Planning council’s vote advances American Dream mall project

The South Florida Regional Planning Council voted Friday to submit to state regulators the developer’s application to build the proposed American Dream Miami shopping mall in north Miami-Dade County.

The advisory council’s unanimous vote pushed the big mall project a step closer to a decisive vote by the Miami-Dade County Commission to change the county’s comprehensive master plan for development to accommodate American Dream Miami, which would span six million square feet and would be the biggest mall in the nation.

In late January, Miami-Dade commissioners gave preliminary approval to a comprehensive master plan amendment for the nearly 195-acre development site.

Elected officials in Broward County joined in the South Florida Regional Planning Council’s unanimous vote Friday after pressing for more power in approving the mall development, which would unfold a mile south of Broward’s border with Miami-Dade and would attract about 70,000 daily vehicle trips. Elected officials in Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties comprise the membership of the planning council.

Broward officials said traffic-mitigation efforts by the mall’s developer should focus not only on Miami-Dade but also Broward because the development siteis a mile south of the county line, next to the interchange of Florida’s Turnpike and Interstate 75.

The regional planning council agreed to direct the mall’s developer to complete its analysis of American Dream’s impact on traffic congestion and to identify ways to mitigate the traffic impact on Broward County.

Triple Five, the developer of American Dream and the owner of the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, is planning to add or expand several intersections of roads around the development site and to install pickup and drop-off facilities on the property for bus passengers.

American Dream Miami will feature such non-traditional mall attractions as an aquarium with submarine rides and an indoor ski slope. [Miami Herald] – Mike Seemuth