Calusa veto never came, but Miami-Dade's Alcaldesa promises 'protections'

The superhero is not coming.

Just before Saturday’s deadline for the mayoral veto on the Calusa zoning change that allows developers to build hundreds of homes on 168 Kendall acres that are now an organic, overgrown slice of Florida wildlife, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava issued a statement full of excuses as to why she didn’t, and empty promises as to why it shouldn’t matter.

She called it “taking the best next steps,” and said it addresses several issues: “Ensuring any endangered species have all possible protection, while also creating additional green spaces and minimizing impacts on traffic and quality of life for residents.”

Who wrote that? Sounds like talking points. Traffic? Check. Green space? Check. The all-important quality of life? Check check.

The mayor said she was also directing the Division of Environmental Resources Management (DERM) to take “all possible steps to enforce critical environmental protection measures – not only ensuring the redevelopment process adheres to all land development and environmental protection regulations, but also providing, to the maximum extent permitted by law, additional protections to potentially impacted wildlife identified in the redevelopment area.”

Wait, what? Isn’t that already the case? They should already be doing that.

Levine Cava also said that, even though the developer refused to add the staff-requested 5-acre neighborhood park to their plans, she will work with county attorneys to see if impact fees can be spent on improvements to the Kendall Indian Hammocks Trail — four miles away, or about half an hour in traffic — and to the West Kendall Trail, which is even further.

Key word: if. And, um, thanks?

She justified the decision by saying it is the only way to protect the Urban Development Boundary.

“Although efforts are now underway to allow development outside the UDB, my administration is firmly committed to fighting these efforts as we know that standing firm on the UDB is essential to protecting our environment and threatened habitats now and for the future,” she said. “Preserving the UDB means we must prioritize sustainable development inside the boundary – and, critically, make investments in better connected, more livable communities.”

Is it Ladra or does the mayor’s memo sound a lot like it was written by the developers and/or their lobbyist?

Memo from Mayor Daniella Levine Cava on Calusa application for development by Political Cortadito on Scribd

To say it’s a huge disappointment is an understatement. Many don’t believe Levine Cava really tried all that hard. Her statement reads like she tried hard to find excuses. No, wait, it reads like she plagiarized Commissioner Raquel Regalado‘s statement defending her own vote.

If ever there was a development that could be questioned it is this one. La Alcaldesa had only to get one or two commissioners to see how this whole thing has been manipulated from the get-go, how developers intentionally presented misleading information and skewered environmental studies.

Even the way the covenant was released last year — during a pandemic meeting, one month before a sea change in the commission that saw five new county commissioners elected — is suspicious at the least. It was rushed three years after it failed and after the former owner, Facundo Bacardi, entered into a legal settlement with the adjacent property owners who sued. About 123 of these “ring owners,” as they are called, were paid up to $300,000 a piece for their vote to release the covenant.

But first they have to make sure they support the zoning change. That is part of the deal and the developers — which now includes Broward-based GL Homes — lied to commissioners when they said the homeowners weren’t being paid to be there. They were. They have to make sure the zoning change happened. They don’t get a dime unless it does.

In her carefully worded memo, Levine Cava, like Regalado before her, is trying to make it seem like development was a foregone conclusion because the covenant was lifted. But the decision the commission made DATE was to change the zoning from parks and recreation to high density housing. Nobody can say that was the only option. The private owners could have built a golf course. A water park maybe. But that was never the intention from the moment the property was bought there was an intention to put homes on there. At one time it was 1,100, developers say, like they’re doing everyone a favor by cutting the proposal in half. .

In fact, that’s what the commissioners who voted to release the covenant said last year: That it didn’t guarantee any development. That the owners still had to come back for more approvals and that the public would get a chance to speak again.

Whatever good that does. There was enormous, perhaps unprecedented, opposition to this development. About 5,000 people signed an online petition and more sent their own letters and emails asking for a veto. Even Zoo Miami spokesman Ron Magill has come out vehemently against the project, saying that the wildlife there needed to be protected now, not later.

There is one last chance. A group of homeowners have hired attorney David Winker who says the zoning change void because there was no legal notice for the meeting. The legal notice was made for the item when it was on the agenda for a meeting in October. But it was never made again.

That was also not unintentional, by the way. And Winker told the county before the meeting — but they decided to go ahead anyway. Like there’s a deadline.

“While we are, of course, disappointed that Mayor Daniella Levine Cava didn’t follow the pleas of over 5,000 residents to veto the Commission vote to allow 550 homes on the Calusa land designated ‘parks & rec on the Miami-Dade comprehensive land use map, we are happy that the wildlife
concerns we raised are being addressed,” Winker said.

“Without our tireless work, these environmental issues would never have been addressed, and these critical habitats and endangered animals would have been bulldozed by the developer GL Homes. That alone shows the breakdown in this process.

“But the fight is far from over,” the attorney added.

Ladra doesn’t know, though. I mean, if the “water warrior” just gave up like that, without a little fight, then who is going to stand up to the developer?

Levine Cava did not return a call to her on Saturday evening. Instead, she had her spokeswoman Rachel Johnson text.

“She is actually canoeing in the Everglades this weekend without good reception,” Johnson said.

It appears she doesn’t have good reception when she’s at home or County Hall, either.

Calusa, Daniella Levine Cava, Raquel Regalado

Calusa veto never came, but Miami-Dade’s Alcaldesa promises ‘protections’ added by Ladra on November 27, 2021
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