Will Miami-Dade mayor win veto fight on wetlands construction? A key vote flips

Miami-Dade County’s mayor flipped a key vote to her side on Tuesday in her campaign to block approval of a commercial project she claims will harm vital wetlands if allowed to go forward.

Three weeks ago, Commissioner Raquel Regalado voted to approve the proposed Kelly Tractor headquarters on a tree farm near where the Dolphin Expressway ends off of Northwest 137th Avenue. The 9-2 vote gave the company special permission to build partially outside the boundary that’s meant to separate commercial and residential development from rural or environmentally sensitive areas on the outskirts of Miami-Dade.

But when Mayor Daniella Levine Cava held a press conference Tuesday urging commissioners to support her veto of the project, Regalado was there to announce she would no longer back the development and would vote with the mayor at Wednesday’s commission meeting.

“I tried my best to amend this application to protect as many wetlands as possible,” Regalado said, referring to the commission debate on developing the 246-acre Kelly Tractor site at the board’s Jan. 22 meeting. “I want to thank the mayor for the opportunity to make this process better.”

Regalado’s decision to switch sides gives a significant — but not decisive — boost to Levine Cava’s public campaign to sustain her Feb. 1 veto.

If all 13 commissioners attend Wednesday’s vote, nine would be needed to override Levine Cava’s veto and preserve last month’s approval of the project.

Two commissioners voted against the project during that Jan. 22 meeting, and two did not attend that vote. Even with Regalado, Levine Cava needs to keep on her side the two dissenting commissioners (Danielle Cohen Higgins and Micky Steinberg) and persuade the two absent commissioners (Marleine Bastien and René Garcia) to vote her way, too.

Sustaining the mayor’s veto would force Kelly to start over in seeking approval of a project that would bring Kelly Tractor’s Doral headquarters to a new complex on undeveloped land with more than 160 acres of wetlands. While the land sits outside the Urban Development Boundary, best known as the “UDB,” commissioners approved a change in the rules for that area, allowing construction without having to move the boundary designed to separate the suburbs from Miami-Dade’s rural regions.

Wetlands are considered key to the ecology in South Florida, both for the role that swamp terrain plays in filtering groundwater and also for absorbing rain that would otherwise flood surrounding areas.

Kelly Tractor argues its plan follows county rules in mitigating construction on wetlands by preserving them elsewhere and says that the site in question makes sense for development because of its proximity to a major highway and other commercial properties.

The company has also questioned why, in 2022, Levine Cava didn’t try to block construction of a truck depot just south of the Kelly site, on land that’s also outside the UDB and owned by entities tied to developer David Martin, a leading donor to the county’s elected officials.

On Tuesday, Levine Cava said it’s far more daunting to find space inside the UDB for parking 18-wheelers that are coming and going throughout the day and night, given the friction with residential neighborhoods and other issues. Her staff said there’s plenty of land available for the kind of office complex that Kelly wants to build, even with the need to store large industrial equipment.

In a public letter, company president Chris Kelly said his team has worked with Levine Cava’s administration to come up with a development proposal that would preserve wetlands elsewhere in exchange for the land needed for construction, while keeping large areas on the site undeveloped to allow for drainage.

“By design, the 246-acre project is not a choice between protecting the environment and supporting working families,” Kelly wrote. “It is a commitment to both.”

At the press conference, Levine Cava said the Kelly proposal falls short of the kind of preservation standards needed for property outside the UDB.

“Once wetlands are filled, they’re gone,” she said. “We must protect our paradise.”

This story was originally published February 17, 2026 at 4:56 PM.