Miami Herald:
The largest mall in America is getting closer to approval in Northwest Miami-Dade
HIGHLIGHTs:
- $4 billion retail theme park that expects 30 million visitors a year
- 100,000 vehicle trips per day to a 175-acre triangle of wetlands and pastures where I-75 meets Florida's Turnpike.
- AKA: Traffic NIGHTMARE
- Triple Five's transit plans "primarily serve the needs of visitors and tourists" but not workers and residents."
The largest mall in America moved closer to winning a key approval in Miami-Dade on Monday, as a county planning board gave a thumbs up to a $4 billion retail theme park that expects 30 million visitors a year.
American Dream Miami promotes itself as a local alternative to Disney World, and a shopping and entertainment destination spanning more than 6 million square feet and large enough to employ 14,000 people once it opens.
ON TRANSIT:
The project by Triple Five, the Canada-based developer of Minnesota's Mall of America, also expects to generate roughly 100,000 vehicle trips per day to a 175-acre triangle of wetlands and pastures where I-75 meets Florida's Turnpike.
Environmental advocates warn of runaway development in a sensitive area, and residents say they're already plagued by traffic and don't want to endure the gridlock that would come from Miami-Dade's largest tourist attraction.
"I don't see how anyone with even the most vivid imagination can accommodate those cars in the surrounding roads," said Derek Cintron, a Miami Lakes resident. "I'm just begging you to consider ... what the residents have with regards to their quality of life."
The advisory board granted near unanimous approval of the American Dream development agreement negotiated by the administration of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez. That clears the way for the County Commission to take its final vote on the project next week, on Thursday, May 17.
In early 2017, the 13-member commission granted preliminary approval for both American Dream and an even larger commercial and residential project by the Graham Companies on 300 acres to the south.
The vast majority of American Dream visitors would arrive by car, and Miami-Dade's Metrorail system does not have a stop within five miles of the project. Triple Five has agreed to build a bus depot on the project and buy new buses to extend several county routes into the mega-mall. Transit service was a sticking point, with the county writing in April that Triple Five's transit plans "primarily serve the needs of visitors and tourists" but not workers and residents.
MORE ON TRANSIT:
"Because this mall will be the largest self-contained shopping/entertainment experience in the United States, it is imperative that careful consideration is given when planning the future transit service," Albert Hernandez, an assistant director for planning at the county's Transportation department, wrote in the April 14 memo.
At Monday's hearing, Transportation representative Claudia Diaz said the development agreement had the department's backing and that a follow-up letter would be submitted into the public record. Broward County, however, is warning of potential litigation if American Dream doesn't address northern traffic issues for a project just a few miles south of the county line.
The one Miami-Dade planning board member who voted no, Robert Ruano, said he was skeptical of claims that planned new interchanges around the mall site and the widening of roads would absorb the new traffic.
"I just don't see how you can justify it," he said. "This development is really out of scale from anything we've seen before."
READ the MIAMI HERALD article:
0 comments:
Post a Comment