Community Background Report

Town of Miami Lakes

County

Miami-Dade

Boundaries

See interactive map

Community Type

Municipality

History

Miami Lakes lies in Northwest Miami-Dade County, just north of the City of Hialeah. In 1919, Ernest Graham arrived in the area currently known as Miami Lakes to create a sugar cane farm for the Pennsylvania Sugar Cooperation. Once the company discovered that sugar cane would not grow on the land, Graham ended up buying the 3,000 acres of pines and palmettos. Shortly after, Ernest Graham abandoned the land and during the post-war era his three sons, Phillip, Bob, and William formed a development company, Sengra. In 1958, Sengra enlisted the help of Lester Collins, a landscape architect, to create a layout for the new area, currently known as Miami Lakes. Collins designed the basic structure of the town to resemble his ideal of a South Florida town, a conch shell.

Unlike in many cities and towns created during the early 1960s, the Grahams decided to create a master plan that would allow for decades of growth, construction, and changing market conditions. The Grahams followed the concepts of the carefully planned mid-Atlantic cities of Columbia, Maryland and Reston, Virginia, both created in the 1950s. The first families moved into the area in 1962. For nearly a quarter of a century, the development plans of Miami Lakes evolved according to Lester Collins’ methodical vision. Dredges made way for lakes, bulldozers cleared roadways, and numerous construction crews built houses, condominiums, churches, schools, banks, and offices. People who moved to Miami Lakes had to accept the rules of the community. The rules included agreeing to paint houses regularly, mow lawns frequently, landscape yards according to the big plan of the community, and walk dogs in the allocated places. Miami Lakes has fully utilized the basic new town idea: to grow slowly and under a highly ordered plan. William Graham eventually turned Sengra over to his son, Bill Graham, and the company restructured, becoming Graham Companies. The Grahams continued to oversee the commercial growth and development in Miami Lakes. During the late 1990s, Miami Lakes attempted to incorporate but met resistance from the county, which halted incorporations in 1996 to reduce erosion of the tax base. In 2000, the municipality made history, becoming the first to contract services from the Miami-Dade Police Department, and pay $1.4 million per year, as conditions for incorporation. Miami Lakes became the 31st municipality in Miami-Dade County and the first to incorporate since the 1996 incorporation moratorium.

Community Dynamics

According to the U.S. Census, 30,972 residents lived in Miami Lakes. Until incorporation in 2000, Miami Lakes was a “donor” community, paying $2.6 million more in taxes to the county than it received in services. Although Miami Lakes does not have one of the most affluent populations monetarily, the community is rich in its diversity of family financial status, age, and ethnicity. The average household income for Miami Lakes is $65,269. The population is 81% Hispanic, 14% Caucasian, 3.3% African American, and 1.5% Asian.

Miami Lakes has many small neighborhood parks that were an integral part of the Grahams’ planned community concept. The Town also has two larger parks, Miami Lakes Park and Royal Oaks Park, and one of the county’s three vocational education training centers, the Miami Lakes Educational Center. The center provides adult vocational training in conjunction with a full-service high school. The Town of Miami Lakes has a unique indoor Veteran’s Memorial, a 50-foot long multi-media mural, located at the Royal Oaks Park Community Center.

Miami Lakes takes many steps to protect its residents and their desired quality of life. The Town has a Citizen’s Bill of Rights, listing rights that the residents are entitled to, and which cannot be taken away. A 2002 decision by the Miami Lakes Commission required those seeking election to public office to reside within the Town’s limits for two years or more prior to campaigning. In 2004, the Town fought attempts to open neighborhood park usage to those residing outside of its boundaries, a restriction standing for over 30 years.

Business Landscape

The Town contains a 3.75 million square foot commercial park that is located west of the Palmetto Expressway. Over 12,000 people work in the 1,700+ businesses located throughout the community.

The Town of Miami Lakes is in excellent financial condition, as recognized by Moody’s and Fitch, with an AA rating for the Town’s bond issue. The Town also maintains one of the lowest property tax rates in Miami-Dade County, ranking 8th among all municipalities in millage rates. In 2011, the Town distributed $525,000 of unspent funds from the prior fiscal year, which translated into a $75 tax refund to homeowners. The Town is one of few municipalities in the county that has ever returned monies to its residents.

Transportation Characteristics

The Town of Miami Lakes is located in Northwest Miami-Dade County, on both sides of the "big bend" of the Palmetto Expressway. It is just 16 miles north of Downtown Miami, and 10 miles from Miami International Airport.

Curving streets, cul-de-sacs, lakes, lots of neighborhood parks, schools, churches and shopping areas provide the facilities that have allowed the Town of Miami Lakes to become the prosperous community that it is. The peripheral I-75 highway and Palmetto Expressway have a high volume of traffic, but the local streets throughout the Town are relatively free of congestion.