Polarizing 87th Avenue bridge in South Dade heads to a crucial vote amid legal threats
Three years after a Miami-Dade County transportation board shot down a proposal to build a bridge over Southwest 87th Avenue in Palmetto Bay, the polarizing pitch to unclog some of South Dade’s most congested roadways is heading for another vote.
The Miami-Dade Transportation Planning Organization is expected to take up the $3.1 million plan on Thursday after county commissioners revived the project last month and put it on a fast track to approval. A yes vote would kick off the process of designing and constructing the bridge where a canal cuts 87th Avenue in two.
For many south of the canal in Cutler Bay, the bridge represents a crucial respite from the traffic that clogs where the street dead-ends, turning five- or six-mile drives on a school day morning into hellish commutes. It also represents a glimmer of hope for a traffic solution as their community and communities south of them continue to be developed.
But for many who live directly north of the canal, the bridge symbolizes bureaucracy at its worst — a rejected 2018 proposal resurrected by an unelected commissioner that will only bring more traffic to their otherwise quiet neighborhood streets.
“Once this is built, the damage is done,” Palmetto Bay resident Joseph Mirabelli told the Miami Herald Sunday from the dead-end street north of the canal, “and this neighborhood will be changed forever.”
Different commissioner, different results?
Critics and supporters are anticipating the Thursday vote on the proposal which, after years of back-and-forth, was suddenly resurfaced last month by newly appointed District 8 Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins with the help of COVID-19 emergency rules. Her plan was advanced by county commissioners, who set aside money for the project and directed county Mayor Daniella Levine Cava — who lives in and once represented Palmetto Bay — to do whatever it takes to get it built.
When she was the District 8 commissioner, Levine Cava opposed the project and was successful in stalling it when it went before the Transportation Planning Organization, or TPO, in 2018. But Cohen Higgins, her appointed replacement, lives in Palmetto Bay and supports the bridge, which would extend 87th Avenue over the C-100 canal from Southwest 164th Street to Southwest 163rd Terrace. The bridge is a key part of her platform for her 2022 campaign for the seat.
“I have been clear and consistent about not only my support of this connectivity project, but also that it is a priority. This project has been recommended by our professionals for years because it will significantly reduce travel times,” Cohen Higgins wrote in a statement Monday. “This project is also a matter of public safety, because this incomplete road negatively affects emergency response times for our fire department.”
The project has been part of a master plan to complete the county’s traffic grid — left incomplete by a series of zigzagging flood control canals — since 1978, county documents show. The project was most recently recommended as part of a 2014 study conducted by the TPO to focus on providing the missing links throughout the county’s network of roads. At the time, the study showed that traffic would be reduced anywhere from 10% to 40% and commutes would shrink by as much as 90 minutes during peak morning and afternoon drive times.
“As the commissioner representing all of District 8, I am committed and compelled to provide real solutions for both traffic relief and public safety,” Cohen Higgins told the Herald.
A possible lawsuit
But Cohen Higgins’ effort to raise the 87th Avenue bridge from the dead has reignited tensions between Palmetto Bay, Cutler Bay and the county.
On Friday and Monday, attorneys representing Palmetto Bay and Miami-Dade County met for a “dispute negotiation” forced by a threat by Palmetto Bay’s village council to file a lawsuit over the project.
The village alleges the proposal was put forward hurriedly and without proper public notice, and that the new commissioner misused the county’s COVID-19 emergency rules to push her proposal through with only one day’s notice instead of the four days required under standard procedures.
County attorneys said the village’s argument was inaccurate. County Chief Operations Officer Jimmy Morales offered to present the TPO Thursday with a memorandum that includes details about the bridge project and a list of the steps that had been taken over the years.
Village attorney John Dellagloria said since there wasn’t a resolution, there will be some sort of legal mediation between the county and the village. If the issue is not resolved at that point, “that’s when we will go to court,” he told the Miami Herald. He also expects the village will enter into a similar conflict resolution process with the TPO, as a separate entity from the county.
“We figured they weren’t just going to say, ‘you win and let Palmetto Bay run the county,’” Dellagloria said Monday. “We didn’t expect that.”
Despite support from some residents, Palmetto Bay has taken a largely anti-bridge stance, contending that the bridge would allow for cut-through traffic. The village council approved a resolution last month to oppose the bridge and urge Levine Cava to veto the item.
Palmetto Bay Mayor Karyn Cunningham, who made a video about her disdain for the bridge, has said she would rather see a more comprehensive plan for the region that would alleviate traffic congestion.
Cutler Bay Mayor Timothy Meerbott has said that more connectivity will be better for all residents, especially those south of the canal. The Cutler Bay town council passed its own resolution in support of the bridge.
To try and build support for the idea among both communities, Cohen Higgins called for a joint committee of residents from the two communities to consider the county’s plan. But the meetings of the “Community Connectivity Council” eventually fell apart entirely, with Palmetto Bay’s mayor pulling the community’s committee members after the second meeting and forming her own task force of exclusively Palmetto Bay residents.
The committee, left with only Cutler Bay residents, submitted a report to the TPO, urging members to approve the project. But one Palmetto Bay committee member, Mirabelli, submitted his own presentation to the TPO via email.
“The members of the TPO should not be used as a tool to push through unpopular, pet projects that have not been properly considered by the community” Mirabelli, 61, wrote.
Organized opposition
The fight could spill into Cohen Higgins’ 2022 election bid, where she’ll run to defend the seat she was appointed to fill after Levine Cava was elected as mayor. At a block party staged Sunday at the dead-end north of the canal, Mirabelli said a “yes” vote by the TPO will kick open “a hornet’s nest” of Palmetto Bay residents who will fight to vote Cohen Higgins out in 2022.
Around Mirabelli, neighborhood children climbed a blue drainage pipe and fed the ducks that swam below in water that glimmered in the afternoon sun. Neighbors holding cans of soda and paper plates of Publix fried chicken talked about carpooling to the TPO vote at the Stephen P. Clark Government Center in downtown Miami.
Nearby, a group of about 80 residents, some wearing T-shirts and masks that said “stop the bridge,” passed around matching yard signs, though many houses in the surrounding area already had one in their lawn. They listened as Cunningham’s voice echoed through a loudspeaker, giving them instructions on how to submit public comment in opposition to the bridge when the proposal comes to a vote.
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It was a “block” party as in, “block the bridge,” one neighbor joked.
Both groups — those for and against the bridge — seem to understand a fundamental truth about the drama surrounding the bridge: Development in South Miami-Dade County is not slowing anytime soon and, without effective solutions, traffic will only get worse.
The disagreement has caused heartache in the two communities, who have taken sides in heated arguments and personal attacks that have spilled onto Facebook and Nextdoor. Yard signs have been vandalized. Petitions have circled on both sides of the issue, including one created by a Maryland-based consultant who told the Miami Herald that he’s being paid by residents to help them publicly oppose the bridge.
The issue has not only divided Palmetto Bay from Cutler Bay, but also some residents of the same city.
“[Local leaders] are pitting neighbors against neighbors to distract from the real issue,” said 60-year-old Palmetto Bay resident Bill Diederle, “which is development.”
This story was originally published March 16, 2021 at 2:17 PM.