library<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cThis is not an easy decision,\u201d Mavel said Tuesday when explaining her ruling from the bench, finding that the college didn\u2019t give the public reasonable notice ahead of the vote last month.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a case, at least for this court, rooted in politics,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n
The nearly 3-acre (1.2-hectare) property is a developer\u2019s dream and is valued at more than $67 million, according to a 2025 assessment by the Miami-Dade County property appraiser. One real estate expert wagered that the parcel \u2014 one of the last undeveloped lots on an iconic stretch of palm tree-lined Biscayne Boulevard \u2014 could sell for hundreds of millions of dollars more.<\/p>\n
Marvin Dunn, an activist and chronicler of local Black history, filed a lawsuit this month in a Miami-Dade County court against the Board of Trustees for Miami Dade College, a state-run school that owned the property. He alleged that the board violated Florida\u2019s Government in the Sunshine law by not providing sufficient notice for its special meeting on Sept. 23, when it voted to give up the land.<\/p>\n
An agenda released ahead of the meeting simply stated the board would consider conveying property to a state fund overseen by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet, but provided no details on which piece of property was being considered or why. Unlike every other meeting the board has held this year, the 8 a.m. meeting on Sept. 23 was not livestreamed.<\/p>\n
A week later, DeSantis and other top GOP officials voted to transfer the land again, effectively putting the property under the control of the Trump family when they deeded it to the foundation for Trump\u2019s library. That foundation is led by three trustees: Eric Trump, Tiffany Trump\u2019s husband, Michael Boulos, and the president\u2019s attorney James Kiley.<\/p>\n
Jesus Suarez, an attorney for the college, argued that MDC did what was required under the law and questioned Dunn\u2019s political motivations for filing the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no requirement under Florida law that there be specificity on notice, because those trustees can come into that room and talk to each other about whatever they wish,\u201d Suarez said. <\/p>\n
Attorneys for Dunn maintain that no one who wasn\u2019t already in on the deal could have known what the board would do. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe people have a right to know what they\u2019re going to decide to do when the transaction is so significant, so unusual and deprives the students and the college of this land,\u201d said plaintiff\u2019s attorney Richard Brodsky, speaking with The Associated Press prior to the judge\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
Javier Ley-Soto, general counsel for Miami Dade College, testified that it is still in the process of finalizing the land transfer. Delays caused by an injunction could cost the college up to $300,000, he estimated. <\/p>\n
Other Florida locations had previously been floated as library sites, including properties associated with Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton and Florida International University in suburban Miami. DeSantis signed a bill this year preempting local governments from blocking development of a presidential library, aiming to overrule potential opposition in liberal-leaning counties or municipalities.<\/p>\n
___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press\/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America<\/a> is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Florida judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the planned transfer of prime downtown Miami land for President Donald…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":304180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[3881,1578,356,69,39024,6064,723,57,154374,14518,380,50,80,154375,14516,96329,13210,61,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-304179","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-ap-top-news","10":"tag-associated-press","11":"tag-courts","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-eric-trump","14":"tag-fl-state-wire","15":"tag-florida","16":"tag-general-news","17":"tag-james-kiley","18":"tag-kate-payne","19":"tag-miami","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-politics","22":"tag-richard-brodsky","23":"tag-ron-desantis","24":"tag-tiffany-trump","25":"tag-trump-lawsuits","26":"tag-u-s-news","27":"tag-united-states","28":"tag-unitedstates","29":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115375763977377715","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}