Coral Gables police are investigating allegations of fraudulent testimony linked to a controversial mixed-use development in the city.
Attorney David Winker accused some people who spoke in favor of Chicago-based Fifield Companies’ Crystal Residences project at a recent city commission meeting of providing fake addresses and misrepresenting themselves as residents, WPLG reported.
Winker presented his allegations to the commission Tuesday, after Coral Gables resident Omar Packard noticed some speakers needed to look at their cellphone to recite their addresses. A search of those addresses and site visits made by Packard revealed several of them didn’t exist or were commercial buildings, the outlet said. He also found many speakers didn’t live at the addresses they gave.
“They came here, they took these addresses, they misrepresented themselves, and they stole our voices,” Packard said.
Packard shared his findings with community activist Bonnie Bolton, who brought them to Winker. Winker pushed for the allegations to be investigated by law enforcement and requested that the vote on the development be deferred, the outlet said.
“You can’t take an oath and say something that’s false,” Winker said in the meeting. “That’s a crime.”
Commissioners ultimately approved the development item in a 3-1 vote. The dissenting vote was made by commissioner Melissa Castro, who said she was “floored” by Winker’s presentation and believed the vote “messed with the integrity of the record.”
Commissioners also unanimously approved a motion to refer the allegations to authorities, according to the outlet. A spokesperson for Fifield Companies said the company was “surprised and deeply disappointed” to hear of the allegations, saying in a statement that the alleged actions “do not reflect who we are or how we operate.”
The allegations add a layer of contention to the already controversial project.
Plans for Crystal Residences include a nine-story building at 110 Phoenetia Avenue with 184 residential units and 16 ground-floor live-work units. The 226,200-square-foot development, on the site of a church, would keep nonprofit private school Crystal Academy on the site and add a new school facility, 300 parking spaces, a public courtyard and a 4,000-square-foot children’s park, The Real Deal previously reported.
Residents and community activists like Bolton have opposed the project, claiming it would destroy the property’s historic religious garden, Garden of Our Lord, which they’ve fought for years to preserve. Fifield’s representatives have pushed back against claims of total loss, saying they’re still working to preserve part of the garden.
—Grace McClung
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