A group of Palmetto Bay residents scored an incremental victory Monday in their fight to keep a vehicular bridge from being built over the C100 canal on 87th Avenue, connecting 164th Street to 163rd Terrace — a decades old battle that has divided the South Dade community.
The Village crowd was not split for the meeting Monday night. Every single speaker begged and/or demanded the village council reject Miami-Dade County’s interlocal agreement they characterized as lopsided and aprovechado. Even a resident south of the canal was against the agreement.
The village council heard them and heeded them and voted 4-1 to reject the interlocal agreement, which wasn’t even in its final form anyway. Only Vice Mayor Leanne Tellum voted against the rejection.
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Instead, village leaders plan on suing the county because the ordinance to approve the bridge got almost zero public notice, since Cohen Higgins used the COVID-19 emergency executive order to fast track it on the agenda. But this obviously has nothing to do with COVID. The 87th Avenue bridge proposal has been around for at least 30 years, according to residents who’ve been fighting it that long.
Both the Village Attorney, John Dellagloria, and outside counsel, Jerry Greenberg, seemed to roll their eyes as they explained that even if they won in court on the process — which should be easy because there is no way this was a COVID emergency — the Board of County Commissioners could just put it back on the agenda and vote on it again. So can the Miami-Dade Transportation Planning Organization.
It sounded like they really didn’t want to put in the effort.
Councilman Steve Cody reminded residents about the legal costs of the fight against the expansion of Palmer Trinity private school, which they lost, and said they need to understand they can lose this, too.
But residents and some village council members say there is opportunity. Another audience in front of the commission, with time to prepare, is another chance to talk some sense into them. It’s more time lapsed since the pre-COVID traffic study. It’s closer to the next year’s election, where there could be changes on the commission — including in District 8 (and that’s even if Palmetto Bay remains in District 8 as redistricting shapes up).
This whole bridge affair is being driven by Cohen Higgins, who was appointed to the District 8 seat to replace Mayor Daniella Levine Cava after she was elected last year. Cohen Higgins brought the bridge back earlier this year and used the COVID-19 rule to sneak it onto the commission. But neither the tone deaf commissioner nor anyone from her office or the county was at the village meeting Monday.
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The general consensus is that Cohen Higgins has sold out Palmetto Bay voters for those in Cutler Bay and who live south of that, because they overwhelmingly want the bridge, which they say will alleviate traffic for 20 blocks before 87th Avenue is stopped by another canal at 144th Street.
Residents were also critical of the interlocal agreement, which many said gave all the protection and power to the county — power they do not want to rescind. Any future traffic mitigation deemed necessary from the bridge project would have to be approved by the BCC. One resident said the interlocal agreement read more like a release from liability for the county.
“It’s clear that the county interests are not our interests,” said Norman Watts, who reminded people that part of the reason they voted to incorporate in 2002 was to control their own neighborhoods.
He also projected that 45,000 housing units or so south of 164th were in the pipeline and would make any bandaid to the traffic there obsolete real fast.
“Our quiet residential neighborhood will forever change if we allow this bridge to be built,” Watts said.
“We are being made a fool of,” added another man who said the village was being bullied by Miami-Dade. He said the “in good faith” elements should say “never going to happen” and reminded his neighbors and the council members of the sidewalks on 87th Avenue that are still unfinished.
“This is county terrorism,” the man said. “A premeditated, politically-motivated attack against residents of a municipality by Miami-Dade County.”
Attorney David Winker, who was retained by a group of homeowners against the bridge, urged the electeds to postpone until they got the final version of the agreement. The one he saw, he said, provided things that the county already has an obligation to provide.
Read related: Controversial 87th Avenue bridge comes back to county at TPO meeting
“This sets a bad precedent,” Winker said, adding that if a referendum was had on the bridge or the agreement, both would overwhelmingly lose.
“Please listen to your constituents,” he said.
And, apparently, they did. A couple of people said the Village Council seemed ready to sign the agreement at the last meeting and that this was a 180-degree turnaround.
Winker told Ladra after the meeting that it wasn’t just a victory for the homeowners but for incorporation.
“This is exactly why communities incorporate, to control their own destiny,” Winker said.
The Village must first finish its mediation with the TPO, but that should take about two minutes, Dellagloria said.
“They’ll tell us to get lost and then we can go to court,” he said.
Palmetto Bay council gets an earful, changes course on 87th Avenue bridge added by Ladra on
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