Governor DeSantis opens door to highway solution for west Kendall traffic

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Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet gave Miami-Dade County permission Tuesday to seek environmental permits for a toll road some say will ease west Kendall traffic congestion.

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The meeting revealed two things: the toll road is not near Everglades National Park and the Governor has some serious legal chops. He showcased those skills through an extensive hour-long cross-examination of attorneys for both Miami Dade County and Tropical Audubon that provided transparency to a complicated project.

The meeting made clear that the Kendall Parkway would run several miles from Everglades National Park and does not impact wetlands that have been identified for Everglades restoration by the Water Management District. Instead the Parkway would be built on dry lands abandoned by the Water Management District over 15 years ago, and its construction would be consistent with the state’s Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan.

Tuesday’s Cabinet approval enables the next step in the process, requiring an extensive environmental permitting process by experts at the South Florida Water Management District and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Why not let the state environmental experts do their job and take an extensive look and review? We should all welcome that environmental review because the road is nowhere near the Everglades and includes a plan to provide net environmental benefits to the Everglades.

The Governor and his Cabinet colleagues made the right decision on the Kendall Parkway.  To stop the process at this stage would unfairly serve as a cruel barrier to 600,000 residents of Kendall that are probably reading this on their phone while stuck in traffic.

What has been lost on this issue is that Miami-Dade’s environmental mitigation plan on the Kendall Parkway could provide net benefits to the Everglades. If the County does it right, it could help recharge thousands of wetlands and preserve our underground drinking water supply.

After much legal debate by the parties to the proceeding, the Governor and the Cabinet did their due diligence and were right by the people, and were right to let the environmental agencies determine whether the Kendall Parkway will be right by the Everglades.


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