More on the UDB

Another rare mid-week post 'round these parts...

Looks like someone in the Miami-Dade County commission is on the right path regarding the UDB line.

Adding a new wrinkle to the debate over sprawl and the South Florida environment, the chairman of the Miami-Dade Commission wants to draw a permanent development boundary in rural West Dade.

The county already has a line limiting growth, known as the Urban Development Boundary, but it is designed to be moved when commissioners believe expansion is necessary -- which they did last month, despite controversy and a mayoral veto.

The new line, proposed by Chairman Bruno Barreiro, would create a development-free zone beginning somewhere west of the current boundary and extending west into Everglades National Park.

''There has to be a substantial buffer to the Everglades,'' Barreiro said during a speech to the Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club, a South Beach civic group.

Unlike the current line, which can be moved every other year by a two-thirds vote of the commission, Barreiro said the permanent line would be enshrined in the county's charter.

Creating it that way would require a referendum, as would any subsequent changes. new line would not replace the UDB; the area between the two lines would remain largely off-limits now but could be cleared for development in the future.

Barreiro, who voted to move the urban boundary last month, wants to hire experts to study the area's unique ecosystem and suggest where the line should be drawn.

It's only part of the issue, and doesn't address poor zoning and planning inside the line and overall commission ineptitude, but it's a start.

Read the entire article here.