County commission paves the way for housing development on Calusa golf course
Miami-Dade County commissioners voted 9-3 to lift a covenant restricting development on the defunct Calusa golf course despite the pleas of 40 homeowners who said their West Kendall neighborhood would be devastated by a 500-house subdivision on the old fairways.
The decision at Thursday’s zoning hearing is a victory for property owner Facundo Bacardi and developer GL Homes, allowing them to move forward with plans to build on 168 acres of the former Calusa Country Club at 9400 SW 130th Ave., which has been closed since 2011.
The 99-year covenant on the property stipulated that the land had to remain a golf course until 2067 unless 75 percent of the 146 homeowners living directly on the course agreed to remove it. Signatures of 123 ring homeowners were presented to commissioners, and the covenant, like the once-popular golf club, was history.
“We are disgusted, but our fight is not over,” said ring homeowner Vanessa Vazquez, who did not sign a waiver of the covenant. “The commissioners’ job is to do what benefits the entire community of thousands of people but they did what benefits the billionaire Bacardi, the developer and 123 people while the rest of us suffer the consequences.
“Once the covenant is released, we lose our only protection of that land and we all know they’re going to try to cram as many houses on it as possible.”
Commissioner Joe Martinez, who joined commissioners Daniella Levine-Cava and Rebeca Sosa in dissent, proposed creating a special taxing district and turning the land into a park to preserve green space and stave off more gridlock in Kendall.
“We know about the 52,000-pound gorilla in the room. We know what’s coming next,” he said. “It’s extremely horrible getting through that congested area, I mean extremely. The covenant is a roadblock to the amount of homes coming in. So I’m not comfortable with this at all. I don’t think it’s the right thing to do. We should listen to the many people who are speaking against this.”
Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz said the details of the development could be debated during the zoning process but that lifting the covenant would free Bacardi’s land from limbo.
“I don’t see it ever coming back as a golf course,” Diaz said. “It needs to change. The covenant needs to be removed so it can be something better. We could come back later during rezoning and require green space.”
Residents at meeting were against development
No residents at the Zoom meeting spoke in favor of lifting the covenant.
“Our politicians pay a lot of lip service to public participation and then they disregard it,” said attorney David Winker, who is representing Calusa homeowners who oppose development.
“It’s heartbreaking for the neighbors but good things can come from shining a light on situations like this where the developer gets exactly what he wants. The developer should have worked with everybody to come up with a holistic plan instead of tearing the community apart.”
Bacardi bought the club and golf course in 2003 for $2.7 million. In 2005, when hurricanes damaged the clubhouse, Bacardi, great-great grandson of the founder of the Bacardi rum distillery in Cuba, and leader of a family whose holdings are worth $19 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, did not pay to repair it. Instead, he put up a trailer and Porta-Potties.
He proposed building a “resort-style” swanky country club, but a membership drive went nowhere. Then he proposed a retirement village with 960 dwellings and a medical center while offering ring homeowners $50,000 to waive the convenant.
They turned him down and, along with their 2,300 neighboring homeowners, organized the Save Calusa campaign. He lowered the offer to $5,000 and threatened a legal challenge of the covenant. When his deadline passed, he sued the ring homeowners to invalidate the covenant. They formed a trust and contributed money for legal fees to fight him in court.
In 2016, the trust homeowners won on appeal and the county denied an application from Bacardi and GL Homes to build 1,100 houses. Homeowners thought their fight was over, but Bacardi went back to trust members, citing additional counts in the lawsuit that would be litigated, and over the next three years negotiated a settlement with ring homeowners to lift the covenant.
The deal isn’t public and homeowners had to sign nondisclosure agreements, but according to some who spoke off the record, others who were not trust members and neighbors who have talked to each other, terms of the settlement include payments of $50,000 to $300,000, extending backyard property lines by up to 50 feet and capping density within the subdivision.
The secret settlement fractured a community which had once been united in its fight. Trust members are regarded as pariahs and sellouts. That anger bubbled up again during Thursday’s hearing.
“Some of those trust members will take the money and run, or already have. My neighbor lives in Iceland and rents out his house,” said Vazquez, who bought her house abutting the course for $600,000 in 2016, fulfilling a “lifelong dream” to own in Calusa, where her mother has been a teacher at the elementary school for 30 years. She’d like to see the overgrown land turned into a nature preserve.
“Today’s their payday. Our house lost a ton of value today. Hey, we could move to Pinecrest but who knows what zoning restrictions could be lifted there if a billionaire decides to sue the neighbors to get what he wants?”
Trust members unanimously decided to settle the contentious and complicated case, said their attorney, Tucker Gibbs.
“Far from betrayal, the homeowners in the trust stuck their necks out when they were sued by the Bacardi family to get the best deal possible when it became clear the owner was never going to bring back the golf course,” Gibbs said. “My clients really care about their community. They chose to foot the bill. We are pleased because we actually got something for the neighborhood.”
Commissioner Eileen Higgins and Diaz both cited Bacardi’s rights as a property owner in voting to remove the covenant limiting use to a golf course. But Martinez argued Bacardi accepted the covenant when he bought the land.
“It would not have been worth $2.7 million if there was no covenant,” he said. “Without the covenant, it’s worth $50 million to $100 million or more.”
Homeowners were infuriated that the commissioner for their district, Xavier Suarez, voted to lift the covenant.
“@XavierLSuarez1 enjoy your free bacardis for life, Xavier,” was posted on the Save Calusa Twitter page.
This story was originally published October 29, 2020 at 4:35 PM.
