That's the way it works, by gimleteye

There is a connection between these two photos: suburban sprawl and Florida Bay, devastated by algae blooms. Both stories are featured in The Miami Herald, today, and related to the decision by the Miami Dade County Commission to approve new developments outside the Urban Development Boundary, subsequently vetoed by Mayor Carlos Alvarez, and likely to be litigated if the unreformable majority of the county commission votes, next week, to override the mayoral veto.

In "Builders' Slow Invasion of Glades Underway", County Planning & Zoning Director Subrata Basu said, ''We stated our case and people presented their side of the story, and the commission made their choice... That's the way it works.''

The way it should work is that government experts provide good facts and science in zoning decisions balancing what people and special interests present in "their side of the story" which has more to do with profit. The reason that federal and state law trump local decisions is that, left to their own devices, local officials tend to loot and destroy the public interest first and ask questions later.

And that is exactly what the dying Everglades and Florida Bay show: how even with federal and state protections, the looting and destruction continues unabated.

Sergio Pino defends the principle: ''People will want ice cream and want to walk to the ice cream parlor... they will want to go to the movies, and walk to the movies.'' Walk to the movies: from where? Your parking lot in Everglades wetlands? From your tract housing that could not make money but for the willingness of taxpayers to be bled for infrastructure "improvements"?

Basu's logic ends here: If people want to destroy Florida Bay, for the convenience of ice creams cones-- that is the right of people. Of course, there are any number of federal and state laws that state a contrary point of view and thousands and thousands of pages of testimony and millions of man hours in meetings in conference rooms, to the contrary.

This is a key point in favor of Florida Hometown Democracy, the citizens' initiative to amend the state constitution, that would have been on the 2008 Fall state-wide ballot except that it was sabatoged by the Growth Machine.

Floridians want control of long-term planning taken from city and county commissions that wrecked the Everglades and Florida Bay for the sake of Sergio Pino's ice cream cones and corporate jets and Bertram yachts.

It is so terribly wrong. Shame on us all, and, especially the County Commissioners in Miami-Dade we voted into office and the supervisors of elections across the state who bungled the counting of petitions by citizens and the developers and their lobbyists who couldn't care less that 1000 square miles of Florida Bay has been destroyed one zoning decision, one wink, one handshake and one partnership agreement at a time.






Posted on Sun, May. 04, 2008
Builders' slow invasion of Glades under way

BY CHARLES RABIN
It may be a slow leak, but each hole punched in the imaginary wall that is Miami-Dade County's Urban Development Boundary makes it easier for more development on the county's western fringes.
That's why last month's decisions by county commissioners to allow a Lowe's home improvement center and a commercial plaza outside the boundary are so significant: As attorneys and lobbyists line up new applications to build outside the line over the next two years, their arguments will become more difficult for commissioners to disregard.

Why shouldn't there be neighborhoods beyond Southwest 137th Avenue along Eighth Street, lawyers will insist, when there's already a home improvement center -- along with a promised charter school for at least 2,000 students -- out there?

What's the point of limiting housing beyond Southwest 167th Avenue and Kendall Drive, they will say, if there's already an office and retail center?

''It's going to come,'' warned Commissioner Katy Sorenson, the loudest anti-sprawl voice on the 13-member commission.

Right now, there is only one application to build beyond the imaginary line that stretches mostly along Krome Avenue.

Lennar Homes and developer Edward Easton want to build a small town called Parkland -- homes, stores, schools and civic centers mixed within 961 acres between Southwest 162nd and 177th avenues, and 136th and 152nd streets.

''The answer isn't sprawl and it isn't 100 percent infill,'' said Lennar's Rey Melendi, who is also president of the Builders Association of South Florida. ``It's got to be a healthy balance because not everybody wants to live in a mid-rise or a high-rise.''

Public hearings on Parkland will start this summer, but it will likely take at least 12 to 18 months to move through the lengthy regulatory process required for such large developments. Construction would not begin until 2014.

''Ours is not an application for tomorrow,'' he said. ``We're thinking of the future and planning for the future.''

A big winner from last month's commission vote: Developer Sergio Pino and his partners, who own a 53-acre tract of land directly west of David Brown's just-approved commercial center at Kendall Drive and Southwest 167th Avenue.

The development line is now adjacent to Pino's property. And though he said he hasn't put much thought into building there -- Pino said he's more worried about selling current empty inventory inside the boundary -- he said the time will soon come when people want to live in affordable homes out west that are within walking distance to shopping and entertainment centers.

''People will want ice cream and want to walk to the ice cream parlor,'' he said. ``They will want to go to the movies, and walk to the movies.''

If he does apply to build there, he said the commission will approve it ``because it will make sense.''

''It will definitely be part of a [county] master plan,'' he said.

FAMILIAR ARGUMENTS

The arguments for and against development about a dozen miles west of downtown Miami haven't changed much over the years.

Environmentalists ask why there's a rush, especially since the county's own planning department determined there's enough room for development inside the boundary for the next two decades. Why stretch services like police and fire to the limit? Where will water come from? Why add to traffic congestion and mess with the delicate ecosystem of the Everglades?

Developers, on the other hand, see a field of dreams: big open spaces ripe for homes and theaters and stores. Why deny hard-working families the chance to get away from the hectic day-to-day life of the big city? Out west is a safer environment for kids to grow up, they argue, and an affordable alternative to the outlandish prices being asked for homes nearer to the coast.

So far, county commissioners say they have been selective in deciding who can build outside the boundary. For more than a decade, only industrial, retail and commercial developments have been permitted.

During last month's vote, Commissioner José ''Pepe'' Diaz held up a copy of the county's Master Plan, saying it allows for expansion if the commission finds a compelling reason.

Diaz's main reason: Lowe's has offered to sell some of the land it owns for a charter high school, which would serve neighborhoods that currently feed to nearby Braddock and Ferguson senior highs.

But the county school district says there is no need yet to build outside the boundary.

Ferguson is 26 percent above its designed capacity of 3,165 students, but Braddock serves about 3,700 on a campus built for 4,200.

Last month's decision came against the wishes of the county's own planning staff and state regulators, who had concerns over water and who said there is simply no need to build outside the boundary.

''We stated our case and people presented their side of the story, and the commission made their choice,'' said County Planning & Zoning Director Subrata Basu. ``That's the way it works.''

Though the commission voted to allow development, it's likely to be a while before any shovels hit the ground. On Wednesday, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez vetoed the votes, which are likely to be overridden by the Commission at a meeting Tuesday.

There could be lawsuits, as well. Hold The Line, an umbrella organization that represents about 100 environmental groups, has threatened a lawsuit, and its representatives say they will ask the state's Department of Community Affairs to join in.

THREATS TO FUNDING

Time magazine ran a recent online piece theorizing that each time Washington sees county commissioners vote to build further west, it hinders the state's chances of receiving the billions of dollars it desperately craves for Everglades restoration.

Sorenson calls it a ``very compelling argument.

''If they see the local community doesn't give a hoot, they're going to spend their money elsewhere,'' she said.

She said you can see the negative effect of destroyed wetlands simply by looking at what happened to New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina.

''The wetlands absorb the rainfall,'' she said. ``When you pave over them, you create more flooding.''

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a strong proponent of Everglades restoration, said it's tough enough getting money for the environment with the current sagging economy and pressing budget needs.

''When new development is allowed too close to the Glades, it does cause some to question our commitment to saving the River of Grass,'' he said.

Sometimes a lone voice on the dais, Sorenson warns that special interests are paying attention to the line, so it's time for concerned residents to do the same.

''It's looking at the greater good of the community and looking at it for years to come,'' she said. ``OK, now we have stores, so let's put up some houses. It's going to come. It's just one little chip at a time. It all adds up.''



© 2008 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miamiherald.com



Posted on Sat, May. 03, 2008
Mysterious algae blooms worry biologists

BY CURTIS MORGAN
Only a day earlier, the heart of Florida Bay's world-renowned fishing ground was clear enough to count turtle grass blades six feet down. Now, Pete Frezza stared into water so thick with algae it looked an awful lot like pea soup.
Stick an arm in and you wouldn't see your hand.

''This is really, really bad,'' said Frezza, a biologist with Audubon of Florida and avid Florida Bay fisherman.

Scientists who monitor Florida Bay and anglers who chase tarpon and bonefish in its maze of shallows are bracing for bigger, badder algae blooms in coming months.

It was about this same place and time last year -- Twin Keys basin, several miles west of Islamorada -- where a bloom began that would morph into the largest Florida Bay has endured in more than a decade. When it peaked in August, a milky green stain spread from isolated Everglades creeks to Florida Keys reefs before slowly retreating.

Environmentalists and veteran fishing guides like Tad Burke fear a rerun of the early 1990s, when a string of blooms decimated vast swaths of seagrass beds and sponges.

''The blooms we're seeing now, they're not going away in the winter like they used to,'' said Burke, head of the Florida Keys Fishing Guides Association. ``These blooms aren't dying. They're moving around with the wind and blowing back up.''

Scientists and managers of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and Everglades National Park share the concern and are trying to figure what, if anything, to do. Last year's bloom left significant damage, especially to sponges.

THREAT TO SPONGES

Mark Butler, a biologist at Old Dominion University in Virginia, said areas monitored by his surveys show a ''complete wipeout'' of 22 of 24 sponge species -- including the bay's largest, loggerheads, that can reach the size of tractor tires.

''There are sponges that are older than us, huge loggerheads, that are gone,'' Butler said. `It will take decades to recover.''

Still, scientists who have been studying the blooms for two decades stress that no one can say for sure if Florida Bay faces another green monster this summer. They're still trying to pinpoint what triggers commonly occuring, normally benign one-cell phytoplankton called synechococcus into raging replication.

''We don't see a smoking gun out there,'' said John Hunt, an administrator with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute who edited a 2007 compilation of Florida Bay studies and led a meeting of scientists and agencies in March on the blooms.

Nutrients clearly fuel the frenzied growth of synechococcus, but their origin remains as murky as the water. The state report, echoed by many scientists at the meeting, downplays human sources that have long been primary suspects -- the Keys' leaky cesspits, nitrogen or phosphorous pollution from farms and reduced flows from the Everglades.

''We understand a lot more about what is going on than we used to,'' said James Fourqurean, a biology professor at Florida International University who has studied the bay's seagrass since the 1980s. ``It's a big system, it's a complicated system. There is not a simple cause-and-effect that plays out across the whole bay.''

Nor is there a clear solution -- though there is wide agreement that fixing the C-111 canal in South Miami-Dade County, which diverts water from the bay, is the first place to start.

Florida Bay, which occupies a 750-square-mile triangle between the Keys and the mangrove coast of the Everglades, may look like one big body of water on a map, but studies show its numerous shallow banks restrict circulation, making it function more like a series of smaller basins. The thinking now is that different spots are sensitive to different factors -- with human pollution possibly playing bigger roles near shore and smaller roles, if any, away from it.

A lingering, three-year-old bloom in Northeast Florida Bay is almost certainly the product of a combination of hurricanes, farm runoff and road work to widen the 18-Mile stretch that pumped organic material and nutrients into surrounding waters.

But as to what set off last year's bloom in the dead center of the bay, Fourqurean said, ``the current theory is you get as many opinions as there are scientists.''

High temperatures and salinity seem to be strong indicators, but Twin Keys basin went green last week in relatively cool weather. Nutrients could come from both natural and man-made sources -- rotting Everglades vegetation, underground flows or from runoff from farm and suburbs flowing down from Southwest Florida rivers or something else. Dying sea grass also supply fuel, and synechococcus can tap nutrients locked in bay bottom sediment as well.

Droughts or hurricanes also may make the bay more vulnerable, producing extreme conditions that stress other organisms but let synechococcus thrive. It doesn't help that not many things, aside from sponges, eat the algae.

''Florida Bay has really low nutrient conditions. All it needs is a little bit to bump it over the threshold and you have a big effect,'' said Joe Boyer, associate director of the Southeastern Environmental Research Center at FIU, which monitors coastal quality under a contract with the South Florida Water Management District. ``It becomes a self-perpetuating cycle. They essentially feed themselves.''

Unlike red tide, which paralyzes and kills fish, manatees and other sea life, synechococcus does most of its damage to bottom plants and animals that provide food and shelter for everything from juvenile lobster to bonefish.

Lengthy blooms block light vital to seagrass. Dense concentrations choke sponges to death, the sticky algae filling the internal canals with mucous-like ooze, said Butler, who described vase sponges ``melting away into white brittle mounds.''

When blooms first appeared in the 1990s, suddenly clouding water that had been clear for decades, many scientists saw it as a symptom of a bay on the verge of ecological collapse. Fourqurean recalls being lit

erally ''physically ill'' at his first encounter.

RESILIENT SEA LIFE

He, Hunt and a number of other scientists have tempered the view after watching the bay heal and finding, in bay sediments, evidence of an ancient history of blooms.

''The seagrasses in Florida Bay have so far proved amazingly resilient,'' said Fourqurean. Beds thinned or new species moved in, but most places recovered in a few years. Sponges took longer, six to seven years, and 15 or more for some sensitive vase varieties.

Studies haven't found any significant losses of lobster or fish.

But the bay has lost its gin-clear quality, particularly along the Everglades coast.

''The ecosystem is going to survive,'' Fourqurean said. ``What is changing is the relative balance of clear water to turbid water.''

Environmentalists, many anglers and other scientists aren't so optimistic. They see the blooms as just one sign of seriously sick bay -- and a potential economic catastrophe for Keys guides and merchants already hammered by rising fuel prices and a stagnant economy.

Jerry Lorenz, state research director for Audubon, has watched nesting numbers for roseate spoonbills plunge to record lows, which he blames on declining water quality in the bay driving off both the wading birds and small fish they feed on.

''What I saw last year,'' Lorenz said, ``scared the bejeebies out of me.''



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http://www.miamiherald.com