Virginia Key: Dredge Fill A Bad Idea For Virginia Key

In an editorial Saturday, the Miami Herald weighed in on putting dredge fill from the port tunnel on Virginia Key:

In January, the city of Miami signed an agreement with Miami Access Tunnel, the company in charge of the massive project, allowing it to deposit up to 55,000 cubic yards of material displaced from the drilling preparation and drilling itself on Virginia Key’s northwest coast. In exchange, the company promised to use the fill to build a berm around the unsightly — and odoriferous — Virginia Key sewage plant. And:

Virginia Key should not become a casualty of the Big Dig. It is one of the few waterfront locations for family recreation in the city, and must be protected — even as a deeper port propels Miami forward.

The Miami Herald suggests that environmentalists should offer alternatives for the deposit of dredge fill. Is that not the job of the agencies involved, to find a suitable place, that does no harm, when they sign off on a project?

New City of Miami ordinance proposed for converting regular billboards to LED billboards all along 95 and 395.

Second Vice President of the Urban Environment League said about the proposed light intensive billboards proposed by Mark Siffin Media Towers:

"It is time to take a firm stand. Many of our current and former friends in government have been blinded by the revenue potential for good municipal purposes. Revenue for a good purpose is not worth selling out for a universally known blight."

Here is partial copy of a new Sign Ordinance to be heard Thursday, January 27th unless it is postponed. Hit on the page to enlarge it.



This is most of the text that will be added with the ordinance:

Happy Holidays. By Fran Bohnsack

On behalf of the Board of Directors and Members of the Urban Environment League, we wish you a very happy holiday season!

We will return after January 1st.

Celebrating the Life of Emilie Young

It is with great sadness that we announce that Ms. Emilie Young, an Urban Environment League Board Member, passed away this past weekend in South Miami hospital after a brave battle with cancer. As many of you know, Ms. Young was the director of Miami Dade County's Environmentally Endangered Land Program from its creation in 1990 to her retirement in 2008. Ms. Young made an enormous impact on the local environment, and left as her legacy, thousands of acres of protected natural areas. She oversaw the acquisition and maintenance of nearly 18,000 acres of land that celebrate the natural heritage of South Florida. The areas of rockridge pineland, tropical hardwood hammock, freshwater and coastal wetlands that she acquired will forever remind us of her love of the natural world, her commitment to the future of this county, and her incredible skill at negotiating a good deal for the County taxpayers.

Memorial services for Emilie Young will be held at 11:00 A.M. on Wed, Dec. 22, 2010 at St Matthew the Apostle Episcopal Church, 7410 Sunset Drive, Miami, Florida. An additional event, celebrating Emilie’s Life, is being planned for a weekend sometime in the spring at either Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens or the Charles Deering Estate; details will be provided as they become available. Donations in Emilie's name can be made to Free to Breathe (www.freetobreathe.com).

The Miami Art Museum (MAM) Broke Ground in Bicentennial Park

Andres Viglucci wrote in the Miami Herald that the Miami Art Museum held a ceremonial ground-breaking on their $200,000,000 Herzog & DeMeuron structure on Tuesday. The actual dirt movement will be on or around December 15th. Viglucci says:

If it happens as scheduled, that initial phase would mark a consequential milestone in plans to transform the barely used park into a cultural centerpiece for downtown Miami -- a strategy that has been dogged by some degree of controversy and doubts over its feasibility.

The Urban Environment League has been divided on the use of Bicentennial Park to house museums. As the article states:

But the plan has come under criticism from parks activists who say the buildings would eat up too much open space, while some prominent art-world figures question whether MAM, with a relatively small collection of contemporary art and a low profile, merits a $200 million, taxpayer-financed building. Others have questioned whether the art and science museums can meet ambitious private fundraising goals for construction and subsequent operation of the large, complex new buildings, especially amid the economic collapse of the past couple of years.

The Miami Circle is starting on the road to becoming a park.

The Urban Environment League has been part of the coalition to save the Miami Circle since it all began around 1999, when archeologists examining the site found the 2,000 year old circular remains from might have been an early Tequesta Indian structure. The UEL held candlelight vigils at the site.

Many individual volunteers and groups have been working tirelessly to save the circle, among which were The Sierra Club, The Urban Environmental League, and Dade County Heritage Trust.

The work has begun to transform the 2.2 acre site into a park according to the Miami Herald:

Now, 11 years after taxpayers ponied up $27 million to save the archaeological relic from getting buried under a condo slab, earthmovers are finally at work transforming the 2.2-acre parcel into the city's newest -- and perhaps most resonant -- waterfront park.