Everglades at mercy of county, group says
Sarasota Herald Tribune
2009-10-28
Are decisions at local level undermining the state's investment?
Published: Thursday, October 29, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.
WEST PALM BEACH - A high-profile growth watchdog group called on the state of Florida Wednesday to rein in the Palm Beach County Commission, whose land use decisions, they fear, will cripple the multibillion-dollar Everglades restoration.
The group, 1000 Friends of Florida, wants the state to form a committee of stakeholders to weigh the environmental and economic issues and write up development guidelines for the Everglades Agricultural Area, a 700,000-acre region of former Everglades marsh south of Lake Okeechobee that was drained to create farmland.
Efforts are under way by the state and federal governments to use land in the area to restore the southward flow of water from the lake into the parched Everglades. Creating the committee would diminish the role of the Palm Beach County Commission, which now controls land use in much of the region.
The group pointed to the commission's endorsement Oct. 22 of 600 acres of additional rock mining at Star Ranch and a proposal by sugar grower Florida Crystals, owned by the Fanjuls of Palm Beach, to develop a sprawling distribution complex -- both of which are next to land the state wants to use to repair the Everglades.
"The county commission is seven people and they're making a decision that's going to affect the entire future of agriculture and Everglades restoration in the EAA," Joanne Davis, of 1000 Friends of Florida, said in a telephone conference with reporters. "They're making land use decisions and I don't think they're fully armed with all the science and all of the facts."
Charles Pattison, the head of 1000 Friends of Florida, called on the state to form a committee of landowners, businesses, environmental groups and local governments -- including representatives of Palm Beach County -- who could draw up guidelines that would balance the needs of the Everglades against economic interests to draw up land development guidelines.
That could also mean designating the region an Area of Critical State Concern -- similar to the Florida Keys and the Big Cypress Swamp -- which would give the state a much larger role in land use decision-making.
"The idea of making piecemeal decisions on development proposals is simply not going to be in the best interest of the EAA in the long run," said Pattison.
The move comes as big plans are under way to at once develop and restore portions of the EAA. Gov. Charlie Crist is pushing to close a $536 million land deal with U.S. Sugar Corp. to buy farmland in the area to use for Everglades restoration.
Meanwhile, the Port of Palm Beach is moving forward, despite objections from the state, with plans to develop and inland port, envisioned as a 3,500-acre transportation and distribution hub that would serve as an off-site expansion of South Florida's three seaports. Florida Crystals' wants to develop the complex on its land -- a plan that Palm Beach County Commissioners have endorsed.
