Metro to allow Pinecrest to vote on whether it will become a city

Yet another pocket of Dade County took a significant step toward cityhood Thursday when the aspiring Village of Pinecrest was given the green light to take a vote on its future.

Metro commissioners, some still complaining the incorporation process was moving too fast, agreed to set aside Sept. 19 for Pinecrest voters to cast ballots on forming their own government. It’s the same date commissioners set aside for people residing in the North Central Dade community some want to call Destiny.

Even though commissioners approved the vote, they warned Pinecrest enthusiasts that their city-making venture was not a done deal. Commissioners have scheduled an incorporation pow-wow for July 13, when they say they’ll debate how to handle the effects of well-off communities seceding from Metro.

Many fear that when affluent communities like Pinecrest take their tax bases from unincorporated Dade’s tax pool, poorer areas in the unincorporated region will suffer drastic service cuts. Commissioners will consider several plans to deal with the problem at the July hearing.

“This will be the showdown at the OK Corral,” Evelyn Greer, a leader in Pinecrest’s incorporation movement told residents after Thursday’s hearing.

The proposed Village of Pinecrest is bordered roughly by Kendall Drive on the north, Southwest 136th Street on the south, U.S. 1 on the west, and Old Cutler Road on the east. Its population is about 17,000, with a property tax base of more than $1.2 billion.

Gary Matzner, co-chairman of Pinecrest’s incorporation movement, told Metro commissioners the community doesn’t want to hurt Dade County government, but simply wants more control over local services people care most about, like police and zoning.

“The only thing we’re asking for is those city-type services that elude us today,” Matzner said. “There are things we think we could do better than a county entity serving 1.1 million people.”

Metro Commissioner Maurice Ferre put Pinecrest’s election request on the table Thursday, but downplayed the significance of it. He said he was only following the footsteps of Commissioner Betty Ferguson, who Tuesday refused to let the commission delay Destiny’s incorporation vote.

“We’ve got a long way to go,” Ferre said. “All I’m asking, under the theory of what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, is to vote on this. We do this with the full understanding it may all unravel on July 13. That’s when the donnybrook is going to occur.”