A day after concerns about westward growth sunk a request to extend the 836 expressway into Kendall, Miami-Dade’s mayor stepped in to try to revive the proposal with county commissioners.
Mayor Carlos Gimenez called for the commission to reconsider Tuesday’s 3-2 committee vote against the proposed extension. The plan would take the busy expressway past the county’s Urban Development Boundary, which divides intense development from land with growth restrictions designed to protect the Everglades.
.@MayorGimenez believes the UDB can be respected while area residents have another option to commute (2/2)
— Mike Hernández (@HernandezMA5) June 14, 2017
Gimenez “believes the [Urban Development Boundary] can be respected while area residents have another option to commute,” Michael Hernández, the mayor’s top spokesman, wrote on Twitter Wednesday morning. Hernández said the mayor, who is in Europe for a mix of vacation and county business, will ask that the 836 proposal be brought back for reconsideration by the commission.
The announcement puts Gimenez on the opposite side of Miami-Dade’s environmentalist advocates, who lobbied to defeat the 836 proposal and brand it as an assault on the Urban Development Boundary. While Gimenez has said he generally opposes moving the development boundary, he has made supportive comments about extending the 836, a toll expressway also known as the Dolphin.
Read more at our news partner, the Miami Herald.
