MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. — Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has issued a last-minute veto blocking a county commission decision that would have allowed development on land outside the county’s Urban Development Boundary.

“This is not just about adhering to rules,” Cava said. “It’s about protection of our drinking water. It’s about protection of our bay.”

You can see the mayor’s veto message below:

The Urban Development Boundary, established in 1983, is intended to shield wetlands, agriculture and the Everglades from encroaching development.

Commissioners voted 9-2 to approve a request from Doral-based Kelly Tractor to build a new headquarters and expand operations on roughly 246 acres west of Sweetwater, near the end of the Dolphin Expressway at Northwest 137th Avenue. The site includes wetlands that are supposed to be protected.

Below is the proposal from Kelly Tractor:

Kelly Tractor degraded the wetlands by transforming the property into a tree farm, but a 2024 county survey still found the land to be intact, especially during the rainy season.

“What happens on land ends up in the water and also, unfortunately, does also affect the quality of our fresh water, our drinking water supply,” Cava said. “So we need to really balance those things with growth needs.”

Kelly Tractor said it needs the land to expand so it can meet a growing demand for the tractors, cranes and heavy machinery it supplies to build highways, bridges and other infrastructure.

However, environmental concerns are being raised.

“In my 25 years, I’ve never seen an application for so much wetland destruction, and I was surprised that it didn’t get voted down,” said Laura Reynolds.

Laura Reynolds is the science director for the Hold the Line Coalition that fights to ensure protected lands stay protected.

“Most people don’t know that that’s what’s happening here, that we have a huge storm, and this is protecting us,” Reynolds said. “They clean it at the same time and store it underground,

Reynolds says Kelly Tractor is trying to bend the rules of development by simply amending the text of existing protections.

“They tried to carve out a piece just for their project, and what they did is they took our comprehensive plan that guides development applications, and they wrote in a sentence just for themselves,” she said.

You can read the veto request by Reynolds below:

Reynolds also says Kelly Tractor still hasn’t justified the need to expand outside the U-D-B when there’s land available within the U-D-B.

“They didn’t avoid and minimize the wetland destruction here, because there are at least 700 plus acres of land available inside the northern tier,” she said.

Nine commissioners still granted Kelly Tractor’s request despite the objection of county planners and the impassioned pleas of concerned residents who stressed the proposed expansion site contains 160 acres of wetlands, 62 of which Kelly Tractor was already mandated to protect and not use for future development.

However, District 12 Commissioner JC Bermudez stressed the need for economic growth.

“This is a good project,” Bermudez said. “It’s going to create jobs for Miami Dade County, and if we lose a local company that deals with our infrastructure, the cost of doing business for us in Miami Dade County is going to go up.”

Now, with the mayor’s veto, the question will go before the commission again. For it to pass, it requires a two-thirds vote of commissioners present to override the veto.

Mayor Cava reminding commissioners how much is at stake.

“We have to work to make sure they understand the impact, the precedent setting, the fact that we would be paving over paradise if we continue on this path,” she said.

Kelly Tractor wouldn’t comment on the record but did provide documents that showed that in 2017 Miami-Dade was looking for a new wastewater treatment plant, and the county’s own engineers determined Kelly’s Sweetwater land was the best site. That move was eventually blocked by a lawsuit.

Below is the 2017 study:

The commission will take this matter up again on Feb. 18.

If you want your voice heard on this matter, click the link to contact your county commissioner.

Kelly Tractor sent a letter from the Miccosukee Tribe in support of the expansion plan:

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