Despite pushback, Miami-Dade extends deadline for plans to privatize Rickenbacker
Despite a village resolution and a handful of last-ditch public comments, Key Biscayne leaders’ last hopes for Miami-Dade County to scrap its request for proposals to privatize the only road onto the island were dashed Tuesday when county commissioners voted unanimously to drop the Venetian Causeway from the effort and give bidders until March to redesign their plans for the Rickenbacker Causeway.
A handful of elected officials and residents bused in from the village were allowed a chance to speak to commissioners, even though there was no motion addressing the Rickenbacker on the table. Some wore stickers with an “anti-Plan Z” logo to denote their distaste for the unsolicited proposal to privatize the Rickenbacker — dubbed “Plan Z” by architect Bernard Zyscovich — that jump-started the county’s solicitation.
Key Biscayne Mayor Michael Davey told the Miami Herald after the meeting that it was evident that County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and the Board
of County Commissioners were aware of the village’s concerns, and that while he had hoped for a different outcome, “it’s a step in the right direction.”
During a public meeting last week, Levine Cava alluded to the possibility of scratching the plan, saying she was “open to considering cancellation of the solicitation.” That idea did not come to fruition Tuesday.
“Is it everything we wanted? No,” Davey said. “I would love if they had rescinded the whole thing today. I want a clean process.”
Key Biscayne’s village council voted last week to take an official position against the plan to privatize the Rickenbacker Causeway, calling for the current request for proposals to be rescinded and replaced with a “full and transparent” public process with key stakeholders. As it currently stands, Zyscovich’s unsolicited bid has triggered a “cone of silence,” where bidders are not allowed to meet directly with “key stakeholders,” including Key Biscayne, Miami and Miami Beach leaders unless a public meeting is held for that purpose.
Ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, Zyscovich sent a letter to the commission, affirming that he and his Plan Z Consortium can move forward without the Venetian Causeway and that they “wish to leave no doubt” that the project is just as viable without it.
Zyscovich partnered with a private equity group to propose a version of the plan to the county in March.
In the letter, he wrote that he would also support a move to get rid of the restriction on communicating with key stakeholders like the Village of Key Biscayne and the City of Miami, and that the so-called “cone of silence” with those stakeholders has had “unintended, negative consequences.”
The letter addresses what he calls a “false claim” that Plan Z and the county’s process lack transparency.
“It is disheartening to witness the false narrative that the current RFP process lacks transparency and that the details of the project are in some way a secret,” he wrote. “It is disingenuous for the Village of Key Biscayne to try to stop a public RFP process that will finally provide the critically needed improvements to ‘the driveway to Key Biscayne.’”
If the request for proposals had been scrapped, Zyscovich’s first, unsolicited submission would become public under state confidentiality laws and competitors would have access to financial data and other specifics from the original bid.
Deadline extended, financial study to be published
During Tuesday’s meeting, Levine Cava brought up concerns about not having enough information about the costs of the project, recommending the deadline be extended so as to accommodate potential bidders who may be waiting to see that information first.
Miami-Dade hired a consultant to analyze whether the privatization model — where the developer fronts the money for construction, then makes its profit over decades by collecting toll revenue and profits from businesses it can operate along the causeway — makes the most sense. Results of that study are expected by the end of October.
“It will allow us to understand the merits of private financing versus public financing, operation, maintenance, all the components and whether it is more meritorious for the county to have a smaller number of those components,” she said during the meeting.
The commission voted unanimously to extend the deadline of the request for proposals to March 1. Staff also recommended that a public meeting be held upon the publication of the privatization study.
The Plan Z Consortium wrote in a statement after the commission’s vote that it will “adhere to the new timeline.”
“We look forward to submitting a proposal that will ensure the Rickenbacker Causeway is structurally sound, resilient to sea level rise, and safe for cyclists, motorists, and pedestrians,” they wrote.
This story was originally published October 5, 2021 at 6:19 PM.