After win at County Commission, Formula One race hit with suit by Miami Gardens groups

The Formula One race the Miami Dolphins want to bring to Hard Rock Stadium won a close vote before the Miami-Dade County Commission on Wednesday after a bitter debate, defeating the last piece of legislation trying to keep the yearly event from coming to Miami Gardens.

Moments after her anti-F1 legislation failed, Commissioner Barbara Jordan announced her fellow opponents of the auto race had filed a lawsuit against the Dolphins and Hard Rock to block the race.

“This fight is not over,” Jordan said during a rally at the ground floor of County Hall. “Formula One, I don’t think they want this kind of publicity. But they better get ready.”

While Miami Gardens residents have pointed to noise, exhaust-clogged air and congestion from a yearly Formula One race in May, advocates of the event portray it as an economic boon that will attract tens of thousands of visitors for daytime races confined to the footprint of the Hard Rock Stadium campus.

The F1 debate over a race planned in Florida’s largest majority African-American city divided the commission along racial lines, and highlighted tension between Miami Gardens residents and a stadium that’s the municipality’s largest taxpayer.

Residents fighting the race described it as the last straw by a stadium that clogs traffic for Dolphins games, is home to concerts and now a yearly tennis tournament, and is expected to be on a regular rotation for Super Bowls.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez backed the plan by Dolphins owner Stephen Ross to bring an F1 Grand Prix to Hard Rock each May, and in November vetoed a prior Jordan resolution designed to stymie the race plans. He was ready to veto Jordan’s second piece of anti-F1 legislation on Wednesday, which would have required city or county approval of a race already allowed by Miami-Dade zoning rules for the stadium.

Jordan used Wednesday’s debate to cap a stark split between her and the Dolphins and Gimenez himself, a Republican mayor the longtime Democrat endorsed during his 2016 reelection campaign. “Mr. Mayor, throughout all of this process, you have been my biggest disappointment,” Jordan said to Gimenez, seated two chairs away on the dais.

She then seemed to invoke Gimenez’s embrace of President Donald Trump during the mayor’s launch of a congressional campaign this year after announcing in 2016 he planned to vote for Hillary Clinton. “You convinced me you were the best thing since sliced bread,” Jordan said of Gimenez. “Mr. Mayor, you’re a chameleon,” she said. “You need to come with a warning label: Buyer beware.”

Gimenez did not respond to Jordan’s comments during the meeting. After, he said it was the harshest comments he’s received as mayor from a commissioner since taking office in 2011. “This got a little bit personal,” he said. “She took it over the line. It got way too political for my tastes.”

When will Formula One come to Hard Rock Stadium?

Jordan’s legislation was the last hurdle before the commission standing in the way of the race’s 2021 debut in Miami Gardens. The legislation would have stripped races as a permitted use in the zoning rules governing Hard Rock, and required Miami Gardens’ approval of future races. The Dolphins could appeal the city’s decision to the County Commission.

In a statement, Dolphins CEO Tom Garfinkel said: “We are glad to put this long-delayed vote behind us so we can begin to make the multimillion-dollar private investment required to bring a race here ...”

The Circuit Court lawsuit’s lead plaintiff is Betty Ferguson, a former county commissioner in the District 1 seat currently held by Jordan. She’s joined by other Miami Gardens residents and homeowner groups from the area, including Rolling Oaks and Lake Lucerne.

The filing asks a judge to declare the planned race in violation of county and city noise ordinances. Miami-Dade prohibits “unreasonably loud” noise. Miami-Dade is already home to a NASCAR track in Homestead, and downtown Miami used to regularly play host to Grand Prix-style races without court intervention.

The Dolphins maintain noise from a recent concert leading up to the Super Bowl in Miami Gardens was louder than what neighbors would hear from an F1 race.

The planned legal fight launched after the Dolphins and Formula One supporters cleared the legislative deck of obstacles to the race. While Jordan was able to pass one piece of anti-F1 legislation in October, she lost two supporters, Eileen Higgins and Javier Souto, in trying to enact the new ordinance.

Joining Higgins and Souto on the No side were Esteban “Steve” Bovo, Jose “Pepe” Diaz, Joe Martinez and Rebeca Sosa. Sally Heyman, an F1 supporter, was not present for the vote.

Diaz said he understood neighborhood opposition to the race, but that he was voting for the broader economic interests of Miami-Dade.

“We have to look at the greater good of all areas,” he said.

This story was originally published February 19, 2020 at 5:50 PM.