Florida City expands in two different directions

The city received final approval Tuesday from Metro-Dade to annex about 500 acres of land in unincorporated Dade County. The annexation is the first part of a two-phase plan to give the city about 2,300 of developable land.

``It's important that we have room to grow for future generations,'' Mayor Otis Wallace said.

The land just annexed is made up of two parcels on either side of the city.

Parcel A is an L-shaped area of 200 acres between Southwest 172nd Avenue and Homestead's city boundary, then along Southwest 167th Avenue and between Arthur Vining Davis Parkway (336th Street) and Southwest 352nd Street. The land will be zoned for light industrial and commercial purposes.

Parcel B, a 280-acre site, is between Southwest 187th and 192nd avenues and Palm Drive and Lucy Street (328th Street). It will be zoned for mixed purposes, including residences.

Together the two parcels will expand the city by about 35 percent and may more than double the tax base, Wallace said.

Carlos Arriaga of Key Biscayne co-owns 60 acres in Parcel B along with a group of investors. He said he is pleased.

``It seems to me that everybody is really very happy of being annexed by the city,'' he said. ``The Police Department is only about five blocks away from the land that was annexed; Dade County police are 15 miles away in Cutler Ridge. That's a big difference in order to receive attention from the police.''

Arriaga added that having city water and sewer utilities near the site is also a great advantage.

Allan Bly, assistant to the director of the Metro-Dade Department of Planning, Development and Regulations, said the project met almost of all of the guidelines the county uses to make decisions on annexation and incorporation.

``The boundaries commission that oversaw this recognized that really Florida City was in a better position to provide services than the unincorporated county area,'' he said.

The city will now begin Phase 2 of the project, which will attempt to annex an additional 1,800 acres leading east from the city limits to the Motorsports Complex.