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Development at Keys' front door should spur protests
Florida Keys
residents are beginning to voice concern over a massive urban
development in South Dade County that seems to have taken off like a
SCUD missile. Anyone who has driven the Florida Turnpike extension from
Florida City to Cutler Ridge can see that we are going to find a whole
lot more neighbors on our northern boundary very soon.
Concern for a
planned 6,000-unit development in the area of the Keys Gate Golf Club by
Atlantic Civil Inc. of Miami has made its way onto the Monroe County
Commission agenda for this month's meeting in Key West. That development
would not only bring the 6,000 units, but also 300,000 square feet of
retail stores, 90,000 square feet of office space, an 1,800-seat theater
and a 240-room hotel to the tract.
The majority
of the 980-acres of land upon which those units are being constructed
lies in unincorporated Miami-Dade County south of Lucy Street. It
extends south into a portion of the extreme eastern Everglades.
But this
development project is not yet set in stone. There is the matter of a
Development of Regional Impact, a lengthy process that must be completed
before any building permits are granted. According to County
Commissioner George Neugent, who sits on the South Florida Regional
Planning Council, that impact must include hurricane evacuation time for
Monroe County and concerns about impacts on the source of our drinking
water, the Biscayne Aquifer. Neugent said he hopes state Rep. Ken
Sorensen weighs in soon on the Monroe County side of the issue.
A golden
opportunity for Keys residents, from one end of the island chain to the
other, to voice their concerns will come on June 7 when the South
Florida Regional Planning Council holds its monthly meeting at Hawks Cay
Resort on Duck Key. Neugent said that would be an opportune time for
residents to show up and speak out against the development.
We encourage
residents who would like to see an additional 30,000 to 40,000 people
living at the top of the 18-Mile Stretch to stay home and quietly ignore
the June meeting. But those who oppose this growth, as we do, should go
to the meeting and loudly protest the massive development at our front
door.
Also, write to
Sorensen, to Dade County commissioners and to Gov. Jeb Bush, asking them
to limit development there so that Keys residents might have a chance to
actually evacuate, should a major hurricane approach.
Government
officials, we are told, still might listen to a unified voice from
voters, instead of just to lobbyists and developers.
Development
raises evacuation questions
BY STEVE GIBBS
Citizen Upper Keys Bureau
KEY LARGO —
Mayor Murray Nelson wants the Monroe County Commission to ask Gov. Jeb
Bush to block the planned 6,000-home development at the top of Card
Sound Road.
The matter
will be discussed during the April 21 county commission meeting in Key
West.
"As Monroe
County is an area of critical concern, the governor of Florida and the
Department of Community Affairs must not allow development in Dade
County that impacts Monroe in a way that will create a dangerous choke
point at the intersection of S.W. 352nd St. and U.S. 1," Nelson wrote in
a letter to fellow commissioners for discussion at next week's meeting.
For years
Monroe County has been under a state requirement to devise a hurricane
evacuation plan that would empty the Florida Keys within 24 hours.
That mandate
encouraged the county commission to ask the Florida Department of
Transportation for a 30-mph radius curve at the intersection of C.R. 905
and Card Sound Road, and also has been the impetus behind a
reconfiguration of the 18-Mile Stretch, the portion of U.S. 1 that
connects Key Largo with Florida City.
Monroe County
leaders fear their efforts to improve evacuation times would be
nullified by developments like the 6,000 units planned for Florida City.
"Development
of 6,000 residential units, 300,000 square feet of retail space, 90,000
square feet of office space, an 1,800-seat theater and a 240-room hotel
adjacent to Card Sound Road and U.S. 1 will adversely impact evacuation
times of Monroe County citizens and visitors during a major hurricane
threat," Nelson wrote to the commission.
Alice N.
Bravo, district environmental management engineer for FDOT, said that
the developers of the South Dade project — Atlantic Civil Inc. of Miami
— are in the pre-application stage and a study will be conducted that
will address that impact.
"They are
required to produce a Development of Regional Impact study which will
address the hurricane evacuation time from out of Monroe County," Bravo
said. "That study will be reviewed by FDOT, the South Florida Water
Management District, the Department of Environmental Protection and
other agencies."
Senior
environmental manager Barbara B. Culhane said FDOT received several
telephone inquiries about the project during the past two weeks.
"We are
putting the burden on the developer, and they will have to address the
hurricane evacuation component," she said.
Culhane added
that the project would be reviewed by the South Florida Regional
Planning Council, which includes a representative of the Monroe County
Commission, George Neugent, and any development order would have to be
approved by the Dade County Commission.
The planned
6,000-unit development surrounds the Keys Gate Golf Club on S.W. 376th
St., also called Lucy Street.
The majority
of the 980 acres of land upon which those units would be constructed
lies in unincorporated Miami-Dade County south of Lucy Street. It
extends south into a portion of the eastern Everglades.
In a March 24
letter, Edward A. Swakon, president of EAS Engineering and a consultant
for the developer, addressed hurricane evacuation from the Keys.
"Rather than
hindering hurricane evacuation ... the proposed project will provide a
new hurricane evacuation route once the S.W. 167th Ave. connection to
Card Sound Road is implemented," he wrote.
"That will
provide an alternative to U.S. 1 and will reduce traffic congestion at
the point where Card Sound Road joins U.S. 1 during hurricane evacuation
events."
sgibbs@keysnews.com |
