Key Biscayne looks to county to cancel Rickenbacker bids

The Village of Key Biscayne Council has unanimously supported the mayor of Miami-Dade County’s recommendation to cancel a request for proposals to develop, maintain and operate the Rickenbacker Causeway and the Bear Cut Bridge, and called for creation of a working group of key stakeholders to start the process again to define priorities and needs.

In line with most residents of Key Biscayne, the Key Biscayne Council expressed support for county Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and Commissioner Raquel Regalado’s request that the county commission vote to cancel the request for proposals [RFP] and requested formation of a key stakeholders’ group for redevelopment of the causeway, “with the most critical public safety element being the Bear Cut Bridge,” said a Dec. 8 news release from the village.

Since Sept. 30, when the village council adopted its initial resolution to request the county to rescind the request for proposals, “we asked them that we wanted a new collaborative and public process with all the stakeholders,” said Key Biscayne Village Manager Steve Williamson in an interview. “So what’s very unique is that when time went on, that’s really what the mayor and commissioner [Raquel] Regalado decided to do.”

“We’re super excited that Commissioner Regalado decided that she wants to cancel [the RFP,]” said Mr. Williamson. “That is powerful. In a lot of cases, in the county, the commissioners defer to the district commissioner and whatever he or she wants to do, that gets done. So this is a big deal for us, and when the county mayor put out her recommendation, that made it even more powerful.”

Mayor Levine Cava, in a Dec. 7 memorandum to commissioners, said that in light of the “many important questions and concerns raised about the unsolicited proposal process as well as the project,” the county engaged with infrastructure advisory firm IMG Rebel Advisory to perform a value for money assessment. The firm recommended to either cancel the procurement process and restart a new one later, or to continue with the procurement process with needed adjustments, such as adding a prequalification phase to increase market interest.

Cancellation of the RFP would allow time to allocate federal funding available, according to IMG Rebel Advisory, said the memo, “further develop the project, engage stakeholders and complete National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process.” If the process is to be canceled, the firm recommended the use of a request for qualifications (RFQ) to pre-qualify proposers and to ask them for a more detailed proposal and a committed price before issuing an RFP.

“Based on the input and feedback received from hundreds of members of the community and stakeholders, along with the recommendation from Commissioner Regalado,” Mayor Levine Cava said in the memo that she is recommending cancelling this procurement and starting a procurement later.

“Now, what has to happen next,” said Mr. Williamson, “is one of the two need to bring it to the county commissioner, Jan. 19 – the next commission meeting. They’re the only people with authority to cancel at this point. So that’s got to be brought forward. Now, our hope is that this will be canceled.”

Being a principal stakeholder for the Rickenbacker Causeway project, “the Village of Key Biscayne aims to ensure any changes to the causeway facilitate the safe and free flow of traffic for residents, workers, students and visitors to Virginia Key, MAST Academy, Crandon Park, Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, and the Village of Key Biscayne,” said the village’s news release.

Mr. Williamson said that part of the stakeholder group that should have a say includes, aside from the Village of Key Biscayne, the City of Miami, the Florida Department of Transportation “and maybe select venues alone the causeway, the Historic Virginia Key Beach Park, and the University of Miami – those people would be important to have as part of the team.”

“And we will have community meetings and get their feedback,” he added. “We’ll probably do some surveys, really trying to get an idea of what [they want] to break it down into must-haves, need-to-haves and then the like-to-haves; and break it down into priorities, so that we can give the county a prioritized list of what we want, because in the end one of the things that many residents were concerned about is ‘can we afford all this? Is this going to force our tolls up to a higher rate?’ And nobody knew, because nobody knows what’s in [the RFP] because it’s a confidential process.”

“And a lot of our residents became concerned about spending the money on the right things,” he said, “and whether the money was going to continue to be there in a way that tolls wouldn’t go out of control.”

“One of our biggest concerns, also, is Bear Cut Bridge,” Mr. Williamson concluded. “In the RFP, [proposer Plan Z Consortium] had things like an observation tower, an interpreter’s center… they had planned to move the fishing pier from one location to another; those were all nice-to-have things, but we wouldn’t want to sacrifice Bear Cut Bridge for those three things.”