Despite compatible county planning and engineering, a proposed “Green City” of 11,401 units to be built over a 20-year time frame in West Kendall will get a thumbs-down response from the Kendall Federation of Homeowner Associations (KFHA) Board of Directors.
“We are going to create a resolution encouraging the developers of Green City to reconsider their project until after we have solved the traffic problem in Kendall,” said Michael Rosenberg, KFHA president. He said the board was “in unanimous agreement” to form wording of a statement asking denial.
His remarks followed an hour-long presentation on Oct. 13 by Green City executives at the Winston Park Community Clubhouse attended by a dozen residents informed only days before the event by email that welcomed the public to an informational presentation for the KFHA board.
The sparse attendance did not diminish inquisitiveness by a handful residents who questioned the size, job opportunities (beyond retail business), impact on an adjacent Miami-Dade well field and a population addition to Kendall’s already overcrowded roadways. “Our problem is to solve existing traffic before approving any proposal that creates additional pressure on our roadways,” commented Miles Moss, a traffic engineering expert and former KFHA president, following his review of an extensive traffic study prepared by Green City consultants as a basis for a land-use amendment. The study summary for Green City traf-fic states that, “This area of Miami Dade County needs opportunities for people to live, and work and play where traveling east is not required,” noting that fewer commuters would “help improve traffic conditions.”
Planned as a mixed-use development with a commercial center surrounded by villages, parks and recreational sites, Green City is located on 860 acres in what Miami-Dade Commissioner Juan Zapata has termed as Miami-Dade’s “West End.” Its boundaries extend from SW 167th Avenue on the east to SW 177th (Krome) Avenue on the west between SW 64th Street and Kendall Drive, an area inside the Urban Development Boundary but outside the county’s Urban Expansion Area, forecast for housing once all available and usable land is gone within the UDB.
The area would build out the north side of Kendall Drive to Krome Avenue, opposite a newly approved 7.9-acre commercial site recently granted new zoning, replacing a former industrial use category.
Echoing Zapata’s vision of the new development in the West End, Green City is described “to support the extensive housing demanded in the area but will also provide much needed services, entertainment and employment” of 7,009 new jobs for the area. The project is highlighted by innovative housing for health and wellness, alternative energy systems and hydroponic farming.
“We all agreed that the concept was very nice and seemed like it would create a very nice lifestyle, except no one would be able to move once they left the development, and it would only make it worse for the rest of the community,” Rosenberg said.
