|
Linda
Fitzgerald e-mail exchange with Tomas
Regalado
( April 15 - 19, 2005 )
From: Linda Fitzgerald
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2005
4:18 PM
Subject: FW: Miami 21
I
had this exchange over the last couple
days with commissioner Regalado.
Mayor Diaz also responded to my original
letter essentially saying Miami 21 is
the best we can hope for; he did not
respond to the issue I raised about Home
Depot.
Per
Regalado’s note below, what can we do?
Is Tucker Gibbs pressing the city for
details about the Home Depot plans they
submitted? I am encouraged that
Regalado thinks we still have a chance.
Linda
Fitzgerald
From:
Regalado, Tomas (Commissioner)
[mailto:TRegalado@ci.miami.fl.us]
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2005
3:29 PM
To: Linda Fitzgerald
Subject: RE: Miami 21
Dear
Ms. Fitzgerald,
I
think you should focus on the Mayor’s
race. Mayor Diaz is up for re-election,
and he has tried to stay away from the
Home Depot controversy, but the few
things he has said is all for Home Depot
and of course development.
The
residents have the power to vote and
candidates should know how they feel,
also the media. I believe the residents
can win this one. I would demand answers
from the city about Home Depot’s
plans. I would organize a protest at the
site if the residents are not satisfied.
The city leaders are betting that the
residents will get tired and forget
about it. I think they will not, but you
need to continue the fight for media
exposure purposes.
Sincerely,
Tomas
Regalado
From: Linda Fitzgerald
Sent: Monday, April 18, 2005 1:47
PM
To: Regalado, Tomas
(Commissioner)
Subject: RE: Miami 21
I appreciate your candor, and frankly, I had drawn
the conclusion you suggest. I was
in the room when you were the only one
to stand up and declare that Home Depot
is not a good corporate neighbor, not to
be trusted, and that the citizens’
wishes shouldn’t be overlooked.
You have no idea how much that crowd
appreciated your courage to NOT be a
“team player.” It must be
terribly frustrating for you, as it is
for us. I am not anti-development,
but I cannot believe there isn’t a
better way, that balances the needs of
those of us who are here and love our
neighborhoods, and the city’s need for
revenue. Do you have any advice to
offer? I have already written
Winton to let him know he won’t be
getting my vote, only to discover he’s
not up for reelection anyway. I
don’t get to vote for you. What
next?
Linda Fitzgerald
From: Regalado, Tomas (Commissioner) [mailto:TRegalado@ci.miami.fl.us]
Sent: Monday, April 18, 2005 1:24
PM
To: Linda Fitzgerald
Subject: RE: Miami 21
Dear Ms. Fitzgerald,
Thank you very much for your e-mail regarding
Miami 21. To me Miami 21 is just a
public relations campaign to try to calm
the residents about wild development. In
reality, this is just a play to give
developers time to finish with all these
projects and take whatever land is still
available.
Remember, this is an election year and it will be
very easy for the incumbents to say we
are working on a major zoning change.
As you may know, I am the only one who voted
against Home Depot, and that is why it
is said that I am not a team player. I
am proud to be that since I believe the
residents were here before all of the
development.
Sincerely,
Tomas Regalado
From: Linda Fitzgerald
Sent: Friday, April 15, 2005 2:12
PM
To: Diaz, Manuel A. (Mayor);
Winton, John L. (Commissioner);
Gonzalez, Angel (Commissioner);
Regalado, Tomas (Commissioner); Allen,
Jeffery (Commissioner)
Subject: Miami 21
I read in today’s paper that the city is moving to revise
the zoning codes in order to impose some
order around urban development instead
of unchecked building without planning.
I applaud this effort. I am
relatively new to Miami and so have not
lived through many of the lost battles
to preserve our neighborhoods and
vistas, but I have seen enough in the
two and a half years I’ve been here to
be alarmed.
My only question is whether anything will remain by the time
the two years are up that you say it
will take to revise the code. I
have a personal concern with the
imminent arrival of Home Depot in
Coconut Grove. By the time the new
code comes into effect the big box,
whether it’s orange and tan or Key
West style, will be here and the traffic
congestion will have rendered that
stretch of route 1 virtually impassable.
What good will the code do us? I
mention Home Depot because it calls into
question your commitment to preserving
our neighborhoods, alleviating our
traffic problems and working to improve
the quality of life of Miamians. I
sat in the commission meeting while
Johnny Winton torpedoed the
community’s hopes for keeping Home
Depot out, ostensibly because they had
already submitted plans that would allow
them to build whatever they wanted at
that site. Come to find out at a
Village Council meeting a few weeks
later that Home Depot never did a tree
survey. Is a tree survey required
for an application to be complete?
Who told Johnny Winton Home Depot’s
application was complete? Home
Depot? Did he or any of you look
at it? If that application in fact
was not complete and an ordinance had
been passed at first reading our
community would be sighing a huge sigh
of relief, content in the knowledge that
our elected officials truly represented
us and truly believed their own rhetoric
about controlling growth and preserving
neighborhoods for the residents.
If that application was not complete and
Johnny Winton and the rest of you either
knew it, or negligently did not confirm
that it was, that is scandalous.
All these plans for reorganizing the zoning codes to make
this city more livable two years from
now ring pretty hollow when you have
demonstrated today how little concern
you have for community residents.
A new zoning code two years from now? What will be left
to preserve?
Linda Fitzgerald
Coconut Grove, Florida
|
