The Bayshore in the Grove group, who are against the school being built on the Woodbine property are quite concerned about many issues, other than parking, they claim it "seriously jeopardizes the City of Miami’s resilience to climate change." This includes water rise in the area, flooding and the disappearance of the tree canopy little by little as developers take over. The Carrollton out-of-scale development, adding much more cement to the current plot, will add to the problem.
The Bayshore in the Grove group has come up with a plan, "We urged the City Commission to purchase the Villa Woodbine property from Carrollton and add it to Kennedy Park, making the historic Villa operated as a museum or restaurant as NYC did at Central Park with Tavern on the Green. This could easily play out like a similar transaction – the City of Miami’s 1972 purchase of various land parcels from developers who had a multi-family project under planning and zoning review, now known as Kennedy Park," says Rose Pujol, co-founder of the group.
I thought it was interesting that last Thursday, the county commission voted to protect agricultural land in the Redland area from the county's Comprehensive Development Master Plan. The land is protected, for now, from expanding development, which is rampant in that southern area of the county.
We need an Urban Development Boundary around the Grove, not to protect wetlands, but to protect us from over-development.
In doing some research on the issue I discovered it’s not Carrollton itself who wants to build the school. The Catholic Archdiocese built Carrollton and named it after Bishop Carroll. Carrollton is one 22 schools of the Sacred Heart.. Carrollton in Coconut Grove was built when a group from Cuba were searching for a location in Miami after they had to leave Cuba. Google history of Carrollton School If the Sacred Heart Miami.
ReplyDeleteAlso, what about the property being removed from the tax roll of the City of Miami? Currently, the tax bill is $144,000/yr. and after the planned school, the property will be worth 10X more. Are they going to pay taxes? I think not. How long can the City of Miami survive with $100's of millions in property (Carollton, Ransom etc.) not paying any property taxes?
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