MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. — Some residents in West Kendall are reeling after a Miami-Dade County Commission gave a developer the green light to build hundreds of homes after years of going back and forth. But they did get key concessions.
The grand entrance for the development will be right at the end of Southwest 97th Street and Calusa Club Drive. It will be near an area a bird nesting ground that so many fought to protect.
It’s on what used to be a golf course inside the Calusa Country Club community in West Kendall.
After seven years of pushback from groups and residents the Miami-Dade County Commission gave the developer the green light.
“I guess it’s difficult to be so passionate,” Amanda Prieto, who led the residents in fighting the development, said. “But then to have something of this scale built in its place is sad.”
The developer was pressed by activists and some commissioners to make concessions.
The original plan envisioned 1,300 homes. Instead, will now build just over 500.
“We’re glad that once again, (commissioners) saw their way to approving this community and providing more housing for Miami-Dade County,” Richard Norwalk, a GL Homes executive, said.
And while concerns of traffic remain, the project will bring some improvements including three lane extensions and a traffic light.
And the line of homes will now be built at 330 feet ― instead of just 100 feet ― from the area now a designated protected nesting site for birds.
Prieto says it was worth the fight.
“We made a difference,” she said.
The developer has not shared what the homes will cost. In the meantime, Prieto said she and her attorney are weighing their options.
Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.

