Monday, March 21, 2016

The Latest from Hudstead - Keys Gate. The Speedway now in the Mix. By Geniusofdespair

It is bad enough to live near a very noisy speedway, however look at Turkey Point in the distance. That would scare me much more. I talked to one resident of Keys Gate who said he could hear the speedway 4 miles away when the wind is blowing in the wrong direction.
Here is an email being circulated by a Keys Gate Delegate in the greatest Metropolis we have, Homestead:

Dear Keys Gate and overall City of Homestead neighbors,

In the face of growing community support from Homestead voters and Keys Gate homeowners, on March 9 a surprising development occurred. The City and Mr. Rosen were notified that the Homestead-Miami Speedway (the Racetrack) had hired litigating legal counsel from Coral Gables.

It appears the Racetrack will be challenging the minor variances (minor as defined by the State of Florida) requested of the 2012 zoning change passed unanimously by our City Council and agreed upon at that time by the Racetrack and its Special Interests. That change allowed for 189 townhomes and a restaurant to be built in the Park of Commerce. Mr. Rosen has asked to reduce the number of homes to 91 single family homes, thereby reducing density and traffic. This home development is linked to the golf course because it is part of the Master Plan and will help offset the $12 million investment to renovate the golf course and clubhouse.

Due to this delaying tactic by the Special Interests at the Racetrack, Mr. Rosen will not be asking the City Council for approval tomorrow (Wednesday), while he works to find out why the track now objects to a previously approved plan. There is confusion as to why they would want to stall this progress for potentially, years. The variances requested will reduce traffic, density, and are further away from the Racetrack than homes built by Lennar Homes. Why is the Racetrack using this delay tactic? As these two areas are part of the Master Plan, is the Racetrack now going to dictate how Keys Gate will be further developed and completed? Does the track have a Hidden Agenda? Why are they stepping into private development and preventing building in the Park of Commerce (POC) and subsequently, our golf course? In essence, a no vote on these minor variances represents a NO vote to the golf course & clubhouse.

The Keys Gate Residents Association (KGRA) has also objected to Mr. Rosen's request. Why? Why do the KGRA and their Delegate candidates want to delay or possibly stop a Fazio Golf Course? This upgraded golf course and clubhouse will raise our property values, make Homestead a destination, and provide jobs! The Council approved by unanimous vote in 2012 to allow 189 townhomes and a restaurant to be built on the land where the revised plan now requests to build only 91 single family homes. The racetrack did not object to the 2012 plan. Why object now to a plan with less density and less traffic? The racetrack had no objections to other townhomes that are being built closer to the racetrack than the land area mentioned above. Why is it ok for Lennar Homes to build closer to the racetrack, but not ok to build Keys Gate homes a little further away from the track?

Why does two of the current council who voted “yes” in 2012, now vote no against a reduced density plan and the golf course; as well as the current Mayor?

The POC and the golf course are both part of the previously approved Master Plan. Why is the racetrack attempting to dictate to the City, and to Keys Gate, how our community will be developed?
By attempting to stop the development plans already approved, the racetrack is stopping the golf course development. Why? Who at the racetrack wants to stop the golf course from reopening?

Is the Racetrack now running the City?

Let your voices be heard and don’t allow a powerful Special Interest Group, such as the Racetrack, to control the future of our community in a way that only serves their demands, at the expense of OUR quality of life.

This is OUR community! Do not allow a special interest group to take it from us, without a fight!!!

MEANWHILE AT THE MIAMI HERALD:

But for months the speedway has been vocal about its discontent with Rosen’s proposal to build single-family homes so close to the race track. On Friday, The race track’s vice president of operations, Albert Garcia, told the Miami Herald he believes developer’s plan will eventually lead the neighbors to complain about noise and traffic.

“Residential encroachment will definitely impact us negatively,” Garcia said. “Residential encroachment has had a devastating impact on similar race track across the country, leading to operating restrictions and closures.”

On March 9, a Coral Gables land-use attorney representing the speedway filed a records request with the city clerk, asking that the city provide numerous documents regarding area traffic and Rosen’s initial Development of Regional Impact (DRI) for his property. A DRI is a giant development that is given approval by the state.

“Our land-use experts are in the process of analyzing [the impact] to our year-round operation and championship races,” Garcia told the Miami Herald. “Only after completing this review will we know all the problems with this rezoning and our basis to challenge. Without a traffic study, we wont know the actual and total negative impact.”

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whomever wrote this sounds like a Wayne Rosen plant.

Anonymous said...

The speedway will expose the corruption within the council and Rosen's ties to convicted felon Bateman. The illegal spot zoning was done when Bateman was mayor and Rosen gave a hundred thousand to elect all of them. When you get in the mud with a pig you are going to get dirty.

Anonymous said...

Hopefully the track's attorneys will uncover the role of the city attorney in allowing the charter schools and the temporary agricultural zoning that helped Rosen and Gleber build more homes and saved them on property taxes.
These shifty developers are using the KGCA and Miami Management to ram these changes to residential down the city's throat.
The council cannot thwart discovery by the speedway and the city clerk has been inundated in records requests. It is going to get interesting when the actual vote comes before council, they are now stuck between two campaign cash cows. The speedway and Rosen both have the council's secrets. Who will win?

Anonymous said...

As mad as I was with the speedway years ago, they are the only real economic engine in Homestead, and no pun is intended. They are correct. Residential development there is a horrible idea and I'd like to hear the comments from HARB too. I'm pretty sure they cannot be too thrilled either.

I think it's incredibly self centered of the Keys Gate residents, who are really only a small portion of the Homestead population, to think it's okay to tie a golf course in their backyard, for something else not affecting them. It's absurd this isn't bifurcated. They are two separate items.

And in other news, the City of Hudstead is attempting to use our County transportation tax dollars (CITT/PTP) to buy a crappy property from a Homestead insider from the Keys, Steve DeGrave (Stick & Steins) at 28 S. Krome and the property he owns next to that for $3 million dollars of public funds with no clear purpose of the purchase stated. It also seems to be more than three times any real valuation, even at the current zoning. The owner has previously served on some Homestead Board, etc. and has received numerous county/city grants over the years for those properties! Nice deal council. Shame on all of you! This is more absurd than the shot gun housing. This insider deal probably makes even Shiver blush!

Anonymous said...

http://local.cityofhomestead.com/WebLink8/DocView.aspx?id=166597&dbid=0

Last anon, there's also no appraisal of the property in the 40 plus pages of the contract/resoution and addendum. It starts on page 7 of this pdf.

Anonymous said...

Why is anyone surprised? It all gets whitewashed. No appraisals, no impact fees, no traffic studies and so now they want to route 50,000 vehicles and track traffic through a new neighborhood formerly industrial.

FPL is out of control with tritium leaking into the canals and bay. Homestead Mayor and Council when asked about it by Steve McDuffie got no response.
The latest from the golf course is brought to us by Bill Thibault at a council meeting, it seems that Wayne Rosen and his team of goons killed all of the golf course turf with a banned chemical agent. Now it is in the backyards and water table of the homeowners. The city response was silence as they wondered how can James Bond kill grass? They have no idea what an agent is. The homeowners filed a complaint with District 8 Commissioner Levine-Cava. Ironic that they still support Rosen's scheme.
Like zombies the council sits there talking about how great Hudstead will be and then name outsiders to the committee reviewing the charter which includes the publisher of the news leader who guarantees no scandals, ever.

Anonymous said...

FORE!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Kendall and Key Largo are very well represented on the Hudstead Charter Review Committee. Three automatic no votes against Hudstead controlling it's own destiny. Good job Mayor and council. You only have 65,000 residents to choose from, some who actually vote in your city.
Just a reminder that Rosen votes in Coral Gables yet controls Hudstead.
You just might want to build a wall and see if you can get Coral Gables to pay for it.

Anonymous said...

Wow!!!
After reading about Hudstead and its problems and these comments,
and there I thought I had problems.
Whew.

Anonymous said...

Hudstead the name is just so precisely accurate.