Florida Watershed Plan Steadies Growth Boundary

A broad and controversial watershed protection plan for Florida's Miami-Dade County was released recently. It calls for a time extension on the county's urban development boundary to 2025 to help protect the area's water quality.

1 minute read

January 3, 2007, 5:00 AM PST

By Nate Berg


Steadying the county's urban development boundary has been a controversial decision, especially to developers. The county faces a large increase in population and a diminishing amount of land on which to build housing. The county's watershed is heavily affected by the area's many farms and housing developments.

"The study, more than five years and almost $4 million in the making, is supposed to find room for a population projected to double to 1.5 million over the next 50 years while also protecting water quality for Biscayne Bay."

"Recently, 21 members of a watershed advisory committee took final votes on 68 proposals to start putting the ideas in force. Nearly every vote split down a familiar dividing line in South Miami-Dade -- environmentalists and rural residents on one side, agricultural and building interests on the other."

Saturday, December 23, 2006 in The Miami Herald

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