MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A group of concerned citizens in Miami-Dade’s Brownsville area is taking on Hialeah City Hall in a fight over a proposed annexation of part of the unincorporated community.
“This is not what we desire,” said Pastor Harrell Henton with the Brownsville Church of Christ.
An online petition went up over the weekend, with support and signatures following.
“They didn’t really tell us about this situation, so we took it upon our own to go into the community,” said Henton.
Community members, clergy and civic groups gathered at Henton’s church Monday night, expressing their opposition to the portion of Brownsville, between 32nd and 37th Avenues, becoming part of Hialeah.
Kenneth Kilpatrick, with the Brownsville Civic Neighborhood Association, said that won’t be the case if annexation happens.
“When you live in unincorporated Dade, you have some of the cheapest utilities, your taxes are low,” he said. “The area that they’re proposing to annex is 95% industrial, warehouse district…that’s the economic base for this community moving forward.”
It’s also a big reason behind the proposal.
Hialeah City Councilman Jesus Tundidor told Local 10 News’ Layron Livingston he spearheaded the initiative in order to look at ways of expanding services and increasing city revenue.
He said an engineering firm was hired to conduct a feasibility study and it appears the annexation would cost the city more than the revenue would bring in.
There are also cultural concerns.
“Brownsville has a very rich and sacred legacy that should not be touched,” said Daniella Pierre with the Miami-Dade branch of the NAACP.
Added Kilpatrick: “Seminola is an African-American community inside of Hialeah.”
Demographics have shifted in that once majority-Black enclave.
“This talk of Hialeah annexing Brownsville, and other areas in the Black community, has been looked at very closely by our community, by how they’re treating the African-Americans that are already within the city limits,” said Kilpatrick.
Speaking of limits, Tundidor said the annexation zone that the engineers studied mistakenly included Henton’s church and several homes.
Tundidor said he plans to address that at Tuesday night’s council meeting, where the feasibility study will be presented.
No votes, resolutions, or motions on the annexation are expected for some time, if at all.
At last check, the online petition has already surpassed its initial 1,000 signature goal.