Surprise Land Swap Offer Upends Miami-Dade Decision On Site For New Incinerator

Facing a packed room of concerned and angry residents, Miami-Dade County commissioners punted on a decision about where to put a new trash incinerator that officials say is needed to ensure that real estate development can continue in the region. 

After months of consideration — and spirited debate at Tuesday’s meeting — commissioners voted to defer a plan put forward by the mayor to build a waste-to-energy facility at an unused airfield near the Broward County line.

The meeting began in the morning, with dozens of residents speaking both for and against the proposal. By the late afternoon, the owner of one of the proposed sites had come forward with a surprise land swap proposal. 

What resulted was a vote to defer making a decision to the body’s Nov. 6 meeting to give commissioners time to consider the new plan. Commissioners also demanded that officials in Doral, where the old incinerator that burned down last February is located, pay far more than the $20M they floated earlier this month to avoid having the facility rebuilt in their city. 

The plan to build a new incinerator, estimated to take 10 years at a cost of roughly $1.6B, has been highly contentious across South Florida, with nearly 100 residents showing up to the county commission meeting Tuesday to voice their opinions.

County officials say a new incinerator is a pressing need because it would keep the county from having to impose a development moratorium due to it not being able to handle its trash.

Florida statute requires the county to demonstrate that it has five years of disposal capacity to allow new development to continue, and Miami-Dade Department of Solid Waste Management Director Aneisha Daniel said during a public workshop Monday night that the county must build a new incinerator to ensure it can meet that requirement.

The county’s Comprehensive Development Master Plan, which governs development around Miami-Dade County, also contains a five-year capacity requirement.

“The simple truth is that we need a solution,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said Tuesday. “Because of the quantity of waste that our county produces, we will continue to require landfilling or waste-to-energy, one or the other.”

Lowell Dunn, the owner of a property in Medley that was one of four sites being considered for the incinerator, spoke just as commissioners were set to debate the mayor’s plan with a surprise, eleventh-hour solution. 

His offer was to swap his land for the county-owned airfield site, which is known as Airport West, that the mayor moved to advance under certain conditions, including that it be approved for a mining operation. It was the first time the idea had been publicly floated. Dunn said he was prevented from offering up the plans by the previous leadership of the commission.

Commissioners peppered Dunn with questions before Jimmy Morales, the county's chief operations officer, cautioned them that the proposal was only in a nascent stage. 

“This is in a birth state right now in terms of a concept,” Morales said, adding the first he had heard of it was in an email that was forwarded to him on Friday.

A study commissioned by the county found that the cheapest option would be to rebuild a waste-to-energy facility at the site of the burned incinerator, which sits roughly 500 feet from homes in Doral, compared to the mostly uninhabited mile radius that Miami-Dade officials say surrounds the airfield property.

Several commissioners said Doral officials weren’t currently offering enough to make the relocation near equal in cost to rebuilding at the previous site and demanded that they return to the November meeting with a plan to contribute more.

“There's seven votes to put this back in Doral if the financial contribution is not right,” Chairman Oliver Gilbert bluntly told the gathered crowd. 

The mayor and her elected allies in the incinerator debate were left vouching for a plan that had been sidelined at least temporarily and focused on highlighting a global tour they undertook to see modern waste-to-energy facilities that emit less pollution and are integrated into communities, including with hot baths in Japan or rooftop tennis courts in Europe.

The comments from Miami-Dade officials followed a morning during which a crowded room of residents took turns supporting or lambasting the plan.

Broward County residents, led by Miramar Mayor Wayne Messam, turned up to the meeting in green shirts to oppose the Airport West site selection because of its proximity to their homes.

Doral residents, some wearing blue shirts, showed up to support moving the incinerator to the Airport West site or to call for an alternative plan that doesn’t involve burning trash.  

“Please remember who your constituents are, they are the residents of Miami-Dade County, Florida,” Doral City Attorney Raul Gastesi said. “The residents of Miramar are well-intentioned, and I understand their concerns, but it's your job to see how and why this facility should be established, and it should be established as far away as possible from the residents.”

Messam and other local Miramar officials took to the lectern during public comment to relay their plans to fight the selection of the Airport West site. Messam, who didn’t respond to Bisnow’s request for comment, has warned commissioners since last year that he would dedicate city resources to fighting the county’s plan. 

“Miami-Dade needs a Hail Mary touchdown to clear all environmental and regulatory requirements to design, engineer and begin construction of the mass burn facility by the end of 2024,” he said at a December special meeting. “Miramar is prepared to take objection to every permit process at every level.”

More than 20,000 Miramar residents have signed a petition voicing their opposition to a new incinerator at the Airport West site, Miramar Commissioner Maxwell Chambers said at Tuesday’s meeting. 

Morales, the county COO, said during debate that he expected there to be lawsuits regardless of which site was chosen. It was a sentiment shared by District 5 Commissioner Eileen Higgins. 

“We're going to be tied up in litigation on whatever site we pick,” she said while expressing support for the mayor’s plan. “So my thought is, until we get started on this process, let the suing begin.”