No more delays, Miami-Dade Commission: Kill Miami Wilds deal once and for all | Opinion

There’s a recurring tug of war between urban growth and the environment in Miami-Dade, particularly in south county areas where the remaining vestiges of South Florida’s natural habitat resist our thirst for development.

On Tuesday, the County Commission will discuss a controversial plan to build a water park called Miami Wilds on a parking lot outside Zoo Miami. County voters agreed to convert the land into an entertainment complex in a 2006 referendum as long as there was no impact on “environmentally sensitive” land, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told the county on Monday there would be. That parking lot isn’t merely pavement. It is a habitat for the Florida bonneted bat and other species.

Endangered bats

Bats don’t normally attract the same sympathy as the Florida Panther, killer whales or manatees, but the bonneted bats are an endangered species with a disappearing natural home, the pine rocklands abutting the zoo. More than 98% of that habitat has vanished, the Fish and Wildlife Service wrote in a letter to the county.

The parking lot had the highest density of bats among the areas included in an analysis by Bat Conservation International and the zoo — even though an analysis conducted by a firm hired by developers disagreed with that conclusion. At night, the bats emerge from the rocklands to feed and roost over the open space that is mostly unlit after sunset. Despite being a parking lot, the partially paved area has become “an atypical ‘dwarf forest’ ” that supports hundreds of native plants and insects that the bats prey upon, according to that letter.

“I know it’s unrealistic to think things are never going to be developed,” Zoo Miami spokesman Ron Magill told the Herald Editorial Board. He’s been leading the charge against Miami Wilds.

“Things are not going to be kept forever. But, gosh, we need to raise awareness; we need to say, ‘There’s another way to do this.’ ”

We sympathize with the developers, who got the OK from the County Commission in 2020 to build a project voters approved 17 years ago. But preserving the habitat of an endangered species outweighs the benefits of a water park. There are more appropriate projects to bring jobs to the area. County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said in September there are other lands available for the project.

The Miami Wilds saga has had many twist and turns. The project has been slowed down by a lawsuit filed by conservation groups — among them Bat Conservation — that forced the National Park Service to admit it didn’t follow proper environmental review procedures when it lifted development restrictions on the former federal property. Based on that, Levine Cava’s administration, which inherited the project from previous administrations, told the courts the county should have never entered a contract for the water park.

Judge’s rule

On Monday, a federal judge issued an order finding that the National Park Service violated federal law when it released the site for development, writing that the agency failed to meet “its responsibilities to preserve endangered species and their habitat.”

“In short, NPS put the cart before the horse,” U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz wrote.

The commission will vote on Tuesday on whether to give Miami Wilds more time to meet its lease deadlines. Developers Bernard Zyscovich and Paul Lambert told the Editorial Board they are willing to let the National Park Service review process happen before they move forward with the project.

“We’re saying, ‘Yes, let’s put the project on hold; let’s give the county the time it needs to do the requirements that are necessary to do the environmental study,’” Zyscovich said.

Even if that were to happen, Commissioner Raquel Regalado told the Editorial Board the federal government sets the “floor, not the ceiling” for environmental standards. Miami-Dade County has “the right to say we have our own standards” — and, indeed, it does. On Tuesday, she said she will propose that the county rescind the Miami Wilds lease based on the latest court ruling.

In the past 17 years, Miami-Dade has learned the rush to build, build, build is not sustainable if we are to preserve what natural environment is left and, more than before, we recognize that giving it away isn’t always worth it.

The county should work with developers to identify another suitable location for their venture. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the Zoo Miami parking lot is wholly inappropriate.

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This story was originally published December 11, 2023 at 2:47 PM.