The Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners voted in favor of moving annexation forward in a 7-5 vote earlier today. However, it’s not over yet. Today’s vote directs the staff to create an ordinance that will then finalize annexation. The Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners will then need to vote in favor of annexation again in order for annexation to be finalized.
Some of the County Commissioners want to see some strings attached in the form of mitigation payments and possibly other concessions before moving forward and approving the matter when it comes back to the Commission in a future meeting.
That said, there were many representatives from the business area that had no desire to be annexed and see their millage rates more than double by the annexation of Miami Springs.
COUNTY CREATED THIS MESS
This was a mess created by the County in the first place. Miami-Dade County did not want to manage unincorporated enclaves and at the time encouraged the annexation of enclaves that are surrounded by other municipalities to be incorporated.
When the City of Doral was incorporated, it created an enclave or an island of unincorporated Miami-Dade surrounded by Doral, Miami Springs, Medley, and VG. That’s when the City of Doral, Town of Medley, Village of Virginia Gardens, and City of Miami Springs got together and agreed upon what each city would annex. Then, there was a moratorium on annexation. Then they asked the residents to vote a second time about our intention to annex.
Today, by a very slim margin, annexation has survived for Miami Springs. The vote for Virginia Gardens is still pending. We’ll report on that once it becomes available.
Again, the final vote by the Miami-Dade County Commission was 7-5 in favor of approving the Miami Springs application for annexation.
