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Friends,
Your help is urgently needed today with phone calls or emails on yet another critical issue. I know I sent out a request last night asking for your help on the JPA between the county and FP&L but, the hits, they just keep on coming. “Hold the Line”, a cause that has been championed for years, to protect critical wetlands bordering the Everglades from development and preserve the off-moved Urban Development Boundary from violation, is being challenged by a proposal to construct a toll-road expansion. Twice in the past, we have spoken out and defeated the proposed expansion of the 836 Expressway out toward the Everglades and then down south to around SW 136 Street near Miami Executive Airport (formerly called Kendall-Tamiami Airport). The expansion proposal which would violate the UDB has been resurrected and is coming up for a hearing before the County Planning Advisory Board this coming Monday, April 9 at 9:30 a.m. at the County Commission Chambers. The Miami-Dade Expressway Authority (MDX), with the assistance of Miami-Dade County making the formal request, is seeking to build the expressway expansion with the stated intention of relieving the awful traffic congestion in the Kendall area which, ironically, is so congested because of past urban sprawl. Unfortunately, the toll road through agricultural and sensitive wetland areas, will be an inducement to further urban sprawl development and not the solution to the daily traffic grind that many Kendall residents find themselves in as they head east in the morning and west in the afternoon to and from jobs in South Miami, Coral Gables, downtown Miami, and South Dade. I live in West Kendall and there is no way I am jogging west towards the Everglades and then driving north to hook up with the 836 running past MIA to get to locations reached off the U.S. 1 corridor. I already have the Florida Turnpike extension to travel northward and then east on the 836 if I am traveling to Miami Beach or north of downtown Miami. The existing 836 toll road is already congested, so I can only imagine, the dumping of more cars on the existing 836 toll road coming from the west. It will bring new meaning to arriving early at MIA for a flight. The expansion of this tollway would involve paving a 500-foot wide corridor of road on around 780 acres, of which approximately 300 acres are designated for agricultural usage and the remaining 480 acres endangered wetlands. Please see the attachments below of a map of the route, the application to amend the Comprehensive Development Master Plan and the letter from the Friends of the Everglades, written by Laura Reynolds. Please join Laura Reynolds, who is representing the Friends of the Everglades and spearheading the fight, and many other environmental activists in attending the Monday, April 9th Planning Advisory Board meeting at the Commission Chambers located at 111 NW 1st Street, Miami. We need to show up so they can see the opposition. The Planning Advisory members also need to hear the opposition, so if you are willing to speak, please fill out the speaker form when you arrive at 9 a.m. Even if you do not want to speak, you can fill out a comment card. The full Commission will be having a hearing on Tuesday, April 25 at 9:30 a.m. Please mark your calendars for that meeting as well. Mayor Carlos Gimenez is conducting a townhall on the “Kendall Parkway” on Wednesday, April 18 at 6:30 p.m. at John A. Ferguson High School located at 15900 SW 56th St., Miami. Please attend to participate. Please call or email the following Planning Advisory Board members today by clicking on the links below. Most members prefer email only as noted in the chart below. The name of the County Commissioner who appointed each Council member appears at the bottom of each box. Thanks for any actions you can take. Regards, Sharon Van Smith RUF Environmental Chair
Planning Advisory Board Voting Members ‐ As of January 16, 2018
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