Opposition To Huge SW Broward Prison Grows
BY BUDDY NEVINS
Opposition is growing to a new immigration detention facility of up to 1,800 beds in Southwest Broward.
Although the private prison would be within the Bergeron Industrial Park on Sheridan Street near the edge of the Everglades, nearby residents fear the added traffic it would bring.
Complicating the situation is that the industrial park is in Pembroke Pines, with the exception of the one 50-acre parcel owned by Corrections Corporation of America. The CCA property is in Southwest Ranches, which wants the tax revenue from the prison.
I wrote an earlier story on June 1.
Residents plan to gather Thursday night at the Southwest Ranches Council meeting to discuss their opposition to the project.
Stay tuned.
Here is the flyer announcing the meeting tomorrow and one last night:
August 3rd, 2011 at 1:45 pm
The organizers of this revolt are not SW Ranches or Pembroke Pines residents. It is an anti-immigration policy public intest group. They oppose US immigration policies and want to interfere with any federal plans to build it. It is smart strategy on their part to get residents objecting to it on residential grounds. A win is a win for them however it comes. So long as the facility is not built, they win. That’s who is sending the emails and the flyers to both city residents plus the robo-calls. Much of the information they share is not factually accurate and that comes to you from somebody that opposes the detention center. But misinformation is misinformation and you have to be honest about it.
August 3rd, 2011 at 2:40 pm
the article says “nearby residents fear the added traffic it would bring”
Do residents fear the detainees will be driving?
If they are driving, they aren’t detainees then are they.
:o)
FROM BUDDY:
Seriously, a facility that big requires lots of employees, who drive to work. It also will require trucks delivering supplies, buses moving detainees to and from court, lawyers who visit…you get the picture.
Just spend a few minutes near the main jail in downtown Fort Lauderdale someday and watch the traffic it creates.
August 3rd, 2011 at 4:16 pm
True about the traffic. The problem is that anything built there would create the same traffic or even more.
Therefore, voting it down on traffic means they would have to vote down virtually anything else that comes up.
Looking at the notice it is much more clear residents object to living next to a detention center more than then traffic it brings.
August 3rd, 2011 at 5:12 pm
A new prison in SW Broward is a good idea. This way elected officials can still be close to family members.
August 3rd, 2011 at 11:00 pm
This proposed facilty would be a one stop shop for immigration issues. Including court rooms, infirmary, cells, etc. It would create local blue color and white color jobs and support an area within Pines that has some of the lowest commercial property rates in the City. PLus provided needed tax base for the Ranches.
Furthermore, the women’s prision and landfill are adjacent to this property. When is the last time there was a prisioner who escaped from there? The existing prision and industrial park was there well before the homes. The NIMBY attitude is ridiculous and has to go.
Although most of the tax revenue will go to the Ranches, Pines will benefit because the adjacent properties wil see an increase in customers. The traffic will be using major streets like Sheridan, US 27 and I 75 and please do not forget the city has a wetlands bank south of the site that produces no traffic.
Time to move forward, create some jobs and improve the tax base for two western cities. This is a great project that will have a long term benefit in the west.
August 4th, 2011 at 8:59 am
Pines should surround the prison with red light cameras. Then they can get some revenue and screw somebody other than their own residents for a change!
August 4th, 2011 at 9:58 am
I like my lawfully arrested illegal aliens garaged and my traffic moving to give me peace in South Florida.
August 4th, 2011 at 11:44 am
This is clearly a case of NIMBY. The problem is that Pines doesn’t want it and the Ranches does. Rememmber all of the BS between the two cities over the road they blocked off?
The traffic impact will be negligibe. The escape factor, less than negligible.
The issue people have is that they dont want a prison near them. Well if everybody had that mentality there would be no prisons.
This facility as I understand it is an immigration detention facility. I dont know the exact numbers, but a vast majority that are held in detention, have committed no crimes other than crossing the boarder. Hardly violent felons.
August 4th, 2011 at 2:12 pm
PEMBROKE PINES HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS FACILITY. THIS IS A SW RANCHES FACILITY.
August 5th, 2011 at 5:05 pm
If the traffic really gets that bad between I 75 and US 27 on Sheridan due to the facility plus Miramar’s residents having to use Pines Blvd. to get to and from work in Dade, maybe Miramar will come up with the bright idea of opening up Pembroke Rd down to US 27. Years ago they were stupid enough to sell the land down Miramar Expwy to 27, but maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel. It’s bad enough that the School Board was brilliant enough to put a HS on 27 and Pines. Getting to work in the a.m. is a horror. Now this? I might as well sell my place in Miramar and call it a day because otherwise, I’m gonna have to start getting up at 4 in the morn to get myself to work on time. Either that or move to Dade and I’ve won the battle at least by half!
August 6th, 2011 at 10:24 am
As a PP resident i oppose this project:
1- traffic
2- 5 minutes from West Broward High School
3- decrease house values
4- resources for the community will be defer to this center–> fire, police department etc.
PP mayor said they didnt have an opinion yet on the project BUT it came to light that agreements between SW and PP have been cooking for awhile.
August 7th, 2011 at 1:10 am
I agree with Privacy 101 ,but too bad it is not intended for the assigned and elected officials that should be behind bars, for among a large list, allowing Florida to become the Oxy Express killing more people in a year than the attack of 911, and much more for the connected system. Minority rule has a history of ending and will end when Florida and the Federal government wakes up because the majority finally wakes up. Maybe we should vote on it HA HA. We all know Florida can’t vote.
Prisons for the connected members of the justice system that is destroying America would create many jobs, we could use their assets to pay for their extended stay and extra money for other public services, in a real justice we could, most of the present justice system would be locked up. No one with a high school education is as stupid as they pretend to be.
August 7th, 2011 at 11:56 pm
@Miguel.. There is already a landfill and womens prision adjacent to the proposed facility. Also, Pines provides fire services for SW Ranches.
@Pines Resident… the facility will more than likely be contructed on Pines (Bergeron)land.
Just like the recyling collection facility, residents feel like everything will hurt property values, but never really look at what is existing. If you bought your home out there, it was in proximity to a landfill, prision and industrial land. Mr. Bergeron as well as the Town of SW Ranches do have property rights.
Whatever development occurs will cause additional car trips. A detention facility will have lower traffic impact compared to a majority of uses.
Like Clear the Air states, this facility will bring jobs on multiple levels. The Town needs this for their tax base and the surrounding centers in Pines will also see the benefits.
August 10th, 2011 at 1:54 pm
I am sick of people stating property rights of Bergeron and CCA… Don’t the current residents have property rights? To not have something built there that will reduce home values? These homes were built AFTER the dormant Landfill and 1975 County Prison. We don’t know how our home values will stand up to projects of this magnitude. The problem is ALSO that people are let out the front door… we don’t know what these immigrants backgrounds are. I am NOT affiliated with the immigrant lobbyists, but you could bet that I’d stand with them in a minute if this thing has a hope of being stopped. Just think of all the protesters they will send down Sheridan while it’s being built and after. Then after all the original owners sell their homes driving home prices down with each sale, where will the tax money come from then?? Will they just pave over Laguna Isles and make another prison?
Another angle to look at is that this also costs the FEDERAL Budget 89 MILLION a year to run. Have you thought of what that will do to our already ENORMOUS DEBT?
Not to mention, NO ONE in this area would take a job there. Would you want this in your backyard? I live in the area that they want to build both projects and me and several other residents have the feeling like we should just sell and move. Is that the kind of projects we want to grant in our surrounding communities? The loss of hope?
FROM BUDDY:
To be fair, it is not Ron Bergeron. He sold the problem more than a decade ago. The buyer was Corrections Corporation of America, which would build and operate any prison.
August 10th, 2011 at 2:29 pm
@Pines Resident – “The organizers of this revolt are not SW Ranches or Pembroke Pines residents. It is an anti-immigration policy public intest group.”
I AM an Organizer of this revolt AND I’m a RESIDENT of a nearby community. I am NOT affiliated with the an intrest group. I actually made the flyer in the picture!!