Re the Dec. 2 article, County seeks state input on UDB: One only has to read the Dade County Master Plan regarding the Urban Development Boundary as it pertains to the preservation of agriculture to know that the remaining agriculture acreage is the last remaining area in the continental United States that sustains an incredible variety of tropical plants, trees, vegetables and herbs that normally grow in other parts of the world.

Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla is correct that the application in’t in the boonies but fails to say that it put infrastructure outside the UDB. Any future applications abutting this parcel will have to hook up to the system. Most likely will be for parcels less than 10 acres, avoiding oversight of other departments. One parcel doesn’t appear threatening to agriculture or other resources such as water supply, but collectively, 100 will.

Let’s hope the newly created Department of Economic Opportunity clearly understands that agriculture land posesses the best resource of all. To determine otherwise would be going against the master plan.

Karen Esty, Redland