A controversial proposal for an industrial facility beyond the Urban Development Boundary is still in limbo, though it needs support from just one more commissioner to proceed.
Kelly Tractor, a Doral-based heavy machinery supplier that provides Caterpillar and other construction and mining equipment, wants to move its headquarters to an over 200-acre tract it owns on the northwest corner of Northwest Sixth Street and a Dolphin Expressway on- and off-ramp in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, near Sweetwater.
The site is outside the Urban Development Boundary, or UDB, making this a divisive proposal as environmental groups and some residents oppose construction outside the greenbelt that’s meant to stop development encroachment onto farmland, wetlands and open land, and toward the Everglades.
Kelly Tractor secured a one-month vote deferral to June 2 in the latest delay of a decision by electeds, the Miami Herald reported. Although Kelly Tractor has majority support on the 13-member commission, it needs a supermajority, or nine yes votes, in order to advance its proposal to build outside the UDB.
That ninth vote may be within reach. Commissioner Raquel Regalado seemed to be softening her opposition after Kelly Tractor added more detail to its application, including details on why a new headquarters within the UDB won’t work.
“I think we’re 90% there,” Regalado said at the meeting, the publication reported.
The project first scored the green light from commissioners in January, even though the proposal called for potentially paving over 160 acres of wetlands, with Regalado voting in support at the time. Mayor Daniella Levine Cava vetoed the approval in February.
In her veto message, Levine Cava said the application failed to sufficiently address impacts on wetlands of exceptional environmental value and said Kelly Tractor is seeking approval through a text amendment, circumventing the traditional UDB expansion process.
Kelly Tractor President Chris Kelly has said it was county administrators who told the firm to go through the text amendment process, with county staff members pushing back on this claim.
Since the veto, Kelly Tractor has been tweaking its application, committing to preserving 63.1 acres of wetlands on the site and to another 20 acres of wetlands mitigation offsite. This wasn’t enough to sway a supermajority of commissioners at their meeting last month, when they delayed a vote, saying more data is needed to support why the facility has to be built outside the UDB. (County staff has recommended denial, in part saying there’s enough developable industrial land in the UDB.)
Although on Tuesday the firm added such data to its proposal, Regalado asked for a deferral, saying more is needed in support of why the project should rise at the specific site where it’s proposed.
Miami-Dade generally has a reputation as a developer-friendly county, in some cases going out of its way to help developers in their planned projects. But building outside the UDB is one of the stickiest endeavors for real estate players in the county.
Environmental groups such as Hold the Line Coalition have argued wetlands preservation is vital for wildlife habitat and flood mitigation, adding that farmland should be preserved for future produce needs. Hold the Line also has taken issue with Kelly Tractor’s text amendment process.
Commissioners in support of Kelly Tractor have cited the potential jobs creation from the new headquarters, which would create roughly 1,300 jobs.
––– Lidia Dinkova
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