Botanic Garden in Little Haiti trying to fend off developers from buying their land
MIAMI - Casey Zap's says his backyard is unlike anything in the neighborhood, he shares this green space with the snapping turtles
"The longer I keep throwing it the more they come," Zap said. This is pretty much it, in terms of green space like this. It's utterly unique and it really warrants protecting. Because once it's gone, it's really gone forever."
His home doubles as the Miami Tropical Botanic Garden. The non-profit is tucked behind a house on Northwest First Place. He had been leasing the land since 2020, but now he says the owner wants to sell it to developers.
"There's really nothing else like it, and we felt very strongly that if we didn't save it now, it was gone forever," Zap said.
Once the property went up for sale, Zap decided to buy it. He secured a contract to buy it in March, but it has a short window. He has until June 26th to come up with four million dollars.
Zap says if the board can't come up with the money, then the property could be sold to the next buyer.
"We're losing habitat for wildlife," Zap said "We're losing a repository of native plants, and we're not really educating the next generation about nature."
City Commission Chair Christine King sponsored a resolution in January that would support developing a public botanical garden. It passed unanimously. A spokesperson for King's office said she was unavailable for comment due to travel.
Ashley Touissant lives down the street from the garden and is an avid visitor. He says the neighborhood doesn't need any more development.
"You're not gonna rival another ecosystem that's that close to residents,' Toussaint said. "It would just change the whole characteristic of the community"
As for Zap, he just wants to build the garden up, not tear it down. So far he says they have gotten 125,000 in private donations for the garden. He's confident they can get the rest in time.
"That's a lot of money to come up with," said Steve Maugeri of CBS News Miami.
"In a very short amount of time, Zap said. "But I think there's enough people in this community that care about projects like this and preserving this heritage of ours"
CBS News Miami reached out to the property owner several times, but have yet to hear back. When CBS News Miami contacted the mayor's office, a spokesperson said he was unable to comment.
