Does Miami-Dade County need a new suburb on its western fringe?

Home-building giant Lennar and a group of wealthy and politically powerful Miami business leaders think so. They are launching an effort to create Parkland, a community that would eventually be home to nearly 19,000 residents, about 2.5 miles from Everglades National Park.

To build 961-acre Parkland and its projected 7,000 homes, stores, offices, warehouses, schools and a hospital, developers need to win approval to move the Urban Development Boundary, the line providing a green buffer between densely populated areas and the Everglades. The site, between Krome Avenue and Southwest 162nd Avenue near Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport, has been planted in row crops for decades.

The first hearing on the request to move the UDB is scheduled for Monday. It sets the stage for the biggest battle in years in the often fierce debate over urban growth versus sprawling suburbs.

It's an argument that could well determine the course of development in Miami-Dade. At a time when county and city leaders are promoting infill and urban redevelopment, Parkland would be the biggest residential push west in more than 20 years.

If built, planners say, Parkland -- not to be confused with the Broward County city of the same name -- is expected to have a larger population than almost half of the municipalities in Miami-Dade County.

Critics say it would set a precedent that would eventually open up vast tracts of agricultural fields and open land currently off-limits to large-scale development.

''The future of Miami-Dade is at stake,'' said Laura Reynolds, executive director of the Tropical Audubon Society. ``Decreasing home values, traffic congestion, crowded schools, emergency services, water supply, impacts to the natural environment and Everglades -- all of those things are tied into this one vote.''

But the project's developers say it's a model of smart growth and a rare chance to build a community the right way from the ground up.

''It will be like Coral Gables or Miami Lakes,'' said Rey Melendi, Lennar division president for Miami-Dade and Broward counties. The first homes are slated for delivery in 2014, when the builders hope that huge inventories of unsold homes will have shrunk and the credit crisis eased.

CROSSING THE LINE

The UDB, capping the spread of subdivisions by limiting construction to one dwelling for every five acres beyond the line, was once nearly impregnable. County commissioners moved it only twice during the 1990s, but it has been under increasing assault this past decade from suburban builders who want more land for industrial parks, malls, offices and homes.

In the last six years alone, county commissioners have voted to move the boundary five times for commercial projects. If Parkland's developers are successful, it would be the first time in 15 years that the UDB has been moved for any housing project.

But opposition is building. Environmentalists, civic activists and urban leaders are organizing. Last week, Miami-Dade's Planning & Zoning Department said it opposes moving the UDB for Parkland. County Mayor Carlos Alvarez said Friday that there are some attractive aspects to Parkland, but that he opposes moving the line at this time, ``especially considering the surplus and available housing within the UDB.''

Two of South Florida's most prominent developers, Jorge Perez and Armando Codina, said it makes no sense to move the UDB for residential development. Perez said it's poor urban policy.

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