Despite environmental warnings, Kelly Tractor wins fight to build HQ in west Dade

Kelly Tractor finally won approval to build a new headquarters on wetlands outside Miami-Dade’s development zone, a proposal opposed by environmental groups and initially blocked by Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.

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Kelly, the local Caterpillar dealer currently based in Doral, wants to build up to 2.7 million square feet on a 246-acre site west of Northwest 137th Avenue near the 836 Expressway. The site sits outside Miami-Dade’s Urban Development Boundary (UDB). That’s the imaginary line that’s supposed to mark the divide between rural areas and Miami-Dade’s suburbs, where office complexes like the one Kelly wants would typically be allowed.

Rather than asking for an expansion of the UDB to include its proposed new headquarters, Kelly instead asked Miami-Dade to rewrite the rules on what’s allowed outside the UDB to legalize its development plan.

In February, commission approval of Kelly’s request. Her administration has since been supportive of changes Kelly made to its development plan, including preservation of 63 acres of wetlands on the property and about 20 acres of wetlands elsewhere. On Tuesday, commissioners approved Kelly’s proposal in a 9-to-3 vote. That’s enough to override a veto by Levine Cava, though she has signalled she would not veto the measure this time.

“It’s a substantially different proposal than first came through,” Levine Cava told the Miami Herald after the vote. “The protections for environmentally sensitive lands are extensive.”

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Voting against the Kelly approval were Commissioners Danielle Cohen Higgins, Vicki Lopez and Micky Steinberg. Commissioner Marleine Bastien did not attend the meeting.

Commissioner Raquel Regalado, who at one point opposed the Kelly proposal, on Tuesday praised the company’s new pledge to donate more wetlands to Miami-Dade for preservation. “It puts roughly 80 acres of wetlands into public ownership,” she said.

Environmental groups urged commissioners to reject Kelly’s plans, calling the proposal a significant retreat from the county’s approach to keep commercial development within the UDB.

Laura Reynolds, science director for the pro-UDB Hold the Line coalition, said Miami-Dade is giving Kelly permission to pave over about two dozen acres of wetlands — a rare allowance for Miami-Dade. And by changing the rules on development outside the UDB, Miami-Dade is diluting the value of that check against suburban sprawl. “It doesn’t move the UDB,” Reynolds said of the county’s Kelly approval. “It just makes it irrelevant.”

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