Miami-Dade County commissioners pumped the brakes on a deal for a revamped Seaquarium and marina on Tuesday after refusing to vote on a 249-page lease made public the night before the hearing.
Acting as a committee overseeing tourism and recreation, commissioners sided with residents who complained the deal with developer David Martin was being rushed with too little public input.
In a 3-1 vote, commissioners agreed to defer the matter.
Commissioner Raquel Regalado, tasked with negotiating the lease in December when commissioners tentatively approved it, voted against putting it off.
”The bankruptcy court could then sell the underlying lease and the deferral would have essentially killed this entire negotiation,” she said, leaving “people with a 1950s lease that has no public benefit.”
READ MORE: Another study warns Seaquarium marina will put manatees in danger
But Commissioner Marleine Bastien said she was “gravely concerned” with efforts to fast-track the process by waiving rules providing a month’s notice to the public and requiring two appraisals.
”It is important that we have information that can show that we are being the best stewards possible,” she said.
Commissioner Micky Steinberg also questioned dropping routine requirements to protect public interest.
“This could very well be the best deal that the county could have,” she said. “But it also may have things that we could fine-tune and fix and maybe make a little better, and may not be the best deal.”
Martin’s attorneys also warned the delay could tank the project entirely because creditors paying the bills on the property set an end-of-year deadline to finalize the lease.
”They financed the operation, including paying to make sure the animals were appropriately relocated, and they've run out of money,” said attorney Gene Stearns. “Is it possible to go negotiate more time? It's possible. I'm not gonna rule it out. But I can only tell you what they have said, which is they've run out of money.”
Plans to revamp the 1950s era marine park on county-owned land emerged after its previous operator, MS Leisure, filed for bankruptcy last year and turned over its remaining 29-year lease to creditors.
Together, the county and Martin came up with grand plans to renovate the park, remove marine mammals on exhibit that had increasingly drawn complaints, and extend the lease by 70 years.
Plans including a new aquarium, bayfront sidewalk, preservation of the historic Buckminister Fuller dome and Flipper house, and efforts to improve water quality, have drawn wide support. A marina was also included, but sparse details provided including the number of boat slips.
In October, the bankruptcy court approved awarding the lease to Martin for $22.5 million and two months later, commissioners signed off on it and authorized staff to hammer out terms.
But when the scope of the marina emerged in May — covering more than 240,000 square feet and including 325 wet boat slips with space for boats up to 200 feet - environmentalists were caught off-guard.
Waters off the Seaquarium are frequented by manatees and a network of seagrass flats cover most of the waters to the south. While a deep channel runs alongside the property, many worry large boats with deep drafts will inevitably damage the shallow bay. With Bear Cut to the east and the Bill Sadowski Wildlife Refuge to the north, many worried the last wild fringes of the north bay would be overrun by power boats increasingly kitted out with multiple engines.
”They've been negotiating this for a year. Why has the public only received [the lease] just yesterday?” said Laura Reynolds, an advisor to Friends of Biscayne Bay, who said she repeatedly asked Martin to hold public meetings. “Yes, there's been iterations of the lease, but we had to hire an attorney to get that draft document. We requested it many times. We did see one a month ago, but it is now very different than the original lease agreement.”
WLRN requested a copy of the draft lease in June and was not provided it until early October.
Martin's team has repeatedly said without the marina to help finance costs, the plan won't work.
" The point of the marina was to generate sufficient revenue to be able to make the best part of the exhibitions economically viable," said Stearns, Martin's attorney.
Two residents have also sued the county and Martin, saying the county charter requires a public vote on commercial operations on county park land and in the aquatic preserve. A hearing is scheduled for Nov. 17 on the county's motion to dismiss the suit.
On Tuesday, about a dozen speakers raised concerns that the impacts of the marina need more explanation, and protections better spelled out in the lease.
”A 99-year lease without giving the public enough time to even read it? This is public land. It belongs to all of us,” said Key Biscayne resident Helena Iturralde. “I'm not against improving the Seaquarium site, but improving one place should never mean destroying another.”
What happens next is unclear, Stearns said.
”Nobody's gonna spend $30 million if the county can't keep its end of the bargain. Okay? That's what it comes down to,” he said. “A bargain was struck, and it was approved in a public hearing a year ago, and the revisions to the bargain have been to accommodate things that are very legitimate concerns, environmental concerns.”
