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- Striving to shield the Miami Circle archaeological
discovery from power saws and bulldozers, Miami-Dade County seized the
initiative Wednesday night and announced plans to confiscate the downtown
site under the legal process known as eminent domain.
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- Mayor Alex Penelas said he will ask the
County Commission at 11 a.m. today to authorize legal action that would
temporarily block development of the riverfront parcel and eventually compel
developer Michael Baumann to sell the valuable land to the county.
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- As Penelas made his decision Wednesday,
two new teams of stone cutters from Broward County were assessing the difficult
and sensitive task of removing the 38-foot-wide artifact. A spokesman for
one team said it planned to cut up the Circle -- which many believe was
a sacred site to the Tequesta tribe -- like ``a pizza pie'' or ``jig saw
puzzle.''
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- Confronted by that possibility, Penelas
said he felt ``an overwhelming responsibility to save this historic formation.
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- ``I simply cannot stand by and allow
an important piece of this community's history to be destroyed, he said
during a news conference. ``I just cannot allow that to happen in good
conscience.''
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- Miami Mayor Joe Carollo responded angrily
to the county's attempt to seize land within the city. He called it an
intrusion into Miami's affairs. He said the city might sue the county to
recover $1.1 million in annual property taxes that could be lost.
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- ``What he is proposing is the destruction
of the city of Miami as an entity,'' Carollo said.
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- Preservationists in South Florida and
from around the country have been working feverishly to preserve the Circle
on the south bank of the Miami River. Penelas took special note of South
Florida's schoolchildren, hundreds of whom began the letter-writing and
lobbying campaign to save the Circle.
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- ``This is a good moment to take a step
back and listen to our children for a change,'' he said.
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- Penelas predicted he may face a tough
audience today when he goes before the County Commission. A majority of
commissioners have expressed support for tough action, but some have reservations
about going to court without the support of the city of Miami.
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- ``I believe this will obviously be a
contentious issue, the mayor said. ``If we don't get the votes, I think
this will be dead.
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- Florida Secretary of State Katherine
Harris plans to attend the meeting, though an aide said she carried no
concrete offer of financial help.
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- Baumann paid $8 million for the land
and invested an unknown sum in architectural plans and permit applications
for his twin-towered residential and commercial Brickell Pointe development
on the 2.2-acre site just east of the Brickell Avenue bridge.
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- A representative of Baumann characterized
the developer as ``deeply disappointed'' by the mayor's action and said
he would ``vigorously defend'' his legal rights. But the representative
also sounded a conciliatory note.
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- ``When any responsible government authority
decides that public ownership of the Brickell Pointe property is the only
way to preserve the Miami Circle and brings eminent domain proceedings
to accomplish that result, the company will have to yield to that authority,''
attorney Vicky Garcia-Toledo wrote in a letter faxed to The Herald.
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- Previously, Baumann has strenuously rejected
even the suggestion that he might sell the land, though some believed that
was a negotiating ploy.
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- To qualify for an eminent domain ruling,
the county would have to prove that it has a public purpose or necessity
for seizing the land. If the county clears that hurdle, a circuit court
judge would authorize seizure.
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- Baumann would be compensated for his
land and expenses, with the price decided by a 12-person jury. Under the
``slow-take'' procedure selected by Penelas, the county would not have
to buy the property if the price turned out to be more than commissioners
were willing to pay.
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- Penelas said the procedure would provide
the county with ``additional time to raise funds to purchase the property.''
He said ``countless sources of funds'' had been found, but he did not identify
any.
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- Meanwhile, the request for a temporary
restraining order will be filed today, Penelas said. If granted, the injunction
would block Baumann from touching his land until the eminent domain issue
is resolved.
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- The ire aroused at Miami City Hall seemed
inevitable. Carollo and some other city officials favored the cheaper,
less intrusive option of moving the Circle and reassembling it for public
display.
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- A City Commission meeting on Tuesday
yielded nothing beyond a general statement of support for preservation
and tension between Penelas and Carollo.
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- ``I no longer wish to participate in
games of political gymnastics between the county and city governments,''
Penelas said Wednesday. ``While we posture and pontificate, a historical
site grows closer to its last days of existence in its rightful location.''
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- Carollo said late Wednesday he now fears
Penelas' action would discourage a West Palm Beach developer from proceeding
with a $1 billion project along Miami's bayfront that could provide $11
million a year in tax revenue.
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- ``This will have a reverse domino effect
on the city,'' Carollo said.
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- After months of delay and eager to begin
construction, Baumann had joined Carollo in advocating that the Circle
be moved to a storage area.
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- Crews were poised to begin clearing sections
of the site Friday, though Baumann promised not to touch the Circle for
at least a week, until archaeologists completed a mold. Carved by early
occupants of South Florida, the Circle is believed to be 600 to 2,000 years
old.
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- Earlier Wednesday, a team of stone cutters
from ABC Cutting Contractors of Pompano Beach examined the site.
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- ``I'm not a proponent of this,'' a crestfallen
John Ricisak, an archaeologist and the Circle's field director, told the
team. ``I'm afraid it's just not going to be done in a realistic way.''
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- The other contender for the job was Speedy
Concrete Cutting of Fort Lauderdale, which for weeks has been quietly evaluating
the archaeological discovery on Baumann's orders, according to John Gunther,
Speedy's vice president of sales.
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- Gunther said his company would have no
choice but to cut up the Circle like ``a pizza pie'' or ``a jig saw puzzle,''
though it could later be reassembled with little loss of material. He described
the job as monumental -- requiring 10 employees working 10 days to cut
out 270 tons of material.
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- Ricisak and other archaeologists spent
the day taking last-chance photographs and mapping final features of the
site. The end seemed near.
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- Asked how he was doing personally, Ricisak
looked at the stone cutters and said: ``Not so great.
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- ``I'm not looking forward to the day
when they begin.''
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- By nightfall Wednesday, he and other
county archaeologists were feeling a good deal better.
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- Bob Carr, Miami-Dade's lead archaeologist,
expressed gratitude for Penelas' action, though he said it was not clear
when -- or even if -- his team could widen its exploration of the site.
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- ``This could be excellent,'' Carr said.
``It certainly takes a lot of pressure off us.
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- ``We've been under enormous pressure
out there.''
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- Herald staff writers Tyler Bridges and
Mark Silva contributed to this report.
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- Herald senior writer Martin Merzer can
be reached by e-mail at mmerzer@herald.com
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