Legal challenge filed over Miami-Dade’s approval of warehouse project near Biscayne Bay

Opponents of a commercial project in South Miami-Dade are hoping to overturn county approval of the venture in a legal challenge filed this week that would reverse a narrowly approved expansion of the Urban Development Boundary.

The challenge backed by the Hold the Line Coalition and the Everglades Law Center seeks to have an administrative judge recommend the state overturn the Nov. 1 approval by Miami-Dade commissioners to expand the UDB for the proposed South Dade Logistics and Technology District.

The project would bring about 400 acres of warehouses and other commercial buildings to farmland near Homestead, in an area deemed at high risk for storm surge during a hurricane. The site sits about three miles from Biscayne Bay.

County planning staff recommended against approval, citing the flooding risk and maintaining Miami-Dade has enough commercial land available inside the UDB. Developers challenged the conclusions on land availability and presented design standards aimed at mitigating the risk from flooding.

In an 8-4 vote, commissioners ultimately passed the UDB expansion over Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s veto.

Nita Lewis, an assistant professor at the University of Miami, filed the challenge, saying the approval will have negative impacts on her home near the project site off Florida’s Turnpike and north of Moody Drive. She claimed the project would worsen Miami-Dade’s existing challenges, including readiness for sea-level rise and traffic. “Let’s not continue to make the same mistakes,” she said.

She’s represented by a legal team that includes lawyer Elizabeth Fata Carpenter from the Everglades Law Center and attorneys associated with the Hold the Line Coalition, which lobbied against the UDB expansion.

A spokesperson for the development group declined to comment.

The challenge would go before an administrative judge, who then can recommend a board made up of the governor and the Florida Cabinet overturn the county’s approval of the project. The Cabinet includes the agriculture secretary and other statewide elected officials.

A similar coalition attempted an administrative challenge of Miami-Dade’s 2018 decision to extend State Road 836 into Kendall. While a judge ruled against the county, the challenge failed when the judge’s recommendation was rejected by Gov. Ron DeSantis and a majority of the Cabinet members.

This story was originally published December 2, 2022 at 9:47 AM.