While Taylor Park has been closed for more than 10 years, in FY 2016, as directed by our Strategic Plan, Council approved two significant pieces of legislation for the park.  First, Council approved an Interlocal Agreement (ILA) with Miami Dade County to fund the clean-up of the park. This ILA placed the responsibility of assessing and mitigating the environmental concerns of Taylor Park with Miami Dade County, and provided partial funding to the City for the continued monitoring of the groundwater. 

The second important legislation was the designation of the area as the new Taylor Park Green Reuse Area, and approving a Brownfield Site Rehabilitation Agreement (“BSRA”) with Miami Dade County.  This important designation, along with the BSRA, provide financial benefits, regulatory benefits, and legal liability protection benefits to the City. 

With these two executed agreements, the first step in the clean-up process was a completed Site Assessment Report (SAR) by our environmental engineers (E Sciences), where groundwater and soil samples throughout the park were assessed for environmental concerns.  This was completed on-time on February 26, 2016 and submitted to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) for comments, which could have taken to 60 days to respond with comments. 

Fortunately, the SAR was approved on March 23, 2016, almost a full month ahead of schedule.  The next step is to complete a Remedial Action Plan (RAP), which indicates the process the County will follow to remove or contain the environmental concerns.  This RAP has commenced and is expected to take about 4 additional months for completion.