In many ways Rachel Regalado, the incumbent District 7 Miami-Dade Commissioner, has not been as bad as I expected when she got elected. To give her her due, in some ways she’s even been good.
But in one way she has been absolutely terrible, and I think it’s important for voters to make it clear that some things are just not acceptable. As explained at FloridaPolitics.com,
Regalado … voted in November 2022 to override Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s veto of legislation expanding the Urban Development Boundary (UDB) so a 379-acre industrial complex could be built just west of Biscayne Bay near Homestead.
It marked the first expansion in nearly a decade of the UDB, which is meant to safeguard agricultural and vulnerable lands from residential and commercial encroachment. Regalado originally opposed the move, but switched her vote after developers increased the amount of wetlands they would buy and donate to offset the project’s impacts.
The UDB needs to be a bright line. Some developer is always pushing to nibble a piece here, a piece there; pretty soon we don’t have any Everglades. It’s a really big deal to slice off even a small chunk as it sets a terrible precedent.
Regalado’s defenders might say that other than this blemish she has a decent environmental record. Not so. She also supported the attempt to build homes on top of de facto bird sanctuary at the Calusa Golf course. A court put a stop to that, although in typical Miami fashion the bulldozers rolled on for a bit longer.
I’m not quite a single-issue voter on the UDB, but I’m close. As we have a very qualified alternative, former Mayor of Pinecrest Cindy Lerner, I have no doubt that I’m voting Line 92 Cindy Lerner.
