A heavy equipment firm scored approval for its headquarters on more than 200 acres outside Miami-Dade County’s Urban Development Boundary, including paving over wetlands in a plan to develop a headquarters.
County planning staff members opposed the proposal and recommended commissioners deny the application, which has riled environmentalists decrying the loss of wetlands necessary for flood mitigation.
Miami-Dade is generally a developer-friendly county where officials for years have accommodated project proposals. But the county has its limits, drawing a hard line against construction outside the urban development boundary. That invisible line was drawn to restrain suburban sprawl onto wetlands, farmland and open land, and toward the Everglades to the west and Biscayne National Park to the east.
Heavy equipment firm Kelly Tractor wants to move its headquarters outside the boundary, including building over about 160 acres of wetlands near Sweetwater and opening a facility where it would sell, store and repair machinery, WLRN reported. Kelly Tractor, based in Doral, owns more than 245 acres outside the UDB.
Miami-Dade commissioners on Thursday voted in favor of the proposal for a text amendment to label the site as “MIA Transportation and Infrastructure Support Area,” imposing several conditions for wetland mitigation and for the project site plan to come back as an administrative site plan application.
County planners’ recommendation for denial says Kelly Tractor failed to show why it can’t expand at its current Doral site and why it needs the UDB expansion, pointing out the county has about 700 acres of land for industrial development within the boundary.
Besides that, taxpayers would be on the hook for water, sewer and other infrastructure expansions for the project, and Kelly Tractor’s filing showed no mitigation plan for the wetlands, which are considered top tier in the county.
Kelly Tractor, which didn’t respond to the outlet’s request for comment, said the project is necessary for infrastructure projects such as highways and prisons.
An attorney for Kelly Tractor said at the meeting the firm has outgrown its current space and the county has no site within the UDB large enough for the firm’s expansion.
Wetlands “are very functional. They’re part of the solution for flooding for [Miami-Dade County],” Laura Reynolds, science director at Hold the Line Coalition, told WLRN. “ Sweetwater floods all the time and, these are the things that should be considered when we make these decisions.”
Over the years, Miami-Dade has taken up other applications for development outside the UDB, many of them proving contentious.
Lennar, the second biggest homebuilder nationwide, is partnering with developer Ed Easton and homebuilding consultant Bill Albers on the proposal for City Park with 7,800 homes and 2.4 million square feet of commercial space, including schools, and public parks outside the UDB. While proponents say this “city within a city” will be self-contained, opponents argue it would worsen congested traffic headed to employment hubs. The project is expected to come up for a vote later this year.
Developers Stephen Blumenthal and Jose Hevia scored commission approval in 2022 for their South Dade Logistics & Technology District on 379 acres outside the UDB. The vote came after five tries in front of commissioners, with the developers agreeing to concessions, including roughly halving the project size. South Dade Logistics was later quashed in court in 2024. – Lidia Dinkova
Read more
Development
South Florida
Landowners propose 65-acre expansion of Miami-Dade’s UDB for 1,200-unit resi project
Land of development opportunity: Builders bet on south Miami-Dade
Development
South Florida
Map: Here’s where developers want to build over 3K homes outside Miami-Dade’s UDB
