Tall Tales About Tall Buildings
Dear Skip,
My opponent misleads Residents with tall tales about tall buildings and crime in Pinecrest. As a Resident, you deserve the truth.
TALL TALE #1: We Need to Hire More Police
My opponent pledges to QUADRUPLE our police force. He fearmongers that an uncontrolled crime wave has overtaken Pinecrest.
We have seen this false playbook before. And we know that Pinecrest Crime rate is 60% lower than incorporation and down another 26% this year compared to last.
Misleading attack mailer by Ralph Sanchez, sent to Pinecrest Residents
THE TRUTH
Pinecrest supported our Police with increased pay, increased pension contributions, and take-home cars – all in effort to maintain force stability and retention. As we should. We are in the process of interviewing one more officer, which should be complete by year’s end – and our department will be fully staffed at 52 officers.
Here is the math on my opponent’s pledge. We have 2.83 officers per 1,000 residents in Pinecrest. He pledges to increase that number to at least 12.5 officers per 1,000 residents, ballooning the department’s size and costs.
Our existing force is 35% of our budget. My opponent’s pledge is nothing more than a tax-hiking, budget-breaking solution in search of a problem.
I’m honored to be endorsed by the Police Benevolent Association. I have worked to promote our community-based policing model – the same one I learned and trained police forces on while at the US Department of Justice. Our police deserve better than misleading political attacks.
We must remain better than competitive because losing an officer to a peer municipality is unacceptable. I have and will continue to put Public Safety first in Pinecrest.
TALL TALES ABOUT TALL BUILDINGS
Yet another of Ralph’s misleading attack mailers
TALL TALE #2: Pinecrest increased building heights and tripled Residential zoning density.
Wrong. Building Heights remain 4-stories max and our Single-Family Homes and Residential Zone are more protected than ever.
THE TRUTH
Pinecrest building height on US-1 is limited to 4-stories. Always has been, even since before incorporation. And in 2022, Council voted unanimously to maintain it, successfully fending off County efforts to permit more. Council even appointed a Pinecrest Citizens Committee (watch here) consisting of volunteer Resident Architects and Planners to help comply with what was, ultimately, a watered-down version of the County ordinance. And with the Committee’s technical help, we maintained the 4-story limitation, and satisfied County minimums.
The US-1 Plan made absolutely no change to our single-family homes. Indeed, the Residential zones are protected better than ever from any new commercial intrusion thanks to required buffers the Village worked into the code. (Again, thank you to the Resident Architects and Planners for their insight.). My opponent, however, cherry picks a Village ordinance, to make it seem like density is being increased throughout Pinecrest. That ordinance is about the permitted density in certain, narrowly tailored US-1 commercial zones – should the property owner choose to redevelop as mixed commercial-residential. And if that ever happens, the max height is 4-stories. Further, any design will require approval by a Village Architect Committee.
All of this was done in the Sunshine, over multiple meetings, with the Citizens Committee, and with input from Residents. My opponent apparently does not know any of this. He never chimed in at any of the meetings. He did not attend the meetings, as far as I know. He offered zero input whatsoever. Instead of constructive engagement, he’d rather bamboozle Residents to garner votes.
TALL TALE #3: Council has neglected our sidewalks and roads!
My opponent claims we need to fix the sidewalks and roadways.
My opponent is apparently unaware that we have an active sidewalk project happening right now and that we just as actively repair our roads.
THE TRUTH
Just two weeks ago, I emailed our Community about our $500,000 project to fix our sidewalks. Ground has already been broken. Transition pieces that are hazards are being grinded to smooth them out for safety. We are fixing 3,500 “flags” (sections of sidewalk). This work is ongoing.
Additionally, the Village repaved and resurfaced more than 20 linear miles of roads in Pinecrest following the Water Project and continually mills and resurfaces problem areas on our roadways.
If my opponent ever attended a Council meeting, workshop, or budget meeting, he might know this. But he has not, so he does not.
IN CLOSING
My opponent hasn’t lived long in Pinecrest and has not participated in Community affairs. He can be forgiven for not knowing too much. But fearmongering is a low we should not accept.
In 2024, Pinecrest was rated the 1st of 88 best Places to Raise a Family in Miami Dade by Niche.com. Our staff and police work hard to make this a reality.
One of my commitments to you as a Councilmember has been to always give the facts on what is happening in your local government. I hope you feel I have honored this promise. I have never tried to use fear to manipulate you or your vote. Crime is not rampant, and there aren’t any tall buildings in Pinecrest. I will fight to ensure there won’t be as long as I’m on your Council. Let’s make sure my opponent’s Tall Tales won’t be either.
Committed to Our Community,
Vice Mayor Shannon del Prado
