Extolling the virtues of her idea to build a viaduct over Virginia Key and create stunning new beaches for Miami residents, Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado made an urgent request for $900,000 from Key Biscayne taxpayers to help put details on her plan for the Rickenbacker Causeway.
Key Biscayne’s Village Council unanimously agreed Tuesday to take up her plan — dubbed “The Shoreline” — at a special council meeting July 1.
“We have to start talking about it,” said Mayor Joe Rasco.
To be clear, $900,000 is only the start of what Regalado — the District 7 commissioner — said will be a much larger ask of Key Biscayne residents for a plan she thinks can win support from her colleagues on the County dais.
Terra Group developer David Martin has underwritten some of the initial work — at an undisclosed cost — but she said that in order to go to the next step, she needs a study that can estimate realistic engineering, cost, and financing numbers.
Deadline Pressure
The study would also pull together detailed traffic and demographic data to show where visitors to Virginia Key and Crandon Park are coming from — to convince decision makers that reimagining the Causeway is a County issue, not just a Key Biscayne one. Consultant Kimley Horn presented statistics showing that on a peak weekend, two-thirds of 58,000 vehicles are visitors to the island, where traffic is 65% higher than average.
And there is an October deadline, one set by an already underway “PD&E” study to replace or patch the Bear Cut Bridge. A short window exists, Regalado pleaded with council members, before the federally required bridge study gets too far along. Delay would prevent the Shoreline plan from being considered as an alternative option for the Bear Cut replacement.
“We have a window in which we can weigh in on the Rickenbacker plan. We can really weigh in, and present an alternative plan, or we can sit back and let the County make a decision for us,” she said.
Tough Questions
Regalado didn’t have to do much to sell the concept with its pretty pictures, but there were tougher questions about whether she can get the dollars and the votes.
Manager Steve Williamson, whose administration has been supporting the County’s plan with more than $160,000 in studies, seemed skeptical.
“$900,000 is quite a bit of money. And if we’re going to make that commitment, I think we need some level of commitment from the county administration,” he told Regalado.
Regalado was ready for the question. She answered with some brass-knuckle realpolitik about the way things work at the Board of County Commissioners.
“I’m the chair of the appropriations committee and the vice chair of transit, so I’m not just your county commissioner,” in a mild rebuke. “The County cannot bring a Rickenbacker plan without me.”
She noted that as the District 7 commissioner, she can invoke a procedural rule about agenda items touching matters within a commissioner’s district. The rule usually – but not always – gives a commissioner a legislative block on some items.
Regalado said her conversations with Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s representatives have been positive and that the County by no means has a closed door. “I think the County is up for finding a solution, ” she said. A call to Levine Cava’s media spokesperson was not answered.
A “Finance Lasagna”
Finding the funds will be a challenge for any causeway plan – including the one the County is currently working on – because only the replacement of the Bear Cut itself currently has a funding path, Regalado said. She outlined what she called “finance lasagna” with different layers of revenue.
Such a combination would involve much higher causeway tolls, revenue from amenity operators, fees, and potentially a special taxing district known as a “TIF” that would raise revenue from neighboring areas getting a benefit from a new asset — beaches — being created. She added that “green” stormwater aspects of the plan could attract investments from the state and environmental foundations looking to demonstrate the viability of reclaiming land now covered by asphalt to be used as a wider, more engaging park.
While Regalado has ruled out a privatization model that was the basis of the earlier, rejected “Plan Z” concept, she said other kinds of private dollars could be welcomed.
Rasco, a former County lobbyist, said he’d heard that Levine Cava’s Administration was unpersuaded, at least so far. “They don’t believe the funding will happen,” he said.
Council Member Ed London, often a critic of Village spending, appeared to be a big supporter, a contrast to his opposition to the Big Dig stormwater plan that faces a funding decision soon. “You’ve done a beautiful job, really taking the bull by the horns. This is fantastic,” London said.
“The enthusiasm is contagious,” said Council Member Nancy Stoner.
This story was originally published in the Key Biscayne Independent, a WLRN News partner.
