Posted on Aug 6, 2023
Farmers fear rare agricultural land in South Dade will be turned into parking lots
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The Everglades ecosystem begins two lots over from a tropical fruit grove owned and managed by Michael Wanek.
Guavas of different backgrounds and colors are grown for retail and distribution in rows, along with other rare tropical fruits like starfruit, bananas and prickly pears. Visitors from around the world come to the far-flung farm in the Redland area of South Dade to pick lychees.
“People from all sorts of cultures — Chinese, Vietnamese, Bangladesh, Middle Easterners — will come and they’ll walk away with hundreds of dollars worth of fruits,” said Wanek, the president of the Redland Homes and Farm Association, a nonprofit.
Guavas of different backgrounds and colors are grown for retail and distribution in rows, along with other rare tropical fruits like starfruit, bananas and prickly pears. Visitors from around the world come to the far-flung farm in the Redland area of South Dade to pick lychees.
“People from all sorts of cultures — Chinese, Vietnamese, Bangladesh, Middle Easterners — will come and they’ll walk away with hundreds of dollars worth of fruits,” said Wanek, the president of the Redland Homes and Farm Association, a nonprofit.
Farmers fear rare agricultural land in South Dade will be turned into parking lots
Posted from wlrn.org
Farming
Agriculture
State of Florida
Posted 9 mo ago
Responses: 3
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel California mandates housing be built by it’s cities! Will CA save enough land to grow food to feed the people living in those additional hosing facilities?
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I saw it in AZ and I’m seeing it in Kansas, they’ve paved paradise and put up a parking lot.
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Illegal parking lots and violations
“Most people, I would say, would be very concerned,” said Wanek on a recent morning. “You don’t imagine an agricultural area with that many trucks. I’ve never seen it anywhere. I’m from Iowa let me tell you — it’s been years since I’ve lived there, but I go back [and] I don’t see that.”
Wanek worries that roads in the Redland area were not built to withstand traffic from heavy trucks, and the sheer amount of trucks is causing potholes. Driving through the zone, WLRN and Wanek spotted an 18-wheeler catch a flat tire on a pothole-ridden gravel road, after the tire was seen grinding against the truck bed.
One area of the Redland, known as the '8.5 Square Mile' area by locals, is the hot spot of the illegal parking lots, according to county code violation data and maps. The environmentally sensitive area is on the western stretch of the Redland, backing up to the Everglades.
WLRN saw entire lots packed with 18-wheeler Amazon trucks, demolition trucks and car haulers.
“If somebody can explain to me how ag land needs car haulers parked out here, I would really like to understand that one,” said Wanek.
A single property, owned by the Davie-based company Paradise Palm Gardens LLC, has 112 open code violations for illegal commercial truck parking. The company did not respond to requests for comment."...
..."Illegal parking lots and violations
“Most people, I would say, would be very concerned,” said Wanek on a recent morning. “You don’t imagine an agricultural area with that many trucks. I’ve never seen it anywhere. I’m from Iowa let me tell you — it’s been years since I’ve lived there, but I go back [and] I don’t see that.”
Wanek worries that roads in the Redland area were not built to withstand traffic from heavy trucks, and the sheer amount of trucks is causing potholes. Driving through the zone, WLRN and Wanek spotted an 18-wheeler catch a flat tire on a pothole-ridden gravel road, after the tire was seen grinding against the truck bed.
One area of the Redland, known as the '8.5 Square Mile' area by locals, is the hot spot of the illegal parking lots, according to county code violation data and maps. The environmentally sensitive area is on the western stretch of the Redland, backing up to the Everglades.
WLRN saw entire lots packed with 18-wheeler Amazon trucks, demolition trucks and car haulers.
“If somebody can explain to me how ag land needs car haulers parked out here, I would really like to understand that one,” said Wanek.
A single property, owned by the Davie-based company Paradise Palm Gardens LLC, has 112 open code violations for illegal commercial truck parking. The company did not respond to requests for comment."...
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