Redland residents worry about move to allow food trucks, parking on farmlands

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Change would also allow breweries and “fruit stand” like businesses

Always wanting to do something else with farmland, Miami-Dade Commissioner Kionne McGhee has proposed an amendment to the zoning code that would exempt certain uses within the agricultural district from having to get a certificate of occupancy, which would basically allow not only fruit and vegetable stands to pop up anywhere, but also food trucks and breweries and distilleries.

It would also allow some property owners to turn their farms into parking lots for 18-wheelers.

Redland residents want none of it.

“This ordinance is the most destructive piece of legislation that one could imagine and it’s right at our doorstep,” said Michael Wanek, founder and president of the Redland Homes and Farms Association.

“It would be like dropping a nuclear bomb on the Redland,” Wanek told Ladra Wednesday.

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He is particularly concerned about the parking lots. Redland residents have fought those before, winning a victory about five years ago when the county outlawed the leasing of space to trucks. “It took one and half years of the county working with the community to gain consensus of a truck allocation that would be fair to farmers,” Wanek said.

Right now, there is a 0.4 truck per acre maximum, he said, and the change could allow hundreds of trucks to park from one side to another of a property. “Can you imagine a refrigerated truck vibrating all night next to your animals and your crops?”

Wanek has urged Redland residents to sign the petition below, call their commissioners and attend the county commission meeting on Thursday.

Jorge Zaldivar, a guava farmer, plans to be there.

“They’re going to turn Redland into Wynwood on drugs,” Zaldivar told Ladra. “This is a major blow to South Dade and our agricultural community and lands.

“No CUs needed for anything, lack of enforcement, and food trucks allowed permanently at any farm. Restaurants can then be developed from this lack of oversight, anywhere and everywhere,” he said.

Read related: Commissioners go out of their way to defend, promote moving the UDB

Commissioner McGhee, who sponsored the item, has reportedly not responded to some residents with concerns. He did not respond to calls and texts from Ladra. He texted back once, saying “please submit all media related questions and concerns in writing to [email protected].”

Is this the same guy who, as a state representative, had his desk turned around and pushed against a wall so he didn’t have it blocking the space between him and his constituents?

Ladra tried to contact McGhee’s chief of staff and deputy chief of staff, leaving messages when they were “out to lunch” at 3 p.m. Wednesday. Nobody called back.

But it’s not the first time McGhee has taken aim at farmland. Last year, he convinced his colleagues to turn hundreds of acres of farmland into the South Dade Logistics and Technology District — a proposed complex of warehouses, offices, a logistics shipping center and a hotel in the middle of nowhere. That has since been stopped when the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, which oversees land regulations, rejected the county’s final approval.

It may have to go to a revote in front of a new commission.

We already know how McGhee is going to vote.

Save Redland and MDC Petition by Political Cortadito on Scribd

  Kionne McGhee