The Miami Herald
NEIGHBORS

Posted on Thu, Jan. 12, 2006

WEST KENDALL

Homeowners, county official discuss UDB

A county planning and zoning official told a homeowners group Miami-Dade's housing stock is good until 2018 and there is no need to move the Urban Development Boundary.

BY JENNIFER MOONEY PIEDRA
jmooney@MiamiHerald.com

Planning and Zoning

A group of Kendall residents got a history lesson Monday on Miami-Dade's Urban Development Boundary -- an invisible line established in 1975 to limit development in the western and southern parts of the county.

Paula Church, a planning supervisor for Miami-Dade Planning and Zoning, spoke during a Kendall Federation of Homeowner Associations meeting at the invitation of the group. She also answered questions about the ongoing battle between developers who want to move the UDB to build homes and commercial projects and environmentalists who say the line should be kept in place to protect the Florida Everglades.

Some audience members had their own opinions on moving the boundary.
''To me it's a no-brainer,'' said Linda Conway, a teacher who lives in West Kendall. "Why move it?''

Church explained that the line was established to limit development outside of the boundary to one home per acre.

The county, she said, has an ''adequate'' housing supply to last through 2018, without developing beyond the UDB. Alternatives being promoted by the county are infill development and redevelopment opportunities within the boundary, Church said.

''We need to utilize the land inside the boundary before we just start going outside,'' Church said. "Let's keep it inside.''

In April, several developers filed applications to build outside the UDB -- from Hialeah to Florida City.

The controversial issue went before the County Commission in November, when commissioners voted to send nine proposed developments outside of the boundary to the state's Department of Community Affairs for review.

On Monday, the South Florida Regional Planning Council, which serves as an advisory board to the state, decided seven of the nine proposals would further burden already congested streets and crowded schools and threaten drinking water supplies.

The applications will go before the County Commission later this year for a final vote. A two-thirds majority is needed for approval.
But at least one Kendall area resident who attended the meeting disagreed with the approval process.

Frank Cobo, a KFHA board member and former School Board member, said the county's planning and zoning department, which reviews all the applications and makes recommendations, should have the final say -- not the County Commission.

''I believe [Miami-Dade Planning and Zoning] are the professionals,'' Cobo said. "And I don't like people bullying the professionals.''