Metro delays creation of Pinecrest

Old influential Coral Gables and the new, about-to-be-influential Pinecrest appealed Tuesday to the Metro Commission.

The old-timer won.

Metro commissioners sided with Coral Gables and voted 6-4 to delay the creation of the city of Pinecrest for two more weeks in hopes that several dissident neighborhoods can come to terms with where they want to be.

Three neighborhoods that were included in the boundaries of Pinecrest — Pine Bay Estates, Snapper Creek Lakes and Cutler Bay/Deering Bay — want to be part of Coral Gables instead.

Representatives from the Pine Bay Estates Homeowners Association have always expressed their interest for Coral Gables, but were unable to get incorporation proponents to exclude the area from the Pinecrest boundaries. Now they are asking Coral Gables to intervene.

But because Pinecrest isn’t official yet, their legal limbo is causing problems with the boundaries and Coral Gables.

“One question is that there is no legal entity called Pinecrest,” said Coral Gables City Manager Jack Eads. “We can’t make a binding decision with just well-meaning folks.”

Tuesday, when Pinecrest asked Metro to give final approval to its boundaries and create a charter committee, Metro commissioners voted to wait two weeks and see if all groups can come to terms.

Gary Matzner, a member of the Pinecrest charter committee, thinks his group has the answer. The committee is writing a provision in the charter to allow the three areas to secede from Pinecrest and join Coral Gables.

“It will have a provision that gives them up to a year to leave if they want to,” Matzner said.

How the communities will decide whether to stay or go has not been worked out, he added. It is not known whether those communities will vote or go through a different process.

The deadline for leaving Pinecrest would be Sept. 30, 1997.

“That doesn’t mean they won’t stay in Pinecrest,” he added. “It just means they have the option to leave.”

Eads said he hadn’t seen the provision Pinecrest is writing until late Monday. That provision allows for the communities to join his city.

“I’m not so concerned about what their charter says,” Eads said, adding that his primary concern is that residents who want to join Gables are treated correctly.

There has to be a proper mechanism in place that would allow for the annexation, Eads said. “I don’t want to invalidate their city.”

Eads believes the stumbling blocks can be worked out in the next two weeks.

Boundary Map

Credit: Herald Staff. Map labels: Pinecrest; N. Kendall Dr.; Red Rd.; Old Cutler Rd.; SW 112 St.; SW 77 Ave.; SW 67 Ave.; SW 136 St.; route shields 826 and 1. Key: shaded Boundary. Two scale bars: 0 to 1 mile and 0 to 1/2 mile. Complete graphic preserved in the opening crop. This schematic accompanying a boundary dispute is not a verified final municipal-boundary map.