Besides voting for political candidates on November 7, Miamians also used their ballot to decide the fate of several county-owned acres of land next to Miami’s Metrozoo.

According to Miami-Dade County Parks and Recreation officials, voters were asked whether or not to approve any further development of a future water park, family entertainment center and hotel on the county-owned property.

“The revenues would go to the zoo. It would be built outside of the zoo attraction, and it would not be on any environmentally sensitive land,”said Barbara Falsey, chief of research and planning for the parks department, to the Miami Herald.

Expected to be in place by 2010, the County will find proposals from private companies to build and operate all of the facilities that would be offered in the property. All the income that is brought in will go directly towards the zoo, allowing more funding for the zoo itself. The county would be able to create new construction jobs and once completed, new permanent jobs in service, retail and management.

However, the Richmond Pine Rocklands is right next to the zoo where several endangered plants live. The Pinelands need occasional controlled burns which are not guaranteed in the current language of the referendum. Since many private-public partnerships don’t always work out the way they were planned, many think that the referendum should be rewritten to include protection of the Pinelands.

The vote passed 64% to 36%.