MIAMI — Miami-Dade County Hall played host to another discussion Thursday on a controversial proposal by heavy equipment dealer Kelly Tractor in an area that includes acres of wetlands that environmental advocates say will further degrade groundwater quality.

It’s previously been blocked by Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.

Company representatives said their development project, located in west Miami-Dade near Northwest 137th Avenue and the end of the Dolphin Expressway, will bring much-needed jobs.

Company owner Chris Kelly added the county has allowed another private business to develop a property right next to the proposed location of their development project.

“The county commission three years ago passed the Tamiami 137, which is a truck terminal with plans show a terminal with parking for trucks, and so we kind of followed that application because it’s pretty much right next door to ours,” Kelly said.

Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins pushed back on that comparison.

“So if it’s good for the goose, it’s good for the gander? He is operating under logic that’s rather linear,” Cohen Higgins said. “That application was different. It’s not the exact same application. The difference with that truck parking application is that we really did at that time have a true need for legal truck parking in our community.

“Our residents were experiencing heavy truck parking that was unauthorized and that in and of itself created extraordinary environmental damage, not to mention disruption in traffic and quality of life.”

While some commissioners raised concerns over the proposal, others expressed support, including Commissioner JC Bermudez.

“I don’t think there’s any problem with this project,” Bermudez said.

Some commissioners expressed concern about the process this application took to reach County Hall — via text amendment — which, in effect, moves the county’s Urban Development Boundary designed to prevent urban sprawl and protect natural resources, including the county’s aquifer, in an area flanked by “two environmental extraordinary precious resources,” Cohen Higgins said — the Everglades and Biscayne Bay.

“We need to put a stop to this,” Cohen Higgins said. “And my concern regarding precedent is that if we continue to have applications that come in the form of text amendments, as opposed to applications to move the Urban Development Boundary, we’re going to get a plethora of them. And our Urban Development Boundary is going to cease to exist.”

Levine Cava, in vetoing the amendment, said the project should have been a UDB proposal, which would have required more data and specifics.

The item was deferred to the full board meeting on May 5.

“The applicant would need nine votes, as opposed to the general majority votes, as long as the mayor vetoes,” Bermudez said. “If the mayor vetoes, you need a supermajority to override the veto. So that’s the real issue at hand.

“But in the end, we need to make a decision and we need to move on.”

According to the Hold the Line Coalition, the project will remove “247 acres of land available for agriculture” located “within the North Trail Basin and contains Wetlands of Regional Significance.”

It’s also within “the core foraging area of the federally threatened wood stork, within consultation area for the endangered Florida bonneted bat as well as just east of the (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) Florida Panther Focus Area,” according to the group.

Commissioner Raquel Regalado pitched a different path forward to protecting the wetlands and mitigating disruptions to the county’s aquifer.

“My request at the last meeting (was) to create a habitat with a corridor to protect the wetlands, to increase the covenant, and to give ownership of the wetlands to Miami-Dade County is the path forward,” she added. “We cannot prevent property owners from wanting to do things on their property, even if that is outside the UDB, including building homes. They can do certain things.

“We need to preserve our wetlands for our aquifer. And that I agree with the mayor on. We just disagree on how we get there.”

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