Miami-Dade Commissioners to weigh creating first new city since 2005

There hasn’t been a new municipality established in Miami-Dade County in more than 16 years. That could soon change with Biscayne Gardens.

County Commissioners are to decide Sept. 1, after a public forum, whether to let voters decide on incorporating five square miles abutting four existing cities in the northeast.

If OK’d by area voters in a special election on Nov. 2, the new town would be Miami-Dade’s 35th municipality and the first since the Town of Cutler Bay incorporated in January 2005.

Biscayne Gardens would keep the neighborhood name locals have used for decades.

Bounded by Northwest 167th Street to the north, Northeast 18th Avenue to the east, Northwest 128th Street to the south and Northwest 17th Avenue/State Road 9 to the west, the area has long been considered for incorporation.

Miami-Dade Commissioners created the Biscayne Gardens Municipal Advisory Committee in September 2003 to examine the possibility. Those activities were put on hold two years later when the county imposed a moratorium on incorporations. That lasted until April 2012.

During that time (and since), county voters and officials have sunk all attempts at incorporation. Recent examples include an effort to form a new city between Aventura and North Miami Beach in 2018, which failed 51% to 49%, and another in South Dade the next year never reached a vote. The sponsoring Commissioner, Dennis Moss, yanked it from consideration after facing vocal opposition from residents and his peers on the dais.

The area in question now contains nearly 35,000 residents, of whom more than half are registered voters. The Miami-Dade Elections Department estimates holding a special election on whether to incorporate would cost $94,000, a price the county would cover, but the town would repay upon incorporation.

A conglomeration of contiguous, unincorporated spaces between North Miami Beach, North Miami, Miami Gardens and Opa-locka, Biscayne Gardens is 56% residential, with less than 4% commercial and industrial development.

Just 3% is undeveloped land. A quarter of the area is occupied by transportation, communication, and utility facilities, according to a memo Jorge Fernandez Jr. from the county’s Office of Management and Budget sent BGMAC Chair Wayne Rinhart and other members Sept. 30, 2020.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t room for redevelopment.

According to the Biscayne Times feature report, plans are progressing for three large apartment complexes totaling 861 units, a megachurch, and flood-stressed estate homes.

A 2014 analysis by economic management and marketing consultant PMG Associates, which envisions a council-manager form of government with a five-seat council that includes the Mayor, proposed a millage rate of 4.00 — more than twice what residents there pay now under the county’s rate for the unincorporated municipal services area (UMSA).

That could prove a deal-breaker for voters, as the area’s $44,100 median household income in 2018 falls short of the county average of $51,347, which is lower than three years ago.

“It is possible that the millage rate can be set at a slightly lower rate if the elected officials so decide,” PMG personnel wrote. “However, this action will reduce the surplus and resulting contingency amount. The officials must be cautious to ensure that the new municipality does not incur financial difficulties.”

A late 2020 breakdown showed more than 20% of the population, 6,919 people, live below the poverty line. Those numbers may have grown since the pandemic, as may have the area’s 7% unemployment rate, which was higher at the time than the county is now during the pandemic-driven economic downturn.

Biscayne Gardens is 69% non-Hispanic Black, 19.5% Hispanic, and 7.2% non-Hispanic white. The average value of a home there is just over $197,000.

Thirteen public schools would serve the town, including seven elementary schools, four middle schools, and two high schools.

A Miami-Dade revenue analysis found Biscayne Gardens to be a recipient community. Upon incorporation, UMSA would gain about $2.9 million per year from providing fewer services to Biscayne Gardens.

In a memo to Commissioners, Miami-Dade Finance Director Ed Marquez noted that if incorporations resume throughout the county, services to UMSA residents will eventually be cost-prohibitive.

“As annexations and incorporations continue to occur, at some point in time, it will no longer be financially feasible for UMSA to exist,” he wrote. “It is difficult to say with certainty when UMSA will reach this point; it depends upon what areas incorporate, the timing of those incorporations, annexations of areas, and what is left to fund the services for the remaining UMSA. As less revenue is available to fund the services, the remaining areas will pay more for (them) and/or departments will be required to reduce service levels and/or personnel.”

The area contains a county water and sewer pump station, trash and recycling center, and a $60 million mobility complex whose construction the Florida Department of Transportation now expects to complete by fall. All are anticipated to remain under Miami-Dade control, pending an interlocal agreement with the town.

The town would also have three parks, including Oak Grove Park, which features a 20,000-square-foot community center that costs roughly $1 million yearly to operate and maintain. That cost, which was not included in a pro forma PMG drew up, would fall to the town if incorporated.

Biscayne Gardens would still receive Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, county library, and solid waste collection services “in perpetuity,” Marquez wrote.

The town would also need to contract with the Miami-Dade Police Department for local patrolling for at least three years, agree to the county retaining much of its power over-restrictive zoning covenants, adopt the county’s workforce housing development program, assume responsibility for its pro rata share of debt service for outstanding county bonds, and affirm the county’s continued jurisdiction over a community redevelopment area between Northwest 135th and Northwest 165th streets along Northwest Seventh Avenue within the theoretical town’s bounds.

Miami-Dade Commissioner Jean Monestime, whose district encompasses Biscayne Gardens, directed county attorneys to draw up the resolution that, if approved, would call for the special election.

While Monestime is the face of the movement in county government, the driving force on the ground has long been Bernard Jennings, a Biscayne Gardens resident who has already drawn up a sample town charter, formed a pro-incorporation political committee, and created a website, among other activities.

But as The Miami Times reported, there is strong opposition to the move, represented in part by a counter-website and protesters who will undoubtedly fill Miami-Dade County Hall to voice their objection Wednesday.