A number of residents in Cutler Bay are protesting the requested rezoning of a nine-acre parcel of land near SW 184th Street (Eureka Drive) and Old Cutler Road to “mixed-use, high density.” Developers hope to build a proposed project called Old Cutler Village at 18551 Old Cutler Rd.
The project, according to its designer, Victor Dover, would feature about 79 dwellings, a bed-and-breakfast inn, a café, townhouses and condominiums and a small office building. The owner/ builder is Fortune International, founded by Edgardo deFortuna. The company is seeking variances from existing zoning restrictions to permit the project.
Protests about the project began last April with a “honk and wave” event staged by several homeowner associations (HOA) and attended by several officials from neighboring Palmetto Bay.
Robert J. Gonzalez, vice president of the Cutler Cay HOA, represents a community of 505 single-family homes.
“We have surveyed our community and have overwhelming agreement, with more than 400 letters of protest, to fight the rezoning,” Gonzalez said. “This parcel is immediately adjacent to the north or our community.
“We have joined forces with various communities and groups of residents and activists within Cutler Bay and even our neighboring community Palmetto Bay, just north of the nine-acre site. It is and will be our intent to fight the developers request for rezoning that will unbearably add to the existing traffic overload of our Old Cutler Road.”
Gonzalez and others in the HOAs believe that the requested rezoning would add hundreds of additional autos to the bumper-to-bumper traffic that they already have to endure every morning and evening.
“When Palmer Trinity School, currently under construction, opens later this year, we will have an incredible amount of traffic every morning and afternoon that will overwhelmingly impact traffic flow on 184th Street and Old Cutler Road,” Gonzalez said.
“Even though this parcel of land is currently zoned for low density, the majority of Cutler Bay Township would like to see the parcel dedicated as a natural preserved area that would be developed into a public park.”
Gonzalez said that there will be more of these activities “to inform and coalesce our efforts” to stop further over-development of the community.
