79°
County officials confirmed Friday that a petition that could make to more difficult to get approval for Miami Beach’s convention center project has enough signatures to move forward.
The elections department said more than 5,000 eligible residents — about a thousand more than needed — signed the petition.
Miami Beach Commissioner Jonah Wolfson pushed the initiative, which would change the city’s charter to require 60 percent voter approval for the sale, lease or conveyance of most land within the city’s convention center district. Currently, only a simple majority of voters have to give such approval, and only for some parking lots within the 52-acre site.
The city is in the final stages of selecting a development team for a billion-dollar project to renovate the convention center, add a hotel and parks, and — possibly — apartments, shops and restaurants.
“Now we know that the people are going to be able to decide whether we should sell our quality of life so that a few people can make an enormous amount of money,” Wolfson said.
Follow @Cveiga on Twitter.
RSS
My Yahoo