What is Smart Growth?

“Smart Growth” covers a range of development and conservation strategies that help protect our health and natural environment and make our communities more attractive, economically stronger, and more socially diverse, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Communities employing/leveraging/subscribing to Smart Growth use creative development strategies to preserve natural lands and critical environmental areas, protect water and air quality, and reuse/repurpose already-developed land, including:

• Conserving resources by reinvesting in existing infrastructure and rehabilitating historic buildings.

• Planning residential neighborhoods near shops, offices, schools, parks, and other amenities, enabling residents and visitors to walk, bike, or take public transportation rather than drive.

• Designing different housing types to enable senior citizens to remain in their neighborhoods as they age, to make first homes affordable for young people and first-time buyers, and to provide families at all stages in their trajectories with a safe, attractive, affordable home.

Smart Growth strategies that enhance neighborhoods and involve residents in development decisions yield vibrant places to live, work, and play, can make communities economically competitive, can create business opportunities, and also strengthen the local tax base.

Miami-Dade County’s Comprehensive Development Master Plan

Miami-Dade County covers more than 2,000 square miles of land, nearly 500 of which have been developed for urban uses. The county’s Comprehensive Development Master Plan (CDMP) dictates land use, growth, and urban development via the following guidelines designed to encourage development:

1. At the same rate as projected population and economic growth.

2. Centered around a network of high-intensity urban centers connected by multi-modal transportation facilities.

3. Optimizing public service delivery and conservation of valuable natural resources.

Amendments to the CDMP take place three times per year in January, May and October. Amendment applications can include changes to the Land Use Plan (LUP) map, CDMP text, and CDMP map series. Applications to amend the CDMP can be filed with the County Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources. The amendment process is approximately 10-month long for a standard application.

The Urban Development Boundary

The CDMP also establishes an Urban Development Boundary (UDB). Created in 1975, the UDB is an invisible regulatory line running along the south and western areas of the county hemmed by a buffer of agricultural lands (figure 1). The agricultural corridor separates high-density zoning of urban Miami-Dade County from the low-density zoning of the Everglades – the main source of water for 8 million South Floridians.

The UDB identifies the area where urban development may occur through the year 2030. All land within the boundary line is permitted for development consideration, while the area outside line is not. The UDB serves as a barrier to prevent development from coming too close to environmentally sensitive lands, such as the Everglades, and to stop the shrinking of the buffer between the Everglades, Redland agricultural areas and urban Miami-Dade County.

Development orders permitting urban development will generally be approved within the UDB at some time through the year 2030 as long as level-of-service standards for necessary public facilities are met. Adequate countywide capacity will be maintained by increasing development densities inside the UDB or by expanding the UDB when needed as determined through the amendment process.

The CDMP Future Land Use Plan (LUP) Map currently designates four Urban Expansion Areas (UEA) located outside of the UDB. The UEAs represents areas where the Board of County Commissioners may authorize urban expansion if certain criteria in the Land Use Element are met, and if there is a demonstrated need for urban development to occur beyond the UDB.

Defending the UDB

The UDB prevents urban sprawl into the Everglades, protects our region’s precious agricultural buffer land, our natural resources and our quality of life. The boundary is also a critical tool that protects wildlife habitat and our region's drinking water. Yet the UDB is under constant threat from developers who want to build on protected land beyond the established boundary. Our effort to preserve the UDB is central to our society’s mission: Conserve and restore South Florida ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife and their habitats.

Hold the Line

Tropical Audubon Society launched the Hold the Line Campaign in 2004 in collaboration with Friends of the Everglades and 140 other organizations. The intent was clear: Protect the rural lands and Everglades on the West and South sides of Miami-Dade County from the sprawling development encroaching from western metropolitan Miami. The goal was simple: Uphold the integrity of the UDB.

The Hold the Line group has since expanded to become the Hold the Line Coalition in response to the proposed expansion of the Dolphin Expressway (SR-836) beyond the UDB. The coalition believes that moving the boundary for highway expansion for any reason will attract development in the fragile Everglades and neighboring open space that is needed to recharge our aquifers and protect the region from sea level rise.

The expanded coalition’s goals now include: halt highway expansion; encourage public mass transit, keep the UDB intact; support Smart Growth in the urban core; and help push Climate Change adaptation and prevention. Hold the Line Coalition members are ever ready to oppose unnecessary sprawl in the name of protecting environmentally sensitive lands, farmland and green space.

For more information on the Hold the Line Coalition, please visit: https://holdthelinecoalition.org/.

Advocating for Smart Growth & Defending the Urban Development Boundary

• In 2022 TAS engaged in a legal challenge to Miami-Dade County’s (MDC) proposed SR- 836 extension, a 14-mile, 6-lane toll road. If built, the tollway extension would breach the UDB and intrude into Everglades Wetlands, adversely impact quality of life, our drinking water supply, Everglades Restoration and crucial habitat for birds and other wildlife. Read our Media Advisory.

Visit our Action Alert page to learn more, send a letter to your Commissioner, or donate to these causes: https://tropicalaudubon.org/take-action.