At its March 27, 2023 meeting, the City Commission approved a referral to the Land Use and Sustainability Committee to discuss the adoption of a version of Miami-Dade County's (MDC) Code that requires certain water and sewer connections.
The City of Miami Beach (the “City”) has the authority to enact laws which promote the public health, safety and general welfare of its citizens.
The City's Public Works Department seeks to upgrade water and/or sanitary sewer infrastructure and provide connections from public rights of way. Certain properties are connected to water and/or sanitary sewer mains from the rear.
Providing water and/or sanitary sewer infrastructure within public rights of way allows better access and flexibility to water and/or sanitary sewer mains. As such, Public Works seeks to provide an opportunity for property owners to connect to water and/or sanitary sewer mains at the front of properties at no cost to the property owners consistent with established practice by the Miami-Dade County Water and Sewer Department (WASD). Furthermore, the 2013 consent decree between MDC, Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the United States of America, with the goal to comply with the Clean Water Act and eliminate sanitary sewer overflows, requires a number of operational and maintenance improvements, including easement accessibility and the need to control vegetative growth or encroachment of man-made structures or activities that could threaten the integrity of the gravity sewers.
In many instances the rear property easements are congested with man-made encroachments such as walls, landscaping, pool decks, etc. the most feasible solution to comply with the consent decree is to relocate the existing gravity sewer and service connection to the front of the properties creating a more accessible condition for the maintenance and operation of the gravity sewer system.
At its April 19, 2023 meeting, the Land Use and Sustainability Committee held a discussion regarding the possibility to adopt a version of Miami-Dade County's Code that requires certain water and sewer connections. The Committee members made a motion to move to the full City Commission with a favorable recommendation as to the overall policy that any budget implications be discussed and by the City Commission as separate actions.