MIAMI — Miami-Dade commissioners have given heavy equipment company Kelly Tractor the green light to build beyond the county’s Urban Development Boundary. The item passed on a 9-to-3 vote.
The development project, at a site located in west Miami-Dade near Northwest 137th Avenue and the end of the Dolphin Expressway, has been controversial.
“I voted no today, and the time before that, and the time before that,” Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins said. “This has been deferred eight different times.”
Cohen Higgins was one of the nays.
“This is an example of attrition. They vote-counted until they got the number that they needed, and I don’t support that procedure in general,” Cohen Higgins said. “Clearly, it was an extremely controversial application involving over 140 acres of very, very, very sensitive wetlands outside our Urban Development Boundary. I have been consistent about these issues, and that is why I voted no.”
“One of the things I put into the covenant is that everything has to be done on the environmental side before any construction and any permitting,” Commissioner Raquel Regalado said.
Commissioner Raquel Regalado, who voted for it, highlighted amendments to the application that she said include enhanced wetlands preservation commitments.
“We are talking about over 80 acres that we are going to own and maintain, and, we’re going to have, in perpetuity, money to preserve it and restore it,” Regalado said.
Commissioner Rene Garcia noted that Kelly Tractor has “donated land” to the county.
Meanwhile, Miami-Dade Deputy Mayor Roy Coley said Kelly Tractor demonstrated an economic need “as an international player in the equipment business and as a player for emergency response for all of South Florida.”
“Now that the environmental need has been balanced, we find it much more acceptable,” Coley said.
In the past, a company representative told commissioners they have outgrown their existing space and need to accommodate future growth.
“When we started this three years ago, the planning staff guided us to the text amendments process, and we have done everything they ask for,” owner Chris Kelly said. “We’ve owned the land since 1984. We filed the application three years ago. It is right on the Urban Development Boundary. It is right on the highway. We have a 100-acre warehouse development adjacent to us.”
One key factor underpinning the contentious issue has been the process that the application used to make its way to County Hall, in the form of a text amendment, which has lower thresholds than the more rigorous application typically required to request building outside the UDB.
“The floodgates are now open, and mind you, this application that passed today was not a move-the-Urban-Development-Boundary application. It was a text amendment, and now it exacerbates the slippery slope argument,” Cohen Higgins said. “Now the development community in Miami-Dade County has the green light to come on down. This absolutely opens the floodgates.
“Now, in fairness, I know there is legislation to close that and not allow text amendments in the future, but in my opinion, that is simply a consent that this was not done properly.”
Garcia acknowledge the concerns, but pointed to what he said was an extensive review process.
“I don’t disagree with that train of thought, but with all the scrutiny this application, it really has gone above and beyond,” Garcia said.
Coley said Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava “required the applicant to essentially do everything that the Urban Development Boundary application would do, and they didn’t achieve much benefit from a text amendment.”
Regalado said that while she “wish(es) it would have been an application and not a text amendment,” she “already curtailed the text amendment, and that is going to come back to” the commission.
“Two months ago, I already passed an item, and it passed unanimously, and she voted on it,” Regalado said.
But Cohen Higgins remained unconvinced.
“It wasn’t done properly. If we are making legislative changes to correct it, that is an admission that it is wrong, so I am not sure why we passed this today. But they got the votes, so congratulations to Kelly Tractor, and so sorry to the environment and the many, many residents who were vehemently opposed to this application,” Cohen Higgins said.
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