Controversial Rickenbacker RFP scheduled for 3 p.m. time certain
The polemic push to privatize and redevelop the Rickenbacker Causeway will be discussed again Tuesday at the Miami-Dade Commission meeting.
The board will probably drop the Venetian Causeway from the request for proposals, as Commissioner Sally Heyman requested, because it’s really all about the Rickenbacker anyway. The Venetian was a last-minute add-on. Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has already indicated she is amenable to separating the causeways. But there could also be more changes.
Commissioner Raquel Regalado says any revision by the board gives them a second bite at the apple, an opportunity tweak the RFP further for Key Biscayne residents and leaders who are concerned about both the scope of work and the process by which it has come about. Among other things, she wants the county to give potential proposers more time.
Know more: More changes, chat coming on flawed, rushed Rickenbacker Causeway RFP
This all started over the summer with an unsolicited proposal (read: secret, backroom deal) to makeover the Rickenbacker and add a separate and elevated bicycle lane that is almost as wide as the roadway, an observation deck, a fishing pier, a beachfront park with concessions, a bicycle shop, a banquet hall and all kinds of sports and cultural activities.
You just know there’s a restaurant coming. And souvenir stands.
The $510 million project would hand our Rickenbacker to a private operator for 80 years and will definitely result in higher tolls.
Yeah, it’s a lot to take in.
Key Biscayne residents, who need the Rickenbacker to get in and out of their homes — and who have traffic nightmares when there are tennis matches or music festivals that clog the only road — would rather this be a transportation project judged by engineers and urban planners instead of a real estate deal reviewed by the parks and recreation department. All that really needs to be done is the bicycle lanes and repairs to both bridges, which need to be strengthened against sea level rise and hurricanes. Everything else is gravy.
Thick, expensive gravy.
Gravy with a secret recipe.
Know more: Rickenbacker RFP looks like a done deal set-up for no-bid Plan Z proposal
The project is so controversial that it has been the subject of several town hall meetings and two special meetings by the Key Biscayne Council, which finally voted to urge the county commission to scrap the RFP and begin anew in collaboration with the village.
The item on the agenda is set for a 3 p.m. time certain hearing. But there’s no way to know if that’s to accommodate the large number of public speakers expected to, mostly, speak against it or to accommodate architect Bernard Zyscovich, father of Plan Z. After all, Zyscovich — who has been working on this redevelopment project for about 10 years — somehow got to participate in the virtual town hall organized by La Alcaldesa so that she and staff could talk about the details.
There were lots of people on the Zoom call. Some had their hands raised. But nobody was allowed to speak except county people. And Zyscovich.
What happened to that cone of silence?
He mostly spoke about keeping certain aspects of his proposal secret. “We’ve worked long and hard,” he said. “We wouldn’t want to lose the ability to keep being confidential.”
That confidentiality would be lifted and the details would become public if the solicitation is tossed and the process would start again.
There will likely some push back from Commission Chair Jose “Pepe” Diaz who wrote the unsolicited proposal ordinance that set this RFP in motion to encourage more private public partnerships on major projects.
“We value this type of unsolicited P3 type of project. It’s the ones that bring these major projects you see all over the place that are huge,” Diaz said, adding that the confidentiality clause is important.
“They might have some ideas they don’t want the whole world to see,” he said. “It’s there for a reason.”
Diaz also said he feared that starting the process over would send the wrong message to future P3 partners. “I want to make sure we don’t give people false expectations and we ak them to bring these projects to us and then, all of a sudden, the rules change.”
Well, maybe the rules are unfair.
Know more: Key Biscayne crowed heckles Raquel Regalado on shady Rickenbacker RFP
Key Biscayners have no confidence in the process and feel the project itself is too ambitious, overly focused on cyclists instead of easing traffic and on recreational options rather than transportation solutions. The design criteria in the RFP is too specific and, along with the recreational elements required, basically requires proposers to copy their own Plan Z, which submitted by the team that has been planning it for 10 years, the last few with the help of the former county parks director.
How can anyone legitimately compete? Is the process just theater?
Levine Cava is expected to defend the RFP, just like she did at the virtual town hall. This is her legacy as much as it is Zyscovich’s.
Diaz has a legacy here, too. His unsolicited proposal ordinance. On Tuesday, Diaz wants to tweak it so that the commission has more control over the process, which is in the mayor’s purview. It would require the mayor to share the details of unsolicited proposals and give the commission the opportunity to seek proposals of their own.
It also will require La Alcaldesa to provide monthly rather than quarterly reports of all unsolicited proposals she has elected not to evaluate and gives the commission the power to second guess her.
“Upon a majority vote of the Board members present, the Board may direct the County Mayor to evaluate an unsolicited proposal the County Mayor elected not to evaluate provided the application fee is resubmitted and the unsolicited proposal otherwise meets the requirements of this section,” the Diaz amendment says.
Makes one wonder how many more secret, backroom deals are being cooked.
Plan Z for causeways is back to county commission for change requests added by Ladra on
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