Community’s drive for cityhood threatened by annexation plan

Community’s drive for cityhood threatened by annexation plan

Story & photographs by José Pérez

NORTH CENTRAL MIAMI-DADE – Efforts to create a new city out of a large area of unincorporated North Miami-Dade County are running into new obstacles. 

After waiting for a decade-long moratorium on incorporation to be lifted, supporters of the North Central Dade Area Municipal Advisory Committee (NCDA-MAC) say that neighboring municipalities are making moves to take annex key areas of the proposed city.

The Rev. Dr. Mark Gardner, senior pastor of Northside Church of God, a member of NCDA’s steering committee, said that Opa-locka has openly declared its intention to annex 822 acres of land located south of Northwest 127th Street, east of Northwest 27th Avenue, north of Northwest 107th Street and west of Northwest 37th Avenue. 

The area, listed in Opa-locka city records as “Annexation Area B,” sits in the northwest corner of the incorporation area originally outlined by NCDA leaders several years earlier.  

Opa-locka’s plans to annex the area are not mere speculation.  “They started their process and they are moving forward with it,” Gardner said.

Opa-locka’s Assistant City Manager David Chiverton confirmed that the annexation plan was approved earlier this summer by city leaders.  “Our [city] commission has approved the order,” said Chiverton, who added that there is currently “no timeline” as to when Opa-locka will advance the annexation process.

The motivation for opalocka city officials is simple: increased revenue. According to an annexation report published by the City of Opa-locka, acquiring the land would "expand city boundaries" to include commercial and industrial properties.  According to the report, this expansion is expected to generate revenue via "impact fees for development, code enforcement, [and] fines" in the annexed areas.

Mack Samuel, a member of the NCDA-MAC, said the area for Application B, which is primarily commercial, with warehouses in abundance, is estimated to be worth $266 million in taxable value annually – which would severely deplete the tax base of the proposed city.   Because there are no known residents living in that area, there is little to hinder Opa-locka – or other areas – from annexing it.

Ed Lopez, president of Antilles Freight Corporation, said that Hialeah has also expressed in interest in acquiring the area that Opa-locka is trying to annex ahead of any incorporation by the NCDA-MAC.  Calls to the City of Hialeah were not returned for confirmation before press time.

According to the Miami-Dade County Charter, a referendum on annexation or incorporation is not needed if less than 250 people live in the area in question.

Alarmed by the threat to their plans to create what would be Florida’s second-largest majority-black city after Miami Gardens, NCDA leaders addressed the Opa-locka City Commission in late July.

“Our position was to inform them that our process has been ongoing for the past 10 years.  We wanted to make sure that they were aware of that. Our desire was for them to put the brakes on it,” Gardner said.

Gardner and Mack were not alone in opposing the annexation plans in the Opa-locka Commission chambers. 

Some business owners in Application Area B also spoke out against the proposal.  Lopez said that the business community in Gratigny Industrial Park, where his business has been since the late 1990's, was not at all happy with the plan to bring them into Opa-locka.  The biggest concern cited by Lopez would be a spike in property taxes for him and his neighbors.   According to Miami-Dade County records, the millage rate for unincorporated Miami-Dade County – which the business are now paying – is under $2 for every $1,000 or taxable property value, whereas the rate for Opa-locka is just above $9, second-highest in the County behind Biscayne Park ($9.50).

“It doesn’t make any economic sense to be in Opa-locka,” Lopez said.

Lopez, Gardner, Mack and Felix Lasarte, an attorney representing Lopez and other business owners, all doubted that the anticipated steep increase in taxes will yield a corresponding improvement increase in services if the Opa-locka annexation effort succeeds.

Chiverton pointed out that the area is already being served by the Opa-locka police department. He acknowledged what he called “a cross-section of concerns” presented to the city commission related to cost and financial impact for local businesses. Water and sewage services for the area would picked up by Opa-locka if the annexation is approved.

“What services are they providing to offset” the increase in taxes, asked Lopez.   “They promised one more police officer but that won’t make a difference.”

For Opa-locka city leaders, the move has benefits for residents,  Chiverton said. He sees the proposed annexation as a way to create jobs by attracting businesses with manufacturing and assembly specialties.

“The interest of the city is to complete what the commission approved,” he said

Lopez disagreed, saying, “It’s going to be a ghost town.”

Asked if business owners will consider suing to stop the annexation, Lasarte said that “all options are on the table.”

“The property owners intend to protect themselves.  They want to have a say in the process,” he said.

The NCDA-MAC also wants to ensure that any annexation move is decided by residents.

“It is important that the area be given an opportunity to incorporate,” Gardner said.

“The citizens deserve the right to vote,” Mack added.        

For the record, NCDA organizers do not yet know what its mill would be.  When asked, Lopez said he prefers that the area remain unincorporated but he had to "choose from the lesser of three evils," he'd pick Hialeah because their millage rate is 6.3.

*To read this article as it appeared in the South Florida Times, please click on this urlink.

Wilson Mediates Dispute between Jessie Trice & FIU Over Clinic in Liberty City

Wilson Mediates Dispute between Jessie Trice & FIU Over Clinic in Liberty City

Story by José Pérez

A public health clinic currently under construction in Liberty City is at the heart of a struggle between one of South Florida’s oldest and most recognized community care clinics and Miami-Dade County’s public university.   Both Jessie Trice Community Health Center and Florida International University say that they each were promised use of the Liberty City Health Center and, less than a year before its scheduled opening in Spring of 2014, Congressperson Federica Wilson (D-FL) held a meeting in her Miami Gardens office this week to resolve the matter.

The impetus on the part of Wilson to facilitate the meeting, which included high-ranking representatives from Jessie Trice, FIU, the Florida Department of Health, the Health Foundation of South Florida, and the Model City CAC, was simple and urgent.    “We need to move forward with building the Liberty City Health Clinic,” said Wilson, to help the underserved and boost the economy.

At issue is who will control use of the Liberty City Health Center when it opens next year.

FIU said that it was told that it would be able to use the facility as part of teaching program it developed for its students.  Jessie Trice says that they were promised the continued use of a site they’ve served for over forty years by a resolution passed by the Miami-Dade County Board of Commissioners two years ago.

Wilson, who originally worked with local officials on the project when she was a State Senator, said that the idea all along had been that the Liberty City Health Clinic would be run by Jessie Trice. “It’s my understanding that Jessie Trice will head the clinic.”

Dr. Deborah George, Chief Medical Officer for Jessie Trice, said “I can’t imagine any reason why Jessie Trice would not be the clinical provider for Liberty City.”

Jessie Trice has a long history of service at the site in question.  From 1972 until the mid-2000’s, Jessie Trice operated out of the old Scott Center which sat adjacent to the present site for the Liberty City Health Center. 

Lillian Rivera, administrator for the Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade County, said the Health Department obtained the land from Miami-Dade County via County Commissioner Jean Monestime.  Rivera, who is in charge of supervising public health programs in Miami-Dade, said that the 10,000 square foot facility is already being built on county-owned lots just south of the Northside Metrorail Station in North Liberty City.  According to Rivera, there are two more parcels available that will be used for expansion of the site as funds become available.  

Stephen Sauls, Vice President, Office of Government Relations for FIU, was beginning to describe the history of FIU’s involvement with the project – including contacts with legislators in Tallahassee including State Senator Anitere Flores -when Rivera interrupted him to declare that “there was no intention to exclude Jessie Trice.”

Rivera repeatedly insisted that Jessie Trice was not supposed to be excluded, adding that the medical education component was at the heart of reaching out to FIU.   “I thought that bringing FIU was a good thing for the community,” said Rivera who supports the idea of extending the classroom into the community.  “The key is to test this model of training new physicians.”

Wilson questioned Rivera’s judgment in that instance.  Describing the decision to bring FIU into the discussion for the future of the Liberty City Health Center as “not a smart decision,” Wilson was not pleased.  “I don’t appreciate it.”

Sauls talked about the university’s intentions.  “Our focus has been to provide additional health care,” he said, via FIU’s NeighborhoodHELP program which is “a program that is ready to be replicated.” 

Wilson asked Dr. Joe Greer, Assistant Academic Dean of Academic Affairs for FIU and the man charged with the leadership of the NeighborhoodHELP program, if FIU was willing to work with Jessie Trice.     Greer avoided giving the Congressperson a direct answer but did say that FIU works with “over 100 community partners” as part of its work with “household-centered care.” 

“We work with anybody.”

Greer returned to the theme introduced by Sauls as to why FIU is interested in the Liberty City Health Clinic. “To make [NeighborhoodHELP] successful, this has to be tied into a clinic.”

Sauls indicated that success in Liberty City could bode well for FIU in the future hence the strong desire to “show that it’s a model that works so it can be replicated in other places.”

The question of who had preference for control of the health clinic still hung over the meeting.   For example, Sauls stated that the “site was offered to us” but did not specify by whom.   

For Wilson, the resolution by the Miami-Dade County Commission saying that clinic would be operated by Jessie Trice added credence to what she said was “the original plan”: to provide the health center for Jessie Trice.

“As far as I’m concerned, it belongs to Jessie Trice,” said Wilson who also said that “If FIU wants to work with Jessie Trice, fine [but] it has to be Jessie Trice leading.”

Sauls said he had “never heard of the resolution” which prompted Annie Neasman, CEO of Jessie Trice, and George to hold up copies of the resolution they brought with them to the crowded meeting.

Wilson announced the formation of a task force to resolve the issue as soon as possible.  “We’ll determine how we’ll operate the clinic and who does what,” she said.   Once the task force met, an official and perhaps conciliatory ground-breaking is to be scheduled for the site.  Still, the message from the Congressperson was very clear to all present: “We cannot and will not allow Jessie Trice to be left out.”

The taskforce meeting will be held on Wednesday, August 21 at noon at FIU.

*To read the published version of this article as printed in the South Florida Times, please click on this urlink.

North Central Dade Moves Forward to Incorporate

North Central Dade Moves Forward to Incorporate

Story & fotos by José Pérez

  

Residents of a large swathe of unincorporated North Central Miami-Dade County are making moves to create a new municipality that will sit nestled at a critical junction of transportation hubs at a time when state and local officials are actively expanding business infrastructure to catapult the area more prominently into international commerce.   For those residents, the incorporation initiative is driven by a need to wrest control of their communities’ economic resources away from downtown Miami in hopes of securing a more stable socioeconomic future for themselves.  

 

Neighbors and supporters of the North Central Dade Area hosted a conference at Miami-Dade College’s north campus earlier this week to work on “the planning, funding, and implementation” of different activities they feel are necessary to create the area’s newest city.    Gathered at the conference to the discuss the future of the area which is alternately known as NCDA and/or Encida, for a general session, panel discussion, and break-out sessions, were business owners, academics, along with residents.  State Representative Cynthia Stafford (D-Miami), whose constituency now includes many areas of NCDA after recent redistricting, provided opening remarks for the conference. 

 

Mack Samuel, who along with Doretha Nichson has been a strong proponent of the incorporation initiative, was excited about the conference.   “It’s an opportunity to engage the community in a conversation that is long, long overdue,” he said.  Samuels said that incorporation boiled down to “remaining as you are or having your own self-determination.”

Nichson and other expressed a sense of urgency for the drive to incorporate.  “Opa-locka is annexing part of this area including Miami-Dade College,” she said and added that Hialeah is also looking to slice off parts of the area for annexation.   “We have to fight attempts to cherry pick our area.”

 

Both Nichson and Samuels see the City of Miami Gardens as a model to follow.  Created barely a decade ago, Miami Gardens was created out a large part of North Dade County that sits on the border with Broward County – and in the midst of a great deal of uncertainty and hand-wringing – and is already beginning to thrive.    Because of that, the conference organizers invited the founding mayor of Miami Gardens, Shirley Gibson, to be a panelist.   When it comes to incorporation, Nichson said that Gibson has “been there and done that.”   

 

Gibson’s comments to conference attendees were simple yet forceful.   “Stop being afraid of being in charge of your own community.  If you don’t own it now, someone else will later.”

A key item of discussion at the conference focused on education as an investment in the economic prosperity of Encida.    Local business owner Darryl Holsendolph was also a panelist along with Gibson, legendary urban planner Ron Frazier and T. Leigh Toney, the Executive Director for Miami Dade College’s Meek Entrepreneurial Education Center.

Holsendolph raised the subject of the emerging educational orientation of policy makers in the county as an important part of the future of Ensida.    He said that with the growing push to invest more and more resources into making Miami-Dade County an even bigger player in international trade, the field of logistics management is being prioritized in a very deliberate and dedicated fashion.   He pointed out that local colleges and universities are working with an initiative created by the Beacon Council called One Community One Goal to create degree and/or certificate programs within their curricula to meet this growing area of economic need.   He said that it is imperative that related academic and vocational programs be created and supported within the public schools located in the NCDA, such as Miami Central High and Miami Northwestern High.

Holsendolph and others worry that the failure to include NCDA in academic policy planning and implementation will pose a grave threat to the future of the area.

A conference organizer and one of the driving forces behind Encida, Nichson expressed concerns that she has not had ready access to key policy makers.  “I haven’t been able to meet with [Miami-Dade Couty Mayor Carlos Gimenez] since he was elected.”   She added that the Beacon Council was “not responsive. They don’t see us as clients.”

Mayor Gimenez is a co-chair for One Community One Goal.

Nichson cites as an example the absence from the conference of County Commissioners Audrey Edmonson and Jean Monestime, who both represent different parts of North Central Dade County.   The attendance of the conference by Misty Brown and Jordan Ricketts, from Edmonson’s and Monestime’s offices respectively only reinforced the perception for some that, as Nichson said, the Commissioners send staff only “because it is politically expedient.”  Nichson was also frustrated with the lack of “economic diversity” initiatives introduced and implemented by the area’s county commissioners.  “All they do is affordable housing.”

 

According to 2010 figures, the total number of people living within what proponents call “the North Central Dade Study Area” comes to almost 85,000 people.   African-Americans make the largest percentage of people living in unincorporated North Central with a total of 51,682 people, or 61.2 percent.   The next largest ethnic group is made up of Hispanics/Latinos who comprise over 35 percent (29,891 people).  

North Central Dade County is bordered by the cities of Hialeah (to its west), Miami (to its south), North Miami (to its east), and Opa-locka (to its north) and includes the neighborhoods of Model City, Brownsville, West View, West Little River, and more.   Miami County Commission Districts 2 and 3 run prominently into North Central and it is anchored by the Martin Luther King Boulevard Corridor along NW 62 Street, the 441 Corridor along NW 7 Street, the Unity Boulevard Corridor along NW 27 Avenue and the Northside Corridor along NW 79 Street as well as the NW 119 Street Corridor. 

The North Central Dade area is also home to Miami Central Senior High and Miami Northwestern Senior High and their feeder schools as well as Dorsey Vocational Center, Turner Technical Arts High, and the main campus of Miami-Dade College. 

*The read the print version of this article, please click here.