Nov. 20–A controversial plan to expand the western development boundary of Miami-Dade County to accommodate a large shopping mall, IMAX theater and water theme park was abruptly withdrawn Wednesday amid mounting pressure from detractors.
Applicant Turnberry Associates, which owns Aventura Mall and the Fontainebleau hotel, accepted a motion from County Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz to withdraw its application.
Commissioners followed suit, voting 11-0 and agreeing to refund Turnberry 25 percent of its application fee.
“I don’t feel comfortable with the application as it is now,” Diaz said. “I’m going to ask the applicant if possible, that they withdraw the application at this time.”
Turnberry attorney Jeffrey Bercow said he had met with commissioners before the meeting, and was aware of all their concerns.
“We’re going to withdraw the application,” Bercow said
Commissioners taking up items on the county’s Comprehensive Development Master Plan Wednesday were initially going to vote on whether Turnberry could develop the entertainment complex along Northwest 41st Street just west of Florida’s Turnpike. That would have required a super majority vote of nine of the 13 commissioners. But before the vote, the applicants asked that they simply vote to transmit the item to the state instead of voting on its merits, which only requires a majority vote.
The plan to build next to limestone rock mines and on the fringe of the Everglades requires state approval, which only comes about once every two years. Turnberry can’t return before the commission until May 2015, making it a victory of sorts for the dozens of opposition members who filled the chamber in orange shirts Wednesday, and who left quickly after the vote.
The application by Turnberry Associates has drawn oppositions from county administrators, planners, the local community council and an unusual coalition of environmentalists and rock-mine operators. All oppose moving the UDB, which limits development into the county’s western and southern fringes.
Turnberry says the Doral Crossings project would not fit anywhere else in the area. Planners question the need for another mall so close to Dolphin Mall and Miami International Mall, and say there’s enough land elsewhere within the existing boundary to develop.
Environmentalists and miners say the development would be incompatible with the nearby rock pits and the county’s primary reservoir of drinking water, an aquifer within the Northwest Wellfield Protection Area.
