Despite controversy, 87th Avenue bridge project wins quick approval from Miami-Dade

The bridge proposal that divided two suburban governments in South Miami-Dade sailed through a key vote on Thursday, with Miami-Dade’s transportation board granting quick approval to build it.

No member of the Transportation Planning Organization spoke against the $3 million bridge slated to extend Southwest 87th Avenue over a drainage canal in Palmetto Bay to open up a new commuting route for Cutler Bay and other areas south of the waterway.

Cutler Bay sits south of the canal and campaigned for the bridge, since it would give residents a direct route north without having to bypass the canal. The canal runs through Palmetto Bay, and residents there opposed converting the dead-end avenue to a thoroughfare.

The project passed the 25-member board with only two no votes, from County Commissioner René Garcia and Steven Losner, Homestead’s mayor. Only some cities have representation on the board, which oversees transportation planning in Miami-Dade, and Cutler Bay and Palmetto Bay don’t hold TPO seats.

The approval clears the way for the county-funded project, backed by planning staff years ago but opposed by Mayor Daniella Levine Cava when she was a county commissioner representing the area. Levine Cava was elected mayor in November.

Her successor as the District 8 commissioner, Danielle Cohen Higgins, championed the project shortly after winning an appointment to Levine Cava’s vacant seat.

Levine Cava didn’t veto the new commissioner’s legislation sending the project to the transportation board, and the county mayor has no role in that entity.

Passage by the TPO frees Miami-Dade to start seeking bids on the project, but opponents could still try to tie it up in legal challenges.

Karyn Cunningham, Palmetto Bay’s mayor, said she was calling a special meeting of the Village Council on Monday to discuss moving forward with conflict-resolution proceedings that could lead to a lawsuit against Miami-Dade.

Residents and elected officeholders from both sides spoke for about an hour before the vote, after Oliver Gilbert, the county commissioner who also serves as TPO chairman, limited public comments to one minute each.

Robert Buzzelli, who lives about 10 blocks south of the canal, told board members the bridge would mean traffic salvation for more people than the ones opposing the plan.

“Some say it will destroy a neighborhood,” he said on video camera from the lobby of the county’s Stephen P. Clark Center, his remarks beamed into a TPO chamber devoid of public spectators during COVID-19 restrictions. “I say it will save several neighborhoods.”

Cheryl Clark Cornely lives right off where Southwest 87th Avenue dead-ends at 163rd Terrace heading south, putting her property roughly where the new bridge would begin. She described a neighborhood where neighbors walk babies in strollers in peace.

“This is not a traffic solution,” she said. “If you vote yes, you are opening up this quiet neighborhood ... full of canals, and cul-de-sacs and dead-ends that cannot handle all of this traffic.”

Cohen Higgins, who ran for Levine Cava’s District 8 seat before commissioners opted to appoint the mayor’s successor, issued a statement celebrating the delivering of a “major campaign promise.”

“We need solutions now,” she said, and the bridge “becoming reality is one of them.”

This story was originally published March 18, 2021 at 8:35 PM.