Comments on: The Great Dog Park Debate https://coralgablesmagazine.com/the-great-dog-park-debate/ The Magazine for business, culture, entertainment, and dining in Coral Gables Tue, 02 Mar 2021 20:33:41 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Juan A Garcia https://coralgablesmagazine.com/the-great-dog-park-debate/#comment-93 Wed, 04 Nov 2020 23:55:01 +0000 https://coralgablesmagazine.com/?p=14466#comment-93 Funny that the gated community wasn’t gated just a few years back, and now they considered the public roads theirs, and don’t want the free transit that the public are entitled for. That is the main and only reason for this back and fort among the HOA and the park users. Of course the residents are well known developers and have good relations with City officials, so the users have to get their cars and shoes dirty and walk half a mile to get to the park that the majority of those residents have never even set foot in it. The inconvenience of a few cars going in or out of the North gate is too much for them. So they pulled some strings and Ms Nardi, Parks Director obliged, and is now spending $5M USD on a boardwalk that nobody asked for.

]]> By: Niels Pace https://coralgablesmagazine.com/the-great-dog-park-debate/#comment-91 Tue, 03 Nov 2020 23:26:53 +0000 https://coralgablesmagazine.com/?p=14466#comment-91 Bill Ogden of the Hammock Lakes HOA is being completely disingenuous in his comments about the closure of the gate of Schoolhouse Road that gives access to West Matheson Hammock Park. He says that the launching of this park revamping project and the closure of the gate is nothing to do with them, it’s the County’s decision. He doesn’t mention his active lobbying of Commissioner Suarez nor that of Arnaud Karsenti, the other major lobbyist in the HOA, who pressured Mayor Gimenez. Their emails and lawyers’ letters are now in the public domain.

As for the environmental sensitivity of this park, the grassy areas where people walk their dogs are no longer pristine wetlands, they are just grass. The land was ploughed and cultivated for decades, the soil is full of tin cans and waste from Hurricane Andrew, it is not remotely environmentally sensitive. However, thanks to their lobbying they are trying to force all park users to come into the park via the hugely endangered rockland hammock, so their pressure is causing environmental damage.

Sadly the Parks Department have fallen prey to their lobbying and are prepared to commit environmental vandalism with their unwanted construction project up the beautiful nature trail. The public rejected the project back in 2015 as the park goers love the unspoilt beauty of the place, but Director Maria Nardi of the Parks Department is pushing her $5 million project through whatever we think. No need for reviews, no need for environmental permits, just do it quickly. Shame on you Nardi.

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