In her effort to stop a heavy equipment operator from building new headquarters on wetlands outside Miami-Dade County’s urban development boundary, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava on Tuesday urged county commissioners to consider the toll on county resources.
”The wetlands are not obstacles to development. They are infrastructure. They filter our water. They recharge our aquifer,” she said at a press conference outside county hall.
Levine Cava was joined by County Commissioner Raquel Regalado and a trio of strategic partners: the Everglades Foundation’s Eric Eikenberg, Miami Waterkeepr Rachel Silverstein and El Portal Mayor and local Leagues of Cities president Omarr Nickerson. County commissioners, who approved the project in January, are scheduled to take up the veto Levine Cava issued earlier this month at Wednesday’s commission meeting.
READ MORE: New industrial HQ would pave over protected wetlands near flood-prone Miami-Dade suburb
Kelly Tractor has been struggling since 2023 to win approval for its new headquarters on wetlands just west of where the Dolphin Expressway ends. The company, which has leased and sold heavy equipment for nearly a century in Florida, said it has outgrown its Doral headquarters.
But county planners opposed the move, saying the 246-acre tract targeted for more than 2 million square feet in buildings, plus truck repair bays, fuel depots and a rail connection, holds critical wetlands that protect water supplies and help keep floodwaters from inundating western neighborhoods. Planners also say plenty of suitable land remains inside the boundary, which was established decades ago and formalized in a massive 1980s growth plan intended to balance urban development while protecting the Everglades.
“ I graduated from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, and that high school is right up against the Everglades. There is no urban boundary in Broward County,” said Eikenberg, the Everglades Foundation executive director. “We need to avoid what has happened in Broward County, where those communities have gone all the way out to the Everglades.”
County commissioners approved the project over staff objections after Kelly Tractor agreed to restore wetlands elsewhere in the county to make up for the lost wetlands. But because the area is situated between core wetlands already under protection, Levine Cava said they deserve a higher level of protection.
“ This decision is bigger than one application. It's bigger than one property. It's about who we are as a county, about how we grow, and whether we'll uphold the longstanding policies that have protected our water, our neighborhoods, and our future,” she said.
The veto also sends a message to lawmakers, who are considering a study to determine the future of growth boundaries as well as pre-empting some local growth measures.
”It's our responsibility to take care of this community and this county,” she said. “We're very unique in that we actually do have an area outside of an urban development boundary and it's so critically important that we not squander it.”
