The Miami Herald Feb 28, 2008 URBAN DEVELOPMENT State to Dade: Don't move development boundary BY MATTHEW I. PINZUR AND CURTIS MORGAN Worried about water and traffic, state growth planners urged Miami-Dade to reject a Lowe's home-improvement store and other developments outside the county's Urban Development Boundary. The hot-button applications now come back to the County Commission, likely in April. Commissioners tentatively approved the plans late last year, but some said their votes were intended to solicit state input -- not to actually support moving the line. With the state urging restraint, the tentative support to build outside the boundary may fall apart. If just one of the nine supportive commissioners changes to a ''no'' vote, the veto-proof majority would die. Tuesday's 13-page, firmly-worded opinion is a setback for developers hoping to bring new homes and stores to the county's western reaches. The most visible proposal, a Lowe's at Southwest 138th Avenue and Eighth Street, has drawn jeers from expansion foes but some support from residents who want convenient shopping. ''We don't have an adequate water supply, we don't have adequate transportation and we don't have adequate police and fire services to spread them thinner,'' said Miami Lakes Councilman Michael Pizzi, a member of Hold the Line, an umbrella organization of groups opposing the developments. The political landscape is playing out like a rerun of developers' 2006 attempts to push farther west. Then, too, commissioners granted preliminary approval, the state balked and developers either pulled out or were defeated in final commission votes. ''How many times does the County Commission need to hear it to believe it?'' said Dawn Shirreffs, an organizer for Clean Water Action and Hold The Line. The state's objections -- which also included a wrist-slap for missing a deadline to negotiate new development rules with the Miami-Dade school district -- raised many of the same concerns cited by the county's own planners. Some developers hoped the county's new 20-year water permit would ease development concerns, but the Florida Department of Community Affairs flatly disagreed. That new permit did not contemplate expansion, the state said, and the county will not have major new sources of water until a new plant in Hialeah comes online in 2012 or later. Carol Ann Wehle, executive director of the South Florida Water Management District, said managers weren't telling the county where it could grow, just that it had a limited amount to dole out for new development. The county had some options, she said, such as shifting water intended for urban growth to projects outside the development line. ''Until they do that, we stand by our comments,'' she said, adding that such a change would likely run afoul of other state growth goals. A lawyer for Lowe's said the state's analysis was flawed, that a home-improvement store would have negligible impact on water supplies. ''I think there's a huge misunderstanding about what the project is,'' said lawyer and lobbyist Juan Mayol. ``This isn't going to create any new population.'' The state disputed traffic studies, saying they appear to overestimate road capacity and low-ball the number of drivers. Mayol said some changes to those traffic projections are already under way, based on suggestions from county officials that were just received. For those reasons, he said the store's one-vote failure in 2006 could now be overcome. A small but critical detail remains fuzzy: It was not immediately clear whether the projects would be voted upon separately or lumped together. Individual votes could favor Lowe's, which is pushing hard and could be easier for a commissioner to defend because it does not create new homes. County Mayor Carlos Alvarez's administration did not comment on the state report Wednesday, but Alvarez has consistently vetoed attempts to move the line. Yet even Shirreffs doubted the state report would halt development; Lennar filed plans in January for Parkland 2012, which envisions nearly 7,000 homes, condos and offices, plus a high school, police and fire station on 960 acres just west of Country Walk and outside the development boundary. That project will undergo months of review before formal hearings begin. The company doesn't anticipate any homes to be built before 2012.