A zoning amendment that holds down development in suburban West Kendall neighborhoods could be the swan song for Miami-Dade Commissioner Juan Zapata at Tuesday’s county commission meeting — his last, unless they don’t get through the agenda and meet again Thursday (but they should). 

Zapata, who withdrew his candidacy for re-election after his name was already on the August ballot, is also sponsoring a measure to increase lighting along Southwest 157th Avenue and urge the legislature to allow the county to regulate and enforce rules on all-terrain vehicles, which, ironically, you can find on 157th on the weekends.

The mostly three-wheeled vehicles are used often in the District 11 reaches of West Kendall and South Dade, which is why Commissioner Daniella Levine-Cava is co-sponsor of that item.

“ATVs are often driven recklessly and are especially adept at evading an eluding law enforcement vehicles,” the resolution states. “Reckless and dangerous ATV use is negatively affecting multiple areas of Miami-Dade County.”

Zapata will also be asking Mayor Carlos Gimenez to negotiate double lighting along parts of Southwest 157th Avenue, but his swan song is probably the zoning amendment. The commissioner, who in May called for a moratorium on development until traffic woes were addressed, wants to encourage better aesthetics and “smart growth” through varied lot sizes, increased buffers between residential and commercial zoning and maximum landscape coverage in what amounts to a majority of the district.

Read related story: Chased out: Juan Zapata leaves hostile work environment

It’s also interesting to note that he is not co-sponsoring any of several other resolutions urging the congress or the state legislature to do this or that — from funding for fertility services for wounded veterans, restricting terrorists from getting firearms or opposing revisions to the state retirement system — which have a clusterbunch of commissioners sponsoring each.

Zap will also be making the final allocations from his district account in what does not, surprisingly — or unsurprisingly, because it is “El Zoro” Zapata after all — look like a fire sale. Live Like Bella gets $2,500, Our Kids of Miami-Dade/Monroe gets $2,000, Baptist Health Foundation gets $1,000 and another $1,100 in district expenses from movie night to a police station fundraiser to events at area elementary schools.

Despite all the hand-wringing about the Harvard class that Zapata eventually paid for himself, Ladra will bet that a final accounting of his district funds finds savings and a surplus left over.

We will miss him. 

Former commissioner Joe Martinez, who was elected after Zapata dropped out, will be sworn in Nov. 22.

The future plans for the Miami Marine Stadium will be the topic of discussion this week at the Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club meeting in Miami Beach.

Don Worth, co-founder of the Friends of the Miami Marine Stadium — which advocates for the Bayside watersports stadium’s restoration — will be the guest speaker and bring people up to date on the latest developments, including a proposal by Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado for some $45 million in bond referendum dollars to fund improvements that has gotten some lukewarm response.

Last May, City Commissioners took what many longtime advocates consider the first serious step in the promise to repair and reopen the landmark — closed since 1992 — when they chose a team that includes a noted preservationist architect, Richard Heisenbottle, and the original architect of the stadium, Hilario Candela, to design the renovation. Heisenbottle led the renovation of both Miami City Hall and the Olympia Theater at the Gusman Center downtown.

That was a win for the Friends group, which had pushed for Candela and the controversial boat show held at the stadium in February as well as a $120-million renovation that was shot down.

But where are we today? Are there still plans to add wet slips into an expanded stadium, which purists say would damage the integrity of the stadium’s original design? What about the “flex park” that is also being pushed by the Regalado administration? And would we have to give back the $1 million grant that is covering the renovation design if these non historic uses are incorporated?

Also, what alternative potential funding could there be? Because there doesn’t seem to be much appetite on the city commission for the mayor’s $45-million bond. Discussion on the issue was deferred last month because commissioners wanted more details. Commissioner Joe Carollo blocked it citing the mostly ignored five-day rule, but expressed concern over the lack of information or analysis of the expenses and revenues associated with Virginia Key facilities pre- and post- renovation.

So, where else could we go if the city had to go somewhere other than the public trough? Certainly selling the graffiti-covered metal seats — cool as they are — won’t cover the price tag. But what about naming rights? Or corporate sponsorships? American Express in 2013 paid $80,000 for a study of the abandoned structure’s pilings. Could they be interested in underwriting some of the renovation? Or else call Visa.

These could be some of the questions answered on Tuesday. The meeting starts at 8:30 a.m. at Manolo Restaurant, 685 Washington Ave.

They need each other at this dark time.

The Democrats of South Dade Club will have a special meeting next week to talk about what happened Tuesday and, from what it looks like on the email invite, hug it out.

“There will be a special format for the November meeting,” it says.

“We will start social time a little earlier and go a little longer. We need to talk.”

The club had cancelled a “wrap party” for Thursday after “the board felt there was no longer an apetite among the members to have a party.”

They just didn’t want it to turn into a pity party.

On Tuesday, they won’t be just mourning the presidential loss to Donald Trump but the defeat of Democrat South Dade Sen. Dwight Bullard, who was beaten by Republican State Rep. Frank Artiles on Tuesday.

The business part of the meeting will be shortened to 25 minutes and the speaker, lobbyist and former State Rep. Mike Abrams, will start a little later at 8:10 p.m. “So we can all take a breath and have time to decompress amongst ourselves,” the email says.

“Extra food and extra wine will be provided during social time,” it ends. Key words: Extra wine. It’s in red type.

The meeting begins at 6:45 p.m. “to talk this through,” at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Miami, 7701 S.W. 76th Ave. 

Bet you the turnout is bigger than usual.

True to form, Miami-Dade School Board Member Raquel Regalado is not going to shut up and go away just because she fell a bit short in her shot to become the first female mayor of Miami-Dade.

Conceding Tuesday night and thanking her supporters, Regalado vowed to continue to fight for Miami-Dade residents and against the special interests at County Hall. Looks like the reporters there missed the lead because she laid out specific goals that have not been reported in stories that, instead, speculate about her future aspirations.

Because just because she wasn’t elected this time, doesn’t mean she’s going to stop representing us.

Regalado, who has already fought for us against the ridiculous courthouse tax referendum and in court to get back $9 million Mayor Carlos Gimenez gave to one of his top donors, said she was going to set her sights on charter changes that would hinder the abuse of power going on at County Hall and reform campaign finance.

Specifically, a change to have our elections supervisor elected by the people rather than appointed by the mayor and a referendum for campaign finance reform. Gimenez — who may have abused his power to provide the elections department with a replacement check after hours — spent somewhere around $10 million between his campaign account, his PACs and his multiple non-profits that we can’t track. And much of that came from people and companies who do business or want to do business with the county.

Regalado told supporters Thursday that she was going to reach out to the Accountable Miami-Dade group that failed to get campaign finance reform measure on the ballot to talk about joining forces.

Read related story: Gimenez submits late night campaign check (10:20 p.m.)

These are serious issues that are about to be tackled by a serious woman with a serious track record of getting things done. Yet reporters want to keep speculating about whether or not she will run for mayor of Miami next year to replace her termed-out father. This was a whisper campaign started by the Gimenez camp early on last year as soon as Regalado announced her intention to run for Miami-Dade mayor. She has said repeatedly that she is not needed as mayor of Miami but is needed at the county. Everybody has daddy issues but her.

Sure, it’s possible she could run for the seat being vacated by Miami Commissioner Francis Suarez, who is running for mayor (again). That would provide her with a $103,000-a-year salary and perhaps keep her busy in public service for the next three years. But no way does she finish the term. Because if she can run for mayor of Miami-Dade again in 2020 as the front runner in an open seat why on Earth wouldn’t she? 

On Wednesday, Regalado — who will be back on Cuban AM radio next week and Spanish-language weekend TV later this month — sent an email blast repeating her intent to continue fighting for the community and to pursue both ballot questions in near future.

“I will continue to fight for them, for you, for us. I will continue to promote our community’s priorities. I will continue to watch what happens at County Hall and voice my concern and bring forces together to fight the special interests that have taken hold,” Regalado wrote.

“In the coming weeks and months, you will hear from me again as I mount efforts to put measures on the ballot that will change our county government. We should elect our supervisor of elections, as they do in the other 67 counties in Florida. And we must pass campaign finance reform to ensure that the decisions at county hall are made in the best interests of residents and not of special interests.”

Ladra is still with her. Because those are both good ideas. Because we need to stick together and keep an eye on Carlos Gimenez.

And because this leadership in fighting for justice and this zest for transparency and pureness of process is what makes Raquel the best candidate for mayor in 2020.

Robert Asencio probably shouldn’t put a deposit on a Tallahassee apartment just yet.

And Ladra bets David “King Nine Lives” Rivera is lighting a candle to Cachita right now.

Because the election might have been on Tuesday, but we still don’t know who won the seat in Florida House district 118.

Miami-Dade Elections Supervisor Christina White was preparing Thursday to start a recount of the votes cast in the race, where Asencio, a retired Miami-Dade Schools Police lieutenant, had the longtime legislator and former congressman beaten by 68 votes when all was said and done on Election Day.

That’s a difference of less than .25 percent, which requires an automatic recount.

But there were still 2,973 provisional ballot votes that had not been counted. And after the first batch of about 750 was counted Thursday night, Rivera gained 21 votes and closed the gap to 47. 

Read related story: Blue goes red, red goes blue in four flipped 305 seats

Provisional ballots are given to people who did not provide an identification or who weren’t listed on the rolls or were listed as having voted already but insisted they had not so that elections officials could decide later if they were, indeed, eligible voters and valid votes. Officials go through them one by one to determine. Most aren’t. Of the hundreds counted Thursday, only 30 were added to the final total.

If the rest of them to be counted Friday perform the same way as the first batch on Thursday, Rivera could gain another 60 or so votes and pull ahead.

But either way, the race will still be close enough to demand an automatic recount. That means that, starting Monday, all 65,000 or so votes will be fed back through the high-speed counter, which will spit out the under votes and over votes. An inside source told Ladra that there were somewhere around 5,800 over and under votes in the district. These are ballots in which the presidential race counted or the mayoral or senatorial races counted but this House race vote was not counted for one reason or another. Those will be reviewed individually in person by a canvassing board for “voter intent,” White said.

“Sometimes, a person will circle an entire name instead of filling in the bubble,” White told Ladra. “If someone circled Robert Asencio, then that vote will go to him. If someone bubbled in Asencio and then Xed it out and filled in the bubble for David Rivera, then the voter intended to vote for Rivera.”

Recounts are becoming more and more common, she said, adding that she’s overseen more than 15 since joining the elections department . That includes an Aug. 30 judicial race where all 268,000 votes had to be recounted. The result was upheld.

Read related story: David Rivera is baaaack — to his roots in state House race

White said she expects us to know who our new state rep is in 118 by the middle or end of next week. They will count absentee and Election Day ballots first while they retrieve the ballots that were used for early voting. That will take at least a couple of days, she added.

It looks like Asencio could have the upper hand. Hillary Clinton won the district by 56 percent, compared to 51 percent when Obama won it in 2012. Which means Rivera did extremely well in a district that only supported Donald Trump with 41%. But Ol’ Nine Lives underperformed in absentee ballots. He needed a bigger margin of Republican mail-in ballots over Democrats — say 3,000 — before Election Day and he didn’t get there.

But even if he newcomer pulls it off — and with less than $100,000 to boot — he may not last long. Republicans are going to make winning that seat back the No. 1 priority for the state. They are unlikely to let Asencio pass a single bill or bring a single buck back home.

“If he survives the recount, he may not even get a key to the bathroom,” said Rivera, who is, conversely, one of House Speaker Richard Corcoran’s BFFs.

Hmmmm. Maybe it would be better for the district — and Asencio’s bladder — if the recount goes Rivera’s way.