What are we protecting? Let’s use some common sense!

The C-102 canal as seen on June 25, 2022, at SW 107th Avenue.
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Grant Miller

I’ve been following the action surrounding UDB application in South Dade for over a year – or rather I should say inaction, because certainly little has changed. 

We all know this highly populated area of the county sorely needs a major employment center offering jobs that are located near to where people live here. In fact, Miami-Dade County’s own Strategic Economic Development Plan came to that conclusion by thoroughly documenting that an excess of 70 percent of South Dade’s 240,000 workers are forced to travel out of South Dade every day to go to work.

We also know that the South Dade Logistics and Technology District (SDLTD) was proposed to address this problem by expanding the Urban Development Boundary (UDB) in an area that is designated for development – “when the need exists.” It seems to me we’ve clearly met that threshold. Basic common sense tells us that.

It’s also well known that this SDLTD proposal has been heavily scrutinized, especially by the environmental agencies and activist groups. And that’s to be expected. It’s part of the process. But, month after month, the proposal continues to be deferred by the County Commission – four times to be exact. And month after month the applicants obligatorily jump through hoop after hoop to address the concerns of elected officials and others.

This is not supposed to be part of the process.

First, they reduced the size of the proposal by over half, from nearly 800 acres to 379 acres. And at the most recent Commission Meeting, they committed to purchase no less than 311 acres of environmentally endangered land (EEL) to donate to Miami-Dade County – land which has already been identified by the County as far more important to protect than the site of the SDLTD. On top of that, the applicants must contribute money every year to help fund the maintenance of those EEL lands.

Some Commissioners who will oppose any development at the site, no matter what the obvious benefits are to the people of South Dade, are criticizing the process that allows the applicants to make changes to their proposal. But isn’t this what applicants are supposed to do? Isn’t reasonable compromise supposed to be a part of the process, too?

Application procedures are designed to ensure things are done the right way. Proposals are presented; issues and concerns are identified and addressed; and a final decision is made. Most of the time – certainly by this point – the noise gets filtered out of the conversation and the overtures come to a close. It seems to me, however, somebody needs to orchestrate an end to this cacophony and allow commonsense to prevail.

So, what’s really going on here? What reason could there be to impede development of this property? After all, environmental groups say we need to protect Biscayne Bay and preserving the SDLTD property is a key to that effort. Through the application process, we have learned the property is actually contaminated with fertilizers and arsenic from decades of farming. 

Currently, many of the pollutants on the property drain directly into the C-102 canal and then directly into the Bay every time it rains. That is not good for Biscayne Bay! It seems the environmental groups and some Commissioners are ok with that, which leads you to question whether their opposition is more about environmental politics than it is about the science or what is best for the Bay.

The bottom line is that the SDLTD applicants have presented a well thought out project that will be beneficial to the people of South Dade and to our environment. All the SDLTD parcels must be decontaminated before they are built upon. Its stormwater management plan is designed to handle a rain event that would be greater than Hurricane Ian, capture its storm water on-site, and prevent any runoff from entering the C-102 canal or Biscayne Bay. 

And in addition to this state-of-the-art stormwater infrastructure system, the applicants are also going above and beyond by preserving other environmentally endangered land that we know needs to be protected.

The SDLTD won’t cure all the issues we face with Biscayne Bay, but it is a big step in the right direction – and is certainly more than anything the County has done to prevent this property from continuing to pollute the Bay. 

Miami-Dade Commissioners should reject the tired environmental politics of the past and use their common sense. They should approve the SDLTD at their November 1 Commission meeting. It will make things better for South Dade residents and Biscayne Bay. 

It’s time for the song and dance to end.

If you have any comments, feel free to contact me at grant@communitynewspapers.com or call me at 305-323-8206


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7 COMMENTS

  1. This is a cheap land grab and re-zone for big profit, nothing more. Developers always break promises in Dade County. Every legitimate agency both state and county has recommended against this project. There are plenty of warehouse jobs in South Dade available right now that no one wants to do, how would this be any different?

  2. There is no evidence that the applicant’s land had done anything to the bay. There are no DERM cases, open or closed, no fines no action taken on any of those parcels of land. Once arsenic is applied to the soil, it binds up and stays there. It has been there for dozens of years.
    This is a cheap land grab. How would you feel if the developers main goal was to just change the zoning of the land and then do nothing with the land for several years? Where would the jobs be then? Remember, all of the promises that have been made to the county by the developers are basically unenforceable. So no reason to comply with a promise.
    Remember, a lot of large companies have pulled out of South Dade over the years for various reasons. Boat builders, light manufacturing, building supply houses, and large retail and wholesale establishments. Most of the skilled workers had to move too or be stuck hours of traffic commuting to the new location.

    There are help wanted signs everywhere! The technology commerce park would be offering jobs to forklift and loading dock workers. Most of the other jobs would be automated with just one person supervising the automation. Or….. it will be a bunch of rented warehouses with crap laying around and sub-par parking availability.

    It all sounds good until we get another Andrew or Ian. Yup, great idea to build in a Costal High Hazard Area

  3. Expanding the UDB will bring jobs to the area and help mitigate the poisonous run off to our bay. The private sector has the means to help control the current contamination and bring revenue to county without placing additional burden on the citizens. There is a high demand for the light industrial buildings which require contiguous land area.

  4. Do you all even read that this land is in the UDB expansion plan? This is separated for expansion already, it is not virgin land in the Everglades, or wetlands, or clean land, IT IS CONTAMINATED LAND, there are residential developments all around it, and the Turnpike is right against it. The land the staff is saying is available for development, is NOT al all, they keep circling the subject, being caught up in made up criteria, if you heard the staffers explain it, they sounded ridiculous. Those developers would not be going after these lands if they could get all that land the county says is available… it is just common sense…What I am concerned is all this pollution run off, I have been trying to buy organic land in the Redlands area for 3 years now, EVERYTHING is contaminated with pesticides, these areas NEED to be cleaned up, the county is not bothering with it, farmers can’t afford it to do it, why not make the developers do it for us??? The fish dies continue… it is coming from all these polluted lands in the agricultural area… but no one is bothering with it… wake up people, have the developers clean up the agricultural damage and protect those 300 acres, at least! I also understand the developers are buying Designated EEL sensitive land ( by staff) in addition to what they are required, I say they are setting a precedent that should be adopted from now on to mitigate decades of chemical dumps on our environment…
    We must support responsible expansion, and after I don’t know how many hearings, I think right now, the developers are the only ones to do anything that can positively impact our environment in that area, and to improve the lives of those families that waste 3 hours in traffic (let’s talk about car emissions) to go back and forth to work. Where is everyone’s humanity these days???

  5. Grant,

    Not one Federal, State or County entity thinks this application is good for Dade County. Only the applicants, some of the current land owners, a few citizens that are desperately looking for their dream job and less than half of the commissioners, think this is a good deal for the entire county and Biscayne Bay. The latest EEL land donation is not in the county’s best interest. County Staff thinks it is a bad deal. There are other ways to acquire EEL land. Plus, the applicants will not specify the folio numbers of the lots they plan to donate. This is another smoke and mirror attempt to sway the commissioners’ vote. If the application gets approved and it flops, like a few other large land grabs that have failed in the northern part of the county, I hope the voters notice and hold the commissioners responsible that voted in favor of the application when he/she decides to run for another county position or office. I won’t forget and neither will thousands of county residents.

  6. That’s a silly argument, Sally. The reason land is so expensive within the UDB is because there isn’t any industrial land left in South Dade for a major project like this, a project that will actually bring an employment center to South Dade – the first one in a long time!

    This article is on point. The property is currently contributing pollution to Biscayne Bay every time it rains, and you somehow think that is a good idea. If it is developed, it will have to be cleaned of pollutants and a real drainage system put in to make sure none of the property’s stormwater drains into the Bay. Or we can do what you say and wait another gazillion years and keep dumping that stuff into Biscayne Bay. Really??? Commissioners should approve this project and move on.

  7. I wonder if you have read the County’s own staff’s report in which they recommended NOT approving this application. In that report they stated that there is plenty of land (probably just as contaminated) within the UDB for the developers to build their project – even before they said it could be built on a whole lot less acreage.

    I think all the good things you say this project might accomplished could be accomplished without moving the boundary. I suspect the issue is that buying land within the boundary is more expensive than buying it outside the boundary. So, if the County approves moving the boundary out further into underdeveloped land, it will lose some possible tax income. I wonder why you think the County should hurt its constituents. What would prompt the Board of County Commissioners to do so?

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