{"id":387633,"date":"2026-09-01T23:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T23:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/387633\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T23:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T23:00:09","slug":"miami-dade-commissioners-give-green-light-for-controversial-kelly-tractor-udb-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/387633\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami-Dade commissioners give green light for controversial Kelly Tractor UDB expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI \u2014 Miami-Dade commissioners have given heavy equipment company Kelly Tractor the green light to build beyond the county\u2019s Urban Development Boundary. The item<\/a> passed on a 9-to-3 vote.<\/p>\n

Leer en espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/p>\n

The development project, at a site located in west Miami-Dade near Northwest 137th Avenue and the end of the Dolphin Expressway, has been controversial<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI voted no today, and the time before that, and the time before that,\u201d Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins said. \u201cThis has been deferred eight different times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cohen Higgins was one of the nays.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an example of attrition. They vote-counted until they got the number that they needed, and I don\u2019t support that procedure in general,\u201d Cohen Higgins said. \u201cClearly, it was an extremely controversial application involving over 140 acres of very, very, very sensitive wetlands outside our Urban Development Boundary. I have been consistent about these issues, and that is why I voted no.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things I put into the covenant is that everything has to be done on the environmental side before any construction and any permitting,\u201d Commissioner Raquel Regalado said.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Raquel Regalado, who voted for it, highlighted amendments to the application that she said include enhanced wetlands preservation commitments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are talking about over 80 acres that we are going to own and maintain, and, we\u2019re going to have, in perpetuity, money to preserve it and restore it,\u201d Regalado said.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Rene Garcia noted that Kelly Tractor has \u201cdonated land\u201d to the county.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Miami-Dade Deputy Mayor Roy Coley said Kelly Tractor demonstrated an economic need \u201cas an international player in the equipment business and as a player for emergency response for all of South Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that the environmental need has been balanced, we find it much more acceptable,\u201d Coley said.<\/p>\n

In the past, a company representative told commissioners they have outgrown their existing space and need to accommodate future growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we started this three years ago, the planning staff guided us to the text amendments process, and we have done everything they ask for,\u201d owner Chris Kelly said. \u201cWe\u2019ve owned the land since 1984. We filed the application three years ago. It is right on the Urban Development Boundary. It is right on the highway. We have a 100-acre warehouse development adjacent to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

One key factor underpinning the contentious issue has been the process that the application used to make its way to County Hall, in the form of a text amendment, which has lower thresholds than the more rigorous application typically required to request building outside the UDB.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe floodgates are now open, and mind you, this application that passed today was not a move-the-Urban-Development-Boundary application. It was a text amendment, and now it exacerbates the slippery slope argument,\u201d Cohen Higgins said. \u201cNow the development community in Miami-Dade County has the green light to come on down. This absolutely opens the floodgates. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow, in fairness, I know there is legislation to close that and not allow text amendments in the future, but in my opinion, that is simply a consent that this was not done properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia acknowledge the concerns, but pointed to what he said was an extensive review process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t disagree with that train of thought, but with all the scrutiny this application, it really has gone above and beyond,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n

Coley said Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava \u201crequired the applicant to essentially do everything that the Urban Development Boundary application would do, and they didn\u2019t achieve much benefit from a text amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regalado said that while she \u201cwish(es) it would have been an application and not a text amendment,\u201d she \u201calready curtailed the text amendment, and that is going to come back to\u201d the commission. <\/p>\n

\u201cTwo months ago, I already passed an item, and it passed unanimously, and she voted on it,\u201d Regalado said.<\/p>\n

But Cohen Higgins remained unconvinced.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t done properly. If we are making legislative changes to correct it, that is an admission that it is wrong, so I am not sure why we passed this today. But they got the votes, so congratulations to Kelly Tractor, and so sorry to the environment and the many, many residents who were vehemently opposed to this application,\u201d Cohen Higgins said.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 Miami-Dade commissioners have given heavy equipment company Kelly Tractor the green light to build beyond the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-387633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}