Conversations on potentially incorporating a group of historically Black neighborhoods in north central Miami-Dade County are gaining urgency, as residents and community leaders push for Brownsville to be included in an ongoing feasibility study on the matter.<\/p>\n
At a meeting hosted last week by the North Central Dade Municipal Advisory Committee (MAC), discussions centered on a major hurdle: whether Brownsville must collect signatures from 20% of its residents to be included in the study area.<\/p>\n
While the MAC\u2019s lifetime has been extended<\/a> several times over the past decades to allow for further exploration on how incorporation could help shape the future of local governance, most of Brownsville remains outside its current boundaries. Only a small portion \u2014 between Northwest 54th and 62nd streets, from Northwest 27th Avenue to the Hialeah border \u2014 is included in the study.<\/p>\n According to Kenneth Kilpatrick, chair of the committee and president of the Brownsville Civic Neighborhood Association (BCNA), redistricting split the neighborhood between Districts 2 and 3, leaving portions excluded from the study. Leaders are now pushing to expand the boundaries to include the remaining sections of Brownsville.<\/p>\n Push for inclusion<\/p>\n Kilpatrick said the issue is not about automatic incorporation but about access to the information other communities have.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are hoping that the commissioners will add Brownsville to the study area without having to implement a physical door-to-door petition, as we have been advised is mandatory in order to get our area included,\u201d Kilpatrick said. \u201cWe sorely disagree.\u201d<\/p>\n Kilpatrick argues that the county code allows commissioners to initiate the process themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat the municipal advisory committee section code basically says is that if the commissioners initiate an action, that they are the petition,\u201d he said. \u201cWe prefer that they do that because that saves us time, that saves us money that we don\u2019t have.\u201d<\/p>\n An online petition<\/a> is currently circulating to raise awareness, but Kilpatrick emphasized that the ultimate responsibility lies with the Board of County Commissioners to amend the existing MAC ordinance.<\/p>\n “It just gives us an opportunity to be in the mix of the probabilities and all the statistics,” Kilpatrick explained. “Adding Brownsville, I think, enhances the overall forecast and overall health of the potential city.”<\/p>\n Former Miami-Dade Commissioner Dennis C. Moss echoed that point.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a process where you can go through, and you can basically seek to get signatures of 20% of the area in order to bring that petition before the county commissioners,\u201d Moss said. \u201cThat\u2019s never been done. All of the incorporation campaigns were basically spearheaded by the champion commissioners for those particular areas.\u201d<\/p>\n Yvette McLeod, BCNA\u2019s second vice president, expressed frustration over the perceived lack of cooperation from local leadership.<\/p>\n \u201cOur commissioners won\u2019t even allow us to be included in the study, and that\u2019s all we\u2019re asking for right now,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen it\u2019s time for votes, they come to us, but when it\u2019s something that\u2019s going to benefit our community, we can\u2019t get any cooperation, and that\u2019s a shame.\u201d<\/p>\n Kilpatrick also raised concerns about fairness, citing a 2023 effort by Hialeah<\/a> to annex Brownsville\u2019s western edge.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t see a petition from anybody from Hialeah,\u201d he noted. \u201cMy thing is: give us the same opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n Why now?<\/p>\n Two main factors are driving the interest in incorporation: the 2023 annexation attempt and the changing structure of county government. Kilpatrick pointed to rising costs, projected budget gaps and the expansion of constitutional offices as reasons to seek more localized control.<\/p>\n