Lennar pays $74 million for Miami Lakes cow pasture

Cow poop be gone!

Miami-based home builder Lennar has paid $74 million for a 142-acre property used to graze cattle in Miami Lakes, according to Miami-Dade County property records. The cows and their manure angered some residents of a nearby single-family neighborhood for many years.

The massive vacant lot is mostly occupied by a large lake and belongs to a company registered to Betty Dunn, who owns land around South Florida and whose late husband, Lowell Dunn, was a major developer in Northwest Miami-Dade.

Dunn had used the land for cattle grazing, a popular tactic that allows developers to take advantage of a tax break meant to benefit farmers. Neighbors feuded with the Dunns for years over the cows. They said the animals’ manure stank. Dunn at one point sued two residents for slander and defamation, although the suits were dismissed.

The site is between Interstate 75 on the west and Northwest 87th Avenue on the east and between Northwest 154th Street on the south and Northwest 162nd Street on the north.

The city of Miami Lakes has approved a 505-home development named Royal Garden Estates for the site, according to the South Florida Business Journal, which first reported the sale. The development plan calls for about 68 acres of the property to remain a lake, the SFBJ reported.

Lennar, one of the biggest home builders in the U.S., paid $24 million last month for a nearby 36-acre parcel of land just west of I-75 in Hialeah.

This story was originally published January 11, 2016 at 3:38 PM with the headline "Lennar pays $74 million for Miami Lakes cow pasture."