Miami-Dade joins developer in suit against Fla. to build project near Biscayne Bay
Miami-Dade County and a developer are joining forces to block Florida’s regulatory arm from tossing out a 2022 vote approving the expansion of the Urban Development Boundary and allowing construction of a 380-acre warehouse complex opposed by environmental groups.
County lawyers and developer Aligned Real Estate filed suit this week in Tallahassee to overturn a Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) decision that Miami-Dade let the public hearing process go on too long as Aligned assembled enough commission support to approve the controversial project.
READ MORE: A new vote? Approval of controversial South Dade development is questioned by state
The South Dade Logistics and Technology District won final approval from Miami-Dade in late 2022, the last vote needed to build the cluster of warehouses, call centers and other commercial buildings on farmland off Moody Drive and south of Florida’s Turnpike.
Part of the approval included watering down the county’s restrictions on new commercial construction in areas vulnerable to storm surge after a hurricane. Developers pitched the project about three miles west of Biscayne Bay as a vital boost to the South Miami-Dade economy that would provide roughly 7,000 jobs in an area where many people face long commutes for work.
Commissioners overturned a veto by Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to expand the development boundary for the first time since 2013, reducing the buffer Miami-Dade maintains between suburban construction and the county’s agricultural belt and the Everglades.
Environmental groups opposed the project in part because the area around it was being considered for the federal government’s Everglades restoration effort.
The DEO, which reports to Gov. Ron DeSantis, didn’t raise significant objections to the project in its regulatory review but said after the final vote that Miami-Dade waited too long for approval. The DEO said Miami-Dade violated a 180-day deadline to vote on the land-use changes after the state regulatory review.
The county and Aligned argue that Miami-Dade followed the rules because it had the required second public hearing on the project within the six-month time frame that expired in late October. But with support for the project still falling short, the final vote didn’t come until Nov. 1, after the 180-day deadline passed, as developers continued to negotiate for the two-thirds majority required to expand the UDB.
After developers offered to donate environmentally sensitive land to a county preservation program, commissioners voted to expand the UDB on Nov. 1 and approve the project, followed by a veto override about two weeks after that.
In the Leon County Circuit Court suit, Miami-Dade and the developer describe the development process as frozen over the dispute.
“The Department’s unlawful exercise of authority,” the suit reads, “has thus created doubt as to the legal status of the Aligned amendment [and] doubt as to the County’s authority...”
There’s also a separate administrative challenge to the project underway that’s backed by the Hold the Line coalition, which fought the UDB expansion.
Under the DEO’s position, for the project to move forward, the developer must start the approval process again and win another commission vote — a dicey proposition for Aligned since multiple members who backed the effort left office after the November elections.
When Aligned lobbyists tried to get state law changed to overturn DEO’s objections during the 2023 legislative session, the new commission unanimously approved a resolution opposing the bill. It failed in Tallahassee.
