Sweetwater plans to lower tax rates after big annexation. Miami Gardens also expands

Sweetwater residents could see lower tax rates next year from the windfall of revenue that awaits from the city annexing a commercial district next door.

Miami-Dade County commissioners on Wednesday approved the Sweetwater annexation of land west of the Dolphin Mall, clearing the way for the city to take over the 1,200-acre area that includes an Amazon facility and headquaryear. ters for Telemundo and Goya Foods.

Mayor Orlando Lopez said the west Miami-Dade city, which has about 22,000 residents, expects about $3.5 million a year in new revenue from the annexation area under Sweetwater’s current municipal rate of $3.99 for every $1,000 of taxable value.

Forecasts say providing police and other services to the commercial district will cost about $1.5 million. Lopez said he’ll recommend the difference be used to lower tax rates next He predicted a 2022 rate of about $2.96 per $1,000, or a reduction of roughly 25%.

“It’s not take that extra $2 million and stash it in reserves or anything like that,” Lopez said. “Because you obviously don’t need that extra money to provide services” in the area.

Sweetwater will almost double in size.

An annexation proposal by Miami Gardens for commercial land off I-95 was also approved. The annexations take effect in the coming weeks, barring court challenges.

Miami Gardens is MiamiDade County’s third-largest city, a northern municipality with a population of more than 110,000 people. It’s set to absorb a 150-acre wedge of commercial land west of I-95 and south of Miami Gardens Drive, extending the municipal boundaries east.

Owners of the property that houses a strip club called The Office had objected to the Miami Gardens annexation.

The county commission’s sponsor of the annexation,

Vice Chairman Oliver Gilbert, a former Miami Gardens mayor, said during a November hearing on the annexation that the city’s police department often has to handle problems related to nightlife in the area. He said annexation of the land makes sense, rather than leaving a wedge of land off I-95 in the county’s jurisdiction.

“When the city was created in 2003, this area was left out,” he said. “It has an effect on Miami Gardens, which we’re forced to deal with from a law-enforcement standpoint.”

Properties outside of city limits rely on Miami-Dade for garbage hauling, police, and other services, and the county charges one of the lowest municipal propertytax rates in Miami-Dade. Properties within city limits don’t pay the county’s municipal tax.

Sweetwater’s annexation proposal means a dramatic change for the west MiamiDade municipality, which has fought with neighboring Doral for the chance to absorb the office and industrial space located across the Florida Turnpike from the two cities. Doral is pursuing a legal challenge of the annexation and had a lawyer read an objection into the record at Wednesday’s commission meeting.