Residents can’t call board members, but lobbyist can
Miami-Dade Commissioners deadlocked last week on a vote to deny a requested land use and zoning change for an assisted living facility to be built on a vacant lot in Killian where there are 12 duplexes currently approved. With two commissioners absent and Commissioner JC Bermudez recusing himself, the vote ended 5 to 5. Then they deadlocked on a vote to approve it.
The item should have died right there, sending the developer and his team back to the drawing board to start anew. But after the two tie votes, Commissioner Rene Garcia made a motion to defer the application so it can come back again at the very next commission meeting for another try with the full board.
Even commissioners expressed confusion. Didn’t the item just die? The attorney said that since no action was taken on the application — a request to change land use and zoning on a parcel of land near the South Dade rapid busway from 12 townhouses to a 216-bed facility with 126 parking spaces — another motion could be entertained.
Read related: Killian homeowners fight proposed ALF at County Hall — again
Garcia and Commissioner Kionne McGhee, who seconded his motion, both said they wanted the full board to weigh in. Commission Chairman Oliver Gilbert and Commissioner Micky Steinberg missed the vote. Las malas lenguas say they skipped on purpose because they don’t want to vote against District 8 Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins, who is very much on the residents’ side (again).
Bermudez, who hadn’t seen the video of the committee meeting where the public spoke, has more time to see it now and will also be able to vote when it comes back to the commission on May 7.
By then, lobbyist Melissa Tapanes for the owner and developer will have reached out to every commissioner with either a campaign contribution or an argument for a yes vote — or both. Meanwhile, because of the Jennings Rule — a 1991 law passed to “protect the zoning process from unfair influence” — residents who oppose the development cannot call commissioners and urge them to vote no. Because they already got their one minute.
How is that fair?
“It just seems so stacked against us,” Rosemary Pringle, who lives a few doors from the proposed ALF, told Political Cortadito after the vote. “I’m at a loss as to what is left to do.”
Garcia told Ladra last week that he thought it was an important project.
“I tend to think we do need for people to have these places,” Garcia said. “We need areas to take care of our seniors, especially when you’re talking about seniors with memory loss.”
The former senator also believes that the location is appropriate.
Read related: Kendall residents worry re 5G towers that pop up suddenly by their homes
“It’s on U.S. 1 next to the busway. Unfortunately, the back part of the property abuts the neighbors. But they’re going to do landscaping,” as a buffer, Garcia explained, adding that the developer will pay to also improve traffic in the area and increase capacity, which is already a problem.
“I recognize there is a need for assisted living in Miami-Dade County,” Cohen Higgins said. “I just don’t recognize that this is the location for it.”
The very same developer who wants to build an ALF had come to the board in 2018 with a covenant for 12 townhouses, she said. “And here they stand before us a few years later [with] another project, another covenant.”
Other commissioners tried to frame it as a NIMBY issue and pit the neighbors against seniors with Alzheimer’s and dementia.
“That’s really unfair,” Pringle, who has lived in the same house for 30 years, said. “It’s disingenuous.
Pringle told Ladra that the developer told the community on a Zoom call that the ALF would be an exclusive, luxury community. “That doesn’t sound inexpensive to me,” she said, adding that there is also a need for townhouses when seniors want to downsize but stay independent.
“My husband and I, we were looking for a townhouse and we just gave up. There’s no inventory in this area. So we’ll just stay in our house,” Pringle said. “Old people are not just going into ALFs. A lot of us want to stay independent.”
She said she did not know what to think when Garcia deferred an issue she thought the neighbors had already prevailed on.
“It seems to me that a covenant is not worth the paper it is written on in Dade County,” Pringle said. “It’s worth nothing.”
That’s certainly true. Just ask the residents of Calusa.
Read related: Calusa golf course covenant to be killed for massive Kendall development
The Calusa attorney, David Winker — who has emerged as a sort of a residents champion against outlandish developments — is representing the Killian neighbors and said the developer is just waiting to get the votes he needs.
“The developer’s theory is ask the question over and over again until you get the answer you want,” Winker said.
They will need to get at least two of the commissioners who were not there last week to vote yes in order to get their minimum seven votes.
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Controversial ALF in Killian deferred by Miami-Dade Commission — again added by Ladra on
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