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Environmental groups ask state to withhold 'rewards'
BY TRAVIS JAMES TRITTEN
keysnews.com
Several
environmental groups are asking for major changes to a landmark Monroe
County conservation proposal that sets goals for protecting nearshore
waters and native forests.
The groups --
including the Environmental and Land-Use Law Center, the Florida Keys
Citizens Coalition, Florida Wildlife Federation, Last Stand and the
World Wildlife Fund -- are asking the state to reconsider many of the
concessions awarded to the county during negotiations last month, such
as an increase in the amount of development allowed each year.
"We can't
endorse having them [the county] rewarded for not doing things that they
were legally obligated to do and should have done a long time ago," said
Capt. Ed Davidson of the Florida Keys Citizens Coalition. "They are
being rewarded for having refused to behave themselves."
The
last-minute proposal, which must still be approved by the Florida
Cabinet, is designed to catch up the county after a year of little
progress on protecting the environment. Although the state Department of
Community Affairs gave the plan a preliminary OK, the county risks being
penalized if the Cabinet rules that it has not lived up to its annual
environmental obligations.
The Florida
Keys are an Area of Critical State Concern, one of a handful of fragile
state environmental resources that are required to enact special
protection. In December, the DCA advised a failing grade for
conservation in 2003 and the Cabinet gave it a time extension to create
a plan. The second Cabinet review was delayed last month and has
apparently not yet been rescheduled.
Florida Keys
nearshore waters have continued to decline and further balking could
endanger the islands' $1.5 billion tourism industry, Davidson said.
"We have real
issues. This is our last best chance to save what is left of the Florida
Keys," he said.
The recently
completed Carrying Capacity Study, a scientific study designed to gauge
how growth affects the islands, found that land habitats are already
stressed to the limit.
A legal
settlement requires the county to heed those findings and create laws
that will protect forests from growth.
The groups
sent a letter to the governor's office and DCA Secretary Colleen
Castille outlining the requested changes:
* Do not
increase the amount of yearly residential growth allowed in the county
-- the proposal would increase that growth by 24 percent.
* Do not grant
an additional 187 affordable housing permits.
* Set minimum
amounts that the county must spend to upgrade sewage treatment systems.
They say current language only stipulates maximum amounts.
* A proposed
building moratorium should cover all native land habitats of 1 acre or
greater, not just the proposed 2-acre or larger parcels of the county's
most pristine natural land.
* The proposed
one-year moratorium should be in place until permanent protection rules
are created, or for no longer than four years.
County
Commissioner David Rice said that the requested changes are not likely
to be productive to the recent conservation effort.
"Now, I think
for the first time we are on the verge here of working together and
everybody putting some real support into [conservation]," Rice said. "I
think that we have made a great deal of progress here."
Though some
specifics on the proposed moratorium may be tweaked, the proposal should
not be discarded, he said.
County Mayor
Murray Nelson, who took a lead in crafting and negotiating the proposal
with the DCA, was not immediately available for comment Tuesday
afternoon.
Henry
Morgenstern, attorney for Florida Wildlife Federation, said the groups
hope to influence the DCA to take a second look at the agreement it
negotiated.
"I think that
the state wants to protect the water and the habitat and for some reason
they think the county will," Morgenstern said.
But if the
agency does not reconsider, Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Cabinet may
hear the concerns.
"The governor
and the Cabinet have been known to go outside the advice of the DCA in
the past," he said.
ttritten@keysnews.com |
