logybogy
February 23rd, 2005, 07:05 AM
How they could build a landfill and sewage treatment plant on probably one of the most beautiful pieces of land in the whole country is absolutely unreal....only in Miami.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/photos/10958440.htm
Posted on Tue, Feb. 22, 2005
NATURAL ISLAND: A coalition of environmentalists, Key Biscayne residents and other activists is drawing up proposals to restore the much-neglected Virginia Key. TIM CHAPMAN/HERALD STAFF
Planners walking tightrope with Virginia Key changes
To transform long-abused Virginia Key into a 'magnificent' park and resort, planners chosen by the city of Miami must balance preservation of the island's natural treasures with commercial and recreational development.
In clear view of the towers of Brickell, past the hurtling traffic on the Rickenbacker Causeway lies a splendid terra incognita, an island flush with natural wealth but maimed by careless human imposition.
This is Virginia Key today: hundreds of acres of beaches and hardwood hammocks; mangroves and manatees; dunes and sea turtles -- all unhappily contiguous with a big sewage plant and a poisonous old trash dump.
After years of false starts and neglect, the city of Miami has chosen a prominent Fort Lauderdale architectural firm to create the Virginia Key of tomorrow, a jewel of a park and resort on the knife's edge between Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
The question is, what kind of uses belong on Virginia Key? A nature preserve for hikers, swimmers, windsurfers and paddlers? Hotels? Playing fields or bicycle trails? Or all of the above?
The grand vision some city leaders outline for the 1,000-acre barrier island rules little out.
''It is an incredible place,'' said City Commissioner Johnny Winton, whose district includes the island. ``Virginia Key could become one of the most magnificent, one-of-a-kind regional parks in the country.''
To map it out, planners must spend several months navigating a terrain littered with obstacles, both physical and political, as they try to balance the sometimes competing interests of preservationists and commercial developers, environmentalists and sports enthusiasts.
Already, a coalition of environmentalists, Key Biscayne residents and other activists is forming to draw up proposals that ensure buildings don't obliterate green space.
MANY OPTIONS
There is consensus on such broad ideas as turning a 120-acre unreclaimed landfill at the island's center into a park. But should it contain sports fields, hiking trails, perhaps a restored lake?
The answers will emerge from months of debate in public sessions led by architectural firm EDSA, which has designed parks and landscapes around the globe and is expected to sign a contract with the city next month.
HERALD INTERACTIVE
• Click for more detail
Mayor Manny Diaz and other city leaders say they harbor few preconceived notions, but they lay out ambitious goals: Create new parks; restore and safeguard the key's beaches and natural areas, but make room for commercial development, perhaps hotels and restaurants, that attracts visitors and helps pay for it all.
No matter what development occurs, however, ''it's not going to be high-rise,'' Winton vowed in an interview, attempting to allay the biggest fear among environmentalists and parks activists. ``It seems out of place for that site.''
Activists and residents of nearby Key Biscayne applaud the planning effort but worry that the city's developer-friendly stance will open the door to large-scale commerce on Virginia Key.
''If there is an honest effort to restore the natural park and beautify that, then people might accept in addition some commercial development on Virginia Key,'' said Nancy Liebman, president of the Urban Environment League, which opposes what it describes as giveaways of public land. ``But it should be commercial development that makes it a destination, not development to line someone's pocket. It has to be cohesive planning.
``Look at Central Park, probably the most magnificent urban park you could ever find. They have a little of everything -- active spaces, a major museum and subtle little areas all over the park. There is no reason we can't have such a park here -- on the water.''
TIME AND MONEY
It won't happen quickly, though. The island's transformation will take years and millions of dollars.
One early key task for planners will be winning consensus from the hodgepodge of political jurisdictions that controls the island, which is entirely publicly owned.
The city of Miami controls the largest part; the county owns the sewage plant and pieces along the causeway, including the Miami Seaquarium site. Such federal agencies as National Marine Fisheries also operate facilities on the island. State agencies regulate some of the natural zones, and state deed restrictions limit uses of other portions.
To further complicate matters, private operators have long-term leases and are certain to weigh in. The Miami Seaquarium, for instance, is claiming rights under its lease to land across the causeway for expanded parking.
Other battles already loom.
City officials have identified the 80-acre Miami Marine Stadium complex, shuttered since Hurricane Andrew in 1992, as a logical place for new development. Winton and other city officials say the 1961 stadium, once a popular site for boat races and concerts, may have outlived its usefulness. But preservationists consider the stadium, which boasts a dramatic cantilevered concrete roof, to be a marvel of Miami Modern design that ought to be saved.
''Simply demolishing it should not be an option,'' said Blanca Mesa, a board member at Dade Heritage Trust, the county's largest preservation group.
As recently as 50 years ago, Virginia Key was a largely unspoiled place. It's a natural island, once part of the Miami Beach mainland but separated from it by a hurricane in the 1800s.
Even today, it's home to a variety of natural habitats and endangered species, all threatened by years of human encroachment.
Dunes and wetlands and a rare coastal hardwood hammock have been invaded by pest plants, like Brazilian pepper. Mangroves were buried under dredging spoil dumped on the island.
NEGLECTED
The ecological degradation is a legacy of last century, when Virginia Key became a home for things that Miami leaders didn't want elsewhere -- like a beach for blacks during segregation and the sewage-treatment plant built in the 1950s.
'In the '50s they thought, `That's just a stinky old swamp,' '' said Key Biscayne environmentalist Mabel Miller, who founded Friends of Virginia Key, a long-standing group helping to organize the new citizen coalition.
WORKING AROUND IT
Moving the plant would be prohibitively expensive, so planners will have to work around it. At least it doesn't smell as bad as it used to: A system of deodorizing sprayers was installed after residents of nearby Fisher Island sued.
Construction of the sewage plant, which today handles 150 million gallons of waste a day, precipitated the island's environmental decline. Before long, adjacent Duck Lake, a natural body of water that served as conduit to natural tidal flows across the island, had become an uncontrolled landfill where the plant's sludge and other potential contaminants were dumped, including incinerator ash and animal waste from Hialeah Race Track.
Shortly after the landfill was closed and capped with two feet of clean dirt in 1976, a bulldozer working on its unstable surface sank without a trace.
Now covered with pest plants, the landfill is widely assumed to be contaminated. Just how badly, however, no one knows.
The county has set aside $650,000 for an assessment that must be completed by September and has pledged up to $45 million for a cleanup.
DIFFERENT VISIONS
Eventually, environmentalists would like to see Duck Lake restored. They envision low-key activities: walking, canoeing, picnicking.
But Winton and some in Key Biscayne envision something else: baseball and soccer. Wealthy Key Biscayne lacks adequate space for sports fields, and Winton says residents in Brickell and Coconut Grove on the mainland also have few places to play.
Much of the rest of the island requires extensive natural restoration, including clearing away invasive species and reconnecting wetlands across the island.
Southwest of the landfill, ponds were once dug amid mangroves for either a zoo or a small golf course that was never finished.
Today the ponds are brackish, creating a nasty mosquito problem.
Some work is already under way. At the old segregated beach, a private trust has spent $1.2 million on restoration of buildings and has developed an ambitious plan for a museum and cultural center.
Installation of sewers has begun, and the Army Corps of Engineers is restoring the coastline, reinstalling groins to catch sand and stave off natural beach erosion.
CLEARING, REPLANTING
North of there, the city has begun clearing exotics and replanting a hardwood hammock along the dunes.
To members of the team EDSA assembled for the job, the planning effort represents a second chance for much-abused Virginia Key.
Michael Goldstein, an environmental lawyer working with EDSA, told city officials at a meeting late last year: ``This is a wonderful opportunity to redress the sins of the past.''
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/photos/10958440.htm
Posted on Tue, Feb. 22, 2005
NATURAL ISLAND: A coalition of environmentalists, Key Biscayne residents and other activists is drawing up proposals to restore the much-neglected Virginia Key. TIM CHAPMAN/HERALD STAFF
Planners walking tightrope with Virginia Key changes
To transform long-abused Virginia Key into a 'magnificent' park and resort, planners chosen by the city of Miami must balance preservation of the island's natural treasures with commercial and recreational development.
In clear view of the towers of Brickell, past the hurtling traffic on the Rickenbacker Causeway lies a splendid terra incognita, an island flush with natural wealth but maimed by careless human imposition.
This is Virginia Key today: hundreds of acres of beaches and hardwood hammocks; mangroves and manatees; dunes and sea turtles -- all unhappily contiguous with a big sewage plant and a poisonous old trash dump.
After years of false starts and neglect, the city of Miami has chosen a prominent Fort Lauderdale architectural firm to create the Virginia Key of tomorrow, a jewel of a park and resort on the knife's edge between Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
The question is, what kind of uses belong on Virginia Key? A nature preserve for hikers, swimmers, windsurfers and paddlers? Hotels? Playing fields or bicycle trails? Or all of the above?
The grand vision some city leaders outline for the 1,000-acre barrier island rules little out.
''It is an incredible place,'' said City Commissioner Johnny Winton, whose district includes the island. ``Virginia Key could become one of the most magnificent, one-of-a-kind regional parks in the country.''
To map it out, planners must spend several months navigating a terrain littered with obstacles, both physical and political, as they try to balance the sometimes competing interests of preservationists and commercial developers, environmentalists and sports enthusiasts.
Already, a coalition of environmentalists, Key Biscayne residents and other activists is forming to draw up proposals that ensure buildings don't obliterate green space.
MANY OPTIONS
There is consensus on such broad ideas as turning a 120-acre unreclaimed landfill at the island's center into a park. But should it contain sports fields, hiking trails, perhaps a restored lake?
The answers will emerge from months of debate in public sessions led by architectural firm EDSA, which has designed parks and landscapes around the globe and is expected to sign a contract with the city next month.
HERALD INTERACTIVE
• Click for more detail
Mayor Manny Diaz and other city leaders say they harbor few preconceived notions, but they lay out ambitious goals: Create new parks; restore and safeguard the key's beaches and natural areas, but make room for commercial development, perhaps hotels and restaurants, that attracts visitors and helps pay for it all.
No matter what development occurs, however, ''it's not going to be high-rise,'' Winton vowed in an interview, attempting to allay the biggest fear among environmentalists and parks activists. ``It seems out of place for that site.''
Activists and residents of nearby Key Biscayne applaud the planning effort but worry that the city's developer-friendly stance will open the door to large-scale commerce on Virginia Key.
''If there is an honest effort to restore the natural park and beautify that, then people might accept in addition some commercial development on Virginia Key,'' said Nancy Liebman, president of the Urban Environment League, which opposes what it describes as giveaways of public land. ``But it should be commercial development that makes it a destination, not development to line someone's pocket. It has to be cohesive planning.
``Look at Central Park, probably the most magnificent urban park you could ever find. They have a little of everything -- active spaces, a major museum and subtle little areas all over the park. There is no reason we can't have such a park here -- on the water.''
TIME AND MONEY
It won't happen quickly, though. The island's transformation will take years and millions of dollars.
One early key task for planners will be winning consensus from the hodgepodge of political jurisdictions that controls the island, which is entirely publicly owned.
The city of Miami controls the largest part; the county owns the sewage plant and pieces along the causeway, including the Miami Seaquarium site. Such federal agencies as National Marine Fisheries also operate facilities on the island. State agencies regulate some of the natural zones, and state deed restrictions limit uses of other portions.
To further complicate matters, private operators have long-term leases and are certain to weigh in. The Miami Seaquarium, for instance, is claiming rights under its lease to land across the causeway for expanded parking.
Other battles already loom.
City officials have identified the 80-acre Miami Marine Stadium complex, shuttered since Hurricane Andrew in 1992, as a logical place for new development. Winton and other city officials say the 1961 stadium, once a popular site for boat races and concerts, may have outlived its usefulness. But preservationists consider the stadium, which boasts a dramatic cantilevered concrete roof, to be a marvel of Miami Modern design that ought to be saved.
''Simply demolishing it should not be an option,'' said Blanca Mesa, a board member at Dade Heritage Trust, the county's largest preservation group.
As recently as 50 years ago, Virginia Key was a largely unspoiled place. It's a natural island, once part of the Miami Beach mainland but separated from it by a hurricane in the 1800s.
Even today, it's home to a variety of natural habitats and endangered species, all threatened by years of human encroachment.
Dunes and wetlands and a rare coastal hardwood hammock have been invaded by pest plants, like Brazilian pepper. Mangroves were buried under dredging spoil dumped on the island.
NEGLECTED
The ecological degradation is a legacy of last century, when Virginia Key became a home for things that Miami leaders didn't want elsewhere -- like a beach for blacks during segregation and the sewage-treatment plant built in the 1950s.
'In the '50s they thought, `That's just a stinky old swamp,' '' said Key Biscayne environmentalist Mabel Miller, who founded Friends of Virginia Key, a long-standing group helping to organize the new citizen coalition.
WORKING AROUND IT
Moving the plant would be prohibitively expensive, so planners will have to work around it. At least it doesn't smell as bad as it used to: A system of deodorizing sprayers was installed after residents of nearby Fisher Island sued.
Construction of the sewage plant, which today handles 150 million gallons of waste a day, precipitated the island's environmental decline. Before long, adjacent Duck Lake, a natural body of water that served as conduit to natural tidal flows across the island, had become an uncontrolled landfill where the plant's sludge and other potential contaminants were dumped, including incinerator ash and animal waste from Hialeah Race Track.
Shortly after the landfill was closed and capped with two feet of clean dirt in 1976, a bulldozer working on its unstable surface sank without a trace.
Now covered with pest plants, the landfill is widely assumed to be contaminated. Just how badly, however, no one knows.
The county has set aside $650,000 for an assessment that must be completed by September and has pledged up to $45 million for a cleanup.
DIFFERENT VISIONS
Eventually, environmentalists would like to see Duck Lake restored. They envision low-key activities: walking, canoeing, picnicking.
But Winton and some in Key Biscayne envision something else: baseball and soccer. Wealthy Key Biscayne lacks adequate space for sports fields, and Winton says residents in Brickell and Coconut Grove on the mainland also have few places to play.
Much of the rest of the island requires extensive natural restoration, including clearing away invasive species and reconnecting wetlands across the island.
Southwest of the landfill, ponds were once dug amid mangroves for either a zoo or a small golf course that was never finished.
Today the ponds are brackish, creating a nasty mosquito problem.
Some work is already under way. At the old segregated beach, a private trust has spent $1.2 million on restoration of buildings and has developed an ambitious plan for a museum and cultural center.
Installation of sewers has begun, and the Army Corps of Engineers is restoring the coastline, reinstalling groins to catch sand and stave off natural beach erosion.
CLEARING, REPLANTING
North of there, the city has begun clearing exotics and replanting a hardwood hammock along the dunes.
To members of the team EDSA assembled for the job, the planning effort represents a second chance for much-abused Virginia Key.
Michael Goldstein, an environmental lawyer working with EDSA, told city officials at a meeting late last year: ``This is a wonderful opportunity to redress the sins of the past.''