South Miami-Dade’s Cutler Bay wanted $37M town center. Now voters have spoken
Voters in Cutler Bay handily approved a $37 million proposal for a 16-acre park and town center that would provide the south Miami-Dade suburb a civic “heart and soul” for the first time in its 17-year history.
Unofficial results in the election, carried out by mail-in balloting only, show the measure passed by a significant margin. According to results tallied by the Miami-Dade County Elections Department on Tuesday, 3,340 residents, or about 66%, voted in favor, while 1,699 voted “no.”
The return rate for the ballots, which were due at the elections department in time to be counted by a 7 p.m. Tuesday deadline, was low at 17.5%, though town leaders deployed an extensive campaign to publicize the vote. The town also commissioned students in a University of Miami architecture class to develop nine conceptual plans for the park and municipal center.
But the result was still a big win for Cutler Bay elected officials and administrators who have long sought to provide the town of 45,000, carved out of a sprawl of suburban subdivisions, strip malls, gated developments and apartment buildings, with a central park and gathering space. A previous effort in 2018 failed by 185 votes.
The vote means the town can borrow up to $37 million by issuing general obligation bonds to convert a long-vacant, 16-acre plot of former farmland on Old Cutler Road in the middle of the town into a park and municipal complex. About three acres would be set aside for a new town hall, police station and community center.
In 2020, the town acquired the site, which sits at Southwest 212th Street, by swapping the current municipal office building, which is underused, for the former, privately owned agricultural parcel. The town added $3 million to cover the vacant site’s full $17 million valuation. The parcel was zoned for 480 residential units.
“Since we incorporated in 2005, Cutler Bay residents have regularly approached the Council to express their concerns about vacant parcels in Town being developed into more residences and the added traffic that would bring,” Cutler Bay Mayor Tim Meerbott said in a statement released by the town.
“We heard our residents and took action to ease some of their concerns by acquiring this land and stopping the possibility of more residential units. Now, it will become the jewel of South Miami-Dade, a central space our community and future generations will enjoy.”
Town officials expect the park to open in four to five years. They will first schedule a series of public meetings to settle on a design vision for the park and civic center and the features those will include. That would be followed by final design plans and a year to take bids and secure construction permits. Construction would take two to three years, town officials said.
This story was originally published March 23, 2022 at 10:45 AM.