TITLE:
The Use and Abuse of Economics in Land Use Decision-Making in South Florida: An Industrial Park & Its Alternatives, 2020-2023
AUTHORS:
Richard Weisskoff
KEYWORDS:
Economic Analysis, Urban Development Boundary, Job Forecasting, Florida, IMPLAN
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.11 No.12,
December
21,
2023
ABSTRACT: 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.