Transportation board to vote on SW 87th Ave. bridge
Three years after a Miami-Dade County transportation board shot down a proposal to build a bridge over Southwest 87th Avenue in Palmetto Bay, the polarizing pitch to unclog some of South Dade’s most congested roadways is heading for another vote.
The Miami-Dade Transportation Planning Organization is expected to take up the $3.1 million plan on Thursday after county commissioners revived the project last month and put it on a fast track to approval. A yes vote would kick off the process of designing and constructing the bridge where a canal cuts 87th Avenue in two.
For many south of the canal in Cutler Bay, the bridge represents a crucial respite from the traffic that clogs where the street dead-ends, turning fiveor six-mile drives on a school day morning into hellish commutes. It also represents a glimmer of hope for a traffic solution as their community and communities south of them continue to be developed.
But for many who live directly north of the canal, the bridge symbolizes bureaucracy at its worst — a rejected 2018 proposal resurrected by an unelected commissioner that will only bring more traffic to their otherwise quiet neighborhood streets.
“Once this is built, the damage is done,” Palmetto Bay resident Joseph Mirabelli told the Miami Herald Sunday from the dead-end street north of the canal, “and this neighborhood will be changed forever.”
DIFFERENT COMMISSIONER, DIFFERENT RESULTS?
Critics and supporters are anticipating the Thursday vote on the proposal which, after years of backand-forth, was suddenly resurfaced last month by newly appointed District 8 Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins with the help of COVID-19 emergency rules. Her plan was advanced by county commissioners, who set aside money for the project and directed county Mayor Daniella Levine Cava — who lives in and once represented Palmetto Bay — to do whatever it takes to get it built.
When she was the District 8 commissioner, Levine Cava opposed the project and was successful in stalling it when it went before the Transportation Planning Organization, or TPO, in 2018. But Cohen Higgins, her appointed replacement, lives in Palmetto Bay and supports the bridge, which would extend 87th Avenue over the C-100 canal from Southwest 164th Street to Southwest 163rd Terrace. The bridge is a key part of her platform for her 2022 campaign for the seat.
“I have been clear and consistent about not only my support of this connectivity project, but also that it is a priority. This project has been recommended by our professionals for years because it will significantly reduce travel times,” Cohen Higgins wrote in a statement Monday. “This project is also a matter of public safety, because this incomplete road negatively affects emergency response times for our fire department.”
The project has been part of a master plan to complete the county’s traffic grid — left incomplete by a series of zigzagging flood control canals — since 1978, county documents show. The project was most recently recommended as part of a 2014 study conducted by the TPO to focus on providing the missing links throughout the county’s network of roads. At the time, the study showed that traffic would be reduced anywhere from
10% to 40% and commutes would shrink by as much as 90 minutes during peak morning and afternoon drive times.
“As the commissioner representing all of District 8, I am committed and compelled to provide real solutions for both traffic relief and public safety,” Cohen Higgins told the Herald.
A POSSIBLE LAWSUIT
But Cohen Higgins’ effort to raise the 87th Avenue bridge from the dead has reignited tensions between Palmetto
Bay, Cutler Bay and the county.
On Friday and Monday, attorneys representing Palmetto Bay and MiamiDade County met for a “dispute negotiation” forced by a threat by Palmetto Bay’s village council to file a lawsuit over the project.
The village alleges the proposal was put forward hurriedly and without proper public notice, and that the new commissioner misused the county’s COVID-19 emergency rules to push her proposal through with only one day’s notice instead of the four days required under standard procedures.
County attorneys said the village’s argument was inaccurate. County Chief Operations Officer Jimmy Morales offered to present the TPO Thursday with a memorandum that includes details about the bridge project and a list of the steps that had been taken over the years.
Village attorney John Dellagloria said since there wasn’t a resolution, there will be some sort of legal mediation between the county and the village.
If the issue is not resolved at that point, “that’s when we will go to court,” he told the Miami Herald. He also expects the village will enter into a similar conflict resolution process with the TPO, as a separate entity from the county.
“We figured they weren’t just going to say, ‘you win and let Palmetto Bay run the county,’” Dellagloria said Monday. “We didn’t expect that.”
Despite support from some residents, Palmetto Bay has taken a largely anti-bridge stance, contending that the bridge would allow for cutthrough traffic. The village council approved a resolution last month to oppose the bridge and urge Levine Cava to veto the item.
Palmetto Bay Mayor Karyn Cunningham, who made a video about her disdain for the bridge, has said she would rather see a more comprehensive plan for the region that would alleviate traffic congestion.
Damian Nunez lost consciousness Monday afternoon after a representative from a homeless organization told him he and his trailer would have to be gone from a Florida City-owned community by mid-week.
“I’m scared,” said Nunez, 56, who has a history of heart disease. “I’m scared they’re going to take away my trailer.”
Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue medics treated Nunez at the scene, but he declined to be taken to a hospital after he regained consciousness.
Representatives from the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust and Camillus House arrived Monday morning at the Florida City Camp Site and RV Park to assist residents there, who were told late last week by the Florida City attorney in a letter that they had to vacate the property by this Wednesday, or be forced off by law enforcement.
The Homeless Trust representatives told them they could stay in a hotel for a week, get tested for COVID-19 and then go to a homeless shelter.
Community activist Carmen Tejada, who has been trying for days to help the mostly poor residents buy more time to find other homes, criticized the approach.
“They are not homeless. They have homes,” Tejada said.
Many of the roughly 70 residents who live at Florida
City Camp Site, located at Krome Avenue and Northwest Seventh Street, have lived there for more than 10 years. They pay about $450 a month to live there, which covers their utilities. Although the conditions are lean, it’s the only affordable option to the many who live on government assistance at the 15-acre site.
Many have physical and mental health conditions that don’t allow them to work. Many are elderly, although younger families with children also live there. Finding another place to live for the low amount of rent they are used to paying will be impossible for most of the people living at the camp site.
And, most residents thought they’d never have to go. The original owners of the property, George and Mildred Cole, deeded the land to Florida City before they died in the early 1980s, residents said. And, they added, there was an agreement with the city that the property would be designated for low-income residents for 100 years.
The Coles’ gravestones are located on the property.
Florida City Mayor Otis Wallace told the Miami Herald last week that no document stating such an agreement exists.
“I have no idea what they are talking about,” he said.
The Miami Herald has been unable to confirm the existence of the deed.
Wallace said the city sold the property for $6.8 million to developers, the Theo Group, which intends to build a mixed-use residential/shopping center with market rate rental apartments. He said the final stipulation of the deal was the land must be void of residents and their trailers.
Wallace also said that he has been telling residents to make other living arrangements since August. However, until last week’s letter, the city never gave the residents a deadline to leave.
On Monday, the park’s residents were offered some hope when an anonymous donor hired a law firm to represent them after reading about their plight in the Miami Herald over the weekend
“We have made significant progress today,”
Tejada told a group of about 50 residents who gathered under a tree in a vacant lot in the park Monday evening. “Things are looking much, much better now than they were this morning.”
Tejeda also said that an official with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development was also en route to the park with forms so residents can file formal complaints against the city.
Attorney Thomas Culmo, with the Brickell firm Damian & Valori, LLP|Culmo Trial Attorneys, sent a letter Monday to city attorney Regine Monestime, saying Florida law prohibits the local government from forcing the residents to leave without a formal eviction notice.