Residents in Northeast Miami-Dade dissatisfied with the commission’s approval of the land development plan

Miami-Dade County, Florida – Residents of a golf course neighborhood in northeast Miami-Dade County are incensed over a new development that is being considered for the area.

The residents of Presidential Estates want the county to reject the development of the land because they believe they are being disregarded and that restrictions put in place decades ago are being broken.

“What they’re doing basically is trying to structure this so they can do an end run around of this, around the owners, give us nothing. In fact, what they said the benefit to us would be was an end to the litigation,” said resident Jeffrey Frantz.

The neighborhood’s issue is that a golf course that is connected to the community but is privately owned surrounds it.

The golf course’s owners have attempted to develop it for nearly 40 years, but a lawsuit from the 1980s established a set of covenants that stated the area had to be kept as a golf course or open green space unless a majority of the community’s residents and 75% of those in the immediate vicinity approved.

But today, the current owners and the Lennar Corporation are attempting to construct more than 100 homes on the land, infuriating many who claim it violates the restrictions that have only recently been confirmed in 2009 and those who claim it will add to the already densely populated area.

“You’re looking at probably 400 or 500 additional cars when all is said and done, plus whatever vendors and contractors and construction that’s associated with that,” said homeowners association president Amy Chafetz.

The commission heard the proposal from Lennar’s lawyers before voting 7–2 to approve the developer’s plan.
The owners claim they will be attractive.