Buses? Buses?!?!
The developer of the American Dream mega mall nightmare in
Northwest Dade wants to give the county a few buses for all the trouble that the construction of the largest mall in the United States — a retail center-slash-theme park with a 16-story indoor ski slope, a 20-slide water park, an indoor lake with submarines, a 14-screen 3-D movie theater and a 2,000-room hotel — is going to cause us.
Buses!!!
They want to build a $4 billion, six million-square-foot project on 174 acres of land, for an estimated 14,000 employees and up to 30 million annual visitors via between 70,000 and 100,000 additional vehicle trips a day — and they want to give us a half a dozen new buses?
Buses?!?
Miami-Dade Commissioners have to tell developer Triple Five — the builder’s of Minnesota’s Mall of Americas — and their favorite local lobbyist Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, thanks but no thanks. Tell them to take their bus out of here — far, far away — and come back when they want to get serious. This first offer, which our county commissioners will review next week, is simply not good enough. Not by a long shot.
Buses?!?! That would be laughable if it weren’t so damn tragic.
Read related: Miami-Dade mega mall — a new, and shinier, insider deal
This community has had it up to here with talk about buses and more buses. That’s just more empty behemoths that we have to sit behind in gridlock. It’s almost a slap in the face. Why on Earth are Transit Director Alice Bravo and Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez — who negotiated t
he agreement after helping the company get the land at state surplus prices — trying to ram buses down our throat? So they can later privatize th… wait a minute. Could that seriously be it?
Diaz de la Portilla told the planning advisory board that it was the transit department, not the developers, that came up with the idea to gift the buses in lieu of paying impact fees. That means instead of. He said the value is somewhere around $5.5 million.
Here we are a county that has no money for the SMART plan, with Chairman Esteban Bovo saying they can’t find the funds for any real rapid transit solutions, and someone in the department suggests that the developer of the largest mall in the U.S., a $4 billion project that will impact our community for decades, pay $5.5 million for some buses?!? Wouldn’t the same amount — and Ladra suggests that the impact fees should be higher — be better paid to the county so it can go toward real mass transit solutions, like a Northwest light rail connector?
Triple Five already got preliminary approval for the mall last year when the commission voted to change the comprehensive development plan to accommodate the entertainment district land use designation for the mega theme park mall. The development agreement that comes before county commissioners on May 17 irons out more of the details — or conditions and requirements — 
under which the massive complex can be built.
It calls for the developer to build a bus depot — which arguably would have been included in the plans anyway — and buy some new buses to extend existing routes within Miami-Dade’s ever changing transit map. Triple Five also agrees to mitigate storm water runoff, so nearby areas won’t be flooded (wouldn’t that be, again, something they would have to do anyway?) and pay for some roadway infrastructure to mitigate impacts up to 2040, Diaz de la Portilla said.
“You’re adding more lanes to roads and more right turn signals and left turn signals, etc.,” said Roberto Ruano, the sole dissenting vote on the 12-1 recommendation for approval. “I don’t see how we can justify this,” he said. Someone quickly elect him to office.
Read related: Mega mall gets its public land on rushed timeline
Diaz de la Portilla, who could sell you a lighter in hell, said that Triple Five (aka International Atlantic) should not have to pay for the poor planning that preceded the mega mall, or the traffic issues caused by nearby malls that have opposed the American Dream Nightmare. Those competing malls have suggested the developer be required to forgo any and all public subsidies — which, obviously, they don’t want to do.
“They didn’t even pay impact fees,” Diaz de la Portilla said, looking around like he was ready to fight someone. “You know, in a way, we’re subsidizing them.”
Um, no, not really.
The mega mall seems also tied to the Graham Company development that keeps going through the pipeline, each step at the same time, and getting the same approval. The Graham development — a mixed use complex of 3 million square foot office park, one million square feet of retail space and and 2,000 residential units — is just south of the mega mall site, making for one future busy area.
In lieu of their impact fees, the Graham Company developers propose giving us 8.5 miles of additional paved roads and/or lanes, 6-10 new or improved intersections, an 8.6-acre park and half an acre — a whole half acre! — for a fire station.
What? No buses?!?
American Dream mega mall developer would give us buses for our troubles added by Ladra on
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As of this date, the county commission of dade county approved the “Monster Mall”. The only chance we have to save the surrounding communities is to concentrate and put all our efforts into the traffic problems. Bombard the FDOT by phone, e mail, petition because they could be the salvation for the neighborhoods that will be affected. The fresh water supply is also an issue that should be pursued. Explore the remaining hurtles they have to get through and work them. If the money could be raise for a full page ad in the Herald, the points could be made on the effects the Monster would make on the lives of all of Dade County and Broward. Namely, the traffic, fresh water supply and the strain it would have on the infrastructure of the Counties. Public Safety, Fire Depts, Public works, and so on, will all have to have additional staffing. And that big a strain on the existing infrastructure could and will turn into a night mare and in the end our taxes will be picking up the tab like the Baseball Stadium, Soccer Stadium and the rest of the of the fiascos our stupid Commissioners have approved. Not counting the 200 Toyotas that were bought and forgotten about for two or three that were found in a parking lot. How can 200 hundred new cars be misplaced, Hello!!!!!!!!
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WANT TO STOP THIS??? Go to the meeting this Thursday morning – 9:30am, 111 Northwest 1st Street, in downtown Miami. Write commissioner Bovo: [email protected] Write commissioner Diaz: [email protected] — Re: jobs vs. houses: Jose, the area is zoned for “office/industrial”. that means they CANNOT build houses or retail there, which means LESS TRAFFIC. they will still pay taxes on the land, and the area will produce thousands of good blue- and white-collar jobs – JOBS THAT PAY, not “waterslide attendant.” re: shopping and kids… so you would ruin the quality of life for hundreds of thousands of people so you could shop without being inconvenienced by your bored kids? here’s a thought: don’t take so damn long to shop! my god! shopping should be something you have to do because you need something, not a way to spend your day. it’s a chore. if you’re shopping just because you like walking slow and spending money, spend some money on a daycare center and go hit the eight existing malls within a 20 minute drive of this proposed mall. jeez, that has to be the worst reason i’ve ever heard in favor of this thing!
As long as the uninformed sheep in Dade County keep swallowing the free cafe’ Cubano along with the BS they are given, we will have to put up with the same old crap! Not one of those THUGS in office have an ounce of integrity,honesty or morals. The day the people say “enough” “esta bueno ya” and clean house, nothing is going to change!
Do We get The Vaseline Jar Ready ? We are About to get It Again ? Are We ever going to have a Good Deal in MIAMI DADE COUNTY ? Didn’t we got Plenty W/ Tunnel, Marlins Park, FIU Bridge , And The Soccer Stadium ?
OK, you want to keep the kids busy while you shop.Great, how much is it going to cost you at Monster Mall to keep them occupied while you shop. If you have a pool at home you probably spend half your time watching the kids to be sure everybody is safe, so at the mall,you don’t have to worry about those things because you are convinced that a young complete stranger is taking care of your kids and maybe 20 more like you would do. You just pay the entry fee and go happily on your shopping way! Or you could outfit you kids an let them ski down a six story slope. Oh, they have to have lessons first. What a terrific idea! If you are a visitor to the Sawgrass Mall, it’s probably because you can get some great deals on designer clothes and stuff so it’s safe to say you don’t shop on Rodeo Drive but you can afford to pay a fee at Monster while you shop at retail stores. Do you really think they want to build this Monster Mall to put discount stores in it! Sandra, no matter what, don’t drink the cool aid.
OK, you want to keep the kids busy while you shop.Great, how much is it going to cost you at Monster Mall to keep them occupied while you shop. If you have a pool at home you probably spend half your time watching the kids to be sure everybody is safe, so at the mall,you don’t have to worry about those things because you are convinced that a young complete stranger is taking care of your kids and maybe 20 more like you would do. You just pay the entry fee and go happily on your shopping way! Or you could outfit you kids an let them ski down a six story slope. Oh, they have to have lessons first. What a terrific idea! If you are a visitor to the Sawgrass Mall, it’s probably because you can get some great deals on designer clothes and stuff so it’s safe to say you don’t shop on Rodeo Drive but you can afford to pay a fee at Monster while you shop at retail stores. Sandra, no matter what, don’t drink the cool aid.
Vegas is just a sand bowl at the end of the day. I’m sure JLO is over that commute. and Europeans?!? I agree. They aren’t the target demographic, but take a trip to Sawgrass and you will see MASSIVE RETAIL tourists from latin america and Florida that come to shop. Now, a mom understands the need to shop, but children do not, so a trip to Sawgrass is a nightmare for a mom because they get bored. BUT offer a trip to the mall, where you can convince your children to behave, with the prospect of visiting some sea lions and ride a sky diving simulator, and those kiddos are singing a happy tune. The result? NO RETAIL TOURIST will go to Sawgrass, because it is just a bunch of stores and only ONE restaurant for kids. GOOD LUCK getting a reservation to that! Sawgrass and its lobbyists are behind this whole negative campaign. Why don’t they just join the new millennium and add some entertainment to their archaic mall? Aventura is adding a water side! They don’t have much space for anything else in Aventura because it is an urban area, but at least they are trying, not just hating.
Don’t kid yourself, Vegas is Vegas and Miami is Miami. Any European who comes to Miami and Miami Beach, comes for the sun, the beach, and the night life. They can ski anytime they want, if not near their homes, not too far away. And who needs an indoor lake in Florida? How would take their kids to an indoor air conditioned water slide? Miami is like home on steroids to almost every Spanish speaking person who comes to So. Florida.
Now, the reality check. How much is it going to cost to take your family to the “Monster Mall”? One trip and it’ll be history. The truth is, this type of mall can’t last. It’s out of place. The only people who are pitching this Monster are the people who will profit from making it open. They don’t give a dam about anything else! If this Dinosaur lasts two years and dies, it will be an eye sore and the tax payers of Dade County will have destroyed communities, traffic that leads to nowhere and a destroyed piece of the water supply. Kind of reminds you of who made the big money on the airport expansion a few years ago! Too bad all this effort couldn’t be channeled to save our coasts from “Climate Change”.
Jose, this is exactly the problem. Sawgrass is terrified that people will be attracted to the American Dream Mall for a family experience rather than bunch of stores and only ONE- ONE restaurant for kids, the Rain Forest Cafe. This is why Broward is threatening to sue. American Dream would be an outing where the whole family can spend quality time together: the kids ride some rides or see some animals, mom shops for some good deals, and Mom and Dad get a nice meal, maybe a Vegas-style show, perhaps JLO (she would rather perform here than in Vegas, keeps her close to A-ROD). Also, it’s an incentive for families to get away from their computers and amazon and live real life.
14k crappy, no-benefit jobs, worsening traffic and who know what kind of negative impact to the environment isn’t worth it. This mall is a nightmare scenario coming true for all of us here in NW Dade / SW Broward.
the people most against it and most affected (in PSN and surrounding areas) barely even use public transportation; this proves that the developer is truly out-of-touch with the area in which he hopes to build this monstrosity.
I support this project. It will bring much needed jobs and tax revenue to the school board and the county. What would you prefer more houses? Hopefully it will also attract tourists away from Sawgrass mall. The extra penny sales tax in Miami-Dade county will also help fund transportation and Jackson Memorial Hospital.
It will be a disaster for the entire county. What we need is public transportation and more parks. What we get is more over development and over population. The quality of life here is poor.
This massive project will be a disaster for every neighborhood surrounding the site.