The town has considered improving Optimist Park since 2003. Nineteen years later, voters defeated a $19.5 million municipal bond proposal.
Meanwhile, the park continues to deteriorate. It has rusted backstops, busted dugouts and some wooden light poles, including one felled by Hurricane Irma and another that was decaying at its base and was removed.
The council gathered Feb. 25 for a workshop led by Parks and Recreation Director Jeremy Bajdaun. He proposed renovation of the 33-acre green space to be done in phases and cost an estimated $6.732 million.
For 54 years, generations of Miami Lakers played sports -- that grew to include baseball, T-ball, flag football, soccer, basketball, tennis and pickleball at the park -- where the Optimist Club runs youth sports leagues.
The town said it owns 8 acres on the northern edge and Miami-Dade County Public Schools owns 25 acres to the south, which Miami Lakes Middle School uses for gym, cross country races and tennis tournaments. Our Lady of the Lakes Catholic School uses fields in the southwest corner.
Bajdaun and Town Manager Edward Pidermann described improvements that would be less ambitious than what was offered in 2022. The seven ball fields would remain in place. Amenities such as a new walking path and covered, lighted basketball courts with fans that could also be used as a bandshell would serve school kids and those who don’t participate on Optimist teams.
In the first year, plans call for master construction documents (at $300,000) that would be the basis to get firm construction costs.
The rest of the checklist for year one, estimated to cost $1.769 million, includes new poles and LED lights for Field 1 (at $442,750) and Field 5.
Other Field 5 improvements include a pre-fab, 30 ft. x 26 ft. restroom building (at $461,000) and sidewalk, dugouts, shaded bleachers and a kit to spray new backstops and prevent rust ($14,000 annually).
Money for phase one improvements would come from the Optimist Park fund, which currently has $1.269 million; $499,322 was borrowed from it to balance the 2022-2023 budget, which the council could return to the park fund.
In the second year and after, the remaining ballfields would be graded; new drainage and irrigation installed and new fencing would rise around tennis courts. Also, 10 new exercise stations; 14 dugouts; 13 shaded bleachers; 10 exercise stations; 22 waste cans; landscaping and resurfaced parking lots.
At a future meeting, the council would decide if it agrees on the site plan, the amenities it wants and establish budgets for the first and following years.
The town would consult with the Optimist Club, schools that use the park and the school board. Then it would get the construction plan, obtain permits and start building.
Mayor Josh Dieguez said he wanted defined space available for free play.
“I think this is a great plan, from what I’ve seen so far,” Dieguez said. “It’s a major improvement. I think we’re on the right track here.”
He added later, “I just want to remind everyone it’s very preliminary ... We have information to go back to constituents and see what they think about this plan, and also continue to get information and ask questions.”
Vice Mayor Bryan Morera and council members Juan Carlos Fernandez, Ray Garcia and Steven Herzberg seemed to support the proposal.
Councilman Angelo Cuadra Garcia and former Councilwoman Marilyn Ruano spoke against spending millions at Optimist Park.
“This is not a priority,” said Cuadra Garcia, who campaigned against the bond. “Our priority should be a safety issue which hasn’t been fixed which is our sidewalks.”
Ruano questioned funding sources and said tree trimming, road repairs, sidewalks and pocket parks should come first.
“The community is substandard,” Ruano said. “This is not the area that is substandard.”
Pidermann said developer impact fees are paid to the county which each quarter sends money back to the town for park land purchases, park improvements and law enforcement costs such as LPR cameras. He suggested the council enact its own parks impact fee to support development of Optimist Park. The town could also borrow the money, he said.
The gas tax and FP&L franchise fee paid to the town go toward sidewalks, Pidermann said.
“Every day a root is growing and lifting a sidewalk,” Pidermann said. “It’s a moving target.”
Councilman Ray Garcia said maintaining infrastructure and renovating Optimist Park could happen simultaneously, and that the proposed plan was not extravagant.
“It’s 2025, we incorporated in 2020,” Garcia said. “Enough is enough with putting this aside and putting this aside and putting this aside. … The reasons why residents love this town and the reason they come here and the reason values of homes are so expensive and the reason why waiting lists for apartments are so long is because we have so many pocket parks … We let [Optimist Park] go … we’ll see a degradation of the amenities here in Miami Lakes.”
Resident Eddie Blanco chairs the MIAMI Association of Realtors. He said council votes for the property tax rollback rate “was a mistake. ... You can’t trim trees, put sod, fix parks and not collect revenue. It doesn’t work that way.”
“You can’t keep rolling back taxes and spending money with everything going up in cost,” he said. “The math is the math.”
Park activities bring visitors who “shop and they buy restaurants and they get inspired to move into this town,” Blanco said. “Which drives up real estate values and increases your taxable base which then helps you support more improvement in the town.”
Weston and Pembroke Pines have “fantastic parks that are pulling residents away from us and it’s a shame,” Blanco said. ... Our parks are really embarrassing.”