Miami jetport projects fail to fly
From Big Cypress to Site 14
“The Everglades jetport”
For more than two decades, from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, South Florida aviation planners pursued the idea of building a major new airport beyond the increasingly crowded urban areas surrounding MIA. Two different projects were entertained. Each effort had its supporters and detractors but both were ultimately defeated, for much the same reason.
The first was the Everglades Jetport, proposed in the late 1960s in the Big Cypress area near the Dade-Collier County line. Planned on an enormous scale, the airport was intended to accommodate the predicted explosive growth of commercial aviation and even the anticipated arrival of supersonic airliners. Construction began in 1968, and one runway was nearly completed when scientists and conservationists warned that the project could seriously disrupt the Everglades’ water system and wildlife habitat.
In 1970, the federal government halted the project. The controversy helped lead to the creation of Big Cypress National Preserve in 1974. The completed runway, however, remained, eventually becoming the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, used for pilot training.
In exchange for the County’s agreement to abandon the project, the federal government agreed to provide funding for a replacement facility located elsewhere — an agreement known as the federal Jetport Pact.
That led to the second proposal: a replacement facility simply known as “Site 14.”
Site 14
Located approximately 23 square miles in northwestern Dade County near U.S. 27 and the Broward County line, plans for Site 14 soon expanded. As forecasts for South Florida’s air traffic continued to climb, aviation planners began envisioning Site 14 as a huge regional commercial airport that could eventually relieve pressure on Miami International, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach. Its most persistent champion was Richard “Dick” Judy, Miami International Airport aviation director.
By the late 1970s, however, forecasts were changing. Passenger growth had slowed, and federal officials questioned whether South Florida actually needed another major airport. The proposal encountered growing opposition from environmental organizations, nearby communities, Broward County officials and members of Congress. Judy continued to fight for it, persuading Metro-Dade commissioners in 1982 to support extending the federal Jetport Pact, only to be opposed by Gov. Bob Graham who cited lack of evidence that a new regional jetport was necessary and pointed to changes in aviation technology, airport requirements and attitudes toward land use. The extension was never signed.
If at first you don’t succeed….
Judy tried again in 1985 and once again 1987. In December of that year, Graham’s successor, Gov. Bob Martinez, again rejected Site 14, citing the threat that a major airport posed to the Everglades and South Florida’s vital water-conservation areas. Judy himself resigned a year and a half later and the second jetport was never built.
Together, the two projects illustrate the extraordinary challenge South Florida faces in trying to accommodate the future of aviation while protecting the environmental system upon which the region itself depends.
Today, decades later, Miami-Dade County is once again looking toward the future and considering where a new major airport might eventually be located. The landscape has changed since the days of Big Cypress and Site 14. But the fundamental challenge remains remarkably familiar: how do you plan for the aviation needs of tomorrow without sacrificing the sensitive ecosystem that must sustain present and future populations?