FL- Hearing On Julia Tuttle Causeway Sex Offenders

8-13-2009 Florida:

An emergency hearing will be held Thursday concerning a colony of sex offenders living under the Julia Tuttle Causeway.

Miami's ordinance bars registered sex offenders from living with 25 hundred feet of parks or other places where children gather. State law, however, only requires a one thousand foot limit. Due to the tighter restrictions in Miami-Dade more than seventy sex offenders found no where else in the county to live except for a section of land under the mainland bridge section of the causeway. .The state even ordered some of them to live there.

Last month the Miami officials sued the state for creating a sanitary nuisance which violated their ordinance.

Now the state wants that lawsuit dismissed and the case moved to Tallahassee, according to CBS4 news partners The Miami Herald, because that is where the Department of Transportation, which has authority over the bridge structure, is headquartered.

The emergency hearing has been scheduled for 2 p.m.

Miami-Dade officials and homeless advocates have been working to find some other place for the sex offenders to live under the current law. One location under consideration is the former North Dade Detention Center which closed in 2007. The center is located near the Golden Glades interchange and some residents who live in the area are opposed to the idea of sex offenders moving into their neighborhood.

Another ideal place, according to Miami-Dade Homeless Trust chairman Ronald Book, would be an apartment or former hotel that is in foreclosure.

But large issues remain, such as who would supervise the residents, pay for liability insurance, and their rent, which officials agree shouldn't be the taxpayer in a long-term solution. ..Source.. by CBS News