Palmetto Bay fights residents over county parcel Village wants for park

Miami-Dade’s Danielle Cohen Higgins sides with homeowners

A group of residents abutting a county-owned easement want to purchase the surplus property so that it doesn’t continue to be a dumping ground or cut through for people to walk through what is basically their back yards.

But the Village of Pinecrest wants the same piece of land to create a pocket park for the neighborhood in the municipality’s District 1 as part of a 10-year “Small Neighborhood Parks/Pocket Parks Recreational Master Plan.”

Miami-Dade County Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins is siding with the residents, presenting an item at Tuesday’s commission meeting that would sell the property for it’s $14,000 value — it’s an FP&L easement that nobody can build on — but it was kicked back to committee after several commissioners expressed concerns not just about the process but also about setting a precedent.

The whole tug-of-war has sparked another battle between Cohen Higgins and the village of 24,237 residents (of which DCH is one, btw). The first fight was over the 87th Avenue bridge, and a Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge ruled in favor of the county after the village sued to stop it. This new conflict on the 2.5-acre, L-shaped parcel along 77th Avenue between 140th and 141st streets, threatens to be just as tense.

“At the 11th hour we received a letter from the Village of Palmetto Bay indicating and alleging illegalities so on and so forth,” Cohen Higgins said in her meeting wrap-up video posted on Facebook. “Same song and dance from the Village of Palmetto Bay that we always see.

“Unfortunately, this is what I think about the letter and the allegations contained therein,” Cohen Higgins says — and then proceeds to rip up a letter from the village attorney to Miami-Dade Inspector General Felix Jimenez requesting in investigation into “the possible illegal conveyance” of the property. The letter, sent late Monday, claims the Village has first right to the land.

“Myriad reasons exist for the Village’s request that your office launch an investigation of what the Village believes to be a violation of county and state law, orchestrated to increase the value of a handful of homes,” wrote Village Attorney John Dellagloria, explaining how the city had been in discussion with the county since Miami-Dade Assistant Director of Real Estate Mark Burns of the county’s Internal Services Division told them on Dec. 28, 2022, that someone who lives adjacent to the property wanted to purchase it and subdivide it among all the adjacent homes. Burns gave the village 10 days to express any interest, and on Dec. 30, 2022, the village did just that.

But it was more than six months after the group of neighbors who want to divide the parcel between them had already submitted an application, pursuant to county code and state law, in order to get the land declared surplus and purchase it. And it was more than nine months after they first inquired.

Cohen Higgins said Tuesday that the village made its case for the property “after the fact” and that she had concerns about the time that lapsed after the residents first followed all the rules and submitted their application. “[It] went unanswered and ignored for basically a year,” the commissioner said.

In the video, she said officials at Palmetto Bay had the opportunity to speak at the committee meeting in March but chose not to.

“Fair is fair. They [residents] were first in line and they followed all the rules,” Cohen Higgins said. “It went to a full committee hearing in review. No one from the Village of Palmetto Bay decided to show up, but the residents did. They came and pled their case. And it passed committee 5-0. There wasn’t one opposing vote.”

Kassandra Rodriguez, whose property sits on the L corner, was nominated by the neighbors as the applicant. “We’re all in this together, but based on the county code, only one can appply,” she told Ladra, adding that they feel like the rug has been pulled from under them.

Rodriguez made the first contact in April of 2002 with Jason Smith in the mayor’s office because as a commissioner, Daniella Levine Cava helped the neighbors across the street buy another easement. “He walked us through the process,” and the application was submitted in July, she said.

Rodriguez sent Political Cortadito a series of emails where she kept asking for updates on the application and kept getting the run-around.

The email chain shows that the county acknowledge receiving the submittal on Aug. 24. On Oct. 7, Rodriguez wrote to Andrew Schimmel, assistant division chief of ISD Real Estate Development to ask for an update or if there was a tracking system to keep an eye on it. After getting no answer, she wrote again on Oct. 12. Schimmel wrote back that he would follow up “by the end of today.” He didn’t.

The next afternoon he wrote her again. “Good afternoon, Kassandra. I just wanted to reach out and update you. We are still reviewing your application,” he told her. “I hope to have additional information by tomorrow. Nevertheless, I will let you know — either way — before the weekend.” He didn’t.

Rodriguez wrote back to Schimmel on Oct. 24. “Just following up with you on my IO 8-4 application. Last we spoke you were looking into it and trying to get an update for me. Please let me know.”

Nada.

She followed up on Nov. 1: “I last spoke to you on 10/13/22 and you informed me you were looking into it and would hopefully have an update and more information before that weekend. Please let me know if there is any status update or if there is someone else I should be reaching out to in regards to this application.”

This time, she got an answer: “The county is processing your application in accordance with implementing order 8-4. A circulation memo has been issued. The county should be reaching back out to you within the next 30 days with a determination [on] whether the property will be conveyed.”

On Dec. 2 she reached out again and got an immediate response from Schimmel: “The county is processing your application pursuant to IO 8-4. Unfortunately, the process is quite lengthy. However, it is underway.”

On Jan. 10, Rodriguez wrote him again, hoping he had a nice holiday and asking for an update. He told her “the process is still underway.” No word of the December notice to the village. In February, after she inquired again, Real Estate Manager Raul Mas Jr. told her that “the disposition process is a lengthy one. However, we are working on it.” Still no word on the notice to the village two months earlier.

In March and April, Rodriguez kept checking on the application’s place in the pipeline. “The application is still being process and reviewed,” Schimmel told her in April and in May, although he told Mas and other county staffers that “a ‘Findings and Recommendations’ memo was recently completed. It was submitted to the Director’s office and will, subsequently, be considered by the Mayor.”

Still nothing about Palmetto Bay, which submitted its own application in June, along with applications to purchase three other properties to create one green space known as Tanglewoods Linear Park.

“They were telling me in May of 2023 that they were working on it but they were talking to the Village since 2022,” Rodriguez said. “And nobody told us they were trying to sell it to them behind our backs.”

She said that the city had obtained another surplus parcel from the county in 2019 for a passive park and had done nothing with it.

“It’s going to sit there for years and years,” Rodriguez said. “If they were to actually do something with it, if they would actually work with us.” She said the neighbors could give part of the parcel furthest from the homes to the Village If there was a buffer. “So people are not throwing a frisbee in my back yard.”

She said that most of the Village Council has been deaf to them. “They don’t want to hear from us. “We’re willing to cut a big section off,” Rodriguez said.

Palmetto Bay Mayor Karen Cunningham said that she is just trying to follow the people’s mandate. A 2021 survey found that more than 80% of the residents wanted more green space. “We’re the city of parks. It makes sense,” she said. “People who move here move here for recreational opportunities and beautiful green spaces.

“We are here for the majority, and that is why we are moving forward with it,” Cunningham told Ladra. “The council is in place to produce for a majority of the residents.”

Cunningham said that the other easement across the street is different because it was a grassy alley between the backs of homes, not abutting on a street. She also said that the parcel on 168th Street purchased in 2019 is known as “the woods” and is already used by residents. The master plan, she added, is a “10-year vision” so not everything is going to be done right away.

She would have attended the first committee meeting but did not know about it until afterwards, she said.

She and Village Manage Nick Marano plan to attend the Infrastructure committee meeting this Tuesday to make their case to the commission.

“I’m super excited to share the plan with the committee,” she told Ladra, adding that the village also submitted three other applications for easements that follow the L south of parcel. “It’s really about connecting spaces for pedestrians and bicyclists.

“There are many residents in the neighborhood whose property either face the location or are a block away or two blocks away and they’re interested in it being a public space,” she said.

That includes the mayor herself, whose home is close by.

Last week, Commissioner Eileen Higgins was ready to deny the application, but moved instead to send it back to committee. “There are so many sides to this story I don’t know which side is up and which side is down,” Higgins said at the commission meeting April 2.

“We have an item that basically gives the property her to one individual to divvy up among her neighbors,” Higgins said, adding that one of the homes abutting the property was for sale. “And then on the other side we have this idea of turning it into public space and a park at a time when we know green space is at a premium.”

Both she and Commissioner Raquel Regalado said there was new information that they didn’t have at the committee meeting in March. “We were all bombarded with different information that really wasn’t discussed at committee,” Regalado said, supporting a deferral. “If we vote on it, it’s just going to end up in litigation.

“Without making a decision on the merits, it’s better for us if we send it back, notice it and then deal with it at committee where we have the chance to hear from everyone and to get a little bit of clarity on the process,” Regalado said, adding that she was concerned about the notice and setting a precedent for other easements.

Vice Chair Anthony Rodriguez — DCH pal and ally — didn’t favor kicking the can down the road. “I’m more concerned about making this a habit,” he said. “We went through the legal process, people were heard. There was not much opposition, if any at all. So new information came up or just information from people that didn’t come the first time?

“I just don’t want to get into the habit of kind of backing things up every time someone comes and kind of stirs the pot,” Rodriguez said.

Chairman Oliver Gilbert said that Cunningham had contacted him and that he said that it sounded like some people wanted to change the process. As a former mayor of Miami Gardens, he said he thought surplus parcels “should go to cites, but that’s not what’s actually required.” He said the county contacted Palmetto Bay when they did not have to.

“We give away public land for private use all the time. If you want to have a policy discussion, I’m okay with having the policy discussion,” Gilbert said. “The process was followed.”

Commissioner Keon Hardemon said he had held his tongue at committee to be supportive of the district commissioner, but agreed with a delay to discuss the matter further.

“Anytime people say I don’t want a park in my neighborhood, it always rubs me the wrong way,” Hardemon said. “Just something about it mens I don’t want visitors, I don’t want some people. It means no basketball hoops. those things, they raise the hairs on my skin.”

He was also uncomfortable with just handing it over without a stated purpose or plan. “Just to fence it? so that all of them just have green space behind them? A private golf course? Is it a space for them to walk their dogs, just only the members of their club?

“More clarity is appropriate,” he said.

The county’s Infrastructure, Operations and Innovations committee meeting begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday in Commission Chambers at County Hall, 111 NW First St., and can be viewed on cable access TV or online here. Regalado is the chair.

“Hopefully the Village of Palmetto Bay will show up at that time,” Cohen Higgins says in her video.

“I made my thoughts very clear,” she says. “I’ll continue to make my thoughts very clear in the future. The residents will always come first to me.”

April letter from Palmetto Bay to Miami-Dade General Inspector re: surplus land for park by Political Cortadito on Scribd

Emails re Miami-Dade surplus parcel in Palmetto Bay by Political Cortadito on Scribd

Danielle Cohen Higgins, Karyn Cunningham, Palmetto Bay