North Miami-Dade businesses next to benefit from sewer expansion project
MAIMI - More than 100 businesses in North Miami-Dade will be next to receive sewer system expansions through the county's Connect 2 Protect program.
"We cannot flourish and develop without this so we're super happy for that," said Gustavo Lumer, principal of Lumer Real Estate.
Gustavo Lumer is one of several business owners who came together to create a "special benefit area" in the Ojus community to fund the project which will convert 107 business parcels from septic tanks to the county's sanitary sewage system.
By connecting to county sanitary sewer infrastructure, properties located within the Ojus sanitary sewer expansion area, will have the opportunity to expand due to no longer being limited by septic tanks which don't have the capacity to process the same volumes of waste as the county's sewer system.
"So their business activity is very limited. What this will do is unleash their potential. Now, these businesses can reach their potential without any limitations because of infrastructure," said Roy Coley, Director of the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department.
The project which is slated to be completed over the next 12 months will impact the Ojus Community between the boundaries of NE 186-188th Streets to the north, the Florida East Coast Railroad to the east, the Oleta River to the west and NE 179th Street to the south.
"What's happening now it's like we couldn't do a development like this; put 700 new units, 40 new businesses without the sewer system in place," said Lumer.
The Ojus Sanitary Sewer Expansion Project will be managed by the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department as part of its Connect 2 Protect program.
Through the Ojus community's partnership with the county, business owners will pay for the connection to the county's sewer infrastructure through special assessments placed on each project owner's property tax bill over the next 30 years.
"People take for granted they take for granted their tap [water], they take for granted what they flush down the toilet that it's going somewhere. But in truth we live in a very vulnerable place, paradise, and we have to protect it and this conversion septic to sewer is a critical part of our future," said Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.