Miami-Dade mayor wins veto fight over electric-bus depot, blocking Homestead land deal

The plan for an electric-bus depot in South Dade received a lift Tuesday when Miami-Dade County commissioners sustained Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s veto of a rival proposal to instead bring an entertainment village to the county’s 47-acre property near Homestead.

Though commissioners last month dismissed Levine Cava’s objections when they passed a resolution endorsing a private company’s village plan, they backed off after the mayor issued the first veto of her term since winning the 2020 election.

A motion by sponsor Kionne McGhee to override the veto fell well short of the eight votes needed, with only two commissioners joining McGhee in opposing the mayor.

The bus depot would only occupy about one-third of the site, so the showdown doesn’t kill the effort by McGhee to arrange a no-bid sale of at least part of the parcel to a business group out of St. Petersburg. The group, operating as Homestead Town Center LLC, proposes to use cargo containers to build restaurants, shops and offices on the vacant land outside the Homestead Air Reserve Base.

McGhee said Tuesday he no longer opposes putting a bus maintenance facility on the site, and Levine Cava said she’s ready to continue talks about the remaining parcel going toward a commercial project to create more jobs in South Miami-Dade.

“I am prepared to start fresh,” she said. “We’ve gotten very close. I think we’ll get there shortly.”

At the center of the mayor’s first direct confrontation with the commission over legislation is a $56 million maintenance yard needed to service the fleet of electric buses the county is purchasing for its new rapid-transit line on the South Miami-Dade busway.

The $300 million express system is the first part of the county’s 2016 SMART Plan transit study to result in construction, with service expected to start by 2024.

Commissioners passed the McGhee resolution on a 10-2 vote on Jan. 19, at a meeting when Levine Cava argued against the legislation.

The resolution barred Miami-Dade from using the land for a bus maintenance yard but authorized using a portion of it for charging electric buses.

It also instructed Levine Cava to negotiate a sales agreement for the property with Homestead Town Center LLC, an entity the administration said appeared to lack development or leasing experience. Partners for Homestead Town Center declined to answer questions after Tuesday’s meeting.

Before the veto vote, McGhee said he no longer opposed using 15 acres of the parcel for the maintenance yard, short of the 20-acre plan the administration had presented him in prior talks.

He briefly tried to have commissioners reconsider the Jan 19. resolution — a procedural effort that would have nullified the veto and preserved the legislation for a future vote.

But commissioners declined, leading to the veto vote. Only Chairman Jose “Pepe” Diaz and Joe Martinez joined McGhee in voting for the override.

McGhee said he’s planning to continue talks with Levine Cava to advance the commercial project on the land, alongside the maintenance yard.

“We’re looking to bring economic development to our community,” he said. “A community that needs an economic-development injection into its arm. That was the mission.”

This story was originally published February 1, 2022 at 6:21 PM.