HomeMy WebLinkAboutSubmittal-Colgate Darden-StatementSTA I BMENT BEFORE THE CITY OF MIAMI COMMISSION
May 8, 2014
My name is Colgate Darden and I Live at 510 West DeLido Drive, off of
Venetian Causeway.
I am asking the Commission to postpone The Flagstone Project in order to
conduct up to date and proper studies of traffic issues facing neighboring roads,
the residents of the City of Miami and all others in the county, and directly bearing
on the county's economic engine — our travel industry.
The following information comes in part from personal observations,
discussion among various Home Owners Associations, and the Venetian Way
Neighborhood Alliance, among others. In addition, professionals from out of the
City were retained to offer their expert opinion on this matter.
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There has been no traffic evaluation of the impact of the Flagstone project
since 2004 and partially updated in 2008.
With the increases in population and business development and cultural
activity in downtown Miami and Miami Beach in the last decade, how can this
Commission approve this project without complete, current and independent traffic
studies? Changes in infrastructure that might have to be made based on inadequate
studies and allocation of costs to the City and the Developer will have an adverse
impact on the public because of the anticipated increase in traffic. Having not
accounted for these costs and impacts amounts to a form of taxpayer subsidy to a
private developer on public land.
Anyone who drives on MacArthur or Venetian Causeways knows how backed
up they are on weekends and many weekdays as well. Traffic will get much worse
for residents, workers, shoppers, and tourists going to and from the Performing Arts
Center and American Airlines Arena and other downtown destinations, Venetian,
Star, Hibiscus, Palm, and Fisher Islands, all of Miami Beach from Lincoln Road
south, and Miami Beach City Hall and Convention Center.
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Before long, the all-important convention and event planners involving out-
of-towners, vacationers, especially families, and travel agents will conclude that the
gridlock on MacArthur and Venetian Causeways makes Miami Beach more trouble
than it is worth, and they will take their business to competing destinations. The
analogy to Los Angeles, where visitors seldom go to the beach due to the LA traffic,
should be an object lesson. This would have a devastating impact on the economy
of all of Miami Dade County — from businesses to professionals to investors to
shopkeepers to workers -- and to local government finances as well. The damage
would be exponential.
The expert analysis of prior studies was conducted by Littlejohn Engineering
Associations based in Orlando. This firm was selected because of the fear that local
firms are potentially under the thumb of the City itself and stand to lose business if
a study is adverse to the proposed City interest. Their conclusions were
straightforward: the earlier studies are materially outdated and the study design was
insufficient and "brings in to question the validity of the traffic study as a tool to be
used for the project entitlement processes today." I am attaching the study summary
to my comments and ask that they be inserted into the record.
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