This website will highlight the progress of this exciting development.
The private gated community will include 550 single-family homes, the vast majority of which will back up to buffers and lakes.
The homes will showcase all of today’s most coveted design features with an emphasis on beauty, functionality, and quality. They also come equipped with stylish, high-end features, including stone exterior detailing, gourmet kitchens, stainless steel appliances, quartz countertops, and much more.
The community will include a beautiful entry, ample open space, great recreational amenities, and a 9,600-square-foot clubhouse, including a sports court, multiple exercise rooms, and social areas.
GL Homes has built a tremendous reputation building beautiful homes and communities. More importantly, we have delivered for our customers. In 2023, the national homebuilding survey company Eliant recognized multiple GL Homes’ communities for exceedingly high referral rates. GL Homes’ communities were tops in one category (large-volume communities), and third and fifth in a second (high-volume communities), a tremendous accomplishment when considering the vast number of new home communities nationwide.
Please visit glhomes.com to see examples of our homes and communities.
In November 2021, the County Commission approved our Zoning application and site plan for the construction of the community. That approval was successfully challenged in a lawsuit that claimed the County did not sufficiently notice the November 2021 meeting. The ruling was in early May 2024. Due to the successful challenge, the November 2021 meeting will need to be redone.
An on-site abandoned maintenance building has been demolished and debris removed pursuant to a permit obtained from the County. The building was inspected for bat roosts and other wildlife on many occasions, most recently a few days before demolition. No wildlife was observed in any of the inspections.
Exterior fuel tanks and any other potentially hazardous materials were carefully removed and disposed of offsite. This work was witnessed by a DERM representative.
On the southern edge of our property, there is a 0.147-acre island in a lake. During Zoning, a tricolored heron nest was spotted on the island. The tricolored heron is a state-threatened bird.
To determine the scope of threatened bird-nesting activity, our team agreed with the recommendations of DERM, codified in our zoning approval, to evaluate the tree island for bird activity during the 2022 nesting season.
The island was evaluated by wading bird experts and DERM representatives through monthly inspections from March through August. A FWC representative joined for several. After each inspection, an expert documented results. We also provided access so DERM representatives could perform additional inspections in order to obtain a thorough understanding of island activity. Data collected in these evaluations will guide DERM in its evaluation of the preservation steps we propose to preserve habitat.
Three documented pairs of tricolored herons nested in 2022. Their nests resulted in a total of six fledglings that we believe survived. We continued inspections in 2023 and 2024. There was no tricolored heron nesting observed in 2023. One nest was observed as of April 2024. As of May 8, 2024 that nest had been taken over by an anhinga. There are no active nests observed as of that date.
These continuing inspections are not necessary to determine if we will preserve the island. We will preserve it
There were two underground fuel storage tanks at the site of the old maintenance building. These tanks were abandoned years ago and filled with concrete. Permits to remove them were obtained, and they have been removed.
The Division of Environmental Resource Management (DERM), of the Miami-Dade County Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources, requires soils samples to be analyzed to provide for enhancement of the quality of the soils on the property. Execution of the plan makes the site more amenable to wading birds and other species and enhances health and safety for residents.
In areas covered by brush or invasive species such as Brazilian Pepper, limited clearing is required by DERM to allow access to collect soils samples. Under DERM supervision, we have already cleared brush in certain areas far from nesting birds so soils samples could be collected pursuant to DERM’s criteria. Testing for the overall site is mostly complete, but tests in select areas may continue indefinitely.
To facilitate further soils testing required by DERM, we cleared some additional invasive plants and brush last August, again far from nesting birds. This testing is further explained in “What Comes Next.”
Endangered Florida bonneted bats forage throughout southern Florida. To determine if any roost on our site, ecological experts performed bonneted bat surveys in December 2020, December 2021, August 2022 and March 2023. Other than the August 2022 inspection, which was limited to DERM tree removal permit No. TREE-12642, all surveys included a tree-by-tree cavity inspection and a thorough inspection of the existing structures. No bats were found roosting on the property, and no other evidence of bat roosting was discovered.
Before commencing development, still more inspections will be done to verify that nothing has changed.
To date, results are consistent with expectations. The attached link explains why bonneted bats have not been found roosting in Miami-Dade trees for 30 or more years. Buildings, particularly those with Mediterranean Revival style architecture, have proven more appealing as bonneted bats homes than trees.
https://www.eaglehill.us/urna-pdfs-regular/urna-042-Ober.pdf
To protect the tricolored heron habitat during nesting season, we have voluntarily installed a fence extending 330’ around all sides of the island on our property. The fence does not extend into existing home back yards that are not part of our development. Those yards are as close as 100’ to the island.
Other than routine maintenance as described below, the area around the island that we own will not be disturbed until DERM makes decisions related to the area. A 330’ radius is consistent with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) guidelines restricting heavy construction usage during times when State-threatened birds are nesting. A radius of 100’ is recommended outside of nesting season.
In addition to collecting soils samples, one or more soils remediation pilot programs have been and may be executed to ensure that proposed procedures to remediate soils will be effective. The first pilot program commenced in August 2022. Executing the plan required several trees to be removed to create an area large enough to test remediation procedures. Trees removed were already scheduled to be removed during development. The only difference was the timing. A tree removal permit was obtained.
We are in the latter stages of preparing a modified site plan for DERM’s review and approval. The amended plan will leave the island in place to accommodate the threatened bird species. DERM will consider the data along with County regulations when evaluating the plan.
The site excluding only the island will continue to be maintained as it has been maintained since the golf course was created. Such maintenance is required by County code. Failure to comply can subject us as owner to penalties.
We regularly mow grassy areas and spray around lakes to control invasive vegetation. With respect to the rookery, if maintenance were to stop within the 330’, overgrowth from exotic vegetation such as Brazilian pepper could result in a vegetative connection from the island to the lake bank, which would allow mammalian predators such as raccoons and foxes direct access to nests. Keeping the lake and lake banks clear of vegetation also reduces that threat by maintaining habitat for the American alligator which is a natural mammalian predator. Mammals hesitate crossing a lake with an alligator in it.
Notwithstanding maintenance of habitat, alligators are alligators. The alligator that was resident in the lake was removed from the area after spending several days in the pool of a homeowner who lives next to the property. The homeowner requested the removal.
Other maintenance incudes trimming and spraying weeds next to the perimeter fence and maintaining and repairing the perimeter fence. Public utilities also may access their facilities as FPL accessed its easement as described below. Several utilities have easements around the perimeter of the property.
As neighbors we sometimes must address adjacent homeowner concerns. For instance, a tree far from the tree island was infested with bees that were swarming into an adjacent homeowner’s backyard. After consultation with bee experts and DERM, the tree was removed. When situations like this come up, we work with the County. We also email some who oppose the project and who have expressed an interest in tracking activity on the property. We welcome the opportunity to add anyone else to the email list who wishes to be notified. Misunderstandings of County-approved work and work related to the safety of neighbors have triggered attacks on us and on our motives in the past. We will continue to make every effort to clearly communicate onsite activity to avoid those misunderstandings.
Our site is available for inspection by regulators at any time. Representatives from DERM, US Fish and Wildlife and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission have all visited the site. DERM visits regularly. We are diligent stewards and welcome the oversight. We encourage the visits to provide factual counterpoints to a concentrated environmental misinformation campaign waged to prevent development.
The final adjudication of the challenge to the Zoning approval is pending. If the challenge is successful, the November 2021 meeting will need to be redone. If it fails, the November 2021 approval will be reinstated.
All development activities including clearing will be performed after receiving the appropriate permits and will be inspected by County personnel to ensure that work is done in accordance with approved plans.
No work other than routine mowing and invasive vegetation control will be performed on GL Homes’ property within 330’ of the island without the approval of DERM.
GL Homes has worked with traffic engineers to develop solutions to the existing morning cut-through traffic issues faced by the residents surrounding our community. Some of these modifications will be subject to approval by impacted community members, which we will work to obtain. The modifications are designed to greatly reduce cut-through traffic between 7 AM and 9 AM without slowing or restricting traffic outside of those hours.
GL Homes has also committed to other significant traffic improvements to ease the morning commute for Calusa and other surrounding Kendall residents. Each improvement will be installed before the 31st home closes.
For further details on our traffic plan, please go to
GL Homes is preparing a plan for County review to accommodate threatened bird species. The plan will be informed by months of monitoring bird nesting activity by wading bird experts, the County, and representatives of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The monitoring and plan fulfill obligations agreed to when the County Commission approved zoning for the property.