Did anybody really think that the South Dade Logistics & Technology District was going to be the last attempt to cross the Urban Development Boundary, an invisible line meant to keep urban sprawl from penetrating the Everglades? ¡Claro que no!
Instead, the Miami-Dade County Commission’s fervent dedication to and intentional push to up zone farmland late last year — they went of their way to approve it on the fifth try — opened the proverbial floodgates to these protected lands crucial to our water supply. The value of the properties that were upzoned skyrocketed. And speculators and developers can see the cash cow, um, cash manatee. That’s why three separate applications have been filed with the county in a year’s time, as first reported in The Real Deal by Lidia Dinkova and researcher Adam Farence.
Together, these developers would add 3,080 housing units on the other side of the UDB.
The largest proposal is for something dubbed the Portofino Special District, which would add 1,677 single-family homes, townhouses and apartments to the area bounded by SW 104 Street and the Black Creek Canal to the north and south, and SW 162 Avenue and 167 Avenues to the east and west. The mixed-use project would also include close to 200,000 square feet of office, retail and restaurant space.
A traffic study done by the developer says the project would generate 12,277 new daily vehicle trips.
“Portofino helps address the housing attainability crisis in Miami-Dade County that Mayor [Danielle Levine] Cava declared last summer by providing single-family homes, townhomes, and garden apartments in a beautifully designed pedestrian friendly mixed-use community that also includes water features, parks, office space, restaurants, and neighborhood serving retail,” attorney Elinette Ruiz-Diaz de la Portilla, who represents the developer in the application, was quoted as saying in the South Florida Business Journal. She is also the wife of former Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla. who, as a county commissioner, came up with the super majority rule for moving the UDB.
A second proposal is for a six-story Infinity Gardens Apartments mixed-use complex at 14505 SW 260 Street near Naranja. The plan is for 773 apartments and up to 10,000 square feet of retail on almost 14 acres. Only 8.5 acres at the western part of the site is outside the UDB — but that is zoned agricultural. The developer is Brandon Shpirt of BSB Global Enterprises. An affiliate bought the property in October, paying $9.4 million, property records show.
Read related: On fourth try, Miami-Dade Commission approves huge project beyond the UDB
The third proposed project would create the Westend at Princeton, a complex of 14 different buildings, all four to six stories high, at the southeast corner of SW 252 Street and SW 145 Avenue. Some, if not all, of the 630 units on 20 acres would be designated workforce housing. If we can believe that.
You can count on commissioners citing a need for housing and a totally unbelievable study that says the county runs out of space to build more housing within the UDB in 2026. Ridiculous.
The UDB is an invisible line created to curb suburban sprawl west toward Everglades National Park. Many of the properties outside the UDB are zoned as agricultural or farmland. But some of the territory is wetlands that could at some point be used for the restoration of the Everglades.
Some of the commissioners who voted against the logistics industrial park said they were afraid to set a precedent. They were prophetic. Developers, property owners and speculator investors saw how commissioners went out of their way to approve the industrial park item on the fifth vote, and have submitted three more applications to develop housing across the UDB.
There is plenty of land within the UDB still available, especially now that the county wants to encourage housing development along the stations of the MetroRail transit line.
Three developers want to cross over the UDB to build more than 3K homes added by Ladra on
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Hi I’m an Elderly citizen who lived on Brandon Shpirt property it’s been 30 days and he refuse to Send my Deposit. I’m contacting the BBB, elderly abuse, I don’t think I his first Victim
We need more housing, but does it really need to cross the UDB? Nah. That’s BS.
Perception-based administration at work. They may try to appear against it at first but theyll eventually find a way to approve this while making it look like that they didint want to approve it.
While riding Tri-Rail, we noticed a lot of Miami-Dade land used for storing disabled vehicles and other equipment, it’s largely all the way, east of the line, from Miami to Broward County. The American way isn’t to pile up junk. It’s easier to snap-up some pristine land and claim to be solving problems.
Don’t blame One , They Where All on the Take , They don’t do it for US , They Just pad their Wallets ?
There are honest HOA’s and management companies but my experience in Doral in a no frills gated community and the experience of EVERYONE I know who lives in other communities here is STAY AWAY from any HOA .
Sadly Miami is becoming one big HOA type place as far as new construction.
Though think most of you are in Coral Gables so perhaps people there more involved not uninvolved apathetic wanna be victims.
Florida and California are more or less tied for the most corrupt HOA’s in the USA .
” Less populated states and less crowded areas tend to have lower HOA fees. However, our study found that the worst-behaved HOAs were in California, Florida and Texas, so keep that in mind when buying in these states.”
https://playa993.com/listicle/florida-ranks-number-2-for-the-most-corrupt-hoa-boards-in-the-country/
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” Remember folks! We can thank Raquelita Regalado for opening the flood gates on this.”
When I see these up for sale Commissioners I think of the movie The Thing as far as they look like us , speak like us but who is kidding who , 1982 version is great if you have not seen it .
We are trading our food chain (agricultural land) for housing. It makes sense!
Let the people die of hunger. When they do. There will be plenty of housing. Since the supply will far exceed the demand, two problems would be solved. Shrinking the population will solve both food chain and housing crisis.
Years ago, I had a sitting Commissioner tell me her vision for Dade County was for it to be like New York. I guess that is where she was originally from and missed her fond memories of traffic, concrete, and a transportation system that actually went somewhere. I hope this is not what people that move here want. The other thing I’ve noticed, is the caliber of people who now even bother to run for office. Whether they’re from the north or south, most ALL of them are more concerned with providing their existing tax payers with a **** show of high rise buildings butt up to the street, a transportation system that only the real “working class” HAS to ride, and no real affordable housing being provided. (is it any wonder why Habitat For Humanity doesn’t operate down here?). And promoting “locally grown” is an insult to us when you keep shoving builder’s dreams onto agricultural lands. We need a moratorium on building anything that isn’t infill and doesn’t bastardize the zoning to pack too many into small spaces.
Eventually Commissioners are going to allow building west to Everglades National Park. How are these new structures going to get insurance? Insurance companies are leaving not just Florida, but also California and Louisiana. As a condition for zoning changes builders should be forced to build hurricane- and flood-proof structures like the famous home that survived Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach: https://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-beach-florida-house-hurricane-florence-2018-10
Political BRIBES/Donations are responsible for All this Violations of Codes and UDB Lines ? Let’s Get All These That Vote for them in JAIL or Place a high IMPACT FEE to Cover For ROADS and Inter Structure !
Sea Level Rise. Climate Change. Extremely high temperatures. South Florida needs more grass and trees and we need a much larger Everglades National Park. Hopefully, Mayor Cava will oppose this. Hopefully, there are honest and educated commissioners who read the news. Hopefully, developers have not bribed a majority of the Miami-Dade County commissioners.
Let me see, wanton concrete construction axing natural rain percolation and tree canopy atop a coral rock sponge with an aquifer a few feet below, a nuclear power plant, a Mount Trashmore leaking methane into the Bay, a badly antiquated infrastructure that leaks fecal matter with rising seas in a major hurricane zone and a ballooning population. What could possibly go wrong?
Remember folks! We can thank Raquelita Regalado for opening the flood gates on this.
Ladra- please admit that you were wrong in helping with her mayoral campaign.
Let’s have truthful conversation here!