Homes halted over storm fears

The Miami Herald, September 17th, 2005

State officials have halted plans to allow 2,600 new homes in Homestead in what environmentalists and officials call a sign of increased regulatory scrutiny.

BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI , aviglucci@herald.com

State growth-management officials have put the brakes on Homestead's plans to allow 2,600 new homes inside the fast-growing town, citing the potential impact of thousands of new residents on hurricane evacuation from the Keys and South Miami-Dade County.

Local officials, including Homestead administrators, say they believe the rare move this week by the South Florida Regional Planning Council may portend tougher scrutiny of proposed development in South Miami-Dade.

Some critics have said that a home-construction boom there, much of it on land vulnerable to both flooding and hurricane surge, could endanger lives by creating traffic congestion during a hurricane.

The council's action, which must be ratified by growth regulators in Tallahassee, doesn't mean Homestead's plan is dead. If city officials can show the new residents would not markedly slow evacuation times or overwhelm area hurricane shelters, regulators could reconsider.

But some who have been calling for closer attention to evacuation questions praised the council, rarely known to block new construction outright. They said the devastation visited on New Orleans and the Gulf coast by Hurricane Katrina adds even greater urgency.

''This is not a joke,'' said Scott Shamlin, a city councilman and emergency evacuation liaison in Layton, a town on Long Key. `` . . . If we don't do something about providing a safe way to get out of the Keys, and about unchecked development in South Miami-Dade, it's going to happen here.''

Homestead administrators said it was unfair for the council to impede growth in their city, which is only now recovering from 1992's Hurricane Andrew, when other areas in the county have been allowed to build with few restrictions.

BROADER STRATEGY

City Manager Curt Ivy said the rejected plans were important pieces of a broader strategy to manage Homestead's growth, improve transportation, revive its historic core and improve some deteriorating neighborhoods.

''This would be a significant setback for us,'' Ivy said. ``We're trying to think this out and plan it as we grow, and all the pieces of the puzzle need to fit. We don't want to be wild cards out here, but we're in the middle of developing our city to make it more vibrant, and then somebody says you can't do it.''

Ivy said he had not decided how to respond, but vowed to ``defend our interests.''

The city, Miami-Dade's second-oldest municipality after Miami, is in the midst of an unprecedented growth spurt, propelled in part by its annexation of hundreds of acres of former farmland on environmentally sensitive flood plains. Already, so many new homes have won approval in the city that its population is expected to grow from around 40,000 now to 50,000 within the next 18 months, Ivy said.

BOOMING SUBURB

At the same time, Miami-Dade has allowed thousands more new homes in areas adjacent to Homestead, transforming the formerly rural enclave into a booming new suburb. Thousands more may be in the offing, raising concerns about runaway sprawl on land that environmentalists say is not suited for it.

The critics say the council's stance on the Homestead plan, coupled with a recent decision by the Army Corps of Engineers to temporarily stop developers from filling hundreds of acres of wetland at a proposed housing development outside Florida City, may signal a more stringent approach by regulators.

''Hurricane Katrina has created a real sense of urgency, particularly in Monroe County,'' said South Florida environmental activist Alan Farago. ``Here is this unprecedented growth in South Dade, and no state agency was looking at what happens when people leaving the Keys find themselves in a bottleneck at the Florida Turnpike.''

The planning council approved most of Homestead's growth plan, which would reduce the number of new dwellings allowed in some sections while increasing it in others, earlier this year. But six additional elements that encompassed a potential 2,616 new dwellings were rejected Monday because the city failed to analyze various aspects of their effects on hurricane evacuation, said Planning Council senior planner John Hulsey. Those questions included whether there was sufficient shelter space nearby to accommodate the additional residents, all of whom would have to evacuate in a major storm; what routes the evacuees would take; and how much they would slow the exodus from the Keys and South Miami-Dade, he said.

Instead, Hulsey said, Homestead did nothing.

Homestead officials denied blowing off the council. City planner Doug Smith said Homestead officials relayed to the council plans for new schools that would serve as shelters. The city is also working on a new transportation master plan that will address hurricane evacuation.

INFREQUENT ACTION

But that information, Hulsey said, only partially addressed the council's concerns. He said the council has not often held up municipal plans over storm-evacuation concerns, but noted that the body did hold up proposed development in North Bay Village because of similar worries.

''It's something we've been trying to get local governments to address,'' Hulsey said. ``Some are very good about it.''

Herald staff writer Curtis Morgan contributed to this report.