State-Owned Roads "WoA"

The following is a map provided by Neil Lyn, District Statistics Administrator with District 6 of the Florida DOT (quite a mouthful)

The image shows (in red) those roads which are owned by the State of Florida.  Notable for our area is the STATE's ownership of Miami Gardens Drive and US1.

Note also that Ives Dairy Road is NOT State-owned.  Like all roads in unincorporated Miami-Dade, Ives Dairy is currently owned by the County.  Why is this important?  Because the MAC discussions with the county most recently included a "conceptual agreement" which outlines a framework under which "we" can proceed with incorporation.  That agreement provides that Ives Dairy Road would remain owned by the County, even if a new city was approved by voters.

Is it a good idea to surrender Ives Dairy road to the County?  Answering this would depend on your views on the wisdom of incorporating generally, but among those interested in forming a new city, Ives Dairy Road is very often cited as a central reason for doing so, specifically:

• Aesthetics: 203rd is the "ambassador" of our community, it's face representing the face of the new city, and right now that face looks like a hockey player's - missing lots of teeth and pretty banged up.
• Crime/Safety: The road is congested, dangerous to school-children crossing at 24th Avenue and ripe for revenues to the new city derived from a red-light camera.
• Quality of Life: a congested road means noise and air-pollution, brake dust, and a longer commute to work for local residents.

In other words, whether you are 'pro' or 'no' to incorporation, this road is pretty important to your life "WoA".  Surrendering control the county may relieve the "new city" of some expenses (to maintain the road, fix potholes, etc.), but it also abandons control over the single most important artery of our community, and could potentially cost the new city millions of dollars in revenues which it will desperately need to sustain itself.

WestofAventura contacted the County public works department and was sent (by Horacio Gonzalez) a list of all County-owned roads within municipalities.  I expected a list of about 20 pages, but it was only 3!  Here is the one page that covers roads in surrounding cities (Aventura, NMB and Miami Gardens):

On the above list, under "North Miami Beach" you will find West Dixie Highway up to 175th Street, so extending county control of WDH into the new city may have some logic.

But note that the county does not own ANY of the roads in Aventura, including their portion of Ives Dairy Road!  So why should Miami-Dade County own and control that same street in "our" new city?  Aventura had the financial resources and foresight to be a little smarter in its negotiations with the County, and our MAC should be following their example!