Miami-Dade looks for infrastructure bonanza

Accelerating the economic recovery and investing in the workforce; protecting residents, businesses, and visitors from Covid-19; building and improving key infrastructure for transit, water, and resilience projects; protecting water resources and taking climate action; and increasing access to affordable housing are the top priorities for Mayor Daniella Levine Cava for 2022.

“Over the next 12 months, Miami-Dade will have the opportunity to capitalize on the great deal of hard work we’ve all done to adapt to this new normal and build a brighter future for our residents,” she told Miami Today in an email.

The official economic development organization for Miami-Dade County, the Beacon Council, has in place many initiatives to attract new businesses and support locals. In November, the council reported it had secured the commitment from 32 companies looking to relocate or expand in the county which would create 4,989 new high-value jobs and more than $229 million in new capital investments. “This is the highest number of job commitments in the organization’s 36-year history,” says a press note.

More than 8,500 indirect jobs are expected to be created, for a total of 13,527 new job commitments secured by the Beacon Council in FY2020-2021. “With our economy ranked by JLL as the most recovered local economy in the nation, opportunities for innovation, disruption, and entrepreneurship will be abundant in 2022,” said Mayor Levine Cava via email.

With the omicron variant, Miami-Dade saw a sharp increase in Covid-19 cases to begin 2022. By Jan. 24 the 7-day positivity was at 26% and authorities intend to decrease that number by calling residents to get vaccines and boosters and increasing testing distribution. The county also continues to provide relief to key businesses, such as those within Miami International Airport and the cruise industry, hit hard by the pandemic.

As the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was adopted in November, county officials have submitted a variety of proposals to get funds to build and improve infrastructure in the county.

The US Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration announced last week that it awarded about $11 million to 20 projects in 12 states to support comprehensive planning to improve access to public transportation, and Miami-Dade received $405,000 to develop the North Corridor.

“The funding we hope to receive from the recently passed federal infrastructure project will provide our community with the resources to expand public transport, rehabilitate our roads and bridges, expand access to solar power, and much more,” the mayor told the newspaper.

Ms. Levine Cava has pioneered efforts related to climate change, by appointing Irela Bagué as the first Miami-Dade Chief Bay Officer to coordinate all efforts related to the health of Biscayne Bay, and with the appointment of Jane Gilbert as the first Chief Heat Officer in the entire nation and the world to “expand, accelerate, and coordinate our efforts to protect people from heat and save lives,” the mayor said in a statement last April.

In a previous interview with Miami Today, Mayor Levine Cava recalled that the county allocated $260 million for affordable housing in the 2021-2022 budget. “We’re on track for tens of thousands of new units, but the need is hundreds of thousands,” she said. “We are going to push hard with the public sector and the private sector to come up with a very ambitious plan.”

Ms. Levine Cava is to give the State of the County address this upcoming Monday, Jan. 30, at 10 a.m., when she’ll provide an outlook of the accomplishments the county had in 2021. “I know the next 12 months will be busy and filled with growth and new opportunities as we continue to rebound and recover from the impacts of the pandemic,” she wrote.