Julie Dick has it Soooo Right On UDB Vote Today. By Geniusofdespair

Julie Dick of the Everglades Law Center

Water, water everywhere and the Neighborhood Planning Company wants the County Commission to move the UDB for their development. Who are they? Armando Guerra, Ramon Rasco, Agustin Herran and Sergio Pino. Boy have I heard those names before. They wanted the airport at Homestead without a bid, they are prominent in the Latin Builders Association (Build at all costs) and THEY ALL are/were the directors of the failing U.S. Century Bank that consistently has been rated a zero star bank by Bauer Financial (out of 5 stars).

This was the US Century Board when the Property was purchased. ALL THE NAMES ARE THERE.

In the Miami Herald today, Julie Dick's Opinion piece was against expansion of the Urban Development Boundary for Neighborhood Planning Company (meeting requesting the expansion will be held TODAY at the County). She gave numerous reasons but here is where Julie Dick hit the mark with a sledge hammer - FLOODING:

Not only is the proposed development inconsistent with the county’s Comprehensive Development Master Plan, it flies in the face of responsible planning for sea-level rise. It is part of continuous pressure to develop outside the UDB, in most cases on land that is extremely low lying and vulnerable to sea-level rise. Neighborhood Planning Company’s proposed industrial and commercial expansion of the UDB is one of several projects in the works that would add infrastructure to undeveloped areas in the county vulnerable to sea-level rise.

Similarly, a expansion proposal for South Miami-Dade would put a landfill in the footprint of Everglades restoration in a location that will be completely inundated with two feet of sea-level rise. The landfill proposal is particularly egregious considering one of our best defenses against sea-level rise is restoration of the Everglades ecosystem.

Likewise, the proposed expansion of State Road 836 would put a major highway through the Everglades ecosystem in low-lying wetlands.

All of these projects must be stopped. Flood control in the face of rising sea levels is a challenge we have not yet figured out how to address. One thing is clear: We are struggling to find flood-control solutions for the existing urban footprint. We cannot afford to bring on additional land, which will require additional flood control, to urbanized Miami-Dade County.

In the same edition of the Miami Herald Farmers complain they have standing water on their crops and are looking for aid:

"We've been through worse and never had water standing for this long" said Mike Casuely, who lost 300 acres of crops. Now picture a couple of thousand homes on that same land. Be good stewards Commissioners, don't put people in harms way.


Commissioners: HOLD THE LINE. We know that covenants are worth shit -- so do not believe them. Remember the Brown covenants? 30 Year Covenants lifted after 5 years by you guys. Some pact with the people's trust!

Water World: Terrible movie but it is a portent of our future?

It isn't often that I and Gimleteye write about the same thing (see post below). I just have more photos.

Hold the UDB Line Deadline for Letter Sign On to PAB is TODAY! By Geniusofdespair

From Tropical Audubon:

Hold the Line on SPRAWL and tell Miami-Dade County Commission to deny the expansion of the urban development boundary (UDB).

The county is considering two applications that would be devastating to the Everglades ecosystem, water supply and farmlands; especially with the threat of Sea Level Rise. Tell the county to protect the environment and deny these applications.

Read More about the UDB on our website and what you can do NOW.  

A paragraph from letter to the PAB read the whole letter...

Hold the Urban Development Boundary Line
Deadline: Wednesday, October 7, 2015

#1: LAST CALL FOR SIGN-ONS!  Click here to sign the community letter against expanding the UDB as proposed by Applications Nos. 7 & 8 to the Comprehensive Development Master Plan (CDMP).

E-mail Sarah policyTAS@gmail.com:
1) name of your organization's representative, 
2) representative's title, and 
3) name of your organization, by COB TODAY!

OCTOBER 19TH is the Planning Advisory Board Meeting at 10 AM.

Lynda Bell Said Her Daughter Made 7 Offers for a House So She was Lifting a Deed Restriction. By Geniusofdespair

Watch the video. Okay, I hope this is not your daughter Jenna we are talking about County Commissioner Lynda Bell. You said your daughter couldn't find a house. I wrote about this subject October 16th.

You said your daughter made 7 offers and could not get a house. When you said this Oct. 3, 2012, Jenna had $6,000 in her savings account and $200 in her checking account. Her Husband had a job for 4 months and Jenna had her job for a year.  He was making $1,600 a month and she was making $1,554.80 bi-monthly. Jenna had two jobs listed on the form that she worked one month at. This  is according to a Fannie Mae HUD form she filled out February 17, 2012. Jenna also filled out the same form October 21, 2011 and was rejected November 21, 2012.

No one is going to sell you a house with those numbers and those salaries Lynda. She could have made 1,000 offers, she wasn't getting a house. You need 20% down now. Adding inventory is not going to make it easier for her. Saving her money would. Where is this $80,000 subordinate financing coming from? It wasn't on the form.

So you voted to lift a 30 year deed restriction because your daughter could not get a house because her credit just wasn't good enough? Or as they say in the trade, it was trash. You didn't even give a hoot about the thousands of us out here who considered this 30 year Covenant a solemn oath between us and our County Commission. Not one word.

Both Commissioners Sally Heyman and Dennis Moss said the 30 year Covenant that promised NO RESIDENTIAL was important to them. At the time of the vote less than 5 years ago, many said they were voting to move the UDB line for the office complex BECAUSE of the 30 year Covenant. But here you are lifting it because your daughter did not do any planning to purchase a house including saving and keeping a job. This covenant was important to all of us. The urban development boundary was MOVED because of it. But heck, maybe it will help your daughter, and that is all that matters to you isn't it?

Second you said on the video that you went to a school for urban design planning. You didn't say you took a course (which is probably more accurate). Exactly what school was that? Did you go for a weekend retreat or something? You just can't say anything you want on the dais. You have to be honest with us folks. We don't like to be mislead and we check what you say.

No accountability at Miami-Dade County Commission: when a promise isn't a promise ... by gimleteye

Well we won't have County Commission Chairman Joe Martinez to kick around any more. Martinez is "retiring" from public office. His walking papers were handed to him by voters in a delusional challenge to be elected county mayor.

In the Miami Today article (see article below) on the broken promise by the county commission-- allowing a developer to building more crappy housing where he had promised, in a binding covenant, not to -- , Martinez gives his backers from the sprawl industry a thank-you on his way out the door and shows voters why it is a losing battle to protect quality of life in Miami-Dade.

In 2005 I was one of the organizers of the Hold The Line effort to protect the Urban Development Boundary. The UDB was never a fortification; the fortification for citizens was growth management law that provided for state authority to backstop local government. That's all history, now, thanks to the GOP.

Miami Today notes that the county commission is allowing one developer -- whose idea for profit is based on more suburban sprawl -- to build housing where he had promised not to.

Martinez told his fellow commissioners, "We have a little higher approval rating than Congress," without noting how accommodating sprawl developers at the expense of taxpayers is a chief reason. In 2005, I provided Martinez with a poll from thousands of his mostly Hispanic constituents showing that public opinion was strongly against moving the Urban Development Boundary. (Martinez' constitutents also agreed, by nearly 70 percent, that political corruption was at the root of environmental degradation.) It made Martinez angry to be confronted with views that contradicted his backers.

"A covenant has to flow with the times," Martinez now says -- blowing off county government's failures that contributed of the worst economic crash since the Great Depression: excesses in the housing development and financing markets through which the County Commission provides a small cog in a great machine of wealth destruction.

"If we're so inflexible that we can't flow with the times, we'll be as bad as Washington," Martinez said.

It is a curious choice of words, "flow" with the times. Martinez knows in his heart that promises can be broken at will because there is no accountability on growth issues. "Flowing around promises": isn't there a word for that?

The culprits are not just the county commission, but also the Florida legislature and Gov. Rick Scott who blessed the destruction of thirty years of growth management law in the last session of the legislature. The failure to protect the public also bears the fingerprints of Jeb! Bush, whose antipathy to government regulations provides the dark background for Miami-Dade's successful race to the bottom.

Busted state authority for growth, the GOP jihad against regulations, the weakness of the Democratic minority -- in its half-hearted attempts to be Republican-lite -- and the theory that the best government is the government where industry's self-interest provides for the public good: these are all the lifeless rationales the county commission now "flows" with.

In Miami Today, Barbara Jordan is quoted, "We need to keep our promise to the community". What a crock. When there is no accountability, anyone can say anything. That is how it has been and that is how it is going to be in this brave new world, arising from the cinders of the housing crash. These are going to be good times for the unreformable majority.

One way of looking at it: voters are shell-shocked. Another way of looking at: voters have been so conditioned by lies and broken promises, when the next crash hits they will believe anything that anyone tells them who looks good, is telegenic, and delivers a good sound bite on television.

Commissioner Lynda Bell is One of The Unreformable Majority.

From Miami Today

Thank you Commissioners Sally Heyman and Dennis Moss for honoring a  30 year covenant (Barreiro and Souto were absent). The rest of you -- betrayal.

I wrote about this issue May 23rd.  I also wrote about it January 12th: It is BACK!! Like a bad case of the runs. 

 This issue is about land OUTSIDE the UDB line. The developer promised NO RESIDENTIAL imposing a 30 year Covenant on the land in 2007. He got the UDB line moved based on the covenant. Now the vote is in. Just 5 years later, the 30 year covenant is gone. 9 Commissioners voted in favor of this. Commissioners Jean Monestime, Rebeca Sosa, Audrey Edmonson and Xavier Suarez: What were you thinking? A 30 year covenant is a solemn promise in my book.

It is good to see Lynda Bell doesn't give a hoot about a 30 year covenant. If her daughter can't find a house in this market, she either doesn't have enough money, has bad credit or is incompetent. Anyway, why is a commissioner making a decision for over 2 million people based on a family member? To hell with the good of the community. Lynda Bell is no Katy Sorenson and never will be. I hereby induct Lynda Bell in the 'unreformable majority' on the county commission.

Kendall Commons is undeveloped residential. The property that had the 30 year covenant is to the North of Kendall Commons (on the curve). Why do we need more residential if they never developed Kendall Commons?

The Urban Development Boundary: New Developments to Wreck What Is Left of Miami Dade ... by gimleteye

County Commissioners Jose "Pepe" Diaz & Joe Martinez

Pepe Diaz and Joe Martinez, charter members of the Unreformable Majority of the Miami-Dade County Commission, put their stamp on a plan for a "working group" to decide "once and for all" (Diaz' words) a "democratic" way to change the Urban Development Boundary and the policy for the UDB that has been in the county master plan for decades.

We have blogged at length about the UDB. Use our search feature to isolate posts related to UDB issues. (I am a founding member of Hold The Line, the group that organized nearly ten years ago to attempt to stop the repetitive incursions by developers against the line, separating areas served by county-funded (ie. taxpayer) infrastructure from areas where development is restricted-- mainly for environmental reasons.)

At yesterday's meeting, the Latin Builders Association, the South Florida Builders Association, and Jeffrey Bercow-- on behalf of developer clients-- all supported the plan to create a "working group". Before the meeting Diaz promised would be fair and balanced, "3 to 3", but his own arithmetic is indecipherable only to him. The builder lobbyists also all voiced doubt during their comments; "skepticism" that any agreement could be reached with environmentalists. They had obviously rehearsed their lines together.

The notion of a "working group" was first floated to me by Joe Martinez in the early 2000's when a whole raft of developer applications to move the UDB sought to catch the wave of the housing boom. Bercow and his cohorts (ie. Neisen Kasdin) made the rounds of downtown business groups with a powerpoint presentation predicting that skyrocketing demand for housing would never end. They derided professional county planning staff in public forums including the county commissioner chamber. In comparison to Hold The Line, they were given deference and "respect" by Martinez and Diaz and Barreiro and the rest of the Unreformable Majority. At the same time, Hold The Line members were attacked by commissioners themselves from the dais.

It was clear to Hold The Line ten years ago, and to conservationists twenty years ago, that big agriculture and developers (basically the same, since big ag obtains bank loans based on the developable value of its land) want one thing: to build whatever they want, whenever they want so long as it makes a profit. Since risk is involved in making a profit, the balance tips to speculation where the crucial factor involves the manipulation of public policy and decisions by elected officials.

So, why a "working group" now? Simple.

In the last session of the Florida legislature, Gov. Rick Scott let the lunatics loose in the asylum. They succeeded in eliminating state regulatory authority through the Florida Department of Community Affairs. (At the local level, the same has occurred: the Miami Dade Department of Environmental Regulatory Management -- DERM-- was also stripped like a stolen vehicle in a chop shop: all on the premise that environmental regulations and enforcement hurt "jobs".) Laws that provided an appeal process for changes to county development plans that were nominally supervised by DCA have vanished in the blur of the economic crash and the disappearing act of accountability. Nothing means anything.

Yesterday on the dais, Pepe Diaz summoned the bitter memory (in his mind, at least) of the 2009 application to move the Urban Development Boundary for a new Lowe's at the urban fringe. He decried the loss of a "free" high school a charter school operator had pledged to build. All because environmentalists wouldn't let Lowe's build "three hundred feet" into the Urban Development Boundary.

Environmental groups-- once the Unreformable Majority passed the Lowe's plan over the objections of a state review-- took the issue to state administrative court. After the kind of protracted and costly legal battle that characterized these conflicts, environmentalists won. And it is because environmentalists had an appeal process that could, on occasion, result in victory, the developer lobby was further inflamed to go after the state authority in the legislature. Because Gov. Scott was clueless about the long history of land use battles in Florida, he simply nodded his bald dome and handed the keys of the granary to the thieves. This is the "democracy" that Diaz is trying to summon like a magician waving a wand over a top hat.

Eliminating state authority for land use changes had the immediate effect of putting the county commission on the hot seat: voters will now get to see for themselves exactly who is responsible for the ongoing destruction of their quality of life, communities, and environment. The burden rests squarely on the shoulders of the county commission.

To create plausible deniability for the massacres to come, the builders and developers encouraged Diaz and Martinez to form a "working group" that they of course would control and devise "recommendations" to change the Urban Development Boundary policy in county law. They want to do whatever they want, whenever they want. (This notion of a "permanent" boundary is nonsense. It is "permanent" until the next generation of county commissions ascends the glorious dais.)

Yesterday, environmentalists who contributed to Hold The Line said they would respectfully decline to participate in what is bound to be a sham exercise.

They also raised the pointedly relevant observation: prior county commissions have already spent tens of millions and thousands of county staff hours on studies and recommendations relative to the Urban Development Boundary. The last -- the South Miami Dade Watershed Study-- was the most comprehensive localized, science based analysis for water use planning and development ever undertaken in the United States. The builders killed the study because they didn't like the results. It was a shame. Years earlier, the county commission had buried the results of the Agriculture Retention Study, also involving the UDB, because they didn't like those results either. In response to the bad PR from killing the Watershed Study, the Unreformable Majority sought cover from the US EPA who was invited to review the UDB and because the EPA endorsed the UDB, that study was shelved, too.

So there you have it. The county commission just can't say, no. As far as the developer lobby goes, you can't paint stripes on that horse and fool anyone into believing it is a zebra. And, the "working group". Let's just say, that dog won't hunt.

Commissioners Moss and Heyman: Good Work! By Geniusofdespair

Why we shouldn't move the Urban Development Boundary: 2 Miami Dade County Commissioners made the argument yesterday against sprawl on the West side of Miami-Dade (I saved you a few hours by editing, leaving you the best of the hearing):


Link to video.

Commissioner Moss makes a compelling argument. I really do like this guy.


Link to video.

Sally Heyman and Dennis Moss are 2 County Commissioners we can be proud of on this issue. I personally thank them for holding the line on urban sprawl. I also have to thank Commissioners Audrey Edmonson, Javier Souto and Jean Monestime.

HOLD THE LINE! County Hall Tomorrow. By Geniusofdespair

Hold the Line Tomorrow!

Wed., Nov. 30 - 111 NW 1st Street, 2nd Floor 2 p.m.

Ferro Investment Group II, LLC will seek to move the Urban Development Boundary (UDB) line in an application that converts 9.9 acres from agriculture to business and office.

Stand up to Sprawl and ask your elected officials to Hold The Line! Miami-Dade staff have recommended "deny and do not transmit" the proposed standard amendment to expand the 2015 UDB. This application would convert our valuable, agricultural land to office and retail. The EPA states that Miami-Dade County is at a critical point in converting too much of its agricultural land to development. Please attend and voice your opinions or contact your Commissioner!

Update on a Development of Regional Impact: Parkland. By Geniusofdespair

This article was written May 20, 2010 in the Daily Business Review but I missed it so I think many of you might have too. I last reported on Parkland in February when the loan was in default. Lynda Bell got a lot of money from Ed Easton for her campaign. It is pretty important to keep up with developments looming on the wrong side of the Urban Development Boundary. This Parkland development of regional impact (DRI) was particularly awful...Hold the Line!!

Developer sues partners after loan to keep project afloat

Developer Ed Easton is suing two partners to recover money he claims he put up to help rescue a controversial Miami-Dade project from a potential foreclosure.

Easton sued developers Michael Latterner and Wayne Rosen in Miami-Dade Circuit Court early this week over the Parkland project proposed for outside the county’s urban boundary.

Easton is seeking $1.18 million he said he paid to help cover his partners’ share of mortgage payments. The money was used to pay down loans that at the time totaled $47 million tied to the 961-acre Parkland site, bounded by Southwest 162nd and 177th avenues and 136th and 152nd streets.

Latterner and Rosen did not immediately return calls for comment.

In 2004, Easton, Latterner and Rosen created a partnership called Krome Grove Investors. The partnership is one of several entities behind Krome Groves Land Trust, which is seeking state and county permits to develop the 6,941-home community in western Miami-Dade.

Each of the three partners in Krome Grove Investors was responsible for capital contributions to help the trust cover expenses and keep loans current. If one of the partners could not make a capital payment, the others were to make the payment, according to the lawsuit. The payment was to be in the form of a loan.

In September, the partners were required to contribute close to $3.9 million to help the trust reduce a $44.6 million mortgage with City National Bank to $40 million, according to Miami-Dade County records.(hit read more)

The payment also helped cut two second mortgages totaling nearly $2 million to $414,150 last year, county records showed.


When Latterner and Rosen couldn’t pay their combined $1.18 million share of the $3.9 million payment, Easton paid the entire amount.

Easton has been trying to get paid for nearly eight months, said Miami attorney Bill McCaughan, who represents Easton.

“They don’t question that they owe that money,” said McCaughan, a partner with K&L Gates. “Their concern is that there is going to be future capital calls and they want to structure things in a way that Mr. Easton would cover future ones so they would have all the benefits but none of the obligations.”

Easton, managing partner of Krome Grove Investors, is also the trustee of the Krome Groves Land Trust. Other investors in the trust include Miami-based Lennar Homes, Miami developer Sergio Pino, members of the Herran and Guerra families — who own Sedano’s Supermarkets — and lobbyists Rodney Barreto and Ramon Rasco.

McCaughan said the future of Parkland is safe since Easton helped pay down the trust’s debt and obtain a City National Bank loan extension until April 2011.

In addition to thousands of homes, the proposed community would 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.

The trust applied for a county permit to build the massive project outside the county’s urban development boundary in 2007, as the housing market began to rapidly deteriorate. But in December 2008, the trust put its application on hold.

Paola Iuspa-Abbott can be reached at (305) 347-6657.

Miami Dade County Commissioners: always be wasting taxpayers' time ... by guest blogger

Yesterday, Miami-Dade County Commissioners were scheduled to vote on an application to yet again push the Urban Development Boundary (UDB) onto valuable agricultural lands. The Homestead Speedway is seeking the county’s blessing to move the boundary to allow for overflow parking, construction of a 6,000 square-foot concession kitchen, a “fan experience area” to highlight their sponsors, and 12,000 additional spectator seats to be built over the next decade. The project will take place in close proximity to the Biscayne Bay Coastal Wetlands (BBCW) project, and within an aquifer recharge area.

The transmittal hearing didn’t play out as planned, although plenty of citizens wasted their time waiting to see if they would have a chance to offer objections in public testimony. Though planning staff prepared all appropriate documents several months ago, Commissioners’ offices were first provided with the application paperwork less than 24 hours before the hearing was set to begin. Ill-equipped and angered by this process failure, Commissioners were unable to make any decision. Chairman Martinez was "forced" to reschedule the hearing for a later date. (Something that he takes obvious pleasure in doing; sticking it to citizens.)

Commissioner Heyman expressed her disappointment with the process, stating: “Ironically, with something as incredibly important as moving the UDB, there isn’t timely information. Talk about a missed opportunity.” From the other side's point of view, it wasn't a missed opportunity: it was an opportunity taken to frustrate the will of voters.

Hold the Line members are waiting for news of the rescheduled hearing date. Perhaps this extended timeline will allow the Commissioners to see this application for what it really is – yet another sorry excuse to push sprawl development even though there is no demand. This is how they beat the public into submission.
Type the rest of the post here

SEIU and Unions enabling County Commissioner Natacha Seijas: but why? by gimleteye

The Service Employees International Union gave $20,000 to the political action committee set up to save county commissioner and de facto chair Natacha Seijas, from recall and oblivion. Seijas is facing the second recall by petition in less that three years. The Hialeah commissioner-- it is well known-- has carved out a permanent incumbency in the most important electoral district in Florida. That gives her considerable power. Seijas wields a political battle axe in defense of her fiefdoms: mainly airport contracts and zoning for development in farmland and outside the urban development boundary.

But why, one wonders, would SEIU-- one of the most powerful unions in the nation-- allow itself to be joined at the hip to Seijas? Yes, Seijas defends the unions. But the unions attract considerable attention from any candidate running for an important office. For her part, Seijas understands pothole politics very well; she takes care of abuelas, offering free breakfasts and lunch at election time. Her three legged stool has two other parts: unions and developers. The developer issue is clear enough: they need an enforcer of a consistent, sustainable majority and Seijas does exactly what she is told. But why would SEIU bend over for Natacha Seijas? Does Seijas offer any protection-- other than her bulldog ferocity? No.

One of my favorite SEIU / Seijas stories goes back a few years, to 2003. As a founding member of the Hold The Line Coalition, I organized citizen advocates at public hearings before the county commission. At one hearing after another, we made the case for protecting the Urban Development Boundary from incursions by the greedy developers who chewed up Miami-Dade and turned the county into a warren of ghost suburbs and foreclosures, with poorly built platted subdivisions gradually going to ground in weedy spots.

Yes, we made arguments on environmental grounds: for example, that Lennar should not be allowed to exploit Biscayne Bay wetlands. The same could be said of Shoma Homes, or the Pino-Rasco cabal at US Century: all major donors who defend Seijas with big contributions. But the heart of the argument against Seijas was not environmental. The development pattern of ring suburbs without centers and disconnected from places of work or mass transit, imposed by Seijas' supporters was responsible, itself, for the poverty of political leadership that traps taxpayers and voters in Miami-Dade today. We made that case with union members and they understood.

When it comes to moving the Urban Development Boundary, the trap is on full display: developers ratcheting up the pressure binding land speculators, to mortgage brokers, and the whole supply chain feeding into financial derivatives raining billions in compensation to Wall Street executives. Sound community planning in Miami-Dade is a dartboard with the Big Cheeses who support Seijas and the unreformable majority throwing darts. At the county commission, their cheering section is fully staffed by lobbyists and rent-a-crowds, organized by up and coming young Republicans. The arguments we made in 2003 resonated with blue collar workers, bending under the costs of housing and distant commutes. Union members were subsidizing ill-advised housing developments by absorbing the costs of commuting to work from distant places in Kendall farmland and wetlands, far from the workplace. The union members understood: the time and money they spend stuck in cars and badly designed suburbs deprives their families. They also understood that these costs were the results of political corruption that benefit the kinds of campaign contributors Seijas represents so well. Union members get it: zoning and planning and transportation systems shift costs to lower middle class homeowners in the suburbs, and these costs are the result of bad public policy by the county commission.

Natacha Seijas is responsible in particular, for her role enforcing the unreformable majority with a mean demeanor dripping with sarcasm toward any who have a different opinion.

In one crucial 2003 public hearing, members of SEIU were with us, Holding The Line. We had educated union members about the need to protect the Urban Development Boundary. Many showed up at a county commission public hearing on the UDB applications. They came to the chambers, wearing SEIU T-shirts. Yes! Environmentalists and Union Members in solidarity! No sooner had the hearing started in the packed commission chambers, when the union members disappeared. I found out what happened later.

From the dais, Seijas had spotted SEIU members sitting with Hold The Line citizen advocates. She picked up the phone and called the SEIU top dog in a cold rage. Within minutes, the SEIU members in the audiences had been instructed to leave. And they did.

Now, SEIU is throwing $20,000 of union dues at a county commissioner who represents the worst of the unreformable majority. It doesn't make sense. Seijas doesn't offer any more or less protection to the union, than they would otherwise receive from willing commissioners. SEIU leadership is an enabler for a politician, Natacha Seijas, whose commitments otherwise harm so many union members. Too bad most union members don't have a clue.

Huge Fine Levied For Wetlands Violation Against Marco Rubio Supporter, Sprawl Builder Icon Sergio Pino ... by gimleteye

Sergio Pino, who flew county commissioner Pepe Diaz in 2004 on his private jet to his private yacht in the Gulf of Mexico-- sparking the interest of federal investigators questioning influence trading relating to one of Pino's Doral suburban sprawl projects-- just was hit with an enormous fine in a Miami federal court for wetlands violations. AS IN, CRIME. The Miami Herald reports, "Under the terms of a settlement approved this month by U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King in Miami, the builder must perform the wetlands work it originally pledge to complete and pay a $400,000 fine plus $60,000 in other regulatory fees-- an unusually stiff penalty in a wetlands-violation case."

It started out a good century for everything Century. Not so, lately.

In 2004 Hispanic Trends magazine and Nextel Communications named Pino, president and chief executive of Century Homebuilders, for its Best in Business Award 2004. Pino was recognized then as the top Hispanic entrepreneur in the country, making Century a top South Florida homebuilder with revenues surpassing $200 million in 2003, as well as for his contributions to the region’s Hispanic community. “Sergio puts 110 percent into whatever he does whether it is public service or running his very successful company,” said Gov. Jeb Bush, who has known Pino for many years.

In 2002, Pino's companies reimbursed $29,500 to 59 contributors to Bush's 2002 re-election campaign, violating Florida election laws that prohibit making donations in another person's name. These days, Pino's troubled loans are attracting national headlines. Suits and countersuits dog Pino loans.

In May 2010, The St. Pete Times noted the connection between Pino and Marco Rubio, who will be Florida's next US Senator. "Among (Rubio's) debts was a $135,000 home equity loan. It was based on an appraisal that said his West Miami home increased in value from $550,000 when he bought it in December 2005 with a $55,000 down payment to $735,000 just 37 days later. When the Miami Herald reported the loan in 2008, Rubio said he did not receive special treatment from Miami-based U.S. Century Bank, whose board of directors includes supporters like developer Sergio Pino. He said failing to include the loan on his state financial disclosure form was an "oversight," and amended it."

Pino was a Bush Ranger, contributing heavily to GOP candidates including former Gov. Bush and former President George W. Bush. Yesterday's federal court judgement, the judge cited Pino's "limited ability to pay" although according to the website CampaignMoney.com Pino gave $98,000 to political candidates in 2008 and $32,600 in 2010. Pino has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Jeb Bush entity, the Foundation for Florida's Future. The Foundation advocates "free market environmentalism" and specifically advocates a free market approach to protecting wetlands; an ideologically driven position that contains the ruins of Florida's environment. In August 2009, "Pino attempted to raise more than $50 million ... by taking advantage of a US law that offered green cards to foreign nationals who invested in (his) project."

Pino, sprawl builder icon, has been a persistent force in speculating on land outside the Urban Development Boundary of Miami-Dade, relying on his political muscle at the local level-- honed to razor skill in manipulating vendor contracts at Miami International Airport-- to change underlying zoning of unbuildable land at the county. In 2009 "people to watch in real estate, South Florida Business Journal noted: "Homebuilder Sergio Pino and a group of powerful partners are entering 2009 with a proposal for a massive project outside Miami-Dade County’s development boundary. The proposed Parkland project would produce 7,000 homes, plus fire stations, businesses, schools and parks southwest of Kendall- Tamiami Executive Airport. The review process on the 961-acre project began in 2008. Supporters and opponents voiced the familiar mantras of the necessity for growth versus the consequences of urban sprawl. Supporters said it’s a well-planned project that would produce jobs, and provide schools and amenities to neighborhoods that badly need them. Opponents argue the project would further undermine the buffer with the Everglades and spur sprawl. Miami-Dade County staff came out against the project, which would require moving the line that separates the county’s greatest density from some of its least-dense parcels. Staffers said it was unnecessary, arguing for development on available land inside the county’s urban development boundary. In addition to Pino, the partners in the Parkland project include Lennar Corp., Ed Easton and Adolfo Henriques, former president and CEO of Florida East Coast Industries." All are prominent supporters of Jeb! Bush.

Pino, guilty of federal violation of wetlands law, still travels on corporate jets and on private yachts. He called yesterday's fine-- one of the largest in in the history of wetland's violations-- a "consent decree".



Posted on Mon, Dec. 27, 2010
Home builder must pay $460,000 for wetlands violations

BY CURTIS MORGAN
cmorgan@MiamiHerald.com

When one of South Florida's largest home builders received a federal permit seven years ago for a development called Islands of Doral, the approval came with some conditions.To compensate for destroying 415 acres of maleleuca-infested wetlands in West Miami-Dade County, Century Homebuilders agreed to set aside another 47 acres and create a wetlands preserve by removing the exotic species and replanting with spikerush, pond apple and other native foliage.

Century never completed the job.

Under the terms of a settlement approved this month by U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King in Miami, the builder now must perform the wetlands work it originally pledged to complete and pay a $400,000 fine plus $60,000 in other regulatory fees -- an unusually stiff penalty in a wetlands-violation case.

Ignacio Moreno, an assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice's Environmental and Natural Resources Division, said in a statement that the case showed the federal government's commitment to enforcing wetlands-protection laws.

``The substantial penalty and other relief obtained in this case underscore a message to all builders that they must meet all conditions of the permit,'' Moreno said in a news release.

Century executives -- company president Sergio Pino, who signed the settlement called a ``consent decree,'' and Cesar Llano, vice president of land development -- did not respond to several telephone messages left in the past few weeks. Neither did Mitchell Widom, a Miami attorney who represented the company in the federal civil case filed in December 2009 by the Justice Department on behalf of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

In its response to the complaint, the company admitted it had not done much of the required wetlands enhancement required under the Corps permit, which included clearing invasive plants, building protective berms and planting more than 100,000 native plants. But it provided no explanations and also denied many of the alleged violations, including an allegation that it illegally filled one acre of the intended preserve when it dumped rock fill on surrounding lands to build the housing project.

The settlement, citing evidence from the developer about ``the limits of their ability to pay,'' gives the company two years to come up with the $400,000 fine -- $50,000 within six months, an additional $180,000 by Oct. 1, 2011, and $170,000 by the following Oct. 1. Century must also purchase $60,000 in wetlands ``mitigation credits'' that will be applied toward an ongoing wetlands-restoration project in Everglades National Park.

The Corps has been criticized over the years by environmentalists, Congress and government watchdog agencies for its lax oversight of so-called ``mitigation'' projects. Such projects are intended to offset development of wetlands by improving the environmental quality of other sites or even creating new wetlands.

In 2005, the U.S. Government Accountability Office issued a report that found the Corps did a poor job of determining whether developers followed through with promised work and rarely inspected the restored or constructed wetlands. In 2008, the Corps overhauled its policies.

In a written response to e-mail questions, the Corps' Jacksonville district said it first brought up the incomplete work with Century in 2006 ``and sought to informally resolve the noncompliance issues for the next three years.''

The fine ranks among the largest levied in recent years in such cases -- at least in Florida. In 2009, the Corps hit a Tampa-area developer with a $300,000 fine and 18-month work suspension for clearing an acre of forested wetlands and dumping muddy discharge into a creek that feeds into the Hillsborough River, a main source of drinking water for Tampa.

Royal Gardner, vice dean of law at Stetson University in Gulfport and a former Corps attorney on wetlands laws, said in an e-mail response to questions that, in the past, the agency focused more on illegally filled wetlands. Cases against builders that failed to performed promised mitigation projects were rarer, he said.

``If this is a fine for failure to do mitigation, then I'd characterize it as a significant penalty and a great precedent,'' he said.



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Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/12/27/v-print/1990789/home-builder-must-pay-460000-for.html#ixzz19PuV0gIG

Miami Herald Says: Don't Move The Line. By Geniusofdespair

The Herald said today that moving the Urban Development Boundary is a bad idea:

There is no compelling public interest in moving the UDB now. To do so would only prove, again, that the commission majority is caving to private developers' interests at the public good's expense.

Will the County Commission vote to move it? With Commissioner Sally Heyman absent (broken ankle) it all hinges on the swing votes of Commissioners Audrey Edmonson and Rebeca Sosa. I am feeling confident about Commissioners Sorenson, Gimenez and Moss. The application needs two thirds of the County Commission, with 12 present they need 8 votes to pass it. We have dubbed Edmonson a member of the 'unreformable majority'. Will she stay in that snake pit or move to the enlightened side today? Our only other chance is if a member of the unreformable doesn't show up, like Vile Natacha Seijas, but knowing the Commissioner of the 13th district, she would come on a stretcher just to orchestrate the votes to help her buds.

If you are going to the meeting today, send me photos of lobbyists.

5 Days until D-DAY, show your civic responsibility: come tell the County Commission what you think about moving the UDB... by gimleteye

On April 28 the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners will consider three applications to move the Urban Development Boundary. Please check out archive, under UDB or type in the search bar, "Neighborhood Planning".

For seasoned readers of our blog, there is every reason to be exhausted by the charade of representative democracy involving votes to move the Urban Development Boundary. Back in the building boom, civic activists, environmentalists and citizens concerned about rationale growth in Miami-Dade endured repetitive attacks by the development lobby, the engineering cartel, and even county commissioners. We said that the model of growth in Miami-Dade was broken and that our democracy was being deformed by intense lobbyist pressure on these UDB zoning issues.

The organized assault follows a sickeningly familiar scenario: those in favor of a UDB application pay people to sit in the audience while stacks of attorneys, paid from $500 to $800 an hour run through their scripts. People with no idea why they are being bused in to County Hall file into the Chamber and take up space in rows of chairs, impassive and slack-faced, while some of them trot out the points they have been hired to make. They wear T-shirts for Lowe's or some other applicant. They give "cover" to public officials (like Joe Martinez or Natacha Seijas who wink and nod at their lobbyist friends from the dais) and time after time invent excuses to by-pass rationale planning in favor of land speculators. It doesn't matter if they know, in advance, that the Florida Dept. of Community Affairs will reject their application: it is all part of the land development scheme as it plays out year after year.

Still it is a worthwhile exercise in civic engagement to show that people are watching and have very strongly held views that moving the UDB only serves to further entrench a failed model of growth and development. Please, type in "Neighborhood Planning", or UDB in our search engine. Please plan on attending the meeting at 9:30 a.m. at the Stephen P. Clark Center (111 NW 1 St.) to speak up. Three commissioners plan to run for mayor, and a raft of candidates hope to become county commissioners. For the entire county, this is an important moment to show your support for Hold the Line.

On Urban Development Boundary application, County Commissioners vote to punt ... by gimleteye

In the midst of an epic glut in commercial and residential real estate capacity, there is no need to move the Urban Development Boundary. The UDB extends in a ragged edge along the western edge of Miami-Dade, separating the urban service area from farmland and open space edging toward the Everglades. But the county commission could not summon the political will to stop another application to move the Urban Development Boundary. If there was ever a time to say, OK we made some mistakes in the past approving unsustainable growth but now is the time to reconsider and act in good faith on behalf of taxpayers, this was it. But it wasn't. Yesterday the commission decided to continue to litigate against the state of Florida and an administrative court decision to uphold the state's position that a new Lowe's store outside the Urban Development Boundary violated the state's Growth Management Act (see, Lowe's below) Today, the commission voted to "transmit" without recommendation the Ferro application in order to get the judgment of the state that it rejected in the Lowe's case.

What is so amazing, here, is that Natacha Seijas and the unreformable majority keeps saying that the county should "retain" control; ie. local control, yet, they keep punting developer applications to the state. At the same time, the Growth Machine lobbyists promoting developer applications judged to be violations are promoting changes that would eviscerate the state agency whose opinion the commissioners profess to want. If this isn't government designed to fail, I don't know what is.

Clean Water Action Dawn Shirreffs countered Joe Martinez. Noting the huge volume of empty retail, office and housing in the Kendall Commons area, Shirreffs argued that you can't "build it and they will come. We built it, and they are not coming." That's too much common sense. Tropical Audubon Society Laura Reynolds held up a photo of the Kendall Commons site with a "For Sale" sign on it. Just what we have said: the Urban Development Boundary is all about land speculators, flippers, and political insiders trying to cash out of property bought too high. Change the underlying zoning, recoup some cost from another vulture willing to sit on the property until the markets return.

The only surprise, and it raised some eyebrows: African American county commissioner Audrey Edmunson voted against the application. Perhaps it is becoming clearer, in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression, that encouraging more suburban sprawl comes at the cost to inner city taxpayers and residents who end up funding the costs and diversion of public resources to outlying areas. Also voting "no"-- the right vote-- were Katy Sorenson, Rebeca Sosa, and Chairman Dennis Moss. If Sally Heymann had been there-- she wasn't-- and if Carlos Gimenez had voted with the minority, as he usually does on UDB changes, the measure would have been defeated. Instead, local activists and community organizers will chase, again, into the rabbit hole of state review, sending the controversy far from the prying eyes of local constitutents; a diversion of energy and talent and money that may in itself be the point of these senseless attempts to circumvent responsible planning in Miami-Dade County.

Just being there: here Comes the EPA on the Urban Development Boundary ... by gimleteye

On October 15th, a long-postponed "workshop" involving planners and independent contractors lined up by the U.S. EPA will review policies related to the Urban Development Boundary. The EPA is coming in at the invitation of the Miami Dade County Commission. It will be an open public meeting; dismal as the case may be.

For the main part Miami-Dade's Urban Development Boundary policy-- crafted by skilled professional planners-- has endured assaults by the development community. Never more intensely than during the late, great building boom now crashed in cinders. Recall, for example, the dog-and-pony show powerpoint presentation trotted out to the Chamber of Commerce and other downtown business groups in 2005-- with Neisen Kasdin, Jeffrey Bercow, Andy Dolkart, and others-- showing graphs and statistics of "inevitable" population explosion in Miami-Dade and claims against county planners who sat quietly and spoke softly with no one in a position of authority to defend them, except at other times by County Commissioners Katy Sorenson, Carlos Gimenez, and Mayor Carlos Alvarez.

The Growth Machine just nodded its collective head in murmuring assent: all growth is good. All tax base increase is good. And, of course: without economic development you can't protect the environment.

I'm not certain of the origin of the idea to summon the EPA to review Miami-Dade's growth policies. If I were to guess, it seemed a good idea to developers-- frustrated by the conflict as applications to move the UDB helped to organize opposition against their own favored like Natacha Seijas and Pepe Diaz and Joe Martinez. Call in the EPA. Why not. The strange part of this desire to "seek" independent advice is that the county commission, in respect to applications to change the UDB, has routinely off-loaded decisions to state government, or shelved advice, whether from outside sources like the Urban Land Institute or advisory committees and exhaustive reports.

The builders and land speculators always get the last word. That is why Bob Traurig (a founding partner of the "environmental land use" law firm, Greenberg Traurig) used to show up at zoning hearings, sitting in one of the back rows. He rarely got up to speak. He didn't need to. The unreformable majority of county commissioners knew exactly who and what he represented, just being there.

In the last session of the legislature, Republicans passed SB 360 to "streamline" zoning and permitting new large scale development. What the Republican legislature wanted, and what Gov. Crist signed into law, was to put the burden of growth management decisions on local government. What a clusterfuck it turns out to be, there. Time and again, the county commission boots developer applications (that they favor) to Tallahassee for review. Passing the buck is so routine that groups like "Hold The Line" have become thoroughly inured to the pretense of "public hearings" required by law on big zoning issues. (In the interests of full disclosure, I'm a founding member and proposed the name, 'Hold The Line'.) To individual developers, the frustration of complying with burdensome and lengthy reviews, including the cost of consultants by the bucketful, the price is palpable. But to the cumulative result of this awful shell game is wetlands paved by tens of thousands of acres, "mitigation" banks serving fraudsters, wealth creation at the expense of the public, ghost town suburbs, and Growth Machine that burned its bearings.

In the Obama administration, federal agencies like the EPA are apparently protected from the worst forms of industry interference. That is the President's promise. No longer controlled by political hacks placed within sub-Cabinet level positions of authority, still EPA career employees must be suffering their own Post Traumatic Stress Disease.

For the most part, over the past twenty years, the EPA has deferred to Florida. That could change.

Now that the state has washed its hands of growth management, it will be interesting to watch a federal agency that has been whip-sawed by politics offer "advice" on growth policies at the local level that all boil down in the end to which lobbyists are sitting in the front row of commission chambers, arms locked with politicians higher up the food chain. (Who can forget Julio Robaina, Raul Martinez, Sergio Pino, and Armando Codina all sitting together at the county commission in the first row for the last move of the UDB in Hialeah, with the Graham Company representatives sitting meekly a few rows behind while the Cuban American developers did the heavy lifting?)

It has happened so many times, there really is no point reiterating the phenomenon except to say it is not so different from what happens to the turtles sticking up their heads when my Chesapeake Bay retriever jumps into the pond to chase a stick: they know exactly how to retract their necks and sink out of sight to live another day.

Hold the Line Gal At 30 Weeks. By Geniusofdespair

Celebrating the Victory for the Hold the Line Campaign -- Namely, stopping the Lowe's Application -- Madeline Mateo dances around at Big Cypress Preserve. That belly might look familiar, in an earlier stage, from my June 29th post on the Hold The Line Beach Party. Getting close Madeline!

Infill Development is the Way to Go to Hold The Line! By Geniusofdespair

Javier Betancourt in the Miami Herald today asks and answers:

The more pressing issue going forward is whether residential development outside the boundary should proceed. The answer to this question is a resounding ``No.'' He says, referring to last month's court victory:

Now that new commercial development on the fringe of the Everglades has been rejected, urban planners along with developers and business and civic leaders should turn their attention to the chief challenge facing Miami-Dade: how to create a sustainable community without expanding our geographic footprint.

By focusing our collective efforts on revitalizing and expanding existing communities through infill development, we will make better use of our land supply, reduce congestion and preserve our region's valuable natural resources. At the same time, we will realize a number of economic and urban planning benefits, including better connectivity between businesses and the labor force, more efficient use of our existing infrastructure and across-the-board increases in property values.

Miami was planned and developed after the advent of the automobile, so sprawl became a way of life in South Florida. Only now we are witnessing a reversal of this trend, as residents and businesses inject new life into urban centers that were long overlooked.

And, he ends with:

The court's decision in May supported the need for sustainable growth. Now the business and civic communities need to act by advocating against expanding the UDB and evaluating how to maximize our investments in the emerging urban centers within the boundary.

The Hold the Line Beach Party. By Geniusofdespair

Madelyn Mateo, Administrative Director at Friends of the Everglades and Assistant, Andrea Arteaga, at the Hold the Line Picnic. Great food, people and music at a beach, who could ask for a better Sunday? Madelyn is getting close to 7 months, I guess it will be a long hot summer for her!

Also pictured is a young Hold the Line advocate from Hialeah: Claudia! She came with her Aunt and Grandmother.

Hold The Line Meeting October 22nd. By Geniusofdespair

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