Without amendment, the land west of the UDB allowed for just onehome every five acres. Shoma's application, which was among 25submitted to the county for development outside the UDB, was for amaster-planned community with an aggregate of approximately 492residential units. That translates to an average of no more thansix units per acre, and might also have included some amenities,such as service retail, Shoma's lawyer, Stanley Price of the lawfirm of Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod, tellsGlobeSt.com.

Development is required to be consistent with county masterplans, and municipalities are to have infrastructure, includingtransportation improvements in place prior to development. A planfor transportation improvements is among the conditions notaddressed in respect to the amendment, Price says. "With nomunicipal infrastructure investment planned and no application by adeveloper for land contiguous to the Shoma site," he says, "Shomadetermined that its plan would become economically infeasible."

In withdrawing the application, Masoud Shojaee," president ofShoma, said in a statement, "there are too many issues that remainunresolved coupled with a limited time frame to properly addressthe complex issues for a suitable conclusion. The need forlong-term planning has never been more evident than with theexisting conditions occurring in Miami-Dade County. It'sunfortunate that the master plan process has become such a divisiveprocedure." Expansion of the UDB is a controversial issue. Anactivist group called Hold the Line has long enlisted supportagainst expansion and also lobbies government officials and others.In an editorial, titled "Hold the Line," county commissioner KatySorenson, took up the cry, writing, "this line serves to limiturban sprawl." Speaking for Shojaee, Price contends, "allowing justone housing unit every five acres is the definition of urbansprawl."