When Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado goes Thursday evening to a town hall meeting hosted by the Kendall Federation of Homeowner Associations, it will be an act of courage.
This is where the Calusa people live. Ladra fully expects some of them to come and pressure her to change her mind on the development of 550 homes on the 168-acre abandoned golf course now that there is evidence that protected Florida birds are nesting there.
Save Calusa, a group of homeowners who have fought the development for years, went to court and won when a judge agreed that the vote to approve the zoning change is invalid because it was not properly noticed. That halted construction.
The Third District Court of Appeals agreed but the county has appealed that ruling, too. That may give Regalado cover to not talk about it.
Meanwhile, residents against the development have documented the hatching of several tri-colored heron chicks on the island rookery that would be disrupted by construction.
This particular audience is also mostly unhappy that Regalado switched her vote on moving the Urban Development Boundary for the construction of an industrial park and logistics center that many think does not need to be built on lands that many think should be preserved. The District 7 commissioner voted against that change in zoning four or five times before giving in to a trade for environmental endangered lands, which critics said was a copout.
Read related: On fourth try, Miami-Dade Commission approves huge project beyond the UDB
Said audience includes KFHA President Michael Rosenberg, who ran against Regalado in the District 7 race in 2020 and lost with 13.5% in the 4-way first round. Might it get awkward? Not for Rosenberg.
“I suppose that a losing candidate doesn’t very often host a winning candidate, so that’s kind of unusual and ironic I suppose,” Rosenberg told Ladra. “I guess I’m really lucky that not much bothers me because I know that I’m always trying to do the right thing, or at least I feel that way.”
Regalado could not be reached for comment. But everybody knows she ain’t shy. And she’s used to a rough crowd. Remember when she was booed and heckled at during a Key Biscayne town hall when the county was pushing the Plan Z Rickenbacker Causeway redevelopment?
The meeting begins at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 18, at the Kendall Village Center’s “Civic Pavilion,” 8625 SW 124th Ave.
Miami-Dade’s Raquel Regalado to chat with Kendall residents at KFHA event added by Ladra on
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