10/1/14, 9:17 AM $15 million needed to turn Camp Matecumbe into park

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By Richard Yager Posted in Pinecrest
$15 million needed to turn Camp Matecumbe into park
plan transforming Camp Matecumbe into a community park with camping, a playground, picnic areas and
an environmental educational center to enrich use of an adjoining rockland pine preserve lacks $15
million of the $21 million estimated to fully implement developments envisioned for the historic West
Kendall site.
To date, a prioritized draw of $6 million from the Building Better Communities bond issue has expended
only $740,000 to demolish several outdated buildings and begin infrastructure of a sewer system, far
short of what is needed for large-scale Camp Matecumbe park and ecological facilities.
Actually, $5,260,000 still remains from the 2004 bond issue draw to continue improvements, said Angus
Laney, manager of Parks and Recreation Capital Improvements for Miami-Dade Parks. The gymnasium
and office buildings are both planned for rehabilitation with current funding.
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10/1/14, 9:17 AM $15 million needed to turn Camp Matecumbe into park
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A concept statement prepared in 2013 by the
Planning and Research Division of Miami-Dade
County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces
Department details facilities to create an eco-friendly
neighborhood park and a regional Eco-hub focused on its
neighboring rockland pine preserve.
Major Camp improvements include:
A Greenhouse and Native Pine Rockland Restoration
Garden to help visitors understand the unique 78-acre
preserve that adjoins the site known as the Boystown
Pineland Preserve;
A Native Seedling Center for purchases of native plant
material and restoration of native plants incorporated into
the preserve;
Educational programs to include community classes,
childrens summer camps and educational research
venues;
A Learning Center and nature trail for community-sponsored classes and meetings;
Shaded picnic areas, school-age playground equipment and open green space for active sports.
The new facilities also would include four cabins for overnight campers as well as a renovated mess
hall/cafeteria with kitchen, concessions and a historical archive.
Interest in the camp project regenerated after a June 17 meeting in West Kendall when a county Charter
Revision Committee sought citizen reaction for maintaining severely cut library services within unused
county park buildings.
When more than 20 residents objected vigorously to any potential use of Camp Matecumbe structures,
old or new, for any purpose, Alex Annunziato, aide to County Commissioner Esteban Bovo, who proposed
the county plan, agreed the camp property would be excluded from any enabling legislation.
George Navarette, deputy director of Miami-Dade Parks, added at the same meeting, There is no plan to
put any library facility at Camp Matecumbe.
The camp and adjacent Boystown Pineland preserve at 13841 SW 120 St. are surrounded largely on three
sides by single family residential neighborhoods and a church campus with the southern edge bordered
by Miami Executive Airport (formerly Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport).
Development as a neighborhood park and ecological center there was designed to celebrate and enrich
the propertys unique ecological environment and historical importance, said Mark Heinicke, senior park
planner of the Parks Departments Planning and Research Division.
Both the Camp Matecumbe and Boys town Pineland sites have been modeled to embrace green practices
and sustainable design principles, he noted. Environmentally friendly materials and methods are planned
from the walkway and trails to the Learning Center and renovated gymnasium, both to be built with the
highest rating in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) accreditation.
These unique parcels of land can provide active and passive recreational facilities for hands-on
educational and interpretive activities, and a place celebrating Operation Pedro Pans rich cultural and
historical significance, Heinicke added.
The Camp Matecumbe property holds significant cultural and historical importance, once serving
unaccompanied Cuban youth as part of the Operation Pedro Pan flights with housing and education for
those escaping the Castro regime in the 1960s.
The Archdiocese of Miami purchased the tract in 1955 to establish a summer youth camp with four cabins
and a swimming pool, naming the site Camp Matecumbe after the only native American Indians in
South Florida evangelized by Spanish missionaries. In July 1961, the Catholic Welfare Bureau began using
the camp as one of its temporary shelters for 4,000 unaccompanied Cuban refugee boys. After
consolidating that function with a Marine Corps facility at Opa-locka Airport, Camp Matecumbe was
purchased in 1963 by the Parks and Recreation Department from the Archdiocese of Miami to become a
public park.
In 1964, the facilities then began operating for indigent and neglected youth under the name Boystown.
Winding road leads into Camp
Matecumbe grounds off SW 120th Street.
10/1/14, 9:17 AM $15 million needed to turn Camp Matecumbe into park
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