A local neighborhood is taking a grassroots approach to overturn a Miami-Dade County rezoning case that will allow for a proposed single-family development on the dormant Calusa Country Club golf course property.
Amanda Prieto is leading a group of residents "Save Calusa" in hopes to nullify the county commission’s approval of rezoning the 169-acre property in an unincorporated part of the county at 9400 South 130th Ave., according to The Real Deal.
Sunrise-based GL Homes are proposing to develop a 550-house gated community on the West Kendall property, according to The Real Deal.
Attorney David Winker filed the lawsuit last month on behalf of the organization alleging that the county did not properly notify residents of the development when they voted to approve the rezoning.
Prieto said residents have huge concerns regarding the proposed development.
“The challenge is that since we are just kind of a grassroots group of neighbors, we don’t have a legal fund or legal team,” she told the Florida Record. “We had to be a little bit selective when we filed the lawsuit on what we thought were the most legally sound arguments, but when we went and spoke at the public hearing, we definitely spoke about school capacity concerns and wildlife habitat.”
Prieto added that there was a covenant protecting this property and how that whole process unfolded and how the covenant was released left a lot of people unhappy.
“This was developed as a golf course community at the end of a long windy road in a circle and it was not meant to support a large development like this,” she said. “The immediate community is just fuming. They can’t believe that they are even considering (the project). Piled on top of that the actual wildlife concerns.”
Prieto added that the ideal situation would be to preserve the land but hoped that the community and county could reach a compromise.
“It is private land, and we recognize that,” she said. “Realistically there is probably some sort of compromise where the community gets some nature preserve or community park and they are allowed to develop something. We’d be much more comfortable with something under 300 homes. We are really concerned that they made the decision without having all the wildlife studies. How much would you make for that park? Is it 30 acres? Is it 50 acres? We don’t know because the wildlife studies aren’t done. We would love some guidance from fish and wildlife (officials) and that just hasn’t happened.”
Miami-Dade officials declined to comment on pending litigation.