GL Homes lost a lawsuit over its controversial plan to develop a 550-home complex on the Calusa golf course near Kendall.
The Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday denied GL Homes’ request for review of a lower court’s decision that had effectively nixed the project.
The decision marks the latest in the nearly three-year saga over the redevelopment of the 159-acre Calusa golf course at 9400 Southwest 130th Avenue in unincorporated Miami-Dade County.
Residents in the surrounding neighborhood who oppose the project cite concerns over the strain it would put on local schools and traffic, as well as the potential impacts on wildlife at the closed golf course. Some homeowners have said they bought their homes partly because of a promise the course would remain undeveloped in future decades.
The Florida Supreme Court shot down any legal recourse for GL homes in the case, writing that “no motion for rehearing will be entertained”. “This is the end of the road”, said David Winker, an attorney for residents. (GL Homes) will have to reapply or do something else”.
GL Homes says it’s not giving up.
“We look forward to returning to the county commission with a revised site plan”, GL Homes said in a statement.
“The county commission approved our vision by a 10-2 margin, and we are confident that our plan to transform this vacant site into a low-density community of single-family homes…. will be well received by the commissioner once again”.
The first declined to provide details about its revised site plan and whether the proposal would be for fewer homes.
Save Calusa, the residents’ organization led by Amando Prieto, first sued Miami Dade in 2021, asking the court to void county commissioners’ approval of a rezoning for the project because the meeting was improperly noticed. GL Homes wasn’t named as a defendant but joined the lawsuit to fight on the county’s side.
The county originally had scheduled and properly noticed the rezoning meeting for October 20, 2021. But at a meeting on the previous day, commissioners decided to push the zoning hearing to November 17, 2021. Residents weren’t properly notified about the new hearing date, according to the complaint.
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