Two residents who demanded Miami-Dade County let voters decide whether a new marina should be built at a revamped Seaquarium sued the county Wednesday, a day after county commissioners took steps to move the project forward.
In their complaint, Gregory Frankel and Aaron Stauber asked a judge to issue an injunction and declare that the project undergo a county-wide referendum.
“We're not asking for any money. There's no damages here. We're not even stating anything with regard to the project itself,” said Stauber, an attorney and lifelong county resident. “We really just want the process, good governance. That's all it's about, is good governance.”
READ MORE: Out with the Seaquarium, in with the mega yachts? A new plan for the old marine park
On Wednesday, Miami-Dade County commissioners cleared at least one hurdle for the project when they revised the definition of special districts to fit smaller projects, including the redeveloped Seaquarium envisioned by developer David Martin. Martin won a bankruptcy proceeding to take over the remainder of the old Seaquarium lease last year. In December, county commissioners later gave tentative approval to a new lease now being hammered out.
Under the deal, Martin has asked to expand the Seaquarium on Virginia Key to include a new commercial marina covering more than 56 acres in the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve. The marina would include nearly 300 boat slips and space for another 500 in dry storage in a boat barn. More than a third of slips would accommodate yachts over 80 feet long with some able to super yachts up to 200 feet long.
The bay was designated an aquatic preserve in the 1970s as development around the bay rapidly spread. As one of the bay’s last remaining natural barrier islands, Virginia Key is considered one of its most ecologically important. In its latest report, the preserve’s management team said improper boating remains one of its main threats.
Environmental groups have warned such large boats and more traffic could harm the shallow bay especially near the Seaquarium where seagrass flats shelter young fish, sea horses and other marine life. They complain that requests for more information from the county have repeatedly been ignored.
“We all have a right to understand what’s happening there,” said Laura Reynolds, an advisor to Friends of Biscayne Bay, which has twice asked the county to slow down approvals and started a petition to have the plan deferred.
”It's very complicated, and the average citizen cannot keep up with all the decision points, does not know when these public hearings are,” she said. “So we've taken it upon ourselves, Friends of Biscayne Bay, to try to make it as simple as possible, and we hold meetings every single week to review these things.”
Martin response
In response to questions, a spokeswoman for David Martin provided another copy of a statement sent earlier this month explaining that the project “will deliver a publicly accessible, environmentally conscious destination where residents and visitors can enjoy the waterfront and learn more about South Florida’s marine habitat.”
The statement said the plan was designed around protections for public land in the county charter, amended by voters in 1993 to require voter approval for commercial operations on public land. The statement points out that the Seaquarium and marinas were exempt from voter approval.
However at the time, the Seaquarium boundaries ended at the seawall. In their lawsuit, Frankel and Stauber argue submerged bay lands, where the marina would be located, were not included in the exemption nor mentioned in the existing lease. Additional lease renewals also leave out the land. They say a commercial marina also falls outside the exemption in the charter, which required rules to be ‘liberally construed” to protect aquatic preserves.
“The county now reads that one word [exemption] as permission to approve something the voters never approved,” the lawsuit said. “It proposes a ninety-nine-year lease that would add 56.692 acres of county bay bottom, never part of any Seaquarium lease, for a commercial marina of some 847 berths with a fuel dock and a dry-stack boat building of about 692,000 square feet.”
In previous projects that added commercial operations to public parks, they say county legal staff insisted referendums be held.
”In 2006, the county wanted a water park and a hotel on [Zoo Miami] property. The zoo is exempt in Article 7 in the same sentence as the capital S, Seaquarium,” Frankel said. “But in that instance, the county's own lawyers said it needed a countywide vote, and they put it to referendum, and the voters approved it.”
Neither Miami-Dade County Attorney nor the mayor’s office responded to requests for comment.
With votes to approve a lease and rezone the land scheduled for mid November, the timeline for challenging the county will be tight. Even county commissioners appeared frustrated at Tuesday’s commission meeting. When Commisioner Danielle Cohen Higgins asked county attorney Geri Bonzon-Keenan to explain the county charter rules for public land, she said pending litigation prevented her from answering.
“ We're not saying you can't do certain business that you're entitled to do. But either way, what you're proposing here exceeds your authority,” said attorney Darrin Gursky, who said he met with county staff to explain concerns but got no response to questions.
“ It seems the county or any of the representatives are providing adequate answers,” he said. “They're just pushing forward.”
