Destruction Thanks to University of Miami's Sale of Pine Rocklands ---It doesn't end there it Continues July 21 unless you stop it. Guest Blog by Ann Hinga

Destruction of Pine Rocklands and Tropical Hardwood Hammocks in Miami-Dade County:

People are up in arms over the recent news that the University of Miami, a private developer and Wal-Mart have decided to destroy globally-imperiled pine rockland within the Richmond Pineland complex (which includes Zoo Miami, Larry and Penny Thompson Park, some federal property and some University of Miami property).  While the outrage and the sentiments are appropriate, it is incredibly unfortunate that these people were not engaged and enraged in 2005 when the land use amendment for development was approved by the Board of County Commissioners.   Only three activists tried to convince the Board to save the Wal-Mart site: the Native Plant Society, the Tropical Audubon Society, and a courageous UM PhD biology candiate.  These activists were not able to overcome the University's well coordinated campaign (which included endorsements by Donna Shalala, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden), and UM easily won approvals which paved the way for development.  Recent actions by the US Fish and Wildlife Service may alter the future at the Wal-Mart site and save some more of this precious forest, but this is just one case of proposed natural area destruction and people should be getting engaged in the others as well, especially since the others have not yet been approved and pine rocklands and hardwood hammocks may still be saved.

Case 1 - the 'Burger King Hammock' on Old Cutler Road.  On Monday night (July 21st), the Palmetto Bay Village Council will consider a zoning change on 22 acres of forest located at the property now called the Palmetto Bay Village Center (17901 Old Cutler Road).  This forest consists of pineland and hammock and provides important habitat for South Florida endemic plants, birds, butterflies and other wildlife.  This land use and zoning change would eliminate the legally binding zoning promise made to the area residents in the 1980s that this forest would be preserved.  Concerned citizens should attend the zoning hearing on Monday night to keep this area designated as park land.  See the attached flyer for more information.

Case 2 - the County, primarily through the Parks Department, is in negotiation with 20th Century Fox to develop a theme park at Zoo Miami.  The development of this theme park would require a $130 million public subsidy and will potentially destroy approximately a dozen acres and reduce the ability to effectively manage much more of the globally-imperiled pine rockland in the Richmond Pineland Complex.  In an ironic twist, the County has asked the University of Miami to convey land containing pineland to further this development proposal.  Concerned citizens should be contacting the Mayor to let him know that these pinelands need to be protected from development and secondary impacts from nearby development.  The Tropical Audubon Society is one of the leaders in the fight to save these pinelands.  Check out www.tropicalaudubon.org for more information.

Case 3 - the University of Miami owns more pineland in the Richmond Pineland complex.  While there are no known development proposals now, who knows the fate of those lands.  Concerned citizens should be asking the University to place these pinelands in permanent protection with appropriate management.

Palmetto Bay is proposing to change the land use and zoning for the entire 22-acre forest at the Palmetto Bay Village Center, 17901 Old Cutler Road, to remove the ONLY legal protection that this forest has against being bulldozed. This forest consists of both pineland and hammock and provides important habitat for South Florida native plants, including threatened or endangered species, birds, including protected migratory species, butterflies, and other wildlife. This land use and zoning change would eliminate the legally binding zoning promise made to the area residents that this forest would be preserved.

ZONING HEARING OF MONDAY, JULY 21, 2014
PALMETTO BAY VILLAGE HALL COUNCIL CHAMBERS
9705 E. HIBISCUS STREET, PALMETTO BAY, FLORIDA
HEARING STARTS AT 7:00 PM.
Web link to information: http://www.palmettobay-fl.gov/

Link to Miami Herald article.

Show up!! Be Heard!!

The forest in question is a 22-acre pineland that grades into hammock at the north end. It is located between the new Palmetto Bay Library and SW 184 Street on the east side of Old Cutler Road. This forest is not protected in any way under county, state, or federal law. The only legal protections for native plants in this site are based on Village of Palmetto Bay zoning law and past zoning approvals, including a requirement to maintain native vegetation in this forest. The proposed zoning and land use changes would remove that requirement and allow complete development of the forest, which is on average 200-400-feet wide, except for a narrow strip of land along Old Cutler Road. If these zoning and land use changes are approved, no agency, including the county DERM or the federal government, will be able to prevent destruction of this forest. All rare plant species and wildlife habitat can be destroyed. This land use and zoning change would eliminate the legally binding zoning promise made to the area residents back in the 1980’s, when the original Burger King headquarters building was built on this site, that this forest would be preserved.


What you can do:
Show up at the zoning hearing. Do not wait for any other opportunity; the Council may not take public comment later. If you are unhappy about the idea of removing what little protection this 22-acre forest has from being destroyed for development, please speak up. You may wish to research this issue further or include one or more of the following points:

1. Go to the Village website and look up what can be constructed within the Village Mixed Use zoning that is being created by this Ordinance. You will not believe all the things that can be constructed and you will be amazed by how tall all the buildings can be.
2. Ask Desmond Chin the zoning director to explain the real reasons why he wants to
remove the Parks and Recreation land use designation from one of the largest remaining natural habits, thereby eliminating its protection by the Village.
3. Pine rockland and hammock forests provide habitat to a variety of plants and animals including endangered species. Ask the Council to challenge Village zoning staff to see if staff really has done an analysis of the endangered species habitat destruction that will result in comparison with the species and habitat protection provisions of the Village Comp plan and Village laws. Ask if a study for rare species has been done for the area proposed for the land use and zoning changes (none is included in the staff report for the hearing) and if not, the Mayor should explain why a land use and zoning change is moving forward for such a rare forest without an analysis or survey. Ask how staff could decide in their report that this change is “protective of the natural environment” and consistent with Palmetto Bay’s Comprehensive Plan without evaluating the value of the 22-acre forest for rare species or for all the habitat destruction that this will allow.
4. Tell the Council that allowing development of this large area of native pineland and hammock forests is not acceptable.
5. Ask the Council how facilitating development of the vast majority of the 22-acre
naturally forested site through this zoning and land use change would be consistent with Policy 1.5.4 of the Village’s Comprehensive Plan, which states, “Protect and enhance the lush flora and fauna of the Village through strong community landscaping guidelines, land development regulations, and strong code enforcement.”
6. Tell the Mayor that you want the entirety of this forest to be preserved, consistent with the promise made to residents back in the 1980’s when construction of the Burger King headquarters (now the Palmetto Bay Village Center) was approved.
7. Tell the Council that undoing the protection of park and recreation designation for a naturally occurring forest is inconsistent with the image of a community that puts a link to its Green Site prominently on the Village Web site, and whose interactive city guide map identifies this forest as the “Palmetto Bay Village Center Protected Natural Areas”.
8. Ask your neighbors if they think that the “Village of Parks” should eliminate the “Park”  designation on this forest.
9. Ask the Council if it wants Palmetto Bay to be compared to the University of Miami in the newspaper. Recent articles in the Miami Herald pointed out that UM has obtained approvals to destroy pinelands containing habitat for endangered species and to cash out by selling to a developer who proposes building a WalMart. Some of these same plant species have been found in this forest and it has recently been restored by a US Fish and Wildlife Service Grant. Unlike the Walmart proposal where most of the forest is set aside in a preserve, the Village proposal would allow development throughout the forest by carving the forest into half acre lots for houses across the entire 22 acres, or worse, building strip malls, a hospital or some of the other myriad of uses allowed under the proposed Village Mixed Use zoning.

University of Miami: A Season Tickets Tale. By Youbetcha'

I see my experience with UM a prime example of what's going wrong in our communities and indeed, the world. What is in play is the emergence of the corporate mentality at all costs.

As someone who was a season ticket holder for a zillion years (actually 25), the university’s greed eventually made me tell them to keep five season tickets... First we were told to give them $10,000 a seat for the seats they decided to convert to box seats; those were seats we had since college.

So UM moved us; we paid more for our new seats and 5 years later, they take away our parking passes that came with the tickets (that they blamed on the city). Then they offered the parking pass back to us for an extra $500.00 a year.

Within 2 years after that, we were forced to buy an extra ticket because UM seated an oversize bully next to us who would press his body against whoever was there (not a great experience for business clients and scary for our kids). He then decided that the extra seat was his, so he would drape his sweaty body parts on it and the UM athletics director didn't give a crap. It was an embarrassment to have to ask the police make the man stop and should have been unnecessary.

In the end, UM decided that they would nail us for an extra $2,000 per seat to sit in seats that we had sat in for 15 years.

It was over. No more fighting traffic, no more parking at the hospital overpasses and walking a mile, no more eating dog meat from the street-side vendors, no more having our cars broken into... no more. Our love affair with the big U was gone.

The saddest thing was that our “stadium section” all dated, got married, pregnant (divorced?) and watched our kids grow-up with the same rows of strangers over those years. As we grew-up together, our section became business owners, school board executives, college graduates, a county elevator maintenace guy and even community activists. We even launched a politician or two. The younger people that transitioned into the section repeated the dating/marriage/baby pattern and we proudly watched the process as their lives changed.

That was UM. That was the UM tradition.

As the UM's Board of Trustee's egos grew and as they encouraged an environment of greed, their management process became the death knell for our amazing 4 month-a-year community. We were forced to scatter and many of us gave-up season tickets because we were finally tired of giving more to UM and actually getting less.

By the way, for our section, it was not a winning team that kept us buying tickets – we were there before they were national champs --- it was the community and common bond of the Orange Bowl that united us.

I would shrug it off, except I see my experience with UM a prime example of what's going wrong in our communities and indeed, the world. What is in play is the emergence of the corporate mentality at all costs.

The UM Board of Trustees is a dismal failure in exhibiting good business sense and ethics to their alumni, their community and the world. What were they thinking?

Donna Shalala, My How You've Changed! By Geniusofdespair

Imagine my surprise yesterday when I saw that University of Miami President Donna Shalala had grown a beard...and a mustache. It was finally the turban that made me realize that the Miami Herald had made a mistake and put her name on the photo of would-be-bomber, Faisal Shahzad. Last time I ran into Shalala was in February 2008, when I hit her with a chair. It was an accident.

Judging by errors in the paper (like the one last week, putting Alan Farago's name on my blog) I think the Miami Herald is in desperate need of more staff. This is what you miss readers, when you don't subscribe to the print edition: Good old-fashioned laughs.


Today's correction? It also needs a correction:

Want to get a master's degree? Let me suggest this course of study. By Geniusofdespair

I thought that this "Master of Real Estate Development and Urbanism" sounded pretty good. Here is the description from the University of Miami website:

The Master of Real Estate Development and Urbanism is an interdisciplinary one-year graduate program that combines the strengths of the University of Miami’s School of Architecture, Business Administration, and Law to create a world-class program that blends the fundamentals of real estate development with livable community planning and design. Courses towards the Master of Real Estate Development and Urbanism begin in Fall 2008 and the full one-year program launches in Fall 2009:

The Master of Real Estate Development and Urbanism draws on the combined interdisciplinary strengths of: the School of Architecture, an international leader in urbanism and livable community design; the School of Business Administration, named the number one business school in Florida by the Wall Street Journal and the number five business school in the nation by Hispanic Business; the School of Law, which offers an LLM degree in Real Property; the College of Engineering, with strong civil, architectural and environmental engineering programs; and the Urban Studies Program, which includes faculty from the College of Arts and Sciences.

The Master of Real Estate Development and Urbanism program is administered by the School of Architecture, led by Dean Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk. The University of Miami’s School of Architecture was ranked number one in the nation for the study of New Urbanism in a survey conducted by New Urban News, and was awarded the John Nolen Medal for Contributions to Urbanism in Florida in 2007.

The Master of Real Estate Development and Urbanism program is designed to provide students with the tools and practical experiences needed to compete in the fast-paced and changing world of urban real estate development. Students benefit from being located in the heart of one of the world’s most exciting and dynamic real estate markets and engaging leading experts, entrepreneurs, and business leaders in the real estate industry. Students learn cutting edge practices in real estate finance, market analysis, real estate law, land use policies and codes, project management, public-private partnerships, the development process, sustainable development practices, and entrepreneurship.

Blogger hits University of Miami President Donna Shalala with a chair. By Geniusofdespair

It was an accident! I was strolling to seating for the University of Miami Jazz Concert when I jammed the chair I was carrying into this lady. The lady was Donna Shalala. What can I say, I was jostled by the crowd. I looked down at her and I apologized but she did not seem very happy with me or my chair.

On another note, the concert was great. Grammy Award Winner, Randy Brecker played the trumpet . See the Brecker brothers playing together in this YouTube video. Randy's brother, Michael, died January, 2007. A great loss to the jazz world. As I previously reported, I was bummed out when I heard the news and I still am.

UM President Donna Shalala pushes university to environmental awareness, by gimleteye

This weekend the Society of Environmental Journalists was hosted by the University of Miami. The SEJ has a hard enough time getting its message through to media executives (no one attended, from the Miami Herald), but what seems notable is the way that under President Donna Shalala there is glasnost on the environment, a sense of the University of Miami picking up the environmental baton-- ignored by city's leaders for so many decades.

Historically in Miami, academics and scientists have shied away from taking stands that might appear to be overly "environmental". (It is too late, for scientists to hide behind the cloak of agnostic invisibility.) And that was a shame, during a time of desperate need.

Mayor Manny Diaz spoke at the SEJ dinner hosted by President Shalala. It was an OK speech, but what was more impressive was Shalala pacing in the background, uniquely engaged among a long list of past UM presidents who did nothing on the environment.

Like most of Miami, the university's leadership had been in the environmental dark ages for decades.

At UM, an anti-environment bias prevailed in places like the school of communications, for instance, mostly due a parochial, small town mentality that kept Miami and its university shadowed by powerful economic interests who profit from exploiting natural resources; whether sugar barons, rock miners or production home builders.

Scientists and faculty employed by the university knew better than to stick their necks out, towards advocacy. For the most part the attitude has been: to get along, go along. And going along meant, let's not stir things up where it involves the Everglades.

It's been frustrating that in South Florida, where the competition between exploiters and natural resources is so vivid, that the region's academic institutions have been so loathe to engage from the top, down.

In a press release on Earth Day last April, Shalala said, "The University of Miami is recognized for preparing students to be environmental thinkers and responsible citizens of the world." If it is recognized, Shalala bears most of the credit.

In its massive construction and operating budgets, UM is establishing green building principles as a core goal--including LEED certification for the UM Miller School of Medicine and the new Biomedical Research Building.

Who is to quibble, if advocacy for the environment is a project that President Shalala is pushing from the inside, out. In her leadership, she too is proving a force of nature.