URBAN DEVELOPMENT
The Miami Herald
Boundary battle heats up

Developers have proposed changing the standard for county housing needs, which critics say will help efforts to extend the Urban Development Boundary in years to come.

Posted November 18, 2005

By Matthew Haggman and Noaki Schwartz
mhaggman@herald.com

As developers make the biggest push in years to extend Miami-Dade's Urban Development Boundary, they also are proposing a measure that would likely make it much easier to move the hotly debated line again and again in the future.

On Monday the Miami-Dade County Commission will vote on nine applications by developers to move the UDB, the line that limits large-scale building along the western and southern county border. But two powerful builder groups are also asking the commission to change the standard used to assess the county's housing needs, which could require more developable land.

The proposal is under fire from groups opposed to moving the UDB because it would likely clear the way for developers to win future battles over building large-scale projects on what is now protected land. County planners also consider the language of the proposal confusing. Adding to critics' outrage, the builders submitted a last-minute revision that planners had no time to review.

''It's troublesome that the very people we rely on to comprehend and evaluate are concerned about the language for its clearness,'' said Commissioner Sally Heyman. "Where does that leave someone like me who relies on them?''

The proposal, pushed by the Latin Builders Association and Builders Association of South Florida, would require the county to maintain a 15-year supply of developable land just for single-family homes, rather than all types of housing. Singlefamily homes require more space than condominiums or town homes.

''If you have to maintain a 15-year supply of single-family homes, you are almost always going to guarantee that you have to amend the boundary,'' said Mark Woerner, chief for Metropolitan Planning at the county's Department of Planning & Zoning.

Current county policy calls for a 15-year supply of developable land for new housing of any type within the UDB. County planners say that yardstick is being met and there is currently no need to move the line.

If the proposal is rejected, as county planners recommend, it dies. If it is approved, it goes to the state for review and is then subject to a final county vote in April.

Developers contend the county's population has grown to the point that Miami-Dade's housing needs simply cannot be met within the confines of the current boundary. But opponents argue that the area within the boundary is not yet built out, and that open space must be preserved for environmental and agricultural reasons.

Opponents are now furious about the builders' attempt to get the commission to also consider a revised proposal, only presented publicly this week.

The revision still calls for a 15-year supply of homes, but requires that the current ratio of single-family-to-condos be maintained in any assessment of future housing needs. Opponents say this runs counter to calls from some public officials to make future development more compact and near transit lines, rather than allowing so many land-gobbling single-family homes.

Guillermo Olmedillo, a former county planner now representing the LBA and BASF, said the revision was necessary because the builders' initial proposal was unrealistic. It was poorly crafted because of ''too many cooks in the kitchen,'' he said.

But opponents called the move an end-run around the review process. Cynthia Guerra and Alan Farago, both leaders with the Hold The Line campaign -- an umbrella group opposing any movement of the UDB, said they have not even seen the new language which the commission may consider on Monday.

Farago, executive director of the Everglades Defense Council, called the builders' move ''underhanded,'' adding: "They should get in line like everyone else. If they want to make major changes they should go back into the cycle and come back in two years.''

The county considers changes to its development plan every other year.

But Olmedillo insists the county can do whatever it wishes, including accepting the last-minute revision. The Miami-Dade County Attorneys Office agrees.

''It is really up to the commission at this point,'' said Joni Armstrong Coffey, assistant county attorney.