A group of homeowners hopes to sink a developer’s plan to fill in part of a lake in northwest Miami-Dade County.
Lake Sana Developments wants to build a 100-unit apartment complex with rents affordable enough to keep people in the community close to their jobs, schools, and church. To do so, the developer intends to build land on Silver Blue Lake to hold the complex.
“They shouldn’t take it away,” Dolores Lewin, a homeowner on the lake, said.
She and her husband moved into their house 11 years ago. Lewin said views of the lake reeled them in.
However, they’re staring down construction that neighbors protested two years ago. They thought the development stalled. But work could soon resume.
“I’m against taking away even one acre because the animals, the beauty, the weather, everything is here,” Lewin said. “I personally like it like this.”
The development company bought most of the land submerged in the lake eight years ago. The group spends more than $28,000 a year in taxes to keep it, according to county records.
Jonathan Cardozo lives in an apartment with lake views that he enjoys. However, he sees neighbors desperate for lower rent and supports plans to build apartments on the lake.
“In Miami, it is difficult to get a home and they’re too expensive,” Cardozo said in Spanish. “To change apartments, the prices are higher. So if you have more options it is better for people to stay close to their jobs, schools and churches.”
Trameka Rios’ husband is a fifth-generation homeowner on Silver Blue Lake.
“It’s not the best thing for the actual lake to build apartments on the lake,” Rios said.
She is part of a group hoping to stop the project.
“We welcome development but it should make sense,” Rios said. “Building on a lake I’m not sure that makes much sense at all. We’re talking about the impact of our ecosystem. This lake is sustainable. We have fish. We have turtles. We even have bald eagles. There is plenty of undeveloped land in the county to build (this project).”
While work on the development is silent, crews are only waiting for county permits to build, the developer said.
The developer also told CBS News Miami that he feels “most of the neighbors support” the project and he sees no county opposition.
