GL Homes revived a proposal for a residential project near Kendall after yearslong legal battles with opponents and public hearings.
Miami-Dade County commissioners are expected to vote next month on the application for 500-plus homes on the closed 168-acre Calusa golf course, after delaying a decision in February following outcry from nearby residents. The item was deferred from this Thursday’s meeting to April 23.
Sunrise-based GL Homes’ plans for the project at 9400 Southwest 130th Avenue in unincorporated Miami-Dade County date back to at least 2021.
Calusa-area residents worry the development would take a toll on schools and traffic congestion. But possible impacts on a rookery that settled in on the vacant golf course over the years adds emotion to the case. The site is home to the tricolored heron, designed as threatened by the state.
GL Homes, led by Misha Ezratti, has tweaked its proposal several times this year in an effort to reach a settlement with residents group Save Calusa, avoiding a potential repeat of the previous standoff.
GL Homes’ latest proposal is for 525 homes, down from its originally proposed 550 homes, and it has agreed to a nearly 300-foot buffer from the rookery that’s made home on an island in the middle of a lake on the site, said Amanda Prieto, who leads Save Calusa. The buffer distance is measured from the nearest known bird nest, not the edge of the island, she said.
GL Homes’ other concessions include prohibiting boats and fishing in the lakes to protect the birds, and to allow the Tropical Audubon Society to survey the rookery, Prieto said last week during a meeting of Kendall Federation of Homeowners Associations. The developer is promising holding off on building homes closest to the rookery to allow it to thrive.
“It’s not perfect,” Prieto said. “It doesn’t significantly reduce density and all the other impacts — traffic, noise. It’s a bigger decision than just the rookery. But I will say it’s a significant improvement for the birds.”
As GL Homes is working with Save Calusa, it put forth a settlement agreement that if residents approve of the refined project, they agree to no longer fight it, Prieto said.
Before Save Calusa members decide on whether they agree to the proposal, Prieto is meeting with homeowners associations to gauge where they stand on the tweaks.
GL Homes declined to comment, citing ongoing discussions with the community.
Save Calusa sued Miami-Dade in 2021 after commissioners approved a rezoning allowing the original 550-home project. GL Homes wasn’t a named defendant but joined the litigation on the county’s side. Although it first scored a court win, that was overturned in an appeals court.
GL Homes lost the case in 2024 when the Florida Supreme Court declined to review the appeals court decision.
The fight over Calusa extended beyond litigation. Many nearby residents have said they bought their homes with the understanding that the closed golf course will remain vacant due to a covenant banning development until 2067. The restriction could only be lifted if 75 percent of homeowners directly surrounding the site agreed.
In 2019, this threshold was met, though some Calusa residents have alleged this was because the ringlot owners were promised $300,000 payments from the previous golf course owner. Commissioners voted to remove the covenant in 2020.
GL Homes paid $32 million for the golf course in 2021.
The firm, founded in 1976 by Itzhak Ezratt, is now led by his son, Misha Ezratti. It’s a major Florida homebuilder, most recently purchasing 192 acres in Palm Beach County’s youngest municipality of Westlake for $80 million in January. It also plans to purchase another Westlake tract for $40 million and combine the land with a 120-acre site it already owns, creating a tract that could accommodate development of more than 1,000 homes. In December, GL Homes proposed 500 homes and 300 apartments on the 168-acre Falls Club golf course near Lake Worth Beach.
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