Dec 18, 2007 11:46 pm US/Eastern
Critics Slam New Downtown Miami Deal
County Commissioners Voted 9-4 In Favor Of The Plan On Tuesday
Special Property Tax Money Collected From Downtown Will Fund Projects
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
Some community activists and critics have slammed a multi-billion dollar deal between the City of Miami and Miami Dade County.
Tuesday, in a 9 – 4 vote, the county commission gave the go-ahead for a plan ironed out secretly behind closed doors, which allocates money for the building of a new Marlins stadium, a tunnel leading to the Port of Miami, and several Downtown redevelopment projects, including a streetcar project. The so-called "global agreement" will use money from new property tax revenue collected in two Downtown neighborhoods. This would take a strain off the county's main budget, because it wouldn't be pulling money from it.
Among the items included in the package are money to bail out the new and struggling Performing Arts Center and $130 million to renovate Bicentennial Park, the future site of new art and science museums.
Last week, Miami commissioners approved a city-county pact that calls for the city to expand two Community Redevelopment Agency districts as a way to collect more than $2 billion in CRA money. More than half a billion dollars of that money would then go toward building a new baseball stadium at the former Orange Bowl site. A 25-thousand seat soccer stadium would then be built next to the baseball stadium in an effort to lure Major League Soccer to Miami.
"Our goal is to basically have the baseball stadium ready for opening April 2011, and for that to happen, we're a little behind the eight ball," said Miami City Manager Pete Hernandez.
Marlins president David Samson said his team was the closest it has ever been to securing its own ballpark.
More than $900 million of the CRA funds would go toward the Miami Port tunnel project, with the rest being used to fund the performing arts center, affordable housing projects and other projects.
But community activists and critics aren't sold on the deal.
"I think it's a fraud on the taxpayers of the community," said activist Norman Braman who is against the mega-plan. "I think it lacks transparency, and it violates the promises that were made to the people in this particular Omni district."
Auto magnate Braman says the deal takes money away from communities like Overtown by expanding the boundries of its CRA.
"They are going to declare Watson Island a slum area," said Braman, "when Flagstone Properties is ready to start construction on a billion dollar project over there."
Commissioners Joe Martinez, Natacha Seijas, Rebeca Sosa and Javier Souto voted against the agreement. Sosa and Souto argued strongly against the projects in the plan, in particular the port tunnel. Some commissioners expressed concerns with the secretive manner in which the plan was ironed out by top city and county leaders.
Also, some technicalities need to be approved on in order for the plan to go forward, but politicians say this was the main hurdle they needed to overcome for it to move forward.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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