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In the ongoing issue of the SW 87th Avenue Bridge in Palmetto Bay, the Miami-Dade County Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTPW) conducted a virtual public meeting on Dec. 15 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. The announced purpose was to discuss the design and construction of a new bridge.
DTPW employee Sandra Antonio ran the meeting via Zoom, with DTPW’s Ryan Fisher fielding the questions. A number of Palmetto Bay residents attended — 70 people in all.
Fisher repeatedly told participants that the meeting was solely about the design of the bridge and would not answer questions about traffic studies or other issues, suggesting people send an email to DTPWOutreach@miamidade.gov. One listener complained that his past emails had gone unanswered.
Village Mayor Karyn Cunningham and the council members attended the meeting, with Mayor Cunningham leading off the comments, stating the village’s continuing opposition to the bridge project. They limited the time she could speak.
The day after the meeting she spoke about the session.
“I am extremely concerned that this meeting took place while we are still in a legal process outlined in Florida Statute and it was held during a busy holiday month, when many will not be paying attention to important village matters to schedule a meeting to discuss bridge design and garner input,” Mayor Cunningham said.
“In my estimation, the 87th Avenue Bridge is the single most important issue currently facing our village. It is the first of a slew of intrusions into the village with no regard for the position of the council. This issue has been created by the county and a very failed government process and now dumped in our laps to try to resolve,” the mayor said.
Cunningham said she had requested a meeting for the residents back in March of 2021.
“It was disappointing at best, though I don’t blame the professional engineers from DTPW.
They take their direction from the policy makers and the administration. The residents deserve more than a short presentation,” she said. “There were a lot of questions that they were unable to answer. I am hoping that when we have our joint meeting with the commission and TPO in January we are able to highlight the flaws in this process.”
Virtually all public comments were against the bridge being built. Only two, from Cutler Bay residents, were in favor of the bridge.
Palmetto Bay resident Val Snyder later expressed dissatisfaction with the meeting.
“I think the presenter Ryan Fisher handled himself professionally, but the meeting still leaves more questions than answers,” Snyder said the next day. “The vast majority of callers expressed their opposition to the bridge and had lots of questions related to the traffic this bridge will bring, which all went unanswered.
“The county has never furnished a study which calls for the construction of only the 87th Avenue Bridge. The county is using outdated traffic studies which don’t use current or complete data. The county isn’t holding itself to the requirements they would impose on the private sector.”
Dara Vorce, another Palmetto Bay resident, agreed with this assessment.
“The meeting and presentation was a sham and ruse by the county to be able to say now and in the future that they provided public notice and an opportunity to ask questions, when this meeting is after the fact and residents were never afforded the previous opportunity,” Vorce said.
“I wrote a very lengthy email with questions to the Design Project Manager and asked the same questions during the meeting such as: When were the latest traffic counts and studies done and what were the results? What was the actual improvement time for traffic if this bridge connector project is built? Why were traffic projections and traffic modeling not performed due to the additional large amount of traffic which will come from south if the project is constructed? My basic traffic questions were not answered last night or in my email either.”
The meeting with the DTPW and TPO is the next step in the mediation process.
