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Miami Herald, The (FL)

March 10, 1996 Section: NEIGHBORS KE Edition: FINAL Page: 3

PINECREST: TO BE OR NOT TO BE A CITY?

CHARLES RABIN Herald Staff Writer Pinecrest voters will decide Tuesday if they want to form their own city, with its own government and police force -- and most importantly, control of its own tax base. Those who favor a new city say there will be no need to raise taxes, that the neighborhood pays $1.6 million more in taxes than it gets back in services from Metro-Dade County. Police response times will be quicker and zoning decisions will be made locally, they argue. Opponents of incorporation worry that creating another layer of government will be costly. The only way to increase taxes, they say, is to grow. And since Pinecrest has such little undeveloped land, condominiums and office towers will emerge, tainting the area of single-family homes. Last November, Pinecrest voters overwhelmingly passed a city charter that specified how the village would be governed. It says: * A seven-member council will include a mayor. * Pinecrest will be divided into four districts, each represented by a council member. Two other council members and the mayor will be elected at large. * Council terms will be two years, with a two-term limit. * The mayor will appoint a full-time village manager, who will have to be approved by the council. * Voters will have the right to vote on any proposed increase in property taxes. * Members of the Charter Committee agreed not to run in the first election, April 23. Tuesday's vote will cap an incorporation movement that began in early 1994. Many in Pinecrest felt their neighborhood was not getting its money's worth from Metro. Pinecrest is an affluent, mostly white non-Hispanic neighborhood that runs from Old Cutler Road west to U.S. 1 between Kendall Drive and Southwest 136th Street. The 1990 census set the median household income for the area's 5,722 homes at $87,717. Incorporation advocates based part of their argument on the fact that its 19,000 residents were paying $9.4 million in taxes and receiving only $7.8 million in services. "We're giving more than $1.5 million away," Pinecrest Charter Commission member Gary Matzner said. "We're a donor community, with excess taxes." Attorney Gene Stearns, who guided Key Biscayne through its incorporation and is working with East Kendall as it tries to become a city, had friends who lived in Pinecrest. "Gene basically said, 'You should do this,' " said Evelyn Greer, a leading advocate for incorporation. "He said, 'You guys are crazy, you should start to do this.' " Greer, who has said she will run for mayor if Pinecrest becomes a city, and Matzner got things started by gathering 600 signatures on a petition seeking incorporation. In September 1994, a county-approved study confirmed that Pinecrest could support itself and was in fact sending more money the county's way than it was getting back in services. Last September, almost half the eligible voters participated in the first vote on incorporation, with 65 percent supporting it. The turnout was greater than in Key Biscayne and Aventura. "People have come a long way in understanding," Greer said.

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"People have come a long way in understanding," Greer said.

Miami Herald: Document View

And last November, the village's charter was drafted -- ironically helping lead to the first concerted effort to block the incorporation. Armando Lacasa and a small group of homeowners worried that incorporation would lead to an increase in taxes formed the Concerned Homeowners of Pinecrest. "Because of inflation, there will be problems five or more years down the road,' Lacasa said. "Pinecrest will have to grow upward because there is nowhere to grow outward." Incorporation proponents said some Key Biscayne residents also feared tax increases before their vote in 1990. But property taxes have decreased for three consecutive years. Key Biscayne Vice Mayor John Waid said his village has prospered since incorporating. And he doesn't see any reason Pinecrest wouldn't do the same. "It depends on their ability to save money," he said. "If they can provide more services for less money, then it's worthwhile. Their tax base is probably high enough that they could provide services for less money than the county can give to them." cutlines RAUL RUBIERA / Herald Staff VOTE NO: Corinne Steinbauer makes her feelings known as the Tuesday vote approaches. cutlines TIM CHAPMAN / Herald Staff VOTE YES: Jane Scott, Jim Wallace, Cindie Blanck and Evelyn Greer are advocates for incorporation. Illustration:photo: Evelyn Greer (A), Richard Brodsky (A), Corinne Steinbauer (A), Jane Scott and Jim Wallace and Cindie Blanck and Evelyn Greer (A) Copyright (c) 1996 The Miami Herald
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