Miami-Dade commission votes to withdraw Miami Wilds water park proposal
MIAMI - The people have spoken and so has the commission on the future of the Miami Wilds water park.
It's not going to happen.
In a vote of 9-1, commissioners voted to withdraw the Miami Wilds water park proposal.
The lease ends on December 31 and the deal will be allowed to expire.
The vote came after several delays over the past year.
Ahead of Tuesday's meeting, at least one commissioner had asked that the item be withdrawn while others have asked hat it be left on the agenda so it can be voted down. Either way, this is going to be closely watched.
In 2013, developers won a county bid to negotiate to build the park, which will be called Miami Wilds, in a parking lot space at the Miami Zoo. The project initially had been recommended by Mayor Daniella Levine Cava's office. But conservationists including the zoo's own communications director Ron Magill acting as a private citizen, and more recently the US Department of the Interior, have weighed in on the risk to the Florida bonneted bat species.
During Tuesday's hearing before the vote, Magill said the project threatens wildlife near the zoo and hopes the commissioners will vote down the proposal.
"This commission has the opportunity to make history today. It could be the first time in memory, in my memory, that the BCC (Board of County Commission) has prioritized the environment over development. I pray that we can all look back on this one day and say we were there when a true culture of environmental protection began in Miami-Dade County," he said.
Previously, advocates for the protected land said the waterpark would have put endangered species at risk and should be built in other areas of the county.
"Bat Conservation International, the leading bat researchers of the world, did a study and they found that Zoo Miami is home to the largest and by far the densest population of Florida bonneted bats than anywhere else in the entire species range," said Luca Martinez, a wildlife conservationist.
Miami Wilds Manager Paul Lambert had disputed that. He said this would bring hundreds of jobs and that their research found the impacts would be minimal.
"When we did the analyses, our biologists looked at other properties that they had worked on throughout South Florida, and bat activity was not particularly high compared to many other sites," he said.
There is no word on whether the developers behind Miami Wilds will challenge the commission's decision.