Transit tax

I’ve read in the Herald that Miami-Dade County is contemplating some form of taxation to pay for improvements to the county’s transit system. The reason for our poor traffic situation lies primarily at the feet of years of commission inaction.

For decades, hearings were held to review the county’s master land-use plan. Developers pushed for higher density as construction worked westward, where vacant land was cheaper and profits higher. The county’s planning department would counter with studies on in-fill showing that there was adequate land available well within the Urban Development Boundary.

There was also the question of concurrency, the concept that when development occurs, adequate infrastructure such as road systems be put in place. This was generally ignored by the commission of the day, which pandered to developers for the sake of reelection-campaign support.

We still have high density development to the west, north and south and inadequate transit infrastructure to move the traffic.

This story was originally published March 20, 2017 at 8:11 PM with the headline "Transit tax."