Florida bill would spare controversial South Miami-Dade project from county revote

Developers facing a revote of a Miami-Dade County Commission decision to shrink a development buffer to accommodate a project could get a reprieve in Tallahassee with a state bill that would retroactively fix an alleged flaw in last year’s local approval process.

The bill sponsored by Republicans from Jacksonville and St. Petersburg would deliver a win for developers in Miami-Dade currently fighting a state ruling that the county commission waited too long in approving the expansion of the Urban Development Boundary (UDB) that’s needed to build the South Dade Logistics and Technology District commercial complex outside of Homestead.

READ MORE: Miami-Dade approved a controversial project near Homestead. It might have to start over

Commissioners approved the expansion over Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s veto last fall, but state regulators said the process took too long to comply with deadlines required under Florida law for major changes in a county’s land-use plan.

Identical bills advancing in the House and Senate (HB 359 and SB 540) would rewrite state law to extend those deadlines, and apply the change retroactively to the start of 2022.

“The game is over, but now they want the Legislature to put more time on the clock,” said Paul Schwiep, a Miami lawyer helping environmental groups challenge the county approval of the South Dade project off of Florida’s Turnpike and north of Moody Drive.

The legislation sponsored by Rep. Wyman Duggan, R-Jacksonville, and Sen. Nick DiCeglie, R-St. Petersburg, also would bring financial risk for challenges like the one Schwiep is helping mount on behalf of the Hold the Line Coalition, an alliance of environmental groups. The legislation would let winners of administrative challenges of land-use changes collect legal fees from the plaintiffs.

Constructing the 380-acre mix of warehouses and industrial space on farmland required expansion of the UDB, a buffer between suburban development and Miami-Dade’s agricultural belt, sensitive environmental lands and the Everglades. The Nov. 1 approval of the project was the first time the board moved the line in nine years.

Backers cheered the potential for 9,000 jobs in an area of Miami-Dade not served by mass transit, where workers regularly commute more than an hour to employment centers in the Miami area. Opponents warned it threatened the Everglades by paving over farmland being considered for restoration projects.

A revote for the South Dade UDB project?

Developer Aligned Real Estate Holdings needed multiple meetings to win enough support on the board to get the UDB expansion approved.

Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity, which regulates land decisions, on Jan. 26 said Miami-Dade exceeded the 180-day deadline to submit approval of a project after state agencies submitted their findings on an application. The bill would change the starting time of that 180-day deadline to after the second local hearing on a project.

That new window would retroactively cover the commission’s Nov. 15 override of Levine Cava’s veto, and remove the timing issue raised by the state. Without administrative approval, Aligned would have to start over again on the county approval process for the South Dade project.

A second win before the commission isn’t assured for the developers because five new commissioners took office days after the veto override vote. On Tuesday, the commission unanimously approved a resolution opposing the legislative change on deadlines without allowing for extensions, despite objections from lobbyists representing the developers. Along with creating a longer deadline for county land-use decisions, the law would eliminate the option for counties to request extensions from the state.

After win in Miami-Dade, developers need a Tallahassee fix

Lobbyist Brian May, a key player in getting the original approval through, pointed out the resolution has the board opposing a law change that would allow a county vote to stand. Miami-Dade lawyers oppose the state’s interpretation of the deadline rules in the South Dade project, and say the commission voted in time to properly expand the UDB.

“The amendments are an attempt to actually clarify state statute so that the county would actually be deemed to have filed the application in accordance with the way the county attorney has interpreted the statute,” May told commissioners.

Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins, the leading opponent of the project on the board, sponsored the resolution opposing the legislation. She said while backers of the project had enough political support in Tallahassee to advance the legislation through multiple committees, it was notable her resolution received no push back on the County Commission.

“The role of lobbyists can be very powerful,” she said of the state legislation’s progress. “Thankfully they were not particularly powerful in front of the County Commission.”