speaker Marco Rubio manifested in the recent session of the Florida legislature, where Rubio bottled up new legislation proposed by the Crist administration to improve the Growth Management Act, including a "citizens bill of rights".

Crist, like the presidential candidate he supports, shows a more nuanced understanding of the costs of growth and hubris. His political appointees have, for the most part, significantly improved relations with the public. Unlike Bush, Crist has been inclusionary in a way that the Miami development community fears; the more so since the housing crash has trimmed even the mightiest to human scale. The laws of fiscal reality do prevail, in the end.

The final Barreiro quote is very much to the subtext of the conflict: "Trutie also did not respond to Barriero's accusation that urban planners in state and county government are biased against growth. 'Some of them are very anti any development,' Barreiro said. 'I respect them, but they think one inch is one inch too much."

There are a couple of points here: first, it is a patently ridiculous statement torn from the old playbook. Second, any time a politician like Barreiro says that he "respects" you, watch out!

The two applications to move the UDB recently approved by the Miami Dade County Commission, over-riding the veto of Mayor Alvarez, are a precursor to the big show: the application by Lennar called Parkland in far West Dade-- nearly 1000 acres outside the UDB-- in which Bush ally Ed Easton was the original owner.

The Parkland Development of Regional Impact has been proceeding along a separate "process path" than the UDB applications. (Until the late 1990's, DRI's had to be considered in the same process path as the UDB applications: in their fawning obedience to the development lobby, the Florida legislature created another "process" whose primary purpose is to insulate local county commissions from too much criticism during the re=zonings that would combine the two.)

I don't have a crystal ball, but I would guess there has to be a bare knuckles fight going on over Parkland.

Everyone knows that the Parkland property is surrounded by politically connected landowners; from the former Homestead Air Force Base ringleaders, to shopping center owners, lobbyists, and Sergio Pino. In total, the acreage of land now in farmland and open space represents a land mass the size and scale of Palm Beach.

The land use attorneys who put Barreiro up to the suggestion of a "permanent line" know that it is politically impossible. So why, then, send sent Joe Goldstein to outline the argument against what they are recommending? "The political process to get the commissioners hasn't worked twice," Goldstein said, referring also to a $1 million study two years earlier on preservation of agricultural land. (And by the way, what a laughable matter that Commissioner Javier Souto recently claimed to support farming in South Dade, through a press statement by his office.)

I've written frequently about the political origins in Miami, of the building boom and the unsustainable growth of housing (see our archive, "housing crash").

In the next session of the legislature, they will try to eviscerate the Florida Department of Community Affairs. The gentle verb is "to sunset".

In the meantime, the remnants of the Bush machine need to liquify their speculative investments in falling real estate markets. Who knows what they really want: perhaps to be bought out by the state, perhaps to promise to save DCA if the DCA allows the line to be moved in their direction.

Sun Tzu, in the Art of War, said "When the enemy is relaxed, make them toil. When full, starve them. When settled, make them move." I haven't seen the passage on hubris, but I know that it must be there-- maybe under a chapter heading, Krome Gold.

Posted on Wed, May. 14, 2008
Permanent Dade development line proposed

By MATTHEW I. PINZUR
Adding a new wrinkle to the debate over sprawl and the South Florida environment, the chairman of the Miami-Dade Commission wants to draw a permanent development boundary in rural West Dade.
The county already has a line limiting growth, known as the Urban Development Boundary, but it is designed to be moved when commissioners believe expansion is necessary -- which they did last month, despite controversy and a mayoral veto.

The new line, proposed by Chairman Bruno Barreiro, would create a development-free zone beginning somewhere west of the current boundary and extending west into Everglades National Park.

''There has to be a substantial buffer to the Everglades,'' Barreiro said during a speech to the Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club, a South Beach civic group.

Unlike the current line, which can be moved every other year by a two-thirds vote of the commission, Barreiro said the permanent line would be enshrined in the county's charter. Creating it that way would require a referendum, as would any subsequent changes.

The new line would not replace the UDB; the area between the two lines would remain largely off-limits now but could be cleared for development in the future.

Barreiro, who voted to move the urban boundary last month, wants to hire experts to study the area's unique ecosystem and suggest where the line should be drawn.

`PHONY'

But one leader of Hold the Line, a coalition of groups that opposed moving the existing line, said Barreiro's proposal is a fig leaf to create political cover as he seeks reelection this year.

''It's phony damage control by politicians who don't have the guts to vote at the right time,'' said Miami Lakes Town Councilman Michael Pizzi, a leader in Hold the Line. ``It almost seems like an admission that they don't have the courage to withstand the developers to protect the line right now.''

If commissioners can argue they protected the permanent line, he said, they can try to justify moving the existing one.

''If it's not broke, why fix it?'' said Sara Fain, Everglades restoration project manager for the National Parks Conservation Association. ``It seems like an excuse to allow the commission to move the UDB without such a big fight.''

The long-simmering debate on the boundary reached a flash point this spring as the commission approved two projects -- one for a commercial center and one for a Lowe's home-improvement store and charter high school. Mayor Carlos Alvarez vetoed both, but was overruled by a two-thirds vote on the commission.

`DEATH'

''It's death by a thousand cuts,'' Fain said. ``We say one home-improvement store on 30 acres isn't going to destroy the Everglades, but we're going to blink and that's exactly what's going to happen.''

That kind of slippery-slope argument is exactly what a permanent line could solve, argued land-use lawyer Joe Goldstein.

''I believe the folks who are opposed to line movement are afraid of not knowing where it's going to end,'' said Goldstein, who has represented developers' successful applications to move the line. ``Builders just want to know where they can build.''

Even if the idea was adopted, the true test would come when a pen hits a map. Barreiro's idea of hiring experts has been tried and ended up stymied by politics.

Most recently, the county spent six years and $3 million on the South Miami-Dade Watershed Study, an attempt to protect water supplies that evolved into a complex 40-year plan for growth management. It was finished almost a year ago, but many of its major recommendations have gathered dust because of disputes among preservationists, developers, farmers and other powerful groups.

''The political process to get to the commissioners hasn't worked twice,'' Goldstein said, referring also to a $1 million study two years earlier on the preservation of agricultural land.

`CONCERNED'

The superintendent of Everglades National Park, Dan Kimball, said creating a second line might send a mixed message to lawmakers debating funding for Everglades restoration in Tallahassee and Washington.

''I am so concerned about what these changes communicate,'' said Kimball, who had not heard the idea until contacted by The Miami Herald. ``It raises a lot of questions for me.''

Through a spokeswoman, Alvarez declined to comment Tuesday. Spokeswoman Suzy Trutie also did not respond to Barreiro's accusation that urban planners in state and county government are biased against growth.

'Some of them are very anti any development,' Barreiro said. 'I respect them, but they think one inch is one inch too much."

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