The Use and Abuse of Economics in Land Use Decision-Making in South Florida: An Industrial Park & Its Alternatives, 2020-2023

This paper reviews the economic methodology used to justify a proposed 357 hectare (800 acre) Industrial Park that would breach the Urban Development Boundary (UDB) in Miami-Dade County, Florida, a boundary that had been established to constrain urban sprawl and protect the surrounding wetlands and farmlands. We will examine the socio-economic setting of the region, the ownership of the farmland parcels designated to become industrial sites, and the misuse of the promoters’ narrow economic analysis. Then we shall explain and compute correctly the likely job creation based on the author’s own survey of recently constructed industrial plants similar to those proposed for this site. Rather than an industrial park, we offer instead a newly-designed multi-purpose Recreational–Ecological–Agricultural Park (REAP) & Nature Preserve which would maintain the integrity of the rural landscape, connect the densely-populated neighborhoods to the mangrove shoreline, and open nature’s treasure chest to urban Miami and the wider public.