We need you to stand with the Mayor of Pinecrest and the residents of the Falls area to stop this project. Another Toll Road is the last thing we need to burden our citizens. We already have the very expensive Turnpike, which already needs expansion. What we really need is a Metrorail expansion project down to Florida City with stops at every city, town and major residential and/or commercial center. This will afford all citizens, rich and poor, and efficient and sustainable way to get to downtown for the long term versus the short term solution that is a Toll Road. A Toll Road will become obsolete in a short time with our growing population. It will become a proverbial parking lot, and a very expensive one, because it will have to be expanded over and over to accommodate more vehicles. We need people with vision down at MDX because they appear to have blinders on. As our South Dade Mayors, we need you to stand up for the citizens of Homestead and Florida City. There's no time to waste because the "planning" stage is the best time to make changes to this ill conceived project!
Excerpt:
The Miami-Dade Expressway Authority wants to replace the South Miami-Dade Busway with a toll road from Dadeland Mall south, perhaps all the way to Florida City.
The proposal could be good news for commuters who wrestle with U.S. 1 traffic, but some Pinecrest and Falls area residents already are objecting, saying the project could be bad for the community, possibly harming property values and hurting the business district.
Not to worry, MDX officials say: The project is merely in planning stages and will require more public input. Miami-Dade County commissioners would also have to sign off on the plans.
But not everyone is convinced. Mamie Attar, a resident of the Falls area, says she is hoping a collective effort will stop the project before it progresses any further.
“My biggest concern is that this will destroy the neighborhood," Attar said. "They should be concerned in getting more buses for the busway.”
State and local transportation departments are looking into whether they can create enough revenue with tolls to build express lanes for cars in the busway. They are hoping changes to the busway will ease traffic and congestion.
The busway is a two-lane highway for buses only. South Dade commuters can use it to reach the Dadeland Metrorail station, where they can continue to downtown Miami.
MDX began a study in the Spring of 2011 with Miami-Dade Transit and the Florida Department of Transportation.
MDX spokeswoman Tere Garcia said that the agencies are only looking into the possibility of these lanes, at this point.
“This is a study,” Garcia said. “This is not a project. This is a planning study."
"The goal is to better the transit service and to eventually investigate if there is a potential future for the busway, whether it’s park and ride, etc.,” Garcia said. “That is what we are looking at. If we cannot prove that that can be done, the study doesn’t continue."
But Pinecrest Mayor Cindy Lerner said MDX’s plans for the busway are not just preliminary.
“The approach that they are taking to the community is kind of insulting,” she said. “It’s far more than a study. I think they are just trying to distract everyone from paying attention to it.”
Attar has been handing out letters to residents in the areas that would be affected by the changes warning them that the proposed plans would have a devastating effect on property values in the area. Many of those letters have been forward to local officials.
For more go to Article:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/17/2956573/opposition-building-to-south-dade.html
Other Related Article:
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2012/06/rollback_tolls_citizens_pissed.php
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