The primary ballot this month for Coral Gables voters includes a non-binding question about the long proposed annexation of neighboring Little Gables into the city — and the vote could halt the process or help move it forward.
It’s probably going to halt the process. The up or down all depends on who comes out to vote.
Residents who most support the annexation are those who live adjacent to the unincorporated Miami-Dade enclave. Those who live farther than the downtown aren’t as sure it’s worth the expense on their tax dollars. Which is $23.6 million over the course of five years.
The question reads: “Would you support the City pursuing the annexation of Little Gables (the area generally bounded by SW 8th Street to the North, SW 16 Street to the South, Cortez Street to the West, and SW 40th Avenue to the East) into the City of Coral Gables via Miami-Dade County’s annexation process, and absorbing all associated annexation costs?”
Key words: “absorbing all associated annexation costs.”
Note that there are not any actual figures in the ballot language. Let’s be fair and say that some of the additional property revenue will cover that. The city estimates it will still be in the hole for between almost $5 million to possibly $9 million for at least those five years. It could take longer to recover the costs. There is no long-term prognosis. And after going down the second year, it creeps up every year after, according to the city’s own estimates.
Read related: https://politicalcortadito.com/2023/11/16/vince-lago-doesnt-want-city-residents-to-vote-on-little-gables-annexation/
And that’s not a popular idea with most residents, which is why Mayor Vince Lago — who is almost hellbent on annexation — didn’t even want his constituency to vote on it. Last year, he fought putting the referendum on the ballot, calling it a “mistake.”
“We should trust in ourselves, as elected officials, to move the process forward and make the right decision,” Lago said at a commission meeting last November. “We can’t vote on everything based on referendum. That’s not why we’re here. We’re here to make decisions and move this forward, or vote against it if that’s the case.”
Gee. He sure has changed his mind since then, pushing this and three other referendums he wants to put on the ballot, but is failing miserably at doing so.
The proposed annexation of Little Gables has been an issue for decades. Residents and homeowners in both the city and the unincorporated Miami-Dade enclave are split on the issue.
Some Little Gables residents say they are happy to be part of the county. Others say the purchased their homes thinking they would soon be part of the city. Gables residents who live closest to the neighborhood, which borders 8th Street on the north and the City Beautiful on three sides, are more in favor of annexation than those who live further away. Supporters do so only on for public safety.
Read related: https://politicalcortadito.com/2023/03/27/coral-gables-mayor-vince-lago-annexations-on-fast-track/
In other words, no matter what side Gables residents stand on, they are clasping their pearls at the thought of letting the denizens of Little Gables — a dark, seedy square of streets with no-tell motels, alleged ‘drug houses’ and a trailer park full of poor people — into the City Beautiful. Yuck!
Last year, the city held a series of workshops that seemed designed to convince residents that this would be better from a public safety and code enforcement perspective. The city seems to want this. The biggest cheerleader is Lago, who has gone on a media tour to push a yes vote. It’s almost as if he stands something to gain from it. And he might.
The owner of the trailer park, which is the biggest property in Little Gables, was once officially represented by Lago’s brother, lobbyist Carlos Lago. He is no longer registered to lobby for them officially — and he doesn’t have to be in order to “consult,” which is a loophole for the registration requirements — but he only withdrew his registration with the city of Miami in March of 2023, after Political Cortadito and others started asking questions about Lago’s Oscar-winning affidavit moment at the August, 2022, meeting, seven months earlier.
That’s when Lago swore, on the dais very dramatically, in a signed affidavit, that he had no family members tied to any interests in Little Gables — glaringly leaving out any reference to siblings, which is specifically included in the county “conflict of interest” language that he used.
The Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust investigated the potential conflict of interest and whether or not Lago violated the truth in government code with his bogus affidavit. They found no evidence that he had knowingly left off the “siblings, half-siblings and step-siblings” from the text.
Typo then. Sure, you can believe that. You can also believe Lago just wants to give the people of that trailer park a nicer zip code.
But let’s be honest, the mayor’s brother could certainly get “rehired” if the property — of which there are even plans on record to develop it into the “Moorish Village” — were suddenly in Coral Gables
There are also other commercial properties on Southwest 8th Street that could suddenly become hot.
Read related: https://politicalcortadito.com/2023/03/03/coral-gables-mayor-vince-lago-brother-little-gables-annexation/
There is no organized anti-referendum campaign.
“I am letting voters tell the commission what they want,” said Commissioner Ariel Fernandez, who was the one that sponsored the legislation to put the referendum on the ballot. Commissioner Melissa Castro is the one who insisted the language include “absorbing all costs.”
The actual figure could not be part of the ballot language, according to the city attorney.
While the question is non-binding, it is expected to provide city leaders with a much more definitive sense of how residents feel.
And las malas lenguas out at early voting say they feel negative: The referendum is losing 2 to 1.
Coral Gables voters to weigh in on Little Gables annexation in ballot question added by Ladra on
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When annexation fails it will be L’Ego’s fault for his phony affidavit and claim of attorneys for his ethics inquiry. Who needs to spend $40,000 on attorneys for an inquiry which is baseless?
I live in Little Gables & I oppose annexation. It will increase the costs of living for the residents & some cannot afford it. It will deteriorate the neighborhood because it’ll be more expensive to upkeep your home so houses will not improve. Waste fees will increase & little gables has no room for a garbage pit. As others mentioned Gables has strict code rules & a lot of homes don’t meet them in Little Gables. This will greatly reduce the prestige of the Gables & potentially affect the value of the homes. Mayor Lago has a real estate development company so don’t think he’s pushing annexation because he cares for Little Gables residents, or the Gables ones. Some little gables residents are working with lobbyists to try & get little gables annexed: https://www.voterfocus.com/CampaignFinance/pdf_miamidade/doc_2695_20230825115600_Filing_Documents_08-25-2023.pdf
Gables has not been transparent about all costs involved. They don’t even have a plan on how they’ll improve the neighborhood. Gables should focus on their infrastructure because it’s been falling apart- some streets are embarrassing.
Also, once the police & firefighters have more residents to support the response times will suffer.
Please vote no to annexation to save our neighborhood.
”but I’ll stop for now and hope that people can realize there are many more reasons to support annexation that goes beyond conspiracy theories about lobbyists, etc.”
Good post like all these posts but IMO when it comes to Politicians / City brass especially Miami assume the worse as far as an up for sale bunch and 90 percent of the time iin Miami one would be correct .
Having a vote by CG residents is just another obstacle and certainly not a requirement of the County’s process. Many affluent people live in Little Gables and are extremely supportive of annexation. Take a drive around the homes of Little Gables and you can clearly see a transformation. Take particular notice of those who oppose versus the ones who support it and decide for yourself. George Merrick had a long term plan that went beyond five years and look at Coral Gables now. Same is true for Little Gables, long term it will be extremely valuable and an asset to the entire area. Little Gables was not meant to be more affordable and none of that garbage that has been mentioned. The only reason was that the original orange grove owner refused to sell to Merrick and LG clearly stayed behind without the proper plan to guide it. We’ve been at this for years and enough is enough. I fully support annexation and will continue to for the betterment of my neighborhood. I can go on and on about overdevelopment, proliferating Airbnb’s, lack of code enforcement, removing enclaves, and lack of police/fire quick responses, but I’ll stop for now and hope that people can realize there are many more reasons to support annexation that goes beyond conspiracy theories about lobbyists, etc.
Dear Doug, you forgot one more reason you don’t want to be part of Coral Gables: You would have Vince Lago as your mayor. Yuck.
Love, Ladra
Neighbors for the Preservation of Little Gables offers the following reasons why Coral Gables residents should vote NO on annexation: First, the City’s own consultant report estimates annexation will cost $23.6 million over five years, with the deficit increasing in subsequent years! Wouldn’t the residents of Coral Gables rather spend their precious tax dollars on improvements to parks, museums, city services, roads, children’s programs, etcetera? Second, the City has no plan to assist the poor residents of the Gables Trailer Park – in fact their last proposal was to close it down, kicking out the low-income residents, many of whom are elderly, to make way for luxury housing. Third, the houses in Little Gables are smaller and much more moderate than those of Coral Gables, so annexation will ultimately negatively impact the overall valuation of Coral Gables homes. Fourth, greedy speculators that have been buying up houses in Little Gables and are pushing for annexation so that they can make an even larger windfall profits.
Here are the reasons why many residents of Little Gables oppose annexation: First, Coral Gables has higher property taxes, something that many residents of Little Gables simply can’t afford, especially the elderly living on fixed incomes. Second, we believe that the County must take responsibility for the health and safety of the residents of the Gables Trailer Park – we suggest working with the owner to create new affordable housing rather than eviction and likely homelessness. Third, compared to the County, Coral Gables housing codes are overbearing, they limit the color of houses, the type of fencing, acceptable roof materials, density of landscaping, and require permits for nearly anything done to your house, even painting, and it can take a long time and add hundreds of dollars in cost. Until just a few years ago you couldn’t even park a pick-up truck in your own driveway! And the City is infamous for employing a cadre of code enforcement officers who aggressively seek rule breakers. Fourth, although Coral Gables promises to “grandfathered” us in, we don’t buy it because it won’t last forever and will likely be revoked the first time you need a permit for something as a resident of Coral Gables.
We believe that Little Gables should be once and for all be left alone – let it be what it was intended, a more affordable version of Coral Gables for persons with more moderate means.
Doug Mayer
READ CAREFULLY – The owner of the trailer park, which is the biggest property in Little Gables, was once officially represented by Lago’s brother, lobbyist Carlos Lago. He is no longer registered to lobby for them officially — and he doesn’t have to be in order to “consult,” which is a loophole for the registration requirements — but he only withdrew his registration with the city of Miami in March of 2023, after Political Cortadito and others started asking questions about Lago’s Oscar-winning affidavit moment at the August, 2022, meeting, seven months earlier.
THEN LAGO SAYS THIS?
“We should trust in ourselves, as elected officials, to move the process forward and make the right decision,” Lago said at a commission meeting last November.
We should definitely NOT trust in our elected officials – we need to lookout for ourselves.
The city estimates it will still be in the hole for between almost $5 million to possibly $9 million for at least those five years.- Where do you think the money is going to come from??
MAKE WISE DECISIONS BEFORE VOTING.
As for me, it’s a NO to annexation! and I hope they don’t bring this up EVER again – enough is enough already, let people live in peace.
The advertised promise of luring people to move to Coral Gables:
“Winding boulevards, lush green treescapes and uniform architecture”…which Little Gables does not have.
Little Gables does NOT look like Coral Gables and was never meant to be Coral Gables.
Many of my Little Gables neighbors (including myself) bought our homes in Unincorporated Dade County over 35 years ago because we could afford to live here.
And we love our neighborhood just as it is.
We never wanted to live in Coral Gables…and still don’t.
I personally believe:
If anyone believes that any “Grandfather Clause” will hold up…you are delusional.
Laws change. (Think Roe v Wade.)
Elected officials change.
Who in Little Gables will be profiting from annexation?
Hmmmmmm…
Realtors?
People who bought homes here on the assumption we would be annexed?
People who publicly claim they live in Coral Gables…but don’t?
Coral Gables voters need their tax dollars to fund their own services and needs.
Why in the world would they spend $23,594,000 ?
Coral Gables Voters: Vote No!
Little Gables was always to be part of coral gables. It was part of the original plan. I support the annexation of little gables with open arms. It will help our police to keep better tabs on the area. Welcome Little Gables
A Conflict of Corruption and NOW of CONSULTING $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Just like Lobbyist is Consulting ? Is Consulting Just Another Way of Bribe?
A lot of us, long-time Coral Gables residents not only don’t want “Little Gables” annexed, we feel they should stop using “Little Gables”
Since some members of the commission are pushing false narratives about raising taxes, let us all be clear: Annexation of Little Gables will force Coral Gables to raise taxes. The current Gables budget cannot absorb over 24M in costs towards ONLY Little Gables area. And we will be unable to issue bonds towards annexation.
I live in CORAL GABLES and streets are not well kept, streets are dark, sidewalks dirty and broken, landscape not as well maintained as 10 years ago, missed garbage pickup, and we’re down 40 police officers. What is the convincing factor to annex? The whole deal was High Pines would offset Little Gables, annexation of little gables alone makes it a bad financial decision. We know better.
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