Activists Lobby Florida Lawmakers to Save Palm Trees

A year before the Florida Department of Transportation will install a mixture of shade and palm trees along a stretch of Biscayne Boulevard, those who favor royal palms exclusively lining the corridor are making their case to Florida legislators.

Their plea: Save the palms that are still standing and bring back the others that the Florida Department of Transportation removed in 2005 before repairs began on the road between Northeast 36th and 67th streets.

FDOT's work on the stretch is under way as part of a multiphase project targeting Biscayne from downtown Miami to North Miami.

One way to protect the palms: make the entire length of Biscayne Boulevard in Miami a historic state road.

State Sen. Gwen Margolis, D-Miami, who met royal palm advocates Elvis Cruz and Sean-Paul Melito earlier this month, said Thursday the lobbying may be too late.

''We inquired with FDOT District Secretary Johnny Martinez and he indicated to me that the city of Miami had passed the landscaping plan,'' she said. ''By the time you give the road historic designation, the trees will probably be lost and once they're lost, [Biscayne Boulevard] won't be historic anymore,'' Margolis said.

Still, the duo intends to lobby other state lawmakers, such as state Rep. Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall, D-Miami, whose district includes Miami's Upper Eastside, to save the royal palms. Bendross-Mindingall did not return calls for comment.

According to FDOT spokesman Brian Rick, ``[historic] designation would not affect current projects, but could affect future projects.''

In 1995, state lawmakers designated Killian Drive, also known as Southwest 112th Street from U.S. 1 to 97th Avenue, as historic.

The designation means that any roadwork would require permission from historical boards.

Cruz said FDOT officials told him in 2005 that they would remove the palms because of construction, but it was possible they could return as part of the street's landscaping after the roadwork was finished.

When FDOT revealed its landscaping plan last month, Cruz said he realized the agency had already drawn up a plan that eliminated full-grown royal palms from Biscayne Boulevard's sidewalks and replaced them with oak saplings.

Steven Craig James, a landscape architect with FDOT, said last month the agency's landscaping plan reflected the desire from the community for a combination of shade and palm trees.

The plan was drawn up after a series of planning meetings with FDOT over the past five years involving the public, he said.

There are differences of opinion about the kind of landscaping Biscayne Boulevard should receive once it is repaired.

Cruz and Melito argue the trees are historic, citing documents showing that city officials dedicated royal palms along the boulevard to ''the veterans of all wars'' during Armistice Day in 1926, as well as the research of historian Arva Moore Parks, who has said that the royal palms were planted in the 1930s.

But those who want shade trees, such as Robert Flanders, president of the Upper Eastside Miami Council, say the Upper Eastside royal palms are not historic.