The first meeting to study incorporation of an area south of Kendall Drive got off to a totally different start than its northern predecessor nearly a year ago.
The newly appointed West Kendall Municipal Advisory Committee (Section 3) attracted only a dozen residents on Mar. 17 to begin learning how to form a new city largely west of SW 137th Avenue, south from Kendall Drive to SW 152nd Street.
The first of two West Kendall MACs at its initial meetings in 2014 turned out hundreds, most to protest any Kendall incorporation move as well as the area for study north of Kendall Drive to SW Eighth Street.
In addition to a lack of objections, MAC 3 wound up inquiring about expanding its eastern boundary farther than SW 137th Avenue, a question to be resolved for MAC 3’s next scheduled meeting unless answered beforehand by Miami-Dade District 11 Commissioner Juan C. Zapata, sponsor of both studies.
Implementation of both MAC 1 and 3 studies began a year apart, largely due to revised rules adopted last year by commissioners for countywide incorporation and annexation procedures.
“We’d like to know if our area might be included in this new study,” Robert Harris, a Devon Aire resident, said at the outset of MAC 3’s first formal meeting at West Kendall Regional Library in The Hammocks.
The current boundaries for the MAC 3 study fail to include the extensive Devon Aire community, east of SW 137th Avenue, a curious twist because a small section of the study’s eastern boundary extends into Commissioner Xavier Suarez’s District 7 between Kendall Drive and SW 104th Street.
Zapata has set aside one of the seven MAC 3 seats for a resident within that area but an individual had not been named by the first session, as well as a sixth from District 11, resulting in a fivemember group.
As its first order of MAC 3 business, Zapata’s initial appointees introduced themselves, then elected Origa “Ory” Dawes, president of the Country Walk Master Homeowners Association as chair.
Other members are Patricia “Shannen” Davis, former District 11 Community Council chair; Harry Hoffman, whose family has resided in Kendall 30 years, vice chair; Humberto Ortega, candidate for a Council 11 Seat in 2014, secretary, and Herman Irizarry, resident since 1979.
“I think we should see if the MAC 3 boundaries can be extended,” agreed Irizarry with Harris after Davis recalled its inclusion in a study suggested by former District 11 Commissioner Joe Martinez during her service on the Community Council in 2004-05.
“Martinez proposed a new West Kendall study with the same boundaries we have now,” she said.
Martinez never formally sponsored a study after disbanding a two-year West Kendall MAC for lack of public interest.
Balance of the MAC 3 session was devoted to presentations on Sunshine Law requirements by County Attorney Cynthia Johnson-Stacks, and a review and comment by Robert Johnson of the county’s Commssion on Ethics and Public Trust.
MAC 3 will continue meetings on the third Tuesday of each month with the Apr. 21 agenda tentatively set for library and fire-rescue presentations from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at West Kendall Regional Library, 10201 Hammocks Blvd. For details, visit miamidade.gov/incorporationandannexation/west-kendall-section-3.asp.
WEST KENDALL MAC 1 IN SECOND YEAR OF STUDY
Description of the Unincorporated Municipal Service Area (UMSA) and its integration with newly formed municipalities is the next topic for West Kendall MAC 1, now in its second year of an incorporation study. The study area is from Kendall Drive north to SW Eighth Street, west of 137th Avenue to Krome (177th) Avemie.
The north Kendall area Municipal Advisory Committee meets the third Wednesday of each month, with the next session on Apr. 22, 6:30 p.m., at Zelda Glazer Middle School, 15015 SW 24 St. For information, visit online at miamidade.gov/incorporationandannexation/westkendall-section-1.asp.
