Coalition aims to halt Home Depot

Posted on Thursday, September. 21, 2006

MIAMI BEACH/ SUNSET HARBOUR AREA

Coalition aims to halt Home Depot

A group of homeowners with political clout have formed an alliance to fight a controversial project planned for the city's Sunset Harbour neighborhood.

BY SUSAN ANASAGASTI
sanasagasti@MiamiHerald.com

Opponents of a proposal to build a Home Depot in Miami Beach's Sunset Harbour neighborhood have formed a coalition to continue the fight against the big-box retail project.

Ten of about 28 homeowner associations in the 7.1-square-mile city are part of the newly formed Neighborhoods First Coalition. Among them: the Belle Isle Residents Association, the Sunset Harbour Neighborhood Association and the Lower North Bay Road Association.

Max Holtzman, who spearheaded the coalition, said the groups joined forces to send a unified message to city officials: A big-box retailer will ruin the area's quality of life and have a negative effect on the city's congested streets.

''We're all trying to achieve the same goal,'' said Holtzman, vice president of the Sunset Islands 3 & 4 Homeowners Association. "We figure that one voice collectively will send a more consistent message to the city and to the developer. [A Home Depot] is just the wrong thing for this neighborhood.''

The creation of a coalition is the lastest step in a battle that began in January, when residents first banned together to halt the city's proposed plan for a land swap that they feared would have resulted in a Home Depot in Sunset Harbour, a small area tucked between Alton Road and Biscayne Bay, just east of the Venetian Islands.

The residents won that fight. But Solomon and Zalman Fellig, who own two lots in Sunset Harbour, are still seeking to build a home improvement store on the lot between Bay Road and West Avenue.

The brothers first need a ''conditional use'' approval by the city's Planning Board before they can move forward with their plans.

The group of homeowners with political clout now say they will be ready -- financially -- no matter what happens, said Marilyn Freundlich, president of the Town Homes at Sunset Harbour association.

They have begun to raise money and plan to hire an attorney to represent them. The group is also looking at hiring a traffic consultant to analyze traffic in the area.

''We know that this probably will end up in court,'' she said. "As affected parties we have to also bring our own information to the court and that costs money.''

Arthur Marcus, vice president of the Lincoln West Neighborhood Residents Association, is another supporter.

''There's unity in numbers,'' he said. "We all have our individual concerns, but at the same time we have a concern with how the master plan works in the city.''

Copyright 2006 Miami Herald Media Co.

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