from today's meeting, Commissioner Bastian, Commissioner Cohen-Higgins, Senator Garcia, Commissioner Gilbert, Commissioner Gonzales, Commissioner Harderman, Commissioner Lopez, Commissioner Milian Orbis, Commissioner Regalado, Vice Chairman McGee, Chairman Rodriguez. Present. Seven members present. We have a quorum. Please stand for the prayer done this morning by Commissioner Cohen-Higgins, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance by her as well. Good morning. Please join me in bowing your heads. Dear Lord, please give us the strength, wisdom, and guidance to make decisions on behalf of the three million amazing residents of our beautiful county. It is in your name that we pray. Amen. May we see you. Commissioner Bastian, I heard you. I'm sorry. I was, but I did hear you when you came. Thank you so much. May I take a point of privilege since you're calling my name? Absolutely. You're recognized. All right. Now just, I realize that officially we haven't wished everybody happy Black History Month, even though we had an event. So I'm taking advantage of all time together, colleagues, to wish everyone a happy Black History Month. Take time the entire month and then the months after to, you know, mingle, learn about your neighbors, because after all, we are one, and our diversity is our strength. Thank you. Thank you for that, and I appreciate that. You know, 23andMe is a powerful tool, and I can relate. All right. This is Commissioner Lopez. All righty. Let's see. Where are we? Let's see. Who's that? You see, I was about to say Mr. Attorney. Thank goodness I looked up. Madam Attorney, can we please have the zoning director read his opening statements, swearing the speakers, and then announce any deferrals that we may have or withdrawals? Yes, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In accordance with the code, Miami-Dade County, all items to be heard today have been legally advertised in the newspaper, notice been mailed, and the property has been posted. Additional copies of the agenda are available here in the chambers. Items will be called up to be heard by agenda number and name of the applicant. Please note, the board action on any item in today's meeting may be reconsidered, and additional action may be taken on such item at the same meeting. Applicants and members of the public may wish to govern themselves accordingly. The record and file for the hearing on each application will include documents from the public, the Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources, and where there's an appeal from the Community Zone and Appeals Board, we also have a transcript of those hearings. All documents are physically present today, available to all interested parties, and available to the members of the Board of County Commissioners who may examine these items from the record during the hearing. Parties have the right to cross-examination. This statement only the fact that all witnesses have been sworn in shall be included in any transcript of these proceedings. In addition, there's an official translator present in the chambers for those individuals requiring such assistance. The clerk, please turn the witnesses. Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you guide? Interpreters, do you swear or affirm that you will make a true interpretation of the question asked and the testimony given? Thank you. We're good? All right, Director, I understand that the applicant's requesting withdraw on 3A3 supplement and 3A1 with its companion item. In zoning 8A2, is that correct? That's correct. Commissioner Cohen-Higgins, you're recognized for a motion to withdraw, if that's your pleasure. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move to withdraw that application. Second. So moved to withdraw by Commissioner Cohen-Higgins, seconded by Commissioner Bastien. On favor of the withdrawal, signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, nay. Show those items withdrawn. I understand also that Commissioner McGee is requesting a defer on item 3C. Is that right, Vice Chairman? That is correct, Mr. Chairman. All right, you're recognized for a motion to defer item 3C. And if you want to outline to what date or no date certain. The request is for a deferral on 3C, 3C1 for the next CDMP meeting. All right, show it moved by the Vice Chair, seconded by Commissioner Orbis. On favor of the deferral, signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, nay. Show that item deferred. All right, Mr. Attorney, let's take Madam Attorney. Let's take item. Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. So that deferral was to March 18th. That's what the Vice Chair just said. CDMP agenda. I think a motion to set the agenda is now in order. All right. Let's entertain a motion. It's been moved by Commissioner Cohen-Higgins, seconded by Commissioner Regalado. All in favor of setting the agenda, signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, nay. Show the agenda hereby set. All right, Mr. Attorney, let's take item 3B, 3B supplement, and 3B1 with its companion item in zoning 8A3. Director. So the next CDMP item, 3B, is a small-scale application previously heard on first reading and before you today for public hearing and final action. I will read the ordinance title and also reference a companion resolution in the event the board wishes to convert the item to a standard application and transmit. However, if the board takes final action today on the small-scale application, the companion and resolution will be deemed withdrawn. This CDMP item also has a concurrent zoning application associated with it. A single public hearing will be held and incorporated into the record as to both the CDMP and zoning items, and this hearing will be conducted in accordance with quasi-judicial principles. Separate votes will then be taken on the CDMP and zoning items. Item 3B is an ordinance relating to Miami-Dade County Comprehensive Development Master Plan providing disposition of application number CDMP-2025-0012 located on the east side of Southwest 137th Avenue and south of theoretical Southwest 294th Street west of the Homestead-Era Reserve Base filed by SIP Development LLC in the May 2025 cycle to amend the county's Comprehensive Development Master Plan providing separability, exclusion from the code, and an effective date. 3B supplement is supplemental information on May 2025 cycle application number CDMP-2025-0012, and the accompanying resolution is a resolution pertaining to May 2025 cycle application number CDMP-2025-0012. Director? Mr. Chairman, the zoning item is item 8A3, SIP Development Group, application number Z-2025-000-128. We've had no protests and no way of support for this application. All right, so I'll go ahead and open up public hearing for both items at this time, and I have no public speakers signed up to speak on this item, so I'm going to go ahead and close public hearing at this time. And to the applicant, are you going to need to present, or would you like to hear from the district commissioner first? Yeah, good morning. Chairman Hugo Arza, 701 Brickell Avenue, joined today by my client, Danny and Grisella-Breo, and their family. Excited to be here. I am happy to take my cue from the district commissioner if you'd like to see a brief presentation, but I know you've got a long day ahead of you. We do enjoy staff support, unanimous approval by community council and the planning advisory board, and I will note we also enjoy support, no objection, from the Homestead Air Reserve Base, which we're adjacent to. I know Mr. Ventura is here today from the Air Reserve Base, and so we worked closely with them to make sure we were bringing something compatible. So if you don't need more from me, I'm happy to just let the commissioner for the district take this in order. Thank you, Mr. Arza, and I did think that this morning you were going to take a professional risk and have the newest member of your team present. Yeah, no, the newest member of our team that we just hired will need to, you know, get a little more comfortable before I let him stand up here. But I know that you've had other members from our team stand up recently, so we have. And they've done an excellent job, and I think they've been recognized for such. So thanks for being here with that, Vice Chairman, you're recognized for a motion or questions or request for presentation. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And Mr. Chairman, I move subject to staff recommendation of approval, 3B, 3B1, along with this companion of 8A3. So moved by the Vice Chair. We're going to do, I think, two separately. I think that's the protocol, but so moved by the Vice Chair, seconded by Commissioner Lopez. Do I need a roll call on this? Yep. Clerk, please call the roll. Commissioner Bastian? Yes. Commissioner Cohen-Hinges? Senator Garcia? Commissioner Lopez? Four. Commissioner Emilian Orbis? Commissioner Regalado? Four. Vice Chairman McGee? Yes. Chairman Rodriguez? I vote yes. Motion passes unanimously. All right, Vice Chair, you're recognized. You read, director, already, the zoning statement. So, Vice Chair, you're recognized for a motion on 8A3. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we move, well, I move 8A3. Short move by the Vice Chair, seconded by Commissioner Lopez. Clerk, please call the roll. Commissioner Cohen-Hinges? Senator Garcia? Commissioner Lopez? Commissioner Emilian Orbis? Commissioner Regalado? Four. Commissioner Bastian? Vice Chairman McGee? Yes. Vice Chairman Rodriguez? I vote yes. I vote yes. Motion passes unanimously. All right, congratulations. Thank you all. Have a great rest of your day. Thank you, guys. All right, Madam Attorney, Mr. Director, let's go ahead and take item 8A1. And if the director needs to read his statement into the record, now would be the time. Application 8A1, Candle Associates, 9800 Colusa Club Drive, LLC, and 9810, LLC. Application number Z2021-000031. We've had 3,894 protests and 646 waivers of support. All right, sounds good. But, colleagues and attorneys, it is my understanding that the attorney representing some of the objectors has sent a letter asking for the commissioners to disclose any ex parte communication related to the zoning application. And so I'd like the county attorneys to sort of guide us. I will definitely put something on the record myself, just in an abundance of caution. I don't think it's actually necessary for me, but I will just in the abundance of caution. So I guess I'll lead with that, and then, Mr. Attorney, if you want to guide my colleagues. But I'll make the following Jennings disclosure of ex parte communication. So first and foremost, just for the record, my staff has received correspondence on this item, both in favor and against, from my understanding. But none of said communication has been shared with me. It does not jade my opinion of this hearing today. But I have spoken to two folks on, I guess, one of the sides. I don't quite frankly, I know one is on the applicant side. The other one, I assume, is on the applicant side. It's been 100 percent about whether there would be quorum at today's meeting. Therefore, it's not really anything I need to disclose. But in an abundance of caution, I am going to go ahead and disclose that. And one was by Ron Book, representing, I think, the applicant, and a gentleman by the name of Tim. Both were completely about today's quorum and if there was going to be enough commissioners here to have the meeting. So I think that covers my basis, but Mr. Attorney, if you want to guide my colleagues in this aspect. Yes, Mr. Chair. Under the Jennings case, ex parte communications that occur outside of the public hearing on a zoning matter are generally to be avoided. When a commissioner has had ex parte communications, it is proper to make a disclosure on the record in the hearing, indicating the subject of the communication and the identity of the person, group, or entity with whom the communication took place, and whether, despite the communication, the commissioner can be fair and impartial and make a decision based on the record at the hearing. Ex parte communications may take many forms, including conversations, e-mails, and letters. At this time, it would be appropriate for any commissioner who may have had ex parte communications to make a disclosure about the substance of the communication and indicate whether he or she can still be impartial and base their decision on the record. If a commissioner doesn't recall whether they've had ex parte communications at this particular moment, it would be appropriate to so indicate. All right, any of my colleagues. Commissioner Rigolato, you recognize. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm going to make the following Jennings disclosure. As many of you know, I appeared briefly on a virtual meeting with staff. I did not stay on. The meeting was requested in order to explain the lengthy work that Durham has done. I have not watched the meeting. Like everyone else, I've received lots of e-mails and lots of calls. I have not seen any of those e-mails. I am aware that my chief of staff spoke with some of the neighbors and attorneys at our last public meeting here. He did not share with me anything that was discussed at that meeting or any communications, and I would like to state officially for the record that I will be fair and impartial in making a decision based solely on what is presented here today. All right. Thank you for that, Commissioner. Any additional? Vice Chairman, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And Mr. Chairman, as it relates to the Jennings situation here, my staff has received correspondence on this item, but none of the said correspondence has been shared with me. And yes, I can be fair and impartial as it relates to this matter. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Vice Chair. Commissioner Lopez, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My staff tells me that they, too, have received correspondence to the District 5 e-mail that have not been shared with me, so I feel like I can be totally impartial. All right. And apparently you're just finding out about it this very second, so even better. Good job. All right. Commissioner Cohen-Higgins, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Regarding the following need to make a Jennings disclosure of ex parte communication, it's my understanding that my office has received several e-mails related to this matter. I have not seen any of those e-mails, and I have, I believe, met with either the developer or maybe a lobbyist on this at some point in the past, but nothing regarding the specifics of the application were ever discussed. Notwithstanding, I'd like to state for the record that I will be fair and impartial. And make a decision based solely on the record before and present today at this hearing. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Commissioner Cohen-Higgins. All right. With Commissioner Orbis. Same thing, Mr. Chair. My staff informed me that we have received e-mails pertaining to this matter, but I have not seen them, so I can be fair and impartial on this matter, on this application before us. All right. I just found out about my e-mails this morning. I didn't even know they were coming in, so Commissioner Bastien. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was surprised this morning that my office has received e-mails. I have not seen them. I only heard about it this morning. All right. Thank you. So, by the way, to those that did send correspondence, the fact that a lot of us are surprised by this don't feel that we don't pay attention to your needs. It's our staff is well-trained, and they understand that under zoning rules, they are not supposed to speak to the Commissioner about this, so by intent and design, they don't do it. It's not that they don't communicate with us on a regular basis about other matters. Senator Garcia, you're recognized. I echo the same sentiments. I'm sure we've received e-mails, but they have not gone to, I have not seen them, so I echo the same sentiments on the same item initial. All right. Thank you, Senator. All right. So, I'm going to have quite a few folks signed up to speak on this item, and I'm seeing it's both in favor and against, so we've got a fair amount. So, what I'd like to do first is I'd like to call up both of the representatives for both the applicant and the objector. So, if we have the attorneys or whoever's representing the applicant, whoever's representing the objectors, I understand the objectors being represented by Mr. Winker. Is that you, Mr. Winker? Yes, sir. Good morning. All right. Good morning. So, Mr. Winker, I'll start with you. Who are you exactly representing? How much time do you think you're going to need today? And kind of give me what you're thinking for today, and I'll share with you my goal for today. But I imagine, is it a safe assumption that the folks you're representing are not going to be speaking? Because that's the whole point of having representation. Can you, and if so, can you list the names so I can scratch them off my list of those that you represent? Yes, absolutely. So, I represent a number of residents that live within 500 foot. They will be doing public comment. Amanda Prieto will be presenting, as my witness, as part of my presentation. I would anticipate my presentation being about 15 minutes. I would like to request the opportunity to cross-examine, depending on what the expert witness testifies to. As outlined in my submission letter requesting the deferral, yesterday the Florida Wildlife Take Permit was approved. We're going to be appealing that. There are questions we're raising within that application to Florida Wildlife, but that's one of the reasons we asked for the deferral. I can talk about that later, but, you know, we are asking for a number of things, but the issues would be the traffic study, the representations made in the take permit. So, I'd like to reserve just that, but that would be the extent of my presentation. Okay, so we'll do that. So, you're requesting 15 minutes. Is that inclusive of Amanda Prieto's presentation? Yes, I think we can finish it within 15 minutes. Okay, and then all of the other folks signed up to speak are still going to want to speak their time. So, you're only representing Amanda Prieto for purposes of today? Yes, sir. And Save Calusa, Inc. is the nonprofit, technically also, but Amanda will be speaking, doing, I'll be doing half the presentation, she'll be doing half the presentation. Okay, fair enough. So, I, and I'm okay with that. I usually ask for less time, but this is obviously a large application, and I want to make sure everybody gets ample time. Yes, sir. My only, my only thing, and I want to make sure everybody that drove out here this morning, and thank you for doing that, gets their opportunity to speak. My only, not confusion, obviously, but my only thought when you say this is that usually when a group of owners or a single person is represented by representation such as yourself, you represent them, and therefore you speak on their behalf. It's kind of like redundant if they come and shadow you and then still speak, you know, their two minutes that I'm thinking of affording everybody. It would be helpful if some of those people that are represented by you allow you to speak on their behalf in their, in your, in your presentation. And I think you'll see it's streamlined. The only thing that it's always, for us is attorney, attorney testimony is not evidence. So, there's certain things that I want to put into the record with them. So, you'll see, I think everyone's going to be very efficient, and we'll move it along as fast as we can. Perfect. Thank you for that. Thank you, sir. And to the applicant or. Mr. Chair, members of the commission, my name is Eileen Mehta with Bills and Sundberg, 1450 Brickle Avenue. I was originally going to ask you for 30 minutes, but if that is not going to be possible for you, if you could just give me a moment to explain what I will introduce into the record to facilitate it, to make it faster. Eileen, can you start over? My staff was whispering in my ear, a bad habit that they do, but they have to do it. So, can you start over? What is it that you're requesting? Okay. I was going to request 30 minutes, but if you need me to condense that and expedite, what I would like to do is just itemize the things that I will introduce into the record by handing it to your clerk. I will have hard copies of our PowerPoint presentations. We have two. I can hand them out to you so that we can just breeze through them very, very quickly, and that way you'll have them in front of you. If you have a question, you'll have it, and you can ask a question later. We also have experts. I won't have them do their presentations except for maybe one minute for one. Instead, I'll just have all of them here ready to answer your questions. So, here's what I'd like to do, and I want to, again, I'm being extra cautious in trying to make this as fair as possible, especially to afford all the residents. And those with interest that drove out this morning to have a fair opportunity to speak this morning. I'd like to ask you to reduce that 30 minutes and pair it up with the 15 minutes that Mr. Winker has requested. But the way I'll do this so that I think it's fair is I'll allow you to present first, which is standard for the applicant to do that. And then I'll have, you know, after testimony and everybody comes up, I'll also have Mr. Winker go second. And that way he can cross-examine or ask his questions if he needs to. And then if you need some extra time to rebuttal or I don't know if I want to call it rebuttal, but if you need some extra time to address some of the questions, I would likely allow for it. And I'll have my staff make sure they keep time. I want to make sure that each side has equal time. But we're going to keep, certainly we're going to keep the aggregate of all of that to under 30 minutes per side. So that includes, you know, to the extent that there's any expert witness that I don't know that there will be today. But to the extent that there is or any sort of cross-examination, the aggregate of that should certainly be kept to under 30 minutes from either side. I think that's fair and equitable. So to the attorneys, is that, is my plan something that seems fair and acceptable? Yes. All right. And should I go ahead and start with the residents that came out to speak or should I start with the applicants? What do you all suggest? It's in your discretion, Mr. Chair. All right. So we'll do this. If you all would take a seat, I've explained to you all what my process is going to be. And I'm going to go ahead and start calling up the residents. As I call your name, please line up on each side of the center rows. And the first two can approach the well. State your name and address. We already know the item you're coming to speak on. And please be very respectful of all the other speakers. We have well over 50 speakers registered to speak this morning. So please be respectful. And I ask personally to try to not be redundant. If someone else already says what you all were going to say, try to change it or not. Just be redundant because it doesn't necessarily help at that point. And I will go ahead and afford you each two minutes, which is more than the normal. But I understand that this is a very important application. So Daniel Efrain, Daniel Efrain Arguez, Patricia Cummins, Robert Sackowitz, Michael Joseph Sheehan, Carl Hall, Paul Marolf, Lizette Marolf, Annalie Pardo, Dennis Harry Horn, and Amanda Cary Prieto. Oh, I guess, Amanda, you're not. Okay. All right. So then George Musa. Sir. My name is Daniel Arguez, 13281 Southwest 98th Street. I'm a resident of Calusa, and I'm a board member of the Kendall Federation. That's been the sound of developers that tried to break the Calusa covenant that protects the golf course from development. For decades, developers tried to convince Calusa homeowners to break that covenant with no success until GL Homes came knocking. This time, the offer to each homeowner was too tempting, too powerful. Each homeowner was offered hundreds of thousands of dollars to vote to break that covenant. Yes, the homeowners took the money. Hundreds of thousands of dollars per home was too much to resist. Many of those paid homeowners have now moved away. They took the money and ran. The Kendall Federation suggests that you take the pulse of the current homeowners. If these current homeowners want it, then, by all means, destroy their community. The people that took the money and ran won't mind at all. Future developers, take note. Pay the immediate neighbors surrounding your project an insane amount of money to get their support, and that will ensure success at the BCC, unless you stop this nonsense now. Thank you. Thank you, sir. All right, so a few things, and I apologize. I always forget to say it because I think, since we're here every week and every month, that everyone should know. We don't clap in the chamber. We don't do theater in the chamber. This isn't a cultural arts center. So we don't do the knocking. We don't do birds and bee sounds, the bats. We don't do any of that. You say what you're going to say. We're going to listen. And then you stay within your two minutes. You're respectful of everyone else. And we move along. Thank you. Go ahead, sir. Or ma'am, actually. Sorry. Go ahead. Yeah? Yeah. My name is Patricia Commons. My address is 10230 Southwest 130th Avenue, Miami, Florida, 33186. I'm within 500 feet of the rookery. I've lived in my home in Miami-Dade County for 48 years at Calusa. I'm not an expert. You don't need to have an expert to see the traffic there. I've been retired for the past 11 years from Miami-Dade Public Schools. And every morning, I see the cars race by my house. Traffic studies for me, more traffic studies are needed. It backs up. It's congested. People don't pay attention to the speed limit. And I'm here to protect our neighborhood. No one asked me anything about this. Within 500 feet of that rookery, no one approached me. I feel like I've been neglected, left out. I've been here for other meetings, expressing my opinion. And I feel as though that you need to talk to all the people in the community, all the people in Calusa, not just the people that live on the golf course. I bought my home in Calusa 48 years ago, thinking that the covenant would protect me, but it hasn't. And you haven't, and I'm really sorry about that. Thank you, Ms. Cummins. Sir? Good morning, Chairman and Commissioners. My name is George Moussa, and I reside at 1301 South Calusa Club Drive. I'm one of four houses that live behind the Rookery 3 that did not sell the covenant. I just want to explain, because I know there's a lot of new commissioners here, know a little bit of history, and I know that my son redundant. But a lot of us know how we got here. A covenant was bought, and it was not voted by the residents. What faith is there in Dade County government if a covenant can be bought? Is this what we want to tell our residents or our constituents, that we don't count? Please take a stand against a Broward developer who thinks he knows best for Dade County. Dade County is better. I was born and raised in Dade County. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Go ahead. Hi, my name is Robert Sakowicz. I live at 12841 South Calusa Club Drive. On the golf course, I've lived there for over 30 years. I grew up in Kendall and Galloway. I've lived in the area for over 60 years. I've seen all the development out west, and where they're building, if there's vacant space, there's going to be built on. And where they're building apartment complex after apartment complex, condo buildings, townhouses, we have a neighborhood of single-family houses, and they're going to build single-family houses right in the neighborhood. I think it fits perfectly. I'm 100% for this development. Thank you, sir. Sir, there's no presentations. He has something you want to show you. Some photos. He can submit it on the record, but the presentation is being done by the representative, Mr. Winker. Can I enter this? Absolutely. Enter the record, please? Absolutely. My name is Dennis Horn. I live at 13229 Southwest 85th Street Road. I live across Kendall from the Calusa community. I first became involved with the Save Calusa organization in 2021. I've been documenting the wildlife at the Rooker Reef since then. At that time in 2021, the developer said, there was no wildlife here. Well, we have since proved that there is. There's nesting of a state-threatened, tricolored heron. There's also four other birds that utilize the Rookery for breeding. There are also many other birds, snail kites, wood storks, white pelicans that also utilize Rookery. Now, GL Homes, they have sent their environmental people out there once a month for five years. That's 30 times. I've been there 90 times, three times as many. So I've seen things that they have never seen. And I want to strongly encourage if this development is allowed to proceed, that this Rookery will no longer be viable. There are going to be homes within 100 feet of the Rookery. We can't take a gamble. This is a unique, extremely unique habitat in Dade County. There's no place else that has the bird life as a Rookery in Dade County other than Calusa. And it's also an urban Rookery. We have to preserve this. Thank you, Mr. Horn. Thank you. Sir? Good morning, Mr. Chairman, commissioners. This is an opportunity for Dade County. Your name and address, please. I'm sorry. My name is Carl Hall. I reside at 11751 Southwest 94th Street. I'm about as local as you get. I was born and raised here in Dade County. Dade County Schools, U.N. Law School. I've lived. I've loved. I've worked in this community and raised our family. I've been in this area of Kendall for over 35 years. And I've seen the changes. My kids, myself, we grew up in the South Dade, Snapper Creek Canals, the estuaries, K-Land, Devonair, Corrie League, the same neighborhood that 540 families will have the opportunity to experience. I miss the U-Pick field on 137. I miss picking strawberries for 25 years. But as we get older, we tend to be very myopic. We need housing in Dade County. This community is 540 homes. Families are going to live here. They're going to work here. They're going to contribute to our community. I want those kids playing tennis at Devonair, soccer on 127, enjoying Indian Hammocks Park, Penny Thompson Park, and everything that we have to offer. Now, this developer, JL Homes, I've seen their product up in Boca Raton. I've seen their product in Delray. You have a high-quality builder that is going to preserve this rookery and enhance the rookery. Throughout Dade County, we're building a Southland. We're building the South Dade busway. We have over $10 billion worth of projects in North Bay Village. South Miami is exploding with projects. It's a different Miami. We need housing. 540 families. I want them as my neighbors. I want them to contribute to this community. And I would like your support in approving this application today. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hall. Ma'am. Hi. Anaylee Pardo, 12941 South Calusa Club Drive. I purchased my home in 2012, 30 days after the previous owner signed to release it. I strongly oppose the development, and I echo the opinion of the attorney that's representing us. Thank you. Thank you for that. I appreciate that. Ma'am. Hi. I'm Lizette Maroff. I reside at 13101 South Calusa Club Drive since 1992. Like the previous person that spoke, Dade County is changing. It is exploding with townhomes and apartments, including the recent construction rental condominiums right next to Calusa, less than 600 feet, on 137 and 92nd Avenue. Rental complex apartments behind our elementary school. I also attended that hearing. I was shocked to see our biggest opponent here, Amanda, wholeheartedly supporting that project, in part because the developer is a good neighbor. I wonder if this is more of a platform for future purposes. Michael Rosenberg, who also supported it, same reason, is the president of the Kendall Federal Association. So apartments are okay, but luxury homes are not. They will increase the value of our property. The developer has gone far and beyond to preserve the rookery. And I really have a hard, they've done travel accommodations, I mean traffic accommodations. I'm having a hard time understanding what makes a good developer for the opposition. I clearly approve, and it's a win-win situation for our community. Thank you, Ms. Maroff. Sir? Hi, good morning. My name is Paul Maroff. I live at 13101 South Calusa Club Drive with my wife, who you just heard. I support it for all the reasons my wife just mentioned. I also, in the exotic bird business, and seen plans for the rookery, and think it's very well thought out and overly protective. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Sir? Sir? Go ahead. Good morning, Chairman. Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Michael Sheehan. I reside at 1222 Bird Road, Miami, Florida. I'm a born and raised lifelong Miami native, as are my parents, and I'm incredibly proud of the progress Miami-Dade has made over the decades in our future forward in living here in this county. Unfortunately, I've seen and experienced how difficult housing has become for young families and professionals who wish to live and remain in Miami and build a future here. I've experienced this in my lifetime here living in Miami with housing shortages and challenges of finding a high-quality standard of living. And my wife and I are now fortunate to own a home in Miami. But years ago, we would have loved the opportunity to live in a property in development such as at this caliber near Calusa, near friends and family. This project adds much-needed housing in an already developed area and reflects responsible growth from a developer with incredibly high standards in the industry. I care deeply about Miami's future, and I respectfully ask for your support for the project to proceed within the urban development boundary. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. All right. Before I call the rest of the names up, real quick, just if you're here, and I'll start with the support. If you're here in support of this application and you are okay with waving in support, can you stand up for a second? Again, if there's anyone that's in support and just will be okay with waving in support. Okay, so waving in support, let me explain what that means before you all stand up so quickly. Waving in support means, no, no, you can stay standing, but waving in support just means that you're not going to come up to the podium to speak. I'm going to take your name down. I'm going to ask you to give me your name, and you're not going to come up and speak. You're just going to kind of go like this to me, and the body will see that you are all here in support of this application. If you still would like to speak, of course you're able to, and you'll have your two minutes, but I want to just afford that opportunity to those that don't want to be redundant that can come and wave in support. Okay, so as I call your name and sit down, and then I'm going to cross you off the list. So start writing down names. Sir, right here, I'm going to start right in front of me, sir. Rainier Liscano, waves in support. You can sit down. Ma'am, Gabriela Dager, waving in support. You can sit down. Thank you. What is it, Eileen? Martina Gutierrez, waving in support. Thank you. Ma'am? Sadie. Sadie De Gallo, waving in support. All right, thank you. You're all writing this down. All right, sir. Alan, what's the last name again, Alan? Thank you, sir. In the far, my right, your left corner, sir, in the back. Gordon Hawk, H-A-W. Gordon Haw. All right, sir, in front of you. Waving in support, right, Gordon? Alexander Zelensky, waving in support. Thank you. The gentleman in front of him. Ricardo Fernandez. Thank you, Ricardo, waving in support. Okay. So again, just to make sure, I want to be crystal clear. You all are not coming up to speak. We're crossing you off the list of coming up. Sir, in the middle. David Smith, waving in support. Thank you, David. Sir, to your right. Michael Marino, waving in support. The young lady in front of you. Lissette Arango, waving in support. Thank you. You both could sit down. And the gentleman behind you, you could sit down. Sir? Giancarlo Vergara. Giancarlo Vergara, waving in support. Yes. Thank you. You could sit down. Natalia Divalodki. Natalia. In support. In support. Thank you. Anna Holman, I support. In support. Thank you. Vanessa Salas, support and wave. Thank you, Vanessa. Genelia Díaz, support. Thank you. Soyla Alegerica, support. Soyla, thank you so much. Maria Zambangar, support. Maria Zambangar, thank you so much. You can sit down. Maria Mariatti, support. All right. Germán Dinoco, support. Thank you, sir. Cristina Merino, support. Thank you, ma'am. Alexis Santos, support. All right. Thank you. Javier Rotalde, support. Thank you, sir. Matthew Stock, wave in support. Thank you so much, sir. Jessica Gonzalez, and I support. Thank you, Jessica. Alex Steuben, wave in support. Thank you, sir. Maria Corso, support. Thank you. Ernie Corso, support. Thank you. Tanya Edesam, support. Thank you so much. And I have two more that I see, at least, to my right. They're coming your way. Kane. Kane McCarthy, support. Thank you, Kane. Barbara. Cavill. Thank you, Barbara. Waving in support. And I thank you so much, Elena. Thank you very much. Do you have anybody else? Okay. All right. And then is there anyone that opposes the application that would like to do the same? Is there anyone that opposes that would like to wave in opposition? And again, just to be clear, and if you need me to translate in Spanish, I'm happy to do so. Waving in opposition means that you're just not coming up to the podium to speak. You're just going to kind of show everyone that you're waving in opposition. We do see your shirts as well, so we see that. Sir? Sir, with the microphone. Lewis Fernandez-Valle, wave and oppose. Okay. Lewis, thank you for that. Julie Mann, wave and oppose. Thank you. Clark Mann, wave. Thank you. Alfonso Perez, oppose. Thank you, sir. Luz Teresa Perez, oppose. Wave and oppose. Opposition. Rebeca Esclavunos, wave and oppose. Thank you. Do you need a spelling? Rebeca, no. Esclavunos. S-K-L-A-D-O-U-N-O-S. Thank you. Juan Medina, oppose. Thank you, Juan. Josephine Musa, oppose. Thank you, Josephine. Maritza Leon, oppose. Thank you, Maritza. Aldemira Fernandez, oppose. Thank you. Lou Sainz, oppose. Alvaro Sainz, oppose. Thank you, Alvaro. You all may sit down. Jorge Torres, waving in opposition. Thank you, Jorge. You may sit down. And that is it, right? Yes, those are just walking away. All right, so now bear with me. If I call your name and you just waved in opposition or in support, it's because we're trying to keep up with as fast as you all were going, which I appreciate. Going to have a new list. And if I do call your name, just, again, tell me that you're waving in support and I'll call the next person. Is Albert Medina, did Albert Medina wave? While they prepare the list behind me, I'm going to still go off the one I have. Albert Medina, not here. Austin Maroff, Austin, did you wave or no? Come on, come on up. I remember hearing Gordon Hall, so I'm going to remove you off here. I have a Daniel Maldolzenyuk. All right, come on up as well. And I have a Gabriela Dadger. Gabriela Dadger. Oh, you waved? Okay, thank you. All right, go ahead, Austin. Good morning, everybody. My name is Austin Maroff. I live at 13101 South Caloosia Club Drive. I grew up in this house and love the area. Our biggest issue is traffic. This development isn't causing the problem, and the extensive improvements offered will actually make it better. Specifically, we constantly have cut through traffic with everyone trying to avoid Kendall and Killian Drive. The most amazing potential is that this slowed down or stopped. Excuse me. Sorry. They will offer to forever fund off-duty police officers to enforce no left or right turns. It is an unmistakable game changer. Has this ever been offered? Lord, this benefits us and the new homeowners and everyone who lives in the community. And someday, I hope to inherit this house and benefit what will surely be increased value from such an up-sale community in our backyard. Please vote yes. Thank you, Mr. Maroff. Sir? Okay. Good morning, commissioners. Thank you so much for giving me two minutes to speak this morning. I appreciate the time. My name is DJ Modizenic. I'm here today representing Tropical Audubon Society. Our address is 5530 Sunset Drive, Miami 33143. I'm here today to talk about some measures that can be implemented to help improve this application and safeguard the rookery. These measures will be explained in more detail in a document that will be shared with you by my colleague, Lauren Junaitis, when she comes up to speak. But I wanted to highlight a few of them, starting especially with the establishment of a 330-foot buffer around the rookery, devoid of any infrastructure, construction, development. This is a number that was derived from objective peer-reviewed research to help safeguard the rookery. Now, a way to incorporate this buffer and improve the application would be to dedicate a minimum of five acres as a community park or preserve with the rookery protected as a quiet, conservation-focused area. Within this space, the area surrounding the rookery should be clearly designated as a low-impact, quiet zone focused on habitat protection and wildlife observation. Finally, I would ask that this project must include ongoing ecological monitoring involving DERM, Tropical Audubon Society, or other conservation partners so that impacts can be addressed early on, identified, and then helped resolved. I also wanted to mention that these measures here are an opportunity. They're an opportunity for the applicant to improve this rookery or improve the application, and it's an opportunity for the future residents to take pride living in an area that took every measure possible to protect and safeguard a rookery with imperiled species. Thank you so much for your consideration. Thank you, Daniel. All right. So, and thank you guys for doing that, too. All right. So here's, I think, the easiest way to do this is those that did not wave in support or opposition. If you can just line up on either side of the aisle, of the center aisles, and the first two can approach the well, the two wells, and it shouldn't be many based on my list, maybe about 20 or so. So if you did not wave and you wanted to speak, just come up and line up. All right. Sir? My name is Vitaly Falkovich, 8627, 137th Avenue, Southwest 137th Avenue. Thank you for letting me speak. I am opposing you. One of the reasons why I'm opposing you is because, number one, we don't have enough law enforcement in Miami-Dade to able to have, if there's something going on, officers need to respond with the traffic. It's going to be a major disaster, number one. Number two, we've got elderly people here that lives in that area, and you only have two fire stations, three at the top, and you only have two hospitals. The one in West Kendall cannot take a heart attack because they don't have a heart attack unit. And if there's somebody responding, it's going to take time for a doctor to respond. Well, what happens is, if the doctor responds between 4 and 6 o'clock in afternoon, guess what happens? The person is going to die because the doctor cannot get to the hospital quick enough. So, to me, that's a serious thing that we have to think about people, elderly people that have a heart attack, diabetes, and things like that, for them not to have so many people, so many apartments. Thank you. Thank you so much, sir. Sir? Good morning, commissioners and guests. My name is Vladimir Golik. I live at 5215 Southwest 71st Place. I'm a real estate broker by trade. I've lived in Miami all my life. I've lived in Kendall for 10 years off and on. My office has been on Sunset and 117th Avenue for the last 23 years on 114 North Kendall Drive, so I'm very familiar with Calusa. I've hired people that live in Calusa. I've sold homes. I've rented homes. I've managed homes. I know the area very well. For the last 20-something years, I've been specializing in the commercial, and I've dealt with a lot of the business owners that live around the area. I'm 100% for the project. It's going to benefit not only the homeowners but the business owners tremendously, and there's also a big ripple effect that sometimes people overlook. When a quality community like this comes into town and develops, you have homeowners from around the area that want to move up. They sell their homes. Then there's an inventory that occurs. The renters and the condos, they're able to move up. So this one project is not just 500-and-something units, transactions. It could be thousands over the next few years. So I do think it's a win-win-win. I think it's a win for the homeowners. Their property value is going to go up. The businesses are going to benefit as well. NGL is going to benefit. So thank you. Sir. Good morning. Alan Ludeking, 97 West Calusa, Club Drive 33186. I am one of the Ring Road homeowners living directly on the Calusa golf course who will be directly impacted by the development. I know that most of you may not have been around when this process began well over a decade ago. When this began, I was vehemently opposed to the idea of breaking the covenant and allowing this development. Over the years, this turned into a very acrimonious and litigious debate. It went back and forth a number of times. We all came before you a number of times until finally the esteemed Miami-Dade Commission got fed up. And you banged our heads together and told us that you'd had enough and for us to sit down and come to an understanding, to discuss it, come to an agreement. Well, this process has happened. It took a number of years, but we are finally at the point where I am satisfied that the agreement that has been reached is favorable to all parties concerned. I think the traffic mitigation concerns, the wildlife concerns have been properly addressed, and I am satisfied now that this project should go forward and that it is the best possible deal that could be reached not just for us, the Ring Road homeowners, but for the community at large who will all be affected by this. So I urge you all to vote in favor of this. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Ma'am. Good morning. My name is Maid de la Vea, and I'm the founder and CEO of One Sotheby's International Realty. We have 30 offices across Florida's East Coast. Every day I receive calls from, I am also a realtor and involved, very much involved in my company. Every day I am busy taking calls from buyers who want to live in new communities. There is an affordability issue in Dade County. I think GL Homes is offering a solution, a solution from a builder who is extremely highly respected, who cares about the residents, their well-being, and has taken all sorts of precaution. We want young families to enjoy and live in a community like Calusa. They should be given this opportunity because all the concerns that the opposition has have been addressed. They've been addressed and studied to make sure that all those issues are addressed. And so I ask all of you, please, to vote yes so that all these people, that all these young families can enjoy living in a community with amenities, a community that affords security, and just everyone is going to end up in a better place than they are today. We, they have addressed all of the concerns that you have, and I hear this every day from my agents. There's nowhere for people to go live. The prices, given today's prices, which are way higher than they were a few years ago, are, are going to be affordable for young families. So I ask that you vote yes, and that you consider all the measures that GL Homes has taken to make sure that the opposition's concerns have been heard and have been addressed. So please vote yes today. Good morning, commissioners. I'm Lauren Janaitis, executive director of Tropical Audubon Society, address 5530 Sunset Drive, Miami. So as we know, the Colusa site contains an active rookery for both state and county listed species in the CDMP. We are requesting a 330-foot buffer around the rookery and to not fill the existing lake. This is a moderate and precautionary measure that aligns with published signs for protecting nesting birds. The applicant instead is proposing a 100-foot buffer and to fill the existing lake solely to accommodate additional houses. Placing 16 homes around the rookery will introduce background noise, that's lighting, pets, and human activity. These are well-documented stressors in nesting birds, and this site has been nearly vacant for 15 years. Claims by the consultant that the birds have habituated to human activity have not been studied at this site. It is important to note that the consultant letter submitted is not an independent scientific review. It's an opinion prepared for the developer. The county has both the authority and responsibility to require reasonable protections for both state and county listed species. A 330-foot buffer and preservation of the existing lake still allows the development while reducing risks to the rookery. This is a reasonable and science-based request. I'm submitting more information for the record on a reasonable request and more solutions. Okay? Thank you. Good morning. My name is Bilal Karakira. I live in 9921 West Calusa Club Drive. In 2012, my wife and I were very excited to buy a house on the golf course. But when we moved in, it was not a golf course. It was an unused golf course that brings snakes. I have a baby alligator in my pool, foxes, raccoons. So we did not enjoy, we're still not enjoying the golf course because we still see snakes almost on a daily basis. So I really support to develop the area. It brings more young families to our community and beautify our unused golf course. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Hello. My name is William Goldsmith. I'm a Dade County resident for over 40 years. I'm also one of the owners of the Dadeland Plaza Shopping Center in Pinecrest on U.S. 1 just south of Kendall Drive, a property we have owned since March of 1992 and a property with about 40 tenants, including 17 restaurants. I've reviewed the proposed Calusa project and I'm strongly in favor of it. It looks like an amazing and beautiful development of elegant, well-designed single-family residences that we think economically will help both the immediate Kendall community as well as other neighboring communities such as Pinecrest all the way down to Cutler Bay, Kendall Lakes, and others. In my opinion, the Calusa development is a classic win-win all around. It fills a need for single-family homes and substantially increases Dade County property tax revenue. It improves property values of adjacent and adjoining residential areas, which again, in turn, helps substantially improve the Dade County tax base. It brings a lot of new high-end families, which in turn helps other nearby businesses, including mine, by introducing a lot of new customers to the area. It also brings with it a lot of new construction jobs during the initial development of the project, as well as ongoing construction jobs for remodeling and repairs and maintenance, all of which creates additional permit fees revenue for Dade County. It also introduces a lot of new jobs, permanent jobs, associated with the community's management and operations, which in turn creates more income to Dade County in the form of employment taxes. And, of course, it upgrades a local corridor, which serves as a springboard for other upgrades in the area. I appreciate the time you've given me. I hope the Board looks favorably upon the approval of the proposed development project. Thank you so much, sir. Thank you. My name is Phil Gold, and I am born and raised in Kendall. I currently live at 8528 Southwest 121st Street off of Galloway and near the Falls. I am Miami-Dade Public Schools. I went to law school at University of Miami. On my weekends, I take my two boys to the Miami Roller Rink, Zoo, Miami, Kendall Ice Arena, Fairchild Gardens. I coach my sons in basketball, baseball, soccer at various parks and schools around our community. I interact with young and growing families on a daily basis. And what young and growing families want in our community is more housing options. They want new, nice, secure. They want beautifully organized landscaping. They want turnkey. That is what this plan provides. It's a planned community that meets the needs of Kendall's young, growing families. It is not a concrete jungle. The plan maintains the majority of the lake. The houses will be set back around 100 feet from the rookery. This is a smart development plan that balances the needs of our young, growing families with the protection of our natural habitat. For that reason, I would ask you all to support this plan. Thank you. Thank you very much, sir. Sir? Good morning, commissioners. My name is Stephen Marin, 4767 Northwest 36th Street. I am a small business owner in Miami-Dade County, and I am here today to support this project. As a business owner, primarily in the hospitality and food and beverage business, I come across one of our largest challenges daily in recruiting, specifically upper-level management, is shortage of housing. That proposes a challenge to us because it doesn't allow us to grow. We've been in this business since 1978 in Miami-Dade County on the north side of the airport, and we've seen a lot happen here. We've seen a lot of positive things come out of the county, and a project such as this one we feel is only beneficial for continued growth of businesses such as myself and others. And for that reason, I'm here to support this project today. Thank you so much, sir. Sir, good morning. Good morning. Good morning to the commission, the public behind me, and those who may be watching. My name is Eddie Gomez. I live at 10562 Southwest 129th Place, which is within walking distance of the area being discussed. Now, I must appreciate the testimony given by the Audubon Society in proposing measures proven by objective observation and science to protect the rookery, the potential endangered species that may live there, while allowing for some construction. And I wanted to thank also the gentleman who mentioned hospitals and bring to notion how this project could affect us, and we need to be careful to do it the right way, along with potentially more medical needs with people coming into the area. If this place is developed the wrong way, we're going to see increased water bills due to inefficient water delivery, increased electricity bills due to increased power consumption, and increased, potentially even increased time for emergency services, because poor road design that doesn't allow for emergency access could cause problems and trouble for the community in general. All that can be avoided through measures such as LED housing and multimodal road access. Multimodal roads like the ones on US1 with the bike paths and bus access, Chrome has a bike lane, would not only allow for better access for emergency vehicles and such, but also for reduced traffic and allow for the public to use alternate means to get around. So it's a win for the people who want homes, and a win for the environment, and a win for, a win for, what's the third point, the community in general. I do hope that we can come to a conclusion here and meet the needs of everyone in a peaceful manner. Thank you. No, thank you. Next, good morning. Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Danny Rivera. I live at 1872 Northwest 1st Street, Miami, Florida, 33125. I am a campaign finance reform advocate, and while other issues with this development have been well-treaded, I would like to note the campaign contributions given to the commissioners and the mayor. I know from previous experience I'm not allowed to name names, so I will only speak in general. Since 2012, GL Homes has given over half a million dollars to Miami-Dade commissioners, commission candidates, mayoral candidates, mayors, and their associated PACs. $400,000 has been given to current or recently resigned commissioners. GL Homes used 58 different names to give these contributions. Since most of this was given to PACs that don't have contribution limits, it's very odd that they gave with so many different names. Quite frankly, it looks like they are trying to buy your vote. They did something very cruel to y'all, because right now, if y'all honestly believe this is a good idea, it looks like they bought your vote. They put you in this spot. For long-term success in Miami-Dade County, we need elected officials. We know we can trust not to have their votes bought. You have to think of us, not the money. This looks bad. I ask that anybody that has received a contribution from GL Homes not vote due to a conflict of interest. Send a message. This is not acceptable. Send a message. You work for us. Not whatever giant developer can give you half a million dollars. Thank you so much for your time. I hope you guys have some ethics. Thank you so much. Next. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Andre Murias. I reside at 19125 Southwest 95th Ave. I am a lifelong resident of Miami-Dade County. I graduated from Miami-Dade College, Kendall Campus, and I was even blessed to own property in Kendall before starting my family. I have loved and enjoyed Kendall since the time of Don Carter's, if anyone can remember that far back. I'm here today because this, in my opinion, is the most sensible development I have seen since I began working in real estate, which is why I'm in support of this project. The developer is proposing to build almost half of what would be allowed while implementing a product that has gone practically extinct, the single-family home. The rising costs have essentially made multifamily the premier product for developers. We do not need more multifamily developments in the suburbs of Miami-Dade County. We need more single-family homes. Development, love it or hate it, is inevitable, especially with the influx of new residents from out of state. But it does not need to be nonsensical or grotesque. It needs to be thoughtful and considerate of all factors like traffic control, community cohesion, and the protection of endangered animals, which I believe was done above and beyond in this case. I think it would be a disservice to current residents and future generations that want to call Kendall home if Council does not approve this proposal. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Harrison Morrison. I'm a lifelong Miami-Dade resident, educated locally at the University of Miami, and I currently live in Coral Gables. I work for Restaurant Brands International, one of the largest employers in our county and also one of the country's largest. I'm here to express my strong support for GL Homes and the proposal to build this community. Miami is growing, and for that growth to be sustainable, we need housing that allows talented professionals and families to stay here long term. In my own workplace, I've seen high-performing colleagues leave Miami not because they wanted to, but because housing affordability and limited supply made it impossible to stay. When we lose those residents, we lose contributors to our tax base, our schools, and our local economy. Thoughtful residential developments like Calusa help address those challenges by expanding housing supply and keeping families invested in our community. Furthermore, I'd expect it to even draw more people to our beautiful county due to the quality that GL Homes is known for bringing. I'm a Floridian. I live in this county. I want a local Florida builder who's employed Floridians and builds houses for Floridians in our county. For those reasons, I strongly support GL Homes' proposal in Calusa and encourage the county to approve this development. Thank you. My address is 4131 Laguna Street, Coral Gables, Florida, 33146. Thank you so much. Sergeant, also, if you can have some of the speakers to go to my left also. Thank you. Good morning, sir. How are you? Good morning, commissioners. It's a pleasure to see you again. And it really is always a pleasure to see you. I hope I could get through everything I have to say because there's a lot for me to say. And, you know, my name is Joseph Broca. For those of you who don't know, I'm a tour guide at Everglades National Park. And I'm also born and raised in Kendall. I go to Miami-Dade College, Kendall Campus. Because I pass by that Rookery on my way to school every day at 8 a.m. in the morning. And I take that road through the Rookery to skip out on the traffic. Like, let that sit in, y'all. But we just came back from Tallahassee, and we were discussing similar terms, environmental protections across the state. I actually saw Mr. Rodriguez, a picture of him not too long ago. But I'd like to address real quick the people who are speaking in support of this. I mean, this is not going to help you guys. Like, to the people within the community who support this development, I'd just like to know that what you have within your community is a little part of the Everglades. Before Miami was Miami, and the surrounding areas as well were developed, they were part of that rich ecosystem. A rich ecosystem that in the long term and currently is valued at $1 trillion. Guys, this is an ecosystem that provides for us. The ecosystem services that are within this community that you have here at the Rookery, that is not something that we have the resource nor the time to be replacing. This is not a good development for y'all. And for our developers, I really shatter a second what a lady just spoke on. The fact that you guys, one of your top owners in 2025 was GL Homes. You guys made a very big point about being impartial in this decision. And I really, really hope you are impartial and you can see past our current state and protect the future of the residents of Kendall. So that's all I have for you guys, but thank you. Thank you, Joseph. Joseph, by the way, can you put your address on the record, please? My address? I'm in 16272 Southwest 75th Street. Thank you, Joseph. And you had us fooled that you were not going to be able to get through it. Come on. Well, that's all right. Great job. Next. Excuse me, sir? Yes. Just his name. I'm going to wave in support. My name is Sean Klein. Sean Klein. Thank you so much, Sean. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Christopher Madrid. I reside in 7655 Southwest 155th Place. That's district 11. The Calusa Rookery represents the detrimental issue of Miami. Rampant suburban sprawl. Yesterday, some commissioners were confused on the outrage over Kelly Tractor. This is no different. The reason the UDB line exists and why the Calusa Rookery must resist is to encourage healthy development. Mayor Levine Cava touched upon this yesterday. And I also found myself agreeing with Commissioner Gilbert. The Metrorail is divisively segregated. Miami's infrastructure has been historically segregated. And it has always favored development in neighborhoods where the Ridley State agents make the most money. That's why you see the Metrorail not in segregated neighborhoods, not in poor neighborhoods, but only in where they can make the most bang for their buck. So I ask you this. Why don't the commissioners focus on increasing our public transit, connecting our communities, and adding density? And density is very important because many people speak today on the issue of affordable housing, on housing in total. I would also like more housing, but not on green spaces, on the few green spaces we have left, not on environmentally sensitive areas. Density means building up, not across. And when you build across, you add to suburban sprawl. The people of Miami, who I speak to on the street, also want development for affordable housing. They want public transit to accommodate the traffic. And they want green spaces. I live in Kendall. Most parks are just an acre of grass. Some trees, maybe. And it is devastating to grow up in that environment where it's difficult to connect with nature. So if this commission keeps approving the endless suburban sprawl and the endless traffic, instead of focusing on fixing what we already have, they can expect the public who elect them, but gain no benefits from these decisions, to seek representation elsewhere. Thank you. Thank you so much. Hi, my name is Will Larkins. I'm an FIU student, and I live at the FIU main campus. Thanks, Commissioner Rodriguez and Regalado, I'm talking to you guys as well, so I'd appreciate if you pay attention. Thank you so much. So, first of all, there... Excuse me. You don't call out Commissioner names by names. Oh, I didn't know that. And I was looking right at you the entire time since the moment you started speaking. So while somebody might be speaking to you, to me, I'm looking right at you. So do not make this seem like we are not paying attention. Oh, sorry. I just, like, watched you guys talking to each other while the last guy was speaking the whole time. So I wanted to make sure that you guys were paying attention while your constituents were speaking. Thank you. I know what I saw. Yeah. As your constituents, we are your employers. We vote you guys into office. And I wanted to let you all know that there's so many people that couldn't make it here today because, obviously, this is the middle of a work and school day. And so I'm not just speaking for myself, but I'm speaking for many of my friends who are against this development. So, according to the Fish and Wildlife Commission of Florida, more than 10 acres of Florida's wildland is cleared every hour for development. And 100 years ago, Florida had 10 times as many birds as we have now. So a lot of the birds that we have in Florida don't just live in Florida. They live in South America. They live in the northern United States. And they go up to Canada migrating. And they have their rookeries here. They have their nests here. So even though you're representing residents of Miami-Dade County, you are also making decisions that impact the entire world. If you allow them to lower the lake levels, fill in that lake, and if you allow urban development to go right up to the boundary of that rookery, that's not just going to disrupt the rookeries and take away birds from Miami residents. I don't want to see a Miami with less birds, but that's going to affect the whole world. Also, since we're throwing around the name Calusa, let's remember who they are. They're the indigenous people of Southwest Florida, and they implemented very strategic and sustainable hunting practices for birds. So let's try to keep that up. This is just really hard to see, you know. Like, the land is going away so fast. There's less birds. Like, the bird populations are not doing well. If you guys approve this without the 330-foot buffer and without that five-acre land to allow those birds to have a quiet space so they can stay there, you are literally, like, getting rid of birds for the future generations. Think about the future, not just your 102,000 20-25 donations from GL Homes. Thank you. Thank you so much. Ma'am? Hello, commissioners, and good morning. My name is Shelby Salem, and I currently reside at One Flamingo Lodge Highway in Homestead, Florida. I am a senior at Florida Atlantic University studying biology, and I currently live and work inside Everglades National Park as a tour guide. My favorite bird to see on my tours is the tricolored heron, the same type of bird that has been known to nest at the rookery here in Calusa. But I don't stand alone in my love for these birds. 37% of Americans consider birding one of their hobbies. So I don't stand alone here. I'm representing 96 million Americans into viewing these birds. Whatever number GL Homes has donated or will continue to donate or even profit moving forward is always going to be less than the $107 billion per year birding industry here in Florida. Everglades National Park, of all national parks in the United States, has the second highest number of different bird species, drawing in birders from around the world, which is what my career lies on. Top reasons for population decline for the tricolored heron, who's listed as a threatened species in Florida. Just to make it clear, this is not a species we can gamble with. Top reasons for the decline in their population is directly listed as habitat loss and human disturbances. I just want to make it clear and let this serve as a reminder again to my commissioners. I'm grateful to be here as one of your constituents. And I just want to remember it is not your job to be a buyout. It is your job to reflect the people of this community who are coming forward. I've heard quite a few people of an older age here saying they're representing young families and young people in this community. I am a young person with a career in this community. I would like to see it move forward. By doing this, you would be harming my career. Thank you so much. Thank you. My name is Isaac Gargier. I'm here to wave in support. Thank you, Isaac. Good morning, commissioners. My name is Jack Ramirez. I reside in 9530 Southwest Sixth Court, Pembroke Pines. And I hope you guys had a good morning. I know I did because I woke up today and I saw a sandhole crane walking by my house, which isn't a sight that I'll be able to see if rampant development continues through the country. I'm scared for my future. My children will never be able to see a star in the sky because of light pollution. My children will never get to see a beautiful native bird. I'm scared that my kids won't be able to hunt or fish or camp. And these fears aren't unfounded. We're currently in the sixth ever global extinction, which we haven't been since the dinosaurs have been extinct. 60% of animals since the 1970s have gone extinct, and this number is only climbing with development. The development will not drop housing costs. There are currently enough vacant homes in the U.S. to house every single person that resides here. But if we were to create housing, there are so many more sustainable ways to create this, like the 330-foot barrier that the Tropical Audubon Society was suggesting. So please keep the rocary green. Thank you. Ma'am. Hi. My name is Ashley Gargier, and I'm here to waive and support. Thank you so much. Thank you. Ma'am. Good morning. My name is Kathleen Winters. I live at 13300 North Calusa Club Drive, and I have lived there for 49 years. Commissioners, I support this development. But I tell you, I say that as someone who has spent many years fighting unacceptable proposals for this property, and there's been many by previous owners. There's been hotel proposals, apartments, assisted living communities. But none of these owners cared about what was in our backyard. This property, my property that I've lived in for so long, abuts the golf course. So my neighbors and I, we formed the Save Calusa Trust, over 100 homeowners on the ring out of 143. And we went to court, and we came to these chambers, and we went back to court, and we came back to these chambers. We fought to make sure that the homeowners who invested their lives here would have a voice. None of the previous owners cared about that. Then something really amazing happened. When Geo Homes came forward, everything changed. A guy by the name of Dick Norwalk sat back, and he said, you know, these homeowners are absolutely right. You know, they deserve a seat at the table. This is in their backyard as to what is going to go there. Look, they knew that there wasn't going to be a golf course any longer. That covenant didn't require that. Certainly, nobody wanted a shuttered, overgrown, abandoned course, an eyesore, uncertainty in their backyard. So what is it that they wanted? And what they did was they listened. He listened. We sat down week after week, month after month for years, ironing out what could go on that property, protecting us from all the things that you've heard here, the scary stories of apartment buildings like exist down the street from us, and multifamily housing, and so much more. Thank you. Oh, I can't believe I'm out of time. Thank you. Please support. We've been doing this a long time. Please, let's get this done. Thank you, ma'am. Sir. Good morning. My name is Jason Dubler, and I wave in support. Oh, thank you so much. Appreciate that. Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Javier Cabasi, and I reside at 129.50 North Calusa Club Drive for the past 27 years. I am a Ring Road owner. I support this application. I understand you'll be hearing a lot of concerns regarding traffic along Calusa Club Drive. Traffic congestion is, unfortunately, a reality throughout South Florida. However, we must be careful not to allow traffic challenges to halt responsible and well-planned communities. After reviewing the traffic study submitted by this application, it is clear that Calusa Club Drive is affected significantly by cut-through traffic from other communities. The data shows several hundred trips generated between 7 and 9 a.m. Importantly, this application includes specific measures designed to mitigate that cut-through traffic. It proposes restrictions at key intersections that would substantially reduce these cut-throughs and directly address the concerns of nearby residents. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you, sir. Ma'am? Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Mara Austin. I live at 9721 West Calusa Club Drive. I have lived in Calusa for 42 years, 30 of those on the golf course, and I'm here to ask you to please support this application. Thank you. Thank you so much. Sir? Good morning, Commissioners and staff members. My name is Franco Escudero. I live at 13260 North Calusa Club Drive. This particular project and application does, in fact, border my backyard. I've lived there since 2004 and plan on living there far after the conclusion of this. And for as long as I can remember, there's always been a cloud and uncertainty over Calusa with what's going to happen to the golf course. Approving this application will remove that cloud and uncertainty, and once there is a certainty with that land, we'll be able to move forward. Property values will begin to increase as they are, and I believe that that will stabilize the community knowing what kind of certainty and what's going there. And from what I do know of GL, I'm proud to have them as a neighboring partner. I am in support of this project, and I ask for your vote in the affirmative yes to the application. Thank you so much. Thank you, sir. Good morning. I'm Noel Cleland. My address is 5990 Southwest 50th Street, and I'm here as chairperson of the Sierra Club. I'm also opposed to this application as it exists. I do appreciate the concern that's been raised about the birds and the need to preserve the rookery, but I think it's completely unrealistic to think that that rookery is going to be sustained by building homes within a few feet of where they live now. The construction process itself will make those birds leave. And the length of time that it's going to take, they're going to be somewhere else, so it will be gone. So the proposal that the tropical auto bomb provided gives an opportunity to be able to come to some sort of compromise here. With a five-acre buffer, there might be a chance that the rookery will survive, and I think it's important you take that into consideration. And I also wanted to point out, it's been mentioned several times, the term sustainable growth, it's an oxymoron. Thank you, sir. Good morning, commissioners, thank you for being here. Everybody, thank you for coming. Appreciate this. Love an open forum where we can all discuss what's going on respectfully and peacefully. So my name is Alexander Rebello. I'm second-generation Cuban-American. Went to Florida International University, born in Kendall Regional. Spent my whole life in Kendall. Went to Archimedian Upper Conservatory. Graduated there in 2016. I bought my first townhome in the crossings, which is very, very near Calusa, about five years ago. Soon moved up to Calusa, bought a house near the golf course. My address is 13260 Southwest 102nd Street. I bought it with my mother. We moved from the crossings there. It was very hard. So I understand the housing issue going on and what some of the folks have said. With that being said, the traffic in my neighborhood is out of control. My father, he's in the stands. He almost got ran over just last week walking. If we propose 540 homes in that neighborhood, it's going to be a catastrophe. And I'm saying this as somebody who, you know, sees the traffic, people going 80 miles an hour. Nobody seems to care. But I guess something else that I wanted to say is the covenant. What does it say about us as a community if a covenant can be bought? If people that live here can be sold for money? I think we're better than that. I think you guys are better than that. And I think that it will say a lot about us if we sign up to GL Homes. And ultimately, you guys will pay up the ballot. People know what's going on. Thank you for your time. Yes, sir. Waters. Good morning. Good morning. Mary Waters. Excuse me. 13600 Southwest 229 Street, Radlin. Most of you, except for a couple of newer commissioners, know me. I've been doing this now for 10 years. And most all of you think of me as someone who always objects to everything. Not true. Not true. This particular case, you know, I came here this morning to speak on one application that was withdrawn, another one that was deferred. So I figured I'm going to make a little bit more effort of the time that I'm here. And that is, I've been asking the county for a long time, where's the crystal ball? No one has bothered to provide that to me. But everyone keeps talking about how we need all of this housing. This is not going to be a low-end and or affordable housing development by any means. This is going to be high-end. Not that there's anything wrong with high-end homes. But you keep complaining about how we don't have affordable housing. And here, you're willing to take up more green land, destroy more of everything that everyone here in Dade County loves to have because you think we have to have more homes. All right, these are probably going to be homes in the $750 and up price range. Even the ones that are built anymore for $500,000 are mostly unaffordable for many people that need them in Southwest Dade County. I don't understand why you keep taking. I was watching it on the website yesterday about the Kelly tractor issue and all that you are going to try to destroy if you approve that. Now, with GL Homes, if these people are asking for a 330-foot buffer, in my opinion, why don't you make it 500 feet? But do it. You keep destroying every reason of why people think they come to Dade County. And I don't understand why we keep destroying it. You keep talking about all the people coming. Do you even take any attention to the fact of how many are leaving? The people I know in Redland, they're leaving by the droves. So you're going to get more land eventually. But please try and reserve as much of our county as you can. Thank you. Stephen Leitner, 1131 on 2nd Street. Thank you, Mary. I would encourage all of you, before you vote, to take a look at this rookery. It is a wonder of nature. It will blow your mind. Take a look before you vote. If you don't want to embrace the testimony of Tropical Audubon, by all means, bring in an independent expert to evaluate what will protect this rookery. And finally, and as to Mary's comments, sorry to speak so incoherently, but yes, I haven't heard one price point for these homes, these supposedly affordable homes. And finally, an acoustic survey identified bonneted bats in 2021 using this property. An updated acoustic survey is needed. This is a federally protected species, and a take permit will be needed by the developer if the bonneted bats are present. Thank you. Thank you, sir. All right, I think we have one more. Gentlemen, come on down. Sir, state your name and address for the record. You have two minutes to speak. Good morning. My name is John Jack DeCarlo. I live at 10314 Southwest 129 Court in Calusa, Miami, Florida, 33186. I thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. Commissioners, thank you very much. There are a lot of issues that go both ways regarding this golf course that became dilapidated and other things that are going on as far as the density of picking up new homes. First of all, we are putting a development in without really being compliant with the rest of the neighborhood around it. There are really difficulty with traffic around it. Calusa Club Drive is not wide enough to support the traffic that they say is about over 1,000 cars a day. Crime is probably a little bit of a difficulty. The sheriff has recommended about 15 officers will have to be added to be able to control this neighborhood and patrol it and keep it safe. And there's a couple things with environmental in that flooding could be helped or not helped with all the green land being eliminated. And the other thing is the traffic around it. There's a red light that needs to be placed that they haven't considered on 128th Police going on to 104th Street. Again, I would ask you to consider the development as opposed to what was happening several years ago. They took on this development knowing that the community did not want it. And we would appreciate any consideration you can give to make sure that this development becomes as safe as possible. Thank you very much. If anybody has any questions, I'd be glad to answer. Thank you, sir. I've been living inclusive for 33 years. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. All right. That is all the speakers. I'm going to give you all the opportunity to stand up and walk up to the well. So thank you all for coming up. With that, I'll go ahead and officially close a reasonable opportunity for the public to be heard. And if the applicant can walk up to the podium, and as you do that, I'm going to ask my colleague, Commissioner Gonzalez, to read in his Jennings' disclosure. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that. And I have been listening intently. I do want to thank everybody that came out here. Whether I agree with you or not, I think that civic engagement is extremely important. And having your voices heard is the first step to doing that. So thank you to everybody that came in. In an abundance of caution, my office has informed me that we have received calls and emails, correspondence, regarding this application. The content of said calls and correspondence have not been shared with me. Therefore, I am able to be fair in considering this application. And I will base my decision only upon the evidence presented during the public hearing today. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. All right. So, Eileen, you'll have 15 minutes to present. I see someone else at the podium. So you can switch off as you please. But both of you, please introduce yourself. And anybody speaking will need to formally introduce themselves. Yes. I will introduce Mr. Gibbs in just a moment. I'm going to skip the introductory remarks, get right into the presentation. For purposes of the record, I just want you to know we're relying on the definition of the record in your code. We're relying on the items that have been uploaded onto your staff website, which supports your staff application. We have an evidentiary binder that we're going to hand to the clerk right now. We also have a handout for you, which is the PowerPoint hardcopy slides, so that as we just breeze right through that PowerPoint, you've got the copies that you can see in case you want to come back and ask questions. You have heard that many of our ring lot owners collaborated with GL Homes to work out a settlement agreement. Eighty-four percent of the people who are immediately adjacent to this property have supported and filed written support, consents, and waivers in support of this application. They are represented by two attorneys, Mr. Tucker Gibbs and Mr. Chad Friedman. I've asked them to just very briefly address you, come to the podium, and tell you why their clients are supporting this application after the negotiations. Absolutely. Mr. Gibbs, please fully introduce yourself. Yes. My name is Tucker Gibbs with law offices at 3835 Utopia Court in Coconut Grove, and I'm representing Save Calusa Trust. The trust membership includes a great majority of the homeowners abutting the applicant's property on Calusa Drive, and they strongly support this application. As Ms. Winters spoke just a little while ago, the applicant is not the first entity to propose the development on this site. All previous proposals have failed because they didn't listen to the neighbors. This applicant, GL Holmes, took a different approach and worked closely with the neighbors. It took years, but the result is the application you have before you today. Florida courts require decision-makers like you to base their development decisions on competent, substantial evidence. These courts have determined that professional staff reports, like the one here, are competent, substantial evidence. Your professional zoning staff does not represent the developer, the objectors, or the trust. It's an impartial evaluator. It has no axe to grind. And on behalf of the trust, my client urges you to follow the staff recommendation and approve this application. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you, sir. Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the commission, Chad Friedman, 2800 Ponce de Leon Boulevard. I also represent the trust. We're really here today because from this dais, you made a request that the neighbors meet with the developer, and we followed your lead. We worked for years, as you heard, to meet with the developer, and we came to a solution, a solution that benefits not just the ring owners, but also the community surrounding the area. The developer could have proposed more units. They could have proposed less open space, but they didn't. We believe that this developer is the right developer. We believe it's the right development. And on behalf of the trust, we just want to say that we're in full support. Thank you. Thank you, sir. I would next like to introduce Mr. Richard Norwalk. He is the executive vice president of GL Homes. He has a PowerPoint presentation, and we'll do it as fast as we can. Thank you. All right. Yes, this is a new challenge, 15 minutes. I'm going to try and keep it short. You're down to 12, Richard. The housing shortage is severe in the suburban tier. We propose a well-located infill community within the UDB. Click past this one. The 540 single-family home site plan provides over three miles of landscape buffers. Over two-thirds of the community is going to be either green or blue space. A water-focused entry is going to have major landscaping. This is going to be beautiful. The clubhouse has everything expected, plus an indoor sport court. Five acres of recreation is going to include tennis and pickleball courts, resort-style pools, a kid's splash pad, and a shaded play area. We're going to feature contemporary homes with luxury features ranging from 1,900 to 4,400 square feet. Just a little history. The course did close in 2011. The owner did want to develop. The restriction was an issue. We needed that 75% of adjacent homeowners to agree. We got involved in 2016. The previous landowner, the county, and the homeowners were in court fighting about this restriction's legality. We reached out to the homeowners and found common ground because we were advised to by the county commission. We had two years, this was litigation, of court-supervised negotiations. We returned to the commission with settlement of the litigation and consent of 84% of the homeowners. And, by the way, only 17 have moved. All of these narratives are kind of made up. And the commission removed the restriction. With no restriction, the CDMP allows up to 1,008 homes, but our 540-home plan is shaped by our court-approved 78-page agreement. Oops, I just showed some of the planning collaborations that we had. There were a bunch of them. We also built in collaboration with ringlot owners and a broader group in public meetings, in four public processes, and in webinars. We, in the original Save Colusa Trust, moved from adversaries to collaborators, but we also met with current opposition multiple times, including inviting them to our site for those inspections. And from those conversations, we added lighting restrictions. We performed bad inspections, not required. We mailed supplemental notice for this hearing, outside of the half-mile requirement. We provided access whenever required. We've tried to engage whenever we can, but we're not going to renegotiate our settlement agreement or overturn regulator-approved plans. So the commission approved zoning in 2021. The circuit court upheld the commission's approval, but the third district court required rehearing due to notice error, not substance. We're back with virtually the same application, plus a plan to preserve a rookery. So objections over the years. Let's address them. Traffic intensity is about the same as when we were approved in 2021. Our site plan has less density than 2021. It continues to meet county criteria. It continues to enjoy staff support. And you've heard inklings of us trying to go overboard to address the existing cut-through traffic problem. All public schools, there's traffic, all public schools, including Calusa Elementary, have available capacity. For parks, we follow direction from this commission, directing parks funds to the bicycle trail system. And the parks memo documents surplus parks in the district. With respect to bonneted bats that came up, U.S. and Fish and Wildlife has been to the site. They said Calusa's tree cavities are not typical for nesting. Six years of inspecting, six years have shown no roosting, and that supports their observation. For bonneted bats that fly over Calusa, like they fly over all of South Miami-Dade County, our site plan is bonneted bat friendly. We're applying best management practices. Now let's talk about the rookery. This rookery is one-tenth of one percent of the property, 0.15 acres on a 169-acre site. We are preserving it. The dominant nesting bird is the cattle egret, having around 100 nests a year. Cattle egrets thrive in the suburbs. They are not threatened. They're like the white ibises that you walk past every time you walk in here. Other species sometimes include one state-protected species, the tricolored heron. Each of the last three years, only zero or one tricolored heron pair has nested. Now in contrast to Calusa, just two South Florida surveys list 12 tricolored heron rookeries that have 99 to 304 tricolored heron nests. The total just on this list is 2,235. That list doesn't count smaller Florida rookeries. It also doesn't count rookeries elsewhere in Florida because they're throughout Florida. So make no mistake. This bird should be helped. But helping on this site is hard when there's only one nest in the last three years. We do have a plan. But let's address the rookerie plan objections first. Tropical Audubon and opponents narrowly focus on this 330-foot number around nesting as key to nesting success. They say the lake needs to stay exactly as it is. They are wrong on both counts. Two environmental experts reviewed academic and technical literature since the 1960s and compiled field data based on six or more rookery inspections each nesting season for four years. And they concluded that there is absolutely no scientific basis for a 330-foot buffer at Calusa. They're here today for questions. More importantly than these experts, FWC has jurisdiction to protect tricolored herons. FWC issued a permit for the exact lake on our site plan as built and specific buffer requirements we'll adhere to. That permit has been renewed through 2028. FWC also got questioned by Tropical Audubon and directly responded. They pointed out that tricolored herons already nested when they nested within 90 feet of an existing home. They wrote that nesting within 100 feet suggests that birds are tolerant of human activity, including construction activity at one of the houses that did a renovation. FWC is a regulatory expert. Despite FWC's response, Tropical Audubon focuses on this single study, one of 80 cited in FWC's species review. FWC evaluates individual sites in light of 80 studies plus facts and circumstances. For instance, the study Tropical Audubon quotes was done for park managers, not for the suburbs. The study surveyed 15 species rather than a specific bird at a specific site. And finally, it intentionally limited visits so birds would not get used to people. The authors acknowledged the limitation and recommended studies on acclimation. What's acclimation? It's when birds are around humans. For example, Gatorland's ecological consultant shared these observations. The Gatorland rookeries near a zipline with loud voices yelling and has never been observed to cause distress to nesting birds. Tricolored herons nest within 50 feet of the parking lot, guest walkways, and the zipline. This colony has become fully accustomed to human activity because FWC and experts know that birds that choose to live near humans act differently than those in remote areas. We will restrict heavy construction during nesting season, but neither FWC nor the science supports a year-round restriction. Our experts, FWC and Durham, developed a plan for Calusa's real-life situation. Let's attract waiting birds instead of having one nest. First, we do have the appropriate protections. Lakes near new homes will be wide enough to protect from egg-eating mammals crossing. The existing narrow crossing point in orange at the bottom is dangerous. It's less than 40 feet wide in dry season next to where herons have nested. We're going to widen and deepen that. The brown line to the right is the narrowest point of new development, and it's much wider. Beyond protections, we're going to work to attract birds by improving habitat and creating multiple on-site foraging areas. We'll address the most important way to get more nesting by increasing availability of fish to capture. Look, the current algae-infested habitat is poor for tricolored herons. With few fish, they fly off-site to forage. We're going to clean up the water. Make the lake mimic wetlands and stock with fish. Improvements listed above are two pages of rookery. We have two pages of this. I just did an excerpt. Let's skip past this. Lots of improvements. A wetlands expert scored positive and negative impacts of our development. The technical analysis concluded rookery habitat will be better after we build our community than it is today. He's here today. Durham's recommended approval. They consulted when we developed the plan. They required refinement of the plan. They attended monthly inspections. They're going to enforce zoning conditions, and they've given us additional conditions. So on-site, we're doing what we can. But without Ness on-site, we partnered with FWC Foundation to help tricolored herons across the state. Their 2024 annual report recognized our work in saving many birds, not a single bird. Here's copies. As part of our outreach, we also offered to partner with Safe Colusa and Tropical Audubon to help tricolored herons. Both turned us down. Even so, we were hoping they'd at least acknowledge our efforts. There's our acknowledgement. The Safe Colusa page pin says we're going to bulldoze the rookery. It says our plan is more destructive than when we were building homes there. Oops, I got off of that. I don't want to waste our time, but trying to go back and can't. Ready to bulldoze. It links to a petition. They do get people riled up. Listen, the commission approved this application in 2021. We've strengthened it since with a robust rookery plan. The approval is going to bring jobs. It's within the UDB. We're going to make significant traffic improvements. We have a positive recommendation from every county department. We ask you to once again approve this application. And I will say that we have uploaded all of our expert witness reports. Everything has been publicly available for quite some time. You've heard a lot about traffic. We're putting in 14 different items of traffic enhancements, signalization adjustments, actual infrastructure improvements. I have my traffic engineer, Tim Plummer, here. He can explain anything about those traffic improvements if you want to hear them. But otherwise, we have his PowerPoint that's been handed out to you. And if you don't need to hear from Tim, then I would simply say you have a very positive staff recommendation with no objections from any department. We ask that you rely on that staff recommendation as substantial competent evidence and approve the application. We'll accept all the conditions of your staff. Thank you. And if you wish to hear from Mr. Plummer, he's right here. And I've got 30 seconds left if you want to talk to him. Thank you, Eileen. That is exceptional. Thank you for that. All right. With that, Mr. Winker, do you want to come on up? And Amanda, if you're coming with him. But yes, thank you. And if I could put up my PowerPoint, David Winker, offices at 4720 South Lejeune Road. The U.S. Supreme Court in Euclid v. Ambler made clear that residents have a right to participate in what their neighborhoods look like. As you heard earlier today, we're here today because of a settlement. We're here today because of ring owners lifting a covenant regarding a restriction on a golf course. This was supposed to be a golf course. It was supposed to remain a golf course. The ring owners were paid, as you heard today, hundreds of thousands of dollars to agree to remove that. Actually, I think there's another PowerPoint. This is Amanda's PowerPoint. If you could switch to the other one. That's it. In my procedural letter, I asked that all ex parte discussions with the developer be disclosed, and I appreciate you all doing that. I also asked that commissioners disclose their political contributions. You heard testimony today, and we read in the Miami Herald, Doug Hanks' article, hundreds of thousands of dollars paid by GL Homes. Why is this important? It's about how government works. Of course, we can agree to disagree on whether this project is right for this location, but we have to agree on the process, and we're going to go through failings in the process. We're here because there was a failing in the first process, and I'm going to go through some of the problems with the application, and we're going to ask that you deny the application and make them go back to the drawing board. I think it's important to think about the neighborhood. The neighbors are overwhelmingly opposed to this. Why can I say that? You heard people stand up. You heard people wave and say, I support this project. Well, now you have some background on why many of them are here. They're being paid to be here. That's what's happening. And I think maybe part of the process would be for residents who are being paid to be required to say what they're being paid. That's all done in secret. They will not disclose because of a settlement agreement. They're not allowed to disclose that. We don't know exactly what they've been paid, and I think that's important. So with that being said, I'd like to start my PowerPoint. Go to the next page. Next page. You don't have a clicker with you? Say it. You should have a clicker. Oh, good. Thank you. We submitted a deferral request. The deferral request was based on the incidental take permit was approved yesterday. And I'm going to go into why we think there were some misrepresentations in the application. And we're going to be appealing that. So I think that there causes a bit of an issue here where if you guys approve this application, we're going to have an appeal of the incidental take to move these birds and to deal with the birds. So I think it's premature for you guys to decide on that until the wildlife issue is addressed. We have issues with the traffic study not being completed. And we haven't seen the rookery covenant. I don't think you guys have either. And you're being asked to vote based upon a rookery covenant that we haven't seen. As I said, the incidental take permit was issued on February 18th. And we're going to be appealing that because the disclosure underestimates the potential disturbance and impacts. The lake modifications. The dark blue line there is the edge of the existing lake. I did this so you can see the encroachment of the homes on the existing lake. This is just greed. There's no reason to mess with this lake. There's no reason for this to happen. And at a minimum, you should push back on this. This is not acceptable. The incidental take permit. This is one of my big issues. The application states that 16 homes fall within the 330 feet. My calculation is at least 29 homes. I don't know where they're getting 16. It doesn't, it is just, it looks like it's a misrepresentation of the number of homes. In the permit, there's no CAD file. They use the survey and the zoning record, again, of the 13 homes. This discrepancy, let's call it, doubles the potential for noise, lighting, vibration, and routine human presence immediately adjacent to the habitat, increasing the likelihood of disturbance. And again, I would go back to, this is a rookery within an urban area. This is something worth protecting. The rookery protections and analysis speaks for itself. We need this done properly. We need these protections done properly. This should be a collaborative process to make this work. You heard Mr. Norwalk push back on Audubon, push back on the studies. What we need is to work together to come up to the solution. No more pushback. Let's protect this rookery. The rookery protections are insufficient. Now, the law. The CDMP, number nine, talks about county-designated endangered threat in a rare species. They don't adequately address these county-protected, protected by us in the county. They don't address any of these dozen species. They only look at the federally protected. The traffic study. You heard everyone talk about it. You heard the evidence. This is 4,000 additional two-way trips on already crowded roads. This was done in 2025. It's missing the additional traffic study. We'd asked you to defer this to make them get the traffic study done. Southwest 104th AM traffic. Anyone, you heard residents talk about it. It's a nightmare. The rookery covenant. Again, the owner agreed. Within six months of initiation of the filling of the rookery lake, shall proffer a separate covenant of the Miami-Dade County guaranteeing a perpetual reservation and management of the rookery. No draft provided. Sheriff's Office, you heard people talk about that. Septic tanks surround this area not being addressed. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Amanda to do her PowerPoint, but I would finish. What do we want? The required analysis completed. We do want the minimum 300-foot distance. Preserve the existing lake. And we want a park. Community benefit. Let's offset this negative impact. There was a time when you could have, in the 90s, landed a commercial jet on Brickell because of the space between the buildings. We agreed to increase density. We agreed to increase height. We agreed to allow Brickell to look the way it looks. And that's a decision that residents make, elected officials make. But in return for that, we should have gotten world-class schools, world-class museums, world-class libraries, world-class transportation. We could have gotten all that. All we needed was our elected officials to negotiate on residents' behalf and make these developments work for residents. We want everyone to make money. We do need more housing. Let's make it work for everybody. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Amanda Prieto. Just to those in the meeting room, if we could keep that presentation up, it actually included my slides. It was the wrong one. I'll do a little bit of intro here so we don't lose time, and then I'll add a little more detail to what he's already said. My name's Amanda Prieto. I live at 13390 Southwest 91st Terrace in Calusa. I am a resident, and I think it's important to note that I'm a volunteer, and I've been advocating on behalf of my community for five years now. And this is a literal David versus Goliath. David, our pro bono attorney, and the Goliath mammoth of attorneys and lobbyists that are working to build this development in our community. So I'd like to remind you for a moment that I stood here four years ago and said, please don't vote today. There are tricolored heron nesting. The environmental reports are not accurate. We aren't ready for this vote. And that notice was insufficient. And since that time, I was proven to be right. So those things were independently verified. Now we know there is a Calusa rookery. The tricolored heron are nesting there. And the notice went all the way to Florida Supreme Court. So I'm here today to say this is still not good enough. And I want you to know that, yes, I tried to meet with GL Holmes. I am a reasonable person. I know that something will likely be built here. I would compromise. I was told, I don't have to negotiate with you. I've already reached an agreement with the ring owners. And my issue with that is that excludes over 1,500 homes in my community, thousands of people that have not had a voice in this process. I said, listen, please give me a park or a preserve. It reduces the traffic. It reduces the houses. It improves the wildlife habitat. He said no. So I just want you to know that I was open to that. I am appreciative of the lady that mentioned that this term is thrown around a little loosely, but I'm not a NIMBY. I did go in support of a huge development in my community. And I feel like that's very important. And the reason I supported it, it is on the transit way. There was no land use covenant. There was no wildlife habitat. That is a more responsible development in my community, literally the other side of our elementary school where my children go. So I did support that. It is a better choice for my community. I have no problem with the apartment buildings. They gave me 13% open green space. That's important. If I were to get that same percentage here, it would be about 20 acres around the rookery. So they were willing to negotiate and work with the community. I would like to add that this is luxury-gated homes, million-dollar homes. This is not workforce housing. This is not affordable housing. These are private, gated communities, over a million dollars per home. So I'd like to just pull up. This is the before and after of my community. And I want you to understand that there is a ring road that goes all the way around Calusa. It's called the Calusa Club Drive. The traffic study for that ring road has not been provided. It is listed as a requirement in your DTPW concurrency memo that they have to provide this. As a resident of this community, I deserve to see it and offer public comment before you vote. I feel like it's a really important piece of how this traffic is going to affect an established community. You cannot get in or out of this community unless you go on or over Calusa Club Drive. This is the rookery. The dark blue line is the existing size of the lake. They would like to reduce it by 28%. There is no ecological benefit to reducing the size of the lake. They can still build houses. They don't need to reduce the size of the lake. The only reason to do that is to include more houses. I had this done by a consulting firm. So I was concerned when I looked at the number of homes mentioned in both the PAD agreement and the incidental take permit that they kept referencing 16 homes within 330 feet. I asked for their original CAD file so I could give it to a consultant so I could have them, you know, submit as an expert, but they weren't making that available. So they took their survey, and this is an estimate, so I need to preface that. It is an estimate. And they drew 300-foot circles, asked for 300 feet again to give that 30-foot little buffer in case it was slightly off. Their estimate is 29 homes fall within 300 feet. And that's the basis that we're going to appeal the Fish and Wildlife Survey permit. What I want you to understand is one of the reasons that Fish and Wildlife will allow development is if it's of similar nature, size, and scale to what is already there. Right now, there are six homes on the south side of this rookery. There are three sides of the rookery that are open green space. I don't feel like it is a similar impact of size or nature to put houses within 100 feet on those other three sides. So that's part of our appeal to Fish and Wildlife. There is no public comment opportunity for residents during that permit cycle, so I had to wait for it to be approved before we could go through an appeal process. My clicker is a little stuck here. Let me check. I have one minute left. Did I cover everything, David? Okay, I think what I would close with is if you vote today, that's it. We can't come back and make this proposal better. This is our last chance to both offer feedback and try to work with the county and the developer to improve this proposal. We can't come back later and say the rookery has failed. We can't come back later and say traffic is atrocious. This is our only opportunity to improve this project. And so I ask you to please reconsider it. Take a little more time, get the missing information, and then everything is transparent and you will have all the information you need. Thank you very much, and I really appreciate the extra time. Thank you. Of course, absolutely. All right, Eileen, are you going to need to address anything? Yeah, may I do rebuttal in my remaining 30 seconds that I had? Yeah, so I'll do one better for you. I'll give you two minutes instead of 30 seconds, and then, Mr. Winker, if you have something. But this is going to occur for one round. Okay. Okay, so you'll be able to say something now, and then Mr. Winker can have his – I'll give him another two minutes. I'd venture to say, if I was a betting man, that the objector side has spoken and had a lot more time than the applicant side overall when you put in the public speakers, and I'm okay with that. But I just want to make sure that I'm being as fair as possible, and anyone can correct me if they feel otherwise. So you'll have two minutes, and then Mr. Winker can have two minutes to sort of rebut. But we do need to start discussing this among the days so that we can see where this is going to go. So go ahead, Eileen. Yes, Mr. Winker mentioned a covenant that he hadn't seen. He hadn't seen the draft. And I wanted to explain what that is and why it provides for it will be submitted after the filling of the lake. In order to do that covenant and have it recorded in the public records, we have to have an as-built survey of where that lake is located. And we can't do an as-built survey until the lake has actually been filled and constructed the way it needs to be. That is the reason for the timing on that. However, all of the information about protecting the rookery and protecting the lake and maintaining it in perpetuity and so forth, that's in the preceding paragraph of that same document. It's there. And I just want to remind you that you have a, as your second request here, an unusual use for lake excavations. So you can condition anything with regard to perpetual maintenance of the rookery and the lake to that lake excavation if you need to. It's available to you. But we've already taken care of it. And the only reason is because we have to have as-built to record the covenant. Second, FWC is the agency authorized by the Florida Constitution to protect wildlife. And they're the ones that have made these decisions as to buffer distances. I haven't heard any experts coming here and saying that what the FWC has determined, based upon their field data as well as their guidelines, their official public guidelines, should not be taken into account. So we would object to that suggestion that there hasn't been adequate attention paid to this. FWC is, in fact, the authority with jurisdiction. And I'd also quickly object to the fact that people are being paid to attend this hearing. That is not the case. They were not paid to show up today. Mr. Winker, are you going to want to- And thank you for still leaving. Yes, very, very quickly. Yes, we would like to see a draft of- I understand that it can't be filed, but as part of the application, we would say that the draft of the protective measures should be made available and allow public input on that. And as far as the second issue of the FWC, absolutely, FWC has the jurisdiction. They were given the incorrect information. We showed you the number of homes. We believe we're going to be successful in the appeal of that because the information given to the FWC is simply incorrect. It's almost double the homes as they put in the application. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. So with that, we've concluded our public hearing. We've concluded both the objector side representation. We've concluded the applicant side presentation. Is there any opposition to any of the time that was allotted? Does everybody feel that they got fair and equitable time? Yes, I'm seeing the objector side representation nodding yes to the applicant, nodding yes. Okay. So that said, Commissioner from District 7, you are recognized. Thank you very much. I'm happy to move the item and take any questions or comments from my colleagues. I'll speak at the end. All right. So we have a motion to move the item. We have a second. Per staff's recommendations. Per staff's recommendations. Do we have a second? Second by the vice chair. So we have a motion and we have a second to move the item. Anyone wishing to speak on the item? Commissioner Gonzalez, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, you know, first and foremost, I want to thank everybody that came out and spoke today. I want you to know that everybody up here was listening and that your voices are heard. I want to thank the applicant for their presentation. I want to start by saying that because you were extremely professional in your presentation. Very professional. Very articulate. I understand what you're trying to do here. I appreciate a lot of the concessions and a lot of the effort. I think you've done a wonderful job. I want to thank the attorney on the opposing side. Extremely prepared. A lot of passion. A lot of heart. I feel you. I live close to here. I want to be as unbiased as I can. But this is very close to my district. And normally, I'm just, not even normally, in general, I put heavy weight on what the commissioner of the district opines because I respect the commissioner of the district and the fact that they are directly connected to the area. I have written articles on what I think is the biggest issue in Miami-Dade County. And in my opinion, the biggest issue in Miami-Dade County is traffic. Right now, I just read an article that said that among the worst traffic major metropolitan areas, Miami-Dade ranks number three. And I do feel that the applicant is trying to go above and beyond with helping with the traffic issue. But I've heard a lot of public testimony today, and I've expressed in my own op-eds, you know, you can't ask for more density and more housing without addressing how much traffic anybody building whatsoever is going to generate. We can't separate housing from traffic and mobility. And I've said time and time again that the future of Miami-Dade County, whether we like it or not, is going to be the south and the southwest. Building is necessary. It can be done responsibly. And responsible building, like in many major metropolitan areas, requires live, work, and play. Again, I think the applicant has tried to go above and beyond. But in coming here, I heard that there was about 3,800 protests with over 600 waivers. And I think the reason for that is even though there are traffic concessions for the immediate neighborhood, we have to think about, or at least what I'm thinking about when I'm trying to make my decision, is how does this affect the rest of Kendall in general? Because I'm a Kendall guy. And I feel like if this is approved right now, it's definitely going to impact Kendall Drive, Killian, and beyond. I think a lot of the developments are seen as single geographic instances. And I think a lot of decisions have been made thinking of single geographic instances. And maybe there's some consideration of their surrounding area, but we need to see things countywide. How one development affects not only the neighborhood, but the area and the county overall. I do like the fact that there have been some concessions to more substantial traffic studies. I do appreciate that. And I want to be supportive of the application because I have heard a lot of folks out here say that they want some sort of certainty. Um, I've been to this golf course and I have a lot of friends that grew up in the area that would prefer a park, but I have heard even in the, uh, opposition's remark that, you know, they're willing to do some sort of concession out there. In my humble opinion, I believe that for Miami-Dade County to thrive, we need connectivity and mobility. You can't have one conversation without having the other part of that connectivity derives from live, work, play. I don't think in just, it's just my opinion, but because of the surrounding area, 540 homes doesn't bring that live, work, play aspect and the connectivity for me. I am curious and I want to hear definitely from what my colleagues think. And I definitely want to hear what the commissioner of the district thinks, but without even looking at the environmental issues, simply looking at the traffic issues right now, I'm not going to be able to support this. Thank you. Commissioner Cohen-Higgins, you're recognized. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to the residents that came out both in favor and in support. And you've heard us probably compliment attorneys and or lobbyists from the dais recently. But to Ms. Prieto, I want to particularly compliment you. It's very clear your passion and your knowledge about this subject. And I thank you for being such a vocal advocate on behalf of the residents of your community. I think you did a really great job. And to the applicant, I recognize that a number of concessions have been made working with the residents. I don't like hearing, however, comments like, we don't need to work with you. We've already settled and are in settlement with, I guess, just the ring leaders or the, not the ring leaders, excuse me, the homes that are on the ring. And I don't need to go into whether that was a representation that was accurate or not. But I don't have any reason to not accept the veracity of that statement. And when I have, when I am considering applications like this where there are so many residents that come out, it reminds me, frankly, of my district because we have a lot of applications and we have a number of applications where the residents will come out in very large numbers in opposition. And my message is always the same on those applications to the developers and to the applicants. I say go back and work with the neighbors. Go back and work with the neighbors because I think it's good policy. I think it's good government to have developers work with and consider the neighborhood that they are entering into and that they're asking us for permission to be granted to do whatever type of development that they want to do. I think it's respectful and I know that you've worked with the neighbors in this regard. But when I look at the numbers here and the sheer magnitude of this project, it makes me wonder why after so many years and you all have been litigating this and that's why I really thank everybody for coming out because you all have been here before. I was here in November 21, 2021, when this application was approved by this board. And I remember there was a number of people here as well. But after so many years, the fact that you still have so many people in opposition to your project gives me great concern. And when I hear the concerns that they are raising, they're not saying don't build anything. They're not saying don't build anything in our backyard. They're saying give us 330 feet buffer. They're saying give us a park. I don't think that those are unreasonable requests on an application that is spanning 170 acres where you are building 540 homes, presumably at a million dollars each or more. Do the math on this. You bought the property in 2021 for $32 million. That is an incredible investment. You're going to do very, very well should this application approve. And this is to the applicant. You're going to do very, very well. To me, I do not understand why greater concessions were not made based on the requests that were coming from the homeowners. And I say that because oftentimes in my district, when applications come that are heavily contentious, they come back to me with an agreement reached with the neighbors. And my neighbors and my community will say, vast majority, the developer has worked with us and has reached an agreement with us, not for a paid covenant to be released, but just through conversations, just through dialogue. They might want to park. They might want water sidewalks. They might want a certain foliage planted. But the vast majority of the time, an agreement is reached in a much farther truncated time frame, like within a couple of hearings, so within a couple of months. So for me, when I see from 2021 to now 2026, there's still so many residents in vast opposition to this project with so much to be gained by the developer financially should this application pass, it just makes me wonder why is it that you couldn't just concede a little bit further? Why couldn't you work with them a little bit more? And so for those reasons, based on all of the evidence that I've seen today and all of the testimony that's been given, I will not be able to support this application. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Commissioner. All right. No further, any further discussion on the dais? All right. Commissioner Lopez? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to say that my district, of course, as you all know, is a very urban setting, and so I often don't hear these kind of applications, obviously. As was stated, Brickell was developed, and it unfortunately has become very dense, and we don't have parks, and we don't have schools. And I think, you know, from someone who has had the opportunity to represent that district, first as a state representative and then as their county commissioner now, it is a constant complaint. We are, you know, we recognize, we all recognize that that is the world that we now live in, in the urban core. However, it's the same as what's happening on Miami Beach, which is now part of my new district, and so I'm sensitive to the fact that there's no green space. I mean, if not for very small, little pieces of property, we don't have anywhere in which to really enjoy any kind of outdoor, which is most important when you have such high density, because we're living in very closed spaces, and for us it has been an important missing piece of the development that has gone on in my district. And, of course, that's just been the story of Brickell and downtown, which I also represent. And now, of course, most of you may not know that I represent 1,087 condominium associations, meaning at least 1,087 buildings, of which we don't have any green space for. And so I want you to understand that I may not be able to move forward with this application because I'm hearing already from my own residents that we need more green space where I live and represent. So it's a difficult choice for me to make because I understand that we need housing, and all of you know that I've been a real proponent of housing, but I want to make sure that we understand, and to Commissioner Cohen-Higgins' point, there are some concessions that can be made and should be made because I'm asking developers in my district to make those very concessions now, asking them to do more for community benefits, asking them to invest in transit that are important to my district. So I don't see why we can't figure out a way, and I don't disagree. I think it's a necessary evil, unfortunately, that we have to build more housing, but I do believe that there is a way for developers and for residents to work together. I know I've had to ask that of developers that are developing in my district, and I know sometimes it takes a lot of time, and I do believe that there are some reasonable requests that have been made that may be able to be accomplished. So I think moving forward, I think that that's a direction that we should be taking. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Commissioner. Vice Chairman, you're recognized. District Commissioner, I think a few wanted to hear from you before. Yes. First and foremost, thank you for everyone that has come out. As many of you noted, this has been a decades-long fight. I want to say that, first, I'm glad that the conversation has shifted. For a long time, the opposition wanted Miami-Dade County to buy this parcel and build a park. That was many of the conversations we had early on in this application, and obviously that's a non-starter. When this application came before us, we were able to get a lot of concessions the first time around, which includes $1.8 million for a bike path and a lot of mobility and connectivity and a lot of the traffic concessions, including no left turns and officers, things that are just not available in other parts, not just of Miami-Dade County, but of my district. The situation with the ring and the covenant and all of that, those are legal issues amongst yourselves. It really has nothing to do with the Board of County Commissioners in terms of the decision to undo the covenant. I will say that this, and I use the word golf course with hesitation because it's not. It's just an abandoned piece of land that, when I was elected in 2020, had a lot of illegal dumping and has a lot of problems. It has a lot of runoff. It has contamination. It's not a green space. So I think that that's important to clarify. I think the reductions in homes has been good, and I really want to thank Durham for the amazing work that they've done on the rookery. The rookery was, for me, an important component of this. The amount of time that staff has put into the rookery, the protections of the rookery, is really significant. And for a lot of representations that were made about the rookery, I just want to say, as someone who has followed that part of it closely, because that's separate and apart from everything else, there's always been someone living 100 feet from this rookery. It's an urban rookery. And one of the things that I value in this application is the intent and the making that habitat better. It's a habitat that's full of invasives. We're going to redo it. They're going to fix it. I think it will be a much better rookery once this is done. There's been restrictions as to lighting around it. I know that there have been some requests about putting a park next to the rookery. I think that's a horrible idea. I would never put an active space next to a rookery. I mean, you were saying that if a backyard that's 100 feet away is going to be bad for a rookery, why would you put an active park next to a rookery? So I think that's a – I understand where it comes from, but there is passive green space and active green space, and I think that active green space would actually do more harm for the birds, even as an urban center – urban rookery. But that being said, I will say I'm happy to – I think that concessions have been made. I think that some of the issues that have been brought up cannot be fixed. The reality is that there is a group of people who want nothing built here, and I understand that. And I'm glad to see that a lot of people have come around and understood that something must be built here. Respectfully, Commissioner Gonzalez, this is not an area for mixed use. There is plenty of commercial area around here, and I appreciate that you live by there. But I was not here when the apartment buildings were approved, and I would not have supported apartment buildings on the back end of Calusa Elementary. I don't agree with them. I think they're in the wrong place. I don't care how much green space they gave. The height of them and the fact that they look into people's backyards is unnecessary, and I believe in contrast with what is a residential area. This is and should be a residential area. So I caution the neighbors because – and I've said this before when this issue has come up – you know, if you keep being against any sort of development, you might get a level of density that is in conflict with what you are used to. That being said, if you want to defer it and give more time, you know, for people to meet, I'm happy to defer it another month. I think everyone has met. I think everyone has talked about it. I think there's a lot of concessions that have been made. I always ask people to meet with neighbors. I always ask them to make concessions. This has several hundreds of people that are impacted. Concessions were made with the ring people. That took 20 years. Concessions were made around the area. There's a lot of people that live around the area that are also in support. I think you're always going to have people against development when there is nothing there. The one positive thing that I will say about time is that time has given us the opportunity to really protect the rookery, and I think that that is valuable for my district and for all of Miami-Dade County. This is, in fact, the only urban rookery. But I also want to point out, as a former school board member, that one of the issues that I had with this application early on was that Calusa Elementary was over-enrolled. That is no longer the case. There is plenty of space at Calusa Elementary for the children that will live here one day to walk to school. And not a lot of people have the ability to walk to school. There's a lot of parks in this area. There's a tremendous amount of green space. I think that the traffic concessions that are being made are traffic concessions that only a developer can make. Miami-Dade County cannot make them. But we're currently doing a lot of road work in the Calusa area because for over 20 years, road work was not done there. And there is a tremendous need for better signalization. And we're working on that, but it is very, very expensive. And as my colleagues know, it is difficult for us to determine where to spend money in terms of roads. So a lot of the improvements that are being made are going to be borne by this development. The impact fees that are going to be paid are going to go into maintaining and fixing those roads. And I think that that is something that folks should appreciate. But if the board does not feel comfortable, I feel comfortable voting on this today. I think that the concessions that have been made are good. I think that time has made this a better project. There has been a significant reduction in homes. I don't have anything against homes at this price point. They're actually very common in my district. And there is a need for them. I don't think that we get into splitting hairs about doing something that is so different in this area. I am not for mixed use in this area. I don't want apartment buildings. I don't want multi-residential homes. And I don't think any of the neighbors do. I think what makes this unique is that there's very few parcels in Miami-Dade County where there currently is nothing. And now there will be something. And that is something that doesn't happen all the time. But it is unique because of a 20-something year litigation, not because it is a green space. And I believe that we have protected the habitat. And if you haven't read the 300-page memo that Durham wrote on this habitat, you should read it. It really is worth reading the amount of work and time that Miami-Dade County and their staff has put in with our partners to ensure that this habitat not only is protected, but that it will be better in the future than it currently is at this moment. So if the board does not feel comfortable with voting on this today, I'm happy to defer it. So I do not believe that a deferral will lead to many more concessions, but I'm also happy to call the question and take the vote. So, Commissioner Regalado, I am prepared to take a vote today, and I do have several concerns with it as well, but I am prepared to take a vote today. Are you wanting me to call that vote? Do you want to withdraw your original motion and make a motion to defer? However, it's at your will at this point, but I think you've heard from our colleagues. What would you decide to do? Well, I haven't heard from everyone. The ones that want to speak. I haven't heard from everyone. So that's my only hesitation. I mean, I've only heard from... I would... I have some... Mr. Chairman? You're recognized. I may. I originally voted for this project, and now after considering all the facts, I do see some concerns. I think it's important that we have more conversations with the residents of the area. The problem that I have, folks, is that every time we have a green space, and I understand that this could be developed. I get that. But every time we have a green space, we always look to develop, and we need to really consider how we move forward with these forms of applications. The biggest problem we have in our community right now is affordable housing, workforce housing. Is this really going to solve that issue? It's really not. We have, as chairman of parks now, that I wasn't chairman of parks before, I understand the fact that we have a lack of green spaces. Every time we have a green space, and now we look what the school board is doing. I'm not necessarily 100% against it, but I'm not in favor of it, turning our green spaces into workforce housing as well. But workforce housing is fitting a need in our community, so we can have that conversation and dialogue moving forward. So, for me, right now, I just don't know if I can get there where this application is before us at this moment. So, Commissioner Regalado, I voice my opinion on that because maybe a deferral may be in good standing right now. I appreciate that, and I'm happy to defer it to the next meeting. Okay. Vice Chair, given that it looks like it's going in the direction of a deferral, do you still want to speak on it? No, I'm fine, based on what the district commissioner has made the request for. All right, and then for the record, just because of a comment that Senator Garcia just made, this is a zoning application, so we cannot speak with the residents. But I would urge the applicants to continue meeting with the objectors, representatives under the objectors, and give us some sort of concessions. If there's no additional concessions for the next meeting, like at that point, we would vote now. The idea of deferring this is to get some additional and see a better application. It is worth noting as well, and very important, so all that came out today and took the time out of your day, both in opposition and in favor, is that public hearing has been had for this item. And it was, as you all witnessed, was very lengthy for that matter. Public hearing has only had one time. It will not happen again if this is deferred here today. In the next meeting, everyone coming up to speak will not happen again. The only opportunity that I would grant is if there is a change in the application. Then I would allow for the applicant and the one representative for the objectors to presumably come and speak a few minutes on the changes. But other than that, there will be no public hearing. So it's important that you know that as the way the process works and that you know that for purposes of if you want to save, if you wanted to save a trip and watch it from home, you could. So, Vice Chairman, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. But really quickly, I just want to, I've heard some things on the record, and I just want to confirm that those things are, in fact, true. Staff, did I hear that correctly that the, what is staff's recommendation on this item in its current form? The staff recommendation is for approval with the PAD agreement and covenant. So your position is to approve it as it is with the? Correct. Okay, subject to the covenant. The agreement and the covenant. Correct. And your analysis takes into place the traffic studies that we heard earlier about the impact to that surrounding area? We did review a traffic study. It was reviewed by Public Works and all the county staff. And on page nine of our staff report, we list the improvements that the applicant has proffered. And if I'm hearing you correctly, you also took into account the recreational amenities, the environmental enhancements, the infrastructure and connectivity, and the housing and community impact, and in addition to that, the educational capacity of this particular application. Is that correct? That's correct. That's correct. That's correct. That's correct. I brought that up because I do believe both sides are closing in where there's a possible agreement. And Commissioner Regalado, you are the expert for your district, and that's why we rely upon the district commissioner to give us guidance. I think your request for a deferral is well set and beneficial to everyone as part of this discussion, this grand discussion. But I also agree that listening to both sides, the residents, the representatives of this issue, I do believe a deferral would more than likely bring back an agreement amongst them. I think what I'm hearing that separates them is a park and greater buffer and the possibility of having access to some documents that were not readily available for the other side to review. So I do believe at this particular moment, I will support the deferral request, hoping that those items and those positions can be taken into account before they come back here for us to make a vote on them. And I thank you, Vice Chairman, for that. And I will say this as well. I would add to the applicant, as I stated earlier, is make sure you reach out to the objectors and try to come to a consensus. But to the objectors, I will say, and I'm very agnostic in my saying so, is when you come back before us, if this deferral takes place today, there will likely be different members sitting on this dais that are not here today. And the rhetoric or not so much the rhetoric, but the outcome that you may hear might be slightly different. So I'd also say to the objectors, like, be very conscious of that and be cognizant in your negotiations with the applicant that, you know, I think it has been the history of this board that we like to see concessions made. And that's what the majority of this board today is asking for of the developer. But we also like to see very realistic expectations from the surrounding neighbors, right? To Amanda's point earlier, and I'll call you out, Amanda, is that you're not a NIMBY. And we don't like to see NIMBYism up here because it is the fact. But, you know, that said, I think part of the consideration here that has some hesitation is, and we just had an item yesterday discussing the reconsideration of the veto, is we talked about the need, right? And just to Commissioner Lopez's point, I think there's no need as far as affordable housing goes. But certainly there is a need for housing in general, and this is acceptable. So when negotiating, I would urge you to be cognizant of that and reasonable in your request. With that, Commissioner Regalado, I'm ready to take a vote on the deferral. Yeah, but just before we do that, since we're not going to have public comment again, I just wanted to take a moment to ask Durham quickly about the rookery because there was a lot of representations made. And like I said, their report is pretty extensive. I see Lisa. Lisa's coming. Their report was really extensive. They spent a lot of county time out there. Commissioner Regalado, I'm going to interrupt. I'm going to urge this. Just really quickly. No, no, no, no, because there's commissioners that are leaving this very second, like in 30 seconds. You'll lose quorum, and you won't even be able to defer the item. So, I mean, it will automatically be deferred, I suppose. So you want to do it without quorum? We can do it without quorum. Well, I just want to get Durham on the record, so I'm happy to take the vote and do it after. Okay. Yeah. All right. So we'll take the vote. So we have a motion by Commissioner Regalado to defer to the next. Is that sufficient time to the applicant? You want to nod? You have 30. When is the next CDMP and zoning meeting? March 19th. March 19th. Is that sufficient time for you all? Yes. Okay. So we have a motion by Commissioner Regalado to defer to March 19th. Yes. We have a second by Commissioner Orbis. All in favor of the deferral, signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, nay. Mr. Attorney? Yes, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to point out, you know, to your point, if additional board members are here next time, we'll make sure that they have the tape so that they can be fully apprised of what occurred at this meeting and all the testimony that was given today. Absolutely. They know they have to do that. All right, guys. Thank you so much. And then Commissioner Regalado, if you still want to. Really quick, if Lisa could just speak to the report, the rookery and the distances. There was a lot of things said about it. So is Durham happy with the concessions that have been made for the rookery? Lisa Spadafina, Assistant Director of Durham. Yes, we are. We have worked with the applicant in addition to their work with FWC on their incidental take permit. To really enhance the lake, to provide additional foraging habitat for wading birds, to ensure that it's going to be stocked with fish, that there are going to be aeration, which will help with the water quality, that there will be pest plant maintenance done in perpetuity to prevent any of the foraging area to become overrun with any exotic vegetation. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. All right. Show us. I mean, we lost quorum anyways, but show us adjourned. Thank you all for coming out. Appreciate it.