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American Dream Miami mega-mall wins preliminary vote before County Commission

American Dream Miami sailed through to another political victory on Wednesday as Miami-Dade commissioners granted preliminary approval for the $3 billion retail theme park near Miami Lakes and Hialeah.

In a 10-1 vote, the commission granted American Dream’s request to let the approval process move to Tallahassee before the application comes back to Miami-Dade for a final vote later this year. In a boost to American Dream, the commission rejected county staff members’ recommendation to remain neutral in transmitting the application and instead signaled that the board intends to adopt the proposed zoning changes.

“A lot of people would love to have this in their county,” said Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz, whose district includes the American Dream site. “Projects like these don’t happen very often. They rarely happen.”

Triple Five pitched American Dream as a historic opportunity for Miami-Dade to expand its tourism offerings and vie for the family vacationers who currently stream north to Orlando’s theme parks. Opponents branded the project as a new source of low-wage retail jobs that would only draw shopping dollars from existing malls while swamping Northwest Miami-Dade with traffic.

Wednesday’s vote triggers a state review process that is expected to take three or four months, with commissioners taking a final vote on the development plan in April or May. The preliminary approval granted Wednesday comes as county officials say they still don’t have a specific plan to rework nearby roadways to accommodate an estimated 70,000 cars a day from the 200-acre American Dream and its sister project, a 340-acre commercial and residential complex to be built to the south by the Graham Cos.

There also isn’t an agreement on how much Triple Five would pay to address transportation issues, and county officials say they have no plan to extend commuter rail to what would be the largest mall in the United States.

Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava, the lone no vote on the board, said she was concerned that a final vote loomed with so many key issues unresolved.

“It’s not much time, three months. On a very, very complicated development,” she said. “I am not opposed to this project. I see the economic benefit. The question is: at what cost?”

Designed as a larger version of Minnesota’s Mall of America, the six-million-square-foot mall and amusement park would be large enough to include an indoor ski slope, submarine rides and an enclosed water park. Triple Five, owner of the Mall of America, expects 30 million visitors a year and more than 14,000 permanent jobs at the 200-acre complex on a wedge of pastures and wetlands where I-75 meets Florida’s Turnpike.

American Dream’s hiring projections would make the mall Miami-Dade’s largest employment center. An economic-impact report submitted by Triple Five estimates that more than 60 percent of the positions would pay less than $25,000 a year.

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